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want in utility is, however, fully made up in beauty. They are planted with trees on each side, and all objects that can be seen at a little distance are framed or buried in tree vegetation, in the most singular manner.

Rarely, however, can anything be seen on either side of the high hedges, and one may wander for hours without coming to any more remarkable or recognisable object than one of the little pyramidal spires of a country church. Most of the churches are as ugly, and in as bad taste as the houses; but this is due partly to modern improvements, as several have one or two windows, a corbel, a buttress, or some other little remains of architectural decoration, showing that they were not always the whitened sepulchres they now appear.

It would be useless to enumerate where all is bad; but that there is still something picturesque left in the towers, seen through the trees under favourable circumstances, will be evident from the sketch of St. Mary's church, presented in the vignette in another page. Grouville church is pleasing, and St. Brelade's, though not unpicturesque, is chiefly interesting for its great antiquity.

Although in various parts of the island there are houses of some pretence and considerable size, there are few that call for special description. One or two of the manor houses are interesting, but even these are too much modernised to admit of more than casual mention. Perhaps the manor house of St. Ouen is not the best, but it is certainly the one most talked of. It is a large rambling pile of building, approached through an arched gateway, of the time of Henry the Seventh. The central part is more modern, being of the date of Charles the Second, and the wings are recent, and of no style whatever. The whole exterior has been modernised in the worst taste. The hall is a fair specimen of its date, and there is a good oak staircase. There is also a small, square, massive tower in the building, probably the oldest portion. This manor has long been held by the De Carteret

family, and is still in the possession of a collateral line, to whom it has descended. A formal garden is laid out in front of the house; but this is more modern than the building. The manor house of Longueville, near Grouville, and that of Samares, both remain. The former is the best, and has a pretty doorway.

In various parts of the island are low hills of artificial origin, locally called "Hougues." Most of these, perhaps all, are extremely ancient, and some of them cover cromlechs. Some, also, are surmounted by towers of modern date. As in summer it is difficult to find a position in the interior sufficiently high to look over the tops of adjacent trees, the two or three instances where these towers are available as look-outs, are thought much of, and are generally visited by strangers.

One of the favourite points of view in the island, and certainly one from which a large part of Jersey and its beauties may be scen, is the top of a tower of this kind, about three miles to the north-east of St. Helier's, called La Hougue Bie, and sometimes the Prince's Tower. In fine weather the whole of the eastern part of the island, and the seas adjacent, may be clearly distinguished from it. One is astonished at first to find that so very slight an elevation as it possesses should give such a result, and the more so, as the view from the foot of the tower is very limited. The great extent to which Jersey is wooded; the fact that the trees, though well grown, are nowhere lofty; and the fact that this part of the island lies naturally rather high, together account for the effect. In the tower itself, and the tumulus or hillock on which it stands, there is little to remark. A tradition, or rather a legendary narrative, said to be found in the "Livre Noir de Coutances," is quoted in the guide books, and relates how a certain Norman seigneur hight De Hambye, having ventured across the raging seas from the land of Normandy, in search of adventure, and not having returned, his lady caused this mound to be raised in token of her affection, on some subsequent revelation that the death of her husband

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had taken place at this spot. A chapel was then erected on the mound, and finally the tower was built over the old chapel towards the close of the last century.

The view from the Prince's Tower is rather pleasing than strikingly beautiful. On three sides the sea is seen, and the numerous rocks that bristle up round the island form a curious fringe to the green clothing of its surface. The breaking up of the surface into hills, and the numerous little resulting valleys and gorges which form the real beauty of the island, are hardly perceived, and the eye wanders from point to point, over an alternation of wooded and cultivated patches, which towards the west form a fine horizon. Towards the north the rocks called the Dirouilles are clearly made out, and to the south-east and south, the line of the French coast is distinguished readily enough, the Chaussey Islands and Minquiers, in those directions, marking the peculiar dangers of the navigation of these waters. The adjacent bays stretching from St. Catherine's, round the south-east point of the island, to St. Aubin's and Noirmont Point, may be traced, and the old fortress of Mont Orgeuil is recognised as a landmark.

SECTION THROUGH THE MINQUIERS ROCKS AND THE CHAUSSA ARCHIPELAGO.

THIS Southern group contains but little land permanently above the level of the water; but it includes a vast extent of shoals, broken rocky islets, ledges of rocks, and reefs, producing an exceedingly dangerous sea, traversed by a few channels of small width. Together, these rocks form a broken line ranging about W.N.W., extending from near Granville to the outermost group, called the Roches Douvres. The part nearest Granville and the French land is the highest out of the water, but the middle portion, including the great bank of the Minquiers, is the larg est and the most dangerous. For thirty miles out from the French coast, in the direction of these rocks, there is no water ten fathoms deep, and there are few safe passages even for small ships. Beyond this is an open space of about twenty miles, ter

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minating with the outlying groups of rock, which rise abruptly from tolerably deep water.

The "Plateau des Minquiers," is the name of a group of rude, irregular, dreary, dangerous rocks, rising like needles out of the sea, and connected by ledges of shingle and sand, and beds of mud, the whole occupying a space nearly nineteen miles from east to west, and nearly ten from north to south. This bank connects eastwards by shoals and shallow water with the Chaussey Islands and the French coast, there being nowhere ten fathoms of water in the interval. The extreme distance from the east end of the Minquiers bank to the French coast, a little north of Granville, is eighteen miles. The north side of the bank lies about twelve miles south of St. Helier's, and the south side eighteen miles north of St. Malo.

The highest rock of the Minquiers, called the "Maitresse Ile," lies in a direct line between St. Helier's and St. Malo. It is the largest of the group, measuring about 200 yards by fifty, and is seventy-two feet above high water neap tides. There are several huts on it, and some traces of vegetation; but it is only used as a resort for fishermen, and during the vraicking season. There is no spring of fresh water on it. A small cove near it affords partial shelter for small vessels. The rocks called "Les Maisons," at the western part of the group, are nearly as lofty as the Maitresse Ile, but are smaller. A large extent of low rocks, called "Les Faucheurs," ranging nearly three miles from north-east to south-west, and a mile and a-half wide, occupies the central position among the Minquiers, but none of the rocks have any considerable elevation. the outer margin of the area of the plateau are a number of rocks and shoals, rising out of water nearly ten fathoms deep. They form long and very dangerous rocky ledges. There are also numerous sand and shingle banks, some of which are well known, and much resorted to for turbot and other fish. It would be tedious and useless to describe the multitude of inter

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