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diff --git a/42495-0.txt b/42495-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59a652a --- /dev/null +++ b/42495-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1567 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42495 *** + +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_ and bold text by =equal + signs=. + + + + + [Illustration] + + + + + _Beautiful Britain_ + + _The Channel Islands_ + + _By_ + _Joseph E. Morris B.A._ + + + _London Adam & Charles Black_ + _Soho Square W_ + _1911_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. JERSEY 5 + + II. GUERNSEY 32 + + III. ALDERNEY, SARK, AND THE LESSER ISLANDS 53 + + INDEX 63 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + 1. ST. PETER PORT, GUERNSEY _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + + 2. THE CASQUET ROCKS AND LIGHTHOUSE 9 + + 3. MONT ORGUEIL CASTLE, JERSEY 16 + + 4. LA CORBIÈRE LIGHTHOUSE, JERSEY 25 + + 5. THE NEEDLE ROCK, GRÈVE AU LANÇON, JERSEY 27 + + 6. THE PEA STACKS, JERBOURG, GUERNSEY 30 + + 7. MOULIN HUET, GUERNSEY 32 + + 8. HERM AND JETHOU FROM GUERNSEY 43 + + 9. A FIELD OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN GUERNSEY 46 + + 10. THE COUPÉE, SARK 49 + + 11. THE SISTER ROCKS, ALDERNEY 56 + + 12. NOIRMONT POINT, JERSEY _On the cover_ + + + + +THE CHANNEL ISLANDS + + + + +CHAPTER I + +JERSEY + + +If on a fine day we take our stand on one of the terraces, or +battlements, of Mont Orgueil Castle--and there is hardly a pleasanter +spot in Jersey in which to idle away a sunny summer afternoon--we +shall realize more completely than geography books can tell us that +the Channel Islands really constitute the last remnants of the ancient +Norman dukedom that still belong to the English Crown. For there, +across the water, not more than twenty miles away, and stretching from +north of Carteret far southwards towards Granville and Mont St. +Michel, is the long white line of the Norman coast itself--on a clear +day it is even possible to make out the tall, twin spires of +Coutances, half a dozen miles inland, crowning, like Lincoln or Ely, +their far-seen hill. No part of France, it is true, approaches so +closely to Jersey as Cap de la Hague (the extreme north-west point of +the Cotentin) approaches to the north-east corner of Alderney. Still, +under certain atmospheric conditions--such, for example, as Wordsworth +experienced when he wrote his fine sonnet headed _Near Dover, +September, 1802_--the "span of waters"--hardly greater than the +Straits of Dover themselves--really seems almost to shrink to the +dimensions of "a lake or river bright and fair." Contrast with this +proximity the long stretches of open sea that separate these islands +from Weymouth or Southampton, and we begin to realize how, physically +at any rate, Jersey is more properly France than England: + + Elle est pour nous la France, et, dans son lit des fleurs, + Elle en a le sourire et quelquefois les pleurs. + +The impression thus gained is hardly diminished when we quit our lofty +watch-tower and descend to the plain. The Channel Islands are +doubtless destined in the end to be wholly anglicized, but the process +is one of imperceptible transition. A curious French patois, that is +really the last relics of the ancient Norman speech, is still the +common language of the people. "It is probably," says Mr. Bicknell, +in his charming _Little Guide_, "the nearest approach now extant to +the French spoken at the time of the Norman Conquest by the Normans in +England." French is also the language used commonly in the country +churches; and it is strange to follow the familiar English liturgy +rendered thus in a foreign tongue. The Channel Islands, though +jealously retaining their ancient independence, and as separate in +many respects from England as are Canada and Australia, are yet +integrally part of the established English Church. The Reformation +freed them from the yoke of Coutances only to subject them to the yoke +of Winchester. French, too, or rather Norman, is the curious "Clameur +de Haro" that plays so strange a part in the ancient island law. This +is the regular machinery, in actions connected with real estate, to +maintain the existing _status in quo_ till the action can be fought +out at length; and in Jersey is set in motion by the plaintiff +himself, whereas in England it is necessary to invoke the Courts of +Law. "At the disputed place the aggrieved person, in the presence of +two witnesses, orders the aggressor or his agent to desist by +exclaiming: 'Haro! Haro! Haro! A l'aide, mon Prince, on me fait +tort.' After this he denounces the aggressor by exclaiming: 'Je vous +ordonne de quitter cet ouvrage'; upon which, unless he desist +instantly, he is liable to be punished for breach of the King's +authority, the property being supposed to be under the King's special +protection from the moment the 'cry' is made." Afterwards the action +is tried; and, of course, if it prove that the complainant has invoked +the "haro" wrongly (the word is said by some to be derived from the +Frankish "haran," to cry out, or shout; but by others to be a +corrupted form of "Ah Rollo"--the first Norman Duke--or "Ah Rou"--Oh +my King), he is liable to be fined by the court. It is sometimes said +that this strange process was in constant use in Normandy long before +the arrival of Rollo and his fierce followers from the North. + + [Illustration: THE CASQUET ROCKS AND LIGHTHOUSE. + This group of rocks lies N.N.E. of Guernsey, and is passed by the + steamers which serve the islands from England.] + +French, again, is the architecture of the churches, that in some ways +has no parallel in England. French, in many particulars, is the aspect +of the towns, whose long rows of whitewashed houses, with their +never-ending sun-blinds, testify to a warmth and sunlight too +conspicuously rare in England. Actually French are many of the faces +that one encounters in the streets or on the quays. The Channel +Islands of late years have become a favourite touring-ground for +summer visitors from France, who so seldom venture to cross the +Channel to explore the beauties of England itself. The admirable +little _Guides Joanne_ now include a volume on the _Iles Anglaises de +la Manche_. It is amusing, however, to read in this work that in one +respect at least Jersey is still definitely English. "L'observation +stricte du dimanche règne à Saint-Hélier comme en Angleterre. La ville +déserte, avec ses boutiques fermées, offre un silence sépulchral." But +the closed shops, if not the sepulchral silence, are now becoming +common in France itself. + +Mont Orgueil, where we stand, is not a bad starting-point from which +to commence our exploration of Jersey. Happy, indeed, the visitor who +arrives at this little port from France--and the steamer comes from +Carteret in little more than an hour. Most English tourists, on the +other hand, make Jersey first at St. Helier, which happens to be a +town of considerable dulness, and compares very badly with St. Peter +Port, in Guernsey. Mont Orgueil, however, may be reached at once from +St. Helier by one of the two strange little railways that traverse the +south coast of the island. The traveller should quit the train at the +previous station of Gorey Village, and walk thence across Gorey Common +to the Castle. This last, placed bravely on its boss of rugged rock, +grows more and more impressive the nearer we approach it. Superb in +situation, and unusually picturesque, this "hill of pride" has yet few +features of real architectural interest. Parts of it date from about +the end of the twelfth century, and the archæologist, of course, will +gather "sermons" from every stone of it. But the ordinary sight-seer +will be best delighted with the picturesque approach up long flights +of steps past successive gateways; with the beautiful views of land +and sea to be got from its towers; and, best of all, by the general +view of the castle itself, dominating the little harbour that crouches +below its walls. The structure is built of a soft-red granite, that is +very pleasant to look on, and not least so in spring, when its broken +walls are beautifully variegated with a thousand brilliantly orange +wallflowers. One is reminded for a moment of the famous verse-- + + A rose-red city, half as old as time-- + +which is said to have won the Newdigate prize for Dean Burgon's poem +on _Petra_. Nor is Mont Orgueil by any means lacking in tragic +"foot-notes" to history. William Prynne had been condemned to lifelong +imprisonment by the Star Chamber in 1634, and to lose both his ears in +the pillory. Two years previously he had published his _Histriomastix_, +"a volume of over a thousand pages," in which he had upheld, with many +ancient and modern instances, the immorality of the drama and of +play-acting. Unfortunately, at about this time Henrietta Maria had +herself taken part in some private theatricals, and a certain passage +in the index, "reflecting on the character of female actors in +general, was construed as an aspersion on the Queen." For this, and +other offences, he received the savage sentence, which was carried +into execution with unrelenting cruelty. At first he was imprisoned in +the Tower; but three years later (having in the meanwhile been found +guilty of another "seditious libel," and branded on both cheeks) he +was removed, first to Carnarvon Castle, and