president's address. 163 



bronze age, before the introduction of iron, that is long 

 anterior to the historic period. Yet we have many writers 

 trying to show that this great subsidence happened in 

 comparatively modern times : A.D. 709 is a favourite 

 date. In support of their statement, they assert the 

 existence of title-deeds of land held on condition of the 

 tenant supplying a plank to form a communication from 

 Guernsey to Herm ; also a gate-post supposed to exist on 

 some rocks between Herm and Jethou and other testimony of 

 a like character. Taking these two as specimens, it is to be 

 noticed that the same legends exist in numerous localities. 

 The plank is sufficient to maintain communication between 

 Guernsey and the Clos du Yal, between Guernsey and Herm, 

 between Jersey and France, &c. ; the post also is pointed out 

 between Guernsey and the Hanois and on the Vale coast. 

 The same kind of legend is common to many localities in 

 France and England. This gate-post is quoted to show that 

 the district in which it stood was agricultural land up to that 

 period. Across this land, they say, a roadway may still be 

 traced, and this Pierre Percee was cut and erected to carry a 

 gate across the entrance to a field. The documents are never 

 forthcoming, they can never be traced : then, to my mind, the 

 gate-post proves too much ; for, no gate-posts were to be 

 found in the island for hundreds of years after 709. When 

 the land was brought under cultivation it for ages remained 

 unenclosed and was not divided into fields, and even when so 

 divided it was by earthen banks, the entrance being left open 

 or only guarded by a branch laid across it. The plank is 

 equally apocryphal. 



The most ancient inhabitants of our islands, though most 

 certainly affected by the conquest of the neighbouring mainland 

 by the Celtic tribes, remained few in number and lived in 

 uneventful times up to the Roman conquest of Gaul, when 

 they received crowds of refugees who scorned to submit to 

 the Roman yoke. Here they remained in security and peace, 

 for I consider that Guernsey was never occupied as a military 

 station by the Romans. Alderney appears to have been much 

 frequented by them ; Roman pottery, bronze instruments and 

 coins have been found in quantities. In Jersey, I find a 

 square camp mentioned, which would point to a Roman 

 occupation. But in Guernsey two or three spear-heads and a 

 few coins are the only things connected with them, and these 

 would be introduced by merchants, rarely of Roman nationality, 

 who continued to use them for some centuries after the 

 departure of the legions. But this state of security did not 



