468 C0ENI8H DEDICATIONS. 



fortifications. Near this is the recently erected chapel of S. 

 Conan. 



Conan himself was son of Tudwal Befr and Neffyd daughter 

 of Brychan, and formed one of the colony which settled in North 

 Cornwall, having been driven from Wales by the Strath-Clyde 

 invasion. 



From S. Breock above Wadeb ridge, the saint must have 

 crossed the backbone of Cornwall in his cart, perhaps no longer 

 drawn by monks but their places supplied by oxen, and have 

 taken ship again, in the Fowey estuary. He landed, about 490, 

 at the mouth of the Q-ouet, and made his camp by the side of a 

 spring of the purest water. Shortly after, a horseman came up, 

 and seeing a colony of men encamped, asked who they were, and 

 what right they had to settle there. Having learned the name 

 of their leader, he galloped off to Ehiwal (Hoel the chief) who 

 was prince of the British settlers there, and informed him. 

 Ehiwal at first was not over-pleased, but, as he was seized with 

 cramp of the bowels, he deemed it advisable to swallow his 

 vexation and come to terms with the newly-arrived saint, and 

 when he met Brioc he recognised him as a kinsman. 



Ehiwal gave him land in the Champ de Eouvre, and all the 

 plou thereon, up to the river Urne. He himself retired between 

 the Urne and Gouessan, to the plou of Helion, which thenceforth, 

 as the seat of his court, was called Lishelion. 



Brioc then set to work to clear the ground and settle his 

 monks and followers. A little way up the valley he established 

 his oratory near another fountain, where is a chapel that has 

 recently been restored ; and he planted his lann where is 

 now the cathedral church that bears his name. 



He had not been long in Brittany before he heard that the 

 Yellow Plague had invaded his native " Coriticiana regio," (this 

 was in 500), and he returned thafhe might be of use in consoling 

 the dying, and ministering to his panic-stricken countrymen. 



He left his congregation under the charge of his nephew 

 Tugdual. He did not, however, remain absent for long, but 

 came back to be present at the death of his kinsman Hoel or 

 Ehiwal, who, being childless, constituted Brioc his heir, com- 

 mitting to him the entire secular tribe to be amalgamated with 

 the sacred tribe. 