afterwards to Mont +Orgueil. With the meeting of the Long Parliament, in 1640, Prynne was +immediately set at liberty. In Jersey he had occupied an enforced and +tedious leisure by indulging a propensity for verse-making. His +_Mount Orgueil, or Divine and Profitable Meditations_, was +published in 1641; and _A Pleasant Purge for a Roman Catholic_ in +1642; "Rhyme," says Mr. C. H. Firth, in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_, "is the only poetical characteristic they possess." A line +or two may be quoted from _Mount Orgueil_ as a sample: + + _Mount Orgueil Castle_ is a lofty pile, + Within the Easterne parts of _Jersy Isle_, + Seated upon _a Rocke_, full large and high, + Close by the Sea-shore, next to Normandie. + +The poet then goes on to tell us how this stronghold is sometimes +assaulted--but assaulted to no purpose--by sea and wind, "two +boystrous foes": + + For why this fort is built upon a _Rocke, + And so by Christs owne verdict free from shocke + Of floods and winds; which on it oft may beate, + Yet never shake it_, but themselves defeate. + +Less than a decade later and the walls of Mont Orgueil witnessed still +blacker tragedy. The quarrel of the Bandinels and the Carterets is an +ugly page of history that almost recalls in its unrelenting ferocity +some of the worst clan "vendettas" of the Highlands. The trouble +began, apparently, with the action of Sir Philip de Carteret, when +Governor of Jersey, in attempting to deprive David Bandinel--the +writer does not know the rights and wrongs of the quarrel--of part of +his tithes as Dean of the island. Shortly after this the Civil War +began in England, and the Channel Islands were immediately plunged +into internecine strife. Philip de Carteret was leader of the +Royalists, while Bandinel espoused the cause of the Parliament. The +latter at first was triumphant, and Carteret and his wife, Elizabeth, +were respectively besieged by the Parliamentary troops, the one in +Elizabeth Castle, and the other in Mont Orgueil. Carteret was not +quite sixty years old, but the severities of the siege were too great +for him. There were wrongs, no doubt, on both sides; but the Puritans +seem certainly to have acted on occasion with a surly lack of +generosity that goes far to atone for the brutal persecution by the +Royalist party of a man like Prynne. In 1644, when Colonel Morris was +besieged in Pontefract, we read in the diary of Nathan Drake that "the +enemy basely stayed all wine from coming to the Castle for serving of +the Communion upon Easter Day, although Forbus (their Governor) had +graunted p'tection for the same, and one Browne of Wakefield said if +it was for our damnation we should have it, but not for our +Solvation." Similarly, in Jersey, the Parliamentary Committee, of whom +Dean Bandinel was one, refused the dying Sir Philip the last +consolations of religion, and even (according to some accounts) the +presence of his wife. This, too, after an appeal so piteous as might +well have drawn + + iron tears down Pluto's cheek, + And made Hell grant what Love did seek. + +Send me Mr. La Cloche, implored the sick man, "to administer unto me +such comforts as are necessary and usual in these extremities, and +that you would permitt my poor wife to come unto me, to doe me that +last duty, as to close my eyes. The Lord forgive you, as I doe forgive +you all." One is glad to read, however, in the _Dictionary of National +Biography_, that Lady Carteret was in fact allowed to visit her +husband, though almost at his very last gasp. "When the flooring of +[St. Ouen's] church was altered 229 years afterwards, the body of Sir +Philip enclosed in a leaden shell was uncovered, when it was found by +the late Francis Le Maistre to be as white as wax, to have suffered +very little decay, and to measure 6 feet 4 inches." + +Presently the "jade Fortune" changed her favours, and the island was +recovered for the King by Sir George Carteret, nephew and son-in-law +to its former Governor. Dean Bandinel and his son James, the Rector of +St. Mary's, were immediately clapped into prison in Mont Orgueil +Castle, in the same cell that had formerly been occupied by Prynne. It +does not appear that they were treated harshly, but Sir George was a +man of cruel severity, and it may well be that they dreaded his +further resentment. Anyhow, father and son resolved on a romantic +escape. At about three o'clock in the morning, on the stormy night of +February 10, 1644, they attempted to lower themselves from the window +of their cell by a rope made of knotted napkins, sheets, and pieces of +cord. "It is improbable that they had reconnoitred this place in the +daytime," says Durell, "for had they been aware of the great +elevation, they would never have made the attempt, as long as they +were in their senses." Durell wrote in 1837, when the Tour de Mont +(completed by Henry Paulet in 1553) was in existence for the whole of +its height. This is said to have been 200 feet high, and the place of +imprisonment of the Bandinels was immediately under its battlements. +The building was supposed to be dangerous, and is now pulled down to +its basement. Anyhow, when James Bandinel came to the bottom of the +rope--he was the first to venture on the perilous descent--he found it +was much too short. He allowed himself to drop on the rocks below, and +was seriously hurt by the fall. His father, still less fortunate, was +only halfway down, when the flimsy rope parted in two. He was thus +dashed to the earth from a much greater height than his son, and was +found lying there next morning in a dying condition. The son, after +wrapping his insensible old father in his cloak, had attempted to make +good his own escape. He was caught, however, a few days later, and +conducted back in triumph to his cell. That same day the gates of Mont +Orgueil had been opened to allow his father's body to be taken to the +grave. David Bandinel was buried in St. Martin's Churchyard, two miles +to the north-west of Mont Orgueil by the Faldouet road. I have +searched for his grave on the east side of the churchyard, but there +seems now to be no memorial, and the hawthorn that once marked it has +vanished. It is said, however, to be in close proximity to the +tombstones of Lucy and Mary Roche Jackson. His wife and son were +afterwards laid by his side. + + [Illustration: MOUNT ORGUEIL CASTLE, JERSEY. + The name, meaning "Mount of Pride," is said to have been given to the + castle after Sir Reginald de Carteret's successful defence of it + against du Guesclin in 1374.] + +Mont Orgueil was unsuccessfully besieged by the French under the +leadership of the Duc de Bourbon and the great Bertrand du Guesclin, +Marshal of France (whose splendid tomb may still be seen in the north +chapel of St. Laurent, at Le Puy), in 1374. It was in honour of this +achievement that it received its present name from Thomas, Duke of +Clarence, and brother of Henry V. + +Looking southward from Mont Orgueil at low tide it is possible to +realize the extraordinary difficulties that attend the navigation of +the Jersey seas. The coast from this point to St. Aubin is flat, but +as far as eye can see the surface of the water is a vast archipelago +of broken rocks and reefs. Still farther out to sea is the hardly +submerged plateau of the Minquiers, with here and there a point that +just lifts above high water. There is a second stretch of low sandy +coast on the west of the island, at St. Ouen's Bay, guarded in its +turn by a second reef of rocks. Nor do these exhaust the possibilities +of coming to ruin on this iron coast. It is not without reason that +the steam-packets from England run in the daytime only in summer, +when the long light evenings give every opportunity of picking their +way through the narrow passages. The fate of the _Stella_ (on the +afternoon of Maunday Thursday, 1899), somewhere in the neighbourhood +of the terrible Casquets, is still too vivid in men's memories to need +re-telling. The exact point of striking is unknown. The _Stella_ +settled down in the afternoon mist, and no man has ever traced her, or +identified her grave in "the vast and wandering" main. + +Most that is best in Jersey is identified with its coast, except, +perhaps, for the archæologist, who will want to push a little inland, +to investigate the ancient churches of St. Mary, St. Lawrence, and St. +Peter. Inland, too, is the Prince's Tower, built on the Hougue-Hambye +in the eighteenth century. The mound is associated with a serpent +legend, that perhaps has points of contact with the well-known stories +of the Sockburn and Laidley "worms." The old chapel that adjoins it +was remodelled by Richard Mabon, Dean of Jersey, in 1525. He had +returned from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and constructed an +imitation of the Holy Sepulchre; just as Opice Adornes, a hundred +years earlier, had erected the Church of Jerusalem at Bruges. +Preserved in this now-deserted chapel is a font for the exact parallel +of which we shall look in vain in England, though analogous cases +occur in our country, and some precisely similar instances may be +found in France. Attached to the inside of the bowl is a smaller bowl, +which was probably meant to catch the drippings of the consecrated +water that ran off the baby's head. This is the ceremony demanded in +terms by the _Rituale Romanum_, as cited in Mr. F. Bond's beautiful +book on Fonts (p. 60): "Ne aqua ex infantis capite in fontem, sed vel +in sacrarium baptisterii prope ipsum fontem ex-structum defluat, aut +in aliquo vase ad hunc usum parato recepta, in ipsius baptisterii vel +in ecclesiæ sacrarium effundatur." Modern Roman Catholic fonts are now +often constructed in two separate partitions, and this is said to be +the origin of the plural _fonts baptismaux_, of such constant +occurrence in France. + +Most of the interest of Jersey, however, except its fields of giant +cabbage-stalks, and its green lanes of quaint little pollarded trees, +will probably be found on the sea-coast, or near it. Let us, from Mont +Orgueil, set our faces to the west, calling, on our way towards +modern St. Helier, at the two ancient parish churches of Grouville and +St. Clement's. In Grouville churchyard are buried seven soldiers who +fell in a skirmish with a detachment of the French who had been left +behind by Rullecourt, when he landed on this spot and advanced on St. +Helier on January 6, 1781. Grouville church itself has little +interest. Like other churches in the island, it is built of granite, +and has windows with good Flamboyant tracery, except where this last +has been cut away for the insertion of ugly "church-warden" sashes. It +possesses, however, in the south wall of the south chapel, a very +curious feature, the object of which is obscure. This is a niche on +the level of the floor, with a late segmental head, and with what +seems a broken cavity in the lower part at the back. I do not know +whether this was once used as an oven for baking the sacramental +wafer, such as those that are sometimes thought to have been found in +the Surrey churches of Limpsfield, Nutfield, and Dunsfold. St. +Clement's, a mile to the south, and lying off the direct road to St. +Helier, should be visited for the sake of its ancient wall-paintings. +One of these exhibits St. Michael; another St. Margaret of Antioch, +emerging from the body of the dragon, who had vainly tried to swallow +her; and another St. Barbara of Heliopolis, standing near her tower. +Still more interesting are the scanty relics of the "Trois Vifs" and +the "Trois Morts"--the legend of the three Kings, who, when hunting in +the forest, were suddenly confronted by three open graves, or by three +hideous skeletons. The classical instance of this morality is in the +Campo Santo at Pisa; and there is another fine example, in a kind of +vestry, on the south side of the great abbey-church of St. Riquier, +near Abbeville. It was altogether rather a favourite subject with +medieval, religious artists, not less than twenty-three examples being +recorded in England by Mr. Keyser, as well as one at Ste. Marie du +Chastel, in Guernsey. It must not be confounded with the parallel +"Dance of Death," of which there are only five recorded instances, in +addition to the one at old St. Paul's. There is still a grand example +of this last on the back of the north choir stalls, in the strange old +abbey-church of La Chaise Dieu, in Central France. + +St. Helier, we have hinted, is a somewhat tedious town; by which we +mean only that the place contains few objects of special interest, +and is a trifle too large and urban for so very small an island. No +doubt some of its aspects are agreeable enough. The parish church is a +restored building of small architectural interest, but contains the +grave of the gallant Major Pierson, who fell in Jersey, in 1781, in +the conflict with the French in the Royal Square. His adversary, +Rullecourt, who also perished, is buried on the north of the +churchyard. Rullecourt landed to the east of St. Helier during the +night of January 5, and took the town by a sudden assault. The +Governor, Major Moses Corbet, was captured in his bed; and was forced +to sign a capitulation, as well as an order to Major Pierson to +surrender the troops in his charge. Pierson, however, charged the +enemy in the Royal Square, where they had barricaded themselves, and +fell at the first assault. Undeterred by the loss of their leader, the +Jersey soldiers and militia-men continued fighting, and cleared the +French from the town. St. Helier possesses yet other claims to +historical distinction, in the mystery of James de la Cloche. This +last was the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II., and is known to +have been a Jerseyman. His story has recently attracted much +attention; and Mr. Andrew Lang, in his _Valet's Tragedy_, once even +went so far as to suggest that de la Cloche was "The Man with the Iron +Mask." This theory he afterwards abandoned; but it is still stoutly +maintained by Miss Edith Carey in her beautiful volume on the Channel +Islands. It is remarkable, indeed, that James de la Cloche disappears +finally from history after November 16, 1668, whilst "The Man with the +Iron Mask" makes his first appearance on the scene on July 19, 1669. +De la Cloche may also, when in London, have easily learned secrets +from his father, as to Romish plots, that imperilled the crown of +Charles II., and may well have caused anxiety to Louis XIV. "Doubts," +says Miss Carey, "may be cast on a theory which involves an apparently +affectionate father consigning his son to a living tomb, and a King of +France spending money and trouble to keep a King of England's secret. +But in reply it must be urged that Charles's conduct is consistent +with all we read in history respecting his cowardly selfishness. In +reply to complaints made to him of Lauderdale's cruelty in Scotland, +he said: 'I perceive that Lauderdale has been guilty of many bad +things against the people of Scotland, but I cannot find out that he +has acted against my interests.'" + +Charles' headquarters, when a boy in Jersey, were in Elizabeth Castle, +whither he was sent by his father for greater safety in 1646. Later in +the same year he left for Fontainebleau, but returned to the Channel +Islands in September, 1649. In the meanwhile the elder Charles had +perished on the scaffold at Whitehall; and Jersey, unlike Guernsey, +still loyalist to the core, was one of the few places--Pontefract +Castle, in Yorkshire, was another--where his son was immediately +proclaimed as King, on February 17, 1649. Elizabeth Castle itself is +another of those picturesque places of semi-insulation that are not +uncommon among historical sites--Holy Island, and the two Mounts St. +Michael, are other famous examples. At time of low water it is +picturesquely approached by a rough and rocky causeway across the +sands; but the building itself has been greatly altered, and presents +very little archæological interest. + +From St. Helier westward, round the half-moon curve of St. Aubin Bay, +past West Park, Millbrook, and Beaumont, is now largely a crescent of +continuous houses. St. Aubin's itself is a picturesque little +watering-place, with far greater natural advantages than its bigger +neighbour. Immediately to the south of the town begins at once the +fine, red line of granite cliffs, which, turning definitely westward +at Noirmont Point, continues, past Portelet and St. Brelade's Bays, to +the south-west corner of the island at Corbière Point. Portelet Bay is +a charming recess, with the rocky little Ile au Guerdain in its +centre. On the summit of this last is Janvrin's Tower. It is said that +Philippe Janvrin, returning home from Nantes, then desolated with +plague, was forced to undergo quarantine in this bay in 1721; and that +here the poor wretch died within actual sight of home, but without +ever exchanging a word with his wife and children. He was buried at +first in the Ile au Guerdain, but afterwards removed to St. Brelade's +churchyard. + + [Illustration: LA CORBIÈRE LIGHTHOUSE, JERSEY. + The white tower stands at the extremity of a particularly dangerous + reef.] + +St. Brelade's Bay, nearly two miles across, if we measure from Le Fret +to La Moye Point, is perhaps the most gracious on the Jersey coast. +The church has a very picturesque outline, with a saddle-backed tower +like that of St. Sampson's, in Guernsey. It was admirably restored a +few years ago, when the plaster was stripped from the vaulted roof +that is common to most old churches in the Channel Islands, and is +probably analogous to the vaulted roofs of the fortified churches of +Pembrokeshire. Mr. Bicknell, however, is wrong in saying that "the +interior walls ... look very dignified in their original condition." +Nothing is more certain than that medieval churches--at any rate in +cases where the walls are of rubble masonry--were plastered, and +commonly covered with wall-paintings. Such plastering and old +wall-painting may still be found at St. Brelade's in the Chapelle ès +Pécheurs, or Fishermen's Chapel, that remains in the parish +churchyard. These, according to Mr. Keyser, represent parts of two +Dooms or Final Judgments, Our Lord before Herod, an Annunciation, the +Assumption of the Virgin, and the Offering of the Magi. They probably +date from the fifteenth century, and the attendant makes them visible +by the simple expedient of throwing the light on them with a mirror. +The existence of this old chapel side by side with the parish +church--the same thing seems formerly to have happened at +Grouville--is a subject of curious inquiry. Chantrey chapels were +sometimes built in churchyards--there is still a fourteenth-century +example at Carew, in Pembrokeshire, and there was formerly one at +Newdigate, in Surrey--but