hvered wrote: The governing body goes by the name of Elder Brethren and there is a suspiciously Catholic aura about this outfit, dedicated to the Holy Trinity and of course St Clement, patron saint of sailors.
Maybe so but St Clement is one of those ambivalent characters associated with shipping and trade in a manner more reminiscent of Hermes and navigational and intellectual 'saints'. So for instance St Clement of Ireland is popularly said to have founded the University of Paris on the Ile de France, in spirit at least. [The university has three listed patron saints -- Catherine of Alexandria, Nicholas and Ursula.]
St Clements Bay in Jersey which has a particularly high tidal range has a tidal island, La Motte or Green Island, with evidence of Neolithic settlement. Sailors are renowned for being superstitious but it seems that landlubbers are more so, at least concerning ancient remains. Only a few years ago, the bull of St Clement, a new legend in the modern bestiary, appeared:
People were so scared of this bull that they refused to venture down to the beach, even to go fishing.
One fisherman refused to believe the tale about the bull, and decided to search the rocks. Whilst he was searching, the bull began to roar - but when the fisherman followed the sound, he found a rock pool, where the rocks had been eroded to form a pipe.
At low tide water was sucked down the pipe, making a gurgling noise, which echoed loudly off all the rocks. The fishermen filled up the rock pipe - and that was the end of the bull of St. Clement.
It looks like a causeway leads to the island but it's hard to tell if this is an ancient or modern structure. Has anyone been here?