t rise from its ashes till the year 988, when
the piety of Duke Richard I. built the church anew, under the auspices
of his son, Robert, Archbishop of Rouen; but, departing from the
original foundation, he established therein a chapter of regular canons,
who, however, were so irregular in their conduct, that within ten years
they were doomed to give way to a body of Benedictine Monks, headed by
an Abbot, named William, from a convent at Dijon. From his time the
monastery continued to increase in splendor. Three suffragan abbies,
that of Notre Dame at Bernay, of St. Taurin at Evreux, and of Ste.
Berthe de Blangi, in the diocese of Boullogne, owned the superior power
of the abbot of Fecamp, and supplied the three mitres which he proudly
bore on his abbatial shield. Kings and princes in former ages frequently
paid the abbey the homage of their worship and their gifts; and, in a
period nearer to our own, Casimir of Poland, after his voluntary
abdication of the throne, selected it as the spot in which he sought for
repose, when wearied with the cares of royalty. The English possessions
of Fecamp (for like most of the great Norman abbeys, it held lands in
our island) do not appear to have been large; but, according to an
author of our own country[33] the abbot presented to one hundred and
thirty benefices, some in the diocese of Rouen, others in those of
Bayeux, Lisieux, Coutances, Chartres, and Beauvais; and it enjoyed so
many estates, that its income was said to be forty thousand crowns per
annum. Fecamp moreover could boast of a noble library, well stored with
manuscripts[34], and containing among its archives many original
charters, deeds, &c. of William the Conqueror, and several of his
successors.

This magnificent church is three hundred and seventy feet long and
seventy high; the transept, including the Chapel of the Precious Blood,
one hundred and twenty feet long; the tower two hundred feet high. A
portion of it was burned in 1460, but soon repaired. William de Ros,
third abbot, rebuilt all the upper part in a better taste, and enlarged
the nave, which was not finished till 1200. A successor of his at the
beginning of the next century completed the chapels round the choir. The
screen was begun by one of the monks about 1500, who erected the chapel
dedicated to the death of the Virgin, a master-piece of architecture and
adorned with historical carving. The cloister was built so late as 1712.
Cathedral service was per