BRITTANY

PREFACE

Brittany can hardly claim the attention of the tourist as a superlatively beautiful country. The way in which trees are clipped and tortured out of shape disfigures the sylvan landscape; and of mountain scenery there is none. The ranges of the Montaignes Noires and the Monts d'Arrez are insignificant. Yet the valleys are pretty, but never grand. The charm of Brittany is to be found in the people and in the churches. The former with their peculiar costumes, and their customs are full of interest, and the latter are of remarkable beauty and quaintness. The ordinary tourist will hardly see much of the costume unless he attends a pardon, the Patron of the Irish peasant; the patronal feast at some chapel frequented only on the day of the pardon. But the student of men and manners will find much to interest him at such a gathering. The churches are of extraordinary beauty, they are for the most part of granite, but of a fine-grained granite that lends itself to elaborate carving. And the kersanten stone is employed, a dark volcanicvi product that is undercut and preserves its sharpness through centuries, and is employed for carving of lace-like delicacy. The coast scenery is fine, but not of the finest description, and varies very greatly from the granite cliffs of Finistère to the sandy dunes of the Morbihan. The towns are not comparable to those of Normandy for the number and richness of their mediæval domestic buildings, but are set in far more charming surroundings. The cathedrals are, for the most part small, Quimper and S. Pol de Léon and Tréguier have the finest, but these are of a French type, whereas the village churches possess a stamp peculiar to Brittany, where spared. Unhappily a passion has possessed the people of late to pull down their ancient churches and build new Houses of God in very questionable taste. In the diocese of Vannes the modern architecture is execrable, but the architects of Quimper are of a vastly higher type. They follow the old lines, and imitate what is good, whereas in the Côtes du Nord and in Morbihan, the modern work is insufferably vulgar and bad. The whole country teems with prehistoric antiquities, but these will only interest those who have made such monuments a special study; nevertheless Carnac and Locmariaquer and Gavr' Inis cannot fail tovii impress the ordinary traveller with a sense of astonishment at the majesty of the rude architecture of a lost and mysterious people of whom almost nothing is known, and whose one religious idea seems to have been, the cult of the dead.

The people are intensely religious. Religion is their passion; and the efforts made by the Republican government to tread it down, and to de-Bretonise the people, have only intensified their religious and national enthusiasm. The Breton peasant is said to have a hard head. He is obstinate and resists outside pressure to alter his creed or his customs. The old Royalist tendency of the Breton is a thing of the past. He is content to be under a republic, if the republic will only leave him alone. Fishing and shooting may be obtained on easy terms, and both are good. The roads are excellent for the cyclist, and the costumes and the architecture present inexhaustible subjects for the camera. The inns are always clean, the charges are moderate, and the fare very passable. No part of Europe is so accessible, and contains so much of interest in varied directions as Brittany. It is a delightful land for a brief visit, it is full of matter for study by one who can make there a prolonged stay. The climate is mild, and not so rainy as the West of England and Wales.viii The kindly people will always treat a traveller with gracious courtesy. But Brittany, it must be remembered, is divided into two very distinct portions, that in which only French is spoken, and that in which the language is Breton, closely akin to Welsh. And of Brittany, by far the most interesting portion is Finistère, where old costumes and old customs are clung to more tenaciously than elsewhere.

S. B. G.

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CONTENTS

[Pg x]
[Pg xi]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS

BRITTANY

I. General Features and Geology

Brittany, the extreme Western promontory of the North of France, comprises the five departments of Côtes-du-Nord, Ille-et-Vilaine, Finistère, Morbihan, and Loire-Inférieure. It is distinguished into Upper and Lower Brittany. In the former the French language is spoken, in the latter the Breton, and French is an acquired tongue.

The back-bone of Upper Brittany is the chain of the Menez that runs from East to West, and then branches, forming on the North the Montagnes d'Arrée, and on the South, the Montagnes Noires. The system may be likened to a hay-fork or a pair of tongs, where the prongs of the fork form the above-named ranges. The whole rests on an elevated plateau that slopes to the sea North and West, and on the South dies down into the plain of the Vilaine and the Loire.

On the North this plateau is seamed by the rivers that have cut narrow valleys and ravines through which they make their way to the sea. Such are the Rance, the Gouet, the rivière de Morlaix, with the result that there is no coast-road,2 and the traveller passes along the main arteries of traffic at some distance from the sea, catching a glimpse of it only once at the Anse d'Iffinac, and has to branch off from it to the coast so as to make acquaintance with the bold and picturesque coast.

The mountain range is nowhere high, and rarely reaches a thousand feet. The highest point is the Mont Saint Michel which attains to slightly over 1200 ft. The freshman arriving at Cambridge asked where was the Gogmagog range, and was told that he might see it when an intervening cart got out of the way. Owing to the ridges rising out of an elevated plateau, they are almost as insignificant as the Gogmagogs. However, the Menez-hom most nearly attains to the dignity of a mountain, as it stands above the Bay of Douarnenez, reaches however only to 990 ft.

Along the Western confines of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, the Menez spreads out into high tableland sown with lakelets acting as feeders to the Vilaine.

The Monts d'Arrée, starting from the Coat-an-Noz in Côtes-du-Nord, extend to the peninsula of Crozon, they attain their highest point at the Mont S. Michel, and decline as they approach the sea. They rarely rise 300 ft. above the tableland on which they are planted, and this prevents them from having an imposing appearance.

The Montagnes Noires flank the central plain on the South. Their maximum height is 10503 ft. After running S.W., they bend abruptly towards the N.W., and terminate in the Menez-hom in the Crozon peninsula.

In the Morbihan, the Lande de Lanvaux, running from W. to N.E., extends 50 kilometres, and rises to the height of from 240 to 320 ft. between the basins of the Claye and the Arz which unite at Redon to feed the Vilaine.

The North coast of Brittany is eaten into bays from which the sea retreats to considerable distances, and is fringed with reefs and islands. It is a favourite resort of Parisians, throughout its stretch, from Dinard to Plestin.

The West of this peninsula is torn into shreds of promontories with deep inlets between them. The promontories of S. Mathieu, Crozon, Sizun, and Penmarch are bald, but bold. Below the point of Penmarch the coast rapidly trends S.E. and alters in character; it loses its bleak desolation and ragged rocky nature, and forms landlocked seas, as those of Belz and the Morbihan; and the rocks make way for sand-dunes. The island chain that constitutes a natural breakwater to the bay of Quiberon is the wreckage of the barrier of another inland sea, broken up by the Atlantic surges. South of the mouth of the Loire the island of Noirmoutier stretches almost sufficiently far out to enclose another.

The plateau formation of the country is not conducive to beauty, and its lovely sites must be sought in the valleys, and its wildest scenes on the coast. The deep cleft ravine of the Rance,4 the sweet valley of the Elorn, that of the Aulne, canalised, the Blavet, the Laïta and the Arz, will richly repay tracing upward.

The promontories of Crozon and Sizun till of late years were bare and untilled, and heath-grown; but the use of sardine heads as manure has given a great impetus to agriculture, and the demand for fir balks for the South Welsh mines has caused the planting of vast tracts with the Austrian pine.

The geological structure of Brittany is simple. It consists of an immense upheaval of granite through beds of Silurian and Cambrian schist. Rare deposits of lime occur in the folds of these beds. Dykes of quartz and diorite have traversed the schist and granite, and the face of the country is spotted with eruptions of igneous matter. It is as though the crust had been full of blowholes through which the molten diorite had rushed to the surface. The presence of quartz or diorite in the neighbourhood can always be recognised by the employment of one or the other to metal the roads.

The granite extends from the bay of Mont Saint Michel to the extreme point of Finistère and reappears in the isles beyond; it is interrupted only here and there by the sedimentary beds. The Châteaulin district, however, and the basin between the prongs of the mountain fork, are all of Cambrian and Silurian beds. But from the Pointe du Raz the granite extends almost uninterruptedly to the Rhone.

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The Brittany granite is for the most part fine grained and soft, so that it lends itself easily to be carved, and has been freely employed in churches and secular buildings from the 11th century. But it is readily corroded by the weather, and this has given to denuded surfaces a smooth and rounded shape, and has taken the angles off exposed masses that form tors, and has occasioned the fall of many into utter ruin.

A band of syenite runs from near Lamballe to Cap Fréhel, where it forms magnificent cliffs. Syenite again comes to the surface at Trégastel and on the coast north of Morlaix. The Monts d'Arrée are of Cambrian schist and furnish slates here and there of good quality. Taking a section across the inner basin, the granite is quitted at Plounéour, then the ridge of Cambrian schist is reached, after crossing the culminating point of S. Michel, which is of Cambrian sandstone; when we reach S. Herbot we are on Silurian beds. Continuing our course south, the sandstone makes way for slaty schists, and to this succeeds the grauwacke of Brasparts. The Montagnes Noires belong to the Silurian system.

The Kersanton stone, so extensively employed for figure and foliage sculpture in Lower Brittany, is an amphibolite with mica freely comminuted and distributed through the substance. It is very dark in colour, and hardens with exposure. It comes from quarries to the south of the Rade de Brest.

An interesting deposit is the tertiary limestone of S. Juvat beside the Rance. It is of no6 great extent, but is of vast commercial importance. The bed is composed of an agglomerate of shells and bones. In places it lies under a deposit of as much as 45 ft. of sand. It is a veritable mine of wealth in a country so destitute of lime as is Brittany.

A mineralogical curiosity is the staurotides found at Baud, Scaer, and in various places about the Blavet. The peasants attach a superstitious value to them as marked with the cross, and in some they affect to recognise the nails. They are often sold on stalls at a Pardon. They are formed by trapdykes that have penetrated the schist, and fused and run together some of its constituents, which have afterwards crystallised, sometimes as parallel prisms, at others as set transversely forming the ordinary or the S. Andrew's Cross.

II. Botany

The botany of Brittany is little varied owing to the slight variation in the soil and subsoil, schist and granite. It is but in rare spots where occurs limestone that the flora is different. It may be roughly divided into the class of plants that affect the inland districts and the moors, and that which flourishes on the seaboard. The flora of a slate and granitic region, whether in Scotland, Cornwall or Brittany, is much the same. In the Guérande, where there are extensive marshes, an interesting collection may be made of aquatic plants, both those living in7 sweet water bogs and those that grow in brackish water.

A complete flora cannot be here attempted; a brief account must suffice, with indications as to the habitat of the rarer specimens.

As one leaves the Loire, pre-eminently the mouth of the Vilaine, it is easy to note the gradual disappearance of many plants that are common south of them. A few that abound there may still occur, but as stragglers and stunted. And this contrast becomes more striking the further north we go. The cause of the poverty of the Breton flora is the uniformity of the soil and the absence of calcareous rocks, and this deprives us of an entire series of plants that abound in Normandy although the climate there is more rigorous. A small number does exist, but only, as already intimated, where there are pockets of limestone, or else on the seaboard, where they can feed on the wreckage of shells cast up by the sea, and carried inland by the gales with the sand.

The following is a list of the plants found in calcareous soil in Brittany:—

The maritime region is more rich and interesting, and in addition to such as may be found in limestone districts already registered, the following is given as a list of plants that grow in sand:—

Brittany, as already intimated, possesses no9 true mountains, only elevated moorland. There are consequently to be found there no true mountainous plants. Lycopodium Selago is rare on a few elevated spots; Viola palustris and Polystichum oreopteris belong to a submountainous district. The only exceptional plant is a peculiar form of Silene maritima that grows on the summit of all the rocks of the Monts d' Arrée. This range was once doubtless covered by forest, as is shown by the presence on it of Vaccinium myrtillus, a plant that lives in the shade of trees, and which lingers on, in a stunted condition, although the sheltering boughs are long departed.

The following is a list of some of the plants of Lower Brittany that are rare in the departments of Finistère, Morbihan, and Côtes-du-Nord, omitting the names of those already given as pertaining to calcareous soils and the seaboard sands:—

These in addition have been noted in Finistère:—

These also in the Côtes-du-Nord:—

Côtes-du-Nord has the advantage of the limestone bed of S. Juvat, where many of the plants11 given in the first list may be gathered. Ille-et-Vilaine is still more favourably situated for calcareous rocks. There is a considerable basin south of Rennes, with a corresponding flora, generally known to botanists as the limestone tract of S. Jacques.

Such plants as are common throughout the country have not been included in the lists.

III. History

Brittany, whose ancient name was Armorica (Ar môr, by the sea), and which was known to the Britons and Irish as Llydau, was originally peopled by the race of the Dolmen-builders, a brown eyed and dark haired people, who strewed it with their monuments. To them followed the Gauls, blue eyed and with flaxen hair; these latter were divided into five tribes that occupied severally the departments of Ille-et-Vilaine (Redones), with their capital at Rennes; Côtes-du-Nord (Curiosoliti), with their headquarters at Corseul, near Dinan; Finistère (Osismi), their capital of Carhaix; Morbihan (Veneti), with their centre at Vannes; Loire Inférieure (Nanneti), with a capital at Nantes.

These tribes were subjugated by Cæsar, and the Veneti almost exterminated by him. Under the Romans, the culture and the language of the conquerors were rapidly assimilated. Christianity took root at Rennes and Nantes and Vannes, but almost nothing was done for the rural population, which probably still spoke its12 agglutinative tongue akin to the modern Basque. The stately bishops of these Gallo-Roman cities confined themselves to ministering to the cultured residents within their walls, and in villas scattered along the coast. The Gallo-Roman population had dwindled to an incredible extent, under the exactions of the imperial tax-gatherers, so that all the country residences fell into ruin, and the impoverished Gallo-Romans withdrew into the towns. But early—very early in the 5th century, fleets of British settlers came over, flying from the swords of Picts and Scots, and occupied the land about the mouth of the Loire. By 469 they were so numerous as to be able to send a contingent of twelve thousand men to the assistance of the Romans against the Visigoths.

As a consequence of the Saxon invasion of Britain the immigration grew, and the dispossessed islanders sought and found a new home in the Armorican peninsula, where they established themselves under their own princes, with their own institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, and their own tongue. Thenceforth Armorica ceased to be so called, and received the name of Lesser Britain, and the current language became British, identical with that now spoken in Wales, and spoken till the 17th century in Cornwall as well. Contact with France along the East has gradually thrust back the Breton language, but it is still spoken from Guingamp, in a slanting line to the mouth of the Loire. Two British kingdoms were formed,13 Domnonia and Cornubia; the former included the Côtes-du-Nord and Finistère above the river Elorn, and Cornubia or Cornouaille was the district below that river, the basin between the Monts d'Arrée and the Montagnes Noires, and stretched to the river Ellé at Quimperlé. All the department of Morbihan was the Bro-Weroc, a county, but the British chief did not call himself its king, probably because the colonists did not get hold of Vannes, the capital, which they enveloped but left unmolested.

At first the British colonists admitted their allegiance to their native princes in Britain, who certainly came over, and were granted certain lands as the royal dominium in the newly settled land. Thus we have Geraint, King of Devon, with his palace in Belle Ile, and portions of the newly-acquired territory on the Blavet, in Morbihan, and near Matignon, in Côtes-du-Nord. His son Solomon, or Selyf, as was his British name, also came over, and is said to have fallen at Langollen, probably whilst endeavouring to enforce taxes on the native original pagan inhabitants.

But as the insular power of the Britons was broken, the colonists considered themselves independent, and acknowledged a loose and ill-defined submission to the Frank kings at Paris, who, however, left them to be governed by their native rulers.

But not only did Britons settle in the land. Large numbers of Irish arrived from Ossory and Wexford, at the close of the 5th century, and14 settled along the west and north coast. No traces of them are found south of Hennebont, or west of Guingamp, but all the coastline of Cornouaille and Léon was studded thick with them.

Now only was a serious attempt made to convert the native population. The chiefs who came over were attended or followed by their brothers and cousins who were ecclesiastics, and these were granted lands on condition that they educated the young of the freeborn colonists of the tribe, and ministered in sacred matters to the tribesmen.

The work of the evangelisation of Ireland seems to have sent a thrill through Brittany, and to have been taken up there with energy. Missionary colleges were formed by some of the assistants of Patrick, which should serve as training places for those who were to assist in carrying on the apostolic work in Ireland.

The principal Irish founders in the country were:—Fiacc, Bishop of Sletty, called in Breton Vi'ho; Tighernac, Bishop of Clogher and Clones, in Breton Thégonnec; Eugenius, Bishop of Ardstraw, in Breton Saint Tugean; Senan, Abbot of Inniscathy (Breton Seny), Setna, his disciple, in Breton Sezni; Conleath, Bridget's domestic bishop, in Breton Coulitz, Ronan and Brendan.

The principal British founders were:—Cadoc, Brioc, Tugdual, Leonore, Paulus Aurelianus, Curig, Caradoc, Gildas, and his crippled son Kenneth; David, Samson, Malo, Arthmael,15 Meven, and Mancen or Mawgan—this latter closely allied with the Irish mission. Nonna, mother of S. David, Ninnoc, Noyala, and disciples of S. Bridget, established institutions for the education of the daughters of the freemen of the tribe to which the schools were attached.

In 845, Nominoe, who had been invested with the lieutenancy of Brittany by Louis the Pious, led a revolt against Charles the Bald, and established the independence of Brittany that lasted till the Duchess Anne brought it under the French crown, 1491. From the close of the 9th century, and throughout the 10th, the coast was ravaged by the Northmen, Frisians and Danes, and the insecurity inland caused the desertion of the country and the flight of the monks carrying the relics of their founders to walled towns in the heart of France. That Brittany should thus fall a prey to these invaders was largely due to the divisions that existed among its princes, who could not or would not combine against the common foe. At length Alan, Count of Vannes, did succeed in rallying the Britons, and defeated the Northern pirates, which secured rest for fifteen years. For the first time under him did the Gallo-Roman towndwellers consent to make common cause with the descendants of the British colonists.

On the death of Alan (907) the Northmen reappeared, and a great many Bretons under Count Matthuedoi of Poher fled to England16 and threw themselves on the protection of Athelstan.

In 938, Alan Barbetorte, godson of Athelstan, returned from England and drove out the Normans. Nantes was in such complete ruin that when Alan sought to reach the fallen altar of the cathedral church, there to offer up his thanks for victory gained, he was constrained to hew his way to it through a thicket of thorns and brambles.

After the expulsion of the Northmen Brittany was reorganised. Hitherto the colonists had been divided into tribes, each of which was a plou, and no Gallo-Roman could enter into one such. But after the victories of Alan Barbetorte the plous were not reconstructed, and the feudal system succeeded to that which was tribal.

Brittany was now broken up into a hierarchy of counties and seigneuries, and the king abandoned the royal title and contented himself with that of duke. The great counties were those of Léon, Cornouaille, Poher, Porhoet, Penthièvre, Rennes and Nantes. Five barons defended the eastern frontier, holding their fiefs under the Count of Rennes; these were Châteaubriant, la Guerche, Vitré, Fongères and Combourg. The whole vast inland forest was given to the Counts of Rennes, it was Porhoet. It was divided into two parts. In the east the seigneuries of Gael, Loudéac and Malestroit were created as fiefs. In the west there was but a single seigneurie, that of Porhoet; the viscount17 lived at Josselin. Later it was broken up and gave birth to the viscounty of Rohan.

FOUGÈRES

The old kingdom of Cornouaille became a county with vassal barons at Pont l'Abbé, Pont Croix, the abbot of Landevennec, and the viscount of Le Faou. In the interior were the viscounts of Poher and Gourin.

The old kingdom of Domnonia was divided into three counties, Léon, Penthièvre and Tréguier.

The Ducal crown did not long remain in the family of Alan Barbetorte. After internecine war lasting forty years, Conan, Count of Rennes, assumed the title (990), and the dukes of his house spent their time in fighting and crushing their own kinsmen. Geoffrey I. had married a Norman wife, and he had by her two sons, Alan and Eudo. In 1034 Eudo, jealous and ambitious, demanded of his brother a share in the duchy. Alan gave him the counties of Tréguier and Penthièvre, and thus Eudo became the ancestor of that great and dangerous family of Penthièvre, which maintained undying rivalry with the ducal house, and made of Brittany a field of civil war for centuries. Conan II. succeeded as a child of three months, and his uncle ruled in his name, aided by the Normans. When Conan came of age, he had to fight against Eudo; he invaded Normandy, but was cut off by poison. When William the Conqueror became King of England, Brittany was nipped between France and Normandy, and became an object of ambition to both, and a common battlefield.

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For five hundred years this continued. Brittany writhed and strove for her independence, and had no desire to become either a province of France or an English colony. The war broke out under Duke Hoel in 1076 when he invoked the aid of Philip I. against William the Conqueror. However, under Alan Fergant and Conan III. the land had rest for eighty years, and then the trouble began again with renewed violence. Conan's death in 1148 gave rise to a war of succession that lasted eight years. Conan IV. assisted by the English succeeded in establishing himself in the ducal seat, and he favoured the English in every way. Henry II. of England married his son Geoffrey Plantagenet to Constance, daughter of Conan IV., the heiress of Brittany, and Geoffrey was crowned at Rennes in 1169. This was of advantage so far that it introduced Norman civilisation into a duchy that was backward and barbarous. The churches built in the 12th century were erected by architects of the Norman and French schools. Such are the cathedrals of S. Pol-de-Léon and S. Malo and the churches of Guérande. Geoffrey died in 1187, and his son Arthur fell into the hands of his uncle, King John, who had him murdered at Rouen (1203). Constance did not die broken-hearted and despairing, as represented by Shakespeare, but married Guy de Thouars, and had by him a daughter and heiress, who was married to Pierre de Dreux.

We may pass over the ensuing history till we reach John III. who died in 1341, without19 issue, and who, hating his half-brother, Jean de Montfort, bequeathed the succession to his niece Jeanne de Penthièvre, whom he married to Charles de Blois, nephew of Philip VI. of France. This was the signal for the outbreak of the terrible and desolating War of the Succession of the two Jeannes. In it, neither of those most interested were for the most part of the time leaders of their hosts. At the outset Jean de Montfort was taken prisoner (1342), and was kept in prison till his health was broken, and he was discharged only to die (1345). But his intrepid wife Jeanne of Flanders carried on the conflict. At the Battle of La Roche-Derrien (1347) Charles of Blois was captured and conveyed a prisoner to England, and the conduct of the war fell to his wife Jeanne. The English espoused the side of Montfort, and the French that of Charles of Blois. The success of the battle of La Roche was followed by the signal victory of Mauron (1352). The war dragged on, and Charles was released in 1356, to renew the contest with fresh cruelty. He had now as his best assistant Bertrand du Guesclin, an heroic and honourable soldier, and one of the best captains France has produced. But in the decisive battle of Auray (1364) Charles was killed, and Du Guesclin taken prisoner. A few months later, Jean de Montfort the younger was recognised duke under the title of John IV. But the war was not at an end. Now that Charles was dead, the Bretons of Penthièvre rallied about20 Oliver de Clisson, and the old strife continued under other names.

The country was ravaged by Companies, under commanders who passed from one side to the other as suited their convenience. John IV. attempted to have Clisson assassinated in Paris (1392). The attempt failed, and served only to exasperate Clisson and aggravate the war. It was resolved into a family vendetta. In 1420 Oliver de Clisson, grandson of Charles de Blois, and of Oliver, treacherously obtained possession of John V. and imprisoned him. A war ensued, and before the duke could be liberated, much blood was shed; as the cause of the Penthièvre family was not, on this occasion, espoused by France, it was crushed and the apanage of Penthièvre was confiscated.

Francis I. (1442-50) conceived an animosity against his brother Gilles de Bretagne whom he accused of favouring the English. He delivered him over to his mortal enemy, who starved the unhappy prince to death. Pierre II. succeeded, but as he died without issue, as well as Francis, the succession passed to Arthur of Richmond their uncle. He was succeeded by Francis II. who died in 1488, leaving an heiress, Anne, who married first Charles VIII. of France (1491), and on the death of Charles (1498) married Louis XII., and thus, the duchy was finally united to the crown of France.

The Reformation made no way with the people of Brittany, but was embraced by the Rohan, the Rieux, the Laval, and other noble21 lords, who coveted the estates of the Church. The chateaux of Blain and Vitré were for a while centres of Huguenot propaganda in Brittany. The province would, however, have remained at peace, but that its governor, the Duke de Mercœur was a devoted adherent to the house of Guise, and he proposed to make of Brittany a stronghold of the League. When Henry IV. came to the throne in 1589, he was a Calvinist. There were three parties in Brittany mutually antagonistic, the Leaguers supported from Spain, the Huguenots and the Royalists. The city of Rennes, without abandoning the Faith remained true to Henry IV. Nantes became the headquarters of the League. The Huguenots, from Vitré, and the castles of the family of Rohan, swept the country ravaging and burning. Nine years of war ensued between 1589 and 1598. A swarm of brigands placed themselves under the flag of the League, or of the King or of the Bible, and wrought intolerable misery. Moreover, the peasants, maddened by their sufferings, rose against all alike, besieged the castles indiscriminately and massacred every man in harness. Brittany was almost depopulated, and wolves preyed on human corpses in the open day. One of the worst ruffians of this period was Fontenelle, a cadet of the Breton family of Beaumanoir. He sacked Roscoff, Carhaix, and ravaged the diocese of Tréguier. But his worst atrocities were committed at Pont l'Abbé and Penmarch, which was once a flourishing town rivalling Nantes, but which has never recovered the22 butcheries there committed by Fontenelle, and its ruined houses have never been rebuilt. The atrocities committed by him at Pont l'Abbé defy description. He delighted in seating his victims on iron chairs and broiling them to death, or in immersing them in mid-winter in vats of ice-cold water, and thus leaving them to perish in dungeons. In some parishes visited by him, where the population had numbered a thousand adults, he reduced it to twelve. To the miseries produced by civil war succeeded a Black Death, which almost completed the depopulation. Fontenelle was taken in 1598, but pardoned; he was arrested for fresh crimes in 1602, and slowly tortured to death.

The province remained in peace till 1675, when taxation became so burdensome, that the people rose in insurrection. It was put down with great barbarity.

We pass on to the Revolution, and to the noble stand made by the Breton peasantry against the bloodthirsty ruffians, who had grasped the reins of power. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the mouths of these latter meant Tyranny, Robbery and Massacre. Again the soil of Brittany was drenched in blood. The curés were hunted like wild beasts, and when caught were hung, guillotined or shot. Under the Terror the moderate Breton deputies who belonged to the party of the Girondins had to fly for their lives. The Convention sent down into Brittany Carrier and others, the scum of humanity to "purify" the country. 23Twenty eight Girondists were guillotined at Brest. Anyone who was held suspect was at once sent to his death. The Loire at Nantes was choked with the bodies of inoffensive men, women and children, drowned in the Noyades.

The Chouans, as the peasants were called who rose against their tyrants, were commanded in Morbihan by Cadoudal. In July, 1795, an English fleet disembarked several regiments of French emigrés. Hoche came upon them, and exterminated all in cold blood, to the number of 952. Nantes and S. Brieuc were taken by the peasants, but the firm hand of Bonaparte now held the reins, and put down all opposition. Cadoudal was guillotined.

At the present day, Brittany is still the stronghold of Catholicism in France. As to the rights of legitimists, Orleanists or Bonapartists, the peasants concern themselves little, but to touch their religion is to touch them to the quick. The Republican Government does all in its power to destroy the cohesion of the Breton people, and its attachment to the Faith of its Fathers. The masters have been forbidden to employ the Breton language in the schools, and in 1901 an order was addressed by Waldeck Rousseau to all the Bishops and Clergy of Lower Brittany forbidding them to preach in the language understood by the people, on pain of withdrawal of their stipends: an order that has been very properly disregarded.

Meanwhile national or rather provincial feeling is deepening and intensifying. Opposition only24 makes the Breton the more stubborn. The Breton has not much ambition. All he asks is to be left alone to work out his own destiny, strong in his religious convictions, "Français—oui, mais Breton avant tout."

IV. Antiquities

The prehistoric remains that abound in Brittany consist of Dolmens, i.e. a certain number of stones set on end rudely forming a chamber, and covered with one or more capstones.

The Allée Couverte is a dolmen on a large scale. Both served as family or tribal ossuaries.

The Menhir is a single standing stone; the alignment is a number of these uprights often in parallel lines, extending some distance.

The cromlech according to the signification accorded to it in France is a circle of standing stones.

The lech is the lineal descendant of the menhir. It is a stone often bearing an inscription, or a rude cross, set up by the British or Irish settlers. The lech is sometimes round.

Tumuli and Camps are numerous, but they are not often referred to in the following pages.

Of Roman remains, there are relics of an aqueduct near Carhaix, and there have been numerous villas uncovered, notably near Carnac, but these are almost all recovered with earth. The most remarkable Roman monument extant25 is the Temple of Mars, a fragment near Corseul.

The Venus of Quinipili, a Roman Gallic idol, shall be spoken of under the head of Baud.

Of early churches,—earlier than the 10th cent. there are none, there are but the crypt of Lanmeur and perhaps the arches and piers of Loconnolé near Morlaix, and possibly the Western arches of Plouguer by Carhaix that can be attributed to the 10th century. After that come considerable remains of Romanesque churches, beginning with the plain unmoulded round arch resting on plain rectangular piers, and gradually becoming enriched. (11th century and beginning of 12th.)

First pointed, with lancet windows, no tracery, and arches struck from two centres. (Middle of 12th century and beginning of 13th.)

Second pointed or Geometrical. Tracery becomes rich in windows, but always of a geometrical design. (Middle of 13th century and throughout 14th.)

Third pointed or Flamboyant. Tracery like flame, recurving, gradually all cusping abandoned. Arches employed in ornamentation struck from four centres. (15th century and beginning of 16th.)

Rénaissance. At first classic detail with Gothic outline, and tracery in its last decay. At last all tracery abandoned, and design stiffens and loses all Gothic feeling. (Middle of 16th century to middle of 17th.)

Baroque. Round headed windows, no tracery,26 clumsy mouldings, no taste whatever, but barbarous enrichment. (End of 17th century and 18th.)

V. The Pardons

The Pardons are the religious gatherings of the people, not often in the towns, but about some chapel on an island, on a hill top, in a wood. There may be seen the costumes in all their holiday beauty.

A Pardon begins with vespers on the night before the Feast. Pilgrims arrive for that, and sleep in the church, the chapel, under hedges. They sing their cantiques or hymns till they sing themselves to sleep. The first mass is said at 3 A.M. and the true pilgrims communicate till the last has received, when they depart. An ordinary visitor arriving, say at 10 A.M., will hardly see a single pilgrim. The rest come to join in the devotions. They attend mass, take part in the afternoon (3 P.M.) procession, and buy memorials, and ribbons, and sweetstuff, and pictures at the stalls.

Almost every Pardon has a character of its own, and a description of one by no means attaches to all. In Côtes-du-Nord the Pardon is only found genuine in the Breton speaking portion, elsewhere it has degenerated into an ordinary village feast.

Sometimes, and in some places, there is an evening procession carrying lighted candles, in some a bonfire figures lighted by a figure of an27 angel which descends from the chapel or church spire. At some there are wrestling and games in the afternoon, at others there is dancing, but usually all is quiet and the peasants disperse after the afternoon procession.

By the sea, the arrival of the boats with maidens in white and banners is a pretty sight; at one Pardon, the sailors proceed, barefooted in their shirts, in performance of a vow, when delivered in a storm.

A visitor who desires to be present at one of the most popular Pardons should secure rooms a month beforehand, and even then he may be dispossessed if the Government or military authorities have seized on the occasion of a Pardon to billet a regiment on the place, an experience the writer has twice had to undergo.

Another quarter century will probably see the last of the Pardons. It will not be due to the decay of the religious feeling among the people—that need not be feared—but to Governmental opposition, and the indecent behaviour of the tripper, which will perhaps induce the clergy to discourage them. (Matt. vii. 6.) A word to the invariably courteous and kindly curé will often secure for the visitor a place of vantage in the gallery, and it is only due to him to ask if he objects to a snap-shot with the kodak at the procession. To photograph a man when engaged in his devotions, or a woman making her painful pilgrimage barefooted is not calculated to impress the peasant with the good-feeling of the English visitor. The Breton is tender-hearted28 and sensitive, and should ever be respected. At a great Basse-Bretagne Pardon and fair, one may wander till late among the thousands gathered there, enjoying themselves on merry-go-rounds and at shooting stalls, and see no horseplay, no rudeness, no drunkenness.

At a Pardon one sees and marvels at the wondrous faces of this remarkable people:—the pure, sweet and modest countenances of the girls, and those not less striking of the old folk. "It is," says Durtal (En Route), "the soul which is everything in these people, and their physiognomy is modelled by it. There are holy brightnesses in their eyes, on their lips, those doors to the borders of which the soul alone can come, from which it looks forth and all but shows itself."

Goodness, kindness, as well as a cloistral spirituality stream from their faces. One incident may be noticed to show of what stuff their charity consists. After the wreck of the Drummond Castle when the bodies were washed up on the Ile-Molène, the women readily gave up their holiday costumes—costumes which it takes a girl twenty years of economies to acquire—and in these they clothed and buried the dead women washed ashore.

The Pardons in the Bigauden district are the most showy. The Bigaudens delight in bright colours, but they are not a religious or a moral people, and they do not exhibit the fervent and deep-seated piety of the genuine Bretons. The Bigaudens occupy the promontory of Sizun and Pont l'Abbé. This people, peculiar in appearance29 and distinct in character from the Bretons, are supposed to belong to the primitive population of Ivernians before the coming of the British colonists. They are looked on with mistrust, if not aversion by the Bretons, whom they can generally over-reach in a bargain.

VI. Iconography

It may interest some travellers to be able to identify some of the more common Saints of Brittany whose statues are to be found in the churches, chapels, and over the Holy Wells. A few of the Roman Saints are added who are thrusting the native ones from their niches.

Ste. Anne, with the B.V.M. at her side, sometimes with her on one arm and Christ on the other.

S. Armel, in a brown habit, with a cap on his head, an amice over the right shoulder, with a dragon whom he holds by a stole.

Ste. Aude or Haude, as a damsel carrying her head.

S. Bieuzy, as a monk with his head cleft.

S. Brioc, as a bishop with a wolf licking his feet.

S. Budoc, as a bishop with a barrel at his side.

S. Cadoc, as an abbot holding a bell.

S. Corentin, as a bishop carrying a fish.

S. David, as an archbishop with archiepiscopal crozier.

S. Edern, as a monk riding on a stag.

S. Efflam, in ducal habit, with sceptre, treading on a dragon.

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S. Fiacre, in brown habit, holding a spade.

S. Fingar, Eguinger, or Guingar, as a prince, with sword and palm branch.

S. Gildas, in monastic habit, with a snarling dog at his feet.

S. Gwen Teirbron, seated, with crown, and three breasts, her children on her knees or at her feet.

S. Gwénole (Winwaloe), as an abbot, no special symbol.

S. Haude, a damsel carrying her head.

S. Herbot, as an anchorite with an ox at his feet.

S. Hervé, as a blind monk, a boy or a wolf at his side.

S. Meliau, as a king or duke, bearing sword and palm branch, or sceptre.

S. Melor, a boy with one hand and one foot cut off.

Ste. Ninnoc, in robes as a nun, a stag at her feet.

Ste. Noyala, as a princess holding her head in her hands.

S. Paul of Léon, in episcopal habits, treading on a dragon, and with a bell in his hands.

S. Samson, as archbishop.

S. Solomon, in royal robes, and with a dagger in his breast.

S. Thégonnec, as a bishop with a cart drawn by wolves.

S. Theilo, as an abbot or bishop riding on a stag.

S. Tujean, as a bishop with a mad dog at his side.

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S. Vincent Ferrier, in monastic habit, holding a trumpet, and with wings.

S. Yves, in a white robe with long sleeves and doctor's bonnet, giving judgment sometimes between a rich suitor and a poor man.