these would be generally of later date; +whereas the Fishermen's Chapel is supposed to date from quite the +beginning of the twelfth century. In the grounds of the St. Brelade's +Hotel is an ancient cross of the kind that is stated by Mr. Bicknell +formerly to have "stood at nearly every place where four cross roads +met in the island." + + [Illustration: THE NEEDLE ROCK, GRÈVE AU LANÇON, JERSEY.] + +The walk across the south coast of Jersey, from Mont Orgueil to the +Corbière, taking the train for the four dull miles, where there is +nothing to see, between St. Helier and St. Aubin, will probably almost +exhaust, except for the archæologist of the Dry-as-Dust school, the +artificial attractions of the island of Jersey. Of course, there are +other antiquities to see: St. Ouen's Manor, for example, now recently +restored, and the ancient house of the Carterets; the cromlechs at +Gorey and the Coupéron; and the seven old churches that we have not +yet visited. But when we have seen the wall-paintings at St. Brelade's +and St. Clement's; have inspected Elizabeth Castle, and the curious +font at Prince's Tower; and, above all, have made every stick and +stone of Mont Orgueil our own treasured possession, it will be time +for most of us to turn our attention, less to the artificial +attractions of Jersey, than to its wonderful natural beauties. It is +lucky that these lie mostly on the north coast, which is well out of +reach of St. Helier. It would be sad indeed if this silent succession +of bays, stretching in stern sublimity from Grosnez Point to the long +useless breakwater on the south of Fliquet Bay, were infested with +tea-gardens, and boarding-houses, and villas. For this twelve miles of +coast is both wholly unspoilt, and one of the loveliest imaginable. +Brakes, no doubt, in the season, with their hordes of jolly trippers, +invade for a few hours the sacred silences of Grève de Lecq and Rozel +Bay. These, however, are limited to definite times and places; nor +will it be hard for the quiet lover of Nature to evade their unwelcome +gaieties. Every inch of this glorious stretch of coast should be +walked over, if possible; should often be revisited; and should be +lingered over lovingly. Where else have these rose-red cliffs a +counterpart, jutting out into the bluest, or most emerald, of seas, +and haunted by myriads of clanging sea-fowl, unless it be on the +borders of lost Lyonesse? Waters that rest on a granite bed are always +of amazing translucency-- + + Pleased to watch the waters sleep, + Round Iona green and deep-- + +and those that never rest round the igneous cliffs of Jersey are no +exception to this beautiful rule. Here and there, of course, the +explorer will come across some special point of interest, though the +coast, to be enjoyed at its best, must always be enjoyed as a whole. +At Grève de Lecq is a cave to visit which thoroughly entails some very +rough scrambling, and some rather giddy climbing up an almost vertical +cliff. Less than two miles to the east, as the crow flies--it adds to +the distance enormously to follow all the sinuosities of this deeply +indented coast--is the Creux-du-Vis, or Devil's Hole--one of those +strange, roofless caverns, connecting with the sea by a tunnel through +which the tide ebbs and flows, but set back some little distance from +the margin of the cliff, that are found again in Sark, in the Creux +Derrible and Pot. In many respects they resemble the famous +"pot-holes" that occur in the mountain limestone of the Craven +district in North-West Yorkshire, though their origin, it is clear, is +wholly different. Creux, of course, is connected with the French +_creuser_, to dig; and "derrible," which has nothing whatever to do +with "terrible," is an old Norman word, unknown to modern French, that +really expresses the same idea: "Cavité d'un rocher formée par un +éboulement de terre, attenant à un précipice." "Creux" is used again +of artificial cromlechs. East of the Creux-du-Vis is the Mouriers +Waterfall, where a little stream leaps down the rocks into the sea. +The path along the cliff is rather giddy, and those who take it must +remember that a slip may be followed by fatal consequences, like the +accident that happened to Mrs. Guille, in 1871, at the Gouffre, in +Guernsey. The steep grass slopes in spring are plentifully sprinkled +with the dainty yellow blossoms of the little wild narcissus. Beyond +Sorel Point comes suddenly the deep hollow of La Houle, guarded by +granite cliffs of sheer sublimity; and beyond this, in long +succession, round innumerable intervening points, come Mourier, and +Bonne Nuit, and Giffard, and Bouley, and Rozel, and Fliquet Bays. A +week may well be spent, and more than a week, in leisurely exploration +of this gloriously broken coast. Or the visitor who has less energy, +or is weary of much scrambling, may sit here day after day in the +sunshine, on promontory or cliff, watching the "blind wave" at its +never-ending business of "feeling round its ocean hall." There are +less pleasant ways than this of spending a summer holiday for those +whose brains are fagged by weeks of dull work in London. And always +across the water, far-seen on the dim horizon, are the faint grey +lines of the Cotentin, and the cliffs of fairy-like Sark. + + + + + [Illustration: THE PEA STACKS (TAS DE POIS), JERBOURG, GUERNSEY. + Isolated and wall-sided masses of rock of this type are typical of + the Channel Islands.] + + + + +CHAPTER II + +GUERNSEY + + +Jersey, with larger acreage and a bigger population, is content to +form a kingdom by itself; Guernsey is fain to ally itself with its +immediate neighbour, Sark, and even seek bonds of union with Alderney, +twenty miles away. The diversity maintained jealously in these little +islands, which an Englishman is too hastily accustomed to regard in a +lump, is complex and even amusing. Just a few trivial details must +suffice. In Guernsey the toad is altogether unknown, except for some +few stuffed specimens in the Guille-Allès Museum; whereas Jersey +exhibits an exaggerated species that is supposed to be quite peculiar +to itself. The mole, again, though common in Jersey and Alderney, is +unknown in Guernsey, though the last has a field-vole of its own. +Guernsey, in fact, is supposed to have become an island at least +14,000 years ago, whilst Jersey was torn asunder from France not +more than 3,000 years before Christ. Guernsey thus received only the +Continental fauna that flourished at the period of its final +insulation. All the islands, like Iceland, are exempt from poisonous +snakes. In domestic animals, again, the distinction is strongly +marked. Jersey has a picturesque cow of its own, mottled white and +yellow, placid, and rather big. Guernsey, on the other hand, has a +smaller breed of cattle, much more wiry in movement, and a kind of +tawny red. Beasts from Guernsey and Alderney are allowed to +inter-breed, but the Jersey cattle are looked on as undesirable +aliens, and sternly prohibited from the sister State. In all three +instances the cattle are tethered when at pasture, as happens also in +some parts of France. The animal, thus driven to forage in a circle, +perhaps crops the ground more closely than when free to range at will. + + [Illustration: MOULIN HUET, GUERNSEY. + A particularly attractive bay on the southern side of the island.] + +Guernsey, whatever were its merits half-a-hundred years ago, will now, +perhaps, be found the dullest of the Channel Islands. Owing to the +frenzy for intensive cultivation, the inland parts of the island are +now literally covered with glass. Acre after acre of ugly rows of +hothouses have displaced over most of the interior what once were +pleasant fields. Attached to each such settlement is an ugly concrete +house, and each has a skeleton iron windmill, for pumping up water, +that completes the repellent aspect of the scene. The writer has +travelled over most of the island on foot to explore its twelve old +churches, and investigate its coast. Frankly, he is driven to put on +record that he found it a dismal task. Features, of course, remain of +interest and beauty, if one is willing to walk about in blinkers, and +seldom raise one's eyes above the ground. The old, granite-built +farmhouses, standing back, as a rule, but a little from the road, are +uncommon, and extremely picturesque. Inland Guernsey, again, possesses +one single glory that is almost unknown in Jersey. Everywhere in the +island, commencing even with the very suburbs of St. Peter Port +itself, the low, green, sod walls that divide the little fields are +covered with millions of saffron primroses. Such a wealth of primroses +I have never seen elsewhere--not even in the remotest lanes of the +Surrey or Sussex Wealds. How the primrose has survived in such +excessive fertility, with so huge a population, and with such bitter +cultivation, is a problem easily stated, but not very easily solved. +Whether it is likely long to survive is a question one fears to ask. +In Sark, again, the primrose--though here it is no marvel--carpets the +ground like daisies on a "wet bird-haunted English lawn"; like +daisies, too, in Switzerland, the stalks of the Sark primrose grow to +remarkable length. But as soon as we cross to Jersey--and when the +writer noted this strong contrast, he crossed directly from Guernsey +to Jersey, and almost directly from Jersey to Sark--the primrose is +seen no more by