To the same date I should also refer the tiles; and possibly the whole
palace was built at that period. There are no records of its erection;
no document connects its existence with the history of the duchy; no
author relates its having been suffered to fall into decay. So striking
an absence of all proof, and this upon a point where evidence of
different kinds might naturally have been expected, may warrant a
suspicion how far the building was ever a royal palace, according to the
strict import of the town. A friend of mine supposes that these
buildings may have been the king's lodgings. During the middle ages it
was usual for monarchs in their progresses, to put up at the great
abbeys; and this portion of the convent of St. Stephen may have been
intended for the accommodation of the royal guests.
The assigning of a comparatively modern date to the pavement, does not
necessarily interfere with the question as to the antiquity of heraldic
bearings. The coats of arms which are painted upon the tiles may have
been designed to represent those of the nobility who attended Duke
William on his expedition to England: it is equally possible that they
embraced a more general object, and were those of the principal families
of the duchy--De Thou gives his suffrage in favor of the former opinion,
but Huet of the latter; and the testimony of the bishop must be allowed,
in this case, to outweigh that of the president.
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