is a sailor's jacket and trowsers of fine blue cloth. It is termed the Manks' livery; but when or whence this fashion arose, I have not been informed. 'The language of Man is naturally Erse; and many of the country people do not understand a word of English. I subjoin as a specimen a translation of the Lord's Prayer from the Mank's prayer-book. 66 Ayr ain t'ayns niau, casheric dy row dt' ennym dy jig dty reeriaght, dty aigney dy row jeant ev y thalloo myr t'hy ayns niau; cur dooin nyn arran jiu as gagh-laa, as leigh dooin nyn loghtyn, myr ta shin leigh daues yn ta jannoo loghtyn nyn 'oi. As ny lecid shin ayns miolagh, agh livrey shin veigh olk. Son chiat's yn reeriaght, as yn phooar, as yn ghloyr, son dy bragh as dy bragh. Amen."-p. 94. The Isle of Man is a place of considerable resort for strangers, and is become so chiefly or altogether upon two accounts. The first is, that it is a place privileged by law from all debt not contracted here; and from debts contracted here, if not with the inhabitants, as far as respects the person and money of the debtor, but not his goods. The subject will be further noticed in the Second Book. The island is so much the resort of persons of this description, that a man, on his arrival, is, ipso facto, immediately suspected of coming to avoid his creditors. A poem by a Manksman has the two following couplets: "Let not the peaceful stranger hope to find An Eden here, and saints of human kind; Than vigilant detraction grasps her prey." The second reason is, that a family may live, especially in that country, and more particularly at the northern part, at a very small expense; to elucidate this subject it may be proper to mention a few examples of expenditure. At Douglas, where the price of articles, owing to the influx of strangers, has doubled within the last ten years, veal or mutton is sold at 6d. or 7d. per pound, beef at 6d. and pork by the side at 31d; fresh butter from 9d. to 1s.; eggs from 4d. to 8d. per dozen, being ac counted dear when exceeding 6d.; and fowls from 1s. 6d. to 2s. per couple; port wine, very good, at 21s. per dozen; brandy at 11s. 6d. per gallon; hollands at 11s. 6d.; rum from 6s. to 8s. 6d.; tea from 4s. to 6s. per pound; refined sugar from 9d. upwards, and salt at 3s. per cwt. In the northern part of the island, and about Ramsey, meat is generally from 1d. to 2d. per pound lower; eggs are frequently sold as low as four, and, till within these few years, as six or eight for 1d.; butter at 6d. per pound, which, on account of the little demand for it, is usually salted, put into earthenware pans called crocks, and, at convenient times, sent to Douglas. Being one day at Ramsey, a woman, with a couple of ducks, came to the inn where I was. She asked sixteen-pence for them; the landlady bid her eight-pence, saying, that fourpence a duck was their full value. Whether the bargain was made I did not hear. At Castletown, the price of provisions is about midway between Douglas and Ramsey. Foreign goods in general are, of course, somewhat cheaper at Douglas than elsewhere. It is generally acknowledged that the price of house-rent, of land, and of provisions, has doubled doubled within the last fourteen years. I was informed that, half a century ago, a gentleman might keep his carriage and live sumptuous❤ ly for 1001. per annum.'-p. 99. Here, the author, after showing, that several articles of provision are cheaper in Man than in any part of England or Ireland, and reminding us that Man has no tax-gatherers, subjoins, To support life is a mere animal propensity. No cultivated mind, which has once tasted the pleasures of society, would willingly relinquish them for the conversation of the peasant and the farmer, however desirable in other respects the residence might be. Hence it happens that thinly inhabited islands slowly increase their population; and that so many Europeans have repented of their emigration to the interior settlements of America. Against a sojournment in the Isle of Man, no such reasons any longer exist. If it cannot boast of the deep learning of many of its inhabitants, it justly may of the usually more desirable qualifications of sociability, politeness, easy conversation, and general knowledge. 'The attractions of the island appear sufficient to occasion an influx of strangers. The worst characters will probably introduce the most wealth. Having no money which they can honestly call their own, they will be prodigal of that which they have iniquitously acquired. They will build and plant, and endeavour to introduce into the prison scene every possible luxury and comfort. On its being the continual resort of strangers depends, and I think may safely depend, the increasing prosperity of this country.'—p. 101. The author now commences his topographical description, which he prefaces with these general remarks: 'The country has many extensive and some romantic views to boast of, but is altogether without such gentlemens' seats as, in England, would claim the traveller's attention. There are few which deserve an higher epithet than that of pretty; and the owner would be greatly surprised, if asked by the stranger to shew the interior of his mansion. Plantations and shrubberies are sometimes seen to flourish with great luxuriance, but no park-scenery is yet visible. The churches have not any peculiar characteristic. The altar and the saloon are little decorated by the artist's skill. The relics of antiquity are not numerous. They are chiefly mounds of earth, and detached masses of the supposed temples or altars of the Druids, most of which would be passed on Salisbury Plain, or in many parts of North Wales; and stones or crosses, with Runic characters on the edge, to be read from the bottom upwards, supposed to be erected by the Danes, during their residence in the Isle of Man, and after their conversion to the Christian faith, in the tenth or eleventh century.—In the Calf of Man have been found, buried, ancient brass daggers, and other weapons, in a few instances partly of pure gold.'—p. 102. In the town of Douglas, which is the post-town of the island, 'Almost every article of necessity or convenience may be purchased at one or other of the shops. There is only one person here, or, I be lieve, in any part of the country, who sells books, and he is by trade a bookbinder; and only two who sell stationary. I tried in vain to buy a sheet of blotting paper. Wines and spirits are retailed by grocers, bakers, and linen-drapers.'-p. 107. 