Part 1

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THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL

* * * * *

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MYSTERY.

“We have the greatest pleasure in recommending the elegant and laborious work of Mr. Dendy.”—TIMES.

“Drawn with fancy and elegance.”—ATHENÆUM.

PSYCHE:

A Discourse on the Birth and Pilgrimage of Thought.

THE BEAUTIFUL ISLETS OF BRITAINE.

Illustrated by 45 Woodcuts.

“We are delighted to join Mr. Dendy in his trip.”—ATHENÆUM.

* * * * *

THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.

by

WALTER COOPER DENDY,

Past President of the Medical Society of London; Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Infirmary for Children and Women, Author of “The Philosophy of Mystery,” “The Beautiful Islets of Britaine,” “Psyche,” etc.

“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.”—ENDYMION.

Described and Illustrated from Sketches on the spot by the Author.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts. 1858.

London: Savill and Edwards, Printers, Chandos Street.

ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.

From Southampton (Mail), Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11 P.M.

Fare from London, 1_l._ 11_s._ and 1_l._ 1_s._

" " Southampton, 1_l._ 1_s._ and 14_s._

From the Islets on same days, at 8 A.M.

Other Boats, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Return from the Islets, hour uncertain.

Fare from London, 1_l._ 5_s._ 6_d._, 17_s._, and 11_s._ 6_d._ Steward, 2_s._ and 1_s._

" " Southampton, 16_s._ and 11_s._

Half-fare for children from two to twelve.

Return tickets, 1 Month, 45_s._ and 35_s._

From Weymouth, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 8 A.M.

Return Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at 7 A.M.

Other Boats, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at half-past 8 A.M.

Return Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, at half-past 7 A.M.

Fare from London, 1_l._ 11_s._ and 1_l._ 1_s._

Boat from Jersey to St. Malo’s, in 3 to 5 hours, Tuesday about noon.

Boat to Granville on Saturday.

Excursions from Jersey to Sark and Alderney and round the Islet.

* * * * *

In Guernsey, chiefly French money: Jersey, chiefly British. Chief circulation in Island one-pound notes. 12 British shillings equal to 13 Jersey.

* * * * *

Hotels of all grades. Lodgings in town-houses and garden-villas. Poultry and Fish cheap, especially in Guernsey. Tobacco and Tea moderate. Milk plentiful, even in many cottages.

Wine, per doz.:—Port, 18_s._ to 40_s._ Sherry, 18_s._ to 36_s._ Madeira, 50_s._ Marsala, 15_s._ Claret, 16_s._ to 75_s._ Burgundy, 30_s._ to _55s._ Champagne, 30_s._ to 60_s._ Mountain, 20_s._ Hock and Moselle, 35_s._ to 55_s._ Muscat, 25_s._ Chablis and Barsac, 20_s._ Sauterne, 12_s._ to 15_s._ Grave, 18_s._ Champagne Brandy, 49_s._

Horses, 6_s._ or 7_s._ a-day. One-horse carriage, 8_s._ Two-horse carriage, 12_s._ to 15_s._

Table of Contents

1. Alderney. 2. Guernsey. 3. Sark. 4. Jersey.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

ALDERNEY MAP LA PENDENTE, ALDERNEY ALDERNEY FROM BERHOU GUERNSEY MAP LE FORÊT, GUERNSEY MUEL HUET SERK MAP LE CREUX HAVEN, SERK LES AUTELETS LA COUPÉ POINT VIGNETTE JERSEY MAP ELIZABETH CASTLE, JERSEY ST. BRELADE’S BAY ST. BRELADE’S CHURCH CLIFFS NEAR GRÈVE LA LECQ GUERNSEY AND SERK, FROM JERSEY CROMLECH MOUNT ORGUEIL CASTLE LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE

THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.

