I shall, however, waive all Celtic theory,
"for that way madness lies," and enter upon more sober chorography.
The author of the Description of Upper Normandy states, that the
territory known by that appellation was limited to the Pays de Caux and
the Vexin: the former occupying the line of sea-coast from the Brele to
the Seine, together with the governments of Eu and Havre and the Pays de
Brai; the latter comprising the Roumois, and the French as well as the
Norman Vexin. All these territorial divisions have, indeed, been
obliterated by the state-geographers of the revolution; and Normandy,
time-honored Normandy herself, has disappeared from the map of the
dominions of the French king. The ancient duchy is severed into the five
departments of the Seine Inferieure, the Eure, the Orne, Calvados, and
the Manche. These are the only denominations known to the government or
to the law, yet they are scarcely received in common parlance. The
people still speak of Normandy, and they still take a pleasure in
considering themselves as Normans: and, I too, can share in their
attachment to a name, which transmits the remembrance of actual
sovereignty and departed glory.
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