he modern French appears in full
activity. For the pitiful value of the materials, this noble edifice is
doomed to destruction. The arched roof is beaten in; and the choir is
nearly levelled with the ground. Two cart-loads of wrought stones were
carried away, while we were there; and the workmen were busily employed
in its demolition. The greater part, too, of the mischief, appears
recent: the fractures of the walls are fresh and sharp; and the
fresco-paintings are unchanged.--Had the proud, abbatial structure but
been allowed to have existed as the parochial church of the village,
the edifice might have stood for ages; but the French are miserably
deficient in proper feeling; and neither the historical recollections
connected with Jumieges, nor its importance as a monument of
architectural antiquity, could redeem it from their tasteless
selfishness. In a few years, its very ruins will have perished; and not
a wreck will remain of this ancient sanctuary of religion and of
learning.

It was in the year 654 or 655, that St. Philibert, second abbot of
Rebais, in the diocese of Meaux, founded this monastery. He selected the
site upon which the present building stands, a delightful situation, in
a peninsula on the right bank of the Seine. This peninsula, and the
territory extending from Ducler to Caudebec, had been granted to him for
this purpose by Clovis IInd, or, more properly speaking, by Bathilda,
his queen; for the whole administration of affairs was in reality under
her guidance, though the reins of state were nominally held by her
feeble husband. The territory[10] had previously borne the name of
Jumieges, or, in Latin, Gemeticum, a term whose origin has puzzled
etymologists. Those who hold it disgraceful to be ever at a loss on
points of this nature, and who prefer displaying a learned to an
unlearned ignorance, derive Gemeticum, either from _gemitus_, because,
"pro suis offensis illic gemunt, qui in flammis ultricibus non erunt
gemituri;" or from _gemma_, conformably to the following distich,--

"Gemmeticum siquidem a gemma dixere priores;
Quod reliquis gemmae, praecelleret instar Eoae."

The ground upon which the abbey was erected was previously occupied by
an ancient encampment. The author of the Life of St. Philibert, who
mentions this circumstance, has also preserved a description of the
original church. These authentic accounts of edifices of remote date,
which frequently occur in hagiology, are