THE OLD (iUEKNSEY LAMP, OR CRASSET. 



BY MR. JOHN S. HOC ART. 



That all things have their day and pass away is a truisni, tlie 

 practical demonstration of which stares at ns from every side. 

 When we come across relics of bygone times we ask ourselves 

 their use, and often test the memory of the first hale octo- 

 genarian we meet. Future generations when they find 

 remains of objects which are at present in daily use will ask 

 exactly the same questions that we ask at the present day. 



Having been very interested in the few notes read by 

 Mr. E. D. Marquand, at the monthly meeting of this Society 

 held on the 2Uth of February last year, on the Crchsct and its 

 use in Cormvall an 1 the Highlands of Scotland, I have 

 thought that a few notes of what in my young days I have 

 seen at home might be of interest in these times of electric 

 light and incandescent burners. 



You Avill remember Mr. Marquand saying he had seen 

 exactly the same kind of lamp in Cornwall, Avhich was still 

 commonly used in the country districts as late as fifty years 

 ago, and was known there by the name of o'usie, clearly 

 another form of crdsset, a word which in the Guernsey patois 

 is pronounced so as to rhyme very nearly with the English 

 word saucy. Mr. Marquand also quoted from the work of a 

 Scotch botanist a statement that at the date his book was 

 written (in 1848) "the cruscy with its whale oil and wick 

 made of rush pith was still extensively used in many parts of 

 Scotland," — and a lamp of the same name was employed in 

 the Shetland Islands. These facts inclined Mr. Marquand to 

 think that our crdsset had come down to us both in form and 

 in name from the north of Europe, and not from the south. 



The origin of the crasset probably dates back to the 

 ancient pottery cups, which are occasionally found intact in 

 drier countries than ours. These cups are shaped very much 

 like the modern "feeding cup," and in ancient Eastern 

 pictures a lamp of much the same shape is seen depicted in 

 use. Metivier, in the poem entitled " La fin du chapitre," 

 says, " A la lueur de m'en crasset d'arguille," so we may take 

 it that an earthenware crasset must have been in use in 

 Guernsey ; but I cannot remember having seen a vessel of 

 [1908.] 



