Guernsey Folk Lore a collection of popular superstitions, legendary tales, peculiar customs, proverbs, weather sayings, etc., of the people of that island

CHAPTER V.

Chapter 79,963 wordsPublic domain

Holy Chapels and Holy Wells.

“Thereby a crystal stream did gently play, Which from a sacred fount welled forth alway.”

--_Spenser._

“For to that holy wood is consecrate, A virtuous well about whose flowery banks The nimble-footed fairies dance their rounds By the pale moonshine, dipping often times Their stolen children, so to make them free From dying flesh and dull mortality.”

--_Fletcher’s “Faithful Shepherdess.”_

Though not strictly speaking “Folk-Lore,” the ancient priories and chapels of Guernsey are so closely connected with the holy wells that it may be as well here to give some details concerning them. It appears that these chapels must have been of more than one kind. Some were endowed, and had a priest permanently attached to them with probably a certain cure of souls. Others were most likely wayside oratories, where divine service was only performed occasionally by the rector of the parish, or someone acting under him, on certain anniversaries. Some may have been connected with religious guilds or fraternities.

To begin with those churches and chapels known to have been endowed, and which were probably--at least after the suppression of alien priories--under the patronage of the Crown.

A Commission was appointed in the reign of Henry VIII. for the purpose of ascertaining the value of all livings within the kingdom, with a view to the duty called first-fruits, owing on the appointment of every ecclesiastic to a benefice, being henceforth paid to the Crown. From this document we learn that besides the ten parochial churches there were four other benefices--the vicarage of Lihou worth five pounds sterling, that of St. Brioc worth twelve shillings, the chaplaincy of St. George worth sixty shillings, and that of “Our Lady Mares,” no doubt Notre Dame des Marais, worth three pounds.

The first of these four, Lihou, was originally a priory dependent on the Priory of St. Michel-du-Valle, which was of itself a dependency of the great Abbey of Mont St. Michel in Normandy. The Prior of Lihou had probably pastoral care of the district comprised in the Fief Lihou, extending along the coast called Perelle,[81] from L’Erée to Rocquaine Castle, where the district of St. Brioc begins. It also comprised certain possessions in the Castel parish and elsewhere, and its feudal court was held near the western porch of the Castel Church, a little northward of the path leading to it, where are still to be seen three flat stones, which mark the spot.

St. Brioc was situated in the valley leading from Torteval Church to Rocquaine. There is reason to suppose that it had a certain district allotted to it, but its limits are not now known.

St. George was only a chaplaincy, intimately connected with the Fief Le Comte, the court of which formerly assembled in the chapel, and still meets in its immediate vicinity. The earliest notice we have of this chapel is contained in the Bull of Pope Adrian IV., dated 1155. In the year following Dom Robert de Thorigny--or, as he is sometimes called, “Du Mont”--abbot of the famous monastery of Mont St. Michel, visited this island, and found one Guillaume Gavin established at St. George as chaplain: he was anxious to retire from the world, and, at his request, the abbot admitted him into his community as a monk, and appointed Godefroy Vivier to succeed him as chaplain at St. George. After some time Vivier followed the example of his predecessor, and took the frock at Mont Saint Michel, having previously made over certain lands which he possessed in the neighbourhood of St. George to the abbey which afforded him shelter.

In 1408 the chaplain was Dom Toulley, who obtained an order from the Royal Court prohibiting any one from trespassing on the road leading to the chapel, it being reserved exclusively for persons attending divine service, or sick people visiting the fountain, the small coin left as an offering at the well being doubtless a perquisite belonging to the chaplain.

This chapel was originally endowed with some lands or rents, probably with the territory still known as Le Fief de la Chapelle, which is one of the many dependencies of the Fief Le Comte.

After the Reformation St. George became in some way the property of the de Jersey family,[82] and by the marriage of Marie de Jersey, an heiress, to Jacques Guille, which took place about the middle of the seventeenth century, it passed into the possession of the latter family, by whom it is still held. This Marie de Jersey made a gift of the chapel to the inhabitants of the Castel in about 1675 to serve as a school house. A more convenient building was erected in 1736 on the site of an old mill, and endowed with nine quarters of wheat rente by Marie de Sausmarez, widow of Mr. William Le Marchant, and the chapel ceased to be used as a school house. Bickerings as to rights of way across the estate, under the pretence that there was a thoroughfare leading to a public building, ensued, even after the removal of the school; so finally Mr. Guille ordered the chapel to be demolished, and only a few ruins are now left.

The Chapel of “Our Lady Mares”--Notre Dame des Marais--is thus mentioned in the Extente of Edward III., “Nostre Sire le Roy n’a rien des vacations des eglises et chapelles, fors la Chapelle de Nostre Dame des Maresqs qui vaut XXX lbts en laquelle iceluy Roy doit présenter en tems de la vacation, et l’Evesque de Coutance en a l’institution.” The chaplain then in possession, 1331, was Robert de Hadis.[83]

The other churches and chapels were not at this time in the gift of the Crown, but belonged to alien monasteries, Marmoutiers, Mont St. Michel, and Blanchelande. The chapel itself was, there is very little doubt, situated within the precincts of Le Château des Marais, now better known as Ivy Castle, and the Livres de Perchage of the Town parish of the time of Elizabeth and James I. mention certain fields in the vicinity as belonging to it.

The Hospice and Chapel of St. Julien was situated at the bottom of the Truchot, in the district called Le Bosq, close to the sea-shore. There are many “St. Julians” in the calendar, one of them being considered the special patron of travellers. In the title of his Legende MS. Bodleian, 1596, fol. 4, he is called “St. Julian the Gode herberjoue.” It ends thus:--

“Therefore, yet to this day, thei that over lond wende Thei biddeth Saint Julian anon that gode herborw he hem sende.”

Chaucer had the familiar attribute of St. Julian before him when he described his “Francklyn” or country gentleman:--

“An householder, and that a grete, was he: Saint Julian he was in his own contré.”

