Victorian

The Creux Mahie, October 1888

Creux Mahie guide Priaulx Library collection

The largest cave in Guernsey, once a major tourist attraction. From the Monthly Illustrated Journal, (Guernsey Magazine), October 1888, p. 85; and the cave in 1951, when a party of three including a press photographer go in search of bats there. The illustration is a detail looking out of the Creux Mahie from a small 19th century visitor's guide to the cave.

Herm

From Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, 1831.

Tethering of cattle, 1836

Tethered cows from Bellamy's Pictorial Guide of 1843 in the Library collection.

In view of the current controversy over tethering, here is a view of the practice in Guernsey from Duncan's Guernsey and Jersey Magazine in 1836. The woodcut is by Dr Thomas Bellamy from his 1843 Pictorial Directory in the Library Collection.

Taxation and parish meetings, 1840

From Sarnia, or the Holy Land, a new guide to the privileged island of Guernsey, &c. by a Twenty Years' resident: Payn, Jersey, 1840, pp. 83-4.

The History of the Jeux St George: post 1858

Another extract from the Monthly Illustrated Journal, July, 1888.

Parsnips

La ponais, Guernsey's favourite crop (you thought it was the tomato, didn't you!) From Bellamy's Guide to Guernsey, 1843, pp. 130 ff.; the woodcuts in this charming volume are by Thomas Bellamy himself; and Duncan's famous The history of Guernsey: with occasional notices of Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, and biographical sketches, 1841. Frank Dally, in 1860, claimed that 'before the potato disease of 1845 the potato [as opposed to the parsnip] was the staple root of tillage, particularly in Guernsey, since which time it has very much declined.'

The Guernsey farmhouse and cottage, 1846

Old Guernsey Kitchen, Thomas Grut, Priaulx Library Collection

Continuing the extract from the Dublin University Magazine, 1846. The Guernsey diet and the lower classes' utter lack of musicality.

The Anglo-Sarnian Alliance: a poem

A poem reproduced in J. Linwood Pitts' Guernsey and its Bailiwick, 1889.

Cachemaille's The island of Sark: The Gouliot Caves

Gouliot caves, Sark, from the Priaulx Library Collection

An extract from the Reverend James Cachemaille's fascinating guide to his adopted home, translated from the French by Louisa Harvey. How his friend the Seigneur discovered the Gouliot Caves, once a famous tourist destination, and a description of their 'Chimney' souffleur in a gale. The photograph of the caves is part of the Priaulx Library Collection and dates from 1900.

The Chaumontel pears of Guernsey and Jersey

Par Alphonse Mas, Le verger, aquarelles, 1865. — http://pomologie.com/poire/poire1/fpoires/besidechaumontel/besidechaumontel.html, Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45607746

'There is a pear which is peculiar to these islands, the Chaumontel, which grows to an extraordinary size, and sells very frequently for a shilling each for exportation.' From Cochrane's Guide to the Island of Guernsey, 1826. 'Guernsey supplies to London, besides granite pavement and chaumontelle pears, megalithic theories and watercolour paintings.' The Channel Islands Magazine, May, 1853. The watercolour is from Alphonse Mas' Le verger (The kitchen garden), 1865.

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