240 THE CHEVAUCHEE DE ST. MICHEL. 



of Marmoutiers, while the lands of Anchetil were divided in 

 nearly equal portions between the Abbey of Mont St. Michel 

 in Normandy, and the descendants of Anchetil, the Earls of 

 Chester ; the lands held by the Abbey being called Fief St. 

 Michel and those held by the Earls Fief le Comte. Portions of 

 these great fiefs were subsequently subdivided among various 

 Norman nobles ; but after our separation from Normandy in 

 the reign of King John the lands held by those Norman laymen 

 who took the part of Philip Augustus escheated to the English 

 Crown, thus forming our present Fief le Roi, but the Nor- 

 man Abbots retained their lands until the dissolution of the 

 Monasteries in the 15th Century and, ecclesiastically, all the 

 Islands remained in the Diocese of Coutances until the reign of 

 Queen Elizabeth. 



That the Procession of which I am about to speak was 

 more or less confined to the boundaries of these various fiefs 

 must be my excuse for dwelling on these apparently irrelevant 

 details. 



The Court of the Priory of St. Michel-du-Valle was only 

 second to the Royal Court in importance and it retained its 

 jurisdiction in the Island until 1862. Its headquarters were in 

 the district where most of our dolmens were situated, and 

 where our earliest Missionaries concentrated their energies in 

 stamping out paganism. It consisted of a Seneschal, eleven 

 Vavasseurs, six Sergeants, a Gremer, four Prevots or Sheriffs, 

 eight Bordiers, and a Wand bearer or Porte-lance.W As the 

 Fief extended from the extreme North-East to the South-West 

 corner of the Island, for the convenience of its tenants its Court 

 was held alternately at the Vale Priory, south of the Vale 

 Church and below the site of what was once a Logan stone — 

 where the Chief Pleas were held and the cases of the Northern 

 residents were decided, and in the Cemetery of St. Mary de 

 Castro in the centre of the Island, on a spot marked by some 

 flat stones bordering the north wall of the Churchyard, where 

 the causes of the tenants of the Southern portions of the fief 

 were pleaded. 



One peculiar prerogative of this feudal Court was the 

 triennial inspection and keeping in order of the Chemin-du- 

 Roi or King's Highway throughout the Island. This ceremony 

 of inspection was known as the Chevauchee de St. Michel, and 

 survived until the year 1837. 



The order of it was as follows :— 



Before each occasion of the Chevauchee the Court of St. 

 Michel, at the Chief Pleas held on Easter Monday, settled such 

 preliminaries as fixing the date on which the procession was to 



(1) The titles of the Vavasseurs were :— Gervaise, Capelle, Soulaire, Maresq. 

 Grent Maison, Garis, Behon, Agenor, Piquenie, La Moye, Hoiiet. The titles of the 

 Sergeants :— Gaillot, Paisson, de la Lande, Roque des Roques, Bourg, l'Ange. The 

 titles of the Bordiers: Bequerel, Rebour, Renost, Ricard, Nant, Salmon, Infart, 

 Scarabie, 



