19th century

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.

L'Archipel de la Manche

Children, 1929, Priaulx Library Collection

We asked the question: who wrote the following and when? 'Cross a ravine, go down and across Mill Street, into a sort of fissure between two tall houses, climb up a narrow and interminable set of tortuously winding steps with loose paving stones, and you find yourself in a Bedouin village; hovels, cracks in the roads, dirt alleys, burnt gables, ruined houses, deserted rooms, windowless and doorless with grass growing inside them, beams across the road, ruins blocking the way, here and there an inhabited cottage, little naked boys, pale women; you would think you were in Zaatcha.' And gave you a clue: the original is in French. [By Dinah Bott]

Daniel de Lisle Brock and the British Government

'It has been truly said that the history of Guernsey, for the last fifty years of his life, was in fact the history of Daniel de Lisle Brock (A New General Biographical Dictionary, 1857).' The article reproduced below is from the Eclectic Review of 1845.

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.

The White Shroud of Penance

Shame and humiliation, the penalty for not conforming: the Amende Honorable, or Porter le linceuil.

Communication with England, 85 years ago

Guernsey & Jersey Magazine, June 1836.

The Grange again

The earlier history of the Grange, according to the Library's 19th-century Lukis MSS, transcribed by Edith Carey. Edith Carey's additions are in brackets.

Guernsey, its present state and future prospects: Society, 1846

From the second half of a long but entertaining two-part article from the Dublin University Magazine of 1846. 'Let us now hasten to the proper subject of this paper, the state of society in Guernsey.'

Census data, 1820

Almanac Journalier: Guernsey, Chevalier & Mauger, 1820

Table des Monnaies, Poids et Mesures en usage a Guernesey, published by Frederick Clarke

In the mid-19th century Frederick Clarke produced in his establishment in the States Arcade this little booklet, attempting to distil in four pages the labyrinthine system of weights and measures at that time employed in the island. Its difficulty was compounded by the sheer number of currencies that island merchants and traders had to deal with. The information is taken literally from schoolmaster Thomas du Frocq's Nouveau Precepteur of 1818, which is a (mainly) applied mathematics primer of tortuous complexity and much greater length.

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