Baring-Gould Sabine
Brittany
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. Twenty 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 only 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 extant 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, 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 an 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-hearted 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 appearance 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.
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.
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 in 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 all 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 turret 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 to 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.
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.
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 farmhouses 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. 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.
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 de 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. A 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. The 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 only 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.
