Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/443

 THK CMEVAUCHEE DE ST. MICHEL.

KV MISS KDITH T. CAREY.

{Rt-ai/ at JMeet'ing, May 20th, 19 14.)

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 I'Angleterre." 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 common — they all possess mega- lithic 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, Vicomtes of Le Cotentin, and to Anchecil, Vicomte du Bessin. In 1048 the Neels rebelled against their Duke, and their lands in Guernsey were forfeited and given to the abbey 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 subse-