thousands in the hedge-side. The only spot where I +have noticed it growing in profusion in the larger island was on the +prehistoric "hougue" at Prince's Tower. + +Guernsey, however, though thus irritatingly spoilt in its +interior--for the visitor comes to see beautiful scenery, and not to +assist at a horticultural triumph--still possesses in its south coast +a feature of distinction that neither recklessness nor greed of money +has so far been able to spoil. It also possesses in St. Peter Port a +capital so pleasant, and withal so picturesque, that it makes one +desiderate all the more keenly the beautiful environment in which it +was once set. Approaching this port in the early morning light, the +colour and grouping of the little town seem almost fantastically +correct. Surely this more resembles an imaginary sketch than a city +actually realized in this commonplace, workaday world. St. Peter's +Church, in the middle of the picture, has just the required outline, +and is set in just the right place. The tall, brown houses behind it, +with their mellow red roofs, are of just the right colour, and in just +the right number. The new church of St. Barnabas is just rightly +designed, and is built just exactly where it ought to be built. And +lastly, the wooded amphitheatre behind all, with its sprinkling of +white villas, is just neither more nor less than such a background +ought to be. A composition like this on the drop-scene of a theatre +would scarcely surprise us, but here we rub our eyes. We land; and the +cheerful anticipation of the sea-view is hardly hurt at all by contact +with actual fact. A pleasanter little town than this, or more full of +bustling happiness, is not readily conceived. Darker aspects no doubt +are there, but they do not obtrude on the casual view. + +Castle Cornet, immediately on our left as we approach the harbour, +holds much the same position to St. Peter Port as Elizabeth Castle +holds to St. Helier. Castle Cornet, indeed, is connected with the +mainland by a causeway; but as a building it is equally uninteresting. +In fact, the only object of antiquarian interest in St. Peter Port is +the old parish church, so conspicuous on the quay. This has a central +tower, with a good leaded spire, that is luckily not twisted like the +leaded spire at Chesterfield. At the side is a small cote for the +sanctus bell, exactly as at Barnstaple, in Devonshire. More frequently +these cotes were placed on the east gable of the nave, whilst at +Oxenton, in Gloucestershire, the sanctus bell swings to the present +day in a curious little opening high up on the south face of the +fifteenth-century tower. It is possible, too, or even probable, that +the curious "low-side" windows--once absurdly called "leper +windows"--which generally occur, when they occur at all, towards the +south-west corner of the chancel, were used to enable the sanctus bell +to be rung through their opening by hand. On the ringing of this bell +the passer-by would bow his head in reverential awe, just as the +peasants in Millet's picture bow their heads at the ringing of the +Angelus. Inside, the chief feature of St. Peter's Church is the +strangeness of the nave arcades, the arches of which spring from +piers that are only two or three feet high. Notice also the Flamboyant +tracery of the windows, so typical of the Channel Islands, and the +very striking piscina in the south aisle of the choir. + +Historically the chief interest of Guernsey is comparatively recent, +and centres round the residence here of Victor Hugo. After the _Coup +d'État_ Hugo settled first in Jersey, where he occupied a house in +Marine Terrace. But the English Government, which maintained friendly +relations with the new French Imperialism, pleased him little better +than that of his native land. His conduct, indeed, was as wantonly +tactless as that of an earlier fellow-poet. If Shelley flaunted his +tract on the _Necessity of Atheism_ in the face of grave clerical dons +at Oxford, Hugo and his comrades were equally reckless when they +imagined that _la justice_ or _la verité_ were wronged. "Encore un +pas," cried this enthusiast bravely, "et l'Angleterre sera une annexe +de l'Empire français, et Jersey un canton de l'arrondissement de +Coutances." The occasion of this outbreak was the banishment of three +of his compatriots from the island in 1855. "Et maintenant," thundered +the poet in retort, "expulsez nous." Whether he intended it or not, +he was taken at his word. The protest was written on October 17, 1855, +and Friday, November 2, 1855, saw the expulsion of the whole band, 33, +who had signed the defiant document. Hugo at once removed to St. +Peter Port, and established himself there in Hauteville House. Here he +resided from 1855 to 1870, when Sedan rendered possible his return to +France, and the house still belongs to his family. To the Guernsey +visitor it is now a place of pious pilgrimage, not less than that +other old house, in Paris, in the charming Place des Vosges. Much of +the furniture and fittings remains almost exactly as he left them +fifty years ago, and much is of real historic interest. Thus a table +in the Red Dining-room once belonged to Charles II. of England; whilst +a fire-screen was worked by Madame Pompadour, and some bead-work +belonged to Queen Christina of Sweden. From the upper windows it is +possible to enjoy the same lovely view towards Sark, with Jethou and +Herm in the middle distance, that is got from all the upper parts of +St. Peter Port--as, for instance, from the grounds of the Priaulx +Library, or from the gardens of the Old Government House Hotel. + +It is pleasanter to picture Victor Hugo at Guernsey, writing here his +novel, _Les Travailleurs de la Mer_--the scene of which is laid at +Torteval, in the extreme south-west corner of the island--and always +looking longingly towards the invisible shores of France, than to +dwell on certain other episodes in the history of the island, which, +however disagreeable, cannot lightly be put aside. The tale of Bailiff +Gaultier de la Salle, though wholly misconceived, will not quickly be +displaced from its niche in island tradition. He is said to have +resided in the Ville au Roi, though it is hardly likely that the house +now pointed out as his is really as old as the fourteenth century. A +neighbour called Massey had an easement to draw water which took him +in front of the Bailiff's windows. Annoyed at this invasion of his +treasured privacy, Gaultier laid a trap to get rid of the intruder. +Doubtless he had read the old history of Joseph, and of the silver cup +that was hidden in the corn-sack of Benjamin. But Gaultier's intention +was far less kindly, and he concealed the two silver cups in Massey's +wheat-rick in order that Massey might be accused of their theft. Here +is some deep confusion in the story, for we should naturally have +expected that the discovery of the wine-cups would be made the +machinery for fixing the crime on the victim. Why else should the cups +be hidden in Massey's wheat-rick, when they might easily have been +hidden in some much surer place? Anyhow, the Bailiff, suborning +perjured evidence, fixed so black a case on Massey that the Judge +pronounced sentence of death. Then, at the last moment, there burst +into the court-house a witness who had found the cups that very +morning in taking down the rick. Whatever evidence had procured the +condemnation of Massey might well have seemed quadrupled by this new +and damning fact. But the inconsistent story makes the Bailiff exclaim +in anger: "Thou wretch, did I not tell thee not to touch that rick?" +Convicted thus by the words of his own mouth, the Bailiff was sent to +the self-same death as he had schemed for a fellow-citizen. The place +of his execution--an oblong recess in the wall, not unlike those in +which road-makers break stones--is still pointed out at the +"Friquet-au-Gibet"; and a rudely-scratched cross on the pavement near +at hand indicates the spot where the criminal received his last +Communion on the way to the gallows. Miss Edith Carey styles this +story "pure invention," and thinks that it "is probably derived from +a confused recollection of the doings and motives of the rival 'wicked +Bailiff' of Jersey, Hoste Nicolle." There was really, however, as Miss +Carey establishes, a Gaultier (Walter) de la Salle, who was condemned +to death in 1320 for having assisted in imprisoning a certain Ranulph +Gaultier in Castle Cornet, "and there wickedly killing him by various +tortures." + + [Illustration: HERM AND JETHOU FROM GUERNSEY. + These two little islands add greatly to the picturesqueness of the + scenery of the eastern shores of Guernsey.] + +Another dark picture, and unhappily more authentic, is the burning, +with attendant circumstances of extraordinary brutality, of three poor +heretic women, by order of Dean Amy and Bailiff Helier Gosselin, on +July 18, 1556. The mother, Katherine Cauches, was tied to a stake in +the middle, with a married daughter on either hand--Guillemine Gilbert +and Perotine Massey. An attempt was made to strangle them before the +faggots were lighted--a merciful privilege that was also extended to +women in executions for "petty treason"--but one of them, at least, +fell alive into the fire. This poor wretch, Perotine Massey, the wife +of a Protestant pastor, was delivered of a baby in the middle of the +flames. The child was rescued from the