expended a considerable sum in getting it put together;

but it was claimed by the Duke of Atholl, as Lord of the Manor, and by his Grace presented to the College Museum.'

Lead ore has been found in different parts of the Island so early as the year 1292. John Comyn, Earl of Buchan, obtained from Edward I., a license to dig for lead in the Calf of Man, to cover eight towers of his castle of Cruggelton, in Galloway.2

At a Tynwald held by Sir John Stanley at the castle of Rushen, on the vigil of St. Mary, 1422, it was ordered, "That my mine be sett forward by my Lieutenant Receiver and Comptroller, for my best profit, and that they see the miner do his duty."

Mines of lead were worked in the Isle of Man during the reign of Henry IV. of England, and were in some activity in the early part of last century. Bishop Wilson says, "The lead mines have been wrought to good advantage, many hundred tons having been smelted in England." Mr. Taylor, in his Records of Mining, states, that five hundred tons of lead ore were raised in the Isle of Man in the year 1828; in the year 1830 there were five hundred and forty-eight tons of ore and black jack' exported; and, in 1836, there was even a larger quantity.

Lead mines have been wrought for a considerable time past in the mountains of Man, at Foxdale, Brada, and Laxey. The Bishop of Landaff states the produce of some of the Manks ore to have amounted to twenty ounces of silver in the ton of lead, and by some of the workmen

1 In the Edinburgh Journal of Natural History and of the Physical Sciences for August, 1836, p. 58, this fossil is stated to have been dug up in the parish of Kirk Ralaff, which is evidently a mistake, as there is no such place in the Island.

2 Chalmer's Caledonia, vol. iii, p. 372. Dugdale Baron, vol. i, p. 685.

3 Statute 1422, Lex Scripta of the Isle of Man, p. 26.

♦ Knight's Magazine, No. 186. Mineral Kingdom, Section 33, "Lead." 5 Oswald's Guide, p. 47

Watson's Chemical Essays, vol. iii, p. 328, 7th edition.

it has been asserted that the quantity of silver has occasionally amounted to thirty-five ounces in the ton. A recent writer says, "The lead glance of the Manks mines is very rich in silver, one of it affording, on assay, 180oz. of silver, according to the report of the workmen employed at the mines.'

Mr. Wood was evidently misled by the workmen, as I have the best authority for stating that the silver produce never rose above the quantity mentioned by the Bishop of Landaff.

Copper ore is found at Brada. That mine was first discovered in the seventeenth century; it is abundant and rich in quality, producing six pennyweights of pure copper from an ounce of ore. All mines belonged by prerogative to the Lord of the Isle: they were let by him, and he claimed, as lessor, one-eighth part of their gross produce. If discovery is made of any mine or ore within the Island, the same is to be immediately communicated to the Lord proprietor, and if he sends over a miner, the Lord's officers are to see him do his work faithfully, because the Lord should not be at expense in that work unless it be to his profit and advantage.2

There is scarcely any growing timber to be seen on the Island older than the middle of last century, although the legislature, upwards of two hundred years ago, years ago, manifested great care to protect growing wood in all time coming. In the year 1629, it was enacted, "That any person convicted of breaking trees, plants of trees, or quick-setts, should be whipped throughout the market towns of the Island;" and at a subsequent period, "Forasmuch as it would greatly conduce not only to the beauty, but also to the health and riches of my Island, to have wood planted in all convenient places, be it enacted, that who

1 Woods' History of the Isle of Man, p. 19.

2 Statutes, anno. 1613, 1618, 1630.

CHAP. I.

B

soever shall be convicted of having cut, broken, or spoiled any tree, sett, plant, or graft, shall, for the first offence, be compelled to plant fire for every one so hurt or spoiled; and for the second offence ten, in such places as the owner of the land shall appoint; and for the third offence to be fined to the Lord, and suffer such punishment, by imprisonment, as the Governor or his Deputy may think fit to inflict."

Although the Island is destitute of growing wood to an extent that might not have been expected by these enactments, the log timber yet found in the turburies prove that it has not always been so. In the Curragh of Ballaugh, trees of very large dimensions have been found twenty feet beneath the surface, with their roots firm in the ground, and their trunks laid over in a northeasterly direction. The trees found buried are oak or fir separately, never intermixed, and occasionally hazel, birch, willow, and thorn. Some names of places yet imply that the Island was formerly well wooded.3

Injurious to the Islanders as their ancestors' neglect, or, perhaps, careless destruction of their growing timber proves, still greater blame attaches to themselves, who now feel the want, and possessing the ability to supply it, still omit planting. Some small attempts have been made, forming a kind of oasis in the desert.

