e city. As
for this treasure of the past, it is a subject so vast, and of such
great significance, in both history and art, that it has many times been
made the subject of weighty consideration. A well-known English amateur,
the Honourable E. J. Lowell, has stated that popular tradition has
credited it as the handiwork of Matilda, Queen of William the
Conqueror, who worked it to commemorate his glorious achievements. If
this be really so, the queen was probably assisted largely by the ladies
of her court, as the extensive work, measuring some hundred and sixty
odd feet, could hardly have been accomplished single-handed. Professor
Freeman assigns it to a similar period, but worked, as he thinks, by
English workmen, for Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the Conqueror's
half-brother.

A previous acquaintance with the great cathedrals of the Isle of France
will tend somewhat to nullify the effect which is produced by Notre Dame
de Bayeux, although, in point of size and general arrangements, at
least, it fulfils its functions perhaps more acceptably than many a more
renowned edifice. Its situation, on the side of a steep slope, produces
a curious effect, first, with respect to the choir chevet, which is thus
shown as rather gaunt and bare in its lower elongated stages, though
undeniably a fine work in itself; secondly, in the general interior view
where, from the western entrance, one comes upon the nave pavement a
dozen or more steps below the portal, and again meets with the same
effect further on at the transept crossing. There would appear to have
been no other way but this of placing above ground what might otherwise
have been the crypt; adding immeasurably to the fine appearance of the
interior, the nave and choir appearing to lengthen out interminably by
reason of the western elevation from which they are viewed.

A portion of the western towers, and the crypt which is beneath the
choir, are thought to date from as early as the eleventh century, having
been built by Odo, the half-brother of William the Norman. The
splendidly proportioned Norman nave, with its decorated spandrels and
archivolts, a worthy decorative embellishment developed before the days
of coloured glass, possesses that bright and fresh appearance which is
usually associated with a recent work, whereas, as a matter of fact, it
can hardly be, in its five circular arches at least, later than the late
eleventh or early twelfth century. If it were true that modern