Dol

“ About 11/2 m. from the town is the pierre de Champ Dolent, a menhir some 30 ft. in height; not far off stands the great granite rock of Mont Dol, over 200 ft. in height, surmounted by the statue and chapel of Notre-Dame de l’Espérance. Dol has trade in grain, vegetables and fruit, tobacco is cultivated in the neighbourhood and there are salt-marshes. Tanning and leather-currying are carried on in the town. ”

“ For if there is one thing more than another which in the forest will stir the pluck of a novice, and make him feel like an old woodsman, it is the sight of his Indian footwear. Dol put his on, admired their light, comfortable feeling, their soft buckskin, and rashly decided that he could dispense with the loose inner soles which Cyrus had fitted into them to protect his feet. ”

“ These are the Norman cathedrals of Bayeux and Coutances, both of them still Bishops' sees, and the Breton Cathedral of Dol, which, in the modern ecclesiastical arrangements, has sunk into a parish church. Bayeux lies on a great track, and we suppose that all the world goes there to see the tapestry. Coutances has won a fame among professed architectural students almost higher than it deserves, but we fancy that the city lies rather out of the beat of the ordinary tourist. Dol is surely quite out of the world ”

“ Having failed to secure the bishopric of Orleans in 1097, he became archbishop of Dol in 1107, and went to Rome for his pallium in 1108. The bishopric of Dol had been raised to the rank of an archbishopric during the 10th century by Nomenoé, king of Brittany, but this step had been objected to by the archbishops of Tours. Consequently the position of the see was somewhat ambiguous, and Baudry is referred to both as archbishop and as bishop of Dol. ”

“ These peasant wedding guests all bore a striking family likeness; they might easily all have been brothers and sisters, whether they had come from the fields near Pontorson, or Cancale, or Dol, or St. Malo. The older the women, the prettier and the more gossamer were the caps; but the younger maidens were always delightful to look upon, such was the ripe vigor of their frames, and the liquid softness of eyes that, like animals, were used to wide sunlit fields and to great skies full of light. ”

“ Dolly, dol′i, n. a wooden shaft attached to a disc with projecting arms, used for stirring clothes in a washing-tub; somewhat similar pieces of apparatus in mining, pile-driving, &c.—v.t. to wash (clothes) in a tub: to beat (red-hot metal) with a hammer: to crush ore with a dolly, to obtain or yield by this method.—adj. Doll′ied.—n. Doll′ier. [Prob. from Dolly, the familiar form of Dorothy.] ”

“ Front of the Tomb of Bishop James,
Cathedral, Dol. The chapel of St. Samson, patron saint of the cathedral, has been restored. Mad people were brought here for cure, and placed in a recess which still remains; the opening was covered over by an iron grating. Dol was formerly the ecclesiastical metropolis of Brittany; the see was founded by Samson, one of those British monks, who, with a whole population of men and women, emigrated from England to escape the Saxon slavery. ”

“ For answer, the English boy shot up from his lowly posture, seized his companion by the arm, making him drop the camp-kettle, which he was just filling, and forced him to scan the soft clay by the rivulet.
“Look there—and there!” gurgled Dol, his voice sounding as if he was being choked by suppressed hilarity. “I told you we’d find them, and you didn’t believe me! Aren’t those moose-tracks? They’re not deer-tracks, anyhow; they’re too big. I may be a greenhorn, but I know that much.”
“They are moose-tracks,” Cyrus answered slowly, almost unbelievingly, though the evidence was before him. ”

“ We will not say that we trust that no one has gone thither23 from the Greater Britain since the days of the Armorican migration; but we do trust that a criticism on the cathedral church of Dol will be somewhat of a novelty to most people. ”

“ On one of these occasions, Lovewit, a London gentleman, obliged to quit the metropolis in order to avoid the plague, leaves his town house to the charge of one man-servant, Face, who proves dishonest, associates himself with a rogue named Subtle, and an immoral woman named Dol Common, and introduces them into the house, which is made the basis for their subsequent operations. Subtle assumes the character of a magician and alchemist, while Dol acts various female parts, and Face goes about alluring people into their snares. ”

