Brittany & Its Byways Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: 25. Abbey of St. Mathieu.]

We now reached the Abbey of St. Mathieu, situated on the extreme point of Brittany and of France, on the top of a promontory, well called Finistere.

Here in the sixth century was built a monastery in honour of St. Matthew the Evangelist, whose head had been stolen in Egypt by some Breton navigators, and been brought to land at this point, which long bore the name of "St. Mathieu de fin de terre" (Finistere). In the twelfth century the monastery was converted into a Benedictine abbey, which is a beautiful example of the Early English style. The formidable rocks at its feet are called Les Moines. The monks of St. Mathieu kept a beacon for the safety of mariners on these dangerous sh.o.r.es. The modern lighthouse quite masks the sight of the abbey, and is a great disfigurement to the view, which, in other respects, is most grand; the imposing granite ruins of the abbey church on the very edge of these weather-beaten cliffs, worn and torn by the ocean with its unwearied waves; on the right, the reefs of the Pa.s.sage du Four, which appear to unite the islands of Ouessant and its satellites to St. Mathieu; on the left the elongated point of the Bec du Raz, which no one, according to the Bretons, ever pa.s.sed without grief and suffering.

In sight of Saint Mathieu, the English in 1504, with eighty ships, attacked Herve de Porzmoguer, a Breton captain, with only twenty. His own ship the 'Cordeliere,' which had been built and fitted out by Anne of Bretagne, at her own expense, took fire; it held 1200 troops besides the ship's company. Porzmoguer grappled the 'Cordeliere' to the ship of the English admiral, the 'Great Harry;' and both vessels, driven by the north-west wind to the entrance of the Goulet, were burned together, and above 2000 men perished in the two ships. Porzmoguer mounted the mast followed by the raging flames, and cast himself from the main-top, in full armour, into the sea.

In 1597, the fleet sent by Philip II. to take possession of Brittany for Spain was dispersed in a storm off Point St. Mathieu, and, out of a hundred and twenty ships, scarcely one remained.

On our way home, we pa.s.sed a little town called La Trinite, from three springs all issuing from the same fountain, at which washerwomen with their wooden bats were hard at work, beating the clothes to rags on the stones.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 26. Peasant Girl of Ouessant.]

Next day was the monthly fair at Brest, which brought in many of the country people in their picturesque costumes. Most conspicuous among them were the peasants of Ouessant, last type of the Celtic women, in their singularly Italian-looking head-dress, their hair streaming over their shoulders; and the Plougastel men, in red caps, with coats and trowsers of white flannel.

Most of the market-women were furnished with enormous umbrellas, red, blue, and green. In this rainy province, they are indispensable, and the acquisition of an umbrella is a great object of ambition to the Breton peasant.

We left Brest by the steamer for Pont Launay and Chateaulin, a four hours'

sail in the harbour of Brest. On the right we pa.s.sed the Point des Espagnols, where Frobisher, sent by Queen Elizabeth to the a.s.sistance of Henry IV., received his death wound. Leaving on our left Plougastel, where we were unable to visit the celebrated calvary, we pa.s.sed near the "Anse du Fret," whence Joan of Navarre, then widow of Duke John IV., sailed to England to marry Henry of Lancaster, 1403. Henry, when Earl of Derby, had visited Nantes to ask the a.s.sistance of his uncle in returning to England, and Joan had favoured his expedition, but Duke John died the same year (1399). When Queen Dowager of England, she saw the children of her two husbands arrayed against each other, and her son Arthur, who had been invested by King Henry IV. with the Earldom of Richmond, made prisoner at Agincourt by his half-brother King Henry V., who confined him in the Tower, and afterwards in Fotheringay Castle. Joan received hard treatment from her stepson. Accused of being a sorceress-a reputation she inherited from her father, Charles the Bad of Navarre-Henry caused her to be confined in Leeds and Pevensey castles, and deprived her of her property.

It was only on his approaching death that he restored her to liberty. She retired to Havering Bower in Ess.e.x, where her grandson, the unfortunate Gilles de Bretagne, was reared and educated with Henry VI. She died in 1437, and the memory of "Joan the witch queen" was long held in awe by the people of Havering Bower.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 27. Peasant Girl, Chateaulin.]