S. Anthony of Padua, as a Franciscan, with the Child Jesus on one arm.

S. Barbara, with a tower at her side.

S. Cornelius, as Pope, with an ox at his feet.

S. Eligius, as bishop, with a horse at his side.

S. Isidore, dressed as a Breton peasant in bragoubraz (baggy breeches), holding a sickle.

S. Joseph, aged and holding a lily, sometimes with the Child Jesus on his arm.

S. Roch, as a pilgrim showing a wound in one leg.

VII. General Instructions

In the humblest village one may reckon on obtaining good meals, but not always on having dry sheets. It is not customary to air the latter, and except in hot dry weather, it is well to be on one's guard in this matter. Water should never be drunk. Too frequently it is drawn from the well in the yard, and is contaminated. Coffee in out of the way parts, even at such headquarters as Carhaix, is not coffee at all, but roast lupin berries.[1] The ordinary charge for déjeuner at 11.30 is 2.50, with cider and coffee, and 3 francs for dinner at 7 p.m. But in32 second class inns is 50 centimes less. A bed is usually 1.50 or 2 francs. Sanitary arrangements are rudimentary. Usually one can rely on freedom from vermin, but it is well to be provided with a small bottle of oil of lavender, a preservative against bugs; but it will be needed exceptionally only. The commercial traveller is all pervading. He is sometimes interesting, occasionally objectionable, if a farceur usually the latter. On entering a café or railway carriage, it is customary to raise the hat, so also in leaving. For Maps get those of the État Majeur, 57 Brest, 73 Châteaulin, 60 Dinan, 41 Lannion, 88 Lorient, 58 Morlaix, 117 Nantes, 40 Plouguerneau, 74 Pontivy, 87 Pont l'Abbé, 72 Quimper, 90 Redon, 75 Rennes, 59 S. Brieuc, 42 Tréguier, 89 Vannes, 102 Belle Ile, 56 Ouessant. Of these each has 4 sheets, N.W., N.E., S.W., S.E., except these—102 Belle Ile has a single sheet, S.E., Lannion has only N.E., S.W., S.E., 56 Ouessant has only N.E., 87 Pont l'Abbé only N.E., Tréguier only N.W., S.W., S.E.

Each sheet costs about 25 centimes or 2½d. The same can be had in colours at 1 franc per sheet, but there is no great advantage in these latter.

In this book routes have not been given, as there is such a diversity of manner of travelling in these days, some going by train, and some by bicycle and motor car. For the latter the best map is that published by the cycling club, as it gives the roads that are suitable, and the hills are all33 indicated. The line adopted in this book has been to give the chefs-lieux d'arrondissement, and a few other places that are suitable as centres, and to indicate what is to be seen within an easy range all round.

Less details have been given relative to the Department of Ille-et-Vilaine, at least as to certain portions of it which do not offer much of interest to encourage a visit, and with regard to Loire Inférieure only the truly Breton region of Guérande and S. Nazaire has been included.

The following list of headquarters is recommended, whence excursions may be made radiating on all sides. Places of little moment and regions that need not occupy a visitor's time are omitted.

Côtes-du-Nord.—Dinan. Thence Lamballe, Plancoet, Ploubalay, Dol, Jugon, Becherel.

Guingamp. Thence Belle-Ile, Pontrieux, Plouagat, Bourbriac.

Lannion. Thence Perros-Guirec, Plestin.

Loudéac. Thence Uzel, Plouguenast, La Chèze, Mur.

Paimpol. Thence Lézardrieux, Pontrieux, Plouha and Iles de Bréhat.

Plouaret. Thence Plestin, Begard and Belle-Ile.

Rostrenen. Thence S. Nicolas du Pélem, Maël Carhaix, Goarec.

S. Brieuc. Thence Etables, Châtelaudren, Quintin, Lamballe.

Tréguier. Thence Lézardrieux, La Roche-Derrien.

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Finistère.—Audierne. The Cap Sizun.

Brest. Thence S. Rénan, Ploudalmezeau, Lannilis, Plabennec, and Ouessant.

Châteaulin. Thence Crozon, Le Faou, Pleyben.

Châteauneuf-le-Faou. Thence Pleyben and Montagnes Noires.

Huelgoët. The Montagnes d'Arrée.

Landerneau. Thence Daoulas, Ploudiry, Sizun, and the Montagnes d'Arrée.

Landivisiau. Thence S. Thégonnec, Plouzévédé, Ploudiry and Sizun.

Lesneven, the coast by Plounéour-trez.

Morlaix. Thence Lanmeur, Taulé, Plouigneau, S. Thégonnec.

Pont-aven. Concarneau, Fouesnant.

Pont l'Abbé, the Penmarch peninsula.

Ploudalmezeau, Lannilis, and the coast.

S. Pol-de-Léon. Plouescat and the Ile-de-Batz.

Quimper may be made a centre for much, owing to several lines of railway diverging from it. Briec, Rosporden, Douarnenez, Pont Croix, Plougastel S. Germain, Pont l'Abbé.

Quimperlé. Thence Bannalec, Pont-aven, Pont Scorff.

Morbihan.—Auray. Thence Pluvigner, Belz, Carnac, Quiberon.

Baud. Thence Pluvigner, Locminé and the Blavet River.

Grand-Champ. Thence the Landes de Lanvaux, and S. Jean de Brévelez.

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Hennebont. Thence Pont Scorff, Plonay, Lorient, Port Louis.

La Faouët. Thence Gourin and Guéméné.

Ploermel. Thence Josselin, Mauron, Guer, La Trinité-Porhoet.

Pontivy. Thence Cleguerec, Guéméné, the Blavet valley, Mur, Rohan.

Rochefort-en-Terre. Thence Elven, and the Lande de Lanvaux, Malestroit, la Gacelly, Questembert.

Vannes. The Morbihan, and Sarzeau, Elven and Grand Champ.

Ille-et-Vilaine.—Becherel. Thence Tinténiac, Hédé.

Dinard. Thence S. Malo, Cancale, S. Servan, Châteauneuf, Dol.

Dol. Thence Combourg.

Fougères. Thence Louvigné, S. Briac-en-Congles, S. Aubin-du-Cormier.

Montfort. Thence S. Méen and Montauban.

Redon. Thence Allaire, la Gacilly, Pipriac, Fougeray, S. Nicolas.

Rennes. Thence Mordelles, Guichen, Château-Giron, Janzé.

Vitré Thence Châteaubourg and Argentré-du-Plessis.

Loire Inférieure.-Guérande. La Grande Brière and the Saltmarshes.

Le Croisic. Sea coast and Saltmarshes.

S. Nazaire, mouth of the Loire.

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Contractions

Cheflieux and Surroundings

Argentré (I.V.) chl. arr. Vitré. In the neighbourhood are many small lakes, forming one of the arms of the Vilaine, one of the sources of which is in the forest of Pertré. The château de Plessis is of the 15th cent. and has been restored. In it is a portrait of Mme. de Sevigné by Mignard. The circular chapel is of the 17th cent.

At Primel is a chapel of the 15th cent. A calvary is in the parish churchyard.

At Etrelles the church is of the beginning of the 16th cent.

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Arzano (F.) chl. arr. Quimperlé. An uninteresting place, but some pretty scenery on the Ellé and Isole. The neighbourhood is best visited from Quimperlé.

* AUDIERNE (F.) a com. of Pontcroix. A large fishing village, at the mouth of a tidal creek, into which flows the insignificant Goujen. The entrance to the harbour is dangerous. The river front of the village or town is occupied almost wholly by buvettes. Sardines are here tinned. The church, originally dedicated to S. Rumon, the same as S. Ronan, has been transferred to the patronage of S. Raymond Nonnatus. It is well-situated, and of renaissance period, but has preserved an earlier internal arcade. The south porch is of the usual 16th cent. type in Lower Brittany, but with renaissance details. Ships are carved over the church. The tower with gallery is mean. A curious recess with stoup outside the W. end, with broken circle above it. An old house in the street bears the date 1668. Audierne swarms with children who pester the visitor with begging. It is an unattractive place, but has good inns, and forms a centre for an interesting district. See also Pont Croix.

At Primelin is the Chapel of S. Tugean (a Saint Antianus) in a hamlet, surrounded with trees. It is a noble structure throughout, in the flamboyant style. A noble south porch with statues within of six apostles. The tower without spire is early flamboyant, and has a curious side turret38 with spire. The W. doorway is good with the four doctors of the church above it. The N. transept is double, divided by round pillars surmounted by Doric capitals. The carved wood roof of the chancel and N. transept deserve notice. Rich rococo altarpieces. Paintings (1705) about the baptistery. A good statue of S. Tugean represents him with a mad dog on one side and a boy kneeling on the other. The Saint is patron against hydrophobia. Outside the chapel is a cell into which were thrust those who had been bitten, and were not cured. They were communicated with the Host, thrust to them at the end of a stick, and there left to die. S. Tugean's key is preserved in the church. The P. on the last Sunday in June is very famous. Near the windmill is a small dolmen, or rather a kistvaen, the cover of which has been lifted and propped on small stones. This was used by lepers to lie in, expecting a cure.

Plogoff has a church of the 16th cent., but possesses remains of an earlier period, pillars with Romanesque capitals. The Chapel of S. Collodec (Kenan, B. of Duleek) has a pretty spire, and a carved granite cross. P. 1st Sunday in July. The Pardon at the Chapel of N.D. de Bon Voyage is on the 3rd Sunday in July. The Enfer de Plogoff is a chasm into which the sea enters. The Pointe du Raz rises 240 feet above the sea, which is here rarely at rest. It commands a fine view of the stretch of coast from the Pointe to S. Mathieu on the north, and to39 Penmarch on the south. The Ile de Seine lies nine miles away to sea, west of the Pointe du Raz, the passage is dangerous on account of the currents. It possesses little to attract a visitor, a couple of menhirs, called the Fistillerien or the Gossips, and a dolmen.

The Baie des Trépassés takes its name from the number of dead bodies washed ashore in it after a wreck. A Byzantine writer speaks of this bay and tells a curious story about it. He says that here the boatman was called up at the dead of night to convey passengers to the Ile de Seine. He took his oars and launched his boat, and heard a sound as of people entering his barque, but saw no one. The boat settled deep in the water, and he rowed over with his invisible burden. On reaching the Isle of Seine, he could hear the passengers disembark, and coins were cast to him, but still those whom he had ferried over remained invisible. He had, in fact, conveyed the souls of the dead to the Isle of the Dead. And this strange occurrence took place repeatedly.

The Etang de Laoual is supposed to cover the cursed city of Is, where Ahes, daughter of King Grallo, carried on high revelry and debauch. The wrath of heaven was kindled, and the sea overwhelmed the city. Remains of a Roman city remain at Troguer, and this was the termination of the Roman road from Carhaix (Vorganium). At the Chapel of S. They (the Cornish S. Day) the P. is on the 1st Sunday in July.

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Cleden-Cap-Sizun. The coast here is bold, and there are numerous prehistoric monuments. At Goulien is a menhir 18 ft. high, and there are remains of a Roman camp.

Beuzec-Cap-Sizun. The church (S. Budoc) has a fine 16th cent. tower. Near the hamlet of Kerbanalec is an allée couverte. The holy well of Ste. Azenora (the Cornish Sennara), mother of S. Budoc, is supposed to have the peculiarity of filling with milk the breasts of any man who drinks thereof. Mothers nursing their children frequent it. P. at N.D. de la Clarté on the Sunday after the 15th August.

* AURAY (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. On a height above the river of Auray and the harbour. The river is a tidal creek, very unsavoury when in flow or when left dry. A large export of pine logs takes place hence to Cardiff for the mines. There are several old houses in the town, especially by the bridge. The halles have a vast roof on bold timber work. The Church of S. Gildas was built in 1636, and is utterly Italian, except for the vaulting. The south entrance is not without merit. The Church of S. Goustan dates from the 16th century. In the chapel of the Pêre Eternel is rich carved stall work derived from the Chartreuse.

THE BRIDGE, AURAY

Within an easy stroll from Auray is the Chapel de Ste. Avoye. Here, according to legend, the Saint, who is the same as the Cornish S. Ewe, arrived in a stone boat from Britain. The chapel is surrounded by a few farmhouses41 and trees. It is a renaissance structure. The W. tower consists of only three sides, two bold buttresses carried up a great height, with a back, sustaining a pent-house roof, which in turn supports a spirelet of slate. The arrangement is probably unique. There was a porch below, but it has fallen. The tracery has been removed from the windows, and some good stained glass sold. Within is a fine but late screen with the twelve apostles on one side and cardinal virtues and other allegorical figures on the other. In the nave is a piece of the so-called "boat of S. Avoye," in which she is supposed to have come over. Actually it is, probably, a large grinder for corn polished within. On it are cut three symbols, one a cross, one like a T, and the third like I. Children that are delicate are placed in the "Boat" to recover strength. Over the altar is a painting representing S. Avoye in prison fed by the B. V. Mary. There are two Pardons, the principal on the 1st S. in May, the second on the 3rd S. in September. Outside the chapel are stone benches along the wall. In Breton the Saint is Santez Avé.

Ste. Anne d'Auray is a great pilgrimage resort, with a pretentious modern church in nondescript style intended for renaissance, 1866-75, with bad glass. In 1623 a peasant dug up an image, probably of one of the Deæ Matres of Gallo-Roman times, so common in Brittany, at a place called Ker-anna. He jumped to the conclusion that it represented the mother of the B. Virgin.42 The Carmelites heard of it and resolved on making capital out of it; they ran it with great success and built a convent and church on the spot in 1645. The statue was destroyed in 1790, but the cult continues unabated. The Pardon is on the Sunday after July 26, and attracts vast crowds. In front of the church is a Santa Scala copied from that at Rome, and indulgenced with nine years for every step ascended by pilgrims on their knees. A large tank receives the miraculous spring of S. Anne, and is dominated by her statue. The pilgrims sing lustily the cantique of Ste. Anne d'Auray to this air:—

There is here a statue of the Duc de Chambord (1891) in bronze, flanked by those of Bayard, Du Guesclin, Ste. Geneviève, and Joan of Arc.

STE. ANNE D'AURAY

The Chartreuse near the Auray railway station is now a deaf and dumb asylum. It occupies the site of the battle in which, in 1364, Jean de43 Monfort defeated and killed Charles de Blois. He founded the monastery, but only a small portion of the old structure remains. Here is the chapel, on the N. side of the church, in which rest the bodies of the royalists who had been landed from English transports at Quiberon, and whom Hoche and his republican soldiers shot down in cold blood to the number of 952 between 1st and 25th August 1795. The butchery took place not far from the Chartreuse, and the bodies were buried on the spot since called le Champ des Martyrs. In 1814 they were transferred to this chapel erected to contain them. It was completed in 1829. In the midst of the chapel is the mausoleum of white marble.

The chapelle expiatoire is situated at a quarter of an hour's walk from the Chartreuse and is in the Greek style, and is on the site of the massacre. Near by is a cross commemorative of Montfort's victory over Charles de Blois.

Plougoumelin. The parish church modern and bad. The Chapel of N.D. de Becquerel has a fine west porch of the Breton commingling of flamboyant and renaissance. An unfailing spring issues from under the wall of the apse. The water is thought to cure diseases of the mouth. Several lechs are in the parish. One called the Pierre du Serment is about 4 ft. 6 in. long, is in the churchyard and lies prostrate. Another is between the parsonage and the cemetery, and a third, round, with three hollows sunk in it, is at the presbytère. A44 tumulus by the river of Auray at Le Rocher covers an allée couverte. There are six others, smaller, in a line with it running from S.W. to N.E. They have yielded copper vessels and flint weapons, and belong to the intermediate age, before alloy was introduced for the formation of bronze.

Crach. Here in the commune are numerous prehistoric remains. Rather over a mile from Auray on the road to Crach is a fine dolmen, the coverer 22 ft. long, and having on it a circle of hollows. Other dolmens at Keryn, Kergleverit, and Parq-er-Gueren, near the Chapel of S. Jean. Several menhirs on the common. The Château de Plessisker is of the 17th cent. P. at Crach on the 1st S. in July. See also Locmariaquer.

Bain (I.V.) chl. arr. Redon, on the Route nationale from Rennes to Nantes. In the cemetery a cross of the 16th cent. Château de la Noé of the 15th cent. By a little lake are the remains of a castle converted into a farmhouse.

* BAUD (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. A district in which much hemp is grown and cordwaining is carried on. The women wear coiffes like sunbonnets, and sabots with leather toe-pieces and straps neatly embroidered. The church, a mean structure of 1687, is about to be pulled down. It is dominated by the far more stately Chapel of N.D. de la Clarté of the 16th cent. Vaulted throughout with very peculiar straight groining and vaulting in the S. aisle. The45 chapel has an apse, the tracery has been removed from the windows and the old stained glass got rid of to make way for sad modern rubbish. The tower is later than the chapel and is unfinished. A huge ducal crown of Brittany is suspended in the apse. The crown is closed above, a right claimed by the dukes. P. 2nd July.

In the woods of the old château of Quinipili (guide advisable) is the rude granite statue of the famous Venus of Quinipili removed from Castannec on the Blavet. It is 6 ft. high, with the hands crossed over the breast and with a sort of stole hanging down in front, and a band about the head on which are cut IIT. The statue, which received idolatrous worship, was transferred in 1695 to Quinipili, by Count Pierre de Lannion, along with a huge granite basin that stood before it. He set it up on a pedestal in his grounds and cut a pseudo-classic inscription on the base. As the original statue was indecent, he set a sculptor to alter it, and probably the stole is due to this man's chisel.

Camors. There are two dolmens in the forest, and an allée couverte at Kerpenru. Of menhirs, one is on the lande of Penher, three at Kerguelen, a stone-row of twenty uprights at Kernoul. Seven menhirs in the wood at Floranges, and six in the forest of Camors. At Porhoet-er-Saleu, are the remains of the castle of Conmore, Count of Poher, and regent of Domnonia. He is regarded as the Bluebeard of Brittany, although he was actually only46 thrice married, to the sister of Jonas, King of Domnonia, to that of Meliau, King of Cornouaille, and lastly to Triphena, daughter of Weroch, Count of Vannes. This latter marriage was effected by the persuasion of S. Gildas. Conmore, however, so ill-treated his wife that she ran away to her father at Vannes. Gildas, who was at the time at Castannec, was furious with Conmore, and local legend asserts, that he came before this castle, gathered up a handful of earth, and casting it against the walls cursed it, that it should never again be inhabited. S. Triphena is invoked in the neighbourhood by women with troublesome husbands, and little wooden crosses may be found on the site of the castle set up by them in token that they have made a vow to S. Triphena to rid them of their annoyance. The church of Camors is dedicated to S. Senan, abbot of Iniscathy.

Guénin. The church is of 1773. The Chapel of N.D. de Menez-guen is flamboyant but late, 1577, with alterations made in 1604 and 1751. It is a cross church with a central tower. One descends by several steps into the chapel. Lean and lanky girls go to it and pray for fat to be laid on. P. 1st S. in July. Pilgrims take water from the fountain to give to their cattle.

Questinic. Chapel of S. Mathurin, P. 2nd S. in May. Chapel of Locmaria, renaissance 1574, a cross church with central tower and spire, and some old glass.

Bieuzy. The station of S. Nicolas des Eaux gives access to several points of historical and47 architectural interest. The train from Auray to Pontivy cuts by a tunnel through a neck of land round which the river Blavet makes a great loop. This loop was occupied in Roman times by a walled town Sulim, of which numerous remains have been found; and the sides are so precipitous that no enemy could attack it, save on the north. The road from the station to Bieuzy has been engineered by a great sweep up the height, but the pedestrian can ascend to the Chapel of La Trinité by a sharp scramble, and by clinging to the broom and heather. This finger of land, almost surrounded by the river on all sides, was covered with ruins in the beginning of the 6th cent. S. Gildas came hither from Rhuys about the year 530, and founded a little colony of monks where is now the hamlet of Castannec. Finding that there was a gross image of Venus among the ruins that the people worshipped, he and Budoc (Bieuzy) his disciple threw it down and rolled it along to their monastery and built their wall over it. The image remained buried thus under the wall till the ruin of the monastery by the Northmen, and perhaps for some time after. Castannec was never restored to any extent, by the returned monks of Rhuys. In 1125 Castannec was made into a parish, and the church was where is now the Chapel of La Trinité, and it was served by the monks of Redon, but the population was small and the revenue insufficient, and was united to Bieuzy. Then it was that in removing the remains of the old priory the image of the48 Venus was restored to light, and at once received a religious cult from the peasants, who called it Groah en Goard, the Woman of la Couarde, which is the name of the promontory. It was placed near a large basin scooped out of granite, and in this women came to bathe, invoking the assistance of the Venus of Couarde. In 1661 a mission was held at Baud, and the missioners besought Count Claude of Lannion to destroy the idol. He had it accordingly rolled down the hillside into the river. However, the peasants fished it up and replaced it in 1664. Then the Bishop of Vannes interfered, and at his request the Count sent masons to smash it. They, however, contented themselves with injuring one arm and one of the breasts and again rolled it down into the Blavet. In 1695, Pierre de Lannion, who had succeeded his father, drew it forth from the water and had it conveyed to Baud to ornament his château of Quinipili; and there it remains to the present day with the granite basin before it, but not in quite the same condition, for, as has been said already, the Count employed a sculptor to work the statue over and give it a more decent appearance.

Near the Chapel of Ste. Trinité a path leads to the hermitage of S. Gildas. It is advisable to obtain a child as guide. The Saint with his disciple Budoc, or Bieuzy, was wont to retire to a cave under an overhanging rock beside the Blavet during Lent, and at certain times when he desired to be private. He built up the face of the cave and divided it into two parts, one49 for himself and one for Bieuzy. A chapel was added in the Middle Ages, and this was restored in 1837. It consists of two parts, and is under the rock in a most picturesque situation. The bell is attached to the rock. The structure is of the 15th cent., but the E. window and an arch are 1st pointed (perhaps the window is due to the restorer) and there are rude windows round-headed, that may possibly be of a still earlier date. An arch divides the chapel into two with an altar in each. In the outer chapel, on a pedestal, is the bell-stone of Gildas, a slab of diorite, on which stands a couple of pebbles, and when the stone is struck with these it rings. At Mass on the day of the Pardon, Whitsun-Monday, and on S. Gildas's day, Jan. 29, the bell-stone is used for ringing at the Sanctus, Elevation and Communion. On the left side of the principal altar is a block of rock and masonry used for the pain bénit, which is distributed among the pilgrims. There was another bell-stone, that of S. Bieuzy himself, but this was carried away, and broken in the transaction, by a seigneur of Kervèno in 1660, but the rector reclaimed it and in 1702 succeeded in recovering it, and it is now placed in the churchyard of S. Bieuzy near the cross. The church of Bieuzy has a modern spire and nave. The choir and transepts are renaissance of 1560. There are three superb stained glass windows of this date in the apse representing the scenes of the Passion; one subject, the Risen Lord, appearing as a gardener to the Magdalen, deserves notice.50 The S. door of the church is flamboyant with a flamboyant window above. A S. door, blocked in the choir, has some lovely flamboyant foliage on it. There is a picturesque renaissance house opposite the church. It is worth the visitor noticing the type of well in all this district. The structure of granite for the support of the drum for the chain is very striking, and there is an excellent example in a yard near the E. end of the church at Bieuzy. A few yards from the village is the Holy Well with a niche for the Saint. The water is sought for those who are off their heads.

Returning to the station, S. Nicolas des Eaux is next visited. The chapel is in a very dilapidated condition. It is a flamboyant cruciform structure (1524) with a fine double doorway and with foliage about it, and with late flamboyant tracery in some of the windows, but from most it has been hacked away.

S. Nicodème is perhaps the most beautiful example of flamboyant in Morbihan. It was completed in 1539, and a bell bears the date 1507 which is about the date of the spire and tower. The west entrance under the tower is peculiarly bold and beautiful, with its lace work fringed arch. A flight of steps leads down to the chapel, and on the left is a singular Holy Well, composed of three gabled structures united at the back. The date on this well is 1608, but it is impossible to hold this to be the true indication of its erection, and must commemorate51 a reparation, for the character of the sculpture and the general design are of a century earlier, and in its quaintness and originality indicate the same master hand that had planned and drawn the marvellous tower and spire. The three fountains are to (1) S. Gamaliel with an ox at his side and a biniou player; (2) S. Nicodemus with a human-headed ox by him; and (3) S. Abibo with a horseman at his side. Hard by is an immeasurably inferior Holy Well to S. Cornelius, constructed in 1790.

The chapel itself is not equal in beauty to tower and spire. It contains a minstrel gallery of stone in the N. transept. The altarpieces are bad rococo. Two little oxen are stuck up against the N. wall of the chancel to commemorate the success of an invocation to S. Cornély. There is a very curious retable at the side representing the Resurrection. S. Nicodemus is represented carrying a napkin, three nails and with a heraldic wreath about his head. Most of the windows have had their tracery removed. The Pardon here is very famous and largely attended. The first Saturday in August is held as a great fair here, and at it girls sell their hair. Young women wearing black caps and not coiffes are such as have parted with their natural ornament. On the Sunday following is the Pardon. An angel descends from the gallery of the spire and sets fire to a great pile of brushwood and firework hoops.

Bubry. The church is modern and bad, near52 it are two lechs, one with four equal faces, and the other has a cross pattée on two faces. The ossuary is full of skulls arranged in order. In the "place" is a great granite basin fed with water from the fountain of S. Helen. The Chapel of S. Yves is five kilometres to the south of this village, and is in a jumble of flamboyant and renaissance. The date 1598. This chapel drew so many pilgrims, and such abundant donations, that the near-by Seigneur de Kernivinen became jealous, and going to the chapel one day of the Pardon, fell on the rector and boxed his ears, because he refused to give up to him a share of the spoil. This was in 1630. He was put into the ecclesiastical court and condemned to restore 10,000 livres which he had carried off from the chapel, and to pay a fine of 2000 which was to be given to the hospital. P. of Ste. Helene, 4th S. in July. This is spoken of as well attended.

Melrand. The Chapel of Locmaria is fine. It has a bold, square tower surmounted by a spire: it is all of flamboyant work with a few details showing that the renaissance was at hand. The E. window, partly hidden by a retable of 1680, contains in twelve tableaux scenes from the Life and Passion of our Lord. In the N. transept window is a fine Jesse tree, in one of the S. transept the angelic salutation. Near the chapel is a Holy Well of 1574. P. at Guellouët in Melrand, 1st Sunday in July.

Becherel (I.V.) chl. arr. Montfort. On high ground. In the church a Romanesque53 font. Old gateway, 16th cent. House of the Little Sisters of the Poor is here. The headquarters or Mother-House. Les Iffs has a church of the 15th cent. containing nine windows of superb stained glass, the finest in the Department. The tower is of the 16th cent. On a height is the Château de Montmuran of various dates. In the chapel, Du Guesclin was dubbed knight in 1354. He married Jeanne de Laval, granddaughter of the Countess of Montmuran, for whom he defended the castle against the English. The E. window of the chapel is good early flamboyant and contains fine old glass. The château is very picturesque. The Château de Caradeuc, partly ancient, in a park with fine trees, and well kept, has within, among other paintings, two Murillos.

Begard (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in 1130 by Stephen III., Count of Penthièvre. It was rebuilt in the 17th century, except the Romanesque church. It is now a lunatic asylum. According to local tradition, Begard was first settled by such ragged hermits that the place was called after them, a settlement of "Beggars." A menhir is at Kergouézennic 18 ft. high.

Kermoroch. The chapel of Langoerat, 1373, has in it stained glass and paintings. There are ruined castles at Perrier and Leshorz.

Pedernec. A ruined castle at Runangoff. The Chapel of N.D. de Lorette dates from54 1514. A 16th cent. manor house at Kermathaman. A menhir 25 ft. 6 in. high.

Belle Ile (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. Prettily situated in the valley of the Guindy. The church is modern, the old church is turned into halle. The Chapel of Locmaria is made into the cemetery chapel. It stands on a rocky height above the river and the road to Trégrom. It is late flamboyant, the pillars are surrounded by stone seats. The W. door has boldly carved foliage in coarse granite. The roodscreen, with figures and foliage in the panels of the gallery, has been removed to the W. end.

Plounevez-Moedec on very high ground, traversed by the main road from Paris to Brest, straight as a bowstring. The church has a 2nd pointed arcade and E. windows and N. aisle. The rest flamboyant. The gallery at the W. end is one removed from the chapel of Keramanach, with the vaulting wantonly taken away. The tower, renaissance, has been restored recently. The chapel of Keramanach (S. Fiacre) may be visited equally well from Belle Ile or from Plouaret. It is late 2nd pointed with square end, E. window and S.E. window of same period, as also N. aisle. There are remains of good stained glass in the windows. The porch has rich 16th cent. groining. The W. bell turret has a gallery. The chapel contains a fine alabaster reredos of the 15th cent., each panel has been let into a wooden frame. On the road from Plounevez to Trégrom is a menhir 30 ft. high.

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Locquenvel. Church of 15th and 16th cents. with stained glass representing the legend of S. Envel.

Belz (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. In very desolate country. The road from Auray runs through plantations of Austrian pine grown for the Welsh collieries, or over furzy moors. Belz itself is an utterly uninteresting place, with an ugly church, and a ruinous but large chapel near it. Belz lies, however, near the curious inland sea of Etel, and was formerly head of a pou or pagus. A mile and a half beyond Belz is the hamlet of S. Cadou, occupied entirely by fishermen and their families. The women wear scarlet petticoats which they take care to display. A stone causeway 140 ft. leads to the Isle of S. Cadou and his chapel. S. Cadoc, son of Gwynllyw, King of Gwent or Monmouthshire, arrived here about 525 and founded a monastery and school on the island. To facilitate the passage and repassage of his pupils he constructed the causeway, having learned the art of dyking at Llancarvan. It was here, pacing it with Gildas, that they discussed the salvability of Virgil. Cadoc, who loved that author, could not believe that he was lost, but Gildas held the harsher view. As they talked, Cadoc turned over his Virgil to point out some remarkable passages, probably the prophecy of the Incarnation, to his friend, when the wind swept the volume out of his hand into the sea. He slipped in rushing to recover it, and some pieces of iron in the causeway are supposed to indicate where56 his foot slid. Only with difficulty did Cadoc recover the precious book. The chapel has an early Romanesque apse, with rudely carved capitals to the pillars supporting the chancel arch. The chapel was much spoiled at its alteration in 1842. In the S. transept is the stone bed of S. Cadoc with a receptacle under it, in which strange sounds are thought to be heard. These are due to the echo of the waves and winds. The gallery of the flamboyant screen has been removed to the W. end. In the nave are four paintings. (1) S. Cadoc arriving at the isle; (2) S. Cadoc settling on it; (3) Pirates land and he protests that he has nothing; (4) Cadoc departing, with the inscription:—

Oratoire mon œuvre adieu, dit-il pleurant,
Belz t'oublierai je? Non. Il cingla de céans.

P. S. after 21st Sept. Numerous megalithic remains are to be found about Belz. A menhir at Kervoen, another at Mélionec; remains of an allée couverte 30 ft. long at Kernours; a dolmen in good condition at Kerlutu; others at Kerhuen, Kervoen and Kerlourd. At Crubelz in a tumulus is a chamber of masonry nearly 11 ft. high. Roman bricks were found in it, and it would seem to have been constructed in Gallo-Roman times, but in accordance with earlier traditions and usages.

LINES OF ERDEVEN

Locoal, on an arm of the sea of Etel, united to the mainland by a causeway like that at S. Cadou. Locoal was a locus penitentiæ of S.57 Gudeval or Gurval, Bishop of Aleth. He scooped out a cave and dwelt therein. Disciples came to him to the number of 188. To protect themselves against the high tides they erected the dykes that still remain. At length, desiring greater retirement in his extreme old age, Gudeval retired with seven disciples into the forest of Camors, where he died in 640. Some lechs remain; one near the cemetery is 4 ft. high, with a cross cut on it in relief, surmounted by a circle and cross. Another on the way from Locoal to Mendon, 7 ft. 6 in. high, with two crosses cut on it, bears on it the words CRUX PROSTLON; it is the tombstone of the wife of Count Pasquitien, the murderer of King Solomon. She died in 875. The parish church was burnt by the Spaniards in 1592, and again accidentally in 1765.

Etel, at the mouth of the channel that connects the inland sea with the ocean, is a small port partly closed by a rock and by moving sands. Near the village is a dolmen with seven supporters. A little further on is one with five.

Erdeven (Ar deven = on the sand-downs). All this district is covered with wind-blown sands. The most remarkable prehistoric monument is the alignment of Kerzerho, which extends over two miles and a quarter, and is composed of 1030 stones, with, however, gaps caused by pilferers. Unhappily the stones are still being broken up and carried away. The lines are on the S. and S.E. of the village.58 After passing an isolated menhir and a ruined cairn, the rows are reached running east. Then comes a gap where the stones have been carried off to build walls, but presently they reappear, the blocks smaller. Then ensues another hiatus, and then another succession of ranges of fine stones stretching to a tumulus. The northern line reaches to a tumulus, the Mané Bras. On the summit are the ruins of two dolmens, with traces of an enclosing circle of uprights. To the east of Kerangre is another group of monoliths. At Mané Groh are two dolmens. The dolmen of Corcomo is the finest in Morbihan.

Plouhinic. Near Kerfourchen two fallen dolmens and a menhir. From the windmill to the west alignments running S.E. Near the Mill of Gueldra the lines recommence in eight rows, and may be traced to Kervué and Kervelhué.

Bourbriac (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. The church is in part Romanesque, and possesses a crypt. The windows are of 15th cent. The tower 1635. At Tanvedou is a tumulus enclosing a dolmen.

S. Adrien. Chapel of Avangour, 1576, with marble retable of same period.

Cadout (S. Illtyd). Church of 14th and 15th cents., with a sculptured retable. On high ground the manor house of Bois-de-la-Roche, 15th cent. restored.

Bréhat (Isle de) (C.N.). Opposite Roscoff lighthouses. On the Isle of Lavré the remains of a Celtic monastery have been59 traced, consisting of a group of bee-hive huts and an oblong chapel. One hut is fairly perfect, and is kept in repair as a sea mark. In the church is preserved a piece of oriental silk called the stole of S. Pol de Léon.

* BREST (F.) chl. d'arrond. Was a fishing village about a mediæval castle on the site of a Roman camp, till Cardinal Richelieu resolved on giving to France the command of the seas, when he fixed on Brest for a great dockyard, 1631. His undertaking was not followed up by Mazarin, but Colbert pursued it with energy, and extensive works were executed. Thanks to this great minister and to Admiral Duquesne, Brest became a naval and military port of the first class. The Breton parliament had not relished the undertaking, and forbade the delivery of timber to the royal works, and ordered the cessation of the forging of cannon, but the royal will was supreme, and the opposition of the parliament disregarded. The port was extended, and the rocks blasted; barracks, storehouses, workshops, were created, and fine quays were constructed. Vauban fortified it, Recouvrance was united to Brest by a turning bridge. From Brest issued a fleet of 80 ships of the line under Tourville in the naval campaigns of 1690 and 1691. In 1694 an Anglo-Dutch fleet in vain attempted an attack on Brest. In the 18th cent. its quays and fortifications were extended. Granite basins were constructed capable of receiving vessels of 120 guns. Dajot, whilst engaged on the defences of the place,60 constructed the terrace planted with elms, that gives such a fine view of the harbour. Issuing from Brest, the fleet commanded by d'Orvilliers met, July 27, 1778 the English fleet off Ouessant. A French convoy was guarding a fleet of vessels laden with grain from America, when it was attacked by Admiral Howe. The French were under Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse. The English fleet, which had been in quest, had been for four days unable to find the French owing to fog. The engagement took place on the 27th July. There were 26 French men-of-war and 35 English.

After Trafalgar Napoleon abandoned the ambition of making France a great naval power, and it was not till under Napoleon III. that fresh activity was displayed at Brest.

The harbour is perhaps the finest in Europe. It is 36 kilometres in circumference, and is entered only through the channel of the Goullet, illumined by five lighthouses.

The castle of the 13th cent., on a precipitous rock, is flanked by seven towers; the two largest are on the N.E., and the entrance is between them. The tower of Azenore belongs to the end of the 12th cent., and takes its name from the mother of S. Budoc, who was daughter of the Count of Léon, and married to the Count of Goelo. The tower of Caesar of the 12th cent., that des Anglais is of 1374, that de la Madelaine is of the 15th cent., as is also the donjon.

Brest, apart from its dockyard, is a very uninteresting place. The Church of S. Louis61 (1692-1778) is ugly, with modern stained glass in the French style representing Breton saints. But Brest may be made a centre for some interesting excursions, as to Landevennec, which is more easily reached from Brest by steamer than by road.

Landevennec is where a very important abbey was founded by S. Winwaloe, in French Guenolé, at the beginning of the 6th century. The Saint had settled first in the islet of Tibidy, but finding the place too strait for him, came to Landevennec, where King Grallo granted him lands in a warm and sheltered situation, under a hill that cut off the blasts from the Atlantic. The ruins are in private grounds, but visitors are admitted. The abbey church is of the 11th cent., and is without transepts, but has a large chapel of a later date built on at one side. In a crypt is the reputed tomb of King Grallo. The monastic buildings were rebuilt in the 17th century. The Grève des Anglais is so called because it was here that landed an expedition against Brest which failed, because betrayed to the French Court by Marlborough and Godolphin. The consequence was that eight hundred British soldiers fell into a trap and were butchered to the last man.

