Quimper, 4th of April 1795.
I should not amuse you with a disquisition on the etymology of the name
of Quimper, or a research into the date of its foundation, were I
capable of furnishing such an entertainment; but I will tell you all I
know of its present state, and of the country contiguous to it.
It is unquestionably a town of considerable antiquity, and when it
formed a part of the possessions of the dukes of Bretagne (ere those
were annexed to the crown of France, by the marriage of Charles VIII.
with Anne of Brittany) sometimes sided, in the wars between the English
and the French, with one party, and sometimes with the other. A massy
stone wall surrounding the old town, the cathedral, and some other
buildings, are believed to be the works of our countrymen.
The town stands in a bottom, encompassed by high hills, and the largest
part of it is built on a neck of land formed by the confluence of two
rivers. I have often thought it like Plymouth; but it is not so large,
although even now extremely populous. Its streets are narrow, winding,
and dirty; and their former names have been changed into others of a
revolutionary sound, such as the street of Voltaire, the street of
Mably, the square of Liberty, &c. &c. The greatest part of the houses
are very ancient and mean; but a few are large and stately, with walls
whose thickness seems intended for endless duration. On entering them, I
was surprized to see the unfinished state of most of the apartments,
which are uncieled, the bare beams and cross-pieces presenting
themselves to view. I shall be within the bounds of truth when I assert,
that of 1500 houses, which are perhaps in the town, not fifty have each
a cieled room, and not ten, or even five, have the whole apartments of
the ground and first floor cieled. The bottoms of the rooms are as
unsightly as the tops, from the gaping chasms of the planks which
compose them; and the dirty state in which the floors and furniture are
kept, is disgusting. Nevertheless in some respects the interior of these
houses deserves regard. The vast mirrors which adorn their best
apartments, and the beautiful plate glass of the windows, far exceed
what are seen in English houses, except those of the first fashion. The
French engravings I prefer to all others, and a few very good ones are
still left here, though defaced, by having their dedications to princes,
_maréchaux de France_, and other great men, very clumsily erased. Of
plate too it is said they formerly displayed sumptuous side-boards; but
these have disappeared, having been either buried or committed to the
crucible. Indeed it was become necessary to adopt one or other of these
measures; for soon after the 10th of August 1792, the democratic lust of
destruction rose to such a height, as to order all family distinctions
derived from ancestry, and all heraldic emblems whatever, to be erased,
not only from the outsides of the houses, but from every article of
furniture. Even the armorial bearings engraved on the most trifling
toys, a snuff-box, a ring, or a seal, were obliterated; and the
post-office took care to detain all letters, of which the seals were
impressed with those shocking emblems of aristocracy. I now eat with
spoons whence the family marks are carefully expunged, the observation
of which led to my enquiries.
A man who has seen only this skirting of France would demonstrate the
highest degree of presumption, were he to pretend to draw a parallel
between it and England; but, to confine myself to what I have seen here,
I may venture to affirm, that civilization, luxury, a general diffusion
of the comforts of life, or by whatever other name you please to call
it, is more advanced in Cornwall and Wales than it was in this province,
even before the revolution.
Formerly there were two public walks on the banks of the river; but the
stately elms which formed one of them have been lately cut down, to the
great dissatisfaction of the inhabitants, in order to be sent to Brest
for keels of ships.
The cathedral is a large edifice, of majestic appearance, but strikingly
irregular in its exterior. Over its principal door is written “_Le
peuple Français reconnait l’Etre Suprème_.” All the other churches and
monasteries, which are numerous, have been converted (as the property of
the state) into hospitals, stables, magazines, or manufactories of
salt-petre. The church applied to this last use is well adapted to the
purpose. I went with an English gentleman to see it, and no objection
was made by the people whom we found there at work to our inspecting
every part of their process, which is very simple.----Against one of the
side walls are piled large heaps of wood-ashes, and near them two rows
of casks with perforated bottoms, which are filled with the ashes
thoroughly wetted. The water, after passing through the ashes, is
received into tubs, and constitutes a vegetable alkaline lixivium. The
opposite side of the church is filled with the ruins of old houses, and
heaps of earth dug out of stables, slaughter-houses, and cemeteries,
which last are full of the wrecks of humanity. These, after being
macerated and mixed with the liquor drained through the wood ashes, are
evaporated over a slow fire, until exhausted of the superfluous watery
particles; after which the remaining part is put into large shallow
coolers, on the sides of which the salt-petre shoots into crystals.