* * * * *

IT was in the tenth century that the French King, Charles IV., granted to Rollo the Pirate, who had married his daughter, the Dukedom of Normandy, together with the islets of “the wide bay of St. Michael’s;” a guerdon for his conversion to Christianity. When William, the descendant of Rollo, won the field of Hastings, the islets became an appanage of Britain, by the right of _being conquered_, and so they remain to this day politically subject to Britain, although geographically a parcel of France. The discovery of Roman, Celtic, Runic, and Gallic relics and coins, and the ruins of temple and fortress throughout the islets, reflect their history on the olden time. Jersey, it seems, was the isolated retreat of Ambiorix, a rebel to Julius Cæsar, if we rightly interpret the sixth book of the “Commentaries.” These Norman rocks, however, have not been held unchallenged. The French descents date from Henry I., through the reigns of John—who established the “Royal Courts,” on a visit to the isles—of Edward I., Edward III., Henry VII., Edward VI., George II., and George III., but they were all failures, although Du Guesclin, who was commissioned by Charles the Wise, seized and held Mount Orgueil Castle. In the dilemma of “the Roses,” the Norman Pierre de Breze assumed the title of “Lord of the Isles” until the blending of these royal emblems. The last attempt was on Jersey, in 1779-80, by the Duke of Nassau, when Pierson fell in its successful defence.

During the joyous months of summer and autumn, this fair group of islets will become more and more attractive as the facility of communication increases, especially as they possess the elements both of the salubrious and the beautiful in a very high degree. Soft and health-breathing gales are wafted along their very lovely and bloom-spangled valleys; they are belted by magnificent cliffs, indented by sheltered coves and deep and darksome caverns, and by outlying rocks of the most fantastic forms, and they are enriched, moreover, by quaint and antique structures, emblazoned in remote history and romantic legend.

There is a charm, also, in feeling that they are _our own_, and that the genial atmosphere and the luscious fruits and the light wines of France may be so perfectly enjoyed without the inquisitorial annoyance of the system of Passe-porte.

There are hotels and lodging-houses adapted to the most economic purse, the direction to which may be learned on board; and the markets will supply all the delicacies an island appetite can desire. For the votaries of health and joy the islets are thus exquisitely fashioned by the bounty of the Creator, and the invalid and convalescent may with confidence adopt them as a resort, especially as the facility of sailing and boating on genial waters offers delightful recreation without the exhaustion of fatigue and the consequent evil of _reaction_.

The islets are fanned by southern breezes, yet the tidal currents in their rock-bound channels, often running seven knots in the hour, foam over the breakers in very wild magnificence. The floods of the _Race_ of Alderney, _Les Ras de Blansharde_, between that islet and Cape la Hogue, and even those of the _Swinge_ between the islet and the porphyritic rock of _Berhou_ are proverbial, and in very foul weather the boat may roll and ship heavy seas in the passage of the Ortac within the crags of the _Caskets_.

Through the _Race_ run the boats from the Thames: those from Southampton chiefly through the _Swinge_ or the _Ortac_: those from Weymouth direct in the open channel to Porte St. Pierre in Guernsey, the most rapid and _pacific_ course for the languid and the delicate.

* * * * *

The geologic _arrangement_ of the islets is in three pairs. Jersey and Guernsey are inclined planes, shelving from magnificent cliffs to a flat beach studded with rocklets; Jersey trending southward, Guernsey northward; the granite rocks of Jersey enclosing one-half, those of Guernsey one-third.

Alderney and Serque are _table-lands_, raised on bases of rock; Alderney irregularly _belted_—Serque completely _framed_. Herm and Jedthou are mounds isolated by the waves. _Satellite blocks_ and _ledges_ are lying in profusion in the channels, some overwhelmed at high water. These groups are exquisitely bold in outline and deep and rich in colour, from the incessant play of wind and wave, the pencils and the washes with which elemental _art_ is still heightening the wildness and the beauty of the creation.

The valleys and downs are prolific in bloom, and flowers of the brightest and deepest colours adorn the more cultivated parterres. In the deep, deep caverns, with which the cliff and the bays are darkened, sport in their almost sacred solitude the acephalæ and the actiniæ. In the watery bosom of the cave, the male syngnathus may nurse its infant brood in safety, and the delicate comatula unfold its feathery tentaculæ. In the hollow cups scooped in the granite and glittering with brine, the daisy actinia, that Clytie of the rocks so loving of the light, may unfold her enamoured florets to the sun. Then what profusion and what variety in form and colour of deep sea-weeds are thrown by the billows on the pebbles and the sand; a spot richer both in these cast-away treasures of the deep and in the living botany of the ocean, may not be found than the caverned bays of eccentric Serque.

