The original manuscript account of an antiquarian tour through Northern France, including a visit to the Bayeux Tapestry. Quarto. Bound in the original half brown morocco over brown pebble grained cloth covered boards. Ruled in gilt and titled to the upper cover. All edges gilt. The title is illustrated, 75pp of text in ink in a tidy readable hand with 32pp of very competent ink and wash drawings, titled beneath, and also 9pp of ephemera including hotel bills and a tram ticket. The author has included a folding map showing his route in red ink. The narrative is lively, describing Dieppe, Rouen, Caen, Bayeux, St. Lo, Coutances, Avranches, Mont St. Michel, Mortain, Vire, and Argentan.
 
A very good copy.
 
The visit to Bayeux includes comments on the tapestry: “We next visited the Bibliotheque where the famous Bayeux Tapestry is on view. It is very conveniently arranged, being placed in upright glass cases, about the height (at the bottom) of an ordinary persons shoulder, which forms a parallelogram there. Visitors commence at the point A and walk first round the outside of the cases in the directions B. C. D. E and then pass inside and continue their course as indicated by the letters F. G. H. I. J. ”The Tapestry or, to speak more correctly, the embroidery, is only about 18 inches wide but is 230 feet long. It is said to fit exactly the nave of the Cathedral. It is in a wonderfully good state of preservation, only showing signs of wear in one or two places. The colours of the wool in which it is worked are remarkably fresh, as if they had only been dyed recently. “Some idea of perspective is attempted by the use of different colours for the legs of the horses, the near legs being brown and the off legs green. In one place I noticed a small piece of the work was left unfinished; the outline was drawn but it had not been filled in. ”Many of the subjects are represented in a very primitive manner, as where dead soldiers after a battle, are being stripped of their armour and clothing by the simple process of pulling them over their heads in one piece. Although the drawing would not pass in the Royal Academy School some of the figures have vigour in them and the whole story is graphically told. “We found the borders, top and bottom, well worth attention. A great part of them is filled with grotesque animals and birds, such as were never found in the heavens above nor on the earth beneath, but such scenes as ”Sowing“, ”Ploughing“ and ”Slinging“ are also represented. Adam and Eve, foxes and lions have places assigned to them, but they immediately remind one of the Noah’s ark of one’s childhood. ”We made the round of the cases very carefully, my companions having a descriptive sheet which is lent to visitors, and I my Baedeker. The charge for admission had been 50 c. and we felt we had had full value for it. –There are a few curios, and some pictures in the same room as the tapestry, and also in the entrance hall, and I noticed among them an old flag the staff of which was surmounted by a gilt cock instead of the more modern eagle.“