hed him to _Domesday
Book_, where his name occurs in no less than six counties, as
holding lands of large extent under _Odo_, Bishop of Bayeux, the
tenant in capite of those properties from the crown. That he was not a
_guard_ or _centinel,_ as the Abbe de la Rue supposes, but
that he held an _office of rank_ in the household of either
William or Odo, seems now decided beyond a doubt." Mr. Amyot thus
spiritedly concludes:--alluding to the successful completion of Mr.
Stothard's copy of the entire original roll.--"Yet if the BAYEUX
TAPESTRY be not history of the first class, it is perhaps something
better. It exhibits general traits, elsewhere sought in vain, of the
costume and manners of that age, which, of all others, if we except
the period of the Reformation, ought to be the most interesting to
us;--that age, which gave us a new race of monarchs, bringing with
them new landholders, new laws, and almost a new language."

Mr. Amyot has subjoined a specimen of his own poetical powers in
describing "the Minstrel TAILLEFER'S achievements," in the battle of
Hastings, from the old Norman lays of GAIMAR and WACE. I can only find
room for the first few verses. The poem is entitled,

THE ONSET OF TAILLEFER.

Foremost in the bands of France,
Arm'd with hauberk and with lance,
And helmet glittering in the air,
As if a warrior knight he were,
Rush'd forth the MINSTREL TAILLEFER
Borne on his courser swift and strong,
He gaily bounded o'er the plain,
And raised the heart-inspiring song
(Loud echoed by the warlike throng)
Of _Roland_ and of _Charlemagne_,
Of _Oliver_, brave peer of old,
Untaught to fly, unknown to yield,
And many a Knight and Vassal bold,
Whose hallowed blood, in crimson flood,
Dyed _Roncevalle's_ field.

[150] M. Denon told me, in one of my visits to him at Paris, that by the
commands of Bonaparte, he was charged with the custody of this
Tapestry for three months; that it was displayed in due form and
ceremony in the Museum; and that after having taken a hasty sketch of
it, (which he admitted could not be considered as very faithful) he
returned it to Bayeux--as it was considered to be the peculiar
property of that place.

[151] See p. 109 ante.

LETTER XVI.

BAYEUX TO COUTANCES. ST. LO. THE CATHEDR