the learned, and in some degree by
locality, designated them as Saxon: at the same time, when they were
compared with what is left in Britain, of workmanship avowedly Norman,
the points of dissimilarity appeared trifling or altogether vanished.
Was it then to be inferred that, between Norman and Saxon architecture,
there was really no difference; and, carrying the inference one step
farther, that the hordes of barbarians denominated by these different
appellations, although they might not have embarked at the same port,
were only cognate tribes of one common origin, if not in reality the
same? The solution of the first of these questions, the only one
immediately in view, seemed best to be sought in that province of
France, where the Norman power had been most permanently established,
and where it was therefore reasonably to be expected, that genuine
productions of Norman art might, if any where, be found. With this view,
Mr. Cotman crossed the channel; and the result of three successive
journies, in the years 1817, 1818, and 1820, is here submitted to the
public.

Those who find pleasure in inquiries of this description, will join in
the regret, that an undertaking like the present was so long delayed.
Incalculable had been the advantages, had it but commenced previously
to the period of the French revolution. That fearful storm burst with
tremendous violence upon the castles of barons, the palaces of kings,
and the temples of religion. Many of the most sumptuous edifices, which
had mocked the hand of time, and had been respected amidst the ravages
of foreign or domestic warfare, were then swept from the face of the
earth. Others, degraded, deserted, neglected, and dilapidated, are at
this moment hastening fast to their decay. Yet no small portion of what
is valuable has been happily left. The two royal abbeys of Caen, though
shorn of much of their former grandeur, are still nearly entire. Chateau
Gaillard, the pride of Richard's lion heart, and the noble castles of
Arques and of Falaise, retain sufficient of their ancient magnificence,
to testify what they must have been in the days of their splendor: the
towns and chateaus, which were the cradles of the Harcourts, Vernons,
Tancarvilles, Gurneys, Bruces, Bohuns, Grenvilles, St. Johns, and many
others of the most illustrious English families, are still in existence;
and, of more modern date, when the British Edwards and Henrys resumed
the Norman sceptre, numerous build