[306] Rebrousser—Retourner sur ses pas.
[307] Quille—“C’est un morçeaux de bois tourné, plus gros par le bas que par le haut, dont on se sert pour jouer.”
The English captains were playing bowls when the Spanish ships were announced as being in sight.
[308] Bigots—Terme de Marine. C’est une petite pièce de bois percée de deux ou trois trous, par où l’on passe le bâtard pour la composition de racage.
[309] Flagner—Jetter.
[310] Sir Francis Drake commanded the ship Revenge during the fight with the Armada.
[311] Plumas—Plumage.
[312] L’Amiral d’Angleterre—Lord Howard of Effingham.
[313] Quas—Brisé.
[314]Ras—Terme de Mer. C’est un bâtiment qui n’a ni pont, ni tillac, ni couverture.
[315] Dras—Drake. Motley, in his History of the Netherlands, Vol. II., pp. 498-9, says: There were many quarrels among the English admirals at this period, and much jealousy of Drake.
[316] Duc de Mydine—The Duke of Medina-Sidonia, leader of the Spanish Armada, who, when the great hulk Satana and a galleon of Portugal were attacked by the Triumph and some other vessels, on the flag-ship, (the St. Martin) tried to repel Lord Howard on the Ark Royal and other men-of-war, and thence arose the hottest conflict of the day. He had previously, when Don Pedro de Valdez, commander of the Andelusian squadron,—having got his foremast carried away close to the deck,—lay crippled and helpless, calmly fired a gun to collect his scattered ships, and abandoned Valdez to his fate.… The next day Valdez surrendered to the Revenge.—Motley’s Netherlands, Vol. II., pp. 456-7.
[317] Bahut—Coffre couvert de cuir orné de petits clous.
[318] Cas—Terme de Pratique, Matière, Crime.
[319] Le Grand Dauphin, etc.—Don Diego de Pimental, nephew of the Viceroy of Sicily, and uncle to the Viceroy of Naples, was captured in his ship the St. Matthew, by Admiral Van der Does, of the Holland fleet.—Motley, Vol. II., p. 473.
[320] Nef—Navire.
[321] Alexander, Prince Farnèse, and Duke of Parma, was commandant of the Spanish Army, and was waiting in Flanders for an opportunity of co-operating with the Spanish fleet. He was suspected of having a secret treaty with Queen Elizabeth, (Motley, Vol. II., p. 273-4), but these verses are so very obscure, it is impossible to identify the incidents to which they allude. It may be that they, as well as the last verse of this poem are interpolations from some other ballad, which has got confused with this one.
[322] Mi-été—le milieu de l’été.
[323] Harnois.—signifie l’habillement d’un homme d’armes.
[324] Fil de l’epée—est en usage depuis long temps. Ronsard a dit parlant de Henri III., … “devant le fil de son epée.”
[325] Fronder—Attaquer quelque chose.
[326] Flibot—Terme de marine. C’est un moïen vaisseau qui est armé en course.
[327] Sarcler—Terme de Laboureur. Couper les méchantes herbes avec le sarcloir.
[328] Moufles—Garnie de poulies de cuivre, de boulons, et de cordages pour monter les pièces d’artillerie à l’elesoir.
[329] That this poem is very defective, and therefore obscure, is obvious, but I thought even this mutilated fragment was worth preserving. Many of the statements made in it are not borne out by history, though they probably formed part of the gossip of that day, and had filtered over to the Islands from sailors who had themselves had a share in some of the events narrated. This last verse seems to have no connection with the rest of the poem, but I have copied it as Job Mauger wrote it, nearly two centuries ago.
Secular Poems.
Belle Rose au Rosier Blanc.
[330] Baisse—servant girl.
[331] There are many versions of this song to be found among the country people, I have compared this with five or six others, and it is, I think, the most generally received.
À la Claire Fontaine.
Qui Veut Ouïr.
I have to thank Mr. J. T. R. de Havilland, of Havilland Hall, for kindly supplying me with a copy of this song.
Marguerite s’est Assise.
La Meunière.
Le Glaneur.
Les Trois Tambours.
Si j’avais le Chapeau.
[332] Caisses—Coffres.
[333] Ballettes—Petites Valises.
[334] Casaque—“Habillement qui est plus large qu’un juste-au-corps et qui se porte sur les épaules en forme de manteau.”—Richelet.
[335] Débotes—Tirer les botes de quelqu’un.
Venez Peuples Fidèles.
[336] This legend, which is found with slight variations in the Folk-Lore of almost every European nation, seems to be deeply impressed on the older St. Martinais, in fact some say that the two rocks between Moulin Huet and Saints’ Bays, which look like two kneeling figures, are the petrified forms of the man and the woman, condemned there to kneel and expiate their crime till the end of the world.
Jean, Gros Jean.
I have concluded this chapter of Guernsey songs with this one, though it is of an entirely different style and class to any of the others, but the tune to which it is set, is said to be the national air of Guernsey.
When the Duke of Gloucester landed here on the 18th of September, 1817, this song, as the Guernsey National Air was struck up by the band which came to meet him; the militiamen, knowing the song, all burst out laughing, much to the astonishment of the Duke and his suite!
Jean, gros Jean, ma-rie sa fille, Grosse et grasse et bien ha-bile, À un marchand de sa-bots,
Radinguette et ra-din-got; À un marchand de sa-bots, Ra-dinguette et ra-din-got.
Click for PDF score / midi file / Lilypond source.
[337] From Mrs. Kinnersly, to whom I am also indebted for the music.
The Clameur de Haro.
