Note 63 — Second Yachting Excursion.

The public Records certainly state that Guernsey was taken by the French in 1339. But the same records show that it was again in the possession of the English as early as January 1340. The tradition, therefore, “that Guernsey never was taken,” may be true, as the occupation by the French might only have been partial—viz., of Castle Cornet and the vicinity; and this might have been magnified, by report in England, into a conquest of the whole island. Popular traditions, contradicted at first by documentary evidence, are often eventually found to be true. Everything depends upon the meaning of the words “taken” and “conquered.” It could hardly have been said that England had been “conquered” by the Normans, while the gallant Hereward held out in the Isle of Ely.—Ed.