The Argosy — page 229: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

214 The Channel Islands. Gardner, our host, was everything that was kind, liberal, and attentive. We immediately found ourselves in a more congenial social atmos- phere than anything vouchsafed to us by Jersey. True, at the table d’héte there was no amusement to be obtained from eccentric forms, customs and conversation, as in the former island. The convenances were, indeed, strictly attended to, and the table had quite the tone, flavour and appearance of a select dinner party. How Mr. Gardner, with his moderate charges, contrived to make his hotel remunerative, I hardly know. For things—that is to say all sorts of provisions—are dear in Guernsey. No one must go there for economising purposes. One lady, a recent arrival, said she was as much surprised as disappointed in thisrespect. She had expected | to find things cheap in Guernsey, and they were dearer than in Eng- | land. Butter—to descend to domestic details—was half-a-crown a pound; meat and everything else in proportion. House rent alone was reasonable, but a suitable house in a desired aspect formed a combination not always to be found. If making a long stay in Guernsey, I should certainly come to an arrangement with the landlord of Old Government House. If he would not accept my terms, I should take his. The house is quiet and well ordered. It is enclosed and pleasantly retired, though in the heart of the town and a minute’s walk from the Post Office and the principal shops. Nothing of all this is visible. They might be a mile away. A high wall shuts you in, shuts out all noise. There is a delicious lawn before the house with two curious trees at the end. You may sit there and command a fine view of the harbour, watch the steamers come in and depart, load and unload. You may study the signals and learn them by heart, and so get to know what boats are in sight, whence they come and whither away. The garden is well kept; the flowers are blooming and scent the air; though the month is October, geraniums and roses are trained upon the walls. You feel that in Guernsey your lines could not be cast in pleasanter places. But all this we found out afterwards, and by degrees. The day we first landed was’ given up to many wonderments and speculations. The hotel porter, who was on the quay, took charge of our luggage, whilst we packed into asort of expanded Bath chair; a low, one-horse carriage, about a foot from the ground, with just room enough for two. With evident anxiety H. left his beloved cabbage-stalks behind him, ‘‘to be forwarded” at the leisure and pleasure of the porter ; whilst I inwardly hoped ‘‘ something would happen ” before we again had the felicity of beholding our baggage. However, nothing did happen ; they remained then, as now, in possession of their respective owners. H., I believe, has hung his outside a small country den of his own, like a barber’s pole; the other reposes in all the Sg re of strict seclusion, It has retired from the world. URS This quarto edition of a Bath chair went briskly on its way up the pier, crossed the esplanade, and mounted a steep hill no doubt lead- ecomicbooks.com