Mona's Queen at the Red Pier, Douglas

Date(s): 1860

Scope & Content: On the back of this photograph Frowde writes, 'Mona's Queen (I) at the Red Pier above the 'wretched ruin with ugly naked walls' ('Quote Examiner, Feb 1930) all remaining of the old Douglas Fort that defended the entrance to the Port. In the whole plate photo taken by Mr Thos Keig in 1860, this appears '....' and one day Mr T S Keig, my old school-fellow at the Grammar School, said to me "I fancy that must be part of the Douglas Fort." I said that could not be because it was demolished by Major H[alliday?] in 1818. However, I got TSK to make an enlargement from which this is abstracted, and, on shewing it to various antiquarian associates, met with mostly, tolerant, or pitying smiles. But it seems that the iconoclastic major contented himself with the destruction of the Tower. The only picture of the building (unless that on Fannin's Map is realistic) is a vignette on the front page of Feltham's Tour. A bad woodcut with humans in it some 12 feet high compared with the 20 feet (c) of the wall. This was copied in Kneale's Guide. It appears on the engraved £1 notes of Beatson & Copeland, (coin case, museum), but still is evidently as unreal as the Feltham woodcut. Still, I fancy B & C's notes were dated about 1818? Yes'. Additional note: '(Last sentence supra, of course refers to the specimen of B & C's notes in the Museum coin case. If this Bank functioned prior to 1818, the Fort and its tower would be intact. Anyhow, the bankers would have seen it so for years earlier on)'.

Language: eng

Extent: overall: 9 cm x 14 cm

Physical description: black & white print

Item name: photograph

Collection: Photographic Archive

Level: ITEM

ID number: PG/8224/1/54

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