CXLIII. BOOK atre forms a range of eight large Corinthian columns. Saint Peter's course, a spacious and pleasant walk on the banks of the Loire, leads to the old castle that belonged to the dukes of Brittany, it was built by one of them in the year 930, it has acquired celebrity from the edict passed by Henry the Fourth, an edict of which the revocation by his grandson was the cause of unnumbered calamities to France. Among the useful institutions, it may be worth. while to mention a fine collection of paintings, a valuable public library, a museum of natural history, better than any other in any provincial town, a large botanical garden, a royal college, and lastly schools of medicine and hydrography. The charitable institutions are creditable to the benevolence of the inhabitants, the manner in which they are managed, is not less creditable to the civic rulers. Nantes is the seat of a diocess which was erected in the third century. It was fortified in the time of Cesar, it maintained a terrible siege against the Huns in the year 445; the Normands destroyed it in 845, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. The English besieged it in vain in 1343.- A Vendean army consisting of 80,000 men attempted to take it by assault in 1798, they were defeated and repulsed by the citizens. It became at a later period the theatre of the horrible executions which were sanctioned by Carrier. Nantes has given birth to the learned Mathurin Veyssiere, to Renéle-Pays, a poet of the seventeenth century, to Boffrand the architect, to Cassart the navigator, to Cacault the diplomatist, to Bouguer the mathematician, and to Fouché, duke of Otranto, and minister of police. It possesses a cannon foundry, dockyards in which merchant vessels and sloops of war are built, it supplies part of the navy with cordage, sailcloth and iron cables; there are besides several sugar works, cotton and cloth manufactories, tan-pits and different works of less consequence. From the extremity of the department to Nantes, the Sevre waters a country not less romantic than Switzerland, and more interesting from the associations connected with it. The village of Palet was the birthplace of Abeilard; in the woods and rocks in the neighbourhood, Heloise and her lover bewailed their misfortunes after the base Fulbert had sa BOOK CXLIII. tisfied his monkish vengeance. The small town of Clisson contains only 1200 inhabitants, but it recalls the title of a family that rendered itself illustrious in the annals of France; their castle, formerly remarkable for its architecture, now majestic in its ruins, stands on a height near the town. Paimbeuf, on the left bank of the Loire, about twelve leagues Paimbeuf. below Nantes, was a hundred years ago a mere hamlet peopled by a few fishermen; but commerce has since changed it into a flourishing and well built city, at present the capital of a district. The most remarkable places on the south of the Loire have now been mentioned; towards the north and on the right bank of the river is situated Ancenis, a pleasant town, commanded by the old castle which was long inhabited by the dukes of Bethune. Chateaubriant, on the other side of the Don, a small river, is well known for its preserves. Savenay on the south-east of the last place, is the chief town in a district that carries on a considerable trade in cattle and salt. Guerande, an industrious and more populous town, and Pouliguen possessing a convenient harbour, are situated near the saline marshes which yield every year nearly eighteen thousand tons of gray and white salt. ment of The word Morbihan, it has been said, signifies a small Departsea in Low-Breton or perhaps in some Celtic dialect. The Morbihan. gulf of the same name is larger than any other on the coasts of the department, which the lower course of the Vilaine separates from the one that has been last examined. The same gulf waters a great many small islands; the two largest or the Ile-aux-Moines and the Arz are well peopled and cultivated. Vannes may be about a league from the Vannes. most northern bay in the same gulf, two small rivers water and surround it; they add to the convenience of its harbour, and the advantages of its position. According to ancient authors the walls of the town must have been bathed by the sea at the time when it was not only the principal city of the Veneti, but the most powerful, wealthy and populous of any in Armorica.* An old wall flanked with towers separates the town from a suburbs which exceeds *Cæsar de Bello Gallico. Lib. III. BOOK CXLIII. Peninsula of Rhuys. Islands. it in size. The heavy and massive cathedral rises in the midst of dismal houses and dark streets. The freestone quays along the narrow harbour may be admired for their solidity, but the finest buildings are erected on the mole which extends near a small salt marsh. Three public walks are frequented in the vicinity, and within the walls are situated a college, an hospital and a theatre; the industry of the inhabitants is confined to sardel fisheries and to coarse cloth manufactories. Such is the capital of a department which, although poor in vineyards, is fruitful in coru, pastures, timber, lint and hemp. The marshes and landes are without doubt extensive; still the inhabitants rear many horses, oxen and sheep. Iron mines are wrought in different parts of the country, the inhabitants export the leather, linen and woollen stuffs manufactured in the depart ment. Sarzeau, on the peninsula of Rhuys, is a small town peopled by 6000 inhabitants, who are mostly fishermen. The castle of Suscinion was erected on the coast by Ann, dutchess of Brittany; and