One of the principal industries of Dinan is the fabrication of sail-cloth. It is an admirably placed industry, with its market close at hand, and most of the Breton and Norman fishing-boats of these parts sport a full suit of Dinan manufacture.
In the environs of Dinan are innumerable charming excursions mostly neglected. One such must surely be included in one’s itinerary,—a visit to the old Priory of Lehon, a dependency of the Abbey of Marmoutier.
It was founded in 850 by Nominoë, in honour of St. Magloire, whose relics were brought from the Isle of Jersey to Dinan. The ruins, as seen to-day, are most ample and beautiful, showing the best of thirteenth-century Gothic.
Besides this, Lehon has the picturesque ruins of a twelfth and thirteenth century castle perched high upon the summit of an eminence overlooking the headwaters of the Rance. The castle came to the hands of the Dukes of Brittany; Charles of Blois stayed there in 1356 after his return from England, and Raoul Coëtquen was made captain in 1402, since which time its history has been lost or hidden in the pages of the untranslated chroniclers.
In 1624 the priory monks robbed the castle for material with which to construct their beautiful cloister, but enough remains to-day, hidden away among a mass of ivy and lichen-grown ruins, to indicate its former prominence.
Altogether Lehon and its two romantic memories of other days is a “sight” not to be missed.
An old custom formerly prevailed here at Pentecost, when the newly married were supposed to present themselves before the prior of the monastery for a sort of last blessing, as it would seem.
They sang the following refrain, and went back to their home, or to the festival in the neighbouring village, with never a care beyond to-day:
“Si je suis mariée vous le savez bien;
Si je suis mal à l’aise vous n’en savez rien.
Ma chanson est dite, je ne vous dois plus rien.”
This seems a philosophical way of looking at things, and shows an easy conscience and open mind on the part of all concerned.