The rock on which travellers to the island used to land, now the foundation of the harbour, was “La Roche St. Julien,” and probably the hospital, being situated near a landing place, was intended as a refuge for travellers, and therefore dedicated to him. This chapel was founded in the year 1361, the thirty-fifth of the reign of Edward III., at the time when Sir John Maltravers was Governor of the islands. The founder was a certain Petrus de St. Petro, or Pierre de St. Peye, as we find it written in French. Permission was granted him by the Crown to found the said hospital or alms house for a master, brethren and sisters, in a certain spot near _Bowes_ (Le Bosq,--this word was evidently Boués, Bois, a wood, with which the word Bouët is also identical), in the parish of St. Peter Port, and to endow it with twenty vergées of land and eighty quarters of wheat rent, out of which certain dues were to be paid to the King. “La Petite École,” or parish school, which has from time immemorial been situated in this vicinity, was originally connected with St. Julian. It is generally believed that the school was founded in 1513 by Thomas Le Marchant and Jannette Thelry, his wife.

At the Reformation the chapel and hospital were suppressed, and its revenues and possessions seized by the Crown. The parishioners of St. Peter Port complained to the Royal Commissioners of 1607 of the alienation of this property, which they looked upon as belonging to the parish, but their complaint was not attended to. In the early part of the century there were the remains of an old house, in a late debased Gothic style of the fifteenth century, standing at the bottom of Bosq Lane, which used to be looked upon as the remains of a conventual building. The house in question was a residence of a branch of the de Beauvoir family, whose arms were carved in stone over the principal entrance. The stones forming this entrance were preserved, and are now in the ruins of the Chapel of St. George.

With the exception of the Franciscan Friary, there is no proof of any conventual establishments in the island, though tradition points to La Haye-du-Puits as being the site of an old convent. Doubtless in early times, and before the English had lost Normandy, the great monasteries which held lands in Guernsey may have had priories here. Mont St. Michel we know had the Priory of St. Michel du Valle, and there is some reason to believe that Blanchelande also had some establishment of the kind in the island. How the Abbeys of Marmoutier, La Rue Frairie, Croix St. Lenfroy and Caen, all of which had possessions in the island, managed them, we have no means of knowing, though it was most likely by the machinery of a feudal court.

We will now speak of the Priories of St. Michel du Valle and Notre Dame de Lihou.

A tradition, which may be traced up to the time of Edward II., says that certain monks, driven from Mont St. Michel for their dissolute lives, settled in the Vale parish and founded an abbey about the year 968 A.D. The same authority informs us that they reformed their lives and became famous for their sanctity, and that when Robert, Duke of Normandy, visited the island in the year 1032, having been driven here by stress of weather while on his way to England with a fleet to the help of his nephew, Edward the Confessor, he confirmed them in the possession of the lands they had acquired. The same tradition also says that in the year 1061 certain pirates attacked and pillaged the island, and that their leader “Le Grand Geoffroy,” or “Le Grand Sarasin,” had his stronghold on the site of what is now the Castel Church. Complaint having been made to Duke William, he sent over Samson d’Anneville, who succeeded, with the aid of the monks, in driving them out. For this service they were rewarded by the Duke with a grant of one half of the island, comprising, besides the Vale, what are now the parishes of the Castel, St. Saviour’s, and St. Peter’s-in-the-Wood. This grant they divided between them, and the monks, in right of their priory, held that portion of the lands which is still known as Le Fief St. Michel. The rest is now comprised for the most part in the Fiefs Le Comte and Anneville and their dependencies. To the south-east of the Vale Church is an old farm house which still bears the name of L’Abbaye, and which, without doubt, occupies the site of the original priory. Even at the present day, it is easy to trace part of the walls of the earlier edifice, which, however, was in a ruinous state as early as the reign of Henry IV., for we find Sir John de Lisle, Governor of Guernsey, writing to the Privy Council about the year 1406 for permission to use the timber of the building for the repairs of Castle Cornet, and alleging in his letter that the priory had fallen into decay, and giving as a reason for his request that in consequence of the war it was impossible to procure timber either from Normandy or Brittany.

The names of a few priors have survived. It is not quite clear whether a certain Robert, whose name appears as witness to the deed by which Robert, Abbot of Mont St. Michel, during a visit which he made to the island in 1156, appointed Guillaume Gavin, monk, to the chaplaincy of St. George, was Prior of the Vale or not. He is styled in the deed Priest and Dean of the Vale (de Walo). In 1249 Henry, Canon of Blanchelande, was collated to the Vale Church by special dispensation. About 1307 Johannes de Porta was prior (probably a Du Port, a family of considerable antiquity in the island, and of good standing). In 1312 Guillaume Le Feivre filled the office. In 1323 Renauld Pastey was Prior of the Vale, and had a lawsuit with the inhabitants of that and other parishes concerning tithes. In 1331 there was another dispute concerning tithes, which was referred to the arbitration of two monks, Guillaume Le Feivre and Jourdain Poingdestre, who had both formerly been priors. In the year 1335 Andreas de Porta, 1364-68, Geoffrey de Carteret, and in 1365 Denis Le Marchant, clerk, was appointed seneschal of the Court of St. Michel.

According to the ballad known as “La Descente des Arragousais,” “Brégard”[84] was the monk in charge of the priory in 1372, and by his intrigues the Vale Castle fell into the hands of the enemy, which was evidently a legend current at the time. Guillaume Paul, alias Règne, in 1478, is the last prior of whom we have found mention.

The Priory of Lihou, as has been already said, was a dependency of St. Michel-du-Valle. The ruins of the church and other buildings are still to be seen. The former was entire at a time long subsequent to the Reformation, and is said to have been destroyed at the command of one of our Governors to prevent the possibility of its serving as an entrenchment in case of an enemy landing on the islet. It appears to have replaced a still more ancient building, as many pieces of Caen stone, with well-executed Norman mouldings, are built into the walls. Probably the first building had been destroyed in some of the many inroads to which the island was subjected during the reign of Edward III.

