Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlv. (1901), No. 8. 35 



24th. The Surrey is just come in. I have got your Pine Apple, which is 

 very handsome, & which I thank you for. I shall astonish some of the 

 Natives with it to-morrow. Sherman, Grice and his Wife (for he is married 

 to a Miss Cribbin since you was here) dine with me to-morrow. I love to 

 astonish People, and who does not. I believe there is another Parcel!, or 

 Package, for me on board the Surry, but the first being the most perishable 

 my anxiety has been greatest to get the Apple. 



The "Surrey" was a trading vessel of the island 

 belonging to Captain Clegg. Mr. T. Sherman was the 

 naval storekeeper at Douglas. On January 12th, 1798, 

 Cable writes recommending " a sort of Clerk," who was 

 among the other parts of his late establishment, and who 

 wants employment in England ; and on March 29th, 

 he says : — 



I hope you are by this time perfectly settled in your new habitation, 

 where I wish you may enjoy every comfort and happiness. The removal of 

 your Garden has, no doubt, been attended with great trouble ; but I must 

 own I do not pity you, for I know you take great pleasure in such sort of 

 trouble. Besides it will do you a great deal of good : you have plenty 

 of confinement, and this must necessarily bring you much into the air, and 

 give exercise both to the body and spirits. That is what it is good for, 

 let George Ilulme say what he will 



It was only the other day that I was informed of Martin Luther being 

 with you. If you can make him useful to you, well. But he has shewn himself 

 an ungrateful Vagabond to me since our party has been broke up ; and I am 

 told has been very negligent of his family. He has killed a great deal of Game 

 this Winter with my Gun, but I have never had the offer of more than one 

 Hare, the rest have been taken to Farrer. I mention this only to shew you how 

 much he is to be depended on ; and to shew you that he had not the sanction 

 of my name when he applied to you, though it is possible he might have used 

 It. The fellow, however, you know, can make himself useful on many 

 occasions : only don't depend upon him. 



The reason why I have not written to you of late has been because I 

 have alter'd my Nature. I have open'd a correspondence with no less than 

 three Peers of the Realm, One Duke, one Earl, and one Baron. My Part, 

 like that of the Lord High Treasurer in the Critick has been to Think. It 

 is, however, a great Secret. Nobody has the least Idea of the Matter. I 

 do not know whether I shall think to any purpose, but the business is simply 

 this. I want to turn the Calf of Man into a place of confinement for Prisoners 

 of War, and am at this time actually corresponding with the Duke of Atholl, 

 the Earl Spencer, and Lord Curzon on this Subject. There is not, there 

 ■cannot be, any difficulty but one ; and that is a want of buildings to shelter 



