8 
 
 AUSPICE 
 
 TEUCRO
 
 . 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 I 
 

 
 FJOKD, ISLE, AND TOE,
 
 
 KnMSDALSHORN, NORWAY.
 
 FJOED, ISLE, AND TOE 
 
 i;y 
 
 EDWARD SPENDER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHARLTON TUCKER, 
 
 21, NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, STRAND. 
 1870.
 
 u 
 
 °[\0 
 S74P 
 
 PKEFACE. 
 
 I have frequently felt, in travelling, the want 
 of some portable volume, which would give me a 
 general idea of the country I was visiting. Guide 
 Books supply useful information about towns and 
 hotels, and all the sights that must be seen. They 
 rarely give any description of the people, and of 
 C their social and political condition. Doubtless there 
 are works in which the information can be obtained ; 
 but they are often expensive, and the traveller, 
 especially a pedestrian, does not want to carry a 
 library with him. 
 
 I have thought that the present volume, being 
 neither bulky nor costly, might be of service to 
 tourists. The three principal articles have been 
 already published — " Norway " and " The Channel 
 Islands," in the London Quarterly Review — "Corn- 
 wall and the Cornish " in Meliora. " The Scilly 
 
 629856
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 Islands" and the three Itineraries have been written 
 for Charles' s Wain. The last do not pretend to be 
 complete, or to take the place of regular hand- 
 books : but they may afford some useful hints to a 
 reader who is still deliberating where he shall pass 
 his summer holiday. 
 
 To him I would give one word of advice. If he 
 means to see all the countries described in the fol- 
 lowing pages, let him not visit them in the order 
 herein arranged. " Norway " stands first in this 
 volume, because it is the most important of the 
 tours. For that very reason it should be made 
 last. Just as Wales and Scotland should be seen 
 before Switzerland, so Cornwall, the Scilly Islands, 
 and the Channel Islands should be visited before 
 Norway. " Tor" and " Isle " are indeed charming, 
 but they will not compare with " Fjord. 5 ' 
 
 EDWARD SPEXDER. 
 
 3-i. Clifton Gaeden-. W., 
 May, 1870.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE v 
 
 NORWAY 1 
 
 Itinerary ......... 56 
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 65 
 
 Itinerary . . . . . . . 1 IS 
 
 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH . . . .123 
 
 THE SCILLY ISLANDS 159 
 
 Itinerary 166
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 Just three-quarters of a century ago a gifted but 
 erratic Englishwoman was journeying through the then 
 almost unknown country of Norway. She had been 
 drawn thither by a consuming passion for a man who 
 made but an inadeqiiate return for so much affection. 
 Travelling through the mountains and the forests of 
 Scandinavia, Mary Wollstonecroft found for a time 
 diversion from painful memories and gloomy forebodings. 
 The " sweet beauty " of the northern summer calmed 
 the tumult of her heart. The free institutions of the 
 Norsk people consoled and delighted one whose love of 
 liberty had been deeply wounded by the fierce outbursts 
 of Toryism in England, which the eloquent but terrified 
 Burke had excited, and by the sad fate of her brilliant 
 friends, the Girondists, in France. In Norway she found 
 a simple race, which, though nominally under despotic 
 rule, was really self-governed. In Norway she met with 
 neither political tyranny nor feudal oppression. The 
 Norwegian husbandmen, as she said, had no fear of 
 being turned out of their farms "should they displease 
 a man in power ; and, having no vote, to be commanded 
 
 B
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 at an election for a mock representative, are a manly- 
 race." In Norway she found no viceroy to " lord it over 
 the people, and fatten his dependents with the fruit of 
 their labours." There was no law of primogeniture, the 
 land was equally divided among the children of a dead 
 owner, it belonged to those who cultivated it. The 
 officials were patriarchal in their relations to the people, 
 and " had no time to learn to be tyrants." Not only 
 was the land free : thought was free. A free thinker 
 need not fear the pillory in Norway ; in that country 
 " a man might even deny the Divinity of Christ without 
 being considered universally a monster." Amid all the 
 changes which have befallen Europe since the mother of 
 Shelley's wife published her " Letters," Norway has re- 
 tained her liberties. She has developed them. In spite 
 of the atrocious political crime by which England handed 
 over that country, without consulting her, to the King of 
 Sweden as the price of his alliance, Norway has increased 
 the freedom which she previously possessed. The very 
 outrage which threatened her ruin was, through the 
 valour of her people, turned to her advantage. They 
 demanded and obtained fresh rights. At the present 
 time Norway is as democratic as any country in Europe, 
 not excepting even the Swiss Republic. 
 
 Soon after Mary Wollstonecroft's visit, the great war 
 broke out, and continental travelling became dangerous. 
 Norway remained unexplored by English literary tra- 
 vellers, with one exception, for about twenty years. Dr. 
 Clarke visited the three Scandinavian kingdoms in 1799. 
 He saw Christiania on the south and Throndjhem on the 
 north. He meant to have reached the North Cape, but 
 was prevented by illness. On his return south he met 
 the Italian traveller, Count Acerbi, who, more fortunate
 
 OLD TRAVELLERS. 
 
 than the Englishman, reached the nothernmost point of 
 Europe. Some time before 1815 an artist named Edy 
 travelled through Norway to make sketches for Boydell's 
 splendid work. In 1820, Captain, afterwards Sir A. de 
 Capel, Brooke went to the North Cape, and published a 
 quarto volume narrating his travels. He was the first 
 Englishman who reached that point, and the journey 
 between Throndjhem and the Cape occupied no fewer than 
 forty days. Three French travellers essayed the same 
 feat. Proceeding from Tornea in Sweden they came 
 across an inland lake, and mistook it for the Arctic 
 Ocean. Ascending a mountain, they spent a whole day 
 cutting an inscription which is so thoroughly French that 
 it is worth republishing : — " France gave us birth ; Africa 
 has beheld us ; w r e have explored the Ganges ; we have 
 travelled over the whole of Europe. Having been ex- 
 posed to various accidents, both by sea and land, here at 
 length have we arrived at the farthest boundary of the 
 world. De Fercourt, De Corberon, Eegnard." The last 
 of the trio published a book, in which he said that he 
 and his friends " had erected a trophy at the end of the 
 world ; materials having been wanting for their further 
 toil, rather than courage to endure it." In reality they 
 were 500 miles south of " the farthest boundary of the 
 world." In 1S2G Mr. Price crossed the Fillefjeld in spite 
 of the warnings of the Norwegians that it was impractic- 
 able. He also made the journey from Bergen to the 
 Hardanger Fjord, and subsequently journeyed from 
 Throndjhem across the Dovrefjeld to Christiania. During 
 his wanderings he encountered many hardships. In 
 1827, Mr. H. D. Inglis explored Tellemarken, but could 
 not discover the famous Rjukan Foss. Nevertheless the 
 volume which he published long remained, even if it is 
 
 b 2
 
 NORWAY. 
 
 not still, the best book of travels in Norway. In 1827, 
 the Rev. Robert Everest of Oxford, discovered the famous 
 Voring Foss, which competes with the recently-discovered 
 Skja?ggedal Foss for the honour of being the finest water- 
 fall in Norway. After this the number of Norwegian 
 tourists increased rapidly, and as the country is large and 
 the visitors were adventurous, most of them had some 
 fresh glories to tell of. Mr. Laing, the father of the ex- 
 M.P., lived in Norway for many months, and published a 
 journal which is still a standard work, and is, unquestion- 
 ably, one of the very best books of the kind ever pub- 
 lished. With this exception, there seems to have been a 
 cessation of works on Norway between the volume pub- 
 lished by Mr. Breton, in 1834, which first described the 
 Romsdal district, and the work of Mr. Forester, who with 
 Lieutenant Biddulph made a very extensive tour in 1847. 
 The last twenty years have produced, probably, as many 
 books upon Norway. The comparative fewness of tra- 
 vellers has, paradoxical though it may seem, led to the 
 frequency of books of travel. No one, except members 
 of the Alpine Club, writes about Switzerland, for all the 
 world goes there. It is only the few who go to Norway, 
 and these have, therefore, an excuse for narrating their 
 experiences. Moreover, the vast extent of the country 
 (compared with which Switzerland is but as a parish com- 
 pared w T ith a state) leaves room for a great diversity of 
 narrative. Further, Norway is one of the best sporting 
 grounds in the w r orld ; and so it comes to pass that men 
 like the late Mr. Newland and Mr. Metcalfe describe their 
 achievements with the salmon, and men like Mr. Lloyd 
 their more serious encounters with the bear. The men of 
 science have as yet done little in Norway. They have 
 been outnumbered by the more adventurous women of
 
 NATURAL FEATURES. 
 
 the period. The last have written in the persons of the 
 " Unprotected Females,'' and, very recently, Lady Di 
 Beauclerk ; while the work on the glacier's of Norway, by 
 the late Professor James Forbes, is, we believe, the only 
 book upon that country written by a professed savant. 
 And yet one might have supposed that the savant, at all 
 events, would find no country more attractive than this. 
 Ladies might well be deterred from visiting it by the 
 long and generally stormy passage across the North Sea, 
 and by the undeniable absence of convenances which has 
 to be endured in every part of the couutiy except the 
 capital. But a mere glimpse at the map of Europe 
 ought to attract the man of science to the most northern 
 state of Europe. He sees a long strip of country stretch- 
 ing far into the frigid zone, yet with a temperature in 
 many parts as high as that of Canada. He sees a 
 coast eaten and corroded by the action of the Atlantic 
 hurled against it by the western gales. He sees that this 
 country is furrowed by some of the longest rivers in 
 Europe, and intersected by mountains which form a 
 breakwater for the whole of northern Europe against 
 the tremendous force of the ocean, and that in all proba- 
 bility their attrition has furnished the material of which 
 the low grounds of the Continent are mainly composed. 
 He would observe that a large portion of Norway is 
 within the range of perpetual summer daylight, and thus 
 he would have the opportunity of gazing on the mid- 
 night sun. If he be also a philologist, he would bear in 
 mind that Norway is the birthplace of the men who 
 conquered our land and built up our language, that it is 
 even now the home of some of the wildest legends and of 
 the most valuable historical records that Europe affords. 
 If he be likewise a political economist, he will remember
 
 NORWAY, 
 
 that in Norway he will find solved many of the political 
 problems which have long puzzled and baffled us ; that, 
 in this the land of the men who founded our nobility, 
 nobility has been abolished : that here there is a church 
 absolutely identical with the state, and yet permitting the 
 widest toleration : that here there is a perfect system 
 of political representation ; and that here, too, justice is 
 brought within the reach of the poorest man, yet, at the 
 same time, litigation is discouraged. 
 
 The attractions of this country are, if possible, even 
 greater to the artist. It is impossible, even with the 
 most skilful word-painting for those who have seen to 
 convey to those who have not seen, any adequate idea of 
 the o-lories of Norway. There are fine mountains in 
 Switzerland, but there is nowhere else such a combination 
 of mountain and ocean — nowhere else in Europe does the 
 snow-clad peak rise directly out of the sea — nowhere else 
 will the traveller find that most distinguishing feature of 
 Norway, the Fjord, guarded at its entrance by a break- 
 water of islands ; winding inland through forest-clad hills, 
 where the white stem of the silver birch gleams amid the 
 sombre pines, and at whose feet he the greenest of green 
 pastures, dotted with quaint houses ; forcing its way 
 farther still through the ever narrowing mountain gorges, 
 down whose sides plunge, at one leap, countless torrents 
 fed from the great ice fields far overhead. Nowhere else 
 in Europe is there such a country of waterfalls as this ; 
 not the petty spouts which Swiss hotel-keepers illuminate 
 with red fire, after the device of the Italian Opera, for the 
 benefit of well-dressed guests, discussing their twentieth 
 course at the table d'hote; but cataracts of tremendous 
 volume and force far away up among the mountains, re- 
 quiring perhaps a whole day's journey to reach them.
 
 A FEAST OF COLOUR. 
 
 Above all, nowhere are there such sunsets as in the 
 countiy of which we are speaking. The memory of one 
 night in Norway makes one feel how powerless language 
 is to describe the splendom-s of that evening glory of 
 carmine, and orange, and indigo, which floods not only 
 the heavens, but the sea, and makes the waves beneath 
 our keel a " flash of living fire." Language cannot paint 
 that wonderful mystic light, so unspeakably soft and 
 tender, which travels round the northern horizon, from 
 west to east, so that one cannot tell where night ends or 
 day begins. These are glories which surpass anything 
 that Danby and Turner painted in their boldest mood. 
 Yet neither is Norway a countiy of artists, nor do English 
 artists betake themselves thither. The first fact is per- 
 haps due to the comparative poverty of the Norwegian 
 people, or rather to the absence of the very wealthy men 
 who in England constitute the class of art patrons. The 
 second fact must be due to that want of energy and 
 courage which makes our artists continue to paint over 
 and over again the same scenes — the everlasting Lake 
 scenery, with its tame prettiness, or the everlasting Grand 
 Canal at Venice, until we come almost to loathe the sight 
 of those places, however skilfully painted. An English 
 artist might make his fortune out of a summer in Norway, 
 unless indeed he returned with a portfolio empty, through 
 sheer despair of the possibility of transferring to canvas 
 the grand features of this country of the Fjeld, the Fjord, 
 and the Foss. 
 
 Probably Norway will never be much frequented by 
 ordinaiy tourists. The three days' sea voyage will always 
 act as a deterrent to those who suffer from the mat de men. 
 True, they have an alternative in the land route by way 
 of Belgium, North Germany, Denmark, and Sweden ; but
 
 8 NORWAY, 
 
 this is a very costly journey and somewhat tedious. Then 
 it cannot be denied that the tourist once within Norwe- 
 gian territory will have often to put up with rough ac- 
 commodation and scant fare. A great increase in the 
 number of tourists would probably bring about some im- 
 provement in the first particular, but the second deficiency 
 is not so easily supplied. The tourist to whom the table 
 d'hote is an important element in the day's programme, 
 will certainly find little enjoyment in a country where 
 (except in the capital) potatoes are the only vegetable 
 grown, and these not to be obtained until the latter half 
 of July ; where fruit is almost unknown, where the supply 
 of meat is precarious, and the traveller may have to live 
 for days on fish, and be thankful if the supply of salmon 
 or trout does not fail him. Women are now as venture- 
 some as men on a special occasion, yet even the most 
 enterprising ladies will think twice before they undertake 
 a journey which involves entire exposure to the weather 
 by day, and the constant companionship of fleas by night. 
 The Norwegian flea is exceptionally large, prolific and 
 energetic ; but even he is a mild tyrant compared with 
 the mosquito, whose cruel ravages are known to the 
 visitors of Northern Norway. The Norwegian carriole, 
 the only suitable vehicle in which to traverse the country, 
 is pleasant enough when the sun shines, but offers abso- 
 lutely no protection when there is rain ; and in Norway 
 the clouds understand their business. Even ladies, how- 
 ever, though incapable of enduring much fatigue, may see 
 many of the beauties of Norway if they will content 
 themselves with those two districts which are at once the 
 most beautiful and the most accessible, the Romsdal and 
 the Hardanger Fjord. In the first is the little rustic inn 
 of Aak, whereof the landlord is fast making his fortune by
 
 HOW TO TEAVEL. 
 
 reason of the high but deserved encomiums of Lady Di 
 Beauclerk. In the Hardanger district the accommodation 
 is more primitive ; but Eidfjord offers most comfortable 
 quarters, whence the Fjord may be explored, and whence 
 the start is made for the most beautiful drive in Norway, 
 that to Vossevangen, and by the magnificent Noerrodal to 
 Gudvangen, which is itself the starting point for the Sogne 
 Fjord. The more venturesome will proceed up to the 
 farthest arm of the Hardanger, and will find a week well 
 spent in exploring the region round Odde. It is a day's 
 excursion thence to the magnificent Skja?ggedal Foss of 
 which "Murray" is seemingly ignorant, and which competes 
 with the Voring Foss for the crown of merit as the finest 
 waterfall in all Norway. From Odde, too, is a hard day's 
 climb to the great ice field of the Folgefond, that enor- 
 mous mass of ice and snow, which covers some 700 square 
 miles. One of the most accessible glaciers in Norway is 
 within an easy distance of Odde. The more difficult 
 excursions were made by ladies two years ago ; some 
 of whom, as I can testify, surpassed their male com- 
 panions in agility and endurance. Bergen, again, offers 
 an excellent starting point for some of the finest 
 Fjords, all of which can be reached without any further 
 inconvenience than a voyage in steamers that might ad- 
 vantageously be cleaner. Mr. Forester writing in 1853 
 said : — 
 
 " The time is not come when even the great highways to Bergen 
 and Throndjhem are open to female tourists. The resting places 
 where decent accommodation can be obtained are still of very rare 
 occurrence. For a lady to undertake such a journey of 300 or 400 
 miles in a carriole or vehicle which carries only one passenger, and 
 is not more roomy than a park chaise, with equal exposure to the 
 weather, would be preposterous."
 
 1 NORWAY. 
 
 In sixteen years considerable improvement has been 
 made, so far as the " stations " or resting places are con- 
 cerned. The great highways from Christiania are in this 
 respect well supplied. But the railways, of which Mr. 
 Forester went on to speak in the future tense, are still 
 for the most part unmade ; and with the exception of the 
 first fifty miles from Christiania, which is traversed by a 
 railway, and the subsequent seventy miles on the Mjosen 
 Lake, traversed by a steamer, the journey to Bergen 
 Throndjhem, or Aak, must be made in the open carriole, 
 unless, indeed, a party of tourists prefer the clumsy four- 
 wheeled three-horsed carriage. 
 
 The mode of travelling in Norway has been described 
 frequently in books ; yet a few words on this subject from 
 one who has very lately journeyed in that country may 
 not be unacceptable. If the traveller is going at all off 
 the main routes (and he will miss, with a few exceptions, 
 the most beautiful parts of Norway, if he do not), he 
 should be provided with a moderate stock of biscuits, some 
 preserved meat, a little jam to supply the lack of vege- 
 table food, and some tea or cocoa ; and, for the outer man, 
 a water-proof coat, and a similar covering for his knapsack 
 or portmanteau. If he is not accompanied by a lady, there 
 is not the smallest occasion for him to encumber himself 
 with a vehicle, for he will be sure to find one at every 
 " station." True, these conveyances are often very shabby, 
 but even the high road through the Gudbrandsdal, the 
 most frequented road in Norway, is not Rotten Row, and 
 he will find a majority of travellers using carrioles or 
 carts no better than his. If he has a lady with him, he 
 should obtain a carriole for her in Christiania. For 
 this, and for the harness and accompanying apparatus, 
 he will have to deposit ten pounds ; and should he return
 
 ROADS. 11 
 
 to Christiania in about a month, he will receive two-thirds 
 of the money back again. In fact, he buys the carriole 
 and harness, and resells it for so much less a sum as •will 
 represent what he would have paid for the hire. The 
 disadvantages of being encumbered with a carriole are, 
 that it almost compels the owner to return to Chiistiania ; 
 and that it involves a considerable expense and trouble 
 in transferring the vehicle from steamer to steamer and 
 in conveying it by the boats on the inland lakes where 
 there are no steamers. The main roads of Norway are 
 admirably made and kept. They are, in fact, fine speci- 
 mens of engineering, which are increased every year, under 
 the wise liberality of the Government ; away from these 
 well-trodden routes, the roads are often exceedingly steep 
 and rough, and that over Moldestad hill is probably the 
 steepest highway in Europe. At intervals along the road, 
 generally about eight English miles apart, there are 
 " station " houses, at which horses and vehicles are kept 
 for travellers. These are provided compulsorily by the 
 farmers, who are paid according to a fixed tariff. This, 
 on the main roads, where the stations are " fast," is about 
 twopence per English mile for a horse, and about three- 
 pence for a horse and vehicle, and harness. On the other 
 roads, wherever the stations are not " fast," the charge is 
 one-third less ; but then twopence per horse has to be 
 paid to the station master for the trouble of ordering it. 
 Should the traveller be pressed for time, or should he be 
 travelling in a party of more than three, he would do 
 wisely to send forhild, that is an order for the number of 
 horses and vehicles which he may require, and the time at 
 which he wants them. As- he has to pay a forfeit if he is 
 more than an hour late, this arrangement somewat re- 
 stricts his freedom ; and it may safely be omitted if he is
 
 12 NORWAY. 
 
 not in urgent haste, or has only one or two companions. 
 The " stations " generally provide bedrooms for travellers ; 
 but as the accommodation vai'ies greatly, they will wisely 
 consult the road-book for the selection of their resting 
 places. This road book is absolutely indispensable. It 
 gives the authorised distance and charge from station to 
 station ; it describes each station, and conveys all neces- 
 sary information about the steamers. An English edition 
 is published every year, at Christiania, by Mr. Bennett ; 
 and, armed with this cheap little volume, " Murray," 
 which is all but useless, may be left at home in England. 
 A traveller who is not bound to time will find from fifty 
 to sixty miles a sufficient day's journey. He must expect 
 to stop for half-an-hour at each station, and thus three or 
 four hours of the day are accounted for. The Norwegian 
 horses, though the surest-footed in the world, are not the 
 swiftest, and will rarely do the Norsk mile (seven English 
 miles) within the hour. The tariff of charge being fixed, 
 and the road-book being always accepted as an unques- 
 tionable authority as to the length of the stage, it is quite 
 possible to travel through Norway without knowing a 
 word of the language. We need scarcely add that a 
 knowledge of it will increase the pleasures and often the 
 comforts of the journey. 
 
 On nearly all the steamers, and in the principal towns, 
 such as Christiania, Bergen, Throndjhem, and Molde, 
 English is spoken. In fact, next to Norsk, English is the 
 most useful language. It is more spoken than any other 
 foreign tongue, except, perhaps, at Bergen, where, owing 
 to the existence of an old German settlement, that lan- 
 guage is much heard. French is simply useless. Nor 
 is this surprising, for while French is one of the Romance 
 languages, and springs from the Latin, Norsk, English,
 
 LANGUAGE. 13 
 
 and German spring from one common tongue, which is 
 now spoken only in Iceland, and in one or two very remote 
 regions in Norway. Modern Norsk is really Danish, and 
 the Copenhagen newspapers are circulated through Nor- 
 way as freely as if they had been published in Christiania. 
 Some attempts have been made to restore the use of the 
 old language, but these have not been successful. Pro- 
 bably, the cause of the failure is to be found, to some 
 extent, in the lack of adaptability on the part of this 
 language to modern wants. Nevertheless, while the 
 head of an ordinary English household would find a diffi- 
 culty in understanding Chaucer without a glossary, the 
 Icelandic maid-servant of to-day not only understands, but 
 speaks the language of four or five hundred years ago. 
 Modern Norsk or Danish, being, like English, uninfected, 
 is not difficult to learn. Travelling in Norway is facili- 
 tated by the honesty and the good temper of the people. 
 Attempts at extortion are very rare, and the readiness 
 with which the people at the stations set themselves to 
 forward their visitors' comfort deserves all praise. Old 
 tourists in Norway complain that travelling in that 
 country is no longer as cheap as it was. There seems to 
 be no doubt that on the more frequented roads the 
 charges for food are higher than they were. Yet that 
 these are not excessive may be gathered from the follow- 
 ing instance, experienced by myself : At Ormeim, in the 
 far-famed and inuch-frecmented Romsdal, a dinner of 
 fish and meat, beds, and a breakfast of fish and meat, 
 were charged four marks (about 3s. Id.) for two persons. 
 True, the accommodation was very primitive, but there 
 was little disposition to find fault with that, in view of 
 one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the world. 
 Other instances of similar charges might be given. It
 
 14 XOEWAY. 
 
 is only in Christiania, Bergen, Molde, and Honefoss 
 that they are at all high, and even there they are 
 under the Swiss prices. Another great advantage which 
 Norway possesses is the free access to all her grand 
 natural spectacles. I could not but contrast my ex- 
 perience at the magnificent Norwegian waterfalls, which 
 are guarded by no keepers, with the previous year's 
 acquaintance with the amry of shopmen in the neighbour- 
 hood of Meyringen. There was not a single beggar to 
 stretch out an itching palm in 1868 ; it was impossible to 
 walk a hundred yards in 1867 without being beset by a 
 hungry brood of mendicants, who, at the Eosenlaui 
 glacier, developed into downright ruffianism needing per- 
 sonal chastisement. Fortunately for Norwegian tourists, 
 that wretched specimen of the British snob — the purse- 
 proud citizen, who buys with a profuse expenditure of 
 gold the outward homage of the people who inwardly 
 despise him — is not likely to mar their comfort, nor to 
 spoil a simple and honest race. Norway is not a country 
 for the man who finds delight in the gaping admiration of 
 the people that think him a lord. To such a man the 
 table d'hote is the one event of the day, and in Norway he 
 would starve. Long may that country continue the land 
 of scarcity ; far distant be the time when it will form 
 acquaintance with made dishes. 
 
 We have spoken of Norway as the land of the Fjord, 
 the Foss, and the Fjeld These are its most striking phy- 
 sical features. They are, moreover, intimately connected 
 together. They are successive steps in " the world's great 
 altar-stairs, that lead " not indeed " through darkness," 
 but through beauty " up to God." The traveller makes 
 his first acquaintance with Norway as he thrids the 
 mazes of the Fjord. Perchance it will happen to him,
 
 F.JOED, FOSS, AND FJELD. 15 
 
 as it happened to me, to enter one of these mazes 
 when the crimson-dyed horizon was glowing into bur- 
 nished gold, when the intense brilliance of the twilight, 
 that was neither wholly sunset nor wholly dawn, but par- 
 took of the beauty of both, flooded the whole northern 
 and western sky, while, far away in the south-east, the 
 full-orbed moon shone with metallic lusti-e ; when the 
 gentle breeze of summer came borne with a sigh from this 
 enchanted-seeming land, and laden with the sweet fra- 
 grance of its dark pine forests ; when the very idea of 
 sleep seemed a sin, and every sense was aroused into new 
 and quickened life by the magnificent apotheosis of colour, 
 so infinitely beyond the power of imagination to conceive. 
 Should it be one of the principal fjords, the traveller will 
 have to pass the greater part of the day before he comes 
 to the head of it. Arrived there, perhaps a hundred miles 
 from the entrance, he will find a river roaring and tum- 
 bling into the fjord over great boulders of rocks. A mile 
 or two farther on he will reach the shores of a wide fresh- 
 water lake, a " Vand," shut in by lofty mountains. The 
 vand is some hundreds of feet above the fjord, which is of 
 course on the level of the sea. But beyond the vand 
 there is usually a very rapid ascent. It is nevertheless a 
 long as well as a steep climb to the mountain tops. Ar- 
 rived there after, it may be, more than a day's journey, 
 the traveller finds himself, not on a peak or a ridge, but a 
 wide waste of gently undulating moorland ; this is the 
 fjeld, the reservoir of all those streams which he saw 
 pouring down the mountain side as he journeyed up the 
 fjord. Wittich has aptly contrasted Norway with Switzer- 
 land. The mountains in the latter country he compares 
 to a ridge and furrow roof; the mountains in the former 
 to the embrasures of a parapet. The chief difference be-
 
 16 NORWAY. 
 
 tween them lies in the enormous snow fields of Norway. 
 There is no parallel in Switzerland to the Folgefond. 
 These extensive table-lands, whether on the lower level 
 of the fj elds, or on the higher level of the snow fields, will 
 not, however, compare for beauty with the views even 
 from the minor elevations of Switzerland. There is not 
 in all Norway a mountain view to be compared with that 
 from the Righi, still less with that from the vEggisch- 
 horn, least of all with that from any of the mountain 
 peaks in the Monte Rosa district. In another particular 
 Switzerland carries off the palm ; the chalet is infinitely 
 more picturesque than the s'ater. The s'ater can be com- 
 pared only with the Irish cabin as it used to be in the 
 worst clays before the exodus. Yet here in this rude hut 
 of earth and stone, with no furniture but one three-legged 
 stool and a box, which being lined with hay is called a 
 bed, the peasant girls pass the brief Norwegian summer, 
 and spend their time to such good purpose, that when the 
 first frosts come with the departure of August, they have 
 laid up a store of butter and cheese that would move to 
 envy the dairywoman in the fertile vale of Taunton. 
 
 The fact that Norway stretches through thirteen de- 
 grees of latitude, through more than 900 statute miles, 
 implies a great variety of climate and produce. Paradoxi- 
 cal as it may seem, the winter is colder in the south than 
 in the north. At Christiania, which is in the same lati- 
 tude as the Shetland Islands, the sea is frozen hard. At 
 the North Cape, w T hich is about 300 miles above the 
 Arctic Circle, the sea rarely, if ever, freezes. The ex- 
 planation of the phenomenon was easy enough until 
 recently. That convenient solvent of all difficulties of 
 climatology, the Gulf Stream, was credited with bestowing 
 a temperate winter upon this part of the frigid zone. It
 
 CLIMATE. 17 
 
 was this kind messenger -which came bringing the super- 
 fluous heat of the Mexican watei-s to the Lapps and the 
 Quaens. But now this cherished belief has been called 
 in question. Undoubtedly, the Gulf Stream does flow 
 past the western coast of Norway. Have not the trees 
 of the American forests been stranded on the shores 
 of Iceland 1 But the savant now tells us that the stream 
 is neither broad enough nor deep enough to produce any 
 sensible change of temperature. Undoubtedly the infor- 
 mation is good news for the nervous, who feared that the 
 piercing of Panama would carry the Gulf Stream to the 
 other side of the world — would give us, in exchange for 
 our moist warm winter, the winter of China with the mer- 
 cury frozen in the bulb for weeks together. We can, 
 therefore, pardon the iconoclasts who have destroyed one 
 idol without erecting another. Until they supply our 
 need, we can only say that, judging from the experience of 
 the Lapps and the Quaens, the frigid zone is not so very 
 frigid after all. Nevertheless, there is abundant cli- 
 matic variety in Norway. If there are terrestrial causes 
 as yet unknown for the tempering of the Arctic cold, there 
 is an obvious celestial cause for the limitation of vegetable 
 produce in a country where the winter lasts nine months, 
 and the summer only half as many weeks. In latitude 
 58° 9', according to M'Culloch, the average temperature 
 is 45°, and there is no constant snow region. With the 
 exception of peaches and apricots, English fruits will ripen, 
 but have little flavour. The beech woods cease at lat. 59°, 
 and the temperature has fallen one degree. Neverthe- 
 less, all kinds of grain grow. The plum does not ripen at 
 lat. 60°. Between 60° and 61° the temperature falls to 
 43° on the coast, to 41° in the interior. The elm ceases, 
 the oak is poor, but the fir, the birch, the hazel, and the 
 
 c
 
 1 8 NORWAY. 
 
 aspen are still vigorous. Another degree farther north 
 sees the wheat in adversity, and the ash almost disappear. 
 Beyond 60° wheat will ripen only on sheltered spots 
 near the coast, peas are precarious, cabbages will not 
 come to perfection. Beyond 65° even the oats lose their 
 courage, the pine degenerates, no fruit save the currant 
 will ripen. 
 
 The farther north we travel, the more wonderfully rapid 
 is the progress of vegetation when the snows have fairly 
 disappeared. In the neighbourhood of Hammerfest, the 
 most northern town in Europe, the hay will be carried in 
 the fields that a month before were covered with the white 
 pall of winter. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that 
 the grass may be seen to grow. The fact that the sun 
 does not disappear be]ow the horizon prevents the atmo- 
 sphere from becoming damp during the summer nights — 
 if nights they can be called — and greatly assists farming 
 operations. Nevertheless fine weather cannot be counted 
 upon with certainty, and so the husbandmen literally hang 
 their hay up to dry. They erect hurdles — hay hoi'ses they 
 have been facetiously yet correctly called — over which 
 the hay is thrown, and, being then thoroughly exposed to 
 the atmosphere, is quickly dried. In Bergen and the 
 neighbourhood the climate is peculiarly unsettled. No 
 fewer than seventy-three inches of rain fall annually in 
 Bergen, five times as much as at Upsala, on the east 
 coast of Sweden. The Bergeners are compensated by the 
 mildness of their winter, for its average temperature is 
 thirteen degrees higher than that of Christiania. In 
 the interior the cold is far more severe than on the 
 coast. But the frost has its compensations. It converts 
 into firm highways the countless lakes ; it enables the 
 people by the aid of their long snow shoes to perform
 
 THE LAND SYSTEM. 19 
 
 journeys of great length with much rapidity; it facilitates 
 the transport of produce in the districts where the roads 
 are bad. In some parts, however, the snow renders loco- 
 motion almost impossible. In such districts, if a man 
 dies during the winter his corpse is preserved, either in 
 ice or salt, until it is possible to reach the churchyard. 
 Even then the pathway is often so narrow that the dead 
 body has to be fastened astride upon a horse, and thus 
 rides to its own burial. The ghastly tales that have been 
 told of cavalcades of corpses proceeding to a funeral are 
 thus founded on fact. 
 
 The land system in Norway has long been the admira- 
 tion of political economists. Laiug, Kay, Thornton, and 
 Mill, have expressed their high approval of it. The land 
 is the property of those who cultivate it. It is udal 
 (the German adel, noble) as opposed to feudal. The 
 occupier owns it absolutely, instead of being a tenant at 
 will as in this country, and he has to perform no service 
 to any seigneur or lord of the manor, as in British North 
 America. There is no law of primogeniture. The children 
 inherit equally. Of course it may be proved mathemati- 
 cally that in process of time the land will be infinitely 
 divided, until the descendants in the n th generation have 
 to partition a single tree among them equally. Equally 
 of course, no such minute subdivision actually occurs. 
 For, first, where there is gavel-kind early and impro- 
 vident marriages do not take place, and children are 
 fewer ; and in the next place, marriage is constantly 
 counteracting the effect of death. Just as the one event 
 tends towards division, so the other tends towards amalga- 
 mation ; for, the daughters inheriting as well as the sons, 
 the bride brings to her husband a dowry in the shape of 
 an estate, which is added to his. There is, however, one 
 
 c 2
 
 20 NORWAY. 
 
 provision which is by no means for the public advantage. 
 All the kindred of the udaUer are odehbaarn to the land, 
 and have odelsbaarn ret. These terms, which are not only 
 Norsk, bul Scotch of the Shetland Islands, mean that the 
 baam or kinsmen (whence the word bairn) have a ret or 
 right to the land of which the vdcdier or actual pos- 
 sessor cannot deprive them. He may sell his estate to a 
 stranger ; but the baarn may, if they please, compel the 
 stranger to sell it to them for the price he has paid. 
 Formerly there was no limit of time as to this power. 
 The result was that the tenure of property was thereby 
 rendered so uncertain '"hat the Government found it 
 necessary to restrict the right to five years. Yet even 
 this modified ret is clearly detrimental to any improve- 
 ment of the land. No one would buy an estate and 
 lay out a large sum of money in developing it, if 
 in any time during five years he was liable to be 
 ousted with no compensation for his improvements, and 
 with nothing but his original purchase money to solace 
 him. 
 
 The Norwegian farms consist of three divisions ; the 
 in-field, on which are grown the wheat crops and the best 
 hay ; the mark, or out-field, for pasturing cattle ; and the 
 s'ater, already referred to, which may be thirty or forty 
 miles off, and upon the moorland attached to which the 
 cattle feed during the short summer. An average farm 
 will contain about 290 acres without the sater ; the rent 
 of it would be 200 dollars (about 452L), the taxes 36 
 dollars (about 81.), and the value 4000 dollars (about 
 888/.). The soil being for the most part sandy, the 
 wheat crops are liable to be burnt, or to be injured by 
 premature frosts. These frequently occur during the last 
 week in August, and the three closing nights of the
 
 AGRICULTURE. 21 
 
 month are called " iron nights," and too often blast the 
 fairest harvest. Eye is the most cultivated cereal : next 
 to that come oats, out of which is made the fladbrod, the 
 large thin loaves which constitute the staple bread of the 
 country. After these crops come flax and potatoes. 
 Other vegetables are almost unknown. It is probably 
 owing to this cause and to the large consumption of salt 
 fish that scorbutic diseases are so common iu Norway. 
 At Bergen, one of the most noted institutions is the 
 hospital of lepers, who present a most ghastly spectacle. 
 A more agreeable subject of contemplation is the corn- 
 banks which exist in many parts of Norway. These 
 banks supply the absence of markets. They are maga- 
 zines in which the farmer who has more corn than he 
 needs to supply his wants, deposits the surplus. During 
 the time it remains there he receives at the rate of one- 
 eighth of increase per annum, so that if he deposits eight 
 bushels he can take out nine at the end of a year. The 
 com deposited is lent to other farmers who have not 
 enough : they pay for it at the rate of one-fourth of 
 increase per annum, so that if they borrow eight bushels 
 for a vear they will have to repay ten bushels. The 
 profit defrays the cost of management, such as the ex- 
 pense of building and the salary of the clerk The work 
 of the farm is carried on by " housemen/' These are 
 married farm servants who hold cottages with land on the 
 skirts of each farm, at a fixed rent, for two lives— that of 
 the cottar tenant, and that of his widow — under the 
 obligation of furnishing a certain number of days' work 
 at a certain rate of wages. The landlord cannot remove 
 them so long as the stipulated rent and work are paid. 
 Pauperism is very little known in Xorway. But every 
 farmer is bound to provide a home and board for a pauper
 
 22 NORWAY. 
 
 either throughout the whole or portion of a year, and in 
 return the pauper (who is usually old or infirm) gives 
 such slight assistance on the farm as he can rendei\ It 
 may seem at first sight strange that there should be any 
 emigration from a state in which the land-laws are so 
 favourable, the taxes are so light, and the country is so 
 sparsely peopled. Yet, though the whole population of 
 Norway is considerably less than half of that of London, 
 it must be remembered that only a small proportion of 
 the country is habitable. Professor Munch, the chief of 
 Norwegian savants, states that not more than one-tenth of 
 the country can be tilled. Consequently there is a nume- 
 rous and steady emigration of the peasantry to the United 
 States, especially to Wisconsin, in which state there is a 
 large Norwegian colony. The connection between the 
 two countries is very apparent to the traveller in Norway. 
 He will find in most of the " stations " engravings of 
 battles during the American civil war, engravings in 
 which the Federals are always successful over the Con- 
 federates. 
 
