The Argosy — page 231: what you’re looking at

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

216 The Channel Islands. Jersey : and those whose ambition is to possess such remembrances of the Channel Islands, had best lay in their store at St. Helier’s. One of the first things to strike you in Guernsey, is, that though there is no Tower of Babel, there is a confusion of tongues. Or per- haps it would be better to say a confusion of country. English and French are so blended together that you grow bewildered and begin to wonder where you are. The very names of the streets are written up in both languages. English money is taken and French money is always given you in change. Thus you have a variety of coins which only adds to your perplexity. Shillings and francs get hope- lessly mixed, and you give the one for the other twenty times a day. The town of St. Peter Port is rather quaint and curious, with sun- dry old-fashioned houses which seem to pride themselves on their antiquity as the old families of Guernsey do on their pedigree. There are ‘‘ Sixties” and “ Forties” in the society of Guernsey, and I have been assured that when a Forty enters a room in which a Sixty is seated, the Sixty immediately rises, makes her curtsey and departs, leaving the Forty in possession. What happens in the contrary case, I do not know. This certainly sounds somewhat extreme and far- fetched. In days gone by, when people were exclusive to the point - of ill-breeding, one can imagine such a state of existence; but those days have departed with their lights; and in this levelling epoch, perhaps the danger is of going too far the other way. The “inheritors ” of Guernsey have no doubt too much good sense to follow out the above statement to the letter. And yet the inhabitants of a small island do become almost of necessity more cramped and narrow- minded in their views of life than those who, moving in the greater world, have their minds expanded (sometimes to an undesirable | extent) by a wider experience. | St. Peter Port is smaller than St. Helier’s. It is more hilly and appears to have been built with greater regard to method. The old portion of the town is more picturesque and interesting than the new. Long flights of steps that may be called Jacob’s Ladders, lead up from the port to the High Street, narrow passages supported on either side by the houses. ‘The parish church is by far the finest church in all the islands, and with its stone pillars and arches has almost the dignity of a small cathedral. We used to steal in here at night some- times when practising was going on, and listen to the voices and the organ as they went rolling and echoing out into the darkness, sorry enough when it was over, and the singers dispersed, and the organ doors were put to and shut in all the harmony, and the little light was | extinguished and left all in darkness. Just above the church is the new market hall, a handsome, covered-in building, with a grand flight of steps, and a good display of everything that is grown under the sun: delicious fruit, vegetables and flowers, fish, flesh, fowl, and good red herring. In the matter of shops it is very much behind St. Helier’s, but to Eomichooks.co