Part 4

_Margaret Church, St._--The parish church of the Forest was consecrated on the 3d September, 1163. It has a nave, North aisles and chancel; and has a low tower and octagonal spire at the junction of the chancel and nave. The North aisle is of modern structure, with plain granite lintels, and a square-headed piscina in the East wall. One of the South windows appears to have been divided into two lights, with an orbit between, and the rude ornamented heads cut out of blocks of granite. Like every thing else, this window has submitted to the chisel of modern art, wherefore the ornamental portions have been worked off in order to form a segmental head. The inside wall of the chancel is splayed, and the East window semi-circular and cinque-foil. The East and West sides of the tower are longer than the others, consequently impart to the spire an ugly and deformed appearance.

_Martellos._--Are round towers situated on the coast in different parts of the island, at stated distances, particularly on the Northern or vale side, and are garrisoned with soldiers in time of war.

_Martin's Church, St_--Consists of a nave, chancel and aisle. The two former, with the tower, which is at the junction of the two, are of the early English style, and the latter with the windows of the building of modern formation. There was once a slab that contained a brass plate representing a lay-man or merchant with his lady. The stone is still there, but much defaced, and probably in a few years will entirely disappear. The porch, facing the South, which is of the decorative style, is the most elegant in the island. The corner buttresses are terminated with ornamental pinnacles of crochets and finials, and are set diagonally at one stage. According to the "Dédicace des Eglises," this church was consecrated on the 4th of February, 1199, in the tenth year of the reign of Henry II, king of England.

_Meat_--Is very good, and surpasses that of Jersey, but is dearer than in England, though to an English resident, if he draws his income from England, it will not appear so, considering there are 18 ounces to the pound, and that he gets from 5 to 6 per cent premium for his money. Beef sells at 5d. to 8d. per lb.; mutton, 6d. to 8d.; veal 5d. to 7d.; pork 4d. to 6d.; bacon, 6d., 9d. and 11d.

_Meat Market, the_--Is commodious, clean and airy, and is perhaps one of the most convenient, both for buyer and seller that can be found in any part of the world, and is as well furnished with meat as any market in England.

_Mechanics' Wages_--Are regulated according to occupation and ability. Journeymen smiths and ironmongers earn from 12s. to 24s., carpenters average about 18s., masons and plasterers 15s., tailors (in the busy season) 20s., printers 10s. to 18s., shoe-makers 10s. to 15s., shopmen 15s. per week.

_Militia_.--In time of peace, all subjects of her Majesty, not being natives of the island, and who do not possess real property therein, are exempt from the said service; but otherwise, after a residence of a year and a day, are as liable to be called on as the natives themselves. Also every subject exercising for his profit any trade, business, calling, or profession whatever, shall, after a year and a day, be subject to the laws, ordinances, and regulations thereof.

_Mills._--In the country wind-mills are common, as they may be seen in almost every parish, where from their being situated on eminences, occasionally beautify the landscape. They are not exactly after the English fashion, as they have a vertical top that shifts with the wind. There are also both in town and country water-mills driven by small rivulets, and steam-mills, but of the latter there is only one in the country, in the parish of St Martin. Of late years a new method or mill for grinding apples has been adopted. It consists of two cylinders furnished with knives crossing each other as they revolve; by which simple but improved process the apples are cut, bruised and prepared for the press cheese at the same time.

_Miscellaneous Societies_--Are, the Guernsey Mutual Insurance Society for Shipping,[A] Provident Society, Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews, Church Pastoral Society, Church of England Society, Irish Society, Société Evangelique, Irish Scripture Readers Society, Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Bethel Union, Amie des Pauvres, Humane Society, Benevolent or Stranger's Friend Society, Charitable Association, all of which have been instituted since 1811.

[A] This Society commenced on the 31st December, 1838, with a mutual risk of only £14,000 and consists of a chairman, secretary, and a Committee of six persons. The amount insured in 1842 was more than £70,000. The amount of the present year is upwards of £66,000. Each vessel entered carries a flag composed of a white lozenge on a red ground, and the number is marked in blue figures on the white lozenge. The number of vessels on the Society's books for the present year is 87.

_Missionary Societies._--Are, the Church Missionary Society, Society for the Promotion of the Gospel in foreign parts, Wesleyan Missionary Society, London Society (Independents), Methodist, New Connexion Society, Moravian Society, Primitive Methodists Society, Bible Christian Society, Baptists Society, &c., all of which have been established from 1817 to 1840, and whose united contributions amount to 1,333l.

_Money._--French frank pieces form the current silver coin of the island, twenty-four of which are the legal tender for the Guernsey pound currency. The frank is ten pence English, and is divided into single, double and five frank pieces. Notwithstanding the above is the active and lawful specie of the island, all things are bought and sold by the shilling English. Of late years the Government were about to introduce the English currency, but for great interests best known to the island, it was vigorously resisted. On an English shilling there is a premium of one half-penny, but on the sovereign fourteen pence.

