Of the ancient town on the south-eastern coast, of which the oblong granite blocks of Les Rochers, near the cemetery, are believed to be the debris, very solemn legends are recorded. Its destruction is referred to the judgment of the Deity on the crimes of a gang of wreckers, who plundered and murdered the crew of a Spanish vessel wrecked on the coast. This infliction, according to the record, had its parallel in Jersey. The _Court_ consists of judge, jurats, attorney and solicitor-general, greffier, sheriff, and his depute and serjeant. The ecclesiastical history is not without interest, and there are seriously romantic legends of the mission of Geunal, Vignalor, or St. Vignalis, the patron saint of Aurigny. He was a scion of a noble family in Bretagne, a proselyte of St. Magloire, and he resigned his abbacy of Landenec, and became a missionary to Sark. From thence he wended to Alderney, and converted the catchers of fish and the tillers of ground, before this the most desperate _wreckers_ in the Channel. From the outlying rocks on the eastern height stands the ruined castle (_La Chatte_) of Essex, built, it is said, by Robert Devereux, for the detention of his queen. Below it, on the lower shore of Longis is a Roman _cist_, noted by Holinshed; and _Castrum Longini_. _Les murs des bas_, or the _Nunnery_, is a very antique square, with corner towers, constructed with the Roman tiles of the dilapidated ville. Here and also at _Corbelets_ were discovered antique vessels and coins and relics, and monumental stones of porphyry and sienite. On the coast heights there are batteries and watchtowers and beacons, and a telegraph for Guernsey, all dismantled in time of peace. [Illustration: LA PENDENTE, ALDERNEY]