Goueznou. Here is the sole church near Brest that possesses any archæological value. But it is a really remarkable edifice. It has the finest apse in the Department, next to Lampaul-Guimiliau, containing three great gabled late flamboyant windows. The church also possesses62 a tower with two galleries crowned by a spire. The porch was begun in 1643, and belongs to the same family as those of Landerneau and Trémaouézan. It was finished in 1644, so that there was no long delay in its completion. The main body of the church was constructed in 1607-15. About ten paces west of the church is the monumental fountain of the Saint. It consists of a tank in an enclosure surrounded by stone seats for the accommodation of bathers. On the south side is a small altar surmounted by a niche, that contains a statue of S. Gouezenou. P. Ascension Day. Lambezellec, with a modern church, has a much frequented Pardon on the 2nd S. in August. Plouzané. Lechs and menhirs. P. Sunday nearest 10th Aug.

Guipavas. The church possesses a porch enriched internally with statues, 1565.

Le Conquet. Modern church, but with glass of the 16th cent. preserved in it. In it is the tomb of Michel de Nobletz, a famous Jesuit, born 1577, died 1654, whose beatification is proposed. He laboured in Lower Brittany to turn the people from their pagan superstitions. On the promontory of Kermorvan two dolmens and a circle of upright stones.

Plougonvelen. Fine coast scenery. Here, in an imposing position above the sea, are the ruins of the Abbey of S. Mathieu. The monastery was destroyed at the Revolution. The church (1152-1208) was much altered in the 14th and 15th cents. The abbey was founded in the 6th cent. by S. Tanguy. Near63 it is now a lighthouse. Of the parish church the only portions that are ancient are the porch and the N. transept. P. Sunday nearest 21st Sept. Off the promontory can be seen the clusters of islands leading in a N.W. direction to Ouessant. Of these the Ile de Banque, le Guéménés, and the Ile Molène are the principal. Ouessant and these islands can be reached from Conquet, a steamer leaving there thrice a week. The Ile Molène is only three-quarters of a mile long and about half-a-mile wide, and contains 570 inhabitants. Property in it is minutely subdivided. It was here that the bodies were washed ashore after the wreck of the Drummond Castle on June 16, 1896. The Ile d'Ouessant is about seven miles long and three broad; plenty of fresh water is found on the island, that contains 2280 inhabitants. It was here that Paulus Aurelianus, a native of Glamorganshire, landed when migrating from Britain at the head of a considerable party. He, however, did not remain above two or three years in the island, and then crossed over to the mainland. The church Lampaul (Lann-Paul) on Ouessant was founded by him. The cliffs are abrupt, and the rocks pierced with caves and natural arches. The island produces potatoes, and gives good feed to sheep. It is in process of being extensively fortified for the protection of Brest.

Broons (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. Bertrand du Guesclin was born here in 1320. The castle has completely disappeared, but a column64 has been erected on the site in commemoration of the fact.

Sevignac. The Château of Brondineuf of the 12th cent. is well preserved.

Cancale (I. V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. A little port, and a favourite watering place. It is noted for its oysters. During one part of the year nearly all the male population is absent on the banks of Newfoundland engaged in the cod-fisheries. The rochers de Cancale are a mass of granite rising precipitously above the sea not far from the mainland. Much granite is quarried at Cancale. The church of S. Méen is modern.

* CARHAIX (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. An old Roman town, Vorganium, lies high and in dreary country. Scanty remains of a Roman aqueduct are pointed out. The church (S. Tremor) is modern and good, with a fine East window; the tower is of 1529-35, with a West doorway, the carving of foliage on which is deserving of notice. More interesting is the church of Plouguer, originally very early in the 11th cent., containing some arches and piers and clerestory windows. It was enlarged in the 16th cent. (1574), and was ruthlessly mutilated in the 18th when the flamboyant tracery was hacked out of the windows, and the screen was demolished. The tower is remarkably fine, with bold splayed belfry windows. It was intended to support a spire which was never added. There is a handsome old house in the town of carved stone and timber. P. at S. Roque last S. but one in August.

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Carnoet on very high ground. Here is the peniti or place of retreat of Gildas with a chapel, by the river, and high up in a clump of trees under a camp that dates from the invasion of Brittany by the Northmen, is a curious chapel of S. Gildas of late flamboyant melting into renaissance. It has a W. spirelet, gallery and two bells, the spirelet sustained on an arch. Within, sunk in the pavement, is an 11th cent. sarcophagus, reputed to be the bed of S. Gildas, who died in 570. In the N. aisle is a range of six stages of fowl hutches. On the Pardon, 29th Jan., the peasants make offerings of fowls and horsehair; the former are put into these hutches where they cluck and cackle through mass, and then are sold by auction for the benefit of the chapel and its maintenance. The camp above is an admirable typical example of the Norseman fortress, consisting of a tump, hollowed out in the middle, that sustained a wooden superstructure; and a base-court.

Cleden-Poher has a large church of the middle of the 16th cent., but with alterations made in 1689, at which date the sacristy was built. It has a fine west porch, and in the apse a good flamboyant window in six bays with a column up the centre against which, within, stands a statue. In a Chapel of N.D. de Cleden the vault is covered with paintings of the 18th cent. The high altar has a retable into which are let sculptured panels of the 16th cent., and others, representing the seven sacraments, are about the apse. The venerated image of66 N.D. dates from the 14th cent. The Calvary in the graveyard is of 1575. At the N.E. corner of the churchyard is an ossuary, transition between flamboyant and renaissance. P. 15th Aug.

Treffrin (C.N.) possesses a fine Roman camp at Kermoisan, with remains of a tower in it. The Church of N.D. is of 1580, the porch of 1582, richly decorated, and contains niches within containing statues of the twelve apostles; the corbels supporting them are all different in design.

Locarn. The church is of the 12th cent. with additions and alterations of the 16th. It contains the tomb of the patron, S. Harn, in granite, 14th cent. The east window has stained glass of 1572 representing scenes of the Passion. The pulpit is renaissance, syrens occupy the angles. There is a Holy Well with an early statue of the Saint above it. A Calvary, the base ornamented with sculptured dolphins. In the presbytère is a magnificent silver-gilt processional cross of the 16th cent. In the parish are several menhirs, at Quellence Buis, Loquevel, Grand Follezon, etc., but of no great height.

Le Moustoir (C.N.). Church of 1507, in the shape of a T. The cornice, on which rests the vault, represents grotesque figures and groups. The E. window retains its old glass, representing the Life of the Virgin. In the tracery are the four great prophets. On the N. side a fireplace for heating the water for baptism.

Maël Carhaix (C.N.). On the Place is a67 Roman military milestone with inscription stating that it was erected in the reign of Septimius Severus. The Church of S. Pierre (1530) has old stained glass representing the Fathers of the Church and Bishops. The glass is of the same date as the church. At Maël Carhaix is the cave whence issues the spring that supplied Vorganium with water by an aqueduct.

* CARNAC, com. of Quiberon. Noted for the vast numbers of its prehistoric monuments. It lies on the low flat shores of the Baie de Quiberon, and is a great place for the cultivation of oysters. To obtain a good general view of the place it is well to ascend first of all the Mont S. Michel, a huge cairn piled up over a natural elevation of granite. It is oblong in shape and rises to about 60 feet. On the summit is a chapel of the Archangel, with an old granite cross. The mound was dug into in 1863 when a dolmen was discovered that contained over a hundred polished stone axes, a necklace, and other objects of the early bronze age. Further excavation in 1890 has disclosed another dolmen, in which, along with some stone implements, were two bronze buttons. The cairn is built up carefully of stones laid in order over a sheet of pebbles, and above them more of the same and of seaweed had been spread, and then above this fresh stones have been piled. From the summit the alignments of Carnac can be seen on the north. To visit these latter the following course should be pursued. Take the road to Ker Malvezin, and in a few minutes, on a bit of rising ground on68 the left is seen a dolmen on which a cross has been erected. Very soon after the road traverses the lines of Le Menec. There are still standing eleven of these rows and they run from E.N.E. to W.S.W. The total length is 3510 feet, and there are 1169 stones in them. The tallest of them is 13 feet high, but the majority from 3 to 4 feet. It is well to turn to the left and pursue the rows to the western extremity where is a semi-circular enclosure, evidently not in its original condition, and it is doubtful whether it be not a modern erection made out of stones pilfered from the rows to form a farm enclosure attached to the farm of Le Menec.

THE LINES OF CARNAC

Having retraced our steps to the road, we cross it and follow the avenues of upright stones till we reach and cross another road, that to Ploemel. The road has broken through the lines, which continue only a few yards to the east, and then are brought to a conclusion by blocking stones, that is to say, slabs set at right angles to the lines. From this point ensues a gap for about 345 yards where is a little plantation of Austrian pines, a stone quarry, and some furzy enclosures. The lines are not, however, wholly interrupted; a few upright stones and several that are prostrate testify that there was some continuation. We follow a new road through the plantation and between walls till we come abruptly on a fresh cluster of stones, and these the largest we have yet seen. This is the commencement of the Kermario group. These started from several tumuli enclosing dolmens,69 but of such only one, an allée couverte pertaining to the southernmost line, remains. The lines though mutilated are instructive. They start from this allée couverte and run about 250 yards to a pair of blocking stones, planted at right angles to the rows. The Kermario alignments run N.E. up a hill crowned by a disused windmill that has been constructed out of the blocks, then they continue some way till walls and a wood interrupt their course. Ten rows remain, and the number of the standing stones is 982. The largest of the menhirs is prostrate; apparently it had been purposely thrown down to form a coverer to a Gallo-Roman grave that has been discovered beneath it. What is of special interest is the fact that a Roman camp was formed in these lines, and that those who constructed the camp made use of the stones for their wall of enclosure, breaking up some, and employing others in their original position where it served their purpose. From the easternmost end of the Kermario group occurs an interruption of about 398 yards, and then we come upon a third set of stone rows, that of Kerlescant, which stretches 885 yards, but is much mutilated about the village. Thirteen lines can be traced containing 540 stones, but there were others, some 40, that lie to the north, and are the poor remains of another series of stone rows. On the east again the alignment is supposed to describe a curve towards the north, and then recommence and run east again to the Crach estuary. Near the rows is also a ruined allée70 couverte. The whole extent of rows cannot be estimated as short of 4½ miles.

Poor fragments of other alignments remain at Ste. Barbe, near a couple of windmills by the station of Plouharnel, and again, and remains of a stone circle by the dolmen of Keriaval. The dolmens are very numerous, but not in the commune of Carnac to the extent that they are in the adjoining parishes. An enumeration of them may be omitted here, as at Carnac for a franc at the Musée Milne may be had a serviceable little book, "Carnac et ses Monuments," by M. Le Rouzic, with a map. One word of caution must however be given—not to accept the wild theories promulgated relative to dolmens and alignments. A close and scientific comparative study of these monuments has led to a pretty certain determination as to their purposes. The dolmens and allées couvertes were sepulchres, family or tribal; and the alignments consist of stones erected by members of the tribe or families belonging to the tribe in honour of the several dead who were laid in the dolmens. The stone circles were either places where the dead were burned and funeral feasts were held, or were places of tribal gatherings for palavers; generally they served both purposes. Isolated menhirs were either memorials to the dead, or boundary marks between tribal lands. All dolmens were originally buried under cairns or tumuli.

The parish church at Carnac was rebuilt in 1639 and has a well proportioned tower and71 spire, with spirelets at the angles. Above the west door is a statue of S. Cornelius, who throughout Lower Brittany is the patron of horned beasts, as S. Eloi (Eligius, B. of Noyon) is of horses. On the north side is an extravagant baroque porch, with a stone crown or baldachin above it. The fountain of S. Cornély is west of the church. A tramway now connects Carnac with Belz and Erdeven.

The Pardon of S. Cornély takes place on Sept. 13, and is a curious sight. Cattle are brought to the church and offered to S. Cornély, and those thus offered are sold afterwards by auction, and are eagerly bought.

Plœmel. East of S. Cado is a menhir standing and two others fallen; east of S. Laurent by the roadside a menhir leaning, opposite a stone cross. In the tumulus of Mané-Bodgad near Kermarquer, a sepulchral chamber. The church has been rebuilt and is a despicable structure. In the cemetery is a lech fallen. Another found there has been trimmed and set on the top of the tower.

Plouharnel. The largest dolmen in the Department is that of Corconneau in this parish. It measures 6 feet high inside, and is 25 feet long. Four hundred paces to the east are the remains of an alignment composed of 21 menhirs. To the south the ground is strewn with ruined dolmens and menhirs either fallen or standing, relics of alignments that have been plundered. At Ste. Barbe, to which allusion has already been made, some 30 stones remain of an alignment, and the remains of a stone circle.72 At Vieux Moulin are six standing stones, and a little further the dolmens of Mané-Rémor and Runmeur. Further north at Kernevez a dolmen that has had its coverer displaced, and at Cosquer two or three more. On descending to the south at Runesto a dolmen half buried, and at Kerguvat, on the way to Carnac, a dolmen with a gallery. Between the village and the station is the tumulus of Rondossec that contains three dolmens, one of which when explored gave up two gold torques. The church is modern and bad.

For Erdeven see under Belz.

Caulnes (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. Once a Roman station. Relics found there are preserved in the Mairie. The church has undergone great alterations. The tower was rebuilt in the 18th cent., but the old W. entrance of the 16th cent. was preserved.

Guitée. Alignments of quartz blocks standing on others in which are cavities that have been found to contain ashes. There are five rows and run N. and S. One has in it 15 stones fallen, and 7 standing; one of them is 11 feet high. Another, a blocking stone, is 15 feet high. The second row has 12 stones fallen, and 2 upright; one of the prostrate blocks measures 15 feet 6 inches. The third line has 11 stones, all prostrate. The fourth line consists of 7 stones standing and 4 fallen. One of those erect is 18 feet 6 inches high.

Châteaubourg (I.V.) chl. arr. Vitré. The church has a renaissance portal. There73 are remains of a priory of the 14th cent. converted into a private house.

Châteaugiron (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes. Ruins of a castle. Two towers fairly well preserved.

Châteaulin (F.) chl. d'arr. Prettily situated on the Aulne which is canalised, so as to connect Brest with Nantes. The hills rise to a considerable height above Châteaulin, as here the Monts d'Arrée and the Montagnes Noires draw together, the latter to be prolonged into the Peninsula of Crozon. But though prettily planted, there is not much of interest in the town. The church (S. Idumet) is modern and unsatisfactory. On a rock on the right bank of the river is the site of the castle that has been completely destroyed. The chapel however remains. The piers and arches are of the 12th cent. The tower is renaissance and is beautifully proportioned. The archway into the churchyard is 16th cent., and the cross and ossuary of the same period. P. 1st Sunday in Sept. From Châteaulin the Menez-hom (990 ft.) may be visited for the sake of the view over the Rade de Brest and the Bay of Douarnenez. Ste. Marie du Menez-hom is a chapel (1574-91), with renaissance bell tower. The iron gate to the churchyard is of 1730, the Calvary of 1544.

S. Nic, most picturesquely situated, has a quaint granite church of the prevailing style of fusion of Gothic with renaissance.

S. Ségal (Cadwalader). In this parish the Chapel of S. Sebastian is of the dimensions of74 a church. It possesses some old glass. The Calvary is of the same type as that at Ste. Marie du Menez-hom. It consists of a cross with a double pair of arms beneath; on the topmost are SS. Mary and John, on the lower Roman soldiers on horseback. P. Sunday after 22nd July.

Loperec. The church (S. Bridget) has a spire of 1668, and an interesting Calvary of 1552. The porch dates from 1586, with niches containing statues of the twelve apostles, these carved in 1615. In the church is some fine work of the barbaric style of Louis XIV., especially the retable of the altar of the Rosary. P. last Sunday in August.

Cast. Has a Holy Well of the 15th cent., much resorted to, especially on the Pardon, 2nd Sunday in May. At Lelzach are menhirs. The Mur du Diable is a wall rudely constructed of blocks not set in mortar, probably prehistoric.

Quéménéven (S. Ouen, who has displaced S. Eugene, B. of Ardstraw). In this parish is the Chapel of Kergoat, one of the most renowned and favourite places of pilgrimage in Lower Brittany. The great Pardon is on the Sunday after the 15th August.

* CHÂTEAUNEUF-DU-FAOU (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. A picturesquely situated town on the Aulne. The well timbered heights of the Montagnes Noires rise to the south. The castle has disappeared, and its site is occupied by the hideous modern chapel of N.D. des Portes in a parody of Romanesque.75 The very interesting 16th cent. chapel was destroyed to make way for this monstrosity. However, the beautiful doorway (1430) has been preserved. The Pardon, very largely attended, with a procession bearing candles on the eve, is on the last Sunday in August. The parish church (S. Theilo, B. of Llandaff) has been rebuilt and is successful. The tower of the old church, 17th. cent., remains. The patron has been relegated to a place of no consideration in the S. transept to make room for saints more modern and in the Roman Martyrology.

Spezet. The interesting Chapel of N.D. du Crann is of 1502, and possesses seven magnificent stained glass windows of 1548. There are chapels of S. Tudy, P. 3rd Sunday in July, and S. Bridget, P. Sunday after the Ascension. But the P. at N.D. du Crann, the most important, is on Trinity Sunday.

Landeleau. The church (S. Theilo) is fine and has a porch of 1540. P. Monday in Whitsun Week.

Châteauneuf (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo, on the high road from S. Malo to Dinan. It is near the estuary of the Rance but is not on it. The castle has been almost wholly destroyed and a modern castle built on the site. The parish church, which is small, has a picturesque tower and some flamboyant windows.

S. Suliac possesses an interesting church of the 13th century. It contains the tomb of the Saint Tysilio, as the Welsh call him, who is the76 reputed author of the original History of the Britons, from which Geoffrey of Monmouth drew some of the facts which he embroidered with elaborate fiction. He was the son of Brocwel, King of Powys. On his father's death, an elder son succeeded to the principality, but reigned only two years and died childless. Thereupon the widow proposed to marry Tysilio, and take him out of his monastery to become King of Powys. Tysilio had no inclination either for the lady or for the crown, and refused. His sister-in-law was exasperated and so harassed him and his monastery, that he deemed it expedient to quit Wales. He came to Brittany and landed at Aleth (S. Servan) and founded a monastery where is now Saint Suliac. On the death of his sister-in-law he returned to Wales, and became Bishop of S. Asaph in succession to Asaph, who was his first cousin. In his old age he seems to have retired to die in his Breton Monastery.

Châtelaudren (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. The castle, originally a Roman camp, was the residence of Aldor or Audrien, prince of the British colonists who settled here. The castle was destroyed in 1808. It is now in private grounds, prettily situated above a little tarn. The parish church is modern, but on the height above the town is N.D. du Tertre, a church, 2nd pointed but with a flamboyant east window. There are remains of old glass. There is a 2nd pointed stone altar of S. Margaret. The spire was added later and77 there are internal buttresses. The wooden ceiling is covered with paintings. Near the chapel is a picturesque 16th cent. mansion. In the parish church alabaster bas reliefs of the 16th cent. are preserved in the sacristy.

Bocqueho, on the main road to Quintin, has a flamboyant Chapel of N.D. de Pitié with stained glass of the period representing scenes of the Passion.

Chèse, La (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac. There are halles of the 17th cent., and a church of the 18th.

La Ferrière. The church is partly of the 13th and partly of the 14th cent. The south chapel is of the 16th, with good glass of 1546 and 1551. Ruins of the abbey of Lantenac, founded in 1150; a portion of the cloisters remain, and a chapel of the 15th cent.

Plèmet. Chapel of S. Lubin of the 16th cent. with contemporary glass. In one window the legend of S. Lubin; in another the life of S. John the Baptist.

Cleguerec (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. Church modern, but in the churchyard a cross of the 17th cent. In the Chapel of S. Morvan is the tomb of the Saint, a rude granite sarcophagus. Near the church, by the roadside, is a lech with crosses cut on it. In the chapel of the Baptist is 16th cent. glass. Several allées couvertes are in the parish. One at Parc-er-bé, near the hamlet of Rotherbaz, 36 ft. long. At Bod-er-Mohet remains of another, 72 ft. long, divided into compartments within. Near by a menhir 12 ft. high.78 P. at S. Gildas, 1st S. in May. P. at S. Jean, S. after the 24th June. That at S. Anne 4th S. in July. Pretty lake at Ste. Brigitte.

Combourg (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Church modern and very bad. The castle belongs to the Châteaubriant family, and is shown on Wednesdays. It is a structure of the 14th and 15th cents., and has been carefully restored. It stands above a little lake in a picturesque situation, and has good grounds and trees about it. In the dining-room is a bust of Françoise de Foix, who was the wife of the Count of Châteaubriant. The count was compelled to be at Court, but long refused to allow his wife to appear there, and only yielded when Francis I. insisted upon it. The King fell desperately in love with her, and made her his mistress. The count was forced to swallow his rage, but when the fickle king turned to Mlle. d'Helly, afterwards Duchesse d'Etampes, then he carried her back to Châteaubriant where he starved her to death. The castle is supposed to be haunted by an old Châteaubriant with a wooden leg and by his black cat. The author of Réné and Athalie spent much time here in his youth, and his room and chair are shown. A ruined dolmen is at Chevot.

S. Leger. Church of the 15th cent. A prehistoric monument goes by the name of La Chaise de Saint Leger.

Cugnon. A menhir called La Pierre longue, 20 ft. high.

Concarneau (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. A79 fishing port, where sardines are tinned. It is also a resort of artists. Concarneau is picturesquely situated on a bay, and is divided into the New and the Old Town, the former very modern and uninteresting. The Ville Clos occupies an islet and is enclosed by walls flanked by towers. Entrance is obtained by three gates: the principal is to the west and is defended by two great towers, and has a drawbridge. Some parts of the fortifications date from the 14th century. One large bastion is attributed to the Duchess Anne. There is an aquarium in the place, and the studios of the Breton artists should be visited. The Chapel of N. Dame de Bon Secours is of the 15th cent. Two kilometres distant to the N.E. is the Château de Kerjolet, rebuilt and given to the Department in 1890 by the Countess Chaveau-Narishkine. It contains a museum in which are preserved specimens of all the coiffes and costumes of Lower Brittany, as well as antiquities prehistoric and mediæval. The factories for tinning sardines may be inspected. The costume about Concarneau is pretty, and the place is noted for the good looks of the women.

Lanriec. Here is an allée couverte, here is also a cromlech, or circle of standing stones. P. 2nd Sunday in September.

Trégunc. Numerous prehistoric monuments. A fine menhir at Ker ar Gallon, another 30 ft. high. A stone circle 248 ft. in diameter. A dolmen on the Lande de Kerlan 24 ft. long. P. de S. Marc, the S. after 25th April. P. de80 N.D. de Bon Secours, 3rd S. in September. P. of S. Philibert, last S. in August, and that of S. Elizabeth the ensuing Sunday.

Corlay (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac. Church of S. Elouan of 1576. Old Holy Well. The Chapel of S. Anne was built in 1198, destroyed in the war of the two Jeannes, and rebuilt in 1485, and dismantled in 1599. On the Lande de la Justice foundations remain of the old gallows; allée couverte, called Le Tombeau de Gargantua, near the hamlet of Faouët, on the road to Uzel.

Haut Corlay. Near the village is the Men Bixiquet, a menhir 9 feet high. North of the Tertre aux Colombs, a rectangular fortification enclosing tumuli, a vast number of others are outside.

Plussulien (S. Sulien). The church is of the 16th cent. The Holy Well of S. Sulien is of the 16th cent. as well. The Chapel of the N.D. de Saleon of the 15th cent.

Croisic, Le (L.I.), chl. arr. S. Nazaire. A little port and bathing place. It is here that Cæsar stood to watch the naval fight between Brutus and the Venetian fleet, which resulted in the complete destruction of the latter. The Venetii had large vessels with leather sails, whereas the Romans had galleys. The success of the latter was wholly due to the failure of wind to fill the Venetian sails and enable the great ships to move. By this means the Roman galleys were enabled to attack each huge hulk separately, and the Venetian fleet81 was thus destroyed piece-meal. After this Cæsar in cold blood slaughtered all the nobles, and sold all the population he could lay his hands on into slavery. Le Croisic lies on a slight elevation that runs as a ridge banking out the Loire from the low tract of salt marsh on the other or inland side. N.D. de la Pitié (1494-1507) has a N. porch of 1528, and a tower of the 17th cent. The Chapel of S. Goustan is partly Romanesque, and has a miraculous Holy Well near it. A marine hospital for scrofulous children is at Le Croisic.

Batz, on the same ridge as Le Croisic, is also a sea-bathing place and in much resort. The church (S. Winwaloe) is of the 15th and 16th cents., with a stately tower rebuilt in 1677. The pillars of the earlier 13th cent. church remain. The church was restored in 1866. In Batz is a little museum in which are preserved the old costumes of the district.

Pouliquen (The White Pool), also a sea-bathing place. On the rock of Penchâteau is a chapel containing a 15th cent. alabaster bas-relief.

Crozon (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. The bleak promontory of Crozon spreads out to the west and forms the headland of Camaret, then intervenes the bay de la Chèvre, and to the north the headland of Crozon. The church (1602-15) contains a retable representing the martyrdom of the Theban Legion. The spire is modern. There is a stone circle at Tyahurey in the midst of a vast lande, a dolmen at82 Rostudet, and stone rows at Kercolleoch and Landaoudec. The coast to Morgat is fine, much gnawed into by the Atlantic, and full of caverns. There are, however, good stretches of sand. Dinant takes its name from the rocks that shoot up like walls and towers of a fortress. The bay of Dinant is beautiful, and here also are many caves, notably that of the Korrigans or water-sprites. P. Sunday after 29th June.

Camaret is a little port given over to the sardine fishing and to the tinning. The Chapel of Rozmadou dates from 1560. At Toulinquel is a set of stone rows. At Kerloch a little lake. The Benediction of the Sea takes place on the 3rd Sunday in June.

Lanveoc (S. Fiacc, B. of Sletty). Here are prehistoric remains. P. Sunday nearest to 26th July.

Daoulas (F.) chl. arr. Brest. An Augustinian abbey was founded here in 1170. To this period belong the body of the church and portions of the choir. A porch was added in renaissance times. Glass of the Breton school of the 16th cent. remains in the church windows. The cloister is Romanesque, and of the same date as the foundation of the abbey. Semi-circular arches rest on columns alternately single and coupled, and with early foliage in the capitals, and with ornamented bases. In the midst of the cloister is a basin also of the 12th cent. Chapel of B.V.M. 1550, and Chapel of S. Anne 1667. Daoulas is at the head of a long tidal creek, between hills, in a pretty83 situation. The Kersanton stone, so largely used for sculpture in the churches of Lower Brittany in the 16th and 17th cents., is quarried not far from here.

N.D. DE LA FONTAINE, DAOULAS

L'Hôpital Comfront. A commandery of the Knights of S. John was here. The church is in the common transition style between flamboyant and a renaissance, with an open bell tower for two bells and a side turret, disengaged with cupola, containing the stair. The west front has a doorway much like that at Rumengol. In the church is a statue of S. Barbe of 1511. P. Easter Monday.

Irvillac. Church with a renaissance tower and spire. P. des Reliques 3rd Sunday in July. P. des Marches, with wrestling, 3rd Sunday in October.

* DINAN (C.N.) chl. d'arrond. In a picturesque situation, 225 feet above the Rance which flows through a gorge to the sea, between granite cliffs broken by bays down which flows abundant foliage. The town is walled round on all sides save that on which is the railway station. Three gates remain, and a postern of the castle. The original castle stood in a different position, and was called the Château de Gan. It has disappeared, and a vulgar and pretentious modern house occupies its site. The present castle was erected in 1458 and 1480. Of the twenty-four towers which originally surrounded the town fifteen remain in a more or less ruinous condition. Portions of the wall date from the 13th cent. The most84 picturesque portion of the town is the Rue de Jerzual leading to the old port on the Rance, in which are many ancient houses. In some parts are houses with arcades. The Tour de l'Horloge, singularly picturesque, is of the 15th cent. The Church of S. Sauveur is in part Romanesque, the lower portion of the west front to the bottom of the window, and the S. side of the nave. But the N. aisle, transepts and choir are flamboyant inclining to renaissance. The central slated crown to the tower is singularly beautiful in outline and proportion. There is one window in the N. aisle which contains old glass. A chapel contains the heart of Du Guesclin. The Church of S. Malo is late flamboyant of the 16th cent. throughout, except the S. transept front, which is renaissance. The W. window is modern, and remarkably bad in design. The church contained good old glass of the period, which the curé sold, and has supplied its place with utter rubbish. The Chapel of S. Joachim outside the Porte S. Malo is mainly Romanesque of the 11th cent. It was chapel to a priory. At Ste. Esprit is a granite cross sculptured with figures on the site occupied by the Earl of Lancaster when investing Dinan. Near this is a large lunatic asylum, with beautiful grounds, to which admission is accorded. The chapel built by the lunatics, if architecturally bad, is effective after its fashion, and well intended. From the Porte S. Malo a pretty walk, planted with limes, leads to La Fontaine, a chalybeate spring in a deep valley. A noble85 viaduct connects Dinan with Lanvallay. In summer an expedition may be made by boat or steamer to the Chapel of S. Hubert, an expedition well repaying the trouble. The Château de la Garraye is of the 16th cent., prettily situated, falling annually into more complete ruin. That of La Conninais, however, is kept up. A tower and the chapel are late flamboyant, but the main building is a century later.

S. SAUVEUR, DINAN

Léhon has a ruined castle on the height, and by the river the remains of a priory. The church, of the 13th cent., has been restored; the ugly east window is modern, and the stained glass is all bad. In the churchyard is the Romanesque doorway of the parish church, which was pulled down when the priory church was put in order.

Corseul. The ancient capital of the Curiosoliti, with Roman remains, notably a temple of Mars, of very peculiar construction, an apsidal chapel with a huge extended peristyle before it, like a cloister. The parish church, a wretched modern structure, contains a Roman cippus. In a picturesque situation is the Château de Montfilant, of the 12th cent., with to the N. traces of a prehistoric camp. In the farmhouse on the site of the castle are some statues, one of 16th cent., of S. Agatha carrying her amputated feet, and another of S. Anne of the 17th cent.

S. Helan. The church has some old glass in the E. window, representing the saint, who with six other Irish bishops visited S. Remigius86 at Rheims in 509. On their way, after having landed at the mouth of the Rance, they founded churches along their route up the river. At La Ganterie on the road to Dol, at the 8½ kilometre milestone, a little to the left is a ruined allée couverte, on the site of a prehistoric workshop for tools. The site is interesting not to the archæologist alone, but also to the mineralogist. The stones of which the dolmen is composed are diorite, and the material of which the tools were fashioned is the silex in the granite fused by a dyke of diorite which has run it into flint clots. The tools here fabricated were of a rude description.

S. Samson. A fine menhir at La Tremblaye, in a little wood, 30 ft. high, but inclining, as it was undermined by treasure seekers. According to popular superstition, if re-erected, Dinan would perish by a flood. A delightful walk may be taken from S. Samson to Dinan, by a road that leads down to the river, and comes out by the mouth of the glen of La Fontaine. From it the grand view of Dinan with its spires and viaduct may be obtained. The Rance at this point formerly swept round a rocky peninsula, but this was cut through and the course rectified, when the river was canalised. The walk may be extended by taking in Taden, where are the neglected tombs of the Count and Countess de la Garaye. At their own desire they were buried among the poor, to whom they had devoted their lives, in the churchyard.

TOWER, DINARD

87

Trigavou, between this place and Pleslin, is a wrecked series of alignments. Though a monument historique, the peasants have been recently blowing up the stones with gunpowder, and the remains are in too great disorder to be planned. In the church on a beam is a carving that represents a hare which when pursued by hunters took refuge in the sacred edifice.

Le Hinglé, a walk of a mile and a half from the station, takes to the Château of Chalonge, with a tower and picturesque gables. It is being well restored by the proprietor.

Dinard-Saint Enogat (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Picturesquely situated on an indented coastline opposite S. Malo, and connected by a tramline with S. Lunaire and S. Briac. It is a favourite resort for wealthy Americans during the summer, and has a casino, where those who like to lose their money may do so. Bathing is best obtained at S. Lunaire where are good sands. Scanty remains of a priory founded in 1324. The chapel in ruins contains a colossal statue of the Virgin and child of the 15th cent. An old house, traditionally supposed to have been once occupied by the Black Prince, has a couple of picturesque towers with conical roofs and gables. A house quaintly decorated with numerous statues of saints.

S. Lunaire has an excellent beach. Lodging houses are extending rapidly along the coast from Dinard to S. Briac, and in process of time there will be a continuous line of houses. The modern church is portentously vulgar, but the88 little old church has been happily spared. It has a low slated tower at the junction of the transepts. Within is the tomb of the saint, who was son of Hoel and Pompeia, and born in South Wales. His father was founder of Llanhywel in Pembrokeshire, and his mother lies buried at Langoat near La Roche Derrien. He was brother of S. Tugdual the founder of Tréguier, and nephew of S. Brioc. The story goes that he left his portable altar behind him in Wales, and that two doves crossed the sea bringing it to him in their beaks. On his tomb a dove is represented with the slab in its beak. The fact on which this legend is founded is probably that his sisters, crossing later, brought to him what he had forgotten. One sister was called Sceva, Ste. Sève as she is now called. Another story told of him is that when he settled at this spot on the coast, with his monks, to his dismay it was discovered that seed corn had been forgotten. Then Leonore knelt in prayer, and presently a robin was seen perched on a stone with an ear of wheat in its beak which it let fall when scared. The grains were sown, and on the following year all the produce of the little harvest, and eventually all the district round, derived its wheat from "Robin Redbreast's Corn."

S. Briac. Situated above a picturesque bay partly closed by an islet. It has a little port. The church is modern except the tower, which is renaissance. An extensive alignment existed89 here, extending to the headland above the sea, but the exigences of builders have almost if not wholly destroyed it. The saint from whom the place takes its name was an Irishman, a native of Ulster, who joined Tugdual and Leonore in South Wales and followed them to Brittany. Briac was given a site for a monastery where now stands the town of Bourgbriac, where is his Holy Well. He soon made of it a flourishing school for missionaries, who were sent throughout the district. After many years he went on pilgrimage to Rome, and on his way back halted at Arles, where he remained two years. Then he returned to Brittany, where he died at an advanced age about 570, and was buried at Bourgbriac.

On the further side of the river is Lancieux; the church contains a Roman cippus but is otherwise destitute of interest and will shortly be rebuilt. The vast bay west of Lancieux is divided in twain by the tongue of land on which is S. Jacut. Here the tide goes out as much as 5 kilometres. To the north of the promontory of S. Jacut are the islands of Les Ebbiens on which is a battery.

Off Dinard is the fortified isle of Cézambre, but visitors are not suffered to land there. Here was a monastery founded by S. Brendan about 524, and when S. Malo arrived from South Wales, he was hospitably received by Festivus, the Irish monk left there in charge. A Chapel of S. Brendan was much resorted to by girls in want of husbands, who vowed candles90 to the Irish saint if he would supply them with a suitor. But since the military authorities have denied access to the island, the damsels have had to aspire at home.

Dol (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. A dull town, formerly a cathedral city, and for three hundred years seat of an archbishop. The few old houses in the town are not particularly interesting. The former cathedral, now parish church (S. Samson), belongs for the most part to the 13th cent. The west part is flanked by two towers of the 14th and 15th centuries. That to the south has retained some remains of the original Romanesque church. King John of England burnt the church. At the crossing of the transepts a third tower of the 13th cent. was begun but never completed. The N. side of the church formed part of the fortifications of the town, and the wall of the chapels of the choir is surmounted by a crenilated parapet. The choir has a square east end like an English church, and with a magnificent 2nd pointed or geometrical E. window full of glass of the same period, badly restored. It represents the Last Judgment, scenes of the Passion, and the Life of S. Samson. The pillars of the nave belong to the original Romanesque church. After it was burnt they were retained, but disengaged columns were grouped about them and bound to the cylinders by bands of iron. Those in the side aisles are meaningless, supporting nothing. Behind the high altar is the Chapel of S. Samson. In the91 wall at the side are openings into a chamber into which the insane were admitted, and kept for a while enclosed near the tomb of the Saint, in hopes of a cure. In the N. transept is the sadly defaced tomb of Bishop Thomas James (1504) and of his brother, a canon. It was a peculiarly rich piece of renaissance work, by the Florentine family of Juste, two brothers of which were brought to Dol to execute it. After its completion they settled at Tours. It was barbarously mutilated at the Revolution. The S. transept has a rich porch, the statuary in which has been recently restored.

About a mile and a half out of Dol on the Combourg road is the Pierre du Champ Dolent, a menhir 27 feet high above ground and sunk nearly as many feet beneath the surface. It is dwarfed by a huge crucifix planted on the top. Near by is Carfeuntin with a hideous modern church replacing one of the 13th that has been wantonly destroyed. Here is the Holy Well of S. Samson.