burning by a man called House, +but cast back again by order of the Bailiff. This repulsive +incident is preserved by Foxe, and is interwoven by Tennyson in _Queen +Mary_: + + Sir, in Guernsey, + I watch'd a woman burn; and in her agony, + The mother came upon her--a child was born-- + And, sir, they hurl'd it back into the fire. + +St. Peter Port is an admirable centre from which to visit every +quarter of the compact little island; but, indeed, as already +adumbrated, there is but little in Guernsey (except for the +antiquarian) that is really worth seeing outside its capital, except +the south coast. St. Sampson's may be visited for its picturesque +church, which is one of the oldest and most interesting on the island. +The road by which we gain it is so ugly--one continued line of +houses--that no one need hesitate to use the electric tram, which was +one of the earliest of its kind in the British dominions. It is hardly +worth while to get out on the way to visit the poor remains of Ivy +Castle: the situation of the ruins is unusually unpicturesque, and the +ruins themselves are uninteresting. Opposite St. Sampson's itself, +across the busy little harbour, is the rather better ruin of Vale +Castle. This would be exceedingly pleasant to look on, were it not +for the mammoth granite-quarries that pave the streets of +Westminster, but effectually disfigure what were once the charms of +Guernsey. The Castle itself, like Ivy Castle, is little more than a +shell; in fact, the latter has the additional credit of what is +possibly a chapel, with a rudely vaulted stone roof. Ivy Castle, +moreover, boasts at least authentic pedigree, having first been +built--if the date be really right--by Robert, Duke of Normandy, +before the Norman Conquest; whereas of the origin of Vale Castle +practically nothing is known. Its ancient title, Le Château de St. +Michel l'Archange, is perhaps responsible for the tradition that it +was built by monks from Mont St. Michel as a place of protection for +the neighbouring priory in case of a sudden invasion. From Vale +Castle, if we like, we may cross the island--here less than a couple +of miles broad--to Vale Church, built on the edge of what was once a +sea-creek, but has long since silted up, or been reclaimed. It is +pleasanter, however, to follow round the coast, past Bordeaux Harbour, +and across breezy L'Ancresse Common, especially as this takes us past +the L'Autel de Déhus, and the L'Autel des Vardes, the two finest +remaining dolmens in the Channel Islands. The finest of all is +supposed to have been that which was discovered behind St. Helier in +1785, and which was "unanimously voted" to the then Governor, Marshal +Conway, "in a moment of enthusiasm." The Marshal, unfortunately, in +another moment of enthusiasm, carried it off and re-erected it at his +country seat in Berkshire. These Channel Island dolmens are of wholly +different type from the familiar cromlechs of the mushroom pattern of +Kits Coty House, near Aylesford, or of Pentre Evan, in Pembrokeshire. +They are, in fact, considerable, stone-built, subterranean +burial-chambers, with traces in some instances of a long succession of +interments. The islanders call them "pouquelayes"; which is derived by +Miss Carey from either the Celtic _pwca_, a fairy, and _lies_, a +place, or from _pouq_, an excavation, and _lekh_, a stone. In this +connection it is interesting that they are supposed to be haunted by +fairies--one is called the Creux des Fées, and another the Roche à la +Fée--who are supposed to "bring ill-luck on those who interfere with +them, a fact which has saved many of them from the spoiler." "The +restorer, however," adds Mr. Bicknell dryly, "has unfortunately not +been idle, and the Little People do not appear to have found a +punishment to 'fit the crime' in this case." Unhappily the same must +be admitted in the case of the navvies employed on the harbour works +in Alderney, who "amused themselves by smashing up all the megaliths +that they could lay their hands on." Many of the relics from these +cist-vaens--bones and pottery--have found their way into the Lukis +Museum at St. Peter Port. + +Vale church itself, not far from the Grand Havre, and in a flat, +unlovely neighbourhood, is possibly the most interesting, +architecturally, in the island. The chancel arch should be noticed, +with its chevron ornament; the chancel, vaulted in two compartments (in +contrast with the rude, pointed vaults of most of the other churches); +the piscina in the aisle; and the wall arcade. Another striking +feature is the brackets for images on the columns of the arcade, +between the nave and its aisle. A series like this is uncommon; though +there is a group of churches in West Yorkshire--sometimes supposed to +have been built by the Tempest family--Kirkby Malham is the +finest--which has traces of canopied niches in the same position. The +finest single niche that the writer knows of this kind is on the +south side of the nave in the fine, fifteenth-century church of +Lechlade, in Gloucestershire. Towards the west end of the churchyard +is another tumble-down dolmen. Thus Christians of the twentieth +century are buried in the same soil that received the bones of their +neolithic ancestors no one knows how many thousands of years ago. + + [Illustration: A FIELD OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN GUERNSEY. + The climate encourages the growing of flowers, and the northern half + of the island is mostly devoted to this industry.] + +Though Vale is not uninteresting, it is with a feeling of relief that +one turns one's back on this north corner of the island that once +perhaps was so beautiful, but is now so hopelessly spoilt. The glory +of Guernsey, as already stated, is now wholly confined to its south +coast. Moulin Huet is a gracious bay, too well known from photographs +to need further description; whilst the little Saints Bay to the west +of it--a shrine within a shrine--is almost equally charming. Westward +from Icart Point, itself a splendid promontory, the coast sweeps round +in another great curve to La Moye Point; beyond which, again, to +Pleinmont, at the south-west corner of the island, the cliffs, though +everywhere deeply indented, continue, on the whole, a more uniform +direction. The great hollow between Icart and La Moye Points is +apparently nameless, unless it be Icart Bay. There is no authoritative +Ordnance map of the Channel Islands, to which one might adhere +whether right or wrong; and the best map of Guernsey with which I am +acquainted, in the late Mr. C. B. Black's guide-book, gives the name +Icart to the eastern recess of the great main bay, and Petit Bot and +Portelet to the two small recesses to the west of it. Anyhow, Petit +Bot is the most secret and intimate of the three, and entirely +picturesque with its disused mill and martello tower. This is one of +the points on the coast to which the chars-à-bancs descend from St. +Peter Port; and the drive down the glen by which we approach it is +delightful. The next calling point is Le Gouffre, just beyond La Moye +Point, which here runs out into the sea in long ribs of warm red +granite. Here the cars generally halt for a couple of hours, whilst +the tripper feasts on lobster in the pleasant little inn. The Gouffre +may be taken as roughly the centre of the grand seven miles of cliff +line of this splendid south coast. The section hence to the west is +less frequently explored, though the picturesque cave of the Creux +Mahie, again roughly halfway, is often paid a visit, and is well worth +visiting. Pleinmont and Torteval come into the "Toilers of the Deep"; +and this corner of the island, the farthest of all from St. Peter +Port, is luckily less injured than the rest. The north-west coast of +Guernsey, from Pleinmont Point to Vale, past the huge sweeping +hollows--some of them singularly symmetrical--of Rocquaine, Perelle, +Vazon, and Cobo Bays, is chiefly a matter of rocky beach and of slight +elevations shelving down in gentle declivity to the sea. The +glass-houses, moreover, which have languished much at Torteval, +flourish again in amazing vigour as we draw near Cobo Bay. There are +two points of interest, however, in this corner of the island that +justify even the dull, direct journey by which we approach them from +St. Peter Port. The first of these is the little Chapel of St. +Apolline, which is stated in all the guide-books, on documentary +evidence, to have been founded by Nicolas Henry in 1394, or +thereabouts. Even documentary evidence, in architectural matters, is +not always to be trusted. Only the day before writing these lines the +writer was re-visiting the Lady Chapel at St. Albans Cathedral, which +is said to have been built--again on documentary evidence--_circa_ +1310; though the Inventory lately published by the Royal Commission on +Historical Monuments adds cautiously: "The tracery of these windows +... is very advanced in character for the date." The tracery, indeed, +is so advanced, if the date be really right, as hopelessly to confuse +all previously held notions as to the systematic evolution of English +architecture. That the building was at any rate finished by this date +is altogether incredible. I notice that the late Lord Grimthorpe, in +his pugnacious little handbook, after setting out the evidence from +the Abbey Records, adds significantly, "but the style of the windows +suggests a much later