On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Here is another cttriQHS passage : — - ' "¦ . , , ^ , i It is a strange fact that TrCguier , with its magmficeutcliurcfa . and large ecclesiastical estabKrfiment , should possess a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de la Haine . This stands on a bleak , unlovely hill near the town . Superstitious peasants imagine that three Aves repeated with particular fervour in this building will infallibly cause the death of the hated being within a year ; and to this day , when night darkens the scene the malignant peasant skulks to the chapel and offers up prayers against the object of his hatred . This is truly a relic of Paganism , and especially of the belief ¦ entertained by the ancient worshippers of Teutates , that a prayer offered to that god was more powerful than the sword . Horrible , is it ; cot ? We ., good Protestants , shudder at suck superstition . Do we hate our brother Protestants a wbit the less because our Church : of Hatred is a private chapel ? . Let us borrow from Mr . "Weld's pages some account of the Pardon which lie assisted at ; - — Every church in Lower Brittany is supposed to be under the protection of a Patron Saint , ¦ who , unlike the dormant saints of churches generally , continues to work miracles in favour of the faithful , and has the power of procuring pardon for sinners .
The popularity of the Pardons varies entirely according to the reputed sanctity of the Saint , and the power -with which , he is supposed to be endowed . Some Saiats are famed for their protection of . men , others of women , others of children ; while some , as St . Comely , is believed to take cattle under his special care , -and his Pardon is consequently attended by hundreds of beasts driven by their owners-to his church in « trdex that the animals may be touched by the saint ' s relics . Nor are inanimate objects withouttheir patron saint . St . Fiacre , for example , is the protector of plants-, the legend of bis life declaring that he cultivated botany and the heavenly virtues ¦ with , equal fervour . On . one day at least in each year the Saint ' s relics are displayed with great . solemnity ; and it is on these occasions that , after passing through a certain oideal of church discipline , penitents are shrived , or , in other words , obtain pardon and remission of their sins . 'I- ' "' . If the Saint enjoys a reputation for great sanctity , his Pardon is resorted to by thousands of devotees , who crowd his church ; and the priests , who are not antagonistic to these proceedings , find at the close of the Pardon that the Saint ' s coffre , ox anoney-box , is heavy with the offerings of the multitude .
Great Pardons generally last three days . The night before they commence the -church bells are tolled ; the interior is decorated with flowers , and the effigies of the Saints are clothed in the Breton local costume . Then commence the religious observances ; but , as we shall see , Pardons are not confined to these alone . Fortunately , St . Kerdevot is particularly venerated , so I was enabled to see a Pardon to great advantage . As we drew near the village , the crowds of peasants increased in number , and the road was lined with beggars , vociferously demanding -charity . These people form a prominent and very audible portion of a Breton Pardon . They travel on foot great distances to be present on any eminent saint's day ' . ; wrhile . tie halt and blind are carried and led by their relations and friends , and
The men being so gaily dressed , it may be supposed that the costume of the women was not less gay or varied ; indeed , looking at my notes , I am perplexed by the great number of styles and colours which I jotted down as the gaudy damsels passed before me the bare enumeration of which would cause this page to resemble a leaf from a " Magasm des Modes" two centuries old , if such a fashionable publication existed at that date . Without attempting a detailed description , in which I frankly own I should break down I may briefly state that while the close-fitting caps of all shapes and sizes displayed even stranger forms than those worn by the Norman peasants the gowns were parucularly conspicuous for their superabundance of gold and silver lace , the bodices , sleeves , and skirts being generally of different colours while the person was still further adorned by rich lace-collars of very peculiar cut , and massive gold or silver crosses , and large silver rings . . . ; . ¦
Many girls carried slender willow-sticks fastened by gay ribbons to their wrists exhibiting by the carving of the bark curious devices . They ' were gacjes d ' amour and , as I was informed , a girl accepting such a wand from a youth paying his addresses to her , is regarded as willing to marry the donor . Although , b }' far the majority of the peasants attending the Pardon were arrayed in gaudy and costly costumes , there were others clothed in far more sober garments , which however generally exhibited the peculiar forms of those worn by their richer neighbours . Among the many strange customs which mark the Breton peasants ^ there is none more remarkable than that of wearing tlie hair ; for while the men cultivate long tresses hanging down to their waists , and of which they are very proud , the women . do not show a single lock , and the girl who might-to tempted bj' the beauty of her chevelure to allow a ringlet to escape from beneath her closely-fitting cap , would not only lose all chance of obtaining a lover , but would be regarded b y the youn « men as a Jille perdue , that is , a coquettish girl unworthy of their affections . To this " strange custom many London and Paris ladies are indebted for the magnificent hair which adorns their heads , but which was grown in the wilds of Brittanv .
