THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 

 
 A HOBBLE 
 
 THROUGH THE 
 
 CHANNEL ISLANDS 
 
 IN 1858; 
 OB, THE SEEINGS, DOINGS AND MUSINGS 
 
 OF ONE 
 
 TOM HOBBLER, 
 
 DURING A FOUR MONTHS' RESIDENCE IN THOSE PARTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD T. GASTINEAU. 
 
 WITH A VIEW OF BOT7LEY BAY, DRAWN FROM A BOUGH SKETCH 
 BY TOM HOBBLER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHARLES WESTERTON, 
 
 20, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, 
 
 HTDE PARK CORNER. 
 
 1860.
 
 LONDON ; 
 
 Printed by A. Scbulze, 13, Poland Street.
 
 DA 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To the reader, these pages are most respectfully 
 dedicated. 
 
 In all humbleness of mind, I had intended dedicat- 
 ing them to myself, thinking that I should most 
 probably be their only reader. But on mature con- 
 sideration, I have come to the conclusion, perhaps an 
 audacious one, that they may fall into the hands of 
 some one else, in which case such a dedication would 
 be considered both egotistical and conceited. There- 
 fore, kind reader, whoever you may be, I have taken 
 the liberty of dedicating this little work to you, trust- 
 ing that should you consider it worth a moment's 
 critical notice, you will not forget, in returning that 
 
 629826
 
 iv DEDICATIQN. 
 
 most undoubted verdict, of guilty of writing a great 
 deal of trash, to remember your usual kindly and 
 generous feelings, and strongly recommend the 
 Author to mercy, on account of its being his first 
 offence. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 June, 1860.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 " Travelling in youth is part of education," said 
 the great Lord Bacon, and travelling in all stages of 
 one's life, must also be a means of continued educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Travelling is a very great luxury ; not only highly 
 instructive, but most amusing, and exceedingly plea- 
 sant to all beings intelligently constituted. It ex- 
 pands the ideas, which perhaps before have been 
 woefully contracted ; and it instructs the mind in a 
 manner which books can never do, for many things 
 that we read of, we cannot bring our minds to see 
 in their proper light, without their actual visual con- 
 firmation. It also removes false prejudices, and 
 overcomes many absurd scruples ; and certainly to 
 refined minds, is both most amusing and delightful. 
 And not only so to the traveller himself, but it also
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 renders him a very agreeable companion to others, 
 always provided, however, that he is not much given 
 to prosy descriptions, which it is to be feared is too 
 often the case. 
 
 Now, travelling is particularly enjoyable when the 
 tourist is in possession of good health. The case is, 
 perhaps, a little different where the wanderer is in 
 search of that health more than of pleasure ; though 
 even here, although the prostration of body from the 
 effects of long sickness, must, of course, act to a 
 certain extent upon the mind, still the mental powers 
 are almost always sufficiently alive to acknowledge, 
 with thankfulness, the delights that change of air, 
 and change of scene must always afford, and more 
 especially so when the invalid has the opportunity of 
 finding those changes amidst some of Nature's 
 richest beauties. 
 
 But it is not my intention to write an essay on 
 travelling, a subject very much hackneyed, and though 
 doubtless a most excellent theme, it is possible to 
 have too much, even of a good thing. 
 
 Suffice it then, that in the spring of 1858, the 
 subject of these sketches, was slowly recovering from 
 a long, serious, and very painful illness, which had 
 deprived him of his liberty for more than a year and
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 a half, and had now left him in a shattered and 
 crippled state; and having sought in vain for 
 thorough restoration to health, in short visits to places 
 not very far removed from London, such as the 
 Kentish coast, and the Isle of Wight, now turned his 
 thoughts to those beautiful islands of the British 
 Channel, which lie closely adjoining to the coast of 
 France, and are generally known as the Channel 
 Islands. 
 
 It was not our traveller's first visit to these parts. 
 He had been there on two previous occasions for a 
 week or two, and was so charmed at those times, 
 that he was determined to pay them a more lengthened 
 visit, though somewhat against the wishes of his 
 friends, who thought the journey one of too hazard- 
 ous and fatiguing a character for an invalid. 
 
 But he did brave those dangers and fatigues, and 
 resided in those charming islands for more than four 
 months ; and his idea is now to impart to any one 
 who may be induced to read these pages, some of the 
 amusement and instruction that he derived there, and 
 also to record some of his thoughts and musings, on 
 what he saw, heard, and was told, whilst resident in 
 these beautiful islands of La Manche. At the same 
 time, I distinctly wish to state, that it is not intended
 
 Vll PREFACE. 
 
 to write a guide book, which is frequently made only a 
 medium for advertising, and is too often only a false 
 representation of things ; or a book of travels, which 
 it certainly cannot be called, the journeyings being 
 of too limited a character to bear that appellation ; 
 but only a kind of chit-chat description of all he saw, 
 and what he thought, perfectly unshackled by, and 
 free from all conventionalities. The Author may be 
 perhaps allowed to add here, that these pages were 
 not originally intended for public observation, but 
 only for circulation among his own immediate friends. 
 A combination of circumstances have, however, in a 
 measure, compelled him to publish them, and he can 
 only express his modest, but sincere desire that a 
 kind and generous public may be induced to look 
 friendly and pleasantly on his humble and unpretend- 
 ing effort, to bask in the sunshine of their favour and 
 good will.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 The History and Geography of the Channel Islands. . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ST. HELIEES AND ITS NEIGHBOUEHOOD. 
 
 Hobbler's arrival in St. Heliers, and location there. Description 
 of the Town and its Environs. St. Aubin's Bay. Fort Regent. 
 The Piers. Harbours. An improvised race. The Markets. 
 Elizabeth Castle and the Bridge of Death. The Hermitage and 
 the good old Saints. Public Buildings. Victoria College. The 
 People of St. Heliers. A Review. Sharp practice. Telegraph 
 Fetes. Regatta. Hobbler's excursion into Fashionland. 
 Crinoline victorious. 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOULET BAT. 
 
 Hobbler at Bouley Bay. Description of that Place and its Neigh- 
 bourhood. He studies men and manners. Great variety of 
 Characters in its Visitors. Cockneys and their Peculiarities. 
 Sun-rise, Moon-rise. Evening solitude. Glorious Sea. General 
 Post Office and its machinery. Gallant conduct of mine host. 
 Fleeting nature of travelling friendships. ... 58
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GENERAL TIEW OF THE ISLAND OF JERSEY. 
 
 The size of the Island and general appearance. How to see the 
 Island. Description of its beautiful bays, and charming coast 
 scenery. Its valleys, lanes, and roads. Its orchards, flowers and 
 beautiful cows. Hobbler's ruminations on the scenery of Jersey. 
 The romance of man's life. The people of Jersey. Their 
 Dress. Their industry and penuriousness, and general character. 
 Their great prosperity and its causes. Their Laws. Society. 
 Lack of English Sports Clameur de Haro. . . 87 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GUERNSEY. 
 
 St. Peter's Port. The Landing and shouting porters. Castle 
 Cornet. Harbours. The Fish-market. Churches. Dearth of 
 Public Buildings. General View of the Island. Cobo Bay and 
 " poor Billy." Splendid scenery on the south-west coast. In- 
 habitants of Guernsey. Their Courtesy. Their Gardens and 
 Flowers. Guernsey Society. 133 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ISLANDS Of SERK, HERM, JETHOU AND ALDERNEY, AND THE 
 CASKET ROCKS. 
 
 Excursion to Serk. The Voyage. Neptune and Boreas at play, 
 and the Steward at work. Fair Venus in danger. The parting 
 glass. Approach to the Island. Harbour of Le Creui. La 
 Coupee and its story. General description of the Island. Hera 
 and its tiny shells. Melancholy incident. Life and Death. 
 Jethou. Alderney and its fortified works. The Casket 
 Rocks. . 153
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THREE MONTHS' EETLREMENT AT BOULET. 
 
 Hobbler returned to his Jersey home, appears in a new character. 
 Cincinnatus. My bed-room. Our kitchen. He studies domes- 
 tic economy. Turns cook, and goes a marketing. A Thunder- 
 storm. The Fetes at Cherbourg. Hobbler's Dream of the Fu- 
 ture. Atlantic Telegraph. The Comet. Conclusion of the 
 Season. Harvest. Fern Cutting. Vraic Gathering Florence 
 Nightingale. The Ladies of Bouley. Adieu to Bouley. . 175 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 Departure from Bouley. Day-break. Beautiful effects. Adieu 
 to Jersey. A November day on board a Steamer. Little epi- 
 sode on the Voyage. Cupid and Uniforms. The Guard's Story 
 about the Livery. Arrival at Southampton. Hobbler on the 
 Custom-house. The Author's Adieu to the Reader. 224
 
 A HOBBLE 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 The History and Geography of the Channel Islands. 
 
 BEFORE starting on his journey, our traveller 
 thought it might be as well to read up something 
 of the History and Geography of the Islands. 
 
 He did so, and behold the results of his readings. 
 
 When Mr. Thomas Hobbler was at school, some 
 twenty years or so ago, he had been taught that 
 the Islands of the British Channel were Jersey, 
 Guernsey, Alderney and Sark ; but now he finds 
 added to them, in the maps of those parts, Herm 
 and Jethou. Now where did these two new 
 islands spring from all of a sudden ? Perhaps they
 
 X A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 are only coral rocks, islands in process of forma- 
 tion raised from out the ocean, in a few short 
 years, by those industrious insects? No, that 
 cannot be. He finds that they are veritable islands, 
 with veritable granite foundations; and, moreover, 
 that they are inhabited and under cultivation. 
 So he is obliged to come to the conclusion, that 
 though thehydrographer, of thirty years ago, ignored 
 their existence, they nevertheless have for many 
 centuries past formed part of that family of iron 
 bound isles, which stud the Southern British 
 Channel, and which have so long been ' the terror 
 of the navigator of those parts. 
 
 These islands all lie within one hundred miles 
 of Old England, due south of the coast of Dorset- 
 shire ; Jersey being the furthest removed from it, 
 and Alderney the nearest, the former being about 
 one hundred miles off, and the latter about sixty. 
 Guernsey is about twenty miles north of Jersey, 
 and Serk, Herm and Jethou, within a few miles 
 of the former, a little to the eastward. 
 
 They are all situated closely adjacent to the 
 French coast. Alderney commands the harbour 
 of Cherbourg, from which it is distant less than 
 twenty miles, and Jersey is fifteen miles from the
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 3 
 
 coast of Normandy. Jersey may be said to be 
 situated within a bay of the coast of France, 
 formed by Cape La Hogue on the north, and 
 Cape de Carteret on the east, the former of which 
 headlands seems to take Jersey, and the intervening 
 rocks, within its embrace, as much as to say, 
 nature made you part of our land, and you ought 
 to come under the same rule as we. 
 
 Many people have supposed that these islands 
 were at one time joined to the continent of 
 Europe, but others again have laughed at this 
 suggestion, though really there is nothing laughable 
 in such a supposition. 
 
 Now I do not profess to be a geological scholar, 
 and, therefore, lay no claim to a knowledge of that 
 science ; but yet it appears to me far from impro- 
 bable, that one of those mighty convulsions of 
 nature, which upheaved the vast plains of the 
 earth, and formed them into those stupendous 
 an<J cloud-capped mountain ranges that intersect 
 this globe, and which levelled the hilly giants of 
 remote ages, and laid their snow clad summits 
 prostrate upon earth's surface, or buried them in 
 the unfathomable depths of the ocean, I say it is 
 far from improbable that such a convulsion of 
 
 B 2
 
 4 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 nature might in an instant have rent these frag- 
 ments of our globe from the larger masses of the 
 continent, and scattered them in tiny dottings on 
 the bosom of the ocean. Or, perhaps, it might be, 
 that one of these mighty heavings of the universe 
 should in its convulsive throes have cast up these 
 small lands from the depths of the great deep, 
 where basking in the suns of centuries, they have 
 reposed on its surface, and will continue thus 
 reposing until another of nature's feverish pulsa- 
 tions, another age in the history of this globe, 
 another breath of that Almighty power, which in 
 an instant can again make this earth without form 
 or void, shall once more change the crust of the 
 world in which we dwell, and these islands shall 
 be re-united to the mainland of Europe, or the 
 ocean shall once more roll its majestic undulations 
 over the spot, where once these small but aspiring 
 specks of earth did adorn its surface, and where 
 man, nature's greatest work, did once inhabit. 
 
 Reader, these were some of our hero's musings 
 as he read up his geography ; and therefore I trust 
 you will not hold me answerable for them, for you 
 will find as you read on, that he is much given to 
 musing, or dreaming, perhaps you will call it. As
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 5 
 
 you will, and I am only too fearful that you will 
 find his musings of rather too dreamy a character ; 
 but having undertaken to write an account of 
 Hobbler in search of health in the Channel Islands, 
 and to give his Sayings and Doings, and, as I fear, 
 from the fact of his being an invalid, that the 
 narrative will exhibit a great dearth of incident 
 and adventure, I am necessarily compelled to give 
 his musings in order to make anything like a book 
 of it. I can, therefore, only beg of you, kind reader, 
 to extract the good and the amusing, if you can find 
 any, and throw away the bad, which latter, I 
 very much dread, but sincerely hope not, will be 
 the greater part of the affair. 
 
 What more shall I say of the geography of these 
 islands ? I think nothing at present, for as to the 
 size and appearance of them, I shall treat in a 
 general description of each island as I come to it ; 
 and, moreover, not having any intention of writing 
 a geographical work, it is very necessary to be 
 brief on the subject. I will, therefore, now pro- 
 ceed to give the result of Hobbler's historical 
 studies regarding these ocean girt spots of earth. 
 
 Now he found in his readings, how in the 
 glorious days of yore, one " Billy the Norman,"
 
 O A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 took possession of the "tight little island" of 
 England, and brought with him these pretty 
 little Channel Islands as an appanage to the English 
 crown, from which they have never since been 
 separated. 
 
 He finds how, from that time they have been go- 
 verned by a most charming code of Norman laws, 
 upon which they may be said never to have improved, 
 for the words reform and progress are held in ab- 
 horrence in these parts, and the laws of Jersey 
 and Guernsey, like those of the Medes and Persians 
 of old, are unchangeable. 
 
 And he also finds how La Belle France has often 
 cast longing looks upon, and how she has often 
 tried to get possession of these islands, but has 
 failed in so doing ; how her mouth has watered at 
 the very thoughts of having them in her claws, and 
 how that between the two great contending 
 nations, the one having, holding, and possessing 
 these presumed valuable lands ; the other wishing 
 to have, to hold, and possess them, the people of 
 the Channel Islands have succeeded in getting the 
 oyster, the two contending powers obtaining only 
 the shells ; the worst shell, perhaps, being that 
 awarded to the party in possession.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 7 
 
 The name of Jersey was formerly Caeserea, 
 probably named after the great Caesar, who is 
 presumed by some historians to have subjugated 
 these islands to the Roman rule. The history 
 of Jersey and the other islands, is but little known 
 previous to the Norman conquest of England, and 
 it will be sufficient to state here, that they belonged 
 at that time to the Dukes of Normandy, and were 
 attached by them, as has been said, to the British 
 dominions. 
 
 I have also said that the French made many 
 attempts to conquer these islands. 
 
 In the reign of King John, they made two 
 landings in Jersey, but were speedily driven out on 
 both occasions ; and it is said, that that inert 
 monarch was so impressed with the importance of 
 preserving the islands to the English crown, that 
 he hastened there in person, and after the enemy 
 were repelled, he gave to the islanders their present 
 code of laws. Another unsuccessful attempt was 
 made upon Jersey in the reign of Edward I. 
 Again in the reign of Edward III., they were 
 defeated before Mount Orgueil, though, at the 
 same time, they are stated to have succeeded in an 
 attack upon Guernsey, which the excellent historian
 
 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 (Falle) from whom I have gained my principal 
 information, says they held for three years. 
 This is the sore point with the Guernsey people, 
 who stoutly deny the truth of the assertion. In 
 the same reign, Du Guesclin, Con stable of France, 
 beseiged Mount Orgueil Castle, the garrison of 
 which agreed to capitulate on a certain day, unless 
 relieved by succour from England in the mean- 
 time. The succour did arrive within the stated 
 period, and the beseiging army withdrew from 
 the island. 
 
 During the reign of Henry IV., several descents 
 were made upon Jersey, but though great devasta- 
 tions were committed, the same results always 
 attended their efforts to subjugate it to the French 
 rule. In the reign of Henry VI., that unfortunate 
 sovereign who seemed to be alike the plaything of 
 friend and foe, Margaret of Anjou offered to cede 
 these islands to the French, in return for a certain 
 amount of aid to be granted by them in reseating 
 her then deposed husband on his throne. Baron 
 de Maulevrier, by this convention, proceeded to take 
 possession of Jersey, and obtained an entrance 
 into Mount Orgueil Castle by the treachery of the 
 Governor. The six adjacent parishes submitted
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 9 
 
 to his rule with great reluctance, but the other 
 six parishes of the island, under the leadership 
 of Philip de Carteret, remained firm in their 
 allegiance to the crown of England. For six years 
 Jersey was thus divided, but in the reign of 
 Edward IV. an attack was made upon Mount 
 Orgueil by the English fleet, in conjunction with 
 the forces under de Carteret, and the French gar- 
 rison compelled to surrender. 
 
 The cause of Charles I., on the breaking out of 
 the civil war in England, was maintained with 
 great loyalty by the people of Jersey under Sir 
 George de Carteret, and the Parliamentary navy 
 were much annoyed by a squadron of ships fitted 
 out by that officer. Guernsey took the side of the 
 Parliament in this unhappy war, though Castle 
 Cornet, a fortress of that island, manfully main- 
 tained the cause of the king. 
 
 Prince Charles took refuge in Jersey, and was 
 well received by the people there, and remained 
 in the island two months. He was proclaimed 
 king in Jersey, when his unhappy father was 
 executed < and returned to Jersey fora short period 
 after that melancholy event, and was received again 
 by the inhabitants with a kindness and loyalty
 
 10 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 of feeling he hardly deserved. Jersey and Guern- 
 sey were, however, both reduced to submission by 
 the Parliamentary forces- under General Haines 
 and Admiral Blake ; Sir George de Carteret having 
 defended the former island to the last in the most 
 gallant manner, retiring into Tort Elizabeth, and 
 maintaining his resistance in that fortress until 
 finding it commanded by the neighbouring heights, 
 that succour was not to be expected from France, 
 and that further resistance was perfectly useless, 
 he submitted to an honorable capitulation. Castle 
 Cornet was also not subdued until after a most 
 gallant resistance. 
 
 In more recent times, during the reign of 
 George III. when war was almost incessantly raging 
 between England and France, three attempts were 
 made by the French upon Jersey, the first two 
 without success; but the third and last attack, 
 led by the Marquis de Rullecourt, was of a more 
 disastrous character, though the stout islanders, 
 assisted by the British troops emerged from the 
 final conflict with their perpetual assailants, as in 
 every previous one, victorious. 
 
 The Marquis sailed from France with twelve 
 hundred men, but only succeeded in landing seven
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 11 
 
 hundred of them on some rocks between Gorey and 
 St. Heliers. Under the cover of night, he marched 
 upon the latter town, and surprised the Governor 
 in his bed ; and when the morning dawned, the 
 inhabitants found the French troops in occupation 
 of the market-place and Royal Square. The 
 Governor, Major Corbet, under threats from the 
 French commander of burning and sacking the 
 town, in the event of any resistance being offered, 
 sent orders to the Commandant of Elizabeth Castle, 
 and all the officers in command of the different 
 bodies of troops and militia in the island to lay 
 down their arms, as resistance to the French forces, 
 which the Marquis had represented to him as 
 being over four thousand instead of a few hundreds, 
 was not any longer to be thought of. The Com- 
 mandant of Elizabeth Castle, as well as the other 
 commanding officers, finding that Major Corbet 
 was a prisoner, refused to obey his orders, and Major 
 Pierson, putting himself at the head of all the forces 
 of the island, led them against the enemy in the 
 Royal Square, where after a very short conflict the 
 French were compelled to surrender at discretion. 
 This victory was not, however, achieved without a 
 sad loss, for the gallant Pierson fell at the very
 
 12 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 first volley. Like a brave soldier, he lived firm 
 in his devotion to his country, and like a noble 
 one he died in the moment of victory, leaving 
 behind him a name which will ever be remembered 
 by the Jerseymen with feelings of the deepest gra- 
 titude and esteem. De Rullecourt also fell mortally 
 wounded, and paid with his life for his temerity. 
 
 Thus terminated the last attack of the French 
 upon the Channel islands. 
 
 The Governor has been accused of treachery, 
 how far with truth it is not for me to say, though 
 the most charitable must allow that he was a very 
 weak-minded man, and quite unfit to fill the post 
 he did. 
 
 He was tried by court-martial, and as may be 
 naturally supposed, was superseded. There is 
 little in the history of the other islands worth 
 recording. Perhaps a romantic incident in the 
 history of Serk is worth mentioning. 
 
 This island, at one time only a resort for 
 pirates, was taken possession of by the French in 
 the reign of Edward VI., but in the succeeding 
 reign they were dispossessed by the Flemings in 
 the following maner, said by Sir Walter Raleigh 
 to be the chef-d'oeuvre of stratagem. A Flemish
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 13 
 
 vessel anchored off the coast, and requested per- 
 mission to land, and bury the dead body of their 
 captain in the consecrated ground of a chapel of 
 great antiquity in the island. After some demur 
 they were allowed to do so, on condition that they 
 carried no arms with them, and on landing they 
 had to submit to a most rigid search, not even a 
 pocket knife being allowed to be brought on shore. 
 On reaching the chapel, the Flemings shut the 
 door. The coffin was then opened and the con- 
 tents, a quantity of fire and other arms, and not the 
 dead body of a man, were distributed among the 
 men. The French were then attacked, and their 
 number being very few, they were soon overpowered 
 and compelled to submit to their clever assailants. 
 After this, the island remained uninhabited until 
 1568, when it was ceded to Hilary de Carteret, by 
 Royal Charter, and has remained for ever since 
 under the dominion of England, and never again 
 been subjected to any attack from a foreign power. 
 Perhaps it were well, in closing this brief sketch of 
 the history of the Channel islands, to notice the 
 visit of the exellent and gracious sovereign of 
 Great Britain, to those outlying provinces of her 
 dominions, which took place in 1846, and was the
 
 14 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 last event of any importance in the history of these 
 parts. 
 
 She was received by the authorities with much 
 splendour, and with great manifestations of joy 
 and loyalty by all classes, and her gracious 
 and affable manners fully confirmed the stout 
 islanders in their allegiance to their sovereign, and 
 cemented more firmly than ever that bond of 
 alliance betwixt them and the mother country 
 which has now existed for 800 years. 
 
 May the visits of all constitutional sovereigns 
 to the distant provinces of their empires always 
 have the same happy and beneficent effect as that 
 of Queen Victoria to the beautiful islands of La 
 Manche in 1846.* 
 
 * Her Majesty has again visited these Islands since the above 
 was written, viz : the summer of 1859, and was received in the same 
 loyal and enthusiastic manner, and made the same favourable im- 
 pression on the islanders by her condescension and affability as in 
 1846.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 15 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ST. HELIERS AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 
 
 Hobbler's arrival in St. Heliers, and location there. Description 
 of the Town and its Environs. St. Aubin's Bay. Fort Regent. 
 The Piers. Harbours. An improvised race. The Markets. 
 Elizabeth Castle and the Bridge of Death. The Hermitage and 
 the good old Saints. Public Buildings. Victoria College. The 
 People of St. Heliers. A Review. Sharp practice. Telegraph 
 Fetes. Regatta. Hobbler's excursion into Fashionland. 
 Crinoline victorious. 
 
 " SOFT the wind blows and swift the stream flows," 
 and her Majesty's Mail Packet Express steams 
 gallantly out of Weymouth harbour, having on 
 board Mr. Thomas Hobbler, who after having 
 completed his preliminary readings, and packed up 
 his traps, had reached the town of Weymouth on 
 the previous evening, and now on a bright sunny 
 morning in the month of June was standing on the 
 deck of the aforesaid steamer, watching the receding
 
 16 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 shores of Old England, and singing to himself, 
 " adieu, adieu my native shore !" 
 
 Reader, I will spare you the usual infliction of a 
 detailed description of how he left London, and 
 how he arrived at Weymouth ; of the cabs and 
 the trains, of the a.m's. and p.m's., and all the 
 little et ceteras of a traveller's start, and take you 
 at once on to the beautiful ocean. Under favouring 
 gales, the Express sped on, soon leaving the shore 
 far behind. The Island of Portland with its stone 
 quarries and stupendous breakwater quickly faded 
 from the view, and very soon the last vestiges of 
 Albion's cliffs were entirely lost in the distance. 
 
 On and on steams the lively craft, the Caskets 
 were breasted about noon day, and the islands of 
 Guernsey, Alderney, Serk, Herm and Jethou were 
 all passed early in the afternoon, and our traveller 
 hove in sight of Jersey when the sun was yet high 
 in the heavens. On approaching this island, he 
 was struck as he had been on the previous occa- 
 sions on which he had visited it, by the extraor- 
 dinarily wild and rugged character of its shores. 
 Rocks of red stone presenting quite a different 
 appearance to the white chalk cliffs of Old England, 
 stretching far out to sea, against which in stormy
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 17 
 
 weather, the ocean beats with fearful violence, stand 
 nature's mighty bulwarks to guard her coast from 
 all foreign enemies, and render it, in rough weather, 
 impregnable to foe, and unapproachable to friend. 
 But on this occasion the temper of Old Neptune 
 was unruffled, and our traveller rounded these 
 rugged rocks in perfect calm, and was, without any 
 adventure, safely deposited at St. Heliers, the 
 capital of Jersey. 
 
 On landing at the pier of this town, one is 
 subjected to a desperate nuisance, from the impor- 
 tunities and impositions of the porters, which it 
 would be well for the authorities of the town to 
 look to, though it is one that they seem to be quite 
 indifferent about. 
 
 But the traveller is more than compensated for 
 this drawback, by the complete absence of that 
 still greater and most irritating source of annoyance 
 to which he is subjected on landing at any of the 
 continental ports, as well as those of Great Britain 
 itself, viz. the Custorn-house, to say nothing of 
 the still more formidable passport system to which 
 he is condemned on the continent. For this 
 immunity from the Custom-house nuisance he is 
 not however indebted to the States of Jersey, but 
 
 c
 
 18 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 rather to the government of England, which has 
 conferred upon these islands such great commercial 
 privileges that this system of espionage is not 
 required. 
 
 Behold our traveller then comfortably ensconced 
 in the town of St. Heliers, after being nearly 
 knocked down the steps of the pier by the aforesaid 
 importunate porters, and almost worked into a 
 passion by their impositions, as well as those of 
 the cab drivers. 
 
 Now cab fares, in Jersey, for a long distance are 
 not immoderate, but when you have to pay two 
 shillings for riding from one part of the town to 
 another, perhaps not a mile distant, it is really too 
 much. 
 
 The charge for porterage, too, which excited the 
 ire of our traveller, was sixpence a package, for just 
 handing them up the steps of the pier. But let 
 these things pass, and let .us hope that some day 
 the States will think it worth their while to look 
 into these matters. 
 
 Well, Hobbler has taken up his quarters at 
 " Tozer's Hotel," in Bath Street, which was then 
 kept by Mr. and Mrs. Kine, where he met with 
 comfort, kindness, attention and good society.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 19 
 
 There are many other hotels in the town of a 
 most excellent character, such as the British, the 
 Yacht, the Union, the York, &c., as well as first-rate 
 boarding-houses. The living at his hotel was excel- 
 lent and very economical, the practice being 
 in Jersey, and, in fact, in all the islands to board 
 you at so much per week or per diem, and not 
 to charge for each item as they do in England. 
 The prices vary from twenty-five to forty-two shil- 
 lings per week. Now it is not my intention to give 
 our traveller's diary to my readers, therefore I 
 shall relate his sight-seeings and his doings during 
 his stay at St. Heliers in a continuous whole, and 
 not as the acts of particular days. 
 
 The day after his arrival, he proceeded to inspect 
 the wonders of the place, and managed during his 
 stay to see pretty well all the Lions of the town. 
 
 The result of his observations I will now record. 
 
 St. Aubin's Bay, in which the town of St. Heliers 
 is situated, is considered the finest in the island, 
 and is perhaps as charming, and as picturesque a 
 scene as the eye could wish to dwell upon. It is 
 compared by many to the Bay of Naples, but of 
 the justness of such comparison Hobbler does 
 not pretend to speak, never having visited that 
 
 c 2
 
 20 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 celebrated spot ; but from all he has read and heard, 
 he certainly thinks that the Jersey bay does not 
 merit such a comparison. But comparisons are 
 odious, so they say, and therefore without de- 
 tracting from the merits of the Italian bay, it 
 must be allowed that the Bay of St. Aubin's is 
 one of nature's sweet dwelling places. 
 
 At the east of it stands the town of St. 
 Heliers, with its capacious harbours and splendid 
 piers, crowned by the fortified heights of Fort 
 Regent. 
 
 At the western extremity of the bay is Noirmont 
 Point, capped by a small tower ; and lying con- 
 siderably within the horse-shoe of the bay, at 
 that end of it, is the town of St. Aubin's, from 
 which the bay takes its name. It is deeply indented, 
 the whole curve being six or seven miles long, 
 though from point to point it is probably not much 
 more than three miles. The coast line of the 
 bay is backed by hills gently rising from the shore, 
 whose slopes are luxuriantly clad with fields, 
 orchards, and vineyards; dotted with villas, cottages 
 and gardens, which form a most charming back- 
 ground to the picture. Nearly adjoining the shore 
 at St. Aubin's is an old castle built on a rock ;
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 21 
 
 and at the St. Hellers end of the bay is another 
 castle, in a good state of preservation, also built 
 upon a rock, and nearly a mile from the shore, 
 called Elizabeth Castle. Both these castles are 
 very picturesque objects for the foreground, 
 which completes the picture of this justly cele- 
 brated bay. 
 
 The town of St. Heliers, commencing at the 
 harbour which occupies the east end of the bay, 
 has but little sea frontage, but extends far into the 
 country northward and north-east. A walk through 
 its streets does not very much prepossess the 
 traveller in its favour. 
 
 The streets in the heart of the town are exceed- 
 ingly narrow, and though many of the shops are of 
 a handsome and extensive character, still a wanderer 
 through St. Heliers cannot but be instantly struck 
 by the almost total absence of anything in the 
 shape of handsome public buildings. There has 
 recently been a new bank erected in Broad Street, 
 which gives hopes of a superior class of buildings 
 taking the place of the ugly old structures now 
 standing, whenever there may be an opportunity 
 of rebuilding them. 
 
 There is a beautiful gothic building crowning
 
 22 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the hill to the east of the town, called Victoria 
 College, and also an old Church in the Royal 
 Square, and a new one in Bath Street. These are 
 the principal buildings of the town ; but as I shall 
 have occasion to mention them again in detail, I 
 will not describe them here. The newer parts of 
 the town are a great improvement upon the old, 
 the streets being much broader, and the houses 
 of a superior class. 
 
 Fort Regent stands upon a very commanding 
 hill or cliff, above the south-east corner of the town 
 which it completely overhangs, and is perhaps the 
 most conspicuous object in the whole island. 
 
 This fortress commands the town, the harbour, 
 the roads, and the adjacent country in the direction 
 of St. Clements. It was built in the reign of 
 George III. during the regency of the Prince of 
 Wales, as perhaps its name would lead one to 
 infer. It was constructed at a most enormous 
 cost to the British nation, the outlay being said 
 to be over a million of money. 
 
 As to its utility, never having been tried, it is 
 perhaps unfair to pronounce an opinion upon it ; 
 though it certainly did strike our traveller, that as 
 far as concerns an exterior enemy, the rocks that
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 23 
 
 stand all round that part of the coast in every 
 direction, extending in many places miles out to 
 sea, and leaving only a narrow channel as an 
 entrance to the harbour, which channel being buoyed 
 could easily, by the removal of the buoys, be ren_ 
 dered unnavigable, are a far greater defence to the 
 island than the costly fortress. With regard to 
 an internal foe, the case is perhaps different, and 
 should the islanders ever prove refractory, doubtless 
 this fort garrisoned by English troops could very 
 soon reduce the town to ashes. Of course, the 
 same remarks would apply to a foreign foe in 
 possession of St. Heliers. But even these advan- 
 tages can hardly compensate for such a prodigious 
 outlay of British money, the addition of a million 
 of money to the national debt, and a yearly drain 
 of 30,000 on the revenue of that country. 
 
 Moreover, it has not yet been proved that Fort 
 Regent is of any use at all against a foreign 
 enemy, as it has been said by many that it could 
 not be used against a foe at sea, for a volley fired 
 from these heights would greatly endanger the 
 safety of the town, as, being built on a quicksand, 
 the houses would be liable to be shaken down by 
 the concussion of the air, and if this be the case it
 
 24 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 would equally apply as regards its applicability 
 against the town ; for if it could be demolished in 
 this easy manner, it certainly does not need the 
 building of a fortress of such costliness for such 
 a purpose. Of course, these opinions are mere 
 surmises, but this our traveller certainly can vouch 
 for, as regards the foundations of the town, that 
 every night as he lay in his bed, he experienced 
 most sensibly the vibration of the house, caused by 
 passing vehicles in the street ; and the firing of 
 the day-break gun at Elizabeth Castle, more than 
 a mile off, caused such a concussion of the air as to 
 have the .same effect, giving a sort of rocking move- 
 ment to the bed, which though very well for nurses 
 and small children is not exactly the movement 
 that the generality of people require to lull them 
 to sleep. 
 
