ghth
century and forming a portion of the original church which occupied the
site of the present Cathedral.

The general impressiveness of this great church--the memory which most
of us will carry away--is caused by its immensity, its loftiness, and
the general effect of lightness. These form an irresistible galaxy of
features which can hardly fail to produce a new and startling sensation
upon any observer.

As to decorative embellishments, the church is by no means lacking. The
coloured glass, typical of the best period of the art, is luxurious and
extensive; that contained in the north and south transept rose windows
being the exceedingly beautiful work of Le Prince, a celebrated
sixteenth-century artist.

Numerous side chapels surround the ambulatory of the choir, and on the
west wall of the transept are hung the eight tapestries after the
sixteenth-century Raphael cartoons now at South Kensington. These
tapestries are, it is to be presumed, late copies, since, of the two
early sets woven at Arras, one is preserved in the Vatican and the other
at the Museum at Berlin. A modern fresco of Jeanne Hachette, a local
Amazon, adorns one of the choir chapels. A modern astronomical clock,
with numerous dials, striking figures, and crowing cocks, is placed near
the north transept. It might naturally be supposed that in our day the
canons of good taste would plead against such a mere "curio" being
housed in a noble church.

The former Bishop's Palace, dating from the fourteenth to sixteenth
centuries, is now the Palace of Justice. The present episcopal residence
is immediately to the north of the Cathedral and is modern.

As a tapestry-making centre Beauvais ranks with the famous Gobelin
Manufactory at Paris.

[Illustration: _Notre Dame de Rouen_]

IV

NOTRE DAME DE ROUEN

Rouen, of all the mediaeval cities of France, is ever to the fore in the
memories of the mere traveller for pleasure. In no sense are its charms
of a negative quality, or few in number. Quite the reverse is the case;
but the city's apparent attraction is its extreme accessibility, and the
glamours that a metropolis of rank throws over itself; for it must not
be denied that a countrified environment has not, for all, the appealing
interest of a great city. It is to this, then, that Rouen must accredit
the throngs of strangers which continually flock to its doors from the
Easter time to late autumn. In addition there are its three great
chu