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London; Richard BentLey.ITevr Burlington. Street

A

SUMMER YISIT

IRELAND in 1846.

BY

MRS. FREDERIC WEST.

Dia llama a otro dia,
Y asi llama y encadena,
Llanto a llanto, y pena a pena.
CALDERO.V DE LA BARCA.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1847.

LONDON:
Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street.

TO
HIS MEMORY
FROM WHOM I IMBIBED MY EARLIEST AND TRUEST NOTIONS
OF
LIBERTY, JUSTICE, TRUTH, AND HUMANITY,
AND WHO INSPIRED ME
WITH AN UNDYING LOVE AND SYMPATHY
FOR THE SISTER COUNTRY,
ARE THESE PAGES, DEDICATED,
WITH REVERENTIAL AFFECTION,
BY THE AUTHORESS.

PREFACE.

" When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the country
where he hath travelled altogether behind him."
BACON'S ESSAYS OF TRAVEL.
Every one has different notions as to the wording
of a Preface: I have adopted the novel mode of
prefixing a motto to it as well as to my first chapter,
because I wish it to be read, and hope to draw
attention to it, under the shadow of the great name
that ushers it in.
Those who look for science in this little volume
will be disappointed, the writer having little
acquaintance with the ologies ; all she can boast
of being a tolerably acute pair of ears and eyes, a
good memory, and an insatiable thirst for seeing
new countries. Add to these what may make her
not unacceptable to some readers, and what her Irish

VI PREFACE.
friends call an " Irish heart," anglice, a very warm
interest in the Emerald Isle ; a very deep sympathy
for its misfortunes ; a very vivid perception of the
many great qualities and extraordinary natural
talents of its warm-hearted inhabitants ; and a very
strong admiration of its antiquities, and beautiful
scenery. I do not pretend to assign every cause for the
variety of sufferings wherewith Ireland has been,
and is afflicted. I merely attempt to sketch with a
faithful pencil the effects hourly passing before my
eyes. With a pencil that shall " nothing extenuate,
nor aught set down in malice," I leave to my
readers, the deduction of the causes of these effects,
and their cure.
If the source of a fountain be polluted, the
streams that flow forth must be impure, until such
time as that shall be cleansed.
I have not attempted either to swell my book with
descriptions of the " castles, palaces, courts of justice,
theatres, and public buildings in general," which
Lord Bacon recommends to the notice of travellers,
and of which every town of common pretension
is possessed, but which circumstances forbade my
visiting. I have traced my steps through the

PREFACE. Vll
medium of no hand-book, but simply as I pursued
my way, noting all that I saw en passant.
I send my bookeen forth with great diffidence,
but with strong hope. The public sympathies are
at last awakened towards Ireland. My object in
travelling through it, was to satisfy myseK of its
actual condition, through the medium of my own
senses, and to exhort my English countrymen to
" go and do likewise."
Should I succeed in persuading any to spend
there, even for " a season," a portion of the wealth
bestowed upon them by Providence, my end will be
answered, and my reward multifold. They will be
received with the "cead mile failte" so grateful
to the ear of the way-farer, and have the satisfac
tion of feeling they have helped to do good, while
diverting themselves.
T. C. I. W.

ARNEWOOD HOUSE.
APRIL 29, 1847.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

GLENDALOUGH  To face Title.
KILLINY AND DALKEY ISLAND, FROM SHANGANAGH Page 9
ARDFINNAN  63

WOODCUTS.

PILLAR NEAR BAGDAD . .
TOMB OF THE HORATII, &C, NEAR ROME .
MINARET OF THE TAJ MAHAL ....
SPECIMENS OF ANTiaUITIES IN THE ROYAL IRISH
ACADEMY .......
SPECIMENS OF THE PALLIO USED IN ITALY
ANCIENT IRISH HORN .....
ROUND TOWER AT KILKENNY ....
ROUND TOWER, AT ROSCREA
BARRACK OR BLOODY -BRIDGE, DUBLIN

Page 2021
22
22—23 394056
158210

A
SUMMER VISIT TO IRELAND.

Hapless nation ! rent and torn,
Thou wert early taught to mourn,
Warfare of six hundred years !
Epochs marked by blood and tears !
Hapless nation ! hapless land !
Heap of uncementing sand !
Grumbled by a foreign weight,
And by worse — domestic hate.
God of Mercy ! God of Peace 1
Make the mad confusion cease !
O'er the mental chaos move,
Though it speak the light of love !"
DRENNAN.
After having for several years earnestly desired
to visit Ireland, it was with very vivid feelings
of pleasure and curiosity that I crossed the channel
on the 10th of July, 1846, from Holyhead to
Kingstown. The day was bright, the wind fair ; and though

2 A SUMMER VISIT
the tide was against us, we made an excellent
passage in H.M. steamer, Sprightly, Captain Moon;
which I can commend as a good sea-boat, " stiff as
a church," and the Captain, with all under him,
were full of politeness and attention.
We embarked at haff-past 1six in the evening, and
were landed on Kingstown Pier at half-past one in
the morning. I strained my eyes to catch the first
glimpse of the far-famed Bay of Dublin, having
been prevented by the " maladie de mer" from
being on deck when we entered it ; but I could
only see the brilliant lights of the harbour, and
was glad — faint and weary after my voyage — to
take possession of the very comfortable and hand
some apartments secured for us at Rathbone's
Hotel by the kind forethought of Sh' George
Cockburn. Only one soul was up in the house — a very civil
man, who turned out to be " the Boots •" and he,
armed with a brace of flat candlesticks, lighted
us up to a pretty bed-room, where a very inviting-
looking bed was made up in the smallest possible
compass for one; with the feather-bed uppermost,
tucked between a snowy pair of sheets, so as almost
to look like a good-sized pillow. This had to be

TO IRELAND. 3
re-made, and no chambermaid was to be got,
whereupon Mr. West and his valet performed the
office of bed-makers, while I went with my poor
sick abigail to coax something to eat out of " the
Boots." I shall give our dialogue verbatim; for I laughed
heartily at this my first introduction to Irish ways.
I commenced the palaver.
" What can you give us to eat ? — We are very
hungry. Will you bring us some tea ?"
"Sure if I brought it ye wouldn't be able to
drink it, for the wather here is bad."
" What ! — so bad you can't make tea ?"
" Sure it is. The wather of this counthry is
bad." " But don't people ever drink tea here ?"
" Sure they do ; but iviry one is gone to bed, and
there's no boiling wather."
" Well, what can you bring us ? We must have
something." "Sure the barmaid's gone to bed. Will I
bring ye some wine and wather, and a few bis
cuits ?"
" I would rather have tea ; but if I can't have it,
why bring the wine."
b 2

4 A SUMMER VISIT
" And if I could bring the tay t' ye, d'ye think
now I wouldn't?"
Boots vanished, and presently returned with
a bottle of wine, and a jug of smoking hot water.
" Why, my good man," quoth I, " here is boiling
water ! Now just bring me some tea, and three
tea-cups, and a jug of milk, and we'll see if we
can't make some tea."
" Sure I'll bring it t'ye. And may be whin
ye've made it, ye'll not be able to dhriak it. 'Tis
our wather is bad — 'tis pump wather it is !"
The poor, good-humoured fellow was right
enough : the apparatus was brought, and the tea
made; but somehow, when it came to be poured
out, two thirds of the cup was sheer sand. So
we went to bed supperless and uncomfortable ; but
I did not mind it, for was I not in Ireland after all ?
Five hours after we reached Kingstown, the
joy-bells were ringing in another arrival — that
of Lord Besborough, the new Viceroy, who had
crossed from Liverpool to Dublin, and was warmly
welcomed. July 11. — The view from the sitting-room windows
was very pretty. The sea lay like a pool, so still
and calm; and myriads of httle vessels within the

TO IRELAND.

pier, speckled the Bay. Some belonging to the
Yacht Club, with their gay streamers; some with
picturesque tan-sails — mere fishing-boats ; merchant
craft drying their canvass, and barques flying hither
and thither, all reflected clearly on the waters. In
front, looking very like Capri, was Howth, whose
soft, beautiful outline is lovely from all points.
The eternal racket of the Kingstown Railway,
alone detracted from the scene : those straight lines,
and ugly monsters of machines, form a hideous
foreground to every landscape.
By mid-day we were sufficiently recruited to set
off for Bray, where I was all impatience to arrive.
The drive from Kingstown to this town is very
pretty, dotted with villas and seats the whole way,
and flanked by low, grassy hills. .But never shall I
forget the first sight of the Irish cabin ! — four stone
walls, a very small window, thatched roof, and
chimney, compose it ; and at the entrance, or
inside sat, or lounged women, naked to the knees
many of them ; their clothes — if so their rags could
be called — hanging in shreds about their bosoms,
scarcely decent. Hair dishevelled, feet bare, and
disgustingly dirty ; squalid, pale countenances, the
very reverse of pretty, and surrounded by swarms of

b A SUMMER VISIT
tattered, unwashed, uncombed, bare-footed children.
Some were knitting, some washing clothes ; some
had pipes in their mouths, some were scratching
and picking themselves — most doing nothing. One
family had constructed their habitation on the broken
arch of a bridge, round which it was evident the
winter torrents eddied. And all this in the sight
of the numerous and wealthy proprietors of country-
seats and villas, and at the very gates of the
capital !
Beggars, blind and lame, had stationed themselves
on a hill, vociferously asking alms, and calling on
the name of God, in a manner quite shocking to
unaccustomed ears. One of the chief drawbacks
to improvement in Ireland being apparently the
sturdy mendicants that prey upon each other, as
well as the public. I think the enforcement of
the Vagrant Act, as in England, now that the
people have Unions wherein to shelter, would be
a very great social gain.
The post-boy who drove us from Kingstown was
a great amusement to me. Under his queer, high,
shallow-brimmed hat, cocked on one side, he wore
a white night-cap. His eye had little speculation
in it : his nose might be denominated tuberculous.

TO IRELAND. 7
To the protruding jaw -of the ape, he added a
pair of cheeks so oddly puffed out, as to resemble
a monkey pouching his nuts against a future occa
sion. One shoulder was considerably elevated above
the other ; and he kept a sidelong glance fixed on
the off-horse, which gave him the effect of being
wry-necked. I never beheld so grotesque a being.
His nether-man was cased in a pair of jackboots,
and a greasy blue jacket and corduroys completed
his costume. He drove well, however, only evincing
a considerable leaning towards the beggars as we
descended the hill where, as aforesaid, a gang of
them occupied certain stations. For he kept almost
in the ditch, so as to allow them space for running
and bawling beside the carriage, he going as slowly
as possible the while. This worthy was just the
sort of Irish boy one sees in a caricature, or on the
stage; and I never met with his equal during my
gallop through his country.
We shortly arrived at Shanganagh Castle, the
abode of our expecting friends — Sir George and
Lady Cockburn.* Here we were most kindly
and hospitably entertained in a handsome house,
abounding in curiosities, antique and modern : with
* See Appendix A.

8 A SUMMER VISIT
every enjoyment heightened by agreeable society,
and exquisite music.
Here I had the pleasure of making the acquaint
ance of Mr. Weld of Ravenswell, of antiquarian
celebrity, (to whose kindness I owe some most
gratifying hours passed in the Museums of Dublin),
and Sir George Hodson, whose taste has laid out
a little Eden at Hollybrook, which he has embel
lished within by the productions of his own
pencil. Among Sir George Cockburn's treasures are
two fine pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Kitty
Fisher, and Mrs. Jordan: the former a piquante,
but sullen-countenanced brunette, with a quaint,
little, peaked, black hat like Minerva's helmet, that
throws a shadow over the brow and eyes. It is
impossible for the painter's skill to go further than
Sir Joshua's in depicting the exquisite sweetness
and archness of Mrs. Jordan's fair, bright face,
and " laughing teeth."
In the General's "Piccolo Vaticano" are preserved
— among numerous valuable alti-rilievi, and inscrip
tions — the bones of noble Romans, out of the
Rufini Tomb. The inscription of one sepulchral
urn is copied, and inserted into the wall; it

.

i^W£

London-. Richard BentLey^cwBtirlmgtoii Street,

TO IRELAND. 9
is a sweet apostrophe from the mother to her
child— LUPRIUS AVCTOS
V. A. XXIII.
Q.UOD TU MI DEBEBAS
FACERE EGO TIBI
FACIO MATER PIA.
"What thou should' st have done for me, I, tender «
mother, do for thee 1" is the General's translation.
How little did these poor ancients imagine their
ashes would ever have been transported from their
own sunny resting-place, to this, their ultima thule !
Peace to their shades !
From the windows of Shanganagh you see in
perfection the greater and lesser Sugar-Loaf moun
tains ; Bray Head, a most striking promontory,
besides the granite steeps of Killiny Bay, and
Dalkey Island with its ruined churches. ;
Facing the entrance stands an old Greek column
on which is an inscription commemorative of the
passing of the Reform Bill; and a basalt pillar
from the Giant's Causeway is placed opposite the
library window. This is a noble room, full of
treasures in books and engravings. The billiard-
room and tribune contain many good paintings and
b 3

10 A SUMMER VISIT
morceaux of sculpture, and I bewailed the necessity
which compelled me to so very cursory a glance at
what promised entertainment for days and days.
July 12. — After strolling through the walks and
terraces of this sweet place, Captain Heyman and
Anna, Mr. West and I, drove to Bray Head, round
whose wild and rugged summit, Lord Meath has
cut judiciously planned drives.
In one spot where we commanded a bird's eye
view of the Wicklow coast on the right, and that
between Bray and Dalkey Island on the left, I stood
on a projecting cliff covered with heather and furze
that goes sheer down to the sea, — a depth of three
or four hundred feet.
Down this tremendous precipice an unhappy
gentleman was hurled a summer or two since
in the very sight of his companions; — he was, of
course, dashed to pieces. The accident arose out
of a vain effort to regain his hat, blown off by the
wind. He rushed carelessly forward, and, losing
his footing, the catastrophe ensued.
No pen can do justice to the beauty of this scene,
and the climate resembles none I ever was in. The
air is pure, balmy, and elastic, — softer, because less
dry than that of Italy; but the effects of the

TO IRELAND. 11
atmosphere on distant objects are the same. That
soft haze which is not damp, producing an exquisite
tone of coloring; the clear blue ofthe sea, transparent
almost to its depths; the varying tints upon the
hills ; the excessive height of the azure vault above ;
— all reminded me of a day in May at Rome. And
the pleasure of breathing ! I do not remember ever
respiring any air, in which the lungs seemed to have
such free and perfect play, as in that of Wicklow,
— beautiful Wicklow ! — well named the garden of
Ireland ! I shall always look back with the greatest
pleasure to the happy days, few in number as
they were, spent among the fertile valleys, breezy
hills, and beautiful demesnes of this charming
county. We made a successful effort to see Kilruddery,
Lord Meath's place — a handsome, plain, Elizabethan
structure in granite. The balustrade round the
terrace struck me as singularly light and appro
priate, formed of rather large rings in granite linked
together. In front of it clumps of lime, laurels
and arbutus are gracefully disposed on the turf;
and between straight grassy walks, long fish-ponds
extend, on which the swans sat motionless, as
though they were only beautiful porcelain images.

12 A SUMMER VISIT
These are backed by shrubberies, terminating in
an avenue of broad-branching, venerable linden
trees. The grounds are laid out in what our very
civil Cicerone called the Dutch style, or what I
have been accustomed to consider as the French
allees vertes ; like the chase at the Stupanigi Palace,
near Turin. Broad, grassy glades, hedged in by
horn-beam fifteen or twenty feet high, every now
and then widened to a circle whence branched off in
either side three more such delicious summer walks.
The shrubberies are of gigantic Portugal laurels,
bays, one of which we measured eight feet round,
red cedar, deciduous cypress, arbutus, and other
evergreens. There is a clump of yew trees towering
up to a great height, all single stems, and an
avenue of ilex, the largest in Ireland : — one tree is
fourteen feet in girth.
I was pleased with a deep still pool or fountain
surrounded by hedges of beach at least twenty-five
feet high, through which lofty arches are cut ; and the
whole air of the place was scented with that which
to me is the most delicious of all perfumes, the
flowers of the linden tree. All over Ireland this
most beautiful of trees flourishes ; it seems as great
a favourite as in its mother country, Germany, or

TO IRELAND. 13
in France : but the ash is the peculiar tree of
Ireland. Lord Meath is excessively good to the poor on his
estate ; and they seemed to be well paid, and well
off in house and fuel from all we could gather.
We observed some crops of hay, beyond anything
luxuriant ; they were just preparing to mow.
Potatoes were beginning to fail here. Bray Head
is thickly planted with them, and we noticed fine
blossoms, pink, lilac, and white; the latter are
" lumpers," and disesteemed, so we were informed
by the sapient Nicholas, our conductor, whose taste
for the picturesque made him pause wherever a
break through the firs displayed the loveliness of
Killiny Bay to our delighted gaze in our descent to
Kilruddery. July 13. — A more exquisite day never dawned
upon travellers. Dupaty says, " un beau jour c'est
une fite que le del donne a la terre." This was a
" white day" to me in every way, for I was to make
my first pilgrimage to what I have so often longed
to see — a Round Tower — and with very agreeable
companions. We started at 10 a.m. for Glendalough, Captain
and Miss Heyman, Mr. West and myself, and young

14 A SUMMER VISIT
Hermann on the rumble, a gleesome school-boy
enjoying everything. We wound up some steep
hills on the side of the great Sugar-Loafj through
a wild picturesque defile strewn with blocks of
granite, passing several neat farms with gardens
and clipped hedges; and from the summit, the
smiling valley below is perfectly beautiful, with
the glittering domes of Powerscourt towering
over all the various richly wooded demesnes; on
the right hand, the scalp, a most curious dip
between the hills, fills up the opposite side of the
vale. This pass I was told consists of enormous
masses of granite tumbled about, with trees inter
mingled, — a curious freak of nature's.
Great part of the road after this ascent lies across
a bog, patches of which are cultivated; and over
the pastures he scattered great granite boulders;
an occasional cabin reared by the side of them, and
lookmg hke an excrescence from the stone, more
than a human habitation.
Roundwood supplied us with fresh horses : it
possesses a clean, tidy inn. Emerging from bog,
out of which the old black stumps were sticking
up, we skirted the rocky shores, fringed with ash
and birch, of the river Avonmore, passing through

TO IRELAND. 15
the pretty village of Annamoe. Such sweet names !
All the rest of the way is wild and pretty to the
Bridge of Laragh, a strikingly picturesque spot. It
was crowded with people in their blue cloaks, and
frieze coats, making purchases of an itinerant haber
dasher, whose little hand-cart displayed cottons and
kerchiefs of every hue. On the rocky slope of the
hill to our right, stood a castellated building,
intended for a barrack, which harmonized with
the scene. The river pursued its way through
woods, the property of N. T. Bookey, Esq., at
the foot of Derry Bawn, a fine mountain range
that flanks Glendalough.
At last the tall, gloomy-looking Round-Tower
came in sight ; it is a most striking object, standing
up alone amidst crowds of grave-stones, one hundred
and ten feet in height, still unimpaired by time —
save the falling in of its conical top,* while the
five churches that crown the circumjacent hills, and
its own immediate neighbours — Our Lady's Church,
and St. Kevin — are ruined and crumbling.
* Petrie, in his " Round Towers of Ireland," says this top
would have added probably eighteen feet to its height, besides
that lost round its base by the accumulation of earth. — See the
Work, p. 361.

16 A SUMMER VISIT
Crossing the stream of Glendalough on rude
stones, we soon found ourselves in this solitary
Necropolis. Luncheon was despatched in the least
possible time, under the shade of the Round-Tower,
and then we explored the grave-yard. The huge
Cross, our guide told me, was a- great help to
matrimony, for you had only to clasp your arms
round it, and think of the man, or the girl you
loved, and either was sure to be your's.
" I did it meself," quoth he, " sorrow's the day I
did it ; for she's me wife this twinty years, and bad
luck to her for a bad one as she is."
Two other guides started up, and one was remark
ably eloquent, — pouring out passages from Moore,
(a popular version, like the Venetian gondolier's
rendering of Tasso), and scraps of old songs, but in
so incoherent a way, we suspected poteen had
inspired his muse and memory. Another sedate
old fellow bade him keep his tongue in his head,
for he knew the quality, and they didn't like being
disturbed at their luncheon. These gentry wore
much the appearance of the natives of Terracina,
with their glittering black eyes, snuffT coloured
peaked hats (caubeens), and stockings to match.
Each brandished a stout shillelagh, and their

TO IRELAND. 17
use of their arms in gesticulating was very
peculiar. An old goody sat knitting beside us, and she
expatiated on the benevolence of Mrs. Bookey,
who clothed and fed the poor, and educated the
children. She had two daughters, she said; and
one she recommended to me as a skilful maker of
caps. " Ah ! that girleen has the brightest heart
of the two ! 'tis ivery thing she can do." I
bought from her some specimens of copper, lead,
and quartz, the produce of the neighbouring
unworked mines.
The poor appear to be tolerably well off here.
Our guide informed me they got a shilling a-day,
fuel allowed; and pay about £3 per annum for
a taking that feeds a cow, or a couple of goats.
He was only rich enough to keep the latter. The
women knit stockings, and fetch turf, which is
delved out of the bog with two kinds of spades
of peculiar shape, and dried in the form of long
bricks. The effect is most singular of these black
piles all over the country ; and in one spot we
passed on our return, the bog extended for miles,
and all the population seemed turned out digging it

18 A SUMMER VISIT
up. The young women carry the peat in long
baskets, like the French " hotte," strapped on the
back — a heavy weight, and hawk it about the
country. The price varies according to age and
quality. At Tullamore the price of a cart-load,
i.e. — six baskets' full, was six shillings and six
pence. Hiring a jaunting-car, we drove about a mile
down a stony lane to the Lake, a smooth expanse
of clear, dark water, encircled by mountains. Of
these Lug Duff, and Derry Bawn, the " Fair Moun
tain," are most conspicuous. The shore is strewed
with small, shining pieces of mica, like shillings and
sixpences. Between this and the Tower, is a lesser
Tarn, choked with weeds, and teeming with water
fowl. Embarking in a fishing-boat, we rowed to St.
Kevin's Bed, where " Cochleen," as she calls herself,
— an old woman who has seen service, having been
a soldier's wife,- and followed the army all through
the war, descended from her perilous post on the
rocks, for a shilling ; then, re-mounting, she woke
the echoes with a shriek, and dived into the Saint's
Bed, — a hole in the side of the cliff, turning in it

TO IRELAND. 19
three times for our sakes, by which our souls are in
some way to be benefitted.
A fishing-party, who were here before us, were
boiling their canteen under the rocks, and angling
with a patience that belongs exclusively to their

At the head of the Lake we saw a silver stream
trickling down ; but had no time for a fine waterfall
near our place of embarkation.
There is a very fine echo, by the guide invoked,
on the road back to the inn. This our gentlemen
entered, and beheld the cook, with glowing face,
and hair hanging in elf-locks, roasting two fowls
by a string, for a hungry party we had met in
the ruins. She asked them to treat her to a
"dhrop of the whisky, she was so dhry." It
was a very hot day of a surety; and beer is a
luxury unknown to the lower classes in Ireland.
Antiquarians, and so many other abler heads
than mine, have said all that .can be said on the
subject of Round-Towers, therefore I will only add
that my humble belief in their Eastern and Pagan
origin was confirmed by the sight of this most
interesting relic of antiquity ; of which I was

20 A SUMMER VISIT
enabled to make a sketch in a spot different to
that already chosen by tourists.
To this drawing, I cannot resist annexing one
or two others. The first is a pillar between Koote
and Bagdad, copied from " The Personal Narrative

of a Journey from India to England," by Major
the Hon. George Keppel, and supposed by him
to resemble the Irish Round-Towers : in which
supposition he is borne out by the testimony of
Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, in their work on Ireland,*
and Mr. Moore, in his history of that country, f
* See Appendix B.
f See Moore's History of Ireland. Vol. i. p. 31.

TO IRELAND.

21

The second is from a sketch of my own of a
sepulchral monument that stands on the Alban-
Way, which has a regular Round-Tower at each
angle, two nearly perfect. It is that commonly
denominated the ' Tomb of the Horatii and Curiatii.'

A distinguished traveller in Etruria assured me
he had met with forms in the sepulchral monu
ments of that country, as well as in the ornaments
used by the women, corresponding with these Irish
ruins, and the golden antiques in the Dublin
Museums. The third sketch represents one minaret of the

22

A SUMMER VISIT

Taj Mahal, at Agra, taken from Colonel Sleeman's
beautiful and elaborate drawing.*
Upon comparison, the forms of
these edifices, and those of the
Irish Round-Towers, will be found
to be precisely similar.
Near the abode of Echo is a
cleft in the hill lengthways, which
our guide obligingly informed
me was the result of a friend
ship between the Prophet Jere
miah and Vulcan, the greatest
blacksmithf of his day, who were
schoolfellows. The Lady Vanus,
being the most beautiful of wo
men, was bestowed on Vulcan,
he said, because he was the ugliest of men. So far
so good. Why the prophet wished to make an
onslaught upon the mountain, deponent explained
not; but he averred that Vulcan, to please his
friend, forged the sword wherewith he achieved the
feat, — a great and terrible one, as the slanting cut
to this day testifieth; and, moreover, destroyed a

* See Appendix C.
t See Appendix D.

TO IRELAND. 23
giant who dwelt there. " D'ye believe that now ?"
asked one of the party. The guide smiled, and
shook his head.
St. Kevin must have been a jovial fellow, for his
kitchen is a very good sized one, and appending to
it is a baby Round-Tower : there, I conclude, the
holy man kept a look out on the cooks, and tasted
the viands beforehand through the medium of his
olfactories. This spot was once frequented by that " just and
good man," as Giraldus Cambrensis styles him,
Lawrence O'Tuathal, youngest son of the Prince of
the Glen of Imaile, in Wicklow. He was Bishop
of Glendalough, and Archbishop of Dublin; and
although his hospitalities were princely, they never
degenerated into ought unbecoming a churchman-
He gave munificently a daily dole to five hundred
persons, nourished orphans and foundlings, and
dispensed justice with an able and upright hand.
So well was he thought of in England, that he
was employed in various delicate missions on the
continent by Henry I.; and his country lost a most
enlightened and zealous supporter of its laws and
liberties, when he was carried off by fever in

24

A SUMMER VISIT

Normandy, on the 14th of November, 1180.
Lawrence was educated at Glendalough, and became
Abbot of the Monastery when twenty-five years old;
and so attached was he to his early haunts in this
still " Vale of the Lakes," he was wont at times to
betake himself hither, and pass days and weeks in
the solitary cell of St. Kevin, in prayer and
seclusion.* I too felt loath to leave the " ould Holy Place ;"
but we had five and twenty miles of hilly road to
travel before dinner, and company asked to meet
us ; and that great dial, the tower and the sun, told
of four hours being sped since noon. So away we
hied, casting many a backward glance at the two
lakes, and their accompaniment of hill and ruin in
the quiet valley. Once out of the bog nothing
could exceed the beauty of the drive home; every
step of the way presenting new features of the
pieturesque. Descending a precipitous hill, we
skirted Mr. Hempenstall's property, and through
the pines and chestnuts that border the road, caught
vistas of the sea between the valleys; while the
* For further account of tbis Bishop, See Moore's History of
Ireland. Vol. n. p. 307.

TO IRELAND. 25
uplands thrown about in various forms were clothed
with woods and verdure, and enlivened by country
seats and nice farm-houses, with the neatest thatch,
amid gardens and well-trimmed hedge-rows, with
bee-hives clustering under them, and abundant
vegetable produce. Leaving on our right hand the
perfectly Swiss village of Delgany, romantically laid
out on the side of a wooded hill, we drove through
the Glen of the downs. Mr. La Touche's grounds
on one hand, bold wooded cliffs, from every crevice
of which shrubs and flowers were springing, the
Sugar-Loaf Major before us, and every variety of
forest tree luxuriating all round. A brawling
torrent divided the cliff from the road, and in
one verdant spot stood an elegant fishing pottage
embosomed in trees of large growth. The dwellers
in the city love to frequent these sylvan glades, and
we saw the smoke of a gipsy kettle on the brow of
the cliff, while the joyous voices of the picnickers
descended to us in merry bursts, mingled with the
notes of a violin.
We passed the gate of Holly Brook, through
which we had driven in the morning, a sweet pretty
place laid out with great taste by Sir George

26 A SUMMER VISIT
Hodson, in a spot where nature has been lavish
of all that can afford scope to art.
July 14. — Dear Anna, young Hermann, Mr. West
and I set off to explore fresh lions. Captain Heyman
and his daughter met us on horseback. Passing
through Enniskerry; I was struck by St. Valorie, a
pretty house hke a Swiss BaiUi's built over the river,
which just at this spot joins the stream of the Dargle.
The grounds slope down to the water, and a little
before, we crossed it on a bridge, whence there is
one beautiful peep.
Nothing can be more lovely than the Dargle.
It is a deep ravine between richly wooded cliffs
composed of granite and mica ; here and there spht
and broken, and wreathed with festoons of ivy,
brambles, and the usual woodland plants. Beneath
brawls the torrent : in winter very wide and over
flowing, which in various places forms deep, still,
clear pools between masses of rock, into which the
ash and rowan dip down their branches, and throw a
dark shadow, broken only by an occasional sunbeam
straying through the foliage. I envied the naiades
their delicious bathing places, and longed to plunge
into the cool waters this sultry day. Hermitages

TO IRELAND. 27
are erected on convenient eminences, and of one
of these a large party had possession.
The grounds of Powerscourt and Tinnehinch,
contribute greatly to embellish the Dargle. It is
about a mile long, and at the further end we
regained the carriage ; after walking through a few
fields, and crossing some double gates well pad
locked, and were soon past the lodge, and within
the Park of Powerscourt.
Tinnehinch belonged to the man of whom
Edmund Burke thus wrote to his friend W.
Smith, Esq. "Surely Great Britain and Ireland
ought to join in wreathing a never-fading garland
for the head of Grattan."*
Powerscourt contains a superb saloon of good
proportions, about sixty-five feet in length ; full of
statues and busts. But the pilasters should be of
scagliola, and not of painted wood. In the drawing-
room are several good paintings by Vandyck,
Guercino, &c. I particularly admired a group of
young loves by Amigrone. The chapel, or rather a
circular chamber used as a chapel, is very well-
proportioned, and has a beautiful cupola in com-
* See Burke's Works. Vol. n. p. 450.
C 2

28 A SUMMER VISIT
partments, blue and gold. The other apartments
are nothmg particular ; but the entrance hall with a
ceiling and cornices composed of shells in plaster,
is heavier and more ungraceful than any morsel
of architectural decoration I ever saw, and so low
you feel ecrase by it.
The mansion itself is a noble looking Grecian
elevation in granite, with two copper domes on the
roof that glisten far and wide, when the sun strikes
on them. The park is full of fine trees, and is well
kept. Throughout the grounds to the far-famed
cascade, the scenery is wild and varied. Now on
the slope of a grassy hill, — now by the river's side,
through fine trees and shrubberies we wound along :
it is a most enjoyable place.
Suddenly we came upon an amphitheatre of grass
" smooth shaven," sprinkled over with noble oaks :
the hills that encircle it clothed with wood to the
very summits ; here and there a patch of purple
heath, or green pasture lit up by the afternoon's
sun, and in the centre amid all the grouping trees,
from a height of three or four hundred feet, down
dashed, sparkling, and crashing, and foaming, the Fall
of Powerscourt. It was a gay spectacle altogether,
for we found ourselves unexpectedly among a throng

TO IRELAND.

29

of picnickers unpacking their baskets in merry knots :
at least a couple of dozen of jaunting-cars, phaetons,
and horses, and attendants, all bivouacking under
the trees. We were privileged to cross a rustic
bridge thrown over the stream, whence from
another part of the grounds, carpetted with moss,
and canopied by stately oaks, we enjoyed a splendid
side-view of the fall.
When George IV. was at Powerscourt, it hap*.
pened to be particularly dry weather; great pains
were consequently taken for days beforehand, and
I know not how many workmen employed con
stantly, to dam up the river, and ensure a fine
fall of water for the royal eyes. But, alas ! after
a night spent in consuming Lord Powerscourt's
excellent claret, the Monarch was little disposed
for sylvan scenery ; and upon driving to this
bewitching spot, never once looked at the fall !
Very beautiful was our drive back to Bray :
hedges carefully kept, trees flourishing, sunny
villas and smihng farms innumerable, all the
way. After passing St. Valorie, we encountered a
multitude of jaunting-cars, filled with belles and
beaux, as we fancied, a bridal party. Some of these

30 A SUMMER VISIT
were going at a great pace, kicking up the dust,
which, by the way, is dreadful on these roads — so
gritty and penetrating, and one attempted to race
with us. I was quite sorry for the fine, black
horse, that, impelled by the charioteer, in gentle
man's garb, who held the reins, kept up with us till
we peremptorily ordered our post-boy to desist. Two
ladies, with feathers and scarves streaming in the
air, sat with the greatest nonchalance all the while,
skilfully balancing themselves with the pecuhar
undulations of the vehicle, and utterly regardless
of their horse's distress.
Further on we found ourselves enveloped by
a Temperance band, and its many followers :
banners displayed, and music resounding veiy
gaily; and this sort of thing we met with once
and again. The merry sounds continued to come
up to the Castle on the evening air.
Bray is a celebrated watering-place ; and its
Hotel renowned for good cheer.

