Such a spirit indeed was his as in a finer type had already expressed itself in Caen in the two noble abbeys, under whose shadow he passed the greater part of his life, the dignified and sternly simple Abbaye-aux-Hommes of William the Conqueror and the graceful, richly ornamented Abbaye-aux-Dames of Queen Matilda.

He took Bayeux by storm, after an obstinate siege: he made himself master of Caen by the voluntary submission of the inhabitants; but, being repulsed at Falaise, and obliged by the winter season to raise the siege, he returned into England, after giving assurance to his adherents, that he would persevere in supporting and protecting them.

Sparing neither skill nor gold to make the great fortress worthy of his art, he sent to Purbeck for marble and to Caen for stone.

On one occasion he was sauntering with a friend at Caen under the window of a lady who longed for nothing more than to have the great arbiter elegantiarum at her house.

After passing a few weeks at Caen with an old friend of my father's, I returned to England in July, 1821 and my education resumed its ordinary course.