.^' %a3AINfl'3WV ■ vU.IIDDADV/l^ ■/i JAINO-iWV^ ]AINn-3WV^ n !r:| _, ■^' O / I 3^. .IfK-.UT.nfr k ^^^M•llBRARYQc .'-i 1 '!7i ^. ^(!/ojnvjjo'f^ IliUi \0V./-). =C3 o^lOSANGElfJV. AOffAllF0% ]m^ "^AiiaAiNn-^uv ^6'Aavaan# ^.OF CALIFO/?^ 'i V n-.n^rhih, riiliii.-ihtd-buJdijr Jli'mif, AlhtmarU ■Stret/-, 183^ V r-A ■ HOME TOUE THROUGH VARIOUS PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE " HOME TOUR THROUGH THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS." ALSO, MEMOIRS OF AN ASSISTANT COMMISSARY-GENERAL. SIR GEORGE HEAD, AUTHOR OF ^ FOREST SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE WILDS OF NORTH AilEPUCA. LONDON : JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. MDCCCXXXVII. ^^^ ,W34 K.£3o TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR FRANCIS BOND HEAD, BART., K.C.H., LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF UTTER CANADA, ETC., ETC., ETC., I DEDICATE THIS SMALL VOLUME,— INSIGNIFICANT INDEED AS A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT, BUT A SINCERE TESTIMONY OF A BROTHER'S REGARD. GEORGE HEAD. Athen.teum Club, Pall Mall, 29th June, 1837. 58^?;'ii8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ISLE OF MAN. Page The Mona's Isle Steamer — Rough Music — A Ventriloquist — Douglas Head — Extreme Clearness of the Water — The Pier — Porters — Hotel Agents — Castle Moua — Mode of conveyance thither — British Hotel — The Town of Douglas. 1 CHAPTER II. Douglas during the Cholera — Church of Kirkbraddan — A Funeral — Another Funeral — A Visit to the South — Derby Haven — Castleton — Poolvash — Marble Quarries — A Mis- understanding — A vicious Pony — Salt Water Spring — Port le Murray — Sullen demeanour of Females — Spanish Head — Sea Birds — Further Misunderstanding — An Eclair- cissement . . .11 CHAPTER III. A Ride to Peel Town — Agriculture — St. John's — Tynwald Mount — The Ceremony of Tynwald — The Fair — Peel Town — Fishermen — The Quay — Peel Castle — Old Tom — An ingenious Experiment — The Cavern . . .31 CHAPTER IV. A Benefit Society — A Manx Peasant — Waterfall of Glen- maye — Church and Church-yard of Kirk Patrick — Slate CONTENTS. Page Tomb-stones — Waterfall of Foxdale — Foxdale Lead Mines — Slate Quarries at Barrule — Mills — Indigenous Mill-stone — Improved Aspect of the Country — Kirk Christ Rushen — Port Iron — A Night's Lodging in a Public-house — A rough Landing-place — GuUs protected — Brada Head — Lead Mines — Their extraordinary Position — Calf of Man — Beautiful Natural Quay — Rats and Rat-catchers — As- pect of the Island — Rabbits — Boswell's House . 45 CHAPTER V. A Ride to Ramsey — Laxey — Lead Mines — MaugholdHead =— Cliffs — Their extraordinary Character — The Village — The Well — Tradition — Town of Ramsey — Bay —Singular Jetty — A Manx Wedding Party — The Earl Grey Stage Coach — A talkative Lad)' — Benevolence ill rewarded . 66 CHAPTER VI. A Ride from Ramsey to the Point of Ayre — The Horse Paddy — The Garden of the Island — Fine Crops — Ex- treme Fertility of Soil — Luxuriant Furze — Bruising Mills — Kirkbride — The Point of Ayre — Jurby Point — The Village — The Church and Church-yard — A Man of Leisure— The Minister's Grave — The Bishop's Residence — The Curragh — Turf — Fossil Remains — Kirkmichael — Glenwillan — Beautiful Glen — Rivulet — Iron Spring — Ride across the Mountains to Douglas, by Kirkbraddan — An ill-placed Residence ......... 80 CHAPTER VH. SCOTLAND. Steam Communication from Liverpool to Glasgow — Packet Agent at Ramsey — Departure — Boarding a Steamer at Night — Sickness — Mull of Galloway — Ailsa Craig — The Clyde — The Broomielaw — Inland Navigation — The Maid CONTENTS. IX Page of Morven Steamer — The Vessel en Deshabille — Voyage to Greenock — The Kyles of Bute — Lochgoilhead — Creenin Canal — Korryvrekan — Island of Eisdale — Arrive at Oban. 92 CHAPTER VIII. Go on board the Highland Steamer — Dunolly Castle — Bay of Tobermory — A kind Landlady — Expedition in the High- lander — Departure — Calliach Head — Treshanish Islands — First View of StafFa — The Buchaille — Inconvenient Landing at lona — Pebbles — The Ruins — Their desecra- tion — ^A civil Scotsman — Embarkation — Landing at Staffa — Fingall's Cave — Ascent on the Island — Delightful Pro- spect — A Herd of Seals — Anecdote of a Tame Seal — Its resemblance to the Mermaid — Dr. Taylor's Museum of comparative Anatomy at Manchester — Anecdote of a Boa Constrictor at Derby — Re-embarkation — The Cotton Um- brella — A black Cook — Return to Tobermory . .109 CHAPTER IX. A Mull Pony — Path round the Bay — Domain of the Laird of Col — A native Eagle — Mode of preparing Salmon for long Voyages — Establishment of a Lincolnshire Poulterer —Return in the Highlander to Oban — Re-embark on board the Maid of Morven — Tedious Passage to Fitzwilliam — A Handicap in the Dark — Bad Night's Lodging — Fall of Foyers — Royalty in an Omnibus . . . . .140 CHAPTER X. ISLAND OF GUERNSEY. Landing at St. Peter's Port — Yacht Club Hotel — Inns in general— A Pair of Hostesses — A President of a Table X CONTENTS. Page d'Hote— The Fish Market— The Shambles— Woodcocks — Wines, Fruits, and Flowers — Gardens — Frugality of the Inhabitants — Female Servants 138 CHAPTER XI. Environs of St. Peter's Port — Farm-houses — Aspect of the Country — Varech — Regulations relating to the gathering thereof — Roads — Bridle path round the Island — The Cliffs —Flat Shores at the Northern extremity — Land reclaimed from the Sea — Naturalization of Sea Fish to fresh Water 170 CHAPTER XII. Laws relating to the Descent of Property — Registration of Estates — Formalities relating thereto — Curious Documents in the Greffier's Office — The Elizabeth College — Course of Instruction — An Infant School 177 CHAPTER XIII. IRELAND. An Interruption — An Irish Crowd — A cheap Evening's Entertainment — The poor Equestrians . . .187 CHAPTER XIV. Preparations for Departure — Mail Coach Guard — Starting of a Mail Coach — Energy of Coachman — A Mail Guards- man — Rumination — Wonderful EflPect of the Horn — Merit self-rewarded — An Exotic Refreshment — A Roadside Inn ■ — A rural Hebe — A thrifty Precaution — A Flirtation — Light Hearts and Thin Breeches — Ringing a Pig — Happy Slum- bers — The poor Equestrians - 195 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XV. Page A Coffee-room — A Dinner in Galway — A Bacchanalian Party — An accomplished Waiter — Personal Appearance- Moral Qualities — Evening Capability — Nightly Festivity- Morning Graces — Departure from Galway . . .207 CONTENTS OF MEMOIRS, ETC. CHAPTER I. Page Land at Lisbon — Appointed Clerk in the Commissariat — Arrive at Badajoz — Experimental Duty — First Start on Field Service — Depot at Coimbra — My Duties — Daily Fare and Dessert — Aspect of the Town — Female Water-carriers — A Night Funeral — Put in charge of an Artillery Brigade — Latin a Key to the Portuguese Language — Busacos — A Night March — Service of Artillery Brigade — Communi- cation among the Army 217 CHAPTER II. Arrive at Coimbra — Inhabitants flying before the Enemy — A Female rescued — Manner of Life during the Retreat of the British Army — Description of two different Nights' Lodging — The Duke in Adversity — Artillery Brigade quar- tered at Zibreira — Advance in Pursuit of Massena — The French hard pressed — More than 200 hamstrung Donkeys — Battle-field of Sabugal — Implacable Revenge of the Peasantry on their Enemies — General Henry Mackinnon — Spanish Oxen — Battle of Fuentes d'Onor , . .239 CHAPTER III. Receive promotion — Appointed to Sir Brent Spencer's Portion of the Army — Wine destroyed — Commence the March to the Alemtejo — Cattle swimming across the Tagus at Villa Velha — Forty-eight successive Hours on horse- back — Put in charge of a Depot at Alto da Chao— Ordered CONTENTS OF MEMOIRS, ETC. XIU Page thence to take charge of the Depot at Celorico — Manner of Life and Duties — Infested by Rats — Pithing Cattle — A Tame Wolf— Oxcart Transport — INlisery of the indigent Inhabitants — Descent of Marmont on the Frontier of Beira — Magazines destroyed 262 CHAPTER IV. Put in charge of the Third Division of the Army — Report myself to Sir Thomas Picton — Arduous Duties with the Third Division — Absurd Anecdote related of a Commissary by a Contemporary — Observations thereon — General Picton —Battle of Vittoria 281 CHAPTER V. A Night Adventure — Valley of Bastan — Roncesvalles — A Hail-storm — A Thunder-storm and Cannonade before Pampeluna — Third Division quartered at Ollaque — Pic- ton's Junction with Sir Lowry Cole — A Night March — Picton foils Soult — Picton on the Morning of a Battle — Battle of the Pyrenees — Picton returns to England — Com- parison of Picton with Wellington — Picton reproved by Wellington — The Third Division encamp on the Pyrenees — Manner of Life under Canvass — Battle of the Nivelle . 302 CHAPTER VI. Winter Quarters at Hasparren — An Alert — A Practical Joke — Foraging in the Neighbourhood of an Enemy — The Gave d'Oleron — A Rencontre — Spanish Muleteers — An Anecdote of their Energy — Battle of Orthez — Extra- ordinary Course — Battle of Vic Bigorre — Critical Position of the Third Division on the Garonne — Battle of Toulouse — Liberal Mind of Picton — Parting of the English and Portuguese — Third Division embark for England at Pouillac — Conclusion 327 VOL. II. b ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER. The present Continuation of the " Home Tour" em- braces a period antecedent to that of the volume of last year. Of this fact, unimportant with reference to the matter contained in the pages, it is sufficient simply to acquaint the reader. While preparing for the press, I determined, for more reasons than one, to change my original plan of introducing at the end, a brief ramble in England of the current year. I have accordingly appended the " Memoirs of an Assistant-Commissary General" instead. The latter production, referring to an early date, conceived off hand, and unpremeditatedly put forth to the public, being explicit, needs little preface. Yet if it were at all necessary to delineate those causes or influences, whether springing from duty or inclination, that allured or compelled me to the somewhat en-atic course described now and here- tofore in the present and two former volumes, I have thereby at any rate, now in part supplied that deficiency. GEORGE HEAD. Athen^um Club, Pall Mall, 29th June, 1837. A HOME TOUR CONTINUED, THROUGH VARIOUS PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. CHAPTER I. ISLE OF MAN. The Mona's Isle Steamer — Rough Music — A Ventriloquist — Douglas Head — Extreme Clearness of the Water — The Pier — Porters — Hotel Agents — Castle Mona — Mode of conveyance thither — British Hotel — The Town of Douglas. The sun shone bright, and music played gaily on board as the " Mona's Isle" steamer, one fine morning, bound to Douglas in the Isle of Man, weighed an- chor, set steam, and made the best of her way from Liverpool out of the harbour. Whether or not it be right to use the expression the music played, as we say the wind bio wed, it were at all events wrong to dignify the present three or four musicians by the name of a band, they being in fact sailors be- longing to the vessel, owners of a set of extremely discordant instruments, and the leader a hard featured pock-marked man, who squared his elbows, stood bolt upright in a military posture, pointed the cla- rionet downwards in a direct line with his toes, and signaHzed himself by playing a gi'cat deal louder VOL. II. B 2 A VENTRILOQUIST. [CH. than all the rest together. The paddles meanwhile of the " Mona's Isle" steamer continued to beat time differ- ent from that of the melody as we proceeded down the river, till we were at the mouth of the Mersey ; when, being in the open sea, the instruments were laid aside, the men betook themselves to their several oc- cupations, and the paddles now drummed on by themselves in their own measure. In the space of an hour we were comfortably gliding across the unruffled channel, each passenger rejoicing in newly acquired freedom from the smoky confines of the city, inhaling a pure atmosphere, and above all well pleased to behold now securely ar- ranged on the deck in decent order, all those identical packages and portmanteaus, that only a short time before he was following through nan'ow streets and by-ways with overheated solicitude, like a cow her devoted offspring in a butcher's cart, in the wake of the porter's baiTow. Of the crew, one swept anew the clean white deck, another rubbed salient knobs of brass with a piece of shamoy leather, and a third devoted the whole of his care to restoring stray articles to their proper places. One of the performers, to the science of music added that of ventriloquism, and afforded by his skill, really rational delight to a numerous group both of quarter deck and steerage passengers, who were attracted to the forecastle by a performance M'hich, though here presented to the public in humble guise, afforded nevertheless no mean specimen of a dramatic entertainment. Besides the mechanical process of his craft, the artist also exercised the functions of iraprovisatore, and with ready wit, good feeling, and tact, and a memory richly stored with the pleasantries I.] A VENTRILOQUIST. 3 of the ancient Punch, continued to keep the laughter of his hearers continually on the wing; so that it were pity to reflect, witnessing tlie present display of native talent, on the light of the needy dramatist thus hidden under a bushel, and extinguished by the vis inertice of poverty, that weighs merit down. What reference the word ventriloquist can possibly bear to a faculty whereby the whole mystery is per- formed by the muscles of the throat, I am at a loss to know, whereas by the etymology, one might fairly presume that that indolent organ the belly, whose province proverbially is to do nothing but eat, were now about to assume a new privilege, break silence, and talk. At all events, no matter how the sound be generated, the artist has positively no control over its transmission, and although indistinctness of utter- ance may create a sort of impression of distance, yet for the rest of the deception, the hie et uhique sensation of a voice proceeding down the chimney, or upwards through the window, such fantasies exist, even to their unlimited extent, solely in the imagi- nation of the hearer. A familiar or doll is an indis- pensable member of a ventriloquist's establishment, and for aught we know to the contrary, the Grecian sage with his demon, was merely a ventriloquist ; or at all events an autoloquist, or thinker aloud. On the present occasion, the office was performed by a small wooden effigy, in likeness of an old man with a wig, whose lips, when supposed to speak, moved extremely naturally, so as by alluring the eye to a definite point, effectually to imbue every spectator with a notion of reality. The entertainment in the way of dialogue was sustained between the ventriloquist and those of the b2 4 A VENTRILOQUIST. [CH. various persons present who felt inclined to enter the list, and propose to " Tommy," for such was the doll's name, an argument or a question ; to all which the latter retorted with infinite success upon his antagonists, and at the close of each sally, pro- claimed by a curiously comical laugh, a consciousness of success; and having moreover the infinite advan- tage of never changing countenance or colour, he floored his assailants as they came to the charge, one after another. Tommy, in motley company, and of such the present group consisted, evinced propriety of sentiment, discreet phrase, and extreme good humour, and, by no means a contemptible moralist, promptly held in awe the intruder, giving people at once to understand, that though it were his vocation to keep fun for ever alive, yet he knew how to stifle at its first gasp, the breath of ribaldry. Wherefore, every female on board, feeling herself securely posted within the Rubicon of delicacy, witnessed without the slightest apprehension of offence, these amusing- colloquies. A child three years old, a bold little boy, now stepped in among the rest to the foreground, and there alone commenced, without preface or fear, an earnest conversation with Tommy. By common consent all others drew back, and left a clear stage to the juvenile performer ; and in the course of this dialogue, well maintained on both sides, the scene created a powerful imjiression ; for the understanding of the child and its feelings to boot, were played upon in such a ludicrous degree, that it evidently entertained no manner of doubt that Tommy was a rational, living creature. To the new wooden ac- quaintance, in the artlessness of infancy, it dedicated I.] DOUGLAS HEAD. 5 the pure first fruits of early friendship, and with sympathies increasing more and more every moment^ proposed innumerable questions relating to his his-^ tory. The growing illusion at last became perfect, and after entreaties repeated in the course of the dialogue, the child finally possessed itself of the friend of his heart, and carrying away the diminutive idol, returned in a couple of minutes drowned in tears and sobs, because Tommy declined to answer any more questions. At three o'clock, the passengers partook of an ex- cellent dinner below ; after which, returning upon deck, we perfonned the remainder of the voyage in calm, delightful weather ; the shores of England fading meanwhile fast away, and the Isle of Man in the distance rising from the sea in a straight line from end to end, although the land in the middle is so low as to create the appearance of two separate islands distinct from each other. As we neared the port, the sun, on a clear autumnal evening, sank behind the island, and as we approached the pier, we fell within the shadow of the bluff rock, called Douglas Head, whose black craggy summit, gilded by his rays, was beautifully contrasted with the pecu- liarly light green of the verdure on the hills, and the more than ordinary transparency of the water below\ In no other part of the world, I really believe, is the sea more pellucid than on the coast of the Isle of Man, where the rivers, proportionate always in extent to the parent land, are mere brooks, and these even less charged than is usual with alluvial soil. I am quite sure it were easy at this spot, at a depth of forty feet, to count the sixty -four squares of a mode- rate sized chess-board. 