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

jiIO Guide to the Isle of AFan.visitors may respect or not, at their pleasure:— " They have asuperstition that whatsoever stranger goes to see this cavernout of curiosity, and omits to count the pillars, shall do somethingto occasion being confined there." We cannot say howthe careless stranger might have fared a hundred and fiftyyears ago, when Waldron wrote : but he would now have todo something very peculiar and terrible indeed to ensurebeing shut up in this dismal den.A broken Runic monument, very old of course, is on thesouth side of the nave. Enough of the inscription remainsto inform us that it was erected by her husband to commemorate" Astrith, the daughter of Ottar." ]\tore abouther no living man knows. Waldron, whom we have alreadyquoted, says, " The epitaphs and inscriptions on the tombstonesare worthy of remp-k;the various languages in whichthey are engi-aved testify l^y what a diversity of nations thislittle spot of earth has been possessed. Thcugl\ time hasdefaced too many of the letters to render the remainderintelligible, yet you may easily perceive fragments of theHebrew, Greek, Latin, Araliian, Saxon, Scotch, and Irishcharacters ;some dates, yet visible, declare they were writtenbefore the coming of Christ." No doubt Waldron sincerelybelieved in the verity of what he wrote ;but, then, some goodsouls v.'ill believe anything.The last bishop buried in the cathedral was Dr. SamuelRutter, who died in 1GG3. He had been archdeacon of theisland, and was appointed bishop only two years before hisdeath. He was an old and valued friend of the Stanleyfamily, and acted as chaplain at Lathom House during itsdefence by the brave Countess against Fairfax's Parliamentarians.To considerable literary ability and much learninghe added piety and kindness of heart. The spot where hewas bui'ied was known, and in August 18G5, during the visitof the Cambrian Archaiological Society to the island, thesuperincumbent rubbish was removed, and the gravestonediscovered about a foot below the surface. It was brokeninto many pieces, but the fragments were carefully arrangedand cemented togethei', and the whole laid in a solid bed of concrete.Round the edge of the slab is inscribed, " Samuel Rutter,Jjord Bishop of Sodor and Man, IGGl." Originally the tombLore a brass plate with an inscription ;the plate disappearedsome time at tlie end of the last century, but in 1844 wasdiscovered in the well near the sally-port of the castle. Itwas long kept at Bishop's Court, but "m 1875 it was repaired(one comer having been broken olf) and restored to its