 From the land we pass to the sea, from the bonder, as 
 the peasant farmers are called, to the fishermen. These 
 form a very important and numerous class in Norway. 
 The approach of a fishing jagt will make itself apparent to 
 the nose as well as to the eye, and Mr. Mathieu Wil- 
 liams, author of " Through Norway with a Knapsack," 
 avers that he has been awakened out of a sound sleep by 
 the odour of one of these fishing fleets, as it neared the 
 steamer in which he was. The craft used in fishing are, 
 as he says, " not addicted to high speed, but they are 
 indifferent to any amount of sea, and if they struck upon 
 a rock they would probably rebound and go on as if 
 nothing had happened." It was in such vessels, he sup-
 
 THE MALSTROM. 23 
 
 poses, that the "old sea-kings crossed the Atlantic and 
 traded with America centuries before Columbus discovered 
 the New World." The fisheries are canied on along the 
 whole coast of Norway, from the Naze, its southernmost 
 point, past the North Cape to the Varanger Fjord, close 
 to the Russian frontier. They are divided into three 
 distinct groups : the LofFoden, the Romsdal, and the 
 Finmark fisheries. The first of these is the most im- 
 portant. It is conducted in the great West Fjord. This 
 is the most extensive on the coast of Norway, and has a 
 communication with the ocean independent of its sixty 
 miles of broad entrance by numerous narrow sounds. In 
 this fjord the water is so deep that the lead will scarcely 
 reach the bottom. It is between these islands that the 
 far-famed Malstrom is found. Its evil reputation is quite 
 undeserved. " This whirlpool, which our geography books 
 used to tell us would suck in big whales, to say nothing 
 of ships, which approached within a mile or two of it, is 
 so little thought of by the inhabitants," says Mr. Crowe 
 in a consular report, " that they pass and repass it in 
 their frail vessels at all states of the tide, except at certain 
 times in the winter season, and, far from drawing in 
 whales and other things that come within its range, it 
 appears to be a favourite resort of the fish of the country, 
 and the fishermen reap a rich piscatorial harvest from its 
 bosom." In fact, the greatest rate of the tide at the 
 Malstrom even in winter does not exceed six miles an 
 hour. 
 
 The Loffoden fishery gives lucrative employment during 
 three or four months of the year to nearly 30,000 persons. 
 In the beginning of February the fish set in from the 
 ocean, and occupy the banks in the West Fjord. The 
 fish are caught partly by line, and partly by net. The
 
 24 NORWAY. 
 
 inspectors appointed by the Government portion out the 
 fjord between the two sets of fishermen, line fishers hav- 
 ing the inside, and net fishers the outside of a given 
 boundary. The fishermen work in companies, each of 
 which has its own fishing ground regularly marked out. 
 The inspectors have no longer the same control over the 
 fishing gear that they used to have. They are, however, 
 invested with large powers as maritime police, and have 
 authority to treat summarily all disputes and offences in 
 connection with the fisheries. During the period from 
 January lGth to April 14th, 1866, they dealt with 141 
 offences, of which by far the larger number (110) con- 
 sisted of drawing nets before the morning signal, and 
 placing them out before the evening signal. Fines were 
 levied to the amount of 349 dollars, the greater portion 
 of which fell to the State, which incurred an expense of 
 8,457 dollars in superintending this fishery. Besides the 
 inspectors, medical officers are provided by the Govern- 
 ment, and they reported that in about 33,000 persons 
 there were thirty-six cases of typhus, and sixteen of 
 pneumonia, and thirteen of these patients died. After 
 careful investigation, the Government have come to the 
 conclusion that the fewer restrictions they impose the 
 better ; and as the tendency of legislation is to remove 
 all existing barriers, it is to be hoped that the absurd 
 regulation by which fishermen are forbidden to take down 
 stock fish (the cod dried on poles) before June 12th, or 
 to hang it up after April 14th, will be abrogated. The 
 object of this regulation was to secure a uniform quality 
 in the curing of the fish ; but as the weather is variable, 
 it is manifest that the prescribed period may be too short 
 in one year, and too long in another. The stock fish are 
 not split, but are dried whole, and are exported to Roman
 
 COD FISHERY. 25 
 
 Catholic Germany, Austria, and Italy. All cod caught 
 after April 1 4th are prepared as klip fish, that is, they are 
 split open, salted down, and packed flat. The visitor to 
 Norway may see them lying about on the rocks and 
 islands of the fjords baking in the hot sun. When pi - o- 
 perly dried they are as hard as a board, and require 
 soaking for a couple of days before they are fit to eat. 
 The klip fish go to Spain. The salt fish go to Russia ; 
 and so much importance does the Russian Government 
 attach to this source of food-supply, that they have 
 specially exempted the Norwegian raw and salted fish 
 from duty in ports of the White Sea. The cod fishery 
 has become a more lucrative employment since the oil 
 obtained from the livers has been used extensively for 
 medicinal purposes. The oil manufactm-e has become a 
 most important industry at Bergen. Beside the Loffoden 
 fishery are the Romsdal and the Finmark fisheries. These 
 are not under the inspection of the Government. The 
 total yield of cod in 18G6 was about forty millions, 
 which, computed at the current prices on the fishing 
 grounds, represent about one million sterling. 
 
 It is not, however, only from the cod that cod-liver oil 
 is obtained. It is derived largely from the shark. Norway 
 lying, as a large part of it does, within the Arctic Circle, 
 is yet visited by two inhabitants of the tropical world, the 
 shark and the mosquito. The visitor to Hammerfest is 
 sorely troubled by the latter creature ; the Norwegian 
 fishermen give a good account of the former. There are 
 no fewer than four specimens of the shark tribe in these 
 high latitudes, and they extend throughout the Arctic 
 Ocean. The fishery commences at 68° and extends to the 
 North Cape. The banks on which the fish are found are 
 not quite continuous, as occasional breaks, or deeps, are
 
 26 NORWAY. 
 
 met with. These are supposed to be valleys or rifts like 
 the fissures on the mainland, which now form the deep 
 fjords, and it is thought that the banks are simply con- 
 tinuations of the mountain ridges. The vessels employed 
 on the shark fishery range from twenty to thirty tons, and 
 are manned with a crew of sixteen. They lie at anchor 
 on the banks, with 150 to 200 fathoms of water, and a 
 box perforated with holes, and containing refuse blubber, 
 is attached to the line, so that the oil escaping it may act 
 as a decoy to the main bait, which consists of some fish or 
 of seal-blubber. As soon as the shark is hauled to the 
 surface of the water, a smart blow is struck upon his nose, 
 which stuns hira. A large hook at the end of a pole, 
 attached to a stroug tackle, is then driven into the fish, 
 and by this means he is hoisted upon the deck. The 
 liver is then taken out, the stomach is inflated with wind, 
 so as to keep the fish afloat when it is thrown back into 
 the sea. In this way the fishermen suppose that no harm 
 is done to the fishing grounds. The length of the shark 
 varies from ten to eighteen feet. Its value depends upon 
 the size of the liver, and the yield varies from fifteen to 
 sixty gallons of fine oil for each fish. The longest species 
 of the shark is found below the 60th parallel of latitude, 
 and is caught with a harpoon. It is sometimes forty feet 
 long, and usually appears during the hottest weather. 
 The fish is seen basking on the surface of the water with 
 one fin erect, and as he usually follows a boat the fisher- 
 men suppose that he mistakes the sail for the fin of a 
 fellow shark. Catching him is a work of some peril, for 
 no sooner does he feel the harpoon than he dives, and 
 unless the line attached to the weapon is allowed to run 
 out very rapidly, he would drag the vessel under water. 
 A fat fish usually gets exhausted in four hours, a lean
 
 HERRING FISHERY. 27 
 
 fish will sometimes hold out for twenty-four. There is 
 one kind of shark which is considered rather a delicacy, 
 and having been dried it is exported to Sweden, where 
 it is much appreciated. 
 
 The diminution of the sharks has led to a large increase 
 in the number of herrings. The cod fishery employs a 
 larger capital ; but the herring fishery is carried on over 
 a larger extent of coast. It is divided into three seasons, 
 the winter or spring herring fishery, the summer herring 
 fishery, and the pilchard herring fishery. The first of 
 these has from the earliest times been a source of wealth 
 to the Scandinavian sea-board, and it is the most im- 
 portant of the three. This fishery has been subject to 
 some strange suspensions. Although since the ninth 
 century it had been looked upon as a regular source of 
 wealth, in 1567 the fish disappeared altogether, and it is 
 not until 1700 that we have any authentic accounts of an 
 abundant and regular fishery. From that date until 
 1808 it fluctuated, with longer and shorter intervals. In 
 that year the herring entirely left the coast of Sweden, and 
 has not been seen there subsequently ; but since that time 
 the supply on the coast of Norway has been regular and 
 abundant. The most extensive fishing grounds lie be- 
 tween the Naze and Bergen. The best fishings begin in 
 January and end in March. The shrill cries of the sea- 
 birds and the spouting of the whales denote the first 
 approach of the welcome visitor. The average annual 
 yield is about 500 million fish, which are worth free on 
 board in a Norwegian port about 650,000?. The number 
 of persons interested in the Norwegian sea fisheries is 
 about 150,000, or more than a tenth of the total popu- 
 lation. The fishermen actually engaged in catching the 
 fish sail up and down the coast, according to the reports
 
 28 NORWAY. 
 
 which they hear of the so-called " sights," that is, straw 
 herrings, sea-birds, whales, <fcc. Formerly the great dis- 
 tance which they had to go before reaching the shoals led 
 to constant disappointments, and the catch was frequently 
 lost for want of hands to capture the fish. Recently 
 telegraph stations have been erected at the principal 
 points along the coast, and the inspectors cause daily 
 notices of the appearance and position of the shoals to be 
 posted at each station. "Field" telegraphs are kept in 
 readiness to be joined on to the main line, and thus the 
 slightest movement of the shoals is carefully watched and 
 communicated. " It is a curious sight," says Mr. Crowe, 
 " to witness the sudden exodus of thousands of fishermen, 
 with their train of salters and buyers, with boats, barrels, 
 and appliances, hastening to a distant place at the call of 
 the wire. The men seem to prize highly this valuable 
 coadjutor, and when the catch is attributable chiefly to its 
 agency, they call the fish " telegraph herring." Sweden, 
 Russia, and the Baltic ports are the chief markets for the 
 Norwegian herring. The Scotch and the Dutch herring 
 command a higher price than the Norwegian, and the last 
 is unable to obtain a footing in the Mediterranean and the 
 Black Sea ports. 
 
 England divides with Norway the European reputation 
 for sea fisheries ; but Norway stands foremost in its cele- 
 brity as the head-quarters of the salmon and the trout. 
 The streams of Scotland and "Wales will not vie with the 
 Scandinavian rivers in the abundance or the size of their 
 fish. Numerous works have been written upon this branch 
 of Norwegian sport by enthusiastic anglers. The volumes 
 written by "The Oxonian in Norway" (Mr. Metcalfe), and 
 the late Rev. Henry Newland, are especially full of 
 information on this subject. Lady Di Beauclerk in her
 
 SALMON FISHING. 29 
 
 very sketchy and superficial work has something to say 
 on this point ; and as both she and her mother, the 
 Duchess of St. Albans, attained some notoriety as anglers 
 during their stay in Romsdalen, they speak with a certain 
 degree of authority. Unfortunately for the piscator of 
 moderate means, the luxury of salmon fishing in Norway 
 is every year becoming less attainable. Trout, indeed, he 
 may still catch, and if he is content with the smaller fish 
 he will find plentiful amusement. But if he require the 
 excitement of a battle-royal with a salmon of 30 lb., he 
 must be prepared to pay for it. The Udaller has dis- 
 covered two facts of late years— that Englishmen are very 
 fond of sport, and that many of them are ready to pay 
 handsomely in order to enjoy it. Consequently the rivers 
 that used to be free to the sportsman now have to be 
 hired by him. The rent, moreover, is constantly increas- 
 ing. 100?. is a very low figure now ; as much as 500^. is 
 paid for some rivers, and as the tenant is allowed to retain 
 only one-fifth of the fish he catches, he is really not only 
 paying handsomely to, but working hard for, the fortunate 
 owner of the river. The whole money does not go into 
 his pocket : there is a middle man, the London fishing- 
 tackle maker, who rents of him, and sub-lets, and, of 
 course, makes a substantial profit to cover the risk. The 
 result is that the selling price of salmon has so advanced 
 of late years that at Christiansand, the port nearest to 
 England, it is as high as a shilling the pound. It is con- 
 siderably lower in the interior, as well it may be when the 
 traveller in reply to his question " Kan jeg fact, noget at 
 sjyise 1 " (Can I get anything to eat 1) receives the same 
 reply day after day in the shape of " Lax " (salmon), or, 
 more probably, " Laxforelle " (salmon-trout), until he has 
 learnt thoroughly to sympathise with the apprentices of
 
 30 NORWAY. 
 
 Exeter, who, a hundred years ago, stipulated in their 
 indentures that they -were not to be required to eat 
 salmon more than twice a week. The Norwegians are 
 almost as dainty in then* way. They have a very strong 
 objection to eating fish which is not brought alive to their 
 doors. They are a people of extremes in this particular. 
 Either their fish must be swimming about or it must be 
 dried to the consistency of a mahogany table. 
 
 It may fairly be doubted if the " ramrod " will find 
 himself repaid by a visit to Norway, even though the 
 " fishing-rod " should be. There are still birds to be shot : 
 there are grouse, plover, capercailzie, blackcock, and 
 ptarmigan ; but, as Mi*. Laing remarked thirty-six years 
 ago, the birds are so few in proportion to the extent of the 
 country that one has need of seven-league boots to get a 
 good bag. During the last twenty-five years game has 
 been protected by law during certain seasons of the year. 
 The game laws extend also to the reindeer and the elk. 
 These scarcely need protection. They are so well able to 
 take care of themselves that a sportsman may spend a 
 summer on the fjelds and not come within range of one of 
 them. In Lapland they are to be seen domesticated in 
 herds of perhaps 200 ; but from the old stalking-grounds 
 of the Dovrefjeld and the Fillefjeld they have all but dis- 
 appeared. The bear is still more rarely seen in any parts 
 of Norway which are accessible to ordinary persons. The 
 reward of five dollars offered by the Government for every 
 bear taken has, probably, led this by no means un- 
 saa - acious animal to betake himself to districts where the 
 blood-money is not likely to be earned. There is another 
 animal which is much less formidable as to size, but is a 
 great deal more unpopular than the bear. This is the 
 lemming, a species of field rat, concerning which the most
 
 GAME. 31 
 
 extraordinary tales are told. The lemming is as hateful 
 to the Norwegian as the frog was to the Egyptian, and is 
 really almost as destructive as the locust. He travels in 
 large armies, he crosses glaciers, climbs mountains, swims 
 rivers, and all the time they are travelling he and his 
 companions are in constant danger of falling victims to the 
 hawk, the owl, and to man. There used to be a special 
 lemming litany, which contained a most elaborate curse 
 upon this little creature, a curse which for its stringency 
 was worthy of the most orthodox theologian denouncing a 
 heretic. Even now there is a remembrance of this prayer 
 or exorcism kept up in Fillefjeld, only instead of praying 
 and cursing on Lemming-day the people simply abstain 
 from work and go to sleep. For the lemming there is no 
 game law. Indeed, as regards game, properly so called, 
 the provisions of the law are very loosely observed. It is 
 scarcely possible that they should be otherwise in a 
 country where the station-master has often no other 
 means of supplying the wants of his guests than by the 
 harvest of his gun. In one instance the law seems to be 
 strictly enforced, in that of the eider duck. It is rigor- 
 ously forbidden to kill this bird, for it is too valuable a 
 member of society to be butchered to make an English- 
 man's holiday. The eider duck builds its nest of marine 
 plants and lines it with down of exquisite softness, which 
 the female plucks from her own breast. When she has 
 stripped herself, her mate follows her example. Each nest 
 during the breeding season produces about a quarter of a 
 pound of down when it has been picked and cleaned. It 
 is so firm and elastic that the same quantity which can be 
 pressed between the two hands will serve to stuff a quilt. 
 One of these quilts is always considered a suitable offering 
 from a Norsk lover to his betrothed.
 
 32 NORWAY. 
 
 There is one produce of Norway which deserves special 
 notice. This country is the head-quarters of the ice-trade. 
 Wenham Lake is in North America, but " Wenham Lake 
 ice " comes from the neighbourhood of Christiania. The 
 company which was started several years ago to sell Ame- 
 rican lake ice found there was so much, waste in the 
 voyage across the Atlantic, that it was necessary to look 
 out for a supply nearer home. The tourist in Switzerland 
 gets his ice from the glacier- fed streams that come down 
 from the mountains, bearing congealed masses, which the 
 waiter cleverly fishes out of the water just before the table 
 d'hote. Manifestly it was impossible to convey these frag- 
 ments of the glaciers of Mont Blanc across Europe to 
 London dinner-tables. The Wenham Company, therefore, 
 turned their attention to Norway. In that country they 
 found ice of the finest quality largely consumed. It is 
 even put into the water which is supplied to travellers on 
 the railway between Christiania and Lake Mjosen. As we 
 have already mentioned, the winter is much more severe 
 in the south than in the north of Norway, and it was, 
 therefore, in the vicinity of the capital that the Company 
 found that for which they sought. Near Droback, on the 
 Christiania Fjord, they purchased a large lake of fresh 
 water, which was generally frozen to a considerable depth 
 during the long winter. In order that the water might 
 be kept perfectly pure, they bought up the bordering 
 land, and they rigidly forbid the use of any manure upon 
 it, and prevent any surface drainage from flowing into the 
 lake. When the ice-harvest season has arrived, ice-ploughs 
 divide out the ice into squares. Wedges are then driven 
 in, and the surface is thus broken up into blocks. These 
 are conveyed away into store-houses, and are sprinkled 
 with sawdust to prevent them from freezing into one
 
 THE ICE-TRADE. 33 
 
 gigantic mass as they would otherwise do. The same pre- 
 caution is used in shipping the ice to England. There its 
 exceeding purity and freshness secure for it a compara- 
 tively high price, and though ice has not yet become the 
 daily luxury of the middle classes, no upper class dinner- 
 table would be thought complete without it. Perhaps if 
 we had a few more summers like that of 1868 it would 
 be considered indispensable by all classes, and the com- 
 pany would find its business so increased as to be com- 
 pelled, if not to pull down its barns and build greater, at 
 least to purchase additional lakes in Norway. Our Ame- 
 rican visitors would then cease to complain of the absence 
 of a commodity which custom has rendered almost indis- 
 pensable to them. 
 
 As regards the physique of its people, Norway is a coun- 
 try of extremes. The tourist, by one of Messrs. Wilson's 
 steamers, from Hull to Christiania, makes his first ac- 
 quaintance with Norwegians at Christiansand. Traversing 
 the rectangular streets of this somewhat prim town, he is 
 struck by the tallness of the inhabitants. Men over six 
 feet high seem to be the rule. In fact, the average Nor- 
 wegian is as much taller than the average Englishman as 
 the latter is than the average Frenchman. It becomes 
 more of a mystery than ever why Norwegian beds should 
 always be iess than six feet long. In fact, the people of 
 Southern Norway are so like the English, that no casual 
 observer seeing the two together would notice any differ- 
 ence between them save that of height. The dress is the 
 same, and the girls at Christiansand and Christiania mieht 
 have attired themselves at a shop in Oxford Street. It is 
 necessary to go into the interior for some distance before 
 the tourist sees any of those varied and handsome cos- 
 tumes which are displayed in the photograph shops of the
 
 34 NORWAY. 
 
 capital. In Tellemarken, and in the Hardanger dis- 
 trict, the costumes are particularly elaborate and pic- 
 turesque. It is only in the former district that the men 
 thus array themselves. A Tellemarken peasant, in his 
 Sunday's best, calls up remembrance of the English cava- 
 liers, whereas in Hardanger he wears an ordinary boat- 
 man's dress. In Romsdalen and Gudbransdalen the 
 male peasants wear a scarlet cap, which makes them very 
 conspicuous. Nothing, however, will compare with the 
 snow-white wing of many plaits which the Hardanger 
 matron wears on her head. The maiden must be content 
 to go bare-headed, with pigtails hanging down, and tied 
 with ribbons. But the married woman arrays herself in 
 a stomacher of matchless bead-work, and in the aforesaid 
 head-dress, which recalls, though it is not quite so won- 
 derful as, the caps of the women in Normandy and Brit- 
 tany. Yet, after all, the dress is a secondary matter ; 
 there is the far more important one of race. The Lapps 
 
 in the extreme north are as short and stunted as the 
 
 m 
 
 Southern Norwegians are tall. The two people are alto- 
 gether different in origin as well as in appearance. His 
 stunted form and Chinese eyes, and dark complexion, are 
 sure signs that the Lapp belongs to the Slavonic family, 
 just as the blonde hair and the sanguine tint of skin 
 denote membership of the Teutonic. The Quaens are the 
 gipsies of Scandinavia, whose origin puzzles the ethno- 
 logist. Both Norwegians and Lapps are remarkable for 
 their honesty. The tourist may leave his luggage upon 
 his carriole all night in the open highway. It is only 
 straps and whips which seem too much for Norsk virtue. 
 
 The Lapps differ from their fellow-countrymen in being 
 very nomadic. They wander from place to place with 
 their herds of reindeer, and as their huts are by no means
 
 THE LAPPS. 35 
 
 costly erections, they have not any counter-attraction to 
 keep them stationary. Fond as they are of moving their 
 homes, the Lapps are exceedingly attached to their coun- 
 try. Those who have been brought to England, and have 
 remained here for some time, have never forgotten their 
 birthplace, and have returned thither on some favourable 
 opportunity. On the other hand, the Norwegian of the 
 south does not travel much in his own country, is kept by 
 his farm in one place, yet it is he who makes the long 
 voyage across the Atlantic, he who peoples Wisconsin. 
 In point of education and civilisation the Lapps are centu- 
 ries behind the Norwegians. In one respect the fact is 
 greatly to their credit, in another it is greatly to the dis- 
 credit of the latter people. It is creditable that a race so 
 " weak, simple and gentle," as Mr. Mathieu Williams has 
 described the Lapps to be, should never have been mo- 
 lested by their more powerful neighbours. Had they been 
 Maoris, and the Norwegians Englishmen, the fate of these 
 Arctic inhabitants would have been very different. True, 
 it may be said that in a country so sparsely peopled as 
 Norway there is not the same reason for a collision of 
 races as there is in the colonies which we have peopled, and 
 where the natural population has disappeared before the 
 colonists, by what men like Mr. Roebuck choose to con- 
 sider an inevitable law. Nevertheless, the Lapps have 
 property which is not without attractions to Norwegian 
 eyes. A wealthy Lapp will possess from 1,000 to 2,000 
 reindeer, and the value of these animals is as well under- 
 stood in the south as in the north. But there is 
 the reverse to this picture. The Lapps have been let 
 alone, and they have been too much let alone. If the 
 Storthing has not passed laws to their disadvantage, it 
 has done scarcely anything for them. Except that a few
 
 36 NORWAY. 
 
 missionaries have of late years visited them, the Lapps 
 have been left almost entirely without either spiritual or 
 secular education. Even when missionaries did visit them, 
 the results were at first most disastrous, and the conver- 
 sion of the people to Christianity was accompanied by acts 
 of violence, including even murder. The ringleaders of 
 the riot in which these lamentable transactions took place, 
 wei'e tried, two were executed and eight were condemned 
 to penal servitude for life. This was, perhaps, a worse 
 punishment than death to men accustomed to incessant 
 wanderings. Four of the eight soon pined away and died ; 
 the rest, when they were visited by Mr. Bowden, appeared 
 to have become contented with their lot. 
 
 Lutheranism is the religion of Norway. The country 
 is divided into five bishoprics, and 336 parishes. Exten- 
 sive as these parishes must be, when the average size of 
 one is 362 square miles, several parishes are frequently 
 held by one incumbent. This undesirable state of 
 things is due in great measure to the Eeformation. 
 Whatever may have been the advantages of that event so 
 far as doctrinal teaching is involved, there is no doubt 
 that Norway suffered from it so far as the external or- 
 ganisation of the Church is concerned. Few countries, 
 as the late Mr. Newland has pointed out in his " Forest 
 Scenes in Norway and Sweden," have endured such ex- 
 tensive spoliation of ecclesiastical property. Three 
 hundred yeai-s ago the people had to choose between an 
 ill-paid clergy of inferior social position and a well-paid 
 clergy with unmanageably large parishes. They chose 
 the latter alternative. As a consequence, parishes became 
 amalgamated into districts, the pastors became the most 
 wealthy inhabitants therein, and proper church work be- 
 came simply impossible. A parish priest gets, on an
 
 CHURCH AND STATE. 37 
 
 average, from 200/. to 380/., besides a large glebe ; a 
 bishop receives about 900/. a year ; and if these figures 
 seem small as compared with those which prevail in the 
 Church of England, it must be remembered that money 
 will purchase, at least, twice the amount of commodities 
 in Norway that it will purchase in England. With such 
 extensive districts as we have described, it is manifestly 
 impossible that there can be regular weekly celebrations 
 of divine service. In some districts the churches of all 
 the amalgamated parishes are still kept in repair, and in 
 those of lesser importance, the annexhjrker, as they are 
 called, service is occasionally performed as a protest in 
 behalf of their spiritual rights on the part of the 
 parishioners. As the clergy are eligible to the Nor- 
 wegian Parliament, and, being the best educated and the 
 wealthiest inhabitants of a parish, are frequently elected, 
 the difficulty of securing effectual parochial supervision is 
 still further increased. The government attempts to 
 meet the case of a rector absent on his parliamentary 
 duties by supplying the parish with a substitute for sc 
 long as the rector sits in the Storthing. The relations 
 between the Church and the State are in no country, save 
 the Papal States, so closely identified as they are in 
 Norway. At the same time we have Mr. Newland's 
 testimony that nowhere is the standard of popular educa- 
 tion so high, nowhere is the standard of popular morality 
 so low ; nowhere is the respect for religion so great, no- 
 where is the ignorance of religion so profound. Mr. 
 Newland, as a member of the Anglo-Catholic party, had 
 his explanation for this state of things. Norway, as he 
 said, is not in communion with England. Strictly speak- 
 ing, neither the Norwegian nor the Danish Church is a 
 church at all, but is only a religious establishment. Of
 
 38 NORWAY. 
 
 Sweden he had doubts. Everything — valid orders, valid 
 sacraments, the presence of the Holy Spirit — depended 
 upon an historical statement the accuracy of which it is 
 now impossible to ascertain. 
 
 " At the Reformation, Matthias, Bishop of Strengnas, and 
 Vincent, Bishop of Skara, had been beheaded by Christiern, and 
 on the other side Canute the Archbishop, and Peter, Bishop of 
 Westeras, had been beheaded by his rival Gustavus, so that at the 
 final Diet of Westeras, when the decision was finally given for the 
 Reformation, only four bishops -were present, of whom it is said 
 that only Bishop Brask had been duly consecrated ; two others, 
 Haraldsen and Semmar, being only bishops-elect. The results of 
 that diet caused Brask to go into voluntary exile, and as all com- 
 munion with Rome was thereby broken off, the question of the 
 succession hinges on the fact that Gustavus had previously sent 
 Bishop Magnussen, elect of Skara, to be consecrated at Rome. 
 This fact has been questioned." 
 
 It is an interesting archaeological question, doubtless, 
 though when Mr. Newland attempts to make it a theolo- 
 gical one, he seems to be doing his utmost to parody the 
 doctrine of " the Succession." For Norway there is not, 
 according to him, even the remote possibility of being a part 
 of the Catholic Church that there is for Sweden. There is 
 not even a question as to whether a Bishop Magnussen did 
 or did not take an excursion to Rome. Consequently the 
 Swedes do not feel themselves at liberty to communicate 
 in Norwegian Churches, although they and Mr. Newland 
 did not object to be present at ottesang (matins), aften- 
 sang (vespers), and even at hogrnasse (high mass). 
 
 While the author of " Forest Scenes " attributes the 
 low spiritual life of Norway to the fact that a Nor- 
 wegian bishop did not take the trouble to go to Rome 
 three centuries ago, it may fairly be doubted if it is not 
 due rather to the almost entire absence of dissent, and to
 
 REFORMERS. 39 
 
 the thorough identification of the Church with the State. 
 It cannot be said that the Norwegians are intolerant, yet 
 the Norsk Wesley met with as little favour from the 
 State as his English prototype from the Church. Hans 
 Nielsen Hauge (born 1771) endeavoured to stir up the 
 people, and created a species of revival among the peas- 
 antry. He was, perhaps, rather Calvinistic in his views, 
 but certainly did not intend to secede from the Church, 
 or to induce other persons to do so. Yet he was accused 
 of exciting his hearers against the clergy, and they suc- 
 ceeded in getting a royal commission appointed to inquire 
 into his alleged heresy. The commission sat nine years ; 
 during the whole of that time Hauge was in prison, 
 and at the end of it he was sentenced to a farther term of 
 two years' imprisonment, the payment of all costs, and a 
 fine of 5,000 rix-dollars. During his seclusion he read 
 many theological books, and these, or else his punish- 
 ment, so far modified his opinions, that when he came out 
 of prison he abandoned his wandering life, and settled 
 down on a farm near Christiania. He died forty-six 
 years ago, but the sect still exists ; and their religious 
 service is the subject of one of Tidemand's best-known 
 pictures. Another sect was founded at Skien by Vicar 
 Lammers, who actually seceded from the Church. He 
 declared against infant baptism, substituting for it the 
 laying on of hands ; he celebrated the Holy Communion 
 once a month, each person taking the elements for him- 
 self, and no one being compelled to make confession, or to 
 receive absolution previously ; he considered marriage a 
 civil contract ; and he buried the dead in solemn silence. 
 It should be said to the credit of the Norwegian Church, 
 that if it is somewhat rigorous against schism, it does not 
 generally induce schism by over-strictness. Mr, Metcalfe,
 
 40 NORWAY. 
 
 in his very interesting volumes, " The Oxonian in Nor- 
 way," points out that when a layman has a desire to 
 preach, and is qualified to do so, the clergy place no 
 hindrance in his way, but actually announce his intention, 
 and ofier facilities for their people to hear him. In this 
 way the Norwegian Church utilises that lay energy which 
 the English Church has so unwisely rejected, to the great 
 increase of seceders from her communion. Romanism 
 has scarcely any hold in Norway. There is one Roman 
 Catholic chapel in Christiania, but this is frequented 
 mainly by foreigners. At Bergen there is a curious old 
 church, called the German church, and in which until 
 1868, service was conducted in the German language for 
 the benefit of the descendants of the Hanseatic colony } 
 which for a loner time conducted most of the commerce of 
 that port. The Quakers have a very small following in 
 Norway, chiefly at Stavanger. It arose from the circum- 
 stance that certain Norwegian prisoners in England, 
 during the wars with Napoleon, were visited by some 
 Quakers, who showed them so much kindness that when 
 the prisoners returned home they took their benefactors' 
 religion with them. Since then the Mormons have ob- 
 tained some considerable standing in Norway. The 
 Norwegian Church has its differences of opinion, but 
 they constitute rather schools of thought than rival 
 parties. That which answers to the English High Church 
 party had Grundtvig, the hymn-writer, for its leader, 
 while Mynster led the Low Church party. 
 
 One of the strongest supports of clerical influence in 
 Norway, and, perhaps, the principal source of unity in 
 religious matters, is the rite of Confirmation. To this 
 the utmost importance is attached. It is not only the 
 ordeal requisite for admission to the Holy Communion,
 
 CONFIRMATION. -±1 
 
 but it is also the passport to all employments iu civil life. 
 No one who has not been confirmed can hold any public 
 office ; practically such person would find it almost im- 
 possible to obtain private employment. The fact that he 
 had not been confirmed would imply either mental or 
 moral incapacity. So well is this understood, that in ad- 
 vertisements of persons or places wanted, the word " con- 
 firmed " is tised where we should use the word experienced 
 or adult. Even in the tariff of food on board a steamer, 
 a different price is asked for "confirmed" and for '•un- 
 confirmed " passengers. At the same time confirmation 
 is no mere form administered as a matter of course. It 
 bears no likeness to the reception of the Communion 
 with us in the old days, before the repeal of our Test 
 and Corporation Acts. With us the Sacrament was pros- 
 tituted for political purposes. With the Norwegians the 
 rite is made the completion of the youth's mental and 
 moral training. The utmost pains are bestowed by the 
 clergy in preparing their catechumens. For six months 
 prior to confirmation there are weekly classes at the 
 prcestgaard (rectory), at which all candidates are expected 
 to be present, and are present, even though they should 
 have to travel twenty miles. Arrived at the prwstgaard, 
 the two sexes are arranged in different portions of the 
 room, and are then taught and examined. It is not until 
 the freest is well satisfied of the candidates' fitness that 
 he will consent to their being confirmed. The rite is 
 rendered the more impressive by the fact that it is ad- 
 ministered by the parochial clergy. Instead of the cate- 
 chumens being brought up, as in the English Church, to 
 a bishop whom they have never seen before, whom they 
 may never see again, who is ignorant of their names, and 
 cannot possibly take any interest in them ; they appear
 
 42 NORWAY. 
 
 before the clergyman who has been preparing them for 
 the past half-year, who has known them all their lives, 
 and who is in very fact a "father in God" to them. 
 Very solemn and very simple is the service. " Say 
 Ole Olessen," (speaks the pastor, naming each candidate 
 in turn), " will you i*esist the devil and all his works, and 
 keep God's holy will and commandments so long as you 
 shall live?" The candidate answers, "Yes." "Well, 
 give me your hand," replies the pastor, and taking it as a 
 pledge of sincerity, he places his hand on the candidates 
 and administers the blessing. The funeral service is less 
 edifying than confirmation. It is considered an essential 
 part of the former rite that the clergyman should pour 
 mould upon the coffin, and say, " Dust thou ai't, and unto 
 dust shalt thou return." So much importance is attached 
 to this ceremony that if, as may sometimes happen in 
 these enormous parishes, it should be necessary to bury 
 the dead without waiting for the clergyman, an orifice is 
 kept open in the grave, through which he may, on his 
 arrival, pour the accustomed earth. The celebration of 
 the Holy Communion is accompanied with a great deal of 
 ritual, which is the more marked in consequence of the 
 architectural plainness of the churches. There are three 
 distinct divisions in all the services, — the prayers of the 
 priest, the responses of the choir, and the hymns of the 
 people. At communion the priest is attired in a crimson 
 velvet chasuble, and kneels, while the candidatus (the 
 young man who has recently entered holy orders, and 
 answers to the English curate) goes down the aisle no- 
 ticing those who intend to communicate, so as to prevent 
 any from partaking who have not previously given in 
 their names and made their comriiunionsslcrift, the only 
 confession required in the Norwegian Church. Each
 
 THE CLERGY. 43 
 
 communicant wears something grey or black, in memory 
 of the Lord's death. The oblations are laid on the altar 
 with great ceremony. After the consecration of the 
 elements, the communicants are arranged in four divi- 
 sions : the married men, the married women, the un- 
 married men, and the unmarried women. They are dis- 
 tinguishable by their different costumes. They kneel in 
 the aisle while the non-communicants stand around chant- 
 ing the Agnus Dei, and bowing their heads as the elements 
 are administered. There is then a general thanksgiving, a 
 hallelujah, and the service concludes with the benediction, 
 during which the priest makes the sign of the cross. 
 
