The Argosy — page 230: what you’re looking at

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

The Channel Islands. 215 ing towards the hotel. It was a picturesque bit of hill and gave one a favourable first impression of Guernsey. On the right a few houses were perched on steep slopes, in a foreign-looking fashion one does not often seein England. If one did, I suppose it would cease to be foreign-looking and would lose its charm. A little higher up we came to hanging gardens, still on the right. Trailing creepers, flowers and festoons, green arches that grew over trellis-work ; long sprays of flowers that gracefully twined in and out of long sprays of green leaves, like voices blending inaduet. We had seen nothing so refined and luxuriant in Jersey, though many lovely things no doubt exist there that for want of time and opportunity we missed. ‘‘ The Hang- ing Gardens of the Hesperides,” suggested H., and really it did very well, Still higher, this time on the left, we came to a small public garden, tastefully laid out ; and thus in our short drive it seemed to us that Guernsey was a Land of Promise. Yet in respect of cultivation and fertility, taken as a whole, it is not equal to Jersey. Every foot of that pleasant little island is made to work for its living ; about two-thirds of Guernsey are cultivated, and the barren third is a large slice in so small a territory. Unfortu- nately, the fine weather had not followed us, and almost from the first we saw Guernsey under cloudy skies. This was a great drawback, but it was not all: the cloudy skies were too often rainy also, gentle breezes became gales, warm days grew cold. Our very first drive that very first afternoon was anything but a suc- cess. We made the circuit of Fort George, and visited one or two fine headlands, but the country we passed through looked bleak and deso- late. The skies had turned grey, a sharp wind blew vigorously. We had left Jersey that morning in June weather; this afternoon it might be December. Towards the end of the drive, a thick, wet vapour, not uncommon to Guernsey, shut out all surrounding objects and chilled us to the bone. We had passed over roads not so well kept as in Jersey, between low loose walls that did duty for hedges, and bounded fields that looked like waste places in a desert. The drive inclined one to melancholy. However, it was only a first impression. The day came when the more we saw of Guernsey, the more we liked it. _ Thus, from the first we saw Guernsey under less happy circumstances than attended. us in Jersey. The charm of weather had departed. Only one day during our stay did an excursion car run, and then we fell in with it accidentally, and felt quite envious as it dashed past us, and quickly left our one-horse vehicle far behind. It certainly looked _ everything that could be desired, eclipsed the Jersey car in many eways, and especially in the matter of its horses, which were really splendid animals. Our perigrinations, taken in the ordinary carriages, -were-not half so pleasant and exhilarating. On the other hand you have not the same amount of country and overlook; nor the high hedges of Jersey to look over; norm the -cabbage-stalks to command. The latter are much more cultivated in EONNIE OO KS (EO) m