extent and their great dignity and solidity were erected.
Generally speaking, however, Norman architecture, especially as met
with in Normandy itself, is less ornate than the Romanesque of
Southern France; in fact some of the best examples seem to suffer from
a deficiency of ornament. The large and well-known churches at Caen,
St. Etienne, otherwise the Abbaye aux Hommes--interesting to
Englishmen as having been founded by William the Conqueror
immediately after the Conquest--and the Trinite, or Abbaye aux Dames,
are excellent examples of early Norman architecture, but the student
must not forget that additions have been made to them, which, if they
add to their beauty, at the same time alter their character. For
example, in St. Etienne, the upper part of the western towers and the
fine spires with which they are crowned were built subsequent to the
original structure, as was also, in all probability, the chevet, or
eastern limb. It seems probable also that the vaulting may not be what
was contemplated in the original plan.

St. Etienne is 364 ft. long, and is lofty in its proportions. It has a
nave and aisles, arcades resting on piers, and strongly-marked
transepts, and has two western towers with the gable of the nave
between them. The west front is well designed in three stories, having
strongly-marked vertical divisions in the buttresses of the towers,
and equally distinct horizontal divisions in the three doorways below,
and two ranges of windows, each of five lights, above. There is no
circular west window. The nave and aisles are vaulted.

Besides other cathedral churches, such for example as those of Bayeux
and Evreux, in which considerable parts of the original structures
remain, there exist throughout Normandy and Brittany many parochial
churches and monastic buildings, exhibiting, at least in some portions
of their structure, the same characteristics as those of St. Etienne;
and it is clear that an immense number of buildings, the beauty and
even refinement of which are conspicuous, must have been erected in
Northern France during the eleventh and the early years of the twelfth
centuries, the period to which Norman architecture in France may be
said to belong.

In Great Britain, as has been already pointed out, enough traces of
Saxon--that is to say, Primitive Romanesque--architecture remain to
show that many simple, though comparatively rude, buildings must have
been erected previous to the Norman Conque