6 THE PIER. [CH, A dense cluster of the inhabitants crowded on the pier head, as is the daily custom among the town's people, to greet the arrival of the "Mona's Isle"; and we wore inal\ing, as I expected, a prosperous land- ing, when the steam was suddenly let off, and the anchor dropped within an hundred and fifty yards of the point of disembarkation ; creating thus the necessity of stej^ping down from the vessel bag and baggage into a boat, and landing once more from thence on the broad stone steps of the pier. It is well that measures are already in progress to remedy the evil, but, taking the pier at Douglas in its ])resent state, there is no other I believe within the British dominions, where a large sum of money has been expended to so little purpose. Accessible, unless at the top of a tide, to no vessels larger than small fishing craft, the chief purpose to which the Douglas Pier has been hitherto applied, is that of a promenade, while the lighthouse erected at the ex- tremity, is intercepted towards several points of the compass on the south-east by Douglas Head; on the summit of which rock, another lighthouse, elevated a considerable height above the other, and visible, as a lighthouse ought to be, from all parts of the hori- zon, in order to remedy the former defect, has since been built. As the pier stretches into the sea to the eastward, the south side is washed by the Douglas river, a naiTow stream, mid-leg deep at its mouth at low tide ; and parallel on the north side is a reef of rocks, which, as they enclose a considerably greater depth of water, it seems strange were not accordingly chosen as the site and foundation. Nevertheless, with regard to the said pier and lighthouse, whatever in future time may be the 1.] PORTERS — HOTEL AGENTS. 7 improvement, when the coasf of the Isle of Man be- comes resorted to for the purposes of sea bathing, at all events, even at present a gallant steamer carries the mail from England and returns every day. Not many more than fifty years ago, a lanthom elevated on a long pole on the beach, was the only winter beacon for the poor fishermen, and a severe tempest, one dreary night, that struck with terror their little squadron, extinguished the light, and drove many boats in confusion upon the rocks, whereby the shore was strewed with those who miserably perished, and many wives next morning were there seen bewailing their husband's corpses, caused a degi*ee of universal sympathy, that, with the aid of Parliament, set on foot the yjlan of the structure, and effected its com- pletion. A traveller ascending tlic steps of Douglas Pier, might reasonably fancy he was about to enter the extensive precincts of a metropolis of note, such are the number of eager faces that direct their looks towards him, and such the immber of obtrusive agents from the inns, of which there are six or eight at least in the town, who after the manner of " touters" belonging to stage-coaches, stand like a swarm of horse-flies in his way, each holding the respective card of the establishment obstinately under his nose. I know of no municipal regulations of more charitable purpose than such as, on occasions like these, serve to protect the sea-sick and the stranger; and such have performed wonders of late years at the port of Douglas. The above cited remnant of barbarous custom, bears slight comparison with the truly out- rageous conduct permitted among the porters, at a 8 CASTLEMONA. [CH. period only four or five years ago. These fellows, now subjected to proper control, and a decent, orderly class of men, then provincially called hobblers, were of manners mitigated by no sort of discipline what- ever. It was then impracticable without an effort of strength, and coming to personal issue with the of- fender, to prevent luggage and parcels being forcibly carried away, one knew not by whom or whither; and I have formerly seen, in the case of a person unable to take his own jjart, an extended line of neutral faces quietly looking on over the rails at the passing scene ; namely, the owner hustled above, and half a dozen boisterous hobblers fighting for his luggage below. Notwithstanding the laudable anxiety of the agents of the several inns in the cause of the landlords, so as with equal diligence, whether the hostelry be good or bad, at all events to conduct the traveller to it; the proprietors of the Castlemona Hotel have the additional advantage of a carnage which waits upon the arrival of the steamer to enforce persuasion. This hotel was originally built for the residence of the late Duke of Athol, though some time since converted to the purposes of an inn. Its situation, a mile from the town, fronts the sea, in the centre of a fine bay, that affords an agi'eeable ride or drive across sands all the way from the town. A table d'hote is here provided regularly during the summer, and well attended, chiefly by residents of Whitehaven, Liverpool, and Manchester. It is curious to observe, on the arrival of the steamer, with what disjoatch a full complement of passengers are acquired, and so soon as selected, how triumph- antly they are driven away. As the luggage is dis- I.] BRITISH HOTEL. 9 patched by another conveyance, a few minutes are amply sufficient for the above operation ; and as the carriage is an open one, the candidates have in fact nothing else to do but to make up their minds to go, previous to departure. The vehicle is a sort of high narrow waggon, shaped like a hearse, and so confined in dimensions, that the convenience of those who travel therein is evidently purchased at the expense of ease and grace of attitude; the passengers in fact, although probably utter strangers to each other, sit- ting vis-d-vis, like onions in a string, and in a row so closely packed, that they seem pinioned, or hand- cuffed. In the meantime so little space is afforded between the two rows, that one man without leaning foi'ward may readily light a cigar from the mouth of his opposite neighbour. Altogether, as I saw a dozen people crammed together in a heap, and thus whisked away from the pier-head on a party of pleasure, I could not help comparing them, owing to their ludicrous appearance, for the moment, to a set of convicts, on their way from a county gaol to the hulks, or Newgate. For my own part, during my short stay at Douglas, I found excellent entertainment at the British Hotel within the town, kept by the worthy Mrs. Dixon. At this house I was furnished with good apartments, and, with regard to fare, such was the liberality and good will of my hostess, as well as the re- dundancy of provisions at her command, in con- sequence of a four o'clock ordinary included in the menage, that my table was crowded with viands actually in despite of my own remonstrances, in a degree of profusion quite incompatible with the reasonable charges in the bill. Well housed and b3 10 TOWN OF DOUGLAS. [CH. 1. provided, with good saddle-horses to be hired, and macadamized roads to ride upon all over the island, a person not over fastidious, and desirous of a central point from whence to make rural excursions, will not in this hotel have just cause to complain either of comfortable sojourn, or the means of pere- grination. There is little inducement, I think, as a permanent residence to remain in the town, for the site is low ; nevertheless, although the adjacent country abounds in beautiful, picturesque spots of rural habitation, by far the greater proportion of persons, who, attracted to the island by the prospect [of cheap wines and provisions, have taken up their abode therein, reside at Douglas. One very long, narrow street, forms the principal part of the old town, and contains curious specimens of the primitive, imadomed dwellings of English fishermen. The houses, mostly unequal, some large, some small, are built of rough blocks of stone ; the street is passable with difficulty from its con- vexity, and the inconvenient manner wherewith it is pitched with irregular and acute boulders. On the elevated land, immediately contiguous and above the buildings, many new houses and villas have been recently erected, besides a handsome and spacious church below, whereof, by the way, the clerk has the sweetest tenor voice I ever heard. He was assisted by a group of young men and women inider his direction, and the performance, which, without any musical accompaniment whatever, consisted of psalms adapted to ancient rural church tunes, assorted with taste and simplicity, displayed to my mind an exqui- site specimen of pure English psalmody. CHAPTER II. ISLE OF MAN. Douglas during the Cholera — Church of Kirkbraddan — A Fu- neral—Another Funeral— A Visit to the South— Derby Haven— Castleton—Poolvash— Marble Quarries — A Misun- derstanding — A vicious Pony — Salt Water Spring — Port le Murray — Sullen demeanour of Females — Spanish Head — Sea Birds — Further Misunderstanding — An Eclaircissement. I VISITED the Isle of Man in the summer of that year, when the cholera made its first appear- ance in England ; which disease had hitherto con- stantly hovered on my route, spreading its ra- vages in every town through which I happened to pass ; but Douglas, on my arrival, was reported by all its inhabitants, free. There was, no doubt, an anxious and interested desire on the part of the townspeople to suppress, even the most remote hint of apprehension on the subject ; for not only were paragraphs bandied about on sanatory regulations in the Manx newspapers, but the doctors fell to logger- heads in print with each other on the same theme. After all, I placed little faith and credence on these learned discussions, neither troubling myself on the theories of infection nor contagion, nor imagining that I received, whatever people might say, on the score of security, any additional assurance. Epidemic diseases, in my humble opinion, as the wind, that travels ou sightless ]nnions, move whither they list, and like other metaphysical essences, are not to be made sub- 12 DOUGLAS DURING THE CHOLERA. [CH, ject to physical laws. The terms mfection and con- tagion, so long as matter be infinitely divisible, evidently mean nothing at all ; for who can predicate of the mote that floats in the sunbeam, were it reduced to a millionth degree below mortal ken, that even so diminutive a portion of matter might not communicate by actual contact, by its very tangibility, a contagious disease; or that all those diseases known by the name of infectious, be not actually communicated by physical contagion or contact in the same manner. Of those epidemics, that during their visitations fiom time to time, sweep the land of the young together with the old, it were better at once to confess that we know no more after all of the abstruse principles of nature, that guide their origin, determine their properties, and provide for their creation or generation, than as to all such matters, we are able to determine with regard to our own existence. It is certainly to be lamented, that the predominance of men's worldly interests, always defeats the pursuit of truth in matters of investigation, and in the present instance, when reports of the cholera at last began to arise, it was judged expedient rather to smother them at their birth, than repel, from an impression of fear, the usual concourse of summer visitants, and thence lose a source of annual profit to the in- habitants of the island. Not a single case of the disease had yet been pub- licly promulgated, when I strolled one morning from Douglas towards the small ancient village of Kirk- braddan ; the church and church-yard of which are situated on a secluded spot, two miles distant, ad- joining the high road leading from Douglas to Peel II.] CHURCH OF KIRKBRADDAN — A FUNERAL. 13 Town. I thought I had never seen altogether a sweeter portrait of a village jilace of worship, or an humble edifice more truly adapted to a rural con- gregation, when I was unexpectedly inteiTupted by the sound of voices, joined in melody, and proceed- ing from a funeral party, who, as they walked along, were chaunting a hymn. These persons were ad- vancing from the road along an avenue of stately trees leading to the church, which avenue, as trees in this part of the island are rare, is the more remark- able ; and only so soon as they had entered the avenue, they began to sing. As they approached the grave, which I now saw had been already prepared, I had a better opportunity of observing the proces- sion. The persons who chaunted, plain-dressed vil- lagers, walked in front ; then came tw^o men, bearing the corpse of an infant in a cofRn, suspended within a couple of feet of the ground on a sling, the ends of which were twisted round each of their hands. After the corpse, walked the parents, and then several of the sympathizing neighbours ; these, and in fact almost all the attendants being provided each with a sinall cluster of flowers, as it were a melancholy em- blem of death and infancy, of sweetness and decay. With such simple preparations, and although the coffin, on the lid of which a few of the flowers were strewed, was wholly uncovered, no memorial of real respect, or tribute of warm affection, was absent from the ceremonial : and if other striking images were wanting, by pathetic contrast with each other, to em- bellish the scene, that of the father of the baby, a sunburnt athletic peasant, in his own person, and relating to his child, afforded an example. On the one hand, a hardy British labourer, erect in 14 A FUNERAL. [CH. the full vigour of manhood ; on the other, an infant deposited in its grave ; a countenance rigid and inflexible, and a heart panting in the throes of sympathy. As with unmoved expression, after the service was over, the mourning parent placidly leaned forward, to take of the early summoned a last adieu, not a muscle of his face moved, nor a lip stirred or quivered ; but the tears that arose in his eyes, burst- ing through a channel petrified by grief, became every succeeding instant more and more swollen, till the stern law of gravity bid each tributary globule, first for a moment tremble in its sphere, and then drop upon the ground. The child was no sooner buried, than another funeral party appeared, smaller in number, and un- attended, as in the preceding instance, by singers, moving slowly and silently the whole length of the avenue, the bearers, carrying on their shoulders in the usual manner, the coffin of a full grown person, and about a dozen respectable, well- dressed people, walking two and two, closing the procession. At present, besides myself, there were hardly any other persons, as is usually the case on such occasions, present as spectators; there- fore not wishing to appear singular, as the party moved towards the grave in another comer of the church-yard, I fell in the rear, and walked thither with the rest. The service was decently performed, and without hurry or the slightest deviation from established usage, but as I stepped towards the grave and looked upon the coffin, I perceived it was a plain shell, bearing only the sirname and age of the deceased upon the lid, without farther distinction or reference whatever; that is to say, Mrs.- , 11.] ANOTHER FUNERAL. 