Having looked recently at a 1965 book of poetry by Barbara Cowley of Peel, 'More Poems of Man', there are some earlier poems which appeared in the pages of the Peel City Guardian from January to July 1963, and probably formed the basis of an earlier collection of Barbara Cowley, probably called 'Poems of Man'. In our translation into Manx of Bram S…

On 5th May 1830 Thomas Edward Brown was born in New Bond Street, Douglas. Dollin Kelly's one-man tour de force performance of T E Brown's poem, 'Betsy Lee', which he took to the Edinburgh Festival, was recorded by Charles Guard for the Manx Heritage Foundation in 1992. That is now available on the Culture Vannin website. We hear Dollin Kelly and th…

From the 1965 collection, 'More Poems of Man', we have pieces by Margery Robinson and David Marno, and even find one we missed by main author, Barbara Cowley, the sister of Margery and mother of David. The friends are about to leave Mina Harker as they go to Carfax, the adjacent house owned by Count Dracula, to make his daytime lairs of Transylvani…

We again dip into the 1965 collection of 'More Poems of Man', in which we finish off the poems written by Barbara Cowley of Peel and hear one written by her son, David Marno. Professor Van Helsing has been saying that he himself, together with Dr John Seward and Jonathan Harker, will stay at Count Dracula's house in Picadilly whilst Lord Godalming …

We're dipping into a booklet published in 1965 and called 'More Poems of Man', a collection of poems by Barbara Cowley of Peel, with other poems by her son and her sister. There must have been an earlier 'Poems of Man', but whilst that's not to hand, there are other poems which appear in the Peel City Guardian, so it's likely that they made up the …

We hear of Dorothy Wordsworth's final week in the Island before she leaves at 11.50pm on 19th July 1828 to sail back overnight to Whitehaven. She seems to have been fortunate with the weather during her walking tour, but these last few days bring quite a lot of rain. However, she does prevail upon Joanna Hutchinson to see a doctor. An attendant in …

Dorothy Wordsworth returns from Ramsey to Douglas on a carrier's cart. En route she enters a clean but poor cottage in Laxey and is not impressed with the superficial sanctity of a fellow passenger, a young Methodist preacher. Back in Douglas she meets up with Henry Hutchinson and Willy Wordsworth again, and some friends, Mr and Mrs Putnam. Mina Ha…

After spending the night in an attractive cottage at Ballure, Dorothy Wordsworth enjoys the pleasant setting once more before setting out with Henry Hutchinson and Willy Wordsworth for Maughold. There she leaves them to make their way back to Douglas whilst she returns to Ramsey. Dr John Seward has explained all that happened to Jonathan Harker, wh…

Dorothy Wordsworth's walking tour of the Island in July 1828 has brought her to a cottage at the foot of Ballure Glen, where the hosts are Mrs Brew and Miss Trivett. After a walk out to Maughold, she returns to Ramsey. Professor Van Helsing and his friends have broken into the room ofJonathan and Mina Harker - only to find Mina in the fierce clutch…

We left Dorothy Wordsworth, Henry Hutchinson and Willy Wordsworth walking under the trees planted by Bishop Thomas Wilson at Bishopscourt after visiting the good bishop's grave at Kirk Michael. It's onwards north again now as they make a walking tour in July 1828. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward's pa…

Tuesday 8th July 1828 had been a tiring day's walk for Dorothy Wordsworth from Castletown to Port St Mary, over the Meayll to Port Erin, then up over Cronk ny Arrey Laa and down through Dalby to Peel. However, she's now up and ready for the next day. Professor Van Helsing is waiting for the right time to do a trepanning operation on the skull of th…

We're joining Dorothy Wordsworth in July 1828 as she makes a walking tour which has taken her to Castletown, then on the next day to Port St Mary and Port Erin. Now she's about to climb up and over to Peel, through Dalby and Glen Maye. In an episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula in a translation into the Manx Gaelic, an attendant in the asylum run by …

Dorothy Wordsworth is out walking again during her visit to the Island of 1828, and we hear her description of the gardens around the Duke of Atholl's Castle Mona before she undertakes a walk from Douglas to Castletown and then to Port St Mary and Port Erin. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward forms the …

Dorothy Wordsworth continues describing what she sees on her walks in and around the Douglas area and the people she meets as she stays with Joanna and Henry Hutchinson on the South Quay in Douglas. Her nephew, poet William Wordsworth's youngest son, Willy, is also staying there this summer of 1828. Dr John Seward's asylum patient, Renfield, is cau…

After seeing Rev Robert Brown conducting a service at St Matthew's, Dorothy Wordsworth now goes to call on him and his family. As well as her account of their home, we also hear from a famous son of the family, Hugh Stowell Brown, as he recalls the house in New Bond Street in Douglas. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Dracula, Jonathan Har…

Dorothy Wordsworth has come to the Island in 1828 and is staying on the South Quay. She goes to church services on Sunday morning and enjoys walks and socialising, including going to visit the family of the Rev Robert Brown. Robert Brown had sent a volume of his poetry to Dorothy's brother, the poet William Wordsworth. Jonathan Harker is on the tra…

Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the poet, William, kept a diary of her visit to the Island in 1828, when she stayed with Henry and Joanna Hutchinson on the South Quay in Douglas. They were brother and sister to William Wordsworth's wife, Mary. The Wordsworths also had friends in the Island, including Rev Robert Brown, father of Manx poet, T E Brown. …

J J Kneen's chapter on nicknames in his 1937 'Personal Names of the Isle of Man' reprinted almost verbatim what A W Moore had written in his 1890 'Surnames and Place-Names of the Isle of Man', but with some additions and alternatives. We look at those additions and alternatives. We hear that Mina Harker had a disturbed time whilst the search party …

Having started with J B Keig's nicknames in Ballaugh, we've moved on to A W Moore's thoughts on nicknames throughout the Island. As we find out, that work from 1890 was the framework for what J J Kneen had to say about nicknames in his book from 1937. In our translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula into the Manx Gaelic, Professor Van Helsing has been g…

A W Moore is perhaps getting a bit enthusiastic in researching the parish registers for nicknames, as he seems to want to include descriptions that have been added to give a little extra information about people mentioned. However, we do come on to ways of naming people as well at a time when surnames and forenames were quite often similar. In our …

We've started looking at A W Moore's 1890 publication, 'The Surnames and Place-Names of the Isle of Man' for its section on nicknames, taking up where we left off with our survey of the nicknames used in Ballaugh collected by J B Keig. In our episode from the translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, we're hearing from Jonathan Har…

After looking at a collection of nicknames used in the parish of Ballaugh from about 1860 to 1900, collected by Mr J B Keig in 1933, we go back to the work of A W Moore, printed in 1890, and first dealing generally with the theme of nicknames, but then coming on to examples from the Island. In our translation of Dracula into the Manx Gaelic, the pa…

We come to the end of the booklet by Mr J B Keig with his collection of nicknames used in Ballaugh parish in the period 1860 to 1900. It concludes with a postscript by Mr Keig, giving us a fascinating glimpse of the personalities of some of the people he mentions. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward's pa…

In 1933 Mr J B Keig published a booklet of nicknames used in Ballaugh to distinguish between so many people who had similar surnames (though probably unrelated) and forenames. It provides an interesting social history of the parish in the period from 1860 to 1900. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Dr John Seward has been summoned by…

J B Keig published a booklet in 1933 of nicknames used by the inhabitants of Ballaugh between 1860 and 1900, when there were unrelated families with the same surname and forenames were often of a small range, so people were identified individually, often in relation to their father and grandfathers. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing i…

We've looked at a Forward that was added by Charles Craine and Mark Braide to a booklet that was republished in 1940 about Nick Names of Ballaugh, and we've also looked at the original Preface by J B Keig when the booklet was published in 1933. We now move on to the text, though it's not really a text as such. In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Va…

We hear the Forward added to a small booklet in 1940 by two fine Manx speakers, Chalse y Craine and Markys y Braide, and then we hear the Preface by Mr J B Keig to his original 1933 publication of 'Ballaugh Nick Names', but the nick names take us back to the 1860s. Professor Van Helsing has returned from Amsterdam and now intends to devote time to …

We come to the final part of David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History', and he goes out with a bang - rather as he went in with a bang when a cell door closed behind him after his closing, heartfelt words were adjudged to be dangerous republican sedition by the nervous, late eighteenth century British monarchy. In the latest developments in…

We're coming towards the end of David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History', published in 1794, but his footnotes are getting longer, so he's still got plenty to tell us before we reach his closing remarks. In this week's episode from Dracula, Mina Harker has just been comforting Arthur Holmwood in his distress, and warns Quincey Morris that …

We've come to the final chapter of 'A Review of the Manks History', David Robertson's addendum to his 1794 publication in which he describes the Island as he saw it when he revisited it - having been based in Douglas as a revenue officer of the Crown - in the summer of 1791. Robertson's gives an overview and draws some conclusions. As we're reading…

Despite the loyalty of the Stanley family to the Royalist cause, Charles II treated them rather poorly on the Restoration. However, they did come into the Lordship of Man again, and David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' then takes us through to the advent of the Murrays, Dukes of Atholl, and the sale of the Island's regalities to the Br…

In his 1794 'A Review of the Manks History', David Robertson has given quick overviews of the various members of the Stanley family who were Kings, and later styled themselves Lords, of Man. However, he has a lot more to say about Yn Stanlagh Mooar, James Stanley, the Seventh Earl of Derby. In the latest episode from Bram Stoker's Dracula in transl…

We fairly rattle through the members of the Stanley family who had been given the Kingship of Man, which became known as a Lordship to protect the neck of Thomas Stanley in the court of Henry VIII. David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' has now come to Yn Stanlagh Mooar, James Stanley, the tenth Stanley king/lord of Man and Seventh Earl …

