Part 6 (1/2)
[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 s.h.i.+ps, attacked Herve de Porzmoguer, a Breton captain, with only twenty. His own s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p's company. Porzmoguer grappled the 'Cordeliere' to the s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps. 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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 s.h.i.+llelah, is always ready at hand:-