Brittany. Baring-Gould Sabine
It contains a minstrel gallery of stone in the N. transept. The altarpieces are bad rococo. Two little oxen are stuck up against the N. wall of the chancel to commemorate the success of an invocation to S. Cornély. There is a very curious retable at the side representing the Resurrection. S. Nicodemus is represented carrying a napkin, three nails and with a heraldic wreath about his head. Most of the windows have had their tracery removed. The Pardon here is very famous and largely attended. The first Saturday in August is held as a great fair here, and at it girls sell their hair. Young women wearing black caps and not coiffes are such as have parted with their natural ornament. On the Sunday following is the Pardon. An angel descends from the gallery of the spire and sets fire to a great pile of brushwood and firework hoops.
Bubry. The church is modern and bad, near it are two lechs, one with four equal faces, and the other has a cross pattée on two faces. The ossuary is full of skulls arranged in order. In the "place" is a great granite basin fed with water from the fountain of S. Helen. The Chapel of S. Yves is five kilometres to the south of this village, and is in a jumble of flamboyant and renaissance. The date 1598. This chapel drew so many pilgrims, and such abundant donations, that the near-by Seigneur de Kernivinen became jealous, and going to the chapel one day of the Pardon, fell on the rector and boxed his ears, because he refused to give up to him a share of the spoil. This was in 1630. He was put into the ecclesiastical court and condemned to restore 10,000 livres which he had carried off from the chapel, and to pay a fine of 2000 which was to be given to the hospital. P. of Ste. Helene, 4th S. in July. This is spoken of as well attended.
Melrand. The Chapel of Locmaria is fine. It has a bold, square tower surmounted by a spire: it is all of flamboyant work with a few details showing that the renaissance was at hand. The E. window, partly hidden by a retable of 1680, contains in twelve tableaux scenes from the Life and Passion of our Lord. In the N. transept window is a fine Jesse tree, in one of the S. transept the angelic salutation. Near the chapel is a Holy Well of 1574. P. at Guellouët in Melrand, 1st Sunday in July.
Becherel (I.V.) chl. arr. Montfort. On high ground. In the church a Romanesque font. Old gateway, 16th cent. House of the Little Sisters of the Poor is here. The headquarters or Mother-House. Les Iffs has a church of the 15th cent. containing nine windows of superb stained glass, the finest in the Department. The tower is of the 16th cent. On a height is the Château de Montmuran of various dates. In the chapel, Du Guesclin was dubbed knight in 1354. He married Jeanne de Laval, granddaughter of the Countess of Montmuran, for whom he defended the castle against the English. The E. window of the chapel is good early flamboyant and contains fine old glass. The château is very picturesque. The Château de Caradeuc, partly ancient, in a park with fine trees, and well kept, has within, among other paintings, two Murillos.
Begard (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in 1130 by Stephen III., Count of Penthièvre. It was rebuilt in the 17th century, except the Romanesque church. It is now a lunatic asylum. According to local tradition, Begard was first settled by such ragged hermits that the place was called after them, a settlement of "Beggars." A menhir is at Kergouézennic 18 ft. high.
Kermoroch. The chapel of Langoerat, 1373, has in it stained glass and paintings. There are ruined castles at Perrier and Leshorz.
Pedernec. A ruined castle at Runangoff. The Chapel of N.D. de Lorette dates from 1514. A 16th cent. manor house at Kermathaman. A menhir 25 ft. 6 in. high.
Belle Ile (C.N.) chl. arr. Guingamp. Prettily situated in the valley of the Guindy. The church is modern, the old church is turned into halle. The Chapel of Locmaria is made into the cemetery chapel. It stands on a rocky height above the river and the road to Trégrom. It is late flamboyant, the pillars are surrounded by stone seats. The W. door has boldly carved foliage in coarse granite. The roodscreen, with figures and foliage in the panels of the gallery, has been removed to the W. end.
