76-6-129 19640 PREFACE. IN the Introduction to the second edition of his History of Jersey, (1734,) the Rev. Philip Falle, alluding to a brief description of Guernsey in Camden's Britannia, said: "They who are not satisfied with those sketches, must have patience till some gentleman of Guernezey (which cannot want able hands for such service) shall take upon him to illustrate his native country, as I have done mine; including in his Account Alderney, Sark, &c., which depend on that greater island, as members of the government and jurisdiction of it." Exactly one hundred and twenty years have elapsed since Mr. Falle thus expressed himself; and as his suggestion has hitherto been unheeded, I have been induced to illustrate the annals of my 66 native country." Mr. Falle's memory is highly reverenced in Jersey, and there it will doubtless be objected to me that I have not treated him with the respect he deserves. I have indeed animadverted on some passages in his history, because he himself did not hesitate to speak disparagingly of men, to whom posterity has since done justice, and especially because, according to his own biographer and countryman, he passed through life "in strict conformity with the opinions and the prejudices of his age." That spirit of subservience extended to his work, which has otherwise many merits, and betrayed him into a feeling of hostility against all who differed from him in political opinion, or who were not members of the Church of England, in which he himself had risen, from humble beginnings, to dignity and |
