ect indifference for their original country. The historians
of Normandy describe the heathen North as a den of robbers. After an
interval of two centuries, they knew nothing of the events that had
caused the founder of their ruling family to forsake the North; they did
not even know where Denmark and Norway lay. Benoit de Ste More begins
his chronicle with a geographic sketch, in which he takes Denmark for
Dacia, and places it at the mouth of the Danube, between the extensive
countries of the Alani and the Getae, which are always covered with ice,
and surrounded by a chain of mountains." The excellent chronicler's
geographical notions seem to have been about as clear as those of Lolah,
who tells Katinka that

"Spain's an island near
Morocco, betwixt Egypt and Tangier."

The earliest Norman chroniclers show that the Normans, or rather the
Northmen, bore much ill-will toward the French; and this prejudice, it
has correctly been said, "probably lasted as long as their Northern
physiognomy, their fair hair, and other characteristics whereby they
were distinguished from the French." But they soon became the flower of
French races, and were regarded as Frenchmen in all the lands to which
they were led by their valor, their enterprise, their ambition, and
their avarice. They continued to avail themselves of the talents of
other races long after Northmen had been converted into Normans, greatly
to their own advantage, and considerably to the advantage of others.
"Inclination, policy, interest," says Palgrave, "strengthened the
impulse given by the diffusion of the Romane speech. Liberality was the
Norman virtue. 'Norman talent,' or 'Norman taste,' or 'Norman, art,' are
expressions intelligible and definite, conveying clear ideas,
substantially true and yet substantially inaccurate. What, for example,
do we intend when we speak of Norman architecture? Who taught the Norman
architect? Ah, when you contemplate the structures raised by Lanfranc or
Anselm, will not the reply conduct you beyond the Alps, and lead you to
Pavia or Aosta,--the cities where these fathers of the Anglo-Norman
Church were nurtured, their learning acquired, or their taste informed?
Amongst the eminent men who gloriously adorn the Anglo-Norman annals,
perhaps the smallest number derive their origin from Normandy.
Discernment in the choice of talent, and munificence in rewarding
ability, may be truly ascribed to Rollo's successors; open-handed,