ALDERNEY:

AURENÊ—AURIGMA—AURIMA—ARENO—ABRENO—AURNE—ORIGNI—AURINÆ INSULA—ISLE OF THE CAPE—ISLAND OF ST. ANNE.

THIS lies nearest to the shore of Albion, within its belt of shoals, and difficult of access in stormy weather, even in its new haven of Braye la Ville, or Brayer. The access was still more perilous in Crab Bay, or in the more ancient port of Longy. We are landed. How quiet the people, how social and primitive, how wedded to old customs. It is probable, however, that in a few years the harbour of Braye will display a busier scene, much of the sterile land of the Giffoine be fertilized, the petty farms multiplied, and the treasures of its fisheries realized: but Alderney will never be admired, for dulness reigns around, and the sea spray seems to excite cutaneous maladies, and the salt and fish diet to induce dyspepsia. There is, however, with its sterile aspect and its dearth of foliage, a prominent and novel character in Alderney. About its elevated centre is the quaint old ville of St. Anne, possessing a new church (the ancient fane being despoiled), a new court house, the Government house, the gaol, the female school, and chapels of dissent.

Of the ancient town on the south-eastern coast, of which the oblong granite blocks of Les Rochers, near the cemetery, are believed to be the debris, very solemn legends are recorded. Its destruction is referred to the judgment of the Deity on the crimes of a gang of wreckers, who plundered and murdered the crew of a Spanish vessel wrecked on the coast. This infliction, according to the record, had its parallel in Jersey.

The _Court_ consists of judge, jurats, attorney and solicitor-general, greffier, sheriff, and his depute and serjeant.

The ecclesiastical history is not without interest, and there are seriously romantic legends of the mission of Geunal, Vignalor, or St. Vignalis, the patron saint of Aurigny. He was a scion of a noble family in Bretagne, a proselyte of St. Magloire, and he resigned his abbacy of Landenec, and became a missionary to Sark. From thence he wended to Alderney, and converted the catchers of fish and the tillers of ground, before this the most desperate _wreckers_ in the Channel.

From the outlying rocks on the eastern height stands the ruined castle (_La Chatte_) of Essex, built, it is said, by Robert Devereux, for the detention of his queen. Below it, on the lower shore of Longis is a Roman _cist_, noted by Holinshed; and _Castrum Longini_. _Les murs des bas_, or the _Nunnery_, is a very antique square, with corner towers, constructed with the Roman tiles of the dilapidated ville. Here and also at _Corbelets_ were discovered antique vessels and coins and relics, and monumental stones of porphyry and sienite.

On the coast heights there are batteries and watchtowers and beacons, and a telegraph for Guernsey, all dismantled in time of peace.

The coast is one of the wildest belts of cliffs and rocklets; those eastward of a line from _Braye_ to _L’Etat_ are of ruddy grit, those westward of porphyry or hornstone. The eastern group, more exposed to disintegrating forces, assumes the columnar form, or that of hanging blocks, as at _Pendente_; but the porphyry of the west is of the wildest fashion. Between these strata is a narrow black belt of hornblende and quartz, running north and south across the islet. On the south-west point is _La Nashe Fourchie_, the cones of _Les Rochers des Sœurs_, and the secluded _Chaise de l’Emauve_, the _Lovers Chair_, a record of the passion of Jacquine Le Mesurier for one far lower than herself in rank. Of this romance the story and catastrophe are just as interesting as the common run of these love tales. Below the ridge of the _Giffoine_ there is the bold _Tête de Jugemaine_, and the fine bays of _La Platte Saline_ and _La Clanque_. On its outlying rock is still celebrated on the first Sunday in Lent, by youths and maidens, the ancient festa of Les Brandons, the wild gambols being peculiar to the islet. After dancing in the ring and kisses round, the corps de ballet return to Braye in procession, waving aloft their blazing firebrands, displaying all the wild gambols of Comus. The islet is most exposed; it is therefore _bracing_, yet the Cape _Alctris_ and other exotics thrive in the open air. About Longis and La Clanque a profusion of _fuci_ and _algæ_ is thrown on the shore. The _Haliotis_ and _Trochus shells_ lie on the beach, and myriads of the _strombiformis_ on the sterile ground.