An incumbent of Lihou, with the title of prior, existed until the time of the Reformation.

Now to come to the remaining chapels. The Extente of Edward III. speaks of the King’s Chaplain, John de Caretier, who received a salary out of the revenues of the island, and was bound to say mass daily for the King, and for the souls of his ancestors either in the chapel of Castle Cornet or in the chapel of His Majesty’s manor of La Grange. It is not exactly known where this manor was situated, but as the estate of the late John Carey, Esq., has always borne this name--the Grange--it is reasonable to suppose that it was thereabouts. The more so, as Richard II. founded the Convent of Cordeliers or Francisian friars on the ground now belonging to Elizabeth College, probably then comprised in the Grange estate. It must be said, however, that there are also reasons for supposing that the King’s Grange may have been situated elsewhere, probably in the vicinity of the Tour Gand, a fortress which defended the approaches of the town from the north, and this opinion derives some support from the fact that the Plaiderie, or Court House, is known to have existed in ancient times in this locality, and that in the middle ages a chapel was considered an almost essential adjunct to a Court of Justice.

To return to the Convent of the Cordeliers, it is known that the site of their church, called in Acts of Court “La Chapelle des Frères,” is said to have stood opposite to the entrance of Le Cimetière des Frères, which was the burial ground belonging to this church, and, together with the site of the church, a considerable portion of land appears to have been alienated from the college, probably by the arbitrary act of some Governor of the island. The church consisted of a chancel and nave, the latter, on the building being given for the use of the college, serving as a school-room, and the former being occupied by the master. After its alienation the burial ground fell into the hands of an individual of the name of Blanche, who turned it into an orchard, but, a plague having broken out in 1629, the Court made an order that all who died of that disorder should be buried there, since which time it has served for a cemetery for the Town parish. How the burial ground attached to the Town Church came to acquire the name of “Cimetière des Sœurs” cannot now be known, as there can be no doubt that from time immemorial it was no other than the parochial cemetery. There is no document known to exist which points to any conventual establishment for females in the island, though there are traditions to that effect. There was, however, among many other fraternities, a “confrèrie de frères et sœurs” connected in some measure with this cemetery, and which may have given it the name. At the Reformation the land and rents due to this fraternity were seized by the Crown, and the list of them is still preserved among the records at the Greffe, with the following heading--“Confessions de rentes dues aux frères et sœurs de la confrerye et fraternité de la charité, fondeye pour la dilyvrance des ames de purgatoyre, par les dis frayres et sœurs, constytuée, establye et ordonnée, en la Chapelle de Sepulcre estante dedans le cymetyere de St. Pierre Port,” &c., &c.

This proves the existence of a chapel in the churchyard, but whether it was the building known by the name of “Le Belfroi,” and which was demolished in 1787, cannot now be ascertained. “Belfroi” is the name given in the mediæval ages to a Town Hall. The edifice known by that name in St. Peter Port belonged to the Town, and was used latterly as a store-house for militia requisites. It is described as having been built of stone, vaulted, and divided into two apartments, an upper and a lower, the latterly partly underground. Probably the lower part of the building was used as a charnel house, in which the bones of the dead, after they had lain long enough in the ground to become quite dry, were piled up; for, among the duties to be performed by the officiating priest, we find that they were required to chant a “recorderis” over the bones of the dead. Such charnel houses are still very common in Brittany, and many country places throughout the continent.

Of the other chapels which existed in the Town parish the memory even has perished. The estate known as Ste. Catherine may possibly have derived its name from a chapel dedicated to that virgin martyr, but all that is known is that there was a fraternity or religious association under the patronage of this saint, which was endowed with wheat rents. Some of the rents seized by the Crown, and afterwards made over to Elizabeth College, were due to the “Frerie de Ste. Catherine,” and possibly this body possessed its own chapel. The site of the Chapel of St. Jacques is well known, and traces of the foundations were still to be seen till comparatively lately. It was situated in a field on the Mon Plaisir estate, on the right hand side of the lane which leads from the Rue Rozel to the back of the Rocquettes, at the head of a little valley, just where the roadway is at the lowest. The orchard to the east of this spot, on the opposite side of the lane, is still known by the name of Le Cimetière, and human bones are still occasionally met with in digging. It had some land attached to it by way of endowment, which was sold by the Royal Commissioners in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as we learn from the Livre de Perchage, temp. Elizabeth, in which it is called “La Chapelle de _l’ydolle_, St. Jacques,” and that Thomas Effard was in possession of land that had belonged to it. From the same document we learn that there was also a chapel called “La Chapelle de Lorette,” which, there is reason to suppose, may have been in the vicinity of Candie.

There was also a private chapel, of which we should have known absolutely nothing but for an old contract, still extant, of the early date of 1383, by which Perrot and Jannequin Le Marchant[85] sell a piece of ground for building purposes to Renolvet Denys. One of the conditions attached to the sale is that no edifice shall be erected on the land thus sold, which can in any manner take away from the view, or deprive the chapel of the manor and hall of the vendors, of light. The property in question was, without doubt, that to the south of the arch, leading to Manor Le Marchant and Lefebvre Street, and it is curious that the contract mentions the existence of a vaulted gateway leading to the manor, at that early period permission being given to the purchaser of this ground to build over this arch. An archway still exists in the locality, and continues to bear the name of “La Porte,” as it did nearly five hundred years ago.

Now, to come to the only chapel that still exists--Ste. Apolline. There is no reason for supposing it to be of such great antiquity as is generally believed. The vault is pointed, and it is well known that the pointed arch did not make its appearance in architecture until the latter part of the twelfth century--say about 1160--whereas all our parishes are named in documents anterior to 1066. From the Cartulary of Mont Saint Michel we learn that in the year 1054 William Pichenoht, moved by compunction for the many and great sins he had committed, and desirous of turning monk, gave, with the consent of Duke William of Normandy, his lands of La Perrelle with all their appurtenances to the abbey. These lands were, no doubt, leased out afterwards by the monks to various individuals, the abbey retaining the “Seigneurie” over the whole.

