We left Bayeux at 11 A.M. in the diligence for S. Lô--I in the _coupé_, my unfortunate wife in the dusty _rotunde_. The country was very pretty indeed, quite like _good_ parts of England, and very grateful to my eyes. The church of S. Loup, passed just after leaving Bayeux, has a good Romanesque steeple capped with a low square spire and remarkable for the great richness of its belfry stage and the eccentric narrowness of the windows with buttresses between them. Two miles before entering the town the cathedral of S. Lô comes in sight; and by the graceful proportions of its two western spires gives promise of pleasure to the ecclesiologist.... _June 29._ We left Coutances this morning at 7.30 for Hambye en route for Avranche. The road was all the way excessively pretty, and gave an admirable view of Coutances, with the cluster of towers and spires which crowns the hill on which it stands.... I walked off alone to the abbey. The situation is pretty; under a steep woody and rocky hill, with a clear stream near, and woods and _riant_ hills and dales all around. The entrance is by a very simple gateway, double in front and single-arched behind.... A few paces from this gateway stands the church, of whose west front no traces now remain, and some old and rustic buildings to the south of it, which have only one old doorway remaining. The church is remarkable in its plan, having a nave without aisles, a central tower, transepts with eastern chapels, aisles and chapels round the choir. The end of the north transept is divided off by two arches from the church, and was I think intended for a sacristy, corresponding somewhat in position to the beautiful sacristy at Coutances--of which cathedral this abbey church bears most marked evidence of being in great degree a reduced and simplified copy. Two small chapels are placed at the re-entering angles of the nave and transept, and, supposing the choir to have extended to the western side of the tower, these would have been most useful in allowing access to the choir-aisles and transepts without passing through the choir itself. The same point of arrangement occurs at Rayham abbey--also an aisleless church--and would be necessary in all conventual churches of this type. The effect of the interior is striking, owing to the excessive lightness of the nave and to the great extension given by its aisles to the width of the choir. The design of the choir is much like that of Coutances--the same lofty proportions of columns, the same caps, the same kind of clerestory window, and the same double lean-to roof all round the choir, one side over the aisle and the other over the chapels of the apse. The whole work looks early, though there are here and there suspicious-looking mouldings and Murray says that the whole church is of late date. If he is correct, it can only be, I think, on the assumption that the builders of the present church used very nearly