The whiskers apparently denote it to be rather Saxon than Norman.  The head is nearly eleven inches in length, by seven and a half in width:  is cut upon a very coarse, yet hard-grained stone—­and rests upon a square, unconnected stone:—­embedded within the wall.  If it ever had shoulders and body, those shoulders and body were no part of the present appendages of the head.  What then, is the Abbe de la Rue in error?  The more liberal inference will be, that the Abbe de la Rue had never seen it.  As to its antiquity, I am prepared to admit it to be very considerable; and, if you please, even before the period of the loves of the father and mother of the character whom it is supposed to represent.  In the morning, Madame Rolle seemed disposed to take ten louis (which I freely offered her) for her precious fragment:  but the distinct, collected view of whiskers, mouth, nose, eyes, and hair, instantaneously raised the quicksilver of her expectations to “quinze louis pour le moins!” That was infinitely “trop fort”—­and we parted without coming to any terms.  Perhaps you will laugh at me for the previous offer.

The church of St. Gervais is called the mother church of the town:  and it is right that you should have some notion of it.  It stands upon a finely elevated situation.  Its interior is rather capacious:  but it has no very grand effect-arising from simplicity or breadth of architecture.  The pillars to the right of the nave, on entering from the western extremity, are doubtless old; perhaps of the beginning of the thirteenth century.  The arches are a flattened semicircle; while those on the opposite side are comparatively sharp, and of a considerably later period.  The ornaments of the capitals of these older pillars are, some of them, sufficiently capricious and elaborate; while others are of a more exceptionable character on the score of indelicacy.  But this does not surprise a man who has been accustomed to examine ART, of the middle centuries, whether in sculpture or in painting.  The side aisles are comparatively modern.  The pillars of the choir have scarcely any capitals beyond a simple rim or fillet; and are surmounted by sharp low arches, like what are to be seen at St. Lo and Coutances.  The roof of the left side aisle is perfectly green from damp:  the result, as at Coutances, of thereof having been stripped for the sake of the lead to make bullets, &c. during the Revolution.  I saw this large church completely filled on Sunday, at morning service—­about eleven:  and, in the congregation, I observed several faces and figures, of both sexes, which indicated great intelligence and respectability.  Indeed there was much of the air of a London congregation about the whole.