mine and they are likewise yours, But an if that will not do,
Let them be mine, good friend! for I Am the poorer of the two."

Hawthorns, Keswick, June 1891.

CONTENTS

THE STORY OF THE MANX KINGS

Islanders--Our Island--The Name of our Island--Our History--King
Orry--The Tynwald--The Lost Saga--The Manx Macbeth--The Manx
Glo'ster--Scotch and English Dominion--The Stanley Dynasty--Iliam
Dhoan--The Athol Dynasty--Smuggling and Wrecking--The Revestment--Home
Rule--Orry's Sons

THE STORY OF THE MANX BISHOPS

The Druids--Conversion to Christianity--The Early Bishops of
Man--Bishops of the Welsh Dynasty--Bishops of the Norse Dynasty--Sodor
and Man--The Early Bishops of the House of Stanley--Tithes in
Kind--The Gambling Bishop--The Deemsters--The Bishopric Vacant--Bishop
Wilson--Bishop Wilson's Censures--The Great Corn Famine--The Bishop at
Court--Stories of Bishop Wilson--Quarrels of Church and State--Some
Old Ordeals--The Herring Fishery--The Fishermen's Service--Some Old
Laws--Katherine Kinrade--Bishop Wilson's last Days--The Athol Bishops.

THE STORY OF THE MANX PEOPLE

The Manx Language--Manx Names--Manx imagination--Manx Proverbs--Manx
Ballads--Manx Carols--Decay of the Manx Language--Manx
Superstitions--Manx Stories--Manx "Characters"--Manx
Characteristics--Manx Types--Literary Associations--Manx
Progress--Conclusion

THE LITTLE MANX NATION

THE STORY OF THE MANX KINGS

There are just two ideas which are associated in the popular imagination
with the first thought of the Isle of Man. The one is that Manxmen have
three legs, and the other that Manx cats have no tails. But whatever
the popular conception, or misconception, of Man and its people, I shall
assume that what you ask from me is that simple knowledge of simple
things which has come to me by the accident of my parentage. I must
confess to you at the outset that I am not much of a hand at grave
history. Facts and figures I cannot expound with authority. But I know
the history of the Isle of Man, can see it clear, can see it whole, and
perhaps it will content you if I can show you the soul of it and make
it to live before you. In attempting to traverse the history I feel like
one who carries a dark lantern through ten dark centuries. I turn the
bull's eye on this incident and that, take a peep here and there, a
white light now, and then a blank darkness. Those ten centuries are
full of lusty fights, victories, vanquishments, q