noticed a small, plain building, almost the last of the few straggling
houses in that direction, bearing in bold letters the legend "Musée
Miln." The name had a pleasant suggestion of my ain countree, and in a
trice I was knocking at the door, curious to know what lay behind. A
tall, well-knit, clean-shaven Breton of about forty years of age
opened and bade me welcome. He was carelessly dressed like any
village shopkeeper in his shirt sleeves, and wearing a pair of carpet
slippers; certainly presenting no aspect of the antiquary or the
scholar, although it was not long before I found that he was a man of
remarkable attainments in archæology. As far as I remember, the charge
for admission was one franc, and although at first it seemed a large
price to pay for looking at a roomful of things in glass cases, I left
with the conviction that I had made an excellent bargain.
The museum I found to consist of an extremely valuable assortment of
relics of the Stone and Bronze Ages. Admirably arranged and catalogued
were hundreds of flint arrowheads and axes, some of the latter being
of that earliest type before man had the sense to pierce the axe-head
for the handle, but stuck the wedge-like head of the axe through a
hole in the shaft. There were also many examples of rude instruments
belonging to the Bronze Age, some Roman swords and a skeleton in a
prehistoric stone coffin. The interest of these curiosities lay not
only in their intrinsic value to the antiquary, but in the fact that
they had all been dug up from the tumuli in the Commune of Carnac. But
to me they assumed at once a far more vivid interest, when the
custodian explained that the antiquary who had discovered most of
them, and whose money had founded the museum, was "M'sieu Meelin of
Dundae." When I explained that I was a countryman of this Mr. Miln,
the curator launched into a warm description of that worthy's
abounding good qualities, and recalled with the fervour of the French
his own personal association with Mr. Miln in the work of excavation.
He pointed with pride to a very ordinary oil painting of his old
friend and master, which disclosed him as a fresh-complexioned,
white-haired gentleman of unmistakable Scottish type, and assured me
that he was "_un homme très interessant et très aimable_." I could
readily believe the eulogy, as it was a kindly old Scotch face that
looked out of the canvas at me.
II.
I wonder if the memory of Mr. Miln is treasured in Dundee. The chances
are that what I have to tell of him may be news to his fellow-townsmen
of to-day. A reference to that excellent work, _Chambers's
Biographical Dictionary_, discloses the fact that he is remembered
there to the extent of exactly two lines:
"Miln, James (1819-81), a Scotch antiquary made excavations at Carnac
in Brittany, 1872-80."
That is all, but behind these two lines lie the long story of a
romantic life in a foreign land and a little measure of fame among an
alien people. In this respect the life of James Miln resembles
curiously the lives of so many of his fellow-countrymen, who have
wandered to the ends of the earth in the pursuit of their avocations,
and left traces of their work everywhere except in the place of their
birth.
My knowledge of the life of this notable Scotsman and his work is
gleaned from the scholarly little brochure written by M. Zacharie le
Rouzic, the slippered custodian of the "Musée Miln." It appears that
James Miln was born at Woodhill in 1819, and while still young
travelled in India, China, and spent some years in other parts of the
far east. On his return to Scotland he threw himself with enthusiasm
into antiquarian research and scientific studies. He succeeded to the
estate of Murie in Perthshire on the death of his father, James Yeanan
Miln, of Murie and Woodhill, and later to that of Woodhill in
Forfarshire at the death of his brother, to whom that property had
descended. His particular line of study for nearly forty years of his
life would seem to have been the origin and development of portable
firearms, and for a man of such peaceful pursuits it is strange to be
told that he was especially ardent in encouraging every experiment for
the perfection of rifles. Another of his hobbies was concerned with
the improvement of the telescope; but all kinds of scientific
instruments seem to have been objects of his study and inventive
genius. In the experimental days of photography he speedily achieved
success with the camera, and made a large collection of photographs of
ancient sculptures in the east of Scotland. An accomplished linguist
and something of an artist, he illustrated with his own pencil all his
works on archæology, which M. Le Rouzic assures us was always his
favourite study.