Mont Dol is a height rising out of the great marsh of Dol, that was overflowed by the sea in 709. This was a prehistoric site and numerous flint weapons are there found. The church of the 11th, 12th and 15th centuries contains curious mural paintings.

Douarnenez (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. Prettily situated on a tidal creek that has its mouth almost closed by the Isle of Tristan. The railway station is high above the town and the ravine is crossed by a viaduct. The town92 itself is given up to sardines and is pervaded by bad odours. It has a very bad modern church. That of S. Helene is of the 17th cent. with glass of the period. The Chapel of S. Michel is of 1664 and has a painted ceiling. Douarnenez was the headquarters of the brigand Fontenelle during the wars of the League. He had his castle on the island of Tristan where he crowded his prisoners into the dungeons so dense that they could not lie down, and kept them there till they died, in a condition of indescribable filth. As one died, he made the rest throw him out at the window into the sea. Some, who he thought might ransom themselves, he placed in metal chairs over slow fires, others he left in bitter winter weather immersed to their necks in barrels of cold water. He carried on his barbarities, not for any cause, though he professed himself to be a leaguer. He warred on all alike for the sake of rapine and out of wanton love of slaughter. He was finally broken on the wheel in 1602. Douarnenez is connected by rows of houses with

Ploaré, where is a fine church very late flamboyant resolving itself into renaissance, and typical of a style very general throughout Finistère. A singular feature is to be noted in the pinnacles about the spire. Two of these have tall crocketed spirelets, but taste was changing whilst the tower was approaching completion, and the two other pinnacles are truncated Italian lanterns. The tower was93 begun in 1555. The side aisles are gabled over the aisle windows, and as usual in Breton churches there is no clerestory. The buttresses are surmounted by pinnacles that are crowned with cupolas. The cusping has gone from the tracery, a sure mark of decay of the style. There is a fine porch with niches, but no statues. A fireplace and chimney for heating the water for baptisms, shows that this usage was carried on to the latter half of the 16th cent. As we shall see under Le Juch there is a later example.

PLOARÉ

Poullan. The church (S. Cadvan) is flamboyant verging into renaissance. It has a thin tower with two galleries, and a pretty porch. The side aisles are peculiarly narrow. The capitals of the pillars are quaintly carved. The octagonal vestry is of the 17th cent. Several dolmens. A menhir near the seamark at Kermenhir. P. 1st S. in September.

Le Juch. Renaissance tower. Fireplace in the church for warming the water for baptism, as late as 1710. The east window has in it 16th cent. glass representing the Crucifixion.

Guengat. A small late flamboyant church. Ossuary adjoining the porch 1557. Owing to the fall of the tower in 1700, the church was restored in 1706. It contains some fine glass of the 16th cent. representing the Last Judgment and the Passion. The date is 1571. The porch flamboyant. Curious uncouth and late tracery in two gabled windows beside the porch. The third has flamboyant tracery. A94 Calvary in the churchyard is of the 16th cent. In the presbytère are preserved a beautiful chalice, and a processional cross of 1584. P. de S. Ivy, 2nd S. in May. Patronal feast last S. in August.

Kerlaz. Church (S. Germain) picturesque and interesting. It has a crocketed spire with subsidiary turrets and spirelets partially detached. The church contains old glass in the east window representing scenes of the Passion and S. John the Baptist presenting the donor and a canon. Font of 1567, tower 1660, Calvary 1645, lychgate 1558.

Elven (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. The Chapel of S. Germain is of the 16th cent. At the door is a sarcophagus supposed to be that of S. Germain. This Germanus is probably not the Great Bishop of Auxerre, but the nephew of S. Patrick, who was tutor of S. Brioc, and finally apostle of the Isle of Man. Elven is a good place whence to explore the Lande de Lanvaux. This upland ridge is strewn with prehistoric remains, dolmens and menhirs, notably La Loge aux Loups, a dolmen; an allée couverte Le Léty, a menhir at Carhaix, another at Villeneuve. An allée couverte at Villepierre, two dolmens in the wood at Coetby and two menhirs called Baboun et Baboune at the outskirts of the wood of Lanvaux. At S. Guyomard a menhir 22 feet high. At Plaudren beside the road, La Quenouille, about 18 feet high. Near it numerous remains of dolmens and fallen menhirs. Another group at Plaudren, a fallen menhir, 16 feet high,95 and two others prostrate of less height, an allée couverte called Mein-gouarec near a curious rock shaped like a crouching lion.

Etaples (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A watering-place in some repute with good sands. The church is of the 15th cent., but with a tower of 1786. Etaples is in the ancient county of Goelo.

Lantec. The parish church (S. Oswald) is a mean modern structure. How the great Northumbrian king should come to be here commemorated is hard to understand. He is represented over the altar as a chubby, smirking boy. The Chapel of N.D. de la Cour is a noble structure of 1460, of the finest and purest flamboyant, before it became degenerate and adulterated with Italian detail. Chancel and side aisles are vaulted. The nave has modern wood vaulting. The superb east window is filled with the finest stained glass, silvery in tone, with the colour set in it as jewels, after the English school, and entirely different from the prevailing Breton character of glass which, like the French, is overladen with colour. The modern glass in some of the windows is bad as bad can be. The tracery of the chancel windows is admirable. There is a second stained window, old, in the S. transept. In the chapel is the tomb of Guillaume de Rosmadec, 1608, in kersanton stone. P. 16th August, when pilgrim fishermen make the circuit of the chapel barefooted and in their shirts alone.

S. Quay is a watering place.

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Le Faou (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin, at the head of a long arm of the sea. It is reached from Henvec station. The church is of the 16th cent. late flamboyant, with a slender unsatisfactory tower, 1626-40. The porch is of 1593, with statues of the apostles.

Rumengol. The story goes that as King Grallo was riding with S. Winwaloe from Is, which had been overwhelmed by the sea, and reached the hill that commanded the valley, he saw a fire on the height opposite, and found that the pagan inhabitants were holding a sacrifice on the rou-men-goulon, the Red Stone of the Dawn. He vowed to build there a church. This is represented in the E. window. The church is late flamboyant with renaissance detail. The porch is of the usual type and contains, over the door, an adoration of the Magi. A hundred paces to the east is the Holy Well. In the little structure is a bas-relief of the Annunciation, and statues of S. Winwaloe and S. Fiacre. One of the most largely attended Pardons of Brittany takes place here on Trinity Sunday, the pilgrims arrive over night and sleep in the church.

* LE FAOUËT (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. Fine timber and slate Halles. The church of the 16th cent. is of little interest, but the chapels of Ste. Barbe, S. Fiacre, and S. Nicolas in Prisiac, are well deserving of a visit and a study. Ste. Barbe is planted on a rock above a pretty valley, and is reached by a staircase of stone. A bridge connects the upper platform with97 another chapel, that of S. Michel. The wooden belfry is on the platform above. The chapel of Ste. Barbe is of fine flamboyant work, 1489. The structure is curious: there is no nave, it is composed of long transepts and a small budding chancel. It was vaulted in 1512. Some very fine old glass remains, side by side with some very villainous modern stuff. Below, in the valley, is the well of Ste. Barbe. The P. of Ste. Barbe is on the last Sunday in June.

S. FIACRE

S. Fiacre is a superb example of the architecture of the 15th cent. The main spire, with its flamboyant gallery, is corbelled out on the west gable and is tied by two flying buttresses to two smaller towers with spirelets. The S. porch is vaulted and has niches within. The chapel contains very fine glass of 1550, but falling to pieces and fragments detaching themselves with every storm. The subjects represented are the Nativity, the Passion, and the legend of S. Fiacre. A roodscreen of 1480 has been badly "restored" and painted. The condition of the magnificent glass is disgraceful. The chapel is a "monument historique," so that the curé can do nothing to it, and the State will do nothing for its preservation. The foliage carving in granite is admirable for its boldness. The Chapel of S. Nicolas in Prisiac has a very fine roodscreen, quite perfect and untouched, covered with curious paintings; it is, however, later than that at S. Fiacre. There is here also some good old glass. The chapel is in a sad condition of neglect. It possesses a98 broken wheel set with bells for ringing by pilgrims to call the attention of the Saint to their prayers. Le Faouët may be reached from either Gourin or Quimperlé. The P. at S. Fiacre is on the 4th Sunday in July. S. Caradec Trégomel, a splendid late Gothic chapel, one of the finest monuments of 15th cent. in Brittany.

* FOUESNANT (F.) chl. arr. Quimper, with nice sands. A pleasant holiday resort. The costumes of the women are very pretty. The church is Romanesque, but was frightfully maltreated in the 18th cent., when large round-headed windows were introduced. The tower was struck by lightning and rebuilt at the same time. The piers are 11th cent. From above them rise pilasters that sustain relieving arches under which are the clerestory windows. The capitals have byzantine-looking work on them. The Chapel of Ste. Anne, in the midst of trees, was built in 1685, and has a tower for two bells and spire between two detached turrets surmounted by cupolas. This chapel is the object of visit when the Pardon takes place on July 28. Peasants and girls in white arrive by water in boats with their crosses and banners.

S. Evarzec. Here was a commandery of the Knights of Malta at Moustoir (13th cent.). A dolmen and menhir.

Goueznach. A ruined allée couverte. Chapel of N.D. de Bonsecours, P. Sept. 8. Chapel of S. Cado, P. Sept 25; that of Ste. Barbe, P. June 5.

Benodet. A favourite bathing resort. The church (S. Thomas à Becket) was erected in99 his honour in 1241, seventy-one years after his death. But it has undergone much alteration and enlargement. All that remains of the original church are two bays of the apse. The foliage of the capitals has all the freshness and charm of work of that period.

Perguet (S. Bridget) was formerly the mother church of Benodet, but now the relations are reversed. Externally, on the N. side may be seen Romanesque work, and the small windows of the period. The S. side has been completely transformed by the addition of a little ossuary and a porch and a transept of the 16th cent. But on entering the church the early character of the building becomes manifest. The arcades of the nave and the chancel arch are of the 12th cent. The three bays on the north are bold and rectangular, and, as at Fouesnant, support relieving arches that enclose the clerestory windows. This is all 11th cent. But the chancel arch shows distinct signs of the coming on of the reign of the pointed style. The choir is flamboyant. Here also the Byzantine character of the ornamentation of the 11th cent. capitals may be observed. The east window contains 16th cent. glass, and represents the Crucifixion. Among the statues in the church are S. Bridget and S. Patrick, but the latter has been altered into S. Paternus. In this church is a fireplace for warming baptismal water. The tower is of 1595. On the highway from Quimper to Benodet is the Holy Well of N.D. de Drenec. The basin is100 surmounted by a niche containing a statue of Our Lady of Pity. In times of drought the parishioners of Ergué Armel come here to pray for rain; but those of Clohars Fouesnant go in quest of it to Petit Ergué.

La Forest Fouesnant. This pretty little church is planted near the sea. The spire is bracketed out above the west gable, and contains a stone cage for bells. The Calvary is the earliest in the Department and is of the 16th cent. In the presbytère is a noble chalice of the first half of the 16th cent.

* FOUGÈRES (I.V.) chl. d'arrond. Picturesquely situated on a hill above the Nançon. Originally a frontier town between Brittany and France, it has preserved its venerable fortifications, but they are crowded in by buildings. The castle was founded in the 11th cent., destroyed in 1166, rebuilt in 1176, has been restored. It is planted on a rock, and was flanked by ten towers including those that commanded the entrance. It is divided into four distinct portions, the avantcour, the main court, the donjon, and the postern court. The entrance is between three towers of the 12th cent. The keep was destroyed in 1630. It rose in the midst of the second court, flanked by three towers that still remain, that of Melusine dates from 1242. The Church of S. Sulpice was rebuilt in 1410, but the nave and tower were not completed till 1490. The slate spire leans. The choir, begun in the 16th cent., was not completed till 1765. The Church101 of S. Leonard was erected 1407-44, but underwent alterations in 1586-1637, and contains fragments of old glass. Altogether Fougères is a most interesting place, and rivals Vitré.

FOUGÈRES

In the Forest of Fougères is a fallen dolmen, Pierre du Tresor, also an alignment of 80 stones, called Le Cordon des Druides, near the ruins of a convent founded in 1440.

La Gacilly (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. Near the town on the road to Malestroit, a menhir 15 ft. high, La Roche Piqué, and near it another of the same height but fallen. On the Lande de Signé E. of Gacilly a circular camp and the slope of the hill is pitted with excavations. The parish church was formerly chapel to the castle and was of 14th cent., but was altered and enlarged 1626-31.

The Chapel of S. Jugon, 4 kilometres W.N.W. Jugon was a peasant boy who led a devout life. P. Whitsun-Monday. Peasants take little bags of seed to have it blessed at the end of Mass. This is then mingled with what is to be sown.

Cournon. A fine dolmen, La Tablette. One of the coverers was broken in 1820. W. is a menhir 9 ft. high, further W. other blocks that may be the remains of an alignment.

Les Fougerêts. A pretty gorge with grottoes in the sides called Les Chambres du Coucou.

S. Congard (Cyngar) near Bignac. An allée couverte measuring 43 ft. long and 4 ft. 6 in. high within. It has five coverers, of which one only has fallen. A menhir near the wood of Misny. The Chapel of N.D. de Quimper102 is an object of pilgrimage on Whitsun-Monday, and here, possibly, may still be heard the barking of the pilgrims, an hysterical phenomenon, that formerly accompanied the Pardon of Josselin. At Wesley's revivalist meetings a similar phenomenon was noticed.

* GUINGAMP (C.N.). A pleasantly situated town in green surroundings, with the little river Trieux flowing through it. The finest view of the town with the towers of the church is from the garden of the Hôtel de France, whence water, foliage and old buildings group admirably. The Church of N.D. de Bonsecours is indebted to a miraculous image for the lavish expenditure upon it. This image stands in the N. porch, and has been accorded a gold crown from the Pope, and has been profusely "indulgenced." The church was formerly the chapel of the Counts of Ponthièvre. It was rebuilt in the 14th and 15th cents. and added to in the 16th. The church consists of a nave with four aisles, double transepts and an ambulatory round the choir. The transept and S. transept front are of the 12th cent. The central tower and spire of the 13th. To the same period belong the tower and turret on the N.W. The arcade on the N. of the nave is of the 13th cent. On the S. side the arcade is renaissance. In the spandrils are the cardinal virtues sculptured in relief, and corbels support statues. Above the arcade is a triforium consisting of three ranges. Above the arcade on the north side the triforium is of the 14th cent. The choir is composed of103 four bays of the 15th cent. The apse is of the same date. A curious feature is the carrying of the triforium across the church above the chancel arch. The transepts are lighted by rose windows of the 14th cent. The principal porch containing the miraculous image is closed by a grating and converted into a chapel; it contains modern statues of the apostles. The W. doorway is a magnificent specimen of renaissance work. Owing to the windows being all filled with modern coloured glass overloaded with colour, the interior cannot be well seen except on sunny days. The vaulting of the choir is sustained by flying buttresses within the church. The fine S.W. tower is an excellent but unfinished work of the renaissance. In the market-place is a leaden fountain of the renaissance. A few picturesque old houses remain. The P. is on the 1st Sunday in July. A procession with torches takes place on the Saturday night, and bonfires are lighted in the Place. After the religious ceremonies follow dances. N. of Guingamp on a height is the little Chapel of S. Lambert with some early 11th cent. work, but for the most part it was transformed in the 18th cent. The abbey of Ste. Croix is of the 16th cent., but the church has the piers of the transept of the 13th.

Grâces. The church is entirely flamboyant of 1508, and a typical specimen. All the aisle windows are under gables. The baptistery is of the end of the 16th cent. The relics of Charles de Blois are preserved here.

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Pedernec. A menhir 25 ft. high. On one face three cup-hollows. The church was rebuilt in 1847, but the S. side aisle and arcade and a good rose window in the transept, of the 16th cent., have been preserved. Also a delicately carved roodscreen, out of its proper place.

Coadout. An allée couverte at Pen-poul-ar-hus, destroyed in 1863, except for three stones, has one much polished. On this, according to local tradition, S. Illtyd and S. Briac were wont to meet and pray together, and it contains hollows supposed to have been worn by their knees.

Pommeret-le-Vicomte. Remains of a dolmen at Kerbic, one coverer and four supports still in situ. The church is of various periods. The oldest portion is the east end, and is of the 14th cent. with a large window. The tower and spire of 1712. In the graveyard a Calvary of the 15th cent. with a pulpit at its base. The Chapel of N.D. du Paradis is interesting, 16th cent., with a Calvary of the same period, with the apostles carved in relief on the octagonal base.

Gourin (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. An unattractive spot with poor hotel accommodation. Hence conveyances may be had to Le Faouët. At Kerbiguet a menhir 12 feet high and two others prostrate. The parish church is of 1500 with a tower of 1745. Numerous chapels are scattered over the parish: that of S. Hervé to the N.E. is of the 16th cent. and has stained glass representing saints, and scenes in our Lord's life.

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Langonnet. A menhir at Bodéro, 13 feet high. The parish church has flamboyant windows and doorways, but a few pillars of the 12th cent. remain. The tower is modern. On the S. side of the church is an ossuary. In the cemetery a lech. The chapel of the Trinity, 1500-68, with fine old glass representing the Jesse tree, the Passion, and the Last Judgment, and the Life of the Virgin. The abbey of Langonnet was founded in 1130 and is on the bank of the Ellé. It is converted into a reformatory. Chapel of N.D. de la Pitié, P. 15th Aug.

Le Saint (S. Samuel). Partly Romanesque, but with flamboyant windows. The chapel of S. Adrian is an object of pilgrimage.

Grand-Champ (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. On the north the Lande de Lanvaux, which was once crowded with megalithic remains. Many still are to be seen. A fine dolmen is on a rocky elevation a kilometre N. of Locperet. The capstone measures 16 feet long. Numerous menhirs further on in the direction of Croix-de-bois, perhaps the relics of an alignment. The church (S. Tugdual) has been destroyed and replaced by a structure of 1866. At Locperet is a flamboyant Chapel of S. Bridget. Another of N.D. de Burgo is of 1528 and 1538, and near it a Holy Well. P. at Locmaria-Grandchamp on Aug. 10th; at Moustoir des Fleurs on the 4th S. in August. At Grand-Champ itself on the 2nd S. in Sept.

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Locqueltas. A menhir, called Le Fuseau de la Femme de Gargantua, 15 feet high. At Plaudren another 18 feet high, and bearing the same name. It is near the road to Josselin on the Lande. The whole neighbourhood is strewn with remains of dolmens and with fallen menhirs.

Guéméné (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy. Anciently Kemenet-Guegnant, owes its origin to a castle of Guegnant, nephew of Alan Canhart, who erected it. The fief passed to the family of Rohan. The castle was converted into a prison for English soldiers in 1792. It is now a ruin.

Silfiac. A Chapel of S. Laurent of the 16th cent. with curious carvings; near it the Holy Well of S. Nodez, which is supposed to cure corns, and other maladies of the feet.

Langoelan. A dolmen on the E. of the hamlet of Villeneuve and in an islet of the Scorff. The church is flamboyant. Le Merzer marks the spot where Selyf or Solomon, King of Devon and Cornwall, coming to Armorica to see his domains there, encountered the pagan natives and was murdered by them. He was son of Geraint, who fell at Langport in Somersetshire in 522, fighting against the Saxons. His wife was S. Gwen, sister of Nonna, mother of S. David, and he was the father of S. Cuby. The Chapel of S. Solomon has been destroyed.

* GUÉRANDE (L.I.) chl. arr. S. Nazaire. An interesting town surrounded by its machicolated107 walls of granite, erected in 1431 by John V., and flanked by ten towers. There are four gates; that of S. Michel is a veritable fortress in itself defended by two lofty towers. The Church of S. Aubin is of the 12th and 16th cents., and has two porches, and an external pulpit of stone of the 16th cent. Within the church the pillars have carved Romanesque capitals. There is good glass of the 16th cent. N.D. la Blanche is a graceful chapel, erected in 1348 by Jean de Montfort. A menhir with cup-markings at Escoblac. Dolmens at Kerléour, Kerlo, and Sandun. A circle of stones at Kerbourg. Guérande is a good place for a botanist to stay at who desires to study the flora of the saltmarshes on one hand, and of the Grande Brière on the other. The production of salt goes on largely in the salines, and is carried on by private owners. It requires about 40 consecutive dry days between June and September to evaporate the water. The annual production averages 6600 tons. The Grande Brière is divided into 17 communes, and is a vast freshwater peat bed occupying the basin of an ancient lake.

S. Lyphard was a Roman station at the point where the lake of La Brière formerly discharged into the sea. The church is of the 11th cent. The peasants of the Bruyère wear a peculiar costume, and are true Bretons.

La Guerche (I.V.) chl. arr. Vitré. The church, of which portions belong to the 13th and 14th cents., contains some old stained glass.108 At 2 kilometres to the S. is the Church of Rannée, in part Romanesque.

Guichen (I.V.) chl. arr. Redon. Old chateaux at Gaylieu and Gressillonnoye.

Hédé (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes. Ruins of the castle on a rock. The church is Romanesque. S. Gaudran, good glass of the 17th cent. in the church, and two silver reliquaries of the 12th cent.

Hennebont (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. Prettily situated on the river Blavet. The town is divided into the Ville Clos within its ancient walls and the new town. A bridge connects them. The old town was fortified by Duke Jean I. (1237-86). It played a signal part in the War of Succession. Jean de Montfort had secured the place. At the end of May 1342, Charles of Blois laid siege to it. Within was the Countess Jeanne, who held out with determination, set fire to the camp of the enemy, and leaving the town unperceived threw herself into Auray, where she gathered reinforcements which she introduced into Hennebont without the feeble Charles being aware what she was about. At last provisions failed, and the magistrates insisted on capitulation. The countess entreated for a couple of days' delay, and at the last moment saw gleaming in the west on the sea the sails of an English fleet sent to her relief. Charles hastily retreated, but again a few months later laid siege to the place. He was, however, again repulsed. The parish church (N.D. de Paradis) on the further side109 of the river. It is the principal monument in Hennebont, and was erected in 1514-24, and is consequently flamboyant before it sank in debasement. The W. front is light and graceful and has a porch and a tower flanked by a couple of turrets tied to it by galleries sustained on flying buttresses. The spire rises to 150 feet. The choir ends in an apse lighted by two stages of windows. A procession takes place on the last Sunday in Sept. in commemoration of the cessation of an epidemic in 1699. The chapel of S. Antoine is partly Romanesque.

Kervignac. A fine dolmen near the road from Hennebont to Landévant. On the south, near Kermadio, is another. A third, small, near Lopriac. This is one of the most ancient parishes in the diocese of Vannes. It is mentioned as early as the 6th cent. At this time a cloud of locusts came down on the country, and the Count Weroch, fearing famine, sought Gunthiern, a refugee king of Gwent, who had settled at Quimperlé and was in great repute for his austerities. Gunthiern gave water he had blessed to the envoys of Weroch, and this drove the locusts away. In return for this favour, Weroch granted to Gunthiern the plou of Vineac. The Chapel of N.D. de la Clarté is of the 15th cent. That of S. Laurent contains some remains of the screen. A Holy Well of S. Gildas is still in request in the hamlet of Kanden.

* HUELGOAT (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. A picturesquely situated townlet at the extremity110 of a lake that discharges amongst masses of granite down a ravine. The ruinous condition of the granite is not due to earthquake or to glacial action as supposed by some, but to its composition. It contains a large amount of soluble silicate of potass. This disappears under the action of the rain and the granite crumbles away. Huelgoat is four miles from the nearest railway station. The road is through the valley of the Argent, between pine-clad hills. The granite here encounters the schist. The church is a mean renaissance structure, but the Chapel of N.D. des Cieux is more interesting. It is of the 16th cent. and contains some old glass of the period. A camp on a height above the town is attributed to King Arthur.

S. Herbot. A chapel in the parish of Loqeffret is a picturesque structure at the roots of the Monts d'Arrée. A stream here falls in a pretty cascade 400 feet over rocks, and at no great distance from the chapel are the inconsiderable remains of the renaissance Château de Rusquec. The Chapel of S. Herbot is actually a large church and merits attentive study. It possesses a fine square tower without spire or pinnacles. The date is 1516. The W. front is fine. Throughout, the carving of the granite is admirable, the foliage is treated with great boldness. The tower of S. Herbot seems to have served as a model for that of Carhaix, which is a few years later. On the south is a deep porch also well sculptured, with the apostles within, and 24 little statues in the arcade of the111 entrance. The date of the porch is 1498. The apse is flamboyant like the rest of the church, but the buttresses are later additions in 1618 and 1619. The interior is adorned with a beautiful renaissance screen and returned stalls, but no roodloft. On the W. face the twelve apostles, on that inside the minor prophets and the sibyls. In the chancel is the tomb of the Saint, a hermit of whom nothing authentic is known. It is a work of the 15th cent. There are some old stained glass windows. That on the S. at the E. end represents S. Yves between a rich man and a poor suitor. The date is 1556. The central window contains the story of the Passion, that on the N., S. Laurence on the gridiron. The date 1556, which is also probably that of the central window. Outside the screen are two altars piled up with cows' tails. These are offered to the Saint. Formerly they were hung about the sanctuary. There is a little ossuary on the W. side of the porch. The E. window is of earlier character than the rest in the church, and is of the same character as that of Pont l'Abbé with a transom supporting a rose. Most of the windows testify to the decline of flamboyant, when the flames assume a tadpole form and the lights are uncusped. In the churchyard is a Calvary.

Brennilis has a church with tower and W. façade of 1485. There are two windows of good old glass representing the Conception, S. Christopher, and a monk. Also the life of112 the Virgin. The church possesses a processional cross of 1650.

Janzé (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes. The church is partly Romanesque. In the suburbs a menhir with a hole cut in the face to receive an image of the B.V.M.

Essé. Here is one of the finest covered avenues in Brittany. It consists of a main structure with an ante-chamber, and is divided within into compartments. The total length is 43 feet.

LA ROCHE AUX FÉES, ESSÉ

Josselin (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. The capital of the ancient county of Porhoet (Poutre-coet = the land beyond the wood). The story goes that once upon a time a workman here found an image of the Virgin in a bramble bush. As it soon established its character as miraculous, a town sprang up about the sanctuary. Guethenoc, Count of Porhoet, planted a castle here and called it after his son, who completed his father's work in 1053. The castle became the headquarters of the counts and then dukes of Rohan. The original castle had been taken in 1168 by Henry II. of England, and utterly destroyed, but it was rebuilt by Eudes II. in 1173, and was held throughout the War of Succession by the partisans of Charles de Blois. In 1370 it was acquired by Olivier de Clisson, when fresh fortifications were added, notably the keep. Alan IX. Viscount, (1429-62) constructed the beautiful front towards the court. Richelieu had the towers and about half the castle blown up, in 1629, and in 1760 the duke113 himself pulled down two more towers. What remains of the castle has been most carefully and tastefully restored by the present duke, who graciously allows it to be shown to visitors. The front to the river which bathes its walls is furnished with three towers resting on the rock, and gives some idea of what the castle must have been when complete. The inner façade that looks upon what was the Cour d'honeur is a superb example of domestic architecture in the 15th cent., already under the influence of renaissance ideas. The ten gables of the dormer windows are connected by a balustrade of the richest design, greatly varied, but repeating the device of the Rohans, A Plus. The Church of Notre Dame was originally late Romanesque, and still retains pillars and a window of the period, but the bulk of the church is much posterior. The choir and lateral chapels and the crossing of the transepts date from 1390-1407. The rest of the church is later still. The N. transept was added in 1491. In this church, in 1351, the Franco-Breton company of Thirty made their communion before meeting in deadly combat the Anglo-Bretons of the same number at the cross of Mi-voie. They made a vow before the statue of S. Cadoc that still remains in the church. In Notre Dame is the tomb of Olivier de Clisson, 1507, who married Marguerite de Rohan. An "indulgenced" procession takes place here on Whitsun-Monday. Formerly it was accompanied by barking women, taken with114 hysterical excitement which made them utter sounds like the barking of dogs. This phenomenon first appeared in 1728 and was renewed annually. Nothing of the sort takes place now. The bold square tower is of the 17th cent. with picturesque slate cap. A new tower and spire are being added at the E. end. This is well enough, if the old tower be left, and the grouping will be effective; but if the latter be pulled down as is proposed, the new spire will be a poor substitute. Inside the church on the right hand is a niche containing a skull to which the peasants make offerings of grain, to cure headaches. None know whose skull it is, but it has recently been enclosed in a wooden silvered bust of S. Laurence.

THE COURT, JOSSELIN

The priory church of Ste. Croix is of the 11th cent. Romanesque. S. Martin's was erected in the 12th cent. and is now a ruin. In 1793 the Republican garrison of Josselin swept the country to capture the priests, and was fallen upon and defeated by the exasperated peasantry. In 1795 they burned the church of Guegon and smashed the Calvary, but were again attacked and driven off by the peasants.

The famous Battle of the Thirty took place on the Lande de Mi-Voie, between Ploermel and Josselin. The English-Bretons were under Captain Bramber or Bemborough, and the French-Bretons under the Sire de Beaumanoir, governor of Josselin. Although it has been regarded as a battle between English and French, there were actually but three or four of English115 nationality on the De Montfort side, the rest were Gascons, Angevins and Flemings. Success would perhaps have been with the Anglo-Bretons, had not one of the French perfidiously violated the rules laid down before the engagement, mounted his horse and by this means broke the Anglo-Breton line.

The country around is well-wooded and pretty. The town is dirty and ruinous.

Guegon. The church is in the late Romanesque of the 12th cent., when the style was in transition to 1st pointed. The south aisle is of 1560 and late flamboyant. In a window is stained glass representing the apostles; it is of 1563. The tower and spire were the loftiest in the diocese, but were struck by lightning in 1705.

S. Servan. To this parish Gobrian, Bishop of Vannes, retired in 717 and here died in 725. He was buried in his oratory. A village grew up about his tomb that bore his name. This is now a chapelry, and the chapel is of the 11th cent. with additions of the 15th cent. The nave is floored, forming an upper chamber which served as a hospital for the sick seeking health at the tomb of the Saint.

Jugon (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. A prettily situated town at the junction of two valleys, each occupied formerly by a lake and dominated by a strong castle at the fork. One of the lakes has been drained and the castle has been destroyed. The church has nave and S. tower, 2nd pointed and good. There is a116 curious W. doorway. Choir and transepts are flamboyant. The church has been "restored" in execrable taste. The road from Jugon to Dinan runs over high and dreary country, moors only partially reclaimed.

Lamballe (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. A little town in a plain dominated by a ridge of granite that runs to the east and is crowned at its W. termination by the beautiful Chapel of Notre Dame, and by a windmill at the E. termination. In Lamballe are some picturesque old houses, and there is a haras for the improvement of the breed of horses in Brittany. The town possesses three churches, one of which is Notre Dame, and was a chapel of the counts of Penthièvre, and is by far the finest in the town, but it is now only occasionally that divine service is performed in it.

The parish church of S. Jean is of the late middle pointed style, 1425, with an octagonal tower of 1420 at the base, but much later at the crown. The church has been atrociously mutilated, all the tracery cut out of the windows in the 18th cent. to be replaced by an iron framework to sustain the glass. The Church of S. Martin was of early Romanesque of the beginning of the 11th cent., but the arches to the east show the beginning of the pointed style. The S. transept possesses a good middle pointed geometric window. The tower was begun in 1551 and became purely renaissance before completion. The quaint wooden porch was added in 1519.

The Church of Notre Dame is a magnificent117 structure, and richly repays a close study. The most ancient portions are the N. transept, with lancet windows, the noble gateway and the W. front, together with the arcade of the nave. But the side aisles are late flamboyant. The choir and S. transept were erected by Charles de Blois and are admirable examples of 2nd or middle pointed architecture at its very best. The choir is vaulted but not the nave. To sustain the vault on the S. side are buttresses within the church forming side chapels and pierced with delicate tracery. There is a double triforium. The choir has a square end lighted by a noble E. window, very tall and of only four lights. The clustered pillars on the S. side of the choir and the piers sustaining the central tower are remarkably fine. There is a little flamboyant screen with a renaissance organ-case above it in the S. aisle of the choir.

S. Aaron. On the Lande du Chêne-hut is an allée couverte composed of 13 stones, three of which are coverers, and two others lie in the soil. The whole is 30 feet long.

Meslin. Five allées couvertes on the Lande du Gras. One is in the middle of the Lande, one just below the mill, a third in the Champ des Caves, a fourth at Bourdonnais. In the Lande du Gras is a menhir 10 feet high.

* Landerneau (F.) chl. arr. Brest. An excellent centre for many interesting excursions. The town is commercial and thriving. It possesses a few old houses and a quaint mill. The Church of S. Houardon has been rebuilt,118 but the beautiful tower and superb porch have been preserved. The date of the porch is 1604, and the tower is of much the same date. Landerneau was a great artistic centre in the 16th and 17th cents., and its architects and sculptors erected the splendid work in the Elorn valley and the region around. The style they created is very original and deserves attention. They delighted in adorning the churches with noble porches, bold, and often with the gable crowned with a spirelet. Within, niches hold statues of the twelve apostles. When all other detail is Italian, the foliage remains of flamboyant character. The second church in Landerneau is that of S. Thomas à Becket, 1607, small and uninteresting. To the W. is an ossuary of 1632 converted into a habitation. The valley of the Elorn presents many scenes of considerable beauty. The rocks are of white quartz breaking through the leafy covert of the hills.

Pencran. A steep ascent of a mile leads to this very interesting church, with fine porch and two calvaries and a spire. The date of the porch is 1553. The sculpture here in Kersanton stone is peculiarly rich and delicate. Among the groups of figures may be distinguished Adam and Eve, and the serpent, the expulsion from Paradise, Cain and Abel, Adam delving whilst Eve spins, the Ark and the drunkenness of Noah. In the tymphanum is the Nativity, much mutilated. Within the church are the Descent from the Cross and the Mater dolorosa, groups carved in 1517.

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La Roche Maurice. In a most picturesque situation, the church embowered in trees on a height above the river, and a ruined castle on a rock of white quartz. The castle belonged to the dukes of Rohan whose eldest sons bore the title of Princes de Léon, on account of the large family possessions in Léon. The church has a slim tower with double galleries and two sets of open bell cages, and is an excellent typical example of a style very common in the Department of Finistère. Its date is 1589. The porch with some fine foliage in Kersanton stone is of 1530-40. In the churchyard is a good ossuary of 1640. On it is represented Death darting at all sorts and conditions of men, with the inscription "Je vous tue tous." At the entrance to the churchyard are three pillars that support the cross of Christ and the two thieves. Within the church the magnificent east window with its stained glass of 1539 at once arrests the eye. It represents the story of the Passion and reproduces that in S. Mathieu at Quimper, and that in the church of Tourch. After the stained glass, the screen attracts attention. It is renaissance and is the sole example left in its proper position in a parish church in the dioceses of Léon and Quimper. P. Ascension Day. But at Pontchrist, a ruined renaissance church by the river in a picturesque situation, on the 4th S. in July.

La Martyr. This was the scene of the murder of Solomon, King of Brittany, in 874. Solomon had assassinated his cousin Erispoe,120 who was king, before the altar of the church of Penpont, and so won the crown for himself. He was a contemptible creature. He proceeded to buy off the Northmen and to promise to pay tribute to Charles the Bald, and undertook to undo all the ecclesiastical organisation formed by Nominoe and surrender the jurisdiction over the Breton sees to the Archbishop of Tours, if the Pope would absolve him of the murder. But this was too much for the Bretons to endure, they rose in revolt, headed by Pasquitien, son of the assassinated king, and Solomon, finding himself deserted on all hands, fled with his son towards the coast, hoping to take refuge in England. But he was overtaken where is now La Martyr, where he had taken sanctuary in the church, dragged forth along with the boy and both were killed (874). For some unaccountable reason the Bretons have regarded this despicable murderer as a saint. The tower of the church belongs to the 13th cent. The entrance to the churchyard is by a triumphal arch adorned with statuary. This is the earliest of the kind in the country and belongs to the 16th cent. The porch is remarkable for its style and for the delicacy and richness of the sculpture. It belongs to the latter part of the 15th cent. The ossuary is of 1619 and is attached to the porch. The interior of the church is of the 14th cent. It had originally a fine screen in Kersanton stone, that has been destroyed, but the basement of the parclose screens remains. Four stained windows of 1567 represent the Passion,121 the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Noli me tangere, the apparition of the risen Christ to His mother, and the Ascension. Also the death, assumption and coronation of the Virgin, and a Jesse tree. The Duke and Duchess of Rohan are represented as the donors. The church possesses a magnificent reliquary of the renaissance period. P. on the 2nd S. in July. A great horse fair follows, lasting three days.

