more strictly to see places, and not as it
were to commune with a single man. And the places that we go to see are
primarily military, and not ecclesiastical. We do not go for a great
church, not knowing whether we shall find it perfect or ruined, or
wholly swept away. We go to see two castles or sites of castles, knowing
that we shall find something more than their sites, and with a notion
that we shall also get something ecclesiastical thrown into the balance.
Our object is to see the two border castles of Tillieres and Verneuil,
both easily reached by railway from our central point at Laigle, and
which by a more roundabout way, may be reached from Evreux also.
Tillieres is famous in the early wars of Normandy and France. Verneuil
is best known in the days when Normandy had become the battle ground of
England and France, and when Scotland threw herself on the French side.
As a matter of fact, we saw Verneuil first; we then went on to
Tillieres, and thence back to Laigle, getting of course a second clear
view of Verneuil by the way. But it will be more convenient to speak
first of the place of more ancient fame.

Tillieres, Tillieres on the Arve, if it were left in its ancient state,
would be an almost ideal border-fortress. It is close indeed on the
border. When Wace describes Alencon, he tells us that one side of the
water was Norman and the other side was Mansel. So here at Tillieres one
side of the water was Norman and the other side was French. But the
stream of Arve at Tillieres is so much narrower than the stream of
Sarthe at Alencon that French and Norman stood much nearer together at
Tillieres than Mansel and Norman stood at Alencon. Alencon again, as far
as its history goes back, has always been a considerable town. Tillieres
is now a mere village, except so far as so many of these villages put on
the character of very small towns. But town or village, Tillieres is
simply something which has grown up at the foot of the castle, while at
Alencon one might say that one object at least of the castle was to
defend the town. There is high ground on each side of the stream; that
on the north side is Norman soil, that on the south is French. A
projecting point of the Norman height was seized for the building of the
great border-fortress of Normandy. A few dwellings of men, dependants
doubtless of the castle and its lords, arose under its shadow, just
within the Norman border. That this was done while France and Norman