It was during the summer of 1873 that Miln first visited Carnac, where
he encountered his friend, Admiral Tremlett, of Tunbridge Wells, who
was interested in the wonderful neolithic remains in the
neighbourhood, and became his guide in a series of explorations.
Miln's enthusiasm was immediately aflame when he contemplated this
rich and sparsely-explored field of research awaiting the excavator.
His first idea was to purchase the ground on which some of the most
interesting remains were standing, but finding this impossible, he
approached the farmers on whose land the unbroken mounds, which
represented burial-places of prehistoric people, were situated, and
obtained leave from them to commence the work of excavation, to which
he immediately resolved to devote himself during 1875 and 1876. The
result was a series of important discoveries. Perhaps the most
important of the remains unearthed were those of a Roman villa,
consisting of eleven chambers, and surrounded by several other
buildings, among which were baths and a small temple, that were
believed to date back to the first half of the fourth century.
Numerous examples of Roman pottery, glass, jewellery, money, a bronze
statue of a bull, and many other curiosities were dug up. Within sight
of the museum, and only a few minutes' walk away, is a tumulus
surmounted by a little chapel to Saint Michael, and here in 1876 Miln
made many notable discoveries, including the remains of an
eleventh-century monastery.
[Illustration: THE MERCHANTS' TABLE
_One of the great dolmens near Carnac_]
III.
The results of these excavations were described in a large work
written and illustrated by himself, and issued in Edinburgh and Paris.
By January of 1877 he was busily prosecuting his explorations at
Kermaric, a gunshot distant from Carnac, and the work went steadily on
with the most fruitful results in many other parts of the district
until the end of 1880, when Miln returned to Edinburgh in order to
produce another book describing his researches. Unhappily, in the
midst of his literary labour, he was seized with a brief illness,
which at the end of six days resulted in his death on Friday, 28th
January, 1881, at twelve minutes to eleven, as the faithful M. le
Rouzic records.
James Miln was a member of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, la
Société royale des Antiquaries du Nord, the Academy of Copenhagen, and
several learned societies in England and the Continent. "_C'est avec
une douloureuse émotion que l'on apprit, à Carnac, la nouvelle de sa
mort_," to quote again his faithful henchman. The museum with its
precious contents was secured to Carnac through the efforts of Mr.
Robert Miln, the son of the antiquary, and his friend Admiral
Tremlett, and was opened on the 22nd May, 1882, since when it has
remained a centre of great interest and importance to all antiquarian
students, and an enduring monument to "M'sieu Meelin of Dondae."
This is a brief outline of the life of a little-known Scotsman, which
is worth recalling as an example of the quiet, unostentatious way in
which the Scot will carry on any enterprise that lies near to his
heart, with no eye to personal advertisement, but out of sheer
pleasure in the work his hand has found to do. Thus it is that one
meets with traces of our countrymen in the remote and unfrequented
corners of earth, and at the ring of an old name the mind of the
wanderer is carried back across "the waste of seas" to the land whose
sons, by some strange irony of fate, are prone to find their life-work
far from home.
IV.
But my story must not end here, although we take our leave of James
Miln and his museum. It is almost impossible to describe in any
adequate way the historic value of this part of Brittany. Stonehenge,
in England, is a national monument which we zealously treasure, yet
its value, compared with the neolithic remains of Morbihan, is as a
drop in a bucket of water. In the region to the east and north of
Carnac druidical remains are as plentiful as blackberries in an autumn
hedge. The sight of what are known as "_les alignements de Carnac_" is
one never to be forgotten. Standing on the little mound by the chapel
of Saint Michael already mentioned, and looking northward across the
plain, we see an enormous range of menhirs or druidical stones
standing like an army at attention. There are no fewer than 2,813 of
these massive stones to be seen from this point, and the imagination
is busy at once striving to picture the strange rites practised here
by unknown people before the dawn of history. Dotted all over the vast
plains are dolmens and cromlechs of varying size.