The workmen employed here are only twelve in number, and the quantity of
salt-petre made is about fifty pounds a day, which, according to their
account, costs only four livres and a half a pound; but this must not be
depended upon, for they did not know the quantity of wood consumed. The
wages of these people are inconceivably low, only 50 sols a day, and a
ration of bread. Until lately they were paid only 35 sols, the addition
having been made in consequence of the increasing dearness of the
necessaries of life: even now 50 sols will scarcely buy a pound of the
worst veal brought to market. They complained of its insufficiency, and
told us, that manufacturers in England were paid as much for two hours
work; “but, nevertheless, it is for the republic.” Either from this
conjecture of the liberality of our country, or from some other cause,
they treated us with particular respect, and answered all our questions
with the most ready civility: not an interested civility, for they
neither received, nor gave us room to suppose that they expected, any
gratuity.
I quitted the place with strange sensations. The process which I had
witnessed was whimsically shocking. When I saw amidst the earth the
bones tossed about, “mine ached at the remembrance.” This earth, said I
to myself, once, perhaps, belonged to men whom these houses sheltered,
and against whose descendants in La Vendée it may, when fabricated into
the _breath of destruction_, volly forth, in the shape of bullets, the
coffins which once enclosed their forefathers. There is certainly no
discovery which entitles to higher admiration the inventive genius of
man, than that of artillery, in all its wonderful combinations; but, at
the same time, it must be confessed, that no stronger proof of our
miserable degeneracy and infatuation can be produced, than our
application of it.
The bishop’s town-house I have mentioned. At a distance of less than a
mile down the river stands what was once his country residence; but it
is now the property of a naval officer, who bought it at a sale of
national domains. I walked out to it the other day, and found it neither
very large, nor very magnificent. It commands a good prospect of the
river, and is pleasantly situated at the head of a large garden, filled
by stone steps and strait walks. I found a gardener at work in it, who
shewed me a superb orangery, where, in large wooden cases, stand the
finest orange and lemon-trees which I ever saw growing out of their
native climes, and bearing ripe fruit in the month of March. I asked the
gardener about the last bishop, who was a constitutional one, and was
told, that he was guillotined about a year ago, at Brest, for being a
federalist. I had heard so before.----“Was not he,” said I, “dragged away
suddenly, and denied the consolation of taking leave of his family, who
were in the house?”----“I believe,” answered the gardener, “he was; but
those things were so common some time since, that no body attended to
them. I mind my work, and ask no questions.”----I gave him an _assignat_
of small value, which he expected, and went away.
But a building which would have excited my curiosity more than the
palaces of bishops and the houses of nobility, I arrived here too late
to see----a Temple of Reason, built for the exercise of the new religion
of France.----It stood on the summit of a lofty hill, close to the town,
and consisted only of a few posts, from which rafters met at the top in
a point to support the roof, the sides being open. Within it was
adorned by festoons of oak-leaves, and was backed by at tree of liberty.
It was the favourite rendezvous of the party of Robespierre, under whose
auspicious reign it was erected. Here they swore eternal enmity to
kings, and extirpation to aristocrates; and here their dances and sports
were held, and the laws were read. In July last (not above ten days
before the fatal _neuf Thermidor_) all the unmarried young women, and
even all the children of the town, down to seven years old, were
compelled to march in procession up the hill, preceded by the mayor and
a band of music, and to take an oath never to marry any but true
republicans and _sans-culottes_. About three months ago this edifice was
either blown down, or its foundation secretly undermined in the night;
and only a few broken posts and a little thatch now proclaim, “_Ilium
fuit_.”
