Chapter IX: Letter VIII: 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.