Morlaix 103 



of dirt; no glass and scarcely any light, but they have earth 

 chinrmeys. I was in my first sleep at Belleisle^ when the auber- 

 giste came to my bedside, undrew a curtain, that I expected to 

 cover me with spiders, to tell me that I had ime jument Anglois 

 superbe, and that a signeur wished to buy it of me : I gave him 

 half a dozen flowers of French eloquence for his impertinence, 

 when he thought proper to leave me and his spiders at peace. 

 There was a great chasse assembled. These Bas Bretagne 

 signeurs are capital hunters, it seems, that fix on a blind mare 

 for an object of admiration. A propos to the breeds of horses 

 in France; this mare cost me twenty-three guineas when horses 

 were dear in England and had been sold for sixteen when they 

 were rather cheaper; her figure may therefore be guessed; yet 

 she was much admired and often in this journey, and as to 

 Bretagne she rarely met a rival. That province, and it is the 

 same in parts of Normandy, is infested in every stable with a 

 pack of garran pony stallions, sufficient to perpetuate the 

 miserable breed that is everywhere seen. This villainous hole, 

 that calls itself the grand viaison, is the best inn at a post town 

 on the great road to Brest, at which marshals of France, dukes, 

 peers, countesses, and so forth must now and then, by the 

 accidents to which long journeys are subject to, have found 

 themselves. What are we to think of a country that has made, 

 in the eighteenth century, no better provision for its travellers ! 

 — 30 miles. 



^th. Morlaix is the most singular port I have seen. It has 

 but one feature, a vale just wide enough for a fine canal with 

 two quays and two rows of houses ; behind them the mountain 

 rises steep and woody on one side; on the other, gardens, rocks, 

 and wood; the effect romantic and beautiful. Trade now vtxy 

 dull, but flourished much in the war. — 20 miles. 



lo/A. Fair day at Landervisier, which gave me an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing numbers of Bas Bretons collected as well as 

 their cattle. The men dress in great trousers like breeches, 

 many with naked legs, and most with wooden shoes, strong 

 marked features like the Welsh, with countenances a mixture of 

 half energy, half laziness; their persons stout, broad, and 

 square. The women furrowed without age by labour, to the utter 

 extinction of all softness of sex. The eye discovers them at first 

 glance to be a people absolutely distinct from the French. Won- 

 derful that they should be so, with distinct language, manners, 

 dress, etc., after having been settled here 1300 years. — 35 miles. 



' Belle- Isle- Begard. 