 The Norwegian clergy are very highly educated, and 
 obtain admissions into the ministry only after passing 
 very severe examinations. The candidatus, or newly- 
 ordained clergyman, generally serves at first as curate in 
 one of the large districts in which there are several annex- 
 Jcyrker. Thence he is promoted to some sole charge in 
 the remoter districts of Norway, probably in Finmark or 
 the Loffoden Islands, and, after ten years' service, obtains 
 preferment in the more populous and civilized parts of 
 the country. Church patronage is in the hands of the 
 bishops and of the Council of State. The bishop recom- 
 mends and the council presents, but every appointment, 
 with all the candidates' applications, and certificates, with 
 the grounds of preference of the one to whom the living 
 is given, must be inserted in a protocol of the council, 
 which is examined in the Storthing by a committee of 
 Church affairs. There is a very wise arrangement whereby 
 a clergyman past work may retire with a superannuation, 
 which is charged against the income of his successor. 
 Thei*e is also a widow's farm attached to each glebe, so 
 that on the death of a rector nis wife is not (as in the
 
 44 NORWAY, 
 
 English Church) driven forth from her old home without 
 any place of shelter. These wise provisions tend to pre- 
 vent the scandal, too often seen in the English Church, of 
 ministers clinging to their posts long after the power to 
 perform their duties has ceased. Of church architecture 
 in Norway there is little to say. Throndhjem cathedral is 
 interesting for antiquity, and is one of the oldest ecclesi- 
 astical edifices in Europe. The wooden churches of Bor- 
 gund and Hittei'dal are remarkable for their eccentricity — 
 they resemble Chinese pagodas ; and for their endurance — 
 they are about 600 years old. A third church of this 
 kind was removed by the King of Prussia, and erected in 
 Pomerania, as a curiosity. 
 
 In Norway education is widely diffused, but is not car- 
 ried to a very high point, except in the case of the clergy. 
 The lower classes are well educated ; but the few men of 
 science whom the country has produced have found it 
 useless to bring out their works in Norway, and have gone 
 to Copenhagen or else to Germany, for a publisher. 
 Artists meet with the same discouragement. There are 
 exhibitions of pictures yearly at Christiania and Bergen, 
 but they are very meagre, for patrons are few. Tide- 
 mand, the facile princeps of Norwegian painters, has long 
 resided at Diisseldorff, and makes excursions to his native 
 country only in order to obtain subjects. Some of the 
 Norsk national airs are exceedingly plaintive and beau- 
 tiful, j-et the Norsk people are not a musical race, and 
 though Ole Bull, the violinist, is living on an estate which 
 he has purchased with his earnings, they were obtained in 
 the United States. Nevertheless, it may fairly be ques- 
 tioned if the absence of such culture as is found among 
 the English upper class is not compensated for by an in- 
 telligence among the Norsk peasantry, with whom our
 
 EDUCATION. 45 
 
 own ignorant and stolid labourers contrast most sadly. 
 Thei-e is, of course, no reason why we should not possess 
 both education, which is the right of the many, and cul- 
 ture, which is the privilege of the few. We already have 
 the second : we might have the first if we would but 
 adopt the Norwegian system of popular education. There 
 has been a national system for 130 years. It underwent 
 a complete revision in 1860. The law orders that every 
 child must be taught. The children of the poorest classes 
 are, as soon as they are eight years old, compelled to 
 attend the National schools at least twelve weeks in the 
 year, which are so arranged that they shall not interfere 
 with important agricultural operations. Such compulsion 
 does not exist if the parents can prove that they are 
 giving their children a proper education at home. The 
 subjects taught at the national schools are religious know- 
 ledge, selected portions of geography, natural history, and 
 general history, singing in classes, figures, reading and 
 writing. Free schools and the payment of the master are 
 under the control of the municipalities, and they are 
 regularly inspected and visited by the bishops and the 
 governors of the respective provinces. As the parishes 
 are often large, and the population is widely scattered, it 
 is common to divide a parish into circuits (Jcreds). A 
 circuit is provided with a peripatetic schoolmaster, who 
 moves from place to place, inquiring into the education of 
 the children, and usually residing at a farm house, collects 
 the nucleus of a school. When he finds that the houses 
 in a neighbourhood ai'e sufficiently numerous to supply 
 an average attendance of at least thirty children, he 
 reports to his superiors, who send clown an inspector to 
 decide if a permanent school shall be established. 
 
 Parents who wish their children to receive something
 
 46 NORWAY. 
 
 more than the official minimum of education, send them 
 to the national schools during those months of the year 
 when the ordinary education has ceased. To some schools 
 separate classes are attached for the higher branches of 
 education, such as the close study of the vernacular, 
 foreign languages (especially English), drawing, survey- 
 ing;, and mathematics. But no child can he admitted to 
 these higher classes until it is twelve years old. The 
 schoolmaster being paid by the municipality, he is not 
 exposed to the caprices of parents. Although the educa- 
 tion is thus free, the municipality sometimes imposes a 
 small payment, which is given to the master as part of his 
 salary. This arrangement renders it moi'e easy to deal 
 with idle or careless masters. Every schoolmaster has 
 to go through a two years' training, and at the end of 
 that time has to pass a very severe examination. The 
 State pays for his education, and provides him with 
 lodgings. He receives about 251. a year, with a small 
 house and two or three acres of land. Every year the 
 national schoolmasters hold a conference, at which papers 
 bearing upon their occupation are read and discussed. 
 The master's position is well recognised by the Govern- 
 ment, and there are no fewer than eight training colleges 
 for their education. No uncertificated master can open a 
 parish school for the education of the poorer classes. 
 Altogether there are three problems settled in Norway 
 with regard to education which we are still endeavouring 
 to solve : compulsory education, schools supported out of 
 the local rates, and the examination and certification of 
 masters. To these may be added the establishment of 
 Government normal schools for the education of masters. 
 The compulsory education does not end with school teach- 
 ing. The clergy are bound to catechise children publicly,
 
 THE UNIVERSITY. 47 
 
 with a view to preparing thein for confirmation. That 
 rite is the passport, as we have seen, to all employments . 
 and offices. It is even a pre-reqnisite for marriage. In 
 other words, the State will not suffer a person to 
 marry who cannot read and write. To append one's 
 mark to the marriage register would he a grievous 
 scandal. 
 
 The University of Christiania, being at the extreme 
 south of Norway, is not readily available to a large por- 
 tion of the inhabitants. Nevertheless it is an improve- 
 ment upon the old arrangement, under which it was ne- 
 cessary for students to betake themselves to Copenhagen. 
 The education given at Christiania is general rather than 
 special, and it is questionable if too many subjects are not 
 required in the examinations. Mr. Bowden states that 
 before a candidate can be admitted into holy orders he 
 must know the classics, Hebrew, chemistry, botany, and 
 natural history ; all subjects which he may find extremely 
 useful in relieving the ennui of a prcestgild in Finmark or 
 the Loffoden Islands, but certainly in no other way. The 
 course of study being so comprehensive is necessarily long, 
 and extends over six years. This involves a considerable 
 pecuniai-y outlay on the part of the student, the more so 
 as living in Christiania is much dearer than in any other 
 part of Norway. Consequently the benefits of a university 
 training are confined to the class which can afford to pay 
 a substantial sum for education. The University provides 
 no rooms for the students. These have to live in lodgings, 
 and they wear no distinctive dress except a cap. Having 
 so long a period of training to undergo, they begin it at 
 an early age, and the freshmen are mere boys. The Uni- 
 versity confers no degrees, but the student who has passed 
 his examination is termed a candidatus. There are about
 
 48 NORWAY. 
 
 600 students altogether. The medical school is highly 
 esteemed, and Norway has had many celebrated physicians. 
 The medical men are paid so much a year according to a 
 fixed tariff, consequently there is no temptation to dose 
 the patient with the whole pharmacopoeia. The chemists 
 have to undergo a very severe examination before they 
 can set up in business, and even then they are not allowed 
 to sell any of the more dangei'ous drugs without the 
 written prescription of a duly qualified practitioner. 
 
 The legal arrangements of Norway are particularly well 
 worth study, both on account of their antiquity and of 
 their admirable provisions. The old sea-kings, freebooters 
 though they were, had a more advanced and civilised code 
 than any of the people whose coasts they ravaged. As 
 Mr. Laing has pointed out, before the year 885 the power 
 of law was established over all persons of all ranks and 
 classes, while in the other countries of Europe the inde- 
 pendent jurisdictions of the great feudal lords were not 
 broken down till after a contest of ages. Harold Haar- 
 fagre expelled or subdued the class of " small kings," as 
 they were called. Even these, howevei', were subject to 
 law, as w r e learn from the " Grey Goose,'" the whimsical 
 name given to the ancient Icelandic law book compiled 
 from the edicts of the four Things, or legal jurisdictions, 
 into which Norway was divided befoi-e the small kings, 
 whom Harold Haarfagre banished, took refuge in Iceland. 
 Before the eleventh century Scandinavian law provided 
 for the poor, for equal weights and measures, for police, 
 for the punishment of vagrants and beggars, for the main- 
 tenance of roads and bridges, for the protection of women 
 and of animals — all subjects which no other European 
 code at that time embraced. These laws were collected 
 into one code by Magnus VII., who died in 1280 ; they
 
 THE LAW. )'» 
 
 were again revised and codified by Christian IV. in 1604 ; 
 and in 1C87 the present code was drawn up. It is con- 
 tained in a pocket volume, and is to be found in every 
 Norwegian house. It is simple and intelligible ; each law- 
 occupies a short paragraph. The modifications and addi- 
 tions by subsequent enactment, and the application of the 
 law to special cases, can, of course, be known only by pro- 
 fessional lawyers. The lowest court is the parish court of 
 mutual agreement. In every parish the resident house- 
 holders elect every third year, from among themselves, a 
 person to be the commissioner of mutual agreement. He 
 must not practise law, and has therefoi'e no temptation to 
 promote litigation. He holds his court once a month, 
 and every case must be brought there before it is taken 
 to the higher courts. A fee of about tenpence is paid by 
 the suitors, and the arbitrator, for such he really is, after 
 hearing what they have to say, endeavours to bring them 
 to an agreement. If both parties agree to his finding, the 
 case is taken to the local court of law, or Sorenskrivers' 
 Court, where the judgment is registered and rendered 
 valid, without further expense. In case the arbitration is 
 not accepted, the appeal is made to that Court, which 
 meets once a quarter. The parties may appear by coun- 
 sel, but no new matter is allowed to be introduced into 
 the cause, and there is no brow-beating of witnesses nor 
 attempts at forensic cleverness in cross-examination 
 There are sixty-four of these Sorenskriveries, or Sworn 
 Writers' Courts, and the judges who preside over them 
 must have had a legal education. Above these is the 
 Stifts' Court, or court of the province. This consists of 
 three judges or assessors, and is stationary in each of the 
 provinces into which Norway is divided. From this court 
 there is an appeal to the Hoieste Ret Court, which sits at
 
 50 NORWAY. 
 
 Christiania, and has a right to revise even the sentences 
 of a court-martial. 
 
 Norman blood is with us the synonym for aristocratic 
 lineage. But the founders of our nobility have none of 
 their own. This is the more remarkable, because Norway 
 is not, like the United States, a country which has grown 
 up without a class of nobles. The absence of any now is 
 due to a direct and decisive act of abolition on the part of 
 the Legislature. This act was the result of the subdivi- 
 sion of the land. It was found that a noble class could 
 not be maintained except as placemen and pensioners, 
 and, therefore, it was resolved to abolish it altogether. A 
 law to that effect passed the Storthing in 1815, and the 
 king exercised his right of veto. At that time, and until 
 the last six years, the Storthing used to meet only once in 
 three years, and as the sovereign had the power to refuse 
 his assent to a measure twice, he could virtually suspend 
 legislation for nine years. That power was exercised by 
 King Charles XIV. (Bernadotte) on this occasion. The 
 Storthing passed its abolition measure again in 1818, and 
 he again vetoed it. In 1821, finding that the Storthing 
 was still determined, and knowing that its act would after 
 the third time of passing become law without his sanc- 
 tion, he resolved on a coup d'etat, and he marched 6,000 
 troops to the neighbourhood of the capital. The people 
 were intensely irritated, and there appeared every sign of 
 a bloody collision, when the Russian Minister at the Court 
 of Stockholm and the American charge d'affaires suddenly 
 drove into Christiania, and very shortly afterwards the 
 troops were withdrawn. Xo reason was assigned for this 
 step, but the Storthing was q\ute content to be without 
 one, for it had won the day and quietly re-enacted the 
 abolition of the nobility, which then took place. Thus
 
 GOVERNMENT. 51 
 
 Norway is a pure democracy, united to the monarchy of 
 Sweden only by the personal tie. The King of Sweden is 
 also King of Norway, or rather, first citizen of Norway. 
 He reigns, but he does not rule. In fact, it may be said 
 that the Norwegians pay him so much a year and provide 
 him with a palace merely for the purpose of opening the 
 Storthing. This freedom was secured to them by their 
 brave, and at the same time prudent, conduct in 1814. 
 England, with that strange forgetfulness of the rights of 
 nations into which she fell at the close of the great war, had 
 undertaken ostensibly to protect those rights, yet became a 
 party with Russia to a treaty by which Norway was guar- 
 anteed to Sweden in exchange for Finland, pi'ovided that 
 the Crown Prince of Sweden (Bernadotte) would join the 
 allies. He accepted this arrangement, and after the battle 
 of Leipsic he marched into Holstein with a considerable 
 force, and compelled Frederic VI. of Denmark to cede 
 Norway to Sweden. Frederic had been the first Danish 
 sovereign to treat Norway with anything like justice, and 
 he it was who founded the University of Christiania. But 
 his predecessors ever since the Union of Kalmar, in 1397, 
 had systematically humiliated the Norwegians, who found 
 that Danes were always preferred to posts of honour and 
 influence. The mild rule of Frederic seems to have 
 effaced the injustice of the previous four and a half centu- 
 ries ; for not only did the Norwegians resist this forcible 
 transference from Danish to Swedish ride, but even to 
 this day they shew their preference for their ancient op- 
 pressors. The Norwegian language is identical with the 
 Danish, but is different from the Swedish. Norway de- 
 rives its literature almost entirely from Copenhagen. 
 Danish money passes as readily in Norway as the money 
 of the country ; but Swedish is accepted with reluctance. 
 
 e 2
 
 52 NORWAY. 
 
 If this feeling is thus strong now, it may be imagined 
 that it was intense when the iniquitous compact of August 
 27th, 1812, became known. The Crown Prince Christian 
 of Denmark convoked a national diet, which was composed 
 of 1 1 3 representatives of all classes of the people, and met 
 at Eidsvold near Christiania on April 11th, 1814. These 
 representatives drew up a constitution ; it is the constitu- 
 tion under which Norway is governed ; for though the 
 Norwegians, blockaded by Swedish and British fleets, soon 
 found resistance useless, they had sufficient moral influ- 
 ence to obtain the concession of the liberties which they 
 now enjoy. An armistice and a convention were agreed 
 upon. Christian abdicated the throne of Norway, and 
 Charles XIII. of Sweden was elected in his place, and 
 accepted the constitution of Eidsvold on November 4th, 
 1814. He was succeeded by Bernadotte as Charles John 
 XIV., and this sovereign ruled until his death in 1844. 
 He was succeeded by his son Oscar I., who gratified the 
 Norwegians by giving them a separate national flag (very 
 similar to that of England), and by decreeing that in all 
 acts relating to Norway, he should be styled King of Nor- 
 way and Sweden, instead of Sweden and Norway as here- 
 tofore. For two years before his death he was incapaci- 
 tated for government, and his son was regent. He be- 
 came kin;.'' under the title of Charles XV. in 1859. He is 
 very popular, and is an accomplished scholar. As he has 
 no son, the crown will, according to the law of Sweden, 
 devolve upon his brother Oscar. 
 
 The Storthing, or great court, now meets yearly in the 
 handsome building erected for it at Christiania. The 
 rooms are exceedingly handsome and commodious, and the 
 arrangements would well supply our own legislators with 
 useful hints. There is a seat for every member, and he
 
 THE STORTHIXG. 53 
 
 sits according to the alphabetical order of the place which 
 he represents. The Storthing is divided into two houses, 
 the Lagthing and the Odelsthing. The Lagthing is com- 
 posed of a fourth of the members of the Storthing ; the 
 remaining three-quarters constitute the Odelsthing. All 
 new bills originate in the latter body, and are sent to the 
 former for acceptance or rejetfion. Should a measure be 
 rejected, the Odelsthing may demand that the two houses 
 shall sit together, and the final decision is given by a 
 majority of two-thirds of the voters. The Storthing can 
 form itself into a high court of justice for the impeach- 
 ment of all ministers and officers of State. The executive 
 is formed by a council of State, composed of the Governor- 
 General of Norway, nominated by the King, and seven 
 councillors of State, the heads of as many departments. 
 The Governor-General is invested with merely nominal 
 power, and neither he nor the King has any representative 
 in the Storthing. Eveiy native Norwegian of twenty-five 
 years of age who is a burgess of any town, or possesses 
 property or the life-rent of land to the value of thirty 
 pounds, is entitled to elect to the Storthing, and under 
 the same conditions, if thirty years old, to be elected. 
 The whole country is divided into electoral districts ac- 
 cording to population, and is sub-divided according to 
 area. The mode of election is indirect, the people first 
 nominating a number of deputies, on whom devolves the 
 duty of appointing the representatives in the Storthing. 
 At the end of every third year the people meet at the 
 parish church, and choose then- deputies, one to fifty 
 voters in towns, and one to a hundred in rural districts. 
 The deputies afterwards assemble, and elect, from among 
 the other qualified voters of the district, the Storthing 
 representatives, in the proportion of one-quarter of the
 
 51 NORWAY. 
 
 number of deputies for the towns, and one-tenth for the 
 country. Together with every representative is chosen a 
 substitute, who is bound to take his place in the Storthing, 
 should the member die or be laid aside by sickness. 
 Members of the Storthing are paid about six shillings and 
 sixpence a day during the session. The finances of Nor- 
 way are in a satisfactory sfcate, and the debt has been 
 reduced of late years. The army is little more than a 
 nominal force. It is supplied partly by conscription, and 
 partly by enlistment. Every Norwegian has to go through 
 a military training, either in the regular army or in the 
 militia. The term of service in the army is nominally 
 five years in the infantry, and seven years in the artillery 
 and the cavalry. But most soldiers are sent on furlough 
 at the end of one or two years. The strength of the army 
 is about 12,000 men. The navy is manned solely by con- 
 scription. All sea-faring men and inhabitants of sea- 
 ports, between the ages of thirty and sixty, are enrolled on 
 the lists of either the active fleet or the naval militia. 
 The numbers on the list are about 48,000, so that on 
 paper Norway has a numerous defensive force. Experience 
 has, however, shown that very little reliance can be placed 
 upon a " paper " force. Fortunately Norway is not at all 
 likely to need any other. 
 
 Norway, though it has under a hundred miles of rail- 
 way, is yet, in some social matters, far in advance of the 
 countiy which is par excellence the land of railways. It 
 has long ago adopted courts of arbitration, a most ex- 
 tended suffrage, compulsory education and examination 
 of the teachers, and a national army. There is one other 
 important matter in which she has preceded ourselves, in 
 legislation against drunkenness. Formerly every farmer 
 was allowed to distil on his farm. The consequence was
 
 DRUNKENNESS. 55 
 
 that Norway became one of the most drunken countries 
 in Europe. At eveiy festive and social occasion corn 
 brandy (jinkel) used to be imbibed to an enormous 
 extent. It was drunk not only at the marriage feast, but 
 at the marriage service, the flask being handed round in 
 church. The same flagrant indecency was perpetrated in 
 the churchyard on Sundays, as the people gathered to- 
 gether and gossiped before worship. At funerals it was 
 customary for every invited guest to walk up to the coffin 
 and empty, in honour of the dead, a glass of brandy and 
 a glass of beer. It was no unusual event for a peasant to 
 prescribe before his death the amount of beer and brandy 
 that was to be consumed at his funeral. The consequence 
 was that by the time the corpse was brought to the 
 churchyard the bearers were often reeling from intoxi- 
 cation. The evil became so great that about a dozen 
 years ago the Government made an elaborate inquiry 
 into the matter, and in 18-39 a work was published 
 by Eilert Sundt, a member of the University of Chris- 
 tiania, in which he gave some very startling statistics. 
 After some discussion the Storthing forbade the manu- 
 facture of fiiikel except in certain licensed distilleries. 
 The sale also was forbidden in the rural districts, so that 
 the farmer wishing to have alcoholic drink in his house- 
 hold must lay in a stock when he visits the capital or 
 some other of the Norwegian towns. Manifestly the 
 difficulty thus put in the way of obtaining the drink 
 weakens the drinking habit. There would be little 
 drunkenness in England were it not that the drink shops 
 stand open at every street corner. 
 
 There still remains much to be said respecting the 
 history, the legends, and the antiquities of Norway, but 
 space fails. Enough, I trust, has been told to shew
 
 56 NORWAY. 
 
 how well a visit to this country will repay the intelligent 
 traveller who loves to study Nature in her grandest and 
 most beautiful aspects, and his fellow-men in the highest 
 political development. Artist, sportsman^ savant and 
 political economist, will all find room for more than one 
 summer's tour in this land of the Fjeld, the Fjord, and 
 the Foss. 
 
 ITINERARY. 
 
 It is not easy to give precise directions for the guidance 
 of the tourist in Norway. The country is so vast, the routes 
 are so numerous, the cost of locomotion varies so greatly 
 in different parts, that no itinerary of reasonable length 
 will afford more than a general idea of Norwegian travel. 
 The tour which I myself made two years ago may be 
 taken as a fair illustration. I was accompanied by my 
 wife ; we were travelling thirty-eight days, and our ex- 
 penses from London to London were 53/., inclusive of the 
 railway fares to and from Hull, but exclusive of the 
 steamer to and from Christiania. The return fare from 
 Hull to Christiania and back is 6/. for each person, and 
 11. per journey is charged for food. Messrs. Wilson, the 
 owners of the North Sea steamers, allow passengers to 
 make use of any on their line, so that it is possible to 
 go to Christiania and return from Bergen or Gottenberg. 
 Adding on the 16/. steamer fare and food for two persons, 
 there would be a total of 69/., or about 18s. a-day. Old 
 Norwegian travellers would declare this to be a very high 
 sum, but it must be remembered that about 25/. of it was 
 spent in getting to and from Norway. The expenditure 
 in Norway was at the rate of about lis. a day on an
 
 ITINERARY. 57 
 
 average. It was a good deal higher than this in Chris- 
 tiania and Bergen ; in the country it was below that 
 amount. The following would be a full allowance for 
 travelling on the chief roads, that is, where the stations 
 are " fast," reckoning seven Norwegian miles (about 50 
 English) as a day's journey : — 
 
 s. 
 Hire of horse, carriole, and harness, 7 Norwegian miles, say 1 1 
 Board and lodging (3 meals) . . . . . . 3 
 
 14* 
 
 It will be at once apparent that the chief item is loco- 
 motion. Consequently the longer you remained in one 
 place the less in proportion would be your expenditure. 
 In our own case we were almost constantly on the move ; 
 at only one place did we sleep so many as four nights, 
 and in all others, except Christiania, only two. More- 
 over, the Norwegian steamer fares are very low. It 
 is no unusual thing to be travelling all day by one of 
 these vessels, and at the end of it to be asked for "en 
 specie? that is one specie dollar, or 4s. 6d. English. If 
 you travelled off the main roads, that is on roads where 
 the stations are " not fast," seven Norsk miles would cost 
 about nine shillings, and the food would be about a mark 
 and a half, Is. id. a day ; but then it would often be very 
 inferior, and you would be glad to fall back upon your 
 stock of potted meats and biscuits. Pedestrians would 
 spend very little ; if travelling across the mountains they 
 would find it hard to get rid of three shillings a day, but 
 then it must be confessed that they would obtain very 
 
 * An experienced Norwegian traveller, who has made six jour- 
 neys, says that travelling with his wife his expenses in Norway were 
 considerably less than this amount, and did not exceed ten shillings.
 
 58 NORWAY. 
 
 little in the shape of either board or lodging worth paying 
 for. Even on the high roads they would find from 3s. to 
 4s. a day sufficient. Pedestrianism, though cheap, is not 
 expeditious, and, in a large country like Norway, where 
 the chief centres of scenery are sometimes a long way 
 apart, it would not be wise to trust wholly to one's own 
 limbs. Probably the best plan would be for two tra- 
 vellers to make their tour together, having one carriole 
 from station to station, and each alternately driving 
 and walking. In this way forty English miles a day might 
 be easily accomplished, and the cost of the vehicle to each 
 traveller would be under 5s. a day. The advantages of 
 this arrangement would be that the traveller who walked 
 would not be burdened with any luggage, since this 
 would be placed in the carriole, and that the traveller 
 who drove, arriving before his colleague, would be able to 
 order the carriole in advance for the next stage, and thus 
 have it ready by the time that the walker overtook him. 
 This plan, however, is more economical than sociable. 
 Where money is no object, and a long sea voyage is an 
 object, a heavy sum may be spent before Norway is 
 entered by journeying to it vid Calais, Cologne, Hamburg, 
 Kiel, Copenhagen, and Christiania. In this way the 
 voyage would be reduced to a minimum, and some inte- 
 resting cities would be visited, but then the expense 
 would be very much greater. 
 
 The routes are so various that it is impossible to 
 describe them all. The handbook published every year 
 by Mr. Bennett, of Christiania, gives a number of tours, 
 but as it would require a good deal of planning to make 
 the excursions fit in, so as to enable the tourist to catch 
 the various steamers, he would do well if unacquainted 
 with Norway to get some experienced person, either an
 
 ITINERARY. 59 
 
 old traveller, or Mr. Bennett, to make out a route. The 
 following is that taken by ourselves : — 
 
 July 25. — Left Hull 10 a.m. 
 
 26. — Sighted the Naze 8 p.m. 
 
 27. — Put into Christiansand 2 a.m. ; remained there 
 twelve hours and went on shore. 
 
 28. — Reached Christiania 5 a.m. 
 
 29. — By train to Eidsvold; by steamer up Lake Mjosen 
 to Lillehammer. 
 
 30. — By carriole through the Gudbrandsdal ; slept at 
 Oien, very comfortable. 
 
 31. — By carriole to Toftemoen on the Dovre fjeld. 
 The next station, Dombaas, is better for sleeping at. 
 
 August 1. — By carriole to Ormeim in Romsdalen. 
 Splendid waterfalls between Stueflaaten and Ormeim, and 
 opposite the station at the latter place. 
 
 2. — A short drive to Aak. Landmark's hotel is one of 
 the best country inns in Norway ; is generally full ; and 
 it would be wise to order beds in advance. Aak is one 
 of the most beautiful spots of the lovely Romsdal. 
 
 3. — Veblungsnsesset on the Romsdals-fjord is about 
 two English miles from Aak, and is charmingly situated. 
 Thence the steamers leave for Molde, one of the most 
 exquisite lake scenes in Norway. The hill behind the 
 town should be ascended. 
 
 4. — By steamer to Aalesund, and up the S tor-fjord to 
 Hellesylt, a long day's journey of from eighteen to 
 twenty hours. 
 
 5. — Boat to Geyranger ; very grand, the waterfalls and 
 the cliffs stupendous. 
 
 6. — By carriole to Faleidet, on Nord-fjord. A charm- 
 ing, but rather dear, inn here ; for greater convenience in 
 walking excursions we should have gone on to Taaning.
 
 60 NORWAY. 
 
 7. — By boat to Opstruen Vand. Bad weather pre- 
 vented an excursion to the Jdstedal glaciers. Slept a 
 second night at Faleidet, — ought to have slept at Utvik, 
 so as to start from there early in the morning. 
 
 8. — From Faleidet to Utvik by boat ; from Utvik, 
 over the precipitous Moldestad hill to Reed (magnificent 
 mountain and glacier scenery by the way). Detained at 
 Reed by bad weather. Rough quarters and nothing to eat. 
 
 9. — Left Reed at 4 a.m. ; by boat across Bredheim 
 Vand to Nedre Vasenden, where we had our first meal at 
 G in the evening. The intermediate stations filthy and 
 squalid in the extreme. Slept at Forde (in Forde). 
 
 10. — A short day's drive to Vadheim, on the Sogne- 
 fjord. Steamer for Bergen called at 11 p.m. 
 
 11. — Reached Bergen 9 a.m. 
 
 12. — Explored Bergen and neighbourhood. 
 
 13. — Left Bergen 8 a.m., by steamer for the Har- 
 danger-fjord. This is one of the most glorious scenes in 
 all Norway. 
 
 11. — Slept on board the steamer and arrived at Odde, 
 at head of Hardanger-fjord, 2 p.m. Odde may be con- 
 sidered the culminating point of the tour, and if a week 
 can be spent there, the tourist will find plenty of grand 
 excursions to occupy the time. 
 
 1-'), 1G, 17. — Spent in visiting the wonderful Skjreg- 
 gedal foss, ascending the Folgefond, &c. The Buerbrae 
 glacier and the Laathe foss are easily reached from here. 
 (Tellemarkeu and the Rjukan foss may be reached from 
 Odde.) 
 
 18. — By steamer to Yik. Poor quarters, very dirty. 
 
 19. — To the Voring foss. 
 
 20. — By boat to Eide. (A better plan would have 
 been by the road to Eide, which is quite available for
 
 ITINERARY. 61 
 
 carrioles, though the people at Vik say it is not). By 
 carriole to Vossevangen. 
 
 21. — By carriole through the magnificent Na^rodal 
 to Gudvangen on the Sogne- fjord. By steamer to Lcer- 
 dalsoren. A better plan would be to take the boat in- 
 stead of the steamer. The latter generally goes at night, 
 and thus one of the grandest fjord scenes in Norway is 
 missed. The boat journey occupies about 10 hours ; 
 therefore it would be necessary to leave Vossevangen 
 very early in the morning if you desire to reach Lcerdal- 
 soren the same night. 
 
 22. — By carriole to Nystuen on the summit of the 
 Fille fjeld ; visiting, by the way, Borgund Church, which 
 should on no account be missed. The view from the 
 mountain behind Nystuen is very fine ; unfortunately 
 bad weather prevented us from seeing it. 
 
 23. — By carriole to Fagernses ; a very beautiful drive, 
 combining mountain and lake scenery. 
 
 24. — By carriole to Odnses. We are now approaching 
 Southern Norway, and the scenery, though still charming, 
 is much less grand. 
 
 25. — By steamer down Bands-fjord to Hadelands Glass 
 Works, and by carriole to Honefoss. The fall at this town 
 is hardly worth seeing, except in early summer, as its 
 beauty depends upon the amount of water passing over 
 it. Still, even in August, it is far finer than most of the 
 Swiss falls at their best. 
 
 2G. — By carriole to King's View and through the 
 Ringeriget district to Christiania, a richly wooded country, 
 but very tame after the Bomsdal, the Hardanger- fjord 
 and the Fille fjeld. 
 
 28. — Left Christiania 5 p.m. 
 
 31. — Arrived at Hull 7 a.m., after a very stormy 
 passage.
 
 fi2 NORWAY. 
 
 Another route taken by two friends (a lady and a 
 gentleman,) last year was by steamer from Hull to Sta- 
 vanger, and up the coast to Bergen. Thence they visited 
 the Hardanger-fjord and Sogne-fjord, and reached Chris- 
 tiania by way of the Fille fjeld. This tour occupied them 
 three weeks. 
 
 I am inclined to thiuk that the best route, inas- 
 much as though it would involve missing the pretty but 
 somewhat tame Gudbrandsdal, it would avoid a second 
 visit to Christiania, would be from Hull to Bergen, 
 then by steamer to Molde and Vebluugsmesset, from 
 whence the Romsdal could be seen easily in two days ; 
 return to Bergen and take the Hardanger steamer, spend 
 four or five days at Odde, making the excursions men- 
 tioned above (August 15, 16, and 17); to Vik and the 
 Voting foss, to Vossevangen, Gudvangen, Lserdalsoren, the 
 Fille fjeld, Ringeriget, to Christiania. 
 
 Another very favourite excursion, which might be 
 made from Christiania after the one just described, if the 
 traveller has five or six days at his disposal, is to the 
 Rjukau foss in Tellemarken. This foss is one of the 
 three most celebrated falls in Norway, the Skjseggedal 
 foss and the Voring foss being the others. Tellemarken 
 is well worth visiting for its own sake, as the scenery is 
 very fine, and the costumes are the most picturesque in 
 Norway. 
 
 I have hitherto said nothing about Northern Norway ; 
 I have not visited it, but I am assured by many 
 travellers who have, that it will not compare with 
 Southern Norway, that is, the country south of Molde. 
 The drive across the Dovre fjeld from Dombaas (at Dom- 
 baas the l'oad to Throndhjem and the Romsdal diverges) is 
 very dreary. Throndjhem is of course in itself most in-
 
 ITINERARY. C3 
 
 teresting, both on account of its antiquity, and the beauty 
 of its surroundings. The Loffoden islands are also grand, 
 especially seen in the mystic glow of the Norwegian 
 summer night. But all beyond is bleak and bare, and 
 about Hammerfest and the North Cape not even grand. 
 The attraction to tourists in this Arctic district is the 
 midnight sun, but it is only too likely that cloud or fog 
 will hide the sun, both by day and night. Of one thing 
 you may be certain : though you may not see what you 
 went out to see, you will be sure to feel what you had 
 very much rather not feel — the musquitoes. The voyage 
 from Throndjhem to Hammerfest and back is made in a 
 fortnight, leaving only one day on shore at the latter 
 town. If the traveller is not content to stop short of 
 the North Cape, he must make up his mind to another 
 week's companionship of the musquitoes. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to repeat at any length the 
 directions given in all guide books. Suffice it to say, 
 that the tourist would do well to take a good supply of 
 hard captains' biscuits packed in a long cylindrical tin or 
 map case ; some tea ; and, if he be going off the main 
 routes, some potted meat and Liebig soup, both of which 
 the tourist can purchase at Christiania, and so save the 
 import duty, which is heavy. A little marmalade and 
 some mild aperient medicine are useful in a country 
 where vegetables are scarce. A lady ought most certainly 
 to have a macintosh and hood, to keep out the wet, as 
 well as a so-called water-proof, which is well enough for 
 warmth, and in ordinary showers, but will not be proof 
 against a day's rain. It must be remembered that a 
 carriole has no head, and that the traveller who uses it is 
 wholly exposed to the elements. Of clothing, as little as 
 possible should be taken, and little is required in a
 
 64 NORWAY. 
 
 country where there are scarcely any hotels or tables 
 iVlwte. "What clothing is taken should be strong and 
 warm, — tweed for men, serge for women, and should be 
 packed in two small portmanteaus, rather than one large 
 one : in my own case we found one small portmanteau 
 and a knapsack amply sufficient. An oil-skin covering 
 should be taken to wrap around each portmanteau during 
 wet weather, a goodly number of strong straps to fasten the 
 portmanteaus behind the carriole are indispensable, and 
 a railway rug is most useful. Take also some " Souffiet de 
 diable" and use it liberally on the beds if you wish to 
 have a quiet night. Finally, have a goodly supply of 
 small coin to pay the skydskarl, the boy who goes with 
 your horse in order to bring it back. The Norsk cur- 
 rency is not difficult. There is this peculiarity about 
 it, that Danish money will pass almost everywhere in 
 Norway, but Swedish is looked upon with dislike.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 The emigrant, who cherishes with love and pride the 
 remembrance of the mother country, does not reflect that 
 " old England " is not the oldest part of the British 
 dominions. Small as are the British Islands when com- 
 pared with the empire that lies between the tropics of 
 Asia, beneath the arctic circle in America, and in the 
 continent at the antipodes, they are domains of im- 
 perial dimension when contrasted with the most ancient 
 possessions of Queen Victoria. The predecessor of our 
 Sovereign was Duke of Normandy before he was king of 
 England, and as Duke he ruled that little archipelago off 
 the Norman coast, which alone of all their once fair 
 French provinces has been retained by the monarchs who 
 were so long styled the rulers of " Great Britain, France, 
 and Ireland." England's Queen, we all know, rules over 
 more nations, and is obeyed by subjects speaking more 
 languages, than any other sovereign that ever wore 
 crown ; but we rarely remember that the language which 
 claims precedence for antiquity in our history is not 
 English but French. In the Canadian Parliament we 
 may even now hear the members debating in French ; 
 but Canada is only a recent acquisition of Great 
 Britain. Far nearer home, close to our very shores, 
 there are fellow-subjects speaking the language which 
 they spoke before that day, eight centuries ago, when 
 
 F
 
 06 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 the last of the Saxon kings lay dead upon the field of 
 Hastings. In our own Parliament the words in which 
 the Royal assent to any measure is given remind us 
 that we still owe allegiance to the Duchess of Nor- 
 mandy, and recall to us our subjugation. Thus while our 
 Spanish fellow-subjects in Gibraltar, and our Italian 
 fellow-subjects in Malta, bear witness to the conquests 
 which England has won, our fellow-subjects of the 
 Channel Islands remind us that we ourselves have been 
 conquered. Our island stronghold in the Mediterranean 
 may tell of England's valour ; our island empire in the 
 Pacific may tell of England's enterprise ; but the little 
 island of Jethou, whose name not one person out of 
 twenty may have heard, can tell us far more of England's 
 history. 
 
