WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 109 



town, with its old-world memories and classical associations, the 

 disappointing answer referred only to the quality of the cooking 

 and the character of the hotels : " A miserable mixture was the 

 Olla-podrida of Andalusia, although Ford lauds it as food fit for 

 the gods ; and, as for the Gazpacho, the stomach of a Devonshire 

 reaper would rebel at its intrusion ; what else could you expect 

 from rancid oil, vinegar, garlic, and dirty cooks ? " Again, " As 

 to Chios (the birth-place of Homer), where at least we hoped 

 to get palatable wine, we found it simply execrable. What 

 Lord Palmerston said to Mr. Gladstone, when the latter pro- 

 duced at his table a bottle of Ionian wine, the fruit of his 

 visit to the Seven Islands, might truly be said of the Chian 

 wine, 'Apio-rov f^ev vScop.' " Such is a veritable specimen 

 of their general answer; the comfort or misery of their 

 daily fare appearing to be the sole impression left upon their 

 memories. 



Owing to the serious damage done to their crops, the peasants 

 of the district had taken care to promulgate far and wide the 

 meet of M. de Kergoolas's hounds at Kcenig on that day ; conse- 

 quently, a large gathering of sturdy Celts, yet not a man of 

 them standing more than 5 feet 6 inches high, clad in all the 

 variety of costume peculiar to the Communes ranging from 

 Rostrenen to Scaer and Rosporden, converted the usually quiet 

 cover-side into a scene strangely picturesque and gay. But for 

 the friendly greetings and pleasant badinage perpetually going 

 on, the crowd, armed as it was with muskets of mighty length 

 and antique form, might have been easily mistaken for a band 

 of insurgents bent on some desperate adventure. The weapons, 

 too, had probably most of them belonged to the Chouans, who, 

 in the Royalist insurrection of 1792, maintained that desperate 

 guerilla struggle against the Republican Army with such extra- 

 ordinary persistence and success, and who were chiefly Vendean 

 and Brittany peasants. 