 To the eye of a casual observer, Tort Regent 
 presents only a series of fortified heights. There 
 is little to be seen, the works being principally 
 underground. 
 
 These latter are, however, very strong, but with- 
 out some interest only a small portion of them can 
 be viewed by the public, and being of so modern 
 a date, and consequently possessed with no his-
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 25 
 
 torical associations, the non-military traveller will 
 not take very much trouble to get a sight of 
 them. 
 
 The harbours of St. Heliers are very capacious. 
 The outer one is formed by two magnificent piers 
 built of granite. One, the Albert Pier running out 
 from the shore at St. Aubin's bay at right angles 
 with it ; the other called the Victoria Pier, jutting 
 out from the easternmost point of the bay, imme- 
 diately below Fort Regent. The distance from pier- 
 head to pier-head is very little short of two miles. 
 
 The inner harbour is formed by a small pier on 
 one side, and the shore on the other. The Albert 
 Pier is a most superb piece of masonry, built 
 entirely of stone, procured from quarries in the 
 neighbourhood, and faced with enormous blocks 
 of granite. It extends nearly three quarters of a 
 mile in a straight line from the shore. It has a 
 roadway capable of permitting three or four 
 carriages to drive abreast, and an upper pier or 
 promenade, where five or six people can walk side 
 by side. The Victoria Pier is something similar 
 to the Albert, though perhaps not so long. 
 
 The harbour is not accessible at all times of the 
 tide, which is much to be regretted considering
 
 26 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the magnitude of the works already executed : as 
 for an hour or two both before and after low-water, 
 vessels arriving off the harbour have to anchor in 
 the roads, which in rough weather is not the most 
 agreeable to the passengers, who have then to land 
 in small boats. There is avast amount of shipping 
 enters this harbour, owing to the great facilities 
 offered for trade by the commercial privileges con- 
 ferred upon these islands, consequently the com- 
 merce is very great, and the number of vessels 
 employed must be very large also. This makes 
 St. Heliers' harbour both a very busy and very 
 amusing scene. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most entertaining sights that 
 takes place in St. Heliers, is that which was wit- 
 nessed by Hobbler as he was one day lounging 
 about on the Albert Pier. It is customary for 
 the Mail Packets, when the tide serves, for them to 
 come into the harbour, to put into the Victoria 
 Pier, and for all the other steamers to go alongside 
 the Albert Pier. Consequently, when the mail is 
 expected, all the cabs and porters are gathered 
 together in the former, as well as all the folks who 
 have come to meet their friends, and a few of those 
 who come to shew themselves. The boat is ge-
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 27 
 
 nerally signalled, if the weather is clear, more than 
 an hour before its arrival, and during that hour all 
 is expectation. 
 
 On the occasion of which I speak, the captain 
 of the packet, for some cause or other best known 
 to himself, took it into his head to come into the 
 Albert Pier, and though only a few yards from the 
 end of one pier to another, the mouth of the harbour 
 unfortunately lies between, and the distance by 
 land, as I have before said, is nearly two miles. 
 
 The scene that took place on this occasion can 
 be easily imagined by the reader. Immediately 
 the intentions of the captain were clearly made 
 out, there commenced a general shifting of quarters. 
 The friends of those expected by the packet 
 took to boats, as well as the porters, and were soon 
 on the opposite side. But not so with the cabs. 
 They all started off for the scene of operations, and 
 those who had been nearest to the end of the 
 Victoria Pier, were of course the furthest removed 
 from the other one, and being anxious to regain 
 their lost position, then and there they commenced 
 a most exciting race. The only horse-racing of 
 an authorised character which took place during 
 our traveller's stay in Jersey was at Gorey ; but as
 
 28 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 he did not see that one, he may be forgiven for 
 dwelling a little on this race of cabs, as he is of 
 opinion that an improvised race is better very 
 often than one previously advertised, as decidedly 
 in the former case there is no room for betting, or 
 a chance of the best horse being the last in the 
 race, because his owner loses more money by his 
 success than by his failure. There were some- 
 where about twenty cabs, every man was urging 
 his horse to do his best, and the whole course was 
 plainly discernible from the spot where Hobbler 
 stood, which was in fact quite equal to the Grand- 
 stand at a race-course. The pace was very good, 
 considering the quality of the animals ; the day 
 was beautifully fine, the company rather select, 
 and the ladies' dresses charming. Altogether the 
 scene was one of a very lively and exciting charac- 
 ter. Every body seemed in good humour, except 
 perhaps the poor cabmen and their horses. 
 
 Now humane reader, do not think that our 
 traveller was altogether blind to the fact, that 
 perhaps cab horses were not the finest in the 
 world for a race. He felt for them as, perhaps, you 
 might feel for he was very fond of dumb 
 animals but, nevertheless, he must confess that
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 29 
 
 he was entertained by this extemporised perfor- 
 mance, got up especially for the benefit of " Her 
 Majesty's" liege subjects, by the captain of " Her 
 Majesty's" mail packet the " Courier" on the pier 
 named after " Her Majesty" in the royal harbour 
 of St. Heliers, to which said captain he begs to 
 tender his most grateful acknowledgments, as 
 doubtless did many others present. And not 
 only was the entertainment one of a rather rare 
 and very racy character, but when it is considered 
 that there is a complete dearth of amusement, not 
 only in St. Heliers, but in the whole island, it must 
 be allowed that this little incident was a decided 
 boon. I might as well, perhaps, add that the race 
 was well maintained to the end, the winners of 
 course getting " the fares." 
 
 The markets of St. Heliers are rather of an 
 attractive character. There is a large square 
 market, with a covered arcade on three sides of it, 
 for the sale of meat, fruit and flowers, as well as 
 butter and eggs. This is a fashionable promenade, 
 especially on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when it 
 presents a very lively appearance, and the display 
 of flowers is particularly beautiful. 
 
 People flock in on those days from all parts of
 
 30 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the country, and in the summer time, when the 
 town is inundated with visitors, this market be- 
 comes a very busy scene. Saturday, however, is 
 the great day here, though this market, as well as 
 ah 1 the others, is very well stocked every day in the 
 week. There is also a very handsome vegetable 
 market, a fine large oblong building, completely 
 roofed and lit up by sky -lights as well as from 
 each end. This is where the flower shows are 
 held. The fish market is something like the meat 
 and fruit market, but of a very inferior size, and 
 is but indifferently stocked, for there being no 
 regular fishermen in Jersey, that is to say none 
 who follow fishing as a trade, the fish generally 
 being caught by small farmers, or men living on 
 the coast, when they can find no particular employ- 
 ment on their land, the supply is most unequal, 
 and the price of course the same. There is also a 
 market for the sale of knick-knacks, hardware, shoes, 
 &c., called the French market, and another for the 
 sale of live stock. 
 
 These markets are all situated in the very heart 
 of the town, of which they occupy a very consider- 
 able space, and are all contiguous to one another. 
 Take them altogether, the markets of St. Heliers
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 31 
 
 are hardly to be excelled by any in the United 
 kingdom of Great Britain, and are not very often 
 to be equalled. 
 
 The fruit market especially is well worth seeing ; 
 the general display of those luxuries being of a 
 most choice and tempting character. 
 
 Elizabeth Castle is built on a rock, which is 
 approachable by a natural causeway on the sand 
 at low water, though distant a mile from the shore 
 when the tide is up, and can then only be reached 
 by a boat from the pier, from which it is distant, 
 perhaps, a quarter of a mile. This castle, as its 
 name would imply, was built in the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and is the place from which all the 
 salutes are fired, Fort Regent never being used 
 for that purpose. Though apparently of small 
 dimensions, when viewed from the land, or the 
 pier, it is really a very large fortress ; the rocks on 
 which it is built being nearly a mile in circum- 
 ference. This range of buildings is far more 
 picturesque than Fort Regent and far more 
 interesting to the tourist, as it has been a place 
 of some note in its day, and was once the seat of 
 government. It was here that Sir George de 
 Carteret held out against the Parliamentary forces ;
 
 32 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and only capitulated at last on very honourable 
 terms. 
 
 A walk across the natural causeway, from the 
 shore to this castle, though rather a rough one, 
 will repay the visitor for his trouble. This cause- 
 way is, however, very dangerous at certain times of 
 the tide, and several soldiers have been drowned 
 in attempting to cross it after dark, so that it has 
 lately come to be called by the terrible name of 
 the " Bridge of Death." 
 
 The Hermitage, or rather the remains of what 
 was once supposed to be one, is situated on a rock 
 a little beyond Elizabeth Castle, seawards. Here 
 it is said that the good old priest St. Helier, from 
 whom the town takes its name, was murdered by 
 pirates some thousand years or so ago. These 
 gentlemen are stated to have landed on this spot, in 
 order to plunder the island, when the good old 
 man thought fit to lecture them, and admonish 
 them on their evil course of life, which admonition 
 was taken as pirates usually take those kind of 
 affairs, no matter from whom they come, or what- 
 ever their intentions, for they are no respecters of 
 persons, and do not like to be talked to about 
 their immoral practices ; and so not liking his
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 33 
 
 discourse, they killed the poor old fellow and the 
 Church of Rome canonized him. 
 
 The story is a very pretty one, and I strongly 
 advise my readers to peruse it. They will find it 
 in most guide books. I would give it myself, but 
 fear I should not do it properly, being somewhat 
 sceptical on the subject of the history of these old 
 worthies. 
 
 The Town Church is a building of no very 
 great pretensions. It is an old fashioned structure 
 covered with ivy, which gives it a very picturesque 
 appearance. It has a large square tower, from the 
 top of which they amuse themselves on holidays, 
 with firing salutes from a small piece of cannon 
 that they haul on to the roof for that purpose. 
 
 This church was built in 1341, and is interesting 
 as containing a tablet to the memory of the gallant 
 defender of Jersey in 1781, the brave Major 
 Pierson. 
 
 There is a new church of quite a modern date 
 in Bath Street, named St. Marks, which is a very 
 pretty gothic edifice, and an ornament to the 
 neighbourhood. There are several chapels in the 
 town, but none of them have the slightest pre- 
 tensions to architectural beauty, saving, perhaps 
 
 D
 
 34 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the one in Halkett Place. There is also a fine 
 stone building where those who have infringed, 
 or supposed to have done so, the laws of their 
 country are lodged, commonly called the jail. I 
 say supposed to have infringed the laws, as the 
 facilities for finding a comfortable dwelling there 
 for any person to whom you may owe a grudge, 
 are very great. This jail is situated in Gloucester 
 Street, and from its numerous visitors, has been 
 christened " the Gloucester Hotel." 
 
 Of the other features of St. Heliers in the 
 building way, I shall not speak, with the exception 
 of the CoUege, which deserves more than a passing 
 notice. 
 
 Victoria College is built on a hill at the east side 
 of the town, and is a very beautiful structure, 
 and from its very commanding situation, forms one 
 of the most prominent as well as the most pleasing 
 objects that the eye of the traveller can discover 
 in this neighbourhood. This college was built to 
 commemorate the visit of Queen Victoria to the 
 island in 1846. The college grounds are very 
 prettily laid out, and the walks and terraces therein 
 form a very charming and shady promenade on a 
 summer's evening.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 35 
 
 And now I think all the principal objects of 
 attraction have been passed under review. All 
 these our traveller saw, which, of course, occupied a 
 great deal of his time. As to the manner in which 
 he spent his days generally, it was much the same 
 as travellers in search of pleasure, or health, usually 
 spend them, when " out of town," viz. in eating, 
 drinking, lounging, talking and reading. In fact, 
 in almost anything you like, but working. Of 
 course, he went to market on market days, and on 
 the pier when the mail packet arrived. He went 
 to see a review of the Jersey Militia Artillery, on 
 the sands between St. Heliers and St. Aubin's. 
 He also saw a grand series of fetes in honour of the 
 opening of Electric Telegraph communication be- 
 tween the Channel Islands and Old England, and 
 he was present at a grand regatta in St. Aubin's 
 Bay. 
 
 Of the review, it is only necessary to say that the 
 practice was excellent, and the bearing of the 
 soldiers generally soldierlike ; and doubtless should 
 their abilities ever be called into play, they will 
 prove a very efficient aid to the English troops who 
 will have to fight side by side with them. This 
 review took place under the inspection of General 
 
 D 2.
 
 36 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Love, the late governor of the island, who together 
 with the present governor, General Mundey, seemed 
 very well satisfied with the proficiency of the men 
 in their ball practice and general behaviour. 
 
 Indeed, as regards this said ball practice, some of 
 the men were too proficient, or at any rate too 
 confident of their skill, for during a temporary 
 cessation of the firing, a man on horseback, probably 
 thinking it was over, rode down to look at the 
 target about a mile from the guns, when to the 
 horror of all the lookers on, bang went one of 
 them. The shot flew through the air, and was 
 certainly well aimed, for it struck the sand close 
 to the target, casting the dirt in a shower com- 
 pletely over the horseman, who was otherwise 
 unhurt. This was doubtless very good firing, but 
 if- was also very reckless firing, and most assuredly 
 very bad management. Either the man ought not 
 to have been allowed to ride in that direction, or 
 being there, it seemed running a shameful risk ; 
 indeed a kind of playing with human life to fire 
 at that moment. William Tell and his bow and 
 arrow achievement may be a very pretty episode 
 in history, and especially so because there was an 
 end to be gained by it ; and all honour be to the
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 37 
 
 memory of that brave champion of freedom ; but 
 of what earthly use it could possibly be to try an 
 imitation of the exploits of the liberty loving 
 Swiss with cannon balls, at a holidny show, it is 
 difficult to conceive, and such an exhibition is much 
 to be deprecated. 
 
 The Jerseymen are rather celebrated for close 
 shaving in business, and I suppose they indulge 
 in the same propensity when playing with gun- 
 powder and iron shot. Certainly it was too close 
 to be pleasant, and very sharp practice. 
 
 Of the establishment of instantaneous com- 
 munication with the shores of Great Britain, it 
 would be vain to attempt in a few words to enu- 
 merate the advantages, which must be very great, 
 not only in a commercial point of view, but also in 
 case of any rupture between the countries of 
 England and Prance, a contingency it is most 
 devoutly to be hoped that may never arise. The 
 submarine wires start from the north-west point 
 of Jersey, thence to Guernsey, from which island 
 they are carried to Alderney which latter is in 
 direct communication with Portland Isle close to 
 Weyniouth. Alderney being in sight of Cherbourg, 
 any particular movement in the French fleet at
 
 38 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 that harbour would be instantly telegraphed to 
 Weymouth ; and in the course of a few minutes 
 would be known at all the naval ports of England. 
 As regards the fetes in honour of the inauguration 
 of this said telegraph, our traveller did not think 
 ranch. They were made the occasion of a public 
 holiday, and for the display of a good deal of party 
 feeling. The first message was sent to the Queen 
 of England, and an answer received back in a few 
 hours from Her Majesty who was then at her seat at 
 Balmoral in the north of Scotland. There were 
 several processions, and a great deal of noise in the 
 shape of bands of music, firing of cannon from the 
 church tower, and pyrotechnic displays from the top 
 of Gallows Hill, an eminence bearing that sweet 
 name just outside the town. 
 
 These fetes, however, must always be memorable 
 in the annals of the Channel Islands ; their object 
 being, to celebrate an event of such vast importance 
 to the interests of all classes. The regatta was a 
 very lively affair, but chiefly interesting to the 
 visitor as giving him an opportunity of seeing all 
 the beauty and fashion of the island at one glance. 
 The rowing and sailing were very good, and the 
 display of ladies dresses unexceptionable ; crinoline
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 39 
 
 being in the ascendant and having ample room for 
 the display of its ample proportions. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of St. Heliers is some 
 very good bathing at a spot near Fort Regent, 
 called Point des Pas, a very pretty spot overhung by 
 trees, and where the sea has hollowed out many 
 cavities in the cliff, which form admirable dressing- 
 rooms, at the same time many of the pools formed 
 in the rocks make excellent baths for those who 
 are afraid of the open sea. The bathing machines 
 are in St. Clement's Bay more than a mile from the 
 town. 
 
 Of the people of St. Heliers, as well as their 
 manners and customs it is not my intention here 
 to speak, as I shall have occasion to treat on these 
 subjects in a general review of these matters, as 
 relating to the people of the whole island. 
 
 Of the manners and customs of visitors to St. 
 Heliers, principally composed of excursionists from 
 London and its neighbourhood, it is only needful 
 to say that they behaved themselves much as folks 
 usually do at the English watering-places. That 
 is, they fare sumptuously, lounge much, and pro- 
 menade extensively; the grand aim appearing to 
 be to enjoy themselves and to kill time. They
 
 40 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 like to see and be seen, and for this purpose are 
 always to be found on the pier when the steam 
 boats arrive, as well as in the evening when the 
 town may be said to be given up to lounging and 
 promenading, and in the markets on market days. 
 
 This, of course, only refers to the season when 
 the varieties and excellencies of the wardrobe can 
 be displayed to full advantage without fear of 
 damage from foul weather. And this was pecu- 
 liarly the case in the summer of 1858, when a 
 shower of rain might be said to be the greatest 
 novelty of the season. And so 1858 was a grand 
 year in the annals of dress, which in that year dis- 
 played itself with a splendour and magnitude (at 
 any rate so far as the ladies were concerned) un- 
 known for many years past, and in no place did it 
 figure in more brilliant hues, or assume more 
 portly dimensions than in the capital of Jersey. 
 
 Now with regard to thjs dressing, there has been 
 a great deal said of late, and perhaps more than 
 enough, but as Hobbler likes to have a finger in 
 the pie, and being at the time alluded to unhappily 
 a lounging man, and withal not quite an unobser- 
 vant one, he must have his say, and being of 
 rather a wilful turn of mind, if he will rush to his
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 41 
 
 fate by interfering in- matters that he cannot pos- 
 sibly know anything about, I cannot prevent him. 
 But I will at any rate decline to be accessory to 
 his misdeeds by refusing to stand sponsor to them, 
 though if he will talk on this subject I cannot 
 hinder him, more especially as he professes to have 
 taken at this time a short journey into Fashion's 
 Dominions. Therefore washing my hands of the 
 matter altogether, I will e'en let him tell his own 
 tale, and get out of the scrape the best way he can. 
 
 Hobbler on Dress, and his Excursion into Fashion- 
 land, with his own description thereof. 
 
 Love of display in the article of dress must be 
 allowed to be one of the great characteristics of the 
 times in all ages, and is generally put down by 
 stern moralists as a sign of degeneracy on the part 
 of the people indulging in it 
 
 No doubt that luxurious living, and luxurious 
 dressing have often been the precursors of the 
 downfall of nations. Witness the Romans previous 
 to their country being inundated with Goths an d 
 Vandals, and all those gentlemen from the north 
 who came so often, and in such large numbers to
 
 42 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 visit them. They were much'given up to this kind 
 of thing ; and, consequently, easily fell under the 
 dominion of their visitors, who had not yet learnt 
 to doff their primitive habits and customs, and to 
 don those of the more cultivated, but more ener- 
 vated nations. But they did so in time, and they 
 also degenerated. But your pardon, kind reader, 
 I did not intend to iudulge in an historical account 
 of the rise and fall of fashionable empires. I think 
 I was saying that dress was a great sign of the 
 times. Well people did dress rather extensively 
 in 1858 ; but let us hope that it does not foreshadow 
 any evil days of degeneracy and ruin, but that 
 rather it is only one of the freaks of the times, and 
 that if it is carried to any particular excess just now, 
 it will very soon, like water, find its own level. 
 
 Of the men folk at St. Heliers, I have very little 
 to say. Suffice it that there were some of all sorts. 
 Fops and dandies in a high state of starch and 
 rigidity ; men of business in ordinary costume, 
 though much more free from conventional usages 
 than they are in England, and the all-one-colour- 
 summer-suited pleasure seeking traveller, which 
 latter class formed by far the greater part of the 
 community out of doors. The straw hat, cap or wide-
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 43 
 
 awake, was generally the head gear, the old ugly 
 chimney-pot shaped chapeau being almost discarded. 
 Of the ladies at St. Heliers, I would, if I dared, 
 say a good deal. At any rate, I should like to say 
 something, and yet I fear to come under the lash 
 of their displeasure by some clumsy ill-turned 
 remark ; but oh yes I must speak. And oh ! 
 be not angry, fair ladies, with one who would not 
 for worlds offer you offence, and who now implores 
 you, that if his muse, while sailing in such danger- 
 ous waters, should by any chance run aground on 
 the shoals and quicksands of your displeasure, 
 you will, with the clemency for which the sex is so 
 justly celebrated, pardon his temerity, and pity the 
 ignorance that dares him to steer in these myste- 
 rious regions. Before, however, entering those 
 regions, it was necessary for me to procure a 
 passport from the mighty ruler of those dominions, 
 and thus I addressed her. " Oh, thou mighty and 
 potent goddess of Fashion ! condescend to grant to 
 a poor man mortal the permission to visit your 
 celebrated empire, if it is only for a flight across 
 its confines ; and, moreover, permit him to speak of 
 what there he sees, and what there he hears ; and 
 if in treating of thy government and thy laws, he
 
 44 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 should apparently violate in the smallest degree 
 the integrity of your dominions, believe it not, that 
 he has the remotest thought of disputing, or even 
 questioning the justice .of your rule. No, he is 
 well convinced that you are far too firmly seated 
 on your throne, and your subjects too deeply rooted 
 in their adherence and allegiance to your sway, 
 and their affections too securely fixed upon you, 
 for any remarks that he, poor, vain mortal can 
 make, to have any effect ; and, moreover, that no 
 act of his, or any of his species, could, by the 
 remotest possibility, affect the stability of your 
 power. Therefore, in all humility, soliciting your 
 indulgence, and craving your mercy, he bows 
 before your footstool, does homage to your power, 
 and asks permission to travel through your vast 
 dominions, promising, by putting a curb on his 
 thoughts, and a bridle on his pen, to take every 
 precaution against coming into collision with any 
 of your subjects." She heard, the mighty Goddess, 
 and with a scornful laugh granted the required 
 passport, and screwing up my courage, I entered 
 those strange lands, and woe is me the day I 
 did so. 
 
 Now the first of Fashion's favourites that I
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 45 
 
 encountered was Hat, the ruler appointed over a 
 large territory, where she reigns with almost 
 supreme authority, having driven out the former 
 viceroy in these parts, one called Bonnet. Now to 
 say the least of it, this Hat is a usurper, though it 
 must be confessed that Bonnet was getting very 
 old and effete, and during the last few years of 
 power had but little hold on her subjects, and 
 exercised over their heads but a very feeble sway ; 
 and her power, with the exception of sundry 
 dashes made in desperation to regain her position, 
 had always the appearance of a falling one, owing 
 much of its support to another power, over which 
 she exercised no authority, and with whom she 
 ought not to have had any connection one 
 commonly called Shoulders. Hat, like the deities 
 of heathen mythology, had the power of changing 
 her form and appearance at pleasure. Sometimes 
 she was gloomy and grand, completely overclouding 
 the province over which she was supposed to rule 
 with beneficence, and to which, as its head, she was 
 supposed to be the ornament. At other times she 
 assumed a plumed and war-like port, not quite 
 compatible with the sweet, beautiful, and peaceful 
 character of her dominions. At another time, she
 
 46 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 appeared in such questionable shape, and such 
 diminutive size, that she was hardly visible ; 
 scarcely seeming to have any connection with her 
 subjects, and certainly not fulfilling the duties for 
 which she was destined. 
 
 But her disguises were too numerous for me to 
 describe. Some of them were certainly very 
 charming, especially when the subject upon whom 
 she bestowed her favours, was revelling in the 
 bright sunshine of youth and innocence, when the 
 brow was unmarked by care, and the general aspect 
 was blooming and feminine. Then was the rule 
 of Hat, a charming rule, and imparted to the 
 beautiful dominion of which she was the crown, 
 much of the charming effect of which she was 
 possessed herself. But some of them were also 
 very hideous, and Hat exercised a tyrannical and 
 far from beneficent rule over some of her subjects. 
 Where the hey-day of youth was past, where the 
 suns of many years had gone over their heads, and 
 where nature had given them a hard and masculine 
 exterior, then was Hat but an ugly tyrant, making 
 its subjects or victims appear more ugly than 
 itself .And, moreover, there was very little religion 
 in this Hat. She seemed to have a particular
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 47 
 
 antipathy to Sundays and churches, and strange to 
 say always allowed poor deposed Bonnet to resume 
 her sway in those places, and on those days. And 
 as to morality, it used to be said in the days 
 when Bonnet was sinking into insignificance, when 
 the object of her authority was beginning to re- 
 pudiate her rule, and she had to call in the aid 
 of the aforesaid shoulders to keep her on her 
 throne, that she held out a certain temptation for 
 the perpetration of a certain little pleasantrie upon 
 the aforesaid subjects, the said Bonnet being called 
 in this case, " Kiss if you will." Now, this of 
 course, was very improper, though I cannot help 
 thinking, that if Bonnet was ever guilty of offering 
 the temptation for the commission of such impro- 
 prieties, by the forms she assumed, Hat was in 
 many of her shapes, far more inviting for the per- 
 petration of such offences. But I must proceed, 
 Hat and I had a little pleasant conversation, and 
 then we parted. 
 
 The next of Fashion's delegated rulers that I 
 encountered was known as military heels. Military 
 heels did not appear to reign with anything like 
 the universal authority that Hat did. Nevertheless, 
 he, I am sure it must be masculine gender, had
 
 48 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 obtained much sway over certain classes, who 
 owed the more general sovereignty of Military 
 heel's superior in command, Boot. I had not much 
 to say to Military heels. I thought him a very 
 clattering and independent sort of a fellow. He 
 was not exactly inelegant, though I could not help 
 thinking that he was not a ruler calculated to 
 improve the development of the forms of his 
 subjects. 
 
 I met many others of fashion's favourites of 
 different kinds and of various colours. But I must 
 pass them by, only remarking that her favourite 
 colour seemed to be red, especially in that peculiar 
 garment of which man used at one time hardly 
 to dare to speak, but being now exposed for admi- 
 ration, I suppose I may mention, namely the 
 petticoat. There was also a fancy in some parts of 
 Fashionland to indulge in a festooning or reefing pro- 
 cess, not particularly elegant I must confess, but then 
 I was told it was convenient, and that was enough. 
 I now proceed to the last grand encounter. Though 
 last not least, for this was by far the most formid- 
 able personage of the whole body, and I hardly 
 know how to describe her, for I feel, like Bob 
 Acres, the courage oozing out at my finger ends,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 49 
 
 and would almost like to shirk the description. 
 But no, I cannot do so, for as I am now fairly in 
 the very heart of Fashionland, and cannot, after 
 permission obtained to travel there, retreat without 
 ignominy ; I will screw my courage to the sticking 
 place, and most sincerely hope that I shall not fail. 
 The mighty personage who now crossed my path, 
 was no less an one than the Lady Crinoline, the 
 greatest, the grandest, and the most weighty of 
 Fashion's favourites. This mighty amazon has 
 encountered enemies innumerable, and of every 
 character. Anger, spite, and ridicule have attacked 
 her times out of number ; but without the shadow 
 of a chance of success. Vast and expansive in her 
 proportions, ruler over immense dominions, over 
 which she holds undivided sway, she emerges 
 from every conflict, not only victorious, but 
 spreads her ample folds with greater amplitude, 
 and bears down with greater weight all opposi- 
 tion. Hear ye raging Paterfamilias ! hear ye 
 poor half crushed mortals ! who encounter her in 
 public thoroughfares, or in public vehicles ! hear ye 
 snarling, but sharped-toothed critics, who vent 
 your impotent wrath upon her audacious head ! 
 proud and erect she dares you battle ; against all 
 
 E
 
 50 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 comers she boldly maintains her own, and laughs 
 ye all to scorn. 
 
 Away then, vain man, and fight no longer against 
 the power, which for the present seems invulnerable! 
 
 It has been said by my editor, that I saw no 
 architecture of any pretensions in St. Heliers. 
 This only alluded to the architecture of brick and 
 stone, for the architecture of Crinoline is of mar- 
 vellous pretensions, and on first seeing it exhibited 
 at the Magazin des Modes, it struck me as the 
 most wonderfully built fabric I had ever seen. 
 
 The only thing I could compare it to, was the 
 Great Crystal Palace when in course of construc- 
 tion ; for the intricacy of detail was so puzzling, that 
 the eye was quite pained in trying to understand it. 
 
 But I will not attempt to describe Crinoline in 
 its time of growing, its constructive period. I will 
 not dare to enter further into the mysteries of 
 that mysterious power, lest provoking the wrath of 
 her Ladyship, and above all that of the great 
 Goddess herself, I should be for ever condemned 
 to walk this nether world imprisoned in one of 
 those terrible cages, an awful warning of the 
 punishment that awaits all who have the folly or 
 temerity to brave their power. No, the recollection
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 51 
 
 of an accidental collision I had with Lady Crino- 
 line is sufficiently vivid in my memory to allow me 
 ever to contemplate the idea of giving her a 
 tangible cause of quarrel. 
 
 Generally speaking, no sooner did I descry a 
 Crinoline in the distance approaching me I crave 
 your mercy, fair ladies, for speaking of Lady 
 Crinoline to whom you give your allegiance, rather 
 than of yourselves, for where the individual is 
 short-sighted, the Crinoline comes into view long 
 before the lady who shelters behind her bulwarks, 
 a sort of avant-courrier well, no sooner did I 
 see a Crinoline approaching, than like a well-bred 
 dog, I took to the middle of the road, or tried to 
 hide my diminished head in some neighbouring 
 shop, if so be another Crinoline had not already 
 got possession of that retreat, in which case I was 
 compelled to retire altogether. But in the instance 
 I allude to, retreat was altogether cut off, and I 
 had nothing left, but to stand and meet the shock, 
 and bow with dignity to my inevitable fate. With 
 bated breath, and an air of desperation, I planted 
 my two assistant legs, I think my historian has 
 stated that I am lame, as a kind of stockade, a 
 little in advance on either side, and then quietly 
 
 E 2
 
 52 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 awaited my doom. Onward sweeps the moving 
 tower, and now looms in the distance the hat 
 that hides the face, that belongs to the fair being, 
 whose heart beats underneath that vast press of 
 muslin, hooping, tubing, and cordage. And while 
 the gentle heart beneath that hard exterior pities 
 that poor man, and wishes most sincerely that he 
 was at home, or in heaven, or any where out of 
 reach of the impending danger, stern Crinoline 
 seems to say " avaunt thou poor thin thing ! 
 What doest thou here ? There is no room for thee. 
 Why darest thou, an unprotected male, to walk 
 the narrow streets of this town ? Art thou aweary of 
 thy life, that thus thou dost court thy doom?" 
 Onward, majestic, stately unrelenting, and resistless 
 it sweeps. . . It comes. . . It comes. . .It is past. 
 
 And where was that poor mortal that had thus 
 unhappily come into contact with the hard Lady 
 Crinoline ? Behold him, your humble servant I 
 mean, spinning like a humming-top far down the 
 street, scarcely able to maintain his equilibrium, 
 and then as puffing, panting, and struggling for 
 breath, he leans against the nearest support, he 
 hears faintly, but clearly, the triumphant and 
 ironical laugh of Crinoline, as she disappears in
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 53 
 
 the distance, and thanks his stars that he has 
 escaped perfect annihilation; but cannot help 
 sighing for the palmy days of his health time, when 
 by a series of flying leaps, he might have avoided 
 the dangers of this perilous street navigation. 
 
 With wounded pride, and dejected spirits, I 
 went to my home, and exhausted nature requiring 
 recruitment, I thought I would dine. But even 
 here Crinoline pursued me. One would have 
 supposed that her triumph of the morning would 
 have been sufficient. But no, with a lady on 
 either side, I found myself so hooped in, that I 
 began to fancy that I must have been transformed 
 by the enraged Goddess into a tub most assuredly 
 I felt that I had become a butt and that she had 
 put iron hoops around me to keep me together, for 
 which there might be some necessity, after my late 
 encounter. And then I fancied that the dog was 
 sitting on my feet. Now, reader, there really was a 
 dog at the Hotel, very fond of sitting under the 
 table at meal times, so pray do not think this all a 
 chimera of my brain, disordered by the shock it 
 had sustained. Well, I fancied the dog was sitting 
 on my feet, but found it was only sundry coils of 
 tubing belonging to a lady, my vis-a-vis. What
 
 54 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 a happiness that every day of trouble has an end, 
 though it does not always follow that night brings 
 relief. So with me, crushed and crest-fallen, I 
 retired to my chamber, and having extinguished 
 my candle, I admitted the soft beams of nature's 
 silvery orb of night, and melting under its gentle 
 influence, I fear me much that I became mooney ; 
 for my thoughts still running on Crinoline, I in- 
 dulged in the following apostrophe. 
 
 " Oh, Crinoline, Crinoline ! when wilt thou cease 
 thy rule of despotism ? Thinkest thou that having, 
 by the aid of the all powerful Goddess, so sur- 
 rounded and hemmed in all thy subjects, or rather 
 victims, thou wilt for ever retain their allegiance ? 
 
 " Oh no ! not only will they some day refuse to 
 bear the heavy yoke thou hast imposed upon them, 
 but thy proud mistress, in one of her capricious 
 moods, may altogether discard thee from her 
 service. Be wise, therefore, in time ; and moderate 
 thy pretensions, and then perhaps thy reign may 
 be prolonged. 
 
 " And, oh, ye fair ones ! who do homage to this 
 mighty Goddess, and bow before the footstool of 
 her viceroy, Lady Crinoline ; how long will ye be 
 content to bear this heavy burden ; how long will
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 55 
 
 ye submit to be bound with hoops of iron and 
 strong cords. I appeal to ye all ! 
 
