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.

Victorian

The Town Harbour, 1853-1923

St Peter Port harbour in 1857, detail, Garnier, Priaulx Library Collection

How the sea-front looked seventy years ago, by 'Observer' (1923). The accompanying photograph, from the Library collection, is a detail from a panorama taken by Arsène Garnier of the harbour early in its rebuilding in 1857. The detail below shows the temporary cement mill erected for the works.

7 February 1854: Thomas Falla writes from Guernsey to Victor Hugo in Jersey

Hugo's daughter Adèle kept a diary while the family were in Jersey. The original is in the Morgan Library in New York and the Maison Victor Hugo in Paris. In it she records conversations with Hugo during the Tapner affair. Here is a translation of the entry for the 9 February, 1854, a letter from Thomas Falla, John Charles Tapner's advocate during his trial for murder: [By Dinah Bott]

1897: Utopia in Alderney

A Tolstoyan colony (communal, semi-pacifist, vegetarian, elitist) was planned for Alderney.

Celebrations for Queen Victoria's wedding, Monday, February 10, 1840

Guernsey was muted in its celebration of the royal wedding in 1840. Not everybody agreed with the official approach, and things got rather fraught.

January 1854: Off to Australia

Horrible death of a mystery man, too many islanders are going to Australia, the passengers of the brig Secret, mind your head on the lamp!

Obituary of John Guille, June 1843

Just fifty years and one month ago there presided over the Royal Court of Guernsey a gentleman who, throughout his whole life, proved himself to be a thorough Guernseyman, endowed with the highest principles of honour and integrity, but one also possessing a native intensity of purpose and independence of character.

Captain William Macey

The Star, May 9, 1895. Reprinted from the Leyton Free Press, May 4, 1895.

Amelia Maria Hortensia Collings

'Medical jurisprudence in relation to insanity,' from The Journal of psychological medicine and mental pathology, Volume 1, 1848.

Antiquities at Rosenheim

Rosenheim from A Farmer's Vacation 1873 in the Priaulx Library Collection

A report of a meeting of the Société Guernesiaise in c. 1927. Rosa Brock's house 'Rosenheim,' now known as 'The Chain House,' was a very popular stop on a typical visitor tour of Guernsey, for its highly decorative gardens. The photograph below, from the Library collection, shows the famous 'sun and moon' trough in situ in the gardens. The Library is lucky enough to hold Rosa's exquisite book of watercolours.

Captain Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure

Circumstance and media frenzy made him one of the most famous men in the world in the 1850s and 1860s. But who remembers him now?

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