Plounevez-Moedec on very high ground, traversed by the main road from Paris to Brest, straight as a bowstring. The church has a 2nd pointed arcade and E. windows and N. aisle. The rest flamboyant. The gallery at the W. end is one removed from the chapel of Keramanach, with the vaulting wantonly taken away. The tower, renaissance, has been restored recently. The chapel of Keramanach (S. Fiacre) may be visited equally well from Belle Ile or from Plouaret. It is late 2nd pointed with square end, E. window and S.E. window of same period, as also N. aisle. There are remains of good stained glass in the windows. The porch has rich 16th cent. groining. The W. bell turret has a gallery. The chapel contains a fine alabaster reredos of the 15th cent., each panel has been let into a wooden frame. On the road from Plounevez to Trégrom is a menhir 30 ft. high.
Locquenvel. Church of 15th and 16th cents. with stained glass representing the legend of S. Envel.
Belz (M.) chl. arr. Lorient. In very desolate country. The road from Auray runs through plantations of Austrian pine grown for the Welsh collieries, or over furzy moors. Belz itself is an utterly uninteresting place, with an ugly church, and a ruinous but large chapel near it. Belz lies, however, near the curious inland sea of Etel, and was formerly head of a pou or pagus. A mile and a half beyond Belz is the hamlet of S. Cadou, occupied entirely by fishermen and their families. The women wear scarlet petticoats which they take care to display. A stone causeway 140 ft. leads to the Isle of S. Cadou and his chapel. S. Cadoc, son of Gwynllyw, King of Gwent or Monmouthshire, arrived here about 525 and founded a monastery and school on the island. To facilitate the passage and repassage of his pupils he constructed the causeway, having learned the art of dyking at Llancarvan. It was here, pacing it with Gildas, that they discussed the salvability of Virgil. Cadoc, who loved that author, could not believe that he was lost, but Gildas held the harsher view. As they talked, Cadoc turned over his Virgil to point out some remarkable passages, probably the prophecy of the Incarnation, to his friend, when the wind swept the volume out of his hand into the sea. He slipped in rushing to recover it, and some pieces of iron in the causeway are supposed to indicate where his foot slid. Only with difficulty did Cadoc recover the precious book. The chapel has an early Romanesque apse, with rudely carved capitals to the pillars supporting the chancel arch. The chapel was much spoiled at its alteration in 1842. In the S. transept is the stone bed of S. Cadoc with a receptacle under it, in which strange sounds are thought to be heard. These are due to the echo of the waves and winds. The gallery of the flamboyant screen has been removed to the W. end. In the nave are four paintings. (1) S. Cadoc arriving at the isle; (2) S. Cadoc settling on it; (3) Pirates land and he protests that he has nothing; (4) Cadoc departing, with the inscription: —
Oratoire mon œuvre adieu, dit-il pleurant,
Belz t'oublierai je? Non. Il cingla de céans.
P. S. after 21st Sept. Numerous megalithic remains are to be found about Belz. A menhir at Kervoen, another at Mélionec; remains of an allée couverte 30 ft. long at Kernours; a dolmen in good condition at Kerlutu; others at Kerhuen, Kervoen and Kerlourd. At Crubelz in a tumulus is a chamber of masonry nearly 11 ft. high. Roman bricks were found in it, and it would seem to have been constructed in Gallo-Roman times, but in accordance with earlier traditions and usages.
Locoal, on an arm of the sea of Etel, united to the mainland by a causeway like that at S. Cadou. Locoal was a locus penitentiæ of S. Gudeval or Gurval, Bishop of Aleth. He scooped out a cave and dwelt therein. Disciples came to him to the number of 188. To protect themselves against the high tides they erected the dykes that still remain. At length, desiring greater retirement in his extreme old age, Gudeval retired with seven disciples into the forest of Camors, where he died in 640. Some lechs remain; one near the cemetery is 4 ft. high, with a cross cut on it in relief, surmounted by a circle and cross. Another on the way from Locoal to Mendon, 7 ft. 6 in. high, with two crosses cut on it, bears on it the words CRUX PROSTLON; it is the tombstone of the wife of Count Pasquitien, the murderer of King Solomon. She died in 875. The parish church was burnt by the Spaniards in 1592, and again accidentally in 1765.
Etel, at the mouth of the channel that connects the inland sea with the ocean, is a small port partly closed by a rock and by moving sands. Near the village is a dolmen with seven supporters. A little further on is one with five.
Erdeven (Ar deven = on the sand-downs). All this district is covered with wind-blown sands. The most remarkable prehistoric monument is the alignment of