Le Trepied Dolmen, Perelle Bay, Guernsey

A prehistoric passage grave built between around 4000 and 2500 BC, and in use until about 1000 BC. Excavations by F. C. Lukis began in 1840. The site is frequently mentioned in seventeenth century witch trials.

Inside the dolmen.

Close to the dolmen, the Mont Chinchon Battery, one of over sixty, was built as a defence against possible invasion by France. The cannons were cast between 1760 and 1820. It was also known as the Druids Altar Battery due to its closeness to the Trepied dolmen.

Thomas de la Rue in Forest and St Peter Port, Guernsey

The pub in St Peter Port, Guernsey, named after the printer.

'THOMAS de la RUE

Founder of the House of De La Rue

1793 – 1866'

De la Rue co-founded Le Publiciste, and shortly afterwards his own publication Le Miroir politique. His was the first business to be granted the right to publish playing cards.

'Thomas

de la Rue

1793 – 1866

Printer

Born at

Le Bourg'

Lihou Island, Guernsey

Lihou Island, the most western of the Channel Islands, seen from Guernsey.

Lihou Island, which is about a half of a mile from Guernsey, can be reached on foot during low tide periods: a causeway links it to the mainland. There's a lot of nonsense about stout footwear being needed to make the crossing, although anyone making the twenty-minute effort, while not needing wellingtons, should be prepared for wet feet: the causeway isn't entirely continuous, and the (slightly) adventurous have to contend with rather slippery seaweed (once a part here of the iodine industry). Apart from Victor Hugo's Hauteville house and the Little Chapel, this must rank as the third Guernsey must: and it's free! (In The Book of Ebenezer le Page (1981), G. B. Edwards mentions the childhood days of Ebenezer and his friend Jim, who get stranded on the island and spend the night there.)

Part of the remains of the twelfth century Benedictine Priory here.

Lihou farmhouse, now a hostel.

Denys Corbet in Forest, Guernsey

The grave of Denys Corbet (1826 – 1909), poet and painter. He wrote in English, French and Guernsey French and patois, and his noted works are L'Touar de Guernsey, Les Fueilles de la forêt and Les Chants du Drain rimeux (translated as The Songs of the Last Rhymster). He was the editor of Le Baillage and lived at La Roberge. 

G. B. Edwards in St Sampson, Guernsey

Hawkesbury House, Braye Road, St Sampson, Guernsey.

'G. B. Edwards

1899 – 1976

author of

The Book of

Ebenezer Le Page

lived here'

The Little Chapel, Les Vauxbelets, St Lawrence, Guernsey

In 1914 Brother Déodat, inspired by the shrine in Lourdes, began constructing a small chapel in Les Vauxbelets, St Lawrence, Guernsey. What are now on view are the surviving elements of his third attempt, begun in 1923 and completed a few years later. The materials are pieces of china, pebbles, etc, which are normally associated with outsider art. In 2015 the site was closed because of possible damage due to collapse, and scaffolding has now saved the structure from complete collapse. The restoration continues, and although most of the exterior is at present unseeable, the highly impressive interior can still be viewed. I let the images below speak for themselves.

Art brut (Outsider Art) and associated:

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rémy Callot, Carvin (Nord)
Carine Fol (ed.): L'Art brut en question | Outsider Art in Question
Kevin Duffy, Ashton-in-Makerfield
The Art Brut of Léopold Truc, Cabrières d'Avignon (34)
Le Musée Extraordinaire de Georges Mazoyer, Ansouis (34)
Le Facteur Cheval's Palais Idéal, Hauterives (26)
The Little Chapel, Guernsey
Museum of Appalachia, Norris, Clinton, Tennessee
Ed Leedskalnin in Homestead, Florida
La Fabuloserie, Dicy, Yonne (89)
Street Art City, Lurcy-Lévis, Allier (03)
The Outsider Art of Jean Linard, Neuvy-deux-Clochers (18)
Jean Bertholle, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jean-Pierre Schetz, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Jules Damloup, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Camille Vidal, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
Pascal Verbena, La Fabuloserie, Yonne (89)
The Art of Theodore Major
Edward Gorey's Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, MA
Marcel Vinsard in Pontcharra, Isère (38)
Vincent Capt: Écrivainer : La langue morcelée de Samuel Daiber
The Amazing World of Danielle Jacqui, Roquevaire (13)
Alphonse Gurlie, Maisonneuve (07)
Univers du poète ferrailleur, Lizio, Morbihan
Les Rochers sculptés de L'Abbé Fouré, Rothéneuf, Saint-Malo
Robert Tatin in Cossé-le-Vivien, Mayenne
René Raoul's Jardin de pierre in Pléhédel, Côtes d'Armor
La Demeure du Chaos, Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or, Rhône (69)
Emmanuel Arredondo in Varennes Vauzelles, Nièvre (58)
Musée de la Luna Rossa (revisited), Caen, Calvados (14)
La Fontaine de Château-Chinon, Nièvre (58)

