Prizes
Privateering action in the 18th century.
The Fancy Ball, 7 January 1836
'Oh happy night, enchanting sight, 'Neath garlands gay and floods of light, Brilliant eyes, balmy sighs, Shaming flow'r and lustre bright.' A report from the Star of 11 January, 1836. The photograph is a late 19th-century carte de visite, one of several in the Library Collection of subjects in fancy dress.
Views of James Saumarez in 1801
'A good deal of the grimace of a Frenchman'. A short biography from The European Magazine, and London Review, for October 1801; and a less kind opinion of the Admiral, written by Admiral Thomas Byam Martin, a veteran of his campaigns who had fallen out with him, parts of whose account are often regarded as at the least fanciful. Saumarez was prone to depression, however.
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 Doyle Cup
From the Library and Museum of Freemasonry.
Tethering of cattle, 1836
In view of the current controversy over tethering, here is a view of the practice in Guernsey from Duncan's Guernsey and Jersey Magazine in 1836. The woodcut is by Dr Thomas Bellamy from his 1843 Pictorial Directory in the Library Collection.
Taxation
From Duncan's History of Guernsey, 1841, pp. 270 ff. From Ferdinand Brock Tupper.
Four-horned ewes and six-horned rams, 1779
From the New Universal Traveller, Containing a Full and Distinct Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, and States, in the Known World, by Jonathan Carver, 1779.
A priest takes refuge in Alderney and Guernsey, 1792-93
Extracts from 'Relation du voyage en Angleterre de Monsieur Lefebvre d'Anneville, Curé de Sotteville (près les Pieux)', from Notices, memoires et documents de la Société d'agriculture, d'archéologie et d'histoire naturelle du Départment de la Manche (1924). The author was one of 142 Catholic priests who fled persecution in France and came to Alderney in 1792. The photograph shows the Le Mesuriers' Les Mouriaux House as it is today.
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.
Actions de graces, prayers of thanksgiving
Beautiful prayers in French, previously used in Guernsey. As written in the History of Guernsey Churches scrapbook in the Library. During the Reformation this type of prayer was said after a baptism; later they were used at special services of thanksgiving, such as at the end of wars, or recovery of a monarch from illness.
The Alderney cow
From Supplement to the Penny Magazine, September 1837, p. 383, republished from Volume V of the Guernsey and Jersey Magazine of 1831, with other descriptions of the Alderney cow from various sources.