Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from Guernsey, Its People and Dialect: Dissertation Presented to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
The surface of this island is of about twenty-four square miles, from which a third must be deducted for rocks, cliffs and places not susceptive of cultivation. We must not, there fore, expect to meet a great variety in the products, nor an extensive system of agriculture. The extreme subdivision of land may perhaps diminish the usefulness of what little ground can be cultivated, but the corresponding advantage of enabling the poorest man to own a little property, in which he can become interested, must be, in the minds of most persons, of sufficient weight to induce the preservation of the present system of the tenure of property. The soil being fertile, and the manure, afforded by sand and sea-weed, increasing this fertility, small farms are seen everywhere, even to the very edge of the sea, and on every inch of the ground something useful is being cultivated. On these farms is raised the famous Guernsey cow, large and of a bright yellow, and the islanders are so proud of their cattle, that every foreign breed is rigor ously excluded, and only the meat required at the slaughter house is allowed to enter the island.
Fruits and flowers, especially grapes and tomatoes, are the main product of the hundreds of greenhouses that cover the island in all directions, giving it a peculiar appearance, when the sun is reflected from all this glass. This fruit is sold at high prices in London and other large cities in England, and is the chief source of whatever little wealth the inhabitants may possess.
It is not unlikely that, when the early inhabitants of Eng land, driven before the victorious Saxons, fled to Wales, and thence, across the sea, to Brittany, some should have been attracted to these islands and have been among the first regu lar colonists. There is a tradition, that the Saracens possessed a stronghold in Guernsey, called the castle of Geoffrey; this site is now peacefully occupied by a church, but the view from there, overlooking the whole island, easily explains why those fierce warriors had chosen this position in preference to any other.
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