15 aged . Thinking the circumstance strange, I was directing my enquiries to the subject, when 1 was accosted by a good looking man, dressed in a full suit of black, who politely undertook to satisfy my curiosity. My informant was not only chief mounier, but landlord of the deceased, who, he said, had arrived in Douglas from England only a week be- fore, and had taken lodgings in his house as a stranger, upon the plea of expecting, as she said, ere many days passed, to be joined by her husband. He knew no more of her history, otherwise than she was taken ill and died ; and in answer to additional questions, it further appeared, of a disease so sud- den, that hardly thirty-six hours had elapsed to the present moment, since she was first smitten. Farther than this he was silent, neither could 1 persuade him to answer more interrogatories, wherefore, I came at once to a conclusion, that has been since verified by a visit in a subsequent year to the same spot, where the traveller may now see a number of diminutive grave-stones, planted in a dense cluster, so as by themselves entirely to occupy this angle of the church-yard. Every grave-stone bears its inscription, each inscription consists only of one word, and that one word is no other than " Cholera." Notwith- standing that my informant, when questioned as to the complaint of the deceased, most cautiously de- clined to relate a fact, that it became his interest as an inhabitant of Douglas, from general motives, to repress, he was not the less ready to tender his aid to a stranger, and in the total absence of friends and relatives, accompany, as chief mourner, the forlorn deceased to the tomb. Even subsequent to this event, it was yet a few 16 DEEBY HAVEN. [CH. days before the disease was publicly acknowledged in Douglas ; afterwards the intelligence spread rapidly through every corner of the island ; the effects of which communication I had an oppor- tunity of witnessing in an excursion in the interior. An unusually forcible sensation was indeed created among the simple-minded inhabitants ; whereof I will now give a farther account, as I describe a visit made at that time to the extreme south of the island. I left Douglas by a two-horse stage-coach, which travels three times a week from thence to Castleton, by a road which, although leading direct eleven miles from seaport to seaport, runs so much in land, that at rare intervals a view is obtained of the sea. The original road, the former having been made only a few years, is still more coastward, and here also the line of cliffs is so irregular, as to create in the minds of those, who love to ramble along the sea shore, a similar disappointment. In fact, a person desirous of an expedition under such advantages, and really anxious to see the coast of the Isle of Man, ought neither to travel on wheels nor on horseback, but go on foot, for by no other possible means, can he fol- low the bendings of the coast. The face of the country along this track, skirting the chain of hills which diagonally intersects the island, is sufficiently elevated to bear a mountainous character, but as its features are similar, in the line between Douglas and Peel town, of which part I shall take a little more notice by and by, I shall say no more as regards the svuTounding scenery at present. Within a mile of Castleton, we passed through the small village of Derby Haven, having now reached the sea shore at II.] CASTLETON. 17 Castleton Bay. Here, several new buildings have lately been erected, among the rest, the finest modern structure to be seen upon the island, a public col- lege for the education of the sons of the clergy j and as tlie harbour of Derby Haven has superior natural advantages to that of Castleton, it is probable, as speculation rapidly continues to increase, that, in a few years at farthest, both places will be joined in one. Notwithstanding the wide extent and bold sweep of the bay, the harbour of Castleton is shallow and rocky, accessible only to small craft, which in the mouth of the river, at the entrance of the town, may be seen at low water within a sort of rude dock, lazily reclining on their beam ends on the mud. It is not difficult to describe the features of the said river. Immediately above the dock, a stone bridge on two small arches spans its breadth. Above the bridge, the stream in summer is so shallow and scanty, that although a wide spread of boulders and shingle bear testimony to precarious freshes from the mountains, yet generally for the time being, a score of thirsty cattle could drink it dry ; at all events, I have seen women dip tea cups therein, and several together thus, as by a regular process, filling their pails. Half a mile only above the town, the channel hardly exceeds a dozen feet in width, and then it dwindles to a rivulet. Notwithstanding the residence of the Governor of the Isle of Man is in Castleton, and the head quarters of the troops, consisting of a company detached from the particular regiment doing duty for the time being in the city of Carlisle, are there stationed ; the town, compared with the more busy appearance of 18 POOLVASH. [CH. Douglas, seems deserted and dreary ; nevertheless the streets are considerably wider and cleaner, and the inhabitants, for the most part, instead of casual visitors, are permanent residents, including many persons who have mamed and finally settled on the island. The superb ancient pile of building called Castle Rushen, is well worthy of a visit, and at the present time in such good repair, that some of the apartments are appropriated to the purposes of a gaol, in others are held the regular courts of law, and a few are occupied by the municipal authorities, for the deposit of records and other public documents. Besides the aforesaid gaol, there is no other on the island. My object not being for the present to remain at Castleton, I immediately hired a horse, and pursued ray journey by a road which, proceeding for about the distance of a mile westward, is intercepted by another at right angles. By the latter road I then bent my course southward straight to the sea shore, till I arrived at the village, or rather at a row^ of small fish- ermen's cottages, called the village of Poolvash, This village was for the present my point of direction, for I was desirous of seeing certain quames of native black marble, situated on the sea shore close ad- jacent. Arrived at the spot, having looked around without perceiving the quames, I rode to the afore- said cottages to make enquiry of a woman, whom, with a child in her arms, T saw standing at her door. The woman, stretching out her arm in the direction of a black reef of rocks, which the tide, at present on the ebb, had left bare, said that there were the quarries, at the same time she eyed me \^^th a sus- picious scrutinizing glance, that I thought singular. II.] MARBLE QUARRIES. 19 As I had obtained the hiforraation I required, and as the woman's dialect, in a sort of Welsh accent, was not very distinct, I forebore for the present to enter into further conversation, and immediately rode away. Then proceeding a few hundred yards along the beach, I dismounted, fastened my animal's bridle to a large stone, and walked seaward to the quames. These consist of numerous small excavations, situated below high water-mark, filled with water at flood tide, and baled out previous to working every day, until the pit, becoming so large as to render the 0]3eration too laborious, is necessarily abandoned by the workmen, who then sink another. Reefs of remarkably black rock are abundant at this part of the coast ; they extend considerably high upon the beach, although the pure marble, as already stated, all lies low ; indeed a stranger might readily pass the spot, and unless the quarries were brought to his notice, fail to perceive them. They have been worked nevertheless many years, and actually fur- nished a part of the material for the building of St. Paul's Cathedral. Nothing more was now to be ob- served on the spot than a temporary mason's hut, surroimded by a few slabs for chimney-pieces and grave-stones, in progress of manufacture ; the marble of which, of a rich black and shining quality, was already fashioned and polished. A few ordinary mason's tools lay scattered about the hut, but within and without there were no other preparations for labour, not even a common crane. Intending to pursue the line of the sea shore on my return from the quarries, I had no sooner again approached the aforesaid fishermen's cottages, than as I was passing by, I was in a manner waylaid by 20 A MISUNDERSTANDING. [CH. half-a-dozen or more women, who having walked in the intermediate time out of their houses, had now assembled together, and were holding earnest col- loquy with her with the baby. All appeared to be consulting together, but the first mentioned, acting as spokeswoman, broke silence, by asking me without ceremony and abruptly, whether or not I were a doctor ? I immediately answered that I had not the honor to belong to such a learned profession, and was then proceeding to ride away, when having reiterated the question in an angry tone, she added, " you'll not tell me that you're no doctor, when I know very well that you are — I know you well enough and the horse you ride — I know where you came from — but go your ways ! go your ways !" Being in total ignorance as to what extraordinary crotchet the woman had taken in her head, and feel- ing an inclination to come to a right understanding, I asked whether by accident any sick person hap- pened to be in the house, intending thus merely to commence a rational conference ; but the question, simple as it was, served not the purpose of recon- ciliation. " A doctor you are," exclaimed three or four together, "your horse belongs to a doctor; we know the horse as well as the doctor, who lives in Castleton." I now actually departed, thinking that, since through the identity of my horse 1 had got into the scrape, such as it was, it were well at all events for his former master to be rid of such a stumbling brute. The animal, in fact, really was I believe the very worst of steeds then on hire in the town of Castleton, and through ill luck, there being no other in the stable, 1 now haj)pened to sit upon his back. He was a very old, narrow-backed pony, combining II.] A VICIOUS roNY. 21 in a rare degree in his person, the infirmities of age, with the folly and frowardness of yonth. His hoofs, lifted from the ground by an unbending knee, per- petually came in contact with the loose stones in his way ; which he would kick before him to the right and left, almost with sufficient velocity to kill a sparrow. Frequent and serious trips were con- sequent on these collisions, some indeed so bad, that by main strength alone I was enabled to keep him on his legs, and after each blunder, the less easily recoverable by reason of spavined hocks, he no sooner resumed his equilibrium, than, as if in the joy of deliverance, he flung his nose in the air, and blindly bolted in all sorts of inconvenient directions. At the best of times he was hard-mouthed and restive, and particularly whenever I stopped to admire a beau- tiful object, just as certainly he bobbed clean round like a whirligig, and set his tail to it. Such being the Pegasus I now unfortunately bestrode, whatever might have been the history of his former master, the doc- tor, I endeavoured to think of both as little as possi- ble as I proceeded on my way, but as I rode onwards along the sea shore, which here spreads for two miles southward, in the form of an extensive bay, I could not help reflecting on the unaccountable conduct of the aforesaid women. Wherefoi'e such indisput- able tokens of ill will were now shewn towards me by a peasantry, whom till that moment, from pre- vious experience and report I had imagined to be the most quiet, peaceable people on earth, I was at a loss to conceive ; and the more I reflected, the more I thought that past appearances might very possibly be fallacious, and exhibit no proof of real hostility whatever. Nay, it seemed I 22 SALT WATER SPRING, [CH. thought feasible, that really believing me to be a doctor, the women were justly angry, because I denied my profession, and that too at a time, while a sufferer, for aught I knew, was actually in want of assistance. Some groaning dame perhaps was at that very moment invoking the aid of Lucina, whereby if so inclined, I, at all events, might have made a coup d'essai in the obstetric art, and gained by self-taught skill, a gratuitous diploma. Two miles southward of Poolvash, is the little fishing town of Port-le-Murray, and about half way, close to the sea shore, is a stream which, rising a little below high water mark from a fissure of the earth, is called by the natives a salt water spring, and celebrated as a curiosity accordingly. Con- sidering the nature of the gi-ound from which it flows, 1 saw little to interest the mind in the phe- nomenon ; for the island here assumes the form of a nan-ow tongue of land ; and this stream very probably is supplied b3'a subterraneous channel from the oppo- site shore. While uncovered by the sea, it flows strong enough to turn a small mill. After all, it were per- haps a misnomer to call it a spring, if it be not that any stream continually flowing, whether salt or fresh, is entitled to the appellation ; and at all events, fol- lows the same law which regulates the equable sup- ply of fresh ones, whereby under-ground reservoirs receive by constant drainage large volumes of water, sustained and rej^lenished in a degree far exceeding- its exit by narrower apertures. " Rusticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at ille Labitur et labctur in omne volubilis ajvum." A lively basin, a miniature fleet of boats, a sturdy II.] rORT LE MURRAY. 23 well built quay, and a tidy cluster of houses, for the most part new, compose the neat busy little fishing town of Port-le-Mun'ay, where on my arrival every man seemed bustling and active, and whether baling water out of his boat, laying rope in neat coils upon the shore, moving from place to place under a heavy load of net upon his shoulder, or engaged in any other portion of diligent labour, at all events, ever}- single individual was booted like a rhinoceros. Hence, 1 turned my pony's head inland, and then proceeding in a slanting direction, made the best of my way towards Spanish Head, one of the most rugged and lofty of those Avild cliffs that bound the southern extremity of the island, the inland portion of this narrow promontory, here about a couple of miles wide, consisting of hills, rocks, valleys, ravines, and gulleys. I now made little progi'ess, owing to the badness of the road, and moreover, the farther I went, the worse the track became, so that I was soon obliged to dismount and lead my animal by the bridle ; sometimes passing over shelving slabs of rock, and frequently obliged to remove with difficulty huge loose stones, that casually inter- cepted the way. Meanwhile, the land on each side is divided in exceedingl}' small portions, fenced by stone walls, and the gigantic features on the coast bear inverse proportion to the limited extent of territory. Within a mile of Spanish Head, stands a small hamlet, in a spot so retired, and composed of edifices so rude, that it is really hard to predicate of the houses at a little distance, whether they are masses of rock or human dwellings ; however, as I approached, I perceived, in evidence of the latter conclusion, five 24 SPANISH HEAD. [CH. or six women standing together on the spot. Not one man was present among the group, who by their behaviour might have given me fair reason to suppose that such a being was a rare visitant within their demesnes. I would very willingly have left my pony in this village, whereby I could have pi*oceeded a great deal more at my ease alone, but the sullen- ness of the women, who by the way, in dress and appearance, reminded me of the peasantry of Tralee, in Ireland, made me disinclined to enter into any parley or negotiation. During my short trip from Castleton, I had little encouragement to enter into human conversation, and the fishermen's wives at Poolvash had read me a lesson by no means yet for- gotten. Wherefore, regarding these Manx females, as wild, unsociable creatures, saying not a single word to any of them, and holding the pony's bridle on my arm, I doggedly walked on. However, a quarter of a mile farther, obstructions became so frequent, that to part with the steed became absolutely indispens- able, wherefore, I made his bridle fast as well as I could to a stone wall, and there left him. I had now arrived at Spanish Head, than which bluff angle of the coast there is no part perhaps with- in the extent of the three kingdoms more grand in feature and truly magnificent ; the elevated plain, the precipices, on either side, and the roaring sea below, would rather seem in accordance with the limits of some vast continent, than merely a salient edge of the island of Mona, a diminutive speck hardly observable on the face of an ordinary map. Already a countless host of sea birds had notice of my ap- proach, and accordingly the whole web-footed colony was in a state of alarm. The gulls wheeled round II.] SPANISH HEAD. 25 and round impatiently high in the air, and packs of the red-billed chough, with the continued harsh scream of the former mingled their wild cry, holding themselves as it were in a detached phalanx, and, like a party of marines, ready to do duty by the side of sailors. Theirs is a screaming, salt-water note ; and as they feed occasionally upon fish, and as to their habits and inland retreats evince a similar taste with the gulls, it would seem as