Taxation
From Duncan's History of Guernsey, 1841, pp. 270 ff. From Ferdinand Brock Tupper.
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 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.
Bread and hot cross buns
From the History of the Guernsey Churches scrapbook.
Guernsey enterprises, 1830
Chapter XVII of Jacob's Annals, 1830, pp. 465 ff.
The Season in Alderney
From The Ladies' Companion and Monthly Magazine, 1868. Old-fashioned and full of Latin tags but more fun that you might think. 'For be it remarked here, that the Alderney girls age remarkably fast, and very probably the charmer who is carrying on a conversation with you, and parrying all your flirting and causerie, with all the nerve and steadiness of five-and-twenty, is, after all, only adorned by the petitionary grace of sweet seventeen.'
Guernsey butter, no cheese
From The Guernsey Breed, by Charles Hill, published by Fred Kimball in Iowa, 1917; and churning Guernsey butter—not cleanly but expeditiously—in the 19th century, from Bellamy's 1843 Pictorial Directory. The upright churn shown below is from this volume.
Adulteration of wine, 1825
More Guernsey skulduggery, from the Economist and General Adviser, 1825.
A Guernseyman is duped, 1590
A cheeky tale, suspiciously similar to Boccaccio's Decameron, from The Stranger's Guide to Guernsey and Jersey, 1833, pp. 128 ff., written by Dr Thomas Bellamy. 'In an old book, now out of print and very scarce, published in 1590, entitled Morgan's Feats of the Cardinals, is the following ludicrous account of the midnight ramble of a gentleman, sent from the island of Guernsey to Naples, in Italy, to buy horses.' The detail is from the frontispiece of the Library's 1566 edition of the Chroniques et Annales de France, Vol. I.
Victor Hugo in Guernsey, by Henri Boland
From Boland's Les Iles de la Manche, 1904, pp. 145-6, including a note attached to the pages by Edith Carey. [By Dinah Bott]
Shrimps, 1763
The Royal Court republished this 1763 Ordnance in January 1813.