date." And the case is much the same with this +Chapel of St. Apolline. On October 13, 1392, Nicolas Henry received +permission from the monastery of Mont St. Michel, in Normandy, to +alienate certain fields to provide an endowment for the Chapel of +Notre Dame de la Perelle, _which he had recently erected_; and in an +Act of the Royal Court, dated June 6, 1452, we come across the phrase, +"La Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Perelle appellée la Chapelle Sainte +Apolline." Certainly the identification seems complete. On the other +hand, the writer believes that no one visiting this chapel who has +previously read Professor Baldwin Brown's beautiful volume on Saxon +Architecture--and it so happened that the writer paid his first visit +to the Channel Islands almost immediately after its perusal--can fail +to detect in this building quite a number of _criteria_ that are there +set out as indicating, at any rate in England, a pre-Conquest era of +building. Unfortunately I have kept no note of these features, but the +impression then made on my mind is vivid. I may, of course, be wrong; +but it seems to me at least possible that we have here the solitary +survivor--far older than the Fishermen's Chapel at St. Brelade's in +Jersey--of those many chapels that are known to have been built in the +Channel Islands in the eighth and ninth centuries by the successors of +St. Magloire. + + [Illustration: THE COUPÉE, SARK. + A romantic and almost terrifying pathway among the precipitous rocks + of the island.] + +The other point of interest in the neighbourhood of L'Erée is the +rocky islet of Lihou, approached by a causeway across the sands, or +more properly the rocks, but only at low tide. Here are the scanty +fragments of the Priory and Chapel of Notre Dame de la Roche, +apparently a cell to the monastery of Mont St. Michel, which seems to +have had so much to do with the spiritual matters of the Channel +Islands. The tide at St. Michael's Mount is said to rush up across the +level sands more quickly than the fleetest horse can gallop, and +visitors to Lihou will be well advised to remember that here again +its onset is unexpected and swift. At L'Erée village is another +dolmen, the Creux des Fées, to which passing allusion has already been +made. St. Peter's Church in this neighbourhood--in full, St. Pierre du +Bois--is perhaps the handsomest, though not necessarily the most +interesting, of all the twelve churches in the island, and exhibits +some Flamboyant work of a very pleasing character. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +ALDERNEY, SARK, AND THE LESSER ISLANDS + + +Hitherto, in dealing with the two larger of the Channel Islands, we +have found their claims to natural beauty in their coasts. The +interior of Jersey is no doubt pleasant, with its lush-green valleys +running north and south, with its quiet little villages, and with its +never-ending potato-fields. The interior of Guernsey, on the other +hand, is frankly hideous, save here and there a cottage, or a +picturesque old farm, hidden in the folding of some safely secluded +dell. But in both cases alike the real distinction of the island is +limited to cliffs that for warmth of colour and strangeness of +contortion can surely be paralleled in Cornwall alone. Sark, on the +contrary, is almost wholly coast; the interior in comparison is a +negligible quantity! And almost as much may be said of Alderney. Both +these islands are exceedingly small--Sark being only a trifle more +than three miles in length, and about one and three-quarters of a mile +in breadth (measuring, not precisely from east to west, but at right +angles to the axis); and Alderney being about three and a half miles +in length, from north-east to south-west, and one and a quarter miles +in breadth. Alderney is undoubtedly the less beautiful of the two, and +is probably by far the least frequently visited of all the different +members of the Norman archipelago. The voyage from St. Peter Port, in +a very small boat, and made only two or three times in a week, is +dreaded, and not without reason, by those for whom rough seas have no +welcome. Alderney, again, is the least foreign of the Channel Islands +in local colour, though nearest France in situation; and here the old +Norman patois has been entirely replaced by English. It possesses in +its capital, St. Anne, a small, old-fashioned country town that is +wholly without parallel anywhere else in the islands. The harbour is +at Braye, a short mile north from the centre of the town; and the +visitor, in strong contrast with what happens at Sark, is landed in +the least romantic corner of the island. Of the old church nothing now +remains but a picturesque tower, and even this does not seem to be +mediæval. The new church was erected from designs by Sir Gilbert +Scott, and is, perhaps, the most striking modern building in the +Channel Islands. The interior of Alderney, or Aurigny, to use the +French form-- + + Her crew hath seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's isle-- + +is strongly individualized, and rather wild and remote. One feels at +once that this little island has a flavour of its own--a state of +things no longer felt among the villadom and glass-houses of Guernsey. +The strength of Alderney, however, lies chiefly in its west and south +coasts; no one would visit the island except to visit these, or unless +one happened to be an enthusiast for the world's neglected and +inaccessible spots. I do not know how far the barbarous quarrying that +was projected some six or seven years ago on the south side of the +island has since been carried out, or how far it has injured the +amenities of the coast. Anyhow, the Two Sisters, towards the +south-west corner of the island, are hardly to be rivalled in their +splintered grandeur, even in Jersey or Sark. + +To Sark we come at last in our long exploration of the Channel +Islands, and for Sark we may well be content to have waited patiently, +and to have wandered far. For this, by universal acclamation, is +certainly the gem of the whole group. Already we have often seen it in +the distance--a long, level line of cliff (save where broken by the +Coupée)--from the north coast of Jersey, or from the piers at St. +Peter Port. Now, as we approach it more closely, threading the narrow +strait between Herm and Jethou, and doubling the cliffs of Little Sark, +at the south corner of the island, this hitherto unbroken, monotonous +wall begins to resolve itself into an infinity of broken cliffs and +promontories, isolating and half concealing a thousand fairy-like +bays. Surely nowhere else is another coast like this--everywhere so +irregular in its general trend and outline--everywhere so deeply +bitten into by the mordant unrest of the sea. Sark, we have said +already, is little else than coast; and certainly it is the coast +which first arrests and charms us, and the coast which lingers last +and most clearly in our memory, when other impressions begin to be +obliterated, or vanish altogether in the steady lapse of years. Not a +yard of this gracious girdle of cliff is monotonous, or repeats +itself, or is even grim (as parts of the coast of Alderney are grim), +or is relatively less interesting, or less beautiful, or dull; +everywhere and always it is singularly lovely, and everywhere and +always at the same high pitch. There is really very little to be said +about Sark, except that the whole island is beautiful throughout: +there is nothing to be gained by giving a long catalogue of successive +promontories, caves, and bays. It was thus that Olivia made a schedule +of her beauty--"_item_, two lips indifferent red; _item_, two grey +eyes, with lids to them; _item_, one neck, one chin, and so +forth"--and at the end of the inventory we have no better picture of +the real Olivia than before she was thus appraised in detail. + + [Illustration: THE SISTER ROCKS, ALDERNEY. + This island is generally ignored by visitors to the group, but the + quaint little town of St. Anne and the fine rocks at the southern end + are quite worth seeing.] + +The history of Sark, for so small an island, is unusually interesting, +and in some respects instructive. It is set out by Miss Carey in an +interesting chapter, and some of its episodes may be summarized here. +Sark, like its sister islands, must have been occupied by neolithic +man, for the remains of two poor dolmens still exist in the island, +and formerly, no doubt, there were very many more. St. Magloire, in +the sixth century, built a chapel and founded a small monastery in +the island, but apparently he found it unpopulated when first he +arrived. In the middle of the fourteenth century the island was +inhabited by a crew of lawless wreckers, who were a menace to the +navigation of the whole Manche. The merchants of Rye and Winchelsea +then put their heads together, and agreed to do by subtlety what they +could not effect by force. Landing on Sark with an armed force must +well-nigh have been impossible, till Helier de Carteret cut his tunnel +through the rocks, when he colonized the island in the reign of Queen +Elizabeth. The merchants, accordingly, constructed a piece of strategy +that may well have been borrowed from the Trojan horse, but in that +case was certainly invested with much ingenious detail of its own. The +story is told by Sir Walter Raleigh in his _History of the World_, +though, as Miss Carey