Brittany

by S. Baring-Gould

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 Tréminach 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 tide 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.

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. An 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.