est
tree in the neighboring wood.[154] This happened in the year 1063: in
1080, there was held here, by order of the same prince, a provincial
synod, which passes in the annals of the Norman churches, under the name
of the _Concilium Julio-Bonense_. Its canons are preserved, and are
reported at length by Bessin, "with the intention," as he remarks, "of
enabling posterity to judge of the character of the laws in Normandy,
during the reign of Duke William."[155]

Lillebonne is at present a poor small country town, whose inhabitants
carry on an inconsiderable trade in tanning, and in the manufacturing of
cotton. The ruins of the castle, however, are far from unimportant. Not
only is the whole plan of the structure still distinctly to be traced;
but there remain, in addition to the great hall, here figured, extensive
portions of other buildings, some of which are altered into a modern
farm-house. A noble circular tower, surrounded by a deep moat, and
approached by a draw-bridge, appears at first view to be the great
character of the ruin; but it is obviously an addition of a subsequent
period, and, indeed, of a time considerably posterior to the hall. The
pointed arches of its windows, and the elegant bosses of its ceiling,
denote an aera when the arts had arrived at a high state of
perfection.--Of the date, or cause of the decay of the castle, nothing
is recorded.

The hall has the appearance of having been erected by Italian
architects. Its features are distinctly Roman; and it may be regarded as
holding, in this respect, the same place among the castellated buildings
of Normandy, as the church of St. Stephen, at Caen, occupies among the
ecclesiastical. The broken cornice at the top of the walls, is a decided
imitation of that upon the tomb of Caecilia Metella, the arch of
Constantine, and the colosseum at Rome; and the windows may be likened
to those of Maecenas' villa at Tivoli, in which there is the same
arrangement of arch within arch. But the Norman architect has introduced
a peculiarity, scarcely to be paralleled, in the transom, which, placed
upon a line with the capitals, divides each window into two unequal
parts, and at once supports, and is supported by, the central pillar,
that subdivides the lower moiety.

The Church at Lillebonne is also an object deserving of observation,
especially in the principal entrance: the great arch is flanked by two
square massy projections, in the form of buttresses, each of th