_New Ground_--Is a fine piece of table land, purchased by the inhabitants of the town, in 1782, h for the purpose of forming a promenade, and which now from the luxurious growth of the trees, and other ornamental displays, vies with any thing of the kind on the Continent. The lower part figures as a grove, through which is a spacious gravel walk, canopied in summer with dense foliage. The smaller walks are only partially shaded, but have seats and resting places tastefully arranged. On the North side is Beau Séjour, the residence of Mr Harry Dobrée, which has all the character of an English villa, and may strikingly remind one of those in the New Forest.

_Newspapers_--Are, two in English and one in French. The English are the _Star_ and _Comet_, published on Mondays and Thursdays. The French, the _Gazette de Guernesey_, published every Saturday. The former are 2d. each, the latter 1-1/2d.

_Omnibuses_--Are four: the _Defiance_, _Favourite_, _Victoria_, and _Nelson_. One starts from the Town Church for St Sampson's every morning at 8, 9, and 12 o'clock, and in summer to St Saviour's and different part of the island every Saturday afternoon. Pic-nic parties are taken to any part of the island.

_Oxen_--Arrive to considerable size, and in the country are employed at the plough and in drawing carts. After a certain servitude, or when they are seven or eight years old, they are fattened and sold to the butcher. Their size and weight are of such importance as to have attracted the notice of Quail; for in his report he says: "Those of 1200 lbs. or 60 score, appear not unfrequently, and from the evidence of the clerk of the market, there was one which attained the weight of 1500 lbs."

_Parsnips_--Are the best farming crop in the island, and are cultivated to some extent. They are chiefly used for fattening cattle and hogs, from which the pork and ox beef derive a superior flavour. They are also given in small quantities to milch cows during the winter, thereby imparting to the milk and butter a richness which would not be obtained were the animal fed entirely upon dry fodder.

_Passports._--Persons about to take their departure for France must provide themselves with passports, which are obtained gratis at the Secretary's Office, Government-House, between the hours of ten and twelve o'clock.

_Peat_--In the Northern parts of the island is found in great abundance, and a load, which will go much further than a ton of coals, is sold at about 1l.[A] It is dug up on the sea shore and the adjacent marshes in the neighbourhood of Grande Roque, and is used by the English in that part of the island, the natives preferring vraic on account of the superior ashes which it yields. It is not so good as the Welsh peat; and is called in the vernacular tongue of the island _gorban_, or a god-send, a name given it by one of the ancestors of the present Baillif, who first discovered it as being a valuable article of fuel. At the Amballes, a place near town, and situated considerably above the level of the sea, peat was found when digging for the foundation of the gas-works, June 12, 1830, at about forty-five feet from the surface, under a block of granite.

[A] A correspondent of the _Horticultural Chronicle_ advises its being mixed with coal, when it makes a fine cheerful fire, useful in certain cookery, and were it not for the gas of the latter, would be much more pleasant than wood.

_Peter-Port Church, St_;--Or, the Town Church, consists of a chancel, nave, North and South aisles, and North and South transepts, with a square tower at their intersection. It is of the later gothic style of France, termed the Flamboyant, and many of its portions are richly decorated within and without. An old stone pulpit, which was removed from its extremely mutilated state, was once one of the antique ornaments of the South pier of the chancel; and in the East end of the North aisle is a slab on which are three figures, the right and left being apparently ecclesiastics; but as the stone is so much worn by the attrition of time, it is difficult to decipher. In the East walls of the North and South ailes are most elegant piscing, the canopies of which are crocketed, finialed, and pinnacled, and the interior moulding of the arch and sides formed of crumpled leaves and creeping animals. The shelves consist of brackets of leaves, above which are two niches, square-headed and trefoiled. The mouldings and canopies of the North porch and West door are crocketed, finialed and pinnacled, and are deserving of considerable notice. In the South transept are octagonal pillars without capitals, so that the mouldings of the archivolt run into them, and in the East wall is a piscina cut in granite, ogee-headed and trefoiled with a shelf across it. The tower, which has a window in each side, is square and embattled, and is surmounted by a short octagonal spire, that was erected in the year 1721. At the angles of the tower and elsewhere, are line-course gurgoyles representing human figures, scutcheons and lions' heads and shoulders.

This church was consecrated on the 1st of August, 1312; and was the last of the ancient churches consecrated by a Roman Catholic Bishop in the island. It has a very handsome pulpit and reading-desk, and of late years the whole building has been renovated. It also contains a fine deep-toned organ, which originally cost between seven and eight hundred pounds, and which has since been removed to the North aisle, where it appears to considerable advantage. The tower has a clock, and a merry peal of eight bells, and its height from the vane to the ground is 132 feet, being the highest in the island. There are two French services and one in English every Sunday, and there are sittings for 1400 persons.

