An Etcher's Voyage of Discovery. 295 



magnificent embroidery recalled the costliest of all the 

 countless tents that ever trembled at the blast of trum- 

 pets ; and such is the power of great associations, that 

 the last rag and remnant of a splendor which dazzled 

 men's eyes four hundred years ago gives poetry to the 

 house where it is preserved, and to the very landscape 

 that lies around it. 



Etang possessed, at the time of my visit, the ugliest 

 church (and this is saying a great deal) ever erected in 

 the eighteenth century. Preparations were, however, 

 being made for rebuilding it in a better form ; and, as 

 the new church was to be rather larger than the old one, 

 it was necessary to make new foundations in the sur- 

 rounding graveyard. This disturbed numbers of crosses 

 which marked the graves, and these crosses were thrown 

 all together into a corner. The graves themselves had 

 to be cut through, and, as the workmen simply dug the 

 new foundation without troubling themselves about the 

 bodies, they often cut them in two ; so that many a dead 

 man had his legs amputated, or his head cut off, in a 

 manner quite unforeseen by his friends and relatives 

 when they interred him near the old church wall. The 

 writer witnessed some incidents of this kind which were 

 not much to his taste ; and when the new church stands 

 in the glory of its Gothic arches and groined vault, and 

 windows of brilliant stained glass, if ever he visits the 

 place again he will never be able to see the stately walls 

 of the fabric without thinking of the mutilated remains 

 on each side of their deep foundations. 



Two fine hills are visible from Etang, not mountains, 



