e
middle of the sixth century, by Childebert I. in favor of St. Sanson,
then bishop of Dol. But the monastery fell during the earliest
incursions of the Normans, and never rose again. Old traditions state it
to have been called in French, _Pentale_; and in Latin, _Monasterium
Pentaliense_: a corruption, as it is supposed, of _Poenitentiale_. A
neighboring chapel, under the invocation of _Notre Dame de Pentale_,
gives color to the report.

Of the church of St. Sanson, nothing more is now left than is exhibited
in the plate: the remains consist only of the chancel, and the arch
which separated it from the nave. But even these, inconsiderable as they
appear, have been judged deserving of a place among the more remarkable
of the architectural antiquities of Normandy: the peculiar character of
the capitals, and the small size of the whole, have entitled them to
this distinction. Upon regarding the arch, it is scarcely possible but
to be struck with the impression, that, though in its present state its
height is barely sufficient to allow of a man walking upright through
it, there must originally have been an inner member, which has now
disappeared. The capitals differ materially from any others ever seen by
Mr. Cotman in Normandy; but Mr. Joseph Woods, whose authority is
unquestionable, says that similar ones are to be found in the Temple of
Bacchus, at Teos. There are also several, which in shape resemble these
at St. Sanson, in the very remarkable church of St. Vitalis, at
Ravenna,[190] and in the cloisters of the monastery of St.
Scolastica,[191] at Subiaco: the latter also exhibit a certain degree of
similarity in the sculpture.

NOTES:

[189] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 777.

[190] _Seroux d'Agincourt, Histoire de la Decadence de l'Art.
Architecture_, t. 23. f. 7, 8; _and_ t. 69. f. 14.

[191] _Ibid._ t. 29. f. 3, 4.

PLATE LXXXIV.

WESTERN DOOR-WAY OF THE CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC.

[Illustration: Plate 84. CHURCH OF FOULLEBEC.
_West Door-way._]

The church of Foullebec, a small village situated upon the Rille, nearly
opposite to St. Sanson, is a building of Norman times; but the only
portion of it particularly calculated to recommend it to attention, is
the arch figured in this plate. This arch exhibits two peculiarities,
which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to parallel in Normandy;
the ornamented shafts of the pillars, and the extraordinary width of the
southern capital