One of the largest dolmens that I visited is known as the Merchants'
Table. It stands near Locmariaquer, and consists of an enormous stone
laid flat on the top of a series of smaller stones. Originally the
supporting stones would be only slightly imbedded in the earth, but in
the ages that have passed the soil has accumulated until they are now
sunk six or eight feet deep, but still project above the ground to the
height of four or five feet. The roof-stone must weigh some hundred
tons, and one of the mysteries is how a people, whose instruments were
of the most primitive kind, could place such a mammoth block in so
elevated a position. The dolmens, of which the Merchants' Table is one
of the finest examples, were probably places of burial, and are always
approached by a smaller chamber of the same rude construction. The
interior of the one in question bears many strange carvings, that
remain an enigma even to the most erudite.
Some authorities believe these structures may have been used as
houses; others suppose them to have been altars, so that it will be
seen their purpose has not yet been decided upon by their most learned
students. The cromlechs, which are a series of stones standing in a
circle, were most probably sanctuaries, and there is reason to believe
that it was here the Druid priests practised their unknown rites.
They are generally to be found at the end of an "alignment," and are
oriented, so that the likelihood is the worshippers stood within the
long rows of stones, which would correspond to the choir of a
cathedral, and the priests were in the cromlech looking toward the
rising of the sun.
To return for the last time to the great army of menhirs, or single
stones, seen from St. Michael's chapel near Carnac, the legend popular
in the district is that when St. Corneille, a Pope of Rome, was being
pursued by an army of pagan soldiers, he had with him two oxen, which
carried his belongings and sometimes himself when he was fatigued. One
evening, when he had arrived near a village where he would have rested
the night, he determined to press on beyond it because he had heard a
young girl insult her mother! He saw soon afterwards that the
soldiers, who had been following him, were arranged in line of battle,
and he was between them and the sea. So he stopped, and transformed
the entire army into stones. This is at least a picturesque way for
accounting for those marvellous remains that have baffled the minds of
men to explain.
Round About a French Fair
I.
The rambler in old France can seldom undertake a little journey during
the summer without coming upon some town where a fair is in progress.
At least, that has been my own experience, and in the course of wide
wanderings through the highways and by-ways of the most delightful
land in Europe I have witnessed many fairs in towns so far apart as
Morlaix and Montluçon, Orleans and Beaucaire, Rennes and Lisieux.
Nowhere does the distinctive character of a people show itself more
strongly than in its public fairs and rejoicings. Thus, if one desired
to get at a glance a glimpse into the different natures of the Briton
and the Gaul, a visit to Glasgow Fair or Nottingham's famous Goose
Fair, followed by a look round the great fair of Rennes or Orleans,
would do more for one's education in this regard than a great deal of
book learning.
An extensive and peculiar knowledge of Scottish and English
holiday-making, which the vagrant life of journalism has enabled me to
acquire, goes far to justify in my mind, when I think of the Frenchman
and his merry-making, the charge directed against us by our friends
across the Channel--that we take our pleasures sadly. There is very
little to choose between an English and Scottish festival of the
common people, though that little of brightness and genuine high
spirits is in favour of the former. A more vulgar, tasteless,
saddening spectacle than a Scottish saturnalia it is difficult to
conceive. For ill manners, foul speech, stupid and low diversions, I
have seen nothing so lacking in all the elements of joy as an Ayrshire
country fair; it has made me blush for my countrymen. But when such a
melancholy festival has awakened memory's contrasts of sights seen in
merry France, I have been glad to believe that, speaking generally,
while a fair in Scotland or in England stirs up the less worthy
elements in the people's character, such an occasion in France, on the
contrary, calls forth some of the better traits of the people.
