The Argosy — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

46 The Channel Islands. its walls. Nightly performances enlivened by a brass band, and the applause of appreciative audiences, if not of senates, boded ill for the repose and tranquillity we had not unreasonably hoped to find. We at once decided upon Bree’s Stopford Hotel, and in no way regretted the choice, for it was well-placed, quiet, comfortable, and moderate in its charges. It is undoubtedly the best hotel in Jersey. On the other hand, the “sea view” from the Esplanade is limited. There is the harbour on one side, a point of land stretching out on the other, and in the middle, the garrison of Elizabeth Castle, historically interesting, but not inordinately attractive. At low water the tide goes far out, disclosing a large extent of flat rocks and sea- weed—for the tide here has a fall of between forty and fifty feet. You may walk from the shore to Elizabeth Castle at low water, a distance of three quarters of a mile; but at full tide the castle becomes an island. Woe unto him who ventures across when the tide is rising. It comes up so rapidly that before reaching the garrison he may find himself wading in a flood of water. We set foot in Jersey that Saturday morning before ten o’clock; an exceptionally quick passage; the one instance, it was said, during the whole season, that any boat had come in to time. The moment you enter Jersey you receive the impression of a thriving, busy, enterprising town. Everyone appears occupied, and all seem well to do. They have turned all their resources to account, and made the most of the advantages they possess in the way of climate and fertility of soil. One hears of people going to Guernsey and Jersey to economise, but this is a past experience and a present delusion. Everything is as dear as in England ; many things are much dearer. We found nothing reasonable except the hotels. Their system, for the most part, is to board you by the day or week, and a good and abundant table is generally kept. This refers only to the best hotels in the Islands: and in the sum total, all over the world, they are the cheapest and most comfortable. As the flyman went through the town we found many of the streets narrow and irregular. Certainly St. Helier possesses little beauty of its own. I was never in any place so honeycombed with thorough- fares, thrown about, apparently, without the slightest plan or order. H., who professes largely the bump of locality, and was consequently overweeningly self-reliant, was for ever leading one astray, and by what he called short cuts turning a ten minutes’ stroll into an hour's walk. At length I found him out; his powers were a sham, his self-reliance a delusion. He knew no more how to steer in this wilderness of streets than a mariner knows how to navigate without a compass. And no wonder. They criss-cross each other like the sections of a puzzle, or the lines ina hand. The townis a labyrinth ; and half the time it seemed to us that not even the names were put up for guidance. Nevertheless, the town has a comfortable, well-to-do air ; its people Gomilcbooks