"]
[Footnote 17: See a paper by M. Le Prevost in the _Precis Analitique des
Travaux de l'Academie de Rouen_, 1815, p. 131.]
[Footnote 18: _Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II, p. 260.]
LETTER XVI.
GOURNAY--CASTLE OF NEUFMARCHE--CASTLE AND CHURCH OF GISORS.
(_Gisors, July_, 1818)
We are now approaching the western frontiers.--Gournay, Gisors, and
Andelys, the objects of our present excursion, are disposed nearly in a
line between the capitals of France and Normandy; and whenever war broke
out between the two states, they experienced all the glory, and all the
afflictions of warfare. This district was in fact a kind of debatable
land; and hence arose the numerous strong holds, by which the country
was once defended, and whose ruins now adorn the landscape.
The tract known by modern topographers, under the names of the
_arrondissemens_ of Gournay and of Andelys, constituted one of the
general divisions of ancient Normandy, the _Pays de Bray_. It was a
tract celebrated beyond every other in France, and, from time
immemorial, for the excellence of the products of its dairies. The
butter of Bray is an indispensable requisite at every fashionable table
at Paris; and the _fromage de Neufchatel_ is one of the only two French
cheeses which are honored with a place in the bill of fare at Very's at
Grignon's, or at Beauvilliers'.
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