The Public Buildings Are
Particularly Fine, And There Are Two Splendid Bridges, One Of Stone,
And One Upon The Suspension Principle.
Very extensive improvements are
going on, and it seems as if, in the course of a very few years,
the worst portions of the town will be replaced by new and elegant
erections.
Meantime, imagination can scarcely afford more than a faint
idea of the horrors of the narrow, dirty streets, flanked on either
side by lofty squalid houses, in the very last stage of dilapidation.
The cathedral stands in a small square, or market-place, where the
houses, though somewhat better than their neighbours in the lanes,
have a very miserable appearance; they make a striking picture, but
the reality sadly detracts from the pleasure which the eye would
otherwise take in surveying the fine old church, with which, through
the medium of engravings, it has been long familiar. Many workmen are
at present employed in repairing the damage which time has inflicted
upon this ancient edifice.
The interior, though striking from its vastness, is at first rather
disappointing, its splendid windows of stained glass being the most
prominent of its ornaments. In pacing the long aisles, and pausing
before the small chapels, the scene grows upon the mind, and the
monuments, though comparatively few, are very interesting. An effigy
of Richard Coeur de Lion, lately discovered while looking for the
fiery monarch's heart, which was buried in Rouen, is shown as one of
the chief curiosities of the place.
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