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.

    24/402 (page 12)
    This chieftain appears to have been a wise, and, it is said, beeame a Christian governor. His laws were certainly well adapted to the neces- sities of the state he governed. A singular custom still prevails in Guernsey and Jersey, which, if not originating with Rollo himself, shows the sacred light in which the people regarded his laws and justice. The custom is this:—in case of encroachment or invasions of property, or, in fact, of any other act of oppression and violence requiring a prompt remedy, the injured person calls aloud upon the name of Hollo three times, repeating the words, Ha—Ro, a Vaide, mon Prince which is an appeal to Hollo for succour. This singular method of appeal is held so sacred, that the aggressor immediately desists, and nothing further can be done by him until the matter of dispute has been settled by a court of law. The following remarkable anecdote will show in how solemn a light the “ Glameur de Haro,' as this form of appeal is called, was eonsidered. One hundred and seventy years after the death of Hollo, the remarkable event occurred to which we allude. The occasion was the funeral of William the Conqueror. It appears that in order to build the great abbey of St. Stephen at Caen, in Normandy, where he intended to place his own tomb, William had caused several