note of welcome in his cheery
voice was unmistakable and soon the maid who had spoken from the balcony
had shown the way up a winding circular staircase to a welcome exchange
to the shelter of a haystack which I had begun to fear would be my only
resting-place for the night.

In the morning, the Hotel d'Angleterre proved to be a most picturesque
old hostelry. Galleries ran round three sides of the courtyard, and the
circular staircase was enclosed in one of those round towers that are
such a distinctive feature of the older type of French inn.

The long main street does not always look deserted and in daylight it
appeared as sunny and cheerful as one expects to find the chief
thoroughfare of a thriving French town. Coutances stands on such a bold
hill that the street, almost of necessity, drops precipitously, and the
cathedral which ranks with the best in France, stands out boldly from all
points of view. It was principally built in the thirteenth century, but a
church which had stood in its place two centuries before, had been
consecrated by Bishop Geoffrey de Montbray in 1056, in the presence of Duke
William, afterwards William I. of England. The two western towers of the
present cathedral are not exactly similar, and owing to their curious
formation of clustered spires they are not symmetrical. It is for this
reason that they are often described as being unpleasing. I am unable to
echo such criticism, for in looking at the original ideas that are most
plainly manifest in this most astonishing cathedral one seems to be in
close touch with the long forgotten builders and architects whose notions
of proportion and beauty they contrived to stamp so indelibly upon their
masterpiece. From the central tower there is a view over an enormous sweep
of country which includes a stretch of the coast, for Coutances is only
half a dozen miles from the sea. This central tower rises from a square
base at the intersection of the transepts with the nave. It runs up almost
without a break in an octagonal form to a parapet ornamented with open
quatrefoils. The interior has a clean and fresh appearance owing to the
recent restorations and is chiefly remarkable for the balustraded triforium
which is continued round the whole church. In many of the windows there is
glass belonging to the sixteenth century and some dates as early as the
fourteenth century.

Besides the cathedral, the long main street of Coutances possesses the
churches of