TO IRELAND. 31

CHAPTER II.
July 15. — I looked out of my window early and
eagerly this morning for tokens of favour from
St. Swithin. He was tolerably gracious, only
sprinkling us with a few drops of rain, which I
hailed as a good omen.
I amused myself with Anna in the morning,
sketching the Sugar-Loaves from her dear mother's
windows. The hay-makers were .busy underneath
us in the lawn ; and beyond, the sea stretched out
towards Bray Head. What a pity the name should
have been altered of these remarkable pinnacles !
Willis says, " the Irish themselves called them ' the
Gilt Spears/ from their retaining the light of the
sun after the rest of the surrounding landscape was
involved in darkness."* * See Willis's Ireland, p. 162.

32 A SUMMER VISIT
What a delicious drive we took this afternoon !
Mrs. Heyman was of the party ; and Nicholas knew
so well where to stop — a very jewel of a charioteer
to the tribe of " Syntax."
From the heights of Killiny Hill, the whole Bay
lay beneath us in a crescent-like curve, gracefully
turned. Between us and Bray Head, the land
stretched upwards towards the Sugar-Loaves twain,
a, gradual slope, richly cultivated, and dotted all
over with white houses and hamlets, embosomed in
groves; the sea bathing the smooth, quiet shore,
blue as the Mediterranean, and the rugged, granite
cliffs of Killiny, with Dalkey Island on one side,
and bluff Bray Head, with its triple crags on the
other. This little islet, till the last century, was the scene
of annual Boccaccian festivities, in commemoration of
the retirement thither of a certain "merrie com
panie," of citizens, during the Great Plague of 1575.
I regretted having no leisure for' strolling on
the beach, and seeking Wicklow pebbles, which
take a fine polish.
Dr. Carmichael's Castle, one of the best castel
lated buildings I know, composed of granite blocks,

TO IRELAND. 33
stands on the edge of the cliff, commands all the
scenery I have faintly attempted to depict, and adds
a fine feature to the general landscape.
Returning by the Quarries, we had a bird's-eye
view pf the whole Bay of Dublin, than which
nothing can be more magnificent. I was in
ecstacies the whole way. The sea was as smooth
as a mirror, and the numerous steamers and other
vessels flitting over its surface, gave life to its
tranquil beauty.
July 16. — Wishing to see something of the
capital before we explored the provinces, we this
day bade a regretful adieu to our kind friends at
Shanganagh, and drove to Dublin : engaging good
apartments at Gresham's Hotel, in Sackville Street,
a most comfortable one in all respects.
The approach to Dubhn from Bray, lay through
Stephen's Green, where O'Connell has a good
green-doored mansion.
The Quays, with their nine handsome bridges,
reminded me of the Lung' Arno ; and I quite
appreciated the remarkably fine architecture of the
Four Courts, the Custom House, with its copper
dome, the Bank, and Post Office. c 3

34 A SUMMER VISIT
We stopped at the Bank, a noble Grecian edifice,
with a Portico, through which Anna and I strolled,
while our companion went in to replenish the
coffers. It was, erst while, the Senate*House, whose walls
have echoed to the eloquence of Irish patriotism,
and the base whispers of corruption. Opposite
to it, is the equestrian statue of Wilham III.,
which was wont to be decked on the "glorious
anniversary," with orange-lilies, and wreaths, and
ribbons, df the same hue, to the annoyance and
disgust of those who were true to "the Green."
Such open displays of party feeling are ahke illiberal
and ungenerous on the part of the stronger towards
the weaker : and all real lovers of peace must
desire the abolition of badges calculated only to
keep hostihty alight in men's minds.*
Sackville Street struck me as broader and hand
somer than any London street ; the Post Office is a
venerable Doric edifice, and the Rotunda at the
other end, and Nelson's column in the centre give
it a noble finish. Trinity College was our first
* The space it occupies is called College Green, a wide street
full of handsome shops.

TO IRELAND. 35
point. It boasts a very fine library and museum,
and what to me was most interesting, the Harp of
Brian Borimhe presented to the Pope by his son
Teige, and named by Dante, born in 1265, accord
ing to the elder Galilei, in proof of Ireland being
the birthplace of the harp and its serial music*
" The instrument," according to his account,
" being no other than a cithara with many strings,
" and having at the time when he wrote, four octaves,
" and a tone in compass."t
At the Royal Irish Academy in Kildare Street,
we were most fortunate in finding Mr. Clibborn, to
whose kindness, and unwearied patience I owe a
complete inspection of the innumerable treasures of
Irish antiquity the museum contains. Old grinding-
stones, with pots of mixed metal .found in the bogs,
without a seam, rivetted together by brass nails ;
shoes without a join, double soled, and double-
leathered, one pair of which is supposed to be that
stood in by the Kings at their coronation. Old
rings and seals, some of porcelain,} one the signet
* See Hall's Ireland, p. 409.
f See Moore's History of Ireland. Vol. I., p. 313.
X See Appendix E.

36 A SUMMER VISIT
of Murtagh O'Neill.* The Cross of Cong, the
Crozier of Cashel so well described by Mr. Petrie as
to require no repetition.
Besides these, quantities of celts, and swords,
daggers, and fibbise, in bronze and silver. Collars
or Torques gracefully
twisted ;f pledges, and
fillets, of pure gold.
The pledges are sup
posed to have been used
in forming compacts,
and vary in size from
those small enough for an infant's wrist, to those
suitable to the largest man's. The gold is so
elastic, it easily expands, and the article is of this
form, (I sketch from recol
lection) the upper parts
hollow, and cymbal-shaped.
Mr. Clibborn supposed this to be used as pledges
between two or more parties. Also rings for
ornament, or money as in present use in Africa.}
The head-ornaments, likewise of purest gold, exactly
* See Appendix F.
t See Appendix G.
J See Appendix H.

TO IRELAND. 37
resemble the pictures of Egyptian head-gear with
rosettes at the ears. Indeed, we
ladies in the present day, are wear
ing similar coiffures in lace or flowers,
covering the ears.
We saw the celebrated Book of
Armagh with its embossed silver
cover, and curious leathern case.* In Petrie's
account of this magnificent relic, he enters into
a disquisition with regard to the derivation of
the word polaire or polire, translated by " cloak,
veil, or pall," from pallium, as applicable to
these book satchels. Perhaps it may have es
caped the antiquarians, that the word pallio is
still in familiar use in Florence as apphed to the
banners borne in processions with the Host, of
white cloth of gold, satin, or damask, crowned
generally with a lighted lamp, or cross, or wreath
of flowers, and bearing the form of the Roman
Eagles. This circumstance may explain the meaning
of these articles forming a necessary part of a
* For a particular description of it see Petrie's Round Towers
of Ireland, p. 327.

38 A SUMMER VISIT
Bishop's paraphernalia, and being blessed by him,
as in the following passage :
" He, Patrick, conferred the degree of Bishop
upon him (Fiacc), so that he was the first Bishop
that was ordained among the Lagenians,* and
Patrick gave a cumtach (a box) to Fiacc, viz. : (i. e.
containing) a bell, and a menstir, and a crozier, and a
poohre ; and he left seven of his people with him."t
Now they translate "poolire," a " cloak or pall,
and a veil," and wonder what a Bishop should do
with them ; render the poolire as pallio, and let it
be the bannered reliquary that commonly precedes
a Bishop, and the difficulty vanishes. Besides the
leather satchel may a httle resemble the stiff shape
of the banner.
Here is passage the second.}
" He blessed three hundred miraculous crosses,
He blessed three hundred wells which were constant,
One hundred polaires noble, one coloured,
With one hundred croziers, with one hundred satchels."
Evidently polaire here does not mean satchel, or
both would not be enumerated separately.
* People of Leinster. f See Petrie, p. 33.
% See Petrie, p. 334.

TO IRELAND.

39

These sketches of the pallio, as now borne about
in Italy, were made by the authoress in Florence,
and exhibit its prevaihng form. It adds much to
the brilliancy of a procession.

One of the most precious morsels of antiquity, the
Annals of Kihonan, is about to be pubhshed by
subscription; it will be an expensive undertaking,

40 A SUMMER VISIT
and very interesting, as the translation from the
ancient Irish of a great portion of their history,
hitherto involved in complete obscurity*
Amongst other curiosities was a small box of
waxen tablets, in use before writing materials of
paper and ink were invented. This was found in a
bog, and given by the peasant to his children for a
plaything. A savant entering the cabin redeemed
the treasure ; and upon examination, though disco
loured by time and water, he plainly perceived what
I also discerned — writing — it is the Latin exercise
of a boy !
The ancient bells are shaped flat, like those hung
by the Swiss herdsman to the neck of the favourite
cow. Mr. Clibborn wound a large powerful horn
brazen, in two compartments,
nearly round, that like Orlando's,
was calculated to strike terror
into faint hearts ; and then
pointed out the remains of a
clarshach the ancient Irish harp; old grinding-
stones, called querns, quite scriptural in form, rosaries,
* See Appendix I.

TO IRELAND. 41
&c. A buckle on the principle of the antique has been
invented for young Ireland ; it is uncommonly well
contrived, so as when clasped to form a shamrock.
A printing estabhshment is attached to this so
ciety as well as to the college, and we saw the hall
in which scientific meetings are held, with portraits
of Lord Charlemont and other distinguished presi
dents. The actual one, Sir Wilham Hamilton, came
in, and was designated to me as superior to the
admirable Crichton in attainments and knowledge
of every sort.
The society possesses a museum under another
roof, full of stuffed beasts and birds, with a large
collection of Greenland minerals and dried plants,
made by an enterprising Dane, who suffered ship-
4
wreck, and lost great portion of his hardly gained
treasures. The very ancient Cathedral of St. Patrick was
under repair, and the arches propped up looked ready
to fall ; a walk into the chancel seemed to me quite
a service of danger. It is not beautiful in its
exterior, but would look much better were it not
blocked" up by dirty streets and mean houses. The
stone naturally crumbles, which always gives an
untidy appearance. Just outside is the Holy Well,

42 A SUMMER VISIT
deliciously fresh and cool. " Archbishop Usher says
that St. Patrick baptized his converts, including
Alphin, the King's son, in a well near St. Patrick's
Church, Dublin, which in after ages became . an
object of devotion to the faithful, and so remamed
until it was enclosed in the foundation of a house in
the seventeenth century." This is quoted from
Willis. I surmise this to be the identical well. It
is close to the church porch, and in the thickness of
the wall. Here are the monuments of that cold
blooded woman-torturer, Dean Swift, and one of his
victims, Stella. What most took my fancy was the
venerable aisle, from whose roof were suspended the
bannered escutcheons and plumed helmets of the
Knights of St. Patrick, relics of an age of chivalry
passed away. Mournfully did the silken flags wave
in the passing air over the empty gaping vizors, and
the gathering gloom of evening lent a powerful
charm to the poetry this scene called up.
It was evening when we set off to see St. Patrick's,
very rainy moreover; but Irish rain is not like
English rain, though it can fall hard enough ; it is
soft, and not chilling, and though on an open car,
we drove through it all over Dublin, till past nine
at night, without feeling in the least cold.

TO IRELAND. 43
In Christ's Church, a curious fortified looking old
building, repose the ashes of Strongbow and his
wife Eva ; but the darkness prevented our visiting
their tombs.
July 17. — Good bye to Dublin for a while. There
is no great beauty of scenery between Dublin and
John's Town, where we paused a few minutes to
change horses. Lord Mayo has a seat here, and
the whole village bore ample testimony to his care
for the poor. Not a cottage but what was nicely
thatched, with a little rustic porch and paling, and
the inhabitants well dressed and thriving. The
Maid of the Inn expatiated warmly to me upon his
Lordship's charity and kindness. She was a pretty
girl, and had a face all over smiles.
At Naas we halted to lunch. The potatoes were
the very best I ate in Ireland, and well cooked.
The general system of " boiling them with the bones
in them," alias with the heart as hard as a flint,
goes much against an English stomach and grinders,
A funny little old waiter, whose hair stood on end,
served us diligently, and placed beside me a decanter
of water, with " there, ye'll find no betther in all
Ireland, I'll engage 'tis the best of wather we have,"
and so it was. A good bed-room opened into the

44 A SUMMER VISIT
sitting-room, and this is a common custom, as in
foreign inns.
We walked into the Catholic chapel, a handsome
church, but unfinished within, the roof supported
by wooden props, which we felt sorry to see.
Adjoining is a small convent and garden, prettily
arranged, in which one of the Sisters of Mercy was
taking a solitary stroll.. On a hand-board was a
request to strangers to invade so far, and no further,
the privacy of their holy retreat.
Killcullen is a pretty, fresh looking, well-wooded
place on the Liffey, abounding in Mills, it recalled
to my recollection the meads and mills of Moulins,
in France.
After this, there is nothing particularly notice
able on the road till you reach Castle Dermot, where
there is an interesting cluster of ruins. The frag
ment of a round tower, church, and several large
crosses ; and on the right, close to the road, the
remains of the Franciscan Priory, with fine gothic
windows. All these I wished to explore, but as we
had to reach Kilkenny by night, it was forbidden
ground. We soon after passed Colonel Bruen's place, Oak
Park. He has a famous park wall, and deer of every

TO IRELAND. 45
kind and colour in vast numbers. I never saw so
many collected together.
The approach to Carlow gave tokens of railway
proceedings. Shoals of labourers were actively
busy, and fashionables looking on. In short, I
beheld a caleche containing two ladies and a httle
girl, followed by two little boys on horseback, the
only persons I saw driving out for an airing during
my whole tour, with the exception of Mrs. Bernal
Osborne's equipage at Clonmel.
Carlow is a clean town ; the Court-House a hand
some building, and its neighbour the jail. While a
sort of scrambling dinner was preparing, my maid
and I darted off to the Catholic Cathedral, which is
of recent erection, and struck me particularly with
its lofty tower and spire. Within, its chief ornament
is the fine monument to Dr. Doyle, by Hogan,
though I thought the bishop a little too smothered
in drapery. An old beggar woman showed me in,
and said, it was put up by subscription, and the
English helped because they liked the bishop so
much, he was not a bigot to his religion ! This old
lady showed infinite tact. She went in advance of
me with a finger dipped in the holy water, ready to

46 A SUMMER VISIT
present to me, but when she saw I did not respond
to her kindness, she prepared her speech.
A notable college stands in an adjacent square,
and my friend pulled the bell at the porter's lodge
that I might peep in. She invited me to pay a visit
to the Sisters of Mercy, assuring me of a welcome
through her, and I regretted much that time did
not permit me to make the acquaintance of the
amiable sisterhood.
Leighlin Bridge, a handsome one of five arches,
spans the Barrow. Here the scenery is very pretty,
and a ruined tower rising on the left bank of the
river amidst fine woods, adds greatly to it.
We entered the county of Kilkenny at Royal Oak,
and almost the nicest hamlet I saw in Ireland is
Shankhill, which belongs to J. K. Aylward, Esq.
There is a good sized church, not glazed, near the
demesne, which is rich in fine trees, especially
majestic avenues of limes, that hang over the park
wall, filling the air with their delicious odours. The
house looked old-fashioned and handsome, and the
air of the whole property was that of extreme care
and comfort. Every cottage and garden was neat,
and cheerful countenances greeted our admiring

TO IRELAND. 47
eyes. Here I saw the most beautiful girl that fell
under my observation in the whole country. Tall
and erect she stood, in " girlish gracefulness correctly
slim," with her dark blue cloak thrown back from a
small well-shaped head; her glossy black hair
gathered up into a knot behind, like a Grecian
nymph's ; her finely chiselled features wore a sweetly
serious expression, and her whole aspect was noble.
I should hke to have painted her as Rebecca at the
well, listening with reverence to the tale of Eleazer,
and pondering on the high destiny that awaited her,
in religious earnestness, with a woman's hope. A
group of chubby children were playing about her,
some with the bright, wavy, chesnut hair, and rich
hazle eyes so peculiar to Ireland, but this pretty
creature neither heeded them nor us, and seemed
apart from them all in her distinguished countenance
and bearing.
I experienced some disappointment at the want of
beauty amongst the Irish generally. They are not
a handsome race, and the faces that smile upon you
in childhood, wear a hollow-cheeked, sallow, miser
able aspect in after life. Nothing is so fatal to
beauty as premature pain, care, and toil, and these
poor creatures marry early, and live on in a perpe-

48 A SUMMER VISIT
tual struggle with poverty and want. From all I
afterwards witnessed of the general distress, I only
wonder they do not rob as well as murder. The
haggard famine-stricken countenances I have seen
glaring upon me out of their gloomy hunger-lairs,
as we drove past those human sties, those most
miserable of all abodes, then.' cabins, called with
horrible facetiousness, cottages. Huts composed of
loose stones, sometimes with, oftener without, a
window; if a chimney, of thatch or wattling,
preserved by a standing miracle from fire. The
donkey foddered up comfortably in one corner, fowls,
ducks, geese, often turkies, pigs, and children,
swarming in and out of the opened door ; a pool of
moist filth on one side, a pile of dry abomination on
the other, and the females of the family sitting with
their legs dangling over these, talking, knitting, or
doing nothing, with short pipes in their mouths,
and arms folded over rags that once put off, could
never be put on. The men you see, lazy tatterde
malions, lounging about the roads, hands in breeches
pockets, the usual mode in Ireland, or if at work,
leaving off to watch the unwonted passing of a
carriage till we were out of sight. This is peasant-
life in one of the finest countries in Europe ! a true

TO IRELAND. 49
picture. Yet all the living creatures except the
"humans" were in fat, comfortable plight, that told
of good hving. Mules and asses particularly, as
large and sleek as any in southern Europe.
Goods are conveyed on small carts, so well balanced,
that a considerable weight is carried with trifling
inconvenience to the one horse. Sometimes you see
his head poking out between two immense and
ponderous beams of wood, yet jogging along without
turning a hair.
How shall I describe the surpassing dreariness
of the way to Kilkenny ? For miles we met not a
human being, for twenty miles at a time saw not a
gentleman's house, or chapel, or any habitation
decent enough for a parish priest, but here and
there a cabin shews its grey head like a deserted
cairn; now and then we passed a labouring man
lagging on his way home, and once five men ran
across the road in active pursuit of some one that
seemed to take fright suddenly, and scour off to the
hills. We hoped they might not be out on any bad
exploit. Every mile of the way is cultivated, but such
cultivation ! I will here describe the general mode,
as it will serve for that of the whole face of the

50 A SUMMER VISIT
country, except in a few instances, which shall be
particularized as they occur.
Wheat, barley, and oats, as fine as heart could
wish to see, potatoes, with tremendous trenches,
turnips, clover, and rich pasturage, but the hedges
broken and irregular ; the stone walls loose and
crumbling that mostly divide the fields, and every
third patch of grass-land choked with rag-weed in
full growth, which ought to have been plucked out
by the roots and consigned to the dunghill, with the
thistles and ox-eyes that flourish among the barley.
The people say the cattle will rather eat the rag
weed than starve in winter, so they leave it to
luxuriate. At intervals, a sycamore uplifts its bushy
black head, but over so generally treeless and dreary
country I never before journeyed. Yet is it wonder
fully fertile, and the very bogs may be made
productive, witness the reclaimed patches planted
with promising looking potatoes and oats, and very
deeply drained ; and these bogs enable the poor to
have fuel for nothing but the labour of digging, in
many parts, so that it would perhaps be small charity
to reclaim the whole of them.
One cannot call the people idle either, who have
cultivated all the arable land we traversed. But

TO IRELAND. 51
there seems to be no method, things are left half-
finished ; the cart in the middle of the road on its
beam ends, the walls dropping down, the hedges
untrimmed, ditches uncleared ; the gates, mostly of
solid iron, have stone pillars on each side, but are
fenced with brambles below, because they don't fit
close. Oftener are they supported between a couple
of logs of black wood dug out of the bog, and invari
ably one of these is long the other short. It is the
" lascia fare " system from the beginning to the end.
The men, on the whole, are better clad, and tidier
than the women, who are more filthy and slatternly
than the people between Rome and Naples. You
see them picking vermin off their heads and persons
in the most shameless way, and men frequently
relieving the children's pates of incommodious
settlers. The way in which they scratched them
selves, I shall never forget, walking, sitting, or
begging; and I used to feel it a very dangerous
vicinity when encircled by a tribe of beggars. These,
if you deny their petition, do not consign you to
the infernal deities, according to the most approved
fashion of the sturdy English beggar, but smile,
and say, " Well, God bless ye all the same !" Poor
outcasts ! my heart yearned towards them ! At
d 2

52 A SUMMER VISIT
Carlow, however, I was forwarded on my way with
a curse, having expended my last penny, and left
one old crone unreheved, which is not so pleasant
to the ear as the hearty " God speed ye to the end
of your journey."
We did not reach Kilkenny till between 10 and
11 p.m. which I regretted, wishing to have seen
the castle, which occupies an eminence above the
river Nore, and is a conspicuous object from the
beautiful bridge on entering. It rose a black mass,
throwing its deep shadow upon the water, and was
seen to greater advantage however ; for I think the
gothic gains in grandeur by night, what it loses in
nakedness by day.
We were made as comfortable as circumstances
and the lateness of the hour permitted, at the Club
House. Mr. Walsh proved the most pohte of land
lords, and his attendants equally so ; but we were
amused by the quiet yet despotic way in which he
made us take four horses on the morrow, which was
every way unnecessary, the road was so capital.
Indeed, from Dublin and back we might have gone
without a jolt, in such perfect condition was the
highway. The waiter informed me there were 800 able-

TO IRELAND. 53
bodied paupers in the workhouse ; that all who could
gain admittance, left work and quartered themselves
in it, and that the rate-payers complained bitterly
of their inability to support the heavy charge.
Beggars were in numbers here; and potatoes
failing generally.
There is one paramount comfort in an Irish hotel
not always to be met with in ours. Such abundant
preparations for "frequent ablutions." Such cans
of water, and tubs, and hip-baths, and superfluity
of jugs and basins. I complimented the waitress
upon it ; and nearly everywhere the beds are com
fortable ; elastic French mattresses, nice linen, and
plentiful bedding. At breakfast, dinner, and tea,
the cups and saucers, and dishes are so well washed,
and the plate so sparkling ! The cookery is univer
saUy good; meat well flavoured, tarts well made,
bread perfectly delicious. Porter is invariably excel
lent ; Guiness's, or Beamish and Crawford's. The
butter I relish particularly, it has a delicate hue and
tastes hke Devonshire clotted cream ; milk is sweet
and abundant; and as Frederic exclaimed one
morning, " I must say Irish eggs are fresher than
all others !"
Whatever they have of the best appears to me to

54 A SUMMER visit
be produced for the stranger. Living is cheap,
posting far cheaper than in England; why will not
some of my country people, instead of always going
down the Rhine, or to Paris, or Switzerland, pass
some summer among the poor Irish, to whom the
diffusion of money by the traveller, however small,
is still something, and something they are grateful
for!

TO IRELAND. 55

CHAPTER III.
July 18. — Alas ! it rains ! a regular downpour !
but never mind, there is a covered car to be hired,
and into it we step, bound for the Castle.
It was originally built by Strongbow, became
the stronghold of the Ormonds, its actual pos
sessors, is re-modernised, and done -well. The
great gallery is very handsome, 140 feet long,
and hung with fine family portraits, and other
pictures. From the drawing-room window you look
out on the Nore, the fine bridge, Cathedral of St.
Canice, and the old Round Tower beside it.
To this we next bent our steps. The church is
full of the tombs of the ancient Ormondes ; there
they lie in their chain armour, proud knightly
personages even in death, and amongst them
the modern monument of Sir Denys Packe, with

56

A SUMMER VISIT

the colours of his regiment suspended overhead.
Those who now bear the name, appear to live in the
hearts of the townspeople, who spoke well of their
good deeds, and hoped for their prompt return.
My chief attention was directed to the Round Tower,
said to be 108 feet high, and 48 feet in circum
ference at the base.

[ sketched it rapidly while the rain fell around me,
which prevented my comparing as I wished to have
done minutely, the shape of the small entrances
with those of Glendalough. The circle round the

TO IRELAND. 57
summit is a variation from that one, and the masonry
of this seemed to my eyes most even and finished.
The town was thronged with market people. Some
of the women wore dark blue cloaks, others pale
grey ones. The men remind me of the peasants of
Landevizio, in Brittany, with their long coats,
peaked hats, and large glistening buttons. Many
girls had coloured handkerchiefs round their heads,
tied under the chin.
In going to and from the Castle, we passed through
the hay-market. The hay is brought into town in
those long, nicely-balanced carts, and even wheat
and barley unthrashed were carelessly laid on them,
and exposed for sale in all the rain. There is a good
deal of clatter and noisy talk as among foreigners,
but we never saw a brawl, nor more than three tipsy
men in all our journey, and of these, two were
soldiers in the streets of Dublin. All praise be to
Father Matthew !
I observed perpetually written up, " Coffee and
temperance cordials sold here." I fear the cordials
are often aniseed and caraway, which may soon
become cordials of any strength, by a shght addition
of certain liquids, sometimes used " for the stomach's
sake ;" but drunkenness seems to have been put
d 3

58 A SUMMER VISIT
down effectually, and the streets in most towns had
that peculiar odour of coffee and cigars, so grateful
to my olfactories on the continent.
The beauty of the ladies of Kilkenny is celebrated ;
but I confess I looked in vain for "the lips like
ripe strawberries smothered in crame," and found
the population, the female part at least, sickly and
squalid-looking, and in some districts of the town
peculiarly ill-favoured.
Kilkenny stands in a plain that for fruitfulness
can hardly be matched ; with Slieve Margy in its
rear, and Slieve Ardagh beyond it.
A very beautiful Catholic Church occupies a high
spot just out of the town ; and in progress hard by,
is an extensive and handsome building designed as a
College, on the national system.
We soon came in sight of Slievenaman, one of
the highest mountains I believe in Erin. The rich
pastures teemed with the most beautiful httle cattle
I ever saw, save the mouse-coloured cow of Switzer
land. These were black, brindled, sheeted, striped,
and milk white, fit for the altars of Jove. Others
had brown sides, blackish noses, and the interior of
the ears corresponding, as also the horns and hoofs.
Until now I had always been at a loss to divine

TO IRELAND. 59
whence the manufacturers of Noah's arks had drawn
their models of these cloven-footed animals : I found
them in the infinite variety these vales displayed.
Every thing is cultured hereabouts, and for the first
time I perceived the flax plant, with its frail, grace
ful stem, and delicate blue flower.
Nothing can be so disgustingly filthy as Nine
Mile House, which I surveyed from curiosity, while
the horses were changing. The maritornes of the
place was a fresh-looking, clear-skinned girl with a
stout pair of arms equal to any labour ; and that
might soon have cleared away the dirt which really
equalled the high road ; though a carpet was loosely
spread over the staircase, an affectation which quite
provoked me, it had never been shaken I am
convinced since it left the upholsterer's.
The postillion of this ilk was as wild as his habi
tation. Dark-eyed, elf -locked, and pale skinned;
his features rarely beautiful. The keen eagle glance,
and finely cut aquiline nose with its thin disdainful
nostril ; — a mouth such as a sculptor might rejoice
to model, and an expression like Byron's Corsair,
" And where his frown of hatred darkly fell,
Hope withering fled, and mercy sighed farewell."
This gentleman was, for all the world, like a

60 A SUMMER VISIT
a Terracina brigand, and ever and anon as he turned
round his handsome face, I discovered less of the
" laughing devil," and more of the " sneer" in it ;
and bethought me that now we were really entered
upon Tipperary he might be the "very best of
cut-throats." He drove us well and steadily not
withstanding, and did not even whip his horses
much. On the whole, I felt sorry when he was
replaced by a common every-day boy.
On one of the acclivities of Shevenaman stands
Kilcash, one of the numerous ruined castles
belonging to the Butlers, and still an Ormond
possession. Indeed, a good many of these old
keeps are scattered between Kilkenny and Clonmel,
and some gentlemen's seats. That of Mr. and
Mrs. Bernal Osborne is close to the latter place.
They seem to be making great improvements, and
are most highly spoken of.
The town lies snugly in a pretty valley richly culti
vated, and watered by the Suir ; many villas adorn its
banks, and flour mills, for which it is remarkable.
It appears that these were in use in Ireland before
650,* and their introduction is attributed to the
Romans. " From hence," Whitaker says, " this
* See Moore's History of Ireland. Vol. 1. p. 317.