if nature designed these birds, though not absolutely aquatic themselves, to associate with aquatic companions. Spanish Head, separated only from the small dis- severed fragment called the Calf of Man, by a narrow and rapid channel, here stretches its precipitous crags into the sea. After walking a couple of hundi-ed yards farther, I stood on its brink. From the number of sea birds already on the wing, one might reasonably have concluded that all were already abroad, and had left their homes ; but as I approached the verge of the cliff, my advent was the signal of a general panic, testified first by the appearance of several shooting upwards from under- neath, in parties of three or four at a time, till all at once an entire legion were dislodged, and darted aloft, projected into the air by terror, like a shower of stones from a volcano. In a moment the whole space of air on all sides, around and about, was one continued swarm of life and feathers. Meanwhile the old gulls, turning rapidly on the wing, and urged by parental solicitude, testified by their looks and actions the intense bond of union with their young, and their fearless determination to repel, even at the risk of their own lives, or at least awe their invader. Sometimes they would hover and flap their wings VOL. II. c 26 SPANISH HEAD. [CH. only a few yards above my head ; and again, twisting downwards their bills, and shaking their feathers as it were in very spite, would swoop sud- denly below, as if for the purpose of knocking off my hat. On the projections of the rock, perched among holes and crannies, sat the unfledged nestlings, the sole object of the old one's care — the centre and mainspring of clamour and gyration ; and there re- mained prudently waiting, as if wholly unconscious of danger, that critical moment of gull education, when the callow potbellied squab, after total trans- formalion of being, may first securely dare to beat the air with his wings, and proudly soar aloft like the rest of liis forefathers ; — an awful adventure, as in human life, and liable to sad reverse if tried too soon ; but the old gull well knows the exact moment to bid his son begone, and with a tickle under the tail, or a poke from the parent bill, for his patrimony, the proper instant, the period best befitting to introduce him to the troublesome world. If the young booby, like Icarus or Phaeton of old, undervaluing the ex- perience of age, ventures to depart unbidden, just as certainly he cuts the thread of his own destiny, and prematurely finishes his vain-glorious career. Down he drops with a hard fall and a squelsh, era- bowelled, on the hard ground, doomed miserably to perish amid the buzzing of blue bottle flies, and deprived of the solace of funeral obsequies other than a garland of his own guts twisted about his ears. Here I would readily have remained unsated by the sounds of undisturbed nature, or content- edly gazing upon massive abutments of earth and stone, fragments as it were of a crumbling world, were it not that the day was now fast waning, and II.] SPANISH HEAD. 27 my homeward progress, moreover, mainly depended upon the vile dumb pony now long since tied to the wall. But it were vain to disregard realities to the preference of unsubstantial reflections ; therefore, un- willingly bidding adieu to the ocean landscape, I retraced my steps by the way I had come, till I per- ceived the said pony standing still in indolent attitude, and precisely in the same spot where I had bidden him farewell. Nevertheless he had displaced several loose stones from the wall with his nose, and had otherwise done all the mischief he was conveniently able to per- form ; w^herefore probably self-gratulation, and his own reflections, made him tranquil. A man and woman stood not far off", as correctly as I could judge, not very well pleased with his transactions, therefore as I considei-ed that the wall belonged to these jieople, I was the more careful as 1 repaired the dilapidations, not merely to set each stone on its angular edge, so that a pair of cock sparrows in a pitched battle might destroy its equilibrium, but to do the job well, and place each block carefully on a solid point of resistance. And having thus per- formed the service, as in duty bound, I thought I had thenceforward a right to walk peaceably away. The woman and her fiiend were, as it appeared, of a different opinion ; for the former, without preface or apology, now stepped up with violent air and attitude, and began at once angrily to abuse me, in language suf- ficiently distinct and intelligible, though delivered in broken English, and in a tone not unlike that used by the Welsh peasantry. At all events I had the satisfac- tion of an explanation on matters that hitherto baffled my comprehension ; and while she continued her harangue, the man, who spoke nothing but Manx, c 2 28 AN ECLAIRCISSEMENT. [CH. remained all the time passively leaning his chin on the palms of both hands, supported by his elbows, upon the stone wall. In explicit terms, " She knew me very well," she said, " by my horse, to be one of those devils of Scotch doctors who went about the country spying into people's houses, poisoning all the wells, and, under the pretence of curing the cholera, pouring burning vitriol down poor people's throats, at the rate of five pounds a-head to be paid for the corpses. It was time," she farther added, working her- self, of her own accord, to an extraordinary pitch of fury, " that an end should be put to all of us ; and I might be sure," she said, "to meet my deserts as I passed through the village, for there the people were all ready and waiting to see me." Finding that the simple nature of a superstitious class of people was excited by the precautionary measures adojited by the faculty, with regard to the prevention of the cholera, interfering as they ima- gined with the rites of sepulture, and that, whether justly or otherwise, this female was for the present so inflamed by rage, that, instead of a woman, had she been a steam engine she must inevitably, were it not for the aid of the safety valve, have burst the boiler, I thought it prudent to be silent while the hurricane continued to blow. After allowing her the free use of her tongue till she had expended all she had to say, I then replied as mildly as possible, " that she was from beginning to end quite mistaken, — that I was really no doctor, neither was I a wizard, — tliat I was a plain thinking individual, at all times inclined rather to be unmannerly than troublesome ; but that since I had neither disturbed her's nor any other body's fire-side, so neither should any body deprive II.] AN ECLAIRCISSEMENT. 29 me of my right to wander where I pleased in the fresh air and sunshine :" and having said these, or words to the same effect, without producing much visible impression, I mounted my nan'ow-backed pony and rode away. Had I been alone, and unencumbered with the villainous steed, I would rather have made a circuit at any risk, so that I could have gone home any other way than through the village. As it was, the measure was inevitable. There was no resource. Meanwhile I regarded the animal in the light of my bane, and the evil genius that had shed a sinister influence on all my proceed- ings ever since I had been in his company. Owing to his identity, I had fallen into disrepute with the ladies of Poolvash, and now in the character of " le medicin malgre 1111" I was about, from the same cause, to undergo perhaps still farther discomfiture. Most willingly I would have walked home on foot, and have left the brute behind ; for, so far from ren- dering me assistance in case the enemy should attack in force, his presence would inevitably prove a main incumbrance. Nevertheless, hemmed in by the sea, and confined to the beaten track, with only a small switch in my hand, I rode towards the village. Sure enough, as I approached the houses, a party had actually assembled to meet me, ten or a dozen or more ; but, to my satisfaction, I observed that every one of these were women. Not a single male per- sonage, except myself, was at this moment to be seen in the village ; wherefore, although I was certainly only one against a host, and, as poets sing, the seat of mercy dwells afar from woman's heart, I forbore at all events to apprehend the meed of violence at women's hands : at least, whatever on the present 30 AN ECLAIRCISSEMENT. [CH. occasion might have been my want of confidence, I took good care to betray to the parties no such sort of feeling. On the contrary, whipping along the garron pony to a speed equal to full live miles an hour, and riding straight forward to the best looking of the group, I paid her an explicit but well-merited compliment on the score of her beauty ; and while she was relating the exact words of my address to her busily enquiring sisterhood, I lost no time to leave the subject in discussion, and ride away. It were well always in affairs of gallantry, if people would profit by a proper opportunity of taking them- selves off, and make up their minds to rest content with what they have gained: in accordance with this sentiment and satisfied to live in the good graces of these females for a solitary instant, away I rode, with- out receiving farther molestation. Not looking behind me, as I left them in the distance, I wished, as the fast-flitting shadows of the day's incidents passed across my mind, I might never, on any future occa- sion, feel more cause for self-reproach ; and 1 recalled to my mind the stanzas of the poet, who, without other mortal weapon than the agis of harmless intent, scared a grizzly wolf within his native woods, by a strain to his Lalage. On my return to Castleton I found I had cause for congratulation, thus to have fallen in with the ladies, instead of meeting with men. I there learnt that the very day before, a party of visitors to the spot, who arrived in a boat, were actually attacked by the inhabitants with sticks and stones, and severely maltreated. AND cP \ CHAPTER III. ISLE OF MAN. A Ride to Peel Town — Agriculture — St. John's — Tynwald Mount — The Ceremony of Tynwald — The Fair — Peel Town — Fishermen — The Quay — Peel Castle — Old Tom — An ingenious Expedient — The Cavern. The perambulation of the Isle of Man is better per- formed, walking excepted, on the back of a horse, than in any other way. The mode usually adopted by strangers, is, joining in a party of three or four, to drive together in an open vehicle, by a route which is said to he, par excellence, round the island, but wdiich route, from causes already adverted to, is very far indeed within its extreme periphery. At the present time, speaking literally and accurately, as to a road round the Isle of Man, there is no such thing. Two-horse stage coaches, starting three or four times a week, per- fonn regular journeys between all the principal towns, and carriages as aforesaid are let out on hire ; but the times are not yet ripe for the luxury of a Manx postchaise. Having selected, from among a dozen or more tolerably good hacks, aiTanged together in a row in the stalls of the principal livery stable, the animal that pleased me best, I got upon his back at Douglas, and made my way quietly and at my leisure along the road to Peel Town, situated on the opposite coast, eleven miles distant directly in a straight line across the island. The road, which is all the way Mac- adamised, rises immediately from the town, and 32 AGRICULTURE. [CH. pursues its course over uneven hilly ground, al- though the altitude of the acclivities might easily be reduced were the pains and expense usually adopted in England here employed to that end ; in fact, the whole of this tract, after all, in reality lies low, so as from a ship at sea, as before observed, to be hardly perceptible. On both sides of the road, is a range of low, round, grassy mountains, the land about their bases being divided by stone walls in fields, which are partially cultivated nearly to the top. Small as are the mountains, as regards the prospect, the country deserves the name of a moun- tainous district, since it makes little difference in ordi- nary cases, whether hills be high or low — whether the spectator comprehends the whole outline of a smaller range, or stands among the towering Apennines and views only a part. The grass, the farmers say, on these hills is sour, and so in fact it is, for want of sufficient stock ; nevertheless the range is ample, and the breed of sheep small and hardy, although hitherto unassisted by winter keep, or encouraged to breed on the pastures in sufficient abundance. Within the base of these mountains, on both sides of the road, is a considerable extent of cultivated land, whereof the soil is probably the poorest in all the island. The style of agriculture is consequently slovenly, so much so, that in many places the farmers merely scratch with the plough the middle of the field, and leave for a headland a space all round as wide as an ordinary turnpike road. Want of capital generally prevails ; and the landholders, almost one and all, are induced to become the more careless, inasmuch as a great part of their time and care is devoted to the hening fishery. The hay is. III.] TYNAVALD MOUNT. 33 made as in the north of England, or in Ireland, and allowed, after being cut, to remain on the ground long enough to spoil by the evaporation of the juices ; a miserable practice, whereby the poor cattle are the main sufferers. One excellent and striking example of good farming in the midst of this bad system, has been laid before the Manx farmers by a Scotsman. I observed one entire farm not far from Peel Town, where, solely by attention and good management, the aspect of the land is altogether changed, and the whole extent of the domain marked by very superior neatness and care. The fields are thrown open, the fences improved, and the ordinary quantity of live stock much increased ; it were only to be wished that the land in this part were by its quality able, as for the present it is not, I fear, to repay this individual's exertions. Nine miles fi'om Douglas, and two miles from Peel Town, is the small village of St. John's, a point whence two roads branch off, the one to the north and the other to the south, being those before alluded to, that form what is incorrectly called the circuit of the island : at this spot the traveller neces- sarily finds himself while on his way, as far removed as two miles from the sea. Here is to be seen the ancient Tynwald Mount, whereon, from time immemorial, the laws of the island have been at regular periods promulgated to the people ; veithout which ceremony, the laws so promulgated, even at the present enlightened age, are not valid. The dimensions of the mount, and the proceeding altogether, is a remnant of Saxon barba- rism, which it seems strange should have been per- mitted at all after the existence of steam navigation. c 3 34 CEREMONY OF TYNWALD. [CH- At present the representative of royalty performs an exhibition in the open air, more in character with his majesty of Norwood ; and a grave legislative body discharge primeval functions, better fitted to those related of the savages in the pages of Captain Cook. Such is literally the case ; and though on these oc- casions a country fair is held at the same time and place, the days of Tynwald are regularly advertised in the provincial newspapers. The governor of the island proceeding thither in state, attended by the hoi.ise of keys, his parliament, the deemsters or judges, and the bishop, the cortege, after attending divine service in a small adjacent chapel, an humble edifice, from whose gable a tiny, tinkling bell, such as is seen in remote places of worship among our mountain districts, swings in the open air, take their places on the mount. The mount is a sort of circular tumulus or mound, with concentric terraces rudely formed and overgrown with grass, rising one above another all the way to the top ; that is to say, there are perhaps three or four, for the mount altogether is a mighty diminutive affair, such as might sei've for a pedestal for the sta- tue at Charing Cross, or answer the purpose of a pulpit for an itinerant preacher. Howevei", the go- vernor and the whole court, winter or summer, rain or shine, dispose themselves in state thereon, llie governor sits on the top in his chair, the rest stand ranged below on the terraces around, and all are equipped in the proper paraphernalia of robes, wigs, and gowns. Keys, council and clergy there stand, if the weather be bad, exposed to the rain, while an ordinary canvass awning, and no more, is stretched between the inclement sky and the person of the III.] THE FAIR. 35 governor. The newly made laws are then read to the assembled multitude, in English and Manx. It must be confessed, that there can be few spots in the world better calculated to aflford a prospect of whatever may be transacted thereupon, to a multi- tude, indefinite in numbers, than the Tynwald mount, for it forms the centre of an amphitheatre of sur- rounding mountains, that rise one above