Jersey;
and at night-fall, a chorus of crickets resounds from every hedge.

The Jersey cattle are small; but like the pigmy breed of the Scottish
Highlands, their flesh is delicate, and their milk and butter rich. The
butcher market at St. Helier is supplied chiefly from France. There are
sportsmen in Jersey as well as in other countries, but game is neither
various nor abundant. The list, however, includes hares, rabbits, the
Jersey partridge, a beautiful bird, with pheasant eyes, red legs, and
variegated plumage; and several varieties of water fowl. In severe winters,
flocks of solan geese, locally denominated "barnacles," frequent the
shores.

The Romans, the pioneers of discovery and civilization in Europe, conferred
on Jersey the name of Caesarea, in honour of their leader; and Caesar and
Tacitus concur in describing it as a stronghold of Druidism, of which
worship many monuments still exist. The aborigines were doubtless sprung
from the Celtic tribes spread over the adjacent continent; but the present
inhabitants are universally recognised as the lineal descendants of the
warlike Normans, who, under the auspices of the famous Rollo, conquered and
established themselves in the north of France in the ninth century. It was
first attached to the British crown at the conquest; and though repeated
descents have been made on it by France during the many wars waged between
the countries since that remote era, none of them were attended with such
success as to lead to a permanent occupation of the island. The islanders,
proud of an unconquered name, and gratified to recollect that they
originally gave a king to England, not England a king to them, have been
always distinguished for fidelity to the British government; and their
unshaken loyalty has, from time to time, been rewarded by immunities and
privileges, highly conducive to their prosperity, and calculated to foster
that spirit of nationality, which is invariably distinctive of a free
people. They are exempted from those taxes which press heaviest on the
English yeoman, and from naval and military service beyond the boundaries
of their own island. The local administration of justice is still regulated
by the old Norman code of laws, and this circumstance is regarded by the
natives as a virtual recognition of their independence; but strangers, when
they inadvertently get involved in legal disputes, have often cause to
regret its existence. In cases of assault, partic