have a
busy appearance that is noticeable after the quiet of Bayeux. The clatter
and noise of the omnibuses has been subdued in recent years by the
introduction of electric trams which sweep round the corners with a
terrifying speed, for after a long sojourn in the country and quiet little
towns one loses the agility and wariness of the town-bred folk.

Caen, of course, does not compete with Lisieux for its leading position as
the possessor of the largest number of old houses, but it nevertheless can
show some quaint carved fronts in the Rue St Pierre and the narrow streets
adjoining. At the present time the marks of antiquity are being removed
from the beautiful renaissance courtyard of the Bourse near St Pierre. The
restoration has been going on for some years, and the steps that lead up to
the entrance in one corner of the quadrangle are no longer stained with the
blackish-green of a prolonged period of damp. But it is better, however,
that this sixteenth century house should assume a fictitious newness rather
than fall entirely into disrepair. It was originally the house of one of
the wealthy families of Caen named Le Valois, and was known as the Hotel
d'Escoville. Another splendid house is the Hotel de la Monnaie built by the
famous and princely merchant Etienne Duval, Sieur de Mondrainville, whose
great wealth enabled him to get sufficient supplies into Metz to make it
possible for the place to hold out during its siege in 1553. In his most
admirably written book "Highways and Byways in Normandy," Mr Dearmer gives
an interesting sketch of this remarkable man whose success brought him
jealous enemies. They succeeded in bringing charges against him for which
he was exiled, and at another time he was imprisoned in the castle at Caen
until, with great difficulty, he had proved the baseness of the attacks
upon his character. Duval was over seventy when he died, being, like Job,
wealthy and respected, for he had survived the disasters that had fallen
upon him.

The gateway of the Chateau is the best and most imposing portion of the
fortifications of Caen. The castle being now used as barracks, visitors as
a rule are unable to enter, but as the gateway may be seen from outside the
deep moat, the rest of the place need not tantalise one. In William the
Conqueror's time the castle was being built, and the town walls included
the two great abbeys for which Caen is chiefly famous. These two
magnificent examples of Norman arc