his view must have been very much finer
before warehouses and factory-like buildings came to spoil the river-side
scenery, but even now it has qualities which are unique. Facing the west
end of the church, the most striking gabled front of the Maison Dieu forms
part of one side of the open space. This building may at first appear
almost too richly carved and ornate to be anything but a modern
reproduction of a mediaeval house, but it has been so carefully preserved
that the whole of the details of the front belong to the original time of
the construction of the house. The lower portion is of heavy stone-work,
above, the floors project one over the other, and the beauty of the
timber-framing and the leaded windows is most striking.

St Lo teems with soldiers, and it has a town-crier who wears a dark blue
uniform and carries a drum to call attention to his announcements. In the
lower part of the town, in the Rue des Halles, you may find the corn-market
now held in the church that was dedicated to Thomas a Becket. The building
was in course of construction when the primate happened to be at St Lo and
he was asked to name the saint to whom the church should be dedicated. His
advice was that they should wait until some saintly son of the church
should die for its sake. Strangely enough he himself died for the
privileges of the church, and thus his name was given to this now
desecrated house of God.

The remains of the fortifications that crown the rock are scarcely
noticeable at the present time, and it is very much a matter of regret that
the town has, with the exception of the Tour Beaux-Regards, lost the walls
and towers that witnessed so many sieges and assaults from early Norman
times right up to the days of Henry of Navarre. It was one of the towns
that was held by Geoffrey Plantagenet in Stephen's reign, and it was burnt
by Edward III. about the same time as Valognes. Then again in the religious
wars of the sixteenth century, a most terrific attack was made on St Lo by
Matignon who overcame the resistance of the garrison after Colombieres, the
leader, had been shot dead upon the ramparts.

It is fortunate for travellers in hot weather that exactly half-way between
St Lo and Bayeux there lies the shade of the extensive forest of Cerisy
through which the main road cuts in a perfectly straight line. At Semilly
there is a picturesque calvary. The great wooden cross towers up to a
remarkable height so that the figure of o