“Tchi-co, La Bête de la Tour.”
There is no doubt that in early times the town of St. Peter Port was encircled by walls, and fortified—indeed there is an order of Edward III. in 1350, authorising the levy of a duty on merchandise for this purpose. Certain spots, called “les barrières,” mark where the gates were situated, and, although all remains of the walls have long since disappeared, it is not difficult to trace the course they must have taken. At the northern extremity of the original town, the name of “La Tour Gand” indicates a fortress of some sort. The southern extremity was protected by a work called “La Tour Beauregard,” of sufficient importance to be named, together with Castle Cornet, in the warrants or commissions issued by the monarch to those who were intrusted with the defence of the island.
This fortress stood near the top of Cornet Street, on the brow of the hill which overlooks the Bordage and Fountain Street, where now stands St. Barnabas’ Church. Tradition points to a spot at the foot of the hill, as the place where the execution of heretics and witches, by burning, used to take place, and connects with these sad events a spectral appearance which, even within the present century, was believed to haunt the purlieus of the old tower.
During the long nights of winter, and especially about Christmastide, the inhabitants of Tower-hill, the Bordage, Fountain Street, and Cornet Street used to be roused from their midnight slumbers by hearing unearthly howlings and the clanking of heavy chains, dragged over the rough pavement.
Those who could summon up courage enough to rise from their beds and peep out of window, declared that they saw the form of a huge uncouth animal with large flaming saucer eyes, and somewhat like a bear, or huge calf. This spectre was known as “Tchî-co, La Bête de la Tour.”
Editor’s Notes.
See Pluquet in Contes Populaires de Bayeux, p. 16, for an account of a phantom in the shape of a great dog that wanders about the streets of Bayeux in the winter nights gnawing bones and dragging chains, called “Le Rongeur d’Os.”
See also Sir Walter Scott’s note in Peveril of the Peak, Vol. II., Chap. I., on the spectral hound or “Mauthe Doog”—a large black spaniel, which used to haunt Peel Castle in the Isle of Man.
There is also in Laisnel de la Salle’s book Croyances et Légendes du Centre de la France, Tome I. p. 181, a long story of “Le Loup Bron,” which in many respects resembles that of our “Bête de la Tour.”
In Sark “they have another superstitious belief, that of the Tchico, or old dog, the dog of the dead, the black or white beast. Several affirm having seen it, and met it walking about the roads. This dog affects certain localities, and makes its regular rounds, but often it is invisible.” From Descriptive Sketch of the Island of Sark, by the Rev. J. L. V. Cachemaille, published in Clarke’s Guernsey Magazine, Vol. III., October. 1875.