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As we approached Brionne, the face of the country became more uneven;
and we passed an extensive tract of uncultivated chalk hills, resembling
the downs of Wiltshire.--Brionne itself lies in a valley watered by the
Risle: the situation is agreeable, and advantageous for trade. The
present number of its inhabitants does not amount to two thousand; and
there is no reason to apprehend that the population has materially
decreased of late years. But in the times of Norman rule, Brionne was a
town of more importance: it had then three churches, besides an abbey
and a lazar-house. At present a single church only remains; and this is
neither large, nor handsome, nor ancient, nor remarkable in any point of
view. We found in it a monument of the revolution, which I never saw
elsewhere, and which I never expected to see at all. The age of reason
was a sadly irrational age.--The tablet containing the rights and duties
of man, disposed in two columns, like the tables of the Mosaic law, is
still suffered to exist in the church, though shorn of all its
republican dignity, and degraded into the front of a pew.
On the summit of a hill that overhangs the town, stood formerly the
castle of the Earls of Brionne; and a portion of the building, though it
be but an insignificant fragment, is still left.
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