On the south side, the massy piers
have been pared into comparatively slender pillars; and the arches are
pointed, as are all the lower windows in the church.--The font is of
stone, and ancient: it consists of a round basin, on a quadrangular
pedestal, like many in England.--The west front of the church is
peculiar. It is entered by a very wide, low, semi-circular door-way, of
rude architecture, and quite unornamented. Above is a window
corresponding with those in the clerestory; and, still higher, a row of
interlaced arches, also semi-circular. A pointed arch, the receptacle
for the statue of a saint, surmounts the whole; but this is, most
probably, of a later aera, as evidently are the two lateral
compartments, which terminate in slender spires of slate, and are
separated from the central division by Norman buttresses.
We stopped to dine at Orbec, a small and insignificant country town,
formerly an appendage of the houses of Orleans and Navarre, with the
title of a barony; but, more immediately before the revolution, the
domain of the family of Chaumont. Its church is a most uncouth edifice:
the plan is unusual; the entrance is in the north transept, which ends
in a square high tower.
Bernay, Orbec, and Lisieux, communicate only by cross roads, scarcely
passable by a carriage, even at this season of the year.
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