Brittany. Baring-Gould Sabine
with very peculiar straight groining and vaulting in the S. aisle. The chapel has an apse, the tracery has been removed from the windows and the old stained glass got rid of to make way for sad modern rubbish. The tower is later than the chapel and is unfinished. A huge ducal crown of Brittany is suspended in the apse. The crown is closed above, a right claimed by the dukes. P. 2nd July.
In the woods of the old château of Quinipili (guide advisable) is the rude granite statue of the famous Venus of Quinipili removed from Castannec on the Blavet. It is 6 ft. high, with the hands crossed over the breast and with a sort of stole hanging down in front, and a band about the head on which are cut IIT. The statue, which received idolatrous worship, was transferred in 1695 to Quinipili, by Count Pierre de Lannion, along with a huge granite basin that stood before it. He set it up on a pedestal in his grounds and cut a pseudo-classic inscription on the base. As the original statue was indecent, he set a sculptor to alter it, and probably the stole is due to this man's chisel.
Camors. There are two dolmens in the forest, and an allée couverte at Kerpenru. Of menhirs, one is on the lande of Penher, three at Kerguelen, a stone-row of twenty uprights at Kernoul. Seven menhirs in the wood at Floranges, and six in the forest of Camors. At Porhoet-er-Saleu, are the remains of the castle of Conmore, Count of Poher, and regent of Domnonia. He is regarded as the Bluebeard of Brittany, although he was actually only thrice married, to the sister of Jonas, King of Domnonia, to that of Meliau, King of Cornouaille, and lastly to Triphena, daughter of Weroch, Count of Vannes. This latter marriage was effected by the persuasion of S. Gildas. Conmore, however, so ill-treated his wife that she ran away to her father at Vannes. Gildas, who was at the time at Castannec, was furious with Conmore, and local legend asserts, that he came before this castle, gathered up a handful of earth, and casting it against the walls cursed it, that it should never again be inhabited. S. Triphena is invoked in the neighbourhood by women with troublesome husbands, and little wooden crosses may be found on the site of the castle set up by them in token that they have made a vow to S. Triphena to rid them of their annoyance. The church of Camors is dedicated to S. Senan, abbot of Iniscathy.
Guénin. The church is of 1773. The Chapel of N.D. de Menez-guen is flamboyant but late, 1577, with alterations made in 1604 and 1751. It is a cross church with a central tower. One descends by several steps into the chapel. Lean and lanky girls go to it and pray for fat to be laid on. P. 1st S. in July. Pilgrims take water from the fountain to give to their cattle.
Questinic. Chapel of S. Mathurin, P. 2nd S. in May. Chapel of Locmaria, renaissance 1574, a cross church with central tower and spire, and some old glass.
Bieuzy. The station of S. Nicolas des Eaux gives access to several points of historical and architectural interest. The train from Auray to Pontivy cuts by a tunnel through a neck of land round which the river Blavet makes a great loop. This loop was occupied in Roman times by a walled town Sulim, of which numerous remains have been found; and the sides are so precipitous that no enemy could attack it, save on the north. The road from the station to Bieuzy has been engineered by a great sweep up the height, but the pedestrian can ascend to the Chapel of La Trinité by a sharp scramble, and by clinging to the broom and heather. This finger of land, almost surrounded by the river on all sides, was covered with ruins in the beginning of the 6th cent. S. Gildas came hither from Rhuys about the year 530, and founded a little colony of monks where is now the hamlet of Castannec. Finding that there was a gross image of Venus among the ruins that the people worshipped, he and Budoc (Bieuzy) his disciple threw it down and rolled it along to their monastery and built their wall over it. The image remained buried thus under the wall till the ruin of the monastery by the Northmen, and perhaps for some time after. Castannec was never restored to any extent, by the returned monks of Rhuys. In 1125 Castannec was made into a parish, and the church was where is now the Chapel of La Trinité, and it was served by the monks of Redon, but the population was small and the revenue insufficient, and was united to Bieuzy. Then it was that in removing the remains of the old priory the image of the Venus was restored to light, and at once received a religious cult from the peasants, who called it Groah en Goard, the Woman of la Couarde, which is the name of the promontory. It was placed near a large basin scooped out of granite, and in this women came to bathe, invoking the assistance of the Venus of Couarde. In 1661 a mission was held at Baud, and the missioners besought Count Claude of Lannion to destroy the idol. He had it accordingly rolled down the hillside into the river. However, the peasants fished it up and replaced it in 1664. Then the Bishop of Vannes interfered, and at his request the Count sent masons to smash it. They, however, contented themselves with injuring one arm and one of the breasts and again rolled it down into the Blavet. In 1695, Pierre de Lannion, who had succeeded his father, drew it forth from the water and had it conveyed to Baud to ornament his château of Quinipili; and there it remains to the present day with the granite basin before it, but not in quite the same condition, for, as has been said already, the Count employed a sculptor to work the statue over and give it a more decent appearance.