 There is no portion of the British empire which offers 
 more attractions, within narrow limits, than the Chan- 
 nel Islands. Situated close to Erance, lying, in fact, 
 within the shelter of a French bay, they seem by their 
 geographical position to belong to the country whose 
 sandy coasts — whose very houses — can be discerned. The 
 doctrine of nationalities would assign these islands to 
 Napoleon, not Victoria. But history has set at nought 
 both geography and ethnology. Those French-speaking 
 fellow-subjects of ours have clung to England and ab- 
 horred France through long centuries of war between the 
 two countries. They have fought against the men using 
 their own tongue, and in behalf of a people of another 
 speech. Let me be accurate. They fought in behalf of 
 their own independence. The sovereigns of England 
 have been their sovereigns, but the islanders have ruled 
 themselves. They have maintained their own constitu- 
 tion, laws, language, currency, and army. They have
 
 NATURAL FEATURES. G7 
 
 contributed nothing to our revenue, and taxation is to 
 them almost unknown. The representatives of the 
 Sovereign who have been sent to dwell among them and to 
 be at the head of their Government, have been welcomed 
 so long as they have been contented with the otium cum 
 dignitate of vice-royalty. But let them once assume 
 active power, let them once attempt to alter old customs 
 or to correct hoary abuses, and they will find, as the his- 
 torian of the Peninsular War found, that the loyalty of 
 these islanders is conditional ; and the condition is, that 
 the Queen of England may reign, but must not rule. 
 This immoveable adherence to old customs and old privi- 
 leges makes the history and the present constitution of 
 the islands full of interest to the antiquarian. For the 
 naturalist and the artist they have an even richer store 
 of enchantments. The seas, the sands, the rocks, abound 
 with fish and weed, and the creatures that hold a middle 
 place between the two. The lanes are full of treasures 
 for the botanist. The coasts present every variety of 
 sea scenery — granite cliffs which, even at the lowest tide, 
 stand fathoms deep in ever-heaving water ; long reaches 
 of sand that, when the tide is out, stretch away for 
 nearly a mile below high-water mark; little creeks where 
 the sand is dotted with black serrated reefs half-covered 
 by seaweed at the ebb, and all but covered by the foam 
 of the waves as they fret themselves into yeast-like spray 
 at the flow. Most of the islands are so near together 
 that they can be seen from each other, and the outline, 
 dim and soft through the summer haze, clear and sharp 
 before the coming rain, blurred and broken in the storm, 
 gives a beauty to the scene which is always wanting when 
 the horizon in every direction is bounded by the sea. To 
 add to thepicturesquenessof the scenes, the water that lies 
 
 f 2
 
 68 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 between the chief islands is interspersed by innumerable 
 small islets, some few the abode of perhaps a single 
 family, with Crusoe-like proclivities ; some covered en- 
 tirely by a fort ; some the resort only of the sea-bird ; 
 but all alike the dread of the sailor strange to these parts. 
 Beyond these is the line of the French coast, yellow with 
 the harvest or brown with the dun sands. All around is 
 a sea of indescribably brilliant azure. It does not pre- 
 sent to the traveller the wonderful gem-like sparkle of the 
 Lago di Garda — probably the most translucent sheet of 
 water in the world — but it has the hue of that water, the 
 hue of the turquoise. 
 
 The tourist in the Channel Islands who makes South- 
 ampton his port of departure will find himself gliding 
 down the Water and past the Needles soon after mid- 
 nieht, and about six hours later, if wind and sea have 
 favoured him, ho will come in sight of a group of 
 rocks of which the highest is crowned with a strange- 
 looking structure. Those rocks arc the Casquets. That 
 structure is a light-house which, with its three separate 
 towers and lanterns, forming the angles of a triangle, 
 warns the sailor that he is near one of the most 
 dreaded spots in the Channel. The Casquets cover a 
 space of water a mile and a half in one direction, and 
 half a mile in the other, and upon them many a ship has 
 been dashed to pieces. If darkness or fog hide the rocks, 
 they arc not to be discovered by the lead, for all around 
 them is water so deep that a line-of-battle ship may pass 
 within oar's Length of them. Until 1723, no beacon ex- 
 isted to warn off mariners. In that year a rude attempt 
 was made to supply the deficiency, and at first coals were 
 burnt, and afterwards oil lights were set in a copper 
 frame. In 1790 the present lighthouse was erected, but
 
 DANGEROUS SEAS. 69 
 
 in 1823, exactly a century after they were first branded 
 as dangerous, a storm of unusual violence destroyed the 
 lanterns and extinguished the lights. Two landing- 
 places give access to the lighthouse, but so great is the 
 swell of the sea, that many weeks sometimes pass without 
 permitting the visitor to land, and it is customary to 
 keep not less than three months' supply of food for the 
 inhabitants of this storm-battered stronghold. For- 
 merly there was a spring of water on the main rock, but 
 it has long since disappeared, and the keepers have to 
 rely upon the supply which is sent to them every month, 
 and on the rain which they collect in a cistern. More 
 fortunate than their brethren on the still more famous 
 rock of Eddystone, they are able to communicate con- 
 stantly with their fellow-creatures, for a telegraph is laid 
 between the Casquets and Alderney. A line drawn from 
 the Casquets to Cape de la Hogue, in Normandy, would 
 pass over one of the most dangerous portions of the 
 Channel. First it would stretch to the Ortach rock, an 
 islet that rises sixty feet out of the water. Between 
 Ortach and the Casquets the tide rushes with great 
 velocity. On the other and eastern side of Ortach is a 
 shoal known as Burhou, and between that and Alderney 
 is the perilous Passe au Singe, which English sailors have 
 converted into the Swinge. Still going east, we trace the 
 Race of Alderney, which separates that island from the 
 French coast about eight miles off. The bed of the sea 
 is here very much elevated, and were it raised but 120 
 feet higher, the Casquets, Ortach, and Alderney, would 
 form one island. As it is, the line which we have de- 
 scribed covers a mole for the most part submerged, 
 about twelve miles in length, and forming a natural 
 breakwater to the north of the bay which contains
 
 70 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 the Channel Islands. As the steamer passes to the 
 west of the Casquets, Alderney with its somewhat too 
 rounded outline is clearly visible on the left. Soon 
 afterwards land is seen on the bow, and somewhere 
 about eight in the morning the tourist steams into 
 the noble harbour of St. Peter's Port, the capital of 
 Guernsey. 
 
 Guernsey has not the reputation of Jersey. Its acre- 
 age is smaller, its population less numerous ; its wealth is 
 more limited. But it has scenery at least equal, and, for 
 boldness, superior to that of the rival island. The tourist 
 who does not disembark at St. Peter's Port, but passes on 
 to St. Helier's, makes a grievous mistake. For not only 
 is Guernsey different from Jersey, not only is it well 
 worth seeing for its own sake, but it is the centre of 
 radiating excursions. Alderney must be reached by a 
 Guernsey sailing boat, and even with this it is not always 
 possible to return on the same day. Far nearer and 
 smaller than Alderney is Sark, which during fair weather 
 is but two hours off. Nearer and smaller still are the 
 twin islands Herm and Jethou, which are half the dis- 
 tance of Sark. Its situation, therefore, gives Guernsey 
 the first place in this article. 
 
 Topographically Guernsey is a right-angled triangle 
 whose acute angles have been chipped off. Its hypothe- 
 nuse inclines from S.W. to N.E. its base is nearly due 
 east and west, its perpendicular nearly due north and 
 south. Its superficies contains 15,560 English acres, of 
 which about 10,000 acres are under cultivation. Geolo- 
 gically Guernsey is a wedge of granite, sloping upwards 
 with tolerable regularity ; so that while the northern ex- 
 tremity is on the level of the sea, the southern rises to a 
 height of 349 feet. Transversely the island slopes down
 
 THE GUERNSEY CAPITAL. 71 
 
 from east to west, and while the ground above St. Peter's 
 Port rises precipitously over the harbour, the other coast 
 slopes away gently for the most part. Close to the 
 northern end the sea runs into so deep a bay as to nearly 
 sever the little village of Val from the rest of Guernsey. 
 Midway along the eastern coast lies the capital of the 
 island. As seen by a passenger from England, St. Peter's 
 Port, or, as it is commonly called, Peter Port, is both 
 conspicuous and picturesque. Its principal buildings are 
 not fine ; on the contrary, the most prominent, Elizabeth 
 College, is in the worst form of debased Gothic. Never- 
 theless, the way in which the town climbs the steep hill, 
 and in which the houses lie scattered among the trees, 
 gives an imposing air to the toute ensemble which certainly 
 the details do not possess. Especially picturesque is 
 Castle Cornet, of old historic fame. This fortress would 
 stand but a short time against modern heavy artillery, 
 but it serves as an appendage to Fort George upon the 
 hill, a more modern and a stronger work, though by no 
 means contributing to the adornment of the landscape. 
 By far the most important undertaking in the island is 
 the splendid harbour. It shews that though the Guern- 
 seymen are as yet without a railway, the deficiency does 
 not arise from want of energy. In a land where the popu- 
 lation is scanty, and the engineering difficulties would be 
 very great, a railroad is not required, and the cost of it 
 would be enormous. A good harbour can be turned to 
 account, and, accordingly, one has been made on a scale 
 which seems to be far beyond the present or the probable 
 future requirements of the place. It took two centuries 
 to make the old dock, though only four and a half acres 
 in extent. But so sensitive have the islanders proved to 
 what is called the progress of the age, that a little more
 
 72 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 than a dozen years will have sufficed to make docks cover- 
 ing seventy-three acres. The works include a harbour 
 and a floating dock protected by two breakwaters, the one 
 connecting Castle Cornet with the mainland, the other 
 stretching out from the shore eastwards 1,300 feet. The 
 masonry is of granite, and has an appearance of solidity 
 and massiveness not often seen even in the largest ports, 
 and will be a flattering memorial to the engineer who 
 planned, and the contractors who carried out the work. 
 The cost has been defrayed by an export duty levied upon 
 granite, a not very commendable form of taxation. Its 
 imposition was stoutly resisted by the inhabitants of 
 St. Sampson's, the only other town in the island. They 
 contended that as the granite exported from Guernsey 
 came almost entirely from their parish, while the money 
 thus raised was expended upon the rival town, they were 
 not fairly treated. The quarrel became somewhat bitter, 
 and it was carried before the law courts in England. These 
 refused to recognise any distinction of interests among 
 the inhabitants of so small an island, and confirmed the 
 tax. The quays are worthy of the harbour. They are 
 broad, and in some parts adorned with trees, and form an 
 admirable promenade. Unfortunately the houses are for 
 the most part mean, and the site of what might be a fine 
 esplanade is too often occupied by warehouses and the 
 backs of inferior dwellings. The main street is steep and 
 narrow, and affords no view of the sea. The only public 
 building of any ai'chitectural merit is the "Town Church," 
 as it is called, of St. Peter, a cruciform structure with 
 central tower, and in the flamboyant style. Toiling up the 
 main street the high ground is reached. It is covered by 
 small villas, which are so arranged that very few of them 
 can enjoy the fine sea view which the height affords. The
 
 A TRIANGULAR TOUR. 73 
 
 smaller port of St. Sampson's is reached by a coast road of 
 about two miles. The places are, in fact, nearly connected 
 by successive links of houses. St. Sampson's is purely a 
 port, chiefly for the exportation of granite ; while St. 
 Peter's Port is a capital and a market, as well as the chief 
 place for the import trade. The roads have for many 
 years been very good ; but half a century ago the then 
 Governor was compelled to use every argument he could 
 devise to make the islanders submit to the taxation neces- 
 sary for the construction of passable routes. The Guern- 
 seymen were both shamed and persuaded into the work, 
 and now the island is surrounded and intersected by high- 
 ways, which have been judiciously laid out, as well with 
 regard to commercial as military purposes. Well might 
 the grateful Guernseymen erect a tower in honour of Sir 
 John Doyle, who has been the most popular of all their 
 Governors. 
 
 It would be difficult to spend a more enjoyable day 
 than in making the round of the island. Starting from 
 St. Peter's Port, the tourist visits a succession of little 
 bays, each in its way the perfection of marine landscape. 
 In one a garden, full of rare plants, slopes downwards to 
 the sea, and all but touches the sands of dazzling white- 
 ness. In another, the cliffs form a precipitous arc, bound- 
 ing some far retreating inlet. In a third, the most famous 
 of all, Moulin Huet, every charm of Nature is combined. 
 Sharp needles of rocks stand out as the advanced posts 
 against the sea in its aggressive moods ; then the land 
 runs inward with bosky clusters of wood here, with bluff 
 rocks there, covered with lichens of such glorious orange, 
 that they vie with the most brilliant autumn tints of the 
 trees. Deep down below the winding path, through heath 
 and wild thyme and gorse, is the creamy white sand, up
 
 74 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 which the turquoise water ruus, and then retreating, 
 leaves a moist dun patch. Passing westwards along the 
 south coast, the luxuriant loveliness of Moulin Huet gives 
 place to sterner features. The rocks stand up uncom- 
 promisingly against the sea, and refusing to yield, allow 
 little room for those nooks where heauty dwells sheltered 
 from the storm. The umbrageous wealth reaches its 
 full perfection in Water Lane, a leafy tunnel, through 
 which scarcely a stray sunbeam can find its way to cast 
 a shadow upon the moist fern-bordered path, and where 
 there is twilight even at high noon. Then copse and 
 grove disappear and give place to the open common, which 
 even the adventurous Guernseymen have not attempted 
 to cultivate. We round the south-western angle, and see 
 before us at a short distance seawards, cruel reefs of rock, 
 guilty of the fate of many a gallant ship, but now made 
 conspicuous by a warning light house, the Hanois, erected 
 but a few years ago, and after long contention between 
 the local authorities and the coi'poration of the Trinity 
 House. Then again the ever shifting scene changes. We 
 have no longer inlets of graceful curve, nor bluff rampart 
 of cliffs, but a wide bay, whose waters are scattered over 
 with innumerable low rocks. Sometimes a line of reef; 
 sometimes an islet ; and between tbem, even in summer's 
 calm, the sea frets and surges. One rock may claim the 
 title of island ; Lihou Island it is called. Monks dwelt 
 there in the old days, and their chanted prayers must 
 often have been drowned by the thunder of the billows. 
 Now there dwells here a Frenchman, whose heart is set 
 on profit rather than on prayer, for he has the right to 
 all the seaweed in his island ; and seaweed, as we shall 
 presently find, is a most important produce, whose har- 
 vesting is restricted by stringent laws. Mr. Ansted, in
 
 GUERNSEY FOLK. 75 
 
 his admirable volume on the Channel Islands, a book to 
 be read before and after, rather than during a tour, com- 
 pares Lihou on the west with Castle Cornet on the east 
 side of the island. But Lihou is much the larger island. 
 It is connected with the main land by a rough causeway 
 700 yards long, that is covered by the sea for at least 
 half of every tide. Beyond Lihou is a series of sandy 
 bays, still interspersed with rocks. The high ground of 
 the south-west angle slopes away until, as the north-west 
 angle is reached, there is a wide open space of country, 
 but little above the sea level. Here are some of the most 
 productive farms in the island. The northern extremity 
 is for the most part barren and sandy, and the village of 
 Val is situated in a wild and desolate district. The 
 tourist who has but little time to spare should, after 
 reaching Cobo Bay, strike inwards, and climbing the high 
 ground, pass through the richly wooded country about 
 Catel, and bisect the island by descending to St. Peter's 
 Port, his point of departure. 
 
 In perambulating Guernsey, it is impossible not to be 
 struck with the apparent absence of inhabitants. The 
 population is, as every one knows, really far denser than 
 in England. Yet at midday, one may traverse mile after 
 mile of the leafy lanes in the centre of the island, or the 
 open roads on the coast, without meeting a single person. 
 Proofs of habitation there are indeed ; for everywhere 
 there are picturesque cottages, where the fuchsia attains 
 the height of a tree, where the camellia is a shrub wide 
 spread and taller than a man, where the hydrangea is as 
 prodigal of blossom as in the Bay of Glengariffe, which 
 the visitor of the Irish Lakes knows so well, and where 
 even the aloe and the myrtle nourish and flower. But if 
 you try to enter one of those dwellings in order to ask
 
 76 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 your way, you will find the door fast, and the house 
 empty. But the household are not far off. You may 
 not see them, but you can hear the tinkle of sharpening 
 scythes or a murmur of human voices. They are all 
 workers here ; father, mother, son, and daughter, alike 
 till the ground, for that ground is their own. Spade 
 husbandry is carried to perfection here, where labour costs 
 but little; and, to tise Arthur Young's famous saying, 
 " the magic of ownership turns the very rocks into gold." 
 So all day long the islanders toil in the field, and at even- 
 tide they divert themselves by toiling in their gardens. 
 Their farms are little more than gardens. They are 
 usually of from ten to twenty acres. Fifty acres is an 
 exceptionably large holding. Thus every inch of ground 
 is made productive ; thanks to the climate, and to the 
 implement which has made the sands of Flanders a verit- 
 able Pactolus. Visibly true in Guernsey is the Italian 
 proverb, "the plough has a share of iron, the spade has 
 an edge of gold." 
 
 We shall have to speak hereafter of the peasant farm- 
 ing of the Channel Islands, a favourite theme with political 
 economists of the Mill school. There is one particular 
 crop which we must notice here — since it is in Guernsey 
 that the gathering in of it is seen to greatest advantage. 
 It is a portion of that great "harvest of the sea" which 
 we are too apt to undervalue. Locally the crop is called 
 vraic, we should call it seaweed. Though a weed, the 
 picking of it is restricted by very stringent laws. It is 
 only at two seasons of the year that vraic may be gathered, 
 in July and in February. The summer crop is stacked in 
 ricks, and left to dry beneath the sun, and is used for fuel. 
 The winter crop is spread upon the land as manure, and 
 is a most valuable fertiliser, especially when mixed with
 
 THE HARVEST OF THE SEA. 77 
 
 stable refuse. The ashes of the summer crop also are 
 applied with good effect to the soil. The cottagers get 
 sixpence a bushel for this. The seaweed is of two kinds — 
 that which adheres to the rocks, vraic scie, and the drift, 
 vraic venant. The gathering of the latter is allowed to all 
 persons throughout the year from sunrise to eight p.m. 
 Sometimes after a gale a very busy scene is presented, 
 especially in Kocquaine Bay, at the south-west angle of 
 Guernsey. A long row of peasants will be seen stand- 
 ing upon the beach armed with rakes, and by the side of 
 them a mound of weed which they have gathered to- 
 gether, but which they must not take away until the 
 sunrise gun announces the beginning of the day. No 
 sooner has the distant boom been heard than they set to 
 work with astonishing vigour, and carry off their treasure 
 in carts, if they are fortunate enough to possess any, or 
 more often in panniers carried by horses or asses. The 
 regulations which provide for the cutting of the vraic scie 
 are still more strict. The first harvest begins at the first 
 new or full moon after February 1st, and lasts five weeks. 
 The second begins in the middle of June and ends on 
 August 31st. The summer cutting is limited for the first 
 month to the poor, or people who have no cattle. They 
 are not allowed to carry it by barrow to a cart, but must 
 transport it above high spring tide, and from thence it is 
 carted away. "The cutting of the vraic,"' says Mr. 
 Ansted, " is the occasion of a general holiday. The rocks 
 having been examined the day before by the men, large 
 parties grouped into sets of two or three families, resort to 
 the most promising places where the weed is thickest and 
 longest, and cut it with a small kind of reaping hook, 
 throwing it into heaps until the tide flows. It is then 
 carried out of reach of the advancing tide as fast as pos-
 
 78 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sible. The evening after the day's work, the parties meet 
 at some neighbouring house of refreshment, where the 
 lit defouaille is fitted up for the occasion and lighted up. 
 The evening closes with a dance." The total amount of 
 vraic collected yearly around Guernsey is about 30,000 
 loads, and as the value of a load is reckoned to be two 
 shillings on the beach, here at once is a source of wealth 
 equal to 3,000/. a year. Jersey probably supplies an even 
 larger amount. On an average about one acre in five in 
 the larger islands, and nearly as much in Alderney and 
 Sark, is manured with litter and seaweed to the amount 
 of ten loads to the acre, or with the ashes of the weed 
 that has already done duty as fuel. In potato culture 
 this application has been remarkably successful, land so 
 treated yielding on an average twenty tons of potatoes to 
 the acre. But it is not only for agricultural and domestic 
 purposes that the vraic is available. It is used in the 
 manufacture of barilla, especially in the Chaussey Islands, 
 and also in that of iodine. The Guernsey sea weed is 
 particularly rich in the latter salt, and for the last twenty 
 years iodine has been manufactured and exported to 
 England. The development of photography has increased 
 the demand for that salt, and at the preseut time over 
 20,000 ounces are sent yearly to this country. The sea- 
 weed is capable of yielding paraffin oil, naphtha, and sul- 
 phate of ammonia, which, however, are not manufactured 
 on the islands. There is room here for much greater 
 enterprise than has yet been shown. The annual yield of 
 seaweed is about 200,000 tons, of which a very small 
 quantity is turned to the profitable use to which it might 
 be put. 
 
 As we have said, Guernsey is the most convenient 
 starting point for visiting the smaller islands. The most
 
 ALDERNEY. 79 
 
 important excursion is that to Alderney. As at first seen 
 the lofty cliffs are masked by a number of detached rocks 
 lying at a short distance from the south-western extremity 
 of the island. In that island, as in Guernsey, the coast 
 presents a great variety of attractions. On the north the 
 ground slopes towards a series of bays more or less tame. 
 To the south-east is a succession of rock scenery of the 
 very grandest description. One may look sheer down two 
 hundred feet into the sea, and through the clear water 
 discern the rocky bottom fathoms deep. Mr. Ansted 
 has so well described this coast, that I cannot do better 
 than quote from his elaborate and beautiful volume. 
 
 " Continuing to work our way round the various inlets, we come 
 after a time to the sandstone, of which there is a second small 
 patch, quarried near the top of the cliff, and seen reaching the sea. 
 Afterwards there is nothing but naked and rough granite and por- 
 phyry. Wonderfully broken and precipitous are the cliffs thus 
 formed. Many of them are quite vertical, either to the sea, or to 
 the very small bays, where the water is seen boiling and foaming in 
 the most extraordinary manner. From one headland to another, 
 round great hollow depressions, where the granite is soft and de- 
 composing, along parts of the cliff where wide cracks at the surface 
 shew the possibility of the ground sinking under his feet, the visitor 
 may pick his way, rewarded occasionally by bursts of unexpected 
 grandeur and beauty. The cliffs are often so vertical that one may 
 look down to the sea rolling in at one's feet, and across a narrow 
 inlet perceive clearly the geological structure of an opposite cliff. 
 There is one spot in particular, where a wall of rock a couple of 
 hundred feet deep, displays a beautiful olive-coloured porphyry, 
 crossed by great horizontal veins of flesh-coloured felspar, suc- 
 ceeding one another at intervals down to the sea line. The scenery 
 of the cliff varies a good deal, and much of it is almost peculiar to 
 Alderney. In many places depressions of the surface are observ- 
 able, and one is obliged either to make a wide circuit, or to descend 
 a deep hollow. Two or three such scoopings out of the surface are 
 passed on the south-east coast. They correspond to the presence of
 
 80 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 a peculiarly decomposing rotten material that alternates with, the 
 harder parts of the rock. As there are generally hard walls to 
 these softer hollows they are often in the highest degree pictu- 
 resque, for the action of the sea having worn away a deep inlet, 
 the wall of rock on each side allows of the inlet being approached 
 pretty nearly without inconvenience. . . . Towards the south- 
 western extremity of the island there is a succession of very bold 
 and grand cliffs, beyond which is a reef of picturesque rocks, some 
 of them of large size. . . . It is the fashion, and has become 
 almost a tradition, to speak of Alderney as a desolate station, 
 offering no single object of interest, and nothing to occupy any 
 rational person for many hours. But those who are capable of 
 appreciating grand rocky scenery, and who are able to look at it ; 
 persons who would regard Wales, Scotland, and Switzerland as 
 worth visiting for themselves, their wild beauty, and for the 
 sublimity of their scenery, ought not to complain of this remarkable 
 island. Such persons may, beyond a doubt, find along the coast we 
 have been describing, quite as much grandeur and beauty as they 
 have anywhere seen in a day's ramble." 
 
 There are in Alderney objects of special interest, such 
 as the Roche Pendante, a magnificent pinnacle of sand- 
 stone rock ; and there are beaches to be visited, by no 
 means an easy feat. The town is not remarkable, and 
 there are scarcely any buildings of importance, still less of 
 beauty, except the new parish church in the Early English 
 style, with chancel, apse, and choir-arch of great beauty. 
 Two mistakes unhappily detract from the perfection of 
 Mr. Gilbert Scott's otherwise successful work. The 
 church, which should have been placed on high ground, is 
 buried in a hollow, and the soft stone of Normandy has 
 been used for the dressings, and is already, after about 
 twenty years of exposure, falling into decay. Alderney 
 owes its importance to military rather than to eccle- 
 siastical constructions. It is well called by Mr. Ansted 
 the Ehrenbreitstein of the Channel; only it is to France
 
 AN UNFORTUNATE SUGGESTION. 81 
 
 what the Rhine fortress would be to the Prussians if it 
 were in the hands of the French. Alderney seems 
 destined by nature to be an outwork of Cherbourg. We 
 have endeavoured to make it a counter-work. It was Sir 
 William Napier who urged that the island should be made 
 a fortified naval station. When Governor of Guernsey 
 he wrote to the Home Secretary of that time, Sir James 
 Graham, and pointed out the necessity of converting 
 Alderney into a stronghold which should be both a haven 
 of refuge for our own fleet, and a point of attack upon the 
 enemy's. He said that of all the islands, Alderney was 
 the most important, and that so long as it was unpro- 
 tected, one hour and two large steamers would suffice to 
 place France in possession of it, and then it would not be 
 possible to dispossess her. Having established herself 
 there she would be able to reduce the other islands at 
 leisure ; while England, engaged as she would then be in 
 a struggle for very existence, would not have the strength 
 to undertake so major an operation of warfare as the re- 
 covery of the islands. On the other hand, if strongly 
 secured, Alderney would serve as an effectual check upon 
 Cherbourg. By raising a tower on the Touraille Hill, or 
 Essex heights, it would be possible to look into the French 
 stronghold. From La Hogue to the Bill of Portland is 
 fifty-seven miles, and as the Swinge and the Race cannot 
 be blockaded, fifteen miles of the distance would be in the 
 possession of the French, with a harbour for any number 
 of vessels. The sun rises at the back of the position, and 
 therefore French ships of war w T ould see an English ship 
 two or three hours before she could be observed from 
 Portland, and they would pounce upon her before help 
 from England could reach her. Seven years later, in 1852, 
 Napier again wrote to urge the fortification of Alderney. 
 
 G
 
 82 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 He said a defended harbour would form the rendezvous 
 of a squadron blockading Cherbourg. If the Cherbourg 
 fleet came out, the Alderney fleet would send expresses 
 to the Channel squadron, and a general engagement 
 would take place between Dover and Portland. These 
 representations produced their effect, and one of the most 
 costly even of government jobs was soon afterwards begun. 
 Three large forts and a breakwater have been constructed, 
 and the anchorage has been cleared of several rocks. Mr. 
 Ansted writing in 1865, says : — 
 
 " To enlarge the original design (which was either too much or 
 too little), it was determined to alter the direction of the west 
 breakwater to east-north-east. This lias involved a large quantity 
 of work done in water upwards of twenty fathoms deep, and has 
 completely cut across the • lli at anchorage that might have been 
 procured by carrying the breakwater from rock to rock. Had the 
 latter work been decided on, a magnificent harbour would have 
 been secured at a comparatively small expense. Nearly a million 
 sterling has imv, been expended on the 1,200 yards of the west 
 breakwater at present carried out. The east breakwater is not yet 
 commenced. . . . Great as lias been the error in the construc- 
 tion of the harbour, and although, beyond doubt, the accommo- 
 dation when completed will be far less and far worse than it ought 
 to have been, no policy could be more absurd or suicidal than to 
 stop or check the works in their present state. The shelter that 
 will lie afforded when the works are completed is an object of great 
 importance. To obtain this, vast sums have been expended in 
 structing a long serii - of forts to command etlieiently some five 
 miles of coast. It i- in this harbour thai our merchant ships would 
 look for safety in the event of war. It is here that gunboats and 
 other ships of war would collect ; to this place they would repair for 
 coals and stores ; here they mighl relit; and hence they might 
 issue to cut off and destroy an enemy stationed at Cherbourg. If 
 the Channel Islands are to be preserved, and that the possession ol 
 these islands means the possession of the Channel is more than • 
 the case now, it can be only by rendering Alderney useful as well 
 ,i^ strong; and much of this usefulness consists in there being a
 
 A NATIONAL FAILURE. 83 
 
 harbour of refuge. It is not now time to consider what might 
 have been done better : but it is a very serious question indeed, 
 what can be done best with the materials still at our command." 
 
 Our naval and military authorities seem to have been 
 peculiarly unfortunate in the Channel Islands. Alderney 
 is quite a byeword and a reproach, and a few years ago 
 the yearly vote for carrying on the works was made the 
 subject of a sharp Parliamentary struggle. A more 
 disastrous undei'taking, because wholly useless, was com- 
 menced some years ago in St. Catherine's Bay, Jersey. 
 One day, in hot haste, the Admiralty bought, for 80,000/., 
 a piece of ground worth 3,0001., with the idea of erecting 
 a fortress. This has not been commenced, nor is it likely 
 to be. The harbour which the fort was to protect, was, 
 however, begun, and after a magnificent pier, about a 
 third of a mile long, and constructed in the most sub- 
 stantial and costly manner, had been completed, and a 
 second arm of rough rock work had been partly made, it 
 was discovered that the water was not deep enough to 
 hold ships ; and now, after that half-a-million sterling has 
 been squandered, the works have been abandoned, the 
 pier is covered with weeds, and the lighthouse that was 
 erected to guide storm-tost ships into a fair haven, has to 
 be lighted every night to warn them from coming near. 
 Even had the harbour been successful as regards its 
 capabilities, it would have been wrongly placed. It 
 overlooks the sandy portless coast of Normandy, south 
 of Cape La Hogue, instead of towards that point and 
 Cherbourg, as it would have done on the other side of 
 the island. 
 
 Reader pour mieux muter. We go back to Guernsey 
 in order to make a better start for the other islands. 
 Exactly opposite St. Peter's Port lie Herm and Jethoiij 
 
 g 2
 
 84 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 two islands that bear to each other the same relations as 
 a frigate and her tender gunboat. They form part of a reef 
 of granite, most picturesque but most dangerous, which 
 stretches towards Guernsey, and which makes the " Little 
 Russell " the most difficult of all the many perilous pas- 
 sages in these waters. The first of them presents every 
 variety of coast scenery, and is much after the same type 
 as Guernsey. Like that island it is steep towards the 
 south, and stretches in long sandy flats northwards. 
 The rock being of a softer granite than in Guernsey, it is 
 more cleft by the action of the sea. Herm abounds in 
 caverns, wherein the brilliant green of luxuriant ferns is 
 vividly set off by the back-ground of swarthy cliff. Little 
 bays lie surrounded by steep slopes, full of wild flowers, 
 down the side of which the tourist has worn a winding 
 path. Here the sand is as smooth as velvet, as firm as 
 marble to the foot, and the intense brilliancy and clear- 
 ness of the water irresistibly invite to bathe. The sur- 
 face of the island is remarkably irregular. Here there is 
 a steep hill witli flanking valleys, bending to the sea. 
 Here there are steep cliffs, at the foot of which it is pos- 
 sible to walk only at low water. Here there is a flat 
 table land covered with coarse grass, and margined by a 
 long reach of sand. An enterprising gentleman has un- 
 dertaken to cultivate the island, and he has a comfortable 
 house and convenient farm buildings. The soil is good, 
 consisting of decomposed granite, which in Cornwall 
 yields such wonderful crops of early vegetables for 
 Covent Garden. But the great deficiency of the island 
 is the want of water. Through this it became necessaiy 
 for the Lord of Herm to sell off his fine herd of Alder- 
 ney cattle during a recent dry summer. The aborigines 
 are as troublesome to him in their way as the Maories
 
 HERM AND JETHOU. 85 
 
 have proved to the New Zealand settlers. These foes are 
 the rabbits, and not only do they work havoc among the 
 crops, but the}' are undermining the island, and are the 
 cause of the frequent landslips, which are diminishing its 
 area. Herm is not given up wholly to agriculture. 
 There are granite quarries, which of late have been 
 worked with considerable vigour on account of extensive 
 orders for the Thames Embankment. The chief glory of 
 Herm is its shell beach. The sands of Whitesand Bay, 
 near the Land's End, are prolific in shells, but they can- 
 not bear comparison with this wonderful shore. Here 
 the sand is made up entirely of shells, whole or in frag- 
 ments. Every handful contains myriad tenautless abodes 
 of animal life. Exquisite in form, glorious in colour, 
 they quite overpower the imagination with a reality so 
 far beyond conception. Lying there at length, far away 
 from the turmoil of life in London, the wearied holiday- 
 taker is startled by the apparent waste of creative power. 
 It seems wonderful that so little account of life should 
 be taken by the Great Life-giver. He is humiliated to 
 think that year after year fresh stores of structural 
 beauty are added, to be washed away again, without 
 being beheld by a human eye. To what purpose, he asks, 
 was this waste ? He cannot solve the " riddle of the 
 painful earth," and if he leaves the sands, and when the 
 water is out, will wade barefooted among the pools that 
 the sea has left between sharp ridges of rock and rounded 
 slopes of sand, and watch the fairy forms of life, half 
 animal and half vegetable, the flesh-like, flower-like petals 
 of the sea anemone, pale pink, bright orange, deep crim- 
 son, he will be still more overcome by the vastness of 
 that universe, whose very puddles are kingdoms. 
 
 Jethou lies to the south of Herm, and is separated
 
 86 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 from it by a narrow but deep channel. Strictly speaking, 
 it consists of a group of three islands, being itself by far 
 the largest. It is steeper and higher than Herrn, and it 
 has one house, occupied by the tenant who farms the 
 island. Southwards there is a series of dangerous rocks. 
 In spite of the difficulties of navigation, visitors to Herm 
 aud Jethou are numerous. Thousands of excursionists 
 brave an hour's sea-sickness, and a possible wreck, in 
 order to visit spots that are indeed worth a heavier 
 sacrifice. 
 
 He who lias not seen Sark has not seen the Channel 
 Islands. The geography books that we used to learn 
 when we were young told us that this was a barren and 
 rocky island, and that was all they told us. We were left 
 to infer that Sark was uninhabited and desolate, a place 
 little favoured by God and forsaken by man. Rocky it 
 is, but not barren. It is so rocky that the Lords of the 
 Admiralty once steamed round and round the island, and 
 finding no lauding place gave up then; intended visit in 
 despair. But the interior is fertile enough. The island 
 is a bowl, aud the concavity of it abounds with tree and 
 flower and fern, and there are nooks of luxuriant greenery 
 and leafy lanes such as Devonshire would not be ashamed 
 to own. So far is it from being uninhabited, that the 
 only fear of the islanders is that they will be over-popu- 
 lated. The navigation thither is intricate and not a little 
 perilous, so that the Sark pilots who have learnt to 
 thrid the watery maze, and to encounter the dangers of 
 rock and shoal, have a reputation for skill and hardihood. 
 A steamer goes from Guernsey to Sark about once a 
 week in summer 1 , and luggers go every day. But in 
 winter, when the wind is tempestuous, — still more when 
 there is a calm accompanied by a fog, — it is often im-
 
 SARK. 87 
 
 possible to hold communication for more than a week. 
 Twelve days have been known to elapse before the 
 Sarkites could learn anything of what was going on in 
 the great world of Guernsey. If the weather be fine, 
 the most pleasant way of crossing is to embark in one of 
 the luggers. With a breeze sufficient to freshen the sea 
 and to swell the sails, one goes bounding along past bold 
 groups of rocks and islets tenanted by sea fowl, until the 
 southern extremity of Sark is reached. Then the tack is 
 altered, and the little vessel glides along more slowly in 
 smooth water, sheltered by the high cliffs that rise up 
 precipitously from the shore, and ax*e here and there 
 pierced with caverns, until it reaches the pier which their 
 naval lordships thought too insignificant to notice. 
 Landing here is not an easy matter, for one has to walk 
 the plank under the most favourable circumstances, and 
 if the sea be at all fresh one must be prepared for a 
 wade. Even when this has been done, it is by no means 
 easy to discover where the portal is which is to give us 
 an outlet from this rock-bound bay and entrance into the 
 island. Advantage has been taken of a soft cliff which 
 the sea had partly excavated to pierce a tunnel, and this 
 is the gateway into the domain of the Lord of Sark. 
 That passed, the adventurer toils up a steep road, at first 
 between turfy hills, but presently through a tree-shaded 
 lane, past cottages, that tell of human inhabitants, past a 
 church, a post-office, and an inn, which reveal a certain 
 degree of civilization, and then downwards through 
 meadows and " happy orchard lawns " to a charming 
 rustic hotel lying at the head of a luxuriant glen that 
 slopes down to the yellow sands and the blue sea. I 
 spent a Sunday here five years ago, and anythiug more 
 truly Sabbatical than that day I never expez-ienced. It
 
 88 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 was absolute rest, most welcome to one wearied by eleven 
 months' toil in the greatest of cities. The ripple ran softly 
 up the sand, and then glided back with scarce a sound. 
 Far out at sea there was the soft haze of summer, hiding 
 the glare of the French coast that would otherwise have 
 been visible, to tell of the great world of Europe. Close 
 at hand there was no sound save the humming of the bee 
 and the crisp rustle of the cattle as they cropped the short 
 grass. Then, as the morning wore on, the people gathered 
 from the scattered cottages and wended their way to the 
 unadorned church. There the old familiar prayers sounded 
 strangely in another tongue, and the psalter was sung to 
 grand chorales worthy to be included in Sebastian Bach's 
 " Gesangbuch." Then to wander slowly over the downs, 
 with the sea visible almost all around the island ; to sit 
 upon the farthest point of some giddy height and gaze at 
 the heaving water almost steel blue, as seen far below 
 and between the peaks and altars of rock that storms 
 had severed from the island and left standing apart — to 
 think, by way of deepening the deep repose, of hot 
 churches crowded with worshippers in gorgeous attire, 
 not to read, but simply to " muse and brood and live 
 again in memory " old and cherished words or scenes well 
 nigh forgotten — that was delight keen enough to render 
 that summer Sabbath for ever a red-letter day in my 
 calendar. 
 