“ I was dreadfully upset, but of course I never thought for a minute of reminding him of Aunt Jane, so I packed that evening and left a letter for Lee telling him please not to be vexed. We took an early train for Dol (it's always Dol in Brittany) , and in Dol we changed for Rennes. Of course I thought that Uncle was chasing Miss Clara Emily when I saw the train marked Rennes, but I didn't dare say a word, for he never spoke but once [Pg 301] between Dol and Rennes, and that time all he said was "Hum." ”

“ From the inn we walked, shaded from the hot sun by umbrellas and parasols, to the junction of the upper and lower lakes, near the foot of Dol Barden Tower. A good looking, but meanly-dressed boy, who seemed to guess at our object, here placed himself just before us, and slowly walked up to the tower, by the most direct road. We followed him, and ascended to the castle terrace, which commanded a fine view of the lower, and a portion of the upper lake; but we were excluded, by a part of the building, from a full view of the entire vale. ”

“ Samson accepted the offer, and the mutual arrangement was continued during the lives of the two saints.
The marshy country round Dol has been formerly inundated by the sea; it is now reclaimed and protected by a dyke twenty-two miles long, extending from Pontorson to Chateauneuf. The whole tract is full of buried wood, a submerged forest, which the people dig up, and use for furniture. It is black, like the Irish bog-oak. They call it "couëron." In the midst of this plain rises a mamelon or insulated granite rock, resembling in form Mont St. ”

“ Oh, how good the cool ripply water did feel! and how they chuckled with glee as they felt the wavelets plashing round their ankles.
Across the brook were the dearest wild flowers,—pink, yellow, and white.
“We must gather some,” said Dolly. “Can we wade across?”
“Yep; I guess so. It doesn’t look deep. Come on.”
Taking hands again, they stepped cautiously, and succeeded in crossing the shallow brook, though, incidentally, well dampening the piqué skirt, and the grey knickerbockers. ”

“ There are two routes, the road through Dol, and the road along the sea coast. One is as short as the other. The road along by the sea goes through Saint-Georges de Brehaigne Cherrueix, and Hirelle-Vivier. You leave Dol to the south and Cancal to the north. Citizen, at the end of the street, you will find the place where the two roads meet; the one to Dol is to the left, the one to Saint-Georges de Brehaigne is to the right. Listen to me now; if you go through Dol, you will fall in the massacre. That is why you must not take the left; take the right."
"Thank you," said the traveller. ”

“ Bernard, standing still, thought fashionable people talked like imbeciles. Dolly, shy, though no one saw it, was in a glow of triumph.
Their way home led through woods. So much rain had fallen that the mossy bridle-path was scored with deep ruts full of water, and Dolly had to hold her skirt away from the black leaf-mould. [59] Rain-drops held in crumpled copper leaves shone gemlike, smooth young stems glistened; only the grey boles of the forest trees looked warm and dry. Dolly, herself like a russet leaf, harmonised with the woodland scenery, which seemed a frame made for her. ”

“ When Madana came to give place to Krishna, and the Madanotsaba came to be transformed into the Dol Jatra in Bengal, I am unable to say; but it was naturally to be expected that the god whose worship came to be the most popular in the country, and the memory of whose amorous achievements better fitted him to represent love and loose morals than Madana himself, should supplant the latter in popular festivals.
Take, again, the festivals in honour of Lakshmi. Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity ”

“ FIRESIDE SAINTS ST DOLLY At an early age St Dolly showed the sweetness of her nature by her tender love for her widowed father, a baker, dwelling at Pie Corner, with a large family of little children. It chanced that with bad harvests bread became so dear that, of course, bakers were ruined by high prices. The miller fell upon Dolly’s father, and swept the shop with his golden thumb. Not a bed was left for the baker or his little ones. St Dolly slept upon a flour sack, having prayed that good angels would help her to help her father. ”

“ So the weeks drew into months and Dolly herself was a phantom to my memory. By day the mechanism of our lives moved in the accustomed grooves; by night we were wandering birds of passage flitting dismally over waste places. ”

