. . . I kept thinking, "And
this is the rugged, bare, rocky isle which I dreaded to come to,--this
soft, rich, verdant paradise!" It really seems as if the giants had
thrown aloft the bold, precipitous rocks and headlands round the edge
of the island, to guard the sylvan solitudes for the fairies, whose
stronghold was the Isle of Man. I should not have been surprised at
any time to have seen those small people peeping out of the wild
foxgloves, which are their favorite hiding-places. So poetical is the
air of these regions that mermaids, fairies, and giants seem quite
natural to it. In the morning of the day we went to the Nunnery Mr.
Hawthorne took Julian and went to the Douglas market, which is held in
the open air. . . . My husband said that living manners were so
interesting and valuable that he would not miss the scene for even
Peel Castle. One day, when Una and I went to shop in Douglas, we saw
in the market square a second-hand bookstall. I had been trying in
vain to get "Peveril of the Peak" at the library and bookstores, and
hoped this sales-counter might have it. So I looked over the books,
and what do you think I saw? A well-read and soiled copy of the
handsome edition of Mr. Hawthorne's "Blithedale Romance"! Yes, even in
Mona. We have heard of some families in England who keep in use two
copies of "The Scarlet Letter;" but I never dreamed of finding either
of these books here.
Sunday was the perfectest day in our remembrance. In the morning Mr.
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