Articles

The Library's unique collections are a treasure chest of unusual, interesting and sometimes surprising material just waiting to be found. This anthology, written by the Editor, is based on an eclectic selection of our archive. The author asserts her copyright on all material on the Priaulx Library website except where copyright of other authors is expressly notified. Permission to reproduce material from this website and full attribution to the author is required in all cases.

Social History

Guernsey in the olden times, by Curio-Antique

From The Star 29 and 31 January 1878. With this fascinating document should be compared the Library's manuscript Notebook of Pierre Henry. Henry, whose ancient house in Berthelot Street is now a tourist attraction, was a wealthy merchant shipowner and ancestor of the Tupper family, through whom the notebook came to the Library.

December 1890

Snow, how our girls can escape degradation, and soup-kitchens, Guille-Alles Library and beginnings of the Societe Guernesiaise, Theatre Royal, Herm overseer, Mr Roger's new premises (SPP), and Sark French, from the local newspapers.

October 1822

Extracts from the French language local newspaper L'Indépendance, and the English-language Star.

October 1892

From the local newspapers.

September 1806

Alderney Races, among other things, featuring Mackenzie's brown mare, called Snowball!

Kemp's rock

John Kemp, John Kemp, so bad they hanged him twice! The strange case of John Kemp, and the mystery as to why the rock was named after him is solved.

August 1810

From the Gazette de Guernesey. The illustration shows the prime, from Grisier's 1864 Les Armes et le duel, in the Library. See Monsieur Siordet's fencing school, below.

Dancing and dissolute music, 1583

From the Recueil d'Ordonnances de la Cour Royale, Vol. I, 1852, ed. R. MacCulloch. This seemingly repressive edict in fact represents the desperation felt by the authorities, who were unable to control the excesses of Guernsey youth, no matter how hard they tried.

Flouncing: July 1834

Cruikshank sketch, short dress 1834, from Priaulx Library Collection

Vive la Flounce! A comic piece in the form of a letter to the Editor of the Star newspaper of July 24, 1834, on the islands' peculiar custom of 'flouncing,' or affiancing, by a visiting wit who called himself 'Time-killer;' and a description of flouncing in Alderney, from Captain Wood's Subaltern Officer, published in 1825. The pictures are from Cruickshank's Sketchbook of 1834-6, part of the Priaulx Library's extensive collection of work by this illustrator.

April 1896: the Cemeteries

From St Peter Port Parish Chronicle, in History of the Guernsey Churches, Scrapbook MS in the Library. The Strangers and the Brothers' Cemeteries and their parlous state of preservation.

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