TO IRELAND. 61
sort of mill is called melin, in the British, and
muilan or muiland in the Irish." It may pass that
the town takes its name ClonwieZ from this source
instead of the honey, whence it is commonly
derived. We fell in with several of Bianconi's public cars
entering and leaving the town; they are equally
cheap and convenient, and hold six or eight of a
side. I used to pity the one horse that sometimes
draws this load ; but usually they have a pair, and
in hilly roads three. The drivers and passengers
frequently sported large flapping Leghorn hats, like
so many Italians in the dog-days; and country
women in caps, or hooded in the ever serviceable
cloak, sat wedged in among baskets and bundles
very contentedly.
Clonmel was all astir with the assizes, the poor
wretches under trial were those who stopped and
robbed the supplies of flour, and so full was the
principal inn, the Globe, we were necessitated
to eat our luncheon in a small bed-chamber. An
excellent cold duck furnished forth our repast, which
was quickly despatched, and we were again en route.
I must notice that the people here seemed to us a
restless wild set. Waiters hurrying to and fro were

62 A SUMMER. VISIT
heard in the passages loud in favour of " standing
up to fight for their counthry;" and murmuring
voices came up from the inn door, and streets,
showering blessings upon4 Peel the bread-giver.
" Thanks be to him and praise ! For now the
flour won't go out of our land; 'tis he has given
us bread !"
" 'Tis out he is," chorussed one knot of men ;
" but by the blessing of God 'tisn't for long. Sure
'tis Sir Robert we wish to see in power agin."
Past Clonmel the road winds beautifuUy beside
the sparkling waters of the Suh-. The meadows
were brilliantly green, and dark alders stretched
their branches across the stream. Marlefield, Mr.
Bagnall's, and Knocklofty, Lord Donoughmore's
contribute their woods and lawns to the general
view, and the fields were rich in waving com nearly
ripe. But potatoes here were all gone to the bad
entirely. We soon caught sight of the Knockmealedown
hills, the finest in Ireland. These we kept in view
for a considerable portion of the afternoon, and they
are very different from any mountain range I am
acquainted with. They resemble in character most
the hills of Calabria over the Straights of Scylla,

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TO IRELAND. 63
with their wild, strange fissures; but nothing out
of Ireland — not even the vivid mountain pastures of
Switzerland, bear any resemblance to that pecuhar,
and unspeakably lovely hue which has won for Erin
the appellation of green. On these hills you have it
in perfection; clothed with verdure to the very
summits, they gave out in the changeful lights of a
fitful sun, every variety of shade green could assume.
But so dehcate, so velvetty ! Every dechvity and glen
seemed carpetted with the brightest, and softest of
moss ; and I do not believe that the pencil of
Velvet Breughel himseU could imitate the fairy
tints of Knockmealedown.
Ardfinnan is a poor village excessively pictu
resque, with its old fortress that perched up on a
precipitous rock overhangs the river, and commands
the place. " It was built by King John when Earl
of Morton in 1184;" so saith Mr. Frazer in his
altogether very useful Guide Book, which I recom
mend to travellers, more especially for the clear
little maps with which it is furnished. He says,
moreover, that it afterwards passed into the hands
of the Knights Templars. In whose soever it may
be now it will not remain a ruin long ; for I saw
scaffolding and ladders, and workmen busily repair-

64 A SUMMER VISIT
ing the damages of time ; building up waUs, and
putting in windows; and of a certes, it is a
charming place for any one who loves life in the
wflderness. We rather went out of our way to visit Ardfinnan,
in consequence of a very interesting tale told to me
by a friend who figured in it, the scene of which was
laid here.
It is necessary I should describe the locale.
Immediately below the Castle the river winds round
a green peninsula, having a long bridge of five
arches, a common mode of construction in Ireland,
and encircled by low lulls. This particular site was
destined some twenty years ago to be that of the
execution of five criminals for the perpetration of
the following horribly atrocious murder.
An English farmer and his wife took some land
under a neighbouring Squire, having succeeded to
persons of loose and idle habits, who were ejected to
make room for the Sassenachs. One night they
were awakened by people breaking into their house,
and starting up beheld five figures with blackened
faces surrounding their bed. The unfortunate
farmer was instantly shot before his wife's eyes,
and the trembling woman compeUed to get up and

TO IRELAND. , 65
light the villains about the house. They broke
open every cupboard and bureau, and having
possessed themselves of the lease and other papers
burnt them, and decamped, not stealing a half
penny, and leaving the wretched widow more dead
than alive. However, during their frequent comings
and goings about the dwelling, they occupied so
much time, she had leisure for observing their
persons through the masks; and recognised the
features of all the five to be those of the ejected
tenants, and her husband's own labourers. She
gave immediate information against them, and the
whole five were taken up and lodged in Clonmel
Gaol ; tried, proved guilty, and sentenced to die.
When the day of execution arrived, my informant
was summoned with a troop of the Scotch Greys,
to keep the peace, which it was rumoured would be
broken, for a general rising was threatened among
the peasantry. The soldiers were drawn up on the
bridge, and round the green spot before described
beneath it, in the midst of which the gaUows were
erected. Looking up they perceived the tops of the
huls which girdle in the vale crowded with women ;
not one man was to be seen ! The priests were

66 A SUMMER VISIT
supposed to have forbidden their attendance from
apprehension of mischief and bloodshed.
It was contrived that the five miscreants might
swing at once, and at the moment of the cart's being
withdrawn, as the drop fell, a yeU burst simulta
neously from the hill-tops, so terrible, so piercing,
that my friend said every soldier turned pale, every
heart " felt small," the chargers started and plunged
in affright, and had men instead of women been the
performers, and had they descended from their
post of eminence, and made an onslaught on the
Dragoons, it is possible Her Majesty's Greys might
have been in a different position, and have had a
different tale to tell !
These females then broke out into the Keen, and
the effect of it from the lips of thousands rending
the ah, and thrilling upon the hearers, was a thing
he said he never should forget !
The widow of the murdered man continued to
live on in the same farmstead, protected by the
policemen quartered in her house. This state of
things endured for four years, during which she
met with nothing to lead her to suspect she had an
enemy left. At the expiration of the fourth year

TO IRELAND. 67
she dismissed the officers, thinking it unnecessary to
detain them any longer. She was murdered the
following day !
At Clogheen, a very wretched town, where, not
withstanding, I remarked, as at Clonmel, shops
with gay ribbons, smart caps, and prints out of
"La BeUe Assemblee," in the shop windows, we
changed horses, and were obliged to take four. The
landlord was absent, there was much bother about
it, and the book-keeper was mighty uncivil. We
found that here the Irish mile was changed into the
English statute mUe, which makes a wide difference
in the cost of travelling : for by the first, four horses
do not come to more than a pair would in England
for the same distance. We had reason afterwards
to doubt the veracity of the man of figures, as to
the said charge ; but we found the stage of enor
mous length, of which we were left in ignorance.
Beggars swarmed here : blind, halt, and maimed
infancy and age, all thrust their miseries into the
foreground. Altogether, the natives were a brawl
ing, wild, ferocious-looking set of beings; and the
policeman had a difficult task in keeping them
back from the carriage. Two urchins of three
and four years, were pegging away at each other

68 A SUMMER VISIT
with teeth and nafls, kicking and squaUing despe
rately — a regular infantine " scrimmage."
The Irish ostlers always torment you for a "pour
boire:" they are poor, paUid, half-naked starve
lings ; but their handiwork is surprising, for let the
harness be ever so old and rotten, the brass about it
is invariably rubbed up as bright and ghstening as
gold. There is a prevailing tendency aU over the
country to " cleansing the outside of the cup and
platter:" the miserable cabins are whitewashed
even to the very chimneys; hay-ricks and wheat-
stacks whitewashed along the roofs and angles;
door-frames, window-sills, all white — a powerful
contrast to the dense blackness within !
It was a dreary drive to Mitchelstown, a post
of twenty-four miles. My heart ached at the
sights of woe and want that met our gaze at every
turn. Here the population gives me the idea of
being worse off than in any other part. Gaunt,
listless men were sauntering about with scarce life
enough in them to guide the cart, or dig the
furrow; and hags, ugly enough to beat the
Furies, sat cowering by their doors, smoking short
pipes, with persons disfigured by age, dirt, and

TO IRELAND. 69
penury, scowhng at us while we passed on our
way — not indifferent spectators, God knows ! of
their misery and nakedness. Yet all the way
to Mitchelstown not one soul begged a stiver of
the wayfarers, whose riches must have appeared
to them a most unequal distribution of the goods
of this life, when set in the scale against their
notable distress, and absence of all necessaries.
The approach to the town is oppressively dismal,
through a double file of these hunger-lairs — mis
called cottages : amongst them a ruined miU stands
roofless and windowless, beside a black, deep,
stagnant pool, with several large trees growing
around, shorn of their heads, whose broken, ghostly
arms dangling in the breeze, caused the shrivelled,
withered fohage to creak and rustle feebly and
piteously. Meet abode for the genius of Hope
lessness, that seems to ride over prostrate Ireland,
like the Nightmare and her Nine Hags !
It was ten o'clock at night when we dashed up
to the inn, whose lights gleamed comfortably out
upon the straggling " Place," that formed an
oblong outside the Castle gates. The fourth side
was filled up by the turrets of Lord Kingstown's

70 A SUMMER VISIT
chateau : another by a row of snug abodes, with -
little gardens in front, and a tidy pavement.
Tea and cold duck — >a favourite edible by the
way — wonderfully restored our dulled frames, and
" weary sprites," and the accommodations, though
plain, were far from uncomfortable, because the
sleeping department was clean ; but my Lord might
burnish up his Hotel's best sitting-room to no
trifling advantage. One word, en passant, that
wherever I might stop, I was in no instance infested
by those unsparing travellers' -plagues, known as
universal " Phlebotomists,"
I learnt that the rate of wages about Mitchels
town is very low. A woman who works from six
in the morning, to six in the evening, earns but
3d. or at most 4d. per diem. A man's wages are
from 5d. to lOd. a day ; and they pay for a
" taking" — i.e. one of the afore-named styes, with
about two or three acres of land, from £3. to £5.
per annum.
There are numerous squatters in the bog, who
come from a distance, impeUed by the commission
of some crime to quit their native county. These
settle on a bit of the waste, and being in no man's

TO IRELAND. 71
way, are allowed to live on in misery and disease
rearing fresh human beings in the same condition,
and ripe for mischief of any sort. These pay no
rent, and come by degrees to consider the huts they
have been suffered to run up, as their own property;
consequently, when they are molested, ejected, or
required to pay rent, they take the law into their
own hands, conceiving themselves to be dreadfuUy
aggrieved. They gave Lord Kingston the highest character :
he appears to do all the good he possibly can ; but
no individual exertions whl suffice to feed a whole
starving population — all must combine, and Educa
tion must do her part before Ireland can become
decently clad, fed, and civilised.
A few miles off are some caves, I had a longing
desire to visit, in order to compare with the cele
brated ones of Carniola, which it was once my good
fortune thoroughly to explore, and which I suppose
are the finest in the world, both for beauty and
extent-; but excessive fatigue, and the lateness of
the hour, offered a perverse opposition to my wishes,
and not having a day to lose, I was obhged reluc
tantly to relinquish the anticipated pleasure.
July 19. — We were fortunate in obtaining admis-

72 A SUMMER VISIT
sion into Mitchelstown Castle, though it was Sun
day ; through the civility of an attendant, and the
address of one of the post-boys, who got into the
hall, and grinned encouragement to us from the
windows. No Enghsh boy would have dared take
such a liberty.
I confess I am no admirer of the Gothic, except
in churches ; and always feel there is a certain
coldness and nakedness, and absence of comfort
in all modern castles. But I must own this to be
a particularly well-built, handsome thing of the
sort. The bed-rooms are replete with comfort ; and
every part is in keeping with the style first adopted:
no mixture of Grecian and Gothic. There is a very
fine gaUery; it stands well, and presents a really
magnificent exterior. The river Funcheon runs
through the Park, which is extensive; and there
is a beautiful view from the windows of the Galty
Mountains ; these came in sight yesterday, but 1
had no eyes for any thing but Knockmealedown,
which, however, are not so lofty.
I was glad to leave behind the poverty and sharp-
facedness of Tipperary, and enter County Cork.
However, the scenery was bleak enough passing
the Kilworth Hills.

TO IRELAND. 73
Fermoy, on the Blackwater, is the nicest and
cleanest town in the country. The river flows
through it, looking so limpid and sparkling ; the
green trees on its banks diffused shade and coolness;
and the pavement of the town, houses, knockers,
and doorsteps, all partook of the general air of
freshness and cleanliness.
I forget the name of the hotel where we ahghted
for a repose of some minutes, to stretch our legs,
and superintend the cutting of some excellent
sandwiches ; but it was a remarkably good one.
Niceness, neatness, and comfort pervaded it; and
the floors were all polished like marble.
It was lucky for us, as people who travelled to
see, to be passing through the country on Sunday,
as we saw the peasants to the best advantage. All
were tidily — nay, well dressed. I observed girls
sitting by the way-side in gowns of gaudy patterns,
with becomingly braided hair, snowy aprons, and
gold earrings ; while the men hovered about in good,
whole, evidently brushed clothes, and chUdren well
clad, all but the feet. And that I consider alto
gether to be an advantage over us : for those who
cannot afford to have whole, and new shoes, often
catch cold in old ones that let in the wet, of which
E

74 A SUMMER VISIT
our own poor are examples : and the chUdren whose
toes are pinched, or whose feet are gaUed by coarse
or ill-made hose, and shoes, wiU never be so well,
so upright, or so much at ease in mind, as well
as body, as those little ones whose feet are un-
cramped, and left in a state of nature.
The circumstance that most surprised us, was the
knowledge that all these holyday-folks lived in
, those horrid, smoky, dirty hovels, and went about
in week-days, so many scarecrows swathed in
rags ; and where they could find a place meet for
the storing up of their smart things, was a puzzle
to me.
It was a prettier country, and more livable than
any we had journeyed over, between this and
Cork. Rathcormiac on the Bride, is a neat vUlage, and
between this and GlenvUle, on the same river, we
met for the first time with a rustic funeral — that of
a chUd, whose little coffin was deposited in a cart
full of women in blue cloaks and white weepers.
They were followed by a procession of cars, con
taining many persons of both sexes, aU in decent
habiliments. Watergrass HUl, with its bleak, verdureless

TO IRELAND. 75
slopes, its lack of cultivation, and desolate appear
ance, is nevertheless dear to all lovers of the genuine
wit, talents, humour, and kindliness of "Father
Prout," as his nominal abode. It proves how
little the outward surface of things has to do with
kindling the inteUect within ; and I believe the most
fervid imaginations oftener exist in the natives of a
very wild country, than in those of a more genial
soil and chme.
The rain descended in torrents as the horses
stopped to water in the street of the long, strag
gling, poor vUlage: yet the old gooseberry-sellers
sat perseveringly on beside their baskets and staUs,
small chUdren nestling under the ample folds of
their cloaks.
One elderly man, as well dressed as man in his
station could wish to be, came up, and lazily asked
alms. We told him it was a shame to beg with
such a good suit of clothes on his back. He
regarded us vacantly, with half-open jaws, as if
it were too much for him : he could not take in the
idea, and turned away, gazing at us from time to
time. The Irish, like the Welch, observe very narrowly
one's coat-of-arms : the moment a carriage drives
e 2

76 A SUMMER VISIT
,up, all the men dart forward, and inspect the
heraldic emblems.
Irish post-boys are careful of their horses; and
though they may whip them occasionally, I never
but once saw the creatures urged beyond their
strength; and they are watered with warm, and
never with cold water, which doubtless prolongs the
life of many a poor beast. Cart-horses, and those
in carriers' long waggons, poised alia Milanese,
were always well-conditioned animals. Those in
the jaunting-cars looked as shaggy and wUd as
their masters.
The descent into the Vale of Glanmire, is doubly
pretty after so much dreariness. The road winds
along deep ravines, wooded and studded with vUlas.
We went by numerous clusters of houses and miUs,
and a very pretty church, on the banks of the river
Lee. A remarkably nice old bridge, embowered in
trees, and flanked by mUls, tempted me to stop the
horses a few minutes, and take out my pencU.
Gradually the river widens into a broad estuary,
Blackrock — the tiniest and prettiest of miniature
forts — appears on a projecting crag and you are
-in the immediate environs of Cork.
Low hills slope down to the river : such verdant

TO IRELAND. .77
meads ! — such flourishing plantations ! — such a
variety of substantial-looking habitations ! All
betokening mercantUe plenty and prosperity ; but
none of the grand scenery I had pictured to
myself. There appeared to be a good deal of shipping.
We crossed some handsome bridges, and quays, and
were glad to reach the Imperial Hotel, after a long
and fatiguing day's march. Here we were well
accommodated as to apartments, but found some
minor annoyances — abominable bread, and a very
dear bill to pay at the finale. The hotel is spacious
and well furnished; and contains, as I was told,
a particularly handsome reading and smoking-room:
but cigars were rigidly prohibited in the common
apartments. Mrs. Hall's picture figured in our
sitting-room, presented, as I was informed, by
herself. Of my sejour at Cork, I have rather a succession
of regrets than acts to record : for I did not kiss the
Blarney Stone, wherefore must I for ever forego the
gift of eloquent persuasiveness; nor did I inspect
the Schools of the Christian Brothers ; nor visit the
Bishop, Dr. Murphy, and his ingeniously contrived
Library, all of wbich I greatly desired to do. This

78 A SUMMER VISIT
Library, as I have been told, extends from the
garrets to the kitchen : even the servants' beds when
turned down, are so arranged as to wear the appear
ance of book-chests : and by eleven in the forenoon
one may perambulate the dwelling, and deem the
whole . of it one vast receptable for the lore that
"teaches us to live and die." Nor was I so
happy as to catch even a passing glimpse of that
real philanthropist, Theobald Matthew. We noticed
a handsome Chapel he is buUding; but unfortu
nately the foundations are said to have sunk, and
the work must be abandoned, and transferred to
another site. On the other hand I did steam down
to the Cove, but that was reserved for
July 20. — A day unluckily of rain, but of that
soft sort which hurts nobody. We walked down
to one of the quays near Patrick's Bridge, and
embarked in a small steamer that plies twice a
day between Cork and Cove. At two we started
in a numerous company of vastly smart people
all strangers to us. The beUe of the party a
very fine girl was evidently quite alive to her own
charms. A young man with a conspicuously red
head sat beside her paying assiduous court ; and I
was beyond measure amused at the manner in

TO IRELAND. 79
which she contrived to coquet ove* his shoulder
with my companion, trying in every possible way
to attract his notice. I don't think poor Red-poU
made much progress in the lady's good graces.
A German band composed of small boys played at
intervals, which was cheerful and pleasant. We had
Irish melodies, and German waltzes, jigs and polkas,
very pretty ones too — but there was something ludi
crous in the general effect of all the passengers,
with cloaks, or in bare finery as the case might be,
grasping tiny parasols, or unwieldy umbreUas, on
which the " minute drops" fell " fast," and, some
times " furious;" ringlets yielding to the damp,
and gloves clinging uncomfortably to the wearer's
fingers ; the poor musicians with the wet trickling
from their caps, yet standing up heroicaUy under
the frequent showers, and playing with aU their
might. Faces grew pale with cold, and I think a
little uneasiness in the vessel's movements as we
neared the mouth of the river, yet everybody tried
to look delighted, and I was so.
On turning a point (Passage, I believe), near
Hawlbowline, the whole of the experimental squa
dron came in view. The sight of these gallant
ships floating proudly in the harbour was one that

80 A SUMMER VISIT
might well make an Englishman's or woman's
heart beat high. There they were ! Queen, Albion,
Vanguard, all the three-deckers ! Hibernia just
come in with Sir WiUiam Parker's flag in the van ;
and near Hawlbowline the steamers were moored,
rolhng about in their war-dress.
This island has occasioned a good deal of argu
ment among the antiquarians (so I was informed by
a sapient brother of the fraternity), and a few of
the most sagacious deduced its origin from three
ancient Irish words, signifying, " The Island in the
Sand, with water round it :" whereas the islet derives
its appellation simply from the seafaring men accus
tomed to the term hawlbowline, bestowing it on the
spot. A nautical cousin of my own, moreover, depones
to the fact, that sailors nearing the island, are
heard to cry amain " hawl yards !" they must tack
so often in order to weather the point. This in
substance much resembles the old Gaberlunzie's
ungracious and pertinacious solution of Monkbam's
difficulties anent the Kame of Kinprunes. " Forti
fication here, or fortification there, I mind the
bigging o't."
The harbour is landlocked, and a veiy narrow

TO IRELAND. 81
entrance, screened by batteries, protects it; no
foreigner would suspect it led to a space large
enough to contain all Her Majesty's hne of battle-
ships. A native gentleman addressed himself to
me, and pointed out the various objects with infinite
pohteness, and animation, assuring me there were
more ships of war in harbour then, than he had
seen in Nelson's time.- They kept the place all
alive, and were looked upon as exceedingly welcome
visitors, I could plainly perceive, and no wonder
for they spend mints of money when in port.
Cove is a compact, odd-looking town; it runs
down to the shore, and contains amusement for a
couple of hours my friend said, though in what way
I proved not, being chained to one spot on the
deck by the thickly falling rain, while the steamer
remained its hour alongside the pier. There are no
trees visible in the Cove, and the long points of the
shore crowned with batteries have very much the
barren aspect of Malta.
We steamed back the same way by which we had
come, repassing and taking in passengers at Passage
and Blackrock. At last we re-entered Cork; but
it continued too wet for rambling about the streets
which was a tiresome contretemps. The shops are
e 3

82 A SUMMER VISIT
handsome, and there is a bustling, crowded, busi
ness-like look very different from the generality of
Irish towns, which alas ! have no trade. I heard
there was a vast deal carried on here, and a quantity
of shipping actually in the port. The merchant
men come up to the quays to unload.
I hope a stoiy told me of the corporation is
untrue : that last year upon a very considerable
sum of money being bestowed by Government for
the sole relief of the poor, the Town Council kept it
very snug tUl the recent distress; hoping to save
their own subscriptions by doling it out after-date.
However the transaction got wind, and the news
papers took it up, whereupon these worthies trans
ferred the amount to its original purpose, being
moreover necessitated to untie then- own purse
strings in the way of indemnification.
Wages are shamefully low here. Women earn
but threepence, men eightpence per diem. How
can they, out of this pittance, insufficient to feed
themselves, keep and clothe half a dozen chUdren,
and pay rent into the bargain ? What can they
have for the purchase of the commonest household
utensU ? What in case of sickness, scarcity, or
old age ?

TO IRELAND. 83
Bread was execrable here ; peas like bullets. All
the way from Kilkenny, I have remarked numerous
sitters by the wayside ; itinerant vendors of goose
berries, with unripe, watery faces, and semi-green
apples, redolent of cholic ; where these spring from
I know not, as throughout my peregrinations I
counted but five orchards, and never saw a gooseberry
bush or a cherry-tree any where. Some of these
women were marvellously picturesque ; I noticed one
handsome creature in particular, presiding over a
monster-basket, pinched in at the middle, that nearly
concealed her behind its unusual proportions ; the
handles were wreathed with vine leaves ; and of a
surety I did not expect to encounter any thing so
artistic out of Italy. My beauty wore a dark blue
cloak with a collar and cape trimmed with quilted
black satin. This showed off to advantage her
glistening braids of pale gold hair, and a pair of
very soft dark blue eyes, made her charming.
Bonnets are totally unworn by the lower classes
throughout Southern Ireland, and the maid servants
trip along in their plaited caps, like Frenchwomen.

84 A SUMMER VISIT

CHAPTER IV.
July 21 . — Having a long march before us, we
desired to start in good time. The horses were
accordingly ordered at half-past nine a.m., the bUl
over night, and when breakfast was over, we sallied
forth to look at the quay nearest our hotel, hoping
to find the carriage ready for a start to KUlarney
on our return. A picturesque Greek barque lay
alongside the quay, the men in their fezzes and
blue caftans, and ample trousers. The ship was
owned and navigated by an old man and his son ; it
was the first of Greeks ever known to touch here,
and had excited universal curiosity. It came
freighted with Indian corn, on the strength of the
Free Trade. I wished the gallant adventurers a

TO IRELAND. 85
golden harvest, and good luck to their next trip.
These men displayed amazing courage in venturing
so far ; for your Greek now, as in the days of the
old blind bard of Chios, eschews the perUs of the
open sea, and loves to scud inshore, that he may
take refuge in the nearest port in the event of a
storm. Not a single thing was done when we walked
back to the hotel. The horses were to be fetched,
the harness was to be repaired, the boy to be washed
and dressed; one boy at least, for we had to take
four horses, the stage being twenty-four mUes. The
bill was not even ready ! Our tempers were tried,
and redress was out of the question. Posting here,
as abroad, is conducted under a different estabhsh
ment from the house of entertainment; and the
people belonging to this, were unaccommodating and
uncivU. They were all Scotch. I never met with
any attempt at overcharge, or disobliging behaviour
from the Irish themselves. By half-past eleven, one
boy who had undergone a severe scrubbing, seated
himself, with a face that ghstened again ; his leader
refused to move ; however, lashing brought him into
a state of progression, and we were off ! Beggars

86 A S.UMMER VISIT
all round us, vociferously demanding sixpence. The
most clamorous of old women was, I learnt, in the
enjoyment of a pension, but as my informant, the
hostler, a douce steady chiel, affirmed, " Begging 's
a habit wi' them, whether they want or no."
We pursued our way beside the, Lee, and the
first object of note I observed was Carrigrohan
Castle, that stands finely on the limestone crags
above the river. It was founded by the. Maccarthys,
a great name in these parts. Further on is Ballin-
collig, where the Lee is joined by the Bride. There
is an old castle here also.
At Macroom we stopped to change horses, and
found a very clean httle inn ; the market going on.
under the windows gave us something to look at-
I like of all things to watch a hive of human beings,
and try to read their story in their faces ; and these
appeared to have rather a pleasant tale to teU than
otherwise. Though poor, they were not badly
apparelled, and greeted me with smiles ; though of
their number were a shoal of terrible beggars. The
smUing "neat handed PhiUis" brought us some
excellent bread and butter, and a few slices of the
hardest corn beef and saltest ham in the United

TO IRELAND. 87.
Kingdom, with which, by the help of some porter,
we eked out a sufficient luncheon, and started afresh
on a thirty-two mile stage.
Macroom stands on the Sullane. Mr. White
Hedges' Castle commands the town; the street curves
under its waUs. It is a nice old pUe, covered with
ivy. I have rarely traversed so wUd and picturesque a
road as the remainder of our journey to-day. First
came Carrig-a-Phouca, a square tower, raising its
solitary head among rocks and little lakes. A most
famous place for the pranks of the spirit-horse, who
may career in " the viewless air," "over moor, over
fell, thorough bush, thorough briar," with his flame-
breathing nostrUs, and none to impede him, or cast
an anathema upon his steeple course propensities;
he may have it aU to himseU, and come in winner
every day if he please.
Heaths and furze were in luxuriant bloom ; here
and there plots of potatoes, and a sprinkling of tiny
cabins ; the moisture trickled down their waUs, the
floors were a mass of wet mud, and the roofs half
sod, presented as lively a vegetation as the gardens,
in moss, houseleeks, and oats. Children scampered
by the carriage side, begging " a ha'penny, buy

88 A SUMMER VISIT
book," from the two-year old, who kept me in
perpetual agonies lest the wheels should terminate
its career, to the big boy and girl of ten, alike
bundled in rags, with shock heads and anxious
countenances, who fought and scrambled for the
pence. In the outskirts of every vUlage I saw a
hedge school. The poor tattered master sitting
patiently in the midst of his more tattered pupils,
with shreds of books in their hands, and the cabin
they were crammed in, black wdth smoke, and
obscure, because windowless.
At Ballyvourney the smoking horses were watered,
and here again the rosy chubby knaves besieged us
for pence. Here a good national school should be
estabhshed to satisfy their cravings for knowledge.
This mountainous tract lasted the whole way to
Killarney; the day was showery, and occasional
glimpses of sunshine made the surrounding scenery
only more beautiful. Rivers and lakelets, giant
crags, and rocky cliffs overgrown with fern, tufts of
lichens, and down-dropping wreaths of ivy, met the
eye at every turn of the winding road. The lowlands
are mostly pastures ; and flax and potatoes flourished
side by side.
Great strings of one-horse carts passed by us.

TO IRELAND. 89
laden with bales of goods, barrels, &c, and numerous
flocks of pretty white goats.
Between Ballyvourney and Flesk we entered
County Kerry.
A most romantic scene burst upon our delighted
vision at Glen Flesk ; Turk Mountain came in sight,,
Croghan, and the great chain which encircles Kil
larney. Mangerton was between us and the Lake ;
how I longed to bore a hole through it, and catch a
peep at the long-desired object ! but I was obliged
to bridle my impatient curiosity. Below us, the
river Flesk pursued its silvery track through corn
fields and meadows, ht up most exquisitely by the
fitful sunbeams, and in the rear, the glorious ever
lasting mountains were brought grandly into ever-
varying relief by the shifting lights and shadows.
Here, however, we met with rather an untoward,
accident. In passing a solitary shebeen, the mounted
leader overshot his trace, too long for safety, in an
endeavour to reach the well-known stable. The
crazy leather snapped, and {he beast feU, kicking, as
he lay so desperately, that he drew blood from the
unhappy wheeler's nose. A soldier most civilly
came to our assistance, and the owner of the shebeen,
a fine athletic, rubicund-faced peasant; and by

90 A SUMMER VISIT
keeping the creature's head down, which a boy sat
upon very coolly, he was disabled from doing any
more mischief; not,, however, before he had so
firmly wedged his hind foot in the pole leather, I
thought the hoof must have been wrenched off in
his struggles.
We meanwhUe descended,, and stood shivering in
the wet road, waiting the result. The carriage, a
heavy one, stood on the brink of a precipice, and
was completely dragged on one side in the fray.
Happily no further harm ensued, and whUe the
broken harness was in process of repair, I reseated.
myself, and sketched the lovely scenery, though a
more able limner than myseh would experience the
difficulty,, not to say impossibihty, of doing justice
to its merits. But a drawmg made on the spot is
always valuable to the traveUer ; and memory, that
chief ingredient in aU our pleasures, helps to supply
the deficiencies of the pencil, when far removed from
the scenes it has feebly attempted to pourtray.
Mr. Herbert possesses a shooting-box here, and
I looked out for the abode of the " O'Donoghue of
the Glens," a name so appropriate to the regions we
were approaching. Flesk Castle stands proudly on
an eminence, commanding a magnificent coup-d'oeil

TO IRELAND. 91
of the Lake, and is itself a conspicuous object. I
forget the owner's name.
Killarney is long and straggling,, and like a
French vUlage, as all the Irish are. The one street
is so narrow there was little room between our
vehicle and the walls for pedestrians, of whom many
were walking about,, evidently felicity hunters hke.
ourselves. They are building a superb Catholic
Church just without the town, quite a Cathedral,
with a lofty spire, in such perfect taste, and the
site is so weU chosen, that from every point of view,
as I afterwards observed, it adds a feature to the
landscape. Following Lord Kenmare's park waU, who owns
a most extensive demesne, we turned into the neat
lodge gates of the Victoria Hotel, lately estabhshed
by the spirited Mr. Finn. Here every comfort
attended us. ExceUent apartments, good beds, and
abundant provender ; neither had we reason to find
fault with the bUl ; and the civility of Mrs. Finn,
her hand-maidens, and waiters, was truly pleasing.
The first coup-d'ceil of the Lake might perhaps
have disappointed me, had I not been a veteran
traveller among Alpine scenes ; and aware, from
experience, that a lake never appears so grand in its

92 A SUMMER VISIT
proportions from the shore, as when you are upon
it, and moreover, that you must dive into its recesses
for the beauties the distant eye cannot embrace.
There it lay before the windows, black as a newly
washed slate, covered with foam, for the waves were
really high, from the wind that came eddying down
the valleys with immense force. The summits of
Mangerton and MacgUhcuddy's Reeks appeared
through the misty wreaths that gathered round
them ever and anon, and I just caught a glimpse of
Ross Castle, on the edge of the water. AU about it
and Mucross, near it, is beautifully wooded.
A party landed from an excursion on the " dark
and stormy water ;" they looked cold and comfort
less; but the hotel soon rang with their merri
ment. They were a troop of actors, who, after
supper, whUed away the hours by singing and
rehearsing, and it was late before their bursts of
laughter allowed us to close our eyes. I admired the
preparations for walking expeditions I saw outside
the ladies' bed-room doors : uncommonly well made
Wellington boots, of small dimensions, dandily lined
with green silk, that told of prodigiously mountain
ous intentions.
The rain came down in sheets, and the wind

TO IRELAND. 93
roared mightUy ; and I thought with despondency of
the morrow; particularly as the Traveller's Book
was full of pathetic appeals to Dan Phoebus; of
complaints of his fickleness, and lamentations over
days of rain spent without the possibihty of stirring
out. In the evening a woman, by name Eagan, pre
sented herseU with a quantity of curious specimens
of fancy articles wrought in Arbutus wood, that
beautiful native of Killarney. Card-cases, work-
boxes, &c. ; pins and crosses, manufactured from the
horns and hoofs of the red deer. One small chess
table particularly attracted me; its pillar, most
elegantly turned, was made of the black oak, and
well designed; the squares comprised a variety of
tints, according to the age and size. of the tree, and
whether the stem, branch, or root were employed :
this is very dark, prettily grained, and takes a fine
polish. The other wood is equally handsome, but
redder. The price of this table was ten guineas.
There are more manufacturers than one of this com
modity, the sole trade of the town, and tables are
sometimes made at the cost of thirty guineas, and
sent carriage free to London. I promised my
acquaintance to mention her husband, James Eagan,

94 A SUMMER VISIT
to my English friends, who wUl find marquetterie in
this little town equal to any Florence or Belgium
can produce. These poor people have no winter
employment whatever, and their sale of these fancy
articles is of course precarious.
Our sitting room was paneUed off from a larger
-one, converted sometimes into a baU-room; and the
exceeding exceUence of the painting in wainscot
oak led us to inquire if it were the real wood or not.
The artist quitted his native place, Killarney, to
improve his fortunes in London.
Mine hostess informed me their house was buUt
with a view to security from winter storms, which
rage furiously in these whereabouts ; and the spray
from the lake frequently dashes against the waUs,
though nearly half a mUe from the landing place.
July 22. — Hurrah ! the sun shines, and the winds
are stUl ; I see the gleam through my window
curtains, and when the " coUeen bawn " brings me
a jug of hot water she greets me with " 'Tis the first
fine day we have had this week ; sure 'tis to plaze
ye intirely, and you wishing to see our Lake so
much." Spillane the bugler, and a jaunting-car had been
ordered over night ; and after a capital breakfast of

TO IRELAND. 95
salmon toasted on arbutus skewers, the "dainty
dish" pf these parts, sold at 3d. per lb., away we
hied. The car was rough, and the road was rough ;
I was tossed hither and thither like a ball, and held
on between fear and. laughing so tightly, my wrist
became cramped with the tenacity of my grasp, and
my shoulder black and blue from the iron bars of
the driving seat.
The scenery charmed me. On the right lay
Aghadoe and Lady Headley's place; on the left,
McGillicuddy's Reeks, Purple Mountains, and the
Gap of Dunloe. This we were to cross on horse
back, and our ponies trotted on in the van. Pre
sently we found ourselves on the banks of the
Laune, where the scenery was enchanting ; a perfect
Claude might be painted from it. The river sweeps
broadly by, under the shade of large trees on the
margin opposite us, bordered by rich-leaved water
weeds. John O'Connell's house is seen nearly
under the Gap of Dunloe, a curious cut in the hiUs
between the Tomies or Purple Mountain and Mac-
gillicuddy's Reeks, and some way on the right, a
five arched bridge flanked by a graceful group of
ash, and bounded by blue hills in the distance.

