The Waverley novels, by Sir Walter Scott, complete in 12 vol., printed from the latest English ed., embracing the author's last corrections, prefaces & notes.

426 WAVERLEY NOVELS.
abounds. It occupies the whole of a high rocky peninsula, or rather an
island, for it is surrounded by the sea at high water, and scarcely accessible
even when the tide is out, although a stone causeway, of great solidity,
some few tombs, which seem to have been erected with so much care, as to perpetuate the memory of those
buried in them, till the final dissolutio n of all things. The fourth is kept a little better ii repair; but not so
mnuch for its own sake, though it has been the most magnificent of them all, as for a chapel within it; which
is appropriated to the use of the bishop, and has under it a prison, or rather dungeon, for those offenders who
are so miserable as to incur the spiritual censure. This is certainly one of the nmost dreadful places that
imnagination care firm. The sea runs under it through the hollows of the rock with such a continual roar,
that you would think it were every moment breaking in upon you, and over it are the vaults for burying the
dead. flhe stairs descending to this place of terrors are not. above thirty, but so steep andI narrow, that they
are very difficult to go down, a child of eighlt or nine years old not being able to pass them but sideways.
Within it are thirteen pillars, on which the whole chiapel is supported. Tley have a superstition, that whatsoever stranger goes to see this cavern out of curiosity, and omits to count the pillars, shall do something to
occasion being confined there. There are places for penance also under all the other churches, containing
several very dark and horrid cells; some have nothing in them either to sit or lie down on, otiers a small
piece of brick work: somie are lower and more dark than others, but all of them, in my opinion, dreadful
enough for almost any crime humanity is capable of being guilty of; tholglh'tis supposed they were built
with different degrees of horror, that the punishment might be proportionate to thie faults of those wretches
who were to be donfined in thlem. These have never been made use of since the times of popery; but that
under thie bishop's chapel is the common and only prison for all offences inr the spiritual court, and to that the
delinquents are sentenced. But the soldiers of the garrison permit them to suffer their confinement in lhe
castle, it being morally impossible for the strongest constitution to sustain the damps and noisomneness of the
cavern even for a few hours, mnuch less for monthls and years, as is the puneisuhment sonmetimses allotted. But
I shall speakl Ihereafter more fully of the severity of tlie ecclesiastical jurisdiction.'Tis certain that hero
have been very great architects in this island; for the noble nmonuments in this church, which is sept in
repair, and indeed the ruins of the others also, show the builders to be masters of all thIe orders in that art,
thouglh the great numrber of Doric pillars prove them to be chiefly admierers of that. Nor are the epitaphs
and ins'riptions on the tombstones less worthy of renmark; thie various languages in which they are engraved,
testify by what a diversity of enations this little spot of earth has been possessed. Thoug'hl time has defaced
tos many of tihe letters to render the reniainder intelligible, yet you niay easily perceive fragmcents of tile
Hiebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabian, Saxon, Scotch, snd Irishl characters; some tdates yet visible declare they were
written beforie thIe coming of Christi and, indeed, if one considers the walls, the thickness of them, and tihe
durableness of the stone of which they are composed, one must be sensible that a great number of centuries
must pass before such strong workmanship coulcd be reduced to the condition it now is. These churches,
thereftre, were doubtless once thle temples of Pagan deities, though since consecrated to the worship of the
true divinity; and what confirms eae more strongly in thiis conjecture, is, that there is still a part of one
remaiinig, where stands a large stone directly in form and mannner lilke the Triposes, whiclh in those days of
ignorance, tile priests stood upon, to deliver their fabulous oracles. Through one of these old churches, there
was formcerly a passage to the apartment belonging to thie captcin of tile geard, but is now closed up. The
reason they give you for it, is a pretty odd one; but as I think it not sufficient satisfactiion to my curious
reader, to accquaint him with what sort of buildings this island affords, without letting him know also what
traditions are concerning themr, I shall have little regard to the cernsure of those critics who find fault witl
everything out of the common eroad; and in this, as well as in all other places, where it falls in mry way, shalt
makte it my endeavour to lead him into the humours and very souls of the Manx people. Th.ey say, that anr
apparition, called, in their langdage, the Mauthe Doog, in the shape of a large black spaniel with curled
slhaggy hair, was used to haunt Peel castle, and has been firequently seen in every room, but particularly in
thle guard-lchamber, where, as soon as candles were lighited, it came and lay down before the fire, in presence
of all the soldiers, who at lerngth, by being so much accustomed to the sight of it, lost great part of the terror
they were seized with at its first cappearance. They still, however, retained a certain awe, as believing it was
an evil spirit which onily waited permission to do thenm hurt, and for that reason forbore swearing and all
profane discourse while in its conmpany. But though they endured thle shock of such a guest when altogether
in a body, none cared to be left alone with it. It being thle custom, therefore, for one of the soldiers to lock
the gates of the castle at a certain hour, and carry thIe kieys to the captain, to whose apartment, as I said
before, the way led througl a church, they agreed among themselves, that whoever was to succeed the
eisuing night his fellow in this errand should accompany him that went first, and by this means, no manrt
would be exposed singly to the danger; for I fssrgot to rmention that the Mauthe Doog was always seen to
come out fCom that passage at the close of (lay, and return to it again as soon as the morning dawned, which
rrmade thern look on this place as its peculiar residence. One niglht a fellow being drunk, and by the strength.
