FINISTÈRE.

THE WEST COAST OF BRITTANY.

WE

CHAPTER XIX.

Pont l'Abbé-Penmarc'h.

E had proposed to go to Penmarc'h, thence along the coast to Audierne, and so on to Pointe du Raz; but we were advised to make two journeys instead of one, although by doing so we must give up the journey between Pont l'Abbé and Pont Croix, and we regretted this as there are two curious churches on the road, the Chapelle S. Viaud and the Chapelle Notre Dame de Tronoan.

For those who like boating excursions, the pleasantest way is to go from Quimper down the Odet, and then up the river on which the town is built to Pont l'Abbé. The Odet widens rapidly after passing Locmaria, and soon broadens into a sort of lake. On the right is the ruined castle of Kerdour, and after passing this the river narrows again. About ten miles below Quimper the Odet flows into the estuary of Benodet, and the boat makes a circuit before it enters the mouth of the Pont l'Abbé river between Loctudy and the island of Tudy. The church of Loctudy is very

CHURCH OF LOCTUDY.

279

old and interesting, built by the Knights Templars in the twelfth century; but there are some remains of a much older building, well worth seeing. There is a curious chapel in the graveyard. Loctudy takes its name from St. Tudy, who in the fifth century lived on the island, and founded a monastery there. There is a ferry from Loctudy to the island.

At Lesconil, about two miles from Loctudy, there is a very large group of Druidic stones. About four miles above Loctudy is Pont l'Abbé. But it is a quicker way to go by diligence to Pont l'Abbé, and then take a vehicle to Penmarc'h. The best way of all is to take a carriage at Quimper, stopping on the road and then returning from Penmarc'h to sleep at Pont l'Abbé.

The first part of the road out of Quimper was very pleasant beside the river Odet; but we soon left this, and after a few miles the cultivated smiling country changed into barren moorland, the cottages disappeared, and the only signs of cultivation were banks planted with young pine-trees.

Pont l'Abbé lay below, and seemed to be a quiet deserted place, with only one tower remaining of the castle, which in 1590 sustained a siege against the party of the League. The church, however, is both old (fourteenth century) and interesting, although it has been much mutilated, especially the fine east window. It was founded in 1383 by Hervé, Baron of Pont l'Abbé, and Perronelle de Rochefort, his wife, when they built the Carmelite convent of Pont l'Abbé. The west porch is very handsome; the cloister, which bears the arms of Bertrand de Rosmadec, Bishop of Cornouaille, is delightful; the arches are very

graceful, far better than anything in the Cathedral of Quimper, on which this prelate spent so much time and money.

Across the bridge is another church, that of Lanbour. Louis XIV. ordered the spire of this church to be demolished because the people of Lanbour refused to pay the stamp-tax levied in 1693!

The quaint little four-cornered cap worn by the women of Pont l'Abbé is called a bigouden. We had already seen the costume at Quimper, but it looks still more original in this old world quiet little town, where the men seem wholly occupied in the fisheries. The land is said to be so fertile that it produces with little cultivation. Both corn and

butter are abundant and of the best quality, and the fruit and vegetables are larger and finer flavoured than those of Quimper. There is a quiet quaintness about the little town which makes one think it might be a pleasant resting-place for a few days. This is said to be one of the most superstitious districts in Lower Brittany.

It is necessary to breakfast or lunch at Pont l'Abbé before going to Penmarc'h. The road soon becomes very barren and dreary. On the left we pass the castle of Kerunz, which, it is said, once communicated by a subterraneous passage with the castle of Pont l'Abbé. After this comes a dreary waste, sprinkled, after we pass Plomeur, with huge masses of granite, among which are three dolmens, and near Penmarc'h, at Kerscaven, two menhirs, one of which is fan-shaped at the top.

Penmarc'h itself looks like a place of tombs. On every side are ruins, foundations of houses; those still standing towards the east constitute the present Penmarc'h, or horse's head, as the name signifies. Another group of houses near the sea, but at some distance from the first, is called Kerity; but both of these groups, some other squalid villages, and all the rest of the ruins, once formed part or occupy the site of a large city, Treoultré Penmarc'h, which was of much commercial importance till the discovery of Newfoundland and the establishment of a cod-fishery there. The cod-fishery had been the great source of the revenues of Penmarc'h, and the decline of the trade seriously injured its prosperity; but even in 1556 it was still a considerable town, with 10,000 inhabitants. Then a sudden invasion of the sea destroyed a part of the town, choked up the harbour, and destroyed the cod-fishery; and before the inhabitants.

could repair these disasters, Fontenelle, towards the end of the War of the League, came over from Douarnenez, and attacked and pillaged the town until he left it a mere wreck.

During the War of the League the inhabitants had stowed away their immense riches in the church and in the fort of Kérity, and had fortified both these places, fearing the outrages of Fontenelle. Till then most of the houses had been separately fortified, as there were no walls or defence to the town beyond the boundary of terrible rocks in the bay of Penmarc'h. Fontenelle heard of these treasures, and came in friendly guise with only a few companions to reconnoitre. While he pretended friendship, and ate and drank with the inhabitants, his people observed the positions of the church and the fort. Very soon he returned with a large number of companions. first the peasants retired to their forts, but while they came out to listen to the propositions of Fontenelle, his people took the church, massacred its defenders, and then granted their lives to the garrison of the fort on condition of its surrender. The booty was immense. Fontenelle filled three hundred ships and boats belonging to the people of Penmarc'h with it, and returned in triumph to Douarnenez. It is said that 5,000 men suffered cruel and violent deaths, and that all the women and girls of Penmarc'h were outraged by the brigand and his followers. He left a garrison in the fort of Kérity, and held it for two years, and then Sourdiac, governor of Brest for Henry IV., reconquered it.

After this ruinous attack, Penmarc'h seems to have dwindled away till it has become the skeleton of a great city. It is now an expanse of flat rock, covered in some places with sand, in others with salt marshes; and amid