ST. PETER-PORT IN BYGONE TIMES. 



BY MR. C. COX. 



{REVISED AND EDITED BY MR. G. T. DERRICK.) 



The main portion of the present paper was compiled and 

 delivered by Mr. C. Cox as a lecture at the Guille-Alles 

 Institution in the year 1893. Since that date further research 

 has thrown considerable light upon some of the incidents 

 noted, and consequently new matter has had to be incorporated 

 and a few alterations made in order to render the paper as 

 complete as possible. This has been done by the Hon. Secretary 

 with the sanction of Mr. Cox, to whom the Society is indebted 

 for his kindness in permitting the reproduction in our pages of 

 so valuable a historical record. 



Several most interesting monuments remind us of the 

 Celtic people who inhabited this island 2000 years ago. One, at 

 least, of these, the Pierre Percee, stood within the limits of the 

 present parivSh of St. Peter-Port. Let us try to imagine the 

 site of the future Town as it must have appeared to one of 

 these ancient people. Suppose him to stand tipon the spot now 

 occupied by the Town Church, he Avould see hills to left, right, 

 and in front of him. On his right they will rise the most 

 gradually, until they blend with the lower slopes of the heights 

 now called Clifton, which heights, directly in front of him, 

 become an almost inaccessible precipice, but by degrees grow 

 less steep and are lost in the high ground in the distance. 

 Directly upon his left rises another acclivity which, although 

 slightly less lofty, is no less precipitous than its fellow, and 

 continues to rise higher and higher as far as the spectator's eye 

 can follow it. Between these two hills there opens to the sea 

 a green and lovely valley, through which flows a clear stream, 

 which, rising in the high ground some three miles away to the 

 southward and fed by numberless springs all along its course, 

 runs broad and deep at the observer's feet and loses itself 

 among the pebl)les of the beach behind him. Stand with your 

 back to the sea, near the lower mill at Petit Bot ; imagine the 

 high ground on the Icart side of the valley thrown further 

 back, and the scene before you will not be altogether unlike 

 that which I have just attempted to describe. 



Turning now and facing the sea, at high tide a fine pool 

 reaches t(; his feet. It has two entrances, one in front, i.e.y 



