ID: 1309 [see the .xml file]
Identifier: WCRO CR2017/ TP212/1
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Cite: 'Hugh Davies to Thomas Pennant 1775' in Curious Travellers Digital Editions [editions.curioustravellers.ac.uk/doc/1309]

Snafield the highest hill in the Island, is of the form of a truncated cone, covered with verdure, not a rock upon it – find upon it 3 species of Lycopodium1 Viz. clavatumalpinum & Selago, which are found only on hills of considerable height, –on a hill to the N: E. find Ophris cordata,2 festuca vivipara,3 and Vaccinium vitis Idæa.4

Near Ramsey Buccinum5 N. 3 Lister. tab. 3. in plenty the fishermen use them in codfishing ^a considerable article near the point of Ayr –six or eight men to a boat; each earning 2. or 3 shillings a day.

Black water river6 affords the Mya margaritifera7 Sison verticillatum8 a plant I think not found in England [...] plentifully in meadow grounds – Œnanthe pinpinelloides [sic] an uncommon vegetable near Castle town at scarlad, ^Fucus esculentus9 found here where there is a quarry of black marble, considerable quantity exported to Scotland & Ireland – tombstones chimney pieces &c–

Stares breed in the walls of houses| [sic] and assemble in flocks as soon as they are able to fly –––––

Trout in almost every river & Salmon in the larger ones.
Haddock on the northern coast in February & March –––––
N:B. on the Anglesea coast in May, June &c –

British pPost on Barowl a few stones on end surrounded by a fosse almost fill'd up with vegetable earth.
Scallops Ostrea maxima10 Linn. taken near Manshold head from Christmas to May and sold at 3 pence per dozen.
Oyster beds near Laxey only – sold at two shillings per hundred. Salmon taken on the coast of Duglas –seldom sooner than July – generally sold from two pence to 3 pence a pound –
[...]rings taken from July to October.
Not a Wear [sic] in the Island as I am informed.
Number of Capital Exported about 1000–1100 –
Weight per quarter Cow-beef – 90 – 100 – Ox – 150–200.
Indigenous ^[...] sheep small 7–9, pounds per quarter.

Number of Puffins taken annually about 6–7000.
Green plover Br. Zool. p. 379.11 breeds upon the hills snafield & Barowl. –

[...]Kirk Braddan Cemetery remarkably full of graves – A cross five feet high curiously ornamented on three sides on the [...] a runic inscription, ––––– Another Six feet high, the to[...] circular three feet three inches in diameter and decorated ^with f[...] of animals &c– on the East end of the church a rude Crucifix ––––– A Rookery near this Church –

Marginalia

Endorsement in Thomas Pennant's hand: By Mr Hugh Davies 1775


Editorial notes

1. See OED s.v. lycopodium.
2. 'Ophrys', a Linnaean genus of spurless orchids. OED. Lightfoot gives to the 'Ophrys cordata', a mountain variety of the Twayblade, the English name of 'Little Twayblade'. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica, I, p. 524.
3. See OED s.v. nardus.
4. See OED s.v. red bilberry.
5. A genus of gasteropod Molluscs. OED.
6. This may be an Anglicisation of 'Ballacottier River' on the Isle of Man.
7. See OED s.v. Mya, where it is defined as a genus of bivalve molluscs. A 1797 example names 'The margaritifera; or pearl mya'.
8. The 'Verticillate Stonewort'. See OED s.v. stonewort, quoting J. Hull, Brit. Flora I (1799), p. 62.
9. 'Fucus esculentus', a kind of the brown seaweed known as 'badderlock[s]'. OED s.v. badderlocks.
10. 'Ostrea maxima', a species of the genus 'Ostrea' (oyster) listed in the tenth edition of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae (1758).
11. Pennant notes that the Green Plover, an 'elegant species[,] is often found on our moors and heaths, in the winter time, in small flocks'. British zoology (1768), II, pp. 379–380.