[From Manx Soc vol 11 - Waldron's History] 

THE
HISTORY
AND
DESCRIPTION
OF THE ISLE OF MAN

VIZ.,
 

ITS ANTIQUITY, HISTORY, LAWS, CUSTOMS, RELIGION,
AND MANNERS OF ITS INHABITANTS; ITS ANIMALS,
MINERALS; CURIOUS AND AUTHENTICK RELA-
TIONS OF APPARITIONS OF GIANTS THAT
HAVE LIV'D UNDER THE CASTLE
TIME IMMEMORIAL.

LIKEWISE MANY COMICAL AND ENTERTAINING STORIES
OF THE: PRANKS PLAY'D BY FAIRIES, &c.

THE WHOLE CAREFULLY COLLECTED FROM ORIGINAL PAPERS AND
PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE, DURING NEAR TWENTY
YEARS RESIDENCE THERE.

LONDON:
Printed for W. BICKERTON, in the Temple Exchange Passage,
Fleet-street. 1744.

PREFACE.

AS posthumous works are generally ushered into the world with some account of their author, I take upon me to inform the public that he was a gentleman, of an ancient family in Essex, and had the honour to receive his education at Queen's College, in Oxford.

His loyalty and good affection to the present happy Establishment, joined with his natural inclination for the Muses, were the motives that occasioned great part of the following sheets, as may be seen by the names of those illustrious patrons, to whom most of his Poetical pieces are inscribed, and who did him the favour to receive them very graciously. His Political Tracts were wrote with the same spirit; and those, which are called Orations were delivered by his own mouth, in the presence of a are numbed; of persons of quality and distinction who were pleased to give them the sanction of their approbation in a very peculiar manner. The great many leisure hours he had in the Isle of Man, where for some years he resided in a post under his late and present Majesty, gave him an opportunity of writing a description of that place, with the customs and manners of the inhabitants, in a much more particular manner than any author before him has done. Most of those who treat on that subject have contented themselves with barely mentioning the situation, soil, produce, chief towns and markets; whereas the chief curiosities consist in tradition and a super stitious observance of old customs. The solitude also of his retreat made him indulge his genius in writing many other pieces which doubtless were no less than those now published; but they had the misfortune to be lost, through the mismanagement of those to whose care they were entrusted; the author dying in England just after he had obtained a new deputation from the Government. He had been frequently persuaded by his friends to compile and publish his works, which, had they been eompleat, could not have made less than two volumes in folio; but death taking him away in that interim, when he was about to yield to their entreaties, all that could be collected of them are now printed for the benefit of his family. I have nothing more to add, than that all imaginable care has been taken to place them in a just order, which, with preserving the author's meaning everywhere entire, it is to be hoped will not only give satisfaction to those who are subscribers, but likewise excite those who are not, to a favourable acceptance of the books; which is doing justice to the dead, and at the same time an obligation to the widow and orphans.