1920.] SOCIAL LIFE IN GUERNSEY. 245 



various points, in the year 1700, by the Town Constables. The 

 north end of the wall began at the Tour Grand, a tower which 

 once stood west of the spot where the Pollet joins the open space 

 of the Plaiderie. 



The "Plaiderie" was so called in the 17th Century 

 when the Governor's, or King's, Barn, was converted to the 

 use of the Royal Court, although as late as 1664 

 Lord Hatton owned that he still made use of the loft 

 above for his granary, and that " both outside and inside " 

 it was so like a Barn and so unlike a Court of Justice 

 that many complaints were made of " ye inconveniency and 

 undecency of it." It however continued to be the Court House 

 until 1799, and still exists as Mr. Gould's store. Lord Hatton 

 also claimed that the " place for usual meeting of ye Bailly and 

 Justices to hold their Court has always been assigned to them 

 by ye Governor." [Answer of Christopher, Lord Hatton to 

 Petition and pretended Grievances of Inhabitants of Guernsey : 

 a Greffe MS.] 



It is possible that, in mediaeval times, our Royal 

 Court was usually held in a Church, both from its sacred 

 associations and also as the only building large enough to hold 

 the necessary people. A Deerl of 1499, relating to land in the 

 Castel parish, was pleaded before John Martin, Bailiff, and two 

 Jurats " En l'Eglise de Notre Dame du Chastel." (Lee MSS.) 



East of this royal barn in pre-Reformation days was the 

 Croix de Glatigny, or Town Cross, where proclamations and 

 notices were cried aloud to the people. Starting at this point 

 the wall probably went a short way up Forest Lane and then 

 turned southward to meet another gateway east of the present 

 Post Office and facing the pump and steps leading to Le 

 Marchant Street. Smith Street, in the sixteenth century, was 

 literally a " Rue des Forges," and we can imagine the fires 

 roaring while the horses were shod within that Town gate. 

 From hence the wall divided the old Le Marchant town estate, 

 known as the Manoir de Haut or Manoir Le Marchant, which 

 then extended as gardens and orchards behind Smith Street, 

 from what is now Le Riche's shop to the ground now occupied 

 by St. James' Church, and included the site of the present 

 Court House. It was entered by the archway which still 

 exists below Le Riche's, and in those days on the south side of 

 the arch stood the Manorial Chapel of the estate, called " St. 

 Michel du Manoir," of which, in 1520, James Guille was 

 Chaplain. The Manor House itself is now the Constables' 

 Office. From hence the wall must have passed behind the 

 houses on the west of High Street to a barriere in Berthelot 



