The keeps of Vincennes and Loches are still remarkable for their height, though they hardly retain any features which can be called strictly architectural. In the South, the fortified towns of Carcassonne and Aigues Mortes, and in the North, Fougères, retain as much of their walls and defences as almost any place in Europe. The former in particular, both from its situation and the extent of its remains, gives a singularly favourable and impressive idea of the grave majesty of an ancient fortalice. But for alterations and desecrations of all sorts, the palace of the popes at Avignon would be one of the most remarkable castles in Europe: even now its extent and the massiveness of its walls and towers are most imposing. These are all either ruins or fragments; but the castle of Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, retains nearly all the features of a Mediæval fortress in sufficient perfection to admit of its being restored, in imagination at least. The outer walls still remain, encircling the village, which nestles under the protection of the castle. The church crowns the whole, and around it are grouped the halls of the knights, the kitchens and offices, and all the appurtenances of the establishment, intermingled with fortifications and defensive precautions that must have made the place nearly impregnable against such engines of war as existed when it was erected, even irrespective of its sea-girt position. BOOK IV. BELGIUM AND HOLLAND. CHAPTER I. CONTENTS. Historical Notice—Old Churches—Cathedral of Tournay—Antwerp—St. Jacques at Liège. THE little kingdom of Belgium forms an architectural province as distinct and in many respects as interesting as any in Europe. Its style does not, it is true, possess that simplicity combined with grandeur which characterises the one great united effort of Central France, but it is more varied and picturesque, and as fully expressive of the affinities and aspirations of the people. As we may learn from their language, the dominant race during the Middle Ages spoke a dialect very closely allied to the pure German, which proclaimed their affinity to their neighbours on the Rhine; but what their architecture tells us, though their language does not, is that there was a very strong infusion of Celtic blood in their veins which expresses itself in almost every building they erected.