»0 A SUMMER VISIT
Little boys tending goats beside the stream, offered
us bouquets of heath arranged very prettily, star
fashion. It was a perfect scene in Arcadia.
Turning sharply round, we crossed the bridge,
and I remarked that our poor "horse began to flag.
" Och, thin," says our conductor, " 'tis the kindest
little beast in all Kerry, and used to the road, she
is ; and bedad she'U nivir stop till she gits there."
By kind, I apprehend friend Sullivan meant willing.
A nice merry fellow was he, though struggling with
poverty and an increasing famUy just out of "the
fever ;" and I never relished anything so much as
the wit that was bandied between him and SpUlane,
in their entertaining and never-flagging conversation.
He pulled up at the angle of a steep waU, and
invited us to alight, or rather to mount upon it from
the " wing of the car," in order to see a cave fuU
of inscriptions in the Ogham character. But, alack !
my climbing powers did not amount to the effort
requisite for scaling the fortress (a waU at least six
feet high on each side, without an abrasion on the
surface to assist one's footing) ; by the bye, me
thinks the proprietor might leave a loop-hole, or
postern, for the traveller to creep in at, for these

TO IRELAND. 97
Ogham Stones are rare, and it went sorely against
the grain with me to relinquish the sight of the only
one I came across.
Over a tiny bridge, down a sharp declivity, and
then began the ascent to Dunloe : and a magnificent
specimen it is of the sublime. WUd and cultureless
— it seems to be the very end of the world ; its sole
habitants, ragged ponies and little Kerry cows,
picking their sustenance from out the masses of
stone. Our little mare threaded her way with
unerring precision along a narrow track that wound
up between the cliffs, sometimes very precipitous,
without any fence — now crossing little bridges of
single arches, through which flowed Alpine streams
— now sliding over great flat stones. Between the
broken pieces of rock, strewed about in aU directions,
grew ferns, heath, saxifrages, gentians, and many
more plants peculiar to the moorland and Alpine
regions ; one large and beautiful flock of white goats
were skipping about over the crags, while their wild,
half-fed looking herd sheltered himself under a jut
ting cliff : his brown garments and slouch hat were
wondrous picturesque, the sharp dark eye peering
out from its shadow ; and I wished for the pencU of
F

98 A SUMMER VISIT
Salvator Rosa, or Rosa da Tivoli, to sketch him off
with his shaggy charge.
Spillane told me he was acting as guide to four
Englishmen once, fresh from Oxford and Cambridge,
who inquired of him as to the mental resources of
the inhabitants of these wild regions ; where, never
theless, learning has set up its seat, though in the
bye-ways and hedges. " There," said he, pointing
to much such a mountaineer as the one we were
contemplating, " he'll speak for himseU, I'll engage
he has Latin at his finger's ends."
" Impossible," responded the Sassenachs.
" True," quoth SpUlane, and he beckoned to the
goatherd, who, leaping from his lair, soon stood
before them.
" Now which would you prefer," asked one of
the Englishmen, " a good dinner, or to talk Latin '{"
" Och, thin, it's the mate I am for," he quickly
answered. " Fall to, then, and we'll talk Latin by and bye."
When the good things with which the merry
travellers had loaded the poor fellow's plate were
despatched, they addressed him in Latin. Fluent
were his replies. He beat the sons of Alma Mater

TO IRELAND. 99
in the tongue of ancient Rome, and caused them to
say, they must go back to their books.
A couple of pretty little lads ran some way in our
company, begging for sixpence. "What do you
want it for ?" " Oh, to buy book — price of book."
Laming was the universal cry here. These were
merry Uttle souls, and jabbered away in Irish, shew
ing their white teeth as they laughed with us.
When about half-Way up the glen we pulled up,
and Spillane dismounting, began a succession of
plaintive passages on his bugle, which were repeated
by the echoes, and prolonged to admiration. He
challenged them in various ways, by grotesque
shrieks, which provoked infinite merriment, and
sounds alternately Warlike and waUing. I never
heard anything so beautiful.
Hereabouts grew quantities of our London Pride,
and upon my expressing a wish for some roots to
carry home, Sullivan sprang down and tore up a
large tuft. " Ah, then," said Spillane, " that's too
much entirely; why wouldn't ye leave some for the
next comer ?" This query led to such a volley of
good-humoured bantering, I must endeavour to give
as much of the confabulation as I can remember, by
f 2

100 A SUMMER VISIT
way of a specimen of Kerry wit, though in so doing
I act the unpleasant part of a filterer, which does
not improve the strength of the article.
Sullivan to this made answer, "Is it the next
comer ? Why thin let thim as comes after us take
care of thimselves. Sure the Priest christens his
own child first," and winking and laughing at me,
" 'tis ourselves we'll first think of."
"Well," answered the bugler, "ye're in "the
right, man. D'ye know ther's ilivin command
ments ?"
" How d'ye make that out ?" quoth I.
" Sure," said he, " when the Priest do be asking
me how many commandments is it, I say plase yer
Riverince there's Uivin, and the ilivinth taches us to
take care of ourselves."
"Well, thin, that's what iviry man does, I'll
engage," shouted the laughing SuUivan.
Spillane continued bugling, and I remarked to
the driver, " Your friend wUl be hoarse."
Off he went with, " Commodore, d'ye hear that ?
The mistress says ye'U lose yer wind."
" Well," put in my companion, " then he must
do like other commodores, and whistle for a wind."

TO IRELAND. 101
" D'ye hear that, Kerryman," asked Spillane.
" May be he'll git out of his latitudes, and git
beyont it," retorted Sullivan.
" Oh !" said I, "where's the use of whistling for
a wind, when the bellows are broken ?"
" Ah ! thin, there's the Kerryman beat intirely,
where is he now ?" exclaimed Spillane, and both
burst out into such a peal of joyous, contagious
laughter as never was heard.
Listening to their bon mots and witticisms, rather
distracted my attention from the scenes before me ;
it was the first opportunity ever afforded me of
hearing the genuine Irish humour in full play, and
I entered into it heartily.
Beside a little lake, smooth and black as a steel
mirror, we alighted from the car, and mounted the
ponies. Frederic's made free use of his heels, so I
gave them a wide berth. Mine had but one eye,
but was a " jewil of a beast."
ChUdren were in waiting with roots of white
heath, water Ulies, and the antlers of the red deer
for sale : and a man let off a little mortar to startle
us, and the echoes together.
We pursued our upward way through the gap,
passing the turnpike, a huge single stone; every

102 A SUMMER VISIT
now and then turning our steeds to look back on
the wild curious spot full of savage grandeur. The
Tomies or Purple-Mountain rose on our left ; the
colour is quite beautiful, the name derived from it,
for it is of a gorgeous violet all over, and in all
lights. I picked up a purple pebble by way of remem
brance ; as also one of a pretty green colour.
The Glyn ascends by gigantic steps as it were, in
each of which lies a sUent tarn fed by the streams
that unite them all, and go leaping along over the
stones, and under the httle stone bridges that
connect the path. High up stands a lonely
shebeen, where we were invited to enter and sip
the mountain dew. A thick mist swept over the
hills, enveloping us every now and then, and
wetting the outer garments ; but after we gained
the summit of the pass, and were half way down
the opposite descent, it happily cleared off; and we
saw beneath us the Comme Dhuv, or Black VaUey,
enclosed by mountains, down whose precipitous
sides several streams were rushing towards the
green pastures; and farther on at the end of the
vale, the upper lake appeared in its gradually
opening beauty sprinkled with its numerous wooded

TO IRELAND. 103
islets that rose up out of the water like green
tufts. So very lovely was the whole scene, I forgot wet,
cold, weariness, and fright; for truth to tell, my
long unaccustomed ride over precipices, and bogs, had
given our guide but a poor opinion of my horseman
ship, I fear, from sundry appeals for help made in
rather plaintive tones.
On we rode over pastures, and through bogs,
crossing the quaking land on stepping stones ; all
of which abounded in rare and beautiful ferns and
wild flowers similar to our water plants. Some
countrymen who joined us were eager to pluck any
I wished for.
At last we came to Lord Brandon's pretty cottage,
and went through his groves. He has built a tiny
Round Tower near the dwelling.
Growing in a ditch that runs down to the boat-
house I first discovered and gathered that noble
fern the Osmunda Regalis, whose blossom bears so
singular a resemblance to the antlers of a stag.
It grows from six to ten feet high.
Here our boat lay in readiness for us, with four
rowers, and our servants, who had sped down the
lake; and more fortunate than we, had seen the

104 A SUMMER VISIT
eagles, a noble pair of birds that build in the crag
named after them.
Famished nature now began to put in a claim for
something to eat; so we moored off Ronayne's
Island, and scrambling up the steep sides found on
its summit a nice grass-plat on which the provision
basket was unpacked, and spread out. This, like aU
the other islets dotted about, consists of a limestone
rock thickly overgrown with arbutus, yew, hoUy,
ash, rowan, and birch all self-sown, with under
growth of whortle berry and heath. The berries of
the former used to be gathered and sold to the
manufacturers as a dye, till it was found the colours
were not permanent.
, Other boats ' coming . down the lake made the
scene a gay one, ¦> and .we several .'times passed the
Knight of Glynn fishing with r some friends in his
pleasure boat, v .: , i; '•:.'• r ¦ •:/'. :J
Turk looks grandmas- you go down stream"; and I
turned .my head constantly to catch the fading
glories of Purple-Mountain and Macgilliciiddy's
Reeks, which we were fast leaving behind.- SpUlane
said we ought to have come up the lake instead of
pursuing the course we did.
Our crew were a merry set. The bowsman

TO IRELAND. 105
"Teddy the Frenchman," so called by his com
rades, whose butt he was, from his nearly unintelli
gible stutter, his long, lean, lanthorn jaws, hooked
nose, and yellow skin, was formally introduced to
our notice by Spillane, who told me that on Teddy's
first entering into service in a gentleman's family,
he was carrying in dinner, when lo ! the pudding
was missing.
" Why, Teddy," asked his master, " where's the
pudding ?"
"Is it the pudding, yer honor; why thin, I —
heated it."
" Heated it, you rascal ! What did ye do that
for ? Surely the cook made it hot enough !"
Poor Teddy with rueful face could only stammer
out over and over again that he had " heated it ;"
which being interpreted, meant that unable to
withstand the charms of the dainty, he had
devoured the said pudding, but his conscience
would not allow him to deny the theft. Poor
Teddy got his discharge however, and is now
bantered by his fellow boatmen about it, who
inquired if "the misthriss" meaning me, had
heard the tale.
" 0 ! of course not," said SpiUane, " we wouldn't
f 3

106 A SUMMER VISIT
hurt the poor fellow's feelings that way;" having
just whispered it into my ear, sly rogue ! as he
steered the little craft.
Teddy rejoices in another soubriquet, as we learnt
when under the Eagle's Crag, a fine tall pyramidal
rock which rises majestically out of the lake. They
call him " Teddy the Aigle," because he fearlessly
scales the cliff, and steals the eglets. He volun
teered procuring us a pair, and bringing them free
of expense to Liverpool. I could not bear to cage,
and break the heart of this hberty-loving bird.
Opposite Eagle's Crag we lay to, and SpUlane
disembarked, to give us a touch of his bugle. He
played the Groves of Blarney, and nothing could
exceed the beauty and correctness of the repetitions
which lasted eight or ten times; and the curious
part was, that the boatmen declared we did not hear
the bugle at all, only Echo's sweet voice.
Here on a large flat stone sat huddled together
half a dozen bare-legged women and girls with
kerchiefed heads, and in their hands wooden
beakers full of poteen and milk, who, springing
up, besought us to taste the mountain dew. We
could not well leave the country without doing so,
and yielded to their entreaties. Horrible as the

TO IRELAND. 107
mixture was, we quickly resigned the residue to our
crew, giving one old crone a shUhng to divide
amongst them. This became rather a bone of gene
rous contention, for the boatmen refused to rob
"th' ould woman of her dhrop poteen," and she
would not keep aU the shUling, whUe her sisterhood
refused thefr share in it on account of their liquor
having been untouched. So she waded into the
water up to her knees to the boat's side, explaining
in her broken EngUsh the whole matter, which
ended in our deciding that she should keep six
pence, and the remainder be divided among the
girls. To this aU laughed and nodded assent ; and
one lively looking black-eyed creature tucked up
her feet in her petticoats, and sat looking at us
with smiles and nods, while the old "crather"
placing the dudeen between her lips, and drawing
her gown tail over her head smoked away with
infinite complacency. She was very near being
shot last summer for an eagle by some English
sportsmen, who, seeing her rise from her seat with
her cloak hanging across her arms, took her for the
eagle spreading his wings for a flight. One levelled
his gun, and SpUlane was only just in time to cry

108 A SUMMER VISIT
" Hold ! 'tis th' ould woman," ere he pulled the
trigger !
The steerage between the Middle and Upper
Lakes is extremely intricate : an inexperienced
pilot would be completely baffled. In places it
appears perfectly land-locked ; the sides are covered
with trees, though not of large growth ; and I saw
many lying felled, and ready for transport. Here
the native red-deer herd in considerable number.
A stag-hunt must be a gallant spectacle; and I
wished it" had been the 1st of August, on which
day the sport begins.
Glen& is a lovely spot. Here Lady Kenmare has
not only a fishing-cottage of her own, but has buUt
a very pretty one for the accommodation of traveUers
and picnickers. The vivid green shone out with
the afternoon sun upon the foliage, and behind, the
lofty mountains formed a fine screen.
Mr. Herbert's cottage is also very attractive.
We were to have seen a water-fall near it ; but hav
ing, alas ! but one day at our disposal, we were
compelled to relinquish this, Turk Cascade, the
O'Donoghue's Horse, and all the wonders of the
Middle Lake, and make the best of our way to Lord

TO IRELAND. 109
Kenmare's demesne of Ross, where we landed, close
to the debris of the old copper mine, which has long
ceased to be worked, and from hence we overlooked
the Middle Lake, with its curious isolated rocks,
which assume various forms, and are accordingly
named. We discovered one exactly simUar to a
white horse saddled, and scrambling up the bank
among some reeds ; and no doubt this will be
pointed out to the next tourist as a new piece of
fairy-craft. Ross Island is laid out and planted, and kept
tastefully and carefully. We strolled all over it,
admiring the plantations and well-stocked nursery*
where everything seemingly flourishes : the variety
of ferns and evergreens, the well-swept walks and
drives. Between the trees we enjoyed pretty vistas
of the Lake, and the opposite shores ; and I equally
admired the taste of the noble proprietors, and the
liberality with which their grounds are shewn.
But every creature spoke of their kindness ; and
Lady Kenmare seems to be the tutelary deity of
Killarney. At the extremity of Ross Island, or rather penin
sula, stands the old Castle of the O'Donoghues,
clad in ivy, — a very striking object from the water.

110 A SUMMER VISIT
I climbed to the top of the tower, whence the view
is enchanting from all quarters. This place sus
tained a terrible siege of the English, under Ludlow,
in 1652, and was then ruined. We told SpUlane
we were owners of an ancient castle, which also
fell Under the power of Cromwell. " Ah ! the
iron-hearted villain !" cried he, " surely he has
had the curses of aU the women of your family."
"No man," returned I, "ever went to the other
world so heavUy laden with them, be assured."
This seemed to comfort the good man's perturbed
spirit. By the time we reached the boat, which had
rowed round the point to meet us, and fairly settled
ourselves, a storm came over Macgilhcuddy's Reeks,
making that extremity of the Lake quite dark-
purple; and as the sunbeams slanted down upon
Ross Castle, in one rich stream of golden hght,
I never witnessed any effect more beautiful than the
vividness of the green hue brought into prominence.
The little peninsula was like a chrysophras set in
amethyst. As we rowed slowly away, I could not
take my eyes off the picture.
We passed divers other smaU islands, all wearing
the same features ; the little water-hens started up

TO IRELAND. Ill
at the splash of the oars from their shelter among
the water-lilies, and the birch and ash dipped their
feathery boughs into the lake. We shot the Weir
Bridge, and one or two besides with a double
arch, one high, one low, and at length our prow
touched Innisfallen. Here the rain came down
so fast, and I was so exhausted by fatigue, I made
no attempt to land : although I desired exceedingly
to have trodden these solitudes, where were written
the famous Annals of Innisfallen, composed, as is
asserted, about a.d. 600, and containing extracts
from the Old Testament, and a compendium of
universal history down to St. Patrick's time about
432. We now steered for the hotel, as the evening was
blustering and threatening, and made the best of
our way up from the sedgy landing-place to a
comfortable dinner, and blazing turf fire, which
helped to repair the extraordinary exertions of this
most delightful day.
After dinner the waiter enquired, if we chose to
hear Gandsey the Piper. Now Gandsey — thanks to
Croker's " Legends of the Lakes" — was an old
famihar of mine; and a ready admission was
accorded to him and his pipes. But ten o'clock

112 A SUMMER VISIT
struck, and he came not, so to bed I went, driven
by sheer fatigue : the musician being detained by
another party, or possibly by the fairies.
We had bade adieu to SpiUane, who is quite
a character : he served in some Mihtia regiment
as Bugler, and upon leaving it, was re-summoned
from Killarney by Lord Middleton, who then
hunted the Warwickshire hounds. For twelve
years he lived with that eccentric nobleman, and
took the field with his bugle. Spillane is evidently
a favourite, and proud of his reputation. He told
me how his old Colonel had sent him five pounds to
buy a snuff-box ; adding, at the same time, how he
never used any other than that his old Bugler had
presented to him. He toiled up the Gap, and down
the Comme Dhuv with us — steep and precipitous
work — with a step as .firm and active, as if he
had not been a veteran of sixty-five winters, which
had scattered a few white hairs over his black head,
though the fire of his penetrating, intelhgent, dark
eye remained unquenched. 'I felt sorry to part
from him so soon, as I perceived he had good
store of stories to tell, was a most fluent chronicler,
with abundance of ready wit.

TO IRELAND. 113

CHAPTER V.
July 23.— Nothing could exceed the violence of
the tempest that came on in the night : it raged
against the house, blowing fuU from the mountains ;
the water poured down in sheets, like Genoese rain ;
and unless really weather-tight, the house must
have been swamped.
We nevertheless ordered the horses, and started
at ten, the weather having begun to clear; and
it did not rain much . afterwards, though the wind
continued high.'all day. ,. .. '
*_ It is* a wretched 'dreary drive to Castle Island,
over heath and moorland, with little variety : tedious
too, from its length. The country is very singular :
we crawled over hiU after hill, looking down on
wide-spread valleys, all tilled precisely ahke, with

114 A SUMMER VISIT
potatoes and corn, separated by tumble-down fences.
No trees, and very few habitations. We saw in the
distance, winding among the hUls towards the parish
Church, two rustic funerals, whose followers were
mostly on horseback, A jolly-looking farmer, in
a long frieze coat, carried behind him a buxom
woman, en croupe, jogging along happily enough.
These damsels sported a coloured handkerchief, tied
over the head, or the hood of the always picturesque
blue cloak, and gaUy flowered gowns, looped up so
as to show a dark or quilted petticoat.
AU the potatoes we remarked were on the go.
Sometimes in regular stripes, black and green ;
sometimes one patch would be blackened, the rest
healthy ; and all those affected holding down their
heads as if frost-bitten.
At Castle Island there is a tidy inn : but not
a morsel of anything to eat could we get in it.
We were detained here two mortal hours by the
want of post-horses, during which I amused myself
sitting in the carriage by watching the natives, all
of whom, men and boys at least, were at work in
the street, road-making, upon the funds of a
Government grant. They were breaking up lime-

TO IRELAND. 115
stone, and several pretty fossils were coUected and
brought to me.
At last Frederic salUed forth, and spying a bread
shop with two men leaning against the door, entered,
and asked if he could buy a roll. The men pointed
to a " girleen," sitting in the shop, who vanished to
call a woman, who at last comprehended his wishes.
Presently she trotted off to the carriage, armed
with a large basket, in which she had spread a clean
cloth, and furnished it with bread, cheese, butter,
a bottle of porter, clean plates, and knives. Her
whole appearance was highly picturesque. Her hair
glossy black, with eyes of the same hue, bright with
health, nez retrousse, rosy cheeks, and very fine white
teeth. Over her head she wore a red and blue
striped shawl, like a very Lucchese, her white necker
chief was pinned neatly over her bosom, and her
checked apron and dark blue gown were new and
spotless. Her " large useful feet" were bare, and
she trod upon the newly broken sharp stones that
lay scattered about, with a firmness and facUity long
hatfit could only give. The good humoured creature
handed in her basket, and we commended both the
matter, and the manner of her bringing.
An overseer of the works in this town told Mr.

116 A SUMMER VISIT
West that the neighbouring gentry had contributed
httle or nothing towards the wants of the poor,
whether absentees or residents, mainly depending on
Government. One gentleman who possesses ,§£12,000
a-year, had contributed but £25, and had just taken
a shooting-box in Scotland, for five years. A noble
man not far off, had given nothing. Lady Headley,
who has very little property in the place, out of her
kindness and generosity, had alone given £60.
These facts speak for themselves as to the manage
ment of the Irish poor ! and here was an enormous
Government grant expended in making a grand and
over- wide road, whUe the adjacent farms are not
AaZ/'-cultivatedj and rag-weed and ox-eye rise rampant
in every pasture.
I noticed herds of fine cattle grazing about the
town, and the ruins of a castle where the road book
says, " Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, called the
Poet, was assassinated," and that Queen Ehzabeth
granted the town and lands adjoining to the Herbert
family. There is something in the very name of Desmond,
or the Geraldin, that awakens all one's sympathies,
and calls up all that one can fancy of the great, and
noble, and beautiful, of the chivalry of other days.

TO IRELAND. 117
I have just named Gerald, Earl of Desmond, as a
poet : here is the character of one of his successors,
taken from the Book of the Pedigrees of the
O'Clerys, an old autograph, unpublished Irish
manuscript in the Library of the Royal Irish
Academy, which proves the cultivation of learning
and letters among the Irish nobles of that day to
have been considerable. It is an interesting bio
graphy in miniature of the unfortunate Earl, and
quaintly told.*
"The fate of Thomas, son of James, Earl of
Desmond, i. e. the ninth (eighth) Earl. Thus did
it happen unto him, viz. John Tipto (Tiptoft) Earl
of Worcester, came into Ireland as Lord Justice,
called by proclamation of the English of Ireland to
the great councU of Drogheda. And bad was the
counsel there agreed upon ; viz. to behead Thomas,
son of James the Earl, without impeachment of
crime, right, or law, but merely from envy or hatred,
the man of best mien, and form, wisdom and intel
ligence, of either English or Irish of his time. No
praise bestowed upon him could be too high. The
sorrow and affliction of his death was felt equally
* See Proceedings of the Eoyal Irish Academy, Vol. n. p. 339.

118 A SUMMER VISIT
by the English and by the Irish. This Thomas the
Earl, invariably overthrew and put down his enemies
whenever he fought with them. Great indeed was
the battle in which he overthrew the Butlers on the
Suir, and innumerable were the hosts of them that
were slain and drowned on that occasion. He like
wise gave several overthrows besides, that are not
here enumerated. A lord intellectual, and learned
in Latin, English, and Irish writings, was that
Thomas. It was he that gave the great overthrow
to the Macarthys, at Reidh-an-Eichbluidhe. The
5th day of February the Earl was beheaded, and
forty-two was his age at that time. At Tralee was
he buried 1467."
This curious document purports to be a hteral
translation from the Irish.
Midway in the direct road from Cork to Limerick,
is KUmallock, which has been denominated to me
the " Palmyra of Ireland," abounding as it does in
vestiges of antiquity; it was the ancestral seat of
the Desmonds' power and magnificence. It takes
its name from a castle buUt conjointly by Macarthy
More and one of the Earls of Desmond.*
* See Moore's History of Ireland, Vol. iv. p. 121.

TO IRELAND. 119
" The Geraldines, the Geraldines, 'tis true in Strongbow's van,
By lawless force as conquerors, their Irish reign began,
And, oh! through many a dark campaign, they prov'd their
prowess stern,
In Leinster's plains, and Minister's vales, on King, and Chiefs, and
Keme;
But noble was the cheer within the halls so rudely won,
And generous was the steel-glov'd hand that had such slaughter
done ;
How gay their laugh, how proud their mien, you'd ask no herald's
sign,
Among a thousand you had known the princely Geraldine.
The Geraldines, the Geraldines, time wears away the rock,
And time may wear away the tribe that stood the battle's shock,
But ever, sure, while one is left, of all that honoured race,
In front of Ireland's chivalrye is that Fitzgerald's place ;
And though the last were dead and gone, how many a field and
town,
From Thomas Court to Abbey Feale, would cherish their renown ;
And men would say of valor's rise, or ancient power's decline,
'Twill never soar, it never shone, as did the Geraldine."
I met with these spirited couplets in " The Casket
of Irish Pearls."* They flow from the gifted pen
of Thomas Davies, and perfectly illustrate one's idea
of the noble Geraldines. * See p. 19.

120 A SUMMER VISIT
Were 1 asked to pitch upon the ugliest and
dreariest spot in the aU-wide world, I should name
Wellesley Bridge, just above the junction of the
Rivers UUa and Ullahan, on the borders of County
Limerick ; it is enough to make one whine out
many an " UUagone !" There is nothing to reUeve
the eye from the monotonous waste before one.
The very hUls have all the same aspect, and the
prevaihng colour is that of the bog. The numerous
little ruined fortresses are an absolute type of the
country ; rent by contention, levelled by oppressors
of every class, stripped of resources, naked and
forlorn. Yet here the parallel stops, for though
we wUl hope the necessity for these little dens of
war has ceased for ever, and that they wUl not
revive, there is a vitality in the soil that must make
it under a proper management and distribution fuUy
capable of sustaining its millions.
Look at the miles I have traversed, uncheered
and unadorned by any gentleman's mansion, to
which the suffering poor may appeal in time of
winter or distress, for coals, or clothing, or even a
drop of soup !
Abbey Feale is situated on the Feale, and has
some fine old ruins of an ancient abbey for Cister-

TO IRELAND. 121
cian monks. The inn was clean, the people very
civil ; I made a few inquiries as to the pauperism of
the place, and received the same answer as hereto
fore. "The people were hah? starving, but there
was none to help; they looked to God and the
Government." Beggars besought us to aid them, and it went to
my very heart to refuse any. I did venture upon
a remonstrance with two old souls, and asked why,
having a Union, they did not go into it ? At last
after conferring together in Irish, one said : " Is it
the Poorshouse she manes ? why thin, by no manes
are we consulting to go there." The post-boy cut
our colloquy short by driving off.
The Unions throughout Ireland are handsome
Elizabethan structures, with ample windows, and a
general air of warmth and cheerfulness about them,
but too much neglected with us.
Fraser in his Guide Book speaking of the desolate
appearance of the country hereabouts says of one
particular tract : " It extends from the Shannon on
the North, to the Blackwater on the South, com
prehends nearly one thousand statute mUes, contains
only two vUlages, and two resident proprietors, the
Knight of Glynn and Mr. Leader, of Dromagh, on

122 A SUMMER VISIT
the banks of the Blackwater. The distance between
these houses is thirty-eight statute mUes." I insert
this in proof of what I have aUeged as to the poor
Irish being suffered to remain in this state of
dismal, hopeless inactivity and friendlessness. Were
there any trade or manufacture, things might be
different ; but there appeared to be nothing going
on, nothing exposed for sale beyond the commonest
eatables, or Uttle retaU shops for snuff, pins, or
such hke small articles; and when we did see a
respectable tradesman's better furnished than the
rest, we simultaneously exclaimed as at some marvel
of note, " Look, there's a shop !"
We were now on high ground; after- chmbing a
little higher we turned the side of the hiU, and
beheld beneath us as fair and fertile a plain as the
eye could desire to look upon, were it aU properly
tiUed. But here was better farming, and fine crops
of grain on either hand, and good-looking farm
houses and yards fuU of weU garnered ricks ; besides
ruined towers and castles occasionaUy seen between
the clumps and rows of trees, altogether a pleasing
prospect. AU this improvement is probably owing to the
vicinity of Lord Devon's abode, Newcastle, which

TO IRELAND. 123
we were approaching. This wide vale is hemmed
in by the Castle OUver HUls, Slieve-Phelim and
Galty Mountains, and extends north to the Clare
Hills beyond the Shannon.
The postillion who brought us here kept us on
the qui vive by his antics and vagaries. He wanted
beside his horses, strong, shaggy beasts, a consi
derable portion of the way, it being a gradual
ascent ; but the moment we were on level ground,
or commencing a descent, he lashed them into a
gaUop, then springing up on the splinter-bar, he
stood astride, with out-stretched arms brandishing
his whip, and urging them on with loud Hur-roos
in wild Irish, then crawling along the pole, scrambled
into the saddle, and by way of after-thought, but
by no means as of necessity, gathered up his reins,
and drove soberly forward. This was nervous work
for inside passengers in a hUly country, and we
made sundry zig-zag movements, but the animals
understood his ways, and he theirs, and we were
not upset.
The httle town of Newcastle is snug and pretty.
A moat divides Lord Devon's castle from the high
road. It constituted part of the residence of the
Knights Templars of other days. The inn stands
g 2

124 A SUMMER VISIT
hard by on the banks of the Arra, over which hung
weeping wiUows and the bright pink blossoms of
the willow herb. Higher up was a rustic bridge
where women and girls were washing out clothes,
kneeling on the bank, or standing in the stream
they beat them against the stones as folks do
abroad. Coffee and cold meat were served to us here by a
handsome dark-eyed lad, with a true Greek counte
nance; he was very civU, though rather uncouth,
and his face brightened aU over when he received a
trifling addition to the usual guerdon.
The mistress of the hotel was Enghsh, and had
kept house here five-and-thirty years. She told my
maid that formerly she could train young servants,
and make something of them; but that now
O'Connell had such sway over the minds of the
lower orders, they were aU for redressing their
own grievances, by any mode but that of working,
and that her authority in her household was gene
raUy set at nought by some counter-quotation from
that of the great Kerryman.
Rathkeale, on the Deel, seemed fuU of soldiers.
It is long, and boasts many good-looking shops.
You see the hUl of Knockfierna beyond it, where the

TO IRELAND. 125
fairies hold court to this day ; and without the walls
stands the old castle of Viscount Southwell, with
several other gentlemen's seats.
In passing through a vUlage, some little distance
from Rathkeale, I singled out another country
beauty, very different from my first. She was tall
and stately, and evidently quite aware she was
beautiful. She was dressed in a superior style
too, with a fashionably cut gown and coUar, and
a black apron. Her shining black hair "it was
snooded sae sleek," and the turn of her throat, a
remarkably white one, caught my eye before I could
distinguish her very pretty features. She was talking
earnestly to a young soldier, who with his fair hair
and ruddy complexion, formed an exceUent contrast
to his handsome mistress ; and as she sat on a low
waU, her hands folded before her with an air of
gratified pride and contentment, he standing lovingly
and respectfully at her side, I thought the group
was perfect. Hard by was a cottage, hers no doubt,
not so bad as the generahty, yet stUl a poor one.
Such a fair young creature may be, was the rustic
beUe who held in thrall the heir of the proud
Desmonds; another Thomas, who, according to
Leland, being benighted at Abbey Feale, sheltered

126 A SUMMER VISIT
himself at the house of the Mac Cormac, one of
his. dependents. "Catherine, his host's beautiful
daughter, inspired the Earl with a violent passion,
which he could not subdue. He married her, and
by this aUiance alienated his followers, whose brutal
pride regarded this indulgence of his love as an
unpardonable degradation to his famUy." His
misfortunes did not end here ; he was expelled his
estates and the country, and died obscurely in a
convent of friars, at Paris, a.d. 1420.*
For this anecdote and the pretty baUad which
follows, written to commemorate the circumstance,
I am indebted to the " Ballad Poetry of Ireland,"
edited by Charles Gavan Duffy, a most interesting
collection, particularly when compared with the
ballads of the Scottish Border, which are mostly
redolent of war and necromancy, of maidens who
" loved not wisely but too weU," of fickle perjured
swains, tyrannical husbands, relentless sires, ruthless
brethren, and cruel mothers and sisters, and conse
quently make shght appeals to the tender feelings ;
while the Irish ballads, on the contrary, touch
every chord in the human heart, breathing the
* See Moore's History of Ireland, vol. m. p. 169.

TO IRELAND. 127
tenderest love, trustingness, and devotion, strong
parental affection, and enthusiastic patriotism.

THE DESMOND.
BY THOMAS MOORE.
By the Peal's wave benighted,
No star in the skies,
To thy door by love lighted,
I first saw those eyes.
Some voice whispered near me,
As the threshold I cross'd,
There was ruin before me,
If I lov'd I was lost.
Love came, and brought sorrow
Too soon in his train,
Yet so sweet, that to-morrow
'Twere welcome again.
Though misery's full measure
My portion should be,
I would drain it with pleasure
If poured out by thee.
You, who call it dishonour
To bow to this flame,
If you've eyes, look upon her,
And blush while you blame.
Hath the pearl less whiteness
Because of its birth ?
Hath the violet less brightness
For growing near earth ?