 There is one peculiarity which cannot but heighten the 
 strange dreamy thoughts that the visitor must feel at 
 finding himself on such a spot as this. The Sarkites walk 
 about in sable trarments. In Guernsev there seemed to be 
 an unusually large number of mourners goiug about the 
 streets ; but in Sark the whole population are clad in the 
 gloomy costume of death. One is tempted to suppose
 
 THE SARK PARLIAMENT. 89 
 
 that some great pestilence has swept over the people, and 
 left one-half of them lamenting for the other half laid in 
 their graves. You cannot learn that any such calamity 
 has befallen them. Their weeds appear to be due to 
 other causes. The island is small and the inhabitants 
 intermarry so much that they are like one large family, of 
 which if one member suffers all the other members grieve. 
 That is one reason ; but there is another. The Sarkites 
 are an economical race, and having bought a good black 
 stuff gown, or a good black cloth coat, they will wear it 
 until it is worn out. They do not adopt the modern 
 London fashion of wearing mourning for three weeks. 
 Tenderness and thriftiness alike forbid. They are not 
 only tender and thrifty, they are independent. They 
 pass their own laws and no one has the right of veto save 
 the Seigneur. Their Parliament of forty meets in the 
 school-house, and there the island budget, about 801. a 
 year, is voted. They have a prison, and tradition tells 
 that there was once a prisoner, and that when she was 
 about to be locked up for the night she begged that the 
 door might be left open as she was nervous if left alone. 
 The request was complied with, and the prisoner made no 
 attempt to escape, thinking probably that concealment 
 would be impossible in a country of such narrow limits as 
 Sark. Once upon a time there was nearly a rebellion in 
 the island. The introduction of the penny post was the 
 exciting cause. Before that event the islanders used to 
 go down to the little bay I have spoken of, and meet the 
 boat which brought their mail, and seize their letters with- 
 out asking leave. The necessity of seeing them carried 
 away to the Post-office, and of waiting until the eagerly 
 expected missives w T ere delivered, irritated them in the 
 highest degree, and their anger was not quickly appeased.
 
 90 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 The chief authority in the island is a clergyman, who is 
 not only Seigneur, but High Sheriff, President of the 
 Legislative Assembly, and Commander of the Forces, 
 which number about a dozen men, of whom about ten 
 are officers. His is a very mild despotism. The land 
 tenure is regulated by the strictest primogeniture. The 
 Sarkites are so careful that their island shall not be over- 
 populated, that the younger sons are not permitted 
 to inherit their father's estate, but are expected to leave 
 the island and push their fortunes in Guernsey or in the 
 great world beyond. Notwithstanding these precautious, 
 land attains the very high price of 3001. an acre. French 
 is the language almost universally spoken ; by no means 
 Parisian French, but a patois to which the people cling so 
 tenaciously, that although taught English at the schools, 
 they speedily forget it. The Seignory is the chief sight of 
 the island, and very charming it is. A quaint castellated 
 building with terraces on which peacocks display their 
 fans, with velvet lawns in front and hollyhocks of many 
 colours growing ten fret high, and a brilliant blaze of 
 Bowers such as are not often seen north of Italy, and 
 luscious fruits that crowd the walls, and bosky glens 
 through which one descends to a precipitous rock, that 
 looks across a narrow gulf of sea upon an island winch to 
 lliose who know Cornwall, will at once suggest Tintagel — 
 such is the Seignory. 
 
 We must not forget Little Sark. It is joined to Sark 
 by the narrowest neck of land that ever saved peninsula 
 from becoming island. A pathway, eight feet broad. 
 with cliffs sheer down 200 feet on either side, and with no 
 protection for the dizzy traveller, such is the highway from 
 Great to Little Sark. It may be perhaps on account of 
 the tenuity of this coupe, so suggestive of the bridge that
 
 LITTLE SARK. 
 
 91 
 
 leads to the Mahometan's Paradise, that the inhabitants 
 of one part, of the island will pass months without visiting 
 the other part. Tradition tells that one Little Sarkite 
 who used, on his visit to the Sarkite metropolis, to take 
 more liquor than was good for him, would pause on his 
 way homewards before passing the coupe, and would 
 balance himself upon an old cannon to see if he were in a 
 condition to traverse the perilous path. If he could 
 maintain his balance, he would go on ; if he fell off, he 
 would remain for the night on the northern side, and 
 sleep himself sober. Formerly there were mines worked 
 in Little Sark ; but though productive, they did not pay 
 their expenses, and they are now abandoned, together 
 with many of the cottages. The population of the entire 
 island is almost entirely given up to agriculture and fish- 
 ing—to the harvest of the fields and the harvest of the 
 sea. The landsmen are so little venturesome that many of 
 them have never set foot out of their island, and seem to 
 think it so wide a world that they tie up all their fowls by 
 one leg lest they should stray. The seamen must be bold, 
 for the coast is dangerous, and the storms are sometimes 
 terrible. 
 
 To go from Sark to Jersey is to return from almost 
 eremite seclusion to the turmoil of the world. St. Helier's, 
 the capital, is a place of 30,000 inhabitants, a population 
 nearly equal to that of all the islands, save Jersey, put 
 together. Your first contact with the Jerseymen does not 
 give you a favourable impression of them. The porters 
 that beset you as you land at the quay are most obtrusive 
 in their offers of service ; but though competition is keen 
 there is no abatement of price, and the pertinacity with 
 which they follow you is equalled by the largeness of 
 their expectations if you engage them. The cabmen are
 
 02 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 less numerous, and are therefore more extortionate. The 
 fares which they demand would astound even the most 
 audacious of their confreres in London ; and they have 
 this advantage, that their extortion is legalised. The 
 Jerseymen are so lightly taxed that they can enjoy the 
 use of a well-built carriage, two horses, and a driver for 
 the whole day on paying foui'teen shillings ; but they 
 know how to tax strangers, and these accordingly have to 
 pay some three or four shillings for the use of a cab over 
 the mile that lies between the pier and the centre of 
 the town. The antipathy which these first specimens of 
 Jerseymen excite is softened by the sight of the Jersey 
 women. These are as remarkable for beauty as their 
 sisters in Devonshire, and both have the same style of 
 beauty. St. Helier's is a town that does not improve on 
 acquaintance. The public buildings are poor ; the streets 
 are narrow, though the shops are good. The market is 
 capacious, but that which used to be the chief charm of it, 
 the picturesque costume of the market women, is every 
 year more rarely seen. Here, as at Guernsey, the visitor 
 gets undeceived as to the supposed exceeding cheapness of 
 living in the Channel Islands. True, the taxes are light, 
 and thus one item of expenditure is saved, and there 
 being few duties, whether excise or customs, it is possible 
 to get all kinds of spirits, from eau de Cologne to brandy, 
 at a little more than the cost of manufacture. But, after 
 all, man cannot live upon brandy or eau de Cologne. The 
 other and purely legitimate articles of household expen- 
 diture are not apparently lower in price than in many of 
 the smaller towns in England. House rent, moreover, is 
 by no means low, so that the popular belief about the 
 small expenditure required in the Channel Islands, if it 
 were true some years ago, is no longer so.
 
 JERSEY. 93 
 
 Between Guernsey and Jersey there is more of rivalry 
 than of intercourse. The two are jealous of each other. 
 They are, however, alike in many respects. Among others, 
 they both have a rock fortress guarding the harbour, with 
 a distinguished history attached to it, but are picturesque 
 rather than useful. Modern works of defence upon the 
 hills above overlook and supersede the island stronghold. 
 Fort George overshadows Castle Cornet ; Fort Regent 
 overshadows Castle Elizabeth. The two castles were alike 
 in holding out for the King when the islands had declared 
 for the Parliament. Both w T ere reduced at last ; Castle 
 Cornet after a gallant resistance of nine years, Elizabeth 
 Castle after a resistance of about six weeks ; capitulation 
 being induced less by the strength of the enemy than by 
 the accidental explosion of powder which caused the deaths 
 of a large number of the garrison. Of more recent interest 
 is the Royal Square, where the gallant Major Pierson fell 
 at the very moment that he had succeeded in repulsing 
 the French some eighty-five years ago. 
 
 The tourist who has been living in towns all the year 
 will be glad enough to escape from St. Helier's, and he 
 cannot do better than make Gouray or Gorey, as it is in- 
 differently called, his head-quarters. It is situated among 
 some of the best scenery in the island, and possesses a 
 noble lion in the Castle of Mont Orgueil. At the foot of 
 this rocky fortress are sands stretching away for two miles 
 on the right, and on the left a series of picturesque bays 
 full of studies for the artist and the geologist. Its eastern 
 aspect renders Gouray less relaxing than St. Brelade's Bay, 
 which is more frequented by visitors, but which, in the 
 height of summer, is intolerably hot. Though but a little 
 town, and since the failure of the oyster fishery, a decaying 
 town, Gouray possesses ample accommodation. In fact,
 
 94 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 every other house on the quay is an hotel ; but it will be 
 better to find a lodging on the hill which overlooks the 
 bay, the castle, and the town, and from which there is a 
 view of the coast of France so extensive that at night 
 half-a-dozen lighthouses may be counted. The first object 
 which strikes the traveller coming from St. Helier's is 
 Mont Orgneil Castle, which is built upon a prominent 
 rock standing isolated and precipitous on three sides. The 
 fortress is of ancient date, and is supposed to have had 
 existence in the time of King John. The greater part of 
 the present building must, however, be more modern than 
 this, and many of the rooms are in a good state of preser- 
 vation and habitable. Within this ivy-covered stronghold 
 two historic personages spent some time during the civil 
 war. Prynne passed three years here, and liked his prison 
 so well that he composed a poem entitled " A poetic de- 
 scription of Mont Orgueil Castle, in the Isle of Jersey, 
 interlaced with some brief meditations upon its rocky, 
 steep, and lofty situation." The illustrious Roundhead 
 seems to have been softened by his confinement. Not 
 only did he woo the muse, but his Puritanism was so 
 far undermined that he was induced to play cards with 
 Lady Carteret and her daughters, among whom he found 
 one partner so admirable that ho dedicated his poem to 
 her. The other occupant of the castle was a voluntary 
 one, Charles II., who remained here several months. 
 
 The next object which attracts the visitor is at first 
 sight a very puzzling one. As he drives along the coast 
 of Grouville Bay, he sees high up on the hill, far above 
 even lofty Mont Orgueil, a ship. The fly in the amber is 
 not a more puzzling phenomenon at first sight. A visit 
 to the vessel explains the mystery very satisfactorily. It 
 consists of the upper deck and masts of a man of- war
 
 GOURAY. 95 
 
 erected on the ground and used as a training ship for lads 
 entering the naval service. A most admirable institution 
 it is. Here boys are taught everything connected with 
 the working of a ship ; they learn the names and use of 
 every spar and rope, and how to rig and steer. They live 
 within these wooden walls just as though they were afloat, 
 and all the order and discipline of a man-of-war are ob- 
 served. Connected with the ship are boats in which the 
 lads learn to row practically. Besides their special training 
 they receive a good general education. They are well fed 
 and clothed, and seem as happy as the clay is long. Mont 
 Orgueil, no longer available as a fortress, is used as an 
 infirmary in case of infectious diseases on board the train- 
 ing ship. Altogether the experiment has been most suc- 
 cessful, and it has induced a large number of the poorer 
 Jersey men to send their sons into the navy. 
 
 We have already spoken of the splendid but useless pier 
 that has been built at St. Catherine's Bay. This is about 
 two miles to the north of Gouray, and on the way thither 
 another pier, but partly built, is passed. This is con- 
 structed of a very remarkable conglomerate stone that 
 has been quarried out of the rocks close to the finished 
 pier, and conveyed by a tram-road to the point where it 
 was required. The quarry is one of the most interesting 
 spots that ever gave work to the geologist's hammer. Be- 
 yond this is a succession of small bays, strewn with great 
 boulders of this rock, and abounding with rounded peb- 
 bles of granite, jasper, a peculiar green stone, cornelian, 
 agate, and common black flint, which, as Mr. Ansted says, 
 " in any English watering-place would be collected and 
 polished for sale." In one of these bays is a tower from 
 which the submarine telegraph is laid to the coast of 
 France, which is here most closely approximated. Pro-
 
 96 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 ceeding northwards, Rozel Bay with its little hamlet is 
 reached. It is in this part of the Channel Islands that 
 the sea attains its most brilliant hue. From this point to 
 the north-western point of Jersey the coast is very fine, 
 and if the tourist has stout limbs and a steady brain, he 
 will find the walk by the cliffs fully repay him for the 
 fatigue. I have not space to describe at any length the 
 separate points of interest, but must make special mention 
 only of Plemont or Pleinmont Point. There are here 
 some caves of remarkable size and beauty. They are to 
 be visited only at low water, but are well worth the 
 trouble which it costs to inspect them. Mr. Ansted thus 
 describes the rock scenery at this point : — 
 
 " The great peculiarity of the bay is the succession of noble 
 and picturesque caverns, and deep narrow fiords alternating with 
 rocky reefs projecting for some distance into the sea. These are 
 continued far beyond the lowest tide, extending, indeed, to the 
 extremity of Cape (irosnez, under which is the last cavern. It is 
 difficult to state the number of caverns in the bay with precision. 
 Six may lie visited in succession at all times excepl near high- 
 water, and all are strikingly picturesque. Some are connected one 
 with another by low natural arches, but most of them are detached. 
 The first enters by an open inlet forty or fifty yards wide, and more 
 than sixty yards in length before narrowing. The inlet continues 
 in the same direction. On one side, however, to the right, it is 
 open for another fifty yards, and to the left becomes a magnificent 
 natural hall, perfectly straight, entering about one hundred and 
 twenty feet, with a width of nearly 50 at the entrance, and gradu- 
 ally narrowing. The height of the roof is some twenty feet or 
 more, and the floor is strewed with large perfectly rounded pebbles, 
 and large rocks of extremely white granites, although the walls are 
 pinkish and dark grey stone. Some distance beyond the first 
 opening is a group of three caverns connected by a low natural 
 arch, and having in the foreground a remarkable group of detached 
 rocky pinnacles and boulders. A cascade, the water falling i sactly 
 over the entry of one of the caves which is situated between two
 
 CAVES AND BAYS. 97 
 
 others, all visible from the same point, produces a variety of rocky 
 scenery to be met with only in the Channel Islands in this re- 
 markable bay. " 
 
 A little farther than these caves is Grosnez Point, the 
 north-western angle of Jersey. Turning southward the 
 scenery shortly changes with that abruptness which con- 
 stitutes one of the chief charms of these islands. In the 
 place of the bold cliffs and fiords and broken islets of 
 rock, we come upon a reach of sand occupying the whole 
 western side of Jersey, and on which, when the west wind 
 blows, the white horses of Neptune come striding on with 
 a noise like thunder. This Bay of Ouen or St. Owen is 
 one of the finest .expanses of sand in the British domi- 
 nions. It stretches southwards for more than five miles, 
 and recedes to a range of hills which form a semi-elliptical 
 background ; it has a shorter diameter of nearly four 
 miles. The sands are prevented from becoming mono- 
 tonous by the cropping up of several rocks, especially of 
 the Corbieres, a grand and picturesque group, connected 
 with the main land at low water by a broad causeway of 
 boulders and jagged ends of granite. Facing east and 
 skirting the southern shore of Jersey, we come to St. Bre- 
 lade's Bay, beautiful, but oppressively hot. Beyond this 
 is fair and large St. Au bin's Bay, scattered with villas, and 
 rising out of it Elizabeth Castle and the busy island capital, 
 St. Helier's. We have thus skirted the island, for it is 
 the coast, with its infinite variety of perpendicular cliffs, 
 rounded grassy downs, far-reaching sands, and rocky fiords, 
 that constitutes the chief charm of Jersey. The interior 
 is pretty, but will seem tame to those who know Devon- 
 shire or even only the less romantic Isle of Wight. There 
 is little interesting to the archaeologist throughout Jersey.
 
 98 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 The agriculturist and the botanist will find more to inte- 
 rest them. 
 
 The climate of the Channel Islands is singularly agree- 
 able. The mean daily range of temperature in Guernsey, 
 is but 8°T, just one-half of that at Greenwich, and during 
 November, January, and February, is but 6 0- 2. The 
 mean temperature of the year is ol 0, 5, which is 2°*5 
 higher than at Greenwich. In the winter months the 
 mean temperature is no less than six degrees higher than 
 at Greenwich. The consequence is that snow and frost 
 are almost unknown phenomena ; the geranium, the fuchsia, 
 the myrtle, and the camellia grow out of doors through 
 the year ; and the last, especially, attains to the dimen- 
 sions of a tree. The highest recorded reading of the ther- 
 mometer is 83°, the lowest 24°-5, the two extremes 
 having been reached within six months of each other — 
 namely, in the summer of 18 1 6, and in the January of 
 1847. The mean rainfall is under 3-j inches. Dense fogs 
 are somewhat frequent, especially in November. In Jer- 
 sey the range of temperature is somewhat greater than in 
 Guernsey. It seems strange that there should be any 
 difference of climate between two islands so closely ad- 
 joining as Guernsey and Sark. Yet there is so great a 
 difference that Guernseymen, languid from the want of 
 change of air, go to Sark to be braced. The bracing na- 
 ture of Sark air is quite proverbial, and this quality may 
 be partly due to the fact that the ground in that island is 
 higher than in Guernsey. 
 
 Peculiar interest attaches to the agriculture of Guernsey 
 and Jersey on account of the tenure of the land. Mill, 
 Kay, Fawcett, — and especially Thornton, in his " Plea for 
 Peasant Proprietors," — look upon these islands as an illus- 
 trious example of the advantage of small freeholds. And
 
 AGRICULTURE. 99 
 
 to a certain extent they are justified in doing so. The 
 population is about twice as dense as in England. Mendi- 
 cancy and pauperism are almost unknown. The two so- 
 called hospitals which exist in Guernsey, as much for the 
 poor as for the sick, contain no inmates who have been 
 compelled to go there for want of work, but only the 
 drunken and the dissolute, who have impoverished them- 
 selves by vice. The cottages are palaces compared with 
 the hovels in which our farm labourers too often live. 
 They are beautiful without, in their covering of creeping 
 flowering plants, and surrounded by their fragrant fruitful 
 gardens. Within there is comfort and more than comfort. 
 They nearly all have two storeys. In every room there 
 are pulley windows, with large square panes of glass, 
 instead of the leaded casements and small diamond- 
 shaped panes of our own cottages. The crockery and 
 kitchen utensils are abundant, and there is generally a 
 good-sized flitch of bacon hanging from the kitchen ceiling. 
 The inmates are well-clad, and are never seen ragged or 
 disreputable. On the week days they wear a blue blouse, 
 like that worn by the Breton peasants ; on the Sundays 
 they are clad in broad cloth. In Jersey the houses are 
 not so well built, nor are they so well furnished, but there 
 is always an ample accommodation for the maintenance of 
 decency, which is so sorely outraged in English cottages. 
 In both islands gavelkind prevails. Each child inherits 
 an equal share of the father's property, save that the 
 eldest son is entitled to the house and sixteen perches of 
 land surrounding, in Guernsey, and thirty perches in 
 Jersey. The consequence is that the estates are very 
 small, and are worked by the owners, with the unfailing 
 industry, the unwearying toil, already referred to. It 
 does not appear that the estates are becoming smaller and 
 
 h 2
 
 100 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 more numerous. In some cases, as in France, the 
 younger sons, when they find that they cannot profitably 
 work their inheritance on account of its restricted limits, 
 sell it to their elder brother. Marriage also tends to keep 
 the estates pretty much as they were. As to the effect of 
 the law of inheritance upon the pi'actical agriculture of 
 the islands, there is very strong and conclusive testimony 
 that it has acted advantageously. The crops are large, 
 and the land as a whole is well cultivated, though here 
 and there one may see patches of nettles and weeds, 
 where they ought not to be. As a rule, cultivation is 
 carried to the utmost pitch of perfection. The owners 
 know that they cannot afford to lose any portion of their 
 small estates. Of course in farms that rarely exceed ten 
 acres, there is no demand for the costly implements which 
 the owners of large estates love to use. This absence is, 
 in fact, the main objection which the owners of large 
 estates have to the petty freeholds of the Channel Islands. 
 Such occupations must ever stand as the one great ob- 
 stacle to the general introduction of implements. The 
 subject is one in which there is much to be said on either 
 side ; but it does not follow that because in England, 
 labour being dear and machinery cheap, it is better to 
 have large farms where machinery can be used than small 
 ones where it cannot, that the same rule applies to a 
 country where human labour is the cheapest of all com- 
 modities. 
 
 Although the foundation rock of the Channel Islands is 
 granite, the soil is often very fertile. In Jersey espe- 
 cially, there is a large quantity of rich loam. This island 
 is well studded with trees of many kinds, but of late 
 years a large number of apple-trees have been cut down, 
 and the orchards turned into arable land. The land is
 
 PEASANT PROPRIETORS. 101 
 
 held on various tenures, but chiefly on leases which must 
 not exceed nine years, or as freehold. The latter tenure 
 may be acquired in a manner which is, so far as I know, 
 unique. A portion of the purchase-money is paid down, 
 and the rest is paid in rent, being, in fact, a permanent 
 mortgage, with the difference that the mortgagee has no 
 power to foreclose. So long as the rent is paid, so long is 
 the owner left in undisputed possession ; should he fail to 
 pay, the land returns to the original proprietor. This 
 practice often works well, by enabling persons of restricted 
 means to become landowners ; but it sometimes tempts 
 men without any resources to purchase land, and to com- 
 mence building houses which they are unable to finish 
 for want of funds, and they are frequently compelled to 
 surrender their uncompleted work, simply because they 
 have not resources sufficient to pay their rent. Rent 
 used formerly to be paid partly in kind, but now instead 
 of wheat being offered, a sum of money in lieu of it is 
 usual ; a quarter of wheat being commuted into a cash 
 payment of 15s. 5d. No landholder has the power to 
 devise land by will, but it must follow the law of succes- 
 sion, by which two-thirds are divided among the sons, and 
 one-third among the daughters. This law leads to a 
 great sub-division of land, and in Jersey there are no 
 estates exceeding sixty acres, and in Guernsey few so 
 high as forty. The rent of land is high. Near St. Helier's 
 it reaches 9/. an acre, and at a distance varies from 
 41. 10s. to 71. 10s. In Guernsey the price is not so high, 
 and land may be obtained within a mile of the town at 
 51. an acre. The rotation of crops is very much the 
 same in both islands. In the first year are grown tur- 
 nips, mangold, parsnips, &c. ; in the second, potatoes, 
 carrots, and parsnips ; in the third, wheat, in which are
 
 102 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sown clover and rye-grass; in the fourth and fifth years, 
 
 hay. A farm of twenty acres will have ten acres of hay 
 
 and pasture, four and three-quarters of roots, two acres 
 
 of potatoes, and, of wheat, three and a quarter acres. 
 
 The stock would generally consist of two horses, six 
 
 heifers, sis cows, and eight pigs. The manure from 
 
 these animals is carefully collected for use on the land. 
 
 Such a farm would require the services of two men and 
 
 two women. As a rule the farmer would not go beyond 
 
 his own household for labour, since every member of it 
 
 would work upon the farm. Where hired labour is 
 
 necessary, the wages would be '2s. a day for men, and Is. 
 
 a day for women without food ; where food is given, 
 
 half those amounts. In a few instances, servants are 
 
 boarded and lodged, and they then get I'll, to 14/. a 
 
 year if men, 8/. to 10Z. if women. The cattle of the 
 
 Channel Islands are famous all the world over. They 
 
 are called Alderney because they originally came thence, 
 
 but that island Bupplies very few now. In Jersey and 
 
 Guernsey they abound ; and so proud are the islanders 
 
 of them, that very stringent laws are in force to prevent 
 
 the introduction of other breeds. The Alderney cattle 
 
 are small and beautifully shaped. The cows are very 
 
 docile, but the bulls generally get wild after two years 
 
 of age, and are sold. The colours most prized are red 
 
 and white, and grey and fawn ; the brindled are rare and 
 
 are little valued. The farmer generally arranges that his 
 
 cows shall calve during the first three months of the year. 
 
 In the winter they are housed at night. They are always 
 
 tethered, and it is usual to shift the stake every three 
 
 hours. There are some cows milked three times a day. 
 
 An average yield is fourteen quarts per day, and from 
 
 eight to nine pounds of butter a week. A two years old
 
 CHANNEL ISLAND HISTORIANS. 103 
 
 in-calf heifer will sell for 121., a first-class cow at four 
 years will fetch 251. Bulls generally fetch 121. Sheep 
 are scarcely to be seen throughout the islands. Fertile 
 as the islands are, they cannot supply entirely their own 
 wants, and it is necessary to import meat, eggs, and 
 cereals from England, France, and America. 
 
 Few countries so restricted in extent, and of such small 
 importance to the rest of the world, are so fortunate as 
 to possess the full and minute histories which the Channel 
 Islands enjoy. Guernsey has been particularly happy in 
 this respect. Not to mention the works of Dicey, Berry, 
 Jacob, and the better known work of Duncan, Mr. Tupper 
 has published two elaborate volumes bearing upon the 
 history of the island : the one a monograph devoted to 
 the chronicle of Castle Cornet, the other a consecutive 
 narrative of events in Guernsey from the earliest time. 
 Jersey has not fared quite so well. The well-known work 
 of the Rev. Richard Falle, written 150 years ago, is a 
 somewhat dry book, and its modern editor, Mr. Durell, 
 has not made it lively. Two octavo volumes have been 
 written by Mr. Elliott Hoskins on the residence of 
 Charles II. in the islands. There are other works, too 
 numerous to mention, and unless the reader should have 
 an especial interest in the Channel Islands he will find 
 Mr. Tupper's history, and the historical chapters which 
 Dr. Latham has contributed to Mr. Ansted's book, so 
 frequently referred to in this paper, quite sufficient. 
 
 The early history of the island is lost in myth and 
 ecclesiastical legend. There are earlier and yet more 
 trustworthy records than these. These are the Druidical 
 remains which are scattered throughout the islands ; 
 sometimes in the form of a maenhir or a monolith, 
 similar, though not equal to, the famous stone at Dol in
 
 104 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 Brittany ; sometimes hi the shape of cromlechs, or tip- 
 right stones supporting a superincumbent stone. Flint 
 knives are found in abundance. Passing from early and 
 trustworthy relics to later and untrustworthy legends, 
 there is every reason to believe that the islands were first 
 peopled from the neighbouring Gaul, and that the inha- 
 bitants were converted to Christianity by some of the 
 Irish saints and missionaries of St. Columba. Magloire, 
 from whom the town of St. Malo in Brittany derives its 
 name, was an historical person, and was an Irishman. He 
 did much for the conversion of Brittany, but there are 
 two saints who claim precedence of him so far as regards 
 the islands. The most famous man in the Guernseyan 
 calendar is St. Sampson. He was not an Irishman, though 
 he was a Celt. He was Bishop of St. David's, in Wales, 
 and taking refuge in Brittany from the Saxon persecution, 
 he subsequently visited Guernsey, and about the year 520 
 left among the islanders an imperishable name. He 
 caused a chapel to be erected on the spot where he landed, 
 and it was afterwards dedicated to him. There seem to 
 have been two Sampsons, and it is not easy to assign to 
 them their respective shares in the miracles which are 
 plentifully ascribed to them. It appears that the most 
 famous of them became Bishop of Dol, to which diocese 
 the islands were attached previously to their connec- 
 tion with the diocese of Coutances, which was itself prior 
 to the connection with the diocese of Winchester, of 
 which they now form a part. St. Helerius, the patron 
 saint of Jersey, and especially of the capital, which owes 
 its name to him, came not from England, but from Ger- 
 many. Helerius was the child of a couple that had long- 
 been childless, and who were promised offspring by a 
 monk, Ennibert, on condition that the infant should be
 
 LEGENDS. 1 05 
 
 dedicated to Ennibert and the service of God. The parents 
 were loth to fulfil their promise, and so all at once their 
 son, who had been unusually strong and healthy, was 
 stricken with paralysis. When the suffering child was on 
 the point of death, Ennibert once more came forth, and 
 claimed him. This time there was no delay, and Hele- 
 rius was healed so soon as he was surrendered. The 
 catalogue of this saint's miracles is so long that we will 
 not even abridge it. He inflicted great tortures upon 
 himself, after the fashion of those days. He went to 
 Jersey as a missionary, and eventually suffered martyrdom 
 at the hands of the Vandals, who cut off his head. Before 
 this Jersey had been called Ceesarea. Falle derives the 
 modern from the ancient name. The suffix ey, found also 
 in Guernsey and Aldemey, is undoubtedly the German 
 for island. Falle finds no difficulty in converting Caesar 
 into Jer, and believes that Jerbourg, one of the points in 
 Guernsey, is really Caesar's burg. Philology was but a 
 rude science in the days of William III. and the historian 
 of Jersey, and it is more probable that Dr. Latham is 
 right in interpreting Jersey to mean the grass isle, and 
 Guernsey the green isle. 
 
 In the ninth century the islands received unwelcome 
 visitors, the Danes and the Norwegians, who — according to 
 the twelfth century Roman de Sou of Wace, the Jersey 
 poet — landed — 
 
 " En Auremen, en Guernesi, 
 En Sairc, en Erin, en Gersi." 
 
 Somewhat previous to this it is supposed occurred a great 
 convulsion of nature which, among other effects, separated 
 the Hanois from the mainland of Guernsey, and swal- 
 lowed up the woods that now lie submerged beneath the 
 sands of Vazon Bay and of Mont St. Michel.
 
 ]06 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 The Channel Islands were Breton before they were 
 Norman, but at the time of the Conquest they formed 
 part of the possession of the Dukes of Normandy. Sub- 
 sequently to that event their position varied. They were 
 English under William I., Norman under Ruins, English 
 under Henry I., Norman again under Stephen. With 
 Henry II. the islands reverted to the English kings. In 
 the reign of John, Normandy returned to the kings of 
 France, but the adjacent islands remained, as they have 
 ever since remained, connected with England. Only 
 politically, however ; i stically they were still a part 
 
 of Normandy, and subject to the spiritual jurisdiction 
 of the Bishop of Coutances, and continued so for four 
 bundled years. John transferred them to Exeter for 
 a short time, and Henry VI. transferred them to Salis- 
 bury with the consent of pope Alexander VI. ; but these 
 changes were only temporary, and it was not until after 
 the establishment of the Reformation that the Bishop of 
 Coutances acted for the last time as Metropolitan of the 
 Islands. King John has. so tar as the Channel Islands 
 are concerned, obtained greater credit than he deserws. 
 It ha- been said of him that he granted to them willingly 
 that which was extorted from him by England. It seems 
 nearly certain that the Constitution of the islands, by 
 which they were independent of the laws of England, was 
 in existence prior to the reign of the conceder of Magna 
 Charta. 
 
 Sark was captured by the French in the year 1549. 
 Its recapture was brought about in a romantic manner 
 well told by Sir Walter Raleigh, and by later and less illus- 
 trious chroniclers. The place is by nature so strong that 
 to capture it in the t'a.r of an armed garrison was impos- 
 sible. The ingenuity of a Netherlands gentleman accom-
 
 A STRATAGEM. ]07 
 
 plished what force could not have done. Anchoring off 
 the island with a ship, he pretended that the merchant 
 who had freighted it had died on board ; and besought 
 permission of the French to land the body and bury it, 
 offering them a present of commodities by way of pay- 
 ment. The French consented on the condition that the 
 Flemings landed without arms. As the latter one by one 
 stepped out of the boat which brought them from the 
 ship to the island, each was examined so rigidly that it 
 would have been impossible to conceal a pen-knife. Satis- 
 fied that their visitors were harmless, some of the French 
 in their turn got into the boat and pulled off to the ship, in 
 order to receive their promised reward. No sooner had 
 they set foot on board than they were made prisoners. 
 Meanwhile the funeral party bearing the coffin toiled 
 slowly up the steep cliffs until they came to the chapel. 
 Here they were allowed to be alone in order that no 
 stranger might intermeddle with their sorrow. Quickly 
 then did they open the coffin, which proved to be another 
 Trojan horse, full, if not of armed men, at least of arms. 
 With these the sham mourners equipped themselves, and 
 sallying forth rushed upon the French. They ran down 
 to the beach and called to their companions to return. 
 A boat that put off from the ship promised a prompt 
 response to their summons, but when it reached the shore 
 it was found to be full of Flemings, who, with their com- 
 rades, soon completed their stratagem, and delivered Sark 
 from the rule of France. Such is the story. A less 
 romantic narrative ascribes the reconquest of Sark to the 
 Dutch, who, landing in the night, surprised the French in 
 their beds. 
 
 The Anglo-Norman islands were not so isolated but 
 that they felt the influence of the great politico-religious
 
 103 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 movement of Tudor times. Edward VI. abolished the 
 mass in the islands, and the English liturgy was translated 
 into Fi-ench and ordered to be used. With Mary the 
 Roman religion became once more the established faith, 
 and terrible were the persecutions to which the Protes- 
 tants were exposed. The Dean of Guernsey, James Amy, 
 was pre-eminent in cruelty. His name is associated with 
 that atrocious case of cruelty recorded by Foxe the mar- 
 tyrologist, in which a poor woman, having been condemned 
 to death for holding the Protestant faith, in spite of her 
 protest that she was quite willing to adopt the religion 
 which was most pleasing to the Queen, gave birth to a 
 child in the flames. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, religious persecutions 
 continued, the Romanists being now the subjects of them. 
 Nor was religion the only cause of martyrdom. "Witchcraft 
 found believers there as devout as in Scotland or in Spain ; 
 and the supposed witches met with the fate common at 
 that time. The reformation in the Channel Islands did 
 not tend towards prelacy. Presbyterian ism was the 
 favourite form of Church government until James I. made 
 bishops compulsory. The ordinances of the Royal Court 
 of Jersey about this time were singularly arbitrary. Not 
 only was the exportation of corn and cattle forbidden, and 
 the right of the chase confined to a few of " the upper 
 ten," but no person was allowed to keep more than one 
 dog without special permission, nor to lodge strangers. 
 The owners of ships were not permitted to leave the 
 port until other ships had returned. The inhabitants 
 were compelled to attend church not only on Sunday 
 twice a da}-, under a penalty, but one person at least 
 from each house on Wednesdays. Adulterers were 
 to be imprisoned three weeks, and on each Saturday
 
 KING AND PARLIAMENT. 109 
 
 exposed to the public gaze, and flogged until the blood 
 flowed. 
 
 It might have been thought that as the islands enjoyed 
 their own institutions, and had no practical concern in 
 the quarrel between Charles I. and the Parliament, they 
 would have kept out of it. They did so for a time ; but 
 as the struggle went on, and grew more embittered, they 
 were drawn into it. The two chief islands took different 
 sides, Jersey was for the King, Guernsey for the Parlia- 
 ment. The acting governors were both devoted Koyalists, 
 and took frequent counsel of each other. In Guernsey, 
 Castle Cornet was held for the King, and defied the as- 
 saults of the townspeople for nine years. 
 
