en weare, of beares and other skinns, as of
raggs at Dieppe, and all along these coasts." _Life and Writings of
J. Evelyn_; 1818, 4to. vol. i. p. 51.

[94] [It is near a chapel, on one of the heights of this town, that Mr.
Washington Irving fixes one of his most exquisitely drawn characters,
ANNETTE DELABRE, as absorbed in meditation and prayer respecting the
fate of her lover; and I have a distinct recollection of a beautiful
piece of composition, by one of our most celebrated artists, in which
the _Heights of Honfleur_, with women kneeling before a crucifix
in the foreground, formed a most beautiful composition. The name of
the artist (was it the younger Mr. Chalon?) I have forgotten.]

[95] [My translator says, "un Wynkyn de Worde non coupe:" Qu. Would not the
_Debure_ Vocabulary have said "non rogne?"]

LETTER XII.

CAEN. SOIL. SOCIETY. EDUCATION. A DUEL. OLD HOUSES. THE ABBEY OF ST.
STEPHEN. CHURCH OF ST. PIERRE DE DARNETAL. ABBE DE LA SAINTE TRINITE. OTHER
PUBLIC EDIFICES.

I have now resided upwards of a week at Lagouelle's, the _Hotel Royale_,
and can tell you something of the place and of the inhabitants of CAEN.
Caen however is still-life after Rouen: but it has been, and yet is, a town
exceedingly well-deserving the attention of the lounging traveller and of
the curious antiquary. Its ecclesiastical edifices are more ancient, but
less vast and splendid, than those of Rouen; while the streets and the
houses are much more wide and comfortable. This place is the capital of the
department of CALVADOS, or of LOWER NORMANDY: and its population is
estimated at forty thousand souls. It has a public library, a school of
art, a college, mayoralty, and all the adjuncts of a corporate society.[96]
But I must first give you something in the shape of political economy
intelligence. Caen with its arrondissemens of _Bayeux, Vire, Falaise,
Lisieux, Pont L'Eveque_, is the country of pasturage and of cattle. It is
also fertile in the apple and pear; and although at _Argences_ there have
been vineyards from time immemorial, yet the produce of the grape, in the
character of _wine_,[97] is of a very secondary description. There are
beautiful and most abundant market gardens about Caen; and for the last
seventy years they have possessed a garden for the growth and cultivation
of foreign plants and trees. It is said that more than nine hundred species
of plants and trees are to be