racy broke out among the
Bellovaci, the Caletes, and the Velliocasses, assisted by the
inhabitants of other neighboring districts. This confederacy is supposed
to have given rise to Gournay.

The situation of the town is upon the frontiers of the territories of
the two first tribes just mentioned, the present inhabitants of the Pays
de Caux and of the Beauvaisis, in a marshy spot, subject to frequent
inundations from two small rivers, the Epte and the St. Aubin, whose
waters flow beneath the walls of the place. Hence, an inference has
naturally arisen, that the necessity for communication between people so
near in point of position, and yet so effectually separated, first
suggested the advantages to be derived from a bridge over the Epte, in a
place otherwise impassable; and that the bridge was shortly afterwards
followed by a cause-way, which, in its turn, held out inducements to
settlers, so that the town imperceptibly grew out of the traffic thus
occasioned.

The historical celebrity acquired by Gournay, far exceeds what might
have been expected from its size or importance, and has altogether
arisen from the power and the high military character of its Norman
lords. Rollo, at the time that he parcelled out the lands of his
newly-acquired sovereignty, amongst his companions in arms, bestowed
Gournay, together with the whole of the Norman division of the Pays de
Brai, upon a chieftain of the name of Eudes, to be held as a fief of the
duchy, under the usual military tenure; binding him and his successors
to furnish to the prince, in times of war, twelve of their vassals, and
to arm all their dependents for the defence of the adjacent frontier.
Eudes had a son of the name of Hugh; and he it is who is reported to
have first directed his attention towards making Gournay a place of
strength. The ancient records ascribe to him the erection of a citadel
in the immediate vicinity of the church of St. Hildebert, surrounded
with a triple wall and double fosse; and farther secured by a tower,
which was called after his name, _la Tour Hue_, and which continued in
existence till the beginning of the seventeenth century. Such was the
reported strength of this fortress, that Brito, a chronicler, but, it
must be remembered, a poetical one, declares that it was able to resist
an hostile attack, even without a single soldier within the walls! His
whole account of the place, in the time of Philip-Augustus, and of its
capture by that mo