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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