In her course from England, whether in the open channel or in the Ortac, the boat closes on the _Caskets_. From the Weymouth course these lie off eastward. The water is twenty and thirty fathoms deep around these white sand rocks, which are about a mile in circuit, and have two landing-places, with steps in the rock, accessible in calm weather. The approach is perilous in a storm; and it was off the Caskets that in 1120 Prince William, the only son of Henry I., was drowned. The platform is walled and surrounded by three light-towers at triangular points. The sea block of _Ortac_ and the rocklet of _Berhou_ lie between the Caskets and Alderney, the latter rock being the resort of the Stormy Petrel, the Barbalot, and the burrowing bee, one of the most interesting little things in entomology. From this rock the peep at Alderney is picturesque.

We are nearing the little Russell Channel, and surrounded by blocklets: another of the sister islets is looming in the distance.

GUERNSEY:

CÆSAREA—SARNIA.

PASSING between the point of _Vale_ and Herm, we are directly off the harbour of _St. Peters Port_, its fort of _Castle Cornet_ crowning an isolated granite rock, southward of the pier, which now connects it with the shore, and forms the harbour of refuge. The coup d’œil assumes a perfect Norman aspect, and the costume, dialect, and manners are in just harmony with the scene. The marine quarter of the “town,” as it is _par excellence_ termed (and indeed there is no other in Guernsey), especially the old church, the hotels, and wineshops, of dark grey stone, with which the quay is lined, is perfectly _continental_. The shops and offices, of more modern aspect, compose the streets; the dwellings of the opulent, among which _Castle Carey_ is conspicuous, are chiefly on terraces along the abrupt escarpment; _Elizabeth College_, the modern church, and the _Victoria Tower_, by the cemetery, on the new ground, being the most prominent public objects. The old church on the quay, dating about 1120, is crucial, the interior being darkened by its massive columns and heavy galleries.

The marble slabs of the fish-market are profusely supplied with choice fish—turbot, dorey, and very fine crustacea; and the stalls teem in the season with the treasures of Pomona.

The education at the College is economical, about £12 per annum; the cost for living with the Principal not exceeding £60.

The influence of this facility of learning will enlighten the minds even of the unlettered islanders, among whom there is a prevalent superstition. The belief in witchcraft may still be discerned, although it is now two centuries since women were tortured, hung, and burned under this demoniac creed.

The scenic quality both of the interior and of the eastern and northern coasts of Guernsey is mere prettiness. On the south, however, from Fermains Bay to Rocquaine it is buttressed by some of the most magnificent rocks in the Channel, the land gradually descending from them northward. The coast rocks on the east, south-east, south, and south-west, from Saline to Rocquaine, are of _gneiss_, those of Rocquaine are of _schist_, and thence they are _granitic_.

A line from Vagon Bay on the west through Catel to Amherst cuts the islet into two unequal parts, differing in geological character. Much of the bed of the northern portion is alluvial; some, indeed, embanked from the sea by General Doyle. The southern is a more elevated platform, and consists of a series of undulating hills, and sloping bosky lanes, and little glens with rippling runnels, until the highest downs dip at once into the waves their magnificent gneiss cliffs, rounding into beautiful bays, embossed with outlying rocks, and worn into clefts and fissures, or running up into exquisite little dingles. This magnificence is confined to the south; the sea and coast views, however, to the east, are finely backed by the islets of Herm and Jedthou, and the more distant ridge of Serque.

Guernsey is an easy study; it may be _coasted_ and _threaded_, and its objects of natural and archæological interest analysed, in four or five days. In calm weather, however, the cliff beauty of the islet may be contemplated more perfectly from a boat, surveyed from Fermains Bay to Les Hanois.

