THE STYLE OF HENRY II. 189 



PLAN, ELEVATION, SECTION. Then owing to local usage large sacris- 

 ties and porches were required for the holding of feudal courts and parish 

 meetings respectively ; while an important steeple was also traditional. 

 The difficulty of working the native material various kinds of granite and 

 the black stone of Kersanton made it unsuitable for purposes requiring 

 fine detail and accurate fitting ; hence vaulting was generally dispensed 

 with and only ornament of a rude character was possible. Breton 

 churches thus consist usually of three wide and almost equal naves sepa- 

 rated by slender arcades, often under one span, with wooden waggon roofs, 

 and without ambulatories or chapels. They have no clearstoreys, but are 

 lit by tall windows in gables in the outer walls (Fig. 185). They have deep 

 porches with stone seats, and their sacristies are important structures. 



CHURCHYARDS. The churchyards are walled in and approached 

 through a decorative gateway, and usually contain an ossuary-chapel, or 

 open charnel house, a calvary, and sometimes a sacred fountain. On 

 all these features a wealth of coarse ornament, inscriptions, statuary, 

 niches, and pinnacles is lavished. These curious architectural groups 

 with " uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked," recalling now 

 the monuments of the Roman decadence, now some of the Holy Places 

 of India, have, in spite of their redundancies and ignorance, a weird 

 impressiveness all their own. 



ROOFS, STEEPLES. Examples of boarded barrel vaults may be 

 seen at Bodilis and at St Thomas, Landerneau. The church of Sizun 

 (Fig. 185) illustrates the multiplication of gables and pinnacles and the 

 retention to a late date of Gothic tracery. In steeples a local mediaeval 

 practice of introducing a number of galleries, cornices, and rows of 

 square-headed openings was perpetuated even when the termination was 

 a spire, e.g., those of La Roche- Maurice (Fig. 184), Sizun, Lampaul, 

 Landivisiau. From the last quarter of the sixteenth century some 

 sort of domical termination became usual, as at Berven, Landerneau, 

 Roscoff, and St Thegonnec (Fig. 183). 



PORCHES. The porches are usually on the south side of the nave ; 

 they have two stone seats, with statues of the twelve apostles above them, a 

 stoup near the door, and a monumental fagade often crowned with a domed 

 turret. Projecting porches such as these occur at Landivisiau, Guimiliau 

 (Fig. 1 86), Bodilis, Landerneau. At Lampaul and St Thegonnec, they are 

 in the base of the tower. The sacristies are sometimes almost detached 

 from the church and not only in two storeys, but also of very peculiar 

 plan, as may be seen for instance at Bodilis, Guimiliau, and Sizun. 



OSSUARIES. In some cases the purpose of a charnel-house is served 

 by an open loggia attached to the church as at Guimiliau and Tregastel ; 

 or isolated as at Roscoff. The little structures at Plougasnou (1611) and 

 St Jean du Doigt (1577) were cemetery chapels only, but as a rule the 

 chapel and ossuary are combined in one building, known as reliquaire, 



