Vale Church, showing Priory, about i860. 



THE CHEVAUCHEE DE ST. MICHEL. 



BY EDITH F. CAREY. 



It may be as well to begin this account of the Chevauchee de 

 St. Michel in Guernsey by a few words on the Channel Islands 

 as a group. 



Politically and historically they belong to England, but 

 geographically and racially they are, as Victor Hugo described 

 them, " Morceaux de France, tombes a la Mer et ramasses par 

 rAngleterre." Each Island has a curious individuality of its 

 own, its special fauna and flora, its own patois, its distinctive 

 group of family names ; but one feature they all have in com- 

 mon — they all possess megalithic remains, and old records and 

 place-names reveal an extraordinary number of dolmens and 

 menhirs existing in early times, although the greater part of 

 them have now, unfortunately, been destroyed. 



Early in the eleventh century Guernsey was divided into 

 two great fiefs, belonging respectively to the Neels de St. 

 Sauveur, Yicomtes of Le Contentin, and to Anchetil, Yicomte 

 du Bessin. In 1048 the Neels rebelled against their Duke, and 

 their lands in Guernsey were forfeited and given to the Abbey 



