:U4 ST. i'ETEi:-iM)in i\ livc.oxK times. 



already forty-seven houses upon the site of the present Cornet- 

 street, and its immediate neighbourhood. Of course after the 

 building of the wall as many l)uildings as possible had to be 

 crammed into the circumscribed space which it contained, 

 hence the old streets of St. Peter-Port were extremely narrow 

 and remained so for centuries ; indeed, it is probable that at 

 the death of George III., they were still very much as they 

 were when Edivard III. was gathered to his fathers. In 

 illustration of this, let me (juote an Ordinance of the Royal 

 Court of the year 1723 (one among a number of similar ones) 

 by which all persons are forbidden to pass through the streets 

 of the town between certain hours on Saturdays, with horses 

 drawing carts or sledges, or having panniers upon their backs, 

 or loaded with furze. Again, as lately as April, 1820, it was 

 ordered that if two carts should meet in the narrow part of 

 Fountain-street, the one which happened to be the nearer to the 

 wider part should back into it and allow the other to pass. But 

 within the last centurj^ a marvellous improvement has been 

 wrought. 



But speaking of the streets more in detail. La Grande Rue 

 of course deserves the first notice. On its site were probably 

 laid the first foundations of our capital. At the top of the 

 street in early times stood the Manor House of St. Peter-Port, 

 the latest edition of which is used to-day as the Constables' 

 Office. The arch was formerly the gateway of the property, 

 and on the south side of this entrance, on part of the ground 

 now covered by Mr. Le Couteur's shop, stood the Chapel of the 

 demesne, noticed in the Registry of the Bishopric of Coutances 

 in the year 1.521 as " the Chapel of the Blessed Michael in the 

 Manor of St. Peter-Port.'' In 1393 it is mentioned under the 

 name of Manoir de Haut (see Partage Denis Le Marchant) ; 

 later as Le Manoir de Haut-es Marchant, or Manoir le Marchant, 

 when it came into the possession of a branch of the family of 

 that name. Mr. William Le Marchant, Bailiff, at the end of the 

 eighteenth century, sold a good deal of the property, among the 

 rest the site of the present Court House. Le Marchant and 

 Manor Streets were named after the proprietor and the property, 

 and La Rue Marguerite (or New-street), I imagine after 

 Margaret Le Marchant, the Bailiiff 's wife. 



It was once the practice here, as elsewhere, to put mottoes 

 upon the fronts of the houses, and two of these are still legible 

 upon the house now occupied by the Savings Bank in High- 

 street. They are cut in circles upon the stones supporting the 

 original first storey, and one reads " En Dieu j'ai mis mon 

 appuy," and the other " Et sa providence m'a conduit," which 

 may be translated, " In God I did confide. And He hath been 

 my Guide." Within each of the circles are contained the 

 initials J.B., and a merchant's mark composed of the letters 