the monastery of Saint Gildas may still be seen on the same peninsula in another part of the coast; according to tradition, the monks possess the chair of Abeilard; it is certain that he was the abbot of the convent. The islands which Pliny calls Insula Venetica, rise opposite the coast between Vannes and Lorient; all of them depend on the department. The inhabitants of Belle-Ile-enMer, the largest as well as the richest of these islands, rear cattle, and export every year nearly eight hundred draught horses of the best kind in France. It contains 8000 souls, three small harbours and the burgh of Saint-Palais defended by a castle. A small fortress guards Hoedic, of which the inhabitants, like those in Houat earn their livelihood by fishing. Groix or Groaix, the most northern of these islands, is peopled by 2000 individuals scattered in different villages, Quiberon. they are at once husbandmen and fishers. Quiberon, or as old writers call it Keberoen, a peninsula about two leagues in length, and a quarter in breadth, is changed into an island during the full tide. It is celebrated for the descent made in 1795 by 10,000 emigrants under the pro tection of the English fleet; abandoned by allies who might BOOK have saved them, they were completely defeated by general CXLIII. Hoche. A monument not very creditable to the English perpetuates the memory of the event. The burgh of Carnac, at some distance to the north of Qui- Carnac. beron has been often mentioned by antiquaries on account of a druidical monument; the size and the arrangement of the parts have been much admired, its true purpose has never been explained. It is formed by more than five thousand granite stones, rudely cut and arranged into eleven vertical rows. As it has been proved that they were not erected by the Romans to commemorate the victory gained by Cæsar over the Veneti,* it may be perhaps inferred that they were raised for the same superstitious purposes as other Celtic relics of a like kind. The port of Lorient, Lorient. the chief town in a district of the same name, was built in 1719 by the Indian company at the mouth of the Scorff, on the bay of Port-Louis. The town is large and well built, but it is no longer enriched by the commerce, which excited the jealousy of the English, who attempted to destroy it in 1746, when a nobleman of Brittany,† having arrived with some assistance, displayed so much energy that the besiegers fled and left several cannon behind them, which the king presented to the town. If the harbour now appears more deserted than it really is, it should be recollected that its extent was made to correspond with the importance of the equipments and transactions, which took place when the affairs of the Indian company in France were in a flourishing condition. Port-Louis, about Port-Luis. a league's distance to the south of Lorient, rises at the mouth of the Blavet in a situation well adapted for trade. The harbour is convenient, and the citadel which guards the entrance into the bay, was built by Lewis the Thirteenth. The population does not exceed 3000 inhabitants. The old castle of Trafaven stands on the right bank of the Scorff, a castle which the imagination of the peasantry has peopled with sprites and fairies. See the dissertation by M. Ohier de Grandprè; Memoires de la Societè Royale des Antiquitès de France. + The Count de Tinteniac. BOOK CXLIII. Plöermel. Pontivy. Department of Finistere. Ploërmel is situated near the confluence of the Oust and the Malestroit, beyond a chain of high hills, which cross the department from north-west to south-east. It was an important town about the tenth century, but the old edifices were mostly destroyed when it was besieged by Henry the Fourth; there may still be seen, however, a Gothic church, adorned with painted windows and the tombs of two dukes of Brittany, John the Second and John the Third. The waters which fall from a lake nearly three leagues in circumference, at a short distance from the town, form a fine cascade. The Blavet waters the eastern declivities of the same heights, it is navigable to Pontivy, on the left bank of the river, a town in a fruitful country. Now the capital of a district, it bore under the imperial government the name of Napoleonville. It might not be difficult to trace its origin to the monastery in which Saint Josse, the brother of Judicael king of Brittany, died in the year 660. The ruins of the ancient walls, with which it was surrounded, still remain, and also an old castle flanked with turrets, concerning the origin of which antiquaries disagree. The barracks are the finest buildings in Pontivy. After the National Assembly decreed that the old divisions of France were to be abolished, and others substituted in their place, it gave the name of Finistere to that part of Brittany which juts into the Ocean, like the promontory on the north-west of Spain, to which the ancients gave the same name (Promontorium finis terra), because early navigators supposed it the limits of the earth. The department is bounded on the east by those of Morbihan and the Côtes du Nord, on the south and the west by the Ocean, on the north by the Channel. Twenty islands are situated on the coasts, and the indentations in the latter form more than fifteen capes. Shipwrecks are not uncommon; these bold coasts are every where composed of granite masses, against which impetuous billows are dashed. The soil, although moderately fruitful, produces plenty of grain, hemp and lint. The country is well supplied with wood; thick forests grow on the hills, and the vallies are covered with rich pastures. It possesses more valuable |