Antiquaries in the Age of Romanticism: 1789-1851 - Queen Mary ...

historic buildings were either put to use as factories, granaries or other purposes unconducive to
their preservation or, like the abbey at Jumièges were simply being dismantled for the stone. The
destruction was in some cases worse after 1815 than before. Langlois, describing the Abbey of St
Wandrille in 1832 noted that since 1825, when he and his daughter made most of the illustrations
he was now publishing
La ruine de l’église a marché avec une rapidité telle, qu’il ne reste, dit-on, aujourd’hui, de ce beau monument, que
des tas de pierre et d’informes debris. [The church’s ruin has progressed so rapidly that I believe all that is left of
this fine monument today is a pile of stones and shapeless rubble.] 99
There were few published texts to work from and no useful organisation for communicating
research. The French naturally admired the British and welcomed all the information and advice
they could get from them.
It is impossible now to know exactly who knew whom, but the evidence of personal and
scholarly exchange that survives suggests that connections were many. Langlois, whose attempt
to document the buildings of Normandy, begun in 1817, came to a halt soon afterwards for lack
of patronage, met Turner when he was on one of his tours and provided him with drawings of a
capital from the Chapter House of the Abbey of St George, Boscherville, for the published
version. ‘Normandy does not contain a more ardent admirer of her antiquities,’ Turner wrote in a
footnote to his Tour and his wife engraved Langlois’s self-portrait as one of the illustrations [fig:
29]. 100 Langlois assisted A C Pugin with documents while he was drawing in Rouen 101 and sent
a copy of his Hymne à la Cloche to John Gage inscribed: ‘A Monsieur John Gage Temoigne de
souvenir de haute estime et d’affection de son dévoué serviteur et confrere’. [To Mr John Gage
in testament to the high esteem and regard of his humble servant and colleague]. 102 Despite the
difficulties of their situation the Normans were not slow to follow the example of their British
counterparts in publishing their research and setting up more formal means of sharing
99
Langlois, St Wandrille, p.233, n1.
100
Turner, Tour in Normandy, 2, p.12.
101
A letter from A. C. Pugin to Langlois dated September 1 1827 thanks him for providing a plan of St Ouen.
Present whereabouts unknown, this letter was in the possession of the bookseller Etienne Bertran of Rouen in
October 2006.
102
Volume in a private collection.
131