bbey of St. Stephen, and afford in fact a
very interesting stroll to the observer of men and manners. The shops are
inferior to those of Rouen, but a great shew of business is discernible in
them. The street beyond the abbey, and those called _Guilbert_, and _des
Chanoines_, leading towards the river, are considered among the genteelest.
Ducarel pronounced the _houses_ of Caen "mean in general, though usually
built of stone;" but I do not agree with him in this conclusion. The open
parts about the _Lycee_ and the _Abbey of St. Stephen_, together with the
_Place Royale_, where the library is situated, form very agreeable spaces
for the promenade of the ladies and the exercise of the National Guard. The
_Courts_ are full of architectural curiosities, but mostly of the time of
Francis I. Of _domestic_ architecture, those houses, with elaborate
carvings in wood, beneath a pointed roof, are doubtless of the greatest
antiquity. There are a great number of these; and some very much older than
others.

A curious old house is to the right hand corner of the street _St. Jean_:
as you go to the Post Office. But I must inform you that the residence of
the famous MALHERBE yet exists in the street leading to the Abbey of St.
Stephen. This house is of the middle of the sixteenth century: and what
Corneille is to _Rouen_, Malherbe is to _Caen_. "ICI NAQUIT MALHERBE," &c.
as you will perceive from the annexed view of this house, inscribed upon
the front of the building. Malherbe has been doomed to receive greater
honours. His head was first struck, in a series of medals, to perpetuate
the resemblances of the most eminent literary characters (male and female)
in France: and it is due to the amiable Pierre-Aime Lair to designate him
as the FATHER of this medallic project.

[Illustration]

In perambulating this town, one cannot but be surprised at the absence of
_Fountains_--those charming pieces of architecture and of street
embellishment. In this respect, Rouen has infinitely the advantage of Caen:
where, instead of the trickling current of translucent water, we observe
nothing but the partial and perturbed stream issuing from ugly _wells_[106]
as tasteless in their structure as they are inconvenient in the procuring
of water. Upon one or two of these wells, I observed the dates of 1560 and
1588.

The PUBLIC EDIFICES, however, demand a particular and appropriate
description: and first of those of the ecclesiastical order. Let us begin