Brittany

by S. Baring-Gould

* SAINT NAZAIRE (L.I.) chl. d'arr. Is the seventh most important port in France and is situated at the extremity of a promontory of a gneiss rock that runs along the bank of the Loire. There is nothing of antiquity in the place, which is wholly modern and built on a stiff and formal plan, the houses rivalling each other in ugliness. But there is one curious object in it, an enormous dolmen in the midst of a square, that has been spared, and has given its name to the street leading to it. Five lighthouses guard the entrance of the Loire. From S. Nazaire a visit may be paid to La Grande Brière, a vast turf deposit, once an inland lake. The peculiar costume has almost disappeared, only the women retaining their coiffe. The population of all this district is British, and the descendants of the very earliest immigrants. The hair is for the most part fair, the eyes grey or blue. Formerly the Breton tongue was spoken throughout this district, but it is now spoken by only about 400 persons in the neighbourhood of Batz by Croisic. Curiously enough, the villagers of Batz regard themselves as of different blood from the rest, and to be descendants of Scandinavian pirates who were suffered to settle there. Till quite recently it was an unheard of event for a young man of Batz to marry a girl of what he regarded as the Breton villages. That in colour of hair and eyes there should be no distinction does not militate against the tradition, for the pure blooded Celt is as fair as the Scandinavian.

Saint Nicolas du Pélem (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. A menhir in the forest of Kerhuel, and another near Kerhuel, 9 ft. high. In the valley of Prat-roury another, fusiform, about 11 ft. high. The old Roman road from Aleth to Carhaix ran through this parish, and it remains in fairly perfect condition in several places. On a height is the camp of Dzillon near Kerimard, circular with a tump hollowed out within, certainly a Norseman burh. The Château de Pélem is in ruins, but two of the towers are standing. The Church of S. Nicolas has got very fine restored stained glass of the 14th cent., representing in twenty-four medallions scenes from the gospel story; at the bottom of the window the donors are represented kneeling. Another window contains fragments of medallions representing the life of the Baptist. The roodscreen was wantonly destroyed in 1861. The Chapel of S. Eloi has a fine flamboyant east window with remains of stained glass in it. The Chapel of Riolon is mainly of the 15th cent., and has an east window of the renaissance with stained glass in it representing the Eternal Father seated in the midst of a rose, surrounded by the evangelists, the prophets, and angels playing instruments of music. Another window has fragments of stained glass in it representing saints.

Canihuel. A huge menhir called Coz-resto, 23 ft. high, has been split by lightning. It is in a line with other menhirs at Kergornec, Saint Gilles-Pligeaux, and Crech Ogel in the old bourg of Quintin. At Botquelen is another menhir 13 ft. high.

The parish church was built in 1474, burnt in 1595 and repaired in 1598; it is almost wholly of the 16th cent. with a flamboyant E. window.

Kerpert. Church of the flamboyant period; in the E. window glass of the 16th cent. representing the life of S. Peter; ossuary.

Lanrivain. Ossuary and Calvary of 1548. On the platform are several figures; there are three crosses, the principal one sustains a group of eleven figures carved in one block.

Peumerit-Quintin. Near the hamlet of Pempoul a ruined allée couverte. The Chapel of S. Jean du Loch is mainly of the 15th cent. but retains some portions of the earlier 12th cent. building.

S. Connan.. Near the Mill of Kerdic a ruined allée couverte. Dolmen in the Parc-an-Neurn.

S. Gilles Pligeaux. Two menhirs at Kergornec, one in the Parc-er-Pélem, is 22 ft. high and leans. The other at four hundred paces from it, near the bottom of the valley in Parc-ar-golven, is 13 ft. high. They seem to belong to a system of which only some remain, as Crech Ogel in Vieux Bourg, Coz-resto in Canihuel, and one in the Lande de Bohan in S. Mayeux. Dolmen called Roc-ar-Velcien, the table supported by three uprights. The coverer is almost circular, about 23 ft. in diameter. The church is of the 16th cent., tower and porch of 1644. In the cemetery a chapel dedicated to S. Laurence, with an entombment in the crypt of terracotta of the 17th cent. Date of chapel 1538.