In October, 1392, a certain Nicholas Henry, of La Perrelle, obtained the consent of the Abbot and monks of Mont St. Michel, as Lords of the Manor, to the endowment of a chapel which he had lately erected on his estate, subject, however to the sanction of the Sovereign as lord paramount. This permission was granted by Richard II. in July, 1394. The charter which is preserved among the island records at the Greffe authorises Nicholas Henry to endow the Chapel of _Sainte Marie de la Perrelle_ for the purpose of maintaining a chaplain who was to celebrate a daily mass for ever, for the safety of the said Nicholas Henry[86] and his wife Philippa, for their souls after they should have departed this life, and for the souls of all their ancestors, benefactors, and Christian people generally. Beside the three vergées of land, which are described as being bounded on the west by the property of Guillaume Blondel, and on the east by that of Thomas Dumaresq, both of which families are still landowners in the district, Nicholas Henry also gave to the chapel an annual wheat rent of four quarters due on a piece of ground adjoining. The chapel once established, other gifts were made from time to time by pious individuals who took part in the daily service. In 1485, Johan de Lisle, son of Colas, and Nicholas de Lisle, son of Pierre, acknowledged in the presence of the Bailiff and Jurats that they owed jointly the yearly rent of a hen to the Chaplain of Notre Dame de la Perrelle; and the latter acknowledged, moreover, to the annual payment of one bushel of wheat. On March 2nd, 1492, Henry Le Tellier, of St. Saviour’s, also acknowledged that he owed two bushels of wheat rent to Sire Thomas Henry, who is also mentioned as Chaplain of St. Brioc, in 1477, and as Rector of the Castel, in 1478. He was also styled in an earlier deed, “Dom” Thomas, so was probably also a Benedictine monk, and it is not unlikely that he was grandson of the original founder of this chapel. Its identity with the building still existing is proved by an Act of the Royal Court “en Plaids d’Héritage” of June 6th, 1452, in which the chapel is spoken of as “La Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Perrelle, appelleye la _Chapelle Sainte Appolyne_.” It was then in the possession of Colin Henry, son of Jacques, and grandson of Nicholas, who is described as the founder of the chapel. Forty years later it changed hands, and was in the possession of the Guille family, perhaps by inheritance, for in April, 1496, Nicholas Guille, son of Nicholas, of St. Peter Port, sold the advowson of the chaplaincy to Edmond de Chesney, Seigneur of Anneville, in whose family it probably remained until they[87] sold their possessions to the Fouaschin family, from whom they came by inheritance into the family of Andros.[88]

We do not know how the name of Ste. Apolline came to be associated first with that of the Blessed Virgin, and then to have superseded it altogether. Possibly because there were already no less than five places of worship in the island under the invocation of Our Lady--the Churches of the Castel, Torteval,[89] and Lihou, and the Chapels of Pulias and _Le Château des Marais_, commonly known as Ivy Castle. Saint Apollonia, or in French, Ste. Apolline, is said to have been a virgin of Alexandria, who was burned as a Christian martyr in the year 249.

The chapel is twenty-seven feet long by thirteen feet nine inches wide, and is built of rough unhewn stone, except the heads of the doorways, the jambs of the windows, and the corner stones of the edifice, which appear to have been coarsely wrought. The vault is in solid masonry of small stones cemented with a strong mortar, and if it was ever slated or tiled all traces of the covering have long since disappeared. The interior is stuccoed, and was originally adorned with mural paintings, of which some slight traces are yet to be seen. Figures of angels, and part of a group which seem to have been intended to represent the nativity of our Saviour, are still to be made out. There are three small narrow square headed windows, which may or may not once have been glazed--one in the east gable immediately above where the altar must have stood, and the other two in the north and south walls, near the east end of the building. There is no opening whatever in the western gable, which was surmounted originally by a bell-cote, of which the base only now remains. The hole through which the bell rope passed is still to be seen in the interior. To the south of the chapel is a very ancient and substantially built farm-house, which is traditionally said to have been the residence of the officiating priest. It is quite as probable that it was the manor house of the founder, Nicholas Henry. In it were preserved the iron clapper of a bell, which is said to have belonged to the chapel, and some wrought stones, which probably formed the supports of the altar slab. A small silver burette, one of a pair, such as are used in the Roman Catholic Church to contain the wine and the water employed in the celebration of the mass, by tradition came originally from this chapel, it bearing the inscription “Sancte Paule ora pro nobis,” and on the lid is the letter A, denoting that it was the vessel intended to contain the water. It was in the possession of the ancient family of Guille, whose representative gave it to the Parish Church of St. Peter Port in memory of his father.

In the neighbourhood of Perrelle Bay there is a rock, standing at some little distance from the shore, never covered by the tide, and approachable when the tide is out, called “La Chapelle Dom Hue.” The appearance of the natural causeway, or, as it is locally termed “col” or “pont,” which leads to it, would induce one to believe that at some remote period it must have been a narrow neck of low land stretching out into the sea, which divided the bays of L’Erée and La Perrelle, and which has been gradually carried away by the constant action of the waves, leaving only the little hillock we now see. Probably, in ancient times, a small oratory, perhaps a hermitage, had been erected on this spot by a pious founder, “Dom” Hue, who, from his title, must have been a Benedictine monk, and, in all likelihood, a member of the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel, which was in possession of lands in this neighbourhood. There is still a small manor in the parish of St. Saviour’s which bears the name of “Les Domaines Dom Hue,” and which we may reasonably suppose belonged originally to the same person, and possibly formed the endowment of the chapel.