 "Small children, who stagger beneath the 
 weight imposed upon you by fashionable mothers. 
 Young maidens, whose elegant forms are made 
 to look like huge bells, or monstrous sugar loaves ; 
 matronly dames whose -comely figures are so 
 terribly disguised as scarcely to be recognisable ; 
 and venerable ladies whose staid carriage and time- 
 honoured locks of silver should render thee the 
 landmarks of respect and veneration, but who 
 beneath this load of Fashion's fancy are made to 
 imitate tripping damsels ; to all of ye I appeal to 
 shake off this mighty incubus, and compel the 
 Lady Crinoline to moderate her demands upon 
 you, or return at once to the far more beneficent, 
 and elegant rule of the Plowing Robe." 
 
 A cloud shot athwart the midnight lamp of 
 heaven, and I awoke from my dreaming, and with 
 a cry of horror I sprang across the borders of 
 Fashionland, happy to have escaped with sound 
 limbs from such a perilous adventure, a repetition 
 of which nothing should ever induce me to under- 
 take.
 
 65 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Here ended Hobbler's account of his wonderful 
 excursion. And right glad is the author of his 
 travels that he has at last quitted such dangerous 
 and slippery ground ; and right glad will the reader 
 be to find that his peregrinations, and the relation 
 thereof have, at length, terminated. Besides he is 
 probably rather too late in the field, as it is said 
 that the Lady Crinoline is already beating a steady 
 retreat, and his advice is useless ; " The guard 
 dies but never surrenders." So with Crinoline, it 
 will doubtless retain its elasticity and portliness 
 to the last, which last probably will not be very 
 far off Crinoline dies but never surrenders. 
 
 But why lingers our traveller so long among the 
 narrow streets of St. Heliers, when the balmy 
 breezes and brilliant sunshines of midsummer 
 should woo him away to the beautiful country. 
 
 It is true that his days had been pleasantly 
 spent in the town, for there he met many very 
 agreeable companions from whom he experienced 
 much kindness, and in whose society time rolled 
 rapidly away. But he has now made up his mind 
 to leave them and the town as well, and take up 
 his abode at the hotel in the romantic Bay of 
 Bouley, on the north side of the island. He has
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 57 
 
 studied streets, buildings, promenades and fashions 
 long enough, and now thinks it is time to betake 
 him to the contemplation of nature, as displayed 
 in the beautiful scenery of this island, and perhaps, 
 also, as delineated in her master-piece, man, of 
 whom and his manners he will doubtless have to 
 speak in the next chapter. 
 
 So here we drop the curtain on our friend 
 Hob bier as a townsman, for to a certain degree he 
 was compelled to submit to town usages, but 
 when it rises again, we shall find him al fresco, a 
 countryman, a man at his perfect ease.
 
 58 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOTTLE Y BAY. 
 
 Hobbler at Bouley Bay. Description of that Place and its Neigh- 
 bourhood. He studies men and manners. Great variety of 
 Characters in its Visitors. Cockneys and their Peculiarities. 
 Sun-rise, Moon-rise. Evening solitude. Glorious Sea. General 
 Post Office and its machinery. Gallant conduct of mine host. 
 Fleeting nature of travelling friendships. 
 
 " GOD made the country, and man the town." 
 So said one of our greatest poets, and so thought 
 Hobbler as he quitted his town residence, and 
 emerging into the country, exchanged the view of 
 bricks and mortar, the sameness and monotony of 
 which palls upon the vision, for the ever beautiful 
 freshness of the open country. 
 
 One charming afternoon at the end of June, our 
 traveller found himself deposited at the door of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 59 
 
 the hotel at Bouley Bay, after a very pleasant drive 
 of five miles right across the island. This bay 
 lies on the north coast facing Old England, but 
 shut out from it by Cape La Hogue on the coast 
 of France about twenty-five miles off, which Cape 
 stretches out its long arm and completely overlaps 
 this part of the island. The French coast stretches 
 away in both directions opposite Bouley from Cape 
 La Hogue to Cape Carteret at distances varying 
 from twenty-five to fifteen miles. The bay is ap- 
 proachable by a zig-zag road between two hills 
 cut in the face of one of them, and on descending 
 this road, the traveller has one of the prettiest pros- 
 pects spread out before him that he could possibly 
 wish to behold, particularly if the day should 
 be one of bright sunshine. Before and below him 
 can be traced the road, picturesque in all its 
 windings, the old fashioned hotel, with its red tiled 
 roof, glittering in the sunbeams at the bottom. 
 On his right hand are steep hills of an altitude of 
 four or five hundred feet, covered with fern, and 
 every here and there large masses of rock cropping 
 out of their sides. 
 
 Carrying the eye beyond, these hills are suc- 
 ceeded by wild craggy cliffs stretching away in the
 
 60 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 distance and terminated by a curious point of 
 rock, called the Tour de Rozel, which is kept 
 whitewashed as a landmark, and presents a most 
 singular appearance in the sunlight. 
 
 This rock forms the westernmost point of the 
 bay. On the other side are almost perpendicular 
 hills or crags, for they are principally composed of 
 large masses of rock ; in some places their sides 
 covered with gorse and fern, and at others a beau- 
 tiful vein of rich violet coloured clay peeping out ; 
 the whole crowned by frowning blocks of stone 
 of an enormous size, which seem as if they had 
 been placed there by some mighty giant's hand, 
 and appear to maintain their position so slightly, 
 that one is tempted to imagine that the smallest 
 touch would send them bounding and crashing 
 into the valley below. At one point of the road is 
 a sweet little bit of sylvan scenery, quite away from 
 the general character of that described above, and 
 serves by its appearance of quiet repose to shew off 
 to greater advantage the grandeur of the surround- 
 ing prospect. 
 
 The beautiful ocean lies in front, glittering in 
 the sunshine, with the Echerons rocks sprinkled 
 on its surface, at a distance of about seven miles
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 61 
 
 from the shore ; the coast of France fills in the 
 extreme back ground. 
 
 The beauty of this prospect is one that cannot 
 fail to arrest the eye of the traveller if he has any 
 real love for the beauties of nature, and checking 
 his downward course, he is lost in admiration and 
 delight. 
 
 Descending to the house, the road turns sharp 
 round to the left, running below a series of beetling 
 cliff's, and finally terminates at the pier, which is 
 built of stone, and projecting its one arm at right 
 angles from the shore, forms the little harbour of 
 Bouley. From the head of the pier, the hills 
 assume a very bold and rugged character, rising 
 to a great height, running away to the westward, 
 and terminating in Green Rock Point. 
 
 The road and the pier were constructed at an 
 enormous cost to the States of Jersey, with the 
 idea of making a Harbour of Refuge here. But such 
 an idea appears to have been abandoned long 
 since, as many of the platforms for guns, and 
 several batteries have fallen to decay, which were 
 evidently intended to have formed the defences for 
 the harbour. This bay is still very strong. There 
 are two batteries remaining, one mounting two,
 
 62 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and the other three guns of large size, and our 
 traveller was informed, that in case of apprehended 
 invasion, this bay and the heights surrounding it, 
 would mount as many as seventy guns. This fact, 
 together with the rocky and dangerous character 
 of the coast, renders Bouley Bay all but impreg- 
 nable to an open attack. The water here is very 
 deep, and the shore being very precipitate, vessels 
 of a large size can approach very close at all times 
 of the tide, and this latter circumstance, as well as 
 the fact that it would only require one pier to be 
 built, render it very probable that the government 
 of England will some day choose this bay for the 
 construction of a Naval Station and Harbour of 
 Refuge, for either or both of which purposes it 
 offers very great facilities, and is much better 
 adapted to them than St. Catherine's Bay, where 
 such large and expensive works are being carried 
 on, but which are pronounced to be a failure. 
 
 Perhaps it is now time to say a few words about 
 the house, or hotel of the bay, for there is only one 
 dwelling in the neighbourhood, the nearest to it 
 being at the top of the hill more than half a mile 
 off. It was a very good old-fashioned house situated 
 at the bottom of the hill, facing the road leading
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 63 
 
 to the pier, the side windows looking on to the 
 sea towards Rozel. 
 
 This was a house of no pretensions to architectural 
 beauty, and some few years ago was doubtless of 
 a very primitive character. It was a plain white 
 fronted house with a very deep red tiled roof, but 
 it is useless entering into a description of it for 
 the benefit of future visitors, as most probably 
 before these pages meet the eye of the public, it 
 will be metamorphosed into a handsome commo- 
 dious modern building. There was a large open 
 space in front of the house, which somewhat re- 
 sembled a farm-yard, for our traveller found here 
 a horse, a colt, a cow, dogs, geese and chickens. 
 Perhaps my readers will want to know something 
 of the inmates of this house. Well, then, the family 
 consisted of mine host, hostess and several sons 
 and daughters. 
 
 It may be expected that, as Hobbler was about 
 to take up his abode here for some time, that I 
 should give a full, true and particular account of 
 these inhabitants of his Jersey home, but this I 
 have no intention of doing. But I will say this 
 much, that mine host was a very pleasant and intel- 
 ligent companion, as was also mine hostess, and
 
 64 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 together with their daughters and sons were not 
 only ready and willing to make their visitors com- 
 fortable and happy in their house, but were studious 
 to do so by many of those little attentions, which 
 soon make a man of a sociable turn of mind per- 
 fectly at his ease ; and our traveller might be said 
 to be of rather that order, that is to say he was 
 a little convivially disposed in his temperament. 
 And so it was not long before he was quite at 
 home. Behold him then "the lame man of 
 Bouley" as he was sometimes called, wandering 
 about this bay, and killing time, as some folks say, 
 at the sea-side. He did not call it so, for killing 
 time can only be applied where the day hangs 
 heavy on one's hands, which it certainly did not in 
 his case. 
 
 Well, then, how did he amuse himself in this 
 outlandish place, where he was once asked if he did 
 not think he was being buried alive ? Like other 
 folks, he ate and drank, and slept when he could, 
 which latter was not very regularly, as Morpheus 
 and he were not on the very best of terms. He 
 rose rather late, it must be confessed, but then that 
 was his misfortune, not his fault, for had his health 
 allowed him, he would have dearly loved to have
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 65 
 
 risen with the lark, and drank in those delicious 
 early morning breezes, which are not only delight- 
 ful to the feelings, but are also so conducive to 
 health ; and he read a little, and talked a little 
 (perhaps a good deal, for he was somewhat given 
 that way at times) and he thought and observed a 
 little, and then he mused somewhat on what he saw 
 and heard. And various other wavs he amused 
 
 * 
 
 himself, and so time past swiftly away. One of his 
 principal amusements was to seat himself in an 
 arm-chair outside the front door, on a piece of 
 green sward that ran along before the hotel, where 
 he saw many people come and go from this lonely 
 house by the sea-shore. And who were these 
 people, and what did they come for ? There were 
 some of all sorts, and their errand was the pursuit 
 of pleasure and amusement. This was one of the 
 most favourite places in the island for pic-nics, and 
 in the summer months, parties of this description, 
 as well as non-pic-nic parties, were the order of the 
 day on a wholesale scale. 
 
 Early in the day they arrived, and late in the 
 evening they took their departure. They came on 
 foot, in carriages, in chaises, on horseback, in 
 omnibuses, and sometimes in boats. Some came
 
 66 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 to see and enjoy the beautiful sea and charming 
 scenery of the bay, and some to enjoy the luxury 
 of the bath and to gambol on the shore. 
 
 A few came there to study that peculiar art, 
 which always requires two persons ; no more no 
 less, to work out the problem ; and they must 
 not be of the same sex. To be bold, I mean the 
 art of love-making, for the rocky and secluded 
 nooks of the bay are very favourable for such a 
 course of study. But the majority came there for 
 a far more sublunary purpose. 
 
 They came to eat and drink, and if our traveller's 
 vision did not very much deceive him, the size of 
 the provision baskets and hampers, in comparison 
 with the size of the party for whose use they were 
 intended, would often lead him to infer that a 
 great many came there to stuff. Pic-nic parties of 
 all descriptions came to Bouley. These parties 
 were generally a mixture of natives and visitors ; 
 indeed, in almost all cases they are got up by 
 the inhabitants of St. Heliers as a little treat 
 for their friends, who may happen to be on a visit 
 to them, though this does not follow as an invari- 
 able rule, the Jersey folks sometimes choosing to 
 enjoy themselves by themselves.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 67 
 
 Of the pic-nic parties, there is not a great deal 
 to be said. They were rather exclusive during 
 the time the feeding was going on, after this they 
 generally rambled about the pier, or climbed the 
 neighbouring rocks, or sat and threw stones in the 
 water, a very favourite amusement at all watering- 
 places. They usually took themselves off early, 
 and did very little for the benefit of the house, and 
 paid as little as possible for the accommodation they 
 enjoyed. But we will leave the pic-nics and pro- 
 ceed to take a look at the visitors to the hotel, 
 and the general visitors, non-pic-nics. 
 
 And Hobbler sat by the wayside in his old arm- 
 chair, with his sticks beside him, and his newspaper 
 in hand, over the top of which paper he peeped at 
 holiday man and his holiday manners, as they came 
 tripping into this pleasant sea-side abode. 
 
 And into that house he saw to enter, from day 
 to day, a never ending variety of the genus 
 homo. 
 
 One day there would come there the Lordly 
 Peer, and perhaps, in contrast, the lowly beggar, 
 though the visits of nobility are not very frequent, 
 and happily beggars are very scarce ; but still 
 they both come at times, and both may happen to 
 
 p 2
 
 68 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 meet. At other times, would appear members of 
 the real, the born aristocracy, side by side with 
 those of the newly made or monied aristocracy ; 
 the one bearing their honours meekly, though 
 conscious of their dignity, unostentatious, but not 
 demeaning themselves the others haughty, over- 
 bearing, and purse proud, full of display, and ever 
 wakeful as to their position, and careful not to 
 forego the smallest tittle of the importance that 
 wealth always carries with it. Here in fact he saw 
 the real gentlefolks, and the would-be gentlefolks ; 
 the one wearing their rank and position like a well- 
 fitting garment, the other appearing as if they were 
 dressed in borrowed robes. Here also came the 
 well-to-do shopkeeper and members of that por- 
 tion of the middling classes of society, who not 
 
 * * 
 
 being overburdened with education, and taking 
 what is termed an outing in the summer time for 
 the sake of enjoying themselves, give their minds 
 up most thoroughly to the pursuit of enjoyment, 
 and, as a rule, they generally find it in some shape 
 or other. 
 
 A large class who visited these parts were the 
 " clerks." Clerks from London, and clerks from 
 ah 1 parts of the country, who snatching the small
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 69 
 
 space of time allowed them for relaxation from 
 business during the finer months of the year, rush 
 off to these charming Isles, and place the ocean 
 between them and the land of their hard toil, and 
 strive, in the few short days of their residence 
 abroad, to forget how in the sweat of their brows 
 they earn their bread, by putting their bodies to 
 the same test in the pursuit of pleasure. And 
 not only does our traveller sec men of all classes, 
 all trades and all professions, but of all sizes, shapes 
 and character. But the particular specimen of 
 mankind, which more than any other attracted his 
 attention, or rather obtruded itself upon his notice, 
 was that class formerly very abundant, now fast 
 dying out ; the true, genuine Cockney. 
 
 Now by Cockney, I do not mean so much the 
 inhabitant of the City of London, or rather I should 
 say I do not mean all the inhabitants of that city, 
 but rather that particular portion of them whose 
 ideas are shut up in that great metropolis. They 
 live there, perhaps were born there, they rarely 
 leave it, and when they do, either by inclination or 
 compulsion soon hasten back to it. 
 
 Their livelihood lies there, so do nearly all their 
 pleasures. They stand behind a counter all day.
 
 70 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and they sport at the various places of amusement 
 in London all the evening. They are, in fact, the 
 fixtures, or part of them, of London. And yet they 
 are nobody there, and they know it, and they feel 
 that everybody else knows it. But when they go 
 out of town, they imagine they are somebody, and 
 vainly think that everybody will believe them to 
 be somebody. 
 
 But everybody don't. Query does anybody ? 
 Certainly Hobbler did not think so from the sample 
 he saw at Bouley Bay. They would come down on 
 foot, in chaises, or even on horseback, but the 
 majority of them came by the omnibus that pro- 
 fessed to go round the island in one day. But, 
 however, and whenever they came, they amused 
 themselves invariably in the same way, for the 
 great aim of all of them appeared to be, who could 
 perpetrate the greatest amount of mischief in the 
 smallest given time. 
 
 On one occasion, you might see the Militia 
 uniform, belonging to one of the sons of mine host, 
 appear on the backs of half a dozen men of different 
 sizes in an almost incredible space of time, each 
 one having his strut, and fancying himself a 
 gallant son of Mars. At another time, four or six
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 71 
 
 big men might be seen hanging on to the halyards 
 of a flagstaff that stood in front of the house, and 
 which was only fit to bear the weight of a boy. 
 
 Warned from there, they would snatch at the 
 cable attached to a boat, and try to send her adrift, 
 perfectly regardless as to whom she belonged, or 
 as to where she went. One day our traveller being 
 roused to a state of fiery indignation at seeing a 
 party, a portion of which he is sorry to say be- 
 longed to the fair sex, detaching a boat from her 
 moorings, and about to take French leave as it is 
 called, though it is difficult to say why, Frenchmen 
 being always so polite, and go off for a row in 
 her ; he remonstrated with them on the unfairness of 
 such a proceeding, when he was coolly met with 
 the enquiry as to what business he had in the 
 matter ? 
 
 Now, reader, between you and I, I don't know 
 that he had any, but somehow or other he had so 
 identified himself with the place, that he thought 
 it incumbent on him to act as special constable, 
 though most certainly not a very efficient one in 
 case of a row. 
 
 However, to return to my tale. He replied to 
 their rather impertinent question, that he had a
 
 72 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 great deal of business in the matter, as he did not 
 wish to see the boat go on the rocks and be knocked 
 to pieces, of which there really was some danger, 
 if unskilfully handled. And what if she does, 
 what's that to you? was again the interrogation. 
 Hobbler now fully roused to anger, answered that 
 in such a case they might perhaps lose their lives, 
 which was very likely of no consequence to any- 
 body, but the loss of the boat would be quite 
 another affair, and if they did not desist he would 
 find somebody to make them. This threat did 
 not require to be put into execution, for the fact of 
 being placed at a lower value than the boat, took 
 all the pluck out of them, and they started off in 
 pursuit of some fresh object, on which to exhibit 
 their mischievous propensities. But I must let 
 them pass, only adding, " that of course they always 
 left their names engraven upon the windows and 
 doors of the hotel, upon the pier, the rocks, the 
 cliffs, and in fact upon every place within their 
 reach, for the edification of all future comers. 
 Before quite leaving them, I must in justice say 
 that they decidedly added life to the scene, and 
 that fully appearing to enjoy themselves in their 
 own peculiar way, and only being down at the bay
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 73 
 
 for a few hours during the day, our traveller is 
 not quite satisfied that he would, if he could, have 
 dispensed with their company altogether, for they 
 certainly did afford him much amusement, despite 
 his occasional exhibition of ire towards them, and 
 they did make the place seem so delightful when 
 they were gone. When they were gone, and when 
 every body was gone, and before every body came. 
 Ah ! here was the great charm of the place. The 
 hotel being of small size, there was but little ac- 
 commodation for sleeping visitors, and consequently 
 the greater part of those who came to see the bay 
 were only there during the day, and before they 
 arrived, and after they departed, the whole neigh- 
 bourhood appeared to belong to the inmates of the 
 hotel, as with the exception of a few stragglers, 
 who came to enjoy their bath, and perhaps a few 
 fishermen, they had it all to themselves. Though 
 not a very early riser, he did on more than one 
 occasion manage to see the beautiful orb of day 
 rise from his watery bed ; and a charming sight 
 it was, and well repaid even an invalid for fore- 
 going some of his, perhaps, needful rest. 
 
 Grand and glorious was the uprising of day's 
 great luminary, as like an awaking giant, he shook
 
 74 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 himself free from night's trammels, and climbing 
 the eastern sky, shed his benignant and life-giving 
 influence on all surrounding nature. The sea 
 sparkled with delight, the earth sent up its incense 
 of thanksgiving, all nature teemed with joy and 
 gladness, and man, Nature's great master-piece, 
 awoke from his slumbers, went forth to his labours, 
 and sung his morning hymn of praise to that 
 Almighty Being, who called the Universe into 
 existence, who said, " let there be light, and there 
 was light," and who made the sun to rule the 
 day, and by its glorious light and genial heat to 
 gladden his heart, and cheer him on his weary way. 
 
 " He looks in boundless majesty abroad, 
 And sheds the shining day, that burnished plays 
 On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams." 
 
 And often of a night our traveller went forth to 
 see the sun's fair bride, as she emerged from her 
 silvery caverns in the ocean. Rising from out its 
 midst she illumed the hills and rocky crags, and 
 spread their dark shadows on its placid bosom, and 
 with her soft pale light, shed her calm influence on 
 all the surrounding scenery. And as he sat on 
 that lone shore's side, he watched her gentle rays
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 75 
 
 as they danced on the rippling waters, and con- 
 verted the blue ocean into a lake of silver. And 
 then those countless multitudes of orbs that be- 
 spangled the mighty firmament of heaven came 
 forth, and in reflected glitterings lit up the bosom 
 of the deep, and sky and ocean teemed with the 
 light of myriads of worlds, and innumerable hosts 
 of constellations sang their vesper hymn ; and toil- 
 worn man, and all fatigued nature, as they sank to 
 their rest, chanted their praises to Him who made 
 the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser 
 light to rule the night, and who made the stars also. 
 
 " Thou azure vault, where through the gloom of night, 
 Thick sown, we see such countless worlds of light, 
 Thou moon, whose car encompassing the skies, 
 Restores lost nature to our woud'ring eyes." COWPER. 
 
 When the wind was in the north, or north-east, 
 it was a glorious sight to see the ocean, as grandly 
 and majestically it rolled into the bay of Bouley. 
 Sometimes dashing over the pier, and at others 
 breaking on the rock-bound shore, it would cast 
 its foaming spray far into the air, and then reced- 
 ing, carry back with it masses of shingle, and for 
 hours this assault and retreat of the waves would 
 keep up a ceaseless roar. The rise of the tide on
 
 76 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 this coast is very great, sometimes forty feet, and 
 our traveller saw one tide that attained the height 
 of nearly thirty-nine feet, which just mounted to a 
 level with the pier, over the end of which it flowed 
 without let or hindrance. And Hobbler found many 
 agreeable companions in this quiet retreat, for 
 'quiet it most certainly was, except during the few 
 hours of the day before alluded to. With some he 
 played chess, and with some he sang, though not 
 much of a hand at those accomplishments, and 
 with others he talked politics, of which he was 
 rather fond ; and, moreover, London newspapers 
 found their way down somewhow or other to this 
 outlandish spot, and told him how the exterior 
 world went on without him. And then there was 
 also another occupation he found, and that was the 
 pleasant one of corresponding with his friends in 
 England ; for many and kind were the letters that 
 found him in his lonely sea-shore abode, and came in 
 the place of their writers to ask him of his state 
 and doings. And often of an afternoon when the 
 postman was expected, did Hobbler sit in his road- 
 side chair, and wait the arrival of this much re- 
 spected official ; and as he sat he mused, and these 
 were his musings.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 77 
 
 Holbler on the Post Office. 
 
 What a charming thing is this post, and what 
 a marvellous piece of machinery is this post ; 
 perhaps the most marvellous in all the world. The 
 gear is always in good order, and very rarely is 
 any part of this complicated piece of human 
 mechanism pronounced to be out of working con- 
 dition. And above all other posts, perhaps that of 
 Her Majesty of England, Her Majesty's Mail, as it 
 is called, is par excellence, at any rate to an 
 Englishman, the post. 
 
 Look at its workings. You have a friend hun- 
 dreds of miles off. You are separated beyond the 
 power of ordinary communication ; time, perhaps, 
 if not expense, precludes your travelling to see 
 each other. And yet you can communicate, you 
 can converse with your friend by means of this 
 charming post, this faultless piece of mechanism ; 
 as faultless certainly as anything of man's inven- 
 tion ; for where one letter miscarries, hundreds of 
 thousands are safely and punctually delivered. 
 And how does this machine work, and what are 
 the results of its workings ? Like a wheel within 
 a wheel, it commences from one little centre, and
 
 78 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 then extends its ramifications over the whole 
 universe. It maintains good fellowship between 
 acquaintances, it cements the holy bond of brother- 
 hood between real friends, and in fact performs 
 very many of the social duties of man towards his 
 neighbour. 
 
 By it the statesman and the merchant princes 
 of the earth transact much of their business, as well 
 as the tradesman and the private individual ; and 
 by it man supplies more or less indirectly his daily 
 wants. The master often engages his servant by 
 means of this post, and by this same medium the 
 servants accept their servitude. By it parents or 
 guardians seek the aid of tutors or governesses for 
 their children and wards ; and by it the instruc- 
 tors of youth seek the aid of that employment, 
 which should, from its high character, be remunera- 
 tive, but alas, is how often but the barest compe- 
 tence. By it the rich merchants and bankers bid 
 for the services of their clerks, and by it the clerks 
 accept their positions, which sometimes is one 
 endowed with liberality, but is too frequently only 
 a meagre subsistence. By it too the author and 
 the composer will communicate with their publisher 
 in the hopes of finding the reward that sweetens
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 79 
 
 labour, and a profitable employment for their time 
 and genius ; and by it they too will learn that 
 mental labour, except of the higher order, or where 
 it panders to some peculiar or popular taste, cannot 
 compete in money value with mechanical labour, 
 thus perhaps reversing in some degree the favourite 
 theory of the power of mind over body. But pass 
 we on. By this said post the fond mother or 
 father holds affectionate converse with their absent 
 child ; and who shall tell what countless messages 
 of parental love are daily committed to its charge. 
 And by it the child corresponds with its parent, it 
 may be to reciprocate the affectionate outpourings of 
 their yearning hearts, or it may be to spurn them. 
 And also by this post the lawyer corresponds 
 with his client, and the client with his legal ad- 
 viser, and both perhaps with the unlucky object of 
 their correspondence. And by it, though last not 
 least, the lover corresponds with his mistress, and 
 the mistress with her lover, and evil be to them, 
 who would, by broken seals, or misdirected missives, 
 avail themselves of their position, to lift the veil 
 that hangs over their sacred correspondence. A 
 trust is confided to the officers of her Majesty's 
 Post Office, which they dare not betray. And it
 
 80 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 might be added, that to this extraordinary piece of 
 machinery is confided, it were vain to tell, how 
 many catalogues of hopes, joys, and pleasures 
 anticipated, realised, and disappointed, also of 
 heart-rend ings, tales of woe, sorrow, appeals for 
 mercy, &c. And the wonderful cheapness of this 
 post places it within the reach of all classes, and 
 before long it is to be hoped that foreign nations 
 will more fully reciprocate the advantages offered 
 by this country, and that some day we shall have 
 an universal penny post. All thanks to the prime 
 mover of this great public boon, Mr. Rowland 
 Hill, to whom it is not saying too much, that all 
 classes are deeply indebted. 
 
 But "letters for you Mr. Hobbler," so the 
 postman had arrived, and our traveller's musings 
 were suddenly cut short, and he proceeded 
 to demonstrate the practical, rather than the 
 theoretical machinery of the wonderful post. 
 
 In the parlour of the hotel, the visitors will be 
 attracted by a plainly framed testimonial hanging 
 against the walls, and such an one as many a 
 noble family would be glad to possess, for as one of 
 our great writers says, " brave deeds are a man's
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 81 
 
 ancestors;" this is a noble heirloom to transmit to 
 his family by the brave performer of the deed re- 
 corded thereon. Two years ago, as two very young 
 children were bathing or playing on the rocks, 
 some hundred yards or so from the hotel, they 
 tumbled into the sea. Their mother, who was very 
 near them, hastened to their rescue, but also unfor- 
 tunately fell in. My worthy host, then in his 
 sixty-fifth year, was standing at his door, and seeing 
 these poor creatures drowning, ran down to the 
 rocks, and without a moment's consideration as 
 to the danger of the act, plunged into the sea after 
 them with all his clothes on, and succeeded in 
 rescuing all of them from a watery grave. 
 
 To comment on such an action is unnecessary. 
 In the words of the Humane Society's testimonial, 
 it is characterised as extraordinarily noble and 
 gallant conduct, and no words of mine could add 
 to his reward. 
 
 Indeed none are wanting ; brave deeds always 
 carry their own reward with them, in the delight 
 they must always afford to the brave man in per- 
 forming them. 
 
 At Bouley Bay, our traveller met with many 
 pleasant people among the visitors who came to 
 
 G
 
 82 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 reside some time in the house. Of course, there 
 were some curious and some funny ones among 
 them, whom he is sorry he has no time to describe 
 here ; but the generality of those, whom it was 
 his lot to meet during his residence down there, 
 he found to be pleasant, intelligent and agreeable 
 companions. Some of them resided in the house 
 for several weeks, and during their stay, there 
 sprung up between several of them and Hobbler a 
 strong intimacy, which was maintained in many 
 cases for some time after they had quitted 
 Jersey, through the medium of the pleasant post. 
 There is nothing more delightful when travelling 
 about, than to meet with intellectual and agreeable 
 companions, and our traveller has to acknowledge 
 that it has almost always been his good fortune to 
 do so. Travelling friendships are, however, unfor- 
 tunately of a very fleeting character. 
 
 With several of his friends he kept up, as has 
 been said, a correspondence, but it was only for a 
 time. It gradually died out in a few months, and 
 though perhaps the fault was his own, for he had 
 several invitations to visit his new friends still it 
 was as he had ever found it on a journey, or when 
 sojourning for a short time in one place, especially an
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 83 
 
 hotel. You meet charming companions, you spend 
 days of pleasant intercourse together, an apparently 
 warm friendship springs up between you, and 
 promises are made perhaps of sincere and enduring 
 amity. But you part. You miss your friends very 
 much at first, perhaps they miss you, provided you 
 have made yourself agreeable. You probably write 
 to them to know of their state and whereabouts, you 
 may hear from them to make the same enquiries 
 after yourself. You journey on, if not through 
 fresh scenes of country, at any rate through fresh 
 scenes of life, you meet other companions, or you 
 return to your usual avocations ; and you forget, 
 yes it is too true, you forget, and beyond doubt 
 you are forgotten. At first, perhaps, your recol- 
 lection of your travelling companions only fades 
 imperceptibly away, like a dissolving view on the 
 first introduction of a new picture, as their memory 
 of you also fades ; but after a very short lapse of 
 time, when your thoughts do by any chance recur 
 to the pleasant days you spent together, alas ! it is 
 only but the veriest ghost of a friendship that is 
 written down on the tablets of your memory. Yes, 
 the events will often be aifectionately cherished in 
 sweet remembrance, when the actors in them have 
 
 G 2
 
 84 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 long passed beyond the pale of your recollection, 
 and their names are buried in the oblivious recesses 
 of forgetfulness. Such are travelling friendships. 
 Such has our traveller ever found them to be ; 
 though, perhaps, on this occasion, he may have 
 found them of a more sincere character, as the 
 unfortunate state of his health attracted the kind- 
 hearted towards him, more than would otherwise 
 have been the case; and as the recorder of his 
 thoughts and wishes, I beg leave to offer to any 
 of those kind friends who gave their sympathies, 
 their company, and their time to aid in lightening 
 the suffering of our poor crippled traveller, his 
 warmest and grateful thanks, though probably 
 none of them will ever read these pages. Hobbler 
 had not the most exalted ideas of the unselfishness 
 of human nature. In his experience he had found 
 it rather hard, but he is most willing and most 
 delighted to acknowledge, that there is much and 
 genuine kindness to be met with in the world, 
 and that on the occasion of his wanderings in 
 search of health, he met with much more than he 
 either expected or deserved. 
 
 There is an excursion round the island every 
 day by omnibus, very cheap, and very but no
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 85 
 
 matter what. Our traveller did not like these ex- 
 cursions, perhaps our readers might not either; 
 though I certainly think they would like to get 
 round somehow, which seems almost to be a 
 hopeless case, while our traveller continues to 
 moralize upon mischievous cockneys, romantic 
 moonshines, wonderful posts, and fleeting friend- 
 ships. 
 
 But we will get on. The Bouley Bay coach 
 
 shall not stop up the road any longer. The fact 
 
 is, that our traveller was so charmed with the 
 
 beautiful scenery and sweet retirement of this 
 
 spot, as well as so comfortable in his quarters there, 
 
 that he did not like moving. Added to this, the 
 
 fact that he was an invalid, and the weather was 
 
 what, in moderately constructed phrases, is called 
 
 broiling, and it is not to be wondered at. Yes, 
 
 at this time people were exclaiming all day long, 
 
 " well I never," or " did you ever," or in Jersey 
 
 language, " oh, my good," (an expression used by 
 
 all classes of society throughout the island.) I 
 
 never felt anything to equal it in all my life. 
 
 This expression, if they were not very chicken aged, 
 
 they had probably uttered hundreds of times 
 
 before.
 
 86 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Hobbler then came to the conclusion that 
 Bouley Bay was not Jersey, though one of its gems, 
 neither was it the Channel Islands, but only a 
 very small portion of them. So he moved off, and 
 I will now suppose him about to' introduce my 
 readers to the other beauties of Jersey, as well as 
 those of the neighbouring islands, after his inspec- 
 tion of which, I have no doubt we shall meet him 
 again if we should stroll down that pretty hill to 
 Bouley, in which quiet retreat it is his intention to 
 locate himself for the rest of the season.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 87 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE ISLAND OF JERSEY. 
 