It has been suggested that the Clameur de Haro should be included among the civic customs peculiar to the Channel Islands. (See p.p. 59-77), so, as Sir Edgar MacCulloch had not mentioned it in his MSS. I have ventured to include a short description of it in the Appendix.
The “Clameur de Haro,” abolished in Normandy, A.D., 1583, is, perhaps, the most ancient and curious legal survival in the Channel Islands.
Should a Channel Islander consider his estate to be injured, or his rights to be infringed, by the action of another, in the presence of two witnesses he kneels on the ground and says:—
“Haro! Haro! Haro! à l’aide mon Prince! on me fait tort!” and he then repeats the Lord’s Prayer in French.
This formula, which is tantamount to an injunction to stay proceedings, causes all obnoxious practices to be suspended until the case has been tried in Court, when the party who is found to be in the wrong is condemned to a fine and a “Regard de Château,” which, in former times, meant a night’s imprisonment. All “Clameurs,” according to an ordonnance of October 1st, 1599, have to be registered at the Greffe within twenty-four hours, on penalty of being “convict en sa clameur,” and, should no proceedings be taken within a year of the clameur, it is considered to have lapsed.
An order of Queen Elizabeth relative to Guernsey, given at Richmond, October 9th, 1580, decides that “yt shall not be lawfull to appeale in anie cause criminell, or of correction, nor from the execution of anie order taken in their Courte of Chief Pleas, nor in cries of Haro.”[338]
One of the most important occasions on which this prerogative was used happened in the year 1850, when it was in contemplation to demolish the ancient fortifications of Castle Cornet, but the late Mr. Martin F. Tupper, who was then on a visit to Guernsey, had recourse to this form of appeal, and saved the oldest parts of the fortress from demolition. An extraordinary instance of a “Clameur” took place in the Church of Sark on the 14th of December, 1755. A great dispute had arisen between Dame Elizabeth Etienne, widow of Mr. Daniel Le Pelley, Seigneur of Sark, and the ecclesiastical authorities of Guernsey, as to in whose gift was the living of the Church of Sark. She appointed a Mr. Jean Févot to the Church, and when Mr. Pierre Levrier, who had been appointed by the Dean of Guernsey to this post, arrived in Sark to perform the service, he found Mr. Févot in the pulpit. He then and there, in the words of various scandalized eye-witnesses, “interjetta une Clameur de Haro, environ les deux heures d’après-midi, dans le tems qu’il avoit commencé à lire le service Divin.”[339] This of course led to many disputes, and for over a year Dame Le Pelley locked up the Church of Sark, and allowed no one to enter it. Finally, after much litigation, and threats of major excommunication from the Guernsey Ecclesiastical Court, the Bishop of Winchester intervened, Pierre Levrier was forcibly ejected from the island, and, in 1757, Mr. Cayeux Deschamps was given the living.
Four cases of “Clameurs” were registered between the years 1880-90, and an instance occurred as recently as 1902.
There has been much controversy as to the origin of the word “Haro.” Terrien, (Coutûme de Normandie, Edition 1684, p. 104), ascribes it to Rollo, Duke of Normandy, Ha-Ro, and says “La seule prononciation de son nom, même après tant de siècles a cette vertu, qu’elle engage ceux contre lesquels on s’en sert à cesser leurs entreprises et atenter rien au-de-là.” Laurence Carey, in his essay on the Laws and Customs of the Island, and all the other old writers say likewise, but modern philologists, such as Le Héricher and George Métivier have disputed this theory, and have resolved the word “Haro” into a “cri de charge,” which has survived as such in the English “Hurrah.” Froissart employs it frequently as the sound of combat: “Le Haro commença à monter,” and, in the description of the battle of Bouvines, won from the Germans and English in 1214, by Guillaume Guiart, who died in 1306 we find:—
[338] Livres des Jugements, etc., Vol. II., p. 16, (transcribed from British Museum, Lansdowne MSS., No. 155, fol. 426).
[339] From Colonel Ernest Le Pelley’s MSS.
[340] See Dictionnaire Franco-Normand, by G. Métivier, p. 280.
APPENDIX A. Ghosts.
Referred to on page 288.
The Ghost of Mr. Blondel.
At “Les Mourains” we have seen that the ghost was “laid” by the means of the clergy of the parish, (see page 288) and it is evident by the following stories that the laying of spirits frequently formed part of the duties of the clergy in Guernsey in the last century.
The house Colonel Le Pelley now inhabits at St. Peter-in-the-Wood, was formerly owned by an old Mr. Blondel, who, on his death bed, gave instructions to Mr. Thomas Brock (then Rector of the parish and grandfather of the present Rector, Mr. H. Walter Brock), to toll the big bell to announce his decease.
This was not done, but Mr. Blondel’s spirit determined to show that promises to the dying were not to be trifled with! All the parish of St. Pierre-du-Bois were ready to affirm that the ghost was to be seen climbing up the Church tower; and in the Rectory kitchen the china on the dresser would make a clattering noise and finally be swept by the unseen hands on to the floor.
Life at the Rectory became so unendurable under these circumstances that Mr. Brock finally decided to “lay” the ghost, and confine it to its own house. So he went to “Prospect Place,” as the house is now called, with twelve others of the local clergy. They shut every door and window, and blocked up every crevice, key-hole, etc., through which the spirit might pass. They then prayed in every room, after which having driven the spirit out of each room in succession, they locked it up in a cupboard, with either the key of the Church door or a specially-made silver key (Miss Le Pelley could not find out which, some say one, and some another), but the ghost has not troubled the Brock family since.
The old servants now living in the house firmly believe that the ghost still inhabits the cupboard, and affirm that its groans can still be heard.[341]