[From The Runic and other Remains, 1857]

TO THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND
HORACE POWYS, D.D.

Bishop of Sodor and Man.

My LORD,

THE earliest Monumental Remains noticed in the present work were probably erected when your Lordship’s ancestors were Kings of Man. The names of the Bishops contemporary with Merfyn Frych and Roderic Mawr have not been handed down to posterity, but the oldest Manx Chronicle assures us that there was a true succession; and this has never been interrupted to the present day, when your Lordship is adorning the Episcopal office in the most ancient existing See of the British Isles.

I therefore deem myself peculiarly privileged in the permission which your Lordship has afforded me to dedicate to you these few pages descriptive of the remarkable Memorials, erected in your Diocese through a long series of years, to those who have died in the faith of Christ.

With the deepest respect, I beg leave to subscribe myself, Your Lordship’s 

Very faithful and obedient servant,

J.G. CUMMING.

Lichfield,

June 1st, 1857.