 The size of the Island and general appearance. How to see the 
 Island. Description of its beautiful bays, and charming coast 
 scenery. Its valleys, lanes, and roads. Its orchards, flowers and 
 beautiful cows. Hobbler's ruminations on the scenery of Jersey. 
 The romance of man's life. The people of Jersey. Their 
 Dress. Their industry and penuriousness, and general character. 
 Their great prosperity and its causes. Their Laws. Society. 
 Lack of English Sports. Clameur de Haro. 
 
 THE Island of Jersey, the largest and most 
 important of all the Channel Islands, lying, as has 
 been said, within a bay of France, is about forty 
 miles in circumference, taking its coast line ; its 
 greatest length at any part being about ten miles, 
 and its greatest breadth about six. 
 
 Almost the whole of this island is richly culti- 
 vated, and it abounds in luxuriant scenery. The
 
 88 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 whole of its coast line is wild and magnificent 
 it being literally an iron bound coast, though some 
 of its bays are exquisitely verdant. 
 
 But, kind readers, our traveller will now, if you 
 will allow him, take you an excursion round the 
 island and through the island, in order that you 
 may view the wildness of its coast scenery with 
 all its beautiful bays, that you may travel over its 
 admirable roads, that you may wander through its 
 charming shady lanes, and that you may revel in 
 its exquisite, and most justly celebrated valleys. 
 
 Now it is not my intention to divide the island 
 into different day's excursions, as is usually done 
 by guide books (I have already stated that I have 
 no intention of writing a guide book) ; but I would 
 rather recommend to a traveller to read a descrip- 
 tion of a place before he visits it, and with the aid 
 of a map to chalk out for himself his day's route. 
 If he is very much pressed for time, he should 
 take a private vehicle of some sort, and drive 
 through the principal parts of the country, espe- 
 cially in Jersey, where the hire of horses and 
 carriages is so cheap. But 1 would especially 
 advise him, that if he has plenty of time at his 
 disposal when visiting these islands, and is a good
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. bU 
 
 pedestrian, by all means to walk it ; for our traveller, 
 though now physically incapacitated for doing so, 
 was not in this case on his first visit to Jersey, 
 some few years ago, when he enjoyed the treat of 
 walking over the island, and is quite convinced 
 from his experience, that though a great deal may 
 be seen by riding, the only way really to see and 
 appreciate all the beauties of the country, is by 'a 
 tramping excursion. 
 
 I will now take the different places worth seeing, 
 in something like the order that they occur on the 
 map ; not pledging myself, however, to any parti- 
 cular rule, but dotting them down in the order that 
 they occurred to our traveller's memory when re- 
 counting his adventures ; for though I am about to 
 put these visits all in one chapter, they did not 
 take place in any regular succession, many of them 
 occurring after he had returned to Bouley, and we 
 only put them together for the sake of bringing his 
 rambling ideas into something a wee bit shapeable. 
 I will now accordingly endeavour to give a brief 
 description of all the principal beauties of the 
 Island of Jersey. 
 
 Starting from St. Heliers eastward, we will 
 proceed round the coast.
 
 90 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Passing along St. Clement's Bay, and Grouville 
 Bay, the first place we arrive at of any note is 
 Gorey. Neither the Bay of St. Clement's, or that of 
 Grouville are particularly interesting. 
 
 The former is completely studded with rocks, 
 stretching as far as eight or ten miles out to sea. 
 Somewhere about the centre of this bay is a pretty 
 little place called Pontac, where there is a very 
 comfortable hotel. This place is much visited by 
 the townspeople. The shores of both the above 
 named bays are very flat. The villages of the same 
 names as the bays are decidedly pretty, especially 
 Grouville, which has one of the most picturesque 
 churches in the island. These villages both lie a 
 little inland. 
 
 On crossing Grouville Bay, the distant castle of 
 Mount Orgueil comes into view, soaring high 
 amongst the clouds, with the town of Gorey lying 
 immediately beneath it. This is a very picturesque 
 scene, especially when viewed from a distance, and 
 doubly so when the oyster fleet is in the harbour. 
 The old weather-beaten castle standing aloft on its 
 rocky crag, looks down a sort of grim old giant 
 upon the small houses and small vessels below, 
 over which it appears to mount guard, like some
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 91 
 
 huge sentinel ever watchful on his post. In for- 
 mer days, this castle was doubtless of great strength, 
 but since the introduction of cannon it has become 
 of but little use, provided an enemy could get 
 possession of the neighbouring heights which com- 
 pletely command it. There is, however, some 
 talk of fortifying these heights, and erecting large 
 barracks there. The town of Gorey is the third and 
 in fact the last of the Jersey towns, no other 
 places in the island laying claim to that distinction 
 but St. Heliers, St. Aubin, and this place. 
 
 This town is particularly interesting to the tourist 
 on account of its fleet of oyster boats, which in 
 the season, from the beginning of September to 
 the end of April, are constantly, to the number of 
 three or four hundred, going in and out of the har- 
 bour. When they are sailing in, or sailing out, 
 or lying in port, this immense forest of masts 
 forms a very pretty object in the landscape. There 
 are two or three decent inns here, so that the tra- 
 veller need not starve ; and to those enjoying a 
 little life, Gorey is by no means a bad place to 
 stop at, as independant of the aforesaid fleet of 
 oyster boats, there is always lying in the harbour, 
 or its neighbourhood, a small steamer bearing her
 
 92 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Majesty's pennant, sent there for the especial pro- 
 tection of the oyster fishery and fishermen ; these 
 latter (principally Englishmen) being a terrible set 
 of fellows who are always getting into hot water by- 
 fishing nearer the French coast than they are 
 allowed by law to do, poaching as it is termed, 
 when they are sure to be chased by a French 
 cutter or steam vessel, and the English war vessels 
 ought always to be there to see fair play. Many 
 are the tales of hair breadth escapes, and wonder- 
 ful stern chases that one hears from these hardy 
 and daring seamen. 
 
 Mount Orgueil has a good deal of history at- 
 tached to it. The great French general Du Gues- 
 clin, in the reign of Edward III., besieged it, but 
 was compelled to retire from before its walls. Once 
 the French obtained possession of it, but did not 
 hold it long, being driven out by the islanders and 
 the English before they held it six months. It was 
 held successfully for sometime against the Parlia- 
 mentary troops in the time of the Commonwealth, 
 but was compelled eventually to submit to them. 
 Originally it was a very strong fortress, but it is 
 now fast falling to decay, though many parts are 
 still in a good state of preservation.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 93 
 
 Charles the Second remained in this castle for 
 several months, and the celebrated Prynne was 
 confined there for upwards of three years. 
 
 From the top of the keep, an extensive view can 
 be obtained of the coast of Prance, and also of the 
 neighbouring parts of the island. Leaving Gorey 
 and climbing the hill at tne back of the castle, the 
 country that the traveller now sees before him is 
 altogether of a different character to that he has 
 previously viewed, and instead of the low flat 
 shores, such as those of St. Clement's and Grou- 
 ville Bays just described, he comes suddenly upon 
 that beautiful high land, wild and rugged in some 
 places, and richly wooded and fertile in others, for 
 which this island on its north and north-eastern 
 sides is so celebrated. 
 
 The first place of any note after leaving Gorey 
 is Ann Port, as charming a little spot of earth as 
 the eye can rest on. 
 
 This is a small bay backed by richly clad and 
 beautifully verdant hills, descending precipitately to 
 the shore, and on a bright summer's day with its 
 glassy and lake-like waters, and picturesque shore, 
 is altogether a luxuriant scene whether viewed from 
 the lofty hills above or from a boat at sea.
 
 94 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 The next bay is St. Catherine's, a very pretty 
 spot, but the works of man are here predominant 
 over those of nature, for this bay is mostly remark- 
 able for the enormous government works carried on 
 here, in the shape of piers, &c., to form a harbour 
 of refuge and a naval station. These works, how- 
 ever, it is thought will be abandoned, although 
 nearly completed, as it is said there is not a suf- 
 ficient depth of water for large vessels. If this be 
 the case, it must be confessed to be a most terrible 
 waste of public money, upwards of half a million 
 of English money has already been spent upon 
 these works, and one cannot help thinking that 
 there must have been frightful jobbery somewhere. 
 But our business is not with such matters just now, 
 but rather to revel in the beauties of nature which, 
 in this part of the island, come upon us thick and 
 threefold, for at every turn you take, new ones 
 burst upon the view in almost endless variety. 
 The works at St. Catherine's are well worthy of 
 inspection, and the roads leading down to this 
 bay and to Ann Port are both of them wild, precipi- 
 tous, and picturesque. 
 
 After passing the north-eastern point of the island 
 known as La Coupe, in the neighbourhood of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 95 
 
 which are some very interesting Druidical remains, 
 the roads descends a very steep hill which leads 
 to the village and harbour of Rozel. 
 
 Rozel is a sweet little bay, or creek, with a 
 small but rather pretty village, consisting of a few 
 old fashioned houses scattered about here and there, 
 the whole overhung by cliffs and hills of a very bold 
 character, which in many places are crowned with 
 luxuriant foliage, and in others present a wild and 
 sterile appearance. On one of these hills are some 
 beautifully laid out gardens belonging to a Mr. 
 Curtis, which he generously allows the public to view. 
 Here he has succeeded in growing on an almost 
 barren rock all sorts of eastern and rare plants. 
 
 There is a small harbour here, but it is only 
 capable of admitting small craft. A most charm- 
 ing and secluded lane runs up from this bay into 
 the interior of the island. Rozel is well worthy of 
 a visit, and whether viewed from the surrounding 
 hills or from the shore is very pretty. There is a 
 comfortable hotel here, where the traveller can 
 refresh his wearied body, after having mentally 
 feasted upon the rich draughts of bounteous nature 
 around him. 
 
 Leaving Rozel and travelling onwards towards
 
 96 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Trinity, we pass through a valley so richly wooded 
 arfd so exceedingly beautiful altogether, that it is 
 difficult to say whether it is surpassed by any in the 
 island. The road gradually winds up the side of the 
 hill, leaving the valley which runs on a level at the 
 bottom further and further below you as you as- 
 cend, until when you reach the top of the hill, you 
 find it some hundred feet perpendicularly beneath 
 your feet. The valley down in the bottom is very 
 narrow, the opposite hill rising very abruptly within 
 a short distance of the base of the one in which the 
 road is cut. This opposite hill is most richly clad 
 with foliage, and the valley at your feet most ex- 
 quisitely green and suggestive of all that is cool 
 and refreshing, a sweet little murmuring stream, full 
 of water-cresses, running through its entire length. 
 The country, or rather the coast from Rozel to 
 Bouley, is of a very wild character, but the ride 
 along the road is a charming one, and perhaps 
 there is nothing more beautiful than the view from 
 this part of the island on a calm autumnal even- 
 ing a h sunset. Looking westward, far below you 
 is the little pier of Bouley, with the beautifully clear 
 waters of its bay, the bold rocks stretching away 
 in the distance and glowing in the refulgent light
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 97 
 
 of departing day. The glorious ocean lies beyond, 
 with the Islands of Serk and Guernsey reposing on 
 its placid bosom, and far away to the northward, 
 Cape La Hogue on the coast of France, and the 
 Island of Alderney in the extreme distance, all 
 more or less illumined by the beautifully subdued, 
 but nevertheless brilliant, tints of the setting sun. 
 Many a time has our traveller lingered on these 
 heath-covered hills to gaze upon the beauty of this 
 landscape, as viewed under the influence of the 
 fading day. 
 
 Passing onward we come to Bouley, which has 
 already been fully noticed. 
 
 The next bay to Bouley is Bonne Nuit, another 
 charming spot ; but there are so many of these 
 charming spots, that all that can be said to the 
 tourist is, go and see them, and judge for your- 
 self. 
 
 Bonne Nuit is particularly charming to the 
 lover of wild and grand scenery, and forms, like 
 Bouley, a beautiful contrast to some of the richly 
 wooded nooks that we have already passed. 
 
 Passing on again round the coast, we come to 
 one of the pets of the tourist, Greve de Lecq. 
 
 Your approach to this bay is through a valley of 
 
 H
 
 98 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 a somewhat similar character to the one described 
 as leading from Rozel, though of a much greater 
 length. It is a very narrow valley, running be- 
 tween two lofty, precipitous and richly clothed 
 hills. It is beautifully verdant, and at some parts 
 very grand. The road which winds along the side 
 of one of the hills gradually descends to the shore, 
 after running a long distance through this narrow 
 valley, or it might almost be termed pass, only 
 that passes are perhaps generally understood to be 
 roads through rocky mountains, and not through 
 luxuriantly verdured hills. 
 
 But at last you reach the bottom, when the full 
 view of the sea bursts suddenly upon you, quite 
 unlike Bouley, where the whole prospect is stretch- 
 ed out before you immediately you commence the 
 descent. Arrived at the shore, you find the hotel 
 standing almost on the sands. This is the hotel 
 where the excursion omnibus takes all its pas- 
 sengers to dine at. At least it did so in 1858. 
 Now there is an opposition, or perhaps several. 
 But a word or two about these excursions "all 
 round the Island in one day." To be bold, our 
 traveller considered them to be all a myth, for far 
 from being any great boon it is quite the reverse,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 99 
 
 and in making this remark he would not wish for 
 one moment to influence the public to the detri- 
 ment of any of the parties connected with these ex- 
 cursions, neither does he think his observations 
 have any tendency to do so. 
 
 Now, most people coming alone to Jersey, and 
 having only a short time to stop there, generally go 
 to an hotel, in which case they are always sure to 
 find plenty of folks ready and willing to join them 
 in the expense of a carriage for the day. The cost 
 of a carriage with a pair of horses, one that will 
 hold six people, is fourteen shillings ; or a four 
 wheeled chaise to hold four persons is eight shil- 
 lings. In either case, the whole expense, including 
 coachman (if you require one) and baiting, most 
 certainly would not exceed three shillings a head. 
 The fare by the omnibus is two shillings. One 
 shilling a piece in a day's amusement is certainly 
 not very much, when people go so far as Jersey in 
 search of it. By the omnibus, you are led to believe 
 you see all the beauties of the island, but you do 
 nothing of the sort; but on the contrary miss 
 many of the gems, and pass through many very 
 uninteresting parts, whereas by your own convey- 
 ance, you can see nearly ah 1 the beauties, and skip 
 
 H 2
 
 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 those places that are not worth seeing, to say 
 nothing of the advantage of being able to stop 
 when and where you like, and to remain out all 
 day if you wish it. 
 
 But to return to Greve de Lecq. It really is a 
 very beautiful place, though in the estimation of 
 our traveller somewhat overrated. The cliffs rise 
 here to a great height perpendicularly, and the 
 scene is altogether one of a very wild character. 
 Inglis says that Greve de Lecq is approached 
 through a narrow and deep valley of a wild but 
 beautiful aspect, bounded by nearly perpendicular 
 cliffs, and offering alike in its form and situation, and 
 general features a perfect picture of a solitary island 
 cove. Greve de Lecq has this advantage over Bouley, 
 that the beach is composed of soft sand, whereas at 
 the latter place it is all shingle. This is also a 
 famous place for pic-nics ; parties of this description 
 may be seen here on a bright summer's day by the 
 dozen. In the neighbourhood, are some celebrat- 
 ed caves at a point called Plemont. Our traveller 
 inspected these on one of his previous visits to 
 Jersey ; but their being rather difficult of access, 
 and when reached requiring a steady head and 
 firm limbs to go through them, of course he did
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 101 
 
 not venture there on this occasion. He would, 
 however, remark that their inspection will amply 
 reward the traveller for his fatigue and trouble. 
 They are not approachable at all times of the tide, 
 therefore the stranger should procure a guide 
 before making the attempt. 
 
 We now approach the north-western point of the 
 island, on which stands the ruins of an old castle, 
 known as Grosnez Castle, the point being Grosnez 
 Point. This castle, or rather its ruins, is sup- 
 posed to be one of the things that were in the days 
 that the mighty Roman ruled the world, as some 
 of the guide books carry the date of its building as 
 far back as the times of those mighty conquerors. 
 
 In coming to Jersey, somebody on board the 
 packet is almost sure to point out to you the resem- 
 blance which this headland bears to the head of 
 Louis Phillipe. One of the guide books says it is 
 like the head of Napoleon, but our traveller says 
 he traced something like an image of the former, 
 .but- though looking for it on several occasions, he 
 could not discover any resemblance to the great 
 conqueror of Europe. And now we come to the 
 western side of Jersey, the greater part of which, 
 as far as the coast line is concerned, is comprised
 
 102 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 in St. Ouens' bay, the most barren, the most ex- 
 tensive, and perhaps the most uninteresting of all 
 the bays, though its very wild and dreary character 
 carries with it a great charm ; and Hobbler is far 
 from certain that had he been living nearer to St. 
 Ouens than he was, but what he should have paid 
 it many visits, and perhaps revelled in the rugged 
 and desolate scenery of its bay, for when a man's 
 walk through life has been rather of a rugged cha- 
 racter, there is somewhat in this kind of scenery 
 that fuses with his ideas, assimilates with his dis- 
 position, and charms his mind when the melancholy 
 mood is upon him. 
 
 But let us pass on, and view a scene of a differ- 
 ent character. Passing round by La Corbiere, the 
 south-western point of the island, and the wildest 
 perhaps of all its wild spots, we come to St. Bre- 
 lades* bay, which take it for all in all, is, perhaps, 
 par excellence the favourite with the majority of the 
 visitors. And not unjustly so either. Not so ex- 
 tensively beautiful as St. Aubins or St. Ouens, or 
 so wild as Greve de Lecq, or so grand as Bouley, 
 it may be said to be a combination of them all to a 
 certain extent, and is altogether a most lovely and 
 most imposing spot.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 103 
 
 The bay is divided into two parts by an enor- 
 mous mass of rocks, which stand out from the 
 shore ; but the part which principally attracts the 
 visitor is the western end, where is to be seen the 
 old church, which though a building of no great 
 pretensions to architectural beauty, from its gen- 
 eral character and situation harmonises so charm- 
 ingly with all around it, that the eye is fain to 
 wander again and again to its venerable and anti- 
 quated walls. Covered with ivy of many varieties, 
 and partly embosomed in trees, standing on the 
 edge of a rock or cliff, the sea lapping up to the 
 very foot of its time-honored walls, it forms a sweet 
 foreground to this picture of the bay, which is shut 
 .in on the land side by a beautiful curve of hills 
 richly clad with luxurious vegetation, a sequestered 
 villa occasionally peeping out from behind the 
 dense foliage, or a charming little homestead with 
 the beautiful Alderney cow wandering about its 
 paddocks, crowning the brow of the hill. The 
 shores of this bay are composed of soft white sand, 
 almost as smooth as velvet. 
 
 Altogether it presents such an exquisite picture 
 of quiet repose, as exemplified in beautiful scenery, 
 that not only does the traveller linger there and
 
 104 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 find difficulty in tearing himself away from it, but 
 it is one of those sweet scenes that memory will 
 often recall and paint anew on the mind's eye, and 
 which leaves its impress so deeply engraven on 
 memory's tablets that they are rarely, if ever, effaced. 
 And St. Brelades is not wanting either in the wild 
 or the grand. Passing round a point by the church, 
 one is most struck by the contrast presented to the 
 scenery we have just surveyed. Wild and rugged 
 rocks, without a particle of vegetation, are there 
 piled one on the other, against which Neptune and 
 Boreas hurl their furious assaults with but little if 
 any effect. Loud roars the blast, and madly 
 dashes on the angry billows, but they dash and 
 roar in vain ; those time-riven rocks and tempest- 
 beaten shores are proof against all assaults. 
 " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, 'and 
 here shall thy proud waves be stayed," is the fiat 
 that has gone forth from that Almighty Power, who 
 holds the wind and waves in the hollow of His 
 hands, and against it the elements fall powerless. 
 
 The roads from St. Brelades to St. Aubins wind 
 over a very steep hill, and are of a very rugged 
 character, but the one furthest inland goes through 
 a beautiful valley, and is a very picturesque ride.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 105 
 
 This road is not the one usually frequented ; but 
 both roads lead into St. Aubins town. 
 
 There is a small bay or cove between St. Bre- 
 lades' bay and the bay of St. Aubins, called Porte- 
 let ; the easternmost end of which is Noirmont 
 Point, which latter forms the western boundary of 
 St. Aubins' bay. Portelet bay was formerly the 
 quarantine ground, and there is a sad tale told 
 here of a whole ship's crew dying of the plague, 
 their captain falling the last victim. There is a 
 large rock here known as Janvrin's tomb, named 
 after this poor captain. 
 
 Of the town of St. Aubins, our traveller has not 
 much to say. In the days of yore it was the capi- 
 tal of Jersey, but it has long since been sup- 
 planted by its powerful rival St. Heliers. The 
 bay of St. Aubins has been fully described in the 
 first chapter of this book. 
 
 Having now passed round the coast, let us take 
 a glance at the interior of the island, though I 
 have already attempted in one or two places to 
 give an idea of some of its valleys. The valley of 
 Rozel, and that leading to Greve de Lecq have 
 been described ; but, perhaps, the finest of all the 
 valleys are those leading out of St. Aubins' bay.
 
 106 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Here are the valleys of St. Laurence, Beaumont, 
 and St. Peter's, all very beautiful ; the latter, how- 
 ever, being generally considered to be most so of 
 any in the island. 
 
 This valley starting from about the middle of 
 the bay, runs north-west to St. Peter's village near 
 the western coast of the island. This is truly a 
 lovely spot, and perhaps the best drive in the 
 island. A magnificent road, equal to almost any 
 in England ; runs on a level throughout its whole 
 length. The hills rise on either side of you, most 
 richly clad with bright green turf and beautiful 
 foliage. A stream flows at your feet in many places, 
 and here and there a water mill of quaint construc- 
 tion peeps out from among the trees, and adds 
 greatly to the picturesque effect of the scene. 
 
 There is also a beautiful valley close to St. 
 Heliers on the Trinity road, called the Val de 
 Vaux, a favourite resort of the townspeople, but 
 one suited only for pedestrians, as the road is not 
 particularly good. 
 
 Another spot in the same ne : ghbourhood, called 
 Water Lane, is quite a gem, and a most delightful 
 walk in the cool of a summer's evening. But it is 
 impossible to notice all the valleys in the island.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 107 
 
 Our traveller's wish has been to describe the most 
 prominent features of Jersey, and if he has omitted 
 any of the bays, as well as the valleys, he has no doubt 
 that the same description of scenery will be found in 
 them as in some of those he has enumerated. He 
 believes he travelled pretty well all over the island, 
 but to attempt a description of all the places worth 
 seeing in it, in a book of these dimensions, would 
 be quite out of the question. 
 
 The lanes of Jersey are perhaps one of its most 
 remarkable and beautiful features. Here you may 
 ramble all day sheltered from the burning sun, 
 shut in by lofty banks, in many places covered 
 with beautiful ivys of many varieties, with a canopy 
 of green leaves overhead through which the sun 
 never penetrates. Of these lanes there are some 
 hundreds of miles in the island, and the visitor who 
 only knows the coast of Jersey, however beautiful 
 that may be, is acquainted with but a small portion 
 of its charming scenery. Perhaps the best time to 
 wander in these secluded lanes is on a summer eve, 
 when twilight is fading, and night begins to throw 
 her dusky mantle over the skies, when the feathered 
 tribes of heaven have gone to their roost, and 
 when the glow-worm, which abounds in this island,
 
 108 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 sheds its light in every direction among the hedges 
 and banks. As the poet of " The Seasons" beauti- 
 fully describes it, 
 
 " Among the crooked lanes, on every Ledge, 
 The glow-worm lights his gem, 
 Aiid thro' the dark, a moving radiance trembles." 
 
 The roads of Jersey are another remarkable 
 feature. The visitor will be struck by the excel- 
 lent roads which run in all directions across the 
 island, and he will be particularly struck by the 
 absence of turnpikes on these roads, such a thing 
 not being known in these parts; a fact rather 
 pleasant to the wayfarer than otherwise. These 
 roads were constructed as military roads, and as 
 far as general traffic is concerned, have completely 
 superseded the old roads and lanes, but whether in 
 case of war they would be beneficial to the island is 
 very doubtful. Bodies of troops could doubtless be 
 easily transported from one part of the island to an- 
 other to defend any particular point of the coast that 
 was menaced, but presuming an enemy to have ef- 
 fected a landing, these roads would be just as 
 useful to them as to the Jerseymen ; and they 
 could move their army about from one place 
 to another with increased facility. Formerly, an
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 109 
 
 enemy landing in Jersey could never penetrate into 
 the interior without prodigious loss, as not only 
 were the ways so intricate, but every lane and 
 every hedge was a fortress, from which, when 
 beaten, the islanders only retired to another not 
 fifty yards off, or perhaps even reappeared on the 
 rear of the invading forces. In fact it was this kind 
 of warfare in the province of La Vendee, which 
 cost Republican France more time and men than 
 many of her most brilliant campaigns, though here 
 she had little else than an army of peasants to 
 oppose her, in the place of the veteran legions of 
 the great European empires. 
 
 Of the villages of Jersey there is not a great 
 deal to be said. Suffice it, that the island is 
 divided into twelve parishes, each one possessing 
 its church and a cluster of houses, and in almost 
 all instances two hotels or taverns, which in nearly 
 every case are closely adjoining the church. In- 
 deed, a good deal of parish business is carried on 
 in these said taverns on Sunday morning after 
 service, and sales by auction were often effected 
 on the same day in the church-yard, but this 
 latter practice has been stopped of late years. 
 The most important of these villages, are St.
 
 110 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Saviour's, St. Martin's and St. John's, though 
 probably there is no great pre-eminence in these 
 over the other villages of the island. None of 
 them are very extensive, though all are to a certain 
 extent picturesque ; for there generally being plenty 
 of foliage in the neighbourhood, there is always to 
 be seen "the village church among the trees, which 
 points with taper spire to heaven," and which 
 adds such a charm to many of the hamlets of Old 
 England. There is a high tower in the centre of 
 the island, called La Hogue Bie, better known 
 as Prince's Tower. This is situated on the summit 
 of a mount surrounded by lofty trees, the tower 
 peeping out at the top. It is well worth the 
 trouble of an ascent, the whole of the island lying 
 stretched out at your feet ; for as you stand on the 
 battlement or roof, you can trace the sea for nearly 
 the whole circle of the island. 
 
 This place, like almost all the old buildings, and 
 all the bays, castles and prominent rocks, has its 
 legend attached to it ; but as these legends are so 
 numerous I have not indulged in any of them, 
 fearful that I should get involved in a labyrinth, 
 from which I should never be able to extricate 
 myself. But if my readers are anxious to go into
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. Ill 
 
 this subject, and what poetic mind will not plead 
 guilty to a little fancy that way, I refer them to 
 the guide books, especially that by Mr. Octavius 
 Rook, where they will find them wholesale to 
 their heart's content. 
 
 The island of Jersey, though partly devoted to 
 the growth of corn, may be described in a general 
 view of it, as one large and beautiful garden, with 
 its orchards and meadows attached. 
 
 Only a small breadth of land, comparatively 
 speaking, is set apart for the growth of grain, for 
 wherever you travel, you generally find a great 
 portion of the country devoted to the cultivation, 
 of what is commonly called garden produce, or 
 else large meadows thickly planted with fruit 
 trees. 
 
 The orchards present a very beautiful appearance 
 in the spring time, especially the apple-trees. In 
 many places you pass along lanes and narrow 
 roads where, the trees overhanging, you have a 
 beautiful canopy of blossoms over your head, when 
 the blossom fades you can fancy yourself in a 
 luxurious bower, and as the summer wears on, 
 the green leaf, richly sprinkled with the rosy fruit
 
 112 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 hanging in graceful pendants above you, forms a 
 most elegant and refreshing arcade. 
 
 Flowers grow in this island most luxuriantly, 
 and with little apparent trouble bestowed upon 
 them. The hydrangea, the fuschia and the oleander 
 are most prolific, and attain a great state of per- 
 fection. The hydrangea, especially, may be con- 
 sidered as one of the marked features of the Jersey 
 garden, generally growing to a great size and 
 blowing two colours, purple and pink. The mag- 
 nolia also grows very freely here, as well as the 
 myrtle and the verbena, and in fact most of the 
 flowers we find in England are to be found here of 
 a superior kind ; and many which in the mother- 
 country require a green-house, are here grown in 
 the open air. There is a very peculiar kind of 
 cabbage grown in these parts, known as the 
 Caesarean or cow-cabbage. It is used principally 
 for the food of cattle, though one part of it is very 
 good for the eating of human beings. It attains a 
 most extraordinary height, sometimes as much as 
 ten or twelve feet. The stems are made into walk- 
 ing sticks, though somewhat feeble reeds to rely 
 upon. This cabbage will not grow to any perfec- 
 tion in England. In speaking of the produce of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 113 
 
 the Jersey garden, we must not omit to mention 
 the celebrated Chaumontel pear, which grows here, 
 not only abundantly, but to such a pitch of per- 
 fection, that even its wholesale price in the market 
 is rarely below five guineas the hundred pears. 
 Of course this price only applies to the largest sort, 
 the smaller ones being sold at much lower prices. 
 
 One of the most attractive objects in the country 
 is the beautiful and elegant Alderney cow, which is 
 bred principally in Jersey and Guernsey. The ex- 
 quisitely shaped head, and finely developed form of 
 this animal is not only the admiration of the 
 naturalist and the painter, but is one of the 
 greatest ornaments in the justly celebrated land- 
 scape scenery of these islands. 
 
 The farm houses, several old fashioned Manor 
 houses, and a number of picturesque wells, are all 
 very attractive features in the landscape, especially 
 the latter, many of which are of a very antique 
 character, and form a beautiful subject in the 
 hands of an experienced artist. The villas and 
 cottages in the country do not require any notice, 
 being of rather an ordinary character. 
 
 As regards the cultivation of the soil in these 
 islands, it can hardly be expected that in a small 
 
 i
 
 114 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 book like this the subject should be gone into. I 
 may, however, just mention that there is a system 
 of deep ploughing carried on here, which is very 
 successful, for the soil being a great depth and 
 very rich, they are, by this system, enabled periodi- 
 cally to bring to the surface a maiden soil, and 
 also by constantly varying the crops, they never 
 impoverish the land, as it is too much the custom 
 to do in England. Add to this, the far more 
 congenial nature of the climate, the facilities of 
 procuring manure in the shape ofvraic or sea- weed, 
 and the hard working and industrious character of 
 the people, and it is not to be wondered at that 
 the produce of the Jersey farm and the Jersey 
 garden is very much more remunerative than 
 that of the mother country. 
 
 I have now recorded somewhat hastily Hobbler's 
 views of the principal external features of Jersey, 
 which, when having concluded, he was inclined to 
 follow up with one of his everlasting musings. 
 Fearing, however, that our book was getting very 
 unwieldy, and that our readers would be consider- 
 ably tired of his ruminations, I begged him to 
 be very brief about them, and to condense them 
 into as small a space as possible ; whereupon he 
 assured me that he was only . thinking, how, on a
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 115 
 
 review of all the pictures he had seen in this island, 
 what a very strong resemblance some of them bore 
 to many of the stages in man's life. 
 
 He said that in the beautiful placidity and 
 serenity of the view in St. Brelades' bay, as well as 
 in the peaceful valleys of the island and its lux- 
 uriant displays of floriculture, he could not help 
 tracing a similitude to that happy time of life, when 
 beneath the bright sunshine of a fond mother or 
 father's love, one basks in the delightful warmth 
 of pure happiness ; when all is calm and peaceful 
 and we float on the full tide of innocence ; when 
 the mind is at ease, and the brows untraced by 
 care; when childish and youthful we revel in the 
 very heyday of pure enjoyment ; and when every- 
 thing we view appears in gorgeous colours and 
 richly fragrant, even as the peace of these valleys 
 and purity of these landscapes, or the brilliant and 
 sweet flowers of this island strike home to our 
 senses in the bright sunlight of a summer'sday. 
 
 Again in the grandeur and wildness of Bouley 
 bay, Bonne Nuit, and other places of a like des- 
 cription, he would fain fancy that he saw the land- 
 scape counterpart to that time of human life when 
 the bud of youth is expanding into the open blos- 
 
 i 2
 
 116 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 som of maturer age; when the boy becomes a 
 man and his riper ideas begin to develope them- 
 selves ; when the limited world that he has hitherto 
 lived in begins to enlarge ; when the grandness of 
 his future life and his castle buildings tower high 
 in prospective before him, even as these aspiring 
 hills ; and visions float before his mind's eye, of 
 future greatness as wild and as bold as the totter- 
 ing crags of these magnificent bays, though per- 
 haps only like them destined, alas, how soon to 
 fall and be dashed to atoms. 
 
 Again in the rugged and the desolate character 
 of St. Ouens, and the cheerless rocks that surround 
 this coast in all directions, without one particle of 
 vegetation to relieve their barrenness, he imagined 
 that he saw but too often the portraiture of that 
 time of human existence, from which it is to be 
 hoped that very many are exempt ; when man's 
 path through life becomes rugged and cheerless 
 as these barren rocks, his prospects perhaps des- 
 troyed by some afflictions of Providence, and his 
 hopes all blighted and desolated by the rude winds 
 of adversity, even as these wild rocks are desolated 
 and steriled by the wear of time and the terrific 
 blasts of the elements.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 117 
 
 And once more he would return to the sweet 
 repose of St. Brelades, fancying that he saw painted 
 there the peaceful enjoyment of declining life, but 
 we must not allow our traveller to indulge in this 
 style of reflection. Besides he cannot know aught 
 about declining years, whatever he may do of the 
 previous scenes, so I will abruptly terminate his 
 musings on the romance of man's life as delineated 
 in landscape scenery, leaving him, if very anxious 
 to do so, to perpetuate his ideas in this metaphorical 
 style, in the shape of moral and sentimental essays 
 somewhere else. 
 
