Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Hennett de Kesler

16th June 2017
When the French government declared an amnesty in August 1859, the majority of political exiles returned to France. Victor Hugo announced that he would return to his homeland only when liberty returned there; he would not accept the amnesty. His friend Kesler pursued the same policy and remained in Guernsey until his death in 1870. This is part of the Victor Hugo and Guernsey project. [By G Stevens Cox and D Bott]

Expulsion of aliens

13th June 2017
Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners for inquiring in to the state of the criminal law in the Channel Islands. Second Report of the Commissioners &c, London: Clowes, 1848, p. 142. The statements were made by John de Havilland Utermarck, Contrôle de la Reine, on Spetember 28, 1846.

Victor Hugo and Guernsey: Victor Hugo's coachmen

9th June 2017
Victor Hugo had a couple of favoured coachmen whom he used to drive him on his excursions around the island. Hugo had a few strictly prescribed routes, and would become almost anxious if pressed to deviate from them. This would sometimes prove tedious for his familial entourage, who would often accompany him; but Mme Drouet was always happy to indulge him. This is part of the Victor Hugo and Guernsey project. [By Dinah Bott]

Victor Hugo and Guernsey: M Victor Hugo and George Métivier

6th June 2017
In an interesting article in this week’s Academy, says the Pall Mall Gazette of the 21st inst. (1876), M Jules Andrieu discloses certain curious discoveries made by him as to Victor Hugo’s method of procedure in composing his last romance. From this it would appear that even a great genius, and one also who has of late affected encyclopaedic learning, may be reduced to the necessity of ‘cramming’ for the purposes of a particular work;  and that, like others who cram, he is not over-fastidious either as to the field of his investigations or to the accuracy of their results. [By Dinah Bott]

The foreign refugees

6th June 2017
A defence of Victor Hugo and of free speech from the Daily News (founded as a radical newspaper in 1846 by Charles Dickens. Its editor in 1855 was William Weir, a socialist barrister whose increasing deafness led him to journalism.) 'The political exiles in Jersey, who signed the protest against the expulsion of the three gentlemen connected with the journal L’Homme, have in their turn been ordered to quit the island before the 2nd November. What crime have they committed? They have said in 1855 what Sir Charles Wood, the Duke of Newcastle, and Sir James Graham said in 1851, when they were cabinet ministers.'

Local dishes supply food for thought

16th May 2017
From The Guernsey Press' 'Signpost to yesterday' series, April 9 1952. By 'Guernesiais.' The writer makes the contentious claim that Jersey Wonders are actually from Guernsey, and as for bean jar ... The old Guernsey recipe book illustrated is from the Library collection.

The story of Archbishop Mauger

11th May 2017
By Joseph-Laurent Couppey of Cherbourg, extract from 'Notice sur l'histoire des iles anglaises de Jersey, Guernesey et Aurigny, dans ses rapports avec l'histoire de la Normandie et spécialement du département de la Manche,' published in the Revue anglo-française, Poitiers, 1833, pp. 305-7. [From the French.]

Devotedly loyal islands in collision with the Government, 1845

10th May 2017
The Eclectic Review, Vol 17 (1), 1845, pp. 540-555. 1848 is the year of revolution in Europe; in Guernsey the stirrings of the people, such as they were, occurred just a few years earlier. (The headings have been added for ease of reading.) The illustration is a print from the Library Collection dated c 1835, published by M Moss, and showing the interior of the Royal Court in St Peter Port. 'May this people ever beware of apeing the follies of their neighbours, and retain their own dignified simplicity! For it they are pre-eminent. Should they ever stoop to become imitators, they can never get beyond an humble mimicry of that which is useless and effeminate in the customs of England.'

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