century. At that period St. Lo was one of the strongest
towns in the Bocage; and the very pass above described, was the avenue
by which the soldiers of the captains, just mentioned, alternately
advanced and retreated in their respective attacks upon St. Lo: which
at length surrendered to the victorious army of the _latter_; the
leader of the Catholics. SEGUIN: _Histoire Militaire des Bocains_; _p.
340-384_; 1816, _12 mo_.

[155] The reader will be doubtless gratified by the artist-like view of
this cathedral, by Mr. Cotman, in his _Architectural Antiquities of
Normandy_.

[156] It cannot fail to be noticed that the following sentences are in fact
_rhyming verse_, though printed prose-wise.

LETTER XVII.

JOURNEY TO GRANVILLE. GRANVILLE. VILLE DIEU. ST. SEVER. TOWN AND CASTLE OF
VIRE.

_Vire_.

Since my last, I have been as much gratified by the charms of nature and of
art, as during any one period of my tour. Prepare, therefore, for
miscellaneous intelligence; but such as, I will make bold to predict,
cannot fail to afford you considerable gratification. Normandy is doubtless
a glorious country. It is fruitful in its soil, picturesque in the
disposition of its land and water, and rich in the architectural relics of
"the olden time." It is also more than ordinarily interesting to an
Englishman. Here, in the very town whence I transmit this despatch--within
two hundred and fifty yards of the hotel of the _Cheval Blanc_, which just
now encloses me within its granite walls--here, I say, lived and revelled
the illustrious family of the DE VERES.[157] Hence William the Conqueror
took the famous AUBREY DE VERE to be a spectator of his prowess, and a
sharer of his spoils, in his decisive subjugation of our own country. It is
from this place that the De Veres derive their name. Their once-proud
castle yet towers above the rushing rivulet below, which turns a hundred
mills in its course: but the warder's horn has long ceased to be heard, and
the ramparts are levelled with the solid rock with which they were once, as
it were, identified.

I left Coutances with something approaching to reluctance; so completely
_anglicised_ seemed to be the scenery and inhabitants. The evening was
beautiful in the extreme: and upon gaining the height of one of the
opposite hills, within about half a league of the town, on the high
Granville route, I alighted--walked, stopped, and gazed, alternate