in its proper situation: but, in many towns of Ireland, the practice is still more prevalent: It is in all cases confined to the sober and matronlike class, and never followed by the younger damsels.

The more we see of the world the less subject are we to surprize. Had I previously, as I have since, spent an autumnal month at Liverpool, these trivial things would hardly have been noticed. It is the custom of the Lancashire people to give themselves, once a year, a thorough washing. In order to effect this purpose, the inhabitants of the interior of the country; especially about Bolton, club together and contribute a weekly sum to pay the expense of an excursion to Liverpool in the course of the autumn. The scene commences a little below the Old Church, and continues till impeded by the bathing houses, à distance of two hundred yards. Within this short space I have seen, when high-water has happened in the morning, as many as two hundred people, including men, women, boys, and girls, in the water or on the beach. The men are naked, except occasionally one or two still clad in inexpressibles. Some of the women wear bathing dresses; others, their

,

shifts: some do no more than pull up their clothes; others retain nothing but their flannel petticoats. The girls of eight, ten, or twelve years old appear as nature made them. Though the sexes generally undress in detached parties upon the beach, they mix together in the water. In shallow places I have seen girls dancing, and in deeper water pursuing, and pursued by, the boys. To say that delicacy is determined altogether by custom might perhaps appear an unfounded and barbarous assertion: but where none is imagined little can exist. Persons engaged in this practice of annual ablution do not appear to consider it indelicate. Below the fort a similar scene is presented; and a little further on are about thirty large bathing machines, used promiscuously by ladies and gentlemen. The bather is usually desirous of getting as many as he can into one vehicle. A lady, with whom I am acquainted, went with a companion early one morning to bathe. A country-woman and her husband were about to follow them into the carriage. The woman apologized for introducing her husband, by expressing the fear she had to go into the water alone. I need hardly add, that they were obliged to seek another con

veyance. The gentry of Liverpool resort chiefly to the corporation baths, but usually bathe in the river to which a flight of steps conducts them. The partition between the ladies and gentlemen is deal boarding, out of which a little knot or two have made their escape, and through which the hand of curiosity has bored two or three holes. Many of the stronger sex swim a quarter of a mile from shore, but beyond the boarding the more beautiful rarely venture.

With respect to cleanliness or filth the inhabitants of Man deserve not national encomium or stigma. I have never witnessed the nastiness of Scotland, but had an instance of Scotch dirt in the person of my landlady. I was waiting in the kitchen for the boiling of a can of water: she came down to warm her feet. After holding them for some time alternately to the fire, she observed, that lately she had found it very difficult to get her feet warm; that she had not washed them for some time; and she supposed the fire could not easily penetrate the dirt.

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CHAPTER X.

From Douglas to Castletown.

To go from Douglas to Castletown we proceed over a bridge at the upper end of the harbour, beyond which a spring-tide flows two or three hundred yards. Past the nunnery mill the road becomes very pleasant, having on one side the grounds of Major Taubman, commencing with a deep bank, well covered with trees; and on the other a hedge planted upon rising ground. In ascending the hills the prospect becomes extended, and on turning about we perceive Snawfel, Penypont, and the neighbouring mountains, About half way from Douglas to Castletown we pass the seats of Mount Murray and Newtown, and see plainly the houses of the metropolis with the castle rearing its head amidst them. On the right of the road is South Barrule, vieing in majesty with the loftiest mountain of the island; and nearer to us, in the same direction, the little chapel of St. Mark, built in 1712, and situated in the parish of Malew. On the left is Santon

church; and another mile leads us to the cross

road, which turns off towards it. As it is my design to make the reader acquainted with every thing in the least degree worthy of his notice, I need not apologize for making him occasionally deviate from the highway, to view a rustic village or solitary church.

Santon, or St. Anne's church, takes its name from its dedication to St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. It is situated half a mile from the sea. It is the practice of the island, whenever a person wishes to make any thing known, to affix a notice to the church-door; and here I found the following:

66

Joseph Johnson respectfully informs his friends and the public, that he has opened a shop adjoining Mr. Robert Cannel's, chandler, where he follows saddling, harness, and trunkmaking, &c.

"An apprentice wanted.

Highest price for horse skins, pig skins, and slink skins."

In the church-yard is a tomb-stone to the memory of Daniel Tear, who died at the advanced age of one hundred and ten years, on