is famous. Before that
year "La Grande Maison" existed at Grand-Andely, not far off, with
much the same kind of ornament upon its Renaissance walls; but that
has now vanished utterly, with the exception of some of the large
statues which were bought at three francs the square foot by an
Englishman,[67] and taken across the Channel to decorate a
country-house. It will therefore be well worth while to consider in
some detail what the Bourgtheroulde carvings are, and how they
originated; for even if they do not appeal to us so much as the
original and thoroughly local work of other Rouen sculptors, they have
a value of their own that may be considered entirely apart from any
aesthetic criticism of the sources of the carver's workmanship.

[Footnote 67: It would be interesting to know whether anything can be
traced of them now. It is rather extraordinary to consider the number
of artistic objects which were carried off from Rouen in exactly this
way. Apart from the windows of St. Herbland, which I mentioned at the
beginning of Chapter VII., a window from Saint Nicolas le Paincteur
called the "Visitation" has been recognised by a canon of Rouen in
York Minster; windows from Saint Jean sur Renelle were brought to
London, and exhibited, with others, about 1810, by Mr Stevenson of
Norwich; and other paintings on glass from the monastery of the
Chartreux du Petit Quevilly also reached our shores. All of which
would seem to indicate that we saw the value of good work earlier in
this century than the French did. But they have had their revenge
since then; and in the carving of the Maison Bourgtheroulde we have
neglected to preserve one of the best memorials of England that exists
in France.]

[Illustration: THE MEETING OF HENRY VIII. AND FRANCOIS I. ON THE FIELD
OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, FROM THE CARVINGS OF THE MAISON BOURGTHEROULDE]

To begin, then, at the beginning, the entrance-door on the inside of
the court is decorated with medallion portraits, surrounded by
garlands, of Francois I. (whose long nose betrays him) and the stout,
square face of Henry VIII. Both are bearded. The note of historical
suggestion is struck at once. It continues still more unmistakably on
the series of panels immediately beneath the window-sills of the wing
on the left hand as you enter. On these is represented that useless
pageant of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, by which Francois (who
posed as the protector of art and the Renaissance in France, t