of his liquor rendered more daring than ordinary, laughed at the sinmplicity of his companions, and though it
was not hiis turn to go with the keys, would needs. take that office upon him, to testify his courage. All the
soldiers endeavoured to dissuade him, but the more they said, the more resolute he seemed, and swore that
he desired nothing more than that iMauthe Doog would fillow him, as it had done the otthers, for he would try
if it were dog or devil. After having talked in a very reprcobate mnanner for some timee, hle snatched up the
keys, and wernt out of the guard-room; in somne time after his departure a great noise was heard, but nobody
had the boldness to see what occasioned it, till the adventurer returning, they demanded the Iknowledge of
himn; but as loud and noisy as he had been at leaving them, he was now become sober and silent enough, foi
he was never heard to speak more; and though all the time he lived, which was three days, hle was entreated
by all who came near ehim, either to speak, or, if hle could niot do that, to malke some signs, by which they
might understand what hlacd happened to himc, yet nothineg intelligible could be got from him, only, that iby
the distortion of his linibs and features, it might be guessed that tee died in agonies more than is comrmon in a
natnral death. The Mauthe Doog was, howe ver, never seen after in the castle, nor would any one attempt
to go through that passage, for which reason it was closed up, and another way made.'This accident happened about threescore years since, and I heard it attested by several, but especially by an old soldtier, who
assured nme hle had seen it oftener than hle had then hairs on his head. Having taken notice of everything
remnarkable in the churchles, I tbelieve my reader will be imnpatient to come to thle castle itself, which, in spite
of the magnificenece the pride of modern ages has adorned tilhe palaces of princes with, exceeds not only every
thineg leave seen, but also read of, in nobleness of structure. Though now no more than a garrison for
soldiers, you cannot enter it without being struck with a veneration, which the most beautiful buildings of
later years cannot inspire you with; the largeness and loftiness of the rooms, the vast echo resounding
through them, the reany weinding galleries, thle prospect of the sea, and the ships, which, by reason of tihe
height of the place, seem but like buoys floating on the waves, make you fancy yourself in a superior orb to
what the rest of mankind inheaeit, anrd fill you with contemplations the most refined and pure that the soul is
capable of conceiving." —sPetldron's Descripltion oofth fe ef Mali, folio., 1731, p. 103.
In this description, the account of tie inscriptions in so many Oriental languages, and bearing date before the
Christian era, is certainly as much exaggerated as tile story of the lMauthe Doqep itself It would be very desirable to find out the meaning of the wvord Maluthe in the?canx languaoge, which is a dialect of the Gaelic. I
observe, that Malithe in Gaelic, amrongst oether significations, has that of active or speedy; and also, that a dog
of Richard IT., mentioned by Froissart, and supposed to intinate the fall of his master's authority, by leaving
tim and fawning on Boslingbrsoke, was termed Mauthe; but neither of these particulars tends to explain the
very impressive stolry of tihe fiendish eound of Peel Castle.