[Illustration: VIEW of the MONASTERY of LA TRAPPE] A VISIT TO THE MONASTERY OF LA TRAPPE IN 1817. WITH NOTES _TAKEN DURING A TOUR THROUGH_ LE PERCHE, NORMANDY, BRETAGNE, POITOU, ANJOU, LE BOCAGE, TOURAINE, ORLEANOIS, AND THE ENVIRONS OF PARIS. BY W.D. FELLOWES, ESQ. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED ENGRAVINGS, FROM DRAWINGS MADE ON THE SPOT. LIST OF THE PLATES. View of the Monastery of La Trappe Ruins of the Ancient Church of ditto Ruins of the Gateway of the ancient Chartreuse Les Noyades (_vignette_) Grotto of Héloïse at Clisson Tomb of Abélard and Héloïse Ruins of Abélard's House Granite Rock in the Garenne Le Connétable de Clisson (_outline_) Ruins of Clisson Tour des Pélerins Moulin aux chêvres Tour d'Oudon on the River Loire View of St. Florent Tomb (_etching_) PREFACE. In justice to the public and to myself, I must disavow for the following pages any higher literary pretension than what is conveyed by the simple title of "Notes," under which I have ventured to give them to the world. I had no other aim in writing but to occupy as rationally as I could the hours of travel, and no other object in publishing but to impart to others as plainly as I could a portion of the pleasure I myself experienced. It has somewhere been remarked to this effect, that if every man of common understanding were to put down the daily thoughts and occurrences of his life, candidly and unaffectedly as he experienced them, he must necessarily produce something of interest to his fellow men, and make a book, which, though not enlivened by wit, dignified by profundity of reasoning, nor valuable by extent of research, yet no man perhaps should throw aside with either weariness or disgust.