APPENDIX
Reading edition
I A few more interesting walks in Rouen
IT was in my mind at first to place here an itinerary I had planned by which it would be possible to visit everything of interest in Rouen in six days, starting from the Hôtel du Nord near the Grosse Horloge, and returning to the same spot. But it is perhaps better after all that you should visit the places mentioned in my chapters as the spirit moves you, and that I should merely set down in these last pages a few old streets or houses which you must not miss, merely because I have had no space to speak of them before.
Returning from the Chartreuse de la Rose, it will be good to take the Route de Lyons la Forêt past the château called Nid de chiens (a name which preserves the memory of the old Dukes' Kennels) where Henri IV. was entertained. You will see the seventeenth-century house on your left, between two railway bridges which cross the road, just before the Caserne Trupel. Continue by the same road, keeping the Aubette on your right, and turn round the wall of the great Hospital enclosure till you reach the Rue Edouard Adam, and pass the Rue Eau de Robec which is beautiful on each side of you. Pass the new Fontaine Croix de Pierre, and as you turn down the Rue Orbe look quickly at the backs of the houses on the Robec, and then swing to the right up the Rue des Champs. At the Rue Matelas you must stop. St. Vivien's Church closes the quaint vista of the street, and at No. 19 is an aged doorway to a dark courtyard, and beyond that, a charming turret staircase on the roadway with a gallery outside all wreathed in roses. The gables and the woodwork and the shadowed windows make up an exquisite little picture of mediæval domesticity. When you return again to the Rue Orbe, look down the Rue Pomme d'Or to your left, and then turn up the Rue Poisson and admire the beautiful choir of St. Nicaise, remembering the story of the famous "boise" I told you in the last chapter. Up the Rue St. Nicaise, past the Rue Floquet, the hideous slit of the Rue d'Enfer opens on the left, so you turn away to the Rue Roche opposite, and keep swinging to the left up the Rue de la Cage and so on to the Boulevard Beauvoisine. The Place du Boulingrin, where I have no doubt the English garrison of 1420 played at bowls, is still green and inviting a little to your right. But pushing on still westwards to the left you come to the Boulevard Jeanne d'Arc, and pass the road that leads northwards to a fascinating Cider-tavern in the Champs des Oiseaux. A little further on is the Rue Verte (leading northwards to the Railway Station and southwards to the Rue Jeanne d'Arc and the river) and at last you reach the Place Cauchoise and the Rue St. Gervais which mounts to the north-west. Look at No. 31 (the Menuiserie Brière) as you pass, for the sake of the charming old wooden gallery in its courtyard, and then at No. 71 with its pretty eighteenth-century panels like plaques of Wedgewood, an ornament which is closely imitated in the medallions on the wall at the corner of the Rue Chasselièvre. After visiting St. Gervais come back to the Place Cauchoise and take the Rue Cauchoise until you reach the Rue des Bons Enfants, where at No. 134 died Fontenelle. As you pass the Rue Étoupée stop to look at the sign of the house at No. 4, built in 1580. If you are wise you will lunch at the old inn at No. 41 Rue des Bons Enfants, admire the stables, and inspect Room No. 10. Refreshed and fortified, go straight on, across the Rue Jeanne d'Arc into the Rue Ganterie and so by way of the Rue de l'Hôpital to the crossing of the Rue de la République. Almost in front of you on the other side is the queer little alley called the Rue Petit Mouton, and as you pass down it you will see how much bigger the streets look on my Maps (for the sake of being clear) than they are in reality. This leads you across the Place des Ponts de Robec to the beginning of the Rue Eau de Robec where you will notice at once, on the left, the house at No. 186, with the sign which shows the faithful horse returning from the scene of his master's murder to bring the news into the town. No. 223 on the other side at the corner of the Rue de la Grande Mesme is fine, and so is No. 187 at the angle of the Rue du Ruissel. All the while the inky water is trickling under countless bridges on your left hand ("Ignoble little Venice" Flaubert calls it all in "Madame Bovary," which gives you, otherwise, the worst impression of Rouen in any book I know), and swarms of little children chatter and play about the cobblestones, while women throng the countless dens and cubbyholes, until you fly for shelter into one of the numerous curiosity shops and buy a fifteenth-century door-knocker manufactured expressly for your visit. Past the Place St. Vivien and the Church, the Eau de Robec still continues; and, as the Rue du Pont à Dame Renaude opens on your left, there is a good house at the corner of the opposite street. Further on to the left a great building with overhanging eaves stretches from 34 to 30. Then, over a broader bridge, the Rue des Célestins goes northwards, and this street of bridges ends in the green trees of the Boulevard, with a lovely view of that Maison des Célestins which the Duke of Bedford endowed, far to your right in the distant corner of the old wall of the Hospital.