'Some years ago a theatre was built, and plays were acted at Douglas; but even for a few weeks the proprietor did not meet with sufficient encouragement, and they are consequently discontinued. An assembly every three or four weeks is the only public amusement of the inhabitants. They are fond of visiting, and of cards, and ill-natured people say of scandal. A public circulating-library and reading-room have been lately established, and are a great acquisition to the town. They have commenced on a moderate scale, and contain, at present, a very small but well chosen collection of books. The number of proprietors, all of one class, does not exceed ninety. The funds are divided into guinea transferable shares, every share-holder paying one guinea a year for contingent expences and the improvement of the library. On the arrival of every packet, the room is crowded with subscribers, flocking thither to read the English news. On other occasions it is little frequented, and the conversation is always more political than literary. To particularize any might appear invidious to others; but every one will be pleased with the urbanity of manner and general knowledge of the High Bailiff, a native of the island.'-p. 109. 'There are in the town two billiard tables for the amusement of gentlemen. Ely Shaw is, in the same house, a billiard-table keeper, a woollen draper, a publican, and he keeps a post chaise for the use of travellers, with a steady and civil driver.'-p. 110. A weekly newspaper is printed and published by Mr. Jefferson. The circulation of it is considerable.'-p. 114. Mr. W. indulges, a little lower, in a digression, the subject of which will possibly surprize some of our readers as much as it appears to have done the author: 'I was struck with the sang-froid with which a market-woman would, if her stocking was down, pull up her petticoats and refix her garter 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. 6 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, a distance of two hundred yards. Within this short space I have seen, when highs 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 conveyance. 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.'p. 117. At nine miles south-west of Douglas, is Castletown or Rushen, the metropolis of Man. 'Few strangers,' says Mr. W. 'dwell here, and I am told that the natives do not associate with them upon easy terms.' In this town there is a free-school, established by Dr. Barrow, about the year 1670. Four students are educated on the foundation. The professor' must be a master of arts of one of the British Universities, and he is allowed a salary of sixty pounds per annum. The castle, called Castle Rushen, was built, says tradition, about the year 960:— The Manksmen, according to Waldron, had a strange tradition concerning this castle, which, as it may probably amuse the reader, is here transcribed in his own words : "Just at the entrance of the castle is a great stone chair for the governor, and two lesser for the deemsters. Here they try all causes except ecclesiastical, which are entirely under the decision of the bishop. When you have passed this little court, you enter a long winding passage between two walls, not much unlike what is described of Rosamond's labyrinth at Woodstock. In case of attack, ten thousand men in attempting to enter might be destroyed by a very few. The extremity tremity of it brings you into a room where the keys sit. They are twenty-four in number: they call themselves the parliament; but in my opinion they more resemble our juries in England, because the object of their meeting is to adjust differences among the common people, and they are locked in till they have given their verdict. They may be said to be supreme judges, because from them there is no appeal but to the lord himself. "A little further is an apartment which has never been opened within the memory of man. The persons belonging to the castle are very cautious in giving you any reason for it; but the natives, who are excessively superstitious, assign this, that there is something of enchantment in it. They tell you that the castle was first inhabited by fairies, and afterwards by giants, who continued in the possession of it till the days of Merlin; who, by force of magic, dislodged the greatest part them, and bound the rest in spells indissoluble to the end of the world. In proof of this, they tell you a very odd story:-They say there are a great many fine apartments under ground, exceeding in magnificence any of the upper rooms; several men of more than ordinary courage have, in former times, ventured down to explore the secrets of this subterranean dwelling-place, but none of them ever returned to give an account of what they saw; it was therefore judged expedient that all the passages to it should be continually shut, that no more might suffer by their temerity. But about some fifty or fifty-five years since, a person who had an uncommon boldness and resolution, never left soliciting permission of those who had power to grant it, to visit those dark abodes; in fine, he obtained his request, went down, and returned by the help of a clue of packthread which he took with him, which no man before himself had ever done, and brought this amazing discovery :— "That after having passed through a great number of vaults, he came into a long narrow place; which, the farther he penetrated, he perceived he went more and more on a descent: till having travelled, as near as he could guess, for the space of a mile, he began to see a little gleam of light, which, though it seemed to come from a vast distance, was the most delightful object he ever beheld. Having at length arrived at the end of that lane of darkness, he perceived a very large and magnificent house, illuminated with many candles, from whence proceeded the light just mentioned. Having, before he began the expedition, well fortified himself with brandy, he had courage enough to knock at the door, which a servant, at the third knock, having opened, asked him what he wanted? I would go as far as I can, replied our adventurer: be so kind therefore as to direct me how to accomplish my design, for I see no passage but that dark cavern through which I came. The servant told him he must go through that house; and accordingly led him through a long entry, and out at a back door. He then walked a considerable way, and beheld another house more magnificent than the first; and, all the windows being open, discovered innumerable lamps burning in every room. Here also he designed to knock, but had the curiosity to step upon a little bank which commanded a low parlour; and, looking in, he beheld a vast table in the middle of the room, |