Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Incorrect page numbers in the Table of Contents have been corrected. [Illustration: "Keransiflan and I, sitting on our wheelbarrow, were allowed to go on eating in peace"] A Childhood in Brittany Eighty Years Ago by Anne Douglas Sedgwick With illustrations by Paul de Leslie New York The Century Co. 1919 Copyright, 1918, 1919, by THE CENTURY CO. _Published, October, 1919_ CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I QUIMPER AND BONNE MAMAN 3 II ELIANE 44 III THE FÊTE AT KER-ELIANE 55 IV THE OLD HOUSE AT LANDERNEAU 68 V TANTE ROSE 83 VI THE DEMOISELLES DE COATNAMPRUN 98 VII BON PAPA 122 VIII LE MARQUIS DE PLOEUC 131 IX LOCH-AR-BRUGG 153 X THE PARDON AT FOLGOAT 196 XI BONNE MAMAN'S DEATH 204 XII THE JOURNEY FROM BRITTANY 215 A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY This little sheaf of childish memories has been put together from many talks, in her own tongue, with an old French friend. The names of her relatives have, by her wish, been changed to other names, taken from their Breton properties, or slightly altered while preserving the character of the Breton original. A CHILDHOOD IN BRITTANY CHAPTER I QUIMPER AND BONNE MAMAN I was born at Quimper in Brittany on the first of August, 1833, at four o'clock in the morning, and I have been told that I looked about me resolutely and fixed a steady gaze on the people in the room, so that the doctor said, "She is not blind, at all events." The first thing I remember is a hideous doll to which I was passionately attached. It belonged to the child of one of the servants, and my mother, since I would not be parted from it, gave this child, to replace it, a handsome doll. It had legs stuffed with sawdust and a clumsily painted cardboard head, and on this head it wore a _bourrelet_. The _bourrelet_ was a balloon-shaped cap made of plaited wicker, and was worn by young children to protect their heads when they fell. We, too, wore them in our infancy, and I remember that I was very proud when wearing mine and that I thought it a very pretty head-dress.