Coming back by the Robec (for it well deserves looking at from each end), when you reach the Rue de la République turn northwards for a sight of the south front of St. Ouen, and then leave the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville by way of the Rue de l'Hôpital due west. No. 1 is an exquisite Renaissance house with its colonnade and arches and carved capitals. In the courtyard within is a beautiful doorway of the same period set at right angles to the street façade. Upon its entrance columns (which are double, one set above another) two delicately moulded statuettes of women are placed on each side of the slender upper shaft. Over the door is the motto—"DomiNuS MICHI ADIUTOR," the same which occurs above the arms of Cardinal Wolsey on the terra-cotta plaque at Hampton Court. This fine house extends some way down the street, and leads you pleasantly onwards till the Rue Socrate opens to your left. Go down it and glance on each side as the Rue des Fossés Louis VIII. crosses your path. At the end is the great Palais de Justice. Beyond that (you may go through Louis XII.'s archway or keep the Palace wall upon your right) is the Rue aux Juifs, in which No. 35 is an exact model of its ancient predecessor. In the Rue du Bec there are remains of fine houses and spacious courtyards, and through it you arrive at the Rue de la Grosse Horloge and the great archway that holds the famous clock of Rouen.
The only other houses I can remember as worthy of a special visit are Nos. 5, 7, and 18 in the Rue St. Étienne des Tonneliers, which opens out of the Rue du Grand Pont just before the quays. Where the Rue Jacques Lelieur enters it are the ruins of a lovely church fallen upon very evil days. All over Rouen you may find walks equally interesting, but I have done enough in suggesting a few of the most typical.
II Monuments classés parmi les Monuments Historiques de France
Hors Classe.Cathédrale (État).
Maison Corneille, Petit Couronne (Départ.).
I. Classe.Chapelle de St. Julien des Chartreux à Petit Quévilly.
St. Godard (verrières).
St. Maclou.
St. Ouen.
St. Ouen (Chambre ou Tour aux Clercs).
St. Patrice.
St. Vincent.
II. Classe.Tour St. André.
Cathédrale, Salle Capitulaire et Cloître.
Fontaine Croix de Pierre (Musée des Antiquités).
St. Gervais (Crypte et Abside).
Aître St. Maclou.
Chœur de St. Nicaise.
Chapelle de la Fierte St. Romain, à la Vieille Tour.
III. Classe.Église Mont aux Malades.
Église St. Paul (abside).
St. Vivien (clocher).
III Museums and Libraries
The Musée des Antiquités at the northern end of the Rue de la République contains some very interesting prehistoric remains; a quantity of Merovingian relics, such as axe-heads, finger-rings, lance-points, necklaces, buttons, buckles, needles, combs, and pottery; the standard measures of Rouen from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century; lead crosses with formulas of absolution stamped upon them from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; medals and tokens of many local abbeys and confrèries; coins of the Dukes of Normandy from 911 to 1216; an eleventh-century Oliphant; some glass mosaics; and the statue of Henri Court Mantel from his tomb in the Cathedral. All these are in the first room. In the next are Roman vases and glassware; some fine bronze weapons; and a large Gallo-Roman mosaic; also "La Capucine," as the first municipal fire-engine was called, which was only instituted in 1719. It was only in 1686 that any organisation at all was made to prevent fires, and the first "Pompiers de Rouen" were created in 1800. These facts, in connection with the general use of wood for common houses even till late in the sixteenth century, explain a great deal of the terrible destruction by fire in every quarter of the town. In a third room are gathered together some good examples of tapestry and furniture, and in a room by itself is a magnificent mosaic from Lillebonne. Of the inner quadrangle and the front courtyard I have spoken already in earlier pages.