1 Statutes, anno. 1629, 1667, Lex Scripta, pp. 103, 151.

2 Sacheverell's Account of the Isle of Man, London, 1702, p. 12.

3 Balla Kelly in Marown; Balla Kelly in Santon; Balla Killey in Malew; Balla Killey in Rushen; Balla Killey in Bride; Balla Kelly in Maughold; Balla Kelly in Andreas, and Ballakeyl in Andreas, all signify "The town or estate of the Wood or Forest." Knock-e-Killey in German, "The hill of the Wood;" Eary Kelly in Michael, and Airy Kelly in Marown, both signify "The open Wood or Forest.” Ballacallin, "The place of the Hazelwood;" Cronk-darragh in Arbory, "The hill of the Oakwood;" Darragh in Rushen, "Oak trees;" and Glen Darragh in Rushen, "The vale of Oak ;"-Cregeen's Manks Dictionary, Douglas, 1835.— Mc. Alpine's Gælic Dictionary, Edin. 1833. At the present time in the south of Scotland, a single farm steading is called "a town," and this appears to have been the case formerly in the Isle of Man.

What a difference in scenery would this little Island present, if the horizon were skirted by a fringe of wood, and the foreground ornamented by waving groves,occasionally concealing the mountain streams and clustered cottages; but it is not in point of ornament alone that the deficiency of growing wood is to be regretted, the scarcity of timber impedes the improvement of agriculture. What the Manks farmer cannot supply by stone or straw remains often undone.

By an ancient customary law, the inhabitants were not obliged to fence their lands, except from Lady-day till Michaelmas, so that during the remaining part of the year the lands lay common; but as the growth of timber could not be extended while such a course was followed, it was provided in 1583, "That all make sufficient ditches of the height of four feet-and-a-half, and in thickness of a double ditch." By the act of 1667, these fences were required to be five feet high; and by an act of 1691, all fences were required to be five feet-and-a-half high, with a trench at the bottom of one foot-and-a-half deep, and three feet otherwise; a fence of six feet high in the perpendicular, where a trench cannot be made, and where a trench must be used instead of a ditch, such trenches to be six feet broad at the top, and three feet deep.3

These fences are constructed of sods taken from the

'The aspect of the Island has, however, been certainly much improved since it was thus described by Waldron, not much above a century ago. "The place may properly enough be called a rocky mountainous desert, little space being left for either arable or pasture, and nothing of wood or forest in the whole Island. You may ride many miles, and see nothing but a thorn tree, which is either fenced round or some other precaution taken that so great a rarity shall receive no prejudice. Hedges they have none, but what are made of clay. They have a great quantity of fern and gorse that serves them to bake their bread with instead of wood.”—Description of the Isle of Man, London, 1731, p. 143.

2 By a ditch, is here meant hedge; the word is probably a corrupted sound of dyke or mound, and is used as such in Ireland. By double ditch is meant a hedge consisting of two exterior ranges of sods with a space between them filled with earth raised from the side or bottom.-Quayle's Agriculture of the Isle of Man, pp. 47, 48. 3 Statutes, anno. 1583, 1667, 1691, Lex Scripta, pp. 78, 166, 180.

surface, and filled up in an equilateral triangle, to the height required by law; at the foundation they reach the width of six feet, and at the summit two. The top is generally planted with furze, which gives the country a very primitive appearance, particularly as the fields in general are very small.

The space of ground excoriated to raise these hedges is never less than four feet on each side, but where struggling whins and stones stud the surface, fourteen feet on each side are sometimes sacrificed to raise the embankment. From the first moment of the erection of some of these fences their decay commences, by the mere action of the elements; the sand returns to the surface, whence it came, and new sacrifices of soil must be made to keep them at their original elevation.

The original design of these fences it may be supposed, was to mark each man's holding, rather than to exclude the cattle of strangers, or to protect his own. The law of trespass is spread over the statute book, and the legislature strives to produce, by means of fines and penalties, that which the laws of motion and matter forbid! In order to procure the food growing on the slanting fence, the cattle and sheep acquire the habit of clambering on it, and often, perhaps from natural causes, preferring the forbidden side to their own. The boundary fences are often the grounds of contention between contiguous owners, each wishing to throw the burden of repairs on his neighbour, and consequently to neglect them himself; hence the wretched state of the fences, and the employment of penfolds.'

1 Statutes, anno. 1664, 1665, 1705, 1747, 1753, Lex Scripta, pp. 144, 157, 207, 315, 354. This primitive mode of enclosing land intended for tillage, is not wholly confined to the Isle of Man. In Jersey, every field is surrounded by a mound of earth six or eight feet broad at the base, and nearly as high, surmounted by hedge brambles; but in Guernsey, where the fences are of the same description, they are topped with furze.-Inglis's Tour of the Channel Islands, chap. ii., iii.