another in the distance, at the extent of a radius varying from one to two miles in length. I intended, but was accidentally prevented, to witness the proceedings on the mount, one Tynwald day. When I arrived, the people wei-e busy at the fair, though the authorities had all departed. The assemblage, from their dress and manners, reminded me of the ordinary class of visitors at a fair in the north of Ireland ; and indeed, the male population bear much affinity to the Irish in disposition; they are alike kind, and hospitable, independent, and frugal ; retaining one special advantage over their Hibernian neighbours, that of being less addicted to intemperance. Here was to be seen a crowd of quiet, decently dressed, country people, some with eggs and butter to sell, others leading cows here and there, backwards and forwards, by straw ropes in quest of a purchaser, or vending potatoes swung on the back of a horse in straw panniers ; but all, if not looking on and acting the part of " a sweetener" in a neighbour's bargain, at least earnestly engaged in driving one of their own, or minding their own business. Matters nevertheless were being con- ducted on a small scale, for all the live stock in the fair might be comprised in a dozen rough yearling, or two year old colts, and a score of small horned 36 PEEL TOWN. [CH. cattle. " What of the laws that were read to-day ?" said I to a peasant as he was grappling the nose of a calf and urging it forward through the crowd, at the same time twisting with the other hand the reel- ing animal's tail. " What of the laws ? " said he repeating my words impatiently, and turning away his attention entirely to the calf. "Ay," said I, " I sup- pose you heard all that was read at the mount?" " Oh pack of stuff," said he, " 'twas about potatoes." His tone of voice at the same time declared plainly that he troubled himself little in the concerns of the legislature ; and, moreover, many the Manx rural swain at the present day, were he called upon to say whether England's prime minister were Whig or Tory, no doubt in like manner is unable to answer the question. The awning on the mount, under which the go- vernor had recently sat, was merely a rough piece of canvass supported on poles, certainly by no means so well fashioned, as in England is afforded to the spectators at a ci'icket match, or by the landlord of a rural pothouse to the frequenters of his skittld- alley. On leaving St. John's, a prospect is within a short distance obtained of the broad sea, and on arriving at Peel Town, indications are at once manifest of a neat, lively, compact, fishing establishment. Whe- ther farmers or fishermen, it is pleasing to see men existing in a state of full occupation, and here the inhabitants are so active and stirring, that each seems to think and act, just as if the town and all that is in it belonged to himself. One may frequently see, at the height of the fishing season, three hundred little fishing vessels at one time in the harbour, and on the III.] FISHERMEN. 37 present day, the quay was crowded with small craft of different descriptions. Here, side by side, were the single masted Manx boat, and the Cornish fisher- man's sturdy two-masted lugger, which in piscatory excursions include within their ocean range the shores of Ardglass on the coast of Ireland ; and soar- ing preeminent above these, the red vane of the Liver- pool heiTing merchant's top masted sloop, floated in the breeze. By the latter vessels, the fish are taken to England to be cured, a practice which renders them inferior in the market, and which is likely to be discontinued, since curing houses, of which formerly there were none on the spot, are now in progress of being built. Notwithstanding the appearances of business, the Manx men, like people in all parts of the world, find time for grumbling. They say the smoke and whiz- zing of the steam-boats has frightened away the fish, and owing to that cause alone they declare that the herrings are not near so abundant as formerly. But I think it may be presumed, that so long as the Cornish fishermen leave their own homes to fish on these distant grounds, their presence is in some wise a criterion towards an opposite conclusion. The life of a fisherman, notwithstanding all their hard- ships, so long as, poor fellows, they have capital, is independent and exhilarating ; for at one and twenty lie is his own commander, and the privilege of apprenticeship, is a roving commission over the British dominions. His boat his castle, self-will sitting at the helm, directs its course over the manor of the wide sea. In authority, moreover, over few subjects indeed, he enjoys at any rate supremacy, for even though three or four red worsted night-caps IW ^^^ * nj8 38 PEEL CASTLE. [CH. cover the heads of all his crew, no man on board dare dispute his will, more than were his commands uttered through the speaking trumpet of some tall admiral. The boats in the river form a still more dense cluster, inasmuch as the very small stream, from its limited dimensions, contains little hai'bour space. On the opposite bank, the green hills above are converted to a drying ground for the nets, which generally are spread over the grass to a consider- able extent, and cartloads are frequently arriv- ing on the quay, to be ferried across for the same purpose. Seaward, the bold bluff coast to the north terminates by a headland not unlike that of Dungeness in Kent ; but the magnificent rock at the mouth of the river, and the noble old castle that stands thereon frowning over the waters, engage one's whole attention. The aforesaid rock, the site of Peel Castle, celebrated by Scott in Peveril of the Peak, is an island, whereof the sea only a few years since washed every part of its base. For the protection of the harbour, a wedgelike wall, or mound of stone, has since been built, so as to connect it with the main land, and to form together with the rock a continued bank of the river. On the opposite side, the said wall forms the head of a sandy shelving little bay, where the sea, clear as crystal, and sheltered by the rock and castle on one side, and by the high land rising abruptly from the water's edge on the other, affords a spot as lovely for the purposes of bathing, were it to be so appropriated, as the imagination can conceive. My chief object at present being to see the interior of the venerable castle, I had previously been in search of the personage entrusted with the keys, and the in.] OLD TOM. 39 result of my expedition transported me to this spot for the purpose of being ferried across to the rock, whither the aforesaid functionary, whether governor, seneschal, or what not, but universally known throughout the whole town, by the name of " Old Tom," had already proceeded. As no admit- tance to the castle can possibly be gained without " Old Tom," I had gone in the first instance to his private dwelling, whence I heard he had only a few minutes before departed to the castle in charge of a party. Stepping now into a boat, the boy, handling a sin- gle oar at the stern like the tail of an eel, sculled rae in a few turns of the wrist across the river, whence 1 landed on the rude naked rock, the remnant of an ancient flight of steps, of which it is now difficult to distinguish those artificial, from the work of nature. Above, the ancient door of massive timber in good preservation, being wide open, I walked in. " Old Tom" was at this time engaged in doing the honours of his vocation to some half dozen persons, male and female, whom he was haranguing with consequential demeanour, leading the way by turns to the ruins of the guard-room haunted by " the spectre hound," and thence to the sally-port whence " the Countess of Darhij" as he said, " made her escape with her sarvant maid Fenella," and thenct- afterwards to the dungeon or crypt, an oblong vault, supported by thirteen pointed arches, now nearly filled up by earth and rubbish, w ithin whose dreary walls, the Duchess of Gloucester ended her days inider the gaolership of Sir John Stanley. Upon all these reliques of antiquity "Old Tom" dwelt witii u precision that savoured of former military habits, and a prolixity, much increased by the too liberal aid of 40 OLD TOM. [CH. whiskey; and upon every point of authority, he quoted Sir Walter Scott, as if neither before nor since, there ever existed another historian. For himself, " forty years had he been" he said " in his Majesty's ser- vice," which assertion, as he wore an artillery coat on his back, and had only one eye in his head, was in point of fact the more likely to be true. What- ever became of his lost eye, old Tom never declared the story to his hearers ; if not poked out by the enemy's bayonet, it probably perished suddenly by the explosion of gunpowder ; indications of violence were however indisputably evident, of some sort or other, for the job was as it were after all only half performed, and done badly ; that is to say, the empty socket looked as if the crows that plucked out part of the eye, had left the remainder. Upon all matter of circumstantial narration, the visitors now present seemed to place implicit cre- dence ; neither are the means at hand available to counteract old Tom's testimony ; no ancient inscrip- tion, not even a single letter remains on the walls, or on any part of the ruins to afford information ; the entire building meanwhile, as regards the state of preservation, being rather more dilapidated than Ro- chester Castle in Kent. Within two unroofed chapels appertaining to the domain are several tomb-stones of modern date, in memory of shipwrecked per- sons, who, according to custom under such contin- gencies, have there from time to time been buried ; obsequies, humble as they'may appear, paid to the dead nevertheless at the expense of no little trouble and toil to the living ; for not only is the ceremony performed in a spot particularly exposed to the wind and the rain in tempestuous weather, but III.] AN INGENIOUS EXPEDIENT. 41 the corpse, mourners, and clergyman, are all neces- sarily previously ferried thither across the river in a boat. The aspect of the tilting yard covered by a light green carpet of vegetative sward, such as, though commonly seen within ancient castles, is never equalled by art either in the lawn or bowling green, fronts the western sea, on a spot elevated and un- sheltered, based on the rugged rock, whose area is altogether about four English acres ; whence the waves of the sea below, in stormy weather bound- ing far above the summit into the air, sweep across to windward in incessant clouds of mist and spray. Here in sunshine and in summer it is delightful to sit and listen to the roar of the waves, to inhale the fragrant freshness of the sea, and observe how upon the surface of the weather beaten ruins, the tempest and the hurricane have by degrees effected a change, which in somewise assists and co- operates with the destroying hand of time. The wind and the rain, acting upon the broken walls, as well as upon heaps of the fallen material, have here and there invested the surface with a coating of sand, shell, and soil, whereupon herbage has subse- quently sprung, till the whole has become an indis- tinct mass, and almost indeterminable whether it be now formed of earth or stone. Sufficient probably by and by, after a lapse of years, to puzzle the anti- quary. Of such examples there are many, but of one in particular, a sort of oblong, elevated grave-stone, surrounded on three sides by a rude continuous seat, I must take more especial notice ; for the above struc- ture, covered by a coating of herbage produced by the causes aforesaid, though it might very well be 42 AN INGENIOUS EXPEDIENT. [cH. mistaken for an hundred years old, was altogether raised by old Tom himself only a few years ago, and is a striking instance, how, in matters of anti- quity, trivial causes, if unknown and unrecorded, may in time possibly become confounded with more im- portant agency. From the site of this edifice or mound, salubrious and airy, only a few yards removed from the verge of the lofty rock, is had an uninterrupted view of the sea, and here is a spot long since chosen whereon to spread a table and display their viands, by the pic nic parties who in the summer think proper to visit Peel Castle, on their tour round the island. For these assemblages of persons, consisting of various and different descrip- tions of compan}". Old Tom accordingly partly pro- vided for the revelry, furnishing especially a deal table and chairs without delay to all who I'equired them. Irishmen in particular were used here to con- gregate, and hold wassail amid clouds of tobacco, till becoming more and more elevated, owing to the thin air or the whiskey, or enlivened by early associations connected with the enchanting prospect in clear weather before them, of the shores of old Ireland, it invariably happened some how or other in the end, that they always grew riotous and noisy. Thence it followed inevitably, when the liquor was expended, and the fact is attested by woeful experience of the purveyor, the furniture being light, and the fists of the revellers heavy, that whatever consequences otherwise ensued, at any rate the wooden tables and chairs, as sure as a gun, were smashed at the close of the entertainment. Some choice spirit or other, whether John Bull, Sandy Anderson, or Paddy from Cork, no matter, somebody . however, III.] THE CAVERN. 43 predestined, like Ascanius of old to demolish the tables, " Heus etiam mensas consumimus inquit lulus" with a big thump and a crash accordingly brought matters always to the aforesaid conclusion. Old Tom, merely by the help of his one eye, at once per- ceived that reform was necessary, and that to meet the wants of his company, and suit the interests of his pocket as regarded tables and chairs, wood was altogether too fragile a material. Thus driven to re- sources, he invented a substitute, such as I have already adverted to, whereby from the ruins of the castle, disposed in suitable array, he completed a table and seat of stone, and overlaid the same with turf, which, since pelted by the weather, already bears semblance of antiquity ; and in after ages, long after old Tom's eye has ceased to wink, may perhaps be mistaken by the learned, for the tomb of some doughty warrior. After viewing the castle, I returned to the boat, and rowing out of the harbour, entered a cavern, which perforates the rock for a long way under the foundations of the castle. This cavern is celebrated in Waldron's history of the Isle of Man, for emitting a hollow subterraneous sound, produced by the waves of the sea, which re-bellow within, and enter roaring at its mouth. Sir Walter Scott, in Peveril of the Peak, alludes also to the same property of the cavern, the site of which, by the way, he sometimes con- founds with that of Castle Rushen, twelve miles dis- tant. As the day was clear, and the sea particularly calm, I was enabled to enter the aperture, a low arcli resting upon the sea, wherein the spring and buoy- 44 THE CAVERN. [CH. ancy of the wave is so elastic, that it was with the greatest difficulty the boat was prevented from being beaten to pieces against the rocks. I should be sorry to repeat this experiment ; and after all, when within there is little to see ; however, the sound produced by the gurgling water within, was really extraordi- nary. The cavern is, perhaps, a score of feet in length, and a dozen feet high, ending in a chasm or channel, through which, as regards its size, one might drag the carcase of a dead bullock. Within this aperture, a volume of water, as the wave rises, rushes forwards for a long way with furious force, and as it falls, is disgorged back again, through the bowels of the rock ; thus sobbing at intervals, like the sound of a multi- tude of animals, the roaring of an hundred lions. Far within, in the distance, and in a line, evidently reach- ing under the castle, a guttural sound, stifled as it were for want of egress, increases by degrees, till it bursts forth at its mouth like the crash of a falling forest, or the din of a cataract. During the short time I remained within the cavern, the boat was lifted up and down by an exceedingly violent motion, whence the sides of the rock, by the friction of the waves, and their continual action, are rendered as polished as marble. CHAPTER IV. ISLE OF MAN. A Benefit Society — A Manx Peasant — Waterfall of Glenmaye— Churchand Church -yard of Kirk Patrick — Slate Tomb-stones — Waterfall of Foxdale — Foxdale Lead Mines — Slate Quar- ries at Barrule — Mills — Indigenous Mill-stone — Improved Aspect of the Country — Kirk Christ Rushen — Port Iron — A Night's Lodging in the Public-house — A rough Landing- place — Gulls protected — Brada Head — Lead Mines — Their extraordinary Position — Calf of Man — Beautiful Natural Quay — Rats and Rat-catchers — Aspect of the Island — Rab- bits — Bos well's House. In a subsequent year to the period before alluded to at the commencement of my second Chapter, I took up my quarters for the night at the principal inn at Peel Town, intending from thence the next morning to proceed on an excursion on horseback, by a moun- tain route, again to the south of the island, where, as a great part was still unexplored, I entertained, parti- cularly with regard to the inhabitants, in consequence of the events related in my fomier visit, not a little curiosity. Acccrdingly I proposed, after the morn- ing's ride, to rest at night not far from Poolvash, at the little fishing village of Port Iron, and return on the third day to Peel Town, or Douglas. I was provided at the inn with comfortable apart- ments, and experienced the same kind hospitable attention that one usually meets with at rural inns in England. As I rambled about the streets after an early dinner, I encountered a benefit society, who, on one of their days of festival, were marching in pro- 46 A BENEFIT SOCIETY. [CH. cession through the town, and I could not refrain from observing with satisfaction the brotherly feel- ings that seemed to animate this body of men. It were well if always, the demon of party spirit were strangled by the bond of union. For first and foremost, three and three, hand in hand, in token of amity and universal toleration, marched the clergy- man of the parish, the dissenting minister, and another of the principal inhabitants. These were preceded by a band of music, and followed by the rest of the fraternity, walking two and two, each bearing a white wand ornamented with narrow strips of ribband, and for the remainder of the even- ing, in the streets of Peel Town, notwithstanding a convivial meeting was celebrated on the occasion, there appeared no deviation whatever from good order and sobriety. After the procession had disappeared, I strolled leisurely into the country to see the waterfall of Glenmaye, three miles distant, which is considered by the inhabitants of the Isle of Man, where rivers are of small dimensions, a formidable cataract. I had proceeded a little way when I encountered a Manx peasant, who seemed comfortable after his dinner, and moreover mightily inclined to be so- ciable ; so we walked along the road together. In fact he accosted me with an air of kindliness and ease, as if I w^ere an old acquaintance. " A fine evening, master," said he, holding out at the same time the hard hand of honesty, which I shook accordingly, for it was tendered in good fellowship, and in a man- ner not devoid of grace, as an action sincerely in- tended, and of ordinary habit. My new friend, however, inquisitive to a superlative degree, asked IV.] A MANX PEASANT. 