If the stories which are told of the extravagancies which this place
gave birth to did not come from those who witnessed them (both French
and English) their possibility might be doubted. I shall trouble you
with only one of them.----A young republican of this town, on being
ordered as a soldier to the frontiers, took a young woman of the place,
and swore her here to be true to him; but even this test of the reality
of her intention not being sufficient to quiet his jealous scruples, he
absolutely wrote a letter to the convention, which was laid before them,
stating his situation, and intreating that the girl might be put in a
state of _requisition_, in her maiden capacity, until his return; lest,
in his absence, she might be exposed to the allurements and seductions
of aristocrates, who went about seeking to injure good republicans and
_sans-culottes_ like him. Can it be believed that a national congress
should afford a serious hearing to such nonsense? Yet so it was; and she
was actually commanded to remain single until the young man should
return.----Not a very gallant compliment to the lady’s constancy of
temper, you will say! To do justice to the French, I must however
observe, that all ranks and parties of them now deride the remembrance
of these degrading follies.
There are two coffee-houses in the town, which are numerously resorted
to by both the English and the French, notwithstanding an inscription
placed over the door of one of them, forbidding any but good patriots to
enter. The sign of this coffee-house gave rise lately to a refined piece
of affectation:----it was a lion devouring a human body, and so
exquisitely susceptible are the feelings of the present reigning party
become, that they ordered the man of the house to blot out the body,
“_it so reminded them of the days of Robespierre_.” Accordingly the lion
only now is seen. Here I go daily to read the Paris news-papers, and
meet not with any interruption. For this privilege it is expected that
something be spent: a dish of excellent coffee costs 15 sols, and a
glass of _liqueur_ from 20 to 40 sols. Persons of all ranks and
professions, officers, soldiers, and their wives, and the people of the
town, mingle here promiscuously.
The market-place is spacious and convenient. In the centre of it stands,
on a square pedestal, a statue of Liberty, with inscriptions on each
side, some parts of which have been recently white-washed, to obliterate
them. Among these I could decypher the word “_Montagne_,” and a few
others of analogous signification, which a change of opinion has
suddenly expunged from the vocabulary of French patriotism.----The
market-day is still Saturday, when patroles of soldiers are sent on all
the roads which lead to the town, to prevent forestalling, by compelling
the country people to bring all their commodities into the market-place.
Besides large heaps of wooden-shoes, the market generally affords some
poultry and game, but not much butchers meat, except lean veal, of which
I have never seen a want. Fish would be plentiful, were the boats
permitted to go to sea; but, from a fear lest they should give
information to the English, the fishermen are either interdicted, or
subjected to so many difficulties, by being compelled to give security
and take soldiers in their boats, that most of them have given up their
employment. Of bread I have not since I have been here seen any
deficiency; but I have been informed it was once, in the depth of last
winter, so scarce, as to occasion a proclamation to be issued, that
whoever sold it to a prisoner of war should be punished. We have always
been able to procure it for _assignats_. It is for the most part very
brown and coarse, but some whiter and finer is made, and publicly
exposed to sale, in spite of the law, ordering only _pain d’egalité_ to
be used, which every body laughs at, and nobody thinks proper to
enforce. The worst quality of all this bread is a grittiness, being full
of small sandy particles, arising from two causes----the softness of the
grindstones----and the corn not being sufficiently washed, after the oxen
have trodden it out, which is practised here instead of thrashing. This
may serve to evince, in how small a degree calculous complaints are
generated, by swallowing in our food similar materials to those of which
stones and gravel in the human body are composed. The Bretons are
remarkably healthy, and, I have been assured, are in general free from
those diseases. Neither has any symptom of them been found among the
English prisoners.
The prices of all articles in the markets and shops are increasing every
day rapidly, owing to the depreciation of _assignats_. France is
nominally dear, but to a man who possesses gold it is at present,
perhaps, the cheapest country in the world. Meat is three livres a
pound, and tolerable wine eight livres a bottle; but then a guinea will
openly fetch 300 livres, and a _louis d’or_ 350; the difference arises
from the ignorance of the peasantry in regard to the former, and their
consequent dislike to exchange them.
There is yet a little coasting trade carried on here. It was once more
considerable, but they never had any foreign commerce. The shops are
numerous, but not overstocked with commodities, and the shopkeepers
always recommend their goods, not only to us, but to their countrymen,
by saying they are “English,” which is too true: they are the spoils of
our merchants. I have been well informed, that previously to the war a
prejudice in favour of our productions ran so high here, and over all
this part of France, that hardly an article of dress and furniture of
French manufacture could be sold. You cannot conceive with what avidity
those prisoners who are artificers are sought out and employed. You will
laugh to be told, that one of the representatives, either Guesno or
Guermeur, sent for an English shoemaker to make him a pair of boots, and
even prolonged his stay for a day, rather than depart without them.
