different hotels. Two hundred and fifty Odd Fellows dined in the large room over the New Market; nor were the immediate wants of the poor overlooked on that joyous occasion; nearly £120 having been collected by voluntary subscription in Douglas and its vicinity. From a full fraught cornucopia upwards of six hundred indigent persons partook of a substantial and plentiful dinner at the Soup Dispensary; and about sixty inmates of the House of Industry were entertained in a similar manner. Sir William Hillary, Bart., feasted all the sailors of the Lifeboat establishment; and the Governor gave an excellent dinner to all the prisoners confined in Castle Rushen. Fireworks and balls, in the evening, terminated these animated festivities. In the procession at Douglas, what most attracted the attention of the vast company, was the novel sight of a printing press, which Mr. Quiggin had erected on a cart, in full operation, striking off the national anthem of "God save the Queen," many hundreds of which were distributed gratuitously to the gazing multitude.

It may be remarked that the Mona's Isle, Royal Mail Steam Packet, illuminated with upwards of six hundred variegated lamps, tastefully arranged, presented a grand and imposing spectacle, as she lay at anchor in the Bay of Douglas.

CHAPTER X.

MOUNDS AND FORTIFICATIONS.

Dormitories of the Dead-Ancient Custom of Burying eminent Persons who fell in Battle-Cromlachs, Cairns, standing Stones, and other Sepulchral Monuments-The green Moats of Galloway alluded toTynwald Hill-Origin of the Name-Formalities of the Tynwald Court-Fortlets and Blockhouses enumerated-Fortified Camp described-Great Antiquity of the Fort of Douglas-Peel Castle described -Occupied as a state Prison-Castle of Rushen described-Besieged by King Robert, the Bruce-The Garrisons built and maintained in repair by Suits and Services called Carriages—Quarterlands taxed to supply the Castle Larder-Carriage Troves-Castle Mazes-Setting Corn-Duties of the Garrison Officers-Soldiers' QualificationsInsular Militia-Commanded by Majors and Captains of Parishes -Dress-Watching and Warding, a Duty of great Importance— Male Population may be called to Arms-All Military Appointments now vested in the Crown of England.

SEVERAL of the large conic tumuli with which the Isle of Man abounds have been found, upon opening, to be dormitories of the dead. The significant names of some of these mounds might have prompted curiosity to make this discovery. One of the largest in the Island is called Cronck-ny-marroo,-" The hill of the dead." That the carnage of war has tenanted these moats, may be inferred

1 Many sepulchral tumuli, or burial places, are yet remaining. The urns which have been taken out of them are well burnt, and of so hard a clay that it is scarcely possible to break them. They are full of bones.-Camden's Britannia, vol. ii, p. 1455. In 1658, M. Chaloner, who was then governor under Lord Fairfax, caused a barrow, near Bishop's Court, to be opened, and found in it fourteen urns, or earthen pots, placed with their mouths downwards: one of them, of finer workmanship than the rest, was imbedded in fine white sand, but contained nothing more than a few brittle bones which had evidently passed through the fire.-Wood's History of the Isle of Man, p. 156. "Some of the urns are enclosed by large stones placed edgeways in the earth, and some are found in stone coffins, one coffin containing many urns."-Feltham's Tour in the Isle of Man, in 1797, 1798, p. 180.

from the many sanguine conflicts which have deluged the Island in blood."

It was a custom of the Danes, when a battle was finished, for every soldier to bring a helmet-full of earth towards raising a monument over the slain; and when a distinguished Caledonian fell in battle, the soldiers set his remains upright, with his spear in his hand, which, by law, was required to be eighteen feet long, and then banked him up with earth till the top of his spear was covered.3 These circumstances may account for the sepulchral mounds in the Isle of Man being so large and numerous.

Cronck-ny-marroo is a fine specimen of the sepulchral barrow; it stands on the sea-cliff, near the creek of Grenach it is an oblong and regularly-formed turf mound, forty feet long, twenty broad, and upwards of twelve feet in height, placed across the isthmus of a small insulated crag which overhangs the beach.

The largest mound in the Island, is Cronk-na-moar, or, "The large hillock," commonly called by the inhabitants, "The fairy hill." It stands in a morass near Kirk Christ

1 The largest sepulchral barrow raised in modern times, is that to the memory of Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot, commenced in 1820, at Warsaw. "In raising this immense mound, almost every inhabitant of that nation, male and female assisted." -Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 260.

