our, I shall begin by premising
that my account of the present state of the tract, intended for the
subject of this and the following letter, is wholly derived from the
journals of my companions. Their road by Fecamp, Havre, Bolbec, and
Yvetot, has led them through the greater part of the Pays de Caux, a
district which, in the time of Caesar, was peopled by the Caletes or
Caleti. Antiquaries suppose, that in the name of this tribe, they
discover the traces of its Celtic origin, and that its radical is no
other than the word _Kalt_ or _Celt_ itself. As a proof of the
correctness of this etymology, Bourgueville[25] tells us that but little
more than two hundred years have passed since its inhabitants, now
universally called _Cauchois_, were not less commonly called _Caillots_
or _Caillettes_; a name which still remains attached to several
families, as well as to the village Gonfreville la Caillotte, and,
probably, to some others. I shall, however, waive all Celtic theory,
"for that way madness lies," and enter upon more sober chorography.

The author of the Description of Upper Normandy states, that the
territory known by that appellation was limited to the Pays de Caux and
the Vexin: the former occupying the line of sea-coast from the Brele to
the Seine, together with the governments of Eu and Havre and the Pays de
Brai; the latter comprising the Roumois, and the French as well as the
Norman Vexin. All these territorial divisions have, indeed, been
obliterated by the state-geographers of the revolution; and Normandy,
time-honored Normandy herself, has disappeared from the map of the
dominions of the French king. The ancient duchy is severed into the five
departments of the Seine Inferieure, the Eure, the Orne, Calvados, and
the Manche. These are the only denominations known to the government or
to the law, yet they are scarcely received in common parlance. The
people still speak of Normandy, and they still take a pleasure in
considering themselves as Normans: and, I too, can share in their
attachment to a name, which transmits the remembrance of actual
sovereignty and departed glory.

Until the re-union of feudal Normandy to the crown of its liege lord,
the duke was one of the twelve peers of the kingdom; and to his hands
that kingdom entrusted the sacred Oriflamme, as often as it was
expedient to unfurl it in war. Normandy also contained several titular
duchies, ancient fiefs held of the King as Duke of Normandy, but w