MEETINGS. 117 



instant which, besides snbstantially increasing the Society's 

 finances, had afforded pleasure to a large number of people. 



Mr. A. M. Naftel read a number of extremely 

 interesting extracts from an old manuscript Diary extending 

 from 1777 to 1786, written by Sieur Nicolas De Garis, 

 who Avas Procureur des Pauvres of the Forest parish. He 

 giA'es a detailed account of the building of the Martello 

 Tower at Petit Bot, in which he took part as Overseer 

 of the works, with the full names of all the workmen 

 employed, quarrymen, labourers, masons, carters, &c., the 

 number of days they worked, and their wages and charges, 

 calculated in livres tournois. Altogether about forty men 

 were employed, and the aggregate amounted to 1,239 days' 

 work, the total cost of the construction of the Tower being 

 1,339 livres tournois, or about £100 sterling. A note is 

 made that about this time the various other Martello 

 Towers on the coast were erected. The next item of 

 importance is a copy of the contract relating to the Country 

 Hospital, entered into on April 6, 1751, by the seven 

 following parishes, with the sums in livres tournois contri- 

 buted by each: St. Sampson's (150), Vale (346), Catel 

 (500), St. Saviour's (500), Torteval (150), St. Martin's 

 (400) and St. Andrew's (281). Six pages of the Journal 

 are filled with the rules for the management of the Hospital. 

 The 3rd of May, 1779, was a day of great alarm in 

 Guernsey. News was brought that sixty-five vessels were 

 in sight, and were making for the island. The St. Martin's 

 and Forest Militia at once assembled near Fort Mancel, 

 and those of St. Sampson's and other parishes collected 

 at their respective stations. The Lieutenant-Governor with 

 five hundred officers and men hastened off to Lancresse 

 to meet the supposed enemy. But after a period of great 

 anxiety it was discovered that the supposed attacking force 

 was only the English sf[uadron passing on their way to 

 an engagement with the French fleet. Two days afterwards 

 fourteen of these ships visited Guernsey, and remained eight 

 or ten days. On November 17, 1781, a terrible storm visited 

 the island, accompanied by a deluge of rain. At the mill at 

 the bottom of Pedvin Street, water was three or four feet 

 deep in the gardens ; in Contree Mansell horses had to be 

 rescued from their stables, and in Fountain Street there 

 was such a rush of water that peo])le feared to open 

 their doors lest the houses should be flooded. A number 

 of receipts are given for the preparation of medicinal 

 herbs, and there are many little intei-esting notes which 



