In our visitation of the bay and the cliffs we thread the lanes and
valleys, scenes of very contrasted excellence, like the picture of a
fair beauty within a richly-carved frame. The scenic grandeur of Jersey
is between Le Tac and La Coupé, the whole northern coast of the islet,
and at the south-eastern corner, from Noirmont to La Rocca in St.
Ouen’s, all exquisitely rich in rockwork. The coast from St. Helier’s to
Gourey is a mass of button rocks. In the interior St. Peter’s displays
the only Devonian valley. But throughout the islet there are very lovely
spots, like those of Kent and Surrey, for our rambling, amid meadows
enlivened by _tethered_ cows and green hedge-rows, enamelled with
flowers, often rich and rare, on which bees luxuriate and gather their
luscious stores of honey, and dingles (the Val des Vaux is close to
“_Town_”) feathered with _petit_, though very luxuriant foliage; but
there are no gigantic woods of oak or beech frowning from uplands of
chalk or sand. The descent to the caves, however, opens all around us,
often with the heightening charm of unexpectedness, dingles of
surpassing beauty, as wild as we can wish them. And to all this, the
mere holiday folk may be wafted along the military roads of General Don,
and they may be lifted from St. Helier’s to St. Aubin’s and to Gourey in
public coaches. We, who come to _woo_ Nature—for we love her with all
the pure idolatry of a Thomson or a Davy—select the bye-lanes and the
meadow paths. Yet even here we loiter not, although these garden meads
of Jersey are the very choicest spots for the secluded rambles of lovers
and the joyous festa of gipsying, especially when the warm south-west
blows over the Atlantic.
But running water is well-nigh a blank in Jersey. As in all small
islets, the rivulets are quiet little runnels rippling down from springs
on the northern brow, and stealing south straight into the bays; the
gulleys of Grève le Lecq and Boullay creeping northward. Here and there
the runnels turn a little mill-wheel; and then, in our walks, we often
stumble on an old church, and also on a venerable manor-house, of which
there are about half a score in Jersey, St. Ouen’s, Rosell, La Hogue
Boëte, &c. And now to compass the beauty of Jersey. The walks should be
around and across the south-west and south-east corners, from Town to La
Corbière, and to Gourey, the northern coast from Le Tac to St. John’s,
and thence to St. Martin’s. A pony may carry us to any of the northern
villes, from which we may reach the magnificent points of the northern
coast, or a carriage may take us along the Devonian valley of St.
Peter’s to St. Ouen’s, and await us at St. Martin’s, to bring us back to
St. Helier’s, and, in this lovely valley of St. Peter’s, if we are fond
of cryptogamic botany, let us thread the bosky cliffs of the glen, and
on the stems of the wild rose find the finest tufts of the beautiful
golden lichen, _Borrera chrysophthalma_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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