HOUSE OF MANNANNANMull Circle

PEEL, to the west, was called by the Norwegians Holmtown, from a small island close by it, in which stands the cathedral dedicated to St. German, the first bishop of this isle. This little isle, naturally very strong, was made much more so by art; Thomas, Earl of Derby, encompassing it with a wall, towers, and other fortifications, and making it in those days impregnable. At present there is a small garrison kept there, and it is the prison for all offenders against the ecclesiastical laws, whether for incest, adultery, etc., or disobedience, and it is called St. German's prison.

PEEL ISLE is at the extremity of the harbour. It is a rock of great magnitude and height, on the summit of which stand the venerable and picturesque ruins-of Peel Castle, and the ancient cathedral of the Isle, dedicated to St Germain, the first bishop, who lived in the 'fifth century. Besides the cathedral and castle, on this rocky isle, are scattered round the remains of St Patrick's church. the ancient mansion of the Lords of the Island, and the episcopal palace; hence it may reasonably be concluded that Peel Isle was once the residence of all that was great and venerable in the Island.

In old times, when superstition and its accompanying terrors had so great a sway on the minds of the Manks, Peel Isle, with its ancient castle and venerable churches, was the seate of much traditionary history in the annals of ghosts and hobgoblins; but that which seems to have infused the greatest terror, was the Spectre Hound, called THE MAUTHE DOOG.

The Manx also claim to be the only Protestant nation in Europe never to have been excommunicated by a Pope. It boasts, moreover, of the earliest bishopric in the British Islands- Germanicus having been instituted to that dignity by St. Patrick on his way to Ireland. Sometimes they owed allegiance to the Kings of Norway or Orkney; later on, when the Norse powers had to cease from troubling Britain, to England or to Scotland. Wales, after the Roman withdrawl was full of bishops by the time Augustine landed in Kent, as the Latin saint found to his annoyance when he ran up against them on the banks of Severn. But the line dates from King Gorree or Orry, who, with his Norsemen, conquered the island in 938, built Castle Rushen.

In 1344, the Earl and Countess of Salisbury were formally crowned with the golden crown, King and Queen of Man in the Church of St. Germains in Peel Castle. This nobleman's son, however, sold the island and its Kingship to the Earl of Wiltshire fifty years later, who being one of those many rash persons to cross the path of Henry IV at his usurpation. The then favourite Henry Percy was now made titular King of Man and we all know what a mess he and his son Hotspur made of their later lives. So in 1406 King Henry made a firm grant of the island to Sir John Stanley " to him and his heirs for ever " to be held from the Kings of England subject to an annual tribute of a cast of falcons. the advent of the Stanleys, however, the title has been Lord not King, of Man.