The Express.
London, England, 1859-06-24 00:00:00

LITBRATUBB.

Narratire of a Walking Tour in Bratorty. By
Jour; MOUNTENIT Jzrnsox,F.S.A. With Notes
from a Pliotogrativet Expedition. By LOVELL
Reeve, F.L.S. 6, Henrietta-street.
Mr. Jephson is a clergyman located, as he says,
in a dull and murky region of the county of
Faux. He gives an amusing account of the state
of physical and mental depression to which he wir.,
reduced by sticking too closely for some years
to the routine duties and the tame scenery of
his Boeotian pariah. Last summer he would
not endure it any longer. He packed • knap-
sack, clutched a stout umbrella, and shod himself
conveniently for walking thirty miles a-day ; then
by the South Western Railway and Channel Islands'
steamboat conveyed himself to St. Malo, and de-
voted a month's holiday to a tour round the pieta-
reeque coasts of Brittany. Mr. Lovell Reeve, the
photographer, by previous arrangement, was on the
same road, with an assistant and his apparatus in a
hired carriage. They met each other here and
there, comparing notes on the picturesque, and con-
certing plans for their route. The result of their
joint observations is this handsome volume, illustrated
by a box full of double photographic views for the
stereoscope. This is a pluming and useful applica-
tion of a very beautiful art. By the means which
Mr. Reeve has provided, with the descriptive expla-
nations in the book, we may see a great deal of
Brittany without the trouble of curing the Channel.
Bat if we go with Mr. Jephson, we have a frank,
sensible, and agreeable companion—a sound scholar
and an English gentleman, without a scruple of ,
affected prudery or exclusiveness in his composition,'
one who goes with his head full of ancient
history and literature, from Homer and The-
°triton to Dan Chaucer and Sir John Froissert,
yet who can chat with a Norman horeedealer at a
roadside inn, or tramp beside a vagabond rag-picker,
give and take a merry word with the sturdy damsels
at the farmer's threshing-floor, or innocently admire
the white feet of those who tread their linen in the
primitive wash-tub. After all, this free and kindly
interchange of good-humoured civilities with the
strange people amongst whom one passes is the most
profitable as well as the pleasantest result of
sash a tour. But it is only the pedestrian
tourist who can fully enjoy it ; for he, in-
stead of being everywhere beset by the mer-
cenary servility which hangs upon the equipage of
ostentatious wealth, encounters at every step those
who cannot expect to get any pecuniary return for
their affability, and who stand upon the same ground
as himself. Mr. Jephsoo, being aware of this, de-
termined to walk from town to town, in order both
to see the country more at his leisure, and to have
better opportunities of observing the manners of the
people. In lees than five weeks he thus con-
Weed to learn • great deal more of Brit-
tany and the Bretons, as well as to lay
up a greater store of health and interesting
recollections, than he could have done by any
other mode. There are several well-written narra-
tives of similar travel in this romantic province,
which may be called the Wales, the Cornwall, or
the Dartmoor of Franoe. Mr. Robert Bell, Mr.
Weld, and we think one or two more, have related
their observations in Brittany; but the novel accom-
paniment of the stereographe is a sufficient excuse
for Mr. Jephson's giving us this account of his
own—if indeed say excuse be required foe
so fresh and cheerful • production. The
author has earned a special title, moreover, to talk to
us about Brittany. We know not whether he be •
Welahman, but he appears to possess the rare accom-
plishment of some acquaintance with the Celtic
languages and literature. He has studied the collec-
tion of Breton ballade published by M. de la Ville-
insigne, and of several of the most characteristic of
them he furnishes us with a literal translation, an-
nexed to the original text. They seem to be well wor-
thy of study, from their pathetic and animated tone,
their allusion to native customs and to local history,
and the spirit of genuine poetry which they breathe.
Mr. Jephson even supplies us with the music to
which these verses ate sung is the long winter
evenings by the cottage firesides of Cornonaille.
Some of the most stirring incidents in the wars of
our Edward 111., and especially in the career of the
Breton hero Gwesklen, or Du Camila, as the
French historians call him, constable of France, and
ultimately the deliverer of his country from the
English yoke, are immortalised in the romances of
Brittany, and repeated fondly by its peasants and
fishermen at the present day.