The lower portion is of heavy stone-work,
above, the floors project one over the other, and the beauty of the
timber-framing and the leaded windows is most striking.
St Lo teems with soldiers, and it has a town-crier who wears a dark blue
uniform and carries a drum to call attention to his announcements. In the
lower part of the town, in the Rue des Halles, you may find the corn-market
now held in the church that was dedicated to Thomas a Becket. The building
was in course of construction when the primate happened to be at St Lo and
he was asked to name the saint to whom the church should be dedicated. His
advice was that they should wait until some saintly son of the church
should die for its sake. Strangely enough he himself died for the
privileges of the church, and thus his name was given to this now
desecrated house of God.
The remains of the fortifications that crown the rock are scarcely
noticeable at the present time, and it is very much a matter of regret that
the town has, with the exception of the Tour Beaux-Regards, lost the walls
and towers that witnessed so many sieges and assaults from early Norman
times right up to the days of Henry of Navarre.
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