Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist.

Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    time, some tell stories, others sing, and thus amuse themselves, and beguile the passing hours. In Guernsey this mode of passing the long winter evenings has almost fallen into disuse, but a remnant of the custom still affords an excuse for a social meeting, called “/a longue veille, which is held on the 23d of December. In former days, when knit woollen articles, such as Guernsey frocks, stockings, petticoats, &c., formed the staple manufacture of the island, it was usual to sit up on this night to finish the work, and to get it in readiness for the market held on Christmas-eve. The reason for the meeting has ceased, but the night is still observed by all classes, as affording an oppor- tunity for family meetings. In Jersey a similar excuse is found in the preparation of a kind of conserve of apples, which is used for spreading on bread in lieu of butter when that article is scarce or dear. A number of nei2:hbours o assemble together, and all employ themselves busily in paring and carefully cutting out the cores of apples, which are then put to stew with a certain ‘(Quantity of cider and sugar until they have acquired a proper degree of consistency. Some superstitions still linger among the people: notwithstanding the march of intellect