Such were the living features which presented themselves to me ; but besides these tents , booths , and stalls displaying refreshments , principally of an intoxicating nature , were ranged in semicircular lines round the meadow , -while the background of the picture was filled by the church , a large , handsome structure , with a small chapel contiguous to it , and a rich calvary representing the death and passion of our Lord . Crowds of peasants were passing in and out of the sacred edifice , attracted by the relics of St . Kerdevot , consisting of fragments of bones , which my limited kuowledge of comparative anatomy did not enable me to identify as human . These relics , which , were in a handsome reliquary , were exhibited b y a priest to the people , who pressed eagerly forward to kiss the crystal shrine . At a convenient distance stood St . Kerdevot ' s money-box , into which silver and copper coins rained unceasingly , and the oblation being offered , the high-priest gave absolution for past ¦ ¦
S 1 I 1 S . . . ¦ . . ; . ¦ . ¦; ... - - - Mr . Weld has succeeded in making us companions in his pleasant holiday , and in making us resolve to ' do' Brittany when occasion offers .
laid upon rushes by the roadside , near the town , or around the church . Some attract attention , and reap a rich harvest of sous by chanting , in a lugubrious tone , a balladlegend of the Saint ' s life and miraculous performances ; or the life and death , of our Saviour , —always popular subjects with the Breton peasant . These beggars are of a -superior order to the tribe of mendicants generally . They invariably find ready and hearty welcome from the cottagers , who offer them the best seat by the fire , and a share of their frugal meal . This is requited by a liberal outpouring of the gossip gleaned in neighbouring-villages ; and they are careful to tell the girls how many . young men have fallen , in love with them , and what holy wells possess the greatest love-powers . .... . :
If the beggar . be rich in legends , and has the power to sing them , his company is particularly acceptable : for the Breton peasant has a great passion for legendary Song . There was a striking illustration of this when Brittany was ravaged by cholera , and the peasants abandoned themselves to despair . In Tain did the author ities print and circulate thousands of placards throughout the town and villages , . advising the inhabitants how to act . They were treated as waste paper ; and the disease was spreading fas t , when a bookseller , who knew the power of ballads on the people , happily hit on the expedient of turning the medical men's advice , as set forth in their grave placards , into jingling rhymes , which were speedily circulated throughout Brittany : and with such good effect , that the cholera , to use their own words , was " chansonne hors de la Bretagne . " This is , of course , a slight exaggeration , for the disease was fatal to thousands before its course was finally arrested ; but the story shows the power of ballad-poetry over the Bretons , and the truth of the proverb , The poet is stronger than the three strongest things—evil , fire , and tempest . " " We had wormed our "way along the narrow road , through a continually increasing crowd of peasants , who almost Hooked up the way , when we wore suddenly liberated from the pressure of oucr neighbours by em&rging on on . extensile meadow , planted with trees , which pleasantly screened the sun .
Within this area between two and . three thousand peasants were assembled , dressed with few exceptions in quaint and gaudy costumes . The mon wore felt hats with enormous brims , from "beneath which long mane-lilte hair fell to their waists . The < srowna of these large headpieces were trimmed with gay chenille aud artificial flowers , and their shapes were very varied 5 for in Basse Bretagno there is nearly as great a variety in the form of the hat , as there is in that of the women ' s caps . Near Quimper a peculiar one-cornered hat is in vogue , which imparts information to the world according to tlio mannor in which it is worn , and which must bo particularly iateresting to ladies ; a bachelor places the corner of this queer hat over th « right or left ear , a benedict behind , and a widower in front .
