the town originally owed
its importance, as a fortress, to its position upon the frontiers of
France and Normandy; and the consequence would therefore naturally
follow, that, as soon as the ducal and regal crowns were united on the
same head, it would cease to be maintained as a place of
strength.--About a hundred years after the capture of Gournay by
Philip-Augustus, Philip the Bold, great grandson of that monarch,
bestowed the town and lordship upon his youngest son, Charles of Valois,
at whose death it became a part of the dower of his widow, Matilda of
Chatillon. Again, in like manner, on the decease of Philip of Valois, in
1350, Gournay was separated from the Crown, and assigned to the widowed
queen, Blanche of Navarre. By this princess it was held for forty-eight
years, when it once more reverted to the royal domains. But early in the
succeeding century, the town fell, together with the rest of France,
under the victorious arms of our sovereign Henry V. and upon his demise,
it was a third time selected as a portion of the dower of the royal
widow, Catherine, daughter of the French monarch, Charles VI. Her death,
in 1438, restored it to England: but only to be held for the short term
of eleven years, at which time, the reverses sustained by the British
troops, occasioned the expulsion of our monarchs from their continental
dominions.--From that period to the revolution, the lordship of Gournay,
with the title of count, was constantly added by the French kings to the
dignities of some one of the principal families of the realm; and in
this manner, it successively passed through different branches of the
houses of Harcourt, Orleans, Longueville, and Montmorenci.

[Illustration: Plate 39. COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ST. HILDEBERT AT GOURNAY.
_View across the Nave into the North transept._]

The church of St. Hildebert,[69] the subject of these plates, was,
previously to the revolution, both parochial and collegiate. Its
foundation is supposed to be of very high antiquity. There is, however,
no proof of the precise period of the establishment of the chapter here.
The earliest records upon the subject, bear date in the year 1180, and
merely mention it as being then in existence; but, according to
tradition, it was first fixed at the neighboring village of Brefmoutier,
and was removed to Gournay by Hugh, the last of the Norman counts. The
same Hugh is generally reported to have commenced the erection of the
present church;