The island has next to no literary associations, but it would be
unpardonable in a man of letters if he were to forget the few it can
boast. Joseph Train, our historian, made the acquaintance of Scott in
1814, and during the eighteen years following he rendered important
services to "The Great Unknown" as a collector of some of the legendary
stories used as foundations for what were then called the Scotch Novels.
But it is a common error that Train found the groundwork of the Manx
part of "Peveril of the Peak." It was Scott who directed Train to the
Isle of Man as a fine subject for study. Scott's brother Thomas lived
there, and no doubt this was the origin of Scott's interest in the
island. Scott himself never set foot on it. Wordsworth visited the
island about 1823, and he recorded his impressions in various sonnets,
and also in the magnificent lines on Peel Castle--"I was thy neighbour
once, thou rugged pile." He also had a relative living there--Miss
Hutchinson, his sister-in-law. A brother of this lady, a mariner, lies
buried in Braddan churchyard, and his tombstone bears an epitaph which
Wordsworth indited. The poet spent a summer at Peel, pitching his tent
above what is now called Peveril Terrace. One of my friends tried long
ago to pump up from this sapless soil some memory of Wordsworth, but no
one could remember anything about him. Shelley is another poet of whom
there remains no trace in the Isle of Man. He visited the island early
in 1812, being driven into Douglas harbour by contrary winds on his
voyage from Cumberland to Ireland. He was then almost unknown; Harriet
was still with him, and his head was full of political reforms. The
island was in a state of some turmoil, owing to the unpopularity of
the Athols, who still held manorial rights and the patronage of the
Bishopric. The old Norse Constitution was intact, and the House of Keys
was then a self-elected chamber. It is not wonderful that Shelley made
no impression on Man in 1812, but it is surprising that Man seems to
have made no impression on Shelley. It made a very sensible impression
on Hawthorne, who left his record in the "English Note Book."