BERNAY  , a

town of north-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Eure, on the left bank of the Charentonne, 31 M . W.N.W. of Evreux, on the Western railway between that town and Lisieux . Pop . (1906) 5973 . It is beautifully situated in the midst of green wooded hills, and still justifies Madame de Stael's description of it as " a basket of flowers." Of great antiquity, it possesses numerous quaint wooden houses and ancient ecclesiastical buildings of considerable interest . The abbey church is now used as a market; and the abbey, which was founded by Judith of Brittany early in the 11th century, and underwent a restoration in the 17th century, serves for municipal and legal purposes . The church of Ste Croix, which has a remarkable marble figure of the infant Jesus, dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, that of Notre-Dame de la Couture, which preserves some good stained glass, from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries . Bernay has a sub-prefecture, a communal college, tribunals of commerce and of first instance, and a board of trade-arbitrators . Among the industrial establishments of the place are manufactories of cotton and woollen goods, bleacheries and dye-works . Large numbers of Norman horses are sold in Lent, at the fair known as the Foire fleurie, and there is also a trade in grain . Bernay grew up round the Benedictine abbey mentioned above, and early in the 13th century was the seat of a viscount . The town, formerly fortified .

was besieged by

Bertrand du Guesclin, constable of France, in 1378; it was taken several times by the English during the first half of the 15th century, and by Admiral de Coligny in 1563 . The fortress was razed in 1589 .