lver vessels found therein; and the second time in
1417, when they established themselves as masters of the place for 33
years. _Annuaire du Calvados_; 1803-4; p. 63.

LETTER XIII.

LITERARY SOCIETY. ABBE DE LA RUE. MESSRS. PIERRE-AIME LAIR AND LAMOUROUX.
MEDAL OF MALHERBE. BOOKSELLERS. MEMOIR OF THE LATE M. MOYSANT, PUBLIC
LIBRARIAN. COURTS OF JUSTICE.

From the dead let me conduct you to the living. In other words, prepare to
receive some account of _Society_,--and of things appertaining to the
formation of the intellectual character. Caen can boast of a public
Literary Society, and of the publication of its memoirs.[121] But these
"memoirs" consist at present of only six volumes, and are in our own
country extremely rare.

[Illustration: ABBE DE LA RUE AEtat. LXXIV.]

Among the men whose moral character and literary reputation throw a sort of
lustre upon Caen, there is no one perhaps that stands upon _quite_ so lofty
an eminence as the ABBE DE LA RUE; at this time occupied in publishing a
_History of Caen_.[122] As an archaeologist, he has no superior among his
countrymen; while his essays upon the _Bayeux Tapestry_ and the
_Anglo-Norman Poets_, published in our _Archaeologia_, prove that there are
few, even among ourselves, who could have treated those interesting
subjects with more dexterity or better success. The Abbe is, in short, the
great archaeological oracle of Normandy. He was pleased to pay me a Visit
at Lagouelle's. He is fast advancing towards his seventieth year. His
figure is rather stout, and above the mean height: his complexion is
healthful, his eye brilliant, and a plentiful quantity of waving white hair
adds much to the expression of his countenance.[123] He enquired kindly
after our mutual friend Mr. Douce; of whose talents and character he spoke
in a manner which did equal honour to both. But he was inexorable, as
to--_not_ dining with me; observing that his Order was forbidden to dine in
taverns. He gave me a list of places which I ought to visit in my further
progress through Normandy, and took leave of me more abruptly than I could
have wished. He rarely visits Caen, although a great portion of his library
is kept there: his abode being chiefly in the country, at the residence of
a nobleman to whose son he was tutor. It is delightful to see a man, of his
venerable aspect and widely extended reputation, enjoying, in the evening
of life, (after braving such a tempest, in the