_Peter-in-the-Wood Church, St_--Has undergone less change than any other in the island, as the tracery of the windows still remain untouched, and the ornamental parts almost perfect. It has many Norman portions, and the windows in the North and South walls of the chancel are in that style, the inside walls being splayed and quite plain. It is built on the West side of a hill, which causes the chancel to rise several feet higher than the West end of the nave, insomuch that walking from the tower to the chancel is not unlike going up hill. The nave once contained a monumental brass plate representing a respectable personage or merchant, which from the cut of the stone appears to be about the year 1560. The consecration of this church took place in the year 1167.

_Pools_--At present, are few, and are chiefly in the marshy districts of the vale, and on Lancresse common; but as they are formed or rather considerably enlarged by the winter rains, are consequently void of fish. Heylin, chaplain to the Earl of Danby, says, in 1629: "Is a lake on the North-West part of the island, near unto the sea, of about a mile or more in compasse, exceedingly well stored with carpes, the best that ever mortal eye beheld, for taste and bignesse." This lake still assumes something of its original form throughout November, in spite of the innumerable and expensive efforts to drain it off. In summer it is dried up, but during the height of the inland water, it is still a great attraction for a variety of sea-fowl.[A]

[A] In my "Adversaria et Notitiæ Herbarum," for autumn, 1841, speaking of this pool, I have:--"Waded through the water, and shot six purres; ... in the middle of the pool, and on a large solitary stone, covered with moss, picked up a Sandwich tern that had been struck by a hawk." Memorandums about the same date record, that my friend and relation Mr John Bellamy Henderson, surgeon, shot many curious birds there, amongst which were dunlins, a lesser stint, and a large sandpiper. In the winter season curlews show a great preference for this inland water.

_Porters._--By an act of the Royal Court, for the better regulations of boatmen and porters, each passenger's effects are to be carried to the hotels and lodging houses in the lower town for six pence; any other imposition is fined by a penalty of 10 livres tournois. Every porter is to wear a brass badge on his left arm, and he is forbidden to touch the passengers' luggage or effects without their leave. He is to stand behind or along the walls of the pier until called for; under the penalty of suspension of his badge. No porter is to carry a second load of luggage until all the others present at the landing have each carried one in their turn, under a penalty of 10 livres tournois.

_Poultry_--Is almost wholly French, very little of native produce being brought to market. Turkeys sell from 3s. to 5s. each, fowls 2s. 6d. to 3s. per couple, geese 2s. to 2s. 6d. each, ducks nearly the same as fowls.

_Religions._--The Church of England is predominant; there being upwards of six places of worship in town, besides the country churches. The next are the Wesleyan Methodists, who have upwards of 1827 sittings. Ebenezer chapel, Saumarez-street, in English, is open on Sundays at half-past ten in the morning, and six in the evening; on Wednesdays and Fridays at seven in the evening. Le Marchant-street chapel in French, on Sundays at nine in the morning, and six in the evening; on Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven in the evening. Wesley chapel, Bouet, in French on Sundays at nine in the morning and six in the evening; on Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven in the evening. In English on Sundays at half-past two in the afternoon, and on Mondays at seven in the evening.

The Independents have three chapels, Eldad, Union-street; one in New-street, and another called Clifton Chapel; the whole of which contain sittings for about 1726 people. The service of the New-street chapel is in French, and on Sundays begins at half-past ten in the morning, and six in the evening; also on Wednesdays at seven in the evening. The service of Clifton Chapel is in English, and commences at half-past ten in the morning and at six in the evening on Sundays; on Tuesdays at seven in the evening. The Eldad Chapel, Union-street, is in English, and on Sundays commences at half-past ten in the morning, and half-past six in the evening; on Thursdays at seven in the evening.

The New Connexion have two chapels, Zion, in Clifton, and Hospital-lane preaching room. The service at Zion is in English, at half-past ten in the morning and six in the evening on Sundays; on Wednesdays and Fridays at seven in the evening. Preaching room in French on Sundays at ten in the morning and six in the evening, and on Thursdays at seven in the evening. These chapels contain sittings for about 748 people.

The Bryanites have a chapel called Salem, in Vauvert-road, which contains upwards of 380 sittings. The service is in English at half-past ten in the morning and six in the evening on Sundays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven in the evening.

The Society of the original Foxonian Quakers have a meeting-house at Clifton. Friends meet on seventh days at ten in the morning and three in the afternoon throughout the winter, and at six in the summer. On fourth days at ten in the morning. There are about 120 sittings; but Friends are few, there being only about thirty members.

