We are surrounded by old houses, but cannot easily find them, and when discovered they almost crumble at the touch--they fade away as if by magic; and there is a halo of mystery, we might almost say of sanctity, about them which is indescribable; it is as if the blossoms of an early age still clung to the old walls and garlanded with time-wreaths their tottering ruins.
Rouen is disappearing like a dissolving view--a few more slides in the magic lantern, a few more windows of plate-glass, a few more '_grandes rues_' and the picture of old Rouen fades away.
Let us hasten to the _Place de la Pucelle_, and examine the carving on the houses, and on the _Hôtel Bourgthéroude_, before the great Parisian conjuror waves his wand once more. But, hey presto! down they come, in a street hard by--even whilst we write, a great panel totters to the ground--heraldic shields, with a border of flowers and pomegranates, carved in oak; clusters of grapes and diaper patterns of rich design, emblems of old nobility--all in the dust; a hatchment half defaced, a dragon with the gold still about his collar, a bit of an eagle's wing, a halberd snapped in twain--all piled together in a heap of ruin!
A few weeks only, and we pass the place again--all is in order, the 'improvement' has taken place; there is a pleasant wide _pavé_, and a manufactory for '_eau gazeuse_.'
The cathedral church of Nôtre Dame (the west front of which we have seen in the illustration), and the church of St. Ouen, the two most magnificent monuments in Rouen, are so familiar to most readers that we can say little that is new respecting them. When we have given a short description, taken from the best authorities on the subject, and have pointed out to artistic readers that this west front with its surrounding houses, and the view of the towers of St. Ouen from the garden, at the _east_ end, are two of the grandest architectural pictures to be found in Normandy, we shall have nearly accomplished our task.[43]
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF 'NOTRE DAME' AT ROUEN.
"Like a piece of rockwork, rough and encrusted with images, and ornamented from top to bottom."]
'The cathedral of Nôtre Dame occupies with its west front one side of a square, formerly a fruit and flower market. The vast proportions of this grand Gothic façade, its elaborate and profuse decorations, and its stone screens of open tracery, impress one at first with wonder and admiration, diminished however but not destroyed, by a closer examination; which shows a confusion of ornament and a certain corruption of taste.