47 me all manner of questions. Whereupon, resolving to be even with him, " Who made your coat ?" said I, abruptly looking steadily on the garment he wore on his back, of blue coarse cloth, such as is com- monly used among the Welsh peasantry, his trousers moreover were loose, and of the same material. "Who made my coat?" said he, repeating my words crustily, and looking keenly in my face, to see whether or not I were quizzing him ; however, as I kept my gi'avity, " Why who the devil d'ye think made it? It was made at home;" added he rather reservedly. " And the cloth ?" said I. " That was made at home too," said he. Having obtained the required information, I readily replied to all further interrogations, and then by degrees he became in his tuni, good humoured and communicative. He paid eight pounds a year he said, for six acres of ground adjoining his own cottage, nor had he ever in his life been out of the island. " I was born," said he, " in that very house, and my father lives there still ;" and then he pointed to a little hovel in the distance era- l)edded among the mountains, and so small, that it really looked like a haycock. Having left him to descend the bank of the ravine leading to the waterfall, I scrambled through the bushes by a zigzag path, in some places almost ])erpcndicular, and found myself in a few minutes standing on the bank of the small basin or pool of the cascade, serenaded by a cloud of mosquitoes. The jet of the cataract during freshes from the mountains, possesses no mean capabilities of display, but the stream at present falling from a height of about twenty feet, might have been contained in a 48 SLATE TOMB-STONES. [CH. cylindrical pipe of a foot diameter. The features of the glen, expanding towards the sea, produce an ef- fect of space not here to be expected, and in the variety of landscape, thence spots are to be selected, for almost every description of rural habitation ; the elevated mountain, the craggy ravine, the bluff cliffs of the sea shore, the bubbling stream, or the lowly valley. On my return to Peel Town, I visited the church- yard of the diminutive village church of Kirkpatrick, where, on many a grave-stone, foraied of slate split from the rude rock, I observed inscriptions ap- parently scratched with a common nail or spike, as far back as the year 1744 and 5, which, though con- tinuall}^ exposed horizontally on the ground to the open air, were still perfectly legible; and slate-stone, no doubt, from its smooth texture, notwithstanding its softness, is more durable as a grave-stone, and re- tains characters longer than harder material. Slate- stone in the Isle of Man is not only abundant, but, for every possible purpose to which it can be applied with economy, is universally used. The lintels of doors, the porches of cottages, the gate-posts in the farm-yards and fields, and the mooring posts for vessels on the quays, are all made of slate-stone ; and it is only extraordinary, that, being impervious to water, and fissile in quality, it is only of late years that people have become aware of its general utility. Now cisterns in Lambeth, and in many places other important articles, such as billiard-tables, and what not, are made of slate-stone ; and in point of fact, there is hardly any part of a human dwelling, within or without, from the roof to the foundation, IV.] WATERFALL OF FOXDALE. 49 beams, rafters, and all, that might not if reqmred, be readily sawn, planed, and bored, the same almost as in wood, from blocks of native slate-stone. The next morning I mounted my nag, and pro- ceeded on my intended way by the Douglas road as far as St. John's, whence, turning to the right, I made progress to the village of Foxdale, about seven miles from Peel Town, Here also, adjoining the road, is a waterfall, superior, I think, and at all events easier of access, than that of Glenmaye. The fall is higher, and the space below is planted with fine young trees, — an inviting spot whereon to pass the time in shade, during the sultry day. The cas- cade, propelled from above through a chasm of slate- stone rock, whereof by its friction it has rounded and polished the edges, pursues afterwards its course at the bottom, through a self-cut bed of the same material, indented, and worn smooth withal, as the work of human hands. With my horse's bridle on my arm, such was the clear blue colour of the natural trough, and the translucent clearness of the stream, that I could readily have loitered here a long time, even self-acquitted of the charge of indolence ; but like water, so is life ; lovely in tranquillity, and lovelier still by motion and variety. Profiting by this sentiment, and accordingly con- tented with what I had seen, I remounted my horse and rode away. I was now among the mountains; and quitting the road on the left or east, proceeded forthwith towards the Foxdale lead-mines, over a wide ex- panse covered with heather, whereon a few years ago, grouse were tolerably plentiful, and even now in the winter, are plenty of snipes and wood- VOL. II. D 60 FOXDALE LEAD -MINES. [CH, cocks. These mines are church property, at present rented of the bishop by the Chester mining company, who have recently inidertaken to work them, not- withstanding the whole surface of the ground being a morass, the operation of pumping the water out of the shafts is rendered more precarious, and moreover every ton of coal for the use of the steam-engine is unavoidably carted seven miles, almost every foot of the way uphill, from Douglas. It is in contempla- tion to sink for coal, and, they say, with expectation of success. At any rate, the ore is rich enough to induce people to work the mines under all disad- vantages. Hitherto, labour has been chiefly exhausted in preparation. I observed a steam-engine of forty- six horsepower applied to the purpose of pumping one shaft; a water-wheel of forty-one feet diameter in another, and not far apart from these, another large water-wheel and shaft. Within a mile of the lead-mines, are the extensive slate- quarries of Barrule, whence slate of the finest quality is procured and transported toward other l)arts of the island. The site of the quarries is so elevated as to afford a view, in a clear day, of the coasts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, al- together ; nevertheless it is a curious fact, brought by the opportunity of a prospect so imintercepted to one's observation, that notwithstanding the whole country is as much exposed to the wind as it is de- ficient in water, yet all the mills are water-mills, I think with only one exception. In the south, near Castleton, there is. certainly one wind-mill, and if there be another, which I doubt, it is at all events in the north of the island. The water-mills, such as they are, are usually of exceedingly small power, those IV.] MILLS. 51 of Granaby, where three or four pair of stones are driven, being I believe the largest establishment of any ; they are generally situated in secluded situa- tions on the mountain rivulets, where, were it not for the water-wheel that scatters the stream in the sunshine, the spectator as he passes along, would overlook, from its diminutive proportions, the low- roofed cottage itself. Hitherto the supply of water for mechanical power is everywhere as precarious as nature fii'st designed it ; and abundant quantities during rainy seasons are wasted in the sea, that might readily be economised by means of artificial lakes and reservoirs, so as to increase equably the mill-streams to an indefinite amount. At pre- sent, so far from such means having been adopted by experimental or speculative persons for their own, or the public interest, with the exception of drain- age for ordinary purposes in another part, no work worthy of notice has been performed ; neither is there a lake, or large pond, either natural or artificial, within the limits of the island. Besides the slate here dug, a hard stone is found in abundance, usually in large loose blocks near the surface of the ground ; it nearly resembles the French burr, and though not quite so hard, answers the purpose of inferior mill-stones ; from this ma- terial almost every one of the mills is supplied with one pair of stones, wherewith barley and oats are ground. From this commanding eminence the country be- low to the southward, including the whole distance to Castleton Bay, consists of a wide tract of rich allu- vial soil, spreading from the mountain's base to the sea, where agricultural opulence and rural comfort d2 52 PORT IRON. [CH. are contrasted in pleasing diversity to the country about Douglas or Peel Town. Larger farms and more extensive fields, whereon lime is used abundantly as a manure; and comfortable looking white-washed liouses, so profusely scattered over the land as to create the appearance of a continuous, straggling village, take place of the meagre features of the afore- said ban'en district. Hence I descended, passing by the Granaby mills before mentioned, which mills lie low in a pleasant glen, and traversing the alluvial space just alluded to by the neat village of Colby, and the church and church-yard of Kirk Christ Rushen, where the grave- stones equal, number for space, those in any ceme- tery 1 every saw ; I rode on in a direction straight between the cliffs of Brada and of Spanish Head, and took up my quarters, as previously intended, on the sea-shore, at the small fishing village of Port Iron. Of the cottages, two are public-houses, and in number about a score, occupy altogether a shelving sandy beach, at the head of a narrow bay, both sides of which are bounded by towering rocks of considerable elevation. There is no quay or landing place other than is formed by craggy projections of the aforesaid rocks, so well adapted by nature to the purpose, that for small craft, the fishermen can hardly require better accommodation. The woman of the public house, M'hose husband was absent, when I rode up to the door, kindly under- took to provide me a lodging for the night, and fare as good as the premises afforded ; and consigned, by the hands of a bare-legged boy who acted as hostler, my horse to the stable. Here I saw him deposited within an empty shed, wherein the former tenants, IV.] PORT IRON. 53 the cows, had profusely left behind the means of cooling his feverish hoofs, and I moreover presented him with an ample feed of good oats, though fortune was not equally favourable with regard to fodder. At all events I obtained the best I could, for I con- sider it a duty to see the poor tired horse well pro- vided in all his wants, while under our charge. Pro- vidence has placed an animal for the time being under our especial guardianship, and he certainly fails, in a sense both moral and religious, who, not only with- holds from the patient slave his hard earned right, but subjects him by consequent weakness, to say nothing of the present pains of hunger, to unmerited i)unish- ment as a laggard, by the whip of a future master. For my own part, as regarded a donnitory, 1 felt much inclined to leave matters to the good will of my hostess, and to chance ; for a glimpse of the dwelling on entering the door, made it plain to per- ceive, that the shape of the upper rooms was pre- cisely regulated by the slant of the roof; in short, that, divided as they might be by partitions, the whole house was, in point of fact, composed only of a kitchen and a cock-loft. There was, it is true, a small den called a parlour, of which the door, not being intended to shut, afforded no protection with regard to privacy, so that I could hear every word of the conversation of a group of fishermen, who, rough as banditti, were seated drinking in the kitchen. The colloquy was held in English and in Manx, sometimes in one language, and occasionally in both together; and not only in the above respect, but in manners also, a striking difference is perceptible here between the inhabitants of the southern, and those of the other parts of the island. It is extraordinary 54 PORT IRON. [CH, in these civilized times, that pains should be any- where taken, by preserving these ancient tongues, to nourish ignorance and perpetuate barbarism, to pre- serve contrary to natural laws, by associations and otherwise, provincial dialects originally proper to in- accessible and mountainous districts, which, as com- munication extends among mankind, would, if left to themselves, die a natural death. However, in the Isle of Man, the steam navigation is quickly over- powering every eifort to retain the native literature, and the Manx tongue every year is becoming less and less used. In the mean time, where it prevails, the people are certainly proportionately wilder and more uncivilized in their appearance, than in those parts where it is utterly extinct; and no wonder; for though it really seems absurd to believe yet such is really the case, the peasant, at the end of one morning's walk, transports himself beyond the reach of his mother tongue. The same remark may be applied to the Basque temtory in Spain. The first measure I adopted, having taken quiet possession of my parlour, was to order dinner, and here I experienced some inconvenience from excess of civility, for I was unable, by all the arguments in- my power, to persuade my landlady to prepare her- rings for my repast, since she had predetermined to serve up, by way of a treat, a mess of fried bacon and eggs. The former, the staple of the village, though in profusion, and excellent, being considered in the light of a gratuitous gift of the ocean, were undervalued accordingly. In the mean time the good woman had already tucked up her sleeves, and in earnest set to work in her vocation ; acting in the double capacity of cook and nurse at IV.]