The next chapel of which anything definite is known is “Notre Dame de Pulias,” otherwise “La Chapelle de l’Epine.” The ground on which it stood lies on the sea-shore, to the northward of the promontory of Noirmont, and, though separated from the rest of the parish by an intervening strip of land belonging to the Vale, forms in reality part of St. Sampson’s. The Vale parish consists of two distinct portions, the larger of which, called “Le Clos,” was, until the beginning of the present century, entirely divided from the rest of the island by an arm of the sea, which extended from St. Sampson’s Harbour to the Grand Havre near the Vale Church, and which was only passable at low water. The inhabitants of that part of the parish attached to the mainland of Guernsey, and which is called “La Vingtaine de l’Epine,” were thus cut off at times from all access to their parish church, and appear to have made use of this building, as a chapel of ease. It stood close to “La Mare de Pulias,” and in this neighbourhood a bit of wall is still shown, which is said to have formed part of the chapel. It is probable that it was under the patronage of the Seigneurs of Anneville, for the earliest notice found of this chapel is in an “extente” of this fief, dated 1405, in which it is stated that the common lands, extending along the shore between “La Chapelle de Notre Dame de Pulayes” and the rivulet of St. Brioc at Rocquaine, belong in moieties to the Abbot of St. Michel and the Lord of Anneville. This chapel had an endowment, for we find by the report of the Royal Commissioners of 1607 that the parishioners of the Vale and St. Sampson’s petitioned that it might be restored to them, complaining--

“That whereas their predecessors, the inhabitants of the Vingtaine of the Epine, had in former times built a chapel, with a churchyard, for divine service, by reason of the sea, which doth oftentimes hinder them from going to their parish church of the Valle; and that since that time His Majesty’s Commissioners having considered how necessary that chapel was for them, it hath pleased the late Queen Elizabeth to grant unto them yearly ten or twelve quarters of wheat, for the maintenance both of the said chapel, and also of a schoolmaster to instruct their children; notwithstanding all which the said chapel, together with the churchyard, hath been utterly ruinated and the trees beaten down, and the grounds and rents belonging thereunto taken away, to the great grief and prejudice of the said parishioners, and therefore they humbly desire that the said chapel be built again by them that have thus ruinated it, and the rents belonging thereunto, for so necessary a use, be restored unto them again, with the tithes and rights concerning it.”

The answer and decision of the Commissioners was not satisfactory. They owned there was probably a chapel of ease on that spot, and they go on to state that, having examined some aged people who dwelt near the place, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor and other officers, they find that ten or twelve quarters of wheat had been given either towards the maintenance of the chapel or of a schoolmaster, and that some had heard divine service said there about the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth and long before, but they can find no evidence to prove that it was founded or built for a chapel of ease, the complainants accounting for the absence of documentary evidence in support of their claim by alleging that the Governor had taken it away with him. The Commissioners go on to say that on further examinations they have had there was a certain Popish superstitious service used therein, and that wheat rents had been given by certain inhabitants for the saying of a morrow mass upon Sundays, and for such like superstitious uses, and that about forty years previously, the chapel, with all appertaining to it, had been seized for the use of the Queen. The conclusion they arrived at was that the seizure was legal, and should be maintained.

At the north-east extremity of the Clos-du-Valle, near the estate called Paradis, and a little way beyond the cromlech called Déhus or Thus, stood La Chapelle de Saint Malière or Magloire, an early apostle of the island.

All traces of this chapel have long since disappeared, but its site is still pointed out as being that of a little thatch-covered cottage on the side of the hill.[90] The old farmhouse close by, called “St. Magloire,” is said to have been the residence of the priest attached to its service.

It is mentioned as early as the year 1155 in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV. (Breakspear), together with other churches and chapels in Guernsey, as being the property and in the patronage of Mont Saint Michel. The only other notice we have of this chapel is the tradition recorded by some of our historians that, at the time of the Reformation, the plate, ornaments, vestments, and records, belonging to the churches in this island, were secretly buried here by the Roman Catholic clergy, with a view to their removal to Normandy when a fitting opportunity should offer, but that one John Le Pelley, a schoolmaster, having by some means got information of the circumstances, dug them up some few years later, and sold them to some Normans of Coutances, who conveyed them away.

Saint Magloire was the nephew and pupil of Saint Samson, and was born in the middle of the sixth century. He succeeded his uncle, Samson, as Bishop of Dol, but after a few years resigned his charge and retreated to Sark, where he founded a sort of monastery or missionary college, and where he died. His remains were translated in the ninth century to Léhon, near Dinan, and afterwards to Paris, where they were deposited in the church which still bears the name of the saint.

Two localities in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Malière bear the singular names of “_Paradis_” and “_Enfer_.” Tradition is entirely silent as to the origin of these names, but it is possible that they may have been in some way connected with the chapel, and with some of the superstitious usages so common among the nations of Celtic origin.

The Chapel of St. Clair was named after the first Bishop of Nantes, who lived in the third century. This chapel stood on the hill a little to the eastward of the farmhouse in Saint Sampson’s parish which still bears the name. In clearing the ground for quarries of late years many human bones and a few gravestones have been discovered there.

It was situated on the “Franc-Fief Gallicien,” the tenants of which enjoy to this day an exemption from certain feudal duties, which is said to have been granted to their forefathers by King Edward IV. in acknowledgment of the services rendered by them as mariners in bringing him to this island from Exmouth, when, as Earl of March, he escaped with the famous Earl of Warwick, and their followers from England, after a victory gained by Henry VII. over the Yorkist party in October, 1459.

The Chapel of St. Germain was in the Castel parish, and its holy well, which is still regarded by some as no less efficacious than the fountain of St. George, was situated to the northward of that chapel. All traces of the building have long since disappeared, and all that we know of it is that in the Extents of Queen Elizabeth and James I. a rent payable to the Crown is described as “due on a piece of ground situated near the Chapel of St. Germain.”

There is also said to have been a Chapel of Ste. Anne, near the King’s Mills, more correctly designated as Les Grands Moulins. St. Anne also had her sacred fountain. The names of “Ste. Hélène,” at St. Andrew’s, and La Madeleine, St. Pierre-du-Bois, may also have been derived from religious buildings, but of these nothing but the names now remain.

