of the Chartreux at Rouen[70], is stated to have been
constructed about the conclusion of the eleventh century. The remains of
the monastery are not considerable: they consist of little more than a
ruined wall, containing three circular arches, evidently very ancient
from their simplicity and the style of their masonry, and some pillars
with capitals differing in ornament from any others I recollect, but
imitations of the Grecian, or rather attempts to improve upon it. The
inside of the parish-church is more interesting than the ruins of the
abbey. It is characterised, as you will observe in the annexed sketch,
by massy square piers, to each side of which are attached several small
clustered columns, intended merely for ornament. One of them is fluted,
the work, probably, of some subsequent time; and another, on the same
pier, is truncated, to afford a pedestal for the statue of a saint. The
capitals are without sculpture.

[Illustration: Interior of the Church at Pavilly]

The church at Yainville differs materially from either of the others:
its square low central tower is of far greater base than that of Lery:
the transept parts of the cross have been demolished; and, beyond the
tower, to the east, is only an addition that looks more like an apsis
than a choir, a small semi-circular building with a roof of a peculiarly
high pitch, like those of the stone-roofed chapels in Ireland, which, I
trust, I shall be able hereafter to convince you were undoubtedly of
Norman origin. But the most curious feature in this building is, that
one of the buttresses is pierced with a narrow lancet window; a decisive
proof, that the Normans regarded their buttresses as constituent parts
of the edifice at its original construction, and that they did not add
them at a subsequent time, or design them to afford support, in the
event of any unexpected failure of strength. Indeed, what are usually
called Norman buttresses, such as we find at Yainville, and at the
lazar-house at St. Julien, have so very small a projection, that they
seem much more designed to add ornament or variety than for any useful
purpose.--Yainville is a parish adjoining Jumieges, and was formerly
dependent upon the celebrated abbey there, which will furnish ample
materials for a future letter.

Footnotes:

[63] _Taillepied, Antiquites de Rouen_, p. 77.

[64] Vol. II. part V. p. 8.

[65] _Seroux d'Agincourt, Historie de la Decadence de l'Art_; plate 10,
_Sculpture