128 A SUMMER VISIT
No, man for his glory
To ancestry flies
But woman's bright story
Is told in her eyes.
While the monarch but traces
Through mortals his line,
Woman, born of the Graces,
Ranks next to divine.
Though the dark-eyed charmer who caUed forth
this digression cannot expect to rival the high
fortunes of the Bride of Desmond, I hope at least,
poor gfrl, she wiU never have to lament over a
recreant lover, hke the heroine of the succeeding
most exquisite " Brigade Ballad, by Denny Lane,"
called in Duffy's collection :
THE LAMENT OF THE IRISH MAIDEN.
Air. — THE FOGGY DEW.
On Carrigdhown the heath is brown,
The clouds are dark on Ardnalia,
And many a stream comes rushing down
To swell the angry Ownabee.
The morning blast is sweeping fast
Thro' many a leafless tree,
And I'm alone, for he is gone,
My hawk has flown, ochone Machree !
The heath was brown on Carrigdhown,
Bright shone the sun on Ardnalia,
The dark green trees bent trembling down,
To kiss the slumbering Ownabee.

TO IRELAND. 129
That happy day, 'twas but last May,
'Tis like a dream to me,
When Doinnall swore, ay, o'er and o'er,
We'd part no more oh stor Machree !
Soft April showers and bright May flowers
Will bring the summer back again ;
But will they bring me back the hours
I spent with my brave Doinnall then ?
Tis but a chance, for he's gone to France,
To wear the fleur-de-lis,
But I'll follow you, ma Doinnall dhu,
For still I'm true to you, Machree !
Here are no upbraidings of the loved and lost ;
true herself, she confides in Doinnall; and were
she to speak to him, the deserted maiden would, in
the heart-touching language of another poet, say
thus to the truant :
Fear no reproaches for the gladness
I was content for thee should fade ;
Fear no fond jealous woman's madness,
I can endure, but not upbraid.
The whole poem is so graphic, and pourtrays so
real a scene of natural beauty and deep though
simple love, it does honour to the heart and mind
that conceived it ; and I believe this unselfish,
trusting affection to be the very essence of the Irish
female character.
g 3

130 A SUMMER VISIT
I trust I shall be pardoned by the Editors and
not thought the worse of by my readers, if I give
myself the pleasure of extracting another poem from
among my favorite ballads. It finds an appropriate
place here as bearing upon the fairy peculiarities
of the hill of Knockfierna or Knockferina, which I
have had occasion to name. Its wild passionate
outbreak of grief, its pure affection, its varied
images of past happiness, and present woe, render
it a peculiarly characteristic as weU as exceUent
specimen. A MUNSTER KEEN*
BY EDWARD WALSH.
On Monday morning the flowers were gaily springing,
The skylark's hymn in middle air was singing,
When, grief of griefs ! my wedded husband left me,
And since that hour of hope and health bereft me.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
Above the board where thou art low reclining,
Have parish priests and huntsmen high been dining ;
And wine and usquebaugh, while they were able,
They quaffed with thee— the soul of all the table.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
* Properly Caionhe.

TO IRELAND. 131
Why didst thou die ? Could wedded wife adore thee
With purer love than that my bosom bore thee ?
Thy children's cheeks were peaches ripe and mellow,
And threads of gold their tresses long and yellow.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one,
In vain for me are pregnant heifers lowing,
In vain for me are yellow harvests growing ;
Or thy nine gifts of love in beauty blooming ;
Tears blind my eyes, and grief my heart 's consuming.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
Pity her plaints whose wailing voice is broken,
Whose finger holds our early wedding token,
The torrents of whose tears have dried their fountain,
Whose piled up grief on grief is past recounting.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
I still might hope, did I not thus behold thee,
That high Knockferin's* airy peak might hold thee,
Or Crohan's* fairy halls, or Corrin's* towers,
Or Lene's* bright caves, or Cleana's* magic bowers.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
But oh ! my black despair when thou wert dying,
O'er thee no tear was wept — no heart was sighing —
No breath of prayer did waft thy soul to glory,
But lonely thou didst lie, and maimed, and gory.
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
Oh ! may your dove-like soul on whitest pinions,
Pursue her upward flight to God's dominions !
Where saints' and martyrs' hands shall gifts provide thee,
And oh ! my grief ! that I am not beside thee !
Ulla gulla gulla g'one.
* " Places celebrated in Fairy Topography." — See Duffy's
Ballads.

132 A SUMMER VISIT
The baUad poetry of a country is universaUy
acknowledged to be the best key to the national
character. Through it is heard the heart-voice of
the people. It is the most popular hterature, and
the rulers of a country would do well to initiate
themselves into its peculiarities.
Let us leave the fierce Border ballads of Scotland
for the songs of good green wood, the hunting
songs of " Merrie Englande ;" tales of Friar Tuck
and his quarter-staff, of bold Robin Hood and his
exploits ; of aU the field sports so very dear to the
fair-haired, ruddy-cheeked, blue-eyed son of the
Saxon ! Traditions of how the ladye went forth
with her falcons, and the knight with his grey
hounds ; how the forest echoed tp the horn of the
hunter, and resounded with the twang of the mighty
bow that once grew green among the yew-trees.
Then the feast when the chase was o'er, the
smoking haunch, the wassaU-bowl, the flagon of
sack. Is it not aU a true picture of England's
honest-souled sons, glad-hearted, brave, hardy,
rejoicing in their vigorous manhood, never laggards
in the field either in sport or war, generous alike to
friend or foe; — whose very Turpins and Hoods
restored fourfold to the aged and needy what they

TO IRELAND. 133
took from the strong and wealthy ; uncultivated, it
may hap, unlettered, and sometimes lacking in
courtesy to the gentler sex, yet ever ready to do
battle for helpless woman or oppressed feUow-man,
and supremely happy in the enjoyment of animal
life. Now quit these lively but boisterous scenes, and
turn to the Lais of Southern France, "lais tender
and true." Let us enter the lists foughten for
" Ladies whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize,"*
and behold how they were worshipped with
the intensity and purity of the saint on her
shrine. Scan the glowing achievements of the Spanish
Moors in their wUd romances, whose brief, truncated
measure aptly, depicts the fiery emotions of love and
glory, jealousy and vengeance, of those ferocious
beings whose nostrUs snort,* and whose moustache

* Milton's Allegro.
t Eso dixe el Rey moro
Relinchando de colera.
Ancient Moorish ballad. — See Childe Harold.

134 A SUMMER VISIT
curls, whUe under the influence of the angry
passions, whose very affections are like hurricane
gusts.* Follow the luxuriant fancy of " the Empire of the
Air,"f in its WiU-o'-the-Wisp wanderings, over
forest and mountain, down into the very mines,
where the dark gnomes join in grotesque dances
to the light of blazing ingots. Down beneath the
waters of the Rhine and Danube, where the Siren
of Lurley waits to clasp her mortal lover in her
death-giving embrace ; and where the Scaly River-
King lies craftily with his outspread net, to catch
the young angler whom he lures to destruction
with the ripe cherries that hang over the tranquU
stream, and the golden fish that ghtter beneath
its perfidious waters ! Follow the flight of those
ministering beings that fold their purple wings
around the couch of innocence and infancy !
Those angels of the heart who bear and sustain
to the further end of the world the chain of
sympathy that connects two hearts that love,
* See Appendix J.
t The empire of tbe sea belongs to the English, the empire of
the land to the French, that of the air to the Germans. — Madame
de StaeVs Germany, vol. i. p. 2.

TO IRELAND. 135
making time and distance of nought-avaU to sever
them !
Behold in each of these a nation's peculiarity of
feeling — of character in thought and action ! Ire
land too, has her Messengers of Death ; her blood
curdling Banshee ; her Spirit-Horse, the redoubtable
Phooka; her cunning little Cluricaunes, who ply
their never-ending task of watching gold, under
pretence of cobbhng shoes ; her tiny fairies, a
brilhant throng, who hold thefr dainty moonlight
revels in the "slanting woodbine," or round the
magic-ring, sweeping over Killarney on sweet May
morn with the great O'Donoghue, or, mayhap,
kindling the long extinguished Beal-Fires on the
summits of the Round-Towers, when human eyes
are closed in slumber.
But there exist few records of their early beliefs.
Most of the Irish bards are of modern date ; how
ever, aU the combined talents of the country are
now helping to foster popular feeling, and they are
not low in the scale of intelhgence. Their words
come home to their country-people — an essentiaUy
poetical one, whose common parlance is poetry ;
and their wrongs have assumed a tone of sentiment
that touches their very hearts' core ; while on the

136 A SUMMER VISIT
other hand, their so-called Patriot-Songs are trum-
pet-tongued.* This brings me to the Priesthood, a much abused
race, who I have not hitherto had the opportunity
of naming. No doubt amongst them, as amongst
ourselves, there are "black sheep, or wolves in
sheeps' clothing" ; but on the whole, I beheve the
working-clergy (I speak of the Catholics) to be
a very meritorious, seU-denying set of men. A
man must be only less than an angel, who could
reside, ad perpetuam, in some of the superlatively
wretched districts I have traveUed through. De
prived of aU society, and hving only to benefit the
miserable wretches he is there to tend, he fulfills his
mission well, who does it in the spirit of the foUow
ing most eloquent — most touching baUad, which
I draw from the same source as heretofore, viz :
Duffy's Collection. SOGGARTH AROON.f
Am I the slave they say,
Soggarth aroon ?
Since you did shew the way,
Soggarth aroon,
* For a specimen of these see Appendix K.
t Soggarth aroon — Priest dear.

TO IRELAND. 137

Their slave no more to be,
While they would work with me
Ould Ireland's slavery, Soggarth aroon ?
Why not the poorest man,
Soggarth aroon ?
Try and do all he can, Soggarth aroon ?
Her commands to fulfill,
Of his own heart and will,
Side by side with you still,
Soggarth aroon ?
Loyal and true to you, Soggarth aroon,
Yet be no slave to you, Soggarth aroon,
Nor out of fear to you,
Stand up so near to you,
Och ! out of fear to you !
Soggarth aroon !
Who in the winter's night,
Soggarth aroon ?
When the could blast did bite,
Soggarth aroon,
Came to my cabin door,
And on my earthen flure,
Knelt with me sick and poor,
Soggarth aroon ?
Who on the marriage day,
Soggarth aroon,
Made the poor cabin gay,
Soggarth aroon?

138 A SUMMER VISIT
And did both laugh and sing,
Making our hearts to ring,
At the poor christening, Soggarth aroon ?
Who as friend only met,
Soggarth aroon ?
Never did flout me yet,
Soggarth aroon ?
And when my hearth was dim,
Gave, while his eye did brim,
What I should give to him,
Soggarth aroon ?
Och you ! and only you,
Soggarth aroon,
And for this I was true to you,
Soggarth aroon,
In love they'll never shake,
When for ould Ireland's sake
We a true part did take,
Soggarth aroon !
K this be not poetry, what is ? Heart-thrilling
— graphic ! Will those not be good priests who
have such chroniclers ? And wUl not such chords,
struck by a master-hand, find an echo in every
feehng heart ? The poor, desolate Irishman chngs
to his Priest, as to his best — and in many cases,
only friend ; and believes himseU not utterly aban
doned of Heaven, whUe his spiritual guide remains
to him.

TO IRELAND. 139
But this very devotion on the part of the
parishioner, devolves on the Priest a most serious
responsibiUty. If he lead him wrong; if he stir
him up to ungodly means for treasonable purposes ;
if he wUfully keep him in ignorance, that he may
rule supreme over his thoughts and actions; tf
he use his kindness only as a cloak, to lure the
miserable victim to factious outbreak, or desperate,
blood-stained crime; then, indeed, wUl the Priest
have to answer for a heavy sin before the Judgment-
seat of God: for of aU wickedness, among the
greatest is that of " enticing a brother to do evil ;"
of all perfidy, the worst is mis-used influence.
WhUe on the subject of the Priesthood, I must
express my disapprobation of a practice I found
general in Ireland, which it strikes me is not
very commonly employed even in other Catholic
countries, and my cognizance of the matter fell on
this wise.
A knot of gentlemen were talking together in
a friend's house, and one said :
"Have you received any compensation money,
lately?" "Yes," rephed another, "the Priest brought me
thirty shUlings the other day."

140 A SUMMER VISIT
" And to me he brought four pounds," said the
first. " I told him I was not aware I had lost any
thing ; but he insisted on it I had. I maintained
that I was positive I was not the worse for any
theft. • WeU, there was a good deal of argument
and persuasion on his part, and it ended in my
pocketting the three sovereigns, and giving him
the fourth for distribution among his flock, which
pleased him very much."
" What do you mean ?" enquired Mr. West, much
interested in the debate.
"Why," returned the first interlocutor, "when
a man robs you he confesses it to the Priest, and he
obliges the delinquent to restore either the whole,
or a part of the property, under pain of excom
munication, or penance of some sort, to him, and
he himseU gives it you back ; but you never know
the thief, and he may be in your very house. This
is called Compensation Money."
This delegation of justice into the hands of
the clergy, out of its proper channel — the magis
tracy, so extremely improper, is one of the fruits of
partial justice, and negligent mis-rule in Ireland.
It needs little comment.
How warm-hearted are the people, is evident

TO IRELAND. 141
from their innumerable terms of endearment. The
" cuishla-machree," " vein of my heart," " gUle
machree," " whiteness of my heart," " mavourneen,"
" my darhng," " asthore," " my treasure ;" and all
the good wishes poured forth on the head of a
benefactor, the genuine overflowings of an affec
tionate nature.
I shaU never forget the look and emphasis of an
Irish girl, who was in attendance upon a dying
friend of mine, who she had accompanied to
London. I was asking for her sick mistress, and
said, " Ah ! you poor thing, how sad this is for
you, and how glad you wiU be to get back to your
own country."
"Yes, with Herr!" was the emphatic, compre
hensive reply of the faithful Bride. But, alas !
she returned alone, and broken-hearted.
Had these people been dealt by in the true spirit
of justice, humanity, and Christian charity, Ireland
would long since have ceased to be the opprobrium
of England in European eyes, and its inhabitants a
blot on social hfe; but, I trust its "dark ages"
are on the wane, that improvement wUl be carried
out by its native landholders, that its ladies wiU
interest themselves for the poor in the more

142 A SUMMER VISIT
deserted regions, and estabhsh charities similar to
those we support, such as penny clubs, shoe, and
coal clubs, above all assisting to form national
schools. Then gratitude wUl take the place of
servility, hope of despondency, cleanUness and
industry be substituted for habits of the opposite
tendency ; and rehgion and education wUl, it is to
be hoped, correct the deep dark passions which so
often accompany a very ardent temperament ; and
which have come to the Irish by descent from the
fervid blood of the MUesians and Spaniards.
Charity is administered in some places, as Bray,
for example, in districts, each lady taking turns to
inspect the schools, and visit the sick and afflicted;
but I inquired in various places in my tour through
the province of Munster, whether the paupers met
with any rehef in winter particularly, and was told
they never heard of such a thing as soup or bedding
being given away. Indeed, few and far between
were the mansions that could have supphed them.
Charity, however, never fails where there is a
Community of Christian Brothers, or Sisters of
Mercy. We are now entered upon the finest soU and best
style of cultivation we have as yet met with. It is

TO IRELAND. 143
Adare Country, where I remember to have read a
tribe of thrifty, hard-working Germans were intro
duced some hundred and fifty years "agone,"
as an old friend of mine used to say, by Lord
SouthweU. No weeds to be seen here : but large, broad, open
fields filled with yellow, heavy, waving grain very
nearly ripe. Splendid crops of turnips, besides
barley, oats, rye, potatoes, and magnificent clover —
good fences weU " redd up." AU the farms sub
stantial homesteads. The peasants cleanly, comely,
and well clothed. We traversed many mUes of this
sort of satisfactory farming, and I grudged the twilight
that was stealing on apace, and robbing me of the
pleasure I had promised myseK in seeing Adare,
" the Ford of the Oaks." Lord Dunraven has a
castle here, and there are fine abbey ruins, and the
River Mague meanders through them; but the
darkness came on so thickly I could only discern
the broad shadow of some venerable trees on the
surface, as the moonbeams flickered through them
feebly. The sound of waters is always sweet, and this
came softly on my weary ear, and there was a
stiUness about this place that made me attach

144 A SUMMER VISIT
perhaps a greater charm to it than it reaUy
possesses by dayhght. But though I could not
see, I felt its quiet beauty, and my maid assured
me afterwards it was the prettiest place we had
passed. She being outside saw better than I
could. On we drove through the darkness to Patrick's
WeU,* so caUed from a weU close"by, dedicated to
St. Patrick — a place of votive offerings. The in
habitants perform pUgrimages to it, tying up shreds
of rags to the bushes by way of ex-voto. This is an
inn of very prepossessing appearance, with green
shutters and porched entrance : and I felt a longing
desire to stop and rest my wearied frame here, in
stead of posting on to Limerick. There, too, we
should have seen Croom, a httle place off the road,
remarkable inasmuch as it is an old strong-hold of
the Fitzgeralds, and gives the motto of Crom-a-boo
to the Duke of Leinster.
The Irish name of Macroom — Magh Cruim — is of
great antiquity, signifying the "Plain of Croom,"
who, according to antiquarians, was the Supreme
Deity of the ancient Irish. Mr. Windle says, "he
was adored under the name of Crum Cruagheoir, and
* See Appendix L.

TO IRELAND. 145
is supposed to be the same as Zoroaster. His altar
was the Cromleac, and his priest the Cromthear."*
This par parenthese. Meantime, the horses ate up
thefr hot meal and water, and after a very tedious
Octoberish-starhght journey, and not tUl eleven at
night, we reached Limerick, entering it on the fine
bridge which spans the Shannon.
The streets looked broad and handsome, and were
all Ut up, for the assizes had pursued us here, and
we found Cruse's Hotel full, to our dismay. How
ever, the very civil landlord seeing a lady, and, as
he said, " a very tired one too," would not turn us
away, but got two young barristers to vacate their
rooms, into which we were installed with aU possible
speed. * See Willis's Ireland, p. 47.

146' A SUMMER VISIT

CHAPTER VI.
July 24.— My Waking; eyes opened in Limerick,
the. "City of the Violated Treaty," the scene of
English Puritanical treachery and oppression towards
the vanquished Cathohcs. Limerick, celebrated for
the beauty of its women, the exceUence of its
gloves, and the texture of its lace. Opposite the
sitting-room windows flowed the broad waters of the
Shannon, and I could see five arches of the old
Thomond Bridge, at one extremity of which stUl
stand the ruins of King John's Castle, where exists,
so they tell you, the identical stone on which the
treaty, rendered so infamous by its breach on the
part of the victors, was signed and sealed. "A flour
mill, and portions of the ancient town, made the
further side picturesque ; and blue hUls rose in the
distance completing the picture.

TO IRELAND. 147
Immediately in front of me, and opening from
the grand street — the " Calle Mayor" of Limerick —
was a spacious quay, peopled with marketers bring
ing country produce for sale to the boats moored
along side in the rude carts of the country — nothing
but the frame of the common car, with a square
watthng on the top, in which lay screaming pigs,
and fowls, turf, butter, and vegetables. Soldiers,
intermingled with the peasants, gave variety to the
different groups. The men looked sturdier, the
women taller and stouter, than elsewhere, but beauty
saw I none.
The shops appeared good and well plenished, and
the street was all alive with bustle and passers to
and fro.
There are several handsome bridges : WeUesley
Bridge, which is comparatively new; Athlunkard
Bridge, of five arches, which we looked down upon
in leaving town; Baal's Bridge, queer heathenish-
sounding name,* which wears a most venerable
appearance, though said to have been buUt so re
cently as 1831 ; the troops were marching over it to
the sound of " trumpet, fife, and drum." On one
* See Appendix M.
h2

148 A SUMMER VISIT
hand was the market-place, a very tidy weU-filled
one, and crowds of country people gathered to hsten
to the martial music. A deep shadow was thrown
over this branch of the river, with heavy lookmg
buildings in the rear ; and it strangely reminded me
of Pisa, with its old gloomy nooks and corners.
To escape the persecutions of a "jingle" and a
guide, we walked to the cathedral, but were foUowed
by both ; so, dismissing the former, we retained the
latter, who was quite determined not to relinquish
his prey. He conducted us through the filthiest
alleys, past brokers' shops, and aU sorts of abomina
tions, to the Cathedral, which has large trees in
front, and is otherwise surrounded with waUs and
mean habitations. It is a plain structure. My
great inducement for visiting it was to perform my
vows at the shrine of that departed saint, Bishop
Jebb; who for so many years filled the See of
Limerick, and out of the fulness of a heart beating
with real Christian charity contributed to the
weUare, spiritual and temporal, of both Cathohcs
and Protestants* and received the affectionate
homage of aU persons of either creed, whom he
swayed with paternal influence. It is a fine monu-

TO IRELAND. 149
ment, placed near the altar. The good old man is
sculptured, sitting in a favorite arm-chair, with his
episcopal robes flowing round him, and his counte
nance is expressive of peace within, and good-will
to all.
Not so pleasing is a monument in the chancel to
the late Lord Glentworth, who lies in a recumbent
posture in a neglige de matin, with hair and whiskers
fashionably arrayed and trimmed. I object to
worldly fopperies in the effigy of a departed human
being intended to be deposited in a place of worship ;
and, moreover, the contrast of what is within, and
what without the tomb, must painfully affect the
survivors. Most particularly I desired to climb to the top
of the Tower, in order to trace the wanderings of
the Shannon, which I knew must lie as in a map
beneath me ; but my wish was frustrated by a twofold
cause, sufficiently ludicrous, though not to me.
First, the wind, which became a perfect hurricane,
rendered it impossible to maintain any footing on
the highest steps of the belfry : and next, in losing
sight of my companions, I lost my head, and very
nearly my equUibrium, so perforce I sat me down,
and no better expedient could I find but in that

150 A SUMMER VISIT
ungainly posture to perform my descent beaver
fashion. It is not always "facilis descensus" as of
a surety I discovered, with a brain spinning round,
encumbered too with a weighty sketch-book. How
ever, I thankfully reached terra firma at last, though
the stiffness produced by this cramping of the whole
person in my fright down these unusuaUy steep
stairs was such, I could not walk for three days
without so much pain and flinching, and suppressed
ohs and ahs, as to occasion mighty wonderment
and compassion among waiters and chamber-maids,
when I alighted from the carriage wdth excessive
difficulty ; and one poor body, after hearing my tale
of distress, enquired very pathetically, " Why then,
poor thing, did they puU yer foot ?" It was
thoroughly provoking to be baulked of my bird's-
eye view, and lamed at once !
The beUs of Limerick are celebrated in song as
the work of an Italian, who losing all in his own
sweet southern country, came hither to hve within
hearing of his chef-d'oeuvre, whose sound had haunted
his imagination ever since. SaUing up the river,
he heard the bells beginning to peal, and the weU
remembered tones so affected him by evoking the
images of all he had loved and lost, all in short

TO IRELAND. 151
associated with them in his tender heart, that he
fell with his head on his breast, and so expired, ere
the bells had rung out their solemn knell for him —
their artificer. It is a touching tale.
Rivers here always had a peculiar charm for me.
I have drank of the waters of the Rhine, Rhone,
Danube, and Isere, and explored the sources of the
two former among Alpine wUds. I have crossed the
Po, Adige, and Rubicon, and strolled beside the
Loire and Seine, and "yellow-waved" Tiber; and
the glories of the Shannon had oftentimes been
painted by the hand of fancy in my visions. It is
here a considerable stream doubtless, but I will own
it disappointed my pre-conceptions on the whole ;
not being nearly so broad as I had pictured to
myself. However, looking down upon it from the
road, when bound for Nenagh, laving as it does the
walls of this quaint old city, it appears far more
important, and worthy of admiration. The word
Shannon is so fine-sounding, and I had associated
it in idea with forest-crowned banks, stormy rapids,
and gigantic cliffs on either hand, but of these
there were none ; the shores are flat, and do not, so
far as I could see, possess grand features. Indeed,
a friend of mine considers it rather as a succession

152 A SUMMER VISIT
of loughs, than as a continuous river of itself, and
doubts the navigability of its actual bed, from the
extreme shallowness of the water in some places,
and the high falls in others, unless it were deepened
into canals and assisted by locks. These might be
certainly cut from north to south, and then there
would be a great and much-to-be-desired influx of
provisions and luxuries into many semi-wUd and
unfurnished districts.
I was informed that the works were going
on higher up the country. Various antiquities
have been dug out of its bed by the labourers, and
conveyed to the Dublin Museums. Some of these
were shown to me : they are mostly ancients, and
were found near Keelogue, Bannagher, Athlone,
Shannon Bridge, Portumna, &c, amongst them are
brass spear-heads, swords, rings, iron battle-axes,
brass pins, spurs, coins, &c*
I reaUy sneaked about the streets of Limerick,
feeling ashamed of my country's deeds. Visit the
Thomond Bridge after all, I did not ; for our guide
whether from folly or perverseness, or may be from
a latent feeling of patriotism, so misled us, and took
* See Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. n. p. 594.

TO IRELAND. 153
us such a roundabout way, we found ourselves at
the new Suspension Bridge, instead of the famed
in history; and after we had taken refuge several
times under archways, from frequent pelting showers,
time had so waned, we dismissed the idle rogue with
an Ul-earned shilling, and made the best of our way
to Cruse's, paid the bill, and departed.
I regretted not exploring the city, part of which
I understand is very ancient, and built with brick
noggin, painted white and black, Cheshire fashion.
This is called the English Town; next comes Irish
Town, then New Town, which speaks for itself, and
where we were quartered.
We went a couple of miles out of our way in
order to see Castle Connell. Our polite host
encouraged us to drive through Mount Shannon, a
very pretty place of Lord Clane's. It occupies a
rising ground in a bend of the river, and is a plain
stone building with a Grecian portico. The plan
tations are not of old growth, but very thriving,
and the drives most beauttfully kept. I never saw
anything to equal the pleasure grounds of the Irish
gentry in this particular. The walks and carriage
roads are commonly made of the grey, flat, river
h 3

154 A SUMMER VISIT
pebbles, so much more agreeable to the eye than
our flaunting yellow and red gravel, and the grass
sides are so smoothly shorn, and the groves so
judiciously thinned, it is a pleasure to see them.
But then their excessive trimness reminds one of
the comfit castles, and sugar-paved walks' of fairy
land, where human foot never treads ; and on the
whole I think I prefer the hard-dinted, well-
thronged appearance of the approach to a house in
merry England.
At Mount Shannon I noticed a profusion of rich
ferns, growing with the greatest luxuriance, and
planted at regular intervals all down the coach road.
This is a prettiness I mean to adopt at home. They
have a very oriental look, with their bright green
palmy tufts of spreading leaves ; and perhaps the
formation of this plant is amongst the most elegant,
and most neglected of our Flora.
Turning out of the Mount Shannon grounds, we
drove down through a wooded village to the banks
of the Shannon ; a pretty rural spot with the
remains of an old castle of the O'Briens, Kings of
Munster, covering boldly a knoll of some eminence
just above us. This is Castle Connell in Tipperary,

TO IRELAND.. 155
a great resort of the Limerick felicity hunters and
fishermen in summer weather; also famous for a
Chalybeate spring.
There is a never-failing charm about river scenery;
but I looked in vain for the celebrated rapids of
Doonas. I saw fishing stakes driven in, and watched
the play of numberless adverse currents, which no
doubt, swollen in winter produce beautiful falls ;
but judging from the actual state of the water, I
should say it would not pass a man's knee.
Emerging from the little hamlet, we crept up a
steep hill and suddenly came upon the fag end, as
I then supposed, of the great bog of Allen; with
its pyramids of turf and deep black trenches full of
water, so dreary and unlike every thing else. How
very curious it is ! The road is a raised causeway
across it, and rather dangerous in places, as it was
undergoing repair. In the distance we saw the
mountains of Slieve Phelim, Arra, which rise from
Lough Derg, and Slieve Bernagh. The outlines of
all the Irish mountains are very soft, and wear that
tender blue tint so observable in Sorante ; an effect
of the atmosphere, as they seem to melt away into it.
At Nenagh we halted, and in spite of the Assizes
were made very comfortable. I never tasted any

156 A SUMMER VISIT
thing so exceUent as the mutton cutlets placed
before us by the civilest and most active of waiters.
The town was alive with people marketing, and
attending upon the courts. They pressed upon
the carriage, and a tall, clean hostler in a brown
holland blouse indefatigably kept them at arm's
length. Mr. West remarked an order and cleanliness
in the inn-yard we had not met with since quitting
England; and every department of the hotel bore
testimony to the vigUant eye of a pains-taking
landlord. Our start was as smart as a crack turn-out for
Ascot or Epsom. A good-looking, cheerful-faced
boy in a spic and span blue jacket with bright
buttons, velvet cap of hunting cut, top boots and
-doe skins, bestrode as shining and well-conditioned
a pair of well-groomed Uttle horses as heart could
desire. The harness glistened like gold ; he bran
dished, without using, a hunting whip, and looked
occasionally over his shoulder to see what im
pression he made upon us. Be sure his fee was
doubled as well as the hostler's, and we complimented
him upon the cleanest stabling, and best posters
in Ireland, when we reached Roscrea.
While eating their dinners at Nenagh, our

TO IRELAND. 157
servants fell in with a respectable English bailiff
who was journeying to the seat of his employer.
He said he knew the country well, that the peop'le
dreaded each other as much as the extortion of land
holders, and often affected a poverty to which they
were in reality strangers, like the Jews of old ; and
for this reason, that they would be pillaged by all
down to the hundredth cousin were their prosperity
made manifest to the needier claimants of charity.
He knew farmers " weU to do" who could afford to
give their daughters £4>00 or £500 a piece, who
yet Uved on potatoes and butter mUk solely, and
suffered the females of their family to go clad in
rags, shoeless and stockingless, and went about
themselves like the meanest vagabonds.
All this tract of country is pretty and fertile,
diversified with country seats, and not in such
apparent misery. Near Toomavara, the mountain
called the Devil's Bit rears itself. There is a curious
cleft in it like the gap of Dunloe, indeed several
Irish hills have this peculiarity, just as though a
piece were bitten clean out of them.
Between this and Dunkerrin we left the corner
of Tipperary we had been crossing and got into

158

A SUMMER VISIT

King's County ; but at Roscrea, we found ourselves
in Tipperary again for a few hours.
Roscrea is a dark, dilapidated town, with a
horrible pavement, all round stones and mud. It
lies between Slieve Bloom and the Devil's Bit, and
is watered by the Brosna. I noticed the ruins of
one of King John's many castles ; and that of the
Butlers, a fine remnant of antiquity, commands the
town. Just above the posting-house, I perceived the

ruins of a fine old gateway of that very beautiful

TO IRELAND. 159
architecture so common in Irish ecclesiastical struc
tures, with the pointed arch and chevron moulding.
It forms a portion of the ancient abbey, which has
been converted into the present church. Exactly
opposite to it stands the Round Tower.
This was what I had come some miles out of the
direct road to look at, so I got out of the carriage
and pattered up the wet street to take a nearer
survey. The people were rude, and would hardly
make way for me to pass; I thought want had
hardened their hearts, poor souls ! It is quite
hemmed in by habitations of one sort or another,
so as to present a very imperfect view from the
street; but in crossing the bridge as we left
Roscrea, I looked back and gained a good view of
it, with its triangular topped window, and the door
whose, remarkable double hinge is noticed by Petrie.
Behind it the castle rose very proudly ; this is used
as a barrack. The Brosna flows past the base of
the Round Tower, and altogether it forms a curious
and pretty picture.
Our drive this evening was quite dehghtful the
whole way nearly to Birr. The land undulates
charmingly, and presents a greater variety of wood

160 A SUMMER VISIT
and tillage than almost any we had passed through.
The slopes of the hills were covered with promising
crops, and I saw haymakers still at work in the
lowlands. Their mode of cariying hay, strikes the
English eye as both uncouth and slovenly ; but an
Irish gentleman who Mr. West met, assured him he
was so ahve to what he thought a defective system,
he had used every endeavour to introduce the Enghsh
plan of immediate stacking, but he found it of no
avail. The quality of the grass differs; that of
Ireland is so much more succulent, and the climate
altogether so much moister, they are in a manner
compeUed to adopt a means different from ours
and longer in its process, with a view to aUowing
the grass a longer period for drying. His stacks,
he said, were sure to catch fire when the hay was
exposed to the sun only the time necessary in
England. It is raked up into numerous pointed
cocks which are made and re-made, and left days,
nay weeks to dry. When nearly ready to stack,
they throw two or more cocks into one, and casting
a rope over and under the mass, a man lies flat on
the top to give weight, and a horse drags the
burthen after him to the yard, or to a corner of
some field where two or more stacks are formed.

