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.
Library Book Collection
Guernsey butter, no cheese
From The Guernsey Breed, by Charles Hill, published by Fred Kimball in Iowa, 1917; and churning Guernsey butter—not cleanly but expeditiously—in the 19th century, from Bellamy's 1843 Pictorial Directory. The upright churn shown below is from this volume.
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.'
Explanation of the nature of Real Property in Guernsey: Rents, 1815
Bails and rents continued, from the Report of the Royal Commissioners Deputed to the Island of Guernsey in 1815. First is a succinct explanation of giving to rent, as selling a property in Guernsey was in effect known, by John Jacob from his Annals of 1830.
Turkish trowsers
From the anonymous Annotations on 'The History of Guernsey' compiled by Mr William Berry, which takes schoolmaster and entrepreneur Berry severely to task for his numerous errors. The author takes greatest umbrage, however, on the subject of, yes, underwear. The illustrations are from the Library collection; the one above shows a Greek woman from Marmora in Turkish-style clothing.
Guernsey Newspapers
An overview from Duncan's Guernsey and Jersey Magazine, Vol. II, 1836. The Library has an extensive collection of these unique newspapers, many of which have been very kindly presented to the Library over the years, which can be viewed on request.
Bail and rents
From the Report of the Royal Commissioners deputed to the Island of Guernsey in 1815, published by J. A. Chevalier and N. Mauger in Guernsey in 1817. This investigation into Guernsey law came about after vociferous complaints to the Crown by non-native residents, or Strangers, about their lack of property and other rights in the island, especially when it came to laws concerning debtors and creditors.
The Anglo-Sarnian Alliance: a poem
A poem reproduced in J. Linwood Pitts' Guernsey and its Bailiwick, 1889.
Sarnia: Brief Memorials of many of her sons (civil, military, and naval)
A digitized copy of Ferdinand Brock Tupper's collection of biographies of eminent Guernseymen, arranged chronologically, beginning with John Andros in 1554, and ending with the death of Bernard Ouseley Brownrigg in 1864.
Two letters on the Commissariat, by Havilland Le Mesurier
A supportive review of an important work by Havilland Le Mesurier, the letters following on from his System for the Commissariat of 1798, from The Critical Review, Vol. 9, 1807.