2 Borthwick's British Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1776, p. 125.

3 By act of the Scottish parliament, "All spears to be six elns in length, under pain of escheat of the spears, and the maker or home bringer to be in the king's will.". James III, Parliament 6, cap. 44, p. 110. "At this time, the Annandale and Liddesdale men carried spears two elns longer than the rest of their countrymen."-Sir Walter Scott, quoted in Logan's Scottish Gael, vol. ii, p. 308.

4 Monuments of the ancient inhabitants are often found in the form of little green round hills. It is the received opinion, that these are the graves of giants, and, indeed, bones larger than the human size are often found in them; but we must remember, that as the ancients durst not approach the palace of Odin on foot, their horses were buried with them: it is therefore very probable that the bones of these animals are often mistaken for those of men.-Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i, cap. xii.

5 The names given by the Druids to their favourite mounds, or tumuli, were of the most venerable kind; Siodhum, or "mounts of peace," were the most common. The idea that the vulgar retain to this day of these mounts, is, that they are inhabited by those inferior kind of genii denominated fairies.-Smith's Gaelic Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1780, page 30.

Rushen; it is a truncated cone nearly forty feet high, and upwards of four hundred feet in circumference at the base. Its summit forms an area of twenty-five feet in diameter, surrounded by elevated edges in the form of a parapet five feet high. At its base, are the remains of a deep and wide fosse, more particularly towards the eastern side, where it divides the cronck from a low embankment extending from the edge of the morass. Opposite to this terrace, the ascent to the summit of the hill is less precipitous than on the other sides, and is in some measure divided into lodgments or platforms, apparently of the original formation. The Fairy-hill is composed of gravelly soil similar to that of the adjoining bank, and according to tradition, was raised over the remains of King Reginald who was murdered there by his uncle Ivar, on the third of the Kalends of June, 1249; but according to the most authentic account, Reginald was interred in the Church of St. Mary, of Rushen.' The structure of this mound bears evidence of its having been a fortified possession.

Near Kirk Andreas Church, is seen Cronk Ballavarry; and about a mile and a half nearer the shore, is Cronk-edooney; about half a mile from Ramsey, on the Kirk Andreas road, stands Cronk Aust; all of which, with many others of a similar description, scattered over the Island, have evidently been erected for similar purposes.

The ancient inhabitants of every region have raised memorials to the illustrious dead, that have outlasted the transactions they were intended to perpetuate. The Greeks incinerated their dead, and placed in the apex of the tumuli, conical pillars or images of various kinds. The Jews, from an early period of their history, raised

1 Johnstone's Chronicles of Man, p. 151, and Chronicles of Man, in Camden's Britannica; Sacheverell's Account of the Isle of Man, 1703, p. 13. A cross stood formerly at the place where this prince was slain, called, "Cross Ivar.”—Johnstone's Celto Normanica, Copenhagen, 1786, Appendix.

cairns over the ashes of their departed friends, to commemorate their actions. Ossian, in describing the tombs of his heroes, says, "Raise high the mossy stones of their fame, that the children of the north hereafter may behold the place where their fathers fought." In Gaelic, the solemnities of the funeral is called Foiradh, that is, the heaping of the stones-the making of the cairn over the dead.' In early times, the same mode of inhumation appears to have been followed in the Isle of Man, varied only according to circumstances. The barrow composed of stones of an irregular size, carelessly heaped together, are generally found in the mountains and on the eastern side of the Island, while those composed entirely of mould, are mostly found in the low grounds adjoining the northern and southern shores. A A group of small barrows may be seen regularly ranged on Lammal-hill, and several more widely scattered on the mountains of Archallaghan. Many single barrows remain very entire in the neighbourhood of Bishop's Court, in the parishes of Andreas, Bride, Jurby, German, and Rushen. In the parish of Patrick, near the Niarbyl or Dalby Point, or hill called Cronckeyrey-yn-laa, is a large cairn which, according to tradition, was the cemetery of several of the ancient Kings of Man.2 Cromlachs and cairns of large dimensions are frequently met with in the Island, one of which, opened by my friend Dr. Oswald, of Douglas, contained three small urns placed on a kind of tassellated pavement of pebbles, surrounded by some chips of charcoal of the oak, and the central earth was evidently loaded with carbonaceous matter.

3

1 Lord Teignmouth's Sketches, vol, i, p. 199.

2 Haining's Historical Sketches, pp. 134, 135.

3" In the Celtic language, Cromlach signifies a 'crooked stone;' so denominated not from being crooked in its figure, but from the standing position in which it was generally erected, the roof stone being an inclined plane, in order to let the blood of the victim flow the readier from it, that by tracing the different meanderings of the sanguine stream in its descent, the priest might draw his auguries for good or evil." -Toland's History of the Druids, London, 1726, p. 96.