 To proceed, I will now endeavour to give our 
 traveller's ideas, his descriptions and his opinions 
 on the internal or domestic affairs of the island ; 
 and I will also endeavour to condense them as 
 much as possible, merely just taking a glance at 
 its inhabitants, their manners and customs, their 
 peculiarities and their great prosperity, and per- 
 haps a word or two about their laws. 
 
 In travelling about Jersey, one cannot fail to be 
 struck by the general appearance of the prosperity 
 of the islanders, and the consequent absence of 
 poverty and beggary. 
 
 Beggars are rarely to be seen, and though the
 
 118 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 dress of the peasantry and that of many who rank 
 much above that class is not of a very fine texture, 
 it is not the want of the means, but rather the 
 want of inclination to spend money that causes 
 them to dress so shabbily. The dress of the 
 Jersey people may as well be noticed here. The 
 lower classes, as a rule, dress very plainly and at 
 a very small expense, and the richer classes in the 
 country, at least the males, are not fond of spend- 
 ing much in attiring their persons ; though they 
 do try to make something of a show on Sundays, 
 but somehow or other, it is difficult to say why, 
 their clothes generally look as if they were cut out 
 with a pick-axe, and put on with a pitch -fork. 
 They seem to fancy too that it is unbusiness like to 
 be well dressed in the week days, except Saturday, 
 when many of them don their best in order to go 
 to market. In the town of St. Heliers, the men of 
 all classes dress plainly in the week, the lower 
 classes especially so, but on Sundays they all come 
 out smart. 
 
 As regards the dress of the female portion of 
 the inhabitants, it is only necessary to say that 
 quite the lower classes are plainly and cheaply 
 clothed, whilst all the rest, throughout the island,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 119 
 
 are most extensively attired, and the remarks 
 applied to the lady visitors in the first chapter of 
 this book will apply with equal force to them. 
 All young ladies officiating in shops, also wear 
 very fashionable habiliments, as also do the 
 servant girls, which latter are a very independant 
 class in the island, as they appear to be in England 
 also now a days. 
 
 Cheapness, not only in dress, but in every thing 
 else, is the grand desideratum. In fact, the greatest 
 characteristic of the people of this island is frugality 
 carried to its extreme limit, and designated by 
 many writers as penuriousness ; and our traveller 
 is compelled to state that from all he saw, while 
 resident in Jersey, that money, or rather the 
 getting of money, is the principal thought that 
 occupies, from blushing morn to dewy eve, the 
 whole mind of the population. 
 
 They rarely rest except to take their meals, and 
 then only allow the bare time to swallow them ; 
 and altogether they may be said to be the very 
 patterns of industry, (especially the women of the 
 lower classes who work like slaves) though some 
 think this never ceasing craving after money, a 
 fact almost to be lamented as much as idleness.
 
 120 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 In their business dealings, they drive bargains very 
 close, but then perhaps they are contented with 
 small profits. In the country they live on very 
 common food always sending the best produce of 
 their land to market. A Jerseyman is rarely if 
 ever convicted of theft, and they are therefore 
 considered patterns of honesty as well as industry, 
 though some folks have been found ill-natured 
 enough to raise a doubt as to whether such very 
 close shaving in business is quite compatible with 
 the pure spirit of honesty. 
 
 Jersey labour (at least agricultural labour) is 
 not generally to be hired, for there is a kind of 
 give and take system among the natives by which 
 they assist one another when aid is required, and 
 which though apparently not a very independent 
 system, is said to work very well amongst them- 
 selves. Hired labour, if wanted, is to be found 
 among the English, French or Irish portions of the 
 population. 
 
 The language spoken in Jersey is now generally 
 English, though the working classes talk a kind 
 of patois, called Norman French, which is a ter- 
 rible jargon, and quite unintelligible to either 
 English or Frenchmen. The upper classes speak
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 121 
 
 both English and French as well as the Jersey 
 patois. 
 
 Party spirit runs very high in this island, and 
 it matters little what improvements are suggested, 
 without they emanate from that party in the 
 ascendant, as there is not a shadow of a chance 
 of their success unless proposed by the dominant 
 power. 
 
 Education is to be had here of a very good 
 character, and at a very moderate cost, and that 
 at Victoria College offers many advantages for 
 the upper, and middling classes; and many 
 English families send their children over to Jersey 
 and Guernsey, for the sake of receiving a cheap 
 and good education. 
 
 The inhabitants of this island are not very 
 celebrated for their beauty. This remark applies 
 especially to the working classes, and the .cause is 
 most obvious. Incessant labour, combined with 
 poor living, tells very much against the proper and 
 handsome developement of the human frame; added 
 to which, the general system of intermarriage which 
 is carried out in most families, and it is not to be 
 wondered at that the people are pronounced to be 
 deficient both in stature and beauty. Owing to
 
 122 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 this system of intermarriage, a great portion of the 
 population are constantly in mourning ; and as a 
 rule, many of the females in the country always 
 wear black bonnets to be ready to meet the oft 
 recurring season of wearing black, mourning it 
 can scarcely be called when it is donned so 
 constantly, for though the " inky cloak" may be 
 accompanied by " the dejected 'haviour of the 
 visage," it is much to be feared that they are very 
 often but trappings and outward show. 
 
 The people of Jersey are rather of a lively turn 
 of mind, partaking to a certain degree of the vivacity 
 of their near neighbours the French, and are gene- 
 rally good-natured, civil and polite, though one 
 somewhat misses in the country that polite and 
 pleasant recognition from the peasantry, with 
 which one is greeted in travelling through most 
 parts of England, and which our traveller met with 
 to a great extent even in the neighbouring island 
 of Guernsey. 
 
 The religion of Jersey is principally Protestant, 
 the Roman Catholics not mustering very strong. 
 The Church of England numbers a large portion of 
 the population among her members, though there 
 are a very large proportion of dissenters of different
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 123 
 
 persuasions. Party spirit runs as high in religious 
 affairs as it does in political ones. 
 
 The Channel Islands are in the diocese of Win- 
 chester, and are visited by the Bishop every three 
 years for the purposes of confirmation, &c. &c. 
 
 Living in Jersey is decidedly cheap, though not 
 nearly so much as it was a few years ago. 
 
 House rent is much about the same as in Eng- 
 land, and the principal necessaries of life are but 
 little different in price. Land is very dear, being 
 about 3 the vergee, or nearly equal to 7 the acre 
 annual rent, whereas in England you can procure 
 very first rate land at from 3 to 4 the acre. 
 
 But there is almost a complete absence of taxes, 
 and rates are a mere nothing. The tax-gatherer 
 is an unknown personage in these islands, and 
 luxuries are very cheap, owing to the fact of Jersey 
 and indeed all the group of islands being free ports, 
 and consequently there are no custom dues to be 
 paid. 
 
 The population of Jersey is somewhat about 
 64,000, the town of St. Heliers claiming nearly 
 half the number. 
 
 The climate of this island is generally considered 
 superior to that of England. Snow falls but very
 
 124 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 seldom, but rain in great abundance at certain 
 seasons. On the whole it is considered a healthy 
 place, but is somewhat notorious for the develope- 
 ment of rheumatic and liver complaints, and at 
 times of excessive rain is subject to severe incur- 
 sions of fever. 
 
 In summer time it is a delightful dwelling place, 
 though the town of St. Heliers is perhaps a little 
 too hot. 
 
 The laws of Jersey are very curious, never 
 having been much changed since the days of King 
 John. Some of them are perfectly unworthy of the 
 present age, but as a Commission has been ap- 
 pointed by the House of Commons to enquire into 
 them in order to rectify their abuses, it is needless 
 to enter much into the subject. At the same time, 
 I would advise the visitor to these parts who may 
 have an hour to spare, to read them, and probably 
 he might derive some amusement from their perusal ; 
 but it is imperative upon every Englishman before 
 going to take up his residence there to make him- 
 self thoroughly acquainted with them, and when 
 perfectly conversant on the subject to be very care- 
 ful not to infringe them, especially the law of 
 debtor and creditor, which is a very curious one.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 125 
 
 The population of Jersey is decidedly military, every 
 man being compelled to serve in the militia between 
 the ages of seventeen and seventy. After residing 
 in Jersey for more than a twelvemonth, every male 
 between those ages is expected to take a part in 
 the defence of the country, and for that purpose 
 must be enrolled as a militiaman. 
 
 The Jersey people are not particularly partial to 
 the English, though doubtless they prefer them to 
 the French as masters, being no doubt well satisfied 
 that if they fell under the dominion of the latter 
 power, they would be governed by the same laws, 
 and subjected to the same amount of taxation as 
 any other department of Trance, and most certainly 
 not retain possession of those exclusive privileges 
 that they enjoy under the mild rule of Great Britain. 
 In their manners they are decidedly more French 
 than English, though the towns have not the least 
 the appearance of French ones. 
 
 As to Jersey being able to maintain itself as an 
 independent power, the idea is absurd ; for beyond 
 all doubt, if England withdrew her protection from 
 the Channel Islands, they would most assuredly fall 
 into the hands of the French. 
 
 And now let us just glance at the prosperity of
 
 126 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 these islands. Whence comes it that the inhabi- 
 tants of all these islands, and especially those of 
 Jersey, are what is commonly called so well to do 
 in the world ? 
 
 It is doubtless owing partly to their great in- 
 dustiy and frugality, though the great secret of it 
 really lies in the fact that the English government 
 has conferred commercial privileges upon these is- 
 lands, which it grants to no other province of her 
 dominions. 
 
 As has already been stated, there are very few 
 customs duties to be paid here, and no taxes ; and 
 the Jersey people are thus placed in a position 
 completely beyond that of the English. 
 
 French and indeed all foreign produce is imported 
 into the island duty free. Jersey produce is im- 
 ported into England duty free also. Jersey vessels 
 are rigged with foreign cordage, which pays no 
 duty, and her vessels were formerly constructed 
 with untaxed timber, which latter paid a heavy duty 
 in England. 
 
 Put these facts together Jersey sends her own 
 produce to England, which owing to the fertility of 
 her soil, the mildness of her climate, the immunity 
 which her people enjoy from rates and taxes, and
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 127 
 
 the industry of her population, she can afford to 
 send into the English market at a lower price than 
 the growers in that country. She then imports for 
 her own consumption, foreign produce duty free. 
 
 Take potatoes, for instance, which she can grow 
 at a lower price than the English farmer can do. 
 So she sends them all to the high priced market in 
 England for sale, and goes herself to purchase in the 
 cheap ones of France. 
 
 But I must leave these matters. I should have 
 much liked to have gone more into the detail of the 
 manners and customs of the people of the Channel 
 Islands, as well as into their commercial history, but 
 I fear I have already spun this chapter out to a most 
 unwarrantable length, by going into topics somewhat 
 irrelevant to the nature of my book, and will there- 
 fore bring it to a conclusion. 
 
 For a more detailed account of the people, their 
 manners, and customs, and commercial greatness, I 
 would refer my readers to a very admirable work 
 written by Mr. H. D. Inglis more than twenty 
 years ago, called the Channel Islands, which though 
 now imperfect in some of its information, is never- 
 theless on the whole a correct and valuable work. 
 Some of the information in this chapter has been
 
 12S A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 gained from that work, and the author would grate- 
 fully acknowledge it, though he makes bold to say 
 that the bulk of it has been gleaned by the personal 
 observation of Mr. Thomas Hobbler, and that there- 
 fore that gentleman and the author are answerable 
 for all the errors (and the latter fears they are many) 
 contained herein.* 
 
 Let us now proceed to the conclusion of the 
 chapter. There are numbers of English residents 
 in the island, to whom, if the visitor gets an intro- 
 duction he will find himself much in the same society 
 as if he was in England. The behaviour of 
 these residents is much like that of those of the 
 mother country, though they sorely lack the sports 
 of that sporting land. 
 
 It has already been stated that there are very few 
 amusements in Jersey either in doors or out. There 
 being no game in the Channel Islands, there is no 
 shooting; there being no streams and very few 
 ponds, there is but little fishing ; and the country 
 being of too dangerous a character, there cannot be 
 any hunting. 
 
 * A digest of the laws and a great deal of statistical information 
 may be obtained from the Independent Almanac, a very useful 
 publication, and produced at the low price of Is.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 129 
 
 Having touched on the laws of Jersey, it will not 
 be thought out of place in this chapter to notice 
 the enforcement of one of them a law of a most 
 singular character, called Clameur de Haro, which 
 took place during our traveller's residence in Jersey. 
 I cannot do better than give the words of Inglis on 
 this peculiar law, which is most undoubtedly a 
 remnant of the dark ages. 
 
 " Ah 1 encroachments on property, and all civil in- 
 juries which require a prompt remedy, may be 
 resisted by the Clameur de Haro, after which an 
 action is brought. This singular exclamation, the 
 form of which is ' Haro, Haro, Haro, a 1'aide mon 
 Prince,' was only made use of in the Duchy of Nor- 
 mandy, as it existed on its first constitution, on 
 occasions of great peril or consequence, and was an 
 appeal made to Rollo for justice and protection, as 
 the founder of the laws, and preserver of the rights 
 of the people. The word Haro is compounded of 
 Ha ! an earnest ejaculation, and of a contraction of 
 the name of the duke. But much as it was formerly 
 respected in Normandy, it is to this day no less 
 absolute here ; it is an instantaneous check which 
 cannot be disputed, and one of the parties must be 
 fined !" The occasion, to which I have alluded when 
 
 K
 
 130 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 this law was put in force, arose from of a dispute 
 between the rector of one of the country parishes 
 and a portion of his congregation. It appears that 
 he had been empowered by the Bishop of the diocese 
 to effect certain repairs in his church. Whether he 
 exceeded his powers our traveller does not pretend 
 to say, but most certainly some of his proceedings 
 were so rapid that one was almost tempted to fancy 
 that the fairies, ( which according to the legends 
 have had a great hand in many ecclesiastical matters 
 in this island) had been lending a helping hand ; for 
 they said that one night the parishioners had seen 
 an old gallery in the church it its proper place, and 
 the next day it had vanished and a pretty gothic 
 window appeared in its stead. But to the law. It 
 was to stop this terrible and almost supernatural 
 improvement of the church, that one of the ill-used 
 parishioners resorted to the terrors of this law, and 
 launched the thunders of old Rollo upon the inno- 
 cent workmen engaged in the repairs of the church. 
 Down on their knees go these officers of justice, and 
 invoking the presence doubtless of the grim old 
 Norman, they shout out his name with the Ha ! be- 
 fore it, and woe betide the desperate man who dares 
 resist the challenge. In this case, the men were deaf.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 131 
 
 The old proverb says " none so deaf as those that 
 wont hear/' So thought the court, for they fined 
 these men for disobedience of the laws, for sad to 
 say they went on working in spite of the proclama- 
 tion of this terrible Clameur de Haro. 
 
 Jersey presents many features of interest for the 
 study of the botanist, and the geologist. The ferns 
 of Jersey are seventeen in number, and probably 
 others exist which have escaped the observation of 
 the student. But I linger too long in this Island of 
 Jersey, and the only apology I can offer my readers 
 for doing so, is that our traveller spent the greater 
 part of his time there. Perhaps it might be as well 
 to add that this island is the principal one of the 
 group, no other, excepting Guernsey, holding any 
 comparison to it ; and this latter is decidedly in- 
 ferior to it in size, in population, and in the beauty 
 of its scenery. Moreover, many of the remarks 
 made, and descriptions given in this chapter, are 
 intended to apply to the whole group of the Channel 
 Islands. 
 
 We will now go to these other islands. The 
 weather is charming, the beautiful sea most tempting, 
 and the steamers very inviting, all ready to convey 
 our traveller to these not very distant shores. And 
 
 K 2
 
 132 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 he, with our aid, is both ready and willing to have 
 the honour of conveying our readers there, and to 
 introduce them to the Lions of the neighbourhood ; 
 and I sincerely trust, between us, we shall be able to 
 enliven the excursion with some little incident, and 
 make it as pleasant and agreeable to our readers as 
 possible. 
 
 " Let go the head rope. You for Guernsey, Sir ? 
 Look sharp if you please. Move her a head. Go on."
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 133 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GUERNSEY. 
 
 St. Peter's Port. The Landing, and shouting porters. Castle 
 Cornet. Harbours. The Fish-market. Churches. Dearth of 
 Public Buildings. General View of the Island. Cobo Bay and 
 " poor Billy." Splendid scenery on the south-west coast. In- 
 habitants of Guernsey. Their Courtesy. Their Gardens and 
 Flowers. Guernsey Society. 
 
 " THE early birds catch the worms." So goes 
 the old saying, and the early man catches the pure 
 breezes of blushing morn, which inspirit his mind 
 and invigorate his body. Now as I have before 
 explained it, Hobbler, though he had the will to in- 
 dulge in this luxury, had not always the ability to 
 do so, but sometimes he did manage it. 
 
 On a beautiful morning in the month of August 
 he rose from his couch almost with the lark ; for 
 after completing his toilet, and having ridden more
 
 134 A HOBBLE THKOUGH 
 
 than a mile, he found himself on board the steam- 
 packet Express lying in St. Heliers, harbour, soon 
 after the clock had marked the half circuit of its 
 hour hand. 
 
 'Twas, as I have said, a glorious morning, and all 
 nature seemed full of life and vigour, the hills rejoiced 
 in the bright sunshine, and the sea shone like glass. 
 The steam was up, and at half past six the vessel 
 quitted her moorings, and lightly gliding out of 
 port, was soon ploughing her way through the 
 waters of the ocean, leaving her foamy track behind 
 her glittering in the sunbeams, which danced upon 
 the frothy waves, sometimes in pure white crystals, 
 and at others in all the prismatic colours of the 
 rainbow. 
 
 Before nine o'clock, the shores of Guernsey were 
 reached, and soon after that hour our traveller found 
 himself seated in a comfortable hotel in the Town 
 of St. Pierre la Porte, partaking of an excellent 
 breakfast for which his unwontedly early journey 
 had given him more than his wonted appetite. 
 
 On approaching Guernsey from Jersey, one gets 
 a peep at the prettiest part of the coast, having a 
 distant view of one. or two of its most beautiful bays. 
 
 Unlike the island last named, Guernsey's beauties
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 135 
 
 lie on the south, and south-west of it ; the northern 
 and eastern parts, present a very wild, flat and 
 uninteresting appearance. Before entering the port, 
 we pass a large Castle, built on a rock some distance 
 from the shore, which somewhat reminds one of 
 Elizabeth Castle at St. Heliers. This is called Castle 
 Cornet. 
 
 On landing at St. Peters, one encounters some- 
 thing of the same kind of nuisance in the way of 
 contending porters as at St. Heliers, though here 
 they are certainly under some degree of control, as 
 no man can come to take your baggage unless 
 called by number. How you are to choose, it is 
 somewhat difficult to determine, when all are shout- 
 ing out in the hope of being engaged. " Call out 
 twenty-one, Sir, that's me Sir," cries out one man. 
 " Thirty-six did you say, Sir ? " cries another. 
 " Here I am, Sir, number eighteen, Sir," holloas 
 a third. "Take your baggage up, Sir. I'm 
 thirteen, Sir," shouts a fourth. " Carry your bag, 
 Sir, number twenty-four, Sir, take it for sixpence, 
 Sir," bawls out a fifth in tones fit to split the drum 
 of your ear. " Get out of the way, it's my turn ; 
 that man aint no business here, and the gen'lman 
 looked at me, didn't you, Sir ?" roars a sixth. " No
 
 136 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 he didn't," says another, a very roguish looking chap, 
 who was standing out of the rank and nearly up to 
 his knees in water, " his honour winked at me." 
 And so it goes on until the captain or the policeman 
 interferes in your behalf, and scatters these hungry 
 officials right and left. Not only ' unpleasant to be 
 so bothered, but to have insult added to injury, by 
 being told that you indulge in the vulgar habit of 
 winking it is really too bad. But Hobbler did not 
 mind it ; in fact having only a small carpet-bag with 
 him, I think he rather liked the fun. Moreover he 
 was again revolving in his mind what a charming 
 thing it was to land, and not be subjected to that 
 very unpleasant inquisition the Custom House. 
 
 Now Hobbler only spent a few days in Guernsey ; 
 but, nevertheless, he was enabled, by the aid- of a four 
 wheeler, to see most of the places of attraction in 
 the island, and as was his usual good fortune he 
 found several agreeable companions ready to join 
 him. 
 
 This makes a very inexpensive amusement, for 
 you can hire a horse and chaise for the greater part 
 of the day for six shillings. This between four 
 people is not very extravagant for a day's amuse- 
 ment and instruction ; though doubtless to the good
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 137 
 
 pedestrian even this can be dispensed with, and 
 a still greater amount of gratification be derived. 
 So thought Hobbler, and so thinking, his mind 
 reverted to the days when he could have tramped 
 the Island of Guernsey round in one day ; for pre- 
 vious to his illness, he had been what would be 
 termed rather a great walker. But he was not 
 much given to grumbling, so he only thought of 
 those days, he did not talk about them ; and not 
 being able to walk, he was very thankful that 
 carriage hire was so cheap, as to allow him to ride. 
 Well then he rode, and who would not do so, 
 situated as he was ? Reader, would not you ? Always 
 provided you have the chance. But let us start 
 fair, and it is but right to say a few words about 
 the capital of the island, St. Peter's Port, before we 
 ramble into the country ; for in these days of centra- 
 lisation, when according to the theory of some men, 
 who are styled the men of progress, the towns are 
 all in all, and the country but as nothing, it will not 
 do to put the cart before the horse though if our 
 own individual views were expressed, we would can- 
 didly confess that we sometimes think it a very 
 pleasing variation in the usual monotonous routine. 
 However, though Paris may not be quite all France ;
 
 138 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and London, Manchester and Birmingham are cer- 
 tainly not yet all England ; and St. Peter's Port not 
 quite all Guernsey, though doubtless a great part 
 of it, I will be orthodox, and so to the town. 
 
 The town of St. Peter's presents rather a curious 
 appearance on approaching it from the sea, from its 
 being built on the side of a hill. On its extreme 
 right, at about a mile distance, is a battery of some 
 strength. On its extreme left, and elevated on lofty 
 cliffs, is a very high column raised to the memory 
 of Sir John Doyle, one of the former governors of 
 the island. Immediately in its front is Castle Cor- 
 net, a short distance from the shore, the harbour 
 and piers lying between. The town rises abruptly 
 from the water's edge, the upper parts being some 
 hundreds of feet above the level of the sea, and 
 being reached by very precipitous streets, or nights 
 of many steps. The streets are of a very narrow 
 and intricate character, and the one boasting the 
 name of the High Street is a thoroughfare of a most 
 ordinary description, and must have received its 
 name more from the fact of its running up a very 
 steep hill, than from any pretensions it can put 
 forth as to its superiority over its fellows. It is 
 true that the best shops are here ; and, hence,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 139 
 
 Hobbler supposed its high title. The esplanade is 
 altogether of a different character. The side next 
 the sea is not built upon, and the road is a good 
 width, with the exception of one part, which will 
 probably soon be improved, and made to correspond 
 with the rest. 
 
 Castle Cornet, as I have said, verv much reminds 
 
 w 
 
 one of Elizabeth Castle, at St. Heliers, standing 
 on a rock some distance out to sea, though now 
 it is nearly connected with the land by the new 
 pier. This castle is a fine pile of buildings and 
 stands up in grand relief, when viewed from the 
 shore, either at morning or evening twilight. It is 
 well worth a visit, and has some history attached 
 to it. In the time of the Commonwealth, this cas- 
 tle was most gallantly held against the Parliamentary 
 forces, and did not capitulate until it was found 
 that further resistance was useless. 
 
 The harbour and piers of St. Peter's are well 
 worthy of notice. Here there are most extensive 
 works going on. The old harbour and piers are 
 of a very limited character, but the new ones, 
 when completed, will be not only commodious, 
 but also a great ornament to the town. There 
 are two splendid granite piers in course of construe-
 
 140 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 tion, which, when finished, it is hoped will be of 
 sufficient length to enable the steam boats to come 
 alongside at all times of the tide, instead of as 
 at present landing their passengers in small boats.* 
 
 Like St. Heliers, St. Peter's has very few hand- 
 some buildings. There are some fine barracks on 
 the heights, and a very fine college on the north- 
 eastern hill, called Elizabeth College. This latter 
 is a handsome building of the castellated style, 
 built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, after whom 
 it was named. 
 
 There is a curious old church on the Esplanade, 
 but the ecclesiastical buildings of this town, like 
 all its other buldings, with a very few exceptions, 
 are of a very inferior order. Indeed, there is no 
 use disguising the fact, that one must not visit 
 the Channel Islands in the expectation of seeing 
 any beauties of architecture (saving always that of 
 nature's work, which is magnificent), for not only 
 is there a great dearth of handsome buildings, but 
 one does not even find here that quaint style of 
 architecture, that you would be led to expect you 
 
 * Since writing the above, the works of the harbour have been 
 so far completed, that the steamers are generally enabled to go 
 alongside the piers.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 141 
 
 might see in a place in such near proximity to the 
 province of Normandy, where one meets with so 
 much that is picturesque and interesting. I might 
 add that the private buildings of this island are 
 rather superior to those in Jersey. 
 
 The markets of St. Peter's are not equal to 
 those of the capital of the sister island, with the 
 exception of the fish market, which is perhaps one 
 of the finest and best 'supplied in Europe. It is 
 a fine, lofty building of great length, down each 
 side of which are the stalls. Every stall has a 
 marble slab, over which a constant supply of pure 
 water is flowing, and the fish look as fresh as if 
 they were in the sea ; and the fishwomen also look 
 very fresh and blooming, and with their Norman 
 caps of snowy whiteness, add much to the general 
 effect. It is really quite a treat to walk through 
 this market on Saturday, and see the splendid 
 display of fish of all kinds, and the beautifully 
 clean and tempting manner in which they are laid 
 out. There is a good supply every day in the 
 week, but Saturday is the great day, not only to 
 see the fish and the picturesque vendors thereof, 
 but also to see the ladies, who on that day frequent 
 the markets in large numbers, and elegantly attired.
 
 142 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Of course, the other sex very naturally follow, and 
 so the fish market becomes a fashionable promenade. 
 Fish, owing to its abundance in this market, may 
 be, of course, procured very cheap. 
 
 Before quitting the town, it were well to say a 
 word about the hotel where Master Hobbler en- 
 sconced himself during his stay in this island. 
 
 The two principal houses here, are said to be the 
 Yacht in High Street, and Gardner's Hotel on 
 the Esplanade ; but our traveller went to the British 
 in High Street, then kept by a Mrs. Marquis, 
 where he found his quarters very comfortable, his 
 living very excellent, and his hostess very kind and 
 attentive. The coffee room of this hotel was 
 charmingly situated. Entering by a door in the 
 High Street, which runs parallel to the Esplanade, 
 but up a steep hill, you go through a long narrow 
 passage to this coffee room, where you find your- 
 self in a very capital sized room, with a window 
 taking in the whole width of the Esplanade front- 
 age, for you look down upon that street, which 
 lies some twenty or thirty feet below you. 
 
 The harbour lies at your feet, and, with all its 
 shipping, forms a very lively foreground. Castle 
 Cornet is a short distance beyond, looking like
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 143 
 
 some grim old fortress just risen out of the ocean. 
 About four miles off are the Islands of 
 Herm and Jethou, Serk about seven, and Jersey 
 in the distance twenty miles away. This view, on 
 a bright summer's day when the sea is sparkling 
 in the glory of a noon day sun, is most charming, 
 and the verdant isles, scattered on the ocean, look 
 like beauteous emeralds set in glittering diamonds. 
 For a sea-view, this is perhaps the liveliest and 
 most picturesque our traveller ever beheld from an 
 hotel window. 
 
 But we will take our country trip now, and 
 first let us have a look at the most uninteresting 
 parts of the island, saving the most beautiful, 
 like children do the tit-bits of their meals, until 
 the last. 
 
 Starting eastward from St. Peters, the coast 
 presents no particular features of interest. Some 
 few miles from the town is St. Samsons, a town 
 or a village, I hardly know which it is called, 
 where an omnibus plies to. This omnibus, our 
 traveller thought, was a great deal more fit to be 
 called a cart, for it certainly more resembled that 
 kind of vehicle, covered in, with doors and windows 
 put to it, than an omnibus.
 
 144 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 St. Samsons is a very ugly place, with a harbour, 
 however, capable of containing vessels of some size. 
 So the guide books say, but when our traveller 
 visited it, it was low water ; and low enough it 
 was, and this harbour did not look like a harbour 
 at all. Passing round the north-eastern parts of 
 the island, the view is none of the finest. The 
 country is flat and sterile, and in many places the 
 roads are covered with sand, giving the whole 
 neighbourhood a very desolate appearance. Much 
 of the land in this part has only been reclaimed 
 from the sea within the last few years. Rocks of 
 a reddish colour are sprinkled about in all directions 
 for some miles out to sea, and render this part of 
 the coast very dangerous for navigation, and con- 
 sequently very safe from invasion. 
 
 Cobo bay, in the north side of Guernsey, is a 
 place of great resort, being within a drive of four 
 miles of St. Peters, straight across the middle of 
 the island. There is a famous little inn here, 
 called the Cobo hotel, once very celebrated for its 
 pancakes. Whatever it may have been celebrated 
 for, Hobbler cannot certify, but he thinks that 
 now it must be celebrated as the residence of one 
 of the funniest old creatures he ever saw, in the
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 145 
 
 shape of its landlady, Mrs. Mundey. This worthy 
 old lady does not own to be old, and it is difficult 
 to say what her age may be, she looks any age you 
 like on the shady side of well no matter what, it 
 might be libellous, so I won't say. Her husband, 
 who she calls Billy, is also probably not so old as 
 appearances would lead one to imagine he was. 
 Billy was dressed very smartly in blue coat, bright 
 buttons, plum coloured waistcoat, and fancy 
 trowsers ; but mine hostess was attired in very 
 simple costume, a dress of a light dust coloured 
 cotton fabric, made very straight, no crinoline, but 
 in the fashion of fifty years ago. The said dress 
 looked as if it had been near the frying pan, and 
 not far off" the chimney, but this might only be 
 fancy. Mine hostess was decidedly not pretty ; 
 I can't say what she might have been in her youth- 
 ful days, but now her features were rather angular, 
 and her complexion somewhat cadaverous ; in fact 
 she looked not very unlike the sound of her voice, 
 just half a tone sharp. 
 
 Billy "was ruddy and in good condition, but 
 somewhat lacked expression, and his voice was 
 perhaps something like himself, just half a tone 
 flat. Now Billy, it appears, had been a fast man
 
 146 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 in his time. He had been a bon vivant and a jolly 
 companion once, and felt it necessary, in the excess 
 of sociability and conviviality, to indulge in large 
 potations with the numerous guests who, a few 
 years ago, frequented his house ; and Billy's head, 
 not being strong enough to withstand the inroads 
 that such indulgences will at some time or other 
 most assuredly make in such cases, has given way, 
 that is to say, I am afraid he has become a sort of 
 silly Billy, and his worthy spouse is constantly in- 
 forming the visitors of this fact. 
 
 Now, as has been said, mine hostess was of a 
 very eccentric turn of mind, but she was also pos- 
 sessed of a very kind disposition, and despite all 
 her eccentricity, there was no disguising it. Well, 
 pitying poor Hobbler's state of health, she imme- 
 diately became very friendly, motherly, and patron- 
 ising towards him, as well as very communicative. 
 She related to him the above facts about poor 
 Billy, as she called him, and said she, stroking his 
 head (Billy's head, I mean, not Hobbler's), " Poor 
 Billy was a very good fellow in his day, and a very 
 good scholar too," she added, " and now cuts up 
 beans beautifully. My dear boy," she said, addressing 
 Hobbler, " Billy is a very good fellow still some
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 147 
 
 times." Query, thought our traveller, if he is 
 only fitted for cutting up beans. She further said 
 that if Hobbler would come and stop at her house, 
 she would make him very comfortable, and that 
 he should live like a prince, for she was considered 
 the best cook in the island. " Ain't I, Billy ?" she 
 asked of the poor, mild looking fellow. " Yee'es," 
 said Billy, looking up from the beans. " And you 
 will make the dear boy very comfortable, wont 
 you Billy ?" " Ye-ees," again responded Billy, once 
 more raising his eyes from the vegetables that he 
 was operating upon. She then made our traveller 
 a present of some fine pears, for which she would 
 not accept a farthing in payment, being rather 
 indignant at the offer. " Poor Billy," she began, 
 soliloquising ; " Poor Billy, he was a good fellow 
 once, but he ought to have been dead long 
 ago." 
 
 Hobbler now began to think that things were 
 growing serious, and that Billy might become 
 jealous. Pistols, measured paces, and grim 
 seconds, loomed unpleasantly in the distance, 
 though to all appearance poor old Billy quietly 
 acquiesced in the idea that he ought to have been 
 dead long ago. With many protestations of 
 
 L 2
 
 148 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 kindness and affection, and another repetition 
 of her words that " Billy ought to have been 
 dead long ago," our traveller was allowed to depart. 
 When next he goes that way, probably poor Billy 
 may have paid the debt of nature, and then who 
 can predict what might be the consequence, if 
 again subjected to the fascinations of the widow 
 Mundey and her pancakes. Here we must quit 
 Cobo bay, having lingered there far too long ; but 
 we advise all visitors to Guernsey to go there, if 
 it is only to see the funny landlady, whose fame is 
 certainly very extensive, and not unmerited, both 
 oil account of the goodness of her cookery, and 
 her kindness, as well as for the amusement which 
 she can never fail to afford her visitors. Though 
 Cobo bay is an uninteresting place, the ride to it 
 from St. Peter's is one of the prettiest in the 
 island. 
 
