1918.] IN MEMORIAM. 81 



of his labours in this field are embodied in the yearly " Report 

 of the Folklore Section," of which branch of the Society's 

 work he was the Hon. Secretary from 1892 to the time of his 

 death. 



Both Journalist and Author, Mr. Pitts, in the former 

 capacity, edited for many years The Guernsey Advertiser and 

 Weekly Chronicle, The Mail and Telegraph and The Sun, 

 publishing in the latter now defunct weekly in the years 1892- 

 1894 under the general title of "Bygone Guernsey," a series 

 of chatty and reliable articles upon various topics of social 

 and historic interest. As an author we have, among other 

 publications, the two series of his well-known Patois Poems 

 of the Channel Islands and Witchcraft and Devil-lore in 

 the Channel Islands and he also wrote two Guide Books to 

 Guernsey and the adjacent islands which, for wealth of 

 useful information combined with conciseness of descrip- 

 tion, it would probably be difficult to equal. These latter 

 publications, written specially for the two leading hotels, 

 " Old Government House " and the " Royal," must for years 

 have played no inconsiderable part in drawing the better class 

 of visitors to Guernsey. 



Mr. Pitts introduced Shorthand (Pitman's Phonography) 

 in the island. Himself a Pitmanite, when in 1886 the Guille- 

 Alles Students Classes were established, Phonography was 

 included in the subjects taught and for some winters this class 

 was under his capable and personal direction. No class has 

 been so popular or has met with such unquestioned success as 

 this devoted to the study of the " winged art." 



In literature Mr. Pitts had a strong liking for poetry ; 

 poetry appealed to his nature and he was himself a writer of 

 verse in a small way. One specimen of his work in this 

 direction will not be out of place here. The lines were written 

 to commemorate the birthday of friends passed beyond the 

 veil and published in The Sun of May 15, 1897 : — 



Not with that keen exuberant zest 



That erstwhile o'er them spread, 

 Yet still with chastened joy we greet 



The birthdays of the dead, 

 The days whence sprang those opening lives, 



Whose lasting worth we own, 

 And planted first those seeds from which 



Grand harvests since have grown. 



And now John Linwood Pitts himself has passed 

 beyond the veil and, in the words of Mr. John Oxenham, the 

 celebrated novelist.* written on hearing of his friend's death, 



* Mr. Oxenham dedicated his charming story " Carette of Sark " to the Seig- 

 neur of Sark and Mr. Pitts, jointly. 



