Show island of sark Is feudal state once haunt of pirates now a peaceful place with ancient customs by national So society cletY washington D C W service LIEN the dame ot of sark recently WHEN adon went shopping in london the event was news in at least two continents tor for ln la dame de sark Is the first lady of 0 the only purely feudal state remaining in ID the world the island of sark in the english channel sark is the fourth largest of the channel islands it lies ijo 70 miles south of england and 22 miles from the coast of france it Is three and EL a half miles long and one and a half i miles wide and yet because of its numerous bays and coves it has hag 35 miles of coast it Is the highest land in the channel islands the cliffs rising on all sides almost perpendicularly are covered with innumerable Durrie rable varieties of rock plants and flowers while below are sandy bays and wonderful caves whose sea hewn walls are covered with seaweeds and sea anemones an emones of every color of the rainbow on the beaches may be found semiprecious stones such as ame cats enes and moonstones moon stones the island Is not without minerals at one time mines were worked which produced copper silver antimony and galena the interior ot of the island Is undulating with valleys full of wild flow e ea and ln in the spring the whole is covered with a blaze of golden gorse blue bells and primroses prim roses no venomous beasts live in sark not even it a toad OR on landing at the sark harbor which Is one of the smallest in the world the visitor finds himself entirely surrounded by steep sleep cliffs and the only means of access to the island from there Is by a road passing through a tunnel feet long pierced in the cliff and thence by a steep winding road which leads to the center of the island where there are afew small email shops and four hotels the highway continues to la coupee where the island is divided into two parts great sark and little sark joined by a huge natural causeway of rock nearly feet high and feet ion long across which runs a road just wide enough for one cart and horse X vi t 4 MAII pit fia 4 1 pv 1 A sark windmill built by the grace of queen elizabeth in 1571 to cross at a time on one side of this causeway Is a sheer cliff on the other a sloping way down to beautiful san sands ds in spite of its minute size sark has a history of no little interest as its written Nr itten records begin in A D and there Is ample evidence of occupation in the stone age in the sixth century saint bishop of dol do in brittany established a monastery here the ruins of which including an old wall and two chapels stand just beside the dames house here fin an order of 62 monks flourished until 1412 when they were withdraw rf to the abbey of Monte montebourg bourg in france once pirate haunt years lears rolled on and sark became the haunt of pirates said to be from Scotia scotland nd who ho were a constant menace to shipping in the channel and against whom expeditions from england were sent out the island was cleared of their presence but ruin was left in their wake it was occupied by the french some time early in the sixteenth century and it was wrested from thera them by a ruse the details of which were recorded by sir walter raleigh haleigh himself who was governor of jersey some fifty years later as follows A flemish vessel arrived off the coast and the sailors pretended that their captain was dead and asked leave to bring his body ashore for burial on permission being granted they carried the collin up the hill to the little church of saint Magio lre and there closing the door they opened the coffin which was full of arms turned on the french garrison and surprised them killing some and taking the rest prisoners soon after this the island was as a again aln deserted desort pil until from the island of jersey arose a man who vrho was finally to establish the auturo of sink salk this was sir de carteret tile llie fifty ea t shtil of saint luell I 1 in to t nanni hom in 11 1 na n queen th gr giantel antel tile island n 1113 iv 1 laites adient under the great seal of england this royal grant gave to sir seller helier and ana his bis successors almost unlimited powers on condition that he be colonize tile the island with forty fa families milles to each of whom he be allotted a portion of the land to farm each man was equipped with a musket tor for the defense of the island so that to this day da it la Is often spoken of as the island of the forty and even now when a farm changes hands it Is still cited as one ona of the conditions of the deed of conveyance that a man with a musket shall be kept on the farm though the de carteret family still owns the manor of saint ouen in jersey sark passed out of its hands bands when in 1732 1730 it was sold with all its rights and privileges and eventually came to the great grand grandmother mother of the present dame of sark saris in 1852 for many years an artillery militia was maintained consisting of about one hundred men now all that remains are a few old cannon lying disused and halt half hidden in bracken and gorse on the cliffs while in the grounds of the dames house is a fine old bronze cannon which was presented to the first seigneur neur of sark in 1572 by glicen elizabeth and bears an inscription to that effect the dames house or Seigne urle lies iles in a sheltered part of the island land and like all the old houses Is built of pay gray granite the original or main part of the house dating from stands on the site ot of the old monastery and no doubt many of the i tones used to build it were taken from the ruins the fireplace in the hall bears the date a and ud t the h is s sundial on the outside am the gardens are opened to the general public tree free of any charge every monday appeal to the dame great privileges are always accompanied by grave responsibilities so that tile the dames home may be described as the clearing house of all island controversy it is open at any tl time e to any inhabitant of the island who wishes to see her for any reason and she sometimes longs for the leisure of the tired business man when often both sides of a difficulty are brought to her tor for final judgment discussions cus take place on subjects which range from whether bathers shall wear beach pajamas or whether the chief pleas shall pass a measure to deal with the prevention of infectious diseases among cattle the sark parliament Is called the chief pleas and it sits three times thaes a year unless called by the dame in an emergency the forty holders of the farms allotted originally in 1565 plus twelve deputies elected among th the rest of the inhabitants who now number dumber are members of the parliament to salutes Sa Sar rUtes kites the king ol of england Is their feudal lord the duke of normandy and he be has no more loyal and devoted subjects than they who have from time immemorial been part of the duchy of normandy whose duke william the conqueror invaded and took england and was thereafter recognized as king of england but to them has always remained id uke duke of normandy in point of fact the channel islands were never a part of england but part and parcel of the duchy of normandy and as such no doubt took part in the conquest of england sark Is the smallest self governing part of the british empire and the only part which has no public debt in fact it has a substantial credit balance the language of the island officially Is french though everyone speaks english which Is taught equally with french in the schools so that everyone is bilingual among amone themselves the islanders always speak their own patois which Is a survival of the old norman french as spoken at the time of the conquest it Is never dever written and cannot be understood by anyone not brought up in its ita midst sark has a boys and a girls school in regard to which it Is interesting to note that sark was the first part of the british empire to adopt compulsory education the dame ins inspects pacts both schools at examina examination tio 3 time and questions asks the children questions in french and english find and satisfies herself bersel f IS as to their general mental progress motor cart cars barred A law against the importation of motor cars has been passed and this is strictly enforced the dame believes there should be one spot left on earth where modern transportation I 1 can be forgotten and where peace and quiet are undisturbed she also refuses to allow tile importation of any female dog the ownership of such except by the seigneur being forbidden under nn an old custom upheld by law for centuries it Is also the old right of the seigneur alone to keep pigeons an excellent law as in this way their number Is controlled and damage to crops is minimized the large stone pigeon cote Is an essential part of any feudal it Is also a privilege that none but he may grind corn or build it a mill and although the old windmill is now no longer used he still grinds all corn brought to the by the more modern methods of motor and machine charging each farmer a small fee for grinding all cereals grown in sark are subject to seigneur fal tithes and no man may harvest his crops until tin tit these tithes called dimes have been co collected I 1 ted the larmer farmer has to lotif notify y the seigneur 48 hours before h he e intends carting so that some one may guily be sent to 0 o the fields to see that every tenth sheaf clieaf Is set aside for the sel seigneur cur vho abo also has a tithe of elder cider lambs wo wools 0 Is and a royalty on all minerals ea each ch of the forty pays a early scarly tithe or r ground rent on tits his property and the he old chimney tax or foulage pou lage as it IS s called nd Is still in force paid in live chickens every year to the seigneur |