 In 1650 the inhabitants of Guernsey were so dissatisfied 
 at the length of the siege, that they addressed a remon- 
 strant letter to the then Governor of the Island, Major 
 Harrison, complaining of the inefficiency of the Parlia- 
 mentary officers, and offering to storm the place for them- 
 selves. The attempt failed signally, albeit the defenders 
 do not seem to have been more than fourscore in number 
 at the utmost. It required the exertions of one of 
 England's greatest heroes to subdue this stronghold. On 
 October 20, 1651, about eighty vessels, which were only 
 a part of the force commanded by Blake, appeared off 
 Jersey, captured St. Aubin Fort on the 23rd, and Mont 
 Orgueil on the 27th. Sir George Carteret, the Governor, 
 retired to Elizabeth Castle with 340 men. He refused 
 the summons to surrender. The place was then regularly 
 bombarded. For seven weeks Cartaret held out ; but 
 being unable to restore the losses caused by wounds and 
 disease, being moreover depressed by the tidings of the 
 defeat at Worcester, he surrendered with favourable terms 
 on December 15th. On the same day Castle Cornet
 
 110 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 capitulated ; but so gallant had been the defence of the 
 little garrison, that, having to do with brave foes, they 
 were allowed conditions unusually honourable. The gar- 
 rison were permitted to walk out with colours flying, and 
 with their arms. They were the last persons, and Castle 
 Cornet was the last place, in all the British European 
 dominions, to acknowledge the rule of Cromwell. 
 
 In the reign of William and Mary occurred the cessa- 
 tion of the privilege of neutrality. That was patiently 
 borne, inasmuch as it enabled the islanders to profit 
 largely by privateering. In 1692 was fought the cele- 
 brated naval engagement of Cape La Hogue. It was 
 brought about by a Guernseyman, Mr. Tupper, who, at 
 the risk of capture, passed through or in sight of the 
 French fleet, and conveyed to Admiral Russell, who com- 
 manded the combined English and Dutch fleets, intelli- 
 gence that the French Admiral Tourville, the victor in 
 the engagement off" Beachy Head, was in the Channel. 
 A battle followed, which inflicted a fatal and irremediable 
 blow upon the naval power of France. From that time 
 the history of Guernsey, until within a very recent period, 
 "Hers no incidents of particular interest, Although con- 
 stantly threatened by the French during the long wars of 
 the eighteenth century, the island escaped even an assault. 
 Jersey was not so fortunate. In 1779 and 1781 two at- 
 tempts were made to capture St. Helier's. Baron de Rulle- 
 court, having been steered by a local pilot, landed at night 
 in Grouville, and by dawn had marched into the market 
 place of St. Helier's, surprised the guard, captured the 
 lieutenant-governor, Major Corbet, and extorted his sig- 
 nature of surrendei-. He was prevailed upon to address 
 an order to the royal troops, confining them to their bar- 
 racks, and was placed in front of the French troops as
 
 A TRAGEDY. Ill 
 
 they marched to Elizabeth Castle, which was summoned 
 to surrender. The officers who held it refused, and soon 
 the regiments of the line and the local militia came up. 
 Rullecourt demanded that these should lay down their 
 arms in accoi'dance with the lieutenant-governors capitu- 
 lation. Major Pierson replied in their behalf that unless 
 within twenty minutes the French surrendered as prisoners 
 of war they would be attacked. Rullecourt refused to 
 yield ; and placing the unhappy lieutenant-governor in 
 the front, awaited the attack, which no doubt he hoped 
 would not be made out of regard to the prisoner. He 
 deceived himself; a charge was made. Rullecourt held 
 the governor by the arm, in order that the latter might 
 share the fate of the former. Rullecourt fell, and at the 
 same time Pierson unhappily received his death-wound. 
 His death is the subject of one of Copley's best paintings. 
 Corbet escaped, was tried by court-mai'tial, and deprived 
 of his lieutenant-governorship. Subsequently he was 
 dealt leniently with, thus negativing the idea that he had 
 been guilty of treachery. 
 
 The event of greatest interest in the contemporary 
 history of the Channel Islands is the unfortunate dispute 
 between Sir William Napier and the local authorities of 
 Guernsey twenty-six years ago. The historian of the Penin- 
 sular War was appointed lieutenant-governor of the island 
 in 1842, and was at that time broken in health and an 
 acute sufferer from the wound that he had received during: 
 the famous campaign which he afterwards chronicled. 
 This trial, no doubt, to some extent affected his temper, 
 and rendered him unfit to remove asperities or to smooth 
 down difficulties, in case any arose, between the islanders 
 and the representative of the Sovereign. He soon dis- 
 covered abuses in the local government, and attacked
 
 112 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 them with perhaps more vigour than discretion. The 
 Royal Court and the officials whom it appointed he found 
 to be almost invariably relatives, and as there was no 
 representative government worthy of the name, the 
 people were at the mercy of a very small oligarchy. 
 The mode of administering justice was particularly objec- 
 tionable. The Royal Court sat first as magistrates with 
 closed doors to receive accusations ; then as a grand jury 
 in secret to decide if there was any case for trial ; then as 
 petty jury to try the case, and on the trial they took the 
 practice of the English or the French courts for precedents 
 as suited their convenience. Having acted as jurymen to 
 condemn, they subsequently acted as judge to pass sen- 
 tence. They had the power to pass what sentences they 
 chose, and although there was a nominal appeal to the 
 crown, practically there was none. The advocates who 
 pleaded before them were restricted to six, and were 
 generally near relatives of members of the Court. In 1836 
 the Court ordered a man to a severe flogging and trans- 
 portation. The then Governor thought the punishment 
 excessive, and appealed to the Home Secretary (Lord 
 John Russell). The latter ordered the punishment to be 
 stayed. The reply which he received was that the Court 
 never suffered any delay, and that the sentence had 
 already been executed. Lord John Russell then ordered 
 that no such punishment should be inflicted in future 
 without the consent of the Secretary of State. To this 
 order no attention was paid. Sir William Napier was 
 far too advanced a radical to witness with complacency or 
 toleration the despotism of the island oligarchy. Cir- 
 cumstances soon arose which brought the two parties into 
 violent collision. They are too long to detail here. 
 Suffice it to say that the quarrel was earned to such an
 
 CONSTITUTION. 113 
 
 extremity that a plot was alleged to have been laid to 
 take the Governor's life, and one morning, greatly to the 
 surprise of the Guernsey men, a detachment of 400 
 troops from England was landed. The islanders were 
 very indignant at the imputation upon their loyalty, and 
 strenuously denied the existence of a plot. Eventually 
 a Royal Commission was appointed, which effected great 
 reforms in the administration of the laws in Guernsey. 
 
 The constitution of the Channel Islands is so peculiar 
 that it might be the subject of an entire article. It can 
 be only briefly dealt with in these pages. Those of my 
 readers who desire fuller information cannot do better 
 than consult the twenty-third chapter of Mr. Ansted's and 
 Dr. Latham's joint volume. From this work we learn 
 that for all constitutional, political, ecclesiastical, and law 
 purposes, the Channel Islands are divided into two 
 groups. Jersey alone constitutes one of these, and 
 Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, together with Herm, and 
 the adjacent smaller islands, composing what is called the 
 " Bailiwick of Guernsey," make up the other. Alderney 
 and Sark, have, however, separate legal existence, and the 
 Seigneur of Sark, at present an English clergyman, owns 
 no authority out of the island, save that of the Queen. 
 In Jersey and Guernsey the governing bodies are termed 
 States, which are composed partly of officials appointed by 
 the Crown, partly of representatives elected by the 
 people. The officials in Jersey consist of the lieutenant- 
 governor, the ailiffs, the rectors of the twelve parishes. 
 The elected members are the twelve jurats of the Royal 
 Court, who are chosen for life by the ratepayers ; the 
 constables of the twelve parishes, and fourteen deputies, 
 making fifty-two members in all. In Guernsey there are 
 two bodies, the one styled the Elective States, and con- 
 
 i
 
 114 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sisting of 222 members, the other the States of Delibera- 
 tion, consisting of 37 members. Of the first, 200 are 
 directly elective, while in twelve of the rest the popular 
 element is mixed up. The duty of the Elective States is 
 confined to the election of the jurats and the sheriff. 
 The States of Deliberation hold a far more important 
 position, and contain the bailiff, the twelve jurats of the 
 Eoyal Court, the rectors, the Queen's Procureur, the six 
 deputies from the town parish, and the nine deputies 
 from the country parishes. The States of Jersey are not 
 convenable without the consent of the governor. The 
 bailiff presides, but the governor has a veto on all ques- 
 tions deliberated, which he sometimes exercises. The 
 States may pass ordonnances which have force for three 
 years and may then be renewed. Laws intended to be 
 permanent must be submitted to the Sovereign in 
 Council. If approved, they are registered, and become 
 binding without further action. The public business is 
 largely conducted by standing committees. The States 
 of Deliberation in Guernsey are summoned by a billet d'etat 
 issued by the bailiff a week beforehand, and mentioning 
 the projects of law to be brought forward and the arguments 
 of the bailiff. He presides ex-officio, and the sheriff gives 
 notice of the meeting to the lieutenant-governor, who, if 
 he attends, sits on the right hand of the bailiff, and may 
 speak, but must not vote. Formerly the States were 
 allowed only to accept or reject the measures proposed by 
 the bailiff, but the reforms of 1844 permitted the 
 members of the States to move amendments. With this 
 body rest the levying and the appropriation of taxes. In 
 each island there is a Royal Court ; that in Jersey 
 possesses judicial functions alone ; its former power of 
 passing ordinances without the consent of the States,
 
 THE ROYAL COURTS. 115 
 
 having been abolished in 1771. In Guernsey the Royal 
 Court still retains legislative power. It may form ordon- 
 nances which take effect without the consent of the lieu- 
 tenant-governor or the concurrence of the people, but if 
 intended to be lasting are laid before the States for 
 approval. The Court has the power of enforcing obedience 
 to its laws by its infliction of fines, and there is no appeal 
 from its decisions. In both islands the Royal Courts are 
 courts of justice, distributed into several branches. The 
 law of the islands is derived from five sources ; the 
 Customary Law, Royal Charters, Orders of the Sovereign 
 in Council, the Ordinances of the States, and certain 
 statutes of the realm. The forms of proceeding in 
 criminal cases in Guernsey were, until lately, very objec- 
 tionable ; but since the reforms set on foot by Sir 
 William Napier and Sir James Graham, they have been 
 assimilated to the forms of the English courts. In 
 Jersey there is still great room for improvement. The 
 advocates practising in the Jersey courts are not limited 
 as to number, and must be either members of the English 
 bar, or have obtained a law degree at Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, or have passed an examination on the island. In 
 Guernsey the number is limited to six. As a rule the 
 advocates study law not at the Temple nor the other Inns 
 of Court in England, but at Caen in Normandy, or 
 Rennes in Brittany. Parochial affairs are managed by 
 bodies whom the ratepayers elect. In Guernsey these 
 representatives are called vingteniers, in Jersey douzai- 
 niers ; the latter are elected for life, and sit in the States 
 of election which choose the jurats and the sheriffs. 
 
 The Channel Islands are eminently prosperous com- 
 munities. Taxation is light, the public debt small ; there 
 is no want of enterprise in carrying out improvements, as 
 
 I 2
 
 116 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 the harbours of St. Helier's and St. Peter's Port prove. 
 The confidence of the islanders in the stability of their 
 own credit is proved by the readiness with which they 
 will take up the bonds issued by the local government, 
 when it is necessary to raise a loan. A military spirit is 
 encouraged by the militia. Every male between the 
 ages of seventeen and sixty-five in Jersey, and between 
 sixteen and sixty in Guernsey, is bound to provide arms 
 and ammunition, to attend drill, to help maintain the 
 numerous fortifications in repair, and to keep watch and 
 guard around the island by day and by night. That the 
 islanders are too wedded to old customs, when proved to 
 be bad, cannot be doubted ; and the obstinate resistance 
 which the Guernseymen offered to political reforms that 
 were sorely needed, is one of the least creditable facts in 
 their history. In both islands there is a good deal of 
 class feeling. The old families are too apt to look down 
 upon those who are not owners of territory, but have 
 made money in trade and commerce, although in so 
 doing the latter have greatly contributed to the prospe- 
 rity of the whole community. In Guernsey, not long 
 since, society was divided into two sets — the families who 
 prided themselves on ancient descent and landed estates, 
 and who called themselves the " Sixties," from the 
 number of families admitted within the upper ranks at 
 the time of building the present Assembly Rooms ; and 
 the families who had gained fortunes in business, and 
 during the great war with France, and who were called 
 the " Forties." In Jersey the rival factions were known 
 respectively as the " Laurel " and the " Rose." The 
 same degree of insularity does not prevail now. The 
 increase in the number of tourists has, to a considerable 
 degree, corrected it. This change has not been wholly
 
 MORALS. 117 
 
 advantageous. Jersey especially has suffered in manners 
 and morals by the influx of a class of residents best 
 described as mauvais snjets. These are chiefly Irish, 
 Scotch, and French. Many political refugees, especially 
 from France, have taken up their abode here ; among 
 them is M. Victor Hugo, whom the Jerseymen refused to 
 shelter, and who thereupon betook himself to the more 
 hospitable Guernsey. By way of acknowledgment for its 
 hospitality, he has made the island the scene of " Les 
 Travailleurs de la Mer." In the Channel Islands drun- 
 kenness is somewhat prevalent, but not so much as might 
 be expected, when it is remembered that an additional 
 temptation to this vice exists in the low price at which, 
 from lightness of taxation, alcoholic drinks can be ob- 
 tained. On the other hand, fortunately, there are no 
 drink-shops in the country parishes. In three respects 
 Guernsey is superior to Jersey ; in the first island the po- 
 pulation are longer lived than in the second, they are more 
 religious, and they are better educated. These three advan- 
 tages are probably closely connected. Good morals and 
 religion are the result of good education, and tend to lon- 
 gevity. The schools being better attended, and vice being 
 less prevalent, many diseases are avoided, and so the words 
 of the wise man of old are verified, that wisdom hath length 
 of days in her right hand, and in her left hand riches 
 and honour. The religiousness of the Guernsey men is 
 worthy of special remark. Methodism early took root 
 among them, and at the present time has a strong hold 
 of the population. In the town there are to be found the 
 usual variety of religious communities ; but in the 
 country parishes the inhabitants — who almost universally 
 attend Divine worship — are with few exceptions either 
 Churchmen or Wesleyans. In the town churches it is
 
 118 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 customary to hold the services in two languages, generally 
 in French in the morning, and in English in the evening. 
 In the country churches French is for the most part ex- 
 clusively used. The Wesley ans have two distinct orga- 
 nizations. They have chapels and circuits in which 
 English alone is used, and others in which French is ex- 
 clusively resorted to. The latter are more numerous, 
 and in all but about two country parishes in each of the 
 principal islands, the French chapels stand alone. Crimes 
 of violence are exceedingly rare in all the islands. Property 
 is respected in a community where beggars are unknown, 
 and eveiy one possesses something that he can call his 
 own. Altogether the English tourist, and indeed the 
 Englishman in search of a comfortable home, may go 
 farther and fare worse than he will fare in the Anglo- 
 Norman Archipelago. 
 
 ITINERARY. 
 
 The Channel Islands, that is to say, Guernsey and 
 Jersey, may be reached from either Southampton or 
 Weymouth. During the summer a steamer plies between 
 the Islands and Plymouth. For Londoners the first- 
 mentioned port of departure is the best, since it is but 
 a little more than half the distance from the metropolis 
 of the second, and is less than a third of the last. On 
 the other hand the sea-passage is about an hour shorter 
 by Weymouth. The decision must therefore be left with 
 the individual tourist, who will determine accordingly 
 as he thinks more of his pocket or of his stomach. 
 The packet fares are the same on the two first routes, 
 20s. or lis., first or second class, for the single journey,
 
 ITINERARY. 119 
 
 and 33s. or 23s. for the two journeys. Both lines having 
 mail steamers, both leave England late at night. The 
 traveller who goes vid Weymouth loses nothing by this 
 untimely hour of starting ; but the passenger vid South- 
 ampton fails to see the charming views of Southampton 
 Water and the Isle of Wight. If he is making the pas- 
 sage at the latter end of July or the beginning of August, 
 he will find himself about sunrise off the Casquets light- 
 house, the rocky outpost of the Channel archipelago. By 
 seven o'clock he will be close to Castle Cornet, which 
 guards the entrance to St. Peter's Port, more popularly 
 called Peterport, the capital of Guernsey. There is a 
 noble pier for disembarking, and a walk from end to end 
 is welcome to limbs that have perhaps been cramped in a 
 berth all the night. The town rises abruptly from the 
 sea. Along the margin of the sea are many hotels and 
 lodging houses, but the situation is too much shut in, aud 
 is moreover hot and glaring on a summer morning. It is 
 better to mount the hill and find a lodging on higher 
 ground. Unfortunately, you are not likely to get a sea 
 view, for the town lies at right angles instead of parallel 
 to the sea. Guernsey has the reputation of being a very 
 cheap residence, and so it doubtless is for permanent 
 residents, but lodgings are not remarkably low. They are, 
 however, considerably less than in the most popular 
 English watering places. Three bed-rooms and a sitting- 
 room will cost from 25s. to 30s. a week. Locomotion is 
 both in Guernsey and Jersey remarkably cheap ; always 
 excepting the cab hire from the pier into the town ; this 
 is extortionate, even to robbery. The hire of a two-horse 
 carriage for the day will be something under a pound, and 
 in a day you may see the whole of Guernsey easily, and 
 the greater part of Jersey.
 
 120 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to detail the various points that 
 should be visited in Guernsey. They cannot be missed. 
 The series of bays on the south are as charming as any- 
 thing to be seen in the Queen's dominions. The rocks, 
 from whence you gaze on the Hanois lighthouse, are very 
 bold. Then, proceeding along the base of the triangle 
 which constitutes Guernsey, you have an entire change ; 
 long stretches of land, interspersed with black reefs of 
 low rocks. This part of the island should be seen at low 
 water, in order that its picturesque features may be tho- 
 roughly appreciated. The least interesting portion of the 
 island lies between the southern extremity (near which is 
 the small town of St. Sampson's) and Peter Port. 
 
 One of the greatest charms of Guernsey is the multi- 
 tude of small islands that lie to the east of it. These add 
 immensely to the beauty of the scene, and at the same 
 time offer inducements to many a crnise. The islands of 
 Herm and Jethou can be readied in less than an hour's 
 sail, and Herm has a marvellous shell beach. Sark lies at 
 about double the distance, and there are sailing boats 
 which ply between that island and Guernsey frequently. 
 The tourist might with advantage take one of these 
 sailing boats on the Saturday, spend Sunday and Monday 
 at the charming rustic hotel near d'lxcart Bay, and re- 
 turn to Guernsey by the steamer, which during the 
 summer runs every Monday between the islands. Alder* 
 ney is farther off, and is reached by steamer once or twice 
 a week. Very lovely is the cruise of two hours between 
 Guernsey and Jersey. The tourist who likes to see a 
 somewhat gay society will, on visiting the latter island, 
 take up his quarters at St. Helier's. Not so the Londoner 
 bent upon thorough change. He will flee the little 
 Babylon of 30,000 inhabitants, and he can scarcely do
 
 ITINERARY. 121 
 
 better than settle at Gorey, some six miles off, lying at 
 the foot of the fine old castle of Mont Orgueil. But he 
 should write for lodgings beforehand ; for Gorey is a small 
 place, and he will do well to get a house on the hill. 
 Thence he will have a noble view of the bay at his feet, of 
 the castle opposite him, and of the long line of the French 
 coast in the distance. Though Gorey is a small place, it 
 is possible to obtain a good carriage and horses there and 
 make the tour of the island. There are other parts of 
 the island frequented by tourists, and offering many 
 attractions. Such are St. Brelade's and St. Ouen's Bays. 
 
 The Channel Islands may be seen in a week, and can 
 be thoroughly explored in a fortnight. It need hardly be 
 said how much the interest of the tour will be increased 
 if the tourist has sufficient time and money at command 
 to enable him to visit Brittany. In something under four 
 hours you can go from St. Helier's to St. Malo, the most 
 picturesque of all entrances to France. From St. Malo 
 there is train and diligence to Dinan, which can be taken, 
 should the river Ranee be too low (as it generally is in 
 summer) for the passage of the St. Malo and Dinan 
 steamer. From Dinan it is a day's journey vid Dol to 
 Mont St. Michel and Avranches. There pass the night. 
 The next day take the diligence to Granville, where you 
 will have an hour or two to stop, and thence on to Cou- 
 tances, which contains one of the noblest cathedrals in 
 France. From Coutances there is a diligence to St. Lo, 
 where you once more enter the land of railways. St. Lo 
 has two churches, and that of St. Cross with its double 
 Norman aisle lately restored, should be visited. The 
 Imperial horse breeding establishment is worth seeing. 
 From St. Lo you can either take the train to Cherbourg, 
 and thence back to England by the Cherbourg and Poole
 
 122 THE CHANNEL ISLES. 
 
 steamer, or else extend your journey to Caen and Bayeux, 
 two of the Norman towns best worth seeing, and subse- 
 quently to Cherbourg. The trip through Breton and 
 Norman ground will occupy about a week, and is by no 
 means costly. A visit might be paid to Rennes, the 
 capital of Brittany, in addition to the places already 
 named. 
 
 It should be added that English money will pass in 
 the Channel Islands, and that there is a profit in changing 
 it into the local coinage. Also that the visitor should on 
 no account miss a visit to the markets at Peterport and 
 St. Helier's. Though they are becoming more Anglicised 
 every year, he will still see there some charming costumes, 
 and hear some almost unintelligible patois. The costumes, 
 however, are not to be compared with those worn in the 
 smaller towns of Normandy and Brittany. These are 
 some of the most picturesque in Europe.
 
 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 Cqvier used to find in a fossil bone the whole history 
 of the animal to which it belonged. Geology offers even 
 more interesting information to the student who has any 
 faculty for induction. The geological map of a country 
 will tell him at a glance what manner of life the inhabi- 
 tants lead. Glancing, for instance, at the black-tinted 
 spaces representing the coal fields of Staffordshire or South 
 Wales, he would infer at once that the people who lived 
 there were very different from the people dwelling on the 
 lightly-tinted chalk hills of Dorsetshire. In the latter 
 district he would look to find a people of primitive man- 
 ners, narrow intellect, most imperfect education, and 
 possessing a great reverence for the classes above them in 
 the social scale. In the former he would expect to meet 
 with men of great shrewdness, enex-gy, and self-reliance, 
 with very little veneration for their ' betters ' in worldly 
 position. For the one district he would draw mental 
 pictures of hamlets thinly scattered over vast ranges of 
 pasture land, and thousands of sheep covering the grassy 
 downs. For the other he would conjure up visions of 
 great masses of men crowding together in large and dirty 
 towns, overhung by a never-dispersed pall of smoke, hiding 
 both sun and sky. The simple shepherd of Dorsetshire is 
 the logical result of the chalk formation ; the shrewd 
 miner of Staffordshire is equally the logical result of the
 
 124 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 coal measures. Change the stratum and you change the 
 race so far as its habits go. The men have the same 
 origin, yet they are as dissimilar in mind as coal and 
 chalk are dissimilar in colour. Nor is it necessary to go 
 to counties widely apart to find instances of this dissimi- 
 larity. De la Beche has contrasted two adjacent counties 
 and their inhabitants, the agricultural labourers on the 
 poor lands of the carbonaceous rocks in North Devon, and 
 the miners of Cornwall. He says, " While the former are 
 thinly distributed over the county, full of prejudices 
 against improvements . . . the miners are thickly 
 congregated in the neighbourhood of the working lodes, 
 abound with intelligence, and from the constant exercise 
 of their judgment are able to take correct and enlarged 
 views of many other subjects than those immediately con- 
 nected with their ordinary pursuits This 
 
 contrast is evidently due to the difference of geologic 
 formations; for if the granite, slate, and metalliferous 
 veins of the one were transferred to the area now occupied 
 by the sandstones and shales of the other, there is no 
 reason why the population at present occupying North 
 Devon should not be mentally as far advanced as the 
 generality of Cornish miners." 
 
 There is certainly no county in England where the phy- 
 sical geography ami the geology have so much influence 
 upon the character of the inhabitants as Cornwall A 
 long narrow peninsula, all but ( meer-vmschlungenf lying at 
 the remotest corner of the kingdom, with an extent of 
 coast much beyond that of any other county, Cornwall 
 seems to have far more to do with that great world of 
 waters which lies beyond it and around it, than with the 
 land behind it, and with which it has but scanty com- 
 munication. The roads are not thoroughfares, as in other
 
 THE CORNISH PEOPLE. ]25 
 
 counties. They necessarily stop short when they get to 
 Finis Terrce. The business of its inhabitants does not lie 
 upon the highways, but in the deep of the sea and the 
 deep of the earth. Thus the common toast, without 
 which no Cornish feast is regular, is ' Fish, tin, and cop- 
 per.' The labouring population is, according to the 
 general estimation, divided into the two great races of 
 fishermen and miners, each a hardy race, much exposed to 
 dangei's that demand thoughtfulness and prudence, and 
 promote self reliance and courage. There are, indeed, 
 the tillers of the land, and even in agriculture the Cornish- 
 men offer peculiarities, for Cornwall is the market garden 
 of England, the source whence Covent Garden derives its 
 main supply of early vegetables. But it is in the miners 
 and the fishermen that we see the characteristics of the 
 Cornish race most strongly marked. Not less than a 
 tenth of the whole population of Cornwall is engaged in 
 mining. The proportion engaged in fishing is no doubt 
 considerably smaller, but is still large ; and although the 
 number employed in agriculture is as high as that occupied 
 in mining, it is considerably below that of the agricultural 
 class in other counties. In no county, moreover, does the 
 farm labourer exercise an important social influence. His 
 work is too much a matter of course and routine to 
 develop his faculties. He is but a servant, and often 
 little better than a serf, an adscriptus glebce. But the 
 miner and the fisherman are their own masters, and have 
 to exercise all their faculties. It is by reason of these 
 men that Cornubians have a character so distinctive. 
 
 There is, however, another circumstance that has tended 
 powerfully to distinguish them from the inhabitants of the 
 other parts of England. They have a different origin. 
 According to the legend, an eastern queen, doubtless a
 
 126 CORNWALL AXD THE CORXISH. 
 
 Phoenician, undertook a long sea voyage in order to see 
 ■with her own eves that famous Cornish coast which was 
 known to be so rich in metals. The vessel which bore the 
 adventurous heroine was wrecked on the same coast. 
 Most of her courtiers were drowned, but the sailors being 
 good swimmers saved both themselves and their sovereign. 
 They built her a hut on the shore out of the wreck of the 
 ship. They knelt clown and did her homage. After a 
 time her subjects grew tired of court formalities, in a 
 country where each man had to work with his own hands, 
 and had no time to spare for ceremonies. The queen 
 grieved as she saw her attendants one after another 
 forsaking courtly duties for the more active labours of 
 fishing, hunting, and building. But at last Zenobia took 
 a sensible view of her position. She allowed her maidens 
 to be wooed by the sailors, and she herself was won by a 
 young fisherman. They lived happily and had many 
 children, the progenitors of the Cornubians of to-day, who 
 are thus sprung from a royal stock, and are akin to the 
 men of old Tyre and Sidon. There is an historical ele- 
 ment in this legend. The inhabitants of Cornwall, like 
 the other Kelts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and Brittany, 
 have undoubtedly an oriental origin. They had also 
 relations with the Phoenicians, relations of trade if not of 
 intermarriage. It is curious, by the way, to notice how 
 popular traditions, current perhaps until half a century 
 , and subsequently discredited by learned men, have 
 still more lately been confirmed by more skilful philolo- 
 gists. The theory which ascribed to the Cornubians an 
 oriental origin, was ridiculed by some of the antiquarians 
 of a generation ago, who took for granted that because a 
 story had obtained popular belief it was wholly false. 
 But recent researches, and a better acquaintance with
 
 CORNISH LEGENDS. 127 
 
 eastern languages, have shown unmistakeably that the 
 popular tradition had a good foundation. 
 
 There is no portion of the British Empire which has 
 given rise to so much controversy among antiquarians as 
 Cornwall. There is no county with such abundance of 
 legendary annals. The legend of King Arthur and the 
 Knights of the Round Table alone has given rise to quite 
 a literature of its own. There are few Englishmen who 
 will not desire to cherish that legend as veritable history, 
 and there is little doubt that it has a considerable sub- 
 stratum of fact. Geology even seems to lend probability 
 to the tale, by indicating that the lost land of Lyonnesse 
 may have had a real existence. Trustworthy records 
 prove how great ravages the sea has made among the isles 
 of Scilly, and it is quite withiu the range of possibility 
 that the same destructive agency may have overwhelmed 
 the land lying between the isles and Land's End, which 
 according to the tradition once bore on its surface 140 
 towns or villages, with their chui*ches. As to the connec- 
 tion of the Cornubians with the East, there are innu- 
 merable traces in the language and the antiquities of the 
 country to show that the people spoke a tongue of Aryan 
 origin, and that they worshipped the same gods as the fire 
 and sun worshippers of the East. A no less learned man 
 than Sir George Cornewall Lewis discarded the generally 
 received belief that the Phoenicians traded with Cornwall. 
 But a very competent combatant appeared in behalf of 
 the popular tradition, and in his ' Cassiterides ' Dr. 
 George Smith clearly gained the best of the contro- 
 versy, a fact which we believe the illustrious author of 
 ' The Astronomy of the Antients ' himself confessed. 
 After all there is nothing incredible in the old story. It 
 is not surprising that a nation sufficiently enterprising to
 
 128 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 establish a settlement beyond the Pillars of Hercules 
 should trade with the ' Tin Islands,' as Britain was called. 
 The distance between Cornwall and Gades was short com- 
 pared with that between Gades and Tyre. Less hypothe- 
 tical than the connection with the Phoenicians is the 
 warfare between the ancient Britons and the Saxons. The 
 former, as every one knows, retreated into Wales and into 
 Devonshire and Cornwall and into Brittany. They were 
 so far able to maintain themselves, that they succeeded in 
 preserving their language, and, for the most part, their 
 national individuality. It is in Cornwall that the lan- 
 guage has first ceased to be spoken. For less than two 
 centuries it has been displaced as the chief and recognised 
 means of intercommunication, although, according to 
 Whittaker, it was still spoken by a few persons during the 
 present century, subsequently, that is, to Dolly Pentreath, 
 whose tomb in the churchyard of St. Paul, near Penzance, 
 ascribes to her the fame of being the last speaker of 
 Cornish. In Brittany the language still lingers, but is 
 almost extinct. In Wales, on the other hand, there are 
 districts where the old British language is the only one 
 understood ; and whereas the rector of Landewednack, 
 near the Lizard, the last person to preach in Cornish, 
 lived in 1G87, the four Bishops of Wales have lately made 
 it a requisite that their clergy shall be able to preach in 
 Welsh. It is not difficult to understand so wide a chro- 
 nological difference. Wales, doubtless, is much larger 
 than Cornwall, and that fact alone would partly account 
 for the greater vitality of the Keltic language in the first 
 than iu the second. Moreover, mountains tend far more 
 to isolate than the sea does. Wales, the country of high 
 hills, is much more secluded than Cornwall, the county of 
 ports. The sea, in fact, is a great highway, to bring
 
 CORNISH LANGUAGE. 129 
 
 various races into communication. Nothing can be more 
 interesting than to trace out the relationship between 
 Bretons, Welsh, and Cornishmen. It is abundantly ap- 
 parent in the names of places and persons. The same 
 patron saints are to be found, especially in .Cornwall and 
 Brittany, and it is a well attested fact that, towards the 
 close of the last century, a Cornishman, a Welshman, and 
 a Breton, each speaking his own language, conversed with 
 one another intelligibly at Plymouth. 
 
 We have not space to dwell at any length upon the 
 romances and legends in which Cornwall is rich probably 
 beyond all other counties. Mr. Robert Hunt, to whom Corn- 
 wall had already become deeply indebted for his valuable 
 mining statistics, has conferred a further obligation upon 
 the county by his 'Romances and Drolls of the West 
 of England.' Into these two volumes he has collected 
 all the current traditions and tales relating to the giants, 
 fairies, mermaids, rocks, lost cities, saints, demons, fire 
 worship, the stainless King Arthur, the bloody monster 
 Tregeagle ; and for those who love this kind of lore 
 no work could be more interesting. St. Michael's Mount 
 and Cam Brea were, as might have been expected of 
 such noticeable spots, closely connected with the old 
 heroic days. Historically, Cam Brea is undoubtedly 
 Druidioal. The Mount, we have very clear information, 
 became a religious shrine in Saxon times. The very 
 words of the Charter by which it was conveyed for 
 sacred purposes are extant. They run : ' I, Edward (the 
 Confessor), by the Grace of God King of the English, 
 willing to give the price for the redemption of my soid 
 and of the souls of my parents, with the consent and tes- 
 timony of some good men, have delivered to St. Michael, 
 the Archangel, for the use of the brethren, serving God 
 
 K
 
 130 COENWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 in the same place, St. Michael.' In Norman times this 
 mount and chapel were made one of the dependencies of 
 St. Michael's Mount in Normandy, to which the Cornish 
 mount bears so striking a similarity. It obtained a great 
 reputation among mediaeval religionists, as testify the fol- 
 lowing lines : — 
 
 " Who knows not Mighell's Mount and chair, the pilgrim's holy 
 vaunt, 
 Both land and island twice a day, both fort and port of 
 haunt ? " 
 
 Passing from legendary and historical to the actual 
 Cornwall, we must notice first the physical peculiarities of 
 this remarkable county. A long narrow peninsula, about 
 eighty miles in length, and generally not more than 
 twenty miles broad, it stretches out into the sea in a 
 south-westerly direction, and while exposed to the full 
 fury of the Atlantic, which dashes madly against its iron- 
 bound coast, it is subject to the gentler influence of the 
 gulf-stream. Thus, while frequently visited by storms, it 
 enjoys a milder climate than any other part of England. 
 In Mount's Bay especially, which is open to the south, the 
 average winter temperature is 5| degrees higher, and in 
 summer l T 8 ff lower than that of London, so that green- 
 house flowers thrive even during the winter in the open 
 air, and on January 1, 1851, there were no fewer than 
 fifty-eight plants in full bloom in the gardens and fields 
 near Penzance. Together with this equability of tempe- 
 rature is a great prevalence of humidity. ' A shower 
 every week-day and two showers on Sunday ' are said to 
 be the proper allowance of rain in Cornwall. Most winds, 
 moreover, are supposed to bring up the clouds, as we may 
 learn from the following stanza : —
 
 CORNISH CLIMATE. 131 
 
 " The south wind blows and brings wet weather ; 
 The north brings wet and cold together ; 
 The west wind comes and brings us rain ; 
 The east wind drives it back again." 
 
 Nevertheless the rain is more frequent than excessive. 
 The average rainfall for the year is 44 inches against 31, 
 which is the average for the whole country ; a small ex- 
 cess when compared with Dartmoor, which has 57 h inches, 
 and with Keswick, which has over 100 inches, or Seath- 
 waite, which has 136. This prevalence of humid atmo- 
 sphere and cloudy skies materially affects the agriculture 
 of Cornwall, and renders the county admirably adapted for 
 early vegetables and for root crops, and also for garden 
 flowers, but renders it less suitable for cereals and fruits. 
 During the wet summer of 1860, Cornwall, although its 
 rainfall was less than that of other counties, suffered more 
 as to its harvest. Day after day the skies seemed dissolved 
 into mist. The gathered sheaves were sodden, and the 
 ripe grain sprouted, or else on the higher lands, where the 
 corn ripens more slowly, it remained green throughout 
 the autumn, and there were instances in which the crops 
 were not housed until November. Mr. Nicholas Whitley, 
 the well-known Cornish savan, has admirably described 
 the climate of Cornwall. The Atlantic, whose waters 
 close to the Cornish coast never in winter fall below 46° 
 Falnenheit, and farther out are still warmer, acts as a 
 storehouse of heat, and the air sweeping over its surface 
 partakes of its temperature. Thus, let the cold be ever 
 so intense, the westerly wind springs up from the sea and 
 drives it back. During the great cold of December, 1860, 
 when near Nottingham the thermometer marked 8° below 
 zero, the lowest thermometer at Truro was 13°; and in the 
 Scilly Islands 24°. Mr. Whitley adds :— 
 
 k 2
 
 132 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 ' ' The wind makes the weather ; and it is this battle of the east 
 with the west which, like a shuttlecock driven to and fro, causes 
 the variation of our climate. There is a magic touch and a mighty- 
 power about this brave west wind, which in winter we should 
 thankfully acknowledge. In the middle of December, 1859, the 
 cold from the north-east had coated Cornwall with snow, and 
 loaded the trees and hedgerows with masses of glittering crystals. 
 A falling barometer indicated that the generous hero of the west 
 was approaching. His first blast was cold and chilly ; but on — on 
 — roaring and groaning he came, sighing through the trees and 
 hedgerows, and the snow fell in heavy lumps from the boughs. 
 From the western sides of hills and from the more exposed brows 
 of the land, the snow melted rapidly away, and so effective was his 
 influence, that lines of temperature might almost be drawn upon 
 the delicately-shaded surface ; and within twenty-four hours the 
 mantle of winter was gone, and the emerald green of spring re- 
 turned, except that here and there were left some patches of snow 
 which had skulked under the eastern side of a hedge ; and the ther- 
 mometer ranged from 50° at night to 54° by day. I have often 
 marked the influence of this wind with wonder and admiration. 
 But in summer admiration changes into dislike. "Fair weather " 
 may come " out of the north ;" but the tyrant of the west rolls in, 
 cloud on cloud, till masses of vapour obscure the sun, which day 
 after day no ray of his can pierce. The long pendant streams of 
 condensing vapour float over the languishing ears of corn, or descend 
 in heavy rain to retard and injure the harvest. The sun may be a 
 monarch in the desert where the "earth is tire and the sun a 
 flame," hut in Cornwall we often see him as a "dim, discrowned 
 God of day," and Long to feel more of Ids vivifying beams, gilding 
 the fading corn and swelling the half-ripe fruit."* 
 
 Few countries could thrive under such a climate as 
 this; yet the soil of Cornwall not only tolerates but 
 requires such constant watering. This county suffered 
 probably more than any other part of England during 
 
 * Journal of the Bath and West of England Society, vol. ix, 
 pp. 201, 202.
 
