hased with the Norman lozenge: they are circular; but
the eastern arch, which runs higher than the others, is obtusely
pointed, though it is evidently of the same date with its companions."

The parish of St. Nicholas is placed without the walls of Caen, in that
portion of the suburbs known by the name of _Le Bourg-l'Abbe_, as having
been, before the revolution, under the jurisdiction of the abbot of St.
Stephen. In the same quarter was also included the parish of St. Ouen,
as was a portion of those of St. Stephen and St. Martin. The two
last-mentioned churches were ceded, in the earliest period of the
history of Caen, by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Bayeux, to Queen
Matilda, in exchange for some other preferment, and were by her bestowed
upon the nuns of her new convent of the Trinity. But the increasing
power of the rival monastery, built by her husband, naturally caused its
occupants to turn a wistful eye towards churches so immediately in their
vicinity. Disputes succeeded; and the monks of St. Stephen erected the
church of St. Nicholas, that their suburb might no longer be without a
religious building which depended wholly upon themselves. Peace was at
length restored by means of a charter from the Duke, dated in the year
1083, whereby St. Nicholas was recognized as parochial, an equivalent
was given to the abbess by the extension of her power in her own quarter
of St. Giles, and the respective parishes of St. Stephen and St. Martin
were allowed to retain all they possessed in the Bourg-l'Abbe, except
five families expressly designated in the charter. These five were
transferred to St. Nicholas; and, to secure to the saint a certain
increase of votaries hereafter, a proviso was added, enacting that every
house which might be built in future, in that suburb, should belong to
his parish. Hence, the two other saints retained nothing more than the
ground covered by the tenements then standing, sixty-seven in number;
and the necessary consequence was, that from that period till the year
1790, when the whole was remodelled, the limits of the several parishes
were confused and irregular in the extreme. Not only did adjoining
dwellings belong to different parishes, but the line frequently ran
between the various apartments of the same house, or even separated the
apartment themselves.

The church of St. Nicholas, as indebted for its existence to the monks
of the abbey of St. Stephen, continued for some time to receive i