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.
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.
11 September 1248, rights of islanders in the time of King John
Extracts from the bound collection of transcribed MSS known as the Nicolas Dobrėe MSS. All in beautiful copperplate, they include versions of charters and other Royal Orders and Acts, and various letters patent and so on that were obviously regarded as highly significant by the volume's owner. Followed by a transcription made in 1730 of the Constitutions of King John, from 'an old translation into French from the original in Latin ... copied from the Book of Mr H Mauger, Comptrolleur,' part of a collection of legal documents probably belonging to former Bailiff Peter de Havilland.
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]
A Farmer's Vacation, 1873: Sark
From George Wearing's A Farmer's Vacation, 1873, pp. 231 ff. The photographs are from the Library collection; that of the Seigneurie in Sark is by Thomas Singleton and dates from c. 1875; above is Baker's Valley in around 1880. 'The population of the island is less than six hundred souls, and of these over ten per cent are confirmed drunkards.'
Shrimps, 1763
The Royal Court republished this 1763 Ordnance in January 1813.
Castle Cornet threatens Napoleon
From Collins' Stranger's Guide to Guernsey, 1833, p. 66.
A Farmer's Vacation, 1873: Guernsey dairy farming
From Scribner's Monthly Magazine, X (5) September 1873, later collated and published as A Farmer's Vacation.
A Farmer's Vacation, 1873
Guernsey, from an article in the influential American publication, Scribner's Monthly Magazine, September 1873; the article is one of a series eventually brought together as a book, A Farmer's Vacation, by George Wearing, published in the same year. Interest in the exportation of Guernsey cattle to North America and their management was bringing significant numbers of US farmers or their agents to Guernsey in this period. Wearing had first visited Jersey, to compare their agricultural procedures. Below is the Couture Water Lane in St Peter Port, admired by the author.