 CORNISH GEOLOGY. 133 
 
 the drought of 1864. The geology of Cornwall explains 
 this phenomenon. The Cornish rocks belong to the 
 primary series. The grauwacke is the prevailing forma- 
 tion. Occasionally, as in the neighbourhood of Bodmin, 
 Liskeard, Falmouth, and the Land's End, there are masses 
 of granite which are quarried, and are of great commer- 
 cial value. In the north there is an extensive bed of 
 slate. It forms some of the finest rock scenery in Eng- 
 land, that of Tintagel and Boscastle, a district full of 
 heroic associations with King Arthur. It is worked on a 
 large scale at Delabole, where indeed the demand almost 
 exceeds the supply. Soils resting upon granite are poor 
 when the rock is close-grained and compact. The rain 
 water percolates through the soil, and lies like a cold 
 sheet below it on the surface of the rock. Where, how- 
 ever, the crystallisation of the rock is large, and the 
 stratum is brokeu up by many joints, there the drainage 
 is good and the soil fertile. As to the slate rocks, when 
 they are horizontal the soil is generally thin and without 
 a sufficient depth of subsoil to regulate the supply of 
 moisture to the plant, and in dry weather grass will 
 quickly get burnt. When the slate beds dip with a 
 deep clayey subsoil, and a strong soil over, the natural 
 drainage is good, the ground is fertile, and agriculture 
 prospers. These are the conditions which have made the 
 farming around Px'obus the most productive in Cornwall. 
 Throughout Cornwall there runs a central ridge of high 
 land, much of it geologically akin to Dartmoor, and, like 
 Dartmoor, desolate and barren. Gilpin travelling west- 
 wards from Launceston in search of the picturesque, saw 
 nothing but a ' coarse, naked country, in all respects as 
 uninteresting as can well be conceived.' He turned back 
 when he reached Bodmin. Had he gone five miles farther
 
 134 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 he would have fouud himself in one of the loveliest of 
 wooded valleys, the Glynn Valley, through which the 
 more fortunate railway traveller now passes and looks 
 down from one of the lofty and seemingly fragile viaducts 
 of the Cornwall Railway upon the river Fowey, some 
 hundreds of feet below. Cornwall is full of such bosky 
 vales. The Vale of Lanherne is one of the most ro- 
 mantic in England. The valley of the Truro river, with 
 Tregothnan woods, has been declared equal to the Rhine 
 by no less an authority than Queen Victoria. 
 
 We have already briefly indicated the style of hus- 
 bandly adopted in Cornwall. We have pointed out that 
 the climate and the soil are unfavourable to cereals, and 
 that Cornish farmers will for the most part do better 
 with pasture than arable land. But there is one peculiar 
 species of Cornish farming to which we must refer more 
 fully. The market gardening in the neighbourhood of 
 Penzance and Falmouth, and in the Scilly Islands, is 
 unique. The soil, locally termed ' growan,' is derived 
 mainly from the decomposition of the green stone rocks, 
 mixed with the <l< fritiis of the granite and the clay slate, 
 and is full of the elements of fertility. The aspect and 
 the climate also are eminently favourable. Sheltered 
 from the north, and open to the south and to the warm 
 south-west winds of winter, the thermometer rarely falls 
 below 45°, and frosts are almost unknown. It is but re- 
 cently, however, that the experiment of growing early 
 brocoli and potatoes for the London market has been 
 tried, and the trade has, during the last half dozen years, 
 rapidly increased. It was in 1836 that the first early 
 brocoli was sent to the metropolis. Four dozen were sold 
 as a first speculation. The annual quantity now sent off 
 by rail alone, independently of that sent by steamer, is
 
 CORNISH PRODUCE. 135 
 
 about 300,000 dozen, weighing some 210 tons. But 
 even the brocoli is a secondary crop to the potato. 
 The Rev. Thomas Phillpotts, in a paper published in the 
 "Journal of the Bath and West of England Society," 
 states that, in 1861, 10,226 baskets of early potatoes, 
 weighing 1| cwt. each, were shipped from Hayle, and that 
 32,560 were sent by rail, besides 13,712 sent from Scilly. 
 This is equivalent to more than 3,500 tons, the produce 
 of about four miles of land. Sometimes the produce 
 brings in 3601, an acre ; but the average profit is 801. 
 The outgoings ore heavy, and the manuring alone, which 
 consists generally of rags, sometimes comes to 401. an 
 acre. The average cost, including rent, is about the same 
 sum, which, while it leaves room for an ample profit, 
 also involves a heavy loss, if unhappily, the crop should 
 fail. It is to this traffic and the fisheries that the 
 two chief Cornish railways owe their deliverance from 
 bankruptcy. 
 
 It is one of the ' things not generally known,' that the 
 Methodists of Cornwall supply the Papists of Italy with 
 the food which the latter eat on fast days. Such, how- 
 ever, is the fact. Nine thousand hogsheads of pilchards 
 are sent to Italy on an average every year, and two-thirds 
 of this quantity the bay of St. Ives supplies. Each 
 hogshead contains about 27,000 fish, so that the Italians 
 consume over 240,000,000 annually, or about ten for 
 every man, woman, and child. The introduction of heresy 
 by means of Protestant fish is prevented by the salt with 
 which the fish are cured, and which is brought in large 
 quantities from Catholic Spain. Next to mining, there is 
 no employment in which the returns are so uncertain as 
 the pilchard fishery. The quantity varies enormously 
 from year to year. In 1847, a good year, the take
 
 136 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 amounted to 41,623 hogsheads ; in 1862, a bad year, it 
 was only 17,854. The year 1851 will be for ever memor- 
 able in the annals of St. Ives, not for the great Exhibi- 
 tion, for there were not many St. Ivesmen who journeyed 
 so far as that, but because one ' schull ' or shoal of fish 
 yielded 5,555 hogsheads, or about 15,000,000 fish. A 
 fortnight was spent in landing them from the time that 
 they were first caught in the 'seine.' These figures will 
 readily explain the variableness of fortune which attends 
 the pilchard fishery. A net may be dropped and catch 
 nothing, after weeks of waiting, or it may earn a thou- 
 sand pounds at once. And, if the risks are great, and 
 the profits sometimes large, the capital invested is by no 
 means inconsiderable. There are about two hundred and 
 fifty 'seines' in St. Ives, and these with their attendant 
 boats and tackle have cost not much short of 100,000/. 
 The number of seines is, however, far too numerous for 
 them all to be employed, and so the owners have formed 
 themselves into a few companies, who have bound them- 
 selves to use only a fourth of their tackle every year. 
 The individual members of these companies are for the 
 most part men not only of ample means, but of high 
 social standing, and to be a partner in a seine is quite 
 as respectable as to be a partner in a bank. The two 
 capacities are not seldom united in the same person, who, 
 in addition, is sometimes an M.P. 
 
 The pilchard fishery gives rise to the most picturesquely 
 exciting spectacles. It is as different a scene as possible 
 from that of the solitary angler, sitting patiently the 
 whole day long by the side of some narrow stream, 
 waiting for the disappearance of his float. On the cliffs 
 above St. Ives and Mount's Bay, to which the pilchards 
 chiefly resort, houses are erected in which men called
 
 CORNISH FISHERIES. 137 
 
 huers reside. It is their duty, especially during the 
 months of June, July, August, and September, to keep 
 constant watch for the approach of the fish. This is sig- 
 nified by a line of red in the sea. So soon as that 
 appears the seemingly drowsy Inter shouts with stentorian 
 voice, heva, heva (found), and the cry is instantly taken 
 up by the whole town, if the ' school,' or ' schull,' be in 
 the neighbourhood of St. Ives. Then men, women, and 
 children, after the Cornish motto, ' One and all,' rush down 
 to see the boats push off. Each seine boat contains eight 
 men ; six who row, one who steers with an oar, and who 
 assists the eighth to ' shoot ' the seine. Two ' tow-boats,' 
 containing five men each, follow the seine, and carry the 
 ' stop-nets ; ' and lastly comes the folyer, evidently a 
 corruption of follower, a little boat containing two lads, 
 whose duty it is to wait upon the other boats. All these, 
 as well as the huers, are paid regular wages, and get a 
 share of the fish as well. Besides them are the blowsers, 
 who have no settled pay, and whose work consists in 
 launching the boats carrying the seines, and pulling them 
 when shot into sufficiently shallow water to secure them. 
 The seine is a net, varying from about 1,000 feet long 
 and 50 deep to 1,200 feet and 90 feet. On the top are 
 corks, to keep the upper end afloat ; at the bottom are 
 leads to make it sink. This net costs about 1851. It is 
 an anxious time until the order is given to ' shoot ' the 
 seine. It is a still more anxious moment when the net is 
 dragged to shallow water, and for the first time the eager 
 spectators are able to estimate the amount of their prey. 
 As the fish are drawn landwards they beat the sea in 
 their impotent efforts to escape, and make such a noise 
 that they drown all other sounds. The process of taking 
 the fish out of the seine is called tucking. The tuckers,
 
 133 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 clad in oil skin, carry a huge bag, which they shoot round 
 the fish in the net, and then empty with baskets into the 
 tuck-boats. These boats, containing piles of what seems 
 molten silver, then pull back to the beach. They are 
 received by watermen, who stand in the sea often up to 
 their armpits, and fill their baskets with fish taken from 
 the tuck-boats, and carry them to the cellars, where they 
 are lightly sprinkled with salt by young children. They 
 are then thoroughly salted, and all night long the work 
 goes on of erecting piles of alternate fish and salt. For 
 six weeks the fish are left to stand there. Then they are 
 thrown into water to free them from salt ; then they are 
 pressed, the oil that escapes being carefully preserved and 
 sold to the soap-makers. At last they are put into hogs- 
 heads prior to their export, chiefly to Italy, which ac- 
 knowledges our contributions by sending some of the fish 
 back to England under the name of auchovies. There is 
 one peculiar difficulty with which the fishermen have to 
 contend, — the phosphorescent light in the sea. This is 
 often very vivid, and the effect of it is that every mesh of 
 the seine becomes illuminated, and that the net stands up 
 in the sea as a luminous wall, which the fish are very care- 
 ful to avoid. As to the pilchard himself, his love for this 
 particular spot of the globe (he is found in few other 
 places) has given rise to many conjectures. Amongst 
 other theories it is suggested that he is attracted by the 
 love of a special kind of food, the remains of the fern- 
 web, which have been washed down and mixed with 
 the sand gravel of the coast. But the writer of a very 
 interesting article in the " Dublin University Magazine," 
 for October, 18(J0, from whom I have borrowed some of 
 these facts, doubts the soundness of this theory, and urges 
 against it that, if it were correct, we should discover the
 
 CHINA CLAY. 139 
 
 remains of this food on cutting open the fish, whereas 
 nothing of the sort is found. It is more probable that 
 the fish feed upon the insects who feed upon the fern-web, 
 and thus we may explain the connection between a good 
 fern-web year and a good pilchard year which has been 
 observed. 
 
 Cornwall is certainly not a land flowing with milk and 
 honey, — it is rather a land of desolate hills and barren 
 heaths. Yet it is in the least fertile parts of the county 
 that one witnesses a phenomenon which well-nigh induces 
 the belief that Cornwall may compare with Canaan. 
 Running down the sides of these steep wastes are milk- 
 white streams, and the stranger is fairly puzzled at the 
 sight of them. He would perhaps be even more per- 
 plexed were he told that that terrestrial galaxy was 
 granite. It would sound like a very poor hoax to 
 declare that the hardest of all rocks could be reduced into 
 a liquid state by any agency short of that tremendous 
 heat which, countless ages ago, made even granite to fuse 
 and boil. Nevertheless, the statement would be nothing 
 more than the truth. Thousands of tons of granite thus 
 pour down the hills every year. The explanation is as 
 follows : In certain parts of Cornwall, chiefly in the 
 neighbourhood of St. Austell, granite is found decom- 
 posed. Its compound elements, mica quartz and felspar, 
 are disintegrated, and the granite is no longer a hard rock 
 but a soft clay. It was not until the latter half of the 
 last century that one William Cookworthy, a Plymouth 
 Quaker, discovei'ed that this was a valuable material for 
 pottery. Until then all our finest pottery clay had come 
 from China, and the cost of the ware was proportionately 
 large. In 1745 Cookworthy wrote to a friend that an 
 American had lately brought him some ' china earth,'
 
 140 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 which had been found in the back of Virginia. Nine or 
 ten years later, in one of his frequent rambles about 
 Cornwall, which he was induced to undertake in great 
 measure through his belief in the ' dowsing,' or divining 
 rod, he noticed some eai*th which bore a close simila- 
 rity to that which the Virginian had shown him, and to 
 the description of the Chinese ' caidin ' contained in the 
 narrative of the Jesuit missionary, Pere d'Entrecolles. 
 This discovery was made in Tregonnin Hill, in the parish 
 of Germo, between Helston and Penzance ; and subse- 
 quently Cookworthy found large quantities of the same 
 precious mat (.'rial in the parish of St. Stephen's, near St. 
 Austell, which is at the present day the chief locality of 
 the mineral. He came to the conclusion that there were 
 large stores of china clay, or, as he termed it, ' caulin,' in 
 Cornwall, and he at once resolved to apply to Lord 
 Camelford, the owner of the ground at St. Stephen's, in 
 which the clay had been discovered, for permission to 
 work it. Eventually Lord Camelford and Cookworthy 
 entered into partnership, and established a pottery at 
 Plymouth. This, in 1774, was sold to Cookworthy's 
 cousin, Richard Champion, and transferred to Bristol. 
 But such a precious product as ' caulin ' was not to be 
 confined to one district. It soon became sought after by 
 other manufacturers, and it has now become the great 
 source whence the English potters in all parts of the 
 United Kingdom derive their raw material. The Cornish 
 and Devonshire china clay, for it is found also in the 
 sister county, is even exported in large quantities to 
 America, although it was from America that the sample 
 was brought which led to the discovery of clay in 
 England. Some idea of the value of this discovery may 
 be formed when we state that, during 18G8, 187,479 tons
 
 CLAY WORKS. 141 
 
 of china clay and china stone were raised, the value of 
 which is estimated at 145,270^. 
 
 The process by which the clay is rendered fit for the 
 potter is very interesting. In one district, Teignmouth, 
 Devonshire, the clay is simply dug out of the ground, and 
 shipped as soon as dry ; but this is an inferior clay, avail- 
 able only for coarse ware. That which is used in our 
 fine china and porcelain has to undergo far longer pre- 
 paration. The clay is commonly found among the moors, 
 at the foot of the higher rock-strewn elevations called tors, 
 and in patches of from one to twenty acres, with a very 
 variable depth, ranging from twenty to two hundred 
 feet. After the superincumbent soil or turf, technically 
 termed " overburden," has been removed, and the bed of 
 clay (" stope ") has been properly opened, a stream of pure 
 water is allowed to run down over the bed, and men clad 
 in large waterproof boots keep moving the clay as the 
 stream washes over it. The water, now thoroughly im- 
 pregnated with clay, and of a milk-white colour, is then 
 conveyed by wooden conduits (" launders ") to the drying 
 yard. On the way the heavy quartz is deposited in the 
 shape of coarse sand. The clay next passes through a 
 long series of wooden troughs (" mica levels "), where an 
 almost perfect level is preserved, so that the clay water 
 moves very slowly, and has time to deposit the mica. 
 This is one of the most important stages in the process. 
 In proportion as mica is present in the clay when sent to 
 the potter is its value diminished. The best clay is 
 entirely free from it. From the " mica levels " the clay 
 stream is conducted to deep catch pits, where it remains 
 until the pure clay, now consisting only of felspar, is de- 
 posited. The supernatant water is then drained off, and 
 the clay, now of the consistency of thick cream, is pumped
 
 142 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 into large shallow pits ("pans") carefully strewn with 
 granite sand, where it is allowed to dry by the action of 
 the sun and wind, or else it is conveyed into drying- 
 houses, where it is dried by hot flues. In the first case 
 the drying may take some weeks if the weather be un- 
 favourable, in the second the clay is dried in twelve 
 hours, and the further process of scraping to get rid of the 
 sand, necessary when the " pans " are resorted to, is 
 spared. In both cases the clay before it is quite hard is 
 cut into small cubical blocks, which, when dry, have the 
 colour and consistency of chalk. During the season, that 
 is chiefly during the months from April to October, 
 hundreds of carts laden with these blocks may be seen in 
 the neighbourhood of St. Austell slowly wending their 
 way to the little port of Par, which has been created by 
 the clay trade and by the adjacent tin mines. The work, so 
 far as is possible, is usually done by contract, the foreman, 
 or as he is invariably called, the "captain," agreeing to 
 supply the clay to the lessee of the works or " sett " at so 
 much a ton, and making his own arrangements with the 
 men under him. The landowner or "lord" receives his 
 rent in the shape of a " royalty " or " dues," which is so 
 much per ton upon all that is raised, the amount varying 
 from <i</. to 2s. 6d. The Belling price of the clay at the 
 port varies with the quality, from 15s. to 40s. 
 
 It is not only in the form of clay that granite is ob- 
 tained in Cornwall. Granite proper is raised in large 
 quantities, and is nearly the finest in the kingdom. The 
 quarries at the Cheesewring, near Liskeard, have fur- 
 nished the greater part of the granite used in our new 
 fortifications. Those in the neighbourhood of Falmouth 
 and Penzance, some seventy in number, and most of them 
 worked by the same company, have supplied the granite
 
 MINES. 143 
 
 used in our London bridges, and in many of our most 
 famous public memorials. 
 
 But Cornwall's chief riches are underground. Hun- 
 dreds of feet below the barren surface, covered with 
 hideous spoil banks, there are countless miles of roads 
 very strait and gloomy. They branch out in every direc- 
 tion, they lie on the top of each other, with ten fathoms of 
 rock between them. Lights burn but feebly there, for 
 the air is laden with impurity. The heat is often exces- 
 sive, far beyond that of the hottest summer's day. Yet 
 in those gloomy recesses thousands upon thousands of 
 Cornishmen pass the greater part of their waking, and all 
 their working hours. How sorely they suffer we shall 
 presently see. In the meantime we must attempt a 
 description of the most characteristic industry of 
 Cornwall. 
 
 The presence of a mine is indicated to the traveller by 
 a high stone building and a tall chimney, with a huge 
 projecting iron beam that at certain intervals moves up 
 and down, apparently without object and without cause. 
 This is the mine eno-ine. Without it mining would be 
 impossible. The metalliferous rocks abound with water, 
 and generally the more abundant and the hotter the 
 water, the richer the mine. The mine engine works 
 pumps which raise this water by hogsheads at every 
 stroke. These engines are marvellous constructions. 
 Cornwall boasts that it had the best engines and the first 
 railway in England. That railway still exists, and public 
 notice is given before a train is run, and the guard which 
 accompanies the train gets clown to open the gates, while 
 the passengers alight to gather blackberries, or, as gene- 
 rally happens, to assist the guard in restoring the train to 
 the rails from off which it has an invincible tendency to
 
 144 CORNWALL AND THE COENISH. 
 
 run. But while the locomotive steam-engine is thus 
 primitive, the mine-engine maintains its old position of 
 superiority, and has advanced with the times. By the 
 improvements which Watt designed in mine engines, one 
 mine saved 7000/. a yeai\ Since then improvements have 
 been numerous and important, so that when the Dutch 
 determined to drain their Lake of Haarlem, they sent 
 their engineers to Cornwall to study the mine engines, 
 and to order the like for their enterprise. These engines 
 are of enormous size. Sometimes the cylinder has a 
 diameter of 90 inches, and one engine of this size cost, 
 with the works of erection, 8000/. But though so large 
 it makes scarcely any noise, and is manageable almost by 
 a child. Its house is kept as clean as a lady's boudoir. 
 No smoke issues from the chimney, for coal is far too 
 costly in remote Cornwall to be allowed to escape into 
 the air. The work which the engine accomplishes is 
 regularly recorded in " duty papers," which are published 
 and excite the greatest interest among the miners. The 
 " duty " of an engine is the number of pounds lifted one 
 foot by a bushel of coals. Since the publication of the 
 papers there has been so much competition that the 
 "duty'' has risen immensely. Thus, in 1813, the average 
 " duty " was 26,100,0001b., in 1837 it was 87,212,0001b. 
 The highest " duty " on record is 1 10,000,000 lb. At the 
 present time the average is not far short of 100,000,000 lb. 
 The quantity of water raised by these engines is enor- 
 mous. There is one great underground watercourse, or 
 " adit," which with its branches extends to forty miles, 
 and drains 5G00 acres. Through this " adit " nearly 1500 
 cubic feet of water are expelled every minute. Every- 
 thing connected with these mines is on a grand scale. 
 Every year, for instance, a forest of about 150,000 Nor-
 
 UNDERGROUND WEALTH. 
 
 1 15 
 
 wegian pine trees is used in propping up the roofs of the 
 underground roads, or '-' levels " and the sides of the shafts. 
 But a true idea of the importance of these mines as com- 
 mercial undertakings, and as sources of national wealth, 
 may be best gathered from a very few statistics. During 
 1864 there were raised — 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Valued at. 
 
 No. 
 
 of Mines 
 
 Tin ore . . 
 
 13,977 
 
 — £861,346 
 
 — 
 
 165 
 
 Copper ore . 
 
 124,937 
 
 — 644,033 
 
 — 
 
 126 
 
 Lead ore 
 
 5,301 
 
 75,760 
 
 — 
 
 17 
 
 Zinc ore 
 
 890 
 
 2,155 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 Iron pyrites 
 
 8,565 
 
 7,434 
 
 — 
 
 13 
 
 Arsenic . . 
 
 633 
 
 475 
 
 — 
 
 7 
 
 Silver ore . 
 
 51 
 
 — 38 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 Iron ore 
 
 25,284 
 
 8,897 
 
 — 
 
 12 
 
 The total quantity and value of all the metals raised in 
 Cornwall during 1861 were 179,965 tons, and 1,626,79K 
 These figures are not so high as those of 1859, when the 
 value of the copper alone was 905,897^. Unfortunately* 
 since 1861 there has been a serious declension in Cornish 
 mining which has been caused by foreign competition, and 
 has led to a large emigration of miners. In 1868 the 
 total quantity of ores was only 117,837 tons, and the 
 value 1,153,1792. Just now there is a considerable revival 
 in this branch of industry. 
 
 The procuring of this wealth gives occasion for the 
 exercise of high skill and energetic enterprise. There is 
 nothing in the outward natural aspect of a mine to reveal 
 its presence to the unpractised eye. The ground that 
 covers the hidden treasure may be a barren moor or a 
 thick wood ; may be far inland among the tors, or within 
 the recesses of the cliffs that overhang the sea, or
 
 146 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 even beneath the sea itself. The educated miner, how- 
 ever, discerns signs which the stranger does not. He 
 notices the dip and direction of the strata ; he is ac- 
 quainted with the mineralogies! features of the district so 
 far as the workings of other mines have revealed them. 
 He has generally good reasons for fixing upon a particular 
 spot for the commencement of operations. He makes a 
 mistake sometimes ; but, thanks to the information af- 
 forded by the Miners' Institute, and the improved educa- 
 tion for his profession which is afforded him, he is every 
 year less likely to fall into error. But, even when he is 
 right, he can never be certain that the cost of opening the 
 mine will be repaid. Ore may be discovered, as he anti- 
 cipated, but nothing is more capricious than a metalli- 
 ferous lode. It may disappear, and reappear beyond the 
 " sett," beyond, that is, the limits within which he has the 
 right to woi'k, and then his discovery is but lost labour. 
 But supposing the mine to be successful, the engine shaft 
 to be sunk, and levels opened every ten fathoms with 
 good result in the shape of ore, the following is the way 
 in which the mine is worked. There are two great divi- 
 sions of miners, the underground men and the surface 
 men j the former being in number three to one of the 
 latter. The underground men are subdivided into " tut- 
 men " and " tributers." The first are excavators, and are 
 paid so much per fathom. They sink the shafts and drive 
 the levels at a price depending upon the hardness of the 
 ground and the depth of the shaft or level, the man who 
 asks the lowest price getting the job. The 'tutrnen' 
 work in " cores" (doubtless a corruption of corj>s), or gangs, 
 eight hours at a time, and as they know nothing of the 
 difference between day and night, they work in gangs 
 through the twenty-four hours. The " tributers " are a
 
 UNDERGROUND WORK. 147 
 
 higher class of workmen. They are, in fact, virtually 
 partners with the " adventurers," as the shareholders are 
 called. They undertake to bring the ore to the surface 
 at a certain percentage of the selling price. What that per- 
 centage shall be depends upon the indications which the 
 mine affords at the time that the contract is made. If 
 the mine looks poor, and the yield of ore is likely to be 
 small, the " tributer " will expect as much as 13s. or los. in 
 the pound, for his labour in raising a ton of ore will be 
 great. If the mine looks rich, he may be contented 
 with a shilling or even only threepence in the pound, 
 for his toil will be light. It is a risky business ; but, 
 then, so is everything connected with mining, as the 
 " adventurers " too often know to their cost. Every two 
 months the contracts are made. The " captain," or fore- 
 man, in behalf of the shareholders examines the various 
 " pitches," and fixes in his own mind the price at which 
 they ought to be worked. The " tributers," too, make 
 their inspection, and fix their prices. The various "pitches " 
 are then put up to auction, all the " tributers " being 
 present. The bids, contrary to an ordinary auction, go 
 on decreasing in price, until the lowest offer having been 
 given, the " pitch " is let to him who made that offer, a 
 preference being given to men who have worked before. 
 In two months there is abundant room for change in the 
 value of the " pitch." If it becomes very much worse than 
 was anticipated, the " tributer " can abandon his contract 
 on payment of a fine, which is generally 20s. or 30s. He 
 does not often resort to this expedient, but prefers to 
 work on in the hope of an improvement. If the ground 
 turns out much better than was expected, the " tributer " 
 will occasionally hide some of the ore until after the next 
 letting day, in order that he may continue the job at the 
 
 l 2
 
 148 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 same price, that is, he will do so if he can ; but the " cap- 
 tain," who has almost always been a working miner, is 
 generally too sharp for him. Another trick, less easily 
 detected, is, where two " tributers," one of whom has taken 
 a rich piece of ground and the other a poor one, agree 
 that the former shall give to the latter some of his ore, 
 and that the two shall divide the profits. In this way 
 the shareholders may be swindled out of a large sum of 
 money, since they may be paying 15s. in the pound for 
 ( »re for which they ought to be paying only 3c?. Trickery 
 and untruthfulness are unfortunately not confined to the 
 labourers. They are to be found among all classes who 
 have to do with mining. The "captain" thinks it a point 
 of honour to^declare to all visitors that " she" (the mine) 
 was never looking better, although he knows that the 
 lodes have run out, and that the " sett " is on the point 
 of being abandoned. The " adventurers " are generally 
 equally dishonest. They keep a reserve of ore, which, if 
 the mine gives signs of exhaustion, is brought out as 
 though it were recently raised, and thus they obtain time 
 to sell the shares of a worthless concern. This is called 
 " picking out the eyes " of the mine. Mine sharebrokers 
 are too often tricky, like the labourers and the share- 
 holders, and they have countless means of puffing a 
 worthless mine, or raising the shares of a fairly profitable 
 mine far beyond its value, a proceeding for which modern 
 slang has furnished a name, calling such mines " sensation 
 mines." Doubtless there are a few brokers of high honour, 
 and the lists, to which their names are appended, and 
 which are published in the local daily papers, are treated 
 with nearly as much confidence as the official lists of stocks 
 and shares on the Stock Exchange. But as a rule there 
 is no profession, save that of horse-racing, where there is
 
 TICKETINGS. 1 49 
 
 so much trickery. There is, however, this to be said in 
 favour of Cornish mining, that it knows nothing of strikes.* 
 There is no need for the intervention of trades' unions 
 among the Cornish miners. They have no need to com- 
 bine against the master, for, by the system described 
 above, they are made their own masters. Each job is 
 taken at a price named by the taker himself, and if he 
 works for less wages than the work is worth, he has only 
 himself to blame. It is to be wished that this system, 
 which, moreover, has the further advantage of making the 
 men interested in the prosperity of the mine, could be 
 adopted in other employments. We see no reason why it 
 should not. 
 
 The disposal of the ore after it is raised is the subject 
 of peculiar arrangements. In the case of copper, the ore 
 is made up by the " tributers " into heaps of 100 tons each, 
 and samples are sent in little bags to the agents of the 
 different copper companies. They take the specimens to 
 assayers, who declare what percentage of copper there is 
 in the ore, and the price which the agents will offer is 
 based upon this information. Nearly every Thursday in 
 the year there is a " ticketing," or sale, generally at Truro 
 or Redruth. The agents for the mines and the agents for 
 the copper companies are present, and the latter, seated at 
 a long table, write on slips of paper the prices they are 
 prepared to give for the different parcels of ore. These 
 " tickets" are handed to the chairman, and are immediately 
 printed in a tabular form. The largest sum offered for 
 each heap of ore is distinguished by a line drawn under it, 
 and the agent who makes the offer is the purchaser. 
 
 * The exception proves the rule. There was an attempt at a 
 strike on a large scale some four years ago, but it completely 
 failed.
 
 150 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 During this transaction silence is generally observed, and 
 thus in the course of an hour or two ore to the value of 
 20,000£. may be sold without a word being uttered. The 
 parties to this transaction atone subsequently for this 
 silence. Dining with them at the ordinary, the stranger 
 would hear a confused Babel of sounds, in which the word 
 " wheal " (a corruption of huel, the old Cornish name for 
 mine) would predominate. He would learn that " Mary 
 Anne " was looking better, and that a new lode had been 
 cut in " the forty at Par Consols.'' And perhaps he might 
 catch an ominous whisper to the effect that Wheal Phan- 
 tom was " scat." After a time he would understand that 
 " Mary Anne," whose better health was the subject of such 
 general congratulation, was not the wife or the daughter of 
 any of the speakers, but a mine ; that " the forty at Par 
 Consols " meant the forty fathom level at the mine of that 
 name ; and that " Wheal Phantom'' was an unfortunate 
 mine abandoned by its shareholders. 
 
 The eagerness with which the condition and prospects 
 of mines are discussed is not surprising when we remember 
 the large fortunes that have been lost and gained by 
 mining. Mining, in fact, is a large lottery, in which there 
 are a few great prizes, a large number of blanks, and , 
 unlike other lotteries, a considerable number of forfeits. 
 Most persons know the history of the Great Devon Consols 
 Mine, near Tavistock, and how the shares upon which only 
 11. had been paid were a few years afterwards sold for 
 about 800Z. In Cornwall, too, the fortunate venture of 
 Messrs. Williams, the wealthiest family in the West of 
 England, is well known, and how they paid 16,000£. for 
 the United Mines, and how, shortly afterwards, a great 
 discovery of ore made their property worth 190,000^. 
 The Cornish mine adventurer, or the London mine broker,
 
 VIRTUES AND VICES. 151 
 
 has always numerous stories of this sort to relate. Neither 
 tells of the far more numerous failures which have in- 
 volved the imhappy speculators in ruin. It is estimated 
 that the profits of all the Cornish mines are only about 
 three per cent, upon the capital — a miserable return con- 
 sidering the enormous risks. But then every one hopes 
 to make a coup, like the Great Devon Consols adventurers. 
 The fact that some mines are now returning more than 
 500 per cent, on the original capital, while, as we have 
 stated, the average return is only three per cent., shows 
 that there must be many mines where there is a heavy 
 loss. The chances of loss are far more numerous than the 
 chances of large gain, and happy is that man w T hose expe- 
 rience (like that of a friend of the writer's) is that after 
 investing in thirty mines, some good and some bad, he is 
 only 100^. the worse off. 
 
 The social condition of the Cornish people offers some 
 seemingly irreconcilable contradictions. There are few 
 counties in England where there is less crime, none in 
 which there is less drunkenness, and probably only one 
 district in which there is so much unchastity. The cause 
 of total abstinence has made greater progress in Cornwall 
 than in any other part of England. A drunken miner is 
 almost unknown. Alcoholic drinks are not allowed upon 
 the mines. In Cornwall the phenomenon, too rare in 
 England, may be seen of temperance public-houses. The 
 comparative absence of crimes of violence is only the 
 natural consequence of the prevalence of temperance. On 
 the other hand, the prevalence of unchastity seems to be a 
 most unexpected and inexplicable coincidence. The diffi- 
 culty is removed, however, when we come to a definition of 
 terms. It is quite true that the young women among 
 the working classes too often cease to be maidens before
 
 152 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 they are wives, and that it is a rare event for the first 
 child to be born so long as nine months after the marriage 
 of its parents. More than one Cornish clergyman, we 
 feai-, could be found to tell the same story as the clergy- 
 man in the Scilly Islands, who during fourteen years saw 
 only two first-born children come into the world at the 
 proper interval after the marriage of the parents. But 
 when we have said this we have said the worst. Though, 
 as M. Esquiros says, " Marriage is nearly always a conse- 
 quence of maternity, instead of maternity being the fruit 
 of marriage," still, marriage does take place, and desertion 
 after seduction is rare. It would seem as if the Cornish 
 miners shared the antipathy to sterility which their 
 brethren the miners of South Wales entertain, — as if they 
 would not marry a woman known to be barren. Between 
 this laxity and the licentiousness which prevails in large 
 towns, there is so great a difference that the first is almost 
 a virtue by contrast with the second. 
 
 To say that the Cornish are both religious and super- 
 stitious will not seem to involve such a contradiction as 
 the coincidence of temperance and unchastity appeared to 
 do. Sincere devotion is not seldom accompanied with 
 gross credulity. Cornwall is pre-eminently the county of 
 marvellous legends — the abode of giants and fairies. The 
 Cornish miner is the most independent of men, both 
 socially and religiously. He is not seldom a class leader, 
 or even a local preacher ; and he will expound the Scrip- 
 tures with wonderful acuteness on the Sunday, while on 
 the Monday he will be afraid to whistle underground, lest 
 he should give offence to the pixies. Between his Sunday 
 devotion and his Monday dishonesty there is a greater 
 incompatibility. The miner, however, is not thoroughly 
 dishonest or untruthful. In most matters he is trust-
 
 WEECKERS. 153 
 
 worthy ; but speak to him about his miue and you at 
 once enter into a world where the ordinary laws of mo- 
 rality are suspended. If he be a " tributer," nothing 
 will convince him that it is wrong to cheat the " captain ;" 
 if he be a " captain," it will seem a positive duty to 
 declare his mine in a flourishing condition, even though he 
 knows that next week it will be "scat." As to the precise 
 form of his religion, it is generally one of the numerous 
 developments of Methodism. This is not surprising. 
 Cornwall was one of the most fertile fields in which the 
 Wesleys worked. Before their time, and even for some 
 period after it, the Cornishman was one of the most law- 
 less subjects in the King's dominions. If he said his 
 prayers at all, he would pray for a good wreck ; and to 
 render the granting of his requests the more likely, he 
 would at night tie a lantern to the tail of his donkey, 
 and drive the beast along the cliffs, in order to induce the 
 crews of passing vessels to believe that the shifting light 
 was that of a ship, and so draw them on to destruction 
 among the cruel Cornish rocks. It is related that a 
 clergyman found himself one Sunday suddenly deserted 
 by his congregation in the middle of his sermon, and that 
 on ascertaining the cause to be a wreck, lie cried out to 
 his retreating flock to " start fair," and to give him time 
 to take off his vestments. The Cornish wreckers were 
 indifferent to the sixth as well as the eighth command- 
 ment. Not only did they rob the unfortunate involuntary 
 visitor to their inhospitable shores, but they did not 
 scruple to get rid of him altogether, if murder would 
 facilitate plunder. As to smuggling, that was considered 
 a virtue. The revenue officers were esteemed public 
 enemies. When Lord Exmouth's brother, Capt. Pellew, 
 was sent to Falmouth, to put down smuggling, he found
 
 154 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 some of his own officers running a contraband cargo of 
 wine in broad daylight, and in the open port. One noted 
 smuggler built himself a fortress, and armed it with long- 
 range guns ; and one day, when Capt. Pellew approached 
 this stronghold more closely than was agreeable to its 
 occupant, the fort opened fire upon the ship, and a brisk 
 engagement followed, in which the aggressor happily was 
 worsted. The Wesleys did not refrain from denouncing 
 these enormities, which the Church, then in her deepest 
 slumber, had spared. Men and manners have improved 
 since then, but Methodism is still the main religion of 
 the county. Its members, however, have decreased of 
 late years. This decrease is due in great measure to the 
 revived energies of the Church, which, in spite of the 
 great age of the late diocesan, has made a great advance 
 during the last fifteen years. It is, however, due also to the 
 spread of the sect of " Bible Christians.'' 
 
