[Footnote 84: _Archæologia_, XVII. p. 911.] [Footnote 85: _Bayeux et ses Environs, par M. Delauney_, p. 12.] [Footnote 86: I. p. 371-379; pl. 35-49, and II. p. 1-29; pl. 1-9.] [Footnote 87: VI. p. 739, and VIII. p. 602.] [Footnote 88: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, Appendix, No. 1.] [Footnote 89: _Archæologia_, XVII. p. 85.] [Footnote 90: _Archæologia_, XVIII. p. 359.] [Illustration: Sculpture at Bayeux] LETTER XXVIII. CATHEDRAL OF BAYEUX--CANON OF CAMBREMER--COPE OF ST. REGNOBERT--ODO. (_Bayeux, August_, 1818.) Excepting the tapestry and the cathedral, Bayeux, at this time, offers no objects of interest to the curious traveller. Its convents are either demolished, or so dilapidated or altered, that they have lost their characteristic features; and its eighteen parish churches are now reduced to four. We wandered awhile about the town, vainly looking after some relic of ancient art, to send you by way of a memento of Bayeux. At length, two presented themselves--the entrance of the corn-market, formerly the chapel of St. Margaret, a Norman arch, remarkable for the lamb and banner, an emblem of the saint, sculptured on the transom stone; and a small stone tablet, attached to an old house near the cathedral. The whimsical singularity of the latter, induced us to give it the preference. It may possibly be of the workmanship of the fourteenth century, and possibly much later. In all probability, it owes its existence merely to a caprice on the part of the owner of the residence, whose crest may be indicated by the tortoises which surmount the columns by way of capitals. Still there is merit in the performance, though perhaps for nothing so much as for the accurate resemblance of peeled wood; and this I never saw imitated with equal fidelity in stone. But, however unattractive Bayeux may be in other respects, so long as the cathedral is suffered to stand, the city will never want interest. It is supposed that the first church erected here was built by St. Exuperius otherwise called St. Suspirius, or St. Spirius, who, according to the distich subjoined to his portrait, formerly painted on one of the windows of the nave, was not only the earliest bishop of the diocese, but claimed the merit of having introduced the Christian faith into Normandy,-- "Primitùs hic pastor templi fuit hujus et auctor, Catholicamque fidem Normannis attulit idem."