Unlike many of the smaller towns which contain cathedral churches, St.
Brieuc is a present day bishopric; hence the Cathedral takes on,
perhaps, more significance than it would, were it but an example of a
Mediaeval church.

In reality it is not a very wonderful structure, and the guide-books
will tell one practically nothing about it. The town itself is a dull
place, a tidal port, at some little distance from the sea, which flushes
in upon it twice during the round of the clock.

A monastery was founded here in the fifth century by St. Brieuc, from
whom the town itself and the present cathedral take their name. He was a
Celtic monk from Wales, who, upon being expelled from his native land,
located his establishment here, on the site of a former Gallo-Roman
town. The patronal feast of St. Brieuc is held each year on the first of
May and is a curious survival of a mediaeval custom.

Some remains of an early church are built into the choir walls, but in
the main this not very grand edifice is of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries.

The tower, with its loopholes, would supposedly indicate that the church
was likewise intended as somewhat of a fortification. The apse is
rounded in the usual form, and on either side extend transepts to the
width of two bays.

Within, the Cathedral is more attractive than without. The elements of
construction and embellishment, while perhaps not ranking with those of
the really great churches, are sufficiently vivid and lively to indicate
that the work was consciously and enthusiastically undertaken. The
lady-chapel is of the thirteenth century, and the transept rose is of
the fifteenth, as is also the Chapel of St. Guillaume, named for the
monk of Dijon who built so many of the monasteries throughout Brittany
and who, it is to be presumed, planned or built the original structure,
the remains of which are found in the present choir.

The windows throughout are either of not very good modern glass, or of
plain leaded lights, which, in the majority of cases, may be considered
as no less an attraction. An elaborate rose is in the western gable.

There are, in the church, various monuments and tombs to former
bishops.

XIV

ST. POL DE LEON

In the midst of that land which furnishes the south of England with most
of its cauliflowers, artichokes, onions, and asparagus, truly off the
beaten track, in that it is actually off the line of railway, is the
strange and melanc