 There is one characteristic of the Cornish women to 
 which we must make brief allusion — their love of dress. 
 The visitor to one of the mines or clay works is struck by 
 the remarkable neatness and cleanliness, amounting even 
 to coquetry, of the girls who work there. The " Bal 
 Maiden," as the mine girl is termed, is in fact as passion- 
 ately fond of dress as the richest and fairest belle of 
 Belgravia. Though her wages are small, generally from 
 101. to 111. a year, and though she has to keep herself out 
 of this sum, she always contrives to adorn herself with 
 more or less finery. If her parents disapprove and forbid 
 her to deck herself in a manner not becoming her station, 
 she will, so soon as she is out of sight of home, on her way 
 to the mine, bring out the hidden brooch, and insert in 
 her ears the forbidden rings. But it is on the Sunday 
 that she comes out in all her grandeur. On that day,
 
 " Trt „,T lT ,r nAnrnwrnrr-n " 
 
 JOHNNY FORTNIGHT. 155 
 
 young and old, men and women, the mother as well as 
 the daughter, attire themselves in raiment ludicrously 
 above their station. The women wear handsome and 
 costly shawls, the men black coats and brilliant waistcoats, 
 the girls, who have been groping in the darkness of the 
 mine all the week, become on that day the butterflies of 
 the church and the meeting. A clergyman unacquainted 
 with Cornish ways having once done duty in a mining 
 parish, and having seen before him none but gentlemen 
 and ladies, as from their costume the worshippers appeared 
 to be, lamented that the labouring class was not present, 
 ignorant that his congregation was composed entirely of 
 that class. He would have discovered that, if he had 
 returned with his hearers to their homes. He would have 
 seen how miserable in many cases these were : paper doing 
 the duty of windows, doors badly hung, roofs leaky, and 
 sanitary arrangements defective. In the towns there is a 
 great deal of fever and other preventable disease arising 
 from these causes. And even in the cottages which have 
 been built by the miners on the moorlands adjoining the 
 mines there is much misery. Nor does this extravagant 
 love of dress lead only to the sacrifice of health. It too 
 often leads to the sacrifice of independence. There is a 
 certain class of men called packmen, or tallymen, or more 
 familiarly "Johnny Fortnight," who minister to this passion 
 in a very objectionable way. They call at the house of 
 the miner when he is at work, and display before the eyes 
 of his wife and daughters the seductive wares that they 
 carry in their pack — shawls of brilliant hue, robes of 
 wondrous texture. The tallyman urges that the pay- 
 ments can be made fortnightly (hence his sobriquet), and 
 he rarely finds this argument fail. With girls about to 
 be married he is particularly eloquent, for he knows that
 
 156 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 they are fully alive to the importance of a handsome 
 trousseau. A girl generally yields to temptation under 
 such circumstances, and she brings to her husband a 
 dowry of heavy debts of which he knows nothing. She is 
 then in the power of the tallyman. If she is remiss in 
 her payments, and if she is tardy in making new pur- 
 chases, he threatens to sue her husband for the whole of 
 the balance. Too often he fulfils his threat, and latterly 
 the local press has called attention to the many actions in 
 the county court instituted by the tallymen, who there 
 obtained power to enforce not only punctual payment of 
 the agreed instalments, but the immediate payment of the 
 whole debt. This power they frequently use, and thus 
 imprisonment for trifling debts is shamefully common. 
 
 The Registrar's returns tell a sad tale of the diseases to 
 which the miners are exposed. The bad air, in which it 
 is almost impossible to make a candle burn, and whose 
 injurious effect is increased by the smoke of the gun- 
 powder used in blasting, is one great source of disease. 
 Another is the great depth of the mines, which renders it 
 necessary that the miner when returning from his work, 
 exhausted by the foulness of the atmosphere which he has 
 been breathing for eight hours, should climb up a series of 
 slippery perpendicular ladders, perhaps five times the 
 height of the London Monument. He generally has to 
 carry his heavy tools with him, and when he gets to 
 " grass," as the surface is called, he is sometimes so terri- 
 bly weary that he throws himself upon the ground, more 
 dead than alive, and not seldom suffers from haemorrhage. 
 A miner in the Hartz Mountains of Germany, some thirty 
 years ago, invented a man-engine, by which the greater 
 part of this unnecessary and cruel toil is spared. Where 
 it has been tried in tho Cornish mines it. has answered
 
 THE DUCHY OF CORNWALL. 157 
 
 admirably, and it has resulted in a positive pecuniary 
 gain, by saving the miners' time and strength. But in 
 Cornwall there is a large number of mine3 which are 
 either unremunerative to the shareholders, or the cause of 
 actual loss, and which may be abandoned any day ; and 
 therefore the shareholders will not incur the considerable 
 expenditure which the erection of a man-engine involves. 
 The same consideration checks the introduction of proper 
 ventilating apparatus, engines that will pump air into the 
 mines, although it has been found that they reduce the 
 expense of mining by reducing the excessive temperature 
 and the extra wages which the miners require for working 
 in it. Moreover there is in the mines of Cornwall, as 
 thei-e was in the mills of Lancashire, a selfish obstructive- 
 ness on the part of capitalists, which offers a serious 
 barrier to all improvements. The effect of this selfish con- 
 servatism upon the health of the working miner is very 
 lamentable. He is subject to a specific form of pulmonary 
 disease, known as the miner's consumption. His is a 
 short-lived race, and, as M. Esquiros remarks, you will see 
 in Cornwall many widows, but few widowers. The 
 diseased constitution is transferred to the children, and 
 hence there is a large amount of infant mortality. 
 
 Coke declared that the Duchy of Cornwall was a great 
 mystery, and it is a subject on which volumes might be 
 written. It must suffice to say, that, until very recently, 
 the management of the Duchy property was made as 
 offensive and oppressive to the Cornish people as it pos- 
 sibly could be made. No landowner, were his title the 
 best that could be devised, felt himself safe from liti- 
 gation in which the Duchy officials might win through 
 length of purse, while if they lost they were specially 
 exempt from the defendant's costs. Nothing was too
 
 158 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH. 
 
 large, nothing too small for "the Duchy." It grasped 
 alike at the whole of the "great common of Devon," 
 as Dartmoor was called, and the poor man's cottage built 
 upon a piece of waste land. At length the complaints, 
 long deep, became also, through the mouth of the local 
 press, so loud, that a change of policy was adopted ; and 
 there is now comparative peace and quietness for the 
 much vexed inhabitants of the Duchy.
 
 THE SCILLY ISLANDS. 
 
 There are few grander sights in all Britain than a 
 summer sunset seen off the Laud's End. Standing on this 
 great outwork of granite which majestically fronts the 
 Atlantic, you gaze on the heaving sea hundreds of feet 
 below you, glowing in the crimson light of the sinking orb. 
 Faintly distant, almost as unsubstantial as a cloud, the 
 Scilly Isles rest upon the surface of the ocean. Between 
 them and you are some twenty-five miles of water, cover- 
 ing, according to the ancient tradition, the old land of 
 Lyonnesse, a green and fertile plain studded with villages 
 and the steeples of 140 churches. The great convulsion of 
 nature which overwhelmed this land, if indeed such a catas- 
 trophe ever did take place, and Florence of Worcester did 
 not invent it, must have happened long before the time of 
 King Arthur : for prior to the Christian era the Phoenicians 
 traded with these islands. The Phoenicians did not care 
 to rush into print ; were, on the contrary, very anxious 
 to keep the position of the Tin Islands — the Cassiterides — 
 and the adjacent mainland a secret, so that they might 
 enjoy a monopoly of the tin-trade. Some centuries later 
 (history and tradition are closely intermingled) Merlin 
 prophesied that several kings would meet upon a large 
 rock near Sennen, the village adjacent to the Land's End, 
 and that the meeting would be a presage of the destruc- 
 tion of the world. Three kings, it is said, did meet there ;
 
 160 THE SCILLY ISLANDS. 
 
 but as the world is not yet destroyed, the number must 
 have been insufficient. We come to the region of veri- 
 table history when we reach the reign of Athelstan, the 
 conqueror of these islands. Very early monasteries were 
 erected there. There still remain on Tresco Island ruins 
 of a house dedicated to St. Nicholas, the patron saint of 
 sailors and pawnbrokers, the pious babe who always 
 refused the breast on "Wednesdays, Fridays, and other 
 fast-days. Henry I. gave the island monasteries to the 
 Abbey at Tavistock. The connection does not seem to 
 have been very satisfactory, for by the fourteenth century 
 only two monks resided on the islands. The Scillonian 
 Archipelago belonged of old to the Crown. Queen Eliza- 
 beth made a grant thereof at an annual rent for a short 
 time to the Godolphin family, and then to the Osbornes. 
 The tenure was too short for any of the lessors to make 
 any improvements, and the islands continued until very 
 recently in a sad state of poverty. During the civil war 
 they sided with Charles ; and the Parliament, finding that 
 the islanders greatly interfered with commerce, sent Blake 
 to reduce them to submission. Sir John Grenville com- 
 manded the garrison of Star Fort in St. Mary's. The 
 Dutch Admiral, Van Tromp, offered him assistance, but 
 the Englishman was too proud to accept it from foreigners. 
 He and his 800 men made a gallant defence ; but in June 
 1649 they were compelled to surrender. On October 22, 
 1707, a terrible calamity occui'red in this Western Archi- 
 pelago. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was returning with his 
 fleet from Portugal, when, obstinately refusing to listen to 
 the warnings of experienced seamen, he allowed his vessel, 
 the Victory, and three others to be wrecked on St. Mary's 
 Island, and lie and 2000 men were lost. 
 
 The Scilly Islands take their name from one of the
 
 THE ISLANDS. 161 
 
 smallest of the group. Scilly proper is but one acre in 
 extent. The name has been variously explained. Hale 
 derives it from Sillys, a conger-eel. More probable is the 
 derivation from the Breton word Sulleh, signifying rocks 
 dedicated to the Sua. There are about 150 islands and 
 rocks in all. Only half-a-dozen are inhabited. The total 
 population in 1861 was 2431, of whom about 1300 live in 
 St. Mary's, the largest of the group. The distance from 
 Penzance is about 36 miles, and the passage is usually made 
 in a little under four hours by the Little Western Steamer. 
 The fare is very high. On the way the magnificent Wolf 
 Rock lighthouse is passed. It was finished last year, 
 and, owing to the stormy character of the sea and the 
 difficulty of landing on the rock, the work took several 
 years to accomplish. It is one of the finest of this class of 
 structures in English waters. Formerly — that is, before 
 the light-ship in this neighbourhood was established — the 
 number of wrecks was terrible ; was, indeed, four times as 
 numerous as now, though the number of vessels passing 
 was only one-fourth as many. The entrance to the 
 sounds which separate the principal islands is very pic- 
 turesque, and seen in a bright sunshine is charming 
 enough. Too often the prospect is obscured by sea-fogs, 
 even in the finest weather. Thus the glorious atmospheric 
 effects common among the Norwegian Islands are wanting 
 here. Hugh Town, the capital of St. Mary's, bears every 
 sign of prosperity. It looked very differently fifty years 
 ago. The islanders were in the lowest depths of poverty. 
 Constant appeals were made in their behalf, and one pro- 
 duced the large sum of 20,000/. The usual result of well- 
 meant, but injudicious, alms-giving followed. Scillonians 
 who had left their native place returned, attracted by the 
 money. Committees were formed to purchase fishing- 
 
 M
 
 162 THE SCILLY ISLANDS. 
 
 tackle and to provide the women with materials for work. 
 But when the subscriptions were all spent, every trace of 
 improvement was effaced. No permanent good had been 
 effected. From 1800 to 1831, the islands had been let on 
 lease to the Duke of Leeds at a rent of iOI, The tenure 
 was too short and the payment too small to make it 
 worth the Duke's while to look after this property. In 
 1834 the Duchy of Cornwall, which, by some means not 
 at all intelligible, had superseded the Crown in the owner- 
 ship, let the islands to Mr. Augustus Smith (subsequently 
 M.P. for Truro) on a longer term than before. One of 
 the conditions of the lease was that the lessor should 
 build a pier at Hugh Town. Mr. Smith did this, and far 
 more. He revolutionised the islands. It was a beneficent 
 revolution. He found the cottier system in full force, and 
 producing all the evils that it had produced in Ireland, 
 and must produce everywhere. The cottiers were settled 
 upon little patches of ground ; but as these were not their 
 own property, and the occupants were liable to ejectment 
 at any time, there was none of the enterprise shown by 
 the peasant proprietors of the Channel Islands. Mr. 
 Smith consolidated these holdings, permitted only one 
 member of a family to take a farm, and told the rest that 
 they must go to sea, enter service, and learn some trade. 
 To qualify them for their further callings, Mr. Smith estab- 
 lished excellent schools, and by compelling the parents 
 to pay a school fee for each child, whether it went to 
 school or not, made it certain that all would be sent. 
 The teaching in the schools was rendered thoroughly 
 sound and practical ; it included, for instance, navigation : 
 and this improved education was, as has been described 
 by Mr. Tufnell, one of the Commissioners appointed to 
 inquire into the employment of children and women in
 
 THE ISLANDERS. 163 
 
 agriculture, "the real lever which succeeded in raising 
 the population out of their low condition." The change 
 effected in ten years is described by Mr. Tufnell as " mar- 
 vellous." He adds, " The chronic misery which tised to 
 cause yearly applications for public subscriptions has 
 absolutely ceased. I never met with a better dressed 
 population, nor one shewing in their cottages and deport- 
 ment clearer signs of comfort and refinement. I inspected 
 all the schools, and found the children well instructed. I 
 was particularly struck with a discovery I made in the 
 island in which the proprietor resided — that one in three 
 of the population was at school. This considerably exceeds 
 the Prussian proportion of one in 6 "21. An observation 
 of the chief clergyman was still more striking, as he stated 
 to me that he had a difficulty in finding persons willing to 
 accept the Sacrament money. Contrast this with the re- 
 port above quoted, that nothing could exceed the wretched- 
 ness and misery of the islanders. Drunkenness had 
 been the characteristic of the population, yet now it was 
 almost unknown, and the inhabitants of one island had 
 forsworn spirituous liquors altogether. The potato famine 
 tried the islanders rather severely, as one of their most 
 profitable occupations was growing potatoes for the supply 
 of shipping. The London market, though tried, had failed 
 altogether, and it was not till some years after the famine 
 that the islanders, who planted eailier and earlier every 
 year, as more likely to ensure a good crop for their own 
 supply, at last discovered they could compete with Pen- 
 zance in the London market. The neighbouring county 
 of Cornwall suffered greatly from this cause. Yet, so far 
 from Scilly sending forth the old cry for assistance, sub- 
 scriptions were sent to relieve the suffering Cornishmen. 
 The proprietor allowed one son in each family to succeed
 
 164 THE SCILLY ISLANDS. 
 
 his father at death. But the people soon found out that 
 small farming was a very unprofitable work, and so the 
 children voluntarily took to ploughing the sea instead of 
 the land ; while the excellent training of the boys, received 
 in the school, caused them to be in demand by the Liver- 
 pool and London shipowners. The conduct of these youths 
 was so good, and their intelligence, owing to their superior 
 education, so marked, that even before their time of ap- 
 prenticeship was expired, they were frequently promoted 
 to be mates and stewards ; and on a late visit to the 
 islands I ascertained the remarkable fact that of all the 
 boys who had gone to sea not one, when grown up, had 
 remained before the mast, but had all become masters or 
 captains of vessels; and at this moment many boys whom 
 I had examined in the schools are captains of large ships 
 sailing from Liverpool and London." 
 
 This happy change was brought about through Mr. 
 Smith's resolute determination to do nothing that would 
 pauperise the inhabitants. Occasionally he made a regu- 
 lation which seemed harsh. For instance he forbade the 
 islanders to cut turf for fuel, as they had been wont to do. 
 The reason of his prohibition was that the turf-cutting 
 destroyed the soil. At the same time that he issued his 
 order he took care to have coal imported at a low price. 
 He never paid for work more than it was worth. His 
 method was a complete reversal of the petty patronizing 
 system which had prevailed before his time. In this way 
 the poor-rates were reduced to eightpence in the pound ; 
 and whereas formerly the agricultural class was far too 
 numerous for the soil, it has recently been necessary to 
 introduce agricultural labourers from a distance. The 
 shipping of Scilly has increased in a remarkable manner. 
 In 1830 the port of Scilly had 5 vessels above 50 tons,
 
 TRESCO. 165 
 
 with a gross tonnage of 406; in 1869 the number was 
 28, and the tonnage 6177. 
 
 The principal sight in the islands is Mr. Smith's resi- 
 dence, Tresco Abbey, with its beautiful gardens. These 
 are full of rare tropical plants and trees, which, so mild is 
 the winter, remain out of doors all the year round. In 
 fact, it is difficult when walking among the gum trees of 
 Australia and tall East Indian bamboos to believe that 
 you are within 7 degrees of the Meridian of Greenwich. 
 During the last few months a telegraph cable has been 
 laid between the west coast of Cornwall and St. Mary's, 
 Scilly. During the present year, a telegraph ship has 
 been stationed several miles west of Scilly, with which it 
 is connected by a submarine cable. This ship will be the 
 first port of call to homeward-bound vessels, which will 
 thus be able to announce their arrival off English shores 
 many hours earlier than before. 
 
 One great defect of Scillonian scenery is the absence of 
 trees. The early potatoes and broccoli which grow here in 
 such abundance are not picturesque. The other crops are 
 principally rye, barley, and oats; but the climate is not 
 adapted to cereals, and the inhabitants import corn from 
 Penzance. The sheep and horses are small. Sea-fowl 
 are numerous, and Scilly has part in the pilchard fishery. 
 Scilly pilots are famous, and just now Mr. Augustus Smith 
 is fighting a battle in then behalf with the Elder Brethren 
 of the Trinity House. He is somewhat of an autocrat in 
 religious matters. Two religions only are aUowed in these 
 islands, Episcopacy and Methodism. They flourish har- 
 moniously side by side.
 
 166 CORNWALL. 
 
 ITINERARY. 
 
 There are many ways of reaching Cornwall. You can 
 travel from Paddington to Penzance, that is to within a 
 dozen miles of the Land's End, without changing your 
 train, in 12 j hours. This is quick and costly work, but 
 the journey is delightful. From the time that you leave 
 Exeter until you reach your destination you will have a 
 constant change of scene. First, there will be the broad 
 sands at the mouth of the Exe. Then you reach the 
 red cliffs and the blue sea about Starcross and Daw- 
 lish, where the stations are built on the sea shore 
 and the waves sometimes wash away the line at those 
 points where it does not burrow for safety through the 
 rocks. A little farther west you will come in sight of 
 Dartmoor, with its granite tors, and you will find yourself 
 being carried by the panting engine up steep inclines, 
 rattling down equally steep declivities, or spinning over 
 lofty viaducts which (especially at Ivy-bridge), give you 
 most romantic views of river, wood, and moor. The 
 glimpse of Plymouth from the railway by no means offers 
 a fair idea of that town. It is well worth a halt of 
 some days, not only for its own sake but for that of its 
 most charming environs which will afford a different ex- 
 cursion for every day of the week. Four miles from Ply- 
 mouth is the famous Albert Bridge, which spans the 
 Tamar at a height of nearly 200 feet from the bed of the 
 river and is 2190 feet in length. The work itself is a 
 marvel of science and art, and, independently of that, the 
 view on either side is most lovely. By this bridge you 
 enter Cornwall, and for nearly 90 miles you journey from 
 north to south, now by the richly wooded and watered 
 country about St. Germans, now through the precipitous
 
 ITINERARY. 107 
 
 ti - ee-clacl Glyn Valley, near Bodmin, now by the sea shore 
 at Par, now through the barren moorland crossed by milk- 
 white streams, which tell of the china clay-works about 
 St. Austell, now through the black, desolate mining 
 country of Camborne and Redruth, until you come sud- 
 denly in sight of a steep hill surmounted by a building, 
 half castle, half church, at its base its sparkling sea, and 
 you recognise St. Michael's Mount. Thence for two miles 
 you run along the sea shore and enter Penzance while the 
 glow of a midsummer sunset is still in the heavens. Ar- 
 rived at Penzance you will be able to make an excursion 
 to the Land's End (not forgetting the point of Tol-Pedn — 
 Penwith, which is far finer than the Land's End) so past 
 Cape Cornwall and the Botallack mine (which runs under 
 the sea) in one day. A steamer leaves Penzance thrice a 
 week for St. Mary's, Scilly, and if you do not mind a four 
 hours' voyage you will do well to extend your pilgrimage 
 thus far ; going on the Saturday, so as to have all Sunday 
 for seeing the islands, especially Tresco with its wonderful 
 tropical garden, and returning to Penzance on the 
 Monday. 
 
 At Truro the railway forks, one branch of it going to 
 Penzance, as above mentioned, the other to Penryn and 
 Falmouth. Falmouth harbour should certainly be visited. 
 From Penryn (a twin borough to Falmouth) coaches go to 
 Helston, and the Lizard district may be visited. The 
 Lizard is perhaps better worth visiting than the Land's 
 End, for Kynance Cove is unique as an example of rock- 
 scenery. Once more returning to Truro, you would do 
 wisely to take the omnibus to Newquay, some 14 miles 
 distant, and situated on the other coast of Cornwall. 
 Newquay is a favourite watering place of the Cornish 
 people, though too far off to be much known to Londoners.
 
 168 CORNWALL. 
 
 The walk along the cliffs from thence northward to Pad- 
 stow is very fine. You pass on the way the romantic 
 vale of Mawgan and the Convent of Lanheme, also the 
 extraordinary Bedruthan Steps, a series of strangely- 
 shaped rocks. North of Padstow lie Trebartha Sands, 
 Tintagel, and Boscastle, with the grandest rock-scenery, 
 and Bude with the finest sands in England. All this 
 country ought to be seen, but it is rather inaccessible 
 and should be walked. There are no railways and no 
 coaches. If there were you would, by using them, lose 
 that which is the real attraction— the coast scenery. At 
 Bude you once more return to the regular routes of travel, 
 and can go either by coach to Launceston and thence by 
 rail vid Okehampton to Exeter and London, or (which is 
 well worth doing) on foot to Hartland, with its charming 
 town and majestic point, Clovelly, the haunt of artists, as 
 it well may be, and Bideford. Here you join the North 
 Devon railway, which takes you to London vid Exeter, or 
 you may extend your journey northward to Ilfracombe 
 and Lynton. 
 
 The tourist desirous of spending the least possible 
 amount of money might reach Cornwall by taking one of 
 the steamers to Falmouth and work his way west and 
 north from thence ; or by taking the train to Bristol and 
 the steamer thence to Hayle, which is seven miles from 
 Penzance and 19 from Truro. Supposing him to have 
 chosen either of these alternatives and to have worked his 
 way up to Bideford by the route we have mentioned, he 
 could either continue his journey on foot to Ilfracombe 
 and Lynton (avoiding the main road and keeping to the 
 coast, and so having one of the finest walks within the 
 limits of the four seas), and return by steamer from 
 Lynton to Bristol ; or he might travel third-class from
 
 ITINERARY. 169 
 
 Bideford to London, which would cost him only about a 
 sovereign. Another route, and quite the most interesting, 
 is to go on foot or by coach from Lynton across Exmoor, 
 by Porlock and Dunster to Williton, where he would 
 touch the railway and reach London vid Taunton. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
 
 RECENT WORKS 
 PUBLISHED BY CHARLTON TUCKER, 
 
 21, NORTHUMBERLAND STREET, STRAND. 
 
 CHAELES KENT'S POEMS. 
 
 THE FIRST COLLECTIVE EDITION. 
 
 AlJienceum, May lith. 
 
 "The reader mil note not only the atmosphere of beauty in 
 which the chief figure moves, but also the full and appropriate 
 
 details which enrich the picture The poem from which 
 
 we have cpioted, ' Aletheia,' is the longest, and, on the whole, the 
 noblest in the collection. Its subject affords great opportunities 
 (of which the writer has well availed himself,) for delightful 
 pictures. But the poem has the still higher merit of a pervading 
 idea — the symbolization, through various forms of mythology, of a 
 purer and more spiritual faith than that which they embodied . . . 
 . . . The high and varied merits of the book ought to ensure its 
 popularity." 
 
 Publishers' Circular. 
 
 "Mr. Charles Kent, the editor of the S"n, ranks very high as a 
 poet."
 
 RECENT WORKS 
 
 Examiner. 
 
 " The versatility of style, ami tlie fresh and vigorous writing in 
 these poems, lend a charm which we seldom find in the poetry of 
 the day. In rhyme or blank verse, whether grave or gay, Mr. Kent's 
 lines invariably please as much by the depth of sentiment they 
 contain, as by the chaste and graceful language in which that 
 sentiment is interpreted. The new edition has been very neatly got 
 up by the publisher, and will be a desirable addition to a poetic 
 collection.'" 
 
 Daily News. 
 
 " Poems marked by grace, feeling, and strong love of nature, and 
 a cultivated and genial spirit. " 
 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "The poems which appear for the first time in this volume are 
 not unworthy of the author's earlier productions." 
 
 News of the World. 
 
 " He is a true poet, and his works will live. In every one of the 
 many compositions included in this volume we recognise indica- 
 tions of thought and feeling, together with an admirable force of 
 expression ; and in a short series comprehended under the title of 
 'Dreamland,' the characteristics of poets of times past, as well as 
 times present, are made manifest with a grace and power that will 
 be at once recognised and appreciated. The longest poem, entitled 
 ' Aletheia,' possesses a richness of colouring, reminding us at once 
 of Spenser among poets, and Titian among painters." 
 
 Handsomely bound in doth, bevelled boards, gilt edges, Crown 8ro, 
 price Seven Shillings and Six/pence.
 
 PUBLISHED BY CHARLTON TUCKER. 
 
 MISTLETOE GKANGE. 
 
 A ROYAL ROAD TO WRINKLES. 
 frontispiece by j. swain. 
 
 Alhcnccum. 
 " There are some useful facts cleverly stated." 
 
 Publishers' Circular. 
 " A child's story, told with considerable humour aud grace." 
 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " A series of lessons in physical science thrown into the form of 
 a rattling story." 
 
 The Morning Pod. 
 
 " This is a book for children, which is not only very handsomely 
 got up in all regards of binding, printing, and paper, as well as a 
 pretty illustrated frontispiece, but which is in its way original and 
 curious. Its second title is 'A Pioyal Road to Wrinkles,' which 
 is perhaps not very expressive of its contents, consisting as it does 
 of the conveyance of information something after the manner which 
 one remembers to have read as having been adopted towards ;i 
 < coach ' at one of the Universities, as he was delineated in a comic 
 history of the habits and customs of that institution. This was 
 done by means of rendering the classics which were to be taken up 
 for examination into such odd and extravagant phrases, only just 
 bearing on the real meaning, as to fix the mere sense more firmly 
 in the minds of the students than would have been the case if the 
 books had been simply construed in the ordinary way. There is 
 no introduction or formal ending to the book ; but you suddenly 
 come on a brother and sister and their father, who must be taken 
 to compose a family in the country, and who adopt an interchange 
 of instruction on a variety of subjects. The brother and father are 
 solemn jokers, but the young lady is an inveterate player upon
 
 RECENT WORKS 
 
 words, and punster ; and all kinds of knowledge are communicated 
 by the use of these faculties. In the first chapter, for instance, in 
 a bantering fashion, there is a full, and, it is to be presumed, ac- 
 curate account of the structure and requirements, both as to feed- 
 ing and hygiene, of a horse. In like manner the processes to 
 which a dairy is devoted are illustrated and explained, and the 
 best methods of making cheese and butter brought down to the 
 meanest capacity. Again, in regard to geography, a system of 
 mnemonics is employed by which the capital of Portugal is remem- 
 bered by reference to a pleasant sweet wine known as Lisbon. 
 Inverness is associated with a particular kind of cloak, Brest be- 
 comes familiar because it breasts the Atlantic Ocean, and a chief 
 town in Switzerland is retained in the mind because it is associated 
 with the necessity for warmth in such a cold country, and so 
 Berne is not easily forgotten. It is not necessary to set down any 
 more specimens of the jocular mode of instruction which is here 
 adopted, but it may be said that in some form or another it is 
 applied to a great many subjects. Thus, there are three chapters 
 devoted to information on ' Farming,' including a good deal of 
 botanical intelligence, with a touch of geology, as that science is 
 applicable to the proper treatment of the soil in the variations of 
 tillage. In order to give even greater lightness, and thereby in- 
 creased attraction, to the book, there are interlineated a smart 
 history of a ' Children's Party,' and a pretty ' Fairy Tale.' Again, 
 the unexpected descent of a balloon near the supposed locality of 
 the book is made the means of a lecture, quite serious this time, 
 on chemical substances, and an exposition of the qualities of gases 
 and the composition of the atmosphere. Then there is a chapter 
 of English history, which is almost in the vein of those comic 
 chronicles with which, years ago, Mr. Gilbert a'Beckett amused 
 readers of all growth, both as regarded Rome and this country. 
 There is a dissertation on metals and on acids which have some 
 connection with gold, silver, and so on, in the course of manipula- 
 tion, and a good deal is told of quicksilver, which will be perhaps 
 particularly interesting to young ones, who are naturally fond of 
 observing that beautiful and volatile substance. In short, though 
 of course addressed ostensibly only to children, there is such a vein 
 of humour, and such a pleasant conveyance of information about 
 things which cannot, even in these days, be said to be generally
 
 PUBLISHED BY CHARLTON TUCKER. 
 
 known, that any father or mother of a family would find it any- 
 thing but disagreeable to read it aloud to their circle of little ones 
 of all those ages which are included in the word children." 
 
 The Sun. 
 
 "'There is no royal road to learning,' says the adage; but 
 another adage, equally correct, reminds us that ' there is no rule 
 without exception ; ' and here, we take it, is the exception to the 
 time-honoured disclaimer of the royal road. A sprightly damsel 
 of the name of Cissy (we do not think her surname is ever men- 
 tioned, by the way), and her very learned brother George, and her 
 governess Miss Starch, and a very good-natured paterfamilias, are 
 the inhabitants of Mistletoe Grange, and very happy times they 
 pass there : and very happy and profitable hours the young readers 
 of their history may pass in their merry companionship." 
 
 Public Opinion. 
 
 "At holiday time, average children would look very glum to 
 have to learn a number of lessons, the whole to consist of twelve 
 chapters, and it is just possible they might contrive to shirk 
 the irksome task. But ' Mistletoe Grange ' provides the allotted 
 task, in a form which the laziest boy or girl would scarcely 
 pronounce irksome. In fact, the book is a clever deception, a 
 gilded trap to catch the unconscious reader. ' Mistletoe Grange ' 
 the youthful reader expects to be a story-book ; and so it is, and 
 a capitally written one, too. It arrests the attention ; and, when 
 that is once lixed, it begins to pour into the eager ear a flood 
 of good, sound, wholesome information. One has no time to 
 complain of the lesson, because the story is there always, and 
 it is difficult to say where the lessons begin and where the story 
 ends, so cleverly are they interwoven. The book is a capital one 
 for children of both sexes." 
 
 News of the World. 
 
 "Under this unpretending title we have a course of philosophy 
 and farming made easy. What arc hard nuts to the young arc
 
 RECENT WORKS 
 
 cracked in so agreeable and melodious a way as to attract those 
 whom severer lessons would repel. After a look at the horse in his 
 stable, there is a pleasant chat with Miss Starch about geography, 
 diversified with a chapter on the dairy, and then a discourse, or 
 succession of discourses, on grasses, seeds, agricultural implements, 
 practical farming, the principle of ballooning, &c. A pretty fairy 
 tale comes in afterwards, and divers other matters are treated upon 
 in a concise and lively style." 
 
 Beautifully bound in cloth, bevelled boards, (jilt edges, Grown Svo, 
 2>ricc Two Shillings. 
 
 SACONTALA; 
 
 ©r, ©fjc .Fatal fttnej. 
 
 A SANSKRIT DRAMA, BY CALIDAS. 
 
 TEANSLATED BY SIE WILLIAM JONES. 
 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "The Book Market.— "We welcome, among novelties in the 
 realm of English literature, the carefully- edited reprint of Sir 
 William Jones's translation of ' Sacontala. ' Hereby the fortunate 
 ' general reader ' may make himself familiar with one of the most 
 charming, as it is one of the oldest, monuments of dramatic genius. 
 "Does he ask, ' What or who was Sacontala ? ' Goethe has answered 
 that query in his own way, by saying, in a musical little epigram, 
 that if one wants to name in one word all that there is of lovely in 
 the earth, of tender in the heart, and of subtle in the fancy, ' Say 
 Sakoontala, and then all is said.' To be more precise, 'Sacontala ; 
 or, the Fatal Ring,' is a Sanskrit drama, by the famous Kalidasa, 
 the discovering and rendering of which by Sir William Jones led to 
 the revelation of the whole marvellous and beautiful region of 
 Aryan dramatic literature. The play has been recently published
 
 PUBLISHED BY CHAKLTON TUCKER. 
 
 in verse, as an ' edition de luxe,'' with Hindoo arabesques, and all 
 the furniture of an established classic ; but a better idea of the 
 original will be gained from this little volume which Mr. Tucker 
 gives us than from its magnificent antecessor." 
 
 Cloth boards, Crown 8vo, price Three Shillings. 
 
 THE LAME DEVIL. 
 
 (LE SAGES DIABLE BOITEUX.) 
 An Expurgated Edition of Le Sage's "Diable Boiteux." 
 
 The Bookseller. 
 
 "That 'The Devil on Two Sticks' has not been quite so popular 
 in England as it has been, and is, in France, may perhaps be due to 
 the extreme freedom of its language, and the somewhat questionable 
 nature of its incidents. The publisher of this volume evidently had 
 this notion, for he has extruded from the text all that he thought 
 offensive to English tastes, and while he may fairly claim the merit 
 of presenting an expurgated edition, he has been careful— and 
 herein lies the merit of his work— not to render it an emasculated 
 version of Le Sage's celebrated romance." 
 
 Cloth boards, Crown 8vo, price Two Shillings. 
 
 NOBTHWABD TO BABYLON. 
 
 Echo. 
 
 " A clever little poem in mock heroic verse." 
 
 doth boards, Crown \Gmo, price Our. Shilling.
 
 CHARLTON TUCKER'S RECENT WORKS. 
 
 MYTHOLOGICAL DICTIONABY. 
 
 BY CHAELES KENT. 
 
 Publishers' Circular. 
 
 " A very useful compendium for the desk or waistcoat-pocket of 
 the provincial editor and others." 
 
 Crown- l6mo, cloth boards, price One Skill out- 
 
 MEDICINE AS A PROFESSION FOE 
 
 WOMEN. 
 
 BY C. B. DBYSDALE, M.D., 
 
 Physician to the North London Hospital for Consumption, the 
 Metropolitan Free Hospital, &c. 
 
 Pamphlet, Croicn 8ro, price Sixpence. 
 
 FJORD, ISLE, AND TOE. 
 
 BY E. SPENDEB. 
 
 A DESCRIPTION OF NORWAY, THE CHANNEL ISLES, CORNWALL, 
 AND THE SCILLY ISLES, 
 
 ACCOMPANIED BY ITINERARIES. 
 
 Being Articles reprinted from "The London Review," "Meliora," 
 and " Charles's "Wain." 
 
 Cloth hoards, Croicn 8ro, price Three Shillings. 
 
 BRADBURY, i:\ \Xs, ,\xr> ro.. PRINTERS, VtnTEFRIARS.
 
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