In the early part of the eighteenth century, when
Masseville published his work, it was in the hands of the heirs of M. de
Seigneley-Colbert, who likewise possessed other considerable domains in
Normandy. The last that had the title was a member of the family of
Montmorenci.--His emigration caused the estate to be confiscated, and
sold as national property; but the baronial castle is now standing, and
displays, in two of its towers, and in a chimney of unusual form, a
portion of its ancient character. The rest of the building is modernized
into a spruce, comfortable residence, which, in 1818, was occupied by an
English general of the name of Hodgson.[203]

The writer of this article has met with no records connected with the
church of Creully.--Externally, it is wholly modernized; but within, the
nave, side-aisles, and choir, are all purely Norman, except at the
extremities. The piers are very massy; the arches wide and low; the
capitals covered with rude, but remarkable sculpture, which is varied on
every pillar; and the walls are of extraordinary thickness.

NOTES:

[203] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 264.

PLATES XCII.--XCIV.

CATHEDRAL AT COUTANCES.

[Illustration: Plates 92-93. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT
COUTANCES.
_West Front._]

The diocese of Coutances, embracing the north-western portion of Celtic
Gaul, appears to have been the last part of the country that was visited
by the light of Christianity; but its historians boast that the tardy
approach of the rays of gospel-truth has been more than compensated by
their subsequent brilliancy; for that in no other of the Norman dioceses
has the sun of revelation blazed with equal splendor, or given birth to
fruits of equal excellence. Thus, according to Rouault,[204] as early as
the fifth century, and during the whole of the two following, and a
portion of the eighth, the Cotentin was so celebrated, by reason of the
great number of saints, who were either natives of the country, or had
retired thither as to a place of safe retreat, that it was regarded as
being honored with the divine favor, beyond any other district in
France. No fewer than fifteen holy men, enshrined in the Roman calendar,
are said to have resided there at or near the same period; and, while
their lustre irradiated the episcopal mitre, its beams extended to the
remote fastnesses of the desert of Scycy, near Granville, then
celebrated for the sanctity of its herm