TO IRELAND. 161
By this means the ground is strewed with hay all
wasted, and under every cock a yellow rotten spot
is left, which of course spoUs the look of the field
for some time. In many places I saw men mowing
down grass absolutely under water, which could
only be used as litter I conclude ; and hay-making
was not over, though reaping was begun when we
left Ireland.
Portions of the road were repairing, and being
cut down a great depth, the narrow line left for
passengers was anything but agreeable, or safe for
a loaded carriage.
It was ten o'clock when we drew up at Birr, or
Parsonstown in King's County. Just outside the
town I caught sight of a beautiful Cathohc chapel,
alias church : for they call all their own places of
worship chapels, distinguishing those of Protestants
by the term church; a sort of enforced modesty
that always jarred painfuUy on my feehngs.
There is but one inn, the general appearance of
which was very comfortable. We had a good sitting
room, and a very spacious bed-room. The old
woman who officiated as housemaid, told me it was
a gay place, for a regiment was quartered here, and
balls and parties were never ending.

162 A SUMMER VISIT
There is always a little difficulty in getting
together the concomitants of a repast. Paddy is
apt to bring in one thing at a time, so that you
wait unnecessarily. There was nothing but cold
mutton in the larder, and at so late an hour the
shops were shut. They never seem to feel the
necessity of making any exertion to feed the hungry
traveller, or perhaps I might, with more justice,
say, there is so little traveUing it is not worth their
while to lay in much provision. However, capital
tea and toast came at last, and by midnight we had
succeeded in bringing the old lady of warming
pans (I speak here negatively with a " lucus a non,
fyc." as the house was guiltless of that comfortable
piece of bed-room furniture), into training, so as to
be able to retire to rest.
They have a dirty, lazy custom hereabouts, of
keeping in one corner of the room a large barrel-
shaped iron peat-box, into which all the sweepings
of the chamber are committed. I asked a young
rosy-faced serving-girl whether she did not think it
would be tidier to convey it away in the dust-pan ;
she hung her head, and blushingly assented.
July 25. — I found, on looking out of my window,
1 was opposite a great big statue of the Duke of

TO IRELAND. 163
Cumberland, erected on a column in 1747, to com
memorate his Royal Highness's victories over the
Scotch; a handsome compliment this to the Irish,
and very satisfactory, no doubt, to their waking orbs,
even at this time of day !
Vast droves of cattle passed through the square
as it was market-day. Frederic sallied forth, and got
into conversation with a respectable farmer, who
complained bitterly of the failure of the potatoe crop,
which seemed pecuharly great here, though the
grain was abundant, and the soil generally very
productive. Every cottage garden, even in the
wildest, most poverty-stricken districts, teemed with
vegetables, which really could only require thrusting
into the rich black mould to thrive any where ; such
cabbages, so full and green, carrots, and onions,
besides potatoes, sick, or well.
A couple of fowls, in this neighbourhood, fetch
1*. Qd. ; geese 2s. 6d. ; turkies, I think, were 3s. ;
at Killarney, eggs 6d. and 8d. a dozen, often less.
It was a very fine, soft-feeling day, after a rainy
night, and we lost no time in proceeding to the
castle of Lord Rosse, which is a remarkably pretty,
well constructed building of its kind. Upon asking
permission to see the giant telescope, a civil major-

164 A SUMMER VISIT
domo took in our cards, and presently returned with
Lord Rosse's very obliging answer in the affirmative,
and that his assistant should attend us. Accord
ingly, a very clever young man of the country, a
genius, who assists his Lordship in every way,
escorted us to this extraordinary effort of mechanical
art. The telescope is flanked by two masses of masonry
which support it, and notwithstanding its ponderous-
ness, is so weU-poised, as to be easUy moved by
pullies, chains, and screws. It is fifty-four feet
long, and six feet in diameter. We ascended the
flight of steps constructed for the purpose of
mounting into a small gaUery, which by winding
some screw, detaches you from the main buUding
and there you are on a tiny platform, with a single
rail, hanging to all appearance, in mid-air, hke
some trembling soul crossing the bridge of Mahomet.
The whole thing is highly ingenious. Being on
this platform, the telescope is worked in such a
manner as to bring the little side window to the
level of the eye. Into this the observer looks, and
not through the end of the telescope : and on a
speculum within, he beholds the heavenly bodies
reflected, and most wonderfully magnified.

TO IRELAND. 165
A lesser instrument we also saw, in shape some
thing like a huge mortar, with side ladders to go
up and down, giddy work ; and then the house in
which the astronomical observations are calculated,
containing a third sort of telescope, and a box into
which you step, in order to reach the top, and so
screw yourseU up by degrees.
We were also shown by our intelligent and
obliging Cicerone, the place where Lord Rosse
manufactures his own specula. After an infinity of
labour and thought, he at last hit upon an expedient
for making a speculum six feet in diameter, the
largest ever made. The man told us his great
difficulty was in the annealing ; so many cracked
with the heat of the furnace. The final process is
the polishing, when they present a smooth black
appearance, and are susceptible of the highest
magnifying powers. The speculum is polished in
about six hours, by steam apparatus, and a rotatory
movement.* * On this subject the following passage occurs in the proceedings
of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. n. p. 4 — 5.
" It is necessary that speculum should possess, in the highest
possible degree, the quahties of whiteness, brilliancy, and resistance
to tarnish. Lord Oxmantown has found that these conditions are
best satisfied in the definite combinations of four equivalents of

166 A SUMMER VISIT
The castle walls bear testimony to the siege it
sustained by Sarsfield. General Kirke relieved it.
There are the marks of baUs in the court-yard walls.
Some fine lime trees and arbutus are scattered about
the park, and there is a smaU piece of water.
We saw but httle of the town of Birr, entering
it at night, and only passing through its suburbs
this morning, in our way to Frankford. There is
little noticeable until within a few miles of TuUa-
more, when we passed some nice looking places in
a more pleasing surface of country.
Lord Charleville has a fine old mansion caUed
copper, to one of tin ; or by weight, 32 and 14*7 nearly. Metals,
differing from this by a slight excess of either component, are,
when first polished, scarcely less brilliant, but are dimmed so
rapidly, that the lapse of a few days produces a sensible difference.
On the other hand, some large specula of the atomic compound
have been lying uncovered for years, without material injury to
their polish. But this compound is brittle almost beyond behef ;
a slight blow, or even the appUcation of partial warmth, will
shiver a large mass of it. Though harder than steel, its surface
is broken up with the utmost facility, and it has a most energetic
tendency to crystallize. The common process of the founder fails
with it, except for masses of very limited magnitude, as the cast
cracks in the mould, and the subsequent difficulties of the annealing
are such, that it has been a very general practice to use an alloy
lower (containing more copper) than the atonic standard. How
ever, Lord Oxmantown has succeeded, by a contrivance as simple
as ingenious, in casting, at the first attempt, a solid mirror."

TO IRELAND. 167
Charleville Forest, close to the town. It looked
shut up and deserted, and was, so we understood.
The agent and a party were fishing and bathing
in the Clodiagh, which helps to form a large orna
mental piece of water.
The entrance to Tullamore is rendered striking
by the Gaol and Court-house, two excessively hand
some buildings in their several ways ; the latter
Grecian ; they stand off the road, on high ground.
Here again the Assizes were at work, and the town
swarming with people, bringing, hurdled cars full
of peat and potatoes to market. Many of these
were neatly attired, and had rosy, cheerful faces.
The inn was well replenished with provender,
which was lucky, as we were compelled to wait two
hours, while our tired horses baited, none being at
hand to carry us forward, from the run upon the
road caused by the assizes. They set before us
some delicious veal cutlets, good potatoes, French
beans, and a capital cheese. The rooms were clean,
and the attendants, as usual, very civil.
While at our luncheon-dinner, I was amused by
the entrance, twice or thrice, of a curious little
figure in large squared plaid trousers and shooting
jacket. He carried the head and shoulders of a

168 A SUMMER VISIT
giant upon a short thick trunk and legs, of some
five feet. His uncropped hair formed a perfect
glory of chesnut curls, about his broad ruddy face,
and his large, round, goggle blue eyes, blue- as a
hedge-sparrow's egg, looked with excessive astonish
ment at us as we sat at our repast. Upon the
waiter's entrance, I enquired who the gentleman
might be, expressing a fear that we had usurped
his apartments, for a bed chamber fuU of portman
teaus opened from the one we sat in. "By no
manes," responded Paddy, " 'tis a gentleman from
Galway, as has been here dese three weeks. Och !
'tis afraid to go out in the sthreets he is, the sowl,
for all the boys and girls do be laughing at him."
" Laughing ! laughing at what ?" said I.
" Och, then ! 'tis the big head he has, and he
knows it ; and the boys folhes him down the sthreet;
so he stops here intirely, and nivir goes out at all."
" But why doesn't he go home ?"
" Och, 'tis a pleasant place is Tullamore, and 'tis
he amuses himself looking out of the windy; may
be he'U stop some time ; 'tis every year he comes."
" Poor man!" thought I, "his mind must be in an
inverse ratio to the proportions of his body, that
could find entertainment looking out on the streets

TO IRELAND. 169
of Tullamore ! What sort of a home has he, I
wonder ? There was something pathetic in his way
of peeping in through our door, as U he would fain
be on good terms with his feUow-creatures, but
dared not, through a sense of the strangeness of his
outer man, and I longed to invite him in, and by
engaging him in conversation, draw out this forlorn
Quasimodo." Not far from Kilbeggan, in West Meath, the
postillion called our attention to the demesne of the
late unfortunate Lord Norbury, with a board stuck
up, and lettered " To let."
" To let, is it?" rather soliloquized Mr. West, with
his head out of window.
" Ay," said the boy, " any body may have it,"
with an indescribable jerk of the head and shoulder,
that said more plainly than words, "if any body
"will." The Irish never answer you with a plain yes, or
no. I was so struck by this at Kilkenny, where the
brogue is strongest and least pleasant.
" Can we see the castle ?" I asked.
" Ye can."
" And will you order a car for us ?"
" I shaU." i

170 A SUMMER VISIT
" How many mUes is it to such a place ?"
" Sirr is it how many miles ? why thin, two, I'm
thinking." And it aU comes out with a jerking aspiration,
only rivaUed by the Spanish x's, g's, and j's, enough
to tear one's chest up by the roots.
Kilbeggan is a largish town, on the Brosna, and
has a great trade in corn.
Tyrrel's Pass occupies an acclivity. The church is
a very pretty one, covering the summit, and shel
tered among trees, and there are remains of a Castle
Geoghegan. Lady Bridgewater beautified it by
building a tidy square of comfortable houses.* It
relieved the monotony of a drive amongst bogs for
the most part, though in several places it lay
through very pretty lowlands, varied by copses, and
meadows bordered by hedgerows of thorn and hazle,
— a rare sight.
At Rochford Bridge I heard a poor Scotch woman,
who was begging her way back to the the " Land of
Cakes," chaunting forth a pecuharly wUd and plain
tive air, in good keeping with the lugubriousness of
the place. The wandering minstrel has always a
* Fraser to wit.

TO IRELAND. 171
claim on me ; and her expressions of thankfulness
were painfully touching.
By the time we reached Kinnegad, a viUage of a
single street, remarkable for being cleanly swept, I
was too tired and giddy, from the constant whirl of
the carriage to take many more notes. The hos-
telrie looked clean, and the host and hostess invited
us in whining tones to enter and try their fare ; but
Enfield was decided upon, as it would lessen our
journey on the morrow, and yield us a few more
hours in Dublin : so to Enfield we pushed on.
We reached it between 10 and 11, p.m., and
by moonlight the house of entertainment seemed to
promise good cheer. It was nicely whitewashed,
the windows twinkled forth from myrtles and laures-
tinus, jessamines, and rosemary trained against the
walls, and I flattered myseU we were very well off.
Luckily the state apartments had been that morning
vacated by a railway commissioner, whose box of
colours lay on the table; so we entered upon a
temporary lease of them, otherwise our accommoda
tion would have been but scant. The filthiest of old
slatterns, in the shape of chambermaid, assisted
in preparing the sleeping-rooms ; and weU it was
that night veUed the hideousness of the dirt and
i2

172 A SUMMER VISIT
dust the morning hght revealed to my disgusted
eyes. The beds were cold and comfortless; the
carpets had never been shaken or swept in thefr
lives; the wash-hand stand was a disgrace in a
civilized country, and I felt afraid of what might
happen to it if I laid my head on the sofa whUe
waiting for tea ! Our man-servant shared a room
with Lord Donoughmore' s coachman, and was over
run by rats all night ! Our host waited upon us,
and a patience-trying time he made us wait, before
any signs of eatables appeared. At last the cutlets
and a smoking bowl of delicious " praties," the tea,
and loaf arrived by detachments upon the table;
the kettle came singing in the rear, and we feU to.
The old man was dirty, his house was dirty, and
his one maid-servant ; and aU this for lack of a
landlady's eye, and his own miserly habits, as I
found out.
July 26. — Through the circumstance of a matinal
and very detestable salutation of my ears, by
the jingling of a horrible piano, touched with no
seraphic finger, in the room directly under me.
The ancient female aforesaid informed me these
immusical sounds proceeded from " the mistress," a
young creature of eighteen, just married to the old

TO IRELAND. 173
sloven that owns the inn, who is a miser and
immensely rich; and this was a new instrument
just brought from Dublin, and she and her "petit
cousin" were practising duets before they set off
together in a jaunting-car to attend morning mass,
it being Sunday. They were not psalm-singing,
at all events, for jigs predominated.
I suggested to the Hecate, . whose near approach
greatly disgusted me, the improvements of which
the establishment was susceptible, recommending
the use of a duster, and a httle soap and water in
her own department. She owned I was right, but
attributed the dirt, first to her " misthress's " indtf-
ference to all household matters, " sure she's a
lady, and why would she be troubling herself?"
and next to the railroad, "which fills every house
with dust and dirt." Nothing in hfe is so conve
nient as a peg to hang one's defects on. Anti-
patique as I am to all raUway proceedings, I must
confess this charge to be very hke that laid on the
Buonaparte, " Who fills the butchers' shops with great blue flies."
For railroad as yet there was none. Soit dit en
passant, I do not think they can be very useful in

174 A SUMMER VISIT
a country where there seem to be no passengers to
travel, nor merchandise to convey; and with the
innkeepers, they were very unpopular. They may
perhaps succeed on the great thoroughfares, but I
am sure branch-lines must be worse than useless
here. " Revenons h nos cochons," however. Words were
wasted upon natural born lovers of dirt and
eschewers of trouble, like mine host of Enfield,
his wife, and his chambermaid, under whose roof
from ever again finding myseK, may the saints
preserve me !
AU the rest of the way to the capital took us
through a rich, improvable country, and the thickly
sprinkled cots and farms betokened thriving in
dustry. Passing the ruined church of Cloncurry, we
traversed Kilcock, where however the feathered
bipeds seemed to enjoy both hfe and plenary
indulgence to walk and strut where they pleased.
I may just remark, en passant, that whUe the
" childre " go barefoot, cocks and hens sport cloth
shoes, a fruitful source of entertainment to me.
As if there were not enough of hving beings
in every cabin, each possesses a lank, lean-bodied,

TO IRELAND. 175
bristling cur. I saw multitudes of these prome
nading through aU the villages, each with a bit of
wood suspended round the neck, as big as their
ugly hammer heads.
Here I saw a child and a pig eating out of a
three-legged pot ; one used a spoon, the other his
snout, and seemed to be on terms of good fellow
ship, both of them.
One of our horses had a whimsical trick of
jibbing down hill. English posters adopt an inverse
line of movement, however various things are
managed " with a difference " in the sister country,
as the Dublin carman assured me while tucking my
cloak about me to protect my petticoats from the
mud that kept splashing up.
" Ah ! thin bad luck to thim ! for it's watherin
the sthreets they are whinever the rain begins fallin'.
Why wouldn't they wather thim, I say, whin it's
dhry weather? Sure the spalpeens know no
betther !"
Our poor wheeler, we found upon inquiry, num
bered but four summers, and had never been in
harness before, and as the rider sagaciously ob
served :
" Sure it's himself wasn't used to a gintleman's

176 A SUMMER VISIT
coach any way, the crather ! but niver fear, yer
honour ! niver fear, he'll bring ye in."
Bring us in he did, after a fashion, with the man
servant pulling him on occasionally; for the poor
beast had no vice, but totally lacked spirit, and
plainly desired to see cause why he should continue
tugging at a heavy vehicle, in so inusitated and
incessant a manner, with a great fat burthen on his
back, to boot.
Kilcock stands on the Ryewater, a stream that
divides Meath and Kildare. The ruins of the
Round Tower of Taghadoe lay off the road, and
the high hiU of Cappagh.
The Lyreen flows past the pretty vUlage of May-
nooth. On its banks are the ruins of Larragh-
bryan church. Through the trees I perceived the
monastic buUdings of the college, and some fine old
remains of a castle, pertaining to the Fitzgeralds of
Leinster. Large trees overshadow this picturesque
group, and on the left, occupying an acclivity, is a
good modern church, whose precincts were thronged
with respectable looking people of both sexes and
all ages, in smart holiday garb. Numbers more
were seen hurrying through the town to their
different places of worship; and we felt almost

TO IRELAND. 177
culpable at being the only persons occupied in
secular matters. I longed too, to go and inspect
the cqllege and ruins ; but so many things called
us home, we were unwilling to give up an after
noon intended to be devoted to Divine Worship,
in Dublin, and an after drive through its environs.
There is a very spacious hotel at Maynooth, the
width of whose staircase led me to suppose it must
be some old family mansion house.
Our road lay paraUel with two fine properties,
Carton and Castle Town, the Duke of Leinster's and
Colonel Conolly's. I observed various antiquities
en route, like broken towers or ruined forts : and
one or more singular mounds of earth — raths, or
tumuli,- I concluded — with a single tree growing
out of the top.
Leixlip on the Liffey is lovely. Plenty of
" greenth and gloomth," with bright waters and
dancing sunbeams. We crossed the river on a
stone bridge, with a beautiful view right and left.
The steep banks were shaded by trees and shrubs,
and the confluence of the Rye produces several
pretty falls. The salmon leap, tumbling over
the rocky ledges, causes the spot to be one of great
resort to the Dublin citizens ; and, above all, crown-
i 3

178 A SUMMER VISIT
ing a most brUliantly verdant knoll, stands the
Honourable George Cavendish's castle, one of the
prettiest things I have seen in the country, em
bosomed in trees, and covered all over with wreaths
of the greenest of ivy. I would fain have lingered
in so sweet a spot and sketched the castle and river
from the bridge, to say nothing of exploring all the
green nooks where a fisherman would delight to
angle, canopied by broad branching oaks, and ash
with pendant limbs.
The Bard of Erin, in his interesting history,
says of Leixlip, " Nor is it a slight addition to the
interest of that romantic spot to be able to fancy
that the heroic Bruce, surrounded by his companions
in arms, had once stood beside its waterfaU, and
wandered, perhaps, through its green glens."*
Fraser states this strong-hold to have been
originally built in Henry the Second's time, by
Adam de Hereford, a foUower of Strongbow.
The road continues to keep company with the
brown sparkling Liffey the whole way to Lucan.
Villas and cottages ornes adorn the steep banks,
which are planted luxuriantly with all sorts of trees,
and strawberry plantations slope down to the river
* Moore's History of Ireland. Vol. m. p. 63.

TO IRELAND. 179
on both sides alternately with fertile meads and
pleasure grounds.
Chapelizod is likewise exceedingly pretty, and
Lord Donoughmore's woods at Palmerston lend a
charm to the scene, otherwise agreeably varied.
We skirted the Phoenix Park, entering Dublin on
the opposite side of the river to that by which we
had left it.
My admiration of the Four Courts, Quays,
Bridges, and noble copper-domed Custom-House,
so like the Dogana at Venice, was renewed as we
drove by them to our former quarters at Gresham' s,
where we were made welcome by our old friend the
facetious little waiter.
Instead of going out, I regret to have it to
record that it poured a deluge all the remainder of
the afternoon, so I had nothing for it but patience,
and to sit at the window and watch five funeral
processions, which, going down SackvUle-street at
the same time, full trot, were actually jostling each
other in the street. They appeared to be mostly
those of very young persons, for the small coffins
were contained half in the boot and half on the back
seat of the mourning coaches that bore them to
their untimely graves. The mourners occupied the

180 A SUMMER VISIT
front seats, and the horses were decked in dirty
white plumes, to which the dripping rain imparted
a still more draggled, dingy appearance. Three sat
of a side in the cars, not to mention children on
laps, or stuck on somehow. Almost all the men
were smoking, the women and children munching
apples or cakes, and all laughed and chatted under
their umbrellas, while the rain streamed down upon
them in torrents.
Sunday is a great day for burials in Dublin,
among the Catholics more particularly; and judg
ing by the followers, every clan must be a strong
one. I counted fifteen cars in one procession, so
there are ninety persons at once, leaving out the
children, counting six to each car, drivers un-
reckoned too ; and the remainder may have been as
numerous. Our most particularly humorous and saffron-
complexioned attendant amused us, at dinner, with
merry tales of his juvenile days, when a gentleman's
servant at Brussels, during the battle of Waterloo.
He himself having always had an especial aversion
to the smell of gunpowder, left the fighting part of
the business to his master, and chose for his share
the "better part of valour — discretion," as the

TO IRELAND. 181
guide of his actions, keeping aloof from the field of
battle. That ended, he entered into a Cafe at
Paris, and during a three years' residence in that
" ville boueuse," returned to Dublin with a worse
opinion of the French, he said, than when he first
made thefr acquaintance.
"Ah!" said the little man, "let them make
what professions they will, you always find it is all
blarney; a Frenchman is never sincere."
This reminded me of the old story of the Pot and
the Kettle. He further expatiated on the jovial
qualities of four gentlemen, who were then discuss
ing their potations, — not thin, we suspected, from
the bursts of merriment in the apartment opposite
ours, — and declared a Spaniard, who was of their
number, sang the finest songs that ever were heard.
This man comes from Armagh, where he maintains
the people to be better off than in any part of
Ireland ; and says, the mothers will go naked to
give their little ones learning.

182 A SUMMER VISIT

CHAPTER VII.
July 27. — Such a heavenly day, made for jaunt
ing. A car was bespoken, and driven to the door by
a spruce and civil conductor ; his horse's jingling
harness shining as bright as hands could make it,
and the animal tripping easUy and pleasantly
along. On our previous visit to the capital we had missed
the College Museum, so thither we first bent our steps.
It is full of curiosities from all parts of the world;
but its gem is the old harp of Brian Borimhe, said
to be that which he left to his son Donagh after the
battle of Clontarf. However, Donagh was murdered
by Tiege, and he being deposed by his nephew,
took himself off to Rome, and with him his father's
harp, crown, and the rest of the regalia, of which he

TO IRELAND. 183
made a present to the Pope.* The antiquity of the
harp is doubted by some; but it is a most interesting
relic ; and if really named by Dante, as others assert,
I see not why it may not be identified as that of the
octogenarian hero of Clontarf, that bloody battle
which old chroniclers tell was fought " on Good
Friday, the 23rd of April, 1014, between the Irish,
headed by Brian Borimhe, monarch of all Ireland,
and the Danes, headed by Sitric, king ofthe Ostmen,
in which the former were triumphant, although
Brian received his death wound in the arms of
victory, in the twelfth year of his reign, and eighty-
eighth of his age. In this battle fell Brian's son,
Murchad, a great number of the nobility, and 11,000
men. After the battle, Sitric, with the relics of the
Danes, retired to Dublinf-"
Several skulls are preserved in a glass case.
Among them Stella's, and that of Schomberg with
the bullet hole " through which death entered" to
deprive the English army of its veteran commander.
Swift's physiognomy is extremely mean and repul
sive, according to the cast taken after death, with
its low, narrow forehead, pinched in at the temples,
* See Hall's Ireland, p. 411.
f Fraser's Guide Book, p. 666.

184 A SUMMER VISIT
its wide sardonic mouth, and long drawn-down
attenuated, upper lip. There were dried heads too
of New Zealanders, horrible to contemplate. Some
of the cases were rich in birds' skins, the azure,
orange, crimson, and green-plumed inhabitants of
Australian»plains, and American forests.
We were attracted to three dep6ts for the sale
of the Irish bog oak, which is wrought into all
manner of pretty nick-knacks and ornaments.
One was Freymuth's, in SackvUle-street ; a second
opposite the College Gardens, where specimens of
Killarney wood are to be purchased ; and the third
in Great Britain-street. This I recommend to all
my curiosity-seeking friends, as being kept by two
very pretty young women to begin with; and
secondly, because their father was the original manu
facturer of the article in question. Patrick McGuirk
was his name, an old soldier, who learnt the art
of carving the cocoa-nut at Gibraltar, and made some
little trifles to propitiate the Duchess of Richmond.
She told him she should rather fancy something cut
out of the wood of the country ; upon which he tried
his hand on the bog oak, which he found of exceed
ing hardness. Since his death, the business has

TO IRELAND. 185
been carried on by his married daughter, Mrs.
Griffiths, for herseU and her sister ; their brother
inheriting the father's talent, supports the family
by his earnings. They live at 168, Great Britain-
street, just below the Rotunda ; are very civil, and
wiU execute any order and send it carriage-free to
England. They showed me a remarkably handsome walk
ing-stick, quite a chef d'ceuvre, and the last of
the old man's handy works. It is carved from top
to bottom in elegant wreaths of shamrocks, mounted
in gold, and valued at twelve guineas. They have
models of the Clarshach, or old Irish Harp, pretty
little toys, which cost thirty shillings. Brooches
of Brian Borimhe's harp, some mounted with Irish
gems, of which the emerald and diamond posses
most water, and pearls from Lough Corrib : brace
lets in.the Herculaneum snake pattern, with diamond
eyes and crests ; studs, paper knives, crosses, rosaries,
and pins, of every imaginable description. I fear
the two pretty sisters do not obtain a vast deal of
custom, which makes me desire additionally to cal
the attention of my Enghsh friends to their magazine.
Dublin boasts of two exhibitions of paintings.
The Society of Irish Artists (Royal Irish Institu-

186 A SUMMER VISIT
tion) came first on the list. I was much gratified
by this exhibition, which, though not a copious one,
contained several very clever water-coloured draw
ings by W. G. Wall, V.P.R.S.A.; Henry O'NeUl,
M.S.I.A. ; James Harwood, H.M.S.I.A. ; and one
" by a lady." But three of the most effective, most
beautiful paintings in this style absorbed my at
tention. The first of these was " Captain Macheath
betrayed by his Mistress," by John Absolon,
H.M.S.I.A. " The force of painting could no further
go." Here was the reckless, laughing, unsuspicious
Macheath throwing himself back to catch a better
view of the fair-haired and beautiful Dalilah who
is entering the room, and with one hand laid
treacherously on his shoulder, warns back the bailiff
with the other, while she yields to them her lover's
pistol. The lustre and expression of his loving blue
eyes are miraculous; they absolutely glisten, and
the laughter of his merry mouth, displaying such a
row of bright white teeth, is all but heard.
Opposite to him sits his other charmer, a rich
brunette, who looks dismayed at the proceeding.
Her gravity contrasts admirably with the thought
less mirth of the betrayed.
Henry Newton, M.S.I.A., has painted the interior

TO IRELAND. 187
of St. Patrick's. That woman in her rusty black
bonnet is gliding down the aisle soberly enough,
" ma pur si muove ;" and the " dim religious light,"
is well given.
Thirdly, I felt so much obliged to Alfred Herbert,
H.M.S.I.A. for a hay-stack floating barge — borne
down the Medway — a very exquisite delineation
of still life. The rippling currents round the boat
and its sluggish movement are true to nature.
One more, and I have done. Rose et Blanche
those precious charges of the faithful Dagobert,
travelling along peacefully ere unhappy Jovial was
victimised by the Mte noire of the more ferocious
Morok. The maidens are surpassingly lovely.
They are the work of Ed. H. Corbould, H.M.S.I.A.
The Royal Hibernian Academy did not detain us
long ; though its contributions were infinitely more
numerous, they were not so choice. OU painting
when mediocre is worse than indifferent water-
colours, which do not shock the eye so much, pro
vided light and shade, and perspective be observed.
I certainly had not leisure for much scrutiny, but
on the whole, the only picture I thought worth
recording was His ExceUency the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, by Catterson Smith, R.H.A. A very

188 A SUMMER VISIT
capital portrait of Lord Heytesbury. Upon ex
amining the catalogue afterwards, I felt sorry to
have missed the fruits of some amateur pencils ; but
my visit was, of necessity, a hurried one.
In the saloon of sculpture, I remarked a good
bust of Lord Talbot, of Malahide, by Christopher
Moore, R.H.A., and a recumbent figure of a
sleeping child, extremely graceful, by the same
artist. Springing into the car we held a consultation
which should be our next lion ; and quickly decided
in favour of Conciliation Hall, from my having
noticed a placard on the backs of sundry two-
legged, ambulating advertisements, to the effect
that Daniel O'Connell's letter from England would
be read on this especial Monday, and Mr. Smith
O'Brien in the chair. The entrance to the HaU is
near the end of Sackville Street, almost opposite
Carlisle Bridge, and here we expected to hear many
lions roar.
However, disappointment was our portion, for
on stepping up to the door, the Cerberus repulsed
us civilly, but firmly, saying that all seats that day
were reserved for the members. In a state of
discomfiture we retreated to our car; and on

TO IRELAND. 189
re-seating ourselves, a gentleman-like man who
had been standing some minutes on the pavement
twirling an umbrella in a musing posture, advanced,
and accosted Mr. West in a strong brogue.
" May I take the liberthy to ask, did they refuse
ye admittance ?"
" They did so," replied he.
" WeU, it wouldn't be on account of appearance
they refused you" — glancing at my small indivi
duality. I bowed to the compliment, and after a
pause he rejoined :
"And did they give ye any rason for it, Sirr,
may I ask ?"
" They did, they said all places were reserved for
members only."
" Well, they said the same thing to me ; but it's
very unusual. Sirr, I thank you."
He bowed, we bowed, \e drew back, gave his
paravent a fresh twirl, and vanished. This person
had the air of a respectable parish priest, with his
close cut suit of black, petit collet, and rather wide-
brimmed beaver. Moreover, on the top of his
black-handled umbrella, was inlaid a smaU ivory
cross. The little orange-headed waiter was plainly scan-

190 A SUMMER VISIT
dalised by this democratic attempt on our part at
penetrating into the mysteries of Young Ireland. I
could perceive we had lost in his estimation when
we returned to luncheon.
The National Schools next engaged our atten
tion, and two hours and a half were spent most
pleasureably and profitably in them. I inquired
at the Girls' School for a Mrs. CampbeU, whom I
had been especially instructed by a philanthropic
friend to make acquaintance with. She unfortu
nately was stiU absent on a visit to Scotland ; but
her place was ably supphed by another mistress,
who questioned a class in the Natural History of
South America, to which they returned pertinent
replies. Amongst the number was a wrinkled
woman between fifty and sixty. I observed that
she was probably a teacher. No, she was devoured
by the thirst for knowledge, and had joined these
young scholars in the hope of adding to her slender
stock. The walls of the spacious school-room were
covered with maps and coloured prints of the pro
ductions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
large slates, &c. These girls (we saw about two
hundred and fifty, all were not assembled) looked

TO IRELAND. 191
healthy and happy, and the teacher's manner was
very pleasing. But the infant school was a delight !
Here were nearly three hundred little creatures, the
eldest only seven, under the eye of a judicious,
benevolent man, Mr. Young, son-in-law to Wilder-
spin ; and his mode of questioning them so as to
suit their infant capacities was beautiful.
A class of the ages of from four to six came up
to read to me some simple story. They read " with
the understanding" so httle observable among our
poor scholars. Geography, arithmetic, and writing
are all taught; useful pictures decorated the walls,
and they had lately been furnished by the en
lightened Archbishop of Dublin with a set of copies
for writing, abounding in good sense, and good
rules for conduct, with lessons of thrift, and
economy of time, in simple language.
Mr. Young took us into the playground, an
immense " court, flagged with large, flat, paving
stones. These he considers the best for their recre
ation and health. If the chUdren faU, the blow is
severe, which makes them careful, but the feet are
not so likely to trip as in loose gravel ; when wetted,
the stones become speedUy dry again, and the little
ones do not sit about with damp clothes hanging