S. Divy. This church possesses a ceiling painted with a series of subjects from the life of S. David. P. Sunday after Ascension and 2nd S. in September.

Dirinon (S. Nonna). The name signifies the steps of Nonna. The church stands on very high ground. It is in the usual style of transition between flamboyant and renaissance (1588-93). A chapel in the churchyard contains the tomb of S. Nonna, mother of S. David, and wife of Sandde, grandson of Ceredig, who drove the Irish out of S.W. Wales and gave its name to Cardigan. The tomb, however, is a work of the 15th cent. At a little distance from the village is her well (1623). At the further end of the village is that of S. David. P. 2nd S. after Trinity.

Plougastel. The costumes of this district are very picturesque. The men wear blue or violet jackets and three waistcoats and sashes. The church is modern, but in the churchyard is a marvellous Calvary (1602-4) consisting of an arcade under a platform crowded with statues, and a frieze surrounds it, carved with subjects in122 bas-relief. P. at La Fontaine Blanche, Easter Monday and the 15th August; at S. Jean on the 24th June. By the Chapel of S. Guénolé is a rude stone, against which barren women rub themselves in the hope of becoming mothers.

* LANDIVISIAU (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. A small town on the high road from Morlaix to Brest. It forms an excellent starting point for several interesting excursions. The church is modern, but has a tower and spire of 1590, partaking of the fault of all those in Léon and Cornouailles of this period. It is thin and pinched. The date of the superb porch is 1554. It is an interesting study, as it serves as a link between those of pure flamboyant and such as are true renaissance. About the great arch are subjects from the Old Testament. Within are the twelve apostles; the corbels supporting them are curious and varied; symbolical. For instance, one represents two drunken soldiers carrying off two girls, one carrying a mirror, another a sceptre, signifying that damsels with vanity or arrogance fall an easy prey. In the cemetery outside the town is an ossuary, date about 1620. In the town is the Holy Well of S. Divisiau, almost buried among houses. It supplies a large public washing basin. Two ranges of an arcade surmount it, containing ten panels that have come from some tomb of the 16th cent. Landivisiau, with its comfortable hotel, is a good starting-place for excursions to places where the accommodation is not all that could be desired.

CALVARY AND OSSUARY, S. THÉGONNEC

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S. Thégonnec. This place is richly deserving of a visit with its church, and churchyard overcrowded with piles of granite, Calvary and ossuary and triumphal arch. The last mentioned is of 1587 and is cumbrous but effective. These triumphal arches first made their appearance at the close of the Gothic period. This is wholly Italian in character. The ossuary adjoins it and belongs to a later period, but is far purer in design, 1676-7. The façade is very rich and beautiful. Within in a crypt is a Holy Sepulchre, life sized figures of 1702. The Calvary dates from 1610 and represents scenes of the Passion. The oldest portion of the church is the west doorway with the little bell-turret rising above it; this dates from 1563. At a later date the huge tower was erected on the south with a porch in its basement, built between 1599 and 1610, the statues added in 1632. Above the porch is the statue of S. Thégonnec (To-quessnac, a disciple of Paul of Léon). The window tracery is modern and does not faithfully represent the old tracery. The nave was built in 1777. The furniture of the church is interesting. The pulpit, though late, is fine. A niche with shutters painted with scenes from the Saint's life contains a statue of the patron. Opposite is another statue of the B.V.M. with painted shutters. The tower is heavy, and the effect of chamfering the angles very unpleasing. To support the gallery the angles of the tower are very massive, buttresses are added and between them the wall is reduced,124 and the gallery sustained on heavy corbels. The platform is surmounted by a dome and lantern and little side pepper-boxes. The interior effect of the church is rich and harmonious in gold and colour, if somewhat barbaric.

Locmelar is reached by ascending a pretty valley that contains an affluent of the Elorn. The church is late flamboyant, with apse and gables. The porch is of the common type of the period and contains statues of the apostles. There is a Calvary. The tower dates from 1656. Over a side altar is a painting representing in a series of groups the legend of S. Hervé, a blind bard saint who contributed greatly to the downfall of Conmore, acting in conjunction with Gildas and S. Samson.

Bodilis. The tower of this church was erected when Gothic architecture was in its decline. It is surmounted by a spire with spirelets at the angles rising from a gallery. The porch is of 1570, and is of unusual beauty. Within are the apostles; below the niches runs a band of marvellous richness of sculpture and great variety. The font is surmounted by a baldachin in Kersanton stone of 1680. P. on Ascension Day.

S. Servais. This church has an early renaissance tower with double galleries and two bell cages, the whole surmounted by a spire and pinnacles. The body of the church is of the latter half of the 17th cent. The graveyard125 cross has sculptured scenes on it, and there is an ossuary like that at Landivisiau.

Guimiliau. Annually numerous tourists visit this village to see its very remarkable ecclesiastical monuments, its church, porch, sacristy, calvary, and the little Chapel of Ste. Anne. The porch rivals that of Bodilis and Landerneau. The doorway into the porch has a series of biblical scenes in sculpture in the mouldings. The date is 1617. The voluted keystone alone proclaims the abandonment of Gothic for Italian architecture. To the west side of the porch is attached an ossuary, the roof supported by columns. The sacristy was erected in 1683. The Calvary consists of a mass of masonry, pierced by arches in the angle buttresses, the whole sustaining a frieze covered with sculptured figures, and the platform above crowded with statues. The whole surmounted by the cross with SS. Mary and John at the sides. The groups are very curious and represent soldiers and peasants of the close of the 16th cent. The Calvary was erected in 1581. Near the Calvary is the mortuary chapel of Ste. Anne, 1648. The interior of the church contains a magnificent baldachino over the font in carved oak; it was constructed in 1675. The organ case is of much the same date, the pulpit of 1677. The church possesses two embroidered banners of 1678. Guimiliau (Vicus Miliai) has as patron Miliau, King of Cornouaille, who was basely assassinated by his brother Rivold in 537, who also mutilated his nephew Melor,126 by amputating a hand and a foot, and finally by having him murdered by his foster-father, whom he had bribed to do the deed.

There is a Holy Well of S. Miliau outside the village.

Lampaul-Guimiliau. The great tower of this church (S. Paul of Léon) was founded in 1573, and is very lofty and surmounted by a spire which has remained incomplete. The porch is fifty years older. Within are the apostles in very quaint niches. The sculpture of the Holy Water Stoup and of the inner doorway is remarkably rich. The font is of 1651, and is surrounded and surmounted by a baldachino of 1650. The pulpit, that is late, is a fine piece of wood carving. The east end of the choir terminates in an apse with gables. The Calvary, triumphal arch, and ossuary belong to 1668. P. 1st S. in May. At the Chapel of S. Anne, S. after 15th August.

See also Lambader and Plouneour-Menez.

* LANMEUR (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. The church surmounts a crypt that is very curious and rude, and is attributed to the 10th cent. In this crypt was once the tomb of S. Melor (see under Guimiliau), whose body was transferred in the 9th cent. by refugee Bretons to Amesbury. There is a fountain in the crypt. Of the upper church only four piers and a small door belong to the original building. Near the church is the Romanesque Chapel of Kernitron (12th cent.). It is a cross church with a bold127 central tower. Some of the windows are late. The P. of Kernitron is on the 15th August.

S. Jean du Doigt is a complete and interesting collection of structures such as were wont to be grouped about a parish church. There is first the monumental church itself, in the midst of a graveyard entered by a triumphal arch, a Holy Well, a Calvary, an ossuary, and an open oratory, where mass is celebrated before an enormous crowd on the occasion of the Pardon, and, finally, the church possesses a rare collection of precious ornaments, such as belong to no other parish in the diocese. The triumphal arch is of the 15th cent. The Holy Well is in the churchyard, and is a noble renaissance structure composed of a large basin, with two superposed vessels, from which heads of angels spout water. The whole is surmounted by a group representing the Baptism of Christ. Almost in face of this is a pretty oratory of 1574, very elaborately and quaintly sculptured. The tower is surmounted by spire and spirelets covered with lead. The east end of the church has in it a noble rose window. At the foot of the tower is an ossuary, and a second of 1618 is on the S.W. The S. porch has a parvise chamber above the doorway. The interior is rich, and the inner doorway is surmounted by a statue of the Baptist in a Gothic niche with wings. The church was commenced in 1440, and was completed in 1513, so that it belongs to an excellent period of flamboyant, of which unfortunately examples are few. Internally the exaggerated height of the pillars as128 compared with the arches deserves notice. The treasury is extraordinarily rich in chalices, reliquaries, and a processional cross of the 16th cent. A reliquary of the finger of S. John is of 1429. The P. is on the 24th June, and draws vast crowds of pilgrims. The object of the cult is a finger of the Baptist, which is supposed to have its nail pared annually. It was stolen from some chapel in Normandy by a native of Plougasnou, who successfully conveyed it to his native village. There is, of course, not a particle of evidence worth a rush that substantiates the relic as genuine.

Plougasnou has an interesting church on a storm-beaten coast. The interior is Romanesque, but the exterior dates from 1574. It has a tower of 1582. A curious Chapel of N.D. de Lorette with caryatides is shaped like an old Lycian tomb.

Guimaec. Here are two cromlechs or stone-circles.

Lannilis (F.) chl. arr. Brest. The church modern and bad. The tower is of 1774, in the true Léon style, and interesting as showing to how late a date the style continued. It has two galleries for four bells, and spire with ample spirelets. The line is carried on to the sea, where there is a watering place at Abervach. The coast is not remarkable, but there are good sands.

Plouguerneau. On the east is the site of Tolente, a town that was completely destroyed by the Northmen in 875. P. of Tréminach129 on 1st S. after the 10th Aug. P. of S. Cava on the last S. in August; at S. Michel on the last S. in September.

Locbrévelaire. The valley of the Abervach is here pretty. The place is mainly of interest to the geologist. The whole hill on which Locbrévelaire stands is composed of Tertiary Oligocene, the ruins of granite, and is of a spongy nature, full of kaolin and with lumps and bands of quartz undissolved, and much mica. It is quarried for road-making, but the quartz alone is of value for that purpose. Almost certainly below this spongy mass a bed of kaolin would be found. The church (S. Brevelaire = S. Brendan) lies on one side of the valley in a lap of the hills, and opposite are the noble woods and park of the Château de Liscoat. The church contains an arcade of the 11th cent., very rude. The S. wall is 17th cent. The tower of the same. There is, in the churchyard wall, a Holy Well surmounted by a statue of the Saint. S. Brendan, afterwards Abbot of Clonfert, was forced to leave Ireland in 520, owing to his having unintentionally caused the death of one of his pupils, and he spent seven years away from it, during which time he founded a monastery on the island of Cézambre, opposite S. Malo, and another in a different part of Brittany. This latter may be Locbrévelaire.

* LANNION (C.N.) chl. d'arr. A picturesquely situated town on the Guer that reaches the sea seven kilometres below. The tide130 reaches as far as Lannion, and it has a little port. The Church of S. Jean de Balay consists of a nave and four aisles under one roof, and without clerestory and without transepts. It is lighted through side windows under gables. These windows are of various periods. One is of the 14th cent., others of the 16th, and there are instructive examples of the debased tracery of the 17th. In the market place are some picturesque old houses. By the river is a fine pile of buildings now used as a hospital. Particularly noticeable is a rich late window, an attempt—and an expiring one—to design a rose with flowing and beautiful tracery. In another twenty or thirty years, as may be seen in the windows of S. Jean de Balay on the N. side, the skill was wholly lost. Divided from Lannion by a deep valley is the Church of Brévelenz. The east part and crypt are Romanesque. There is a good early pointed porch. An ossuary and a mortuary chapel are in the graveyard. The pinnacles, one a chimney to the fireplace for heating baptismal water, at the porch are peculiar.

Loquivy is in a charming situation. The church (S. David) is interesting. In the churchyard is a noble renaissance fountain, and outside the graveyard a Holy Well, flamboyant, surmounted by a statue of the patron saint of Wales. The church is of the 16th cent. An old carved oak retable representing the Adoration of the Magi and a crowd of other figures is in the baptistery.

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Ploubezre. The church was rebuilt in 1851, but the fine tower is of 1577. Within have been preserved two Romano-byzantine capitals from the old church, and one window of the 14th cent. remains. The chapel of Kerfons is flamboyant, and is in the form of a T. One of the gables bears the date 1559. The magnificent roodscreen is of 1533. It is a beautiful example of good flamboyant work, with apostles and other figures on the gallery on one side, and tracery on the other. The castle of Coetfrec occupies the summit of a hill above the Guer. Four towers remain, and the castle is in a tolerable condition. The court is looked into by the windows of the state apartments, in one of these, a fireplace with bold chimney-piece, remains. The Château de Kergrist is a ruin, complete. Tonquedec is another old castle in a most picturesque situation. On the N. is the donjon, which is reached by a door high up in the wall. The Chapel of S. Gildas is of 15th cent., with the legend of the Saint within in sculptured oak.

Lanvollon (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. Reached by carrier from Châtelaudren, is a dull town with one curious old house in it at the junction of two streets; it is of wood and plaster, the wood covered with carving. The church (S. Vollon = Foelan) belongs internally to the 14th cent., and has a good E. window, but externally the church has been sadly maltreated by incompetent "restorers."

* LESNEVEN (F.) chl. arr. Brest. An132 uninteresting place in itself, but headquarters to one attending the Pardon at Folgoët. Its fine halles of the 15th or 16th cent. has been destroyed to make way for a "place" with a statue in the midst of a General Floh, of bronze. When this statue was sent down, and the Mayor opened the case, to his dismay he found it was green. So he set his wife, cook, and house-maid to sandpaper and scrape it, till it shone as gold, and then had it hoisted to its pedestal, and it was solemnly unveiled. But the artist, who beheld it thus burnished, was furious, and complained to the prefêt and the authorities at Paris, and orders came to the Mayor to take down the statue and restore to it the green rust. He was obliged accordingly to re-erect the scaffold and crane, and have General Floh transferred to his own house again, where he expended some barrels of cider over him to reinvest him in verdigris. The church is very ugly, but it has a late renaissance porch in the basement of the tower on the N. side.

The branch line is carried on to Brignogan, which is a watering-place, and where there is a fine menhir 30 ft. high, the most remarkable in the Department. At Plounéour-trez the church is new, but the old tower and spire are retained till they also can be pulled down and replaced by something more in proportion with the new church. The windows represent scenes in Breton history. The coast is not fine, the sandy shore slopes very gently into the waves. But the good bathing is an advantage.

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Folgoët. This famous pilgrimage church was founded in the 14th cent. when an imbecile youth died who could say no other words than Ave Maria, Salaun a zepre bara, or Salaun wants bread. A lily grew out of his grave and it was concluded accordingly that he was a saint. This was in 1358. At the west end are two towers. That on the north is admirably proportioned with spire and angle spirelets of the period, 1365, when Jean de Montfort laid the first stone. That on the S. was never finished. It is surmounted by an upper stage with Ionic pillasters added in the 17th cent. The S. side has a noble porch and transept, the E. wall of which is a continuation of that of the choir. The E. and S. transept windows are examples of the geometric style in Brittany, a rose resting on a transom. Within the stone screen is formed of three compartments, and though fine, is certainly inferior to such as are in wood. A spring wells up under the high altar and is conveyed to a Holy Well outside. La Doyenne is a picturesque building with turrets erected by Anne of Brittany, converted into Mairie and school. The P. is on the 7th and 8th September, and begins with vespers and a procession bearing candles; many beautiful costumes may be seen on this occasion.

The processions arrive with banners for High Mass, singing this hymn.

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Patronez dous ar Folgoat, Hor mam ak non
Itroun, An dour en non daoulagat Ni noped a gatoun!
Harpit an Iliz santel! Aveldirolla
ra Tenn ok hir eo ar brezel! Ar peoc'h, O maria!

Goulven. The church is late flamboyant with a fine renaissance tower and porch within which are the apostles. Side by side may be seen a doorway of the earlier and of the later periods. There is a fine painted 16th cent. reredos in the church to a side altar. The gallery of the roodscreen has been made into a west gallery. About a mile distant is the Holy Well, with a stone trough at the side in which patients were placed and given a bath in the miraculous water. No such an attempt to recover health has however been made of late years. There is a chapel at the Peniti of S. Goulven at a little distance. A double dolmen at a junction of two lanes has been much injured, several of the stones that composed one of the chambers, and perhaps an enclosing circle, have been employed for the hedge. The P. is on135 June 30, the costumes then seen are very rich, and the parish possesses very fine old embroidered banners then produced.

Treflez. Tomb of 16th cent. of S. Elfleda or Ediltruda, daughter of Oswy, King of Northumberland, and Abbess of Whitby. She died in 715, but how her body comes to be at Treflez passes knowledge.

Guiseny. Church of S. Sezni (Setna or in Cornwall, Sithney) renaissance. There is a N. late flamboyant porch. Curious early Calvary with four figures on the branches. P. 3rd Sunday in September.

Lézardrieux (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion, on a little tidal port, between Pampol and Tréguier. An excursion may be made to the Ile Modez. See Bréhat.

Locmariaquer (M.) com. in arr. Auray. A most interesting place that seems to have been crowded with monuments of the prehistoric dead, and although destruction has been carried on for two thousand years, many still remain. Locmariaquer is situated on a spit of land between the estuary of Crach and the Rivière de la Trinité, but it is itself split by the creek of S. Philibert. The shores that are low are covered far inland at the high tides, and the sea has gained considerably on the land. Roman constructions noted in 1727 are now permanently under water. A camp in the hamlet of Lannbric is now eaten into by the waves. The principal prehistoric monuments are the Mané-er-hroeg, south of the village; a tumulus containing a136 dolmen that was explored in 1863 and yielded 103 polished stone axes, a collar of callais, and a jade ring. Near it was found a slab on which are mysterious markings representing cartouches, celts with handles, and other symbols unexplained. On the summit of the tumulus were found coins of Tiberius and Trajan. The tumulus of Mané Lud to the N.E. of the village contained two skeletons, one a case of carnal interment, the other had been burnt. At the W. end of the tumulus is a sepulchral chamber led to by a passage, and here also are carvings. Between this tumulus and the village is the huge dolmen called Table des Marchands. On the stone at the back are also carvings. Close to this is the longest menhir known. It is 64 ft. long, but was struck by lightning, thrown down and broken into four pieces. In a field near the village is the Mein Rutal, another dolmen of considerable size. West of the village and near the sea are the remains of an allée couverte, 74 ft. long, called Les Pierres plates. On this also are inexplicable carvings, next to those on Gavr Inis, the most remarkable in the country. There are smaller dolmens at Pont-el-leu, Kercadoret-er-Gal, Coetcourzo, Kerhan, Porher, Kerlud, Locperhet, Pont-er-vel, Kervéres, Kerdaniel, Kervoch, and Cocordeau; and menhirs at Kerpenhir, Bronso, Porher, Mané-er-hroeg, Kerguelvan and Lannbric. Locmariaquer was a Roman station. P. 1st Sunday in July; that of S. Philibert on the 3rd Sunday in August.

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Locminé (M.) chl. arr. Pontivy (Locus Monachorum). A considerable district was here made over to Gildas who founded a monastery where now stands the village of Moustoir. Owing to the ravages of the Northmen the monks of S. Gildas de Rhuys and of Locminé fled into Berry. They returned in 1001, and set about restoring their ruined monasteries, but the old site at Moustoir was not rebuilt upon; the abbey was transferred to Locminé. The parish church and the Chapel of S. Columbanus are side by side, in communication through an arch. The latter owes its origin to some relics of S. Columbanus having been brought hither. The chapel is late flamboyant, but has a 17th cent. tower, under it an earlier doorway with mutilated tracery above it. The parish church has a slated spire, that of S. Columbanus is surmounted by a small cupola. A quaint ossuary of good renaissance work is on the N. side. The east window of the chapel contains 16th cent. glass representing the life of S. Columbanus in four groups, but in a very poor condition. East of the chapel is the beautiful Chapel of N.D. de Plasquer, of the finest flamboyant work. The W. doorway has disengaged pinnacles and some curious carving. The E. window tracery forms three fleurs-de-lys. Within is a pretty flamboyant credence in the N. chapel under the tower. In a corner thrown aside is a noble carved oak statue of S. Gildas of the 15th cent. with his symbol, a snarling dog, at his side. P. 31st June, but that of138 Locminé is the Sunday nearest 27th June and lasts three days.

Remungol has a Holy Well near the church, a work of the 16th cent.

Lorient, chl. d'arr. A port. The town is composed of Lorient itself, a fortified place, and the Faubourg of Kérentrech, where a suspension bridge crosses the Scorff. Lorient owes its origin to the East India Company. That company, created in 1664, was in quest of a port. The Duc de la Meilleraye offered Port Louis, and in 1666 royal authority was granted to the company to form there quays, factories and storehouses. The village founded by La Compagnie de l'Orient took thence its name. The company having got over a financial crisis in 1669 bought up land in the neighbourhood. In 1712 the settlement comprised 700 families; it was raised to be a parish in 1709. In 1717 the company began to build and lay out quays and form basins on a grand scale, and in 1739 Lorient attained the dignity of being accounted a town. In 1745, the company had reached its highest point of prosperity, and had become a veritable maritime power, with 35 frigates in the harbour. Its flag was blue charged with a fleur-de-lys or, and it had as device Florebo quocunque ferar. English jealousies were aroused, and in 1746 an English fleet anchored in the Bay of Pont-du. Seven thousand men were disembarked under General Sinclair and summoned the town to surrender. As this was refused it was besieged, but after a few139 days General Sinclair withdrew without having effected anything. Curiously enough, the garrison had resolved on surrender, and sent to notify their purpose to the general, but found that the English had departed. The company failed, partly through internal dissension, mainly through the loss of Bengal, which was secured by the English in 1753. From this time the fortunes of the company declined, and at last it became bankrupt in 1769. It was then that Lorient passed to the Crown. The town is supremely uninteresting, and no visitor will stay in it except under constraint.

Port Louis. The Church of N.D., 1665. The citadel of the 18th cent., at one time served as a prison to Louis Napoleon.

Ploemeur. A circle of standing stones 20 ft. in diameter surrounds a tumulus, on the top of which is a dolmen fallen, thrown down by clumsy excavators. Near Kerroch a dolmen, the table sustained by three uprights, and near it the supporter of another. On the S. some menhirs, the remains of an alignment. At Kerpape, near the powder mill, another dolmen. At the Pointe du Tallut a menhir 12 ft. high, and near it another fallen. Ploumaur, the Great Tribe, was one of the largest parishes in the diocese; it was settled by S. Ninnoc, supposed to have been a daughter of the King of Brecknock. Her double monastery for both sexes was destroyed by the Northmen, and it was not rebuilt till the 12th cent. The church contains Romanesque work, but the tower was built in140 1686, and the chancel was altered and disfigured in 1783. P. 1st Sunday in May. The Chapel of N.D. de Larmor was built in 1506, the tower and spire added in 1615. It was a great place of pilgrim resort till S. Anne d'Auray drew away the seamen who were wont to resort to Larmor. The benediction of the sea takes place on the 24th June.

Plouhinec. On the N. near Kerfourches two ruined dolmens and a menhir. The W., near the mill of Keronsine, alignments running parallel with the coast. Near Kersur a small menhir and four dolmens. At the mill of Gueldro the alignments recommence in seven or eight rows, and run on to Keroué and Kervelhué. At Magouer a tumulus with a dolmen and a group of menhirs, most of them fallen, and others have been split and used for building purposes.

Kervignac. On the N. a fine dolmen near the road to Hennebont. Another to the south near Kermado.

Nostang. S. of the village near the river Etel an alignment of 19 menhirs. For Ile de Groix, see under Pont-aven.

Louvigné du Desert (I.V.) chl. arr. Fougères. Church (S. Padarn) of the 15th cent. with a tower of 1702. A circle of upright stones. The Château of Monthorion with tombs of Raoul II. de Fougères (1194) and Françoise de Foix in the chapel.

Malestroit (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. The castle is on an islet of the Saudraye; it was141 constructed in the 11th cent. No traces of it now remain, or none of any importance. The town, built under the shadow of the castle, was fortified in 1463. It was attacked with fury by the League, but always resisted the enemy, till a third siege by Mercœur in 1592, but two months later it was retaken by the Royalists. Now all the walls are gone. The place retains a number of old houses, one of these near the parish church has on it grotesque figures, as a sow spinning, a hunter playing the horn, with beside him a hare performing on the biniou; a man beating his wife, etc. The church (S. Giles) consists of two churches side by side and in different styles. One retains remains of a Romanesque original. The rest is of 1511-31, and some good glass is in the windows, representing Jesus among the Doctors, the Baptism, the Passion, etc. The Chapel of S. M. Magdalen is partly Romanesque.

Matignon (C.M.) chl. arr. Dinan. The parish church is modern but the Chapel of S. Germain is the old parish church and has a Romanesque doorway.

S. Cast, a watering place with good sands. In 1758, the English fleet under Admiral Howe, after having bombarded S. Malo and burnt Dol, disembarked a body of men here. The Duc d'Aiguillon, then governor of Brittany, hastened to the spot, and in spite of the fire of the fleet defeated and almost exterminated the invaders. A monument marks the site of the windmill in which the duke watched the engagement.

Pléboulle. The Templar church is of the142 16th cent. except the apse which is earlier. Remains of the octagonal tower of Montbrun on a rock, commanding a sweep of the river Frémeur.

Plévenon. In this commune is the noble headland of Cap Fréhel, of old red sandstone. Here is a lighthouse. The Fort de Latte is on a point of rock in the sea 5 kilometres from Cap Fréhel, and entered by two bridges cast over precipices 300 ft. deep. Facing the fort is a rude stone 9 ft. high surmounted by a cross, probably a menhir.

Mauron (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. Stands on high ground, watered by the Yvel and Doeft, which unite above Ploermel in the pretty lake of Le Duc. In 1352 the Castle of Mauron was held by Bentley with a body of Anglo-Bretons. The Marshal d'Offemont, at the head of an army of the adherents of Charles de Blois, resolved on taking the place. Bentley marched out against him and obtained a complete victory. Thirteen lords fell, among them the Marshal and the Viscount de Rohan. A hundred and forty knights also succumbed. The Parish Register, 1591, is headed:—"Baptismal Register of Mauron made after the Prince of Darkness with the English and the lancequenects of his company had passed. They spent the Sunday here, September 8, 1591, pillaged and plundered all they could lay hands on in the church, and carried off the baptismal register—on which account this book is now begun." The church is modern but retains143 some old carving in panels of the 16th cent. near the porch on the S. side, and in the sacristy is a painting of the crucifixion of 1682.

S. Lery. A church of the 15th cent. except the chancel which is modern. In a chapel of the S. transept of flamboyant date is some fine old glass representing the marriage of the Duchess Anne with Charles VIII. of France. On the north of the nave is the tomb of S. Lery, and on it the Saint is represented with a pastoral staff in his hand, a book in the other, and his feet resting on a hare. S. Lery was a native of Wales who crossed over to Armorica and was well received by Judicael. As he desired a retreat, the Queen turned Ilogan, an Irish saint, out of his, and gave his lair warm to Lery, who had no compunction in receiving it. He died in the 7th cent.

Merdignac (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, stands on the road from Loudéac to S. Méen. West of the town is the fortified enclosure of the Vielle Court. Excavations have shown that the wall was vitrified.

S. Launeuc near a pretty lake. Here are the ruins of the Castle of Hardouinaye almost destroyed, where Gilles de Bretagne was starved to death in 1450. Gilles had been left by his father a sum of money, and he complained to his brother, Duke Francois I., and asked to be given some fief in the duchy. But Francis refused his request and threw in his teeth that he favoured the English rather than the French.144 Gilles married the heiress of Châteaubriant and Dinan. Arthur de Montauban, Marshal of Brittany, who had desired the heiress for himself, was thereby made his mortal enemy. He determined on his destruction, and to effect this spread calumnies against Gilles, to the effect that he was purposing to introduce the English into Brittany, and he obtained leave from Francis to arrest him in his Castle of Guildo. This he effected whilst Gilles was engaged on a game of tennis. He carried him off to Dinan, where was Francis, who refused to see his brother. Francis I. requested the parliament of Brittany to condemn Gilles unheard. At its refusal to do so, he handed him over to Arthur de Montauban to make away with, and the Marshal hurried him away to Hardouinaye and left him to die of starvation in its dungeon.

Muzillac (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. Church of Bourg Peaul with side aisles, Romanesque, and with a slated tower. Chancel 1505. The very rich and curious Calvary was restored in 1894.

Billiers. Here are the remains of the Cistercian Abbey of N.D. de Prières, founded in 1252. The church was pulled down in 1715 to make way for a hideous structure in the taste of the period.

Noyal Muzillac. The church (S. Noyala) was rebuilt in 1850, but the transepts and chancel of the 15th cent. remain. The tower was struck by lightning in 1630 and rebuilt. The Château de Keralio, of the 15th cent., is in ruins.

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Montauban (I.V.) chl. arr. Montfort. A modern church. The castle on the edge of the forest is of the 14th and 15th cents., and was once the seat of a powerful family to which it gave its name.

Montcontour (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc, still possesses remnants of its ancient walls. The church (S. Mathurin) is mainly of the 16th cent.; the spire is covered with lead. Six windows retain magnificent old glass representing the life of the Saviour, that of S. John Baptist, the legend of S. Barbara, that of S. Yves, remains of a Jesse tree, and the legend of S. Mathurin (1535). Montcontour lies on very high ground, and commands a magnificent view. S. Mathurin is much sought by pilgrims who have the highest belief in his powers. The P. is on the eve of Whitsunday with procession carrying lights, and on Whitmonday, with dancing.

Trébry. A dolmen at Ville-Valen, consisting of four supports and a coverer.

Trédaniel. The Chapel of N.D. du Haut is mainly of the 14th cent., and has a fine porch of the 16th.

Montfort (I.V.) chl. d'arr. At the junction of the Mieu and the Garun. A great round tower of the 15th cent. and a portion of wall adjoining are all that remain of the ancient ramparts. The Church of S. Jean Baptiste is modern, but contains retables of the 17th cent. The remains of the Abbey of S. Jacques, founded in 1152, has a church of the 14th cent. and146 buildings of the 18th. In the hospital of S. Lazare is an altar of the 13th cent. To the S.E. of the tower on the edge of the forest of Coulon is a prostrate menhir called Le Grés de S. Méen.

Mordelles (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes, on the Meu.

MORLAIX

* MORLAIX (F.) chl. d'arr., is situated in a deep cleft valley at the junction of the Jarlot and Qufflent, and has a tidal port. The town is spanned and dwarfed by the magnificent viaduct of the railway to Brest. The town has only one interesting church, S. Melaine (1489-1574). A flight of steps leads to the west door. The S. porch is fine. The baldachino of the font is of 1660, and the organ and gallery are of about the same date and rich. Morlaix contains a number of picturesque houses with galleries about interior courts. The newels of the stairs are often effectively carved. Admission to some may be obtained by application at the door. In the Rue des Nobles is the house of the Duchesse Anne, erected in 1500. The church of the Dominican Convent, founded in 1237, is desecrated. A floor has been introduced at the height of the capitals of the pillars, the basement is made into a lumber chamber, and the upper storey into a museum. It possesses a beautiful window of the 13th cent., a transom sustaining a rose, lights below the transom cusped and sustaining trefoils. This window deserves a study. By descending the Rue des Vignes and turning to the right, the147 Rue des Fontaines is reached where are two Holy Wells. At N.D. des Fontaines a wall is enriched with tracery under an arch, above which is a delicately beautiful rose window. At this spot, according to legend, S. Drennael, disciple of Joseph of Arimathea, preached, and set up an image of the B. Virgin. The chapel, which formed a portion of a Carmelite church, has been ruined along with the church. The tower of S. Mathieu was built in 1548. On the right bank of the river is the Fontaine des Anglais that marks the spot where, in 1522, six hundred English, who had disembarked to attack the town, were surprised when asleep, and killed. The town was taken by the English in 1532. To guard against surprise, the castle of Le Taureau was constructed on an island at the entrance to the estuary.

For objects of interest in the neighbourhood, see under Taulé.

Mur (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac. Two menhirs by the road from Mur to Corlay, one at Botrain is a rude quartz block, square and tapering to a point 12 ft. high. The church is modern. The Chapel of Ste. Suzanne, 1760, has the legend of the Saint painted on the ceiling.

Caurel. By the road from Pontivy to Guingamp, at the hamlet to Belaire, is a menhir of slaty schist 15 ft. high. On the Lande de Caurel another slate menhir 10 ft. high, and five others prostrate. Another on the same Lande 15 ft. high and shaped like a rectangular148 blade, a niche has been cut in it and a cross planted on the top. On the Lande de Belaire an allée couverte of slate rock 25 ft. long, composed of six slabs set on end supporting three coverers. There are others in ruins hard by. The church dates from 1654.

S. Guen. Church of the 18th cent. A Calvary of the 15th cent. with a stone seat at the foot. The Chapel of S. Tugdual of the 14th cent. contains the remains of a rood screen.

Paimpol (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. An important fishing place, the headquarters of the Iceland fleet. The whole of this portion of Côtes-du-Nord facing east formed anciently the county of Goelo. The "Icelanders" fleet starts on February 20, and is absent till the autumn. As many as 180 vessels leave Paimpol and the other little ports on the Bay of S. Brieuc for this annual fishing in the polar seas. The blessing of the fleet takes place with solemnity before it departs. Paimpol is the scene of Pierre Lotti's novel, "Pécheur d'Islande." The church of 1525 has a fine flamboyant east window. There are several old houses in the streets. The isle of Bréhat may be visited, see under Bréhat.

Kerfot. The oldest parts of the church are of the 14th cent., but the rest from 1514 to 1682. Remains of the roodscreen have been converted into a pew.

Kerity. Fine ruins of the Abbey of Beauport, an unique example in Brittany of a monastic149 establishment that has preserved its original buildings of the 13th cent. All the rest were rebuilt in the 17th and 18th cents. The roof of the church has fallen in. The abbey consists of a series of buildings about a cloister; on the N. are kitchen and refectory over the cellars; S. is the church; E. the dormitory and infirmary of the monks and the chapterhouse; W. the abbot's house.

Le Palais (M.) chl. arr. Lorient, in the island of Belle Ile. It has a citadel constructed by Vauban. The old walls remain. A military hospital and a reformatory for young criminals are at Le Palais. The castle of Foulquet commands the little port of that name. The church (S. Géran) bears as its dedication the name of the heroic king of British Domnonia, who fell at Langport in Somersetshire in 522 fighting the Saxons. He had a fleet in the Severn, and his wife was the beautiful Enid, whose story has been revived by Tennyson in the Idylls of the King. The Bretons having forgotten who he was have identified him now with S. Senan of Iniscathy and then with S. Curig, and represent him as a bishop.

* PERROS GUIREC (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. The church has a Romanesque nave with semi-circular arches resting on the N. side on capitals with cable mouldings. The arcade on the S. side is somewhat later. The chancel is early pointed, with an extraordinary east window of the 17th cent., an instance of the complete extinction of the skill to design and150 power to execute stone tracery. There is a Romanesque S. door. Of the windows one is middle pointed, one flamboyant, and one debased 17th cent., all in the S. aisle. The tower at the W. end and the porch under it with open tracery are quaint.

N.D. de la Clarté is a delightful example of flamboyant work at its best, 1414. The little harbour of Perros Guirec is illumined by five lighthouses on account of its dangerous character, and there are five more on the Sept Iles. The sandy cove of Trestraou has a town built round its lap that lives only in the bathing season, at all other times it is uninhabited.

S. Quay. The church has no side aisles but double transepts, and is good 2nd pointed. The W. tower is good renaissance of 1732.

Ploumanach, a fishing village among rocks, is only curious on account of the oratory of S. Kirec (Curig) on a rock in the bay, surrounded at every tide. The pillars and pillasters are of the 11th cent.

Trégastel. The village is situated about a mile from the coast, which is composed of masses of weather-worn granite in strange forms, among and against which modern residences have been run up for the accommodation of lodgers during the bathing season. On the highest point of ground inland a Calvary has been erected of masses of granite piled up, surmounted by a cross, whence a fine view is obtained of the coast and the Sept Iles. The Church of Trégastel is of the 13th cent. with151 work of the 16th, and a very villainous, debased window at the east end of the 17th cent. The pretty ossuary adjoining the porch is renaissance.

CHURCH AND OSSUARY, TRÉGASTEL

Pleumeur-Bodou. Beside the road from the village to Ile Grande is a fine menhir 24 ft. high, the summit shaped into a cross, and the face sculptured with the instruments of the Passion. In the Ile Grande is an allée couverte, composed of fourteen supporters and two coverers. It is surrounded by a circle of stones. The Chapel of S. Samson is of the 16th cent. with a spirelet on an octagonal turret. The E. window is flamboyant.

