COLLEGE MUSINGS.

THE STUDENT'S DIARY, AND FARTHER RAMBLES TO ANCIENT MONA, OR ISLE OF MAN, IN SEARCH OF THE PICTURESQUE.

(Continued from page 40.)

CHAPTER VI.

On the 1st of July, in the midsummer recess of 18-, I sailed from the Port of Whitehaven at 9 o'clock A.M. (nautical style), in a trading schooner, the only description of vessel at that period by which visitors could reach the island from that part of the opposite coast. Having no purser or steward on board, and each passenger being obliged to victual himself, according to the maritime language, and being no adept in catering, I was ill provided with stores; but I anticipated merely a few hours' sailing, and the circumstance therefore did not give me very great uneasiness. The cabin complement consisted of two, besides myself, a lady and gentleman, who were very conversible, particularly the male, who proved a most facetious and cheerful companion, always reducing every thing to a figure, from which I conjectured he was a commercial character; and dolefully regretting to me his neglect of a classical education when in conversation with our lady passenger. She decidedly claimed that rank by her superior deportment. From that pleasing naïve diction which the accomplished Irishwomen never relinquish, and which adds a peculiar charm to their always fascinating manners, I discovered that my fair compagnon du voyage was a daughter of Hibernia, and an officer's widow going on a visit to relations residing in the land of our present destination. The passage across the channel was tedious and irksome to all of us, occupying, from contrary winds, the incredible space of forty-eight hours! There being no comfortable accommodation owing to the size and class of the vessel, this delay would have been totally insufferable, and to myself rather inconvenient on the score of provisions, had not the good spirits of the rest of the party rallied me, and their stock generously supplied what my inexperience had not furnished. We were tantalised by a sudden calm, which obliged the master to cast anchor in sight of both coasts, but contrived, greatly to our relief and amusement, to disembark at early dawn, about 4 o'clock A.M., in Saxy Bay, a sweetly romantic estuary. The dilatory tedium of the passage, and the peculiar inconveniences of our bark, had been the means of introducing such sociability into our narrow circle, that it pained me to anticipate the hour of separation. We made an exchange of cards, and any unconcerned spectator would have imagined from the manner in which we took leave of one another, that our acquaintance had existed for years instead of hours. My fair friend very politely invited me when I came to Peel Town to take her uncle's retirement in my route, which I very readily promised to do. Not being able to procure any comfortable conveyance, I walked with my fellow-passenger, whose facetious humour had been a great source of amusement on board ship, and whom I subsequently dubbed, from his portly habit, Sir John Falstaff, to Douglas Town, five miles, no ordinary labour to the knight under a July's morning sun. In spite of the nauseating sickness produced by the see-saw motion of our lazy

vessel, I made a very fair breakfast on arriving at the hotel. I observed that this is no meagre unsubstantial meal in that "snug-tight-little island." There is a peculiar mode of conserving herrings, a fish that forms one of its staple articles of trade-which makes a most exquisite dish. Living of every description is remarkably cheap and abundant. Wines, spirits, and teas, which pay in England high custom-house and excise duties, being free from import here; and the privilege of protecting runaway debtors from the mother-country having been abolished, Douglas has become a great resort as a watering-place for visitors from the opposite shores of England and Ireland.

*

After doing ample justice to the breakfast, I strolled out to take a survey of the town and harbour. The quay, or more properly speaking perhaps, the pier, is the grand promenade. From its extremity, where there is a lighthouse to point out the entrance of the port, which is narrow and very rocky, you obtain a fine view of the beautiful bay, extending with a graceful sweep for three miles-the shore studded by elegant marine villas in detached terraces, and, on the slope of the hill which rises to a great elevation, stands in the dignified position of an ancient fabric, Mona Castle, formerly the seat of the Duke of Athol, then sole possessor and feudal lord of the isle. It is a fine old mansion commanding a magnificent view of the bay and the channel; and when "kept up in baronial style was no doubt a place of regal grandeur. It is now, with all the fiscal rights, privileges, and proprietorship in the soil of the whole island sold, I believe by the reigning duke, to government. But the immunities, from the operation of the excise laws, which render it so cheap a residence for families with a prescribed income, are still preserved. In the upper part of the town ascending from the harbour, new streets of private houses are erecting every season. Such is the alteration of the place; and towards the road to Castle-town, the capital of the island, the Nunnery, so called, where General resides, and another gentleman's residence, with the grounds and groves of each, form a finished ornament to the town. The hotels are remarkably good, and during the summer months want not for supporters, for every tide brings upon its bosom shoals of steampackets from Liverpool or Dublin thronged with passengers. For "the study of mankind,” I think I never obtained a better or more various collection of the species. I could reckon at the ordinary (to speak English) of my hotel, a poet, a painter, an actor, a physician, a lawyer, a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, in short, a host of every denomination, barring the canaille. The different sentiments of each upon any one given topic, if committed to paper, would have created a perfect Babel of opinions. It almost made me think there could not be found any two persons who would exactly agree on any one particular subject. This manly and sociable freedom of intercourse introduced me to the acquaintance of a new arrival, whom I quickly discovered to be a peripatetic like myself. He was many years my senior, but his manners, conversation, and sentiments so won upon my romantic fancy, that, when he observed he intended making a tour of the island on foot, I esteemed it a privilege to be admitted his companion in the same design. On the following morning, therefore, at five o'clock, whilst the greatest part of the inhabitants were buried in sleep, we found ourselves merrily pacing together the road to Castle-town, twelve miles to the south

