Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/88

60 feel their imaginations roused, while their slumbers during the night are broken by the cry of the station-porter at strikingly short intervals.—St. Onier, Lille, Douay, Arras, names associated with stirring passages of history, or calling up to the artist or antiquary visions of unexplored treasures, startle you in quick succession.

As the day breaks, you may endeavour, (this perhaps unsuccessfully,) to obtain a glimpse of the gigantic cathedral of Amiens; while, as you advance, although the ear is no longer struck by the sound of names recalling any remarkable association, yet the eye is gratified by a rich and beautiful country and the picturesque churches, on either side, show that it is not without its objects of interest. If you can make up your mind to delay your arrival in Paris for a few hours, and give yourself an opportunity of examining a few of those most easily accessible, you will find that external picturesqueness is not their only value; but that they are remarkable as curious or beautiful specimens of architectural composition, or delicate workmanship. You will judge in what respects they excel, or fall short of, any similar group of English churches that you have studied. You may observe what connection they have, in their general features, with the magnificent cathedrals you may afterwards visit, or what relation they bear to other groups in distant provinces. You will, for instance, if you should afterwards visit a few of the village churches on the Seine, between Paris and Rouen, perceive that there is a marked difference, probably owing to geological causes, as the actual distance is but small. In Normandy, without doubt, another character will be found to prevail, and still more decidedly in the southern provinces.

I have not had an opportunity of visiting the cathedral of Noyon, but from the engravings I have seen of it, I am inclined to think that we shall find there what might be called the metropolitan type of the churches of this district, rather than at Beauvais, though they are in the diocese of the latter. The cathedral of Senlis is also in their immediate neighbourhood; I am not aware whether it possesses any peculiar feature beyond its spire, and I have not seen any reproduction of this among the churches I have noticed. Before I proceed further, I would call your attention to an important and valuable work by Dr. Woillez, on the Churches