416 COENISH DEDICATIOXS. 



Then occurred a striking incident. 



Winwaloe, who was still quite young, was wont to sit on a 

 stony height, with his young discij^les round him, where he and 

 they could be sheltered from the sea-winds, consequently with 

 the east and south before him — the mainland rich with woods 

 and pleasant pasture, and Avith here and there the blue smoke 

 stealing up, and then drifting away, from some little farm. 



And as he taught he looked, and saw that it was neap tide. 

 Then on a sudden what had long been simmering in his mind 

 broke into resolution. He started wp and bade his pupils follow 

 him in chain, each holding the hand of another, and one with 

 his left hand in his own. So Winwaloe, holding a staff in his 

 right, and with his left conducting this living chain, descended to 

 the beach, and led the way through the .shallow water to the 

 mainland. 



In the "Life" this has been converted into a miracle, 

 because when the biographer wrote it was no longer possible to 

 wade across. But the whole of this coast has perceptibly sunk 

 into the sea. 



Having reached the mainland, Winwaloe proceeded to select 

 a suitable habitation, and chose a sj)ot well sheltered, on which 

 he reared what was afterwards the famous monastery of 

 Landevenec, where the tortuous E,iver Aoun or Chateaulin 

 river falls into the Brest harbour. 



" It is a mild and pleasant spot," setjs the biograjiher of 

 Winwaloe, "where every year the first flowers open, and where 

 the leaves are last to fall. A place sheltered from every wind 

 save that from the east, a natural garden, enamelled with flowers 

 of every hue." 



Inhabitants in the district were sparse, the king was Grallo, 

 a rough and cruel man, but Winwaloe obtained great influence 

 over him and succeeded in somewhat softening his natural 

 coarseness and savagery. The country was covered with timber, 

 and Winwaloe and his young monks constructed their church of 

 felled trees, and with the branches wattled their huts. 



GtraUo would have given Winwaloe land in many places, for 

 land was not worth much in a country so thinly populated, but 

 the abbot refused the grants, till LandeA^enec was thoroughly 



