WEIRD LEGENDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 19946, 2 November 1934, Page 7

WEIRD LEGENDS

OF THE ISLE OF MAN The “Isle of Man (says a ‘Liverpool Echo’ contributor) is a fine place in which to seek ghost stories. At St. Patrick’s Isle, near Peel, you may hear of ‘The Spectre Hound of Man.’ This fellow was no lap-dog. He was the Moddey Dhoo, or black spaniel, and used to go into the guardroom and sit before the fire in the presence of the soldiers. After a time they become ‘so much accustomed to the sight of it’ that they lost a great part of the terror they were seized with at its first appearance; they still, however, retained a certain awe, as believing it was an evil spirit which only awaited permission to do them hurt, and for that reason forbore swearing and all profane discourse while in its company.” Apparently, it seemed an easy way of keeping a dog without a licence, for you can hardly be expected to take out

a licence for the ghost of a dog. But, one day, a soldier followed the Moddey Dhoo to its lair. There was “a great noise,” though why is not explained. But the soldier died after three days’ agony, and the Moddey Dhoo was not seen again. In Peel Cathedral was the prison of Eleanor, wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, after her conviction for witchcraft. The charge was that, with Roger Bollngbroke and Margery Jourdemain, "the witch of Eye,” she made a waxen image of Henry VI pricked it and watched it melt away, “thereby causing the King’s illness.” It did not require very convincing evidence to get you into trouble in those days, and after all, perhaps she and the others were not so innocent in intention. They may actually have performed their act of malicious nonsense, and the King’s illness may have come as a coincidence. But, however, it may have been, Bolingbroke was beheaded, Margery Jourdemain was burned, and the duchess, after being made to parade the City of London with the candle of repentance, was sent to the Isle of Man to be imprisoned. Here i

she lived for fourteen years, taking one hour’s exercise a day. Her ghost is said to knock about occasionally. You would have thought that after so many years in goal there she had had enough of it.

At Peel, also, was the prison of Captain Christian, who figures so largely in Scott’s “Peveril of the Peak.” An old church in St. Patrick’s Island is said to have been built in 444. There is the Giant’s Grave, though I cannot say that he, or anyone resembling a personage so extraordinary, is buried there. This is the individual, who, having tried to kill St. Patrick, got himself well cursed, as he thoroughly deserved. He vanished out of the island over Peel Hill but, as a rather singular memento, sent back his three legs to be adopted as the Manx device instead of the more ancient ship in full sail.

Strange stories linger round old Castle town, where King Godfrey, it is said, built the fortress in 950. or thereabouts. The old Kings of Man lived in safety in the keep. In less attractive quarters were the prisoners, among them “the spellbound giants of

Castle Rushen.” One of these unlucky wights of unusual size once took a ploughshare in his hand and squeezed it up, remarking. “There yet are men in the Isle of Man.” The castle is haunted, too, by a “Black Lady.”