“ No one can picture to themselves a more picturesque situation than that of Dolgelly:—an enclosed vale, encircled with the craggy and subject mountains of Cader Idris, forming an amphitheatre,—watered by the Alpine torrent of the Maw,—and richly clothed with wood. ”

“ Dolly looks frightened, sees him off, goes up to writing-desk, takes out bills, looks at them, throws up her arms in despair, groans, slams down the writing-desk, looks at the chair she has touched in first act, shows great resolution, marches up and touches it. ”

“ No better time could be for seeing the utmost beauty of the flowers; and Dolly wandered in what was to her a wilderness of an enchanted land. Breakfast was forgotten; and young St. Leger was so charmed with this perfectly fresh, simple, and lively nature, that he for his part was willing to forget it indefinitely. Dolly's utter delight, and her intelligent, quick apprehension, the sparkle in her eye, the happy colour in her cheeks, made her to his fancy the rarest thing he had ever seen. ”

“ Between the bracelet and the letter, there was quite enough to do without thinking of anything else; and admiring each by turns, Dolly went on gaily.
As she passed through a wicket-gate to where the path was narrow, and lay between two hedges garnished here and there with trees, she heard a rustling close at hand, which brought her to a sudden stop. She listened. All was very quiet, and she went on again—not absolutely frightened, but a little quicker than before perhaps, and possibly not quite so much at her ease, for a check of that kind is startling. ”

“ Dolly stood at her open window looking out on the wooded hills opposite, feathered with their varied green, on the waving meadows with their buttercups and daisies, on the old apple tree in the corner of the lot where the bobolink was tilting up and down, chattering and singing with all his might. She was thinking of what she had heard her father saying to her mother at breakfast: [291] how the sickness and death of one good woman had been blessed to all that neighborhood, and how a revival of religion was undoubtedly begun there. ”

“ Dolly was speaking again, and the soft cadences of her voice put his shameful memories to flight as she pointed to an opening between the trees of the wood on the right, "you can see your partner's house from here. He has had it repainted. It is a beautiful old place, isn't it?" ”

“ It was probably only kindness, but Dolly suddenly turned her eyes away from me and fixed them on the fire; she took the fan up again and twirled it in her hand; a queer little smile bent her lips.
'I hope the poor man won't die,' said Dolly in a low voice. ”

“ George became red, and began to stammer an apology.
'Oh, I don't believe him,' said Dolly, kindly; 'he always makes people uncomfortable if he can. What were you telling him, Mr. George?'
'It's no use telling him anything. He can't understand,' said George.
'Is she very——?' asked Dolly, fixing doubtfully grave eyes on my young cousin.
'Sam's seen her,' said he, in an excess of shyness. ”

“ Season festivals, as the Dol Jatra and the three other full-moon festivals. Agricultural festivals, which are in honour of Lakshmi, the Hindu Ceres. Mythological festivals, like the Kali Puja and the Jugaddhatri, which appear to be the most modern of all. Lastly, festivals which apparently owe their origin to the popular dread of some physical agent of mischief, as the Manasa festival, celebrated to propitiate snakes. In the whole range of Hindu festivals, I have been unable to trace any to a historical origin. ”

“ So there is a summer festival, the Phul-dol, celebrated on a full-moon night in summer; and there is a rainy season festival, the Jhulan, falling on a full-moon night in the rainy season. All these four festivals were probably in their origin festivals merely in honour of the respective seasons, and had no necessary connexion with religion. They are now all religious festivals in honour of Krishna. It is to be observed, also, that there are these Mi-moon festivals for only four of the six seasons into which Hindus divide the year. There are none for the two divisions of the cold season. ”

“ Dolly kissed the kitten and went on, "About you and Dulcie Mildmay."
"That's very ancient history," said I, rather disgusted.
"You admit it is history, though?"
"History is what women have agreed to repeat, Lady Mickleham."
"Oh, if you're going to take it like that! I thought we were friends—and——"
"There is no greater mark of friendship," I observed, "than a complete absence of interest in one's doings."
"An absence of interest?" smiled Dolly, re-tying the kitten's bow in a meditative way.
"It makes the heart grow fonder (not, of course, that that's always desirable) . ”