[From Mona Miscellany second series Manx Soc vol 21]

LINES UNDER THE PORTRAIT OF JAMES SEVENTH EARL OF DERBY.

WHILE Stanley’s life-like face you scan,
You recognise the King of Man;
But learn his death from history’s pen,
And then you see the King of Men.

It was also written of this renowned nobleman and ruler of Man—
An Isle in antient times renowned by fame,
Lies full in view, and Mona is the name;
Once bless’d with wealth, while Derby held the sway,
But now a broken, rough, and dangerous way.

This Earl of Derby was unjustly beheaded at Bolton, Lancashire, on the 15th October 1651. Upon his coffin being conveyed to a house in the town, there was thrown into it a piece of paper, on which was written these lines—

Bounty, Witt, Courage, here in one lye dead,
A Stanley’s hand, Vere’s heart, and Cecil’s head.