DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLE OF MAN Xxxi 
Farms are almost invariably small, and there are many 
mere crofts, which however are being gradually absorbed 
into the larger holdings. Roads are numerous, there are 
many hamlets and villages, and the small houses with 
which the land is thickly dotted, and which struggle 
high up to the borders of the central waste, give the 
landscape an appearance of homely cheerfulness; but 
the rural population is steadily decreasing, and everywhere 
at short intervals the ruined wall of a cottage, or a site 
marked by nettles, soapwort, fuchsia, or periwinkle, tells 
its tale of the tendency of the time. Another frequent 
and notable feature of the Manx landscape is a deserted 
mine with its cluster of attendant buildings in a more 
or less ruinous condition. There was special activity in 
mining during the period between 1850 and 1870, when 
many of these costly and futile undertakings were entered 
upon; other and more fortunate ventures are still work- 
ing, and at Laxey and Foxdale are prosecuted on a large 
scale, and form the mainstay of a considerable population. 
Timber, as above mentioned, is still scarce and com- 
paratively small, owing to the high winds which sweep 
the surface. In the neighbourhood of Douglas (as round 
the mansions of the Nunnery and Kirby) and along the 
foot of the Lezayre hills from Ramsey to Sulby (as at 
Ballakillingan) there is most wood, and many of the 
glens have plantations and some hedgerow trees. In 
such situations the mountain-ash is a beautiful and 
appropriate ornament, charming alike in leaf, flower, and 
fruit. In the northern plain and in the cultivated parts 
of the uplands, there is round every farm a large or 
small cluster of trees, usually ash and sycamore, but 
scarcely any elsewhere, and the open country of the 
south has an exceptionally bare appearance. On the 
outskirts of Douglas is a good amount of space occupied 
