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

To Laxeij and Snaefell. 73swings and other appliances, are very attractive to visitors.In a large refreshment saloon, dinners and teas can be enjoyedat a moderate expense. The gardens are entered by agate near the Commercial Hotel. They are closed on Sundays; on other days the charge for admission is threepence.Walkmg to the top of the hill on the Eamsey road, abouthalf a mile, we reach, on the left hand, the reputedGrave of King Orry,marked by a tall stone, some ten feet in height, and severalsmaller ones. It was to King Orry that the island was indebtedfor the institution of that liranch of its Legislature,called the House of Keys. According to the Manx tradition,he was a Dane who, having conquered the Orcades andHebrides, arrived on the shores of Man with a strong fleetand landed at the Lhane river, in the north of the island.The Manx, glad to place themselves iiuder so powerful aleader, received him at once as their king. It is said thatwhen Orry landed, the Manx people asked him whence hecauje, upon which, pointing to that portion of the heavenscalled the Milky Way, he said, " That is the road to mycountry." Hence to this day the Manx name for the ^MilkyWay is Baad mooar Bee Gorrcc— " the great road of KingOrry "! The cairn, or tomb, originally consisted of a domeshapedvault, composed of large slabs of schist. It was afew years since in very good preservation ; but when a newroad was constructed for the purpose of avoiding the steepgi-adieut of the old Laxey road, the memorial was considerablydamaged, the road being cut straight through it.But this would seem not to be the first act of Vandalism tow-hich this old monument has been subjected, though onewould have thought that the authorities of the island wouldhave been the last to do anything to injure so interesting amemorial of the olden time. Dr. Gumming teUs us that,some years ago, the owner of the property on which thegrave stands, not having the fear of fairy or phynnoddereebefore his eyes, but seeing the stones lying convenient for afence he was busy on, set to work to remove some of thelesser ones from the central heap of apparent rttbbish in whichthey were fixed. In doing this he discovered a rough domeshapedvattlt, in the centre of which was a kist-vaen, composedof two large slabs of schist, placed parallel to eachother, in a du-ection nearly east and west, and incliningtowards each other above, at the extremities of which seemorighaally to have been placed thin slabs of the same rock,