CHITRCHES AND CASTLES OF MEDIEVAL FRANCE.* THE spirit in which
this book is written leaves nothing to be desired. The author feels the full fascination of his subject, and if he has failed to do it real justice, this is because admiration, reverence, even enthusiasm, do not of themselves make a satisfactory foundation for a book which concerns architecture, archmology, and history. To make such a book really valuable means a good deal of study; to make it delightful means the possession of literary power and grace of style. These, indeed, with the imaginative faculty which throws itself into the past, might almost enable us to dispense with much special study, to be content with the ordinary knowledge of a commonly cultivated person, when dealing with the old churches and castles of France.
Mr. Lamed gives us his own impressions of outward beauty, with a small amount of information not very artistically arranged, and reflections which are rather obvious, sometimes expressed in so odd and juvenile a manner that they make us smile. Thus the book is neither valuable nor delightful ; and yet it has an attractiveness of its own derived from its tone and spirit. No native of a country, brought up among its monu- ments, can be more filled with their charm, more sensitive to their varying character and associations, than is this American writer among the historical treasures of France. He is old- fashioned, reverent, religious. For him no gulf of time and change and spoliation divides our days from those of Catherine de' Medici, and as he walks through the rooms at Chaumont, for instance, he accepts the furniture with the same un- questioning faith as the old walls themselves and the Loire flowing far beneath them. We do not mean that he is neces- sarily wrong. Queen Catherine's bed with its worked curtains, her prie-Dieu, her candlestick, are even more likely to be genuine than Queen Mary's furniture at Holyrood ; but the scientific historical temper, as a rule, takes these things with a reservation.
The most enjoyable chapters in the book are those which deal with the old castles and great houses of Tonraine. There was a time, not many years ago, when Chenonceaux, Chau- mont, Azay-le-Rideau, and all that splendid company were not much more than names to the general reader. Perhaps they are not very much more now, to the great majority ; but they have been written about a good deal in the last ten years, and consequently have been more visited by tourists, and have lost their freshness as a subject for description. Still, their charm is inexhaustible, and those who know them well are never tired of reading the impressions of a new admirer. Azay, not unjustly, carries off the palm in Mr. Lamed's mind. He does not quite appreciate the strangeness and the romantic, profound melancholy of Chambord. At Chenonceaux he is a little bard on Diane de Poitiers. His morality all through is of the sternest; that is all very well ; but there cannot be much doubt which was the worst woman,
• Churches and Castles of Medirroal France. By Walter Oranston Luna Illustrated. London: Sampson Low, Marston, and Co.
considering the standards of the sixteenth century,—Diane or Catherine.
The author's wanderings extend far beyond Touraine, though this part of his book is the most complete and the most attractive. He visits all the principal cathedrals of France, and mentions their chief points of interest ; not, however, without a good many noticeable omissions. For instance, at Chartres, three pages of enthusiasm are given to the stained glass alone, with hardly a word for the rest of the building, not even for those beautiful porches, with their lines of solemn statues, which are such a characteristic of Chartres and of the spirit of its builders.
Carcassonne and Aigues-Mortes, among French towns, are those whieh interest Mr. Lamed most and detain him longest ; in the South he also finds matter for description at Pau, at Luz, in the Templar Church of St. Jean —it is a little puzzling and misleading to speak of "the Templar Church of St. Jean de Luz "—at Lescar and Morlaas. These two last very curious churches are so little known that we should have been glad of a much fuller account of them. Of Arles and Nimes, with the Pont du Gard, we do not learn anything new. Perhaps the most really beautiful, ancient, and interesting church describes in the book, is Notre Dame at Poitiers. Mr. Lamed says that few Americans visit it. Few English either, we believe ; and his account of it, with a charming illustration, may have the effect of attracting to Poitiers a good many lovers of quaintness and old-world beauty. It is to be remembered, all through the book, that though this edition is published in London, the author writes first and chiefly for his own countrymen. He wishes to point a moral from the manner in which the French preserve their ancient buildings, even their old walled towns, such as Carcassonne, from the modern utilitarian spirit of destruc- tion; and indeed this is remarkable in a nation so much alive to the value of money. It shows very plainly a better side of the French character, a side which we are bound to admire, though it may not always be agreeable to other nations. It is a national pride, a patriotic zeal for the glory of France, which makes the Frenchman so ready to pay a tax for the preservation of his monuments historiques. We wish that not only America, but England, might be more ready to copy our neighbours in this respect.
Mr. Larned's book is full of illustrations which are both interesting and extremely pretty, thus adding a great deal to its value. It has one fault which is all the more irritating because quite unnecessary ; we mean the eccentric way in which the chapters are arranged. First, we have four cathe- drals, followed by Rouen, Caen, and Mont SL Michel. Then we go south to Carcassonne, Aigues-Mortes, Luz ; then fly back north to Poitiers; then south again to Bearn. After this comes the group of chateaux in Touraine ; then Nimes and Arles, then Bourges and Rheims, far astray from the other cathedrals ; and finally, the great churches of Paris. It will be seen that a book has seldom led its readers through a world more attractive to all who love ancient and mediaeval history and architecture, either religions or domestic; a world which is also one of entrancing present beauty. The road is extremely zig-zag; the treatment is unsatisfying ; and yet the book's very naivete may be pleasant to some minds. At least, it has no pretension to be anything but what it is,—the record of a traveller's impressions, his chief equipment for writing them down being a simple and hearty enthusiasm.
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