Trébeurden. Nine menhirs within sight of one another. One is a hundred paces (S.) from the windmill of Trévern, and is 7 ft. high; another is on the Lande de Véades of the same height; a third is a hundred paces from this, and is 12 ft. high; a fourth at the Château de Kerrariou, 7 ft. 6 in. high; a fifth between Kerrariou and the windmill, broken; a sixth near Bologne, 10 ft. high; a seventh W. of the preceding and at the edge of the shore, 10 ft. high; the eighth near Bonne Nouvelle, 7 ft.; the last is near the peninsula of Toënnou, about the same height. There is a fine dolmen on the Ile Milliau, measuring 28 ft. long, covered by three slabs on eleven supporters; another is on the shore at Prajou-menhir, half fallen, 34 ft. long, composed of twenty-one supporters and four coverers; a third is at Kevellec, four stones support a single coverer; a fourth in152 ruins is near the Chapelle du Christ. The chapel has a lancet window of the 12th cent. The parish church is very villainous, 1835.

Trévou-Tréguignec. Three menhirs in the Ile Balanec, and a partly ruined dolmen near the modern Château de Boisriou. Seven uprights support two coverers.

Pipriac (I.V.) chl. arr. Redon. A dull, uninteresting place.

Guipry. At Fougères is an alignment of seven upright stones. In the Lande de Godier is an ancient camp. N.D. de Bon-Port, 1644, is resorted to by pilgrims.

Saint Just. On the Lande de Cojoux several megalithic monuments, and on that of Tréal an allée couverte, called La Grotte aux Fées, 40 ft. long.

Plancoet (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. Pleasantly situated on the tidal Argenton, which above the turn flows through a pleasant picturesque valley. Plancoet (Plou-lann-coet = the Clan of the Church in the Wood), has a modern vulgar church. In a little lake 3 kilometres from the town are the scanty remains of the Château de la Tour de la Vache, 13th cent., consisting of one square tower. From Plancoet several interesting excursions may be made.

Crehen. The allée couverte of La Ville-Génouan is 42 ft. long, and is composed of eleven supporters on the N. and twelve on the S., and five covering stones. It is the finest example in the Department, and is in private grounds.

Landebia. The church has been restored.153 It possesses a curious bénitier of granite supported by human figures, and has animals carved on the bowl. A house has a fine portal of the 16th cent. A Calvary of the same date with several groups of figures. Another cross dated 1545, called la Croix de S. David. In the village is a house called Presbytère des Templiers.

The visitor will probably start from Landebia to visit the Château de la Hunaudaye in the parish of Plédeliac. The ruins of this magnificent castle are extensive. The castle dates from 1578, except one tower that is over a century earlier. It is a pentagon flanked by five towers at the angles, and surrounded by deep ditches. Why so strong a pile should have been planted where the ground does not in any way lend itself to defence is hard to see. The state hall and staircase were especially fine, but are far gone in ruin. The earliest tower has about the entrance from the court some rude carvings, executed perhaps by a prisoner on the jamb of the door on which light fell. The date of this carving is early 17th cent. Near the hamlet of Hazardine is a coarse menhir 16 ft. high and 30 ft. in circumference. The ruins of the Abbey of Saint Aubin des bois are scanty. The chapel is of the end of the 15th cent.

Pleine-Fougères (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Destitute of interest.

Plélan le Petit (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. On high bleak country, mostly moor and only partially reclaimed.

Pléneuf (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc, reached154 from Lamballe. In the parish is the favourite seaside resort of Val-André. Except the sea and the coast, there is nothing of interest at Pléneuf.

Erguy. An old Roman station, Rheginea, and numerous substructures of Gallo-Roman times have been uncovered here, also a mosaic pavement found and destroyed in 1835 by the boor to whom the land belonged. Numerous finds of Roman coins are made here. At the northern headland of the Lande de la Garenne is a prehistoric coast castle.

Planguenoual. The church is partly Romanesque, partly 13th cent. The bénitier shows signs of having been systematically employed as a knife-sharpener.

* PLESTIN LES GRÈVES (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. Fine sands. The tide recedes here to a great distance. Plestin (Plou-Jestin) owes its origin to an Irish emigrant Efflam, who settled here with a colony of his countrymen in the 6th cent. He found that a British settler was there before him, Jestin, probably the son of Geraint, prince of Devon. He came to terms with him without a quarrel, the arrangement being that one should rule the secular and the other the ecclesiastical tribe. Plestin before this would seem to have been a Gallo-Roman town, as numerous remains as well as coins indicate. The church, much altered, contains the tomb of S. Efflam, of the 16th cent. The porch is of 1575, and contains statues of the twelve apostles. The Chapel of S. Jacut of the 16th cent. has some old glass.155 Near the Chapel of S. Efflam (1620) is his Holy Well.

Plou Miliau was the plebs or tribal land of Miliau, King of Cornouaille, who was murdered by his brother Rivold. The church is in debased Gothic of 1602.

Plouzélambre. The church is of the 15th and 16th cents., with flamboyant windows. The tower of 1753. In the church a fine renaissance carved oak retable, with seven groups of figures on it, representing scenes of the Passion. In the churchyard a pretty ossuary of granite of the 17th cent. An oratory, consisting of a vault sustained by four columns, is called Le Réposoir. Ruins of the Château of Kerbané of the 15th cent.

Trédez. A menhir 13 ft. high, with another near it that has fallen, that measured 24 ft. Near the Château de Coatredrez another, 19 ft. high. At Lan Saliou another of about the same height. In the church is a triptych representing a Jesse tree. The font has a fine baldachino of carved oak, of the 17th cent. The Chapel of Loquémeau is of the 16th cent., except one window in the N. transept, of the 14th. The frieze within is fantastically carved.

Trémel. A menhir at Kerguiniou, 16 ft. high, and near by a dolmen. The church is of the 16th cent., with apse; the porch has within statues of the apostles.

Plufur. Church of 1764; but it retains remains of a retable of the 16th cent. Sculptured scenes in relief of the Passion. In the156 churchyard is the Chapel of S. Yves, 17th cent., with paintings on the ceiling. The Chapel of S. Nicolas forms a latin cross, and has seven flamboyant windows.

S. Michel-en-Grèves. The Chapel of S. Geneviève has an early rude altar, and remains of a 16th cent. screen.

Pleyben (F.) chl. arr. Châteaulin. The noble church (S. Germain) of 1564 exhibits the transition from Gothic to Italian style. The church is regarded as one of the most beautiful ecclesiastical monuments in Finistère. From whatever point of view seen, the grouping of the towers, though so different in character, is most pleasing. The principal tower is tall and square, with a balustrade to the platform on the summit, and on this platform rises a cupola crowned by a lantern, and there are four lesser lanterns at the corners. The tower exhibits the renaissance style fully developed, yet it was constructed only twenty years after the rest of the church, which is instinct with Gothic feeling. The second tower was raised in 1588-91, and is in the late flamboyant style. It is graceful and quaint. The stair to the bellcage is carried up in a turret detached save for a flying gallery supported on a couple of arches. The fine porch dates from 1588-91, and contains statues of the apostles. It is surrounded by a cordon of niches, shallow but lofty, and forming an exterior enrichment. The statuary is stiff, but not without character. The east end of the church is an apse, with gables over the windows, which157 are flamboyant. That over the high altar contains old glass representing the story of the Passion, 1564. The wooden waggon roof of the church is supported on a cornice quaintly carved. A curious little box for the holy oils is in the sacristy. The ossuary of Pleyben is the earliest in the Department; separate from the church. It belongs to the 16th cent. The Calvary of 1650 consists of four great spurs sustaining a central platform on vault and arches. The platform is crowded with figures in 28 groups, representing the scenes of the Nativity and the Passion, and, above all, as the 29th, is the Crucifixion. The Chapel of Lannelec, two kilometres distant, is in itself uninteresting, but contains curious statues and sculptures. The P. at Pleyben is on the 1st Sunday in August.

* PLOERMEL (M.) chl. d'arr. The town stands but a little distance from the pretty lake of Le Duc, surrounded with trees. It occupies rising ground and has in its midst a magnificent church (1511-1602) chiefly remarkable for its collection of 16th century glass. This represents—1. Jean l'Epervier, Bishop of S. Malo, kneeling before the B.V.M. and S. Michael; 2. dated 1533 is Pentecost, a superb piece of colouring; 3. the Life of S. Armel; 4. a Jesse tree, the finest of all; 5. the Passion; 6. the Death and Assumption of the B.V.M.; 7. a window of 1602 contains diverse subjects; and 8. the Last Supper. Beside these old windows some modern glass is "a thing to shudder at not to see." Indeed the French do158 not seem in glass painting to have got beyond the crude stage of English beginnings forty years ago. The church is throughout flamboyant, except the west tower. Under an enormous arch, that includes a flamboyant window, is a double entrance to the N., with rich figure carving over it representing sacred subjects, the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Flight into Egypt, etc. But the buttress on the W. was carved when the religious Gothic feeling was dead, and it is covered with renaissance sculpture, where only buffoonery and paganism find expression. Syrens, monsters, a cobbler sewing up his wife's mouth, a woman pulling off her husband's hat, a sow playing a bagpipe, two nude figures, one on the back of the other, each blowing a horn, etc., form the decoration. At a little distance from the town on the Vannes road, about a hundred yards on one side in a pretty situation, is the Holy Well of S. Armel, of the 17th cent. Ploermel is the headquarters of the Frères Lammenais, who carry on the religious instruction of the boys in almost every parish in Brittany, and in other parts of France as well, and the colonies, in opposition to the godless governmental schools. From Ploermel the visitor will probably go on to Josselin, which see.

Ploeuc (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. Several menhirs, but some of them are broken. The church is of 1752. Ploeuc lies high.

Plaintel. A remarkable menhir 15 feet high planted point downward. Church of 1759.

159

Plouagat (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp, near Châtelaudren. In the churchyard a Christian lech bearing the inscription VORMVNI. Ruins of the priory of N.D. des Fontaines, some portions of which go back to Romanesque, but the major portion belongs to the 15th cent.

Goudelin. The Chapel of N.D. de l'Ile was founded in the 15th cent. and contains a statue of S. Eligius dressed in Breton bragou-bras.

Lanrodic. Le Vieux Château de Perrun is a good example of a camp, probably of the Northmen invaders and devastaters of Brittany or of the Merovingians. The embankment was revetted with blocks of quartz not set in mortar. The new château is a fine mediæval ruin. It is surrounded by a deep moat and possesses a cylindrical tower with machicolation. All the rest of the original castle has disappeared, but in the midst of the court is a château built at the time of the renaissance, but that was burnt and gutted at the Revolution. It has, however, preserved its façade and some of its fine chimney-pieces. Among the fallen masses of sculpture may be seen a fragment of a verse of Virgil. "Quid pius Æneas tanto dabit indole dignum."

S. Pever. Ruins of the Château of Avauguer on a promontory above the Trieux and the lake. The chapel is of the 13th and 14th cents. and contains remains of an alabaster retable of the 16th cent.

* PLOUARET (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion, at the junction of the branch line to Lannion.160 A prettily situated little town in a well-wooded country and with charming walks about it up the rocky broom-covered valleys. The neighbourhood teems with objects of interest, and it makes excellent headquarters for interesting excursions. The church is curious. It consists of nave and side-aisles all under one enormous roof and lighted through aisle windows under gables. It is flamboyant and has a square E. end that contains a fine window of geometric tracery, but not of 2nd pointed date, apparently, judging from the stiffness and lack of skill in the treatment. It looks like an attempt of a flamboyant architect to revive the earlier style. The tower is dated 1554, when it was begun, but in style it is later, and is an admirable example of a renaissance tower at its best period. The mountain, visible to the south is the Menezbré, from the top of which the Seven Saints cursed Conmore, with the result that the Usurper of Domnonia was deserted on all sides as one "fey" and was killed in 555.

Loquivy-Plougras. The fine Chapel of S. Emilion, the largest example of its kind in the Department, is of the 16th cent. It was begun in 1516 and the tower added in 1566.

For the beautiful chapel of Keramanachx, see under Plonevez Moedec, and for Tonquedec, see Lannion.

Trégrom. At Keranscot is a menhir 19 feet high called Menbras. At 300 paces from it is another 10 feet high. The church (S. Brendan of Clonfert) has been judiciously161 restored. It is 2nd pointed and is very prettily situated. The S. aisle was intended to be vaulted, but only the vaulting shafts remain. The S. porch has good 2nd pointed mouldings, and over it is an interesting statue of the Irish traveller-saint who discovered Madeira and the Canaries. The W. turret is for two bells. A quaint four-light square-headed window lights the baptistery. Brendan was forced to leave Ireland, owing to his having accidentally caused the death of a pupil, and he spent seven years in exile. Following the sun at midsummer, he reached Iceland, but did not remain there. The story of his voyages was embroidered by fancy, and converted into an Irish version of Sinbad the Sailor; but the greater part of his time of exile was spent in Brittany, where he founded two monasteries, one on the isle of Cézambre opposite S. Malo, and the other in the land of Heth, the site of which is not determined, but it was probably Lanvellec, which is also dedicated to him. The church there is modern, but in the churchyard is an elegant 16th cent. ossuary. Near the road from Plouaret to Keramanach is the curious chapel of S. Carré, built in 1697. It is a typical example of the period, all the detail is Italian, but the Gothic feeling is present in the main lines. E. of it is the Holy Well of the same period, well preserved. The P. at S. Carré is on Whitsunday.

Vieux Marché. The church is a huge modern flamboyant structure, successful except162 for the mean, pinched tower. The flamboyant doorway of the original church has been inserted at the west end of the new church, and some quaint carvings are preserved at the N. doorway. A pretty walk up the glen of about three miles leads to the chapel of the Sept-Saints, a cruciform structure erected in 1702, with a S. transept over a dolmen that serves as crypt, and with an altar in it to the Seven Sleepers. At S. Marcel at some little distance from Plouaret is a mutilated statue of a Roman horseman trampling on a half human monster, that receives a religious cult. Although the heads have been knocked off, and the clergy set their faces strongly against this devotion, the peasantry still have recourse to the image. Those paralysed are hoisted upon the back of the horse, and quite as well authenticated cases of cure are produced there as at some of the approved shrines.

Ploubalay (C.N.) chl. arr. Dinan. Modern church. Ruins of the Château de Crochais.

S. Jacut-de-la-Mer. The site of an ancient abbey founded by Gwethenoc and Jacut, brothers of S. Winwaloe, at the beginning of the 6th cent. The brothers in Breton mythology replaced the Heavenly Twins of classic mythology, and were wont to be seen when invoked steering a vessel that was in danger of being overwhelmed and wrecked at sea. The abbey was given over in commendam to favourites at court, and the few monks left in it without supervision led such idle and worthless lives that the feeling of the country163 was roused against them, and when the Revolution broke out, the peasants tore down the monastery to its very foundations so as to leave of it no trace whatever. There is now a conventual establishment at S. Jacut that receives boarders for the bathing season. The tower of Ebihens on an island was built in 1697.

Trégon. An allée couverte called Les Vielles Hautières is near the high road, and is 48 ft. long. Fourteen uprights sustain seven capstones. About 400 paces from this is a fallen dolmen. A vulgar modern church takes the place of an early Romanesque structure.

Château de Guildo. The old Castle is a ruin, in which Gilles de Bretagne was playing a game of tennis when snatched away, by order of his brother, Francis I., to be starved to death at La Hardouinais.

* PLOUDALMEZEAU (F.) chl. arr. Brest. The church was rebuilt in 1857, but the tower remains of 1775. Ploudalmezeau is in the old Pays d'Ach, and the British refugees swarmed hither, landing in the estuaries of the Aber Vrach, Aber Benoit, and the Aber Iltut. P. of S. Bridget, 15th August.

Lampaul Ploudalmezeau. Remains of an allée couverte, and by the roadside from Ploudalmezeau a menhir trimmed into shape and surmounted by a cross between two others of very early character. The church (S. Pol de Léon) is very charmingly situated among trees, and the tower is not of the type of renaissance so common. It more resembles164 that of Pleyben, and is remarkably well proportioned and dignified. It has a gallery above the porch, another at the summit of the tower, and curious flying buttresses support the turrets at the angles, and a cupola in the centre surmounted by a lantern on three stages. The church itself is late flamboyant. The porch is wide and enriched with Ionic pillars, within it is vaulted, and the groins meet in a pendant. A curious statue in the S. transept represents the Virgin and child. She is trampling on the Devil, who tauntingly upholds the fatal apple. Good metal-work encloses the baptistery. The N. aisle has been rebuilt. There is a Holy Well, but without character, in the churchyard.

Landunevez. La Four is a rock rising 200 ft. above the sea, and is supposed to indicate the point where the Ocean begins and the Channel ends. Fine ruins of the castle of Trémazan, where was born Tanguy du Châtel, who died 1449. He was one of the Generals of Charles VI. and Charles VII. After the Battle of Agincourt, things did not run as smoothly as represented by Shakespeare. The French Court was torn by factions. At the head of one was Jean sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy; at the head of the other the Armagnacs, the partisans of the Dauphin. In place of combining against the victorious English, they were engaged in murderous affrays between themselves. One night the Burgundians fell on and slaughtered the Armagnacs in the streets of Paris, and the165 Dauphin was only saved by Tanguy du Châtel, who smuggled him off to Milan. The Constable of France and the Chancellor were both murdered, and the massacre lasted three days. Richard, fourth brother of Duke John V. of Brittany, at great risk secreted and carried off Marie d'Anjou, wife of the Dauphin. The Duke of Brittany entered Paris and put a term to the horrors that were being perpetrated. Meanwhile the English were advancing, and burning the towns on their march. At length the Duke of Burgundy and the Dauphin agreed to meet and come to terms at Montereau. But no sooner were they face to face than they burst into mutual recrimination. This so exasperated Tanguy, that with an axe he split the skull of the Duke. This fresh crime threw the Burgundians into the arms of the English. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Amiens, 1423. At Landunevez are a dolmen, and at Argenton a menhir 18 ft. high. Patronal feast 3rd Sunday in Sept., P. of Kersaint Ascension Day and Aug. 15th; P. of S. Gonvel, 2nd Sunday in Sept., and P. of S. Samson, 3rd Sunday in July.

Plourin. The church (S. Budoc) is entirely modern, but excellent, the tower and spire are specially well proportioned. The E. flamboyant window is very good. Two old picturesque houses are near the church. Within the church is the pulpit from the old church of carved oak representing scenes from the legend of S. Azenore and her son Budoc. At Kergraden are two166 menhirs, one 30 ft. high, the other 24 ft. P. Sunday nearest to Aug. 7.

Plouguin. Modern church. The château of Lesven possesses a painting over the altar in which is represented S. Gwen, her three breasts disguised by the central breast being made into a gilded disc, dressed in the costume of a lady of the beginning of the 17th cent. presenting her son Winwaloe to S. Corentin, who gives him the habit. Fragan, husband of Gwen Teirbron, is also represented in the painting as a knight in armour. The parish takes its name from Gwen, and her husband gives his name to the neighbouring parish of S. Fragan. In a marsh are the ruins of an oratory, where, according to local tradition, Winwaloe as a child practised the ascetic life. For Lanrivoaré see S. Rénan.

Plouescat (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. A menhir, 21 ft. high.

Plounevez Lochrist. In this parish is the interesting chapel of Lochrist with its 13th cent. tower, bold and massive, and surmounted by a spire very different in character from the flimsy barley-sugar constructions of the 16th cent. and the beginning of the 17th. The chapel itself is modern.

Plouguenast (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac. New and bad parish church, but happily the old one has been left, and contains some old glass, representing the Crucifixion, Entombment, and Pentecost. The altar rails are made out of the old roodloft gallery front, and bear representations of the apostles. Chapel of the Rosary167 16th cent. Château de Touche Brondineuf, a stronghold of the 15th cent.

Plémy. A menhir, 12 ft. high, near Drény, on the road to Uzel. Two more of 9 ft. high at 300 paces thence. An old maison forte of the 16th cent. at Vaucles. At Ville Pierre remains of an Huguenot preaching station, a platform sustained on cylindrical pillars. Some of the great nobles of Brittany, casting covetous eyes on the church property, embraced the reform and encouraged the Calvinist preachers. But the people would have none of them.

Langast. The Church (S. Gall) of the 16th cent. has some old glass in the east window.

Plouha (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. Modern uninteresting church. Four kilometres off is the Chapel of Kermaria, erected at different times. The first four arches belong to the 13th cent. The others as well as the S. porch and transept are flamboyant. This chapel contains a Dance of Death, in fresco, but now sadly faded. There are twenty-two subjects, each figure is attended by a skeleton. Above the Dance are eight prophets, seated. The chandeliers are of hammered iron.

Lanleff has a circular Romanesque church in ruins. It belongs to the 11th or early 12th cent. A portion of the external wall has fallen, exposing the arcade. Much fanciful stuff was published relative to this church early last century. It was supposed to have been a pagan temple. Near it is a well, the water issues from a three-lobed opening. Above is a stone168 marked with seven circles. The story goes that a woman here sold her child to the devil for seven pieces of silver, of which these circles are the memorial.

Plouigneau (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. A menhir and a prehistoric camp. P. Ascension Day followed by dancing and a fair. P. at the chapel of S. Eloi 3rd Sunday in June.

Plougonven. A calvary of the 17th cent. A fallen dolmen and three menhirs.

Plouzévede (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. In this commune is the very interesting chapel of Berven, with a beautiful tower. It stands by the highway from S. Pol de Léon to Lesneven, which runs mainly over the old Roman road, and was that taken by S. Paulus Aurelianus when he came from the land of Ach to the town that now bears his name. The entrance to the churchyard is by a triumphal arcade, the arches separated and sustained by Corinthian pillars. The beautiful tower and spire were built in 1567. The rood screen is late, 17th cent., and on it are four panel paintings. The tower sustains two galleries and superposed bell chambers. The whole surmounted by a lantern. It is of the same type as that of Rorcoff, but is more elegant. It is later than the church.

Plouvorn. The church is modern, but the chapel of Lambader is most interesting, as containing the only 16th cent. flamboyant screen that has been spared in the department. It is singularly rich and delicate. The date is 1481. The tower and spire resemble those of Creisker,169 but on a smaller scale and with the same fault. The chapel has been carefully restored. P. on Whit-Monday.

S. Vougai. Church (S. Fiacc of Stetty) of the 16th cent. The château of Kerjean is a fine example of a late flamboyant and renaissance castle. After having been in ruins, it has been repurchased by a descendant of the ancient family to which it originally belonged, and is being gradually restored. One wing was destroyed by fire in the 18th cent., the rest was wrecked at the Revolution. It is called the Versailles of Finistère.

Pluvigner (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. This was the centre of a vast district comprising nine parishes, that formed the "plou" of Fingar, an Irish settler, who, after having established himself here with a number of colonists, returned to Ireland to fetch more, but was carried by contrary winds into S. Ives' Bay in Cornwall, where the native prince Tewdrig fell on him and murdered most of the party. The place where he was killed is Gwinear. The church of Pluvigner is a vast building erected in 1545. The tower and spire, however, date from 1781. Numerous lechs are in the churchyard, and one is at the door of the mairie. The Holy Well of S. Guinger (Fingar) is of the 16th cent., a little way out of the village. According to the legend Fingar was hunting when he came to the well, and looking in saw his face reflected in the water. "On my word," said he; "I'm an uncommonly handsome170 man, too good-looking to be anything but a saint," and this effected his conversion. He renounced the world and dedicated his beauty to religion. The chapel of S. Fiacre is of 1453, with additions of 1640. In the transept is a richly carved flamboyant altarpiece. The chapel of S. Beuzy marks the spot where that favourite disciple of Gildas, flying with a mortal wound in his head, passed the night on his way to Rhuys. The chapel is of 1593.

* PONT-AVEN (F.) chl. arr. Quimperlé. The costume of the women in this district is peculiarly charming. The broad quilled collars and the white coiffe, with a pink ribbon behind the lace, serve to show off a pretty face to advantage. Pont-aven is a favourite resort of artists, and some of their work may be seen in a much frequented hotel there. Moreover, the scenery about Pont-aven is pleasing, and it serves as a better headquarters than Concarneau, where the smell of the sardine pickling is offensive, and produces in some stomachic trouble. Pont-aven is picturesquely situated on the Aven, the same name as our Affon, Awne, and Avon, and at the foot of two hills crowned with granite rocks that have been rounded by the action of the weather, which dissolves the silicate of potass in it, when the other matters, mica, felspar, hemblend, and quartz fall away in gravel and sand. A huge rock in the river facing the quay is called la Roche Forme. Below Pont-aven the river widens into an estuary and forms a port. Near the mouth of the river is the171 sanatorium of Kerfarny. There are two menhirs in the commune, one 15 feet and the other 16 feet high, one at Kérangosquer, and the other on the lande de Kervéquilen. About four kilometres down the river is the château du Hénan of the 15th and 16th cents. At Riec are some dolmens.

Nizon. Here are the fine 15th cent. ruins of the castle of Rustéphan flanked by turrets. Several dolmens are scattered over the neighbourhood, and menhirs as well, of which one is 21 feet high.

Nevez. About two miles to the east of the village are the important remains of the château of Hénan, of the 15th cent., much altered in the 16th cent., with a keep some 75 feet high, machicolated. A dolmen is here whose capstone measures 45 feet in length, and 27 feet in breadth, and 6 feet thick. It has been converted into a smith's shop. At Nizon there are two Pardons, that of N.D. de Kergomet on the 1st Sunday in May; the other at N.D. de Trémalo on the 2nd Sunday in September. At Pont-aven the patronal feast is on the 3rd Sunday in September, and the P. of S. Mathurin on the 2nd Sunday in May. At Nevez the patronal feast is on the 2nd Sunday after Easter; the Pardon de S. Barbe, the 2nd Sunday in August; that of S. Nicolas the 1st Sunday of September; that of Trémorvézen the 2nd Sunday in September. The P. of S. Mathieu on the last Sunday in September: that of the Rosary Sunday in October, and there are fêtes and a fair on the172 Monday following. Perhaps the best is that of Bélon on the river of that name, which flows into the sea close to the mouth of the Aven. Here is a grand procession on Sept. 8th, and very picturesque costumes may be seen. Near Belen is N.D. de Lanriot, a fine chapel; and in a most lovely situation is de Moustoir. Between Pont-aven and de Trinité in a wood is a dolmen. It is actually in the parish of Moëlan or Maelon, in which the Pardon of S. Roch is held on Aug. 15, and that of S. Philibert on the second Sunday after. Excursions may be made by boat from Pont-aven to the isles of Glenan, a veritable archipelago, and to the more distant Ile de Groix. This was the island to which Gunthiern, the first settler at Quimperlé, was wont to retire, and where there is a chapel that contains a statue of him. He was a native of Southern Wales, and his name is identical with Vortigern. But who he really was is very uncertain. In summer there is communication daily by a little steamboat with Lorient. An arm of the sea called le Coureau separates the isle from the mainland. The population is composed entirely of fishermen, and it has a little harbour, the port Tudy. The island coast is honeycombed with caves; it also possesses numerous prehistoric monuments. On the N. the tumulus of Moustéro and the menhir of Quelhuit, and the dolmens more or less ruined of S. Tudy and of Porte Mélite. On the E. the menhir of the Fort de la Croix.173 On the S. the dolmens of Locmaria and S. Nicolas and the tumulus of Kervédan, surmounted by a menhir, and near Kervédan on the shore the remains of an enclosure called the fort des Romains. As there are hotels on the island, a day or two can be very comfortably spent there.

Le Pouldu (the Black Pool) is a bathing place, where the climate is singularly warm, and plants that flourish in the south of France here stand the winter.

PONT-CROIX

* PONT-CROIX (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. This little town is far more attractive than Audierne, and is better suited to stay at for a visit to the numerous objects of interest in the peninsula. It is built about a remarkable abbey church, one of the finest in Finistère, and with the noblest tower and spire in Brittany. Most of these towers and spires look like hot-house growths, and are over-weighted by their spires. But the tower of Pontcroix is solid and in perfect proportion to its spire. The church also presents admirable examples of 2nd pointed architecture, notably its unique S. porch. The spire is of the same period. The S. transept had a window of the same, circ. 1380, but the tracery has been hacked away and replaced by feeble weedy flamboyant. Of the other flamboyant windows, one is well designed, two are under acute gables. The church has an apse (flamboyant) with six windows. On entering the sacred building, the surprised visitor finds himself in a Romanesque church, but of a late174 period, 1160. The pillars are spindly and tall, and sustain round arches. It is Romanesque at its last gasp, and without its original vigour and massiveness. A very ugly feature is the inner member of the arch, which is sustained on corbels resting on the capitals. The arcade of the sanctuary is of the 13th cent. The piers supporting the central tower were Romanesque, but were encased at a late period, when the spire was added. Some stained glass is of the 15th cent.

A walk or drive may be taken to N.D. de Confort on the Quimper road; it is 16th cent. with a graceful spirelet above a double gallery and a turret at the side to give access to the bells. The Calvary is of the same period, purer in design and better in detail than the overcrowded Calvaries of Guimiliau and Plougastel. In the chapel is a Wheel of Fortune set with bells, which the pilgrims set in motion so as to summon the Saint to hearken to their prayers. At Meilars is another Calvary, also a dolmen. Half-way between N.D. de Confort and Poullan is the admirable Chapel of Kerinec with its Holy Well and a Calvary consisting of a cross above a preaching platform. The great charm of this chapel lies in its interior, which is very beautiful. Further on is Poullan buried in trees (S. Cadvan), a transition church between flamboyant and renaissance, with a thin oblong tower and a good porch. There is no chancel arch. Nave and aisles have boarded ceilings. The granite capitals are rudely carved. The175 side aisles very narrow, the pillars tall, sustaining small pointed arches. An octagonal 17th cent. baptistery. There is a menhir near the seamark at Kermenhir, and there are dolmens in the parish. The country is barren, planted with Austrian pine, but is being brought under cultivation by the use of sardine heads as manure. The coast to Cap Sizun is bold and fine. Beuzec Cap Sizun. Church (S. Budoc) with tower of the 16th cent. A fine coast. P. at N.D. de Confort, 1st Sunday in July. P. of Kerinec, 3rd Sunday in July. P. at Poullan, 1st Sunday in Sept. P. at N.D. de Clarté in Beuzec, on the Eve of Rogation Sunday.

N.D. DE CONFORT

* PONTIVY (M.) chl. d'arr. A busy town, very modern and vastly ugly in its modern portion, but with a few picturesque bits in the old town. In the new Pontivy is the hideous Church of S. Joseph, about as bad in architecture as the perversity of ignorance could design. The church in the old town in decadent flamboyant, is bad of its kind. The tracery had been removed from the windows, and has been replaced by new stuff of no character except feebleness. The W. tower is octagonal with a spire surmounting it. The castle has been in part destroyed, but two faces remain with singularly low drums of towers. In it is now the museum. The costume of the neighbourhood of Pontivy in the women is not remarkable, but that of the men is picturesque, white jackets bordered and ornamented with black velvet.

In the cemetery outside Pontivy is a menhir176 surmounted by a cross. The spire of N.D. de la Houssaye beyond the cemetery is an interesting specimen of the flamboyant architecture of the beginning of the 15th cent. It was built in 1438, but the tower, which is quite in the Breton renaissance character, was actually built as late as 1750. It is curious as showing to how late a date the Gothic feeling hung on in Brittany.

Noyal-Pontivy. The church has a 14th cent. tower and spire. The porch is flamboyant. On one side within are apostles, on the other, curious subjects, The Baptism, an Angel holding a pair of blue breeches whilst Christ is in the water, a naked man carrying his head upside-down, and some other subjects not easily made out. The church has been carefully restored. The early flamboyant E. window has the date cut on the splay. The vaulting of nave and chancel is modern. In the N. transept is fine old glass representing the Annunciation, Nativity, Shepherds and Angels, Adoration of Shepherds, Circumcision, Flight into Egypt, Massacre of the Innocents; also the Bearing of the Cross, the Veronica, Crucifixion and Entombment from another window. In the nave is a curious painted retable of S. Maurice de Clohars, who d. 1191, and who was born in this parish. Noyala was one of the largest parishes in the diocese of Vannes, and Pontivy was a chapelry in it. S. Géran, now a daughter church, was probably originally the head of a plou of Geraint, King of Domnonia. But now he is forgotten and177 replaced by S. Guirec. In this parish the canal between Nantes and Brest forms a series of backwaters and lochs. The Chapel of SS. Dredeneau is near the line and the canal. It is a cruciform building of flamboyant period, but of no architectural interest. It however contains a good 16th cent. statue of S. Bridget, and statues of the Brothers Dredeneau. According to the legend they were two princes who were murdered, and their bodies thrown into a marsh on the further side of the canal, where they were found by a pig. The figures are rude; one holds a book on which is written: "Ce Saint à combatu jusqu'à la mort pour la loi de Dieu, et n'a pas craint les menaces des infidèles parceque sa foi etait fondée sur la pierre." The Holy Well of the saints is in very good order and bears their statues. P. 4th Sunday after Easter; at S. Géran, 3rd Sunday in October; at Noyala, July 6th.

Stival. At the entrance to the village is the Holy Well of S. Meriadoc, late flamboyant to renaissance. The church is cross-shaped with a slated spire, and has no aisles. It has a boarded and painted roof, and the chancel is covered with paintings representing the legend of S. Meriadoc. The fine stained glass is in a deplorable condition. The E. window contains a Jesse tree. There are saints in the other windows. In the churchyard are a large late cruciform chapel and an ossuary.

Locmalo. The superb Chapel of N.D. de Quelven is an object of one of the most popular178 Pardons in Morbihan, on August 15. W. tower, transepts and gabled apse are all of late flamboyant. In the tower is a very fine rose window to the bell-chamber. The proportions of tower and spire are not however satisfactory, and the chapel imposes on one by its rich detail rather than by its broad features. It resembles S. Nicodème in Plumilliau, but the tower is very inferior. There are three porches, one under the tower and two to the south. The tower is half a century older than the body of the church. Choir and transepts are vaulted. There is a plain stone gallery for the minstrels in the S. aisle. In two windows in the choir is fine contemporary glass, a Jesse tree and the apostles. The rest of the glass is modern garish rubbish. The granite carving of the church is poor owing to the coarse quality of the stone.

Pont Scorff (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. The Scorff divides the town into two parts, the upper and the lower towns, united by two bridges. The Church of S. Albin is of 1610 with additions in 1710. One town was the religious, the other the secular. The religious one was Les-Albin (the Court of Albin), and here was born S. Albinus, who became Bishop of Angers in 529 and died in 550. P. 1st S. in March. P. of S. Yves, Sunday after 10th May. P. of S. Nicodème 3rd Sunday in September.

Quevin (Coet-quen, the white wood). A menhir 16 ft. high, to the west a Calvary with fifteen figures. A Holy Well, and Chapel of S. Eloi, 16th cent., in the village, but altered in179 18th cent. The parish church is modern. S. Nicodème, late flamboyant chapel of 1578. La Trinité, 16th cent., but with a tower of 1771. P. 7th Sunday after Trinity.

Port Louis (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. The Church of N.D. was built in 1665. The Chapel of S. Pierre contains a statue of S. Elisha found in the sea at the beginning of the 17th cent., to which the Pope accorded sundry indulgences. Port Louis was but a small fishing village called Locperan till the beginning of the 17th cent. It possesses a citadel and a marine hospital. P. at Locmalo 26th July.

Questembert (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. Here, in 888, Alan I., Count of Vannes, encountered the Northmen and slaughtered 12,000 of them. Hardly 400 escaped to their ships. In consequence of this victory, Alan was proclaimed Duke of Brittany. Some crosses mark the spot where the battle raged. La Croix Rochue has a weapon like a halbert cut on it. La Croix Tuaint is marked with five nail heads and a small cross. La Croix à la Poèle also has nail heads. The parish church is modern, 1863. In the churchyard a fine Calvary. The Chapel of S. Michel is flamboyant. In the Chapel of N.D., an old Templar church, is a Romanesque font employed as a bénitier. The town possesses some old houses and halles of 1675; also a cylindrical tower with two heads on it called Quest and his wife.