[Illustration: _Familiar types_
_A Lacemaker at Le Monastier_
WOMEN OF THE CEVENNES]
In our own time, and due in some measure to the growth of refinement
arising out of our improved education, the institution of the public
fair in this country has been steadily declining in popularity; but in
France it still flourishes. There are other reasons for this,
though the chief is--again accepting a French criticism--that we are
essentially a nation of shopkeepers. The origin of the fair was, of
course, the bringing together of people with goods to sell or barter,
and a touch of pleasure was given to the business by the association
of amusements therewith. Time was when Nottingham Goose Fair was an
event of the highest importance in the commercial life of the
district, and continued over a period of a month; but with the rise of
the shopkeeper, who has ever a jealous eye on the huckster, this, like
many another of our fairs, has been gradually curtailed, on the plea
of its interfering with regular business, until it is now limited to a
week, and is threatened with reduction to three days. In France,
however, many of the fairs still last for a month, although the most
celebrated of all, that of Beaucaire, which is almost continental in
its importance and is less a festival than a commercial institution,
is held for one week only. At Orleans one of the finest fairs in
France takes place annually in June, and continues for a whole month.
It may be taken as typical of these provincial carnivals, and in
endeavouring to give my readers some idea of its leading features, I
shall be describing to them the character of French fairs in general.
II.
Most of the towns in France are peculiarly adapted for the holding of
festivals, with their wide main street and "bit of a square"; but
Orleans is especially fortunate in this respect. Although it is a town
of not more than seventy thousand inhabitants, it possesses a series of
spacious boulevards and public squares which would be thought remarkable
in an English city of three or four times that population. The chief
part of Orleans lies on the north bank of the wide and swiftly-flowing
Loire, and the boulevards, following roughly the outline of an arc,
compass the town with the river for base. The great width of these
highways--at a moderate estimate six times that of the Strand--makes
it possible for an immense number of booths and stalls to be ranged
along them without in any degree obstructing the regular road traffic.
Thus, if you arrive at the railway station during the fair month, you
will find the entire stretch of the northern thoroughfares--close on a
mile and a half as I should estimate--occupied by the show people, who
have created a boulevard within a boulevard, as the fair-ground is one
long avenue of booths, with a wide promenade between and roadways as
roomy as an English turnpike still remaining free to ordinary traffic
on the outer edges.
If it were the first affair of its kind you had seen in France, you
would be immediately impressed by the remarkable cleanliness of the
shows and of the attendants at the numerous stalls, where every
variety of goods are on sale. What may be described as the business
part of the fair is distinct from that devoted to amusements, and the
high-class character of the stalls and their keepers is explained when
we know that the tradesmen of the town have become hucksters for the
nonce, most of these temporary structures being fitted up and
conducted by local shopkeepers. The appointments of some of them are
elaborate to a surprising degree, but never defaced by such crude and
tasteless displays as we find at English fairs.
III.
To mention the varieties of business represented by these stalls would
be to enumerate every trade in the town, and a few more. Bakers and
pastrycooks are there in abundance; the stalls at which a bewildering
choice of sweetmeats is displayed are marvels of neatness, and their
name is legion. As many as five or six smartly-dressed young women
with white oversleeves will be busy at one counter supplying the
customers, who are endeavouring to increase the purchasing value of
their coppers by speculating at the roulette table kept by the
proprietor, for at such time the Frenchman introduces the gambling
element into every transaction where it can be applied. At the
miscellaneous stalls, where all sorts of fancy goods are on sale, the
"wheel of fortune" is practically the only method of exchange. Many of
the places are run on the principle of "all one price," and thrifty
housewives may be seen deliberating on the respective merits of knives
and forks, cruet-stands, butter-dishes, and scores of minor household
utensils, each to be had at the price of half a franc (fivepence). It
is clear that the women-folk regard the occasion as an opportunity for
getting unusual value for their money. Peasants may purchase an entire
suit of clothes at some of the stalls, and if they are wishful of a
crucifix or an image of the sacred heart, here they are in abundance,
with rosaries, bambinoes, and all the brightly-coloured symbols of
Catholic worship.