On the left is the hamlet of Kersanton, which gives its name to the stone so called. At the entrance of the Aulne,(15) to the right, we pa.s.sed the ruins of the abbey of Landevenec, the most ancient monastic establishment in Brittany. At Pont Launay an omnibus took us to the railway station at Chateaulin, celebrated for its slate quarries, a drive of three quarters of an hour. From here we proceeded by rail to Quimper, capital of Cornouaille. The district of Cornouaille-Cornu-Galliae, expressing its position at the horn or extremity of France-is most varied in character.

The part on the north is enclosed between the two chains of mountains, which, running nearly parallel with each other, traverse the department of Finistere, the Mene-Arre, and the Montagnes Noires. A single chain pa.s.ses through the Cotes-du-Nord, and forks off, at the edge of the department, near Callac, whence the northern range, the Mene-Arre, runs westwards to Faou harbour; while the Montagnes Noires incline to the south-west, and reach the sea near Crozon. The country between these chains is dreary and bare-barren plains and black mountains; to the south it is cultivated and productive. The stormy rock-bound coast is wild and desolate. One-third of the department consists of landes, marshes, and sandy sh.o.r.es (_greves_).

The people are the Irish of Brittany. Their wants are restricted to a tub of salted pork and a provision of cider, with rye, or black corn, to make their "galette." They are simple in their manners, kind to the poor, and enduring of suffering. Respect for the misfortunes of others, and patience under their own, is one of the Breton characteristics.

In the days of Conan Meriadec there lived a holy man, called Corentin, who retired to a solitude for prayer and meditation, near a fountain in a forest. Every morning a little fish came to him from the fountain; he cut a piece off it for his daily pittance and threw it again into the water, and in an instant the fish became whole. The miracle was repeated every morning. One day King Gradlon, who held his court at "Kemper," was in the forest near the hermitage of St. Corentin, with some of his suite, and asked him if he could give him something to eat. The saint immediately ran to his fountain and called his little fish, cut off a piece, which he gave to the maitre d'hotel to prepare for the king and his attendants. The chef laughed when he took the slice; but, to the surprise of everybody, the fish multiplied so as to completely satisfy the hunger of the king and his party. Gradlon threw himself on his knees at the feet of St. Corentin, and gave him the forest, with a "maison de plaisance," which St. Corentin converted into a monastery. The king afterwards erected Quimper into a bishopric, to which he nominated St. Corentin:-

"Voici dans le fond la ville de Kemper, Asise au confluent de l'Oded et du Ster.

Comme sa cathedrale, aux deux tours dentelees, S'eleve n.o.blement du milieu des vallees, O perle de l'Oded, fille du roi Grallon, Qui de saint Corentin portes aussi le nom, Rejouis-toi, Kemper, dans tes vielles murailles!

Vois avec quelle ardeur, o reine de Cornouailles, Tes fils de tous les points de l'antique eveche, Pecheurs et montagnards, viennent a ton marche!

Cornouillais! en pa.s.sant pres de sa basilique, Du bon saint Corentin adorez la relique.

Que tous ceux d'Elliant et des memes chemins Boivent a sa fontaine et s'y lavent les mains; Non pas les Leonards, eux de qui les ancetres, Voici quelque mille ans, hommes jaloux et traitres, Volerent le poisson dont notre Corentin Coupait pour se nourrir un pen chaque matin, Et qui chaque matin, o pieuse merveille!

Nageait dans sa fontaine aussi frais que la veille: Eh bien! les Leonards volerent ce poisson, Mais Kemper n'oublie jamais leur trahison; Sans jouir de leur crime, ils en portent la peine, Et toujours le poisson nage dans la fontaine."

_Les Bretons_-BRIZEUX.

Quimper, or Quimper-Corentin, is prettily situated at the junction of the rivers Odet and Stheire; its Breton name, Kemper, signifying confluence.

It was long called Kemper-Odet. On the opposite side of the river the hills, consisting of a ma.s.s of rocks, covered with trees, rise to some height, and are ascended by well-kept walks. The river runs straight through the town, like a ca.n.a.l, edged by stone quays and crossed by iron bridges, with avenues of trees on each side. Trout can be seen in the sparkling stream; and we watched a boy with a hook at the end of a reel of black silk, hanging over the bridge, with a piece of kneaded bread for bait. With this simple tackle he contrived to hook a trout of tolerable size, and let it run out the length of his silk line till he had tired it out and landed it. The scenery of the river below Quimper, flowing through a bed of granite blocks, is, we were told, lovely, but we had no time to visit it further down. The view from the top of the wood-covered heights on the opposite side is very extensive, looking down upon the town, with its cathedral towers rising above, the promenade, and the course of the river. At the end of the town there is a manufactory of coa.r.s.e pottery; but formerly it produced ware of a finer quality.