Quiberon (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. A favourite watering place on a sandy strip of land,180 some twelve miles long, and only one and a half wide. The sea has gained considerably here. An alignment of menhirs now leads into the water. The granite rock is everywhere under blown sand that shifts with every gale. A menhir is at the point of Beg-conguel, and there are remains of a cromlech (stone circle) at Beg-lann, and ruins of two dolmens at Manémeur. Two dolmens at Kerniscot, an allée couverte at Croh-collé, and the remains of an alignment at the Mill of Kerbournec, and two more dolmens at Port-blanc. But what is most interesting here is the prehistoric necropolis at Belle-vue, Be-ker-Nôz and another in the Isle of Thénec. The graves are stone chests, in which the skeletons are crouched, but occasionally extended. The sand has preserved the bones, which have lost nothing but their gelatine. An early Christian cemetery has also been discovered at Kerné. In 1795 an English squadron disembarked 3000 émigrés here, and they were joined by numerous peasants. Hoche defeated them, and swept the peninsula, driving together all who remained. The prisoners were then all shot down in cold blood, some at Quiberon, some at Auray, and the rest at Vannes.

IN QUIMPER

* QUIMPER (F.) chl. d'arr. This beautiful town is situated at the junction of the Stier and the Odet, and is the seat of a bishop. The diocese of S. Pol de Léon has been united to that of Quimper. It is at a distance of fifteen miles from the sea, but has a small port. It is a bright and thriving city,181 and is the seat of the manufacture of the Breton faience, a pretty ware copied from old Rouen, but with original developments. The old walls are almost gone. Quimper is dominated on the south by a lofty well-timbered hill. It has charming esplanades by the sides of the Odet. In the town are several old houses. The great glory of the place is however the Cathedral of S. Corentin. The choir dates from the end of the 13th cent. The transepts and nave belong to the 15th. The twin spires are modern and excellent. The architect, M. Bigod, took that of Pontcroix as his pattern, and could not have done better. The erection of these spires was due to the town folk consenting to a duty of a sou a pound being charged on all the butter brought into market. The choir leans considerably to the left, and the junction with the transepts is awkwardly effected. It is said that this deflection was due to the spongy nature of the soil which did not allow of the choir being built in the same axis as the nave. This, however, does not explain it, as the nave was erected subsequent to the choir. At the summit of the W. gable is a statue of King Grallo. This W. front is fine, but the modern filling in of the doorway is weak. A S. side entrance is altogether exquisite. There is, however, nothing really characteristic of a local school in the cathedral; it follows the traditions of the Isle of France, but has not the loftiness, often exaggerated, of some of those magnificent cathedrals. The beautiful lady-chapel is in the purest182 geometrical style. The choir has an apsidal termination. The clerestory windows are filled with old glass representing saints, but the modern glass is detestable. The third chapel on the N. side contains memorials of a supposed miracle, a crucifix that emitted drops of blood when a man perjured himself before it. The high altar is a mass of silver gilt, decorated in a style suitable to a restaurant rather than to a church. There is a good, restored, bishop's chapel. The Church of S. Mathieu has been rebuilt and has a modern spire. The fine stained glass representing the scenes of the Passion in the east window has been retained; it is of the 16th cent. The musée should be visited. Besides containing an admirable collection of paintings, many by Breton artists, it has a large group of lay-figures dressed in the various costumes of Léon and Cornouaille, representing a marriage. Nor should the visitor omit a call on M. Villard, who has an extensive collection of really artistic photographs of Breton costumes and architecture. Quimper market should be visited on Saturday, when various costumes may be seen, the white quilted collars of the Pont-aven district, and the curious head dresses of the Bigauden women.

Locmaria is only a stroll down the left bank of the Odet, and there may be seen a very beautiful example of a Romanesque church with central tower, transepts and apse.

THE CATHEDRAL, QUIMPER

Quimper forms an admirable centre for a number of excursions, as branch lines run thence to Pont l'Abbé and to Pont Croix and183 Audierne. The great horse fair is on April 15. The patronal feast at the cathedral is on August 15; the P. at Locmaria is on the Sunday after December 12.

Plogonnec, a very interesting late flamboyant church with a renaissance tower. It has magnificent old glass in the windows, representing the Last Judgment, the Story of the Cross, the Transfiguration, and some Celtic Saints, S. Cadoc with a bell, S. Edern, son of Vortigern, riding on a stag, and S. Theilo, Bishop of Llandaff, also mounted on a stag. There is a pretty flamboyant Chapel of S. Theilo in the parish, and this last window was removed from it. P. at S. Thegonnec's Chapel, Ascension Day; at that of Loretto, 2nd Sunday in August; at that of S. Albin on the last Sunday in September; the P. at the parish church on the last Sunday in July.

LOCRONAN

Locronan. Once a thriving little town living on its looms, but since weaving has been done by steam, its prosperity has gone, and many houses are in ruins. Those that remain occupied are all of granite, and some, if not all, old. The church has the Chapel of S. Ronan on its south side opening out of it by a couple of arches. All is flamboyant. The church had a spire that was struck by lightning in 1806 and fell, carrying away pinnacles and the lace-like parapet on the N. side. On this N. side is a little chapel with a graceful flamboyant window in the gable, and saints in niches at the sides. The E. window of the chancel is full of old184 glass in confusion, but is about to be restored. On the pulpit is the legend of S. Ronan in ten compartments. The mouldings of the arcades and of the great belfry windows are poor. The P. is on Trinity Sunday, but every sixth year is the Grand Tromenie, which is observed with great concourse of people from all parts. A procession leaves the church at 2.30 P.M. and winds with banners and hymn-singing round the mountain on the slope of which Locronan is built. Descending a narrow street leads to the renaissance Chapel of S. Eloi and a Holy Well of the same date. The tomb of S. Ronan is in the chapel beside the parish church.

Plonevez-Porzay has a very villainous modern church that has replaced one that was old and full of interest. The porch has however been preserved. P. 2nd Sunday in August. Ste. Anne-de-la-Palue in this parish is a great resort of pilgrims, and the Pardon there is largely attended. It is on the last Sunday in August. The P. of N.D. de la Clarté is on the 2nd Sunday in September.

Quéménéven. The Chapel of Kergoat is an object of pilgrimage, and the Pardon there is very greatly thronged, and interesting costumes may be seen there. The P. is on the Sunday after August 15.

S. Venec, a chapel half-way between Quimper and Châteaulin, is interesting. It contains a statue of the Threebreasted Gwen, and of her sons, Gwethenoc, represented as a Knight, and185 Winwaloe. There are also here a good Calvary and a pretty Holy Well.

Ergué Gaberic. A fine menhir. A chapel of the Templars. The P. at Kerdevot is greatly frequented. It is on the 2nd Sunday in September.

Pluguffan. Only deserving of a visit on the occasion of its Pardon, which is on the 2nd Sunday in September, where fine costumes may be seen.

* QUIMPERLÉ (F.) chl. d'arr. An interesting and picturesque town on the Laïta formed of the junction of the Ellé and the Isole. The abbey church of Ste. Croix and the town about it is in the basin, but the Church of S. Michel and the upper town is on the hillside with steep streets, some ascended by steps. The buildings of the abbey have been converted into municipal offices and Mairie. The church is circular and Romanesque. A tower had been constructed on the four central drums, but they showed signs of giving way, and the tower had to be taken down and the church rebuilt, but exactly on the ancient lines. There is a crypt beneath the lady-chapel. The carved corbels outside the apse are curious. A fine renaissance retable has been mutilated and plastered against the west wall. In the crypt is the tomb of S. Gurlois. S. Michel stands up boldly on the summit of the hill, on the right side of the Laïta, sustained on massive substructures. The nave is 2nd pointed. There are no aisles to the nave. The grand central tower and choir with its aisles are186 flamboyant. There is an exquisite window of that style on the N. side and a superb N. porch, but the E. window is in very bad renaissance. The east end is supported on two huge buttresses that are pierced with arches for the roadway. The west end of the church is built against, with houses, and does not seem ever to have had a western entrance.

Some quaint bits of street architecture may be found by penetrating into the narrow lanes. The Church of S. Columbanus is in ruins. A pretty walk out of the town leads to the little chapel of the Château of Rosgrande, with apse at each end. It contains a renaissance roodscreen, with subjects from sacred history and pagan mythology indiscriminately carved on it. In the chapel are two 14th cent. statues of S. Cadoc and S. Yhuel, the grandson of Gildas, afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, who spent his youth in Brittany. Fishing and charming walks are to be had in the valleys of the Ellé and Isolle. The visitor will find this the best headquarters for excursions to Le Faouët, 21 kilometres, and down the river to Pouldu. Patronal Feast at Quimperlé on the 2nd Sunday in May and on the 3rd September. P. at Lothea, Easter Tuesday and Trinity Sunday. Pardon des Oiseaux at Toulfouen, Whitsun Monday.

QUIMPERLÉ

The forest of Clohars-Carnoet envelops the ruins of one of Conmore's castles, but it was rebuilt in the 15th cent. On the right bank of the Laïta, in a sheltered position, are the fine ruins of the Abbey of S. Maurice, founded in187 1170. The chapter house is of the 14th cent. and 15th cent. A chapel that has been restored contains a good bronze Christ of the 17th cent. P. Whitsun Monday. P. at Clohars on the 15th August.

* QUINTIN (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc. In pretty woodland country. A menhir called La Roche-longue in a field near the town, 21 ft. high. The church is modern, but it retains some old glass. In the street of N.D. is a granite house of 1611. Another old house dates from 1560. Remains of the castle built in the 15th cent., which was replaced by another, never completed, in the 17th cent. The modern château contains a fine gallery of family portraits and Gobelin tapestries. In the cemetery is an ossuary of the 17th cent.

Redon (I.V.) chl. d'arrond. Above the junction of the Vilaine and Oust, at the foot of a hill, commanded by the ruined Château de Beaumont. Redon was a great abbey founded by King Nominoe and S. Convoyon. Here was held the council that deposed the Frank bishops of Rennes, Nantes and Vannes. The church was ruined at the Revolution, and all that remains of it are the W. tower and spire and the choir with a portion only of the nave. The tower now stands isolated. The nave is of the 14th cent. It was originally Romanesque. A transept is of the 12th cent. and there is a stunted central tower at the crossing. The choir ends in an apse and is of the 13th cent. and is fine. The high altar and the pulpit were188 given to the church by Richelieu. On the N. side of the choir is a fortified chapel of the 15th cent. In one of the side chapels is a tomb supposed to be that of Duke Francis I. The abbey buildings are occupied by the Institute of S. Sauveur. The cloisters are of the 17th cent. The canal from Nantes to Brest cuts the town in two and is crossed by a bridge.

The centre of the chestnut trade, the "marron." The trees are kept small and pruned, and are not suffered to exhaust themselves in producing a superabundance of fruit. The marron is much larger than the common "châtain."

* RENNES (I.V.). Capital of the Department, and the ancient capital of the duchy of Brittany. It is composed of two towns separated by the Vilaine. On the right bank is the Upper Town. Rennes was burnt down in 1720, and was rebuilt in the ugly style of the period, and in grey granite. The river has been embanked and carried in a straight course through the town. There are no fine buildings on the embankments. The most pretentious structure on the left bank, between the station and the river, is the lycée, with a chapel in a nondescript style. Several bridges, all mean in character, cross the river. On the right bank are the most important buildings. The cathedral is a hideous structure commenced in 1787 and completed in 1844. The two side doors and the niches at the west end belong to the earlier building and are renaissance. Within, the arch has been studiously avoided. Eight enormous189 red marble pillars on each side of the nave sustain the heavy vault and the clerestory. Their bases are but 6 feet apart. The interior has been richly decorated with gold and colour, but nothing can relieve the cumbrousness and gloom of the internal appearance.

THE CATHEDRAL, RENNES

One of the old gates of the town, the Porte Mordelaix, remains, but it is not particularly picturesque, and a few old houses escaped the fire and have not yet been pulled down. To the east of the cathedral is the Church of S. Sauveur, even more ugly than the former. In a small street opening from the river opposite the Hotel Moderne is the one architectural gem possessed by the town, the Chapel of S. Yves, now desecrated into a store-house. It is of the end of the 15th cent., and all the details, where not broken, are of exquisite beauty. Observe the N. door with its niches and the W. front. The Church of S. Germain is late and poor flamboyant, much altered in late renaissance times. The springing of the nave vaulting remains, and has been grotesquely finished off with scrolls. There is fine old glass, but in utter confusion, in the E. window. The large window of the S. transept contains fine glass representing the life of the Virgin below and saints and legendary incidents above in a series of 24 subjects.

S. Melaine is the church of a once famous abbey. Transepts and choir-arch are early Romanesque. The nave is 2nd pointed. The base of the tower is early 1st pointed, but has been refaced in the worst taste in baroque times; to190 this has been added in modern days an octagonal lantern and dome, and to complete the unsightliness and absurdity of the whole composition, the cupola is surmounted by an enormous gilt statue of the B. Virgin. Within may be noted the clumsy junction of the older and newer work in the second arch on the south side. The tracery in the side aisles of the nave has been cut away, but the clerestory windows of one light are delicate and refined. The clerestory of the choir is earlier, the E. wall and window have been reconstructed, and the tracery in the side aisles restored or modern. In the S. transept is a wax figure of S. Severina, whose bones from the Roman catacombs are preserved in this church. This wax figure receives a considerable cult. Adjoining the church is the Thabor with pleasant walks and grounds, on the highest point of the town. The botanical gardens adjoin. The Palais de Justice was begun as the seat of the Parliament of Brittany in 1618 and was completed in 1654. The façade is of the Tuscan order. The decoration of the interior was confided to four eminent artists in the reign of Louis XIV., and it has undergone rich decoration of late years. Rennes possesses good open places, as well as the broad esplanades by the river banks. Its museums and library are also well stored. The picture gallery contains a large collection of paintings, some really good, a Jordæns, a Paul Veronese, and a De Crayer.

Retiers (I.V.) chl. arr. Vitré. Four miles191 to the S.E. is a menhir called La Pierre de Richebourg.

La Roche-Derrien (C.N.) chl. arr. S. Brieuc, is prettily situated on the Jaudy, at the highest point to which the tide reaches. Of the castle hardly anything remains. The church has a spire of late 13th cent. The S. porch, formerly adorned with statues, is bold. The church has vast double transepts of 1435, and flamboyant windows and extraordinary gargoyles. Inside is a barbarous elaborately carved oak altarpiece of late renaissance and of no merit. La Roche was the scene of the battle fought in 1347, when Charles de Blois was taken prisoner by the English.

Near La Roche is Langoat, the church like a converted railway station, but it contains the tomb of Alma Pompeia, the mother of S. Tugdual, who died in the 6th cent., but the tomb was erected in 1470. She is represented on it recumbent; and at the sides are subjects in bas-relief relative to her story. These have been reproduced in bad modern glass in the E. window. In the church may be seen a statue of S. Tugdual habited as a pope. This is due to a curious blunder. His monks were wont to call him Pabu, or father. A late writer of his legend supposed that this meant that he was papa—the pope, and so fabricated a story to explain it, how that Tugdual went to Rome and arrived when the see was vacant, and was elected pope; how that after a very few years he wearied of the burden, and a flying horse was192 sent from heaven which conveyed him through the air back to Brittany.

Prat. The Château of Coatelan is a rectangular building of the beginning of the 16th cent., and is an interesting, well-preserved example of a maison forte of the period. Within are some good chimney-pieces. At the top of one of the turrets is an oven for baking bread.

Pommerit Jaudy. On the Coat-nevez, a conical hill, is a camp, probably of the Northmen invaders. The château is mainly of the 16th cent, and has granite chimney-pieces.

Cavan. The church (S. Cheron) is of the 15th cent, and has a spire flanked by two stair-turrets surmounted by domes. This is of 1684.

Berhet. The church (S. Bridget) is modern. The Chapel of N.D. de Confort has flamboyant windows, the tracery in those at the side forms hearts. Within is a carved oak retable representing the Passion, Resurrection and Assumption. In the chapel is a Sant-e-roa, or Holy Wheel, hung with bells, and this is rung during mass, and by pilgrims desirous of calling the B.V. Mary's attention to their petitions. Similar wheels are at Quemperven, Locarn, Laniscat in the Côtes-du-Nord, at S. Nicolas de Prissiac in Morbihan, and at N.D. de Confort, near Pontcroix in Morbihan. P. last Sunday in September.

* ROCHEFORT EN TERRE (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. A picturesquely situated little town on schist rocks above the Arz.193 The scenery of the valley is pleasing and it has become, like Pont-aven, headquarters of artists. Considerable ruins of the castle exist, and there are several old houses in the town. Rochefort was never walled in. Nevertheless it was furnished with gates in the 18th cent. The Church of N.D. de la Tronchaye having been erected on a slope to the south causes the N. side to appear buried. This side was altered in 1533. In the choir are oak stalls of 1590 and 1592. S. Roque, on a height near the town, was erected in 1527 in consequence of a vow made by the people who were decimated by a plague. It was ruined at the Revolution, but has been rebuilt, 1854. A fair is held at Rochefort on the 2nd Tuesday in every month. Rochefort affords good quarters whence excursions may be made to visit the prehistoric monuments scattered over the Lande de Lanvaux and Haut Branbien. The menhirs are for the most part higher than those of Carnac, but unhappily a great many of them are fallen. These collections of megalithic remains have never been properly investigated and planned, and have not been visited like those of Carnac and Locmariaquer and Erdeven.

Pluherlin on the Lande de Haut Branbien, N. of Rochefort, has many of these strewn over the commune. A menhir 15 feet high is in the Lande de Lanvaux beside the road to Pleucadeuc. Great havoc has been wrought throughout this neighbourhood among the churches; the interesting old structures have194 been wantonly torn down to make place for the exhibition of the incompetence of Vannes architects.

Rosporden (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. In a pretty situation by a lake that is, however, traversed by the line from Quimper to Vannes, and that from Rosporden to Carhaix. The church has a fine tower and well-proportioned spire of the 13th cent. On the S. side is a porch, one of the oldest in Finistère. The church contains a rude statue of Our Lady, much venerated. It was turned out of the church into the graveyard in 1870, to make way for one more artistic; but the parishioners rose in indignation and forced the curé to replace it. A statue of S. Barbara is erected on a fragment of the ancient Calvary that has been destroyed. P. of S. Eloi, 2nd Sunday in July. Patronal Feast, Aug. 15.

Rostrenen (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp, on the slope of a hill, with a great square in the midst, about which are old houses of the 16th and 17th cents. The parish church is modern, but retains a transept of the 14th cent. and a choir and tower of the 18th. The S. porch has in it statues of the apostles.

Glomel. The finest menhir in the Department is near the hamlet of Menhir, and is 25 feet high. Another is in the Bois de Coatcourcaral, 10 feet high. The church is of the 14th cent. with a flamboyant east window. Side windows under gables. N.D. de Trégernan has lost its tower, pulled down in 1842.195 The chapel has some good glass in it and possesses a Calvary.

Kergrist-Moelo. The parish church is of the 16th cent., with a square pinnacled tower and a rich porch of 1554.

Saint Aubin d'Aubigné (I.V.) chl. arr. Rennes. On the line from Dol to Rennes, a place devoid of interest.

Saint Aubin de Cormier (I.V.) chl. arr. Fougères. The church has a nave of the 14th cent. The rest is of the 16th. This was the scene of the battle fought in 1488, which dealt the last blow to the independence of Brittany. The Sire d'Albret at the head of 14,000 men entered the duchy as one of the suitors for the hand of Anne of Brittany, and he was supported by Henry VII. of England. Maximilian, King of the Romans, another pretender, hastened to enforce his claims as well. The King of France sent an army into the duchy which took Châteaubriant and Fougères and encountered that of Francis II. of Brittany at S. Aubin on the 28th July 1488. The French cavalry broke the ranks of the Breton infantry. Six thousand of these latter fell. The Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis XII. and the Prince of Orange were taken prisoners. They were shut up in a cellar still shown under the Hôtel du Commerce.

Saint Brice-en-Cogles (I.V.) chl. arr. Fougères. Here are two châteaux, one La Roche Portal of the time of Henry IV.

* SAINT BRIEUC. Capital of the196 DEpartment of Côtes-du-Nord. Is a dull town situated on the Gouet to which a long descent leads and where is the tidal port. The estuary is between steep hills. The city is the seat of a bishop. It contains a number of picturesque old houses of carved wood with plaster between. The cathedral is low and disappointing externally, but not without dignity within. The only remains of the earlier church is the wall from the apse to the transepts that has been pierced to form chapels. In it are half pillars with capitals of a Romanesque character. The tower of S. Brieuc was formerly fortified and still preserves its loopholes for bowmen, but they have been blocked. This is of the 13th cent. The apse is of the 14th cent. with a triforium. The date is 1335-55. The lady-chapel is of the same period. The fine rose window of the S. transept is of the 15th cent., so is the Chapel of S. Guillaume, composed of two bays separated by tall cylindrical pillars without capitals but with the vaulting ribs springing out of them. The southern tower, with indications of fortification, belongs to the same century. The rose window between the towers is of the 16th cent. The stained glass and mural decorations in the spandrils of the arches of the apse are bad as bad can be. The organ case is composed of panels dated 1540. The plain leaded windows are far more pleasing than the garish stuff with which they are being replaced. In the church is the tomb of S. William, bishop of S. Brieuc. He was the son of Oliver Pinchon and was born197 at Saint Alban near Lamballe. He was elected bishop in 1220, and soon quarrelled with Pierre Mauclerc, Duke of Brittany, who drove him from his see, and he was obliged to take refuge at Poitiers. He returned to his diocese in 1230, and at once began the rebuilding of his cathedral, but died in 1234. He was an amiable, harmless man, and very considerate to the poor and suffering.

S. BRIEUC

The chapel and fountain of S. Brieuc, on the height to the N.W., are flamboyant and picturesque. On the S. side of the altar is a descent to the cave to which the Saint was wont to retire for prayer. Brioc was the son of an Irish occupant of Cardigan and a Saxon wife. He was educated by the Armorican S. Germain, a nephew of S. Patrick, who afterwards became Apostle of the Isle of Man. On the expulsion of the Irish from S.W. Wales Brioc left with a large number of followers and arrived at the mouth of the Gouet, where a kinsman, by marriage, Rigual had already settled, and he gave him the land where is now the city of S. Brieuc, and where had been a Gallo-Roman town. He died about the middle of the 6th cent. In the Rue Fardel is a house dated 1572. The modern churches in the town are architectural monstrosities. The Chapel of N.D. de l'Esperance is vastly pretentious, but wretched architecturally. The clerestory is filled with stained glass representing Breton Saints. Patronal Feast, S. Brieuc, 1st May. The valley of the Gouet may be followed down to the mouth,198 and an ascent made to the Tour de Cesson, which has Roman substructions, but was built up and altered at various times.

At Ploufragan is an allée couverte, buried in brambles. The church is modern with a spindly tower and spire.

At La Méaugon is a fine railway viaduct in two stages. The church has in one window a small but admirably drawn representation of the patron saint S. Meugaint, and a carved granite Calvary in the churchyard. Some remains of the screen removed to the west end.

Pledran. A vitrified fort. The vitrification was done by fires lighted in the depth of the wall. As the result was not satisfactory, the face outwards was subsequently banked up.

Saint Jean Brévelay (M.) chl. d'arr Ploermel. On the side of the road to Vannes, near Kerdramel, are two menhirs. A kilometre west of le Moustoir, on the Lande de Coh-Coet, a large dolmen formed of three blocks only; the coverer is 18 feet long. It has the ruins of an allée couverte leading to it. A kilometre south of it is a menhir 18 feet high. The natives of this district fled to England from the Northmen in the 9th cent., and brought back with them, when returning some relics of S. John of Beverley, Archbishop of York, who died in 721.

Plumelec. Between Trégoët and Kersimon is an allée couverte. In the coppice of Château Béauce a large dolmen called Migourdy, which on being explored yielded fragments of a figure199 of Venus Anadyomene, and a coin of Diocletian, showing that it had been utilised for some unknown purpose in historic times. It is supposed that the place owes its name to S. Meletius, B. of London, who died in 624, and that the refugees to England brought back his relics. But this is not probable; it must have been called plou after a founder of the clan, and the title of plou would hardly have attached to relics. The church is modern; the Chapel of S. Aubin is of 1513, and has some curious carving on the capitals, a fox preaching to geese, etc. Above the N. transept rises a slated spire.

Guéhenno. A modern church, but the porch of 1547 has been preserved. In the graveyard is a fine Calvary of the 16th cent., the finest in Morbihan. On it are numerous single figures as well as groups. It was taken down and buried at the time of the Revolution, so as to preserve it, and was restored in 1855. The Republican ruffians burnt the church. P. on 1st Sunday in September.

Saint Malo (I.V.) chl. d'arr. Occupies the old island of S. Aaron. It is now united to Rocabey by an embankment, the Sillon, along which runs a tramline. The town is walled in and a pleasant walk is on them; the circuit of the walls may thus be made. The castle is of the 15th cent.; it is square with flanking towers. Six gates give admission to the town, in which the streets are very narrow and odorous, and the houses lofty. At the highest point of the island, but smothered among houses, is the Chapel of200 S. Aaron (Aelhaiarn). This Welsh hermit occupied the island when S. Malo arrived. The cathedral is of the 14th cent. The choir is very English in character, with a square east end. The nave is of the 12th cent. but W. front and sides have been entirely Italianised. The fine central spire was added in 1859, and was the gift to the town of Napoleon III. The tide at S. Malo rises to an extraordinary height. At ebb by a causeway the islets of le Grand and le Petit Bey can be reached. On the nearest are ruins of a castle, and the tomb of Châteaubriant. On the further is a fort that is not occupied. In the offing is the island of Cézambre. Here S. Brendan, when obliged to quit Ireland, founded a monastery, in or about 524; and when S. Malo arrived about a quarter of a century later, he was well received by the abbot and monks on it. There are a cave and a chapel of S. Brendan on the island. But the Government has extended the fortifications on Cézambre and no one without a special authorisation is now allowed to set foot on the island. In S. Malo there are a little museum and a passable library in the Hôtel de Ville. The Breton museum in the Cassino should be visited. It contains good specimens of local carved oak, and chambers fitted with lit-clos, and figures in costume. A flying bridge invented by a native, who invested all his capital in it, connects S. Malo with S. Servan. S. Servan, Dinard, Paramé, are watering places.

S. Servan. The cité marks the site of the201 ancient city of Aleth and the substructions of the early cathedral have been discovered there. The seat of the bishopric was removed from Aleth to S. Malo by S. John of the Grate, the Bishop in 1142. The reason for the change was the insecurity of Aleth, whereas it was possible to thoroughly fortify the island of Aaron.

Paramé is a watering place, with a low shelving shore, facing north and miserably cold in winter, dusty in summer, and detestable at all times, except to such as frequent the gaming tables.

Saint Méen (I.V.) chl. arr. Montfort. A dull town in uninteresting country. It was the seat of an abbot, head of an important abbey in the Middle Ages. In 1554, S. Samson of Dol, who was engaged in working up a revolt against Conmore the Regent of Domnonia, sent his nephew Mevan across the great central forest to Vannes, probably to consult with Gildas, and to ascertain whether any assistance could be obtained from Count Weroch. On his way, Mevan lighted on a clearing in the forest, where now stands the little town bearing his name. In this clearing lived a British colonist, named Cadvan, who welcomed him and invited him to establish a lann hard by and take over the religious charge of his colony. Mevan agreed, and when Cadvan died, as he had no children, he bequeathed the whole of his plou to Mevan as well as the lann already granted. This was the origin of the abbey, and around the abbey grew the town. The abbey is now turned into202 a petit séminaire. The nave of the church was pulled down in 1771. The tower belongs to the end of the 12th cent. The transept is of the 13th cent. The choir is of the 14th cent. In the church is the tomb of S. Méen or Mevan, a granite sarcophagus. A pretty chapel of the 12th cent. turned into a sacristy. A Holy Well of S. Méen.

* SAINT NAZAIRE (L.I.) chl. d'arr. Is the seventh most important port in France and is situated at the extremity of a promontory of a gneiss rock that runs along the bank of the Loire. There is nothing of antiquity in the place, which is wholly modern and built on a stiff and formal plan, the houses rivalling each other in ugliness. But there is one curious object in it, an enormous dolmen in the midst of a square, that has been spared, and has given its name to the street leading to it. Five lighthouses guard the entrance of the Loire. From S. Nazaire a visit may be paid to La Grande Brière, a vast turf deposit, once an inland lake. The peculiar costume has almost disappeared, only the women retaining their coiffe. The population of all this district is British, and the descendants of the very earliest immigrants. The hair is for the most part fair, the eyes grey or blue. Formerly the Breton tongue was spoken throughout this district, but it is now spoken by only about 400 persons in the neighbourhood of Batz by Croisic. Curiously enough, the villagers of Batz regard themselves as of different blood from the rest, and to be descendants203 of Scandinavian pirates who were suffered to settle there. Till quite recently it was an unheard of event for a young man of Batz to marry a girl of what he regarded as the Breton villages. That in colour of hair and eyes there should be no distinction does not militate against the tradition, for the pure blooded Celt is as fair as the Scandinavian.

Saint Nicolas du Pélem (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. A menhir in the forest of Kerhuel, and another near Kerhuel, 9 ft. high. In the valley of Prat-roury another, fusiform, about 11 ft. high. The old Roman road from Aleth to Carhaix ran through this parish, and it remains in fairly perfect condition in several places. On a height is the camp of Dzillon near Kerimard, circular with a tump hollowed out within, certainly a Norseman burh. The Château de Pélem is in ruins, but two of the towers are standing. The Church of S. Nicolas has got very fine restored stained glass of the 14th cent., representing in twenty-four medallions scenes from the gospel story; at the bottom of the window the donors are represented kneeling. Another window contains fragments of medallions representing the life of the Baptist. The roodscreen was wantonly destroyed in 1861. The Chapel of S. Eloi has a fine flamboyant east window with remains of stained glass in it. The Chapel of Riolon is mainly of the 15th cent., and has an east window of the renaissance with stained glass in it representing the Eternal Father seated in the midst of a rose, surrounded by the204 evangelists, the prophets, and angels playing instruments of music. Another window has fragments of stained glass in it representing saints.

Canihuel. A huge menhir called Coz-resto, 23 ft. high, has been split by lightning. It is in a line with other menhirs at Kergornec, Saint Gilles-Pligeaux, and Crech Ogel in the old bourg of Quintin. At Botquelen is another menhir 13 ft. high.

The parish church was built in 1474, burnt in 1595 and repaired in 1598; it is almost wholly of the 16th cent. with a flamboyant E. window.

Kerpert. Church of the flamboyant period; in the E. window glass of the 16th cent. representing the life of S. Peter; ossuary.

Lanrivain. Ossuary and Calvary of 1548. On the platform are several figures; there are three crosses, the principal one sustains a group of eleven figures carved in one block.

Peumerit-Quintin. Near the hamlet of Pempoul a ruined allée couverte. The Chapel of S. Jean du Loch is mainly of the 15th cent. but retains some portions of the earlier 12th cent. building.

S. Connan.. Near the Mill of Kerdic a ruined allée couverte. Dolmen in the Parc-an-Neurn.

S. Gilles Pligeaux. Two menhirs at Kergornec, one in the Parc-er-Pélem, is 22 ft. high and leans. The other at four hundred paces from it, near the bottom of the valley in Parc-ar-golven, is 13 ft. high. They seem to belong to a system of which only some remain,205 as Crech Ogel in Vieux Bourg, Coz-resto in Canihuel, and one in the Lande de Bohan in S. Mayeux. Dolmen called Roc-ar-Velcien, the table supported by three uprights. The coverer is almost circular, about 23 ft. in diameter. The church is of the 16th cent., tower and porch of 1644. In the cemetery a chapel dedicated to S. Laurence, with an entombment in the crypt of terracotta of the 17th cent. Date of chapel 1538.

LE KREISKER, S. POL DE LÉON

* S. POL DE LÉON (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. An ancient cathedral town, but the diocese has been united to that of Quimper. The cathedral has two western towers and spires and façade of 1st pointed. The nave is entirely 2nd pointed and has a very beautiful arcade. The cleristory is quite simple, mostly with 1st pointed windows. The side aisles have an arcade under the windows. The transepts are double, i.e. with aisles to the east, fine 2nd pointed. The E. aisle of the S. transept contains very bad flamboyant windows. The choir, ending in an apse, is flamboyant 1431-50, and contains fine carved oak stalls of 1512. The choir has double aisles, N. and S. On the N. side is the Chapel of S. Paul, with his skull, hand, and bell in shrines. The pillars and vaulting of the S. aisle may be noticed.

The Chapel of Kreisker possesses a tower and spire that are supposed by Bretons to be the glory of Finistère. It is badly proportioned; the spire and spirelets overload the summit of the tower. It may be regarded as curious and a clever bit of architecture, but it is not pleasing.206 This tower is central. The windows are all flamboyant but affect an earlier type. The chapel has triforium and circular cleristory windows on the S. side but none on the N. There is a noble N. porch very richly carved. A very rich W. window. The E. window contains bad modern glass reproducing old figures of Breton saints. The S. side has an arcade under the windows with small lights pierced at intervals. There is a good piscina in the S. aisle. The Church of S. Pierre is now turned into a cemetery chapel. It is 15th cent. but has a baroque west front. Ossuaries (small) are in the wall surrounding the cemetery. On the way to Roscoff, just beyond the railway, is an allée couverte or dolmen.

Roscoff is a quaint place, with an old house or two, situated near the sea, and commanding the Island of Batz. The church has a very remarkable renaissance tower and spire (1550), more fantastic than pleasing, with ships carved on it and cannons or culverins as gargoyles. It is in three stages with galleries. The church is late flamboyant. There are two ossuaries; one is very rich. In the church are preserved the panels of an alabaster retable of the 15th cent. of Flemish work. The Chapel of S. Ninian in the street is in ruins; it was erected by Mary Stuart to commemorate her landing at Roscoff, 1548. The hospital dates from 1573. A Chapel of Ste. Barbe is on a height. P. of Santec, 2nd Sunday after Trinity. P. of Ste. Barbe, 3rd Monday in July. P. in the parish church, August 15.

207

Sibiril. The Château of Keronzéré erected in 1458 was restored in 1602.

Ile de Batz. It takes a quarter of an hour to cross from Roscoff to the island, and is only to be attempted when the sea is calm. The tide here rises 30 ft. But a visit hardly repays the trouble. When Paulus Aurelianus, a native of Glamorganshire, landed on the west coast of Finistère, he heard that a kinsman, Withur, was living in these parts, and had made himself count or chieftain. He went to visit him, and found him on the Isle of Batz, very old, busy making a copy of the Gospels with his own hand. Withur received him cordially, and advised him to settle among the ruins of an old Roman town on the mainland. Paulus did so, and hence the city of S. Pol de Léon. Legend says that there was a dragon on the island, which S. Paul tamed by binding his stole about its neck and then bidding it precipitate itself into the sea. This is an allegorical way of saying that he put an end to paganism in Batz. The Toul-ar-Sarpant, where the dragon is supposed to have haunted, is pointed out, and the stole of S. Paul, a piece of Byzantine work, is preserved in the church. It is a silk tissue, with a blue ground worked over with white and yellow, to figure a set of warriors facing each other, with a sort of turban head-dress and holding falcons on their wrists, and with a dog between the legs of each horse. A Romanesque chapel stood on the site of S. Paul's monastery on the island. This is called the Peniti; the chapel is ruinous and half-buried208 in sand. There is a lighthouse on the island.

Saint Rénan (F.) chl. arr. Brest. Pleasantly situated in a woody basin, through which flows the little stream of the Aberildut. The church has a Romanesque choir, and a tower and spire, ill proportioned, of 1772. There are some old and picturesque houses.

Lanrivoaré. The church has a tower in two stages and spire of the usual type but erected in 1727. The church itself is flamboyant. The chancel is Italian. In the N. transept is a singularly uncouth flamboyant window. Above the arches into the choir, transept and nave, the twelve apostles are painted. On the south side of the church is a walled-in quadrangular space where, according to tradition, a whole Christian population was massacred by pagans. No certain details exist, and it is probable that the pagans were the Northmen, who committed frightful atrocities in Brittany in the 10th cent. In the midst of the enclosure is the graveyard of the unnamed saints, laid down with polygonal and various shaped pieces of granite. It is enclosed by a dwarf wall overlaid with pieces of slate. At the east end is a sort of altar sustaining a cross and some fragments of carving. Before the altar lie eight rolled boulders. These are popularly supposed to have been loaves turned into bread. S. Huarvé asked a woman to give him bread, and she refused. As a judgment for her hardheartedness all her loaves were petrified. Actually these pebbles are "cursing stones,"209 and such boulders exist in several chapels in Ireland, and are used for calling down disease or destruction on an enemy. The person invoking the curse, after a certain number of prayers turns the stone round seven times. That these pebbles have been so employed is probable, as the under surfaces of the stones are well rubbed. But happily this pagan usage is no longer in resort, and the stones remain with only the childish legend attached to them to explain their presence. S. Rivoaré, the patron of the church, was a priest, brother of Rivanon the mother of S. Huarvé or Hérvé, the blind bard saint. It is not unusual to see pilgrims, also the parishioners of Lanrivoaré enter the enclosure, take off their shoes and stockings, kneel, and recite prayers and then pace on the slates thrice about the burial place, taking care to step on each slab of slate, and omit none. In the village is a curious stone cross with a clothed figure of Christ upon it. A short walk from Lanrivoaré leads to the ruined Château of Kergroades, situated in beautiful woods, with avenues of oak and chestnut. It is difficult to find, and a guide must be taken. The château is in a charming position; it is of renaissance architecture throughout, and the court of honour front is in fair condition. But the gates are locked and admission is not easily obtained. The patronal feast at Lanrivoaré is on the 3rd Sunday in October, and P. at the Chapel of Lanvennec the 4th Sunday in September.

