ALDERNEY MAP
LA PENDENTE, ALDERNEY
ALDERNEY FROM BERHOU
GUERNSEY MAP
LE FORÊT, GUERNSEY
MUEL HUET
SERK MAP
LE CREUX HAVEN, SERK
LES AUTELETS
LA COUPÉ
POINT VIGNETTE
JERSEY MAP
ELIZABETH CASTLE, JERSEY
ST. BRELADE’S BAY
ST. BRELADE’S CHURCH
CLIFFS NEAR GRÈVE LA LECQ
GUERNSEY AND SERK, FROM JERSEY
CROMLECH
MOUNT ORGUEIL CASTLE
LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE
THE
ISLETS OF THE CHANNEL.
* * * * *
IT was in the tenth century that the French King, Charles IV., granted
to Rollo the Pirate, who had married his daughter, the Dukedom of
Normandy, together with the islets of “the wide bay of St. Michael’s;” a
guerdon for his conversion to Christianity. When William, the descendant
of Rollo, won the field of Hastings, the islets became an appanage of
Britain, by the right of _being conquered_, and so they remain to this
day politically subject to Britain, although geographically a parcel of
France. The discovery of Roman, Celtic, Runic, and Gallic relics and
coins, and the ruins of temple and fortress throughout the islets,
reflect their history on the olden time. Jersey, it seems, was the
isolated retreat of Ambiorix, a rebel to Julius Cæsar, if we rightly
interpret the sixth book of the “Commentaries.” These Norman rocks,
however, have not been held unchallenged. The French descents date from
Henry I., through the reigns of John—who established the “Royal
Courts,” on a visit to the isles—of Edward I., Edward III., Henry VII.,
Edward VI., George II., and George III., but they were all failures,
although Du Guesclin, who was commissioned by Charles the Wise, seized
and held Mount Orgueil Castle. In the dilemma of “the Roses,” the Norman
Pierre de Breze assumed the title of “Lord of the Isles” until the
blending of these royal emblems. The last attempt was on Jersey, in
1779-80, by the Duke of Nassau, when Pierson fell in its successful
defence.
During the joyous months of summer and autumn, this fair group of islets
will become more and more attractive as the facility of communication
increases, especially as they possess the elements both of the
salubrious and the beautiful in a very high degree. Soft and
health-breathing gales are wafted along their very lovely and
bloom-spangled valleys; they are belted by magnificent cliffs, indented
by sheltered coves and deep and darksome caverns, and by outlying rocks
of the most fantastic forms, and they are enriched, moreover, by quaint
and antique structures, emblazoned in remote history and romantic
legend.
There is a charm, also, in feeling that they are _our own_, and that the
genial atmosphere and the luscious fruits and the light wines of France
may be so perfectly enjoyed without the inquisitorial annoyance of the
system of Passe-porte.
There are hotels and lodging-houses adapted to the most economic purse,
the direction to which may be learned on board; and the markets will
supply all the delicacies an island appetite can desire. For the
votaries of health and joy the islets are thus exquisitely fashioned by
the bounty of the Creator, and the invalid and convalescent may with
confidence adopt them as a resort, especially as the facility of sailing
and boating on genial waters offers delightful recreation without the
exhaustion of fatigue and the consequent evil of _reaction_.
The islets are fanned by southern breezes, yet the tidal currents in
their rock-bound channels, often running seven knots in the hour, foam
over the breakers in very wild magnificence. The floods of the _Race_ of
Alderney, _Les Ras de Blansharde_, between that islet and Cape la Hogue,
and even those of the _Swinge_ between the islet and the porphyritic
rock of _Berhou_ are proverbial, and in very foul weather the boat may
roll and ship heavy seas in the passage of the Ortac within the crags of
the _Caskets_.
Through the _Race_ run the boats from the Thames: those from Southampton
chiefly through the _Swinge_ or the _Ortac_: those from Weymouth direct
in the open channel to Porte St. Pierre in Guernsey, the most rapid and
_pacific_ course for the languid and the delicate.
* * * * *
The geologic _arrangement_ of the islets is in three pairs. Jersey and
Guernsey are inclined planes, shelving from magnificent cliffs to a flat
beach studded with rocklets; Jersey trending southward, Guernsey
northward; the granite rocks of Jersey enclosing one-half, those of
Guernsey one-third.
Alderney and Serque are _table-lands_, raised on bases of rock; Alderney
irregularly _belted_—Serque completely _framed_. Herm and Jedthou are
mounds isolated by the waves. _Satellite blocks_ and _ledges_ are lying
in profusion in the channels, some overwhelmed at high water. These
groups are exquisitely bold in outline and deep and rich in colour, from
the incessant play of wind and wave, the pencils and the washes with
which elemental _art_ is still heightening the wildness and the beauty
of the creation.
The valleys and downs are prolific in bloom, and flowers of the
brightest and deepest colours adorn the more cultivated parterres. In
the deep, deep caverns, with which the cliff and the bays are darkened,
sport in their almost sacred solitude the acephalæ and the actiniæ. In
the watery bosom of the cave, the male syngnathus may nurse its infant
brood in safety, and the delicate comatula unfold its feathery
tentaculæ. In the hollow cups scooped in the granite and glittering with
brine, the daisy actinia, that Clytie of the rocks so loving of the
light, may unfold her enamoured florets to the sun. Then what profusion
and what variety in form and colour of deep sea-weeds are thrown by the
billows on the pebbles and the sand; a spot richer both in these
cast-away treasures of the deep and in the living botany of the ocean,
may not be found than the caverned bays of eccentric Serque.
[Illustration: ALDERNEY]