192 A SUMMER VISIT
round their legs, nor draggling through puddles.
All sorts of gymnastics are prepared for them, and
to play they went in good earnest. Round flew the
ropes, with haU a dozen urchins hanging to them,
now whirled off their feet, now running and chnging
with one hand. There were poles to climb; and one
large troop of the biggest began to play hunt the
hare. The air resounded with mirth and laughter,
and the kind-hearted master looked on, as happy
as the little souls themselves. Round the border
of the flag-stones were flower-beds; before these
some two-year olds sat down very demurely and
soberly to contemplate the flowers, without touching,
however ; that Mr. Young said they never did.
Many of the poor little beings here gathered
together, were homeless, hteraUy culled from the
streets ; numbers resided in homes too poor to afford
them shoe or stocking, or more nourishment than a
cold potatoe, or scrap of bread, for dinner. The
whole day's fare ! Some charitable persons con
tributed last winter to clothe their little legs and
feet, and provide them with soup once a day, as
their very inteUects dwindled under such intense
privation. It was surprising how the chUdren
brightened after this, and those who had sat in

TO IRELAND. 193
corners, shrunken with cold, and pinched by hunger,
came to their lessons with renewed assiduity and
quickness, now that the inner and outer man had
been comforted and restored by food and raiment.
Mr. Young said, he was himself an Englishman,
and had taught in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
His observations as to the capacities of the natives
of the three kingdoms amounted to this, — that the
English child was slow to learn, but retained longest;
the Scottish child slower to learn, and did not retain
so well. The Irish difficulty was a defective memory,
arising from its total absence of cultivation, and
lack of application from the very same cause. When
once he had succeeded in awakening the child's
faculty of remembrance, and made him acquire
habits of steady assiduity and order, the Irish child
shot ahead of all. " I cannot keep pace with them,"
said he ; " they presently get beyond the master,
their talents are so extraordinary."
We agreed that these schools would be the means
of working a great, and much-to-be-desired change
in the social character of Ireland. " Much," said
Mr. Young, "of the ill-blood in the country, is
caused by the difference of opinion in rehgious
matters; by the acrimonious feehng of the Pro-
K

194 A SUMMER VISIT
testant towards the Catholic, by the jealousy with
which the English Church is very naturally viewed
by the professors of the latter faith. Here are chil
dren of all sects brought up together, as in one
common family, with one single feeling of brotherly
love and kindness, whatever may be the distinction
in their parents'" creeds. You see around you,
Protestants, Catholics, Unitarians, Presbyterians,
Methodists, even Jews. They learn out ofthe same
books, they join in the same sports, they hear loving
words addressed to all, by their masters and mis
tresses. All bitterness— all Sectarian feehng must
be annihilated amongst those who are brought up to
consider themselves as brothers of one common
family, all equally God's children. It is not in
our time," continued the good man, his eye kindling
as he spoke, " but in the next generation, that the
fruits of such training wUl be made manUest. In
our children's time we may hope Ireland wUl present
a different aspect. Those who wUl have brought
forth and reared youths and maidens of their own,
will see that they too are trained in the love of God
and man, they will endeavour to secure to them an
education equal to their own; and the Irish are
all eager to learn, apt scholars, and amiable by

TO IRELAND. 195
nature. These shall redeem their country from
want and woe, and by being better christians, shall
become better citizens."
No oration ever interested my feelings like this,
and I prayed for God's blessing on the head of Mr.
Young, and all who hke him, are trying by their
devoted efforts, to uphft Ireland out of her state of
desolate prostration.
In the third buUding, 600 boys were congregated,
a noisy, merry crowd, who we disturbed in their play,
for our kind Mr. Young introduced us to Mr.
Keenan (I hope I have his name correctly), one of
the most intelligent and amiable young men I ever
fell in with. Were I to paint a saint dispensing
health to the sick, food to the hungry, or heavenly
lore to the afflicted in mind, his should be the
countenance I would select. An eye so mild and
benignant, a brow radiant from the light within.
He told me the boys were, generally speaking,
a very amiable set, never quarrelled or fought,
indeed, were not allowed to do so ; they are never
punished, nor struck, nor scolded, but reasoned
with. All seemed to look up to this young man as
to a superior intelligence, and it was evident fear
formed no part of their education.
k 2

196 A SUMMER VISIT
Mr. Keenan called up a class of about five and
twenty boys, who rushed good humouredly out of
the play-ground, that we might hear them questioned
in the higher branches of arithmetic. Their won
derful answers I shall never forget — out shot a hand,
and the word was said, with a celerity like magic.
It was quite singular to watch the workings of one
little feUow's countenance. His large dark eyes
rolled restlessly, his features were affected convul
sively, the brow knit, the whole face crimsoned with
excessive anxiety to give the quickest reply, one
almost saw the sum-working process going on in
his head. Their parsing was admirable; their
repetition of poetry full of just and true pathos.
Six of them concluded, after singing several pretty
melodies in chorus, with " St fin' all' or a" out of
Norma, in perfect tune and time.
Mr. Keenan apologised for their doing so little,
as it was the first day of assembling after the mid
summer holidays. All the pupils were not come,
nor all the masters present, and the books were not
even collected together. I was the more gratified,
as it proved how well they must have been taught,
and how good their memories must be, thus to have
remembered, without missing a word, a figure, or a

TO IRELAND. 197
note, all they had acquired previously, after a lapse
of six weeks, without practice or examination.
The boys recited to us in a room furnished with
rows of seats, one above the other ; here a master
instructs each class once in the day. They learn
for the most part, altogether in the great school
room ; but every boy mws^have been in his particular
class in this apartment once in the day.
Some drawings and plans were shown to us,
indicative of talent on the part of the young
draughtsmen ; and a little black globe, on which
a lad of eleven years old was tracing the divisions
of the world, from memory. Mr. Keenan asked
him the longitude and latitude of Greenwich and
of St. Petersburg, and he then told us correctly
what o'clock it was at the latter place. This child
had a very thoughtful look, but slightly squinted.
I remarked how very simple and sure a remedy was
a piece of black sticking-plaister applied to the
opposite side of the temple or nose, as the eye
is inverted, or the reverse.
" Oh !" said Mr. Keenan, quickly, " I will take
care that is done ; we may cure him yet."
Not many ordinary teachers of youth would
trouble themselves whether a pupil squinted or not.

198 A SUMMER VISIT
Below stairs were two more school-rooms, all clean
and well ventilated ; in the first we came to, a class
were repeating incidents from the Old Testament,
relative to the life of Abraham, and seeking the
places named in the map. At the head of this
class was a young Jew ! I inquired how they
managed when the New Testament was being
taught. " We leave him out," returned my informant.
" Indeed," he said, " every boy, of whatever creed
he may be, is instructed in its tenets by a clergy
man of his own persuasion. Thrice a week the
priest takes his Catholics, the minister his Baptists,
or Methodists, or Presbyterians, the Unitarian
teaches his flock, the Protestant pastor his. AU
is harmony and union. All learn the religion of
their parents, without thinking the worse of those
whose profession of faith is different from their
own. And these are the " Godless colleges," so called
by the unthinking and the ignorant — the prejudiced
and the bigotted ! All I have to say to such, is,
go and see ! — go and see with your own eyes that
religion is taught, religion is made the rule of con
duct, and charity, the "charity that thinketh no

TO IRELAND. 199
evil," that distinguishing feature, that foundation
stone of the Christian creed, is not only inculcated
from two years old, but practised openly and every
day, practised both by master and scholar.
To me, these schools appear the fittest and chief
remedy for assuaging the social aUments of Ireland ;
with those establishments at Cork, Limerick, and
elsewhere, of which I heard much, without, unfor
tunately, being able to inspect them.
We parted from Mr. Keenan and Mr. Young
with many expressions of obligation for their ex
ceeding kindness in devoting to us so much of their
time, and with the feeling, that happy are the
children who have "fallen among such pleasant
places," and into such kind and able hands.
These schools form three separate and handsome
establishments, standing back from Marlborough-
street, in a neatly kept square, with grass-beds and
a carriage road. At the lodge-gate we remounted
our trusty conveyance.
Opposite to it is a strikingly beautiful modern
catholic church, with Doric portico upborne by six
fluted columns, and an entablature ornamented with
tryglyphs. Three episcopal figures crown the three
points of the pediment, and a fine flight of steps

200 A SUMMER VISIT
leads up to the great door. It is the Church of the
Conception, and was represented to be amazingly
costly within ; but we had no time to go in
side it.
Leaving Dublin by some paltry suburbs, we drove
to Glasnevin, the Botanical Garden, which is well
kept, and contains glass-houses filled with exotics.
The palms, papyri, and lotus, in one of them,
were very showy and luxuriant. I spied a col
lection of ferns, similar to some I brought from
Killarney. These gardens are pleasantly situated and laid
out on an acclivity, overlooking gracefully wooded
upland scenery, watered by the Tolka. Several
villas, half hid between the trees, appear here and
there ; and the spot is said to have been a whilom
favorite resort of Tickell, Addison, Swift, Delany,
Steele, Parnell, and Sheridan. Tall poplars, ash,
and oak rather obstruct the view, otherwise the
river and hills in the horizon would form numerous
pretty peeps.
Nearly adjoining is Prospect, the catholic burial-
ground, whither we next wandered. It is a com
plete town of grave-stones. The sarcophagus of
John Philpot Curran rises pre-eminent from among

TO IRELAND. 201
them. AU are enclosed within railings, and sur
rounded by little gardens, tended carefully, and full
of trading blossoms. In the centre of the ground
stands a very ornamental Grecian temple, with
a flight of stone steps, for the celebration of mass.
A throng of people entered the cemetery with us ;
mourners in the funeral train of several poor little
chUdren, whose coffins were borne between women
on white paUs. The greatest nonchalance seemed
to pervade the followers, with a few exceptions, and
the sexton busUy plying his spade, was cracking
jokes with the boys and girls all the time.
Most of the tombstones had little crosses at the
head. I observed no monument of any particular
beauty; but on the other hand, none of those
offensive little cherubim with winged and inflated
cheeks, that invariably bring to my recollection the
speech of Nayti, the New Zealander, who on being
taken to the room appropriated to the Association,
in 1838, was asked why his country-people made
images of worship in the shape of men with only
three fingers. A barbarous three-fingered Fetish
adorned the chimney-piece which was pomted to.
He rephed: "Why you make cockatoo-man?"
Meaning, as was discovered, these little puffy-faced
k 3

202 A SUMMER VISIT
cherubim. He applied the term cockatoo to all
birds. Certainly the three-fingered semblance of
humanity was not more absurd than the iEolus-
cheeked representatives of angelic nature.
Dublin Castle has great claims upon the stran
ger's notice, not so much from its modem state
apartments, as from its site, and the associations it
calls up of past magnificence, its ancient tower and
chapel. The staircase gives one the idea one is in
an arsenal, all bristling as it is with stands of arms,
more for show than use, I suspect, from the look of
some of the muskets.
The great hall of St. Patrick is a splendid apart
ment, used as a vast ball-room. The ceUing is
painted alfresco, by Italian artists, and when ht up,
it must be excessively brilliant. The frescoes repre
sent, in compartments, the landing of Henry II.
and that of George IV. with . various emblematical
devices. The presence-chamber leads into a long colon
nade, on whose walls are deposited the portraits of
all the Viceroys of Ireland. First in order is that
of the Marquis CornwaUis, a very good painting,
and I should imagine, a speaking likeness. It is
curious to compare the different countenances of

TO IRELAND. 203
these individuals. Benevolence is the marked attri
bute of the great and excellent man I have parti
cularised. All these, I understood, were framed by
the munificence of Earl De Grey, who also pre
sented some of the pictures. He and Lord
Normanby seem to have been by far the most
popular throughout the kingdom, of all the Lord-
lieutenants. The chapel near the Bermingham Tower, the only
bit of antiquity about the Castle, is gorgeously
carved, from the ceding to the floor, in oak. Such
wreaths and festoons of flowers and fruits, — such
twisted columns, — such grotesque heads without
end ! and near the altar and pulpit, which are
splendid, are empanelled the coats of arms of
every Irish Viceroy, with one or two exceptions.
The general effect is certainly heavy; but as a
whole it is a wondrous work of art, especiaUy upon
taking into consideration the excessive hardness of
the old bog oak. I was charmed with it, I own ;
though a less profuse taste would have been more
in keeping with established rules.
The evening promising fine, we determined upon
making the tour of the Phoenix Park, and accord
ingly set off after dinner. In passing by the Post-

204 A SUMMER VISIT
office we encountered half-a-dozen maU coaches,
quite a novelty in these railroad days, with four
bays a-piece, and red-coated guards dashing up to
deposit their daily burthen. The homs blew
merrily ; a more agreeable reveillee we thought than
the screech of the engine.
How enchanted I was with the Phoenix Park !
No public walk I have ever seen in England or out
of it, can compare with it. The Hibernian school
for soldiers' chUdren stands on a rising ground to
the right, as you enter. Further on is the Zoolo
gical Garden, with a small sheet of water. Forest-
trees of all kinds and of considerable size are
scattered about ; but the great beauty of the Park,
and that which makes it unique, consists in the
number and magnitude of the ancient thorns, which
form a perfect forest in one part, and are clustered
all over it. There is abundance of heath, gorse,
and fern for the deer in these thorny thickets, and
between them and the dark green holly-bushes, it is
in many places as wild as the New Forest. In the
centre stands the lodge, where the Viceroy holds his
summer Court, with the lodges of his secretaries
hard by. The Phoenix, which gives its name to the
Park, o.r as the natives call it the " Fowl," springs

TO IRELAND. 205
from the summit of an elegant column in the
middle of the avenue. It was erected by Philip
Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield, when Viceroy.
We drove round the inner circle of the Park,
enjoying the dewy freshness of evening among its
grassy glades. The view on the side of Chapelizod
is charming. The Wicklow HUls bound the horizon ;
and as we neared Dublin, the Sarah Bridge and
that noble building, the Royal Hospital, a sort of
Chelsea for retired invalid soldiers, appeared in
sight, the Liffey flowing through the valley and
dividing it. Richmond and Kilmainham Barracks
have a handsome effect, though one cannot repress
the wish that fewer of them were necessary. They
are of immense extent. Day closed ere we quitted
the witching precincts of the Park; and as we
slowly descended city-ward, by the powder-maga
zine, the. military tents, and WeUington testimonial,
it was enlivening to watch through the trees the
lighting of the city, lamp by lamp. We had not
time to make the grand round, which I understood
was as much as seven miles ; but I felt highly
pleased with what I did see, and thought it the
best spot for obtaining a good view of Dublin.
The Wellington testimonial is ugly enough in

206 A SUMMER VISIT
itself, but looks well at a distance. It is constructed
of native granite ; but the manner in which the stone
is hewn, gives it the simUitude of common brick,
which greatly detracts from its effect. But in spite
of this, the position is well selected, arid I learnt at
last to view the monument with complacency,
backed as it is by those lovely mountains, and
thrown into prominence by the more distant build
ings and woods.
Within the Park is the Military Hospital, which
makes a good figure from the Fifteen Acres. We
met not a creature in our drive ; I should have
thought so beautUul a passeggiuta, and such an
evening so " divinely cool," would have wUed all the
lads and lassies out of the town, to say nothing of
the riding-horses and phaetons of the beau monde.

TO IRELAND. 207

CHAPTER VIII.
July 28. — Immediately after breakfast we set out
for the Phoenix Park again, in order to witness a
review of the Scotch Greys and Queen's Bays ; a
gallant spectacle it was, to see them defilant down
the Quays, and crossing King's Bridge, with their
colours flying and band playing, the spirited
chargers caracoling as they passed on. By the
by, this is the only bridge I do not admfre of
the nine that unite the Quays of Dublin. It is in
tawdry taste, and was erected to commemorate the
visit of George IV.
We took up our position on the Fifteen Acres,
where I enjoyed as I sat in the car a delightful
view. The ground is perhaps the finest for military
manoeuvres that can be any where found. On my
left grew a clump of venerable hawthorns, under

208 A SUMMER VISIT
whose gnarled and twisted stems several of the
cavaliers dismounted, and leaving their chargers
to stand at ease, stretched their length upon the
greensward. Kilmainham Hospital, the founda
tions of which were laid by Strongbow, as a Priory
for the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, raised its
elegant cupola, the work of Sir Christopher Wren,
between the distant trees ; and in the rear, the hUls
of Wicklow fiUed up the space with their dehcate,
blue undulations. On my right was a knoll on
which clustered all the juvende spectators with
wrhom a sham fight is ever so popular ; and between
us on the ample plain, the foot soldiers formed thefr
squares ; the General and his staff glittering in the
centre, and four smart regiments of cavalry com
pleting the wings. Presently the artiUery came
rumbling up, and dislodged us. We found we had
placed ourselves in an awkward situation, for the
skirmishing began ; and we sustained the running
fire of the infantry, the charge of the cavahy, and
the great guns of the mounted artiUery, retreating all
the while with the coolness of experienced veterans,
accustomed to be made marks of, ere we could reach
the " clump." There we were safe, provided the
car horse did not take to the water in his fright.

TO IRELAND. 209
Happily he showed no inchnation to do so; ' 'twas
a good beast,' and stood still; so under the shelter
of this welcome group of trees we remained some
time, partaking in the inspiriting sight, and charmed
with a fresh scene of the panorama before us,
embracing woodland, mountain, river and vaUey.
The Liffey and Tolka here mingle their waters, and
contribute to the fruitfulness of the vale. The
nearer hills purple with heath sloped gracefully,
and below them stretched down the cultivated lands,
embellished by woods and sprinkled with country
seats. We could not loiter so long as we desired " under
the greenwood tree," as a journey into County
Monaghan was to be performed before sundown;
and the Drogheda train started at haU past two ;
therefore we reluctantly quitted the field of battle
and turned our horse's head towards Dublin. In
returning I contrived to make a hurried sketch of
Barrack, or as it is famUiarly caUed, Bloody Bridge,
so denominated from a bloody battle fought there
once upon a time.
It is one of the most picturesque spots to my
seeming in Dublin. A gothic entrance to Kii-

210

A SUMMER VtSIT

mainham Hospital very much enhances its effect.
The gateway is handsome with a portcullis, erected

on the right bank of the river, and enshadowed by
large trees. It blew such a hurricane, the horse
could scarcely stand up under it, and my eyes were
blinded by dust, — which is a source of great annoy
ance in this city, — so fine and penetrating is it.
Decidedly I longed for the water carts to recom
mence operations.
The carriage being embarked, we foUowed it to
the train in our useful car. The terminus is
remarkably handsome, is buUt in the Elizabethan
style, and forms an important entrance to the city.

TO IRELAND. 211
Great portion of the extensive out-buildings of the
Custom House were sacrificed to the railway cause
in this matter.
The carriages in this train are the very best I
ever entered, so roomy and weU furnished. Purple
cloth and yeUow lace, soft, comfortable cushions,
foot-supports and desks, that put up and down,
and to crown all, lighted with enormous pieces
of plate glass. Most luxurious travelling alto
gether, as they sped along easily and without
any of the bumps and thumps on the South
western and Birmingham Railways' most uneasy
machines. We had a coupe, the third place being occupied
by a gentleman whose property lay hereabouts;
and who in a rich brogue took infinite pains to tell
my fellow-traveller he was English, and laboured
to introduce the Enghsh ways in farming, but
without much success.
In another coupe exactly opposite to us sat three
priests and a lady. Being brought thus into juxta
position, like wild beasts looking at each other
through a grating, was so comical, it quite upset
the gravity of both parties. Every one of us had
the greatest difficulty in maintaining a dignified

212 A SUMMER VISIT
composure. One of these black gentry too was
evidently a wag, and I caught him continually
peering at us over his book, with laughing eyes.
It was much too funny to help laughing.
We went smoothly and rapidly along, coasting it
all the way. Such beautiful scenery ! First crossing
an arm of the sea which carried us near Clontarf.
The whole way to Malahide presented us with a
succession of tiny bays and promontories, the sea
washing up to their base, and carts employed on
the sand, fetching sea-weed or something. Howth
and Ireland's Eye come beautifuUy into the picture,
and further on is Lambay Island. AU these are
rocky and irregular in their outline. On Ireland's
Eye the remains of a Round Tower exist, and
various ruins stand up on thefr steep heights
defying the storms that occasionally lash this coast.
In winter it must be terrible !
We left Malahide Castle and Swords on our left,
promising ourselves the gratification of visiting the
former interesting place on our return. At the
latter I caught sight of the old Round Tower and
Church, as also of those of Lusk, which followed.
This group of buildings is rather remarkable, inas
much as the Church Tower is flanked by three

TO IRELAND. 213
imitation Round Towers, one of which actually fills
the fourth angle ; but of course aU this was very
imperfectly glanced at from the rapidity of our
movements. On one patch of newly-ploughed land we re
marked a greater number of crows than ever could
have been congregated together before. These, we
were told, were daily fed and encouraged by an
eccentric gentleman who owns the property, and
who entertains an immoderate penchant for this class
of feathered fowl. They absolutely covered the
ground, and when they rose up resembled a large
dark cloud.
Ballybriggan seemed a thriving place, and the
part we traversed consisted of neat habitations. It
boasts a considerable trade in thread stockings.
Muslins are also embroidered in the neighbourhood,
and a good deal is done in the fishing way.
I can speak to the excellence of the fish of these
shores ; and nothing I ever ate struck me as more
delicious than the Dublin Bay scollops, dressed in a
particular manner. Would the natives only apply
in earnest to, this article of trade as well as food,
they might reap a golden harvest, and supply many
a starving family. But I was assured by the captain

214 A SUMMER VISIT
of an English vessel, that they will rather buy fish
of the Welsh and English fishermen, at a high price,
than be at the pains of launching their boats, mend
ing their nets, or, in short, taking the trouble to
catch the finny prey by their own exertions.
Perseverance is the quality most wanted here,
and to do right for right's sake. What saith the
Book of Books ? " He that wiU not work, neither
shall he eat." But habits of diligence and perse
vering industry can only grow out of daUy training
while the man is yet a child ; no after-efforts wUl
give them to him, unless he possess a very superior
and powerful mind : much less shall a whole people
be made to acquire them late in ltfe !
Encouragement, too, has always been wanting to
Ireland ; hence the former depression of her hnen
trade, and the actual state of abeyance of her rich
mines, her copious fisheries, and divers manufactures.
The only symptoms of trade that ever met my eyes
throughout the province of Munster were in the
shape of flour, paper, and powder mills, scattered
here and there.
Their sauntering ways, become the " custom of
the country," may be accounted for, I think, on
political grounds. In support of this assertion,

TO IRELAND. 215
which might otherwise seem presumptuous, I quote
from no less an authority than the great Edmund
Burke, and I choose rather to insert the extracts I
am about to make, in this, the body of my work,
than in the Appendix; firstly, from the inveterate
dislike I myself entertain to rummaging among
notes when the interest felt in reading a new book
has palled ; and secondly, because I am fully aware_
there are many who never bestow any attention
whatever on an Appendix. His observations, more
over, fill an appropriate place here, and may perhaps
convince those of comprehensive minds and liberal
tendencies that part of the blame cast on the Irish
for lack of perseverance, industry, and thrift, is un
deserved ; or at least, that these faults are the fruits
of our own oppressive, short-seeing legislation, —
the fruits of laws in force some fifty years ago, many
of them of only recent abrogation, and whose en
gendered evils will not be removed in our time ; for
it takes time to recover an individual, how much
more a whole nation, after one particular bias is
formed !
Gentle and dispassionate reader, let me entreat of
you to bestow your attention on " Tracts relative to
the Laws against Popery in Ireland," by Edmund

216 A SUMMER VISIT
Burke, from which most eloquent source I draw
forth the ensuing passages, and having read, ponder ;
and then decide in your justice-loving mind whether
the character of the people of Ireland is not of the
complexion such tyrannical enactments were in
tended to reduce them to : and then revile them if
you can for falsehood, ingratitude, sycophancy, and
idleness ; remembering all the whUe that the bulk
of the population is Catholic.
" The first operation of those Acts was wholly to
change the course of descent by the common law, to
take away the right of Primogeniture; and, in heu
thereof, to substitute and establish a new species of
gavelkind. By this law, on the death of a Papist
possessed of an estate in fee simple, or in fee taU, the
land is to be divided by equal portions between all
the chUdren; and those portions of it are likewise
to be parcelled out, share and share ahke, amongst
the descendants of each son, and so to proceed in
similar distribution ad infinitum. From this regula
tion, it was proposed that some important conse
quences should follow. Ffrst, by taking away the
right of primogeniture, perhaps in the very first
generation, certainly in the second, the families of
Papists, however respectable, and their fortunes

TO IRELAND. 217
however considerable, would be wholly dissipated
and reduced to obscurity and indigence, without any
possibility that they should repair them by their in
dustry or abilities ; being, as we shaU see anon, dis
abled from every species of permanent acquisition."
Here, then, is the first subdivision of property into
small tenements, now so much raded at, as pernicious
to the cottier himseU, actuaUy enforced peremptorily
by the law of the land. Here is the beginning of
the monstrous evil, whose effects it baffles aU modern
legislation to solve. Besides this, the statute puts a
premium on filial impiety — I verily believe never
claimed, — for the informing or conforming son might
possess himseU ofthe parent's proprety.
"All persons of that persuasion (the Cathohc),
are disabled from taking or purchasing directly, or
by trust, any lands, any mortgage upon lands, any
rents or profits from land, any lease or interest, or
term of any land ; any annuity for hfe, or lives, or
years, or any estate chargeable upon, or which may
in any manner affect lands."
"One exception, and one only, is admitted by
the statutes, to the universality of this exclusion,
viz. a lease for a term not exceeding thirty-one .
years." L

218 A SUMMER VISIT
Amidst these restrictions, who would buy or
occupy land ? Then again, tf any were discovered
to have transgressed in these particulars, the lease,
its value, interest, &c. was forfeited to the Protestant
Informer! and the injustice is thus summed up,
" AU issues to be tried by this act, are to be tried
by none but known Protestants."
" Thus you observe, first, that by the express
words of the law, all possibility of acquiring any
species of valuable property, in any sort connected
with land, is taken away ; and secondly, by the
construction, aU security for money is also cut off.
No security is left, except what is merely personal,
and which, therefore, most people, who lend money,
would, I believe, consider as none at aU.
" Under this head of the acquisition of property,
the law meets them in every road of industry ; and
in its direct and consequential provisions, throws
almost all sorts of obstacles in their way. For
they are not only excluded from aU offices in the
Church and State, but they are interdicted from the
army and the law, in aU its branches ; — chamber
practice, and even private conveyancing, are pro
hibited to them under the severest penalties, and the
most rigid modes of inquisition. Every Barrister,

TO IRELAND. 219
Six Clerk, Attorney, or Solicitor, is obliged to take
a solemn oath not to employ persons of that per
suasion ; no, not as hackney Clerks, at the miserable
salary of seven shUlings per week. No tradesman
of that persuasion is capable, by any service or
settlement, to obtain his freedom in any town
corporate ; so that they trade and work in their own
native towns, as aliens, paying as such, quarterage,
and other charges and impositions. They are
expressly forbidden, in whatever employment, to
take more than two apprentices, except in the linen
manufacture only."
"To begin with the first great instrument of
national happiness and strength, its industry, I must
observe, that although these penal laws do indeed
inflict many hardships on those who are obnoxious
to them, yet their most extensive, most certain
operation is upon property. Those civU consti
tutions which promote industry, are such as facUitate
the acquisition, secure the holding, enable the fixing,
and suffer the alienation of property. Every law
which obstructs it in any part of this distribution
is a discouragement to industry. For a law against
property is a law against industry — the laws have
disabled three-fourths of the inhabitants of Ireland
l 2

220 A SUMMER VISIT
from acquiring any estate of inheritance for life, or
years, or any charge whatsoever, on which two-thirds
of the improved yearly value are not reserved for
thirty years. This confinement of landed property
to one set of hands, and preventing its circulation
through the community, is a most leading article of
ill pohcy. A tenure of thirty years is evidently no
tenure upon which to build, to plant, to raise
enclosures, to change the nature of the ground, to
make any new experiment which might improve
agriculture, or to do anything more than what may
answer the immediate and momentary calls of rent
to the landlord, and leave subsistence to the tenant
and his family. The desire of acquisition is always
a passion of long views. Allow a man but a tem
porary possession, lay it down as a maxim, that he
never can have any other, and you immediately and
infallibly turn him to temporary enjoyments ; and
these enjoyments are never the pleasures of labour
and free industry, whose quahty it is to furnish the
present hours, and squander all upon prospect and
futurity; they are, on the contrary, those of a
thoughtless, loitering, and dissipated, hfe."
Now Burke gives you the effect of all this.
"Ireland is a country wholly unplanted; the

TO IRELAND. 221
farms have neither dwelling-houses nor good offices 5
nor are the lands anywhere provided with fences and
communications ; in a word, in a very unimproved
state." Go and travel between Naas and Kilkenny, read
what I have said of the face of the country between
Macroom and KiUarney, and between KUlarney and
Newcastle, and say if this be not a true picture of
what Ireland is actually now in the nineteenth
century !
And yet people wonder why trade stagnates here,
and why people will not work ! Irish industry has
been prescribed by English law, and all the best and
bravest of Ireland's sons have long since sought in
other countries the distinctions, and opportunities
for making a fortune, denied to them in their own :
while their lands have passed into the hands of the
stranger, and been racked by middlemen, and pro
prietors of a grade inferior to the origmal lords of
the soil.
Then, again, look at the priesthood, proscribed,
and hung U they were taught at home — liable to
confiscation and outlawry U sent to foreign colleges
for education.
King WUliam and Queen Anne, between them,

222 A SUMMER VISIT
" ordered all Popish parsons exercising ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, all orders of monks and friars, and all
priests, not then actually in parishes, and to be
registered, to be banished the kingdom ; and if they
should return from exile, to be hanged, drawn, and
quartered. Twenty pounds reward is given for
apprehending them. Penalty on harbouring and
concealing." Truly have we taught them lessons of peace and
Christianity ! truly have we given them reasons for
loving, and trusting us ! We call them " mur
dering" — has not the mark of Cain been set upon
their brow by us ? Have not hanging and torture
been our favourite remedy for Irish commotions ?
Is the country in a more flourishing condition, are
the people better fed, and better tended, than when
those magnificent monastic establishments, whose
ruins fill the length and breadth of the land, gave
out their daily dole of food and alms to the mendi
cant, the wayfarer, and the sick ? and the services
of the Catholic Church were openly exercised in the
face of day ?
The recent grant to Maynooth, wiU, it is to be
hoped, help to repair the evils of such cruel
bigotry and Ultra-Puritanism on the part of rulers,

TO IRELAND. 223
passed with their miserable victims to a higher
tribunal, where the God of Mercy and Love
judges supreme ! but more remains yet to be done,
and England can never do too much to assist this
suffering island, and to wipe out the blot on her
own escutcheon, which such acts have left.
The Irish priesthood have been abused for their
ignorance : — from whence were they to draw for
learning ? They have been accused of subtlety : —
where was the slave ever found who was not crafty ?
I am no advocate for spiritual despotism in any
case, least of all, for the domination of that most
pernicious sect the Jesuits; but I think if ever
Jesuitism were excusable, it is ourselves have made
it so by our oppression of the Irish Catholics.
People say, oh ! but the penal laws are repealed.
So they are — in part — but their effects remain, and
all is not yet accomplished. I cannot but think it
is reserved for one of the most enlightened states
men of the age to become the Halcyon that shall
still the troubled waters of religion in this distracted
land, by dispensing even-handed justice to its double
church. Catholic and Protestant ; and so to remove
one of the most fruitful causes of jealousy and
contention from her bosom. From whomsoever

224 A SUMMER VISIT
this crowning act of justice and charity shall flow,
it shall surely be as a " mountain of light" upon his
brow for ever.
Burke reprobates forcibly too our exoteric phUan-
thropy in these words.
" There are many whose hearts are touched with
the distresses of foreigners, and are abundantly
awake to all the tenderness • of human feeling on
such an Occasion, even at the moment that they are
inflicting the very same distresses, or worse, on
their fellow-citizens,: without the least sting of com
passion or remorse. To commiserate the distresses
of aU men suffering innocently, perhaps merito
riously, is generous, and very agreeable to the
better part of our nature — a disposition that ought,
by aU means to be cherished. But to transfer
humanity from its natural basis, our legitimate and
home-bred connexions, to lose all feeling for those
who have • grown up by our sides, in our eyes, the
benefit of whose cares and labours we have partaken
from our birth, and meretriciously to hunt abroad
after foreign affections, is such a disarrangement of
the whole system of our duties, that I do not know
whether benevolence so displaced is not almost the
same thing as destroyed, or what effect bigotry

TO IRELAND. 225
could have produced, that is more fatal to society.
This no one could help observing who has seen our
doors kindly and bountifully thrown open to foreign
sufferers for conscience,* whUst through the same
ports were issuing fugitives of our own, driven from
this country for a cause, which to an indifferent
person would seem to be exactly simUar, whUe we
stood by, without any sense of the impropriety of
this- extraordinary scene, accusing, and practising
injustice. For my part, there is no circumstance,
in aU the contradictions of our most mysterious
nature, that appears to be more humUiating than
the use we are disposed to make of those sad
examples, which seem purposely marked for our
correction and improvement. Every instance of
fury and bigotry in other men, one should think,
would naturally fill us with an horror of that dispo
sition. The effect, however, is directly contrary.
We are inspired it is true, with a very sufficient
hatred for the party, |but with no detestation at all
of the proceeding. Nay, we are apt to urge our
dislike of such measures, as a reason for imitating
them ; and by an almost incredible absurdity,
* He alludes to the French Huguenots expelled their country,
and taking refuge in England and Holland.
L 3

226 A SUMMER VISIT
because some powers have destroyed their country
by this persecuting spirit, to argue, that we ought
to retaliate on them by destroying our own."*
Listen to this appeal, Protestant Legislators ! and
ye daughters of the Saxon ! and while you undraw
your purse-strings, and furnish bazaars, and distri
bute tracts, and beg subscriptions for Jews and
negroes, Poles and cannibals, remember that one
pf the fairest portions of Britain's triple kingdoms
is lying waste, and her chUdren naked and famish
ing, and thirsting after knowledge unattainable
through poverty — remember that your fathers, and
grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, have wrought
this woe to Ireland through their faulty legislation
— remember that charity calls upon you to fulfil
your long-neglected duties towards them, your
afflicted feUow-christians, fellow-countrymen; and
that your money will effect more real benefit, if
judiciously laid out, in feeding and teaching the
inmates of the Irish cabins, than U bestowed upon
foreigners, who only feign conversion as the term
goes, while supplied with gold. Your names, it is
true, may not figure at the head of contributions
to be sent to Tasmania, or Negroland, or Jerusalem ;
* See Burke's Tracts on the Popery Laws, Vol. n. p. 432.

