Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist.

Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/402 (page 5)
    them may be enumerated their connexion with the Norman conquest, and long dependence upon the British crown; their separate and independent constitution; the peculiar laws by which they are governed; their singular privi- leges ; their native civilized inhabitants; their vicinity to the coast of France, and the general use of the French language. To these may be added the variety of interesting points which their natural history presents to the geologist, botanist, and zoologist. We shall attempt in the following pages to supply the deficiency thus existing. Information respecting the early history of these islands appears to be furnished to us in their names. There appears to be little doubt that the names of the islands at present in use are corruptions of ancient Latin names. The following is the account of these names which is most generally accepted. Guernsey was anciently called Sarnia; Jersey, Caesarea; Alder- ney, Aurica; Sark, Sargia; Herm, Armia. Hence it seems probable that the Channel Islands were known to the Romans. In the Commentaries of Julius Cajsar there are some islands mentioned which were supposed by him to be formed by the action of the tides, and to which some of the Britons are stated to have taken flight. These islands have been