meanders below. Thus much for a general, but hasty sketch
of the town of Vire. My next shall give you some detail of the _interior_
of a few of the houses, of which I may be said to have hitherto only
contemplated the _roofs_.

And yet I must not close my despatch without performing my promise about
the CASTLE; of which indeed (as you will see by the subjoined miniature
view) only a sort of ruinous shell remains. Its age may be a little towards
the end of the thirteenth century. The stone is of a deep reddish tint: and
although what remains is only a portion of the _keep_, yet I can never
suppose it, even in its state of original integrity, to have been of very
capacious dimensions. Its site is most commanding.

[Illustration]

[157] The reader will find the fullest particulars relating to this
once-distinguished family, in _Halstead's Genealogical Memoirs of
Noble Families, &c_.: a book it is true, of extreme scarcity. In lieu
of it let him consult _Collin's Noble Families_.

[158] [Mons. Licquet tells us, that in 1439, a Seigneur of Gratot, ceded
the rock of Granville to an English Nobleman, on the day of St. John
the Baptist, on receiving the homage of a hat of red roses. The
Nobleman intended to build a town there; but Henry VI. dispossessed
him of it, and built fortifications in 1440. Charles VII. in turn,
dispossessed Henry; but the additional fortifications which he built
were demolished by order of Louis XIV. &c.]

[159] An epitomised account of these civil commotions will be found in the
_Histoire Militaire des Bocains, par_ M. RICHARD SEGUIN; _a
Vire_, 1816; 12mo. of which work, and of its author, some notice
will be taken in the following pages.

LETTER XVIII.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. MONSIEUR ADAM. MONSIEUR DE LARENAUDIERE. OLIVIER BASSELIN. M.
SEGUIN. THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

It is a sad rainy day; and having no temptation to stir abroad, I have shut
myself up by the side of a huge wood fire--(surrounded by the dingy
tapestry, of which my last letter did not make very honourable mention) in
a thoroughly communicative mood--to make you acquainted with all that has
passed since my previous despatch. Books and the Bibliomania be the chief
"burden of my present song!" You may remember, in my account of the public
library at Caen, that some mention was made of a certain OLIVIER
BASSELIN--whom I designated as the DRUNKEN BARNABY _of Normandy_. Well, my
friend-