and inlaid with antique medals.  Tradition
    assures us, that it was on this salver, that king William the
    conqueror placed the foundation charter of the abbey when he presented
    it, at the high altar, on the dedication of the church.  The edges of
    this salver, which stands on a foot stalk of the same metal, are a
    little turned up, and carved.  In the centre is inlaid a Greek medal;
    on the obverse whereof is this legend, [Greek:  Ausander Aukonos] but
    it being fixed in its socket, the reverse is not visible.  The other
    medals, forty in number, are set round the rim, in holes punched quite
    through; so that the edges of the holes serve as frames for the
    medals.  These medals are Roman, and in the highest preservation.”

[111] Yet Bourgueville’s description of the group, as it appeared in his
    time, trips up the heels of his own conjecture.  He says that there
    were, besides the two figures above mentioned, “vn autre homme et
    femme a genoux, comme s’ils demandoient raison de la mort de leur
    enfant, qui est vne antiquite de grand remarque dont je ne puis donner
    autre certitude de l’histoire.” Antiquitez de Caen; p.39.  Now,
    it is this additional portion of the group (at present no longer in
    existence) which should seem to confirm the conjecture of my friend
    Mr. Douce—­that it is a representation of the received story, in the
    middle ages, of the Emperor Trajan being met by a widow who demanded
    justice against the murderer of her son.  The Emperor, who had just
    mounted his horse to set out upon some hostile expedition, replied,
    that “he would listen to her on his return.”  The woman said, “What, if
    you never return?” “My successor will satisfy you”—­he replied—­“But
    how will that benefit you,”—­resumed the widow.  The Emperor then
    descended from his horse, and enquiring into the woman’s case, caused
    justice to be done to her.  Some of the stories say that the murderer
    was the Emperor’s own son.

[112] [Since the publication of the first edition of this work, the figure
    in question has appeared from the pencil and burin of Mr. Cotman; of
    which the only fault, as it strikes me, is, that the surface is too
    rough—­or the effect too sketchy.]

[113] Bourgueville has minutely described it in his Antiquities; and
    his description is copied in the preceding edition of this work.

[114] Bourgueville is extremely particular and even eloquent in his account
    of the tower, &c.  He says that he had “seen towers at Paris, Rouen,
    Toulouse, Avignon, Narbonne, Montpelier, Lyons, Amiens, Chartres,
    Angiers, Bayeux, Constances, (qu.  Coutances?) and those of St. Stephen
    at Caen, and others, in divers parts of France, which are built in a
    pyramidal form—­but