equently, he died. A second Richard, who
succeeded him in his honors, as Earl of Devonshire and Lord of Nehou,
died in 1162; and a third of the same name, in 1184. This last, not
content with merely confirming the donations made by his ancestors to
Montbourg, materially increased them: he also added to the collegiate
church of Nehou, a fifth prebend, which he conferred upon one of the
ministers of Colomby; and it was by him, according to the opinion of M.
de Gerville, that the church, the subject of the present article, was
built.

A few years only elapsed after the decease of this chieftain, before
Normandy became re-united to the crown of France; and one of the first
acts of Philip-Augustus, who then sat upon the throne, was to register
the fiefs of his new province, their several possessors, and the service
owed by each. This took place in the year 1207; and Nehou, which was
bound to furnish the monarch with five horse-soldiers, was at that time
in the possession of Richard of Vernon, a nobleman of whom no notice is
to be found in the genealogy of the lords of the Isle of Wight. The
register records the fact in the following terms:--"Ric. de Vernon tenet
baroniam de Neahou per servicium quimque militum. Guillelmus de Vernon
tenet inde duo feoda et dimidium."--

The church of Colomby is in perfect preservation, unspoiled and
undefaced by modern alterations or additions, saving only that of a
porch at the western extremity. For simplicity and uniformity it cannot
be surpassed; nor can any building be better qualified to afford a
specimen of the religious architecture of the times. Though destitute
both of transept and aisles, the tower is central: the east end
terminates in a flat wall. The columns within are clustered and light;
formed of stone, which unites, in an eminent degree, the advantage of
great strength with that of yielding easily to the chisel, and which is
dug from the quarries of Yvetot, near Valognes. The same quarries also
furnished the principal part of the stone employed in the construction
of the cathedral of Coutances. The plate exhibits at C. the elevation of
the south side of the church; to which have been added, for the more
complete understanding of the subject,

A. _The west front._
B. _East end._
D. _South door-way to the chancel._
E. _A single window._

NOTES:

[84] The words used upon this subject in the Inquisition of 1255, made
by Jean d'Essey, then bishop of Coutances, a