the average of the last 20 years will be found to be about 20s. the Guernsey quarter; ergo, 1,300 quarters would amount to the value of the tithes, and which quantity being divided over the 26,000 vergees, would give a deneral and a quart of wheat upon each vergee, or one shilling the vergee; which deneral and quart ought never to represent a less value, and might easily be regulated according to this standard by the Royal Court, supposing the price should be lower than one shilling for that measure. The above appears to be the principle of the plan proposed, which, primá facie, carries with it the conviction of its utility; and if the mode of assessment can be adopted so as to allow of the future difference in the division of property, from successions, as also from the erection of new houses with their gardens, which should be added or deducted from the assessment, as the case may require, it would be a most beneficial accomplishment. It appears that the constituted authorities wish each Rector to receive 1507. per annum, or total 1,2007. Now the eight Rectors for the ten parishes have received an average of only 3307. for the great tithes; and 1637. 10s. for the small tithes; total 4937. 10s. To make up the sum now proposed, that is for each Rector to receive in addition. 887. 6s. 3d., 7067. 10s. will be required. In what manner this is to be obtained, it does not clearly appear. It seems from the above calculation, that the average receipt for each Rector has hitherto been only 617. 13s. 9d. per annum, which, with the church glebe land and fees, has constituted the stipend of each Rector; this it must be acknowledged is a very paltry income indeed! One of the Rectors has, however, received an addition of 87. per annum from the Governors of Queen Anne's bounty; but we are informed in the letter above mentioned, that the Governors have lately discontinued this allowance to the parishes in the Channel islands; the plan, therefore, for the amelioration of these parishes is the more devoutly to be wished by all the supporters of the Established Church. Why Queen Anne's bounty has been withdrawn from these islands, the public are ignorant; but this is pretty clear, that had the 2007. bounty, as settled in the British funds, been laid out on estate in the Bailiwick, the Governors would have had some difficulty in recovering the lands, which they had previously appropriated for the benefit of poor Church Livings in these islands. CHAPTER VI. . Who loves a garden loves a green-house too. Unconscious of a less propitious clime, There blooms exotic beauty, warm and snug, Cowper. THIS island may be deemed the garden both of common flowers and exotics; many of the latter have no need of shelter from the frosts and snow, which are scarcely ever sufficiently powerful here to destroy the plants; yet perhaps there is no spot of ground in Europe of the same size, where there are more green-houses, or hot-houses, than in Guernsey, there being scarcely a gentlemen's house without one or more, and many of the tradesmen have their graperies. Indeed the health and luxuriance of all garden productions, noticed in the very valuable paper on this subject from the pen of Dr. Macculloch, which I shall quote hereafter, may be most amply confirmed. The broad and narrow leaved double flowering myrtle, constantly flourishing in the open air; the orange perfecting its fruit, with the aid only of a wall, and only sometimes matted up, when the winter has been unusually severe for the island; the bushy hydrangeers in shrubberies, equal in beauty probably with those growing in New South Wales, their native soil; all This is more peculiarly characteristic of the Guernsey inhabitants, than of its climate; as snow does not often descend on Guernsey. these bespeak a most favourable climature both for flowers as well as fruits; the Guernsey figs in particular, growing on standards of great luxuriance, are of excellent quality, and sold at the market generally at a half-penny each. Quayle1 1 has remarked in 1815, that there was a standard fig-tree in the garden of Mr. De Jersey, at Mon Plaisir, which had attained extraordinary dimensions in girth; I find upon inquiry of Mr. De Jersey, that the tree is since dead. Mr. De J. gave the following particulars; the trunk measured about two feet in diameter, the height about 20 feet; and the branches covered a circumference of about 130 feet; it was supposed to be the largest fig-tree in the island, and to have been planted about 1760; the branches made 187 small faggots; the trunk, arms and roots, completely filled two large Guernsey carts. Dr. Macculloch says, "Having visited the island many years ago, I was much struck with the peculiar luxuriance exhibited by many plants, which either grow with reluctance, or refuse to grow at all, even in the mild climates of England. The variety and splendour of these productions, give a character to its horticulture, which is very impressive to an English visiter, and which excites surprise, when compared with the very slight advantages of climate which this island, from its geographical difference of position, appears to possess. As some of these facts seem capable of leading to useful trials in this valuable art, I have turned to the notes I then made, with the hope that they might afford you a few minutes amusement. Among all these productions, its amaryllis is almost too well known to be enumerated. It is said to have been brought from Japan, a country possessing such variety of climate, that it might well 2 1 P. 337. The orange tree in Mr. De Jersey's green-house, against the wall, on June 17th, 1824, had fruit upon it; was 15 feet wide, and 10 feet high. 2 In this island they are called Guernesiases, in English, Guernsey lilies. There are some doubts from whence they first came. Le bon afford plants suited to any latitude. I think, however, it is yet a point to be ascertained, whether there is any thing in the climate of Guernsey, peculiarly favourable to the growth and flowering of this plant. This is a fact which cannot be determined, till the cultivation of it is carried on in England on the same scale on which it is practised in Guernsey. The gardeners of this country are satisfied with returning to the earth the few roots they receive in flower, but are scarcely content to wait till the period of flowering of the exhausted individual shall again return. From such impatient and narrow trials, no conclusion can be drawn against its possibility. "In Guernsey, every gardener, and almost every petty farmer who has a piece of garden ground, appropriates a patch to this favoured root:1 and the few hundreds of flowers brought to England in the season, are the produce of thousands of roots. The average rate of flowering is about fifteen or eighteen in the hundred. The soil in which they are raised, is light, and the beds are covered with sand; in other respects, I do not recollect that there is any particular care taken of them, except that of keeping them very clean. It is probable that some portion of their success does depend on climate; but of the extent of this influence we can have no proof, till experiments, on a similar scale, are tried in England: it is however true, that the bulbs are frequently injured in the winter by a frost, which Jardinier, says Du Japan, in times of yore said to have been stranded on the sands from a Dutch Indiaman from Japan.--Edit. 1 Narcissus Japonicus, or narcisse du Japon, by several authors; by Linnæus, amaryllis Sarniensis: they love a light earth, made with dung and sand, and a little lime rubbish with it does very well: it keeps the root sound; for if the earth be too stiff or wet, you may keep them for many years before they blow in England. If they are in pots, they should be put into the house in winter, to keep them from the frosts: the time of moving them is when they have no leaves on the roots, that is from June to August, or beginning of September, according to the season; those that come with six leaves, seldom fail blowing the next season, and they never bloom till the plant has attained that number of leaves: they need not be put into fresh earth |