1890-91.] SURNAMES AND PLACE-NAMES, THE ISLE OF MAN. 103 



SURNAMES AND PLACE-NAMES OF THE 

 ISLE OF MAN. 



By Rev. Neil MacNish. B.D., LL.D. 



(Read 21st February, i8gi.) 



Such is the name of a book which has recently been pubHshed, and 

 which contains very useful information, not for Manxmen merely, but 

 also for Celtic scholars everywhere. " My aim in the following pages," 

 the author writes, " is to give a complete account of the Personal names 

 and Place-names of the Isle of Man." The author of the book in question, 

 is Mr. A. W. Moore, M.A., a gentleman of scholarly attainments, who has 

 devoted much attention to the literature and topography of Man, and 

 who has earned for himself an honorable reputation owing to his patriotic 

 efforts to revive and perpetuate whatever is of value in the history and 

 traditions of his native Island. Mr. Moore is a member of the House of 

 Keys, and resides at Cronkbourne, a name which reveals its Gaelic lineage 

 at a glance. In January, 1885, he started a quarterly journal of matters 

 past and present connected with the Isle of Man, to which he gave the 

 modest name of " The Manx Note Book." Mr. Spencer Walpole, the 

 present Lieutenant-Governor of Man, wrote an introductory notice, 

 wherein, among other things, he remarked : — " Let it not be said that 

 Man is too little, and that Manxmen are too few for such a publication. 

 The Isle of Man can at least boast that it has preserved its independence 

 unimpaired, and that it still possesses the old legislature which had its 

 origin before the Battle of Hastings. Fifty thousand people still retain- 

 ing their old laws and their old customs in the centre of the United 

 Kingdom is a spectacle as unique as it is notable. Their annals neces- 

 sarily possess a peculiar interest to the antiquarian and the historian." 

 So far as the articles of the Note Book and the printing of this book are 

 concerned, the expectations of its readers were more than adequately 

 satisfied. Mr. Moore, however, unhappily found that he was incurring a 

 heavy pecuniary loss in publishing the Note Book ; and hence, much to 

 his own regret and to the regret of his numerous friends, he was reluc- 

 tantly led to discontinue the publication of it with the twelfth number, 

 which appeared in October, 1887. The Lieutenant-Governor was asked 

 to write what he termed the Epilogue of the Note Book. He thus 

 concludes his Epilogue : — " And so far as artistic merit cannot compen- 

 sate for a defective balance sheet, the time has come for closing this 



