BAY 



70 



r, \ v 



soldier* dine upon their shieMi. Odo Mtted at a tui.lc, 

 with Will;. mi on In* right li.iii.l, bestows hi* benediction 

 on the vian<ls : 'KT NIC KPISCOPV* CIHVM KT P'UVM 

 BKNBDICIT.' William, with Odo and Robert Karl of 

 Mort.ugiic, are seated under a canopy: 'ODO BPISCOPVS. 

 WILI.BLM. BOTDBHTVS.' A figure carry ing a pennon tliun ap- 

 pear* giving ordr* thai I in- army should encamp at Hasting*: 



1 IsTK IVSMt VT FODBRKTVR CASTFI.LVM AT HESTKNti A.' 



The camp farming: 'c ASTRA.' William appears directing 

 tin- building of a cattle. The news is then brought to 

 William that Harold is advancing to oppose the Normans ; 

 William on a raised seat : 'me NVNTIATVM KST wn.i.r.L- 

 Mo OB HAROLD.' Two Normans setting lire to a house; 

 a woman nud child escaping from it: 'me DOSIVS INCBN- 

 DITVR.' The soldiers of William leave Hastings to meet 

 Harold in the Geld; and the duke now, for the first tune 

 since his arrival, appears in armour : the march of the horse- 

 men : ' HIC MILITKS KXIERVNT OK UBSTBMOA KT VENKRVNT 



AD PRKUVM CONTRA iiAKOLUVM RKGEM.' Odo is repre- 

 sented bearing a mace, but preceded by William on horse- 

 back with a club, who interrogates Vitalis, an individual of 

 his army, also on horseback, whether he has seen Harold's 

 forces : WILLELM DVX INTKRROOAT VITAL, si VIDISSET 

 KXKRCITVM UAKui.ni.' Harold also receives informal ion 

 relative to William's force: ISTS NVNTIAT IIAKOI.DVM r>u 

 KXERCITV WILLKLMI Dvcis.' William then addresses his 

 soldiers, who are proceeding onward to the battle : me WIL- 



LELM DVX ALLOQVITVR SVIS MILITIRVS VT PRKPAlt AKKNT 

 SB VIRILITER KT MAPIBNTER AD PUKLIVM CONTRA ANOLO- 



Rvii EXKKCITVM.' The Normans approach, mostly on 

 liui->eback, but intermixed with archers on foot. The 

 battle now ensues, in which the Saxons are cbietly on foot, 

 their shields distinguished from those of thu Normans by 

 being usually round with a boss in the centre. Lewine 

 and Gyrth, the brothers of Harold, are slain : ' HIC CBCIOK- 



RVNT LBWINE ET OYRTH FRATRES HAKOLDI RHG1S.' The 



obstinacy of the contest is next represented : ' HIC CKCIDE- 



KVNT SIMVL ANOLI ET FRANCI IN PRELIO.' Odo is now 



represented charging full speed and striking at a horseman 

 with a club or mace: 'HIC ODO KPISCOPVS BACVLVM TB- 

 NENS CONFORTAT PVERos.' This probably means that 

 Odo had to encourage the troops, upon a report tliat Wil- 

 liam was slain. The battle continues : ' HIC EST VYILLKLM 

 DVX.' The duke appears showing himself and giving 

 orders: 'HIC FRANCI PVGNANT KT CKCIDKRVNT QVI BRANT 

 CVM HAROLDO.' The death of Harold, the standard carried 

 before whom appears to be a dragon. We have then the dis- 

 comfiture and (light of the Saxons. Here the tapestry ends 

 with figures of persons retreating in great haste ; not com- 

 plete in its ornamental work, but, in all probability, complete 

 in its history. 



This extraordinary piece of needle-work, for such it is, 

 though called tapestry, is now preserved in the hotel of the 

 prefecture at Bayeux, coiled round a machine, like that 

 which lets down the buckets of a well, and is exhibited In- 

 being drawn out at leisure over a table. The pla- 

 it, published by the Society of Antiquaries, in the fourth 

 volume of the I'i'tu.itit Monuments, will enable any one to 

 firm a very accurate notion of its actual 

 Plates i. to xvi. represent the whole, one-fourth si/e of (he 

 ori-mal. Tlie xviuh plate gives a portion of the true size. 

 Uihdin, in his BiUiogttpnual Tour, \ol, i. p. 377, has 

 tngravcd a view of it np-.n its machine. 



It wa-. long since decided by the French antiquaries, that 

 this work is of the age of the ( 'oii!|iir-st. The Abbe de la 

 Rue, alone, still maintains that it was executed in (lie tune 

 of our Henry the First. Those persons, however, among the 

 English antiquaries, whose particular learning and know- 

 lender them competent judges of the authenticity of 

 this tapestry, unite in the conviction that its own internal 

 evidence corroborates the antient tradition which the 

 French antiquaries adopted. It represents the minutest 

 manners and customs of the earliest Norman times in Knir- 

 Jand ; and was evidently designed while the particulars of the 

 contest were known and fresh in recollection. It embraces 

 several events of which no other record now exists : amount 

 which may bo noticed the taking of Dinant. and the war be- 

 tween the Duke of Normandy and Conan Earl of Brei 



lies any other notice exist of the service rendered by- 

 Harold to duke William, during his war in Britany. It M 

 not a little remarkable too, that in the compartment which 

 represents the funeral procession of Edward the Confessor, 

 a figure is portrayed placing a weathercock upon the spire 



of Westminster abbey. indicating that the building wtt 

 scarcely finished at the limp of his decease. Duoiircl, as we 

 havenheady mention. this tapestry, when exhi- 



bited at Bnyeux, went exactly round the na\e of the church. 