The Primitive Methodists, Catholics, Baptists and Unitarians have one each, and unitedly contain 930 sittings.

At the Roman Catholic chapel, Burnt-lane, high mass at half-past ten in the morning on Sundays;--preaching in English. Vespers, six in the evening.

Primitive Methodists. In Pollet-street in English on Sundays at half-past ten in the morning and six in the evening. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at seven in the evening.

Unitarians. Allez-street, New-Town, on Sundays at ten in the morning and six in the evening, in English.

Bethel Union. At the preaching room on the Quay, near the North Pier, at half-past ten in the morning, half-past two in the afternoon, and half-past six in the evening, in English;--on Thursdays at seven in the evening.

_Reptiles and Snakes_--Are not known in the island, neither will they exist on being introduced. Heylin, of old, speaking of Guernsey, says:--"The aire hereof is very healthfull, as may be well seen in the long lives both of men and women; and the earth said to be of the same nature with Crete and Ireland, not apt to foster any venomous creature in it." The only reptile of the snake genus is the slow-worm, and even that exceedingly rare.

_Rivers and Brooks._--Being confined to small streams, the student of good old Isaac Walton is denied the pleasure of fly-fishing. Night-lining in the pools and deep holes for eels is very frequent.

_Roads_--Are reckoned equal to any on the Continent, and are entirely exempt from turnpike tolls. It is only within the last half century good roads have been established, for which the public are indebted to the exertions and ingenuity of the late Sir John Doyle, while Governor of the island, notwithstanding he met with the most ignorant opposition from the country people or farmers, whose real interest it chiefly served; and which they now acknowledge to be the veins of the island, whereby they circulate the wealth and produce of their soil. In this excellent undertaking, which was the era of civilization in Guernsey, Government lent a hand, by allowing the money derived from the sale of the Braye du Valle to be applied for the same. At present, the roads are kept in repair by a rate on land proprietors bordering the main roads, and by grants of money from the States. The lanes that here and there intersect the island, may be said to be the old roads, and furnish the green-lane botanist with delightful, cooling, and shady walks throughout the heat of summer.

_Ruins_--Are not numerous, the chief being the old chapel of St Apoline, and the priory in the island of Lihou. The former is in the parish of St Saviour, amid a solitary and woody district, which has all the appearance of monastic seclusion. It is about seven and twenty feet long, by thirteen across, having a narrow square headed opening at the East end, and a rude segmental doorway, and a narrow window divided into two parts on the South side. The whole is covered with a ponderous vaulted roof of stones, and is the most ancient ruin in the island, being supposed to be built about the year 900. The sides of the walls and roof appear to have been once adorned with fresco paintings, as several figures of saints and the Virgin Mary are still discernible on the South ceiling. The silver-gilt chalice, belonging to this chapel, is one of the few relics of Romish times which the island possesses, and it is now in the custody of the present Baillif, John Guille, Esq., of St George. Round the bowl are the words "Sancte Paule ora pro nobis." From this it is supposed the chapel was originally called St Paul's, which by the attrition of time has worn itself into Apoline.

The priory on the little isle of Lihou, belonging to Mr James Priaulx, consists of little more than a few broken walls. Sufficient however remains to enable one to determine its different compartments, of which the chapel forms the principal portion.[A]

[A] During the last war, the Lieutenant-Governor supposing this chapel might be turned into some use by the enemy, issued orders for its complete demolition, which was effected by a barrel of gunpowder. Lately a pavement of small green and red glazed Norman tiles have been discovered, as also some silver monastic medals, and silver pennies of Edward I.

_Sampson's Church, St_--Is evidently the most ancient structure in the island, being consecrated in the year 1111. It has been so affected by modern innovation and addition, that its original character is scarcely identified. The interior is plain and massive, and not a single ornamental moulding can be discovered. For some unknown purpose a squinch has been thrown over the North-East angle, of an arched arcade in the North wall of the North aisle. The tower is of the early English style, plain, roofed with stone, and situated over the North side of the nave, which appears to be an additional structure.

_Saviour's Church, St_--Consists of a nave, chancel, South aisle, and transept, and a lofty square tower, which rises at the West end of the nave. The East window of the South aisle is large and pointed, without mouldings, whilst those on the South side are small and segmental. The aisle has a buttress supporting one of its walls, which being united with that of the chancel, gives it the appearance of being built prior to it. The South transept is small, and the window considerably modernized. The piers of the nave are without capitals, some round and others octagonal. The tower is embattled, having pointed and square headed windows, and is surmounted by a short octagonal spire. The corner buttresses have flowers on their tops, and are two stages high. Besides this church, there is in St Saviour's parish two Methodists chapels built in 1820, an Independent one, opened in 1817, and one for Baptists.