points out, he postdates the incident by some +200 years, and describes it as having occurred to the crew of a +Flemish ship. "Yet by the industry of a gentleman of the _Netherlands_ +[the island] was in this sort regained. He anchored in the Road with +one Ship, and, pretending the death of his Merchant, he besought the +_French_ that they might bury their Merchant in hallowed Ground, and +in the Chapel of that Isle.... Whereto (with Condition that they +should not come ashore with any Weapon, not so much as with a Knife), +the _French_ yielded. Then did the _Flemings_ put a coffin into their +Boat, not filled with a Dead Carcass, but with Swords, Targets, and +Harquebuzes. The French received them at their Landing, and, searching +everyone of them so narrowly as they could not hide a Penknife, gave +them leave to draw their Coffin up the Rocks with great difficulty.... +The Flemings on the Land, when they had carried their Coffin into the +Chapel, shut the Door to them, and, taking their Weapons out of the +Coffin, set upon the French." + +The final settlement of Sark--which the French call Serq--dates only +from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when Helier de Carteret established +himself on the then deserted island, and planted there forty families, +whom he brought from his native Jersey. He also built a church, and +instituted a Presbyterian Vicar, Cosmé Brevint--being himself a +Presbyterian--who continued to hold office till his death in 1576, +being one who spared, or flattered, no one, "great or small, in his +reprehensions." It is rightly said that the constitution of Sark is +still largely feudal in character. The land is parcelled out into the +original forty holdings, and some of these are said still to be held +by descendants of the original holders. The lord of the island is +still the Seigneur, though the lordship has passed from the hands of +the de Carterets--it is said that they were compelled to part with it +by reason of their lavish expenditure on the thankless Stuart cause. +In the so-called "Battery" at the back of the Manor-House is one of +the old guns that were given by Elizabeth to Helier de Carteret. It is +inscribed, "Don de Sa Majesté la Royne Elizabeth, au Seigneur de Serq, +A.D. 1572." + +Of the smaller islands of the Norman archipelago only a word or two +need be added here. Roughly halfway between Sark and Guernsey, and +separated from each other by a narrow passage that is difficult to +navigate by reason of its hidden rocks and surging tides, are the +small twin islands of Jethou and Herm. The latter is now occupied by a +German Prince, the great-grandson of the famous Prussian leader, the +exact place of whose meeting with Wellington after the field of +Waterloo--whether at Belle Alliance, or farther along the road towards +Genappe--has often been made the topic of historical discussion, and +is anyhow the subject of a well-known picture. Jethou is considerably +the smaller of the two, and is principally devoted to the purpose of a +rabbit-warren. In Herm are some remains of the old Chapel of St. +Tugual, incorporated with the outbuildings of the present manor-house. +Previous to 1770 Herm was inhabited by deer; and Mr. Bicknell tells us +that they "used to take advantage of the tide to swim over to the Vale +in Guernsey to feed, returning on the next tide." Certainly it is +lucky that there are now no deer in Herm, since they would not find +much pasture now at Vale. + +Jethou and Herm belong to Guernsey, and once, no doubt, were +physically parts of it. As seen from St. Peter Port, with Sark dimly +descried on the distant horizon, they still contribute largely to +Guernsey's most charming seascape. Alderney and Sark, again, have each +their attendant isle. Jersey alone, though the biggest of them all, is +a planet without a satellite. The islet peculiar to Sark is Brecqhou, +or the Ile des Marchants, which lies off its west coast, and is +separated from it by the narrow Gouliot Strait, only a few hundred +yards wide. Though measuring more than seventy acres, and possessed of +a small landing-place, it is at present as innocent of human +habitation as was Sark itself immediately before the coming of Helier +de Carteret. Burhou is situated at a considerably greater distance to +the north-west of Alderney, from which it is separated by the +never-resting Swinge. This is, perhaps, the least visited among all +the lesser islands, as is Alderney itself among the major four. + + + + +INDEX + + +_The principal reference is given first after names_ + + Alderney, 54, 32, 46, 53, 57, 61, 62 + + Architecture, 8 + + Amy, Dean, 42 + + + Bailiff Helier Gosselin, 42 + + Bandinel, David, Dean, 13-16 + + Bandinel, James, 16 + + Bandinels and Carterets, quarrel of, 121 + + Beaumont, 24 + + Blücher, Prince, 60 + + Bordeaux Harbour, 44 + + Braye, Alderney, 54 + + Brecqhou, 61 + + Burhou, 62 + + + Cabbage-stalks, giant, 19 + + Carteret, 5, 9 + + Carteret, Helier de, 58, 59, 60, 62 + + Carteret, Lady, 13, 14 + + Carteret, Sir George, 15 + + Carteret, Sir Philip de, 12, 13, 14 + + Castle Cornet, 36, 37, 42 + + Cattle, Guernsey, 33 + + Chantrey chapels, 26 + + Charles II., 22, 23, 24, 39 + + Christina, Queen of Sweden, 39 + + Civil War, the, 13 + + "Clameur de Haro," 7 + + Cloche, James de la, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II., 22 + + Cobo Bay, 49 + + Corbet, Major Moses, 22 + + Corbière Point, 25, 27 + + Coupée, the, Sark, 56 + + Coutances, 5, 7 + + Creux des Fées, 52, 45 + + Creux-du-Vis, or Devil's Hole, 29 + + Creux Mahie, 48 + + Cromlechs, see Dolmens + + + Dolmens, 27, 44, 45, 47, 52, 57 + + Du Guesclin, Bertrand, 17 + + + Elizabeth Castle, 24, 13, 26, 36 + + + Font at Prince's Tower, Jersey, 19 + + French language and patois, 6-7 + + + Gaultier de la Salle, Bailiff, 40, 42 + + Gaultier, Ranulph, 42 + + Gorey, 10 + + Gouffre, the, 30, 48 + + Gouliot Strait, 61 + + Granite quarries, 44 + + Grève de Lecq, 28, 29 + + Grouville, 26 + + Grouville, churches of, 20 + + Guernsey, 30-61 + + Guernsey, south coast of, 47 + + Guillemine, Gilbert, 42 + + + Hauteville House, 39 + + Henrietta Maria, Queen, 11 + + Heretic-burning in Guernsey, 42 + + Herm, 60, 61, 39 + + Hugo, Victor, 38, 39, 40 + + + Icart Bay, 47 + + Icart Point, 47 + + Ile de Guerdain, 25 + + Ile des Marchants, 61 + + Intensive cultivation, 33 + + "Iron Mask, Man with the," 23 + + Ivy Castle, 43, 44 + + + Janvrin's Tower, 25 + + Jersey, 5-31 + + Jersey churches, 18 + + Jersey, coast of, 28 + + Jersey cows, 33 + + Jethou, 61, 39, 60 + + + Kirkby Malham, 46 + + Kit's Coty House, 45 + + + L'Ancresse Common, 44 + + La Houle, 30 + + La Moye Point, 25, 47, 48 + + L'Erée, 51, 52 + + Le Fret Point, 25 + + Lihou, 51 + + Louis XIV., 23 + + Lukis Museum at St. Peter Port, 46 + + + Mabon, Richard, Dean of Jersey, 18 + + Massey, Perotine, 42 + + Millbrook, 24 + + Minquiers, 17 + + Mont Orgueil Castle, 5, 9-19, 27 + + Mont St. Michel, 5, 24, 44, 50, 51 + + Morris, Colonel, 13 + + Moulin Huet, Guernsey, 47 + + Mouriers Waterfall, 30 + + + Navigation of the Jersey Seas, 17 + + Noirmont Point and Bay, 25 + + Norman speech, relics of, 6, 54 + + + Old Government House Hotel, 39 + + Old Priaulx Library, 39 + + + Perelle Bay, 49 + + Petit Bot Bay, 48 + + Pierson, Major, 22 + + Pleinmont, 47, 48, 49 + + Pompadour, Mme., 39 + + Pontefract Castle, 13, 24 + + Portelet Bay (Guernsey), 48 + + Portelet Bay (Jersey), 25 + + Primroses in Guernsey and Sark, 34, 35 + + Prince's Tower, Jersey, 18, 27, 35 + + Priory of Notre Dame de la Roche, 51 + + Prynne, William, 11, 13, 15 + + + Raleigh, Sir W., 58 + + Robert, Duke of Normandy, 44 + + Roche à la Fée, 45 + + Rocquaine Bay, 49 + + Rozel, Jersey, 28, 30 + + Rullecourt, 20, 22 + + + Sacrament, refusal of, 14 + + St. Anne, Alderney, 54 + + St. Apolline Chapel, 49, 50 + + St. Aubin Bay, 24 + + St. Aubin's, 24 + + St. Brelade's Bay, 25 + + St. Brelade's Chapel, 26, 51 + + St. Brelade's Hotel, cross at, 27 + + St. Helier, 21, 9, 22, 24, 45 + + Ste. Marie du Chastel, 21 + + St. Ouen's Bay, 17 + + St. Ouen's Church, 14 + + St. Ouen's Manor, 27 + + St. Peter Port, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 43, 54, 61 + + St. Peter's Church, Guernsey, 52 + + St. Sampson's, Guernsey, 25, 43 + + St. Tugual, Chapel of, Herm, 61 + + Saints' Bay, 47 + + Sark, 31, 53-60 + + Sark, the Creux Derrible, 29 + + Sark, the Manor House, 60 + + Scott, Sir Gilbert, 55 + + Serpent legend, a, 18 + + Snakes, absence of, 33 + + Sorel Point, 30 + + Star Chamber, the, 11 + + _Stella_, loss of the, 18 + + Sunday in Jersey, 9 + + Swinge, the, 62 + + + Torteval, 40, 48, 49 + + + Vale Castle, 43, 44 + + Vale Church, 44, 46 + + Vazon Bay, 49 + + + Wall-paintings at St. Brelade's, 26 + + West Park, Jersey, 24 + + Wordsworth, Wm., 6 + + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD. + + + + +AGENTS + + =AMERICA= + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, NEW + YORK + + =AUSTRALASIA= + OXFORD UNIVERSITY + PRESS + 205 Flinders Lane, MELBOURNE + + =CANADA= + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + OF CANADA, LTD. + St. Martin's House, 70 Bond + Street, TORONTO + + =INDIA= + MACMILLAN & COMPANY, + LTD. + Macmillan Building, BOMBAY + 309 Bow Bazaar Street, CALCUTTA + + + PUBLISHED BY + ADAM & CHARLES BLACK + SOHO SQ., LONDON + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Channel Islands, by Joseph Morris + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42495 *** |