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THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL
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."--ATHENAEUM.
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."--ATHENAEUM.
THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.
WALTER COOPER DENDY,
"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 , Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11 P.M.
From the Islets on same days, at 8 A.M.
Other Boats, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Return from the Islets, hour uncertain.
Half-fare for children from two to twelve.
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.
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.
Table of Contents
ALDERNEY MAP LA PENDENTE, ALDERNEY ALDERNEY FROM BERHOU GUERNSEY MAP LE FOR?T, GUERNSEY MUEL HUET SERK MAP LE CREUX HAVEN, SERK LES AUTELETS LA COUP? POINT VIGNETTE JERSEY MAP ELIZABETH CASTLE, JERSEY ST. BRELADE'S BAY ST. BRELADE'S CHURCH CLIFFS NEAR GR?VE LA LECQ GUERNSEY AND SERK, FROM JERSEY CROMLECH MOUNT ORGUEIL CASTLE LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE
THE ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.
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.
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 acephalae and the actiniae. In the watery bosom of the cave, the male syngnathus may nurse its infant brood in safety, and the delicate comatula unfold its feathery tentaculae. 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:
AUREN?--AURIGMA--AURIMA--ARENO--ABRENO--AURNE--ORIGNI--AURINAE 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 , 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.
On the coast heights there are batteries and watchtowers and beacons, and a telegraph for Guernsey, all dismantled in time of peace.
We are nearing the little Russell Channel, and surrounded by blocklets: another of the sister islets is looming in the distance.
GUERNSEY:
CAESAREA--SARNIA.
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.
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.
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.
HERM AND JEDTHOU
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