[Footnote 72: Upon this subject, Huet has an extraordinary observation, (_Origines de Caen_, p. 186.) "that, in the early times of Christianity, it was customary for all churches to front the east or north, or some intermediate point of the compass."--So learned and careful a writer would scarcely have made such a remark without some plausible grounds; but I am at a loss where to find them. Bingham, in his _Origines Eccleslasticæ_, I. p. 288, says, "that churches were so placed, that the front, or chief entrances, were towards the west, and the sanctuary or altar placed towards the east;" and though he adduces instances of a different position, as in the church of Antioch, which faced the east, and that of St. Patrick, at Sabul, near Down in Ulster, which stood from north to south, he cites them only as deviations from an established practice.] [Footnote 73: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 20.] [Footnote 74: _Antiquities of Ireland_, p. 151.] [Footnote 75: See _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, t. 18, 19.] LETTER XXV. ROYAL ABBEYS OF THE HOLY TRINITY AND ST. STEPHEN--FUNERAL OF THE CONQUEROR, EXHUMATION OF HIS REMAINS, AND DESTRUCTION OF HIS MONUMENT. (_Caen, August_, 1818.) The two royal abbeys of Caen have fortunately escaped the storms of the revolution. These buildings are still standing, an ornament to the town, and an honor to the sovereign who caused them to be erected, as well as to the artist who planned, and to the age which produced them. As models of architecture they are the same land-marks to the history of the art in Lower Normandy, as the church of St. Georges is in the upper division of the province. Their dates are equally authenticated; and the characteristic features in each are equally perfect.