[75] _Ibidem_, p. 239. [76] _Ibidem_, p. 545. [77] _Ibidem_, I. p. 175. [78] The greater part of what follows is borrowed from _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 128. PLATES XLIV.--XLVI. CHURCH OF LÉRY. [Illustration: Plate 44. CHURCH OF LÉRY, NEAR PONT-DE-L'ARCHE. _General view looking south east._] It is not in the vicinity of Rouen, nor indeed in any portion of the district formerly known under the denomination of _Upper Normandy_, that the curious traveller must seek for the most interesting remains of early ecclesiastical architecture in the province. The village churches, throughout this portion of the duchy, are for the most part small and insignificant, and of comparatively modern erection; while, in the vicinity of Caen, and indeed in the whole of the departments of Calvados and of La Manche, a large proportion of them are unquestionably referable to the times of Norman dominion, and exhibit some of the purest specimens of real Norman art. The solution of this question must in all probability be sought for in the political state of the province; and no more obvious answer seems to present itself, than is afforded by a reference to the local character of its two great divisions, of which, Upper Normandy, consisting greatly of a border country, exposed to the continual ravages of warfare from its more powerful neighbor, with difficulty preserved such of its public buildings as were defended by the walls of the fortresses; and often gladly compounded for the secure existence of these, by the sacrifice of the harvest, the cottage, and the parochial church. Yet, even here, some of the ecclesiastical buildings have escaped the hand of time and violence; and among these, few, if any, more completely than that of Léry, a village situated upon the right bank of the Eure, at a distance of about two miles from Pont de l'Arche, and nearly the same from Louviers.