Near the Chapel of Ste. Trinité a path leads to the hermitage of S. Gildas. It is advisable to obtain a child as guide. The Saint with his disciple Budoc, or Bieuzy, was wont to retire to a cave under an overhanging rock beside the Blavet during Lent, and at certain times when he desired to be private. He built up the face of the cave and divided it into two parts, one for himself and one for Bieuzy. A chapel was added in the Middle Ages, and this was restored in 1837. It consists of two parts, and is under the rock in a most picturesque situation. The bell is attached to the rock. The structure is of the 15th cent., but the E. window and an arch are 1st pointed (perhaps the window is due to the restorer) and there are rude windows round-headed, that may possibly be of a still earlier date. An arch divides the chapel into two with an altar in each. In the outer chapel, on a pedestal, is the bell-stone of Gildas, a slab of diorite, on which stands a couple of pebbles, and when the stone is struck with these it rings. At Mass on the day of the Pardon, Whitsun-Monday, and on S. Gildas's day, Jan. 29, the bell-stone is used for ringing at the Sanctus, Elevation and Communion. On the left side of the principal altar is a block of rock and masonry used for the pain bénit, which is distributed among the pilgrims. There was another bell-stone, that of S. Bieuzy himself, but this was carried away, and broken in the transaction, by a seigneur of Kervèno in 1660, but the rector reclaimed it and in 1702 succeeded in recovering it, and it is now placed in the churchyard of S. Bieuzy near the cross. The church of Bieuzy has a modern spire and nave. The choir and transepts are renaissance of 1560. There are three superb stained glass windows of this date in the apse representing the scenes of the Passion; one subject, the Risen Lord, appearing as a gardener to the Magdalen, deserves notice. The S. door of the church is flamboyant with a flamboyant window above. A S. door, blocked in the choir, has some lovely flamboyant foliage on it. There is a picturesque renaissance house opposite the church. It is worth the visitor noticing the type of well in all this district. The structure of granite for the support of the drum for the chain is very striking, and there is an excellent example in a yard near the E. end of the church at Bieuzy. A few yards from the village is the Holy Well with a niche for the Saint. The water is sought for those who are off their heads.
Returning to the station, S. Nicolas des Eaux is next visited. The chapel is in a very dilapidated condition. It is a flamboyant cruciform structure (1524) with a fine double doorway and with foliage about it, and with late flamboyant tracery in some of the windows, but from most it has been hacked away.
S. Nicodème is perhaps the most beautiful example of flamboyant in Morbihan. It was completed in 1539, and a bell bears the date 1507 which is about the date of the spire and tower. The west entrance under the tower is peculiarly bold and beautiful, with its lace work fringed arch. A flight of steps leads down to the chapel, and on the left is a singular Holy Well, composed of three gabled structures united at the back. The date on this well is 1608, but it is impossible to hold this to be the true indication of its erection, and must commemorate a reparation, for the character of the sculpture and the general design are of a century earlier, and in its quaintness and originality indicate the same master hand that had planned and drawn the marvellous tower and spire. The three fountains are to (1) S. Gamaliel with an ox at his side and a biniou player; (2) S. Nicodemus with a human-headed ox by him; and (3) S. Abibo with a horseman at his side. Hard by is an immeasurably inferior Holy Well to S. Cornelius, constructed in 1790.
The chapel itself is not equal in beauty