that even Italian artists thought it worthy to be engraved
and held out as a model at Rome[97]. The spire, however, was greatly
injured by a hurricane, in 1705, and it was at last taken down thirty
years afterwards. To the triple porch, I have already alluded, in
describing the intended front of St. Ouen. The general lines of the
church, are such as in England would be referred to the fourteenth
century: on a closer examination, however, the curious eye will
discover the peculiar beauties of the French Gothic. Thus the bosses of
the groined roof are wrought and perforated into filagree, the work
extending over the intersections of the groins, which are seen through
its reticulations. Such bosses are only found in the French churches of
the sixteenth century. In other parts, the interior closely resembles
the style of the cathedral[98].

St. Patrice is a building of the worst style of the commencement of the
sixteenth century: to use the quaint phraseology of Horace Walpole, it
exhibits "that _betweenity_ which intervened when Gothic declined and
Palladian was creeping in." The paintings on the walls of this church,
and the stained glass in its windows, are more deserving of notice than
its architecture. The first are of small size, and generally better than
are seen in similar places. One of them is after Bassan, an artist,
whose works are not often found in religious edifices in France. The
painted windows of the choir deserve unqualified commendation. They are
said to have been removed from St. Godard. Each is confined to a single
subject; among which, that of the _Annunciation_ is esteemed the best.

To this church was attached a confraternity[99], established in 1374,
under the name of the _Guild of the Passion_. Its annual procession,
which continued till the time of the revolution, took place on
Holy-Thursday. It consisted of the usual pageantry; a host of children,
dressed like angels, increased the train, which also included twelve
poor men, whose feet the masters of the brotherhood publicly washed
after mass. Like some other guilds, they were in possession of a pulpit
or tribune, called, in old French, a _Puy_, from which they issued a
general invitation to all poets, who were summoned to descant upon the
themes which were commemorated by their union. The rewards held out to
the successful candidates were, in the true monastic spirit of the
guild, a reed, a crown of thorns, a sponge, or some other mystic or
de