Brittany

Brittany, the old French province forming the extreme N.W. corner of France, now comprised in the five departments of Ille et Vilaine, Cotes du Nord, Finistere, Morbihan, and Loire-Inferieure. Clay-slate, schist, and granite are the prevailing rocks. Lead and silver mines have been worked near Rennes, at Huelgoat, and elsewhere, and a curious mineral, staurolite, occurs at Pleyben. A chain of hills, the Montagnes Menez, an offshoot of the central watershed of France, runs through the country from E. to W., forming eventually two branches, the Montagnes d'Arree (N.) and Montagnes Noires (S.), whose highest points are somewhat over 1,200 ft. Spurs of these ranges run down to the coast, which is very rocky, and on the W. has fine cliff scenery resembling that of the Channel Islands. It is much indented by inlets, on which nearly all the ports are situate. Brest harbour and the Morbihan are the largest. The latter, a remarkable enclosed archipelago in the extreme S.W., contains a multitude of islands (365 according to local report), a few of which are inhabited, and some fifty cultivated. Some of the tidal currents between them run from nine to thirteen knots per hour. The principal rivers (apart from estuaries) are the Ille, Vilaine, and Blavet, which are canalised and navigable. The scenery of the Ranee is well known. Nantes and its port, St. Nazaire, are just within the province. Rennes, Brest, and Lorient are large modern towns: St. Malo, an important seaport; Vannes, Quimper, Morlaix, Hennebont, Treguier, of special interest to the antiquary. Dinan and St. Servan, near St. Malo, are resorts of English residents, while there are several well-known watering-places near the latter town. Large tracts, especially in the interior, are barren heath and upland, and there are several large forests, among them those of Quenecan and Loudeac. Wolves still exist, and are regularly hunted. But there is much very fertile land; buckwheat and millet are among the cereals most frequently grown; flax, too, is grown in some quantities, and the dairy produce is very important. Brittany butter is largely exported to Paris and England. Potatoes and other early vegetables are largely grown for export - the latter near Roscoff, on the N. coast, in the last century the centre of the smuggling trade with England. Direct trade with England is mainly conducted through St. Malo, which is also largely engaged in the Newfoundland fisheries. On the W. coast the sardine fishery is important, while lobsters and cray-fish are caught, and stored in salt-water tanks for export, several thousand at a time being sometimes in store at Roscoff, as also at Concarneau. At the latter place is a well-known establishment for fish culture. The oyster beds of Auray and elsewhere are important. There are many good trout streams, but little is done to preserve the fishing.

Brittany contains the most numerous and striking examples of Megalithic Monuments (q.v.), especially near Locmariaquer and Carnac. It exhibits even now striking survivals of an earlier world. Large districts are purely Keltic in blood, as they were till quite lately in speech. The Breton or Brezonec, a Keltic tongue akin to Gaelic and Welsh, probably revived by immigration from Cornwall in the 3rd century A.D. (see below), has at least four dialects, and a large ballad literature, partly collected by M. de Villemarque' (Barsaz Breiz, translated into English by Tom Taylor), but unfortunately somewhat adulterated in the collecting. The Revue Celtique, published at Paris, gives further information. Few parts of Europe have so much legend and folk-lore. The Arthurian legend is localised in Brittany as in Cornwall: fairies, witches, demons, play a large part in the popular creed; no part of France has been more Catholic, nor taken into the Catholic faith more of pagan tradition. Local saints and holy wells abound; the fisherman still believes that on All Souls' Day the spirits of the dead moan in the Baie des Trepasses (near the Point du Raz), and are ferried over to the Ile de Sein; idolatry was nominally abolished in Ushant only in the 17th century, and a little earlier a Gallo-Roman female statue, now at Quinipily, near Baud, was still worshipped with strange and obscure rites by the peasantry. Miracle plays survived into this century; while the many "calvaries" - large solid stone erections, in the open air, supporting carved groups of stone representing the Crucifixion, and the many admirable cathedrals, as well as the superb churches of Creizker (at St. Pol de Leon) and the Folgoet near Landerneau, testify to the piety of the past, as the thronged "pardons" or pilgrimages do to that of the present. The most famous resort of pilgrims is the church of St. Anne d'Auray, which is most visited at the end of July, by peasants of all parts, often in costume. But every village almost has its "pardon." The great castles of Josselin (admirably restored), Tonquedec, Sucinio, Jugon, and Elven, and the abbey of St. Gildas de Rhuys, the retreat of Abelard, are also of much interest.

Gloomy, silent, passionate, and profoundly religious, the Breton has hitherto stood apart from the modern world. No part of France has so well preserved its modern costume, male as well as female. The long matted hair, the pleated linen knee-breeches or "bragou bras," the broad felt hats and large plated buttons of the men, are often seen; while the fanciful caps of the women, differing in every district, and the gay festal costumes, are even more familiar from modern imitations. These caps conceal all the hair - whence much of the false hair worn has come from Brittany. Few parts of France have had stranger customs (though some of the stories about them must be received with caution). Marriages were often negotiated by the bazvalan, or itinerant tailor; the women, though as a rule kept strictly in subjection, in some districts enjoyed the privileges of leap year in perpetuity; while near Morlaix there is a tradition of an annual marriage fair, where the marriageable maidens sat on the parapet of a bridge, and suitors passed them in review. The illiterate adults some years ago were over 50 per cent, of the population in some districts; while the box bedsteads, despite their elaborately-carved old oak doors, the mud floors, and black bread of the cottage interiors, do not indicate a high civilisation. But the country is now intersected by railway, which must soon destroy its old-world character.

History. In Caesar's time the most important tribe was the Veneti (near Vannes), a very remarkable maritime people, who traded by sea with Britain. Their vessels had leather sails and chain cables. They revolted after submission to Caesar, and were all but annihilated B.C. 56. Local names and Roman remains show that the country was partly Romanised. In the 3rd century A.D. numerous Britons migrated from Cornwall to avoid the Saxon pirates, and in 390 A.D. the native governor appointed by the Romans declared himself independent. Soon the country became a group of principalities, more or less under the suzerainty of the Lord of Rennes. Conquered in 799 by Charles the Great, its subjection to his successors was merely nominal. Their rights (such as they'were) were ceded by Charles the Simple to the Dukes of Normandy. For the last half of the 12th century the suzerainty was contended for by the kings of England and France. About 1213 it definitely passed to the latter, despite the murder of Arthur, the young duke, by his uncle, John king of England. The long war of succession between Jean de Montfort and Charles of Blois (whose general, Du Guesclin, is the great hero of Brittany), 1341-1364, was marked by the heroic defence of Hennebont by Jeanne de Flanders, wife of De Montfort, till relieved by English troops under Sir Walter Manny. Charles of Blois fell at Auray in 1364, and the dukedom passed to the De Montforts. The marriage of the Duchess Anne with Louis XII. led to its union with the French crown. The privateers of St. Malo played an important part in the various wars with England. The atrocities of the Revolution in no wise shook the Breton devotion to Catholicism. It was at Quiberon, in the S.W., that a body of Royalist exiles, with English aid, made a landing in 1795, but they were defeated, and the leaders shot near Auray. The "Breton mobiles" fought bravely in the Franco-German war of 1870, and at least half the families of Nantes, it is said, lost some members, Recent elections, however, indicate that the country is becoming Republican, and it must, no doubt, soon lose much of its distinctive character.