But the real interest of the fair, and, of course, its most
picturesque part, lies in the great Boulevard Alexandré Martin, which
stretches eastward from the railway station. Here are congregated most
of the places of entertainment. These, no less than the temporary
shops of the tradesmen, present a striking contrast to anything one
may see at an English fair. The Frenchman's instinctive feeling for
art is everywhere noticeable, and the exterior decoration of the shows
exhibits a lightness and daintiness of touch quite unknown in the same
connection in England. The gilded horror of the ghost-show exterior,
so familiar a feature of our own fairs, has no counterpart in France,
but the booths wherein are exhibited "freaks of Nature" are curiously
similar in both countries, the crude pictures on the canvas fronts
being preposterous exaggerations of the objects to be seen within.
IV.
What strikes one particularly in wandering through the fair-ground at
Orleans is that while all is different from an English festival, the
difference is one of degree and not of kind. Here, for example, are
several circuses, where performances very similar to those given by
any travelling circus in our own land are "about to commence." On the
outside platform two clowns are shouting to the crowd to walk up; the
gorgeous ring-master with his whip joins in the general advertisement;
a girl and a boy are dancing to the music of a small but noisy
orchestra. There is this difference, however, between a French circus
and an English one: the whole enterprise wears a more noticeable
appearance of success, is better housed, the place being brilliantly
lighted by electricity generated by an excellent portable plant, the
performers better dressed. But curiously enough, the finest travelling
circus I have ever seen in any land was Anderson's "Cirque Féerique,"
which I came upon during a flying visit to the industrial town of
Vierzon, some hundred and twenty-five miles south of Paris. The
proprietor was a Scotsman! "Mother Goose" was the chief item of the
performance, and the coloured posters of the old lady and her goose
had been printed in England!
Pitched close to such a circus stands a large wooden opera-house,
capable of holding from six to eight hundred people, the seats being
arranged on an inclined plane, the higher priced ones as substantial
and comfortable as the stalls of one of our provincial theatres. The
stage is commodious, and the performers as accomplished as any touring
company that visits the second-class English towns. Indeed, their
performance of "Les Cloches de Corneville" was given with a _verve_
and a finish not seldom lacking in more ambitious opera companies one
has seen at home. Instead of an orchestra, a very clever and
good-looking young lady pianist played the accompaniments throughout
the entire performance.
The travelling theatres, too, force comparison with the regular
playhouses in the smaller English towns, rather than with the wretched
"tuppenny" shows that represent the drama at an English fair. Like the
opera-house just described, they are fitted up substantially, and in
good taste, the charges for admission ranging from half a franc to
three or four francs. Many notable French actors have graduated from
these portable theatres, and, indeed, those who perform in them are of
a class considerably above the mummers who exhibit in our "fit-ups";
they are the best type of "strolling-players."
One of the most detestable features of an English fair is the
appalling noise created by mechanical organs. This is happily absent
from the French fête, and of the few contrivances of the kind which I
remember at Orleans there was only one designed solely for the sake of
noise. Perhaps the most remarkable of these orchestrions was a real
triumph of musical machinery, around which, and contained within an
immense and brilliantly lighted wooden building, whirled an endless
chain of fairy coaches, hobby horses, swan boats, and other fantastic
vehicles, eminently contrived for the purpose of producing giddiness.
This was truly the _pièce de résistance_ of the Orleans Fair, and it
would be impossible to conceive a more striking contrast than that
between this really magnificent construction and the familiar English
merry-go-round. Externally the building would have borne favourable
comparison with a "Palace of Electricity" at some of our international
exhibitions. The façade was of Byzantine style, and myriads of
beautifully-coloured electric lamps picked out the design, two huge
peacocks with outspread tails, also composed of coloured lights, being
introduced with most artistic effect on each side of the glittering
archway. Inside, the decorations were gorgeous "to the _n_th degree,"
as Mr. W. E. Henley might have said, but the scheme of colours was in
perfect harmony, the whole making up a veritable feast of light that
must dazzle and fascinate the simple country-folk wherever this
wonderful merry-go-round is set up. At a moderate estimate, I should
name £10,000 as the cost of this single show, and perhaps that will
indicate the lavish way in which the French are catered for by their
travelling showmen.