The fete had assembled in one view all the picturesque costumes of the
Pays d'Auge, and the Cote de Caux. I beheld tall, stately caps, and
trim bodices, according to fashions which have been handed down from
mother to daughter for centuries, the exact counterparts of those worn
in the time of the Conqueror; and which surprised me by their faithful
resemblance to those which I had seen in the old pictures of
Froissart's Chronicles, and in the paintings of illuminated
manuscripts. Any one, also, that has been in Lower Normandy, must have
remarked the beauty of the peasantry, and that air of native elegance
that prevails among them. It is to this country, undoubtedly, that the
English owe their good looks. It was from hence that the bright
carnation, the fine blue eye, the light auburn hair, passed over to
England in the train of the Conqueror, and filled the land with
beauty.
The scene before me was perfectly enchanting: the assemblage of so
many fresh and blooming faces; the gay groups in fanciful dresses;
some dancing on the green, others strolling about, or seated on the
grass; the fine clumps of trees in the foreground, bordering the brow
of this airy height, and the broad green sea, sleeping in summer
tranquillity in the distance.
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