Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlv. (1901), No. 8. 59 



with Colonel and Mrs. Philips. We may also infer that 

 she was living, and unmarried, at the end of 1809. 

 Livesey himself died Feb. 14th, 18 10, aged 64. He is 

 buried in St. George's Churchyard, Douglas. 



No excuse is needed for rescuing the foregoing record 

 from oblivion ; the letters from which it is made up are in 

 themselves pleasant reading, and would have been of 

 interest had they been penned from any locality, admittedly 

 domestic and prolix though they may be. But the Isle of 

 Man — before the days of steamships, lost in the fogs of 

 the Irish Sea, cut off from all sources of external develop- 

 ment, and, until very recent years, the scene of barbarism 

 and ignorance — has few sources extant from which history, 

 even so recent as that of the eighteenth century, can be 

 gathered. Cable's letters throw a brilliant sidelight upon 

 local society, and help to fill up the gaps in the other 

 existing records. We may thus fairly claim that they are 

 of value to the historian as well as to the student of human 

 nature. Many characters appear and disappear in his 

 pages, depicted writh realism, and stamped with life. 



The Captain has drawn his own picture, and any 

 comment is superfluous. An intelligent, irascible man, 

 constantly quarrelling and making friends again, loyally 

 tender and affectionate to wife and daughter, open-hearted 

 as a correspondent. He bore his frequent disappointments 

 manfully, and to the last proved his contentment and his 

 courage. Perhaps the keynote of his nature is his 

 loyalty — especially to his native county of Lancaster. 

 And so at the end he passed away, with his daughter and 

 his oldest friend at his bedside. He was buried on 

 January 30th, 1804, in St. George's Churchyard, Douglas. 



Note. — I must express my thanks to Tom Garnett, Esq., of 

 Radecliffe, Clitheroe, and John Eastham, Esq., of Clitheroe, 

 for their kind assistance to me in unravelling the story of 

 Captain Cable. \V. B. F. 