 Let us now take a journey in the other direc- 
 tion. Leaving the town in a westerly direction 
 and ascending a very steep hill, the barracks and 
 the monument to Sir John Doyle are passed, after 
 which the road descends gradually to one of the 
 prettiest spots in the island called Fermain bay. 
 This is a very charming place, but our traveller
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 149 
 
 after describing in rather a detailed manner all the 
 principal bays of Jersey, does not think it necessary 
 to go so fully into those of Guernsey, as in many 
 respects there is a great similarity between them, 
 though the Guernsey beauties are much fewer in 
 number than those of the other island. The prin- 
 cipal bays are Fermain, Petit Bot, Moulin, Huet, 
 Rocquaine bay and Torteval, a visit to any one of 
 which will amply repay the traveller for any 
 trouble and fatigue he may incur in reaching them. 
 All of them may be approached by small roads or 
 lanes, winding along the sides of the hills, and 
 gradually descending to the sea-shore, and all of 
 them lie on the south and south-west of the 
 island. 
 
 The views obtained through the openings in the 
 hills in this part of Guernsey, are most picturesque, 
 and the coast, at the particular places named above, 
 is very grand, the shore rising to a great altitude 
 in bold and rocky crags, in some places wild and 
 barren in the extreme, in others surmounted by 
 hills covered with grass or heather. Petit Bot is 
 particularly beautiful, and the scenery of this bay 
 surpasses perhaps that of any of the splendid bays 
 of Jersey, though as a rule the scenery of the latter
 
 150 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 * 
 
 island very far outshines that of its neighbour, both 
 in beauty and grandeur. 
 
 The gardens of Guernsey are very beautiful, and 
 flowers of all kinds flourish most luxuriantly, even 
 more so than in Jersey, and in some places the 
 houses may be seen covered with fuschias and 
 geraniums, and the parterres round St. Peter's Port 
 generally present a most beautiful appearance, the 
 various flowers being brought to a great state of 
 perfection, much more labour being bestowed on 
 them than in Jersey. 
 
 The general appearance, however, of this island 
 is altogether different to that of its neighbour, and 
 in comparison with it, is rather barren, there being 
 an absence of those splendid orchards and arcades 
 of fruit trees, as well as clusters of forest trees, 
 which makes almost every part of the Island of 
 Jersey so attractive to the tourist who misses also 
 here those charming lanes, with their verdant 
 banks and hedges, through which you can ramble 
 with such delight in the more southern island. 
 
 But though the traveller will not be so much 
 struck by the scenery of Guernsey, as he is by that 
 of Jersey, he will probably come to the conclusion 
 that as far as the people are concerned, the former
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 151 
 
 island would be the pleasanter of the two to reside 
 in. The inhabitants are very fond of money, but 
 the love of it does not take possession of the minds 
 of men to the extent that it does in the sister 
 island, neither does party spirit run so high. 
 The Guernsey people have a patois of their own, 
 as well as the English and French languages which 
 latter are both spoken by the educated classes. 
 
 The folks here are very polite, and the upper 
 classes more refined than those of Jersey. From 
 the lower classes, especially the peasantry, one 
 generally meets with a degree of civility and respect, 
 which a resident of any length of time never looks 
 for in Jersey, and consequently he is never disap- 
 pointed, though perhaps a casual visitor may think 
 differently. 
 
 The upper classes of Guernsey are decidedly in 
 advance of their neighbours. And this is accounted 
 for by many, not only by the fact of their being 
 many more old families of respectability in the 
 one island than the other, but also by a 'still more 
 significant fact, and that is that Guernsey, alias 
 its people, has long been addicted to travel, where- 
 as Jersey has only lately taken to it ; consequently 
 the ideas of one people are more enlarged than
 
 152 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 those of the other. In proportion, however, to 
 their greater amount of aristocratic birth and re- 
 finement, the Guernsey folks possess their due 
 amount of pride, and classes and cliques figure in 
 this island to perfection, though, as for this matter, 
 the Jersey people are not by any means deficient. 
 
 Guernsey has a copper coinage of its own, 
 French silver is current, and English gold. In 
 Jersey they have their own copper coinage, thirteen 
 pence to the shilling, English silver and English 
 gold. 
 
 There is a great diversity of opinion among 
 travellers as to which of the islands, Guernsey or 
 Jersey, is the most picturesque. Of course every- 
 body forms their own opinion, and retains it ; but as 
 far as our traveller's views are concerned, he gives 
 his humble opinion that Guernsey is not to be 
 compared in beauty to the sister island, at the 
 same time he considers that it presents a never 
 ending series of charming and delightful rambles, 
 and he most strongly recommends every one who 
 visits Jersey, or any of the other islands, never to 
 dream of coming home again, until they have 
 also paid a visit to the Island of Guernsey.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 153 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ISLANDS OF SERK, HERM, JCTHOU AND 
 ALDERNEY, AND THE CASKET ROCKS. 
 
 Excursion to Serk. The Voyage. Neptune and Boreas at play, 
 and the Steward at work. Fair Venus in danger. The parting 
 glass. Approach to the Island. Harbour of Le Creux. La 
 Coupee and its story. General description of the Island. Herm 
 and its tiny shells. Melancholy incident. Life and Death. 
 Jethou. Alderney and its fortified works. The Casket Bocks. 
 
 " THE sun is up, the lark is soaring," and the 
 planet Venus, the bright morning star, and all 
 the multitudinous hosts of heaven, have paled 
 before the brighter light of old Sol. But not so 
 the steamer Venus, which now appears on the 
 scene, and with steam up seems to delight in its 
 glorious reflections. With a full cargo of pleasure 
 seekers, numbering among them Mr. Hobbler, 
 she moves smoothly out of St. Heliers' harbour,
 
 154 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and all on board rejoice at the gladness and bright- 
 ness of the prospect. 
 
 Now they say that " pleasure is a terra that 
 often means pain," and perhaps this saying is 
 never applied with greater truth than to an excur- 
 sion to sea. Smoothly out of the harbour glides 
 the vessel, but not smoothly does she glide on. 
 " Tell me who your companions are, and T will 
 tell you what you are," again to quote old proverbs. 
 Well, old Neptune all the previous night had been 
 keeping company with rude Boreas, and had ac- 
 cordingly caught some of the infection of his rude 
 spirit, and was slightly inclined to be rude too, 
 being a trifle ruffled in his temper this fine morning. 
 And the beautiful Venus found herself fishing in 
 troubled waters, so that many of the pleasure 
 seekers, even ere her speed was fully attained, 
 wished themselves again on shore. Not being able 
 however, to gratify these wishes, comfortable 
 berths to leeward, and a goodly array of basins 
 became the order of the day. 
 
 Rough and rude were the waters that morning, 
 as passing St. Brelades, (all beauteous in its sunny 
 morning garb it appeared,) the steamer ploughed 
 on through their foam-dashing billows, and each
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 155 
 
 passenger received a fresh christening at the hands 
 of the briny old sea god, old Sol standing sponsor, 
 and looking down, with beams of glorious satis- 
 faction on his bright visage, upon his godchildren, 
 most of whom did not at all appreciate the atten- 
 tions of either party. And now the steamer ap- 
 proaches the south-western point of the island, 
 known as La Corbiere, a wild spot where the sea 
 is ever restless ; and here according to our travel- 
 ler's anticipation, the strife of waters vented their 
 full fury upon the beautiful goddess. The land, 
 after that point was past, interposing itself between 
 her and the boisterous waves, she found herself 
 suddenly in smooth water. But it was a warm 
 parting, something like the parting glass or stir- 
 rup cup used in Scottish festivities in years happily 
 gone by, which if the previous potations had not 
 taken effect, was sure to finish the? addlement of 
 what few senses its recipient might have left, for 
 Neptune's parting glass that day was on a scale to 
 put all previous libations quite into the shade, and 
 the fair Venus staggered under the effects of such 
 copious draughts. Whether he did it in exuber- 
 ance of his spirits, or whether the poor thing of 
 earth who controlled the movements of the laughing
 
 156 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 beauty put her too much into the eye of the windy 
 god upon that half merry, half angry sea, it mat- 
 ters not ; but sure it is, that watery god, raising 
 his trident aloft, rushed on board that ship in all his 
 vigorous majesty, and breaking right ahead rolled 
 grandly over both bows in a broad stream, and 
 washed the vessel in a complete torrent from stem 
 to stern, knocking down in his fun two or three 
 of fair Venus's passengers who stood at the head 
 of the boat (like the Irishman who meets with a 
 friend and for love knocks him down), and drench- 
 ing every one within his reach. The point is 
 however past, the sun is still shining gloriously, 
 and old Neptune, satisfied with his morning escap- 
 ade, looks bright and joyous, and calms his 
 exuberant and ruffled spirits. Luckily he did 
 so, for a few more such exhibitions of his prowess 
 might possibly have sent the loving goddess and 
 her attendant mortals to seek any further amusement 
 and enjoyment among his fair friends the mer- 
 maids. 
 
 Serk now hove in sight, rising precipitately 
 from its ocean bed, like a fragment of some large 
 island cast from its parent soil by some vast con- 
 vulsion of nature, or like a huge rock torn by a
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 157 
 
 mighty giant's hand, and pitched into the middle 
 of the sea. 
 
 Soon the island is reached, and the poor help- 
 less mortals, whom Neptune's vagaries had laid 
 prostrate for the greater part of this very pleasant 
 and charming excursion began to hold up their 
 heads, laughter mingling with the now subsiding 
 sounds of a far more questionable and less pleasant 
 character that had been heard throughout the 
 morning ; wetted garments were thrown aside, 
 basins vanished from the scene, the vessel anchored 
 off the romantic harbour on the south side of the 
 island ; all was again joy and gladness, and the 
 steward was at peace. 
 
 But there was an exception to this brightened 
 picture, in one poor unhappy lady, who appeared so 
 perfectly prostrated by the effects of the rough 
 sea, that she was obliged to Jpe slung ashore in a 
 hammock ; and when the vessel left that afternoon, 
 she was unable to return to it, and as our traveller 
 afterwards heard, she never recovered from the 
 shock, but sank from sheer weakness and exhaus- 
 tion, and died the next day. A sad termination 
 to a trip of pleasure, and one that makes us ponder 
 how people who are subject to this terrible malady
 
 158 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 in such a form, can venture on the sea for a pleasure 
 excursion. 
 
 
 
 The harbour to which I have alluded is called 
 Le Creux, and our traveller thought that, without 
 any exception, it was the wildest and most pic- 
 turesque scene of the kind he had ever beheld. 
 Land-locked in every sense of the word it is, three 
 sides of it being shut in by perpendicular rocks 
 rising to a height of two or three hundred feet 
 above the sea, the fourth side closed up by a lofty 
 wall running out at right angles from one of these 
 rocky cliffs, merely leaving an opening for small 
 vessels and boats to enter. Inside this secluded 
 nook, your boat is run on the beach, for there is 
 no other landing place ; and when there, you find 
 yourself apparently without the means of egress, 
 except that by which you had obtained admission. 
 But you discover at Jast that what had appeared 
 at a distance only like the opening to some cavern, 
 is in reality a tunnel through the rock, and leads 
 to the interior of the island. 
 
 A cavern originally, no doubt it was, and nothing 
 else ; the only entrance to Serk in former times 
 being by a precipitate flight of steps, or rather a 
 succession of foot holes in the face of the rock, and
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 159 
 
 a rope suspended from the top of the cliff, up 
 which only the strong and nervous man could 
 possibly climb. 
 
 After passing through the tunnel, the road 
 winds up and up, until at last you find yourself 
 at the top of the table land of the island, and 
 somewhere about its centre. 
 
 Hobbler was fortunate enough to have on his 
 visits to Serk fair companions, who tempted him, 
 by their persuasions, to go on and on in search of 
 the hotel, rather further than was compatible with 
 his state of health and strength ; but who can 
 hesitate when fair lady leads the way ? The hotels, 
 for there were two of them, were at last discovered 
 among the trees, and within very little distance 
 of each other. They were, however, further from 
 the landing-place than his friends had imagined, 
 though really but a short distance for a person in 
 good health to walk, perhaps three quarters of a 
 mile. 
 
 Both these houses appear to be very comfortable, 
 though the one kept by Mrs. Hazelhurst has de- 
 cidedly the advantage in situation over the other. 
 Our traveller went to the other one for the few 
 hours he remained in the island, and was well
 
 160 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 satisfied with the accommodation he received there. 
 Here he met some friends, by whom he was intro- 
 duced to a medical gentleman, who had been 
 some time resident in the island, and who strongly 
 recommended him to remain there, as the most 
 healthy one of all the group. 
 
 Serk is a most remarkable island, and decidedly 
 the most romantic and wild of all the Islands of 
 the Southern British Channel. As I have stated, it 
 is like a large rock rising out of the ocean, nearly 
 every part of its coast line ascending perpendicularly 
 from the shore. It is a very small island, not any 
 part of it being more than a mile and a half across, 
 and . its greatest length only about three and a half 
 miles. The population is about seven hundred souls. 
 There is a church here of a very primitive character, 
 and surrounded by a garden teeming with the most 
 luxuriant flowers, which latter are carried away in 
 the season by handsful by the visitors, who seem to 
 think that if any place, no matter what, is open for 
 their inspection, they have the liberty to do as they 
 please with its contents. This desecration of the 
 dwelling place of the dead, for I cannot use any 
 other words to describe the wanton act, is I am sorry 
 to say generally perpetrated by the excursionists,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 161 
 
 mostly English people, for I do not believe the in- 
 habitants of the island would be guilty of such a 
 disgraceful act. 
 
 There are no villages in this, island, the houses 
 being dotted about in all directions, as if they had 
 been built, and then pitched down just where the 
 fancy of the owner prompted him, perfectly regard- 
 less of any formation of communities, such as are to 
 be found in the larger islands, or frequently in 
 England, in neighbourhoods with a very much 
 smaller number of inhabitants in proportion to the 
 size of the surrounding district. 
 
 Serk is altogether a charming place to the lover 
 of the wild and magnificent in nature, for though 
 the island is so small, the scenery is very grand , 
 and had our traveller been sufficiently in possession 
 of the use of his limbs, nothing would have delighted 
 him more than remaining there for a week or two, 
 and drinking in the health-giving breezes which, 
 turn where you will, seem to meet you at every step 
 you take. 
 
 This island, at a first view of it, would give you 
 the idea of being all a table land, but it is not 
 entirely so by any means ; but is intersected by deep 
 wooded romantic dells, through which flow several 
 
 M
 
 162 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 sweet little bubbling streams. These valleys are 
 very richly beautiful, and contrast most admirably 
 with the barren and rugged character of the coast 
 scene in general. 
 
 Dixcart bay and valley are charming. Shut in 
 by hills profusely clad with verdure, and teeming 
 with brilliant and fragrant wild flowers, it is indeed 
 a most enchanting spot. 
 
 Port Frey, Port du Moulin and Terrible bay are 
 all well worth the traveller's inspection. Indeed the 
 whole islands may be described as a delightful 
 series of beautiful landscapes. 
 
 The great wonder however of Serk is the Coupee, 
 a narrow ledge of rock, or bridge, connecting Great 
 and Little Serk together ; for I should state that the 
 island is divided into two parts, which are only 
 joined together by this narrow causeway. 
 
 This pathway which is about four hundred feet 
 in length, is only a few feet broad, and being at an 
 elevation of three or four hundred feet from the sea, 
 on one side absolutely perpendicular, and on the 
 other not very far removed from it, is a place that 
 requires rather a steady head to cross it. 
 
 There is a funny tale told about this spot, con- 
 cerning a man who lived in Little Serk, but who
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 163 
 
 spent his evenings at a public-house in the larger 
 island. He is said to have indulged rather freely 
 in his evening potations, and not being always able 
 to maintain so just an equilibrium as might be ne- 
 cessary to cross over this narrow bridge, he adopted 
 the very curious test as to whether he possessed 
 the required amount of sobriety, by walking along 
 an old cannon which lay on the ground on the 
 Great Serk side of the bridge. If he succeeded in 
 walking over this gun, he was able to cross with 
 safety ; but if he tumbled off (which doubtless was 
 very often) he laid there, until another experiment 
 on the gun told him that his brains had sufficiently 
 recovered their steadiness, to enable him to cross 
 over the dangerous causeway. Truly there is a 
 method in madness, so they say, and as drunken- 
 ness is a species of madness, this anecdote decidedly 
 corroborates the old adage, for there was a con- 
 siderable amount of method displayed by this island 
 toper. 
 
 The cliffs are intersected by numerous caverns, 
 and the effect of light and shade on the rocks is 
 most beautiful ; at sunset more especially so, when 
 they appear in ever varying tints, and assume 
 almost every shade of colour. Though the Island of 
 
 M 2
 
 164 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Serk is of such small dimensions, it must be allowed 
 most certainly to bear away the palm in point of 
 fine scenery from all the other islands, beautiful 
 though those others be. 
 
 This little island is a sort of small kingdom in 
 itself. It has its own little army in its militia, the 
 colonel of which is the Seigneur of the island, and 
 a kind of petty sovereign. It grows its own corn, 
 and builds its own boats, is governed by its own 
 laws, and altogether is a very independent sort of 
 a place to live in ; though it is somewhat to be 
 doubted whether the inhabitants could get on alto- 
 gether without supplies from the neighbouring 
 islands. 
 
 Serk is an island that ought to be seen by every 
 visitor to these parts, and the traveller in this neigh- 
 bourhood who neglects to go there, misses a sight 
 which he may journey many a long mile before he 
 finds anything like its equal. 
 
 Like all the other islands, this one has a great 
 store of legend attached to it ; but I cannot possibly 
 enter into them here as it would swell my book to 
 too great a bulk, but to those who would like to 
 peruse some of the fabulous tales connected with 
 it, and 1 can assure my readers they are of a most
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 165 
 
 romantic character, I again recommend them to the 
 guide book by Mr. Rooke. Our traveller visited 
 Serk on two occasions, and on both of them enjoyed 
 himself exceedingly. Though very fatigued, he 
 managed, through the kind offices of the medical 
 gentleman before alluded to, to procure a seat in the 
 only vehicle that is let out for hire in the island, 
 and though the roads are none of the smoothest, he 
 arrived safe and sound at the little harbour, which 
 the steamer quitted about four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, reaching Jersey before dark. It is as 
 well perhaps to add that being in good company 
 and not being subject to sea sickness, the day had 
 no drawbacks to our traveller. 
 
 On another day in the autumn, a little later in 
 the season, but just such a beautiful one as that 
 described in the beginning of this chapter, Hobbler 
 found himself again on board that fast and favourite 
 steamer Venus, which was about to pay a visit to 
 the two smaller Islands of Herm and Jethou, which 
 lie within a very few miles of Serk, on the side most 
 distant from Jersey. The passage between this 
 latter island and Serk was much of the usual de- 
 scription, and the vessel arrived off the harbour of 
 Le Creux about ten o'clock in the morning. Here
 
 166 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 she landed about half her passengers. The passage 
 between Serk and the other islands is rather of a 
 dangerous character, and requires a good knowledge 
 on the part of the captain of the particular rocks to 
 be avoided and the currents to be encountered, in 
 order to secure a safe journey in any weather, but 
 especially so in a rough sea. 
 
 Now, this was the only excursion to Herm this 
 year, and consequently going so seldom, the captain 
 of the Venus was not particularly well acquainted 
 with the navigation. This difficulty was, however, 
 got over by taking on board at Serk an old fisher- 
 man from Herm, who acted as pilot, in whom it is 
 no great disrespect to the captain of the steamer to 
 say, Hobbler felt much more confidence, as he ap- 
 peared perfectly conversant with those waters, which 
 the captain certainly did not, as he was heard en- 
 quiring whether after leaving Serk, he should go 
 eastward or westward. Doubtless he could have 
 gone either way, but still the sea not being very 
 smooth that day, it was much more pleasant to be 
 under the charge of a man who had spent the 
 greater part of his life on that coast, than under 
 that of one who appeared to be somewhat ignorant 
 of it.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 167 
 
 The islands were safely reached, and the steamer 
 cast anchor between them about mid-day. The 
 landing place was of a most primitive character, 
 being on the rugged rocks, and a rugged path it 
 was too after you had landed ; and had not our 
 traveller been supported by a strong arm, he would 
 have been unable to reach the shore, but must, most 
 certainly, have returned on board the steamer, 
 without fulfilling the principal object he had in 
 coming to Herm, namely the procuring some of the 
 tiny shells for which this island is so celebrated. 
 
 Herm is a very small island, about three or four 
 miles in circumference. It has two small hotels, 
 but it is quite certain that they cannot be support- 
 ed by the inhabitants, who do not muster one 
 hundred strong, but must rather depend upon the 
 visitors, who in the summer time come over in 
 large numbers from Guernsey, which is not four 
 miles distant from it. Indeed, when standing on 
 the beech at Herm, St. Peter's Port appears but a 
 very little way off, and one could more fancy that 
 one was looking across a broad river, than a 
 channel of the ocean. 
 
 Yes, and a very pretty river too, for being a very 
 bright day, the view of the island of Guernsey from
 
 168 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 this spot was particularly fine, indeed as good a 
 one as you can procure any where. 
 
 A ramble through Herm will amply repay the 
 traveller for the trouble of a day's excursion there, 
 though at the same time it must be added that 
 after viewing the other islands in this neighbour- 
 hood, both Herm and Jethou appear very tame. 
 
 The scenery is wild and rocky, but a detailed 
 description of it would not be interesting to the 
 reader, after that of the other islands. 
 
 The shells which so many people come here in 
 search of are a great attraction. They are of a 
 very diminutive character, though doubtless at 
 some period, large shells have abounded on this 
 coast ; for a mile of the shore at high water mark, 
 for about a yard wide, is a mass of shell dust, not 
 sand nor gravel, but positively for some depth 
 nothing but broken shells, ground by the incessant 
 action of the waves into small particles. It is 
 among this dust that the small shells so much 
 prized are found, and it has been asserted by some 
 authorities in such matters, that most of the shells 
 that are found on the various sea-coasts of the 
 world, are found here in miniature. Hobbler 
 brought away with him a large bag of this shell
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 169 
 
 dust, from which he afterwards extracted quantities 
 of very beautiful shells, some of them so small that 
 they were hardly to be discovered with the naked 
 eye, and he has no doubt but that with the aid 
 of a microscope they might be found by thousands 
 upon thousands of such a diminutive size, as 
 only to be detected by a very strong magnifying 
 power. 
 
 Jethou, the sister island to Herm, is a place of 
 no note whatever, having only one house upon it, 
 and being little else than a large rabbit warren. 
 The passage between the two islands is of a very 
 narrow and dangerous nature. 
 
 Before quitting these islands, our traveller wishes 
 to relate the occurrence of a most melancholy inci- 
 dent, which though not connected with his visit 
 there, for it occurred when he was in Guernsey, 
 still as it relates to Herm, it is not quite out of 
 place to mention it here. 
 
 On a beautiful bright morning during one of 
 his visits to Guernsey, Hobbler was taking a stroll 
 before breakfast in order to court an appetite for 
 that meal, when he observed a small sailing vessel, 
 with about a dozen people in it, on the point of 
 starting for an excursion to Herm. There were
 
 170 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 folks of both sexes on board, some old and some 
 young ; and there were glad and merry hearts 
 in that boat, as dancing in the merry sunshine, 
 she sped her lively course across the sparkling 
 sea. 
 
 Our traveller watched her and her gay cargo, as 
 with canvass spread to catch the favouring breezes 
 of that fine morning, they gradually disappeared 
 from his view and entered the little strait that 
 separates Herm from Jethou. And he went 
 home to his morning meal, and thought to 
 himself what a merry party he had seen, and 
 how by that time they were disporting them- 
 selves on the sandy beach or bramble-covered 
 hills of Herm, or how they were hunting for the 
 tiny shells. And Hobbler went forth with his 
 friends to his day's amusement, exploring some 
 of the richest of nature's beauties, as display- 
 ed in the Island of Guernsey. And the day 
 had well nigh waned, night had begun to 
 close in upon the scene, man had ceased from 
 his labours, and the pale moon had risen on 
 the earth. Our traveller had returned to his hotel, 
 and was spending the evening in pleasant con- 
 verse with his friends, having well nigh for-
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 171 
 
 gotten that lively party that he had seen quit 
 the be*ach in the morning so full of life and 
 spirits. 
 
 Where were they now ? Had they spent a happy 
 day, and had they returned to a happy home at 
 night ? All had perhaps passed a day of enjoyment 
 and merriment, and some had returned to their 
 homes, but not all. 
 
 Towards night came gloomy rumours of a boat 
 being upset on the treacherous waters that sur- 
 round these islands in all directions. Rumour 
 soon ripened into sad reality, and before long it 
 was known all over St. Peters, that that great 
 enemy of man, who so often steps in to mar his 
 brightest hopes, and so often crosses his path 
 when least expected, and who in a moment con- 
 verts the full spring time of pleasure and enjoy- 
 ment into the seared and autumnal time of mourn- 
 ing and sorrow in a word it was but too soon 
 known, that grim death had in a few short hours 
 been rife among the merry party, that the boat 
 had been capsised, and four of those joyous beings 
 who had quitted that shore a few hours before so 
 full of life, had returned to them joy no longer 
 beaming in their eyes, laughter no longer issuing
 
 172 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 from their throats and lighting up their faces, but 
 cold, stiff, and inanimate corpses. 
 
 Truly, as some of our moralists would say, such 
 was the morning and such the night. The former 
 all gladness, joy, hope, sunshine and vigorous 
 life the latter sorrow, mourning, darkness and 
 death. This accident cast a sad gloom over all 
 the town, and our traveller retired to his bed sad 
 and serious, reflecting on the uncertainty of human 
 life, which like the grass of the field to-day is, and 
 to-morrow is cast into the oven. 
 
 I stop not to enquire into the cause of this 
 melancholy accident, but pass on to the conclusion 
 of this chapter. 
 
 The steamer returned in safety from Herm, 
 touching again at the romantic island of Serk, 
 which in the subdued light of the fast fading day 
 looked more grand and picturesque than ever, and 
 arrived at St. Heliers in the dusky hour of 
 twilight. 
 
 This was the last of Hobbler's excursions. 
 
 There remains one more island to be noticed, 
 which perhaps my readers will think ought to have 
 been passed under observation before the smaller 
 ones last named, and that is Alderney ; but as our
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 173 
 
 traveller did not go there, he has very little to say 
 about it from personal observation, having only 
 seen it from a distance. From all he has read 
 and heard of it, he thinks it must be a very un- 
 interesting place as compared to Jersey, Guernsey 
 or Serk. But it is much talked of just now on 
 account of the prodigious government works that 
 are being carried on there, in the shape of a 
 harbour of refuge and naval station, and from its 
 position, commanding as it does the important 
 harbour of Cherbourg on the French coast, it may 
 some day become a place of some consequence. 
 The great, and in fact the only inducement for the 
 tourist to visit Alderney, will be to view these 
 extensive fortifications. The only town in Alderney 
 is St. Anne's. 
 
 The Casket Rocks of which it is usual to speak 
 when writing of the Channel Islands, are 
 the nearest points of land to the English coast. 
 There is little to say about them, but that on 
 these rocks are erected three light-houses, which 
 stand as the watchful sentinels of the Channel to 
 warn the mariner off their inhospitable shores, 
 to tell him of his whereabouts. 
 
 The chief attractions in the islands of the
 
 174 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Southern British Channel have been passed under 
 review, and we will now suppose Hobbler returned 
 to his Jersey home, after having seen all the lions 
 described in the last three chapters. The next 
 chapter will find him in a new character at his 
 quiet and comfortable retreat at Bouley.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 175 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THREE MONTHS' RETIREMENT AT BOULEY. 
 
 Hobbler returned to his Jersey home } appears in a new character. 
 Cincinnatus. My bed-room. Our kitchen. He studies domes- 
 tic economy. Turns cook, and goes a marketing. A Thunder- 
 storm. The Fetes at Cherbourg. Hobbler's Dream of the Fu- 
 ture. Atlantic Telegraph. The Comet. Conclusion of the 
 Season. Harvest. Fern Cutting. Vraic Gathering. Florence 
 Nightingale. The Ladies of Bouley. Adieu to Bouley. 
 
 How delightful it is after the cares and troubles 
 of public life, to retire into the sweet enjoyment of 
 domestic and rural life. There was a certain old 
 gentleman of whom I recollect reading when I 
 was a boy, by the name of Cincinnatus, who after 
 defeating the enemies of his country and having 
 done a vast deal of public good, retired from the 
 busy world and took to domestic pursuits, and was 
 rather fond of his garden. " What's that that roars
 
 176 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 so loud and thunders in the index ?" I dare say my 
 readers will exclaim. Is it possible that he is going 
 to compare his hero with the great Roman warrior. 
 Most certainly not I never dreamed of such a 
 thing, I only wish to shew that one principle may 
 apply to different objects, though of course in 
 different degrees. 
 
 Now if a great man like Cincinnatus could find 
 so much enjoyment in the retirement into rural 
 and domestic life, leaving as he did all his honours 
 behind him, hiding the glory of his achievements 
 in obscurity, and foregoing all pretensions to public 
 adulation, and that too in the very prime and 
 vigour of his life how much more delightful must 
 it be to a poor crippled invalid, who had no honours 
 to lose, and no glory to obscure, and who at the 
 age of life when man is in his prime, very much 
 resembled a good ship, that numbering but a 
 small amount of years in its age has yet encountered 
 such severe gales that it has been tried all but to 
 foundering, and requires such a lengthened period 
 of docking to put her right again, that the query 
 is whether she will ever be fit for service any more ; 
 how much more delightful, I say, must it be to 
 him, to find the sweet and invigorating repose of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 177 
 
 country life, than it was even to the great Roman 
 general. 
 
 And he found that repose in his solitaiy dwelling 
 on the Jersey sea coast, where I will now suppose 
 that he has arrived, and again adopted the primi- 
 tive and unsophisticated habits of rustic life. 
 
 Returned from his travels then, Hobbler be- 
 came quite a domesticated animal at his house on 
 the lone sea^coast of Bouley, and quite revelled in 
 his little snuggery up among the beams and tiles 
 of the old fashioned building. "My bedroom," 
 that is to say Hobbler's, was in its way rather a 
 curiosity. It had been constructed on what had 
 been once a large landing, on the top or attic 
 floor of the house, and somewhat resembled the 
 cabin of a ship, being boarded all round, as well 
 as being ceiled in the same manner, except the 
 side nearest the road, which had a charming little 
 window in the slant of the roof, which said window 
 was propped open with an iron, and something 
 like the traps that boys make with five bricks 
 to catch unwary birds. This apartment was not 
 very spacious, but nevertheless very snug and com- 
 fortable, and our traveller felt a great contempt 
 
 N
 
 178 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 for the man who could not be comfortable therein. 
 There was a glorious old fashioned kitchen on the 
 ground floor, the windows of which looked on to the 
 sea. Now there were sundry parlours where our 
 traveller could sit if he liked it, but as the season 
 advanced and the visitors decreased, he did not like 
 it, and I am reluctantly compelled to confess that 
 he was more often found in this said kitchen ; for our 
 traveller was not fond of solitary confinement, and 
 moreover, he was somewhat of a curious turn of 
 mind, and thought of entering himself as a student 
 of domestic economy. I may as well add that 
 " the kitchen" of a country inn is a totally different 
 place to that of a town one, being a place where 
 very frequently only the privileged are admitted ; 
 and, besides all this, " our kitchen" at Bouley was 
 a very sociable place, though if the truth must be 
 told, our traveller was often in the way, and 
 doubtless, had he not been an invalid, he would 
 have received the due reward that his inquisitive- 
 ness merited. But our kitchen is now, alas, no 
 more, and only lives in history, and in the memory 
 of those who have partaken of the good fare that 
 has issued from that good old fashioned cookery, 
 being now supplanted by a modern cuisine.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 179 
 
 His first studies, or his first practical demon- 
 stration of his presumed domestic knowledge (for 
 I much fear that he began the practical, before he 
 had learned the theoretical) was in cooking. 
 
 He fancied he could cook. What a low taste ! 
 what a vulgar fancy ! I dare say some of you will 
 exclaim not quite sure of that, "friend of 
 mine." Our hero might have had some visions 
 of the Colonies, or London Chambers floating be- 
 fore his eyes where such an accomplishment is very 
 useful. 
 
 Besides, great men have descended to be cooks, 
 and great cooks have become great men. Did 
 not that worthy physician, old Kitchener, write a 
 cookery book ? And did not the great cook Soyer 
 become a literary character ? and will not both of 
 them live in history, to say nothing of the won- 
 derful Mrs. Glass? Well then, Hobbler turned 
 practical cook, and a rare cook he was. He 
 thought he should be great at it; but he has 
 confessed to me that he is fearful that nobody 
 would engage him professionally, as somehow the 
 fates appeared to be banded together against the 
 proper development of his cuisine acquirements. 
 
