mislead
the studious antiquary. This building, commonly known by the name of the
_Chateau de la Gendarmerie_, but more properly called the _Chateau de
Calix_, is generally believed by the inhabitants of the town to have
been erected for the purpose of commanding the river, while it flowed in
its ancient, but now deserted, bed. According, however, to the Abbe De
la Rue, no fortification of any description ever existed in the same
place; but the structure, however martial in its appearance, was in its
character altogether pacific, and was built during some of the latest
years of the fifteenth, or earliest of the sixteenth, century, by
Girard de Nollent, then owner of the property.[137] Two statues,
apparently intended to represent heathen divinities, but now absurdly
called _Gendarmes_, frown over its battlements, which, like those of the
adjacent wall, and like the face of the principal tower, are still
charged with medallions, though the ebullition of revolutionary
enthusiasm has destroyed the arms of the Nollents.

Previously to dismissing this subject, it may be worth while to remark,
that the ogee canopy, surmounting the window placed between the two
medallions in the house in the Rue St. Jean, at Caen, is nearly a
fac-simile of that which is still seen over the door that led to what
was once the great hall in the Conqueror's palace, adjoining the abbey
of St. Stephen. The resemblance between them is so great, that it would
be difficult to believe that they are of very different dates. But the
palace was unquestionably the production of more than one aera; and in
the scarcity of materials for the forming of a correct opinion upon the
subject, it is impossible to say, whether the door in question may not
have been inserted some time after its erection, or even whether the
ornamental part may not have been added to it at a period subsequent to
its formation.

NOTES:

[129] The house at Caen, is that which is here alluded to.--It has
already been mentioned, that the _Great House_ at Andelys has suffered
the same fate. Since the account of that circumstance was written, the
author of the present article has been favored with the following
extract from a letter from Lord Compton, dated in August last:--"The
noble _grande maison d'Andelys_, is now, alas, no more! We made a
_detour_ by a horrible road, for the purpose of visiting it; but great
was our mortification to find only a small piece of unornamented wall,
the