[871] The ground at Tynwald Hill (as it is called) remains unchanged. Here, on a small plot of ground, the whole Manx people meet annually on Midsummer Day, July 5th, to appoint officers and enact new laws. The first historical notice of these meetings is in 1417. The name Tynwald is derived from the Scandinavian _thing_, "court of justice," and _wald_, "fenced." The mound is only 12 feet high, rising by four circular platforms, each 3 feet higher than the one below it. The circumference at the base is 240 feet, and at the top 18 feet. It used once to be walled round, and had two gates. The approach now is by twenty-one steps cut in the turf. In his _Diary_, _etc._, Robinson wrote of Tynwald--"It brought to my mind a similar monument of simple manners at Sarnen in Switzerland."--ED. [872] 1835. Once on the top of Tynwald Hill (a Mound MS. Time was when on the top of yon small mound (Still marked with circles duly narrowing Each above each) ... MS. [873] 1835. Would sit by solemn usage robed and crowned, While compassing the grassy mount around, MS. Sate 'mid the assembled people robed and crowned, MS. [874] 1835. Now like a thing within Fate's easiest reach, MS. [875] 1835. Off with those clouds, ... MS. [876] The summit of this mountain is well chosen by Cowley as the scene of the "Vision," in which the spectral angel discourses with him concerning the government of Oliver Cromwell. "I found myself," says he, "on the top of that famous hill in the Island Mona, which has the prospect of three great, and not long since most happy, kingdoms. As soon as ever I looked upon them, they called forth the sad representation of all the sins and all the miseries that had overwhelmed them these twenty years." It is not to be denied that the changes now in progress, and the passions, and the way in which they work, strikingly resemble those which led to the disasters the philosophic writer so feelingly bewails. God grant that the resemblance may not become still more striking as months and years advance!--W. W. 1835. The top of Snaefell (which Wordsworth names "Snafell"), the highest mountain in the Isle of Man, whence England, Scotland, and Ireland are to be seen, as mentioned in the Sonnet, is not visible from Tynwald Hill.--ED. XXII "DESPOND WHO WILL--_I_ HEARD A VOICE EXCLAIM"