In St. Martin’s parish there was a chapel attached to the Priory of Blanchelande, and another, Saint Jean de la Houguette, which very probably was erected on the site now occupied by the parish school.[91]

In the Extente of the Fief Anneville it is said that the lord has his “Chapelles.” It is probable that all the feudal lords who held the lands direct from the Crown had the same right of chapel. Such at least seems to have been the case in Jersey, where some still exist, and in the Clos-du-Valle, situated in the Vale parish, is a field called “La Chapelle du Sud,” west of a field called “Le Galle,” on the Crown lands. Here was probably the site of a now forgotten chapel.

Closely connected with the chapels and churches are the holy wells. Even in pagan times, before the introduction of Christianity, it is well known that a sort of worship was paid to the nymphs or deities who were supposed to haunt these fountains, and to whose interference were attributed the cures effected by the use of these waters. When a purer faith was preached, and it was found impossible to wean the minds of the people entirely away from a belief in the supernatural qualities of these springs, the early missionaries--whether wisely or not it is difficult to say--sought to direct the attention of their converts into a new channel, and bestowed the name of some saint on these hallowed spots, who thenceforth was supposed to stand in the place of the ancient local deity or genius of the well.

[81] In the _Dédicace des Eglises_, “Notre Dame de Lihou” is called Notre Dame de la _Roche_. Now the word Perelle is a diminutive of Pierre, and we know that in our dialect “pierre” and “rocque” are used indiscriminately, and have the same meaning.

[82] EDITOR’S NOTE.--The Fief St. George was bought from the Royal Commissioners by Thomas Fouaschin, Seigneur d’Anneville, in 1563, let to Pierre Massey 25th June, 1616, and bought 18th May, 1629, by Nicholas de Jersey, son of Michel, from George Fouaschin, Seigneur d’Anneville, son of Thomas. Nicholas de Jersey’s only child Marie married Jacques Guille, 2nd May, 1638, and so brought St. George into the Guille family.

[83] EDITOR’S NOTES.

May 10th, 1292.--“Confirmation of a charter which the King has inspected, whereby Henry III. granted in frank almoin to the Chaplain of the Chapel of St. Mary, Orgoil Castle, Gerneseye, the 10th of a rent called Chaumpard in the island of Gerneseye.”

Dec. 26th, 1328.--“Grant to John de Etton, King’s Clerk, of the Chapel of St. Mary of the Marsh, in the island of Gerneseye.”

Ancient Petition No. 13289.--“To our Lord the King and to his Council shows Ralph the Chaplain of one of his Chapels called the Chapel des Mareis in the Island of Gerneseye, that whereas the King has given in alms all the 10th sheaf of his champartz in the said isle to this Chaplain to sing every day a mass for the King and his ancestors and heirs. Now since last August the attourneys of the King have disseized him of the tithes of two carues of land, viz. of the Carue of the Corbines and Suardes and also of the tithes of a place whereof he was never disseized. He prays to be restored thereto, as otherwise he would have nothing to live upon, as his whole rent is only worth £7, and scarcely half that.”

(Endorsed) “Go to Otto (de Grandison) and pray for a writ to enquire if the tithes, etc., belong to the Chapel, and if they do, then let them be restored.” (No date--but Otho de Grandison was Governor of the Islands 1303-29.)

May 10th, 1382.--“Appointment of Peter Gyon, serjeant-at-arms, and Henry de Rither, supplying the places in Gerneseye of Hugh de Calvyle, governor of the (Channel) Islands, to enquire touching the cessation, through the negligence of the Chaplains, of divine service and works of charity in the Chapel of Marreys in that Island, and touching the sale and removal of its chalices, books, vestments, and other ornaments, and to certify into Chancery. (Vacated because enrolled on the French Roll of this year).”

[84] EDITOR’S NOTE.--The Brégards or Brégearts were a very old family in the Vale and St. Sampson’s parishes. Early in the sixteenth century one branch of this family bought land at “Vauvert,” St. Peter Port, and became known as “Brégeart, or Briart, alias Vauvert,” and finally simply as “Vauvert.” A curious instance of change of surname.

[85] EDITOR’S NOTE.--Peter and Jannequin Le Marchant were sons of Denis Le Marchant, Jurat and Lieutenant-Bailiff of Guernsey, and Jenette de Chesney, youngest daughter of Sir William de Chesney and Joan de Gorges. The chapel is alluded to in their father’s “Bille de Partage,” dated 3rd June, 1393.

[86] EDITOR’S NOTES.--The following is a short pedigree of the descendants of Nicholas Henry, derived principally from MSS. at Sausmarez Manor:--

[87] EDITOR’S NOTE.--Nicholas Fouaschin, son of Thomas, and Jurat of the Royal Court, bought the Manors of Le Comte and Anneville from Sir Robert Willoughby, February 16th, 1509. Sir Robert, afterwards Lord Broke, inherited these Manors from his grandmother, Anne de Chesney, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund de Chesney and Alice Stafford.

[88] EDITOR’S NOTE.--Through the marriage on October 13th, 1660, of Charles Andros to Alice Fashion, only child of Thomas Fashion, Seigneur of Anneville.

[89] See note on page 197.

[90] EDITOR’S NOTE.--Tradition in that part of the island says (so I was told in 1896 by the woman living in the old farmhouse called St. Magloire) that in building this cottage they came upon the old corner stone of the original chapel. Thinking it was sacrilegious to move it, and would entail ill-luck on them and their children, they left it in its place, and there it still remains.

[91] See note on page 197.

Holy Wells.

Holy wells still exist in many parts of the island, and are resorted to for various purposes, but principally for the cure of erysipelas, rheumatism and glandular swellings, and inflammation or weakness of the eyes. These maladies are all called by the country people “Mal de la Fontaine.”

