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

Introduction.King of Italy. But it is toleral^ly certain that there was aconsiderable amount of civilization in the island at the timewhen England was under the Roman rule. St. Patrick probablyestablished Christianity there, and appointed Germauus(St. German) bishop and ruler ;and after his death otherbishops succeeded. One of these prelates was St. Maughold,who had been captain of a band of robbers in Ireland, butwho, according to tradition, having repented of his evil ways,caused himself to be bound hand and foot, placed in an openboat, and left to drift whithersoever it might please Heaven todirect it. He was cast ashore on the Isle of Man, where, wemay suppose, some kind-hearted islander released him fromhis boat, and then he retired to the mountains and becamea hermit, and was afterwards appointed bishop. The renownof his sanctity reached the island of his birth, and inducedmany of the devout-minded to resort to him;the most famousof these pilgrims being, it is said, St. Bridget, who receivedtlie veil from his hands, and afterwards founded the Nunnery,the site of which (the name being retained for the estate)we shall reach, after a short and most delightful walk, whenwe are making our excursions from Douglas.From the beginning of the sixth to the tenth century,Welsh chiefs, kmgs they are called, are said to have ruled inthe island ;but it appears to be more authentic that, about580, one Brennus, the descendant of a branch of the royalfamily of Scotland, obtained the supreme authority, andafter hLs death the island was considered to be a part of theScottish kingdom. The Scots and the Xorthumbrians werecontinually quarrelhng in those troublous times, and aboutGl-4 Edwin, the powerful king of Xorthumbria, invaded andtook possession of the island. Then comes a blank whichnot even legend offers to fill up, except by asserting thatabout the end of the ninth century, Harold Haarfager, one ofthe '' hardy Norsemen," whose " home of yore was on thefoaming wave," landed and for a time was master of theisland. A few years afterwards a more authentic personageappeared upon the scene, Orry, son of the king of Denmarkand Norway, who gained the favour of the inhabitants, andwas chosen king. In moving about the island we shall heara great deal about this Orry, who seems to have been an ableas well as a warlike king. He had subdued the Orcadcs andthe Hebrides, and fixed his seat of government in the Isleof Man, where he reigned long and prosperously ;and tohim is due the foundation of the Manx constitution and theestablishment of the House of Keys or island Parliament,