Perhaps a better speculation than to send here a small cargo of our
popular manufactures, in a vessel drawing not more than eleven feet,
when peace shall be restored, and liberty of exchange unshackled, could
not be projected. France will then open her _mines of gold and silver_.
In other words, immense quantities of specie and other valuables, which
are at this day buried, will be dug up and brought again into
circulation. Some part of these concealments will undoubtedly be lost to
their owners; who, after having entombed them, have either been chased
from their native soil to return to it no more, or else have paid the
debt of nature without communicating their secret. Ages hence their
children will turn them up from the bosom of the earth; and, on seeing
the effigy of the most unfortunate of kings, will recal to remembrance
the most calamitous period of the history of their country.
Nothing surprized me more, on my arrival here, than to see beggars in
every part of the town. The French officers at Brest had assured me,
that there were no longer any in the republic; the government
undertaking to make a provision for those, who might have no ostensible
means of subsisting. In consequence of this intelligence, I had dressed
up a fine speculation, in favour at least of one change effected by the
revolution.----If, said I, the noble and opulent are stripped and have
fallen, yet the oppressed and miserable part of the community have
emerged from that gulph of wretchedness, into which, under the ancient
government, the most numerous class of inhabitants were plunged. The
country, which has not in it any citizen so destitute as to want a
sufficiency of food and raiment, cannot be so unhappy as we in England
are fond of representing it.----What then was my astonishment, on entering
Quimper, to find in every street, and in its environs, wretches of both
sexes, who, with a livid aspect, and in a faltering voice, solicited of
passengers a morsel of bread to appease their hunger, or that of a
starving husband, wife, or child! It was in vain to answer me, that
these persons, by application to the municipality, might be
relieved;----so may all our poor, by applying to the workhouse or
parish-officer; but who, nevertheless, will venture to affirm, that we
have among us no victims of hunger?----As I advance in my actual
observations I gain a knowledge of facts, which lay open the real state
of the country, and better enable me to appreciate the condition of the
people, and the evils derived from equality incorrectly understood.
The inhabitants of this town formerly consisted, besides the working
people, only of petty shopkeepers, and of many of the neighbouring
gentry, who, though not nominally rich, were able, in this cheap
quarter, to keep town-houses, in which, during the winter, they resided
in great plenty and hospitality. These patricians are said to have held
the _bourgeois_ at an immeasurable distance, but to have been very
charitably disposed towards the wants of the poor. The taste for gaming,
which I have spoken of, is not new. It always flourished here; and
formerly, during the week of the carnival, and some other seasons of
festivity, it was not uncommon to find adventurers here, who had made a
journey from Paris to get a pluck at the _Noblesse Brétonne_.
For two miles around the town I know the country pretty well, having
always been fond of walking and making excursions. In these little
rambles I keep, however, in the most unfrequented tracks, and always
meet with civility from the peasantry, though by the soldiery I have
been twice compelled abruptly to return. The parts I have traversed are
diversified by hill and dale, and very like the wilds of Devonshire,
with a stream dashing through every bottom. There are innumerable
copses, but large trees, except firs, are hardly ever seen. The soil is
almost universally light and sandy, and abounds in lime-stone. Every
cottage has an orchard, but the cyder is not reckoned equal to that of
Normandy. I often inspect the labours of the husbandmen, and wish I
could talk to them. Except some fine meadows near the town, through
which two beautiful streams flow, the ground is chiefly employed to
raise corn. The corn-fields are very neatly divided into lands, and
their implements of husbandry, particularly their wheeled ploughs, are
much superior to what I had expected to find. Nevertheless, either from
the lightness of the soil, or want of skill on the part of the
cultivators, the crops of wheat are very moderate, not above five or
six for one.----They raise a few parsnips, and feed their horses with them
to great advantage; but I have not seen one field of turnips, cabbages,
or carrots, as a winter stock for cattle, and very little clover. I have
not yet conversed with any man, who has the least knowledge of what a
succession of crops means: to fallow seems to be the only assistance
which they give to worn-out grounds. They testify only ignorance and
amazement, when an Englishman explains to them the attention bestowed
upon this important part of farming, and a cultivation of artificial
grasses among us. Potatoes are yet planted only in gardens and small
patches; but the culture of them every day extends, having more than
once been recommended by authority. They frequently call it _la racine
Anglaise_, and many of the young people relish the potatoe; but their
fathers and mothers, to whom until lately it was a novelty, prefer the
most ordinary vegetable to it. It is a very common practice to irrigate
not only meadows, but higher lands, which demonstrates an intelligent
spirit; the little troughs, which, steal along through almost every
field the streams which the bounty of nature has supplied to the
country, are well contrived, and answer, as I have observed,
effectually. Upon the whole, what I have been able to see and hear of
the management of grounds here, notwithstanding the great deficiency I
have pointed out, exalts it above the humble opinion which I at first
sight formed of it. You know my fondness of agricultural pursuits, and
the impediments which have constantly arisen to prevent my indulgence of
it.