Whether the water will prove efficacious as a remedy is ascertained by noticing the effect produced on applying it. If it evaporates rapidly, passing off in steam, or runs off the swelling like little drops of quicksilver, it is of the right sort, and the sufferer may hope for a speedy cure. Still, there are certain ceremonies to be observed, without which it is useless to make the attempt.

It must be applied before the patient has broken his fast for nine consecutive mornings, and must be dropped on to the affected place with the fingers, and not put on with a sponge or rag. It must be taken fresh from the well every day at daybreak. The person who draws it must on no account speak to anyone either on his way to, or from the fountain, and must be particularly careful not to spill a single drop from the pitcher. It is customary to leave a small coin on the edge of the well, which was doubtless intended originally as an offering to the saint who was supposed to have the spring under his especial protection, and whose name it bore. These wells are said also to be used for purposes of divination. The maiden who is desirous of knowing who her future husband is to be, must visit the fountain for nine consecutive mornings fasting and in silence. On the last day when she looks into the clear basin of the well, she will see the face of him she is fated to wed reflected in the water. Should her destiny be to die unmarried, it is believed that a grinning skull will appear instead of the wished-for face.

The well most in repute is that of St. George, in the parish of Ste. Marie du Castel, but St. Germain and Ste. Anne, at no great distance, have their votaries, and there are also the “Fontaine de St. Clair,” near St. Andrew’s Church, the fountain of Gounebec in the valley of that name near the Moulin de Haut, two in the parish of the Forest,--that known by the name of “La Fontaine St. Martin,” which rises on the cliffs to the westward of the point of La Corbière, and the other at a point between Le Gron and La Planque, where the three parishes of the Forest, St. Saviour’s, and St. Andrew’s meet. The “Fontaine de Lesset,” at St. Saviour’s, is also renowned. In the parish of St. Peter Port the fountain of Le Vau Laurent was famous for the cure of sore eyes, and the water of another on the side of the hill below Les Côtils, known formerly as “La Fontaine des Corbins,” was supposed to be efficacious in cases of consumption if taken inwardly. “La Fontaine Fleurie,” near Havelet, and another in the marshes near the ruined stronghold of “Le Château des Marais,” commonly known as the Ivy Castle, are also resorted to. The fountains of St. Pierre and Notre Dame are mentioned in early ordinances of the Royal Court. The former is known to have been situated near the Town Church, at a spot called Le Pont Orchon, in the street which still bears the name of “La Rue de la Fontaine.” The latter was apparently at the foot of the Mont Gibet, at the upper end of what is now the Market Place. The erection of pumps over most of these springs has deprived them of their ancient prestige, and has effectually removed any curative properties which they may formerly have possessed. Although every spring was not efficacious in all cases, to insure a cure it was necessary to use the water of a particular well, and, in order to choose it to consult certain persons who are knowing in these matters, and who, by an inspection of the part affected are able to tell what particular spring should be resorted to.[92]

[92] EDITOR’S NOTES.

There are two wells or rather fountains, for it is imperative that they should be fed by a stream of running water, in St. Martin’s; one, called “La Fontaine des Navets,” is on the right hand side of the cliff above Saints’ Bay; it is best approached from the Icart road, by the turning to the left down a little lane, opposite Mr. Moon’s cottage. This lane runs just behind Mrs. Martin’s pic-nic house. There are two wells in this lane, but the second, the most southerly, is the sacred one.

The other fountain was called “La Fontaine de la Beilleuse,” and was situated just east of the church, below the farmhouse, belonging to Mr. Tardif. That again, was a double fountain, of which the southern was the wishing well, but it has now unfortunately been done away with, while the upper one has been converted into a drinking trough for cattle. Both these fountains cured the red swellings known as “Mal de la Fontaine.” When I asked why these should be efficacious, and not any other, I was told that it was because they looked east, and were fed by springs running towards the east.--_From Mrs. Le Patourel, Mrs. Mauger, etc._

See M. Sebillot’s _Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne_, T. I., p. 45:--“Au moment où le Christianisme s’introduisit en Gaul, le culte des pierres, des arbres et des fontaines y était florissant. De l’an 452, date du deuxième concile d’Arles, à l’an 658, concile de Nantes, nombre d’assemblées ecclesiastiques s’occupèrent de la question.”

See also _Notions Historiques sur les Côtes-du-Nord_, par Havasque, T. I., p. 17:--“De l’usage que les druides faisaient de l’eau des différentes sources est venue le culte que les Bretons ont si longtemps rendu aux fontaines.… Lors de l’établissement du Christianisme, les prêtres les consacrèrent à Dieu, sous l’invocation de la Vierge ou de quelque Saint, afin que les hommes grossiers, frappés par ces effigies, s’acoutumassent insensiblement à rendre à Dieu et à ses Saints l’hommage qu’ils adressaient auparavant aux fontaines elles-mêmes. Telle est l’origine des niches pratiquées dans la maçonnerie de presque toutes les fontaines, niches dans lesquelles on a placé la statue du saint qui donne son nom à la source. C’est pour parvenir au même but que le clergé fit ériger à la mème époque des chapelles dans les lieux consacrés à la religion ou au culte.”

LE POULAIN DE SAINT GEORGE.

We have already mentioned the well of St. George as being supreme in its sanctity; indeed we may almost say that its reputation is such that it throws all others into the shade. It stands near the ruined chapel of the same name.

A place of such antiquity and reputed sanctity might naturally be expected to have its legends, though many doubtless have disappeared, but a firm faith still exists in the miraculous properties of the water of the well, and the old people still say that on tempestuous nights, especially during thunder and lightning, the form of a horse, darting flames of fire from its eyes and nostrils, may be seen galloping thrice, and thrice only, round the ruined precincts of the chapel.

