256 SOCIAL LIFE IN GUERNSEY. 



to the Castel Church, and no less than five silver cups (" tasses 

 d'argent ") to his wife, showing that the luxury of the age — 

 which culminated in 1518 in the famous meeting between 

 Henry VIII. of England and Francis I. of France at the 

 Field of the Cloth of Gold — had penetrated also to our little 

 Island. 



This note-book is interspersed with little songs, the 

 " Chansons Dissolues " abolished by the Puritans in later 

 days. One of them runs thus : — 



" La Lignote 

 De chantier, je ne me puys taire 

 Quant l'eglantyer se reverdyst 

 Amour me contraynt a se fere 

 Et que by en fera 



Byen era 

 II en era proufyst." 



elean Girard gives us the terms on which labour was 

 hired at that date. On Lady Day 1520 he hired one Hector 

 l'Argentier to serve him for six years, at the price of seven 

 ecus, or about 21 francs of money for the said six years, but he 

 contracted also to feed, house, and clothe him for that period. 

 Both master and man promised prompt and ready payment, 

 one of money and the other of service and loyalty, and the 

 bargain was only to be broken by the death of either party. 

 The contract was witnessed by Sire Hugh Lempriere, priest, 

 Nicholas le Marchant, and James Ozanne. This James 

 Ozanne, son of Laurence, had been Jean Girard's ward, and 

 his uncle Denis notes in 1510, that " une bonnet d'ecarlate " 

 was being kept for him, while the latter details the expenses to 

 which he .had been put in rebuilding and rethatching the 

 Ozanne's houses — both " la grande " and " la petite maison " — 

 after they had been burnt down. That Jean Girard was a 

 cloth merchant in addition to his other avocations is proved by 

 a memorandum giving the names of those who were indebted 

 to him for woollen goods supplied during the Lenten season of 

 1516. Sire Michel le Chevalier for a yard and a half of black 

 and cerise (? cloth) at 6 silver gros per yard ; a yard of white 

 " doubleur" " at " 7 estellins d'argent " per yard ; and a yard of 

 russet at 15 estellins of silver. Russet was evidently a favourite 

 material for cloaks and other garments, as he had many other 

 customers for it, while it was also made into stockings, for 

 which Collette le Beuf owed 2 gros for one pair. 



Jean Girard died in 1528, and the next entry in the book is 

 dated 1566 ; to this we will return in due season, for many and 

 great were the changes those 38 years were destined to bring. 