 Yes, alas, it was so. He often found that in 
 
 M 2
 
 180 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 doing a roast it was done to a cinder ; in trying his 
 hand at a boil, he discovered he had failed to put 
 any water in the saucepan, the said saucepan 
 being saved from destruction by a sort of miracle ; 
 that in performing a fry, the frizzling article would 
 jump out of the frying pan into the fire ; that in 
 cooking an egg, it did occasionally tumble on to 
 the floor and most probably break ; and that in 
 executing a toast, the bread invariably flirted with 
 the bars and made its appearance in deep mourn- 
 ing ; and in making but no matter. What of all 
 this ? " accidents will happen in the best regulated 
 families," they say, and doubtless will occur to the 
 best of cooks. If the egg would not stand straight, 
 how could he make it ? The joke of Columbus was 
 too stale for him to attempt an imitation. If the 
 fry would tip up, that was a circumstance that 
 could not be guarded against, for then the old 
 proverb would not have been verified, and old 
 proverbs are very true at times. If the roasting 
 jack, or the chain, or the string, or any other 
 article to which the roast was attached would stand 
 still, how could it be avoided ? Perpetual motion 
 has not been discovered in cooking more than 
 anything else. And if the bread would kiss the
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 181 
 
 bars when toasted, it must not be blamed ; it did 
 not like this constant roasting or being under fire 
 for so long a time, so I supposed turned black in 
 the face with the warmth of its feelings. Perhaps 
 it was a little wrong not to put some water in the 
 saucepan, but still a good saucepan ought to be 
 made to stand fire. And therefore the blame 
 must lie principally at the door of the egg, or the 
 fry, or the roast, or the toast, or the boiled, which 
 had the perversity to be done as they were not 
 wanted to be done ; or the fire that would burn, or 
 smoke, or frizzle when it was not required to do 
 anything of the same sort. However, there is no 
 fighting against a combination of adverse circum- 
 stances, and so Hobbler abdicated his position and 
 resigned his cookship. Some folks had the impu- 
 dence to say that he had mistaken his vocation ; 
 but it is always the case in this world in whatever 
 you undertake, success ensures greatness, and 
 failure brings obloquy. So singing a long farewell 
 to all his greatness, he abdicated the grate. 
 
 His next escapade in the domestic world was 
 rather a funny one, and certainly, considering the 
 boldness of the attempt, did not meet with the 
 success it deserved. But this is always the fate of
 
 182 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 genius. In the plentitude of his conceit (for I 
 really fear he had become very conceited) he 
 fancied he could do anything he tried, and so one 
 day, for amusement, he thought he would turn 
 laundry-maid for the nonce, and began crimping, 
 or goffering, or performing some operation of a 
 crinkly nature on the first fancy article that pre- 
 sented itself, probably mine hostess' best lace cap ; 
 when, lo ! at the very first twist of the tongs or 
 irons, he burnt a piece clean out of the aforesaid 
 fancy article, and did the same kind turn for one 
 of his own fingers. This soon took the conceit 
 out of him ; and in this business, I suppose that 
 every body will return a verdict of served him right, 
 in which verdict I presume, also, that he cannot 
 help but concur. 
 
 And he took to gardening, but then his spine 
 being a little out of the perpendicular, he did not 
 find it agreeable. And he found he could not 
 copy Cincinnatus, especially as he did not expect 
 to be called off his work to attend to the cares of 
 state. 
 
 And many other funny things he did at that old 
 house, but as he did not pay any premium for his 
 education in domestic economy, he does not feel
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 183 
 
 at liberty to reveal all he did, and what he learnt, 
 during his gratuitous household education. But 
 his chief amusement was " going a market- 
 ing/' Twice or thrice a week our traveller was 
 to be seen jogging along the road leading to St. 
 Heliers in a four-wheeler, belonging to mine host, 
 accompanied by one of mine host's sons or daugh- 
 ters ; and not very long after, they were to be seen 
 perambulating the various markets described in 
 the first chapter of this book. 
 
 And then what a learned man Hobbler became. 
 He could tell you the price of bread and of 
 meat, which he found much the same as in 
 England; of butter which was better and much 
 cheaper ; of tea which he saw about two shillings 
 per pound, and coffee one shilling, little more than 
 half the price that they are in our country ; sugar, 
 also, and all kinds of grocery, very much cheaper 
 than in the mother-country, owing of course to 
 their being imported into Jersey duty free. To 
 the poultry market also he went, and to the fish 
 market. The produce of the first he found cheap, 
 and the latter dear. And in these markets they 
 bought ducks, and geese, and fowls; and soles, 
 salmon, (very small quantity of the latter, however,
 
 184 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 it being rarely to be got under two shillings the 
 pound) lobsters, crabs (ordinary crabs and spider 
 crabs, funny looking animals) John Dorey, red and 
 grey mullet, snipe fish (with green bones), and 
 lots too numerous for me to mention, as well as 
 garden stuff of all sorts, which is cheap and good. 
 And then our traveller amused himself by rousing 
 the people up a little, for it must be told that the 
 tradespeople of St. Heliers are rather dilatory in 
 their movements ; at any rate they do not move so 
 fast as their promises would imply, being rather 
 given to say that things are going directly, when 
 they have not the slightest intention of sending 
 them for an hour or two, or perhaps they protest 
 they are already gone, when they are quietly repos- 
 ing in their shops. But it is too bad to pick out 
 the St. Heliers' tradesman as being addicted to a 
 different standard of truth in business, to what 
 they would practice out of it. I am fearful that it 
 has generally become too much the fashion in 
 business to say one thing and mean another. But 
 let them pass. 
 
 After the purchases were made, our traveller 
 and his companions would jog home again, and 
 always on arriving at the top of the hill he
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 185 
 
 used to think that this pretty bay looked prettier 
 than ever. And often when our traveller journeyed 
 into town, he went to visit some kind friends to 
 whom he had been introduced on his arrival in the 
 island, and with whom he had established a close 
 intimacy, and from whom he was always sure to 
 receive a warm and friendly greeting. Many and 
 kind were the attentions that he received from 
 these friends ; and should these pages ever meet 
 their eyes, he would beg them to believe that all 
 their good and sympathising attentions towards 
 the sick man, attentions such as warm and tender- 
 hearted women (for these friends were ladies) alone 
 know how to bestow, are stored away in the 
 deepest and most sacred recesses of a grateful 
 heart. 
 
 But, alas ! one of them can never read these 
 pages, for she is gone to that bourne from whence 
 no traveller returns. She has gone to a premature 
 grave, cut off in the flower of her age, and in 
 the midst of a career of much usefulness; her 
 loss oeing deplored, not only by our traveller 
 who knew so well by experience her good and 
 amiable qualities, but also beyond doubt by 
 all who had the pleasure to be acquainted with
 
 186 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 that excellent, generous, and unselfish young lady. 
 But she is gone where she will receive her 
 reward. 
 
 I need hardly ask the kind and sympathising 
 reader to pardon the exhibition of feeling that 
 prompts our traveller to stop for a moment the 
 course of his narrative, in order that he may drop 
 a tear of gratitude and sorrow over the grave, as 
 well as pay a slight tribute of respect to the memory 
 of a kind, esteemed, and much lamented friend, 
 who contributed much by her lively disposition 
 and goodness of heart to sooth and cheer the weary 
 hours of his pilgimage in search of health. 
 
 And so time passed away ; but there was one 
 sight which our traveller had long wished to see, 
 and for which he had longed in vain, for many 
 weeks and that was a thunder-storm, which he 
 fancied must be a very grand sight on that wild 
 and rocky coast. But it came at last, though 
 only once during his long stay at Bouley ; 
 and awful and majestic it was when it did 
 come. 
 
 It was midnight, after a sultry August day. 
 The family had all retired to rest ; but our traveller 
 found the air, which was highly charged with
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 187 
 
 electricity, too heavy and oppressive to sleep. So 
 he sat him down at his funny little window 
 to watch the approach of the expected tem- 
 pest. 
 
 Dark masses of cloud gathered ill the horizon, 
 and gradually spread themselves over the face of 
 the whole heavens like a ponderous black curtain. 
 An unusual and unnatural stillness pervaded the 
 atmosphere, together with an extraordinary feeling 
 of oppression, which are almost always the pre- 
 cursors of storms, and which stillness was only 
 disturbed by the occasional soughing of a 
 gloomy puff of wind passing by ; a sort of avant 
 courier of the mighty blasts that were so soon to 
 follow. 
 
 " A boding silence reigns, dread thro' the dun expanse, 
 
 Save the dull sound, that from the mountain, previous to the storm, 
 
 Rolls o'er the muttering earth." 
 
 Faint flashes of lightning gave notice of the 
 approach of the storm. These soon became more 
 vivid, and succeeded each other with greater 
 rapidity. The clouds became of a more opaque 
 character, the wind began to howl most dismally, 
 and the thunder, at first very distant, came rapidly
 
 188 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 rolling on, increasing in volume of sound and 
 grandeur every minute. Onward and onward it 
 rolled, nearer and nearer sounded heaven's stupen- 
 dous artillery. Peal succeeded peal, and echo 
 upon echo reverberating from hill to hill and from 
 rock to rock, swelled out their mighty tones, until 
 they became one tremendous and ceaseless roar. 
 The clouds gave out an incessant fire, which shoot- 
 ing its forked streaks athwart the skies in all direc- 
 tions, often passed into the ocean, as if in defiance 
 of its fire-quenching properties. Sheet upon sheet 
 of flame leaped forth from those dark clouds, until 
 all the firmament of heaven appeared in one pro- 
 digious blaze. The wind now roused to fury was 
 roaring a tremendous blast, and flying upon its 
 hurricane wing, lashed the ocean into a frenzied 
 foam, resembling some vast boiling cauldron, and 
 then both united, hurled themselves madly upon 
 the wild and rocky shore. 
 
 For a moment the elemental strife was 
 stayed, and all was intense calmness, and intense 
 darkness. The hills, the sea, and even the distant 
 coast of France had been visible under the bright 
 illuminations of the lightning's ceaseless flash, 
 but they were now buried in a profound gloom. It
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 189 
 
 was, however, but a momentary lull in this battle 
 of the elements, which was in reality fast approach- 
 ing its culminating point. It was but a treacher- 
 ous pause, during which they were gathering up 
 all their forces, which in one united phalanx they 
 were now about to hurl upon that lonely dwelling 
 by the sea-shore of Bouley. The lull was of but 
 short duration, and then the tempest broke forth 
 with redoubled fury. 
 
 Rude was the onslaught, and terrific the shock 
 that that poor old house had to encounter. The 
 lightnings burst from all quarters of the heavens 
 in one continued stream of liquid blue fire, the 
 intensity of which seemed to permeate every crevice 
 in the house, and appeared as if it would set the 
 neighbouring hills on fire ; the thunder broke upon 
 the seemingly devoted roof with a terrific crash, 
 that caused the whole fabric to tremble and quake 
 beneath its mighty vibrations, as if it were about 
 to crumble into pieces. The winds striving to make 
 themselves heard above the awful din of the 
 thunders roar, sent forth their raging blasts, and 
 shook the poor old tenement, as if they would 
 scatter it like chaff to the four winds of heaven ; 
 and the flood gates of the skies hitherto pent up,
 
 190 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 were now loosed, and with the sound of the rushing 
 torrent, the rain descended on its roof as if it 
 would have swept everything before it, and bury 
 the house and all the dwellers therein in the deep 
 bosom of the ocean. 
 
 The storm was now at its height, and for awhile 
 it raged with a fearful violence ; and during this 
 awful combination of the elements in wrathful 
 antagonism against this little speck of earth, it 
 seemed as if the building, the island, yea, the great 
 globe itself, and all that it inherits would dissolve, 
 " and like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a 
 wrack behind." 
 
 But it passed by, and left the old house and all 
 its inhabitants uninjured. The fury of the tempest 
 was spent. The lightning became less vivid and 
 less frequent in its flashes, the thunder rolled away 
 in the distance, the windows of heaven were again 
 closed, the watery deluge subsided, the stormy 
 winds abated their fury, black night and the 
 cloudy curtain that had obscured the bright lamps 
 of heaven passed away like a scroll, and the ele- 
 mental strife was all over. 
 
 The day dawned, and thinking of the grandeur 
 and magnificence of the scene he had witnessed,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 191 
 
 and reflecting on the insignificance of man when 
 opposed to the elements if roused to anger, he fell 
 asleep. 
 
 And when he rose in the morning what a change 
 of scene was there. 
 
 Excepting that the rain had left the impress of 
 its torrent course in the deep furrows it had 
 ploughed in the sides of the hill, who would have 
 known or thought, that but a few short hours 
 before .there had been such a terrific conflict of 
 the elements raging around ? Now all was calm and 
 peaceful. The rude winds were hushed, the rush- 
 ing torrent was stayed, and gentle zephyrs played 
 upon the face of the earth ; the sea was calm and 
 placid, the sun shone with exquisite brightness, 
 and refreshed nature reeked with joy and gladness. 
 
 While Hobbler was at Bouley, there was a great 
 talk about the approaching fetes at Cherbourg to 
 commemorate the opening of the docks there, the 
 foundations of which had been laid by Napoleon 
 the First, and which were now about to be inaugu- 
 rated by grand doings, at which the Emperor 
 Napoleon the Third was to officiate, assisted by the 
 Queen of Great Britain. Our traveller had several 
 invitations to go there and see these mighty doings,
 
 192 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 but the state of his health would not allow him to 
 think of it. So he did not see them, though 
 within sound and also within sight of some part 
 of the ceremony, for the fireworks were distinctly 
 visible, though perhaps more than thirty miles off, 
 and the grand salute which was fired upon the 
 Emperor's arrival, was very audible. 
 
 It was late one evening in the month of August, 
 when the birds had ceased their sweet melodies, 
 and the sun had sank to his rest, the western sky 
 still teeming with the refulgent light of his depart- 
 ing glory, that our traveller was sitting upon the 
 rocky shore enjoying the sweet calm of evening's 
 repose when suddenly, far away in the distance 
 over the coast of France, there arose a bright flash 
 of light succeeded by a dull booming sound as of 
 far off explosions. Brighter and brighter grew 
 those flashes, louder and louder swelled that rum- 
 bling sound, and then they both died away alto- 
 gether. 
 
 The inauguration of these mighty works of man, 
 the construction of which had spread over a space 
 of more than fifty years was consummated, the 
 fetes were over. This gigantic fortress, the future 
 terror of the world, from whose vast harbours were
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 193 
 
 to issue fleets that should dictate to all opposing 
 powers was complete. 
 
 And as the faint light of the distant illumination 
 died away, night resumed his dominion, and all 
 was darkness save the soft starlight of an autumn's 
 eve. 
 
 Thinking of Cherbourg and its destiny, Hobbler 
 fell a musing, and then he dreamed. 
 
 HOBBLER'S DREAM. 
 
 Falling into a reverie, I dreamed, and in my 
 dream the distant shores of the Continent of 
 Europe appeared to approach nearer and nearer 
 to me, and my view became more and more ex- 
 tended over those far off countries. I saw, as it 
 were, all the nations of that part of the world 
 spread out like a map at my feet. 
 
 And what did I see, as I gazed upon these 
 various countries, and gazed also into their future 
 history? For years appeared to pass in quick 
 review before me as well as nations. 
 
 I saw beautiful and broad lands as e'er the eye 
 of man lighted upon. There was the mountain 
 
 o
 
 194 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 and the flood. Beautiful meandering streams were 
 there, and sweet smiling pastures. Mighty rivers 
 of torrent force, rising amidst snow-capped moun- 
 tains ; and peaceful valleys, ever verdant and joyous ; 
 gentle undulating hills, clothed with laughing 
 vineyards, and merry cornfields ripe unto the 
 harvest, sparkling in the sunshine, and reeking 
 with plenty all were displayed in that grand pros- 
 pect, and all attested the wondrous bounty of 
 nature's great Master. There also was the bustling 
 town and ever active city ; and the quiet country 
 village, and tree embosomed hamlet were not 
 wanting in that wide scene. And through all 
 these vast dominions I saw man going forth to his 
 labour, whether to toil at his pen in the towns, or 
 at his plough in the fields, whether to labour with 
 his hands in his factory, or with his brains in his 
 study, or to take his pleasure in drinking in the 
 rich draughts of all inspiring nature midst her 
 wondrous beauties I saw them all going forth in 
 the sweet hope of reaping the reward of all their 
 toils in happiness and peace, and rejoicing in the 
 Giver of all good. 
 
 And this was sunshine, and this was peace. 
 
 But as I gazed, " a change came o'er the spirit of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 195 
 
 my dream " the character of that fair and peaceful 
 prospect was transformed. A dark cloud had long 
 been gathering in the realm of France, which had 
 gradually spread its gloom over all Europe, thicken- 
 ing and thickening, until at last surcharged beyond 
 all power of retention, it burst, and dreadful was 
 the bursting thereof. 
 
 And what was this cloud that was now to dis- 
 charge its rude torrents o'er all these lately smiling 
 hills and plains ? 
 
 I saw no longer man going to his peaceful 
 labour or taking his pleasure ; I saw no longer a 
 peaceful scene at all, but in its stead an unending 
 scene of darkness and of strife. 
 
 All the great hosts of Europe were gathered to- 
 gether for evil ; for the love of war had taken pos- 
 session of the souls of men, and nation was fighting 
 against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 
 Smiling fields and plenteous harvests had been 
 swept away, and devastation reigned in their 
 place ; meandering rivers, and glassy lakes sparkled 
 no longer in the glorious sunshine, but ran red 
 with the blood of contending nations. I saw the 
 mightiest kingdoms of the earth banded together 
 against one another, and ah 1 the great despotisms 
 
 o 2
 
 196* A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 of the world were striving for supremacy in 
 order to establish one universal thraldom. 
 
 There floated the mighty eagles of France, of 
 Austria, of Russia, of Prussia with the flags of all 
 the minor powers of Europe. All entered the lists 
 on one side or the other. There were blended the 
 Protestant, the Roman Catholic, and the Moham- 
 medan banners, and the Crescent and the Cross 
 waved side by side in this struggle for power and 
 existence. Some were contending for universal 
 sovereignty, some perhaps for a smaller aggrandise- 
 ment, and some for very life. Liberty was the watch- 
 word with all, but alas in how few cases was it 
 aught but a mockery. Power and ambition 
 should have been the cry, if the leaders in this 
 struggle had been honest. 
 
 Foremost in these fields of blood came forth 
 with almost resistless force the mighty hosts of 
 Gallia ; and who should stay the torrent of her 
 gigantic power. Madly and wildly she rushes 
 on. 
 
 Imperial Austria feels the shock, and bends 
 beneath the force of her terrific onslaughts. 
 Mighty Russia retires from the conflict into her 
 almost inaccessible domains, and finds security in
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 197 
 
 the inhospitable regions of the north. Prussia 
 and all the German Powers yield, as they had 
 yielded before, to superior force, and all the lesser 
 nations bow before the stupendous might of 
 France. 
 
 Liberty flies aghast at the conqueror's approach, 
 scorning the sacrifices offered up in her name, and 
 content to bide the day of her resuscitation when 
 tyranny should at last finally succumb to her now 
 retarded, but nevertheless ultimately resistless 
 advance. 
 
 Long and fierce, however, were the struggles 
 before the supremacy of Trance was fairly estab- 
 lished. Fight succeeded fight, battle succeeded 
 battle, and slaughter followed slaughter ; and many 
 a sanguinary field, where the blood of the victor, 
 together with that of the vanquished, flowed like 
 water, attested the might of the combatants and 
 the desperate nature of the struggle. But it ter- 
 minated at last, and all the Continent of Europe 
 lay prostrate at the feet of the wonderful man who 
 controlled the destinies of France. 
 
 And in my dream I looked into times past, and 
 saw, some fifty years ago, (about the time when 
 the foundation of those gigantic docks were laid)
 
 198 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the same scene enacted, by the same power, led 
 on by the same clever and ambitious family. And 
 methought that the mighty man who in those days 
 had kept the world in awe, had been permitted to 
 cast his mantle upon his successor, for good or for 
 evil. 
 
 But there was one little spot on the map of 
 Europe, not on the Continent, but a little island, 
 where the Imperial flag of France did not float, 
 and where the ruler of France had no authority. 
 An animal of greater strength and courage than the 
 aspiring and proud Eagle, claimed fealty of that 
 little spot. 
 
 That animal was the British Lion, that little 
 spot was the British Islands. 
 
 And in my dream I again recurred to years gone 
 by, when all the Powers of Europe had been 
 bonded together against that little spot, and all 
 the nations of the Continent had been united under 
 the greatest genius of the age, in order to subvert 
 her power, and obliterate her very name from the 
 map of the world. I saw, about the commence- 
 ment of this present century, when the heights of 
 Boulogne teemed with countless hosts of armed 
 men destined for the conquest of that little island.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. ' 199 
 
 But those hosts were gathered together in vain, 
 and that great chief, victorious over every other 
 power, failed against this. 
 
 And why did he fail? Because here was the 
 land of liberty, and the home of the free. With 
 a full confidence in the goodness of her cause and 
 a bright faith in the God of battles, that small 
 nation had stood unmoved against a world in arms, 
 and in the same trust is ready when necessity calls 
 to brave it again. 
 
 And I saw in my dream, that same harbour of 
 Cherbourg where such mighty doings had taken 
 place in the days when the peaceful Queen of 
 England went to visit the warlike Emperor of 
 France ; but how changed was its appearance. 
 There was no longer any show of merry making, 
 those splendid ships were no longer dressed in 
 holiday garb, and their crews wore no longer the 
 air of holiday men, and the scene had no longer a 
 festive appearance at all. The pomp and circum- 
 stance of glorious war were there, ready to enact 
 their stern realities, and the warlike hosts of France 
 were gathering together, and arming for the battle 
 against some mighty foe. Where could these 
 vast armaments be destined for? who was there
 
 200 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 to conquer now ? All Europe owned a passive 
 obedience to the ruler of France, and who was 
 there to dispute his almost universal sway. 
 
 It was that little spot of England that stood in 
 the way of the conqueror, and he was now prepar- 
 ing to pour his numberless hosts in deluge force 
 upon the shores of the British Isles. 
 
 At length this mighty armament leaves its moor- 
 ings, and moving slowly but majestically out of 
 the harbour, denies upon the open sea in such 
 seeming force and pride, as if no power on earth 
 could possibly abide the might of its assaults ; for 
 all that art and science could possibly do to make 
 that power irresistible, had been done. 
 
 Proudly on it moves, and sweeps over the waves, 
 as it prepares to crush in one tremendous onslaught 
 its last but deadly enemy, and the only one that 
 now stands between it and universal dominion. 
 Onward, and onward sails the gigantic host. 
 Leaving the coast of France behind, it comes at 
 last in sight of the devoted island. 
 
 Its shores are now plainly discern able, but those 
 shores are alive, alive with hosts of men, men that 
 have thrown aside for the nonce the pen and the 
 plough, and clothed in the panoply of war with
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 201 
 
 unsheathed sword and bristling cannon, silently 
 but dauntlessly await the approach of the coming 
 storm. Men whose hearts beat high to meet their 
 ancient foemen in the field ; men who relying on the 
 justness of their cause, and not vainly boasting of 
 their own strength, are prepared to shed the last 
 drop of their blood in defence of country, of home, 
 of family, of religion, of freedom, and of principle. 
 But ere those shores were reached, there was a 
 dark object seen on the waters that still interposed 
 its vast bulk between the doomed coast and the 
 invading squadron. A long dark line it was, 
 spread out in bold relief against the waters, and 
 that line must be forced ere the invader should 
 step on the free shores of Old England, unsullied 
 by hostile foot for eight hundred years. 
 That line was the Wooden Walls of Old England. 
 Long had Great Britain been called the mistress 
 of the seas, and very justly so ; for more than once 
 her proud fleets had sailed the wide world o'er, 
 without finding any to dispute its power, having 
 swept all its enemies from the face of the ocean. 
 
 But her sovereignty was now disputed, and 
 many there were of Britain's sons who thought that 
 her supremacy on the seas could be no longer
 
 202 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 maintained, and that the sun of Albion's glory was 
 set, that she was at last overmatched on her own 
 element, and that now was the day of her humilia- 
 tion fast approaching. 
 
 The Lion at bay is a dangerous animal. And 
 there stood the British Lion on his metal, with 
 mane erect, eye balls glaring, and courage roused 
 to the uttermost, prepared to fight to the last drop 
 of his blood. And not tamely did he wait, but 
 only watching till his enemy was fairly within his 
 reach, he took his deadly spring upon his advanc- 
 ing foe. And now the mighty hosts approach 
 each other. The proud Lion and the haughty 
 Eagle gathering their forces together meet in mid 
 ocean. 
 
 Mighty was the crash of that meeting, and 
 terrific was the conflict, when the two greatest 
 nations of the earth awoke their dormant thunders, 
 and rushed to the death struggle. 
 
 The very elements stood aghast, and all nature 
 shrunk affrighted at that awful spectacle. 
 
 Faster and faster flashed the cannon's fire, 
 louder and louder roared their dreadful thunders, 
 and the battle raged with awful fury. But 
 not so fast did those cannons flash, or so loud
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 203 
 
 did they roar as the evil will of the angry men who 
 worked these death-dealing engines, whose passions 
 now roused to demoniacal fury, and bent on the 
 destruction of their fellow-men, raged like the 
 pent up volcano, and threatened universal destruc- 
 tion. One side were men fighting at the beck 
 of an ambitious man, and sacrificing their lives to 
 gratify his lust for universal dominion ; and on the 
 other side, they fought in the sacred cause of liberty 
 and home. 
 
 And who should conquer in this desperate strife ? 
 " Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just," 
 ays the greatest of our English poets. And which 
 must be the just cause, when liberty and freedom 
 are pitted against the cause of despotism ? 
 
 And the battle waged fiercer and fiercer, and 
 the messengers of death flew faster and faster, and 
 men's passions waxed hotter and hotter. 
 
 The day wore on, and still the fight raged with 
 unabated fury. But such carnage cannot continue, 
 or annihilation must be the result. 
 
 At length that terrible day began to wane. 
 Still the demon raged, but his fury was also fast 
 failing, and at last the contest draws to a close, 
 and night fell around the contending hosts.
 
 204 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 How stood the battle then ? 
 
 I thought in my dream, that the dense clouds 
 of smoke gradually rolled away, and the cannon's 
 roar, and the cannon's flash grew fainter until at 
 
 last they ceased The battle was 
 
 over ! 
 
 And by the dim twilight I saw, oh ! what a 
 scene was there. The British Lion still waved o'er 
 that scene, though not proudly, but in sadness it 
 seemed to float ; for it was a scene of blood and 
 of woe. How many gallant barques were lost, how 
 many lay shattered and helpless on the ocean, and 
 how many brave hearts had ceased to beat. The 
 sea was strewn with wrecks and the dead bodies 
 of many of England's and Gallia's bravest sons, 
 and the ocean ran red with the blood of men. 
 
 And where was now the proud Imperial Eagle ? 
 No longer soaring in its airy flight, no longer 
 winging its unchecked course o'er the world at 
 large; but crippled, crest-fallen and dejected it 
 lay beneath the paws of the well nigh exhausted 
 Lion. In the heighth of its glory, in the zenith 
 of its power, in the day of its pride it had bearded 
 the Lion in his den, and the enraged animal 
 roused so rudely from his lair, had awoke his
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 205 
 
 strength to the battle, and with crushing force had 
 hurled back his daring assailant. 
 
 Of all the mighty navy that had left that great 
 port so full of confidence, how few ships returned. 
 The islanders were victorious. Their ancient prowess 
 had not failed them in the day of their need, 
 and they had maintained their ocean supremacy. 
 
 But what a victory. The enemy was repelled, 
 the fear of invasion was past, and hostile foot had 
 not sullied that fair soil. But the land was filled 
 
 with lamentation and woe. 
 
 * * # # 
 
 As I gazed on this horrible scene I shrunk with 
 affright, and with a cry of agony I awoke from my 
 reverie. Happy was the waking. It was all a 
 dream, and no reality in that dreadful picture. 
 The calm moon had risen on the sea, and was 
 shedding her soft and mellow light on the surround- 
 ing rocks, and clothing the hill tops with silvery 
 fire. All was peaceful. No sound of contending 
 armies, no sea strewn with wrecks and the dead 
 bodies of men, no lamentations and woe, but an 
 universal air of serenity reigned around me. And 
 may it ever continue so, thought I to myself. May 
 the rude hand of war never disturb those peaceful
 
 206 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 valleys and verdant fields, or tinge the ocean with 
 man's blood; may the hostile contention of nio- 
 narchs no longer retard the grand march of intellect 
 and civilisation, and may the nations cease to 
 delight in war. 
 
 But the wish was father to the thought, for 
 as I sat in contemplative mood o'er my reverie, 
 methought me heard even then, the sounds of 
 gathering hosts borne upon the winds of a not 
 very distant future; methought the political ho- 
 rizon was already blackening with the accumu- 
 lation of angry clouds, and that the storm that I had 
 seen in my dream loomed dark and bloody in 
 prospective. 
 
 And I thought to myself. What a frightful 
 thing is war ! Oh ! that the vain glorious and 
 ambitious men who indulge in war, and are the 
 cause of it, only to gratify their lust for conquest 
 or their love of glory ; who dare to rouse the 
 devil in men's mind, and rob him of the Angel 
 spirit which his God has mercifully endowed him 
 with ; who transform for the time this man, created 
 in the image of his Maker, into a being little 
 better than a fiend, and make him play the part 
 of licensed murderer under the sacred name of
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 207 
 
 patriot, or in tjie sacred cause of liberty; who 
 convert everything that is lovely and beautiful in 
 nature into all that is hideous and unsightly, turning 
 the most luxuriant gardens and the purest streams 
 into arid deserts and ensanguined rivers. Oh ! that 
 these men were compelled to contemplate that 
 wreck of humanity, that defacement of God's 
 image, that destruction of their fellows which 
 crowd the battle-field, the field of glory, when 
 the fight is won. Oh ! that they might be made 
 to watch the agonies of the wounded and the 
 dying, that they might be compelled to gaze on 
 the distorted limbs and anguish-marked brows 
 too plainly delineated in the forms of the dead ; 
 that they might be forced to behold the sufferings, 
 the grief, the misery of the fatherless and the 
 widow ; that they might be made for a time to 
 walk the earth in full view of all the desolation 
 they have caused ; that the dead, the dying, the 
 starving, the fatherless and the broken-hearted 
 might pass before them in ceaseless review ; and 
 that in that hour their hearts might be made of 
 penetrable stuff, for then must they rend at such 
 a sight, then should they melt at the rivers of blood 
 they have shed, and the rivers of tears they have
 
 208 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 caused to flow, and war should cease from their 
 thoughts. 
 
 But, alas, this cannot be while men are blinded 
 by passion, and the profession of war is only re- 
 garded in holiday colours. But the day will 
 come, perhaps not very far distant, when the love 
 of man for his fellows shall predominate over the 
 love of war, when the bright banners of civilisation 
 and Christianity, led on perhaps by the glorious 
 Anglo-Saxon race, shall be planted in all lands, 
 and float with undisturbed majesty o'er all the 
 universe. Then shall war cease throughout the 
 earth. 
 
 And yet in my reverie as I thought of peace, 
 my mind pondered on, and I resolved that in order 
 to ensure that peace how necessary it would be to 
 be always prepared for war, until that happy day 
 of universal brotherhood shall arrive. I thought 
 how much it behoved Great Britain always to be 
 ready to assert her proper position, always to be 
 ready to demand her place in the van of civilisation 
 and enlightenment, and ever to be prepared at 
 the first call of danger to that glorious edifice 
 of freedom and liberty, that she has had so 
 great a hand in rearing throughout the world,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 209 
 
 to defend the sacred cause to the last drop of 
 her blood.* 
 
 Here ended Mr. Hobbler's meditations on the 
 fetes at Cherbourg. 
 
 The day after the opening of the Cherbourg 
 docks, it was known in Jersey that the Atlantic 
 Telegraph had been successfully laid, and that the 
 happy consummation of this long talked of scheme 
 had been announced to Her Majesty of England, 
 even while the thunders of Cherbourg were ringing 
 in her ears; a small steamer having sailed into 
 that harbour during the very midst of the cere- 
 mony, as if to contrast its peace-giving news with 
 the mighty pomp and circumstance of glorious 
 war which were there enacting. Aye, and this 
 little vessel was fraught with more importance 
 for the future benefit of the world than all that 
 gorgeous pageantry, for it sailed under the glorious 
 
 * The above visions of war were written soon after the 1st Ja- 
 nuary, 1859, when the Austrian ambassador had been openly in- 
 sulted by the Emperor of the French at a grand reception at the 
 Tuileries. Since then, war has raged between the two powers, and 
 Austria has bent beneath the power of France. Thus has a part 
 of the drama that Hobbler saw in his dream been played out. 
 That the remainder may never be enacted is the sincere prayer of 
 the dreamy traveller and his editor. 
 
 P
 
 210 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 banner of universal civilisation, whilst all these 
 warlike preparations and mighty works, though 
 necessary perhaps, so far as defensive operations 
 are concerned, are but at best the remnants of a 
 barbarous age. And here again was food for 
 thought for our musing traveller, and so he mused 
 again. 
 
 He fancied he saw the two great Continents of 
 Europe and America brought into immediate 
 communication with each other, and all the ends 
 of the world united in one bond of fellowship. 
 
 The fetes at Cherbourg appeared to pale before 
 the accomplishment of this great work, which 
 seemed destined to carry the blessings of civiliza- 
 tion and Christianity throughout all the Universe ; 
 to be alike instructor of the poor untutored savage 
 of North America, as well as the better educated, 
 but morally and religiously ignorant inhabitant of 
 the East, and that its fire-flashing messages should 
 carry on their lightning wings peace and good-will 
 to all men. 
 
