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sculptured into knots, grotesque heads and foliage, are affixed to the bases of the derivative pillars.
A bold double-billeted moulding is continued below the clerestory, whose windows adapt themselvesto the binary arrangement of the bays of the nave; that is to say, a taller arch is flanked by a smallerone, on its right side, or on its left side, as the situation requires; these are supported by short massypillars; and an embattled moulding runs round the windows. These features are Norman ; but in otherportions of the church, the architect Romanises again, as in St. Nicholas . The piers of the aisle-archesare of considerable width: the pillars at each angle are connected by an architrave, distinctly enounced,running along the front of the pier, and interposed between the capitals and the springing of the well-turned semi-circular arch. The triforium is composed of a tier of semi-circular arches, nearly of equalspan with those below. The perspective of the building is grand and palatial. In the evening, when itis illuminated only by a few faintly-burning tapers, the effect of the gleams of light, reflected from thereturns of the arches and pillars, is particularly fine. Beyond the central arch which supports the tower,all is lost in gloom, except that at the extremity of the choir, the star-light just breaks through thetopmost windows above the altar.—In the church of St. Stephen, the leading ideas of the architect werestill influenced by the Roman basilica; a third and more fanciful modification is to be observed in thecoeval church of the Holy Trinity . Here the piers are narrower; the columns supporting the aisle-arches are consequently brought closer together, and the architrave is less prominent than at St. Stephen’s:there the embattled moulding is confined to the clerestory; in the present church, it runs round theprincipal arches; and, instead of the lofty triforium which there surmounts the side-aisles, the wallswhich we now describe are threaded by a gallery supported by misproportioned pillars, whose capitalsexhibit every possible variety of grotesque invention. The bold archivolts beneath the central tower arechased with the Norman lozenge: they are circular; but the eastern arch, which runs higher than theothers, is obtusely pointed, though it is evidently of the same date with its companions.”
The parish of St. Nicholas is placed without the walls of Caen , in that portion of the suburbsknown by the name of Le JBourg-l’ Jlhhd, as having been, before the revolution, under the jurisdictionof the abbot of St. Stephen. In the same quarter was also included the parish of St. Ouen, as was aportion'of those of St. Stephen and St. Martin . The two last-mentioned churches were ceded, in theearliest period of the history of Caen, by the Chapter of the Cathedral of Bayeux, to Queen Matilda ,in exchange for some other preferment, and were by her bestowed upon the nuns of her new convent ofthe Trinity. But the increasing power of the rival monastery, built by her husband, naturally caused itsoccupants to turn a wistful eye towards churches so immediately in their vicinity. Disputes succeeded;and the monks of St. Stephen erected the church of St. Nicholas , that their suburb might no longerbe without a religious building which depended wholly upon themselves. Peace was at length restoredby means ot a charter from the Duke, dated in the year 1083, whereby St. Nicholas was recognizedas parochial, an equivalent was given to the abbess by the extension of her power in her own quarterof St. Giles, and the respective parishes of St. Stephen and St. Martin were allowed to retain all theypossessed in the Bourg-l’Abbe, except five families expressly designated in the charter. These fivewere transferred to St. Nicholas ; and, to secure to i the saint a certain increase of votaries hereafter,a proviso was added,* enacting that every house which might be built in future, in that suburb, shouldbelong to his parish. Hence, the two other saints retained nothing more than the ground covered bythe tenements then standing, sixty-seven in number ; and the necessary consequence was, that from thatperiod till the year 17 ^ 0 , when the whole was remodelled, the limits of the several parishes were confusedand irregular in the extreme. Not only did adjoining dwellings belong to different parishes, but theline frequently ran between the various apartments of the same house, or even separated the apartmentsthemselves.
The church of St. Nicholas , as indebted for its existence to the monks of the abbey ot St. Stephen,continued for some time to receive its pastors from among the brethren of that convent. At a subsequentperiod, the monks, after they had transferred to substitutes the performance of their religious duties, stillendeavored to preserve their supremacy; but they were finally obliged to relinquish it; and the ministersof St. Nicholas enjoyed the same rights as the other clergy of Caen , though the ecclesiastical privilegesof the abbot remained inviolate. V:;
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