St. Ouen, the principal church in the place, is a poor edifice.  It bears, however, some tokens of remote age:  such are the circular arches in the choir, and a curious capital, on which are represented two figures in combat, of rude sculpture.—­A second church, that of Notre Dame des Pres, now turned into a tan-house, exhibits an architectural feature which is altogether novel.  Over the great entrance, it has a string-course, apparently intended to represent a corbel-table, though it does not support any superior member; and the intermediate spaces between the corbels, instead of being left blank, as usual, are filled with sculptured stones, which project considerably, though less than the corbels with which they alternate.  There is something of the same kind, but by no means equally remarkable, over the arcades above the west door-way of Castle-Acre Priory[49].  Neither Mr. Cotman’s memory, nor my own, will furnish another example.—­The church of Notre Dame des Pres is of the period when the pointed style was beginning to be employed.  The exterior is considerably injured:  to the interior we could not obtain admission.

The suburbs of Pont-Audemer furnish another church dedicated to St. Germain, which would have been an excellent subject for both pen and pencil, had it undergone less alteration.  The short, thick, square, central tower has, on each side, a row of four windows, of nearly the earliest pointed style; many of the windows of the body of the church have semi-circular heads; the corbels which extend in a line round the nave and transepts are strangely grotesque; and, on the north side of the eastern extremity, is a semi-circular chapel, as at St. Georges.—­The inside is dark and gloomy, the floor unpaved, and every thing in and about it in a state of utter neglect, except some dozen saints, all in the gayest attire, and covered with artificial flowers.  The capitals of the columns are in the true Norman style.  Those at St. Georges are scarcely more fantastic, or more monstrous.—­Between two of the arches of the choir, on the south side of this church, is the effigy of a man in his robes, coifed with a close cap, lying on an altar-tomb.  The figure is much mutilated; but the style of the canopy-work over the head indicates that it is not of great antiquity.  The feet of the statue rest upon a dog, who is busily occupied in gnawing a marrow-bone.—­Dogs at the base of monumental effigies are common, and they have been considered as symbols of fidelity and honor; but surely the same is not intended to be typified by a dog thus employed; and it is not likely that his being so is a mere caprice of the sculptor’s.—­There is no inscription upon the monument; nor could we learn whom it is intended to commemorate.

At but a short distance from Pont-Audemer, higher up the Risle, lies the yet smaller town of Montfort, near which are still to be traced, the ruins of a castle,[50] memorable for the thirty days’ siege, which it supported from the army of Henry Ist, in 1122; and dismantled by Charles Vth, at the same time that he razed the fortifications of Pont-Audemer.  The Baron of Montfort yet ranks in our peerage; though I am not aware that the nobleman, who at present bears the title, boasts a descent from any part of the family of Hugh with a beard, the owner of Montfort at the time of the conquest, and one of the Conqueror’s attendants at the battle of Hastings.