The beautiful cathedral is the largest of the four episcopal churches of Lower Brittany (Vannes, St. Pol, Quimper, and Treguier), and was princ.i.p.ally built in the fifteenth century. On the platform over the finely sculptured porch, rich in foliage like the Folgoet, placed between the two towers, is the equestrian statue of King Gradlon, to whom is attributed the introduction of the vine into Brittany. The statue was decapitated in 1793, but restored ten years back. On St. Cecilia's day companies of musicians used to mount on the platform. While they sang a hymn in praise of King Gradlon, one of the choristers, provided with a flagon of wine, a napkin, and golden hanap, mounted on the crupper of King Gradlon's horse, poured out a cup of wine, which he offered ceremoniously to the lips of the statue and then drank himself, carefully wiped with his napkin the moustachios of the king, placed a branch of laurel in his hand, and then threw down the hanap in the midst of the crowd below, in honour of the first planter of the grape in Brittany. To whoever caught the cup before it fell, and presented it uninjured to the Chapter, was adjudged a prize of two hundred crowns.

The two spires of the cathedral are modern, and were built by an annual subscription of a sou for five years, called the "sou du St. Corentin:"

more than 600_l._ was thus raised. They have only been lately finished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 28. Beggar. Quimper.]

The men about Quimper all wear the national costume-enormous bragou-bras, or breeches of a kind of white sail-cloth, a broad-brimmed felt hat, long hair, falling over the shoulders, wooden shoes, and a broad belt with metal buckle. Their woollen jacket and waistcoat are edged with gay colours, and have sometimes the itinerant tailor's name and the date of the making of the garment, embroidered in wool upon the breast. On gala days brown or blue cloth bragous are worn, tied with coloured ribbons at the knees, black leather gaiters with b.u.t.tons, and the sabots are replaced by leather shoes and costly silver buckles. The national costume is more preserved in Cornouaille than in the other parts of Brittany. The pen bas or cudgel, with a large k.n.o.b, like the Irish shillelah, is always ready at hand:-

"Comme une conque immense ouverte au bord des eaux, En Cornouaille est un port, il y vient cent bateaux.

Un sable jaune et fin couvre ses cotes plates, Mais un infect amas de rogues, de morgates, D'oss.e.m.e.nts de poissons sur le rivage epars, La saumure qui filtre entre ses deux remparts, Soulevent tous les sens quand cette odeur saline Arrive au voyageur qui tourne la colline, Laissant derriere lui les taillis de Melven, La belle lande d'or qui parfume Aven, Et ces mouvants aspects de plaines, de montagnes Que deroulent sans fin nos sauvages campagnes.

Plus de batteurs de seigle ici, plus de faucheurs, Mais des canots charges de mousses, de pecheurs, Partant et revenant avec chaque maree, Et sur les quais du pont versant a leur rentree, Des sardines en tas, des congres, des merlus, Des homards cuira.s.ses, de gros crabes velus; Et, du fond des paniers, mille genres enormes, De toutes les couleurs et de toutes les formes, Avec leur il vitreux et leur museau beant, Tous enfants monstrueux du grand monstre Ocean.

Aussitot le pressier les seche, les empile, Et quand leur gra.s.se chair a degorge son huile, De Nantes a Morlaix cherchant les acheteurs, On voit bondir sur mer les hardis caboteurs.""

_Les Bretons_-BRIZEUX.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 29. Concarneau, with Sardine Boats.]

Thus the Breton poet describes Concarneau, a little fortified town, which has been called the St. Malo of Cornouaille, and is celebrated for its sardine fishery. The road lay through a wooded country, with steep hills and valleys, intersected by streams: on the right a view of the Bay of La Foret, where extensive oyster-culture is going on. After a tedious journey with miserable horses, we reached Concarneau at nine, a distance of little more than thirteen miles, having set off a few minutes after four.