TO IRELAND. 227
but the incense of your more useful, more really
pious work wUl rise to Heaven, and you will be
blessed by warm and grateful hearts for raising
them from the depths of their unfathomable, unut
terable wretchedness.
As Pope most exquisitely observes, the circle is
susceptible of enlargement, but our humanity should
consult the interests of those nearest to us ere we
attempt to compass the felicity of the whole human
race.* My thoughts have been travelling faster than the
railroad all this time ; but I will now begin to look
about me again.
We threaded our way along the line of raU be
tween broad acres cropped with plenteous store of
wheat, rye, mangel wurzel, turnips, and clover, well
weeded and drained. I saw women in bonnets hoe
ing in the fields, and noticed an ameliorated appear
ance both in men and things.
* This was written two months prior to the great scarcity, and
the munificent subscriptions set on foot to meet it. The author
only prays her countrywomen not to let the good work stop here,
but to assist in educating the Irish poor in the way most agreeable
to their feelings, through the medium of National Schools, where
all receive excellent instruction, leaving the conversion of par
ticular sects to God's own good time and pleasure.

228 A SUMMER VISIT
Flying past rocky points and islet crags, through
Gormanstown, where we entered County Meath, to
Ballygarth, with the noble hUls of Mourne, in
County Down, before us aU the way, we arrived at
Drogheda, on the estuary of the Boyne. It was full
-. of shipping, and I longed to knock away the odious
out-buUdings pertaining to the monster machines ip
order to see the view they hid, just sufficiently to
show there was wherewith to regale one's optics, and
not a loop-hole from which to peep at it.
The kind forethought of a friend had provided us
with post-horses, which were in readiness at the
station, and soon spurred us on om- road. I say
spurred, for this driver was the only unmercUul one
we had encountered; and very much I should have
rejoiced to see the whip laid across his own shoulders
on arriving at Ardee.
The other half of Drogheda, beyond the Boyne, is
in County Louth. We drew up at the hotel under
pretence of the boy's coat, but in reality to furnish
him with a sip of potheen, I suspect. Such a place
for beggars, sure, never was seen ; " it flogged all
Tipp'rary." They clustered round the carriage hke
wasps, begging, storming, roaring, whining, invok
ing all the saints; finally cursing, because we were

TO IRELAND. 229
deaf to their detestable outcries, which quite pro
voked the master of the hotel. Two old hags,
absolute Sheela-na-gigs,* I heard in converse.
"Not a ha'porth have I taken this day," says
one ; " sure whin John O'Connell wint through, 'tis
he only tossed out one penny^bad luck to him !"
-. "'Tis not the lucky day for us, thin, honey,"
croaked the other ; " may be, the fair young lady
wUl give us a thrifle."
Then a chorus of voices screamed out, " Och !
thin, yer honor's glory, remimber the poor beggar,
and may the hivins be yer bed !" " Och ! don't
forget the poor, lady !" " Give us one sixpence, for
Christ's sake !" " One penny, for our Lady's
sake !" We drove on, and a growl and bursts of
execrations pursued us.
Mr. John O'Connell was then busy with his
election at Dundalk. He went quietly down with
one friend and a handful of priests, and walked over
the course.
Of all the nasty towns I ever was in, Drogheda
seemed to me the worst. The street, on a steep
* Hideous female fetishes, sometimes dug up in old church
yards, so denominated by the peasants.

230 A SUMMER VISIT
acclivity, composed of houses of all heights and
sizes, looked as if built by chance, or as U the houses
had taken themselves up and set themselves down at
their random pleasure. A regular French pavement
of round stones, cruel to the feet, slippery and dirty,
made the pull-up doubly painful to the horses. The
whole population looked not only mendicant, but
predatory. Such ferocious countenances, and slouch
ing gaits, ill-attired and iU-conditioned.
That blood-thirsty hypocrite, Cromwell, gave the
wretched inhabitants so much cause once to curse
the Saxons, we can well imagine the hostile feeling
to have been transmitted from father to son. I
shuddered as the historical recollections of the siege
thronged upon me.
We had no time to inspect any of the public
buildings, but heard there were some curiosities
among them. Many of the houses in the street we
traversed appeared of great antiquity, with gable
ends, low wide-latticed windows, and brick-noggined.
I was assured it was a thriving place of trade in
grain, cotton, flax, soap, and candles ; and that the
continual plying of the Liverpool steamers had con
siderably increased its exports. Therefore I am at

TO IRELAND. 231
a loss to imagine why beggary, in its most revolting
aspect, should so completely be in the ascendant in
this town.
Passing some snug "country boxes," we halted
on a point in the road whence we could discern half
the obelisk erected in the Boyne water to comme
morate King William's victory. Had it not rained
pretty hard I should have made an effort to get
down to it ; but there appeared to be no way, save
across wet fields, so I gave it up. Five miles off,
too, there was much to tantalize a " Fanatica per le
antichita " like me, for on my left lay the ruins of
Mellifont Abbey — its very name delectable — too far
to be thought of. It was the first abbey in Ireland;
and must have been a place of considerable repute,
as, at the consecration of the church, in 1157, there
were present not only the whole body of the clergy,
but the King and his nobles. "On this occasion,"
says Moore,* "the King gave, as a pious offering
for his soul to God and the monks of Mellifont, 1 40
oxen or cows, sixty ounces of gold, and a town-land
near to Drogheda, called Finnavair of the Daughters.
Sixty ounces of gold were also presented by Carrol
Prince of Oriel ; and as many more by DevorgUla,
* See Moore's History of Ireland. Vol n. p. 196.

232

A SUMMER VISIT

the celebrated wife of the Prince of Breffory — the
fair Helen, to whose beauty and frailty romantic
history has attributed the invasion of Ireland by the
English. This lady presented hkewise, on that
occasion, a golden chahce for the altar of the Virgin,
together with sacred vestments and ornaments for
each of the nine other altars that stood in the
church." But this was not all, for, haU a mile on
the right of the road, was the Round Tower of
Monasterboice.* This I saw through the trees, on
an eminence, standing up alone, its top gone, the
very picture of solitary old age. The church and
crosses appended to it I could not make out for the
trees, which I rejoice to say enliven this part of
the country. Not only fine single trees, but copses,
and woods, and nice well-dipt hedge-rows of hazle
and quickset, with ash and elm growmg out of
them. The land undulates pleasingly, and is
thoroughly well tiUed.
Collon is a very pretty vUlage; it belongs to
Viscount Massarene, and his demesne is styled Oriel
Temple. It was the favourite abode of the late Lord
Oriel, the last Speaker of the Irish House of Com
mons, who embelhshed it in every way. To him the
* See Appendix N.

TO IRELAND. 233
viUage owes its glebe-house, market square, and
church. Every house in it has a pretty garden full
of flowers, and it deUghted us to behold once more
a picture of rural comfort, and even elegance.
Ardee is a neat town. We stopped and changed
horses at the Shirley Arms, near the tower of an old
castle which projects into the street. When Edward
Bruce landed in Antrim, in the spring of 1315, with
his Scottish followers, they savagely burned the
Church of the Carmelite Friary here, fiUed with
women and children, who had taken refuge within
its walls.*
On we sped through a simUar country, and re
marked men and women bushy at work in the fields,
hoeing turnips, weeding potatoes, carting manure,
&c. Several farmers, with their wives or daughters,
went by in carts, or on horseback, riding on a
pillion; all fat, fair, round-faced, comfortable-look
ing folks, with Flemish physiognomies. Here the
women invariably wore caps, and many of them
bonnets, and the blue cloak over all.
..The approach to Lough Fea, the seat of Evelyn
John Shirley, Esq. M.P., betokens care on the part
of both landlord and tenant. Some of the fields
* See Moore's History of Ireland. Vol. in. p. 54.

234 A SUMMER VISIT
excited my attention, from seeing people spreading
over them what resembled red ashes. This is burnt
clay, used to fertilize the soil reclaimed from the
bog, and has a very pecuhar effect.
We were so.on safely landed at our friend's hos
pitable mansion, a description of which I reserve for
the morrow.

TO IRELAND. 235

CHAPTER IX.
July 29. — One of the loveliest days I ever remem
ber, so balmy and soft the air. I remarked, while
walking in the garden with Mr. Shirley, that I had
never felt so influenced by climate as here and in
Wicklow, upon whose soft, pure, healthful breezes I
have already dilated. He made for answer that my
observation was singular, as tallying exactly with
that of a friend of his, an engineer, who had been in
all climates, and made it his especial business to
examine into them ; and he pronounced that Carrick-
macross and Bray were the two best he was ac
quainted with, and a perceptible assimilation existed
between them.
This is a lovely place. The house, a grand
Elizabethan mansion, constructed of the particularly
handsome, cheerful-looking stone of the native

236 A SUMMER VISIT
quarries — a sort of pinkish yellowish sandstone.
It is so contrived that the door frames, window sUls,
cornices, and angles of the house are worked in the
pink variety, which has by much the better effect.
The house forms, in front, a parallelogram, the
fourth side being taken up by the balustrade,
through which you enter the court. On the right
is a baronial hall, 120 feet long, a princely apart
ment, in the true old style, with double fire-places,
great oriel windows, adorned with coats of arms of
the Shirley family, emblazoned in colors. A gaUery
fiUs one side lengthways; from thence, as in the
olden time, the fanrily may assemble to survey the
banquetting of the retainers in the haU beneath.
The roof, of considerable height, is vaulted. This
apartment communicates with the drawing-room by
a stone-roofed chamber, intended to be reserved as
an orangery, or winter conservatory.
On the left of the court stands the chapel, a
plain, well-contrived place of worship with beautiful
stained windows. All the seats and pulpit are of
oak. The font of stone worked on the premises.
From this entrance there is a lovely view of Lough
Fea which gives its name to the demesne, and
stretches out below the eminence on which the

TO IRELAND. 237
dwelling is erected. Judiciously planted hills slope
down to it, and I thought it a very fine thing alto
gether. This barony containing 20,000 souls is
divided between Mr. Shirley and the Marquis of
Bath ; descending to them in the female Une from
Elizabeth's favourite, Walter Devereux, Earl of
Essex, to whom the lands were by her granted.
The entrance-hall contains a superb picture of a
middle-aged man in the costume of the Low
Countries, with buff boots, and gloves, leaning on
his sword. It is a noble, soldierly figure and atti
tude, a most vigorous effort of the pencU, and bears
date 1645 ; of whom and by whom painted is
unknown. The library is very rich in old carved oak ; the
chimney piece, a chef-d'oeuvre, once part of a
Belgian altar-front. ' Everything here corresponds,
and the table with its four convenient chairs, sliding
in and out, pleased me vastly. In one corner of the
room, there is an ancient cabinet of Queen Eliza
beth's time filled with drawers, and secret nooks
without end.
The drawing-room doors are splendid, all of oak
carving, and when closed, a double pair have the
effect of two vast cabinets. Some of the mantel-

238 A SUMMER VISIT
pieces are made of the native alabaster, of which
there is abundance on the barony of Farney. It
is of a reddish white, mottled, and were it suscep
tible of a higher polish, would be extremely
handsome. The dining-room contains some very old and
curious portraits, two of which especiaUy took my
fancy. The handsome Earl of Leicester, very
eveille-lodkmg, and crafty ; and poor, sweet, much-
wronged Amy Robsart with her innocent face. I
hardly thought the painter had done her beauty
justice or made her sufficiently youthful. Then
there was Queen Bess ruffling it in brocade and
frills; Bluff King Hal, and quiet Catherine Parr.
This is a delightful room and the whole abode is
made very handsome and comfortable.
The house is full of curiosities; elegant mar-
quetterie tables, cut velvet chairs, pictures, and
amongst other things sundry antiquities found in
the bogs, such as rings, pins, &c. The most con
siderable of these is an object of great antiquity and
extraordinary value; being a very large pot, or vase,
of that mixed metal with the seams so artfully
rivetted together by pyramidal naUs, as to be quite
ornamental, while impervious to water. Mr. Shirley

TO IRELAND. 239
bought this of a tenant farmer, whose potatoes had
boiled in it for fifteen years previously, and who
himseU dug it out of the bog.* This vase strongly
resembles the broadest among a group of Egyptian
culinary vessels, annexed to the twenty-fourth
chapter of Ezekiel in the Pictorial Bible.
I saw here two elks' heads and horns found also
under-ground. Of these gigantic remains the
largest measured 5 ft. 6 in. from the root of the
horn to the tip of it, measured by a stick across.
If done with a string, and following the course of
the horn it would, naturally, be more. The width
between the roots of the horns is five inches.
The bog had also given up part of an ancient
boat, evidently one large tree hollowed out.f It
was 6 or 7 ft. in length, I should say, by about
3 or 4 ft. in width.
The garden charmed me, with its stone terraces
and balustrades. Fuchsias were blooming to admi
ration in it; verbenas with their many-coloured
eyes ; and a delicate creeper clustered in profusion
* For a wood-cut and particular description of this vessel, see
Archaeological Journal, March 1846, No. 9, and the History of the
Barony of Farney, by E. P. Shirley, Esq., M.P.
f See Appendix 0.

240 A SUMMER VISIT
round the stone work, with its green wreaths, and
tiny crimson beUs, hanging gracefully about.
In the centre of this parterre stands the Warwick"
Vase, modeUed by a, youth, a native of the place,
and a common mason. Under Mr. Shirley's eye
he also chiselled a mural coat of arms, placed near
the Devereux Tower, and further on in another
garden is placed an immense copy of the same vase,
really wonderfully executed, and be it known, that
the stone he employed is uncommonly hard, which
greatly increased his difficulties. Were this young
man not idle, he might do anything, and make his
fortune presently.
The Irish have a natural talent for geometry.
Mr. Shirley once entered a cottage, the abode of
one of his labourers, and found the garden boy
intent upon a tumbler, he held in his hand, and
Euclid beside him.
"What are you about, my lad?" inquired "the
Masther." "Why thin, plase yer honor," said the boy, "'tis
trying to find out I am, how many cubic inches
there is at all, in this glass."
When this youth was a little older, a farmer got
puzzled about the quantity of manure requisite for

TO IRELAND. 241
a particular field. Upon which the youth said if
they would let him take the measure of the dung-
cart, he thought he could teU. He did, and calcu
lated to a wheel-barrow the number of loads neces
sary. Mr. Shirley took him into favour, and he is now
the under-gardener. He was brought up to me
and explained clearly his mode of calculation. After
a Uttle talk I begged of him to tell me the meaning
of some Enghsh words in Irish, and then to say a
whole sentence to me in his beautiful native tongue.
He instantly took off his hat, and standing with it
in his hand, in that reverential posture recited verse
after verse of St. John's Gospel, in Irish, translating
it into fluent Enghsh as he proceeded. Mr. Shirley
said that whenever these people alluded to the Holy
Scriptures, they invariably removed their hats.
AU these people are the real native Irish. Many
of them are exceedingly fair, with light blue eyes,
and ruddy complexions ; they are of a pure race,
and mostly marry amongst themselves. They are
Cathohcs chiefly, as was this young man, and the
head-gardener, to whom I heard some traveUed
gentleman began once to describe the marvels of
Niagara, when he discoverd his listener to possess
M

242 A SUMMER VISIT
as much information upon the subject of the Falls,
even to the vegetable and animal productions as
himself. A gang of twenty workmen were employed on
the premises where new buUding was carrying on.
These struck for wages not long ago, though excel
lent workmen; and are so idle they might do
double if they chose to be constant at their employ
ment ; but they cannot get on without an overlooker.
This personage we often met with on the pubhc
roads, superintending those who were mending
them. One evening that we were sitting by twilight
in the drawing-room which is hghted by two capa
cious oriel windows, one of the ladies said : " Oh !
we are doing what few hereabouts would dare to do
at this hour, remaining with windows unshuttered
and unbarred." The thought made me shudder,
and I longed for the time to come when the stain
of such moonlight deeds as firing into defenceless
houses among frightened women, should be wiped
off from the Irish annals.
A mound of rock natural and artificial in the
lower garden, was covered thickly with the most
beautiful ferns which grow every where about in the
crevices of the stones.

TO IRELAND. 243
The Arboretum abounds in treasures. There I
saw the Barbary holly, the Chinese mulberry with
its silky leaves, oval and fig-shaped, sprouting from
the same stalk, the pimferous offspring of South
America and Australia, tamarisk, large flowering
privet, arbutus, and other horticultural varieties,
too numerous to particularize, growing luxuriantly.
This slopes gradually down towards a temple erected
over a fountain, an excellent terminus ; and beyond,
the ground ascends between flourishing plantations,
and has a wild look from the large blocks of stone
that start up out of the greensward.
Goats are plentiful in the uplands. There is a
celebrated Chalybeate spring at Carrickmacross, and
invalids are frequently sent there to drink it, or
goat's whey, and imbibe the salubrious air of the
hills. We strolled on to a ruined house, the whUom
abode of a squireen, who is supposed to have drank
as much claret within its walls, as would have
floated the premises. From hence, we enjoyed a
splendid view of the castle in its commanding site,
environed by trees, and mirroring its rose-hued walls
in the lake below.
After luncheon we set off in the carriage on an
M 2

244 A SUMMER VISIT
exploring expedition. Mr. Shirley, Miss Heath, Mr.
West, and myseU. First we visited a mUl where, by a
complication of very simple machinery turned by a
water power, the corn is thrashed, winnowed,
ground, stfted, and the straw sent one way and the
flour another, in a very short space of time, and all
at once. Moreover, the water also moves the pon
derous bellows of a forge under the same roof. A
very substantial farmstead is attached, fiUed by res
pectable occupants. Next we halted at a lime lain,
which is one cause of the Lough Fea estates being
more fruitful than many. Mr. Shirley labours to
convince his tenants of the utility of lime in agri
culture, and hopes he has pretty well succeeded. A
little way off in a rocky dell are some caves to wliich
we descended, without however, being able to do
more than advance to their mouth ; as a river runs
through this only entrance, and we could not have
penetrated into their depths, without wading up to
our knees in water. This my young companion
would have unhesitatingly done, but I acted the
part of Dame Prudence, and we both restrained our
curiosity till a more convenient season, which un
happily came not to me.
The land is tumbled about most strangely ; the

TO IRELAND. 245
little knolls are quite round, whUe the valleys seem
scooped out with a spoon. It is this peculiar con
formation which has occasioned County Monaghan
to be compared to a dish of pippins, with its conical
rotundities all over the face of it.
Here I discovered what resembled a real, live
shamrock, but a good man I fell in with assured
me it was not the " rale shamstrock," but he would
" ingage" to bring me some roots, and he faithfully
performed his promise ; and the httle bright things
are snugly ensconced in a corner of my garden,
where I hope they will thrive ; but there is asaying
that the shamrock wiU not live out of Ireland, or in
England. It is curious that the Spaniards had an old
custom of seeking the trefoU, which is in fact, the
shamrock, on St. John's day; now very possibly
the partiahty of the natives of Erin for this lowly
emblem of the Trinity, may have been imported
with other observances by their Milesian ancestors
rom the southern mother-land.
I give the translation I have made of a little
Spanish ballad, which is certainly pretty, and leave
the discriminating reader to decide for himself in
so momentous a matter.

246 A SUMMER VISIT

A BRIEF ROMANCE.*
Haste forth to pluck the Trefoil
This morning of Saint John ;
To pluck the Trefoil, ladies,
Ere the good time be gone !
Come forth with the Aurora,
When the plain is golden hght,
And dew drops gem the meadows
Like mother o' pearl so bright.
And blossoms ye shall gather
Of varied hue and shade,
Heaped in your ample vestments
Be these in garlands made,
And let the infant Blind God's brow
Be daintily arrayed !
Come pluck the Trefoil, ladies,
This morning of St. John ;
Come pluck the Trefoil, ladies,
For time is speeding on !
And ye shall see how morning
Poth bid the world rejoice,
And hear how birds are singing
With soft and tuneful voice ;
Lo ! yon translucent crystal
On which the slanting beams
Dart ghttering in a thousand rays —
Invites with limpid streams
To lave in coolness fresh and pure
While morning briefly stays.
* See Appendix P, for the original Spanish.

TO IRELAND. 247
And ye shall gather rose-buds,
And violets blue-eyed,
And dearly-prized sweet jessamine,
And Iris purple-pied.
With ruddy pinks, and genet's green,
And golden-crested sprays.
And with the quivering grass-straw
Bind up the garland sheen,
And mingle there
Each flow'ret fair
That wins the meed of praise ! "
To pluck the Trefoil, ladies,
This morning of St. John ;
Haste forth to pluck the Trefoil
Ere youth's glad time be flown !
Alighting next at the school-house, we were dis
appointed to find all the scholars gone home, it being
a half-holiday ; sowe rambled down a very pictur
esque glen, through which a rushing stream forces
its way. Rocky crags hang over it, projecting here
and there ; and there are some pretty falls. Oak,
ash, holly, and fir grow to the very hill tops ; and
below a Swiss cottage is " un de ces quatre matins "
to spring up at a touch of the enchanter's wand.
Such quantities of hemlock were growing by the
water ; and I coUected a few pretty ferns. Heath
bloomed about the path, and mugwort in profusion.
We went over a good many mUes of country in

248 A SUMMER VISIT
our drive to-day, and perceived the fruits of superior
farming every where. One tract was marshy, and
abounds in wild fowl, which I heard was pretty
plentiful aU over Ireland in similar spots.
We passed Mr. Shirley's Homoeopathic Estabhsh
ment, where the poor are physicked gratis : and
stopped at the entrance to some pleasure grounds.
It was getting too late and chiUy to perambulate
these mossy walks, so we contented ourselves with
peeping into a bog, where a dozen men were hard at
work, with bare legs and feet, endeavouring to hft
out of its black bed a huge stick of pine, at least
twenty feet long, buried more than fifteen feet
beneath the surface. In regaining the house, we
skirted the Lough, a fine expanse of water, where
swans were sitting in state among the reeds. We
had a charming day altogether, and I was dehghted
to have actually seen, and walked into a bog; but I
paid dearly for it, catching such a terrible cold, I
was shut up the next day, and incapacitated from
seeing more of Lough Fea, my only consolation
being, that,
July 30 was a day of entire rain, a regular
down pour, and nobody ventured forth.

TO IRELAND. 249

CHAPTER X.
July 31 — We left our kind friends full of regrets,
on our parts, that circumstances imperiously forbade
our paying them a longer visit.
The journey back to Drogheda was performed over
the same route as that by which we had come.
While slowly descending the hill in that town, we
met a funeral train. The coffin was ornamented at
the head and feet with wreaths of flowers, so dis
posed with linen folds as to give it the effect of the
uncovered body itseU, which we believed it to be
until quite abreast of it. A decent group of
mourners closed it in; and here again the white
draperies told that the King of Terrors had made
his prey of one of tender age.
Crossing the Boyne once more, we had a sharp
puU up on the other side, to the raUway station,
m3

250 A SUMMER VISIT
where we again committed ourselves to the tender
mercies of the engine.
It rained all the way to Drogheda : there the sun
began to peep out, and a moist heat was felt. By
the time we reached Malahide, to wliich station only
we had taken seats, I felt aU the miseries of inter
mittent coming over me apace. Nevertheless, we
disembarked with the intention of visiting the fine old
castle, in conformity with a kind promise from Lord
and Lady Talbot, of Malahide, that we might do so at
our convenience : having been prevented once before
from taking advantage of their hospitaUty by a
tremendous thunder storm, which detained us on
our first visit to the museum. But the Fates had
decreed this second and total frustration of our
wishes. The inspector protested he could not aUow
the carriage to be taken off the train, — there was no
proper truck for it, no convenience for landing it,
and he neither could nor would incur the responsi
bUity. He blamed the Drogheda people who
suffered us to take our places so far, and depart
under a delusion; and so in good sooth did we. We
were very angry and disappointed, but remonstrance
was useless ; so, having nothing else for it, we re
seated ourselves. I devoured my vexation, and tried

TO IRELAND. 251
to banish the idea of the old black oak chambers,
the pictures, and other glories of ancient Malahide,
of which I had so much and so often heard, and set
my heart on seeing.
A curious old ballad, on the beautiful Maud
Plunket, who was maid, wife, and widow in one day,
by the slaying of her bridegroom, son to the Baron
of Galtrim, and who afterwards became the bride of
Sir Richard Talbot, of that Ilk, flings an additional
spell over the interest excited by this venerable
pUe, one of the most ancient in the kingdom. Her
tomb exists in the chapel, wherein is also preserved
the armour of her murdered spouse. For the ballad
I refer the lovers of such lore to Duffy's CoUection.
All the length of the way back to Dublin, the
scenery appeared to greater advantage than in going.
Martello towers, ruins, forts, viUages, and detached
houses, studding the rocky shores. The tiny islands
covered with white buildings, with the calm blue sea
sparkling around them, and all bathed in the light
of the afternoon sun ; it was " beautiful exceedingly."
Past five o'clock when we left Malahide ! I was
alternately burning and shivering with creeping
ague, and in Dublin we had business that detained us
a good hour. Sickness and business, when one is

252 A SUMMER VISIT
pleasure-hunting, are two particularly disagreeable
antagonists. However, thanks to the detention,
we were enabled to shake by the hand and bid fare
weU to our good old friend Sir George Coekburo,
who we stumbled upon in SackvUle-street.
We did not reach Kingstown tiU past seven ; but
ill though I was, I shall never forget the rapture into
which I was plunged by this most exquisite of mari
time scenery. It is quite equal to Naples ; it
surpasses everything out of SicUy, which it strongly
resembles. The line of coast sweeps out for at least
four miles of villas and groves, between whose abso
lutely Tuscan waUs the road runs. These habitations
are named prettily enough, according to the fancy of
the possessor. Lord Charlemont's is caUed Marino.
I regretted not visiting his classical temple. Then
there is Palermo, and Maritimo, and Mount this,
and Ville that : all foreign-sounding and breathing
of continental inchnations, their names written
upon the lodge gates. One man constructed a vUla
and called it " Sans Soud," whereupon a wag ran
up another opposite, dubbing his " Sans Six Sous."
These marine residences are bowered in masses of
American shrubs, arbutus, and cypress, and tall elms
spread forth their wide shadowy arms in their usual

TO IRELAND. 253
uncompromising manner ; I marvel nobody has had
the good taste to adopt what, to my feeling, is the
most beautiful of aU appellations for a home; the
favorite Italian one of Quiete, which always appears
to me to embrace all the fehcities and charms of an
abode where the arts and sciences wait upon the
affections within doors, and the genius of landscape
gardening brings its masses of fragrant blossoms, its
terraces and fountains, its trellises hung with jessa
mine and passion flower, and aU its scenic varieties
without. In short, what home ought to be, but so
seldom is, a haven of rest and calm, a very temple of
love, friendship, and the graces.
I imagine when the late Lord Charlemont built
the temple at Marino, his ideas were pretty much
what mine are of a Quiete, which he purposed it
should be; a ndintended to have led in it a bachelor
life with his friends, scientific and virtuosi, divided
between his notable Ubrary and splendid collection
of medals. However, Cupid shot an arrow from his
bow, and put to flight the Earl's resolve of celibacy.
He took to himseU a fafr countess, and the temple
remained in the grounds, as it does still, in solitary
beauty, the chef d'ceuvre of Sir William Chambers.
I was extremely sorry to pass it by unseen.

254 A SUMMER VISIT
Behind this villa-strewn shore, — this Baise of the
North, — rose up the three striking peaks of the
Wicklow Hills, all purple in the light of the setting
sun, which had made the horizon glow with rose
and amber, that softly shaded off to hlac, and that
pale delicate hue chiefly observable in southern lati
tudes, "where azure strove with green." Last in
the line of shore were the white granite houses and
Pier of Kingstown ; its Lighthouse, with the masts of
many vessels standing up hke black threads athwart
the golden sky. Two magnificent churches — one
Protestant, one Cathohc — make a grand figure
amidst the meaner buildings; and aU this, with
lawns and woods down to the water's edge, was
reflected softly, yet clearly, on the calmly sleeping
sea, which glowed with aU the hues of the heavens,
and gave out every house, and wall, and tree, in
faithful mirroring.
By way of foreground, a little Martello tower
came in exceedingly well ; and I gazed, and gazed,
and would fain have stayed together the course of
time and of my vehicle, in order to prolong the
enjoyment in this scene of gorgeous colouring and
magical beauty, which my enchanted eyes drank in.
It carried me back to Italy; and I could scarcely

TO IRELAND. 255
divest mysetf of the belief, that I was a pilgrim, not
in Hibernia, but in Ausonia. But every thing
comes to an end here below, — pleasure and pain.
And the sun gradually sank, and the light faded off
the hills and waters ; and by the time we reached
Rathbone's Hotel, twilight was steahng over the
face of nature, and Howth's delicate outline became
grey and shadowy, and the brilliant Morganatic
scene had vanished.
August 1. — This morning, at 7 a. m., we were
called, in order to embark for Holyhead ; but my
enemy neuralgia had been imremitting all night,
and I was in no plight to set out. Towards noon, how
ever, I was able to leave my bed; and feeling some
what restored by three o'clock, I determined upon
availing myseU of this only, and therefore lucky
chance, of sketching the scenes by which I had
been so captivated yester evening, and by which
my imagination was haunted. So off I went, in a
covered car. The day was inconceivably hot ; not
a breath of air to curl a sensitive leaf, — a perfect
scirocco. First I betook me to the Pier, attracted by the
ever-welcome strains of a mUitary band. There I
found myself in the midst of a gaily-dressed assem-

256 A SUMMER VISIT
blage of all the Dublin fashionables ; some in cars^
others on horseback. AmOngst these there were
many most beautiful girls. Frederic, who was also
a spectator, avowed to me afterwards, he had never
been so struck as by the universal loveliness of com
plexion of these fair daughters of Erin. LUies and
roses, really. Cheeks glowing with health and
exercise ; and very fine figures. The delicious cli
mate must have something to do with this mother-
of-pearl tinting. Most of these fair damsels sported
a brilliant bouquet in front of her habit. The
jaunting cars contained famUy groups ; sweet httle
children with sunny curls, and handsome matrons.
I like these conveyances : they are so safe, and easy
of access ; and an apron of hoUand in summer, and
varnished leather in winter, effectuaUy protects you
from mud and wet. On the Pier hard by I noticed
an obelisk, erected on the spot where George IV.
landed. All the houses and pubