Part 6 (1/2)

Marie Guillemotte, wife of Samuel Roland, known as Dugorne.

Marie Rolland, her daughter.

The mother was hanged and burnt, and the daughter was condemned to perpetual banishment.

THE STORY IN BRIEF

OF THE

GUILLE-ALLeS LIBRARY,

GUERNSEY.

BY J. LINWOOD PITTS.

In concluding the editorial duties connected with the issue of this fourth volume of the ”Guille-Alles Library Series,” it seems to me that the time is an opportune one for adding some short account of the origin and foundation of the n.o.ble Inst.i.tution from which the ”Series”

takes its name. The Guille-Alles Library is proving such an immense boon to our little insular community, that very naturally, many inquiries are from time to time made--especially by strangers--as to how its existence came about.

In order to answer these questions we must go as far back as the year 1834. At that time Mr. Guille--who is a Guernseyman by birth--was but a boy of sixteen, and had been two years in America. He was serving his apprentices.h.i.+p with a well-known firm in New York, and he enjoyed the privilege of access to a very extensive library in that city, founded by a wealthy corporation known as _The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen_. The pleasure and profit which he derived from this source were so great, and made such a deep impression upon his mind that, young as he was, he formed the resolution that if his future life proved prosperous, and his position enabled him to do so, he would one day found a similar inst.i.tution in his own little native island of Guernsey. Throughout the whole of his future career this intention was present with him; and commencing at once,--in spite of his then very limited means--to purchase books which should form a nucleus for the antic.i.p.ated collection, he began to lay the foundation of the literary treasures which crowd the shelves of the Guille-Alles Library to-day. At the age of twenty, when out of his apprentices.h.i.+p, he found himself the possessor of several hundreds of volumes of standard works, many of which are now in the Library, and upon which he must naturally look with peculiar and very legitimate pleasure, as being the corner stones of the subsequent splendid superstructure.

Business affairs prospered with Mr. Guille. As time rolled on he was taken into partners.h.i.+p with the firm, as was also his friend and fellow-countryman, Mr. F.M. Alles, and his increasing prosperity enabled him to put his cherished project into more tangible shape.

While on a visit to Guernsey in 1851, he wrote a few articles in the _Gazette Officielle_, with the view of drawing public attention to the importance of forming district or parish libraries. These articles attracted the notice of _The Farmers' Club_, an a.s.sociation of intelligent country gentlemen who met at the Castel. Their secretary, the late Mr. Nicholas Le Beir, wrote to Mr. Guille at the request of the members, informing him of their appreciation of his views, and of his having been elected an honorary member of their a.s.sociation, in token of their esteem. They had previously elected in a similar way the famous French poet Beranger, and also Guernsey's national bard, the late Mr. George Metivier. Mr. Guille accepted the honour, and the correspondence which ensued resulted in his offering his collection of books--supplemented by a considerable sum of money--towards forming the commencement of such libraries as he had been advocating. Nothing, however, really definite was done until Mr. Guille's next visit to Guernsey in 1855-6, when after consultation with that devoted friend of education, the late Mr. Peter Roussel, a meeting of a few friends--including Mr. Roussel and his venerable mother, Mr. Guille, Judge Clucas, Mr. Le Beir, and Mr. Henry E. Marquand--who were known to be favourable to the project was held, several handsome subscriptions were promised, Mr. Guille renewed his offer previously made to _The Farmers' Club_, and a workable scheme was matured.

THE GUILLE LIBRARY,

for so the Committee decided to name the undertaking, consequently commenced its useful career in 1856. The collection of books was divided into five sections, which were placed in separate cases, and located at convenient distances about the island--where they were taken charge of by friends--the largest being reserved for the town.

The intention was to exchange these cases in rotation, and so establish a circulating library in the most comprehensive sense of the term. But this was, in reality, never carried out, for after the volumes had been read in their respective stations, they were returned to their places, and left to slumber unused, until Mr. Guille once more came to the island in 1867, with the intention of remaining permanently, and he then had them all brought to town and arranged in one central _depot_.

Mr. Guille also opened a branch Reading-room and Library at St.

Martin's, in the hope of being able thereby to draw the young men of the parish from the degrading attractions of the public house. For three years he kept this comfortable room open, while in winter and summer neither rain nor storm prevented him from being present there every evening to personally superintend the undertaking. Ultimately, however, he found the strain too much for his health, and he discontinued the branch so as to concentrate more attention upon the central establishment in town.

