world-famous volume of old, strange, tales;
William the Conqueror, who comes a little
clearer out from the mist of ages into the
light of history, and the roll-call of whose
chief followers is set up to this day against
the western wall of the church in the small
town of Dives; Master Wace the poet, who
told the people all he believed and more
than he knew; the Bayeux tapestry, so
fresh and so valuable; the glorious stories of
St.Ouen at Rouen; old ruins and new sea-
ports; the quiet if strongly-smelling
tanneries of Pont-Audemer; the bustling
business of Dieppe; the fashion of Trouville;
are not all these subjects for study and
contemplation? Whosoever wants to see
rough and homely peasant life, destitute
of all the polish of civilisation; or
whosoever cares for pretty faces beneath high
white caps, and a liberal display of trim
ankles, innocent of shoe or stocking; or
whosoever wants enjoyment and fresh
air, novelty and the picturesque at moderate
cost, and would like to see a corner
of France in the old ruts and off the
modern rails; would do well to go to
Normandy, accompanied by Mr. Henry
Blackburn's book.*

*Normandy Picturesque. By Henry Blackburn,
author of Artists and Arabs. Sampson Low and Son.

Normandy must always have a certain
interest for us English, as being the cradle
of our great master and conqueror, before
whose birth were not wanting those signs
and omens always found so readily after
the event. The conquest, too, of our
island was not made without its due
muster of portents, A comet with two
tails, visible in the sky for a fortnight,
and constantly turned to the north-east
—that is, towards England—told the
astrologers and learned men, as plainly as
printed words, that a revolution threatened
this land, and that two powerful
states were to be united under the same
dominion. For what else could the two
fiery tails denote? Also, what was it but
the gracious intercession of St.Valéry,
propitiated through the honour shown to
his relics by the duke and the whole army,
that caused the wind, which had been long
adverse, to change just in time to let the
fleet set sail on the night of the 29th of
September, which is precisely the
anniversary of St. Michael, the patron saint, or
rather the guardian angel, of Normandy?
By this good office the protection of the
angel was ensured as well as that of St.
Valéry. As for that initial tumble on the
beach, which certain faint-hearted
followers interpreted as a fatal omen to the
success of the expedition, but which the
duke, quick in resources and bold in
prophecy, declared meant an act of taking
possession, we all know how the prophecy
fulfilled itself; and how the fair land was
delivered over to the courageous soul and
the strong arm that came to seek it.

But we do not know so much regarding
the Croix Pleureuse which was once said
to have been erected at Cormeilles, a little
village not far from Caen. The story goes
that Queen Matilda, acting under the
advice of the Comte du Mans, asked William
to assign to her use all the revenues raised
from a tax on illegitimate children. As the
English king was himself illegitimate, he
thought the request offensive and insulting,
and, being a man of violence, he
seized the princess, fastened her to the
tail of his horse by the hair of her head, and
thus dragged her to the place where
afterwards he raised the expiatory croix
pleureuse. It does not appear that this rough
usage in any way disturbed the woman's
romantic devotion to the strong-willed and
strong-armed man; for the Bayeux tapestry
was wrought after this—if, indeed, this ever
happened, which is a little more than
doubtful. There the tapestry remains in
the public library at Bayeux to this day:
"an exceedingly curious document of the
conjugal attachment and enthusiastic
veneration of Matilda," as Dibdin says,
quoted by Mr. Blackburn.

This tapestry is "a strip of fine linen
cloth, of the colour of brown holland,
displayed on a stand under a glass case, in
its entire length two hundred and twenty-
seven feet. It is about twenty inches wide,
and is divided into seventy-two compartments,"
and represents the principal events
in the Norman conquest of England. The
work is fresh, and, though grotesque in
drawing, and of rather queer effects in
colour, is full of interest and spirit. But
we will give Mr. Blackburn's own words
on this point.

"The most striking thing about the
tapestry is the charming freshness and
naïveté with which the scenes and characters
are depicted. The artist who designed it
did not draw figures particularly well, and
he was ignorant of perspective, and all
principles of colouring; but he gave in his own
way expression to his faces, and attitudes
which tell their story even without the help
of the Latin inscriptions which accompany
them. Shade is often represented by colour,