. PORT IRON. 55 one and the same time, besides supplying occasion- ally her thirsty customers with drink. Under one arm she supported a sucking baby, as if it were a wheat-sheaf; with a fork in the other hand, she turned over and over, from side to side, the hissing bacon in the fiying-pan. A lively little maiden, ever on the alert, was continually running up and down the cellar stairs to draw beer for the fishermen ; and an aged creature, the mother of the landlady, cold and comfortless, and by surviving all human sym- pathies grown peevish and helpless, sat drowsily, as it were in token of the monotonous tenor of her own existence, rocking a new-born infant in its cradle. Poor old soul, she longed for relief from mortal trouble, and scrupled not to say so, telling me more- over she was eighty-eight years old and full of misery. With a view to comfort her amid her complainings, " many years you may live yet," said I, whereupon with a scream of agony, and a look of horror, she en- ti'eated me with emphatic earnestness by no means to say so ; with some reason, no doubt, if repose were her object, for here at the close of life, instead of repose, the unfortunate granny was doomed to bewilderment, stunned by the din of tongues, and jostled by old and young. The bare -legged boy, just returned from the stable, obedient to every body's bidding, had taken again his place among the com- pany, and stood by the fire with a healthy honest face, and looks that candidly declared him capable of eating, if nobody w^ere by, every egg and rasher in the frying-pan. Notwithstanding the fishermen were rude and noisy in demeanour, they were scrupulously kind and observant towards the females : of these there 56 PORT IRON. [CH, were none other present than those of the household, but of guests, near a score before night made their appearance. When I returned after an evening walk, I found things precisely in the state I left them, except that people were perhaps a little more argumentative than before. As my door declined to shut, I sat with it wide open, the better to see the company; and still farther derogating from the majesty of solitude, as I had hitherto invariably met with civility, in order on my part to conform to the fashion of things around, I desired a pint of beer to be set on the table before me ; and thus employed 1 remained till near ten o'clock, when as I was thinking of going to rest, I saw three men with blackened faces standing outside the window. I was staggered for an instant at their sudden ap- pearance, consequently concluding that under such a disguise — the men's faces being as black as coal- heavers' — mischief surely was intended. With re- ference to myself and to former adventures in the neighbourhood, I really sincerely wished I had let well alone, and, having escaped once prosperously from the hands of the inhabitants, had now staid away. However, I remained not long in suspense, for the three men burst into the outer room, where their ap- pearance was immediately hailed with an universal hollaballoo. They were miners by trade, young men of the village, casually employed to unload a vessel freighted with coal from Ayr, in Scotland, and now in their masquerade costume, after a severe day's work, afforded merriment owing to their appearance, and quickly made manifest their own particular object, by calling for refreshment. Em- ployed in the lead-mines at Brada Head, their IV.] A ROUGH LODGING IN THE PUBLIC-HOUSE. 57 services had been teinporarily called to another department; for the vessel lay at anchor near the cliff, under a brisk off-shore gale, during the conti- nuance of which, it was indispensable that the job should be quickly completed, for, at that part of the coast, at no other season dare a vessel at anchor maintain her position. The young men, accordingly, had laboured unremittingly, as if the sloop and cargo had actually belonged to themselves, since four o'clock in the morning during the entire summer's day ; and again on the morrow, at the same early hour, were about to renew their toil. The animated bearing of the young Manxmen in question beamed brightly through the mask of coal-dust and perspiration that deformed their countenances, as, highly pleased with themselves and all things about them, they rioted in the mere enjoyment of existence — a delight that the young and powerful alone can know, when the elastic fibre serenely reposes after severe exertion, and the moral sense, proportionately wide awake, exults in its prowess. Though wild in his gait, than the English peasant the Manxman is a vast deal more volatile and airy, and though all now conversed in the jyatois of the island, in wit and hilarity, and in mental calibre, I saw plainl}' they far exceeded our native clowns. None of the party, notwithstanding the merriment, in anywise exceeded the bounds of sobriety, but in good order and fellowship, before eleven o'clock, all had beat their retreat. The latch of the door having then performed its last ofhce, once more a member of a })eaceful family, I retired to rest. To my comfort and surprise, the ))repaiations of my hostess ver\' far exceeded all previous expccta- D 3 58 GULLS PROTECTED. [CH. tion ; and though I mounted a staircase which resembled a ladder, I found ready with curtains and coverlid, a bed stuffed with harsh straw and clad with coarse sheets, but, like every thing else in the apartment, tidy, and scrupulously clean. Indeed such was the vigilance displayed for the sake of even the semblance of decency, that I actually dis- lodged sundry articles, including a bran new cheese and an old pack of cards, craftily deposited in am- bush between the bed and the tester. At daybreak in the morning I walked down to the bay, where T was speedily joined by the owner of a boat with whom I had previously made arrange- ments, and his two assistants. As we approached the skiff, which lay moored to the rocks, we were sun-ounded by numerous gulls that hovered close above our heads, all of which were so tame, that being on the ground, and walking about at their leisure on the sea-shore, they took little notice as we passed, but flapping their wings gently, either in compliment to us, or to recreate themselves, merely made believe to rise. Protected by the fishermen, the law of the land inflicts a penalty of three pounds upon whomsoever, either wilfully or wantonly, shoots one of their race ; and such, accordingly, is the good understanding between those of the heavy boots and the web-footed, that the latter here in the neigh- bourhood of Port Iron, walk about as securely and peaceably as ordinary ducks in a farm-yard. The keen eye of the gull when the herrings appear, enables him to discover the first twinkle of their scales, and detect the myriads that swim crowding together beneath the wave ; and collecting in flocks, they hover over the spot, continually marking, by IV.] BRADA HEAD. 59 Iheir progress in the air, the finny phalanx below. The sagacious mancEuvre infuses life in the village, and the fishermen receive the signal with joy. Ever on the alert, they throw their nets in the boat, and when after the toilsome day they return laden to their homes, the auxiliary gulls receive the reward of their services in the small fry and garbage. The access to the landing-place is inconvenient and slippery. We ascended for some distance over craggy slabs of rock, then descended again to the level of the sea, and stepping into the boat, which floated in deep water, rowed out of the bay, and in a quarter of an hour were pulling with a steady stroke under the blufflofty cliffs of Brada Head. This magnificent headland — a stupendous precipice — re- minded me at first sight of the sea-girt rock of Ailsa Craig, on the coast of Galloway, and the resemblance is rendered more perfect by the legions of sea-birds that continually swarm upon its brow. Hither I had come to see the site of the lead-mines, the scene of operations of the three young miners before men- tioned ; and I was sufhciently gratified, were it only to have gained a momentary glimpse of the opera- tions here conducted. A situation more extraordinary for works like these is hardly to be found in the king's dominions ; for the mines, after a long interval, were at this time about to be re-opened, and a building to contain the steam-engine was in progress of erection. The site chosen for this purpose was an abutting point of the perpendicular cliff, inaccessible from below, and so near the water's edge, that even in moderate weather its foundation is unceasingly lashed by the waves. The masonry of the building is imbedded in the rock, and constructed with corro- 60 LEAD MINES. [CH, spending solidity. The main le\el perforates the side of the chflf close to the aforesaid engine-house, and other levels, far above among the sea birds' ha- bitations, are also about to be re-opened and worked afresh. The access from the village to the lower level first mentioned, is by a perilous zigzag path, that descends the greater part of the way from the extreme summit of the cliff, until becoming abso- lutely precipitous, the remainder of the distance is completed by a tunnel. A few fathoms from the shore the collier sloop, of which mention has already been made, rolling and toppling on the wave, and desperately rocking from side to side, held on by a heavy strain upon her anchor; andhence to the engine-house, the coal, as fast as unladen, was first conveyed to the base of the cliff in a boat, and then in sacks, upon men's shoul- ders, was carried to the engine-house some forty or fifty feet above. The young miners and eight or ten more labourers were already merrily progressing at their work, and engaged in a sen'ice utterly imprac- ticable but for the strength and energy of youth. By means of planks laid from crag to crag, some resting unsteady, and all at great elevation, every sack of coal was transported from point to point, across the intervening chasms, and now and then among uneven ledges of rock ; so that even with caution and diffi- culty, and unimpeded by any burden, I could scarcely follow the laden men up the craggy steep. 'Ihe object once attained, I speedily came down again ; but not before recognized by my black-muzzled ac- quaintance, who with hearty good humour, and a spread of white teeth, as I stepped into the boat gave signal to the rest, who altogether, mistaking me IV.] CALF OF MAN. 61 I suppose for an inspecting proprietor, greeted my departure with a lusty hurrah ; or perhaps it was mere gratitude for a little contribution, always consi- dered meritorious — namely, a trifle bestowed to purchase strong beer. Once more in the boat, the boatmen doffed their jackets, and laying sturdily to the oars, pulled across the mouth of Port Iron bay to the Calf of Man. The sea was quite calm during the whole of the passage, which lasted three quarters of an hour ; for the wind blowing strong all the while from the shore, we were under the lee of the land. The passage to the Calf of Man from Port Iron is infinitely preferable to that from Port le Murray ; for in the latter case, the nar- row gut is to be passed formed by the intervening little island of Kitterland, where always exists a bubbling turbulent swell. At present we skirted this fretting torrent, and passing close to the afore- said Kitterland, whereon, though a mere speck in the sea, I observed a dozen sheep grazing, we landed upon the Calf of Man. Here is a small natural har- bour, so sheltered and perfect, that as a place of landing for small craft, the assistance of art is hardly necessarj' for farther improvement. Within a narrow inlet, a basin of deep transparent water, from whose bottom the long succulent stems and broad spreading leaves of submarine plants sprout, waving backwards and forwards towai'ds the surface, is surrounded on ever}' side by high land ; and the rocks which form the landing, consisting of horizontal ledges, ab- ruptly protrude from the shore into deep water ; so that a good sized sloop might here, without farther preparation, with the greatest facility either disem- bark or receive a cargo. 62 RATS AND RATCATCHER. [CH. During the passage from Brada Head, 1 con- versed with the boatmen on the subject of the island we were going to visit, and I was amused by their history, so little did they know" of its merits or localities. On making enquiry at Douglas, only fourteen miles distant, few people whom I asked had ever been there ; and one would be led to imagine, from general report, that it was a spot visited for no other reason than because two lighthouses are built upon it, and moreover, productive only in two staple articles — namely, sea birds' eggs and rabbits. The boatmen conformed to the latter account, and re- lated exaggerated tales of the rats, that have colo- nized to destroy the rabbits. Of the former, they said that on a moonlight night some thousands regularly congregated at their gambols, and sometimes, when making war on each other, a multitude might be seen galloping in droves, or in squadron in order of battle. The proprietor of the rabbits, they farther declared, engaged a learned Scotsman from Edinburgh College, who, a few years ago, at a constant salary of forty shillings a week, undertaking to reside on the spot and extirpate the destroyers, for the space of four months received regular pay, and plied them meanwhile with oil of rhodium and deadly viands in profusion. In despite of his best efforts, however, the vermin in the end prevailed, and since baffled skill knows no mortal resource, the Scotsman accordingly left the island. On disembarking from the boat, I found with some regret, that in accordance with other arrangements, the short period of time remaining at my disposal was limited to an hour and a half; enough, certainly, to traverse the track or road that passes from end to end IV.] ASPECT OF THE ISLAND. 63 across the middle longitudinally, and to return by the same route, but insufficient leisurely to make a circuit of the lofty and magnificent cliffs. Never- theless, at the conclusion of my ramble, I resumed my place in the boat under a perfectly different impres- sion than when I set forward, for instead of a sandy desert, such as I had expected to see from the account I had heard, filled with rabbits and rats, on the contrary, the whole expanse rather teemed with vegetative power ; and at any rate during my short sojourn, neither a single rabbit nor rat did I happen to see. The ground rises immediately from the landing- place to a considerable elevation, towards the summit of which, slate-stone has already been dug from an abundant quarry. Hence the aforesaid road strikes directly across the whole length of the island, over a gently undulating surface, covered with luxuriant heather. Of this moor land there is apparently quite sufficient, were it stocked with grouse, to afford sport for a shooting party for an entire week ; while the extraordinary strength of the heather — not harsh stunted plants, but consisting of rich blooming bushes, almost in many places up to one's middle — seems to indicate a soil that, under the discipline of the plough, might be subjected to much improvement. In fact, a great part of the island is now likely to be brought under tillage, having been purchased by an individual, as I understood, for three thousand pounds, who has built a farm-house and offices on a centrical spot, and brought an hundred acres at least under cultivation. The dwelling of this cacique or proprietor is a simple stone building, with farm-yard, barn, stable, and all aj^purte- 64 ASPECT OF THE ISLAND. [CH. nances, the whole well supplied with water by a pump, from a spring a few yards only below the surface of the ground. The rabbits inhabit the south-western part of the territory. Of these I found upon enquiry that about seven hundred couple are taken every year ; and with regard to their enemies, the rats, it must be confessed that the latter were certainly abundant, and farther, that not only they lived upon the rabbits, but in herds, a sort of imperium in ini- perio, inhabited their burrows. Of live stock there are sheep and black cattle, together with seven horses ; and whatever in future days may be the amount of human population, the present census is easily taken, amounting now altogether to eight families, of which are to be included those people be- longing to the two lighthouses. The latter edifices are of brick, situated at the south-eastern extremity of the island, with good cottages, and fields for cul- tivation, for the use of the men employed there on duty. Not far from the lighthouses, on the verge of the cliffs, in a situation particularly exposed to the weather, in fact, j^erfectly unsheltered on any side, are the ruins of a curious old building, called Bos- well's House, the scantling of whose walls bears the strength of a castle, while the figure, though con- sisting of many apartments, is that of an ordinary farm-house. As the spot is one in former days not likely to have been sought from motives of pleasure, it is the more probable the domicile was turned to purposes of profit, and at any rate feasible, that the owner or inhabitant, be when it may the period he flourished, was an arrant smuggler. On returning to the boat, fifty minutes were ex- IV.] ASPECT OF THE ISLAND. 