Eleazar Le Marchant (1743-1832)
An excerpt from Guernsey in the Thirties: Remininscences of the late Rev. M. Gallienne, part V, in the Star, February 1901.
The Journal of Jane Maria Barlow, 1833-38
Primary concern: Prettiness of self and other girls. Where are all the beaux? Were all the men really either tall or handsome in the 1830s? Obviously not: 'De Beauvoir De Lisle renewed his attentions which I am sorry for, I shall be obliged to draw a line.' A very annoyed Savery Brock bursts a blood vessel. Guernsey has very bad pavements. The photograph from the Library Collection shows a very benevolent-looking Jane in her old age, many years after this diary was written.
The Anglo-Sarnian Alliance: a poem
A poem reproduced in J. Linwood Pitts' Guernsey and its Bailiwick, 1889.
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 Guernsey workman, by Charles Hugo
The decoration of the salle à manger, or dining room, at Hauteville-House, Victor Hugo's residence in Guernsey, was finished in May 1857. Charles Hugo wrote of it:
Lost things: Guernsey granite fireplaces
General Oliver de Lancey William's only academic production, a notebook of a survey of old island houses he undertook in 1956, full of interesting observations, not just about fireplaces. It was presented to the Library in 1960. The photograph, taken by Edith Carey in 1904, is of La Maison Jean Sarre, 'an old house going to ruins near Bon Air, opposite L'Eree Schools, with a beautiful old carved granite chimney piece, with heads for corbels.'
Guernsey people
By Frank Feather Dally. Guernsey folk love a good funeral.
Thomas Andros' Commonplace Book
Thomas Andros' Commonplace Book, by the Seigneur of Saumarez Manor, from a family 'whose penmanship was far from good;' a handwritten pamphlet of herbal medicine and fruit-growing, dated 1589, Guernsey, and an exploration of other texts quoted in it.
Lilium Sarniense, or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly
Lilium Sarniense, or, a Description of the Guernsay-Lilly. To which is added The Botanical Dissection of the Coffee Berry. With Figures. By Dr. James Douglas, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London; and Fellow of the Royal Society. London: Printed by G. STRAHAN, at the Golden Ball, over-against the Royal Exchange, Cornhill. 1725.
Sword Exercise of the Cavalry
J. Gaspard Le Marchant, Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry, LONDON, PRINTED for the WAR OFFICE, and sold by T. EGERTON, MILITARY LIBRARY, WHITEHALL, 1796.
Early children's books
The Priaulx Library has amongst its collection of rare items several books intended for children.
The works of Ralph Durand
Ralph Durand, author and explorer, was Librarian of the Priaulx Library from 1929-1945, and the curator of the Island Museum from 1938-45.