 But alas for man's foresight, the telegraph after 
 all was a failure, and for the present the warlike 
 works of Cherbourg have succeeded, while those 
 of the peace-promoting telegraph have failed, and
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 211 
 
 our hero's musings turned out as usual nothing 
 but a myth. We still, however, most sincerely 
 trust, that it is but hope deferred, and that ere 
 long we shall have the glorious satisfaction of 
 being within reach of instantaneous communication 
 with our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 
 Wonders never cease. Hobbler, during his 
 stay in Jersey, witnessed the appearance of one of 
 those great luminous bodies, that in days of yore 
 were wont to fright the world from its propriety. 
 
 He saw, and all the world saw a comet. And 
 this comet was one that the wiseacres had said 
 was to burn up this poor insignificant globe of 
 ours, or if not so, it was at any rate by a switch of 
 its gigantic tail (millions of times larger than its 
 plaything) to have kicked the poor little earth 
 clean out of the solar system, so that for ever 
 after to the end of time, it was to have been tum- 
 bling about in the profound depths of unfathomable 
 space. Yes he saw this comet, and millions of 
 others saw this comet, and the wiseacres saw it 
 too. 
 
 Long it lasted, and nightly charmed and de- 
 lighted the dwellers upon earth with its wonderful 
 displays of brilliancy and magnitude, and at length 
 
 p 2
 
 212 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 disappeared, and the poor little earth is not ram- 
 bling about in endless space, but still rotates on 
 its own axis, and still revolves round the great light 
 and heat-giving orb of day. We have not even 
 been suffocated as some would have it we were to 
 be, for this great luminous and vapoury mass kept 
 the most respectful distance of something like 
 four hundred millions of miles. And this was 
 about the last of the wondrous things our traveller 
 saw during his trip, for the season was now fast 
 waning. 
 
 The summer' was past, and all its beautiful 
 flowers had faded, and all its cheering sunshines 
 were gone. Autumn, too, was well nigh spent, 
 and he had seen the fields ripe unto the harvest, 
 bend beneath the reapers' sickle, or the mowers' 
 scythe. A most abundant harvest it had been 
 too, and the extraordinarily fine season of 1858, 
 will not very soon be forgotten. 
 
 There was a tent erected in front of the hotel 
 for the accommodation of pic-nic and other parties. 
 He had seen it put up at the beginning of the 
 season, and had helped to take it down at the 
 end of it, for the pic-nics were all defunct, and the 
 general visitors had pretty well all returned to
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 213 
 
 England ; and the season had arrived " when the 
 swallows homewards fly," and the wingy tribes of 
 air migrate in search of warmer climates. Our 
 traveller, too, now began to think that it was time 
 to hie him home to his native land. 
 
 And winter was drawing on apace, so Hobbler 
 was forcibly reminded that the Northern shores of 
 an island, even though so much South of London, 
 was no longer a place for a man with delicate 
 lungs and an impaired constitution. This he had 
 been told long since, but he had been unable to 
 bear the journey, for he had been very ill for some 
 weeks past. But he had been nursed, and that 
 right kindly, by the female members of the family. 
 My dear reader, do you not think that the softer 
 sex make much better nurses than the lords of 
 Creation ? I am sure Hobbler thought so, and so do 
 I, for he never found himself so well tended by the 
 masculine, as by the feminine species of mankind. 
 Men may be very kind and attentive, and very 
 strong, and do all in their power to relieve the 
 sufferings of their patient ; but they are not con- 
 stituted for the display of those gentle, kindly 
 sympathising attentions, which it comes so natural 
 to a woman to perform. Witness the good effects
 
 214 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 produced in the sick room by that amiable and 
 excellent lady whose presence illumined those 
 terrible dwellings of the sick and the dying at 
 Scutari, whose judicious and successful nursing 
 tended so much to alleviate the bodily sufferings 
 of the wounded and sick soldier, and whose kindly 
 and wholesome words did so much to soothe his 
 aching heart. All honour be to that bright and 
 unselfish being who risked so much, endured so 
 much, and performed so much, for the alleviation 
 and amelioration of the condition of the suffering 
 soldiers and sailors, the victims of a deadly war, 
 and a deadly climate. As long as the Crimean 
 war finds an historian to chronicle its deeds of 
 valour, and its misdeeds of disaster so long will 
 there ever be found one to speak of that bold, 
 devoted, heroic woman Florence Nightingale, who 
 relinquished rank, wealth and comfort, for the 
 hard, but to her delightful, task of sharing in the 
 sufferings of her fellow countrymen. But it is 
 not for me to sing the praises of this excellent 
 lady, they have been chanted by hundreds and thou- 
 sands of tongues far more eloquent than mine, but 
 still I may be allowed to add my mite to the vast 
 treasury of those praises.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 215 
 
 But to return to my subject. Hobbler was 
 kindly nursed, and Hobbler liked female society. 
 He does not attempt to deny it, for he perfectly 
 agrees with a remark he saw in the leading London 
 journal " that without female society man becomes 
 brutish." 
 
 The fern cutting was over, and the autumnal 
 vraic gathering had taken place ; the hills looked 
 bleak and naked, the sun began to assume a 
 watery appearance, the evenings were damp and 
 chilly, and winter every where proclaimed his near 
 approach. A word or two about this fern cutting 
 and vraic gathering, and their uses. 
 
 The fern when cut, is dried and gathered to- 
 gether in bundles and stored away for the winter, 
 as litter for the cattle. The sea-weed forms not 
 only the principal manure of the island, but is 
 also used as fuel. Some farmers spread it on 
 their land in its natural state, as it is gathered 
 from the shore ; but others use it as fuel first, 
 and then spread the ashes over the land. There 
 are some very curious laws about this fern 
 cutting and vraic gathering. Nobody is allowed 
 to cut the one or gather the other until a stated 
 day, and then only between sunrise and sunset.
 
 216 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 The seigneurs of the Manors have some especial 
 privileges as regards the sea-weed, being allowed 
 several hours start of the ordinary people. The 
 weed which is gathered from the neighbouring 
 rocks, or collected from the driftings on shore, is 
 spread out upon the beach to dry, and it is some- 
 what curious to see the rigid principles of honour 
 with which each person's lot of weed is guarded. 
 At this employment, the women work even harder 
 than the men, and you may often see them ascend- 
 ing the rocks with large bundles of vraic on their 
 shoulders and rocks, too, whose sides are so pre- 
 cipitous that the generality of people would hardly 
 care to climb them without any incumbrance. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to introduce my readers 
 to one of the principle features of this pretty spot ; 
 but the fact is that Hobbler was so taken up with 
 the Bouley Hotel and its amusements, or its labours, 
 whichever you please, that he had well nigh 
 omitted it altogether. And when I come to 
 inform my readers what his short comings of 
 memory really are, I am not satisfied that they 
 will be content with any apology or explanation he 
 can make for them. So according to my advice, 
 he pleads guilty, and humbly craves your mercy,
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 217 
 
 kind reader, acknowledging that he ought to 
 
 be but no matter what ; he is deeply penitent 
 
 for his breach of gallantry (for such it is) and 
 hastens to make all the amends in his power by 
 immediately ushering you into the presence of the 
 Ladies of Bouley. 
 
 Yes, this neglected object, is a group of ladies, 
 and ladies of high character, too ; for these ladies 
 of Bouley, that he has hitherto so shamefully 
 slighted, are ladies of the most unimpeachable 
 character, of a most elevated position in the world, 
 the observed of all observers, soaring high above 
 the sublunary things of this earth, yet at the same 
 time ladies who are most innocent in their 
 manners, and most simple in their habits ; finding 
 in the birds of the air their companions, and fore- 
 swearing all the pleasures, as well as scorning the 
 dwellings of men, taking shelter only beneath the 
 canopy of heaven ; making the rocks their dwelling 
 place, and subsisting upon the pure dews that 
 descend from the skies, or the mists that arise 
 from earth. They are most retiring in their dis- 
 positions, often veiling their fair forms in the 
 clouds and vapours that hover o'er this nether 
 world ; and yet they are ever to be found at their
 
 218 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 posts, for they may be seen kissing the early mists 
 of rising dawn, and welcoming the lark as he 
 rises at break of day and soars on his heavenward 
 course ; at scorching noontide they may be found 
 basking in the meridian sun, and later in the day 
 they are still visible, as they lave their fair persons 
 in the dewy twilight of evening. 
 
 This bevy of fair ones consists, however, of only 
 two persons, an elderly lady and a young damsel. 
 The matron, who is supposed to be far advanced 
 in years, is always to be observed in a sitting pos- 
 ture, never having been seen by anybody in an 
 erect position, and as far as our traveller could 
 learn from personal observation, was rather of a 
 studious turn of mind, and probably a literary 
 character (though we much doubt if she ever 
 attempted to write a book) for she was never to be 
 found without a volume in her hand, upon which 
 she appeared to be intently occupied. She always 
 appears in public, as perhaps it were well all 
 elderly ladies should appear, with covered head ; 
 wearing a bonnet at all times, aye, and a real 
 bonnet too, not a top knot apology of modern 
 times, but a good old fashioned bonnet of the 
 coal scuttle shape. Of the old lady's beauty, or
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 219 
 
 general personal appearance, Hobbler could not 
 say much, as from the peculiar position in which 
 she always sits, it is impossible to form an 
 opinion. 
 
 The maiden appears from her figure to be young 
 and rather graceful, and of a remarkably modest and 
 pensive disposition ; her face and figure being hidden 
 by a veil, and her body always in a leaning and con- 
 templative attitude. The proper time to see this 
 fair damsel to advantage, is when the sun is mellow- 
 ing surrounding nature with the golden tints of 
 his departing glory ; for this young lady is so 
 modest, that she likes not the glaring light of 
 noonday, but exhibits her charms only in the soft 
 and retiring light of evening. 
 
 Such are the Ladies of Bouley. Allow me then 
 to introduce you, my dear reader. Mr. or 
 Mrs. , the Ladies of Bouley The Ladies of 
 Bouley, Mr. or Mrs. . You make your bow 
 to the ladies, but they move not ; you offer your 
 salutations, but they do not reply ; they neither 
 heed your speech, nor attend to your genuflexions. 
 Your politeness is unreturned, for they know no 
 politeness, they study no manners ; stiff, dumb and 
 unbending, they care nought about you.
 
 220 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 And why ? Because they are but nature's 
 freaks in rock-work, a sort of elemental carving on 
 the face of the craggy cliffs, a little game that the 
 winds and the atmosphere have played off on the 
 rocks of Bouley. And so Boreas & Co. have turned 
 sculptors. Behold their work in these two figures, 
 which are, however, joking apart, very curious 
 especially the representation of the young lady, 
 which when viewed from the pier at sundown, or a 
 little before, has the appearance of being clothed 
 in a beautifully fine veil, through which the head 
 and body are plainly discernable, and much re- 
 minds one of the celebrated veiled figure by Monti 
 in the Austrian department of the Great Exhibi- 
 tion of 1851. Like* all naturally formed figures in 
 rock or chalk, these are found to be nothing but 
 rough unshapen masses on a close inspection. 
 
 October is chanting his own last dying lays, 
 and the chill fogs of November are preparing to 
 sing his requiem, and our traveller sets to work in 
 earnest to pack up his traps and curiosities. The 
 latter were soon done, only consisting of a few 
 shells and sea-weeds, and such like things gene- 
 rally found on the sea-shore. The former he was 
 not troubled about, having fallen into such good
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 221 
 
 hands, that all those little matters were done for 
 him. 
 
 " Happy man !" some of you will exclaim, " who 
 would not like to be an invalid to be waited on in this 
 manner ?" Halt a moment, my kind friends. To 
 be nursed, and petted, and coddled, if you like 
 the word, as he was, you must be a sick man, 
 and I would ask any of you seriously whether you 
 would undergo the ordeal for the sake of the 
 reward. 
 
 Beyond doubt it is worth while to endure a great 
 deal of suffering, for the sake of receiving those 
 kind attentions that the sick man is always certain 
 to meet with at the hands of the softer sex, and 
 upon which we have already expatiated. But 
 query, how much suffering would you, reader, (of 
 course at this moment I appeal to the male portion 
 of my readers) undergo to receive a like amount 
 of kindness. Our traveller had been invalided, 
 crippled, and even condemned by the doctors for 
 more than two years, and though I do not say he 
 was entitled to all the kindnesses he received 
 wherever he went, and for which he was most 
 deeply grateful, still I think his comparatively 
 helpless condition went far to ensure it for him,
 
 222 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 from all warm and charitable hearts. But the 
 luggage is all packed, and our traveller's last evening 
 at Bouley has arrived, and wishing all his friends 
 adieu, he retired to bed. 
 
 Before closing this Chapter, our traveller would 
 wish to say a word or two about the treatment he 
 received at this Bouley Bay hotel. 
 
 Upwards of four months he had been located 
 in that pleasant house by the lone sea-shore, and 
 when he quitted it, it was with feelings of great 
 regret. For four months he had received the 
 most unremitting kindness and attention from every 
 one in the house, and he would here wish to 
 bear his grateful testimony to their general and 
 uniform kindness, assiduity, and attention, not only 
 to himself, but also to all comers to their hotel. 
 
 Reader, in concluding this Chapter, if ever you 
 go to Jersey, (and if you wish to see pretty scenery 
 go there by all means) let me advise you to pay a 
 visit to Bouley ; and if you are able to procure ac- 
 commodation at the hotel there, I feel confident 
 from our traveller's description of it, that you will be 
 charmed by the scenery with which it is surrounded, 
 delighted with its daily life and evening solitude, 
 and you cannot fail to be pleased and satisfied
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 223 
 
 with the treatment you receive there. Should you 
 go, fail not to mention when you arrive there, that 
 you come at the recommendation of the "lame man 
 of Bouley."
 
 224 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 Departure from Bouley. Day-break. Beautiful effects. Adieu 
 to Jersey. A November day on board a Steamer. Little epi- 
 sode on the Voyage. Cupid and Uniforms. The Guard's Story 
 about the Livery. Arrival at Southampton. Hobbler on the 
 Custom-house. The Author's Adieu to the Reader. 
 
 To rise with the lark is early work, but to rise 
 before the lark, when all nature is steeped in the 
 gloom of night is extraordinarily early work, and 
 proves the man who does it to be, in the getting 
 up way, an extraordinary man. 
 
 Well such was the case with Hobbler. On a 
 cold, cheerless November morning he rose from 
 his bed somewhere about half past four, long 
 before chanticleer had even proclaimed the ap- 
 proach of dawn. The greater part of the house- 
 hold were fast in the arms of Morpheus when he
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 225 
 
 made his appearance below stairs all equipped for 
 his long journey. Bidding his host good bye, he 
 hobbled into his cab and finally quitted his Jersey 
 home about half past five. 'Twas in the night 
 that Hobbler quitted this home, but the moon was 
 shining brightly, and ere he had reached the top 
 of the hill, the day began to dawn. 
 
 " Upon the hill he turned, 
 To take a last foud look, 
 Of the valley," and the rocky shore, 
 And his dwelling by the brook. 
 
 Who that has travelled through the night, or watched 
 by a sick bed, or lain on a bed of sickness himself, 
 but has seen and watched the breaking of the day ; 
 how like a little speck of light bursting from out 
 its night-shroud it first appears in the eastern 
 horizon, then little by little it spreads over the 
 heavens, the night clouds roll gradually away, the 
 stars fade, and the silvery moon pales before the ap- 
 proach of morning's dawn. 
 
 So it was on the morning of Hobbler's departure 
 from Bouley, as from the top of the hill he watched 
 .the fair Aurora leap forth into new life. 
 
 The earth began to lose its deep shadows,
 
 226 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 object after object came into view, rock after rock, 
 hill after hill became visible, and at last even the 
 far off coast of France loomed thick in its distant 
 and misty morning garb. The sea lost its heavi- 
 ness, and again resumed its transparent hue, a 
 beautiful violet tint spread over the earth, and sea 
 and sky seemed to combine in that early morning 
 scene ; and finally the old hotel at the bottom of 
 the hill crept out from her shadowy retreat be- 
 neath the fern-clad hills, and stood out in bold 
 relief against the gorgeous crimson and purple 
 tints of the heavens, which spread themselves over 
 the eastern sky, and proclaimed the approach of 
 day's great ruler. 
 
 " But yonder comes the powerful king of day, 
 Rejoicing in the east, the lessening cloud, 
 The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow 
 Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach 
 Betoken glad." 
 
 The brow of the hill is now reached, and so 
 farewell to thee old Bouley. St. Heliers and its 
 harbours are attained ere the sun has shaken off 
 his misty robe, the steam of the mail packet 
 Courier is up, and she lies at the pier head ready
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 227 
 
 to convey our traveller back to the land of his 
 birth. 
 
 There were some friends waiting to see him off, 
 but long leave takings are not pleasant things, and 
 wishing all of them good bye, he stepped on 
 board the packet. 
 
 At half past seven she steamed out of port, and 
 with kissing of hands, and waving of handker- 
 chiefs, and all the little affecting et ceteras that 
 must naturally occur when parting with friends 
 with whom you have spent months in close and 
 social intercourse, and whom you may never see 
 again, Hobbler bade adieu to Jersey. 
 
 Soon after quitting it, Serk hove in sight, and 
 then Guernsey, which latter island was reached 
 about ten o'clock. Before leaving St. Heliers, our 
 traveller had been congratulated on the fineness 
 and calmness of the morning, but it turned out 
 to be a day of quite the reverse character. The 
 wind which had been blowing hard all night, had 
 only moderated for a short time, and before reach- 
 ing Guernsey it had again become very boisterous, 
 and the sun which had only made its appearance 
 for a few minutes, was now completely hidden by 
 dark lowering clouds.
 
 228 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 Ere long it began to rain a sort of Scotch mist, 
 and the wind came in fitful gusts, dashing the 
 spray over the vessel at the rise of almost every 
 wave, and the day became altogether one of a very 
 unpleasant character. 
 
 Alderney and the Caskets were passed about 
 midday, and soon after, owing to the haziness of 
 the weather, were lost sight of altogether. 
 
 The wind being right a-head, and the vessel 
 being very heavily laden with cattle and general 
 merchandise, her progress was not very rapid. 
 The atmosphere, too, was cold and rnw, and our 
 hero not being able to move about, the voyage be- 
 came very tedious. 
 
 About three o'clock in the afternoon, the captain 
 and the mate stationed themselves on the bridge 
 to look out for land, but they had to look a mon- 
 strous long while before they found it, much to 
 the annoyance of the poor sick folk on board ; for 
 the majority of the passengers had already suc- 
 cumbed either to the pitching of the vessel, or to 
 the unpleasant effluvia that is always to be met 
 with on board a steamer, especially in thick 
 weather, when the steam and smoke, and smell of 
 grease are continually driven down upon deck.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 229 
 
 The cabin, on such occasions, not being at all a 
 pleasant place, our traveller was obliged to content 
 himself with sitting still upon the deck. He was 
 well wrapped up in a thick overcoat, and as the 
 sea washed occasionally over him, he could not help 
 coining to the conclusion, that his coat was being 
 converted into a perpetual barometer, and his face 
 undergoing a slow but sure process of pickling. 
 But this tedious day wore on, and it was not 
 altogether unrelieved by amusement. Among the 
 sick folk on board was a young lady, who having 
 borne up against adverse circumstances for a long 
 while, was obliged at last to give way, and became 
 in such an hysterical state, that the mate and some 
 of the passengers were quite alarmed about her, and 
 the stewardess was most unremitting in her atten- 
 tions, applying all sorts of sedatives and restoratives 
 to try and alleviate her sufferings. But old Dame 
 Nature was after all the best nurse, and the sight 
 of a rather dashing' young officer of her Majesty's 
 army was the best restorative. The former recom- 
 mended sleep, which was accepted and proved 
 beneficial ; the latter recommended himself, and 
 was also accepted, and to judge by the merry 
 ringing laugh of this lately half dying and hysteri-
 
 230 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 cal young lady, his company must have also 
 been highly beneficial. Indeed, there was but 
 little left in that merry face of the ghostly appear- 
 ance that she had presented but a short time 
 before, and the presence of the gallant son of Mars 
 acted like a powerful elixir, and to judge from all 
 appearances it was not very far removed from the 
 elixir of love. 
 
 In the early part of the day she had engrossed 
 all the attentions of the stewardess, they were now 
 dispensed with, and she engrossed all those of this 
 gallant gay Lothario, who, in his turn, certainly 
 monopolised all the ideas of the young lady. I 
 might describe this couple if I thought it would 
 be edifying to rny readers, but as I am extremely 
 doubtful on that point, I will leave it alone, 
 especially as I presume that few people ever travel 
 without witnessing some such scene. Suffice it to 
 say, that our traveller confesses to having been 
 amused for all the rest of his voyage with this flir- 
 tation, which was doubtless one of those little scenes 
 that are always sure to occur when highly excita- 
 ble young ladies are thrown into the company of 
 dashing young officers ; for depend upon it, in such 
 cases, the artful little god who has always a spare
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 231 
 
 arrow in his quiver, and who rarely misses his aim, 
 is sure to strike full home. There is in such a 
 case no resisting the charms of the livery. 
 
 Oh ! this livery uniform if you like it better, 
 my particular reader, what a deal it has to answer 
 for. Perhaps it would not be altogether out of 
 place to introduce an anecdote respecting "the 
 livery," that came under the notice of the author 
 some few years ago. 
 
 He was riding behind the mail coach from 
 London to Dover, and having entered into conver- 
 sation with the guard, found him a very pleasant 
 and jolly fellow. By the bye, perhaps some of my 
 elder readers who recollect the mail coaches in 
 their prime, will say that it was not customary for 
 passengers to travel with the guard at all. Exactly 
 so, but somehow or other with the day mails (and 
 this was a day mail I am speaking of) they were 
 not so particular, and the coach being full in front, 
 I was accommodated with a seat at the back. 
 
 But to my story. The guard was not the hand- 
 somest man in the world, indeed he was what some 
 people would call rather ugly, and others very ugly ; 
 a sort of square cut visage with a few hairs dibbed 
 into his head and face, eyes rather fishy, and a
 
 232 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 nose, the end of which always pointed heavenward ; 
 but he was very good tempered, and this appeared 
 in his face. The day was not a pleasant one, much 
 such another as the one Hobbler was now spending 
 on board the Jersey homeward-bound packet. So 
 our guard put on his great coat, a very seedy sort 
 of an affair. It had once been brown, I should 
 think, but it was impossible to say, for it was 
 such a venerable coat, covered with successive 
 layers of the dirt of ages, and the dust of many 
 roads. It was now indeed a coat of many colours, 
 and I should add it was his own private property, 
 and consequently not his official coat. 
 
 Early in the afternoon the coach approached 
 Canterbury, by that pretty road which all who 
 have ever visited that city must remember, called 
 Harbledown Hill, which commands a fine view of 
 the venerable cathedral, and all the adjacent town 
 and country. 
 
 No sooner had we come in sight of this city 
 than our guard, to ray astonishment, took off his 
 great coat, though it was still raining fast, and 
 pulling a small piece of looking glass out of his 
 pocket began combing his hairs. I believe it is 
 usual to speak in the singular number of the hairy
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 233 
 
 covering of the head, but in this case I call them 
 hairs, for they were so very scanty you might almost 
 have counted them. Seeing my look of astonish- 
 ment, my worthy friend looked up with an enquiring 
 glance to know what I could possibly be surprised 
 at. " What are you up to?" I exclaimed, "You 
 surely do not think that any of the girls in Canter- 
 bury will be looking after such an ugly fellow as 
 you." He laughed at my innocence. A sort of 
 merry, contemptuous laugh, to think that I should 
 be so green. It is true, I was but very young at 
 the time. 
 
 Taking another look in the glass at his ugly 
 but good tempered face, and having another rake 
 at the stray hairs, and appearing to be perfectly 
 satisfied in his own mind that he was a plain man, 
 he looked up at me, and with a waggish expression, 
 he tapped with his fingers his beautiful new red 
 official coat, which he now displayed in all its 
 glory, and said, " It is the livery, Sir, that does 
 it." And then he sat himself down, and blowing 
 a defiant charge on his bugle, seemed to fancy 
 himself some old Koman warrior, seated in his 
 triumphal car. And I must candidly confess that 
 the livery did do it, for after we had passed through
 
 234 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 the city, as he drew on his time honoured garment, 
 and again consigned his brilliant uniform to ob- 
 scurity, he turned to me with the same knowing 
 smile and said, " Well, Sir, and what do you 
 think of the livery now ?" I could only allow that 
 he was right about it, and that I was exceedingly 
 
 o v 
 
 green on the subject. I don't think I have ever 
 been so since ; as that day, I certainly learnt my first 
 lesson of its value. All the way through the streets, 
 the bright scarlet uniform was a very great source 
 of attraction, and many a young girl, aye, and many 
 a pretty one too, had returned with a good humour- 
 ed nod the friendly salutation of our ugly guard ; 
 and I had almost wished I was a guard myself. 
 
 Yes, the livery is all powerful it must be owned, 
 whether it be the livery of the cloth which is 
 exceedingly attractive now adays, or her Majesty's 
 livery of red, blue or green, or the exceedingly 
 popular and varied liveries of the rifle corps ; or in 
 other ranks, the railway livery and many others, 
 to say nothing of the official garb of flunkeyism, 
 all in their own peculiar sphere have their attrac- 
 tions, perhaps too much so, and therefore the old 
 guard was right, " that the livery does it." 
 
 Your pardon, kind reader, for this digression.
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 235 
 
 To return to the steam boat and Hobbler. Night 
 began to creep on, and the captain and the mate 
 were still looking out for the land they could not 
 find. Their search was, however, at last rewarded 
 by the sudden appearance of a red light, looking 
 gloomy and grand through the gathering mists of 
 evening. This proved to be the Needles Light- 
 house, and soon after the vessel entered the Solent 
 and smooth water. What a change then took place 
 on board that ship. The poor sick people began to 
 look up, and the colour returned to some of their 
 cheeks ; the attentions of the steward and stewardess 
 were dispensed with, at least as far as they might 
 be regarded in the light of sick nurses, some of 
 the more valiant of the male passengers were bold 
 enough to light up cigars, our lovers walked the 
 deck with all the confidence of a promenade at 
 the Crystal Palace on Saturdays, and before long 
 the majority were engaged in discussing a leg of 
 mutton and trimmings. As we entered the Solent, 
 the Needles looked like grim old sentinels, and the 
 Isle of Wight lay an un distinguishable black mass 
 upon the ocean, except when illumined by some 
 blue lights that were let off to tell the folks at the 
 telegraph station at Hurst Point that we had es-
 
 236 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 caped the dangers of the Channel. The vessel 
 pokes her way on in the dark, and before nine 
 o'clock it entered Southampton docks, and our 
 traveller after passing through the fiery ordeal of 
 the Custom House, found himself sitting soon 
 after that hour before a blazing fire in the coffee 
 room of an hotel in that town. And right glad 
 was he to sit before that fire, for he found himself 
 upon his arrival in England, also arrived in mid- 
 winter, which had set in uncommonly early, and 
 very severe. And as he sat by the fire-side, he 
 thought of the scenes he had just witnessed at the 
 Custom House, and as he thought the musing fit 
 came upon him, and this was the last of his 
 musings : 
 
 HOBBLER ON THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. 
 
 What a horrid thing is that Custom House, 
 and what a complicated piece of machinery it is, 
 very marvellous no doubt in its ramifications but 
 exceedingly unpleasant in its workings. It con- 
 tributes very largely to the revenue of the country 
 but then it pries so into all one's little secret pur- 
 chases, and exposes one's wardrobe in such an
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 237 
 
 unseemly manner to the public gaze, no matter 
 whether it be handsome or shabby. If the 
 former, perhaps, it does not so much matter ; but if 
 the latter, who is there that is anxious for such a 
 display ? It is moreover so very annoying, that one 
 cannot indulge in a little quiet cheat if one likes, 
 when it is only at the expense of the country. To 
 think that any one of the fair sex especially, should 
 be subjected to such indignities ; her luggage over- 
 hauled, her garments rudely handled, her trinkets 
 inspected, and to fill up the measure of the annoy- 
 ance, sundry little articles of foreign manufacture 
 cleverly concealed (though not cleverly enough to 
 escape the lynx pyes of these terrible land-sharks) 
 in the luggage, ruthlessly abstracted by these rude 
 officials, and still more ruthlessly confiscated by the 
 state, of which these officials are the representa- 
 tives. If a lady is so inclined, why may she not 
 practice a little sleight of hand ? By all means, if 
 she can ensure success, and quiet her conscience for 
 committing what must be called, though perhaps 
 harshly, a fraud upon the country ; for what the 
 legislators of a free country like England have fixed 
 upon as the necessary dues to be enforced, as 
 requisite for the support of its laws and position,
 
 238 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 must either be paid, or the country's government 
 cannot be carried on ; and therefore any evasion of 
 those dues cannot be designated by any less 
 harsh word than a fraud practised upon one's 
 country, especially when it is considered that the 
 parties making those laws are supposed to be 
 elected by the voice of the people at large 
 
 Of course these remarks apply to the men as 
 well as the fair sex; though when the former 
 indulge in smuggling, it is generally on a larger 
 scale, and it must be confessed that it is the ladies 
 who are generally the victims of the rough treat- 
 ment that I now so much deplored, and which I 
 was discussing in my mind as I sat before the fire. 
 Did these ladies ever think of what they were doing, 
 or what indignities they were subjecting themselves 
 to? Far be it from any chivalrous man, and my 
 editor has already told the reader that I am one, 
 to stand up and maintain the cause of the ladies 
 against all comers ; far be it, I say, from any chival- 
 rous man to say that they do it from the love of 
 cheating, such an idea can never enter their heads 
 by any possibility, though they do perhaps prize 
 the article a little more because it comes somewhat 
 cheaper than they can procure it in England, but
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 239 
 
 then they prize it a great deal more from the idea 
 that they have outwitted the cunning Jack-in-office. 
 And as I thought of the rudeness that I had seen 
 some of the ladies subjected to that day, I mused 
 on, and wondered when the day would come that 
 they should no longer be liable to such treatment ; 
 when all those articles of virtu, and pretty little 
 things of foreign manufacture, to say nothing of 
 articles of dress, and delicious scents which are so 
 temptingly displayed in the shops of Paris, and 
 other Continental cities, might be openly exposed 
 in their luggage, instead of being hidden ; or when 
 concealment would no longer be necessary, and 
 when the day would arrive that those rude officers 
 should be placed on the shelf, as no longer of any 
 use, or be put under a glass case and exhibited in 
 some national museum, as one of the wonders of 
 bye gone days. 
 
 Free trade in one country, and not in another, 
 is at best a very imperfect system ; but the days 
 will perhaps come when free trade notions shall be 
 universal, and when the wishes and efforts of 
 England to extend it to all her imports may be 
 reciprocated by every other nation. Then could 
 Great Britain find in the increase of her inanufac-
 
 240 A HOBBLE THROUGH 
 
 tares and consequent increase of her excisable 
 revenue, an equivalent for the loss of her customs' 
 duties; and then and not till then could the hate- 
 ful Custom House with all its uses and all its 
 abuses be abolished ; and all its dark deeds of 
 insult, oppression, abstraction, and confiscation 
 might be chronicled in the pages of history as 
 things that once were, but now happily no longer 
 exist. And as I mused, I fancied I saw the arrival 
 of that happy day, when one could land in England, 
 the same as one lands in Jersey, without being way- 
 laid by a hateful Custom House officer. Soon may 
 that day arrive, when sleight of hand shall no 
 longer be a requisite portion of a traveller's educa- 
 tion. 
 
 And Hobbler woke up from his musings and 
 went to bed, and the next morning started for 
 London, where he arrived without let or hindrance. 
 
 The musings of Hobbler are ended, as well as 
 his wanderings and his dreamings. 
 
 And now, kind reader, you, who have accom- 
 panied me thus far through this tangled mass of 
 words, I have only to inform you that my task is 
 finished, to solicit for the last time your pardon for 
 having indulged in such dreamy effusions, to thank
 
 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 241 
 
 you for all your patience and forbearance, and to 
 bid you adieu. 
 
 If I have afforded you any amusement or instruc- 
 tion by these writings, I am most truly pleased ; and 
 if I have failed to do so, I can only humbly apologise 
 for having trenched so deeply on your time. If I 
 have created in any of you a wish to visit these 
 Channnel Islands, by the description of their 
 beautiful scenery, let me advise you by all means 
 to go and judge for yourselves, feeling quite con- 
 vinced that my poor feeble pen is quite inadequate 
 to paint their beauties in colours sufficiently glow- 
 ing to do them justice ; and if I have failed alto- 
 gether to stir within you any such desire, be not 
 guided by my descriptions, but only take my 
 advice, and go there. 
 
 Go, again I repeat it, and see for yourselves, 
 for it must be that I am very deficient in descrip- 
 tive power, most certainly, it is not these islands 
 that are deficient in anything that is beautiful in 
 landscape scenery. And once more I would say, 
 
 go- 
 Dark clouds hover over the political horizon, 
 war and rumours of war are abroad, the Continent 
 of Europe may even in this approaching summer 
 
 R
 
 242 THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 be in a state of open warfare, at any rate it will 
 be in a disturbed state, and travelling there be 
 unpleasant if not dangerous. And even if this 
 were not the case, why should you ramble so far 
 in search of nature's beauties why should you 
 seek them in countries governed by despotic laws 
 and where the traveller is subjected to t so many 
 indignities and so many impositions, when you can 
 find them nearer home, rich and rare as the eye 
 can wish to gaze upon, and where you will be 
 under the protection of that flag, the bright symbol 
 of liberty that floats over the great, the glorious 
 and the free nation of Old England, and all those 
 beautiful islands that own allegiance to the 
 sovereign of Great Britain. 
 
 Reader, farewell, the Hobblings of Tom Hob- 
 bier are ended. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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