65 pended in pulling across to the village of Port Iron, including a short period disposed of by the boatmen for the purpose of securing the carcase of a ewe, that, having her legs tied together to prevent her from wandering, had fallen from the summit of the cliffs, and lay dead on the beach. CHAPTER V. A Ride to Ramsey — Laxey — Lead Mines — Maughold Head — Cliffs — Their extraordinary Character — The Village — The Well — Tradition — Town of Ramsey — Bay — Singular Jetty — A Manx Wedding Party — The Earl Grey Stage Coach — A talkative Lady — Benevolence ill rewarded. There are three roads from Douglas to Ramsey ; the more direct, along the line of the coast, and the more circuitous route, by the way of St. John's, Kirk- michael, and Sulby. The first is not usually preferred for wheel carriages, for though in distance only six- teen miles, it is extremely hilly ; the other is twenty- fiv^e miles, but hard and level the whole way. The third track can be accomplished by foot passengers and horsemen only, being moreover difficult to find, and leading directly across the mountains, between Sulby and Kirkbraddan. On the first of the above three roads, seven miles from Douglas, is the village of Laxey, a cluster of clean looking cottages at the bottom of a steep wind- ing descent, in the gorge of a magnificent ravine, close to the sea-shore, on a small sandy bay. The road here, after winding considerably inland, turns suddenly towards the sea, whence the view of the vil- lage is extremely picturesque and beautiful ; a rivulet, for it cannot be called a river, though occasionally in some places a score yards in breadth, by whose tri- butary streams the machinery of the lead-mines, a CH. v.] LEAD MINES. 67 mile distant, is worked, here empties itself into the sea. The proprietors of the mines are solely depend- ent on these trickling donations, neither is the supply- rendered greater or more equable by reservoirs or other artificial means ; the soil however being rocky, there is little absoi^ption, so that the streams, small as they are, are tolerably regular all the year round. The machinery, applicable only to water power, is of extremely simple construction, such as the vil- lage wheelwright and blacksmith might furnish and keep in repair ; consisting of one water-wheel of thirty feet diameter, for the purpose of pumping the main shaft; a second of smaller dimensions, and a third of seventeen feet diameter, both the latter simi- larly employed in two other shafts, and lastly, a rough machine for crushing the ore. A man and boy are employed to attend this machine, the former to shovel the stones containing the ore, previously broken to the size ordinarily used in a macadamized road, into the hopper. The hopper is of simple con- trivance, similar to that of a flour-mill, except that the horizontal motion of the inclined plane below its throat, is given by the boy, who pulls a string fastened to the lower extremity of the plane. The broken stones, sliding downwards, pass between two large fluted iron cylinders, the one stationary, and the other, being the axle of the water-wheel, continually revolving, whereby they are cracked as easily as if they were coffee-berries, into pieces the size of lumps of sugar. No apparent effort of the machine during this process is perceptible, unless, indeed, when now and then perchance a fragment harder or larger than usual comes in contact with the cylinders ; which impediment, though it cause a momentary check to 68 LEAD MINES. [CH. the rotatory motion, is soon overcome, for the cylin- ders, separating for an instant with a jarring sound, close again with redoubled vengeance upon the re- creant stone, and violently dissever its particles. So soon as the ore is broken in the manner above described, it is again passed through a similar ma- chine, and cracked into still smaller pieces ; after which latter process, it becomes of a size sufficiently small for the operation of jigging. To this end, a large wooden box filled with the broken ore, and immersed in water, is affixed by a chain to one end of a long and strong pole. The bottom of the box is full of holes, and the pole is so unequally divided on its balance upon an upright post, that a small boy is enabled, by grasping the opposite end, and continually jumping with his arms above his head, to give the box a jigging motion sufficiently violent to cause the heavier pieces con- taining the ore, which here by the way is exceedingly rich, to make its way to the bottom of the mass. The aforesaid box holds two or three bushels of crushed ore, whereof by the above ojjeration, by the help of the water, the weight of the lead finally pre- ponderates, and rests in a distinct layer below the stone. From the banks of the stream, where, by the way, indications of rural industry are agreeably manifested, by the exposure of pieces of home-made linen, newly manufactured, on a bleaching ground, the Douglas road again ascends for the distance of a mile and up- wai'ds, till it attains, I think, its greatest elevation, all the way to Ramsey. Here the road again winds inland, and the mountainous aspect of the country around becomes more and more perfect, as piles of v.] MAUGHOLD CLIFFS. 69 rounded green hills, the extreme summit of which is usually enveloped in cloud, though in height less than eighteen hundred feet, rise one above another towards the westward. On the east, wherever a view of the sea is obtained, one is reminded by the bluff rugged line of cliffs of the north coast of Ireland. From an eminence, whence a gradual descent leads all the way a mile and a half to Ramsey, the features of the prospect comprising the expansive bay, the lofty cliffs of Maughold head, and an extensive spread of flat land upon an angular promontory below, bedecked with neatly fenced and highly cultivated fields, are of more than ordinary beauty. Maughold cliffs, independent of their altitude and size, which alone render them a distinguished feature in the island, are otherwise worthy of insjjection, bearing, in one particular especially, an extraordinary character, — for the ground on their verge, instead of being, as is usually the case, perfectly level, rises so as to form an inclined plane, ascending towards the sea; and thus appears as the dissevered base, scanty remnant, and solitary memorial of a for- mer chain of mountains, that perhaps in some dreadful convulsion of nature were riven from their foundations and precipitated into the sea. Whatever the cause, the same j^eculiarity, if 1 be not mistaken, is to be remarked in the cliffs adjoining the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. In an elevated situation, nearly at the extreme summit of Maughold cliffs, the village of Kirk Maug- hold, owing to the prevalence of a superstitious feeling in the island, may be said to be a spot of especial resort, as well as of the living, of the dead ; and St. Maughold's well, the effect of whose waters is 70 ST. maughold's well. [ch. supposed to be of a nature ratlier spiritual than tem- poral, is a general point of attraction that people visit in summer. The extent of the church-yard, and the number of its tenants, indicate reliance in the Saint's good offices, even after death, and considering that the village, three miles from Ramsey, whence a rude track leads from the low land at the bottom, is on the top of a hill, and that the appearances of a living population consist only in a few straggling houses, 1 was at a loss to conceive, on viewing this church-yard, how and wh}"^ so many quiet heavy corpses had been carried to such an inconvenient spot, till I heard the traditionary legend relating to the spring. My informant, a peasant, who undertook to lead me to the well, told me that the water cured all disorders, provided it were drank on the first Sunday in harvest, on which day, he said, a multitude of people from all parts collect every 3'ear for the purpose. On a Danish cross which stands outside the church-yard, were to be read, he added, all the particulars of its history, and first and foremost, how St. Maughold himself, in days of yore, galloped across the sea on horseback, and at the bottom of the cliff, setting spurs to his horse, caused him in a single bound to leap clean to the top. Here being seized with thirst, the horse, as he knelt to drink at the well, left an indented raai'k of his knee on the stone, which impression re- mains visible, he farther asserted, at the present day. The said Danish cross, a fine relique of antiquity, is covered with characters, which, though to the unlearned unintelligible, are perfectly dis- tinct and legible, whatever may be their import. The well rises nearly on the verge of the highest v.] TOWN OF RAMSEY. 71 cliff, and is defended by a porch formed of three large, unhewn blocks of slate-stone. Within, the water distils from above, drop by drop, through a thick bed of bright green moss, into the aforesaid stone basin ; whereupon I can testify that there actually exists an indentation such as my companion described, sufficient at any rate to prove, that sturdy superstition can reconcile all manner of improbabili- ties, even to finding a substitute in the knee of a living horse for an iron tool. The town of Ramsey is situated on the north-east- ern base of the chain of mountains that stretch diagonally from the north-east to the south-west, nearly across the island ; and frequently on a sum- mer's evening glow^ with a warmth of colouring worthy of the pencil of Claude, as the wreathing smoke, gilded by the rays of a setting sun, and re- flecting the purple heather, ascends from the peaceful cluster of clean white houses that nestle in their bosom and compose the town below. In the fore- ground the splendid bay forms a graceful curve, the chord of whose arc from Maughold Head to Craystyl Point, is at least six miles, and here an ex- tensive spread of pure w'hite sand, and numerous fishing boats continually in motion, embellish and enliven the harbour. The Liverpool and Glasgow steamers use the port of Ramsey, as a place of call for passengers on their voyage up and down, in preference to all other parts of the island; nevertheless, such visits are exclusively restricted to fine weather, nor is there at any time, except by means of a boat, communication between large vessels and the shore. As regards craft of two hundred tons or thereabouts, some of which are built 72 JETTY. [CH. in the town, at times only of the extreme height of the tide, access can be had to the dock. One place of accommodation for the use of small boats, is singular, and of curious construction. It is a sort of quay or jetty, formed altogether of slate- stone, whereof the slabs, instead of as usual being laid horizontal, are placed perpendicular, which mode has been adopted by reason of the soft unsound quality of the ground whereon the structure is built. Thus the long vertical slabs, as the whole mass sinks towards the middle, closely jam together, till the in- verted arch thus formed is supported as it were by abutments on each extremity. As this homely work is not intended for the purposes of promenade, the manner of constructing its surface is equally simple, yet the ends of the slabs, merel}^ levelled rudely by the hammer, afford a foothold infinitely more secure and less slippery than any description of pavement whatever. The Sulby river, the largest in the island, rises seven miles distant in the mountains, and, ancle deep at low water, and twenty or thirty yards in breadth, here empties itself into the sea. The interior of the town is clean, but the streets are for the most part narrow, some indeed more so than those of Douglas, and in many of the principal thoroughfares, a man by the help of an ordinary walk- ing stick, may touch both together the opposite houses. The inn, when I arrived, though a comfortable house, was somewhat in a state of bustle and disorder. A wedding had been celebrated the very same morn- ing, which event had disturbed the equanimity of the inmates ; and of the females especially, the services were absolutely unattainable, by reason of their ex- v.] A MANX WEDDING PARTY. 73 cited sympathies. The youthful bridegroom, attended only by two young ladies, the bride and her brides- maid, had crossed over from England a few days before, by the Liverpool steam-boat, and here they remained sojourners in the house during the inter- vening period of delay. As the young ladies mutually chaperoned each other, the young gentleman was necessarily unremitting in his attentions towards both, wherefore the second young lady's predicament, with regard to strict propriety, was extremely awkward ; one which required in fact no slight degree of matronly experience ; for hers was the care in behalf of her friend to guide the footsteps of youth amid the intri- cate mazes of friendship, where the path meanders dangerously among the precipices of love. The parties, as 1 was infonned, were man'ied by special license, which document in the Isle of Man costs five pounds, and now, the ceremony having been performed, they were taking refreshment, previous to their departure, in the apartment which afterwards was to be allotted to me. While their equipage, a kind of two-horse vehicle, was preparing, I had frequent opportunities, being pro tempore in an outer room, as persons passed backwards and forwards, of observing the young people within, and upon these occasions, remarked that the young ladies were always simjicring and silent, while the gentleman sustained the brunt of the conversation. The two former had a]iparently some time since finished eating, while the latter was completing his repast alone. To this end, a silk handkerchief to serve as a napkin was spread on his knees, and with fingers laden with a ])rofusion of broad gold rings, he was mercilessly sucking the VOL. II. E 74 A MANX WEDDING PARTY. [CH. bones of a roast duck, and dragging them between his teeth. Notwithstanding an operation so deroga- tory to effect, he was still comfortably satisfied with his own grace and eloquence, as extending a pair of extremely long arms towards the ladies, who kindly condescended to titter at every word he uttered, he invariably returned suitable tokens of obeisance, every action being accompanied with redundancy of motion, and straight lines being made curves on each trifling occasion, were it only to reach across the table for a spoonful of salt. Both arms he frequently crossed upon his bosom, and then spreading them abroad with Romeo-like gesticulation and force sufficient to stem the waves of the Hellespont, he would spout appropriate scraps of poetry, and afterwards gloat amorously upon the bride. In personal appear- ance he was not prepossessing, for he had re- markably thick blubber lips, a mouth of enormous calibre, full, prominent, light grey eyes, the right one veering full two points from its neighbour, eye- brows and eyelashes nearly white, and hair of the lightest flaxen. And as if to give his countenance, when he talked, the expression that nature had de- nied, he had a facetious manner of causing the twisted eye to vibi'ate and roll on its swivel. At last he led his fair companions down stairs to the carnage, in front of which were collected some half dozen ac- quaintance, formed by reason of his easy sociable manners even during this short matrimonial visit to Ramsey ; and while, as the open vehicle departed, he replied with significant nods and winks to the con- gratulations of his male friends, the ladies, radiant in blushes and bloom, smiled graciously to all, kissed their v.] THE " EARL GREY " STAGE-COACH. 75 hands to the maid servants of the inn, and bowed to the landlady. On my return to Douglas, T secured a place thither in a public carnage, not fairly to be called a stage- coach, but a sort of nondescript vehicle or caravan, somewhat like a baker's cart in fonn, with a door behind, and the name "The Earl Grey " painted con- spicuously in large red letters on a yellow body. Such as it is, it works regularly between Ramsey and Douglas, and up one day, down the next, performs the journey throughout the whole year. A few minutes before the hour of dejjarture, when I repaired to the coach office, the preparations for starting appeared at first sight most unusually tardy; for so far from finding the horsekeepers and the cattle ready at their posts, the carriage stood empty in the street with a hind wheel out of order, and such was the apathy among the neighbours upon making en- quiry, that I might very reasonably have come to the conclusion, thattheequipage belonged to nobody. The coach-office was closed, and no one was present to answer interrogatories, except a blacksmith, who had doffed his coat, laid his box of tools on the ground, and was lustily hammering upon the crazy wheel. A pair of long-tailed cart horses, stood quietly devour- ing their provender out of a basket ; and these saturnine animals, having finished their repast, first resting one hind leg and then the other, drooped their noses drowsily to the ground, with eyes closed, and motionless, otherwise than switching their tails now and then at the bite of a fly, or twisting an ear back- wards half way round at the clink of the hammer. In every day life I am inclined to believe more poetry exists than people imagine, for whether E 2 76 THE '• EARL GREY " STAGE-COACH. [cH. gnomes, sylj^hs, or fairies, ideal existences, or means purely mortal be employed to pull the strings of the puppets, companions of our progress, it matters not one farthing, so long as we are doomed to remain under invisible agency. In the present instance, though no coachman was to be found, yet as the blacl