Concarneau proper is on a rocky island, surrounded by fortifications, with eight or nine towers and thick walls, and communicating with the mainland by means of a drawbridge. This is called the "Ville Close." It consists of only one street. When Duke John IV. embarked from here for England, he left Sir Robert Knollys governor of the duchy. The constable Du Guesclin, after the surrender of Hennebont and Quimperle, took Concarneau by storm and slew all the English garrison, except the captain, who received quarter.

Opposite the island is the faubourg Sainte Croix, which is more populous than the Ville Close, and where all the business of the place is carried on. The sardine fishery, from June to November, occupies two-thirds of the population. From three to four hundred vessels are employed with five men to each boat. Calm weather is most favourable for fishing. The sardines are taken in large seine nets, one side floating with corks on the surface of the water, the other falling vertically. The sardines, attracted by the bait, try to force themselves through the meshes of the net, and are caught by their gills. The bait used is called "rogue:" the best is composed of the roe of the cod-fish, pounded and steeped in salt water for several days; sometimes the roe and flesh of the mackerel is used. Rogue is made in Norway and Denmark, but princ.i.p.ally at Drontheim, and is very expensive, costing about sixpence the lb.; hence an inferior bait is subst.i.tuted, composed of shrimps and other small crustacea, with fish salted, and the heads of anchovies, all pounded and putrified together.

But this kind of decomposed bait is forbidden by the fishery laws. The employment of it accounts for the rareness of good sardines, as the remaining of such a substance in the body of the animal cannot fail of corrupting it. It is a pretty sight to behold the little fleet employed in the sardine fishery return in the evening, laden with the results of the day's work. The fish, when landed, are counted out into baskets, shaken in the water, and taken up to one of the curing-houses: of these there are about sixty in Concarneau. In the first shed we saw above fifty women employed in taking off their heads-"deteter" it is called-an operation they effect with great dexterity. With one cut at the back of the neck the head is separated and the fish "eventre" at the same time.

The sardines are next placed in little wire trays, with divisions like a double gridiron, and fried or dipped in boiling oil, an operation princ.i.p.ally performed by the women of Pont l'Abbe, who are supposed, like the Germans of our baking and sugar-refining houses, to be peculiarly const.i.tuted to resist heat. The gridirons are then hung up to drain. The sardines are next packed in tin boxes, cold oil poured over them, and the boxes soldered down. From 800 to 900 boxes are placed in a boiler and boiled for half an hour to test the boxes, and those which leak are put aside. They are of English tin, and the making of them is the winter's occupation. Finally, the boxes are stamped with the name of the establishment, and packed in deal cases for exportation. The sardine is a very delicate fish, and easily decays. It is only taken out of the net with a rake (_raquette_); in summer, numbers are spoiled from being heaped in the boats, and at whatever hour the boats come in the fish go through the whole process of curing, as they will not keep till the next day.

Concarneau exports from 15,000 to 20,000 barrels of sardines annually.

Only a part are "anchoitee," that is, preserved like the anchovies of the Mediterranean, the others are salted in casks; and quant.i.ties, only slightly salted, are packed in baskets, to be sent to the provincial markets. It is estimated that twelve hundred million fish have been caught this year. The sardine fishery extends along the whole western coast of Brittany from Douarnenez to the Loire.

One of the curiosities of Concarneau is its aquarium, under the direction of M. Guillon. It consists of six cisterns, made by the blasting of the solid rock, and comprising an area of large extent, within a walled enclosure. In these cisterns the water is renewed at each turn of the tide through narrow openings in the wall. Three of these reservoirs are reserved for fish, the others for crustacea-lobsters and langoustes. Of these they keep from 10,000 to 15,000 at a time, and send them off daily, when fattened, to Paris and the princ.i.p.al markets of France. It was curious to see the dread shown by the common lobster to the langouste.

They all were adhering to the sides of the reservoirs as if afraid to encounter their more powerful companions. Quant.i.ties of turbot, also reared for sale, were in one of the cisterns, darting with the greatest rapidity in the water when the keeper threw in pieces of sardines for them to eat. At the end of these cisterns is a building, with every arrangement for the culture of fishes-rows of little troughs, and other vessels, to contain them. Many of the fish are so tame, they came immediately to the keeper on his making a noise in the water with his fingers. Here are fish of every description, and naturalists have every facility of studying their habits. Among others, we saw the graceful little sea-horse or hippocampus, a native of the seas of Brittany as well as of the Mediterranean.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 30. Dolmen. Tregunc.]