. it is to ! remarked, makes tin- : >iciious ap- 



pearance, ne \ I to Dnt-.e William, of any Norm:v 



uted iii the tapestry ; and three figures, " 

 ' 



I, and I'ltal. apparently unini|K>rtai.' 

 were really unions' the chief of those whom Ouo br. 

 into the field. Wadard and Vitalis, with the son of a ]< 

 named Turold, are recorded, twenty years after the conquest, 

 among the under-tenants of Odo, as persons rewarded with 

 lands, in the Dome-d.iv Survey. Wadard held pr 

 under the bishop in no fewer than six counties: Vilalis 

 held lands under Odo ill Kent: and the son of Turold in 

 Essex. (Ellis's Introduction anil lindens t'i limn, 

 vol. ii. p. 403.) These circumstances cannot but appear 

 convincing, not only that the tapestry is of the a- 

 to it by tradition, and was worked expressly for the b: 

 cathedra! : but that, in all probability, it was a present from 

 Matilda the conqueror's queen, as a grateful memorial of 

 the effect i\e service which Odo had rendered in the conquest. 



BAYLK, PKTBR, an eminent critic and cntro\ 

 writer of tl nth century, was born at Carlat. No- 



vember 18, 1647, in the Comt dc Foix, in France. Of his 

 early life we shall only state, that he displayed great ap!ilr.de 

 for (earning, and an uncommon passion for reading, and 

 that his educati -!i w-i- commenced under the care of Ins 

 father, the Protestant minister ot Carlat, continued at the 

 Protestant University of Puylaurens, where he studied from 

 February, llififi, to February, li;r,'i, and concluded at the 

 Catholic University of Toulouse. lie had not been there 

 more than a month when he made public profession of the 

 Roman Catholic religion, to which, it is said, !. 

 verted by the free perusal of controversial divinity at Puy- 

 laurens. It would seem that his creed was lightly taken up, 

 for, during his short resilience at Toulouse, he was recon- 

 verted to Protestantism by the conversation of his Protestant 

 connexions. Perhaps this facility of belief in early hf. 

 have had some effect in producing the scepticism of his 

 latter years. 



In August, lfi"0, he made a secret abjuration of Catholi- 

 cism, and immediately went to Geneva, w here lie formed an 

 acquaintance with many eminent men, and especially con- 

 tracted a close friendship with James liasnage and Minutoli. 

 At Geneva and in the Pays de Vaud be lived four years, sup- 

 porting himself by private tuition. In Ifi'J he removed 

 first to Rouen, and soon after to Paris. The treasi 

 the public libraries, and the easy access to literary society, 

 rendered that city agreeable to him above all other p 

 He corresponded freely on literary subjects with his friend 

 Basnage, then studying theology in the Protestant Univer- 

 sity of Sedan, who showed the letters to the tlieo! 



SOT, M. .Juricu. Uy these, and by the recommenda- 

 tions of 1! isnage, .lurieu was induced to propose llieir author 

 MS a proper person to fill the then vacant elurr of philosophy, 

 I i winch, alter a public iii-putatioii, Havlc was elected. 

 veinher 'J, lf>".~>. For Cue years be seems to have 

 almost entirely occupied by the duties of his olli'-e. In the 

 spring of 1 1181, however, he found time to wrile his cele- 

 brated letter on comets, in consequence of the t 

 of the remarkable comet of ItiSlt. which had cxciied great 

 alarm among the superstitious and vulgar. But the license 

 for its publication bemi; refused, it was not published till tho 

 following year, al'ter the author s removal to Rotterdam. 



In July, 16S1, the I'niversity of Sedan, eor.trary to the 

 faith of treaties, was arbitrarily disfranchised by a decree of 

 Louis XIV. Thus deprived of employment, Bayle fortu- 

 nately obtained, through the agency of one of his pupils, a 

 pension from the magistracy -of Rotterdam, who were further 

 induced to form anew establishment lor education, in which 

 Bayle was appointed protessor of history and philosophy, 

 and .luiieu of theology. Bay li- delivered his first lecti; 

 December, li.sl. In the following spring the letter on 

 comets was anonymously printed; but its author was soon 

 discovered, and oi>t lined a considerable increase of reputa- 

 tion. The reader will readily gather from the liile (f.i'ltre 

 . . . . mi >/ t'.it prniiri' jKir j'luxii'urx 7-111 .w.v Im'i \ tie /a 

 /'Al/o.w,;///!/' <>/ TMotOftf, l/tlf Iff ('<>m!-li"l Hi- fail ]:<iint lg 



prfsage d 'an run mttlhtur. AITC jJu\ifiirx r<'-fti'.nn'i* mo- 

 rales tt fm/iliijiiPS, ft jihixifiir.t tilnerrnlinHx hix/nrit/ii 

 In ri'-fntutii'ti de qitfli/iift rrnw.v ji'ijmluirrx) that it 

 composed quite as much for the sake of the digressions and 