The cattle are very small and mean, worse, I think, than any breed I
ever noticed in the wildest part of North Wales, and certainly inferior
to the moor breed of Devonshire and Cornwall. I speak only of countries
which I know. Even in the meadows, though better, they are unaccountably
small, considering the pasture. The sheep are proportionably diminutive.
Admiral Bligh and I had one day the curiosity to put in the scales a
hind quarter of lamb, which was purchased in the market for our table,
and it weighed, the kidney and a bit of liver included,
exactly----_thirteen ounces and a half_.----At Brest we had remarked the
smallness of the meat brought on board, several of the quarters of
mutton not weighing more than three or four pounds each. The horses are
low and hardy, but, by continual importations from other parts of
France, are very superior to the cattle and sheep. The women here ride
astride.
The houses of the peasantry are like those I described on my landing. I
should oftener enter them were it not for dogs, which are chained close
to the doors, by one of which I was seized by the thigh, and bitten
through a thick pair of trowsers. Certainly the distresses of the times
are greatly felt by all ranks of people in France; but in the cottages I
have never seen want. One of the chief articles of the meals of the
peasants is a sort of pancake, called _crape_ (I spell like an
Englishman) made chiefly of buckwheat flour, and eaten with milk. These
people are, indeed, a separate race from the body of the French, and
have a language and customs of their own, to which they are tenaciously
attached. I much lament that I cannot speak Welch, although so many of
my happier days have been passed in Wales. As to French, it is of no
more use to me among these natives, at the distance of half a mile from
the town, than if I were at Ispahan or Delhi. Almost all the gentry can
speak this language. The Bretons and Welsh preserve another resemblance:
the latter do not love _cwrw_ (ale) better than the former do brandy.
The evening of a market-day here presents as drunken a scene as I ever
beheld in England; but these good folks do not appear to be so
quarrelsome in their cups as ours generally are.
The diocese of Quimper stands in a district called Cornwall. The truly
old British words _Pen_, and _Caer_, are affixed to the names of
innumerable places in the circumjacent country; and mark the origin of
this people, were we to seek no other proofs.
The town is surrounded by the _châteaux_ of the gentry. Very few of the
right owners live in them, and many of them are going fast to decay.
Every where I see the dove-cotes demolished, which were the earliest
victims of the first revolution; and I cannot lament their overthrow.
The game-law now established gives liberty to every one to kill what
game he may find upon his own ground, or that which he rents; and if any
person, without leave, shoot on his neighbour’s ground, he pays for each
offence a fine of ten livres. How superior is this simple regulation,
conceived in a spirit of equity, to a perplexed and odious code of penal
statutes for the preservation of hares and partridges! Let me bring you
acquainted with two other laws, which owe their birth to the
revolution.----One of them is just passed, and exempts from the punishment
of death, even after delivery, women who are tried for any crime when
pregnant. “Can a woman so situated,” asks the framer of the decree,
“become a mother in that tranquil state of mind, which is so necessary
to ensure the physical good of her offspring? Besides, could we forget
humanity, does not the republic act impolitically in probably preventing
the birth of a new citizen; (for women in this condition almost ever
miscarry) or in condemning the mother to bring forth a half-formed
being, which is usually distorted in mind and body, incapable of serving
the state, and of propagating its species?”----I am sure I hear you join
me in unqualified applause of the principle of this humane and
considerate institution.----The other interdicts a duel, in all cases
whatever, under the penalty of death to the survivor or survivors.----The
late king of Prussia said, that to determine whether single combat, in
certain cases, ought, or ought not, to be abolished, required a congress
of all the monarchs in Europe. Had he lived to witness the shocking
grossness of speech and manners, which prevail among modern Frenchmen,
for want of this or some other curb of a private nature, I think his
uncertainty would have vanished, without troubling the crowned heads to
assemble.----At least mine has.
