there is a monument connected with Jersey history,—
a tablet to the memory of Major Pierson, who was
killed in action when the French attacked the island
in 1781. All the other chapels are plain barn-like
edifices, no way ornamental to the town; and by the
by, it is certainly to be lamented that, since the
expense of erecting a building upon a correct architectural
design is not necessarily greater than that
of raising a shapeless pile, and since the word of
God is not less efficacious preached in a Greek temple
than in a barn, absurd puritanism should have covered
England and her colonies with deformity.
One of the objects that chiefly attracts the notice of
a traveller, is the extensive fortification,—Fort R e gent,—
which, from almost every part of the town and
its neighbourhood, is seen overtopping the buildings.
I was extremely pleased by my first walk to Fort Regent;
for the view from the road, as it ascends the
hill, lays open one of the most striking prospects
which it has been my good fortune to see. The
magnificent bay of St. Aubin, about four miles across
its mouth, and at least two in depth, is seen stretching
in a fine curve, to the opposite village which gives to
it its name, and which is seen half hid among the
wooded heights among which it lies. I t was a calm
and beautiful May day; the sea all the way across
the bay, had scarcely a ripple on i t ; it was high tide
too; and several small vessels were trying inefieetu-
ally, to catch air enough to waft them in and out of
the harbour. I was strikingly reminded of the view
from Gibraltar, looking across the bay towards the
little town of Algesiras; only I missed the perfume of
the geranium and the acacia, and the jabbering of the
monkeys among the rocks.
But Fort Regent, in which one sees nearly a
million of the national debt, deserves a more particular
notice. The foundation of this fortress was laid
in 1806; and although I have not been able to obtain
access to the documents setting forth the precise expenditure,
I have reason to know, that from first to
last, it has cost the British nation not less than
800,000/. sterling.
I have no intention of describing the fortress.
Although the form of the rock upon which it is constructed,
has necessarily made it an irregular fortress,
it is nevertheless constructed on the best principles.
It possesses all the usual defences. It has its bastions,
and half bastions, and outworks, and glacis,—and,
excepting on the side Mdiich faces the sea, a ditch,
with a counterscarp and covertway, is carried all
round. The whole of the magazines and barracks are
in the bastions, and under the ramparts, and are bomb
proof. The powder magazines are capable of containing
five thousand barrels.
This extensive, and expensive fortress (the utility
of which is altogether questionable) afibrds accommodation
for only thirty-one officers, and four hundred
and forty-eight non-commissioned officers and privates;
a number, utterly inadequate to its defence
against a regular siege. There is no doubt, that in
such an event, the fortress would be made to contain
a greater number than there is accommodation for;
but crowding men in the bomb proofs, would engender
disease; part of the barracks would be necessary