From Concarneau to Quimperle is a distance of above eighteen miles. The road runs near the sea, over a large tract of land covered with furze (ajonc), which, in Brittany, grows from five to six feet high, forming a solid impenetrable ma.s.s. Huge blocks of granite are scattered about in every direction, jutting out from among the furze-menhirs, cromlechs, and dolmens-a perfect wilderness of Celtic remains. We drove over an extent of several miles of furze-covered hills and heathy land. Before we reached the village of Tregunc we stopped to see a large dolmen on the side of the road, and further to the right a rocking-stone, twelve feet long and nine feet thick, standing about fifteen feet from the ground, the second largest in Brittany. It is poised by a little projection, like an inverted cone, upon another rock lying half-buried in the ground. The upper block can easily be set in motion by the hand. It is called by the country people "La pierre aux maris trompes," and was formerly consulted by husbands to test the fidelity of their wives. Even now the partner of a faithless wife is said to be incapable of giving to the stone the rocking motion it so easily receives from another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 31. Rocking Stone. Tregunc.]

On the left we pa.s.sed the majestic ruins of the castle of Rustephan, _i. e._ Run, mound, of Stephen, having been built by Stephen Count of Penthievre at the beginning of the twelfth century. It belonged in the thirteenth to Blanche of Castile, the mother of St. Louis. The present edifice dates from the fifteenth. One of the sides remaining has a cylindrical tower with pinnacled doorway, and the windows have stone mullions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 32. Chateau of Rustephan.]

Pursuing our road through blocks of granite, we descended into the valley of Pontaven, the town of millers, according to the old saying-

"Pont Aven, ville de renom; Quatorze moulins, deux maisons;"

a little port built upon rocks, at the foot of two elevated mountains, over which are scattered ma.s.ses of granite boulders, obstructing the course of the river which bounds over them. The banks are lined with woody slopes; wooden bridges cross the river at intervals; mills are established on the ledges of the rocks on its sides; and the noise of the mills, with that of the sparkling river tumbling through the rocks in waterfalls, keep up a perpetual din. Pontaven is celebrated for the quant.i.ty of its salmon: so much is taken, that it used to be said that the millers fattened their pigs upon this fish, which was literally true, as they took the small salmon, called glesils, in nets (_poches_) for that purpose. Salmon now is very dear. At the mouth of the Pontaven river was a castle, whose proprietor had the privilege of firing upon the fishing-boats which returned up the river without giving to the castellan their finest fish, which his steward went down to select. Pontaven is seven and a half miles from Bannalec, the nearest railway station. After remaining a few hours we drove on to Quimperle-in Breton, Kemper (confluence) Elle-so called, because it is at the confluence of two rivers, the Elle and Isole:-

"Vous reverrai-je encore, o fleuve de l'Elle, Vous, Izole, ou mon cur est toujours rappelle!

Les eaux sombres de l'Elle, claire ceux de l'Izole; De ces bords enchantes je dirais chaque saule."

BRIZEUX.

Quimperle is a great resort for fishing, the Quimperle salmon and trout being renowned throughout Brittany, and even at Paris. This town is beautifully situated, surrounded by high hills, in a valley, watered by these bright rivers, the hills covered with gardens, orchards, the Ursuline, Capucine, and other convents, and crowned by the steeples of the Gothic church of St. Michael. Its princ.i.p.al building is the church of St.

Croix, formerly that of a Benedictine abbey, celebrated for its riches.

The island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer then belonged to it. It is a most singular edifice, built in the eleventh century, after the model of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. In 1862 it fell down, but is at present in course of restoration, after its original plan. The old abbey buildings are now occupied by the Prefecture. We were given permission to pa.s.s through the convent garden-the workmen and building materials having blocked up the other entrances-to see the crypt in which is the tomb of Saint Gurloes, first abbot of Quimperle. His effigy, with crosier in hand, his feet resting on a dragon, lies upon a monument, about three feet high, with an opening in the lower part. The saint-Saint Urlose, as the Bretons call him-is invoked princ.i.p.ally for the gout, and persons so afflicted crawl through the hole under the tomb, where, suspended by chains, is an iron hook. They twist a lock of their hair round this hook, and tear it off with violence, hoping to propitiate the saint by this mortification-evidently a remnant of heathen times, when hair was sacrificed to deities or to the memory of departed friends.