Guernsey French

Fountain Street celebrates the peace of 1763

Old Fountain Street by E W DuPuy, Priaulx Library Collection

Fountain Street is decorated for a celebration in unusual style; by George Métivier, writing in the Elizabeth College Magazine of 1842. The illustration is of a painting depicting a view looking towards Fountain Street and the Town Church in 1799, the notoriously narrow part being at the end.

The Metivier Family

St George from Bellamy's Pictorial Guide

Despite many advantages, the Métivier family, which included George Métivier (1790-1881), philologist and Guernsey's 'national' poet, suffered many ups and downs, and the collection of family letters held in the Library makes entertaining reading. The woodcut is by Dr Thomas Bellamy from his Pictorial Dirctory of 1843 in the Library collection.

A Farmer's Vacation, 1873

Guernsey, from an article in the influential American publication, Scribner's Monthly Magazine, September 1873; the article is one of a series eventually brought together as a book, A Farmer's Vacation, by George Wearing, published in the same year. Interest in the exportation of Guernsey cattle to North America and their management was bringing significant numbers of US farmers or their agents to Guernsey in this period. Wearing had first visited Jersey, to compare their agricultural procedures. Below is the Couture Water Lane in St Peter Port, admired by the author.

Guernsey people

By Frank Feather Dally. Guernsey folk love a good funeral.

Piece, courtil, camp

Their meanings in terms of Guernsey landholdings, by Peter Girard, and a note by Rene Lepelley.

Old Guernsey place names

The Star, June 15th, 1915. Not entirely accurate!

The Mulot, or Guernsey Vole: ours are biggest

From The Zoologist, May 15th 1906, in the Library.

Pouliche and paen-paen

A translation of the entry for 'pouliche' in George Metivier's Norman-French Dictionary, from the Guernsey Magazine, January 1884; and another little rhyme.

The Guernsey peasant and patois, 1846

The swarthy locals and their barbarous dialect, an excerpt from the Dublin University Magazine, 1846. This is no doubt based on Inglis' 1834 description of the Guernsey peasant: 'I cannot greatly compliment the personal appearance of the Guernsey country people. There are dark and sparkling eyes among the women .... The men are, with few exceptions, badly limbed; and among the women too, the bust is better than the ankles.'

Cherries, by Metivier

The poet George Métivier's family home, St George in the Câtel (the painting of the house is by Young, 1821), was planted with cherry trees, about which he fondly reminisced, along with the birds that feasted on them. Here are some excerpts from the Guernsey Magazine of November 1884 about cherries, taken from a series called 'Guernsey Popular Names of Plants, as compared with those in other places,' No. 8, 'Based on Mr Métivier's Glossaire.'

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