The Musée de Rouen in the Rue Thiers has four separate divisions each worthy of your attention. The first is the beautiful garden which stretches westward to the Rue Jeanne d'Arc. The second is the Town Library, which is entered by its own door opposite the Église St. Laurent. In my list of authorities I have mentioned books which can all be obtained in the Library, where there are excellent arrangements for the student to work and take notes from as many books as he likes, and keep them together from day to day. Among its more remarkable manuscripts are Anglo-Saxon writings of the tenth century, illuminated "Heures" of the fifteenth century, the "Missel" of Georges d'Amboise; there are also several "incunables d'imprimerie de Rouen," and other rare works; by the help of M. Noël, M. Beaurain, and their capable assistants, no student of civic or departmental history can fail to find all he desires. For more careful researches into original authorities he will do well to consult M. Charles de Beaurepaire, who presides of the Archives, near the Prefecture in the Rue Fontenelle; and he will find further documents of interest in the Hôtel de Ville and the Library of the Chapterhouse, which is reached by way of the staircase out of the north transept in the Cathedral. The third division of the Musée de Rouen is the Gallery of Faience and Ceramics. The enamelled tiles for Constable Montmorency, called the "carrelages d'Ecouen," which bear the mark, "Rouen, 1542," were not made by Bernard Palissy, but by the man of whom a record exists in May 24, 1545, "Masséot Abaquesne, esmailleur en terre demeurant en la paroisse St. Vincent de Rouen." After 1565 this "terre émaillée" is not made here any more, but in 1645 Esmé Poterat is the best maker of porcelain in France, and was the founder of the famous Rouen school of the "fond jaune ocré," in which Guilleband and Levavasseur were conspicuous for their "style rayonnant" in the seventeenth century. On the right of this gallery is a very fine example of this style, with blue arabesques, and in the same room a queer mixture of localities is observable in the Chinese figures dancing the dances of Normandy, to the tune of Norman bagpipes, in a queerly Celestial atmosphere. There is also the famous "violon de faience" to be seen. The fourth and most important division is, of course, that which contains the pictures, and by a very sensible arrangement those which have especially to do with the ancient or modern history of the town are usually gathered into one gallery, which is of the highest interest to any student of the history of Rouen. Some two hundred and fifty prints, drawings, and paintings of local interest may often here be studied. In the galleries themselves, No. 413 is a view of Rouen taken from St. Sever by Jean Baptiste Martin who died in 1735. It shows the gates of the town, even the Vieux Palais on the left, the wooden bridge, the Ile St. Croix full of trees, the old piers still standing of the Empress Matilda's Bridge, and a fashionable assemblage on the Cours la Reine, by the St. Sever bank. After reading this book, you will find few pictures more interesting as a reproduction of the various pieces of architecture now vanished.
Out of a list of pictures most kindly made for me by M. Edmond Lebel, the keeper of the Museum, I will select a few which must on no account be missed.
Early Work.—
No.421.Ecce homoMignard.
"34.Concert sur une place publiqueBerghem.
" PaysageRuydaël.
"570.PortraitVelasquez.
"494.Le Bon SamaritainRibera.
"536.Chasse au SanglierSneyders.
"285.Portrait de l'auteurJouvenet.
"481.Vénus et EnéePoussin.
"54.Vierge et EnfantSandro Botticelli.
"210.Vierge et Enfant (avec portraits)Gérard (David).
"573.VisionVeronèse.
"316.BaigneusesLancret.
After 1800.—
No.265.La belle ZélieIngres.
"115.PaysagesCorot.
Études DiversesGéricault.
"152.La Justice de Trajan.Delacroix.
"544.Un métier de chienStevens (Joseph).
"239.Études DiversesMeissonier.
"97.PortraitFrançois Millet.
""TêteBonington.
"489.Le PiloteRenouf.
Drawings.—
No.811.ÉtudeLebrun.
"833.FiguresRembrandt.
"795.Visite de Bonaparte à RouenIsabey.
"737.Vue de Rouen in 1777Cochin.
"796.ÉtudeJouvenet.
"856.Diverses ÉtudesGéricault.
ÉtudesDelacroix.
Sculpture.—
No.937.Napoleon (marbre)Canova.
"959.Géricault (tombeau, marbre)Etex.
"946.Armand Carrel (bronze)David d'Angers.
"934.Pierre Corneille (terre cuite)Caffieri.
"941.Boieldieu (marbre)Dantan Jeune.
"985.Fontenelle (marbre)Romagnesi.
IV Authorities
Though I desire to express my indebtedness to all the works mentioned in these pages, the books given in the list that follows are those which should be first consulted by anyone who wishes to follow on completer lines the story of the town which I have been obliged to shorten. The commonplace of artistic, or historical, or architectural literature I have omitted. Those who know it will easily recognise the passages in which I have made use of Freeman, of Ruskin, of Viollet le Duc, of Michelet, of many other standard works. Those who yet have it to discover can find it for themselves in any library.
