:U() s'l'. i>i:ri:R-i'()ir] in iiv(,<).\e times. 



A small open space between the top of the lane and the present 

 Quay-street, was sometimes called La Place des Halles, l)ecause 

 an attempt had once been made to build a market house upon 

 it, and sometimes Le Pillori, because that engine of torture and 

 its fellow the Cage stood upon the spot. The slaughter-house 

 stood in the south-west corner of the South Pier. But about 

 the year 1783, Cabbages, Carcases, Cage, Butchers, Pillory, and 

 Slaughter-house were removed to the enceinte of the present 

 French Halles and Market Square. The fish-sellers alone stuck 

 to the spot after the manner of certain of the small shell-fish 

 of their own stock-in-trade for some thirty years longer, being 

 finally dislodged in 1812, when a tempor, ry resting-place was 

 found for them in an open space, known as " dessous le Gril," 

 between the Town Church and the Cemetery at the bottom of 

 Cornet-street. 



And now, having got back to Cornet-street again, let us 

 note that this street, like Mont Durant, takes it name from the 

 Bordage or small feudal holding upon which it is built. Of the 

 six Bordages in the Town Parish, four unquestionably bear old 

 family names, probably those of early tenants ; and I have 

 very little hesitation in saying that it is the patronymic of 

 Cornet that has been transmitted to the street, and that the 

 latter was not named after Castle Cornet, as certain of our local 

 historians would have us believe. In any case the Paiglish 

 name, Horn-street, is unmeaning and incorrect. 



I have before referred to the many springs which formerly 

 existed in the valley now^ occupied by Fountain-street ; among 

 these were La Fontaine St. Pierre, La Fontaine Notre Dame, La 

 Fontaine Pontorson, and others. From one of these La Rue de 

 la Fontaine no doubt took its name. This was one of th^ first 

 to be widened of the old narrow streets.'" It Avas in 1826 that 

 the States decided that something must be done to improve the 

 neighbourhood, and appointed a committee to examine and 

 report upon the question. This committee declared that the 

 street, being only seven or eight feet wide in some parts, as 

 many as twenty carts would sometimes be seen trying to pass 

 through it in one direction, but stopped by as many trying to 

 come the other ; that the houses were ancient, dark, and close, 

 and receptacles for every kind of filth ; and that the only 

 remedy for the nuisance was to pull down all these hovels, 

 from the 1)ottom of the street up to the King's Weights on the 

 right going up, and on the left as far as the steps leading up to 

 the Cottes, that is Rosemary Lane. Notice that this is precisely 

 the half of the street which lay within the old Barriere. Is 

 not this a remarkable corroboration of the statement that the 

 streets of St. Peter-Port knew very little change from the days 

 of Edward III. to those of George III. ? The memory of old 



« It was so narrow that the opposite neighbours could shake hands from the 

 top storey Avindows. 



.LhM 



