Chapter I: Preface

Pen and brush are both necessary in the attempt to give an impression of a country; word-painting for the brain, colour for the eye. Yet even then there must be gaps and a sad lack of completeness, which is felt by no one more than by the coadjutors who have produced this book. There are so many aspects under which a country may be seen. In the case of Normandy, for instance, one man looks for magnificent architecture alone, another for country scenes, another for peasant life, and each and all will cavil at a book which does not cater for their particular taste. Cavil they must; the artist and author here have tried--knowing well how far short of the ideal they have fallen--to show Normandy as it appeared to them, and the matter must be coloured by their personalities. Thus they plead for leniency, on the ground that no one person’s view can ever exactly be that which satisfies another.

G. E. MITTON.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
IN GENERAL 1

CHAPTER II

THE NORMAN DUKES 18

CHAPTER III

THE MIGHTY WILLIAM 34

CHAPTER IV

A MEDIÆVAL CITY 56

CHAPTER V

CAEN 79

CHAPTER VI

FALAISE 93

CHAPTER VII

BAYEUX AND THE SMALLER TOWNS 112

CHAPTER VIII

THE FAMOUS TAPESTRY 129

CHAPTER IX

AN ABBEY ON A ROCK 140

CHAPTER X

THE STORMY CÔTENTIN 155

CHAPTER XI

DIEPPE AND THE COAST 163