210

Saint Servan (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo; see S. Malo.

Sarzeau (M.) chl. arr. Vannes. Sarzeau is the principal village or town on the peninsula that bears its name, which divides the sea of Morbihan from the ocean. That peninsula is some 20 miles long and 6 across, but it has been much diminished in width by the sea which has eaten away much of the coast. It is granitic on the west, and schist on the east, and the granite is of a soft quality, allowing the sea to decompose and break it up. Thus a parish church of S. Demetri has been engulfed. A second was built further inland, and that is now almost entirely surrounded by the sea and threatens shortly to disappear in the waves. Formerly a forest covered the promontory, now it is sparsely wooded and trees only flourish on the side toward the inland sea. But the climate is equable, and vines are cultivated; this is the most northern point reached by vineyards. Yet wine can only be made once in about three years, and is not of a good quality. At Cohports is a menhir 12 ft. high, and a circle of standing stones at Croen-Linden, and dolmens, more or less ruined, at Noédic, Prat-Fetén, Trest, Kergilét, Brillac, and Kerbley. An allée couverte 30 ft. long at Clos-Rodus. Gildas coming from Glastonbury about 520 founded a monastery at Rhuys, and a cell or peniti at Coetlann, afterwards called the Priory of S. Pabu, but this has disappeared. In the town is the house in which Le Sage was born, the author of "Gil Blas" (b.211 1668, d. 1747). The church is a horrible structure, begun in 1670 and ended in 1683. It was formerly one vast hall, but a couple of ranges of columns were introduced in 1883 sustaining arcades, and qualifying somewhat the internal ugliness. Externally, the pinnacles are composed of little pyramids resting on balls.

The Castle of Sucinio was occupied in 1218 by Duke Pierre de Dreux, and in 1238 their son, Jean I., confined within it the baron Olivier de Lanvaux, who had rebelled against him. This prince was fond of the place and several of his children were born there. He took in the forest about the priory of Coetlann or Saint-Pabu, and the greater part of the castle that now stands was erected by him. His son John II. continued the works, and put his treasure in its vaults. During the War of Succession it was occupied by Charles de Blois, then taken by Jean de Montfort, and retaken by Du Guesclin. John IV. greatly repaired the castle, and within its walls was born Arthur of Richemond, future Constable of France. In 1474 the Earls of Pembroke and Richemond were imprisoned within its walls. The castle forms an irregular pentagon. It had eight towers, but of these only six remain. The entrance to the east is preceded by a drawbridge, and is defended by two large towers, one of which contains the chapel. The castle, occupied in 1795 by the Royalists, was sold as national property, and the peasant who purchased it despoiled it of its roof and staircases, and let it fall into complete ruin.212 A fee of one franc per head is charged for admission, the money being devoted to the relief of the poor of Sarzeau.

S. Gildas de Rhuys. Near the ocean; here precipitous cliffs receive the lashing of the Atlantic rollers. Near the drained marsh of Kerver is a menhir 12 ft. high. Near the hamlet of Net four others, and the remains of an allée couverte 70 ft. long and 12 ft. wide; at Clos-er-Bé a dolmen called Meen-platt, and near Largneven a fallen menhir 15 ft. long. The Abbey of S. Gildas was founded about 520. Gildas was the son of Cau, prince of Alcluyd or Dumbarton; Cau and all his family were driven south by the Picts and Saxons, and took refuge in N. Wales, where Maelgwn Gwynedd gave them lands, and the sons for the most part entered into religion. Not so Hywel, the eldest, a quarrelsome man, who fell out with King Arthur, and lost his life in the quarrel. Arthur was forced to surrender some lands in Radnorshire to the family as blood-money, and then Gildas gave him the kiss of peace. Gildas was a married man and had several sons, amongst whom the most noted was Kenneth, hermit of Gower, but who came to Brittany with his father and became a founder there. When aged thirty Gildas settled at Rhuys, and here he wrote his scurrilous letter against the princes and clergy and people of Britain, reviling in it in outrageous terms Maelgwn, who had treated his family with kindness and generosity. Gildas was on good terms with Weroch, Count of213 Vannes, and with Conmore, Regent of Domnonia, and this latter richly endowed his houses. This did not prevent Gildas from turning against him and heading a revolt which caused the death of his benefactor. It was whilst Gildas was at Rhuys that he was visited by S. Brendan. Although the Irish travellers arrived in cold and snowy weather Gildas refused them hospitality; but the Irishmen broke down the gates and forced themselves upon the sour British abbot. Gildas died in 570, and, according to his desire, his body was placed in a boat and thrust forth to sea. Two months after the body was washed ashore at Arzon, at the extremity of the headland, on March 11th, on which day a procession leaves S. Gildas, annually, and visits the site where it was found. In 818 the monks of Rhuys were forced by Louis the Pious to adopt the Rule of S. Benedict and abandon their Celtic practices. In 919 they were forced to fly from the Northmen. They hid some of the bones of Gildas in sand in his tomb, but carried away most of his relics, and took refuge in Berry. In 1008, at the request of Geoffroi, Duke of Brittany, Felix, monk of S. Benoït-sur-Loire, with six others came to Rhuys to restore the ruined abbey. He rebuilt the church which was consecrated in 1032, and much of this edifice remains. The church, in the form of a Latin cross, is composed of two distinct parts, the nave, rebuilt in 1699, and the choir and N. transept built by S. Felix 1010-32. The choir is apsidal, with the tomb of Gildas behind the214 high altar. It is surrounded by Romanesque columns with stilted arches, surmounted by small 11th cent. windows. The N. transept also possesses an apse to the east, and under a low arcade in the N. wall the tombs of S. Felix and S. Gulstan. On the N. side of the choir on the outside let into the wall is a curious carving representing two knights on horseback tilting at each other. The Romanesque capitals rejected when the nave was rebuilt have been in three cases utilised, by being inverted and turned into bénitiers; another is thrown outside. A beautiful statue of Gildas by Vallet stands over the tomb. It is that of a sweet and placable saint, not of a rancorous and revengeful man. In the S. transept, which was destroyed by a storm and has been rebuilt, is a huge barbaric retable. The treasury contains a silver bust containing part of the skull, and reliquaries for arm and thigh bones of the Saint; some of these reliquaries are of the 15th cent. There is also a mitre of the 15th cent. which is erroneously supposed to have been that of Abelard. The conventual buildings are of the 18th cent. and are occupied by a religious order which receives female paying guests during the season. Abelard, born in 1079, became a Benedictine monk in 1117, and was elected abbot of S. Gildas de Rhuys in 1125. But the strictness of his rule roused the monks against him. "The life of the monks," he wrote, "was indisciplined and frightful. The abbey gates were decorated with the feet of stags, bears and boars. The monks215 were roused from their slumbers by no other signal than the hunter's horn and the baying of hounds. The natives were barbarous and disorderly." The community revolted against any attempt to bring it to discipline, and Abelard believed that his life was in danger; he accordingly fled in 1138 and died at Cluny in 1142.

By following the road behind the church, along the convent walls, the Chapel of S. Bieuzy is reached, and a path to the right leads to the little Baie de Portas, where in the rock is an impression like that of a horse's hoof. Legend says that Gildas left the Isle of Houat on a flying horse that landed at this spot. A stair cut in the rock leads to the Baie de Saint Gildas, where is a spring and over it a statue of the Saint.

Arzon has a modern church surmounted by a spire, and two stained glass windows recording a vow made in 1673 by some sailors of the place to S. Anne, during the war with Holland. The Chapel of Er Hroez marks the spot where the body of Gildas was found. There are circles of stones at Er-Lannig, and a good many fallen menhirs. At Graniol is a tumulus containing an allée couverte. Another at Bilgroéz. The Butte de Tumiac was explored and a covered avenue found in it, but was so slovenly dealt with that the stones have collapsed.

Scaer (F.) chl. arr. Quimperlé. A dull town, with a vulgar modern church. At S. Jean, about two miles distant, on a lande, is a fine menhir. An abundant spring of Ste. Candide supplies the town, but it has no architectural216 character. The Chapel of Coatdry is an object of resort from all the neighbourhood on the occasion of the Pardon, 1st Sunday after Trinity, and again the last Sunday in September, when very interesting collections of costumes may be seen.

Le Sel (I.V.) chl. arr. Redon, is without much interest. The church is modern. The tumulus of Chalonge is covered with trees and surrounded by a moat.

Sizun (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. The church (S. Sulien) has a fine spire of more simple character than those usually met with in Finistère. The porch is renaissance. There are in the parish chapels of S. Cadoc and S. Illtyd. The great Pardon is on the last Sunday in July. The P. of S. Cado the last Sunday in September, and at Loc Ildut on Corpus Christi Day. The Chapel of S. Cado is on the Monts d'Arrée.

Commana. A fine allée couverte measuring 50 ft. A dolmen and a menhir. In the church are some gorgeously barbaric altarpieces, a mass of carving, gilding and colour, of very late renaissance or baroque. P. last Sunday in July. Those interested in prehistoric remains would do well to investigate the Monts d'Arrée, over which many are scattered. A map of the district with the monuments thereon is published in the Bulletin de la Soc. d'emulation des Côtes-du-Nord, T. xxxv. (1897).

TRÉGUIER CATHEDRAL

Plouneour-Menez. The very interesting abbey church of le Relecq lies near a tarn, one of the sources of the river of Morlaix.217 The abbey was founded on the site of the last battle fought between Judnal and Conmore, usurper of Domnonia, 555. It takes its name from the "religou" or bones which were found in great numbers on the battlefield. The original settler here was S. Tanguy, disciple of Paul of Léon, but the present church dates from 1132. The interior is a most interesting example of 12th century work. The west front was rebuilt in the 18th cent. On the N. side are the remains of the cloister of other monastic buildings. P. 15th August.

Tinténiac (I.V.) chl. arr. S. Malo. Reached by a tramline from Rennes. Prettily situated. The church is modern. There are some old houses. A menhir called La Roche du Diable.

At Tréversien is the Château de la Fosse aux Loups, where the scene is laid of Paul Féval's novel "Rollan Pied de Fer."

Les Iffs and the Château of Montmuran may be visited from Tinténiac (see Becherel).

* TRÉGUIER (C.N.) chl. arr. Lannion. An old cathedral city at the junction of the Jaudy and the Guindy. The town is on rising ground but runs down to the water side to a little point. On the highest ground is the cathedral, of nave and side aisles and two transepts. The church was almost altogether constructed in the 14th cent. It was begun in 1339. It has, however, preserved an 11th cent. tower on the N. side called de Tour de Hasting.218 It has the characteristic round-headed windows and pillasters of the period. The N. transept is in this tower and the pillars there with the Byzantine capitals and round arches proclaim that they belong to the beginning of the 11th cent. The bases are rudely carved, and bear the appearance of having been earlier capitals reversed and employed as bases. But this is probably in appearance only. What is of special interest to the visitor is the fact that Tréguier cathedral belongs almost wholly to the Middle Pointed or Geometrical period, which is not abundantly represented in Brittany. The W. porch sustains a gallery, and the entrance is through a double opening, a slender pillar supporting trefoils and sustains a quatrefoil between them, all pierced. Above is a 2nd pointed W. window of no particular merit: a pair of turrets with spirelets flank the western façade. The cathedral has three towers, the northern Romanesque Tour de Hastings, a central tower of the 14th cent. not finished, and with a stunted cap on it, and the S. tower, above the transept of the same date, but furnished with a naked, ridiculous spire added in the 18th cent. The flamboyant window inserted in the transept is of the finest quality, as are also those at the side of the transept. Happily, the S. front of the cathedral furnishes a good object lesson in the study of the development of tracery. Beginning at the W. end of the nave we have two windows of the earliest description of tracery, two lights sustaining a circle, all219 uncusped. The third window has two trefoil headed lights sustaining a trefoil, but all rather clumsy in design. Then we have the fourth window vastly in advance of the other; each cusped light sustains a trefoil and both trefoils support a quatrefoil. It must be mentioned, by the way, that a S. porch has been converted into a baptistery, and the tracery in its window is modern. If we pass on to the choir we have three windows; the first is very good, geometric in design, but the second and third are of supreme richness and beauty, revealing the style at its very best. Then look at the side clerestory lights of the S. transept and its large S. window and we see flamboyant or 3rd pointed also at its best. Then step within and look at the second window from the west in the N. aisle of the nave, and you see flamboyant in its decadence, when cusping was abandoned. The S. porch is set below the flamboyant window of the S. transept and is original, and, it must be admitted, far from pleasing. It has a vaulted roof, the exterior being thus treated, and within sustained by three ribs, between which is open tracery through which the eye pierces to the vault above. The doorway into the church has statuary about it much mutilated. The church within is fine. It is not over lofty as are the great churches of the Isle of France and Normandy. The pillars of the nave vary, and the moulding of the first two arches is richer than the others. The triforium is plain till it reaches choir and S. transept, where it is greatly enriched. The220 clerestory windows are tall and good. The Romanesque pillars and stilted arches in the N. transept should not be passed over. The choir ends in an apse, and is seated with carved oak stalls. According to the cathedral accounts, these were presented in 1648, but in style they appear much older. On the gospel side of the high altar is a statue of S. Tugdual, the founder of the see, with the appropriate inscription, "Etsi aliis non sum apostolus, sed tamen vobis sum. Scitis quod precepta dederim vobis per Dominum Jesum." S. Tugdual was son of Hoel and Pompeia; Hoel was the son of Emyr the Armorican, who fled from Brittany to South Wales in the 5th cent. Here he founded a Church, Llanhowell, near Solva in Pembrokeshire, a very early curious structure resting on cyclopean foundations, probably as old as the 5th cent. Tugdual and his mother came over to Armorica, and first settled with S. Brioc, the uncle of Tugdual, at Trebabu, not far from Brest. But Brioc returned to Wales, where a plague was raging, to comfort the panic-stricken inhabitants, and when he came back to Trebabu, the monks refused to receive him, preferring the rule of a young man to one advanced in age, whereupon Brioc departed and founded S. Brieuc. Tréguier when Tugdual settled there was undoubtedly an ancient fortress, standing in the fork between two rivers. He must have been a man of extraordinary energy, for he scattered "lanns" or ecclesiastical centres throughout Northern Brittany. But though221 Tugdual was the apostle to this district and the founder of the church, he has been completely eclipsed by S. Yves, whose monument has been reconstructed in the nave. It had been smashed to pieces at the Revolution. The reconstruction is eminently successful. S. Yves is, perhaps, the most popular saint in Brittany. He was born at Kermartin, near Tréguier, in 1253, and became ecclesiastical judge in the diocese. His, at that time, unheard of probity in refusing bribes, and his consideration for sick and poor gained general respect. He died on May 19th, 1303, on which day his Pardon at Tréguier is celebrated. Every peasant who considers that he has been wronged, who nurses a grievance, who is engaged in a lawsuit, has recourse to S. Yves, as promptly as he who has a sick horse flees to S. Eloi. On the N. side of the church is the Chapel du Dûc, opening out of the aisle by three arches. An altarpiece is made up of fragments of old carved oak. N. of the choir, entered either through a door in the Tour de Hastings or through a gateway east of the church, is the cloister. This was erected in 1468, and is therefore flamboyant, but without weakness. The tower of S. Michel, 15th cent., stands outside the town on a height. The church has been pulled down. There are some old houses in the city, notably at the port, where is an eminently picturesque group of two towers and two houses; one in the street is a study in slated fronts.

The chapel of the old manor house of222 Kermartin now serves as parish church to Minihi Tréguier. It is of the 15th cent. In the sacristy is preserved a fragment of the breviary of S. Yves.

Portblanc, in the parish of Penvenan, is hoping to develop into a watering-place. The situation is very pleasing, the sea is studded with islands and bristles with rocks. The largest island is that of S. Gildas, to which that Saint occasionally retired. It is rocky and has been planted with Austrian pines. On it is a chapel of the Saint. There is an abundant freshwater spring in the sands between the coast and the island, only accessible at low tides. On the island is a dolmen, called Le Lit de S. Gildas; it consists of four uprights sustaining a coverer that measures 7 ft. by 4 ft. Near this is a rocking-stone. On another islet the musical composer Ambrose Thomas built himself a château, that is completely surrounded by the waves at high tide. Portblanc was at one time far more important than it is now. It is alluded to in Richard II. act ii. sc. i. On the road from Penvenan, opposite to the entrance of a château, is a small menhir, 8 ft high, built into the hedge. Another 13 ft high is near the village of Penvenan. There is also a demi-dolmen in the parish. Penvenan church is modern and execrable, but the little chapel at Portblanc is interesting. Internally it possesses an arcade that appears to be Romanesque, but as pillars and arches are thickly plastered with whitewash it is not easy to determine their223 period. There is a N. transept, the wall of which spreads outward at the base, battering considerably. The W. front and S. front and the E. end of the chapel are flamboyant. The soil reaches to the very eaves at the east end.

Plougrescent, a fallen menhir 19 ft. long, is near Maznoë. The parish church is modern and very creditable. But the main object of interest in the parish is the chapel of S. Gonery. The tower is early 1st pointed, and was never completed. Above it is now a leaning wood and lead spirelet. The chapel consists of a single nave, with chancel and two chapels, one on each side of the chancel. The glory of the chapel is its magnificent painted ceiling in ten lower ranges, representing on one side the incidents of the Nativity, on the other those of the Passion. Above these ten more compartments give the life of Our Lord in glory. These subjects are curious; the most remarkable perhaps is the reception of Adam and Eve into Heaven by Christ. In the body of the church is a noble carved oak buffet, to serve as cupboard to the relics of S. Gonery. It has on it the Twelve Apostles and the Annunciation. The church, with the exception of the tower, is 15th cent., and the paintings are of the same period. Unhappily through neglect of attention to the roof, those near the tower are seriously injured by the wet. On the N. side of the chancel is the fine renaissance monument of Bishop Guillaume de Halgoët, 1599; on it is a recumbent figure of the prelate. Some fragments224 of stained glass are in the windows representing the Annunciation and Christ on the Cross. The S. porch is bold and curious, a pent-house roof sustained on huge granite corbels. Under the tower are the tomb and the "boat" of S. Gonery. The tomb is reached by descending under a structure of the 17th cent. Those afflicted with fever obtain earth from it which they tie up in little packets, and return when well. Consequently several of those little parcels of earth may be seen on the tomb. On the opposite side is the boat, in which S. Gonery and his mother Libouban came over from Britain. It is a curiously shaped stone trough, and probably actually was the sarcophagus of the Saint. It nearly resembles the stone coffins of the Merovingian period and of the 11th cent. Statues of S. Gonery and of S. Libouban are one on each side of the altar, the latter erroneously marked as N.D. de Bon Secours; the statue of the Virgin is of alabaster, and of the 15th cent., and stands on an altar in the S. chapel. The seacoast at Plougrescent is bold and fine with noble cliffs. The day of S. Gonery is July 18, but the P. is on the 4th S. in July.

Trinité-Porhoet (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. This place takes its name from the county of Porhoet, which was formed after the expulsion of the Northmen in the 10th cent. Josselin afterwards became the seat of the Count. There was a priory here founded by the monks of S. Jacut, in or about 1050. The old parish church was pulled down in 1806 and 1807 to225 serve for the construction of the halles. La Trinité, which was the priory church, is now that of the parish. It retains some Romanesque pillars and arches. The choir was partly rebuilt in 1742 and 1787, when also the tower and transepts were erected. This church is an object of pilgrimage. The P. is on Trinity Sunday.

Taulé (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. On the line to S. Pol-de-Léon. Near this is Loquenolé (S. Winwaloe), with a most interesting church containing some of the earliest work in Brittany, very early 11th cent., and possibly of 10th. Observe the curious rude sculpture.

Henvic has in its church paintings representing the story of S. Maudetus (Mawes) and his sister S. Juvetta.

Uzel (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, is not a place of much interest. The church is of the 17th cent., altered in the 18th. The Chapel of Bonne Nouvelle is of the 16th cent. Some ruins of the old château of Uzel remain, and there is a house of 1620.

Merléac has a Chapel of S. Jacques of the 14th cent. at the village of Saint Léon. The central east window is perhaps the finest in the Department; the tracery is all in granite, and it contains stained glass representing eight scenes in the Life of the Virgin, and eight scenes from that of S. Jacques. There are other windows representing the Conception and the Assumption. The ceiling is painted (15th cent.) with subjects from the Life of our Lord and the legend of S.226 James, and a procession of angels forming a concert on seventeen instruments of music. For a study of the shapes of musical instruments of the 15th cent. this chapel should be visited.

Quillio. The church contains the woodwork transported thither from the abbey of Bon-repos. Above the altar is a suspended Pyx.

Grâce. An allée couverte at the hamlet of Bois, running N. and S. and 18 ft. long. It is composed of blocks of quartz. There are eight supporters on each side and five coverers, but only one of these latter is in place.

VANNES

* VANNES (M.) chl. d'arr. Capital of the Department, and seat of a bishop. The town is not remarkably picturesque. The walls remain in places but built into, and only two gates with flanking towers have been spared. The cathedral is very disappointing, and there are few picturesque old houses. Vannes was the capital of the warlike Veneti, whom Cæsar crushed in B.C. 57, when he butchered all the chiefs and leading nobles, and sold their families into slavery. It became a Roman town, called Duriorigum, and six Roman roads struck over the country from it to Locmariaquer, Hennebont, Corseul, Rennes, Rieux, and Arzal. A Roman necropolis has been found on the site of the artillery barracks. At the beginning of the 5th cent. many towns dropped their particular names and assumed those of the peoples to which they formed centres, and then the place took the name which it has since borne in Breton, Gweneth. Christianity having made some progress among the Veneti, in227 465 Perpetuus, metropolitan of Tours, assembled a council at Vannes, and consecrated to it a bishop, Paternus. The city remained Gallo-Roman; but throughout the 5th and 6th cents. British emigrants arrived in such numbers, that in 590, Regalis, the bishop, complained that he was, as it were, imprisoned within the walls of the town by them. These colonists had their own laws, princes, and ecclesiastical system, and would not recognise the bishop. In 496 we hear of an Eusebius, king or governor of the town. An alliance was entered into between the Armoricans and the Franks, and Clovis and his successors were recognised as overlords. Whether the British chieftain Weroch got into the city and established himself there is doubtful, but his son Macliau did so, on his death. Macliau was in orders, and married. On the death of the bishop he induced the clergy and people to elect him as their bishop, and to satisfy their prejudices dismissed his wife. No sooner, however, was he firmly seated on the episcopal throne, than he sent for his wife and children. About eight years later his brother Canao, secular chief of the Bretons, revolted against the Franks, whereupon Macliau proclaimed himself Count as well as Bishop. He was killed along with two of his sons in 577. Pepin occupied the city in 753, and Louis the Pious visited it at the head of an army in 818. In 843 Nominoe, governor of Brittany, shook off the yoke of Frank allegiance. Then came the invasion of the Northmen, and the disappearance228 of the Counts of Vannes, till 937, when Alan II., Barbetorte, friend of Athelstan, was recognised as Count, and transmitted the title to his descendants. The town walls were rebuilt in 1270. In less than a century the War of Succession broke out and Vannes had to stand four sieges in one year, 1342. John IV., conqueror at Auray in 1364, repaired the walls, and extended them. The cathedral church of S. Peter was burnt by the Northmen in the 10th cent. and was rebuilt in the 11th at the same time as the abbey church of S. Gildas de Rhuys. But the tower was added in the 13th cent. and the whole of the nave and transepts, the former in 1452-76 and the latter in 1504-27, consequently in the flamboyant style. The nave has no side aisles, but chapels between the buttresses. In 1537 Archdeacon Jean Danialo who had been in Rome, returned enthusiastic in favour of pagan architecture, and to show the canons what he admired, constructed the circular Chapel of the B. Sacrament on the north side, a beautiful structure for its style. But at the same time the chapter was building its cloisters, and they are full flamboyant tending to renaissance. The apsidal Chapel of N.D. and S. Vincent was erected at the same time also, and is thoroughly Italian. In the meantime the old Romanesque choir showed signs of falling, and was pulled down in 1770 and the present choir was built and finished in 1776. Then the chapter set to work to transform the nave. All the tracery was hacked out of the windows, and a plain229 barrel vault was added. The W. tower has had a spire added to it recently, and the W. front was "restored" in feeble style in 1868-73. Then the architect was entrusted with filling the windows with tracery; and he, not comprehending the character of the nave, inserted tracery of a century earlier in style. The N. transept had a fine doorway, but it has been blocked up for a hideous baroque retable and altar to stand against it. Thus the church, never very fine, has lost much of its character and interest. In the N. transept is the tomb of S. Vincent Ferrier, and above it his bust in silver. Vincent was born at Valence in 1357, and in 1374 entered his novitiate among the Dominicans. He was sent to Barcelona and Lerida to give lessons in philosophy, but threw up the study and devoted himself to preaching, and rambled through France, Spain, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland, as a revivalist preacher, but, of course, in such countries as did not understand his tongue, the effect of his sermons was lost. He spent two years in Brittany, where he cannot have been of any use, as the peasants could not comprehend French. He died at Vannes on the 5th April 1419, but the Pardon is on the 1st Sunday in September. The other churches of Vannes are not worth looking at. That of S. Paternus was built in 1727. The Museum of Archæology of the Societé Polymathique du Morbihan contains many interesting objects from the dolmens and tumuli of the Morbihan.

Vannes is situated at the distance of 5 kilometres230 from the Morbihan, the inland sea that gives its name to the Department. Almost every day two little steamers leave the port for the islets, but the time of starting depends on the tide. The Gulf of the Morbihan is some 8 miles long and about 15 miles wide. It communicates with the sea by a narrow mouth only three-quarters of a mile across. It is nowhere deep; from 45 to 60 ft. is its depth. It is studded with low islands, of which at the outside forty are inhabited and some fifty are cultivated. The inhabitants live by fishing, and all the men are sailors.

This inland sheet of water is cut off from the ocean by two great crab's claws, the peninsula of Sarzeau and that of Locmariaquer. The scenery is by no means bold; sandy shores and low islets, and mud banks at the fall of the tide. The archipelago is, however, very interesting because of the numerous prehistoric remains on the islands.

The Isle of Arz is about two miles long. Here was formerly a priory dependent on S. Gildas, and it possesses a Romanesque church, unhappily repaired and remodelled at various epochs. Near the little Cap de Brohel and in the islet of Boëdic are megalithic monuments. At Penraz, south-east of the village, is half of a cromlech or circle of stones 60 ft. in diameter. At Cap Brohel, ruined dolmens and fallen menhirs; at Pen-lious three fallen dolmens and some menhirs. P. 8th September.

Ile aux Moines is separated from the Ile231 d'Arz by a channel 60 ft. deep at low tide. The ancient name of the island was Crialeis, in Breton it is Ines Menah or Izenah. The prehistoric monuments in it are: the great circle of stones at Kergonan, of which only half remains; the fine dolmen of Penhap, some menhirs, and the ruined dolmens of Broel, Vigie, Kerno, Roh-vras, Roh-vihan, Niol and Pon-niol. The island was granted by Erespoe to the monks of Redon, but after the devastation by the Northmen it was lost to the monks of Redon. The church is modern and is dedicated to S. Michael. P. 29th September. The island was colonised after the Northmen had swept it of its inhabitants, by settlers from Rhuys. The costume of the women is almost the same, but of a more antique cut and character. All the islands in this inland sea, like the mainland have sunk at least 16 ft. since prehistoric times. In the little islet of Er Lannig are two cromlechs, or circles of standing stones; one is half submerged, and the other completely under water, even at low tides.

Gavrinis lies to the east of the Ile aux Moines. Although less important than those already described, it is the most interesting of all in the Morbihan, on account of its tumulus, 25 ft. high, that covers a fine covered gallery, the stones of which are elaborately carved with mysterious signs like the tattoo-marks of New Zealanders. A gallery 40 ft. long leads to the central chamber, which is 5 ft. high and 6 ft. 6 in. wide. The blocks are of a fine grained232 granite, not of the island, but brought from a distance, with the exception of two, that are of quartz, and these are unsculptured. Such as are carved, were clearly so dealt with before they were erected in place, as the working passes round the edges.

Er-lanic is situated half a kilometre to the south-east of Gavrinis, and here are the two cromlechs already mentioned, one dipping into the sea, the other already in deep water. They are juxtaposed, forming an 8, and lie on the S. E. of the island. The first circle consists of 180 stones, but several are fallen, and it can only be seen complete when the tide is out. One stone is 16 ft. high. The second circle can only be seen at low tides.

Ile longue contains a cairn that also covers a gallery. It has not been fully examined.

Saint Avée. The church is poor and uninteresting, but in the churchyard is a curious cross, with platform from which, according to local tradition, capital sentences were pronounced. On one side is the crucifix, on the other the B.V.M. On the sides S. John the Baptist and S. Peter. In the church are two windows middle pointed. There is a lech in the churchyard at the east end of the church. But what is of far higher value than the parish church is the remarkable chapel in the Bourg-bas, which is flamboyant (1475-94), except the N. transept that is 2nd pointed. Between the nave and the choir and transepts is a tall crucifix enriched with niches, with railing and gates at the side, a233 totally unusual description of roodscreen. The crucifix is certainly of 1500. The transepts contain four altars with their original retables. The first on the N. side has very rude carving representing the Crucifixion, Christ in Glory, and the B. Virgin crowned (?) with a dove by her. The second and third are plain with graceful border of foliage. The fourth is a splendid bit of alabaster work, probably Flemish, and represents a virgin saint, the Crucifixion, a saint, Christ giving benediction, S. Avée (?), a Queen-saint, S. Mary Magdalen and a Mermaid. There are some early statues in the chapel, an admirable S. Lucy of the 15th cent., the drapery splendidly executed. Such early statues are very rare. Another is of S. Columbanus. Some fragments of old glass are in the windows. In the churchyard is a very curious carved Calvary of unique character, also a Holy Well. The E. window of the chancel is flamboyant of a later character than the rest. In the N. transept is one flamboyant, the tracery forming a fleur-de-lys. The others are middle pointed. The chapel has a slate spirelet. S. of the chapel by the roadside is a lech with a crucifix planted on top of it. The camp of La Villeneuve is of undetermined date. To reach it the road to Josselin must be taken and diverged from to the left to Mangolorian. Near this hamlet is the camp on a steep hill, almost impracticable on all sides but the west, where it is defended by two ranges of ditches and by two walls. The camp is called either Villeneuve or Kastel-Kerneué.

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The Vallon de Poignan is within an easy stroll from Vannes. The road to Pontivy is followed as far as the Chapel of S. Guen, and then a lane to the right leads to some curious rocks, one of which is fancifully called a Druid altar. The road to Josselin is then entered, and a lane to the right conducts to the picturesque, rocky valley of Poignan, at the end of an avenue of oaks.

Plescop. Of little interest; it has a couple of lechs in the churchyard, and a flamboyant chapel, without much character, to S. Amon, possibly the father of S. Samson, who came from the neighbourhood of Vannes, but usually supposed to have been a returned crusader who asked at Plescop for milk, and as he was refused, cursed the place that its cows should never yield good milk and butter. As he was found dead in a furze-brake next morning he has received cult as a saint. Part of his skull is in a carved oak bust in the chapel, but is not exposed to veneration, as authenticating documents are non-extant. P. 4th Sunday in October.

Surzur. Three menhirs 15 ft. high are near the hamlet of Begard, and two ruined allées couvertes are in the coppice of Talhoet. A dolmen and two fallen menhirs near it at the hamlet of Vinihy. The parish church of S. Symphorian is a Romanesque building but altered later. The arcades, the doors and windows are semi-circular. There is a central tower at the crossing of the transepts surmounted by a slate spire. The Chapel of N.D. de Recouvrance is of the 16th cent.

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S. Nolff. The church is partly of the 16th cent. It has been restored not wisely but too well. The Chapel of S. Anne, 1493, has a fine east window with stained glass representing Our Lord and seven saints. The other windows are filled with glaring modern glass.

Sulniac. The parish church dates from several periods. Four pillars and arches are Romanesque, as well as a window near the porch; the other windows and arcades are later. The nave was rebuilt in fancy Romanesque in 1893.

* VITRÉ (I.V.) chl. d'arr. A very picturesque town, rivalling Fougères in objects of interest. It stands on a hill above the Vilaine, and notwithstanding the destruction of a portion of its ramparts, is one of the French towns that has best retained the features of the Middle Ages. But on the side of the railway station all is modern and uninteresting. To see the old Vitré it is necessary to enter and pursue the ancient and narrow streets, which form an inextricable tangle. The houses are mostly slated in front. On the N. side the town assumes a feudal character. Here the walls stand on the black schist rock, and are only pierced by a single postern that gives access to a steep descent by steps into the valley. The castle, on a triangular plan, was founded at the close of the 11th cent. and was reconstructed in the 14th and 15th. The entrance is flanked by two towers. The castle is used partly as a prison and partly as a museum. The Church of Notre236 Dame is of the 15th and 16th cents., and has a tower crowned with a spire of the 18th cent. Outside the church is a stone pulpit. There is some old glass of the renaissance period: the entry into Jerusalem, the Adoration of the Shepherds, a representation of the burning of the tower of the church in 1704. The church also contains a remarkable triptych of the 16th cent., representing in 32 little groups on enamelled copper scenes from the New Testament. On the back is an inscription in rhyme. The church of S. Martin is modern; the old church is in the cemetery and dates in part from the 16th century.

Château des Roches was formerly the residence of Mme. de Sévigné, who lived in it repeatedly between 1654 and 1690. It consists of two blocks of buildings of the 16th cent., and is situated in a pretty park. Visitors are only admitted to the grounds, to the chapel, and to the room of Mme. de Sévigné, which contains copies of family portraits in the private apartments and some objects believed to have belonged to the marquise; among others a book of accounts for the garden signed by her. The bed and chairs are of wood painted white and covered with yellow silk damask.

Champeaux. The church is of the 14th and 19th cents., and has fine glass of the renaissance (1530-5) and tombs of the same period. About a mile and a half S.W. a menhir 12 ft. high called La Haute Pierre.

Pont l'Abbé (F.) chl. arr. Quimper. Here237 one is in the midst of the Bigauden country. Observe the curious and ugly way of wearing the hair and the coiffes. There are many folds of skirts fastened round the waists. The women are remarkably plain, and have staring eyes and expose their teeth. The church has fine 2nd pointed east and west windows. The tower was pulled partly down by Louis XIV. to punish the people for the Revolt of the Papier timbré. Some old houses. Fine cloister. The château of the 13th cent. has been transformed into a mairie. It retains a large tower, and buildings of the 17th cent. Outside the town to the S.W. is the château of Kernuz, transformed by the proprietor into a museum of flints, bronze and jade weapons, and gold ornaments found in the cairns and dolmens of the neighbourhood. The whole peninsula, ending in the Pointe de Penmarch (the Horse's Head), abounds in prehistoric monuments. Two dolmens are near the road, in the parish of Plomeur, which has an ugly modern church.

Penmarch was once a thriving seaport, rivalling Nantes, but for various causes declined, and is now reduced to a couple of hamlets. The church (S. Non = Ninidh, an Irish Bishop) is an interesting late flamboyant structure, the tracery in the windows affecting the forms of fleurs-de-lys. Beneath the E. window is a treasury surmounted by a gallery. At the junction of the chancel with the nave is a spirelet supported by turrets, connected with it by flying buttresses. At the S.W. a pretty little triumphal238 arch and gable. The church was begun in 1308. Inside the church a fireplace for heating the baptismal water. A mile and a half off is S. Guénolé, the tower of the church alone remaining, 1488. A little apse has been built out at the east end. It contains some curious statues. Here is a bathing establishment, with comfortable quarters. Kerity has some old maisons fortes, and a ruined church.

Tronoen. A chapel of the same date as that at Penmarch, with a fine Calvary. Two stages of sculptured groups.

Lambour. A flamboyant church, with colonade of the 13th cent.

Loctudy. A Romanesque church, with an Italian 18th cent. façade. It much resembles S. Gildas de Rhuys. It has been restored. Ile Tudy may be visited, but does not contain much of interest.

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INDEX OF PLACES

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INDEX OF SUBJECTS

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