The French often boast of the unexplored subterranean treasures of their
country; and some among them are sanguine enough to believe that they
shall rival England in her collieries. There are near Quimper two veins
of what is called _charbon de terre_ worked; but I have been assured by
an English surgeon, that on analysis he found it to be _not coal_. I
picked up a piece, one day, at the mouth of a pit, carried it home, and
put it into the fire, where it became red-hot, without consuming. To
what use it is applied by those who extract it, I know not. It is,
however, certain, that they have several times been industrious in
trying to find out miners among the English prisoners; and in a few
instances have succeeded in seducing our men to go and work at some
mines (of what I do not know) which are said to lie near Brest.
The inhabitants of the town, or troops of the municipality as they are
called, are obliged to do the ordinary duties here, when the regular
soldiers are absent. In certain cases, however, they are allowed to
perform this service by proxy. The present price of a substitute is ten
livres a day, which is judged to be more than the worth of a day’s
labour, though it will not purchase more than a pound and a half of
bread, a pound of veal, and a bottle of indifferent wine.
I have not yet said any thing to you of the French regular troops whom I
have seen since I have been landed. There is not at present any complete
regiment here, but there are detachments of infantry from several.
Every day I see the different guards parade, march off, and relieve; and
twice I have seen a detachment exercise, and perform their evolutions,
which, though few and simple, were very awkwardly executed. Certainly a
stranger, who should neglect to calculate the force of other causes,
would start, on being told, that before these raw levies (to use Mr.
Gibbon’s words, as nearly as I can recollect them, on an occasion not
very dissimilar) the disciplined legions of Germany, the sons of
chivalry of Castille, the gallant nobles of their own country, and even
the hardy freemen of Britain, have been compelled to flee. In vain would
he look for those usual indications of excellence, and prognoses of
success, silence, attention, and the exact performance of movements in a
great body, which we find in an individual.----In their room he would see
battalions, composed indeed of stout and healthy young men, but clumsily
and confusedly drawn up, with uneven ranks and broken files, whose bold
looks, slovenly attire, and unrestrained carriage, would seem to
proclaim equal defiance of their enemies and their leaders. Talk to
them, and they will try to make you believe, that they wish to decide
all battles by the bayonet only; and yet at this weapon they would to a
certainty be beaten by the English, were the forces on each side in
every other respect perfectly equal; for their bayonets, which I have
measured, are shorter, and worse fitted for purposes of destruction,
than ours. When they charge, nothing is more common than to hear them
talk to each other, and fancy an Englishman, an Austrian, or a Spaniard,
beneath their point, and crying for quarter.----I acknowledge freely, that
the bravery of the French is as unquestionable as the light of the sun;
but this in itself is inadequate to the atchievements which we have
recently witnessed. To that lively courage which stimulates them to
perpetual attacks; to their enthusiastic ardour in the cause of their
invaded country; and above all to their undiminishable numbers, must be
attributed those extraordinary events, which have confounded all
political calculation, and filled Europe with amazement, consternation,
and mourning.
The present pay of the common soldier is ten sols a day and a ration of
provisions, but no wine when quartered in towns. They are furnished by
the state with necessaries; so that the money is for pocket expences
only. The name of the general officer now commanding here is Klingly. He
is a native of Alsace, and one of the largest men I ever saw, being at
least six feet four inches high, and proportionably stout. I have once
dined in his company, and sat next to him, when he told me, that he had
been in England, and, among other parts of it, at Castle Howard, the
seat of Lord Carlisle; but in what capacity he had visited there, he did
not explain to me.----His birth is reported to be obscure, and his
advancement sudden.-------- Adieu.