are entered. The place has altogether a different aspect to the busy and
cheerful St Lo. The ground is almost level, it is difficult to find any
really striking views, and we miss the atmosphere of the more favourably
situated town. Perhaps it is because of the evil influence of Caen, but
certainly Bayeux lacks the cleanliness and absence of smells that
distinguishes Coutances and Avranches from some of the other Norman towns.
It is, however, rich in carved fronts and timber-framed houses, and
probably is the nearest rival to Lisieux in these features. The visitor is
inclined to imagine that he will find the tapestry for which he makes a
point of including Bayeux in his tour, at the cathedral or some building
adjoining it, but this is not the case. It is necessary to traverse two or
three small streets to a tree-grown public square where behind a great
wooden gateway is situated the museum. As a home for such a priceless relic
as this great piece of needlework, the museum seems scarcely adequate. It
has a somewhat dusty and forlorn appearance, and although the tapestry is
well set out in a long series of glazed wooden cases, one feels that the
risks of fire and other mischances are greater here than they would be were
the tapestry kept in a more modern and more fire-proof home. Queen Mathilda
or whoever may have been either the actual producer or the inspirer of the
tapestry must have used brilliant colours upon this great length of linen.
During the nine centuries that have passed since the work was completed the
linen has assumed the colour of light brown canvas, but despite this, the
greens, blues, reds, and buffs of the stitches show out plainly against the
unworked background. There is scarcely an English History without a
reproduction of one of the scenes portrayed in the long series of pictures,
and London has in the South Kensington Museum a most carefully produced
copy of the original. Even the chapter-house of Westminster Abbey has its
coloured reproductions of the tapestry, so that it is seldom that any one
goes to Bayeux without some knowledge of the historic events portrayed in
the needlework. There are fifty-eight separate scenes on the 230 feet of