The jackets generally worn were light-blue , violet , or groen cloth or cotton velvet , fitting tightly , and trimmed with rich gold and silver lace , and many bright brass buttons ; beneath the jacket an equally gay waistcoat was worn , and the breeches of rich brown cloth were invariably of that kind known in Brittany by tho namo of bragmts . A broad leather girdle , fastened by a rich metallic "buckle of great size , confined this garment round the waist , which was tied at the knees by colourod ribbons terminating in . tassels ; tli « leggings were generally leather , decorated with a profusion of buttons ; and tho feet were encased in ehooB ndoinod by huge silvor buckles , for which as much as &l . a pair in sometimes given . Drcases of thia description are necessarily v « ry exponsive , frequently , as I was assured , costing 81 . to 12 Z . They are not to be purchased in the towns , —at least my endeavours to procure such costumes i » ere f ruitloss , —but ore -made to order by itinerant tailora , who arc boarded and lodged in . tho peasants' houseB while at work on the gay garments . These tailors are a very otarootowitlc feature of Buittanv , and have many occupations on thoir uanda besides . that , of atitching , not tho least important boing that of making lovomatches cw wall as bra ^ oue
Nearly every wan . carried a formidable atick or cudgel , ono ond of which termiffi "i * » g ° ~? Thlfl to" * cassa-tete , as it is called , is a constant companion of the Broton , ana uj used -with great and sometimes deadly effect during rows . It may bo observed , ™ aproof ortlu > antiquity of Breton customs , that a cudgel of this description waa carried W tho Celts .
Untitled Article
TWO NOVELS . The Hills of the Shatemuc . By the Author of " The Wide , Vide World . " Low and Co . ; T . Hodgson ; Koutledge ' . and Co . ; Clarke and Co . Old Memories : a Novel .. By Julia Melville . 3 Tols . Newby . Five hundi-ed pages of narrative without an incident—such is this paradox by the Author of The Wide , Wide World . That was tedious enough ; this is indescribably dull . It is an endless s ^ 'eaua of talk , sometimes incoheren t , always unnatural and repulsive . All Miss Warner's personages speak in an acidulated manner , the calm hero is defiant , the hero-with the flashing eyes insolent , the heroine with the pouting lips saucy , the heroine with th e steady brow insulting . An ordinary persons could not live one day in such company . The best of Miss Warner ' s people , Winthrop , is a marionette
who makes up for his virtues by his offensive manners ; her two heavy fathers are as cold as reptiles ; her favourite daughter , Elizabeth , is a thin piece of asperity , and the climax of absurdity is , that she writes as foolishly as her puppets talk . She seems to have a notion that spasm is necessary to emphasis , and that little crisp sentences -without beginning or end give point and character to her style ! Her paragraphs , therefore , are continually broken into asthmatic fragments , the general rule with Miss Warner being to accumulate her solemn stops and changes in passages of the most trivial meaning . She describes potato-scraphig as though " it were capital punishment , and a proposal of marriage as though it were a Christmas cracker . Large dilutions of cant , also , are poured into the stagnant dialogue , sacred names and words being burlesqued by association with comically frivolous episodes of domestic life .
Perhaps , however , tlie attempt to elaborate a character-portrait of the real heroine , Elizabeth HDiye , is the most painful failure of the book . This . Elizabeth , is literally a disgraceful shrew , impiously insolent to her father , despotic to her friends , imbecile in the presence of her lover . Scarcely is she introduced once without an exhibition of ill-humour , recorded by Miss Warner in a ludicrously inflated manner . Wo ought to explain that Rufus and Winthrop Landholm are the aspiring sons of a farmer , ami that Elizabeth Haye and Hose Cadwallader are young ladies of ' gentle' birth , boarding awhile at the farm . Hose , who pouts in every page , is in the humour to rally her sister upon the courtesies of the plebeian \ Yinthrop , and is accustomed to provoke ebullitions of this kind : — Tho cheek of the othor at that became like a thunder-cloud . She turned hnr back upon her couBin and walked from her to tho house , with a step ns fine and firm a 3 that of the JJelvidero Apollo and a figure like a young pine-tree .
Occasion the second : —• Miss Cudwallader ' s eye fairly gnve way under the lightning . Elizabeth ' s words wero delivered with an intensity that kept thorn quiet , though with the last decree of clear utterance ; and turning , aa Iiufus came up , she gave him a glare of hisr dark brown eyes that astonished him . Thirdly : — Elizabeth laid down her "book and looked over at her coinpauion , with an eye the other just met and turned away from . " Rose , —how dare you talk to mo so ! " - In the same page : — Elizabeth took her candle and book and marched out of tho room . Next , her father suffers : — Elizabeth had risen from tho tnble , and now eho stood on tho rug boforo tuo firo , with her anna behind hor , looking down at tho broakfaat-tablo and her falhor . Lite-
Untitled Article
954 _____ ¦ : i ? JBD E ^ . jEA 3 > E B . ;^ - ' __ [^ ;
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 4, 1856, page 954, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2161/page/18/
-