The Channel IslandsMorris, Joseph E. (Joseph Ernest)
History
The Channel Islands
Morris, Joseph E. (Joseph Ernest)
Channel Islands
Castle Cornet, immediately on our left as we approach the harbour,
holds much the same position to St. Peter Port as Elizabeth Castle
holds to St. Helier. Castle Cornet, indeed, is connected with the
mainland by a causeway; but as a building it is equally uninteresting.
In fact, the only object of antiquarian interest in St. Peter Port is
the old parish church, so conspicuous on the quay. This has a central
tower, with a good leaded spire, that is luckily not twisted like the
leaded spire at Chesterfield. At the side is a small cote for the
sanctus bell, exactly as at Barnstaple, in Devonshire. More frequently
these cotes were placed on the east gable of the nave, whilst at
Oxenton, in Gloucestershire, the sanctus bell swings to the present
day in a curious little opening high up on the south face of the
fifteenth-century tower. It is possible, too, or even probable, that
the curious "low-side" windows--once absurdly called "leper
windows"--which generally occur, when they occur at all, towards the
south-west corner of the chancel, were used to enable the sanctus bell
to be rung through their opening by hand. On the ringing of this bell
the passer-by would bow his head in reverential awe, just as the
peasants in Millet's picture bow their heads at the ringing of the
Angelus. Inside, the chief feature of St. Peter's Church is the
strangeness of the nave arcades, the arches of which spring from
piers that are only two or three feet high. Notice also the Flamboyant
tracery of the windows, so typical of the Channel Islands, and the
very striking piscina in the south aisle of the choir.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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