Manx Archælogy and Natural History

Abstract

IN the year 1886 the House of Keys passed an Act entitled “The Museum and Ancient Monuments Act. “I well remember hearing of it, because in the course of that year I visited the Isle of Man for the first time, in order to see some newly discovered Ogam inscriptions. It proved for me the first of a series of visits to the island with the view chiefly of studying Manx Gaelic and Manx folklore. I got to know the island and its people, and noticed among other things the efforts made by two or three men with taste and zeal for archology and history to interest the Manx people in the relics of antiquity for which the Isle of Man is famous. On one of my rambles, which led me to a public school, I remember being much struck by finding hung on the walls drawings of hatchets, hammers, and other instruments of the ages of Stone and of Bronze, accompanied with letterpress descriptions of them. They were intended to interest the more intelligent of the children in such objects, and especially to help them to recognise them when accidents exposed such treasures to view. It struck ftie how desirable it was that the same thing should be done in the public schools of this country, but I am not aware that it has ever been done. This example of the Isle of Man is well worth following, but I fear that the present is not a favourable moment for recommend- ing anything so far removed from the burning question of the day. But the present war of creeds and dogmas will, it is to be hoped, be followed by a period of peace when the promoters of education may be allowed to devote more attention to some of the historical aspects of its more secular side.