Amongst the many advantages possessed by Morlaix may be mentioned the
fact of its being a central point from which a number of interesting
excursions may be made. It is one of the chief towns of the Finistère, a
Department crowded with churches, and here will be found at once some of
the best and worst examples of ecclesiastical architecture in Brittany.

Of the churches of Morlaix we have said nothing. Interesting and
delightful as it is in its old houses, it fails in its churches. Those
worthy of note were destroyed at the Revolution, that social scourge
which passed like a blight over the whole country, leaving its traces
behind it for ever.

[Illustration: A BRETON CALVARY.]

The church of St. Melaine is the only one deserving a passing notice. It
is in the third Pointed style, and, built on an eminence, is approached
by a somewhat imposing flight of steps. A narrow thoroughfare leads up
to it, and the nearer houses are inhabited by the priests and other
members of the religious community.

The porch and windows are Flamboyant, and a little of the stained glass
is good. The interior is divided into three naves by wooden partitions,
consisting of pillars without capitals supporting pointed arches. The
wall-plates represent monks in grotesque attitudes: portraits, perhaps,
of those who inhabited the Priory of St. Melaine of Rennes, to which the
church originally belonged. The basin for holy water between the porches
has a very interesting cover; but still more remarkable is the cover to
the font, an imposing and elegantly sculptured octagonal work of art of