David Robertson picked his way through the 1300s in his 'A Review of the Manks History', associating events from both early and late in a rather disjointed narrative. We've now reached the advent of the Stanley family in 1405. Arthur Holmwood has done the deed of driving a stake through Lucy Westenra's heart. Professor Van Helsing and Dr John Sewar…

Whatever texts David Robertson was using to compile his 'A Review of the Manks History' in 1794, he seems to have got his timelines in a muddle for the period he's writing about, racing through the 1300s. His references to people and incidents seem to concertina back and forth through the century. In our translation into the Manx Gaelic of Bram Sto…

David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' was added to his description of a return visit he made to the Island where he had worked as a British revenue officer some years previously. His combined volumes were published in 1794, and he's reached the reign of Magnus, the last of the dynasty of Godred Crovan. Professor Van Helsing has brought …

Is there something about the name, Reginald? Every time we hear of one in Manx history, he seems to have been something of a bad lot. We start and finish our dip into David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' with two such flawed characters. Professor Van Helsing has brought Arthur Holmwood, Quincey Morris and Dr John Seward to the graveyar…

The rule of the dynasty of Godred Crovan was interrupted as King of Man and the Isles by the arrival of the exiled but powerful King Magnus of Norway. On his death, as David Robertson's 'A Review of the Manks History' outlines it, the former line was invited back, in the form of Olave. Unfortunately, he had three troublesome nephews who took advant…

In his 1794 publication, 'A Tour Through the Isle of Man', David Robertson has added 'A Review of the Manks History', and we've reached events detailed in the Chronicles of the Kings of Man and the Isles with the arrival of Godred Crovan. Professor Van Helsing has written a farewell note for Dr John Seward, just in case Count Dracula should come lo…

As it was written in the 1790s, David Robertson's 'Review of the Manks History' doesn't have the advantage of modern academic research with input from a wide range of disciplines, but still makes entertaining reading, and we can tease out some of the storylines from our own perspective. The coffin of Lucy Westenra was empty in the dead of night, bu…

David Robertson's walking tour of the Island actually was completed several chapters ago, but he had a further four chapters of observations. However, after that, although he finishes Chapter XVIII with END OF THE TOUR, the book continues with REVIEW OF THE MANKS HISTORY, which is also interesting as he views history as understood or surmised in th…

David Robertson made a walking tour of the Island on his return visit to it in 1791. His circuit began and ended in Douglas, but he added on three more chapters of his general observations, many of which are rather less than flattering, as we hear. After visiting a hospital to look at a child who had been lost on Hampstead Heath, Professor Van Hels…

As a British revenue officer, David Robinson was in favour of the British Crown buying the sovereign rights of the Island from the Lord of Mann, the Duke of Atholl, in 1765 in order to suppress 'the trade' - or 'smuggling' as the British Government considered it. Professor Van Helsing is trying to persuade Dr John Seward to open his mind to strange…

As a British revenue officer, David Robertson writes approvingly of the way the British Crown bought the Lord of Mann's rights in 1765 in order to suppress 'the running trade' in a move that the Manx people referred to as 'y chialg vooar' - 'the big swindle'. Professor Van Helsing returns from Exeter and starts questioning Dr John Seward about his …

David Robertson tells us about the herring fishery and the process of preparing both white herrings and red herrings. We hear of the trade and way of life associated with them in the 1790s. Jonathan Harker has resumed his journal, and so we hear that Professor Van Helsing finds him in surprisingly good health. However, as they part Van Helsing lear…

Having arrived back in Douglas from a tour of the Island with two friends, David Robertson surveys the town from Douglas Head and reflects on the herring fishery as it was in 1791. Professor Van Helsing has visited Mina Harker in Exeter. Having found out all about poor Lucy Westenra, his attention turns to Mina's husband, Jonathan, and he, too, rea…

David Robertson surveys the scene from the summit of Snaefell and falls to philosophising. After heading straight down the valley to Laxey, he and his two friends then complete their tour of the Island by returning to Douglas via Onchan. In our Manx translation of Dracula, Professor Van Helsing explains to Mina Harker how it is that, although meeti…

After concluding an overview of the Island's ecclesiastical history, David Robertson continues his 1791 tour of the Island, from Bishop's Court to Ramsey, then out to Maughold, before ascending Snaefell. In our Manx translation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Professor Van Helsing has arranged to come to Exeter to see Mina Harker. So striking is their me…

David Robertson gives a pen portrait of Bishop Thomas Wilson and talks of his successor, Mark Hildesley, as being in the same mould. He then deals with several other incumbents up to Claudius Crigan in 1791, before looking at a range of suggestions for the name of the see as Sodor and Man. There are disturbing developments on and around Hampstead H…

According to David Robertson's 1791 view of history, after the suppression of the Druids of the Ancient Britons in one Mona, Anglesey, they came to another Mona, the Isle of Man, where they continued their benevolent rule and ministry until the coming of Christianity. Following the burial of Lucy Westenra near Hampstead Heath, Professor Van Helsing…