crative that a Leon Viscount is recorded to have said, when a noble
was exhibiting his casket of gems, that he possessed a jewel more precious
than all they were admiring--alluding to a rock famous for its shipwrecks.
Duke John the Red, taking advantage of the misdeeds of one of these lords
of Leon, seized his rich possessions and united them (1276) to the crown.
The viscounty of Leon fell by alliance, in the fourteenth century, to the
house of Rohan, in whose favour is was raised in the sixteenth to a
principality.

We continued our drive to Roscoff, three miles distant, a little sea-port
town, formerly one of the three great dens of corsairs and smugglers, all
under the protection of St. Barbe,--the other two being Camaret and Le
Conquet. Roscoff was the emporium of considerable contraband trade with
England. Tea, wine, and brandy were brought over in small casks, which the
smugglers tied together and threw into the sea, when near the coast, and
landed at night. The whole country round is now one extent of
kitchen-garden, the light sandy soil, dressed with the goemon, produces an
incredible quantity of vegetables, onions, cabbages, parsnips, asparagus,
artichokes, cauliflowers, &c. Of onions, 2,000,000 lbs. are said to be
sent every year to England alone. The people here wear black caps, those
of the men are stocking-knit. The gardeners of Roscoff will carry their
produce above a hundred miles for sale. The chief vegetable consumed by
the Bretons themselves is the cabbage, of which the quantity raised is
enormous. The kind grown is mostly the Jersey or cow-cabbage, which grows
with stalks from five to six feet high, and has large leaves at every
joint. They use them for their cattle, as well as for their own eating.
Avenues of cabbages, stacked five or six feet high, are to be seen in most
Breton markets. Bread or porridge of buckwheat (ble noir) with
cabbage-soup is the customary diet of the country. The recipe is simple,
consisting of a cabbage-leaf, over which a little hot water is thrown, and
a "soupcon" of butter added to give it a flavour. These ingredients
compose the national soup which always appears at the table d'hote, with
the inevitable "ragout," _i. e._ harricoed mutton. The little town of
Roscoff has some historic importance. It was here that John de Montfort
sailed to England to do homage to King Edward III. for the duchy of
Brittany, and returned by the same port. Here also the child-princess Mary
Stua