But the undermentioned works, some of them only to be found in Rouen itself, are worthy of the attention of any student who wishes to carry his researches further into one of the most interesting of French mediæval cities. All the publications of the "Société Rouennaise des Bibliophiles" and of the "Société des Bibliophiles des Normandes" may be consulted with advantage, and every volume of "Normannia" issued by the "Photo Club Rouennais."
Histoire du Parlement de Normandie—A. Floquet, 1840, 7 vols.
Histoire du Privilège de St. Romain—A. Floquet, 1833, 2 vols.
Anecdotes Normandes—A. Floquet, second edition, 1883.
Rouen Monumental au XVIIme et XVIIIme siècle—Georges Dubosc, 1897.
Dictionnaire des Rues de Rouen—Nicétas Périaux, 1871.
Histoire Chronologique de Rouen—Nicétas Périaux, 1874.
Sculptures Grotesques de Rouen—Jules Adeline, 1878 (illus.).
Description Historique des Maisons de Rouen—E. Delaquérière, 1821 (illus.).
Description, etc., vol. ii., 1841 (illus.).
Siège de Rouen (1418-19)—M.L. Puiseux, 1867.
La Danse des Morts du cimetière St. Maclou—E.H. Langlois, 1832 (illus.).
Stalles de la Cathédrale de Rouen—E.H. Langlois, 1838 (illus.).
Rouen, Rouennais, Rouenneries—Eugène Noël, 1894.
Rouen, Promenades et Causeries—Eugène Noël, 1872.
L'Ancien Bureau des Finances—Georges et André Dubosc, 1895.
Peintures Murales du XIIme siècle—G.A. Le Roy, 1895.
Tapisseries de Saint-Vincent—Paul Lafond, 1894 (illus.).
Le Donjon du Château (Tour Jeanne d'Arc)—F. Bouquet, 1877.
La Muse Normande (David Ferrand, 1625-1653), 5 vols., Rouen, 1891.
Mystère de l'Incarnation, etc., avec introduction, etc.—P. le Verdier, 1886.
Description des Antiquités de Rouen—Jacques Gomboust, 1655.
Roman de Rou (by Robert Wace), edited by F. Pluquet, 2 vols., 1827.
Le Livre des Fontaines (J. Lelieur), edited by T. de Jolimont, 1845 (illus.).
Les Quais de Rouen—Jules Adeline, 1879 (illus.).
Les Fastes de Rouen (H. Grisel), edited by F. Bouquet, 1870.
Éloges de Rouen (P. Grognet, etc.), edited by Ed. Frère, 1872.
La Friquassée Crotestyllonnée—"Abbé Raillard," 1604.
Rouen Pittoresque, drawings by Lalanne, text by various hands, 1886 (illus.).
Rouen qui s'en va—Jules Adeline, 1876 (illus.).
Rouen Disparu—Jules Adeline, 1876 (illus.).
Rouen Illustré, drawings by Allard, text by various hands, 2 vols., 1880 (illus.).
La Tapisserie de Bayeux—H.F. Delaunay, 1824.
Une Fête Brésilienne à Rouen en 1550—F. Denis, 1851.
Rouen au XVIe siècle (d'après J. Lelieur, 1525)—Jules Adeline, 1892 (illus.).
Tombeaux de la Cathédrale de Rouen—A. Deville, 1881.
The works published by M. Charles Robillard de Beaurepaire deserve special mention by themselves. The student should consult every one he can discover. They are chiefly in the shape of paper pamphlets, containing invaluable reprints from the manuscripts of the town, with notes and introductions. Published, as they ought to be, in several collected volumes, they would make an extraordinary contribution to the history of Northern France from Norman times to the present day. I have consulted and quoted so many, that I have no space to give all their titles, but the few which follow are merely those which were of the greatest importance to me in the pages which have gone before:—
Memoire sur le lieu du supplice de Jeanne d'Arc, 1867.
Don Pedro Niño en Normandie, 1872.
Duc de Bedford à Rouen.
Accord conclu par Robert de Braquemont, etc.
La Sénéchaussée de Normandie, 1883.
Les États de Normandie sous Charles VII., 1875.
L'Écurie de Catherine de Médicis.
Notes sur les Lépreux.
Notice sur une Maison de la rue de la Grosse Horloge.
Les Architectes de Saint Maclou.
Logis de Lord Clarendon en 1674, Rue Damiette.
L'Ancien Clos des Galées, 1869.
Charles VIII. à Rouen, 1853.
Les Tavernes de Rouen au XVI siècle, 1867.