19th century

Cherries, by Metivier

The poet George Métivier's family home, St George in the Câtel (the painting of the house is by Young, 1821), was planted with cherry trees, about which he fondly reminisced, along with the birds that feasted on them. Here are some excerpts from the Guernsey Magazine of November 1884 about cherries, taken from a series called 'Guernsey Popular Names of Plants, as compared with those in other places,' No. 8, 'Based on Mr Métivier's Glossaire.'

Table des Monnaies, Poids et Mesures en usage a Guernesey, published by Frederick Clarke

In the mid-19th century Frederick Clarke produced in his establishment in the States Arcade this little booklet, attempting to distil in four pages the labyrinthine system of weights and measures at that time employed in the island. Its difficulty was compounded by the sheer number of currencies that island merchants and traders had to deal with. The information is taken literally from schoolmaster Thomas du Frocq's Nouveau Precepteur of 1818, which is a (mainly) applied mathematics primer of tortuous complexity and much greater length.

Cachemaille's Descriptive sketch of the island of Sark: The School for Girls

The generosity of the Seigneur of Sark, Peter Le Pelley, from one of the two books about the island written by his great friend, the Reverend J L V Cachemaille, for many years the vicar of Sark. In 1860, the diary of the former 17th-century Sark minister, Elie Brėvint, was found in a loft in Sark. Cachemaille was inspired by this to investigate the archives of the Seigneurie and to write a series of articles based upon what he found, which were translated by Louisa Harvey and published in the Guernsey Magazine. From this was published the Descriptive Sketch, published by Frederick Clarke, and then republished in 1928. See Ewen & De Carteret, The Fief of Sark, The Guernsey Press, 1969. The illustrations are from the Library Collection, the drawing showing the Seigneurie in Sark in Le Pelley's time.

The Letters of Margaret Mann, ed. Danielle Delon

A fascinating collection of letters from Trinidad with strong Guernsey connections, that complement an important set of letters held in the Priaulx Library. The main families mentioned in the letters of local interest are: Baynes; Brock; Carey; Dalgairns; Darby; Davis; De Havilland; De Jersey; Dobree; Douglas; Durand; Edwards; Fitton; Freeman; Hardy; Hawtrey; Hayes; Hewer; Hutchesson; Kennedy; Lacy: Le Mesurier; Lenfestey; Le Maitre; Le Page; Le Sueur; Maingay; Mann; Mansell; McCrea; O'Brien; Powell; Powys; Priaulx; Routh; Saumarez; Selwyn; Tupper; Valpy; Wheeler (Anna Doyle); Whitchurch.'My dear Fanny, if you contemplate the bare possibility of marrying a soldier, take my advice and count the cost.'

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