Ward & Lock's descriptive and pictorial guide to the Isle of Man ...

From Douglas to Peel. 109retained as Bishop Wilsons Infant School. The Free GrammarSchool was founded in 1746, by Mr. Philip Moore, a Douglasmerchant, who endowed it with £500, the interest to beapplied to the payment of a master to teach the Latin languageand such other learning as may prepare youth for theservice of their country in Church and State. The Rev.Dr. James Moore, of Dublin, left £20 annually for the educationof poor scholars in mathematics, and gave his booksand instruments for the use of the school. There have,besides, been various small endowments for educationalpurposes.Peel is a grooving place, every season bringing an influx ofvisitors. The historic associations add an attraction to thenatural beauty of the neighbourhood, which is considerable.A very agreeable promenade may be enjoyed round the bay,on the northern side of which is a pebbly beach, where redand grey cornelians, agates, and even jasper, may be found.There are interesting sea-worn caves in the cliff of old redsandstone. Admirers of the picturesque in animate and inanimatenature, especially if adepts at sketching, will findabundance of objects of interest in Peel and its surroundings.The Castle and Cathedral on St. Patrick's Isle.As yet we have not turned our eyes towards the greataltraction which draws so many visitors to Peel. Standingmajestically at the entrance of the harbour is the huge rock,St. Patrick's Isle, on the summit of which are battlements andtowei's, remains of a cathedral and other churches, with archedwindows and ornamental pillars, and roofless except whereribs and groined arches have guarded against decay. Ruggedwalls enclose the fortress, and from the centre rises one ofthose old round toAvers, older than any baronial fortress, andwhich in this island, as in Ireland, are the puzzle and almost thedespair of archaeologists. Phoenicians may have reared them,or they may have been the work of races now unknown toauthentic history. Who knows ? Wliatever their origin, therethey stand, and round them have clustered Christian churches,long since shattered by " Time's effacing fingers " ; and herewe find the broken walls of an old chapel at the foot of themysterious tower.The island on which the old castle and cathedral stand isa huge mass of that slaty rock so conspicuous in the island.The area of the island is a little more than seven acres, atabout the sea-level ; but the summit, nearly altogether occupiedby the enclosed buildings, is about four and a half acres.