The coast from Port St. Pierre to St. Sampson is flat, and studded with rocklets, on which loads of _vraich_ and _laminaria_ and _asperococcus_ are profusely strewn. These algæ are gathered and dried for fuel, at the legal harvest time, in March and July, the harvest home being profusely supplied with _vraich cakes_ and bread. The digging and blasting of the quarries of black stone, and the tiny windmills that drain these excavations, give life to the scene as we approach St. Sampson’s.

Martello towers crown several of the brows, and there is within very old walls to the left a little remnant now styled _Ivy Castle_. It is not worth the visit, although it is a bit of a castle, built by Robert of Normandy, contemporary with that of Jerbourg.

We are close to the archæological gems of the islet,—the churches of _St. Sampson_ and _Braye la Ville_, or _du Val_, within a mile of each other, at each end of a flat alluvial isthmus. The first is dated 1111, its name being derived from Sampson, Bishop of St. David’s, consecrated Bishop of Dol under the Duke of Brittany, and endowed with these islets by Childebert of France. He came to Guernsey, and built a chapel here. There are three aisles, with massive pillars and Norman arches; the old gallery-loft and the tower are in exquisite antique. It is profusely covered by most luxuriant ivy with enormous stems.

The steeple of Braye du Val, dated 1117, is very eccentric, immense granitic blocks lying before the belfry-door.

At low water we cross the harbour of St. Sampson’s, Vale, or Du Val, on stepping-stones. The Castle on the mound was erected as a defence against the incursion of the Danes, and then called St. Michael’s, or the Castle of the Archangel. There is a legend imputing its erection chiefly to a band of military monks, who, in a sort of holy pilgrimage, made a descent on the islet.

A Druidical _carn_ lies on the hill, half a mile northward on the left of the road. There are twelve upright and three immense horizontal stones. The largest of these, fifteen feet long and a yard thick, rests on four uprights, the second only on two, the third on the second and the edge of the pit, so that six uprights are unoccupied. From this brow there is a perspective view of the chief objects in the islet, Alderney lying on the horizon to the north-east.

Forts _Doyle_ and _Pembroke_ are on the northern point on either side of _Lancresse Bay_, the bay of “_Anchorage_,” in which the Duke of Normandy landed in a storm, as he was sailing over to England to Edward the Confessor.

The shores and bays are here flat and dull; as we leave the Race Course and pass _Portinger_ and _Long Port_, the upheaved blocks of gneiss increase in number and proportion. In _Cobo_ Bay stands _Le Grande Roche_; its veins of rose-coloured feldspar are unique. Here and there we have picturesque glimpses—one of the flat islet of _Lihou_, once hallowed by a priory built in the reign of Henry I., the grouping of cots and walls still in bold relief. The outlying rocklets are profuse between _Le Grand Havre_ on the north and the bold blocks of _Les Hanois_ or _Hanoreaux_ off _Pleinmont Point_, the west corner of the islet; they completely stud the bays of _Port du Fer_, _Saline_, _Long Point_, _Great Cobo_, _Vazon_, _Perelle_, _Le Rie_, _Rocquaine_, the widest bay in Guernsey. It was in Vazon Bay that the Spaniard Yvon de Galles descended and fought the battle in which the islander Jean de Lesoc performed feats of great valour. The site of this conflict is still named La Bataille.

In contrast to this record of history is a fairy legend. In this bay of Vazon was “_Les Creux des Fées_,” a cavern haunted by the little people. Why and when and how we know not, but they conquered Guernsey!

A sterile sameness reigns around Pleinmont Point and Mount _Herault_ and _Creux Marie_, a cavern 200 feet deep, and _Le Corbière_, until we reach _Point la Maye_. In the vicinity are the old village churches of _St. Peter_ in the Wood, of the æra of Henry II., 1167, and _Torteval_, still more ancient, of the æra of Henry I., 1130, which was erected by Philip de Carteret and dedicated to his Saint, Philip, after a vow during a storm in Rocquaine Bay. There is the menhir stone in a meadow by one of the lanes.