MEETINGS.. 11 



REPORT OP THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SECTION. 



It is said all things come to an end, but really in 

 Guernsey there is always something cropping up to make 

 things look like new. 



I think I have spoken about a stone to some of the 

 members of this Society. It may not be of any importance, 

 still it would be worth a visit the next time we are near the 

 old Waterworks at St. Saviour's. The stone is on the right 

 hand side of the gate entering the farm called " Terre Nergio," 

 belonging to Colonel Simon, of Les Caches. The people 

 occupying the farm know nothing whatever of its history. 

 In the rough drawing accompanying this paper, observe the 

 square mark which is cut down into the stone about three- 

 quarters of an inch. The two lines forming the angle (42 

 degrees) are just visible. There is a small hollow cut down 

 in the stone above the lower line like unto a cup mark. 



Our last visit to the Isle le dom Hue gave me little 

 information beyond what we already knew, and in my. 

 opinion it is not worth another visit. 



There is a curious old trough in the farm house called 

 "Les Fontaines," situated close to the Catel Church, on the 

 opposite or west side of the road. At the time I took this 

 sketch, 1858, the farm belonged to our Guernsey poet, Mr. 

 Lenf estey. The house was said to have been a convent, the 

 nuns having a right of way to the church by a bridge over 

 the road. The day I visited the house was on a Saturday. 

 The trough was then used for holding buttermilk. No one 

 seems to know when or how it came there, except that it 

 belonged to the church and was supposed to have been used . 

 for baptisms. The drawing shows what is sculptured on the 

 front or face of the trough. It is not an unusual thing to 

 see mermaids illustrated in various ways, viz., as supporters 

 to coats of arms, crests on houses, tombstones, on capitals of 

 pillars in churches, &c, &c, but where did the sculptor who 

 cut these mermaids get his design ? If it was an original 

 idea his brain must have had the same thought as his brother 

 artist, a native of India. Look at the sketch before you of a 

 mermaid cut on a stone I saw among the ruins of the old 

 Fort of Eichore in the Madras Presidency. This I saw 

 about the year 1876. See how closely they resemble each 

 other. Unfortunately, the Indian mermaid has lost her left 

 arm, which I almost feel sure held the ring, or quoit, like the 

 Guernsey mermaid. The trough in question is about 4 feet 

 long, 2\ feet high, and 2 feet broad, and I think is cut in 

 granite. Look at the coloured drawing done before me by a 