Some accounts of the spectral appearance speak only of a horse’s head enveloped in flames, without the accompaniment of a body.[93]

The territory of St. George was also formerly known by the name of “St. Grégoire,” and, though Nicholas Breakspear, Pope Adrian IV., numbers “La Chapelle de St. George” among the possessions of St. Michel in his Bull of 1155, Robert de Thorigni calls it “St. Grégoire” in 1156, but in many places the St. George of the legends seems to have been confused with the “Egrégoires,” the watcher, “l’ange qui veille,” of the old world. It is, according to mythology, “l’Egrégoire” who mounts the white horse that leads to victory, which apparition, in the moment of danger, has roused so many Catholic armies from despair.

The fountain was so much resorted to for divers superstitions formerly, that in 1408 an Act was passed by the Royal Court, at the request of Dom Toulley, Prêtre de St. George, under the Bailiff Gervais de Clermont, that the pathway to the fountain was only open to the faithful on their way to divine service, or to the sick who came to be healed.

We may add that an adjoining field bears the name of “Le Trépied,” a name which is to be found in other localities in the island, and which indicates that a primæval stone monument, of the nature of those commonly called Druid’s altars, may have at one time stood there. These, as has already been shown, have always had the reputation of being the haunt of fairies, and sometimes of spirits of a less innocent nature.

[93] From G. Métivier, Esq.

“Our Lady and St. George were often partners in worship; and the latter’s holy wells are famous in old legends:--‘And the Kynge (of Lybie) did to make a chyrche there of our Lady and of Saynte George. In the whyche yet sourdet a fountayn of lyving water whyche heled the seke peple y^{t} drinken thereof.’”--_Caxton’s Edition of the Golden Legend_, fol. cxi.

EDITOR’S NOTE.--See _Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France_, by Laisnal de la Salle, Tome I., p. 324.

A LEGEND OF ST. GEORGE’S WELL.

St. Patrick and St. George, in the days when there were “saints errant” as well as “knights errant,” both happened to come to Guernsey, and met on this spot. St. Patrick had just arrived from Jersey, where the inhabitants had pelted him with stones and treated him with such systematic rudeness that the saint, furious, came on to Guernsey, and there he was welcomed with effusion. Meeting St. George, they began to quarrel as to whom the island should in future belong. However, being saints, they decided that it would be more consistent with their profession each to give some special boon to the island, and then go their ways. So St. Patrick filled his wallet with all the noxious things to be found,--toads, snakes, etc.,--and went back to Jersey and there emptied it, freeing Guernsey for ever from all things poisonous, while giving to Jersey a double share. St. George smote the tiny stream at his feet, “the waters to be for the healing of diseases, and a blessing to whoever shall own this spot. He shall never lack for bread, nor shall he ever be childless whilst this well be preserved untainted.” Now, many, many years ago, the Guilles, who still own St. George, inherited it from the De Jerseys, and it so happened that the lord of the estate had an only son who was naturally very dear to him. An old friend of the family brought him a canary bird as a pet, and, as one had never before been seen in Guernsey, it was very precious. One day it flew away from its cage, the door being accidentally left open, and was pursued hotly by the child. It made for the well, and apparently flew in, for the child was bending forward, an act which would inevitably have caused him to fall in, when he was arrested by the neighing of a horse behind him. He looked round and saw the fiery head of St. George’s charger disappearing among the trees. That look saved him, and the bird was seen perched on the cross above the well, singing loudly. Presently it flew back to its little master, who had been saved by St. George from a watery grave, and a picture of the boy with his canary bird is still to be seen among the Guille family portraits.[94]

[94] From Miss Lane, afterwards Mrs. Lane Clarke.

MAIDENS AT ST. GEORGE’S WELL.

There is a curious property attached to this well, that is that if a maiden visits it, fasting and in silence, on nine successive mornings, carefully depositing a piece of silver in the niche as an offering to the saint, she is assured of matrimony within nine times nine weeks, and, by looking into the well with an earnest desire to behold the image of the intended husband, his face will appear mirrored in the water. And, in former times, when the man was identified, the girl gave his name to the priest, who then summoned him before St. George, and, as destined for each other by Heaven, they were solemnly united. There is still a tradition extant of one of the neighbouring girls of the parish, being forbidden by her father to marry the man on whom her heart was set, on the ground of his poverty, declaring that, having seen his face in the well, he was evidently destined for her by Heaven, and that she would claim him as her fate before the priest. On this her father, fearing the exposure and public censure, gave his consent to the marriage.[95]

There is also a legend told by Mr. Métivier of a country girl stealing out one summer night in the year 1798, to meet her lover near the well, flying home terrified, having seen a troop of bare skeletons grouped round the well, and gazing into the troubled waters.

Connected with the Chapel of St. George was a cemetery, which boasted of many relics, famous for their miracles.

At one time this cemetery was said to be haunted by a beautiful young girl. Every night wailing and crying was heard, and a figure was seen, much mangled, walking about. The cries were supposed to proceed from the tomb of a girl who had disappeared from her home one night in a most mysterious manner, and whose mangled corpse was picked up a few days later near the Hanois rocks, so battered and bruised that it was evidently not a case of suicide. However, in course of time, a grave being opened near hers, some bones were thrown up, and, being handled by an old man who in days gone by had been the murdered girl’s lover, a stream of blood oozed out of the dry bone! and with awful shrieks he owned to having been her murderer, and was executed soon afterwards at the “Champ du Gibet” at St. Andrew’s.

[95] From Miss Lane, afterwards Mrs. Lane Clarke.

EDITOR’S NOTES.

With reference to the statement on page 181 that Torteval Church is under the invocation of Our Lady. In “_A Survey of the Estate of Guernzey and Jarzey_ by Peter Heylyn,--1656,” p. 320, he says:--“that (church) which is here called Tortevall (is dedicated) as some suppose unto St. Philip, others will have it to St. Martha.”

On page 187 it is said that a chapel probably existed on the site of St. Martin’s Parish School. In Elie Brevint’s MSS. written in the early part of the 17th Century he says:--“Les Havillands de St. Martin ont donné la chappelle pour servir d’eschole, et de la terre auprès deux fois autant que la verd de Serk, comme dit Thomas Robert.”