reason of his being represented as an archbishop
is curious. In 848 Nominoe, King of Brittany, determined to free his country from being Frenchified,
and he not only made it independent of the Frank
crown, but he also dismissed the Frank bishops from
the Breton sees, and filled their places with native
prelates. He also elevated the see of Dol into an
archbishopric over all the British-speaking races in
Armorica. Now it so happened that there had been
a Samson of York, but he was never more than a
priest, and he was quite a different man from
Samson, son of Amwn the Black, who settled at
Dol. However, because York was an archiepiscopal
see, and a Samson had once been there, it was supposed that he had been archbishop. Next he was
confounded with Samson of Dol, and it was pretended that he had resigned York and come to Dol
to set up his archiepiscopal see there. This served
quite well enough as an excuse for withdrawing Dol
and all the Breton bishoprics from allegiance to the
Metropolitan of Tours; and Dol was able to
maintain itself as a Breton archbishropic till 1172,
that is to say, for over three hundred years.
Near S. Samson, or Golant, is Castle Dor, a very early fortification, that was, in historic times, held by the Crown, and a castle erected on the spot to keep the Cornish in order.
Fowey itself lies near the river-mouth; it much resembles a miniature Dartmouth. Opposite the town opens the creek that runs to Lanteglos. There were and are two castles, as at Dartmouth, commanding the entrance to the harbour, but they are insignificant, and form no feature of the scenery.