*This is now, 1846,-a first-rate hotel.

western part of the island, "sniffing the morning air," redolent of coolness and fragrance, and stopping at intervals to admire some pretty villa peeping out from its woodland enclosure. We were 66 congenial spirits," and nature had cast us in the same mould for similarity of taste and feeling. If he live, and ever reads these by-gone reminiscences of our pleasant travel, he will learn how much I valued his too brief acquaintance. He will remember how the execrable roads here and there excited our mutual ire; then again, how a sudden turn called forth our simultaneous commendation of the wild and picturesque scenery; how we devoutly examined some little indigenous plant, whose beauties hidden to the common eye lifted our admiring souls from "Nature to nature's God!" And, perhaps, it was as pleasant to him as it was to me, our literary and philosophical converse.

We got to Castle Town about 8 o'clock, where we were glad to indulge our hungry appetites in breakfasting. It is a dull uninteresting place, and excepting its very antiquated Castle, the theatre of several local acts of petty tyranny in "days of olden time," and now the jail of the island, possesses nothing worthy the tourist's notice. As our present destination was Peel Town, situated on the western side of the island, twelve or fourteen miles farther on, we had recourse to the map of the guide-book I had purchased at Douglas Town-an indispensably useful little manual-to chalk out our line of march." Defraying our moderate breakfast-bill, therefore, onward we proceeded. The track from hence for many miles is very dreary, through a sterile and rocky country, looking naked of vegetation, and chilling in its general aspect, till you approach a pass called Hamilton Bridge. The country then assumes a cultivated appearance, undulating with hill and dale, and dotted with neat white kirks, as the churches are called there, although it is an Episcopal establishment, with their rural burial grounds. The Manx people are mostly a religious race, and great care and attention is bestowed upon their places of worship. The memory of their eminently good Bishop, Wilson, is not faded, and the influence of his truly pastoral acts is observable to this day. The dust and heat had half broiled us in crossing a mountainous ridge, without a shelter of any kind from the scorching rays of the sun; and it was with exhilirated spirits that we hailed in the distance a road-side cabeen, and quenched our parching thirst with a draught of the Irish landlady's small-beer; while her national vivacity and shrewd garrulity diverted our attention for a brief half hour from the fatigue we endured. In pursuing our route my companion enlightened me upon the reasons of the duke's disposing of his inheritance here, and thus discoursing, we overtook a group of the natives "decked in holiday suit," on their way, as they informed us, to St. John's fair; and as this place lay on our road, we joined company, amusing and instructing ourselves by asking them a number of questions connected with their agricultural pursuits, to which they gave us very intelligent replies, exhibiting none of the clownish stupidity or rudeness so generally conspicuous among the boors of other regions. Indeed, they were most necessary interpreters to us of the use and purposes of a small machine driven by a water-wheel, to which our attention was attracted by its noise, like that of a fulling mill. The object itself, without understanding at first its peculiar benefits, deserved the regard of the searcher and lover of the picturesque. The situation where the useful little machine was built merited pencilling. It was down in a silent glen, above which we were wending our footsteps, forming a

channel for a small mountain stream, whose dashing, as it rushed along the rocky bottom, echoed from side to side, uniting, with the din of the noisy mill. There is in that sterile pasture sometimes a great scarcity of green food for the cattle, and to remedy this parsimony of nature, they bruise, by the aid of this machine, a herb called goss by the natives, which forms a plentiful substitute for grass.

