Basket-lifting in 1833: the perils of having nothing better to do
The Comet, Friday, November 8, 1833. The illustration is a detail from a contemporary 'Moss' print of the Guernsey Markets.
November 1834: Wrecks and Wickedness
From the newspapers of November 1834. The illustration is a detail from Cecilia Montgomery's ink and gouache sketch, Pier, Castle Cornet, in the Library Collection.
Review of the High Street, Part II; December 1824
Part II, From the Sarnian Monthly Selection, Printed and Published for the Proprietors by Dumaresq and Mauger, Church-Street, Guernsey, 1825, p. 217.
21 December: A Love-Spell for St Thomas' Eve
'The night of 21 December was thought in Guernsey to be a night when spirits walked abroad, when it was dangerous to be outside; but this made it a very auspicious night for magic.' From Guernsey Folk Lore, p. 408.
23 December: La Longue Veille
The best mulled wine ever; the history of the Longue Veille; a memoir of a pleasant Longue Veille from 1824; A mon beau laurier, a dance for the Longue Veille.
La Longue Veille: from the Monthly Selection of December 1824
Written by 'The Trifler.'
Irving Brock and the Huron chiefs: a most chimerical idea
'The most interesting characters I ever saw—whose appearance here has been more beneficial than if volumes had been printed on Indian civilization.' By Dinah Bott, Priaulx Library.
A Link with the Past: Ah! Mon beau laurier!
Guernsey's favourite dance, the rather flirtatious 'Ah! mon beau laurier!.' The illustration is of a modern hurdy-gurdy, or 'chifournie,' used in the old days to accompany the dancing: with thanks to Guernsey Post Office, who also produced a superb video of the chifournie being played in Le Hurel barn in Guernsey. The chifournie has been replaced in Guernsey by the fiddle or accordion in modern times.
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]
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!
Jean Falla's Eldership, 1688
This document was transcribed by Edith Carey and added to her own copy of the Pedigree of the Falla Family.
A February selection: desperate people
Governor Ling thinks poor children are too much of a nuisance; Anne Le Page's remedies don't work and she ends up in the Cage; an interesting proposal from France; Mrs Thomas and Mrs Langworthy have a fight.