George Orwell in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire

'NEAR TO THIS PLACE LIE

THE MORTAL REMAINS OF

GEORGE ORWELL . WRITER

. ERIC ARTHUR BLAIR .

25 JUNE 1903 . 21 JANUARY 1950'

This plaque is on the south wall of All Saints's church, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.

'HERE LIES

ERIC ARTHUR BLAIR

BORN JUNE 25^TH 1903

DIED JANUARY 21^ST 1950'

Orwell wanted to be buried in a country graveyard, and he was. To the right is a rather rain-weathered copy of his Homage to Catalonia which an admirer has obviously left.

'DAVID

ASTOR

1912 – 2001'

David Astor was the editor of the Observer, an owner of estate in Sutton Courtenay, a friend (and employer) of Orwell's, also responsible for seeing that Orwell's wishes were carried out. He bought two graveyard plots in All Saint's', and is buried immediately behind Orwell's grave.

Mary Arnold Ward (Mrs Humphry Ward) in Oxford (UK)

'MARY ARNOLD

WARD

(MRS HUMPHRY WARD)

1851 – 1920

Social Reformer

Novelist

lived here

1872 – 1881'

17 Bradmore Road.

Walter Pater and Clara Pater in Oxford (UK)

'WALTER PATER

1839 –1894

Author and Scholar

CLARA PATER

1841 – 1910

Pioneer of Women's Education

Lived here

1869 – 1885'

2 Bradmore Road.

Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford #6 Louise Imogen Guiney

Finally in Wolvercote Cemetery, the most difficult grave to find (at least for us.) Difficult not because of the relatively distinctive grave itself, but due to the erosion of the inscription. As far as I know this is the only photo of the grave of Louise Imogen Guiney (1861–1920) that is on the internet, which is perhaps hardly surprising because I couldn't make out a single word at the base of the grave, so my thanks to Dr Rowena Edlin-White for taking a rubbing and discovering this inscription:

'ANNO MCMII
DECEMBRIS XXVIII
IN CORDE JESU
ELIZABETH DOYLE
DELASSATA                  (this is her aunt who lived with her)

LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY
JAN VII MDCCCLXI
NOVII MCMXX

DILIGENSE ET FIDELIS'

Apparently Guiney and her friend Alice Brown did a walking tour of England, which was detailed in Brown's By Oak and Thorn (1896), and Guiney eventually returned to England. She also found and had restored the grave of Henry Vaughan in St Bride's churchyard, Llansantiffraed, Powys.

A former home of Guiney's in Beacon Hill, Boston, MA.

Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford #5: Albert Habib Hourani

'ALBERT

HABIB

HOURANI

1915 – 1993

Scholar and Historian

Of the Middle East

Teacher at the

University of Oxford

Much loved

And greatly missed

By all who knew him'

Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford #4: James Legge

'HERE REST IN GOD

JAMES LEGGE,

MISSIONARY TO CHINA,

AND

FIRST PROFESSOR OF CHINESE

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

BORN 20 ^TH DEC. 1815, DIED 19 ^TH NOVEMBER 1897.'

Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford #3: James Murray

'SIR JAMES A. H. MURRAY, L. L. D.

EDITOR OF

THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

1878 – 1915

BORN 7. FEBRUARY 1837,

DIED 26. JULY 1915.'

78 Banbury Road, Oxford, where James Murray lived from 1885 to 1915.