As we drew nearer to the scene of the fair, the groups of happy faces increased, and we were particularly struck by the simple beauty of the female peasantry. They certainly rivalled the far-famed fairness of their opposite neighbours, the Lancastrians, who for figure, complexion, and natural gracefulness, may compete with the Circassian of Eastern romance. On arriving at St. John's we (of course, as is usual on such an occasion and in situations,) found the whole locality in the hey-day of hilarity and such bustle; but, as there could not possibly be any thing there to interest us philosophers, we passed through the laughing throngs continuing our progress to Peel Town, which we reached time enough for an early dinner. The place itself is not fit to be mentioned after Douglas, but its celebrated ruins of Peel Castle, distinguished as a principal scene in Sir Walter Scott's Peveril of the Peak, its charming bay, in which the grand herring fleet was riding at anchor, and the surrounding cliffs and country rewarded us for our long and sun-burning ramble. There appeared to be a large concourse of visitors, but the brutal vulgarity of some of the people connected with the fishery is enough to drive away all civilised sojourners from the spot. We turned out after dinner to go over the ruins, which are very extensive and in good preservation. The Castle in former times must have been a secure place of refuge, being inaccessible entirely at high water, and the only communication at all, even when the tide is out, is by a narrow neck of land connecting the entrance of the portcullis with a wooden pier, which conducts the traveller into the town. We closed our day's adventures with a debate on the probable causes of the very perceptible difference between the females we had observed at St. John's fair, and the "gude women" of this herring mart, who by no means realised the glowing picture I had sketched of their fair countrywomen not five miles off. It almost looked as if their charms ran in strata, like their lead mines. An intrinsic piece of genuine ore in one level, and only as it were a few yards further, it is adulterated with the impurities of the soil. On the following morning we scrambled together up to the summit of a very lofty hill which frowns upon the town and ruins below. On a bright clear day, the top of this peak commands a view of the three united kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland; but the atmosphere being hazy from the vaporish heat, we could only discern the opposite coast of the last. The look out upon the channel is very expansive, and the effect was vividly heightened by the exceedingly interesting sight of the tiny fleet of herring smacks getting under weigh, their sails swelling with the morning land breeze. Climbing this hill is capital exercise for the dyspeptic and hypochondriac, sharpening the appetite and bracing the nerves. All such valetudinarians should covet the advantages of that muscular employment, and the very first summer season follow in our footsteps. Amidst all this admiration, and observation, and cogitation, I did not forget the address and invitation of my fair companion while on the bosom of the dangerous and treacherous deep. I therefore sallied out on a walk of dis

This Castle is now, 1846,-being fortified by Government.

covery alone, not venturing to take my new-made friend until I had first myself reconnoitred the feasibility of introducing a stranger when but a stranger myself, except to one amiable occupant of the abode I was now seeking. After trudging the distance of a mile I reached the cottage of Captain P, the uncle of the lady I before mentioned. It was a snug little dwelling or cot, embosomed in trees, a very necessary protection I should surmise from the "wintry winds," in that bold, bleak vicinity, and situated near a most romantic estuary or cove, the rear of the building facing a stupendous fell, with which I was informed many marvellous legends were connected by the wise gossips of the adjacent township. The widow quickly recognised me, and graciously conducted the ceremony of introduction to the veteran capitaine and his cara spousa, from both of whom I instantly received a truly cordial welcome. They had evidently seen what is commonly called "better days," but, like the case of very many other brave defenders of their country, the "piping times of peace," after many years' hard service, had brought nothing but the effects of toil and waste of constitution in "battles fought and won,” with marchings and counter-marchings, and a half-pay pittance. His manners were particularly of that easy gentlemanly degagée caste which none but the well-bred military man possesses. Free without vulgar familiarity. bland without bluntness, and dignified without any affected stiffness or reserve. The only blot in the mental portrait I drew of him on the spot was a yielding to an irascible hastiness of temper, which I knew not whether to ascribe to a national trait of character-being born in the land of the Emerald Isle-or to the petulance of a testy humour. Perhaps I may take blame to myself in exciting an ebulition of his foible. My fair friend, Mrs. H—, had introduced me also to her cousin, a young lady of bewitching loveliness, on a visit there from the north of Ireland, and it was proposed instanter that we three, who never can meet again in this world, should stroll down to the aforesaid romantic cove. Wrapped in contemplation of the surrounding curiosities, and discoursing "honeyed words," we took no heed of the fleeting moments that were passing on the swift wings of the sun's chariot steeds. The consequence was we returned home an hour too late for dinner, which the host, punctilio and precision personified, resented by scolding his sweet nieces. I endeavoured to throw the onus of the mishap upon my own shoulders, but nothing would pacify the old gentleman before the cloth was removed and the decanter was put into circulation, and he had fairly launched himself into the horrors of the American war, wherein he had personally served. Peace was restored in the deeply absorbing events of an "oft-told tale." I must not forget to mention as a mark of the veteran soldier's good breeding, that during my absence with the ladies he had walked down to my hotel and insisted upon my fellowtraveller joining us at the dinner table, and I really think his sedateness and intelligence of understanding very much contributed to procure our return to the captain's good graces. Our inattention to punctuality was a disobedience of standing orders not to be borne by one who had all his life been accustomed to command. But, perhaps, the most strange of all to-day's strange events was my learning now, for the first time, my fellow-pedestrian's cognomen. It arose from the occasion of introducing him to my friends. I suppose, but for this circumstance, I might have journeyed on with him a thousand miles and never once dreamt of making the enquiry. Conventional rules and customs have in general little to do, I think, with the habits of the children of nature and feeling

VOL. IV.

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