For five-and-twenty years, from 1856 to 1881, Mr. Guille worked steadily and unostentatiously at the benevolent enterprise which he had inaugurated. Death removed several of his early coadjutors, and for many years he bore all the financial burdens and toiled on single-handed and alone. What was still more discouraging was that he unfortunately had to encounter for a very long time an almost incredible amount of mental supineness on the part of those whom he was so disinterestedly seeking to benefit. It was not as though any desire for knowledge existed among the ma.s.s of the Guernsey people, and he only had to a.s.sume the pleasant duty of satisfying that desire.

Such a desire did not exist. Many of the people not only never had read any books but they flatly declined to begin. Mr. Guille felt that this deplorable att.i.tude ought to be combatted, and he therefore persevered in the thankless and difficult task of trying in the first place to create the want, and in the second place to satisfy it. A quarter-of-a-century's earnest effort in a good cause, however, cannot fail to produce some fruit, and within the last three or four years much brighter days have dawned. Mr. Guille's lifelong friend and former business partner, Mr. F.M. Alles,--who had often previously substantially a.s.sisted him,--has latterly thoroughly a.s.sociated himself with the work, and the result is that the rudimentary scheme of 1856 has at length culminated in the splendid

GUILLE-ALLeS LIBRARY,

which was thrown open to the public in the old a.s.sembly Rooms, on the 2nd of January, 1882, and bears on its portal the appropriate motto: _Ingredere ut proficias_--”Enter that thou mayst profit.” How admirably this fine Inst.i.tution is fulfilling its mission is well-known to all who frequent it. It already contains a collection of over 35,000 volumes--to which constant additions are being made--of valuable and standard works in all branches of science, literature and art, both in the French and English languages, besides numerous works in German, Italian, Greek, Latin, &c. It has a commodious Reading-room, well supplied with journals and periodical publications; while a Society of Natural Science has also been inaugurated and meets in connection with it. The Guernsey Mechanics' Inst.i.tution--after an existence of just half-a-century--was absorbed into it at the close of 1881; and the Library of the _Societe Guernesiaise_--founded in 1867--now finds a home on its shelves. The subscription for members.h.i.+p is merely nominal, and Messrs. Guille and Alles have made arrangements to endow the Inst.i.tution with such ample funds as shall secure in perpetuity the many benefits which it is conferring upon the island.

THE FUTURE OF THE INSt.i.tUTION

is therefore fully a.s.sured and its wants provided for. The s.p.a.cious new buildings which have been for many months in process of erection are now (December, 1885) rapidly approaching completion. They comprise a s.p.a.cious and handsome Lecture Hall, capable of seating from 250 to 300 persons; a Book-room 63-ft. by 25-ft., exclusively for the lending department, and which will accommodate on its shelves from 45,000 to 50,000 additional volumes--with a large anteroom for the convenience of the subscribers. The present Reading-room will then be used for a Reference Library and Students' Consulting and Reading-room. There are also a General Reading-room, a Working Men's Reading-room, and numerous apartments suitable for Cla.s.s-rooms and Committee-rooms. The roof of the original building has been reconstructed and raised so as to form a suite of rooms 100-ft. long, 24-ft. wide, and 10-ft. high.

Lighted from the top these are specially adapted for the exhibition of objects of interest, pictures, or for a local museum. A convenient residence for the Librarian is arranged in a separate building, which is extended so as to provide on the ground floor convenient rooms for the reception and storing of books and for the special work of the Librarians.

When the Library was first removed to the a.s.sembly Rooms, the premises were leased from the States, who had purchased them in 1870.

Subsequently, however, in December, 1883, Messrs. Guille and Alles purchased the Rooms from the States for 900 British, and afterwards bought from the Parish the plot of land behind the Rooms--which belonged to the Rectory--and upon which they have now built the s.p.a.cious new premises above-mentioned. As soon as these extensions are available, the founders purpose inaugurating comprehensive courses of popular ill.u.s.trated lectures on physical science, economic products, natural history, microscopic science, literary subjects, &c., which will appeal at once to the eye and the understanding, and impart a large amount of very useful knowledge in an easy and agreeable way.