JOHNNY LUDLOW.

THE BRETONS AT HOME.

BY CHARLES W. WOOD, F.R.G.S., AUTHOR OF “THROUGH HOLLAND,” “LETTERS FROM MAJORCA,” ETC.  ETC.

Amongst the many advantages possessed by Morlaix may be mentioned the fact of its being a central point from which a number of interesting excursions may be made.  It is one of the chief towns of the Finistere, a Department crowded with churches, and here will be found at once some of the best and worst examples of ecclesiastical architecture in Brittany.

Of the churches of Morlaix we have said nothing.  Interesting and delightful as it is in its old houses, it fails in its churches.  Those worthy of note were destroyed at the Revolution, that social scourge which passed like a blight over the whole country, leaving its traces behind it for ever.

[Illustration:  A BRETON CALVARY.]

The church of St. Melaine is the only one deserving a passing notice.  It is in the third Pointed style, and, built on an eminence, is approached by a somewhat imposing flight of steps.  A narrow thoroughfare leads up to it, and the nearer houses are inhabited by the priests and other members of the religious community.

The porch and windows are Flamboyant, and a little of the stained glass is good.  The interior is divided into three naves by wooden partitions, consisting of pillars without capitals supporting pointed arches.  The wall-plates represent monks in grotesque attitudes:  portraits, perhaps, of those who inhabited the Priory of St. Melaine of Rennes, to which the church originally belonged.  The basin for holy water between the porches has a very interesting cover; but still more remarkable is the cover to the font, an imposing and elegantly sculptured octagonal work of art of the Renaissance period, raised and lowered by means of pulleys.  The organ case is also good; and having said so much, there is nothing left to record in favour of St. Melaine.  The general effect of the church is poor and mean, and the most vivid impression left upon the mind is that caused by the sharp climb up the narrow street and flight of steps, with little reward beyond one’s trouble for the pains of mounting.

But other churches in the neighbourhood of Morlaix are well worth visiting; churches typical of the Finistere, with their wonderful calvaries, mortuaries and triumphal arches.

“These,” said Monsieur Hellard, our host of the Hotel d’Europe, who had, by this time, fully atoned for the transgressions of that one and almost fatal night—­“these must on no account be neglected.  Morlaix, more than any other town in the Finistere, as it seems to me, is surrounded by objects of intense interest; monuments of antiquity, both secular and religious.”

“Yet you are not the chief town of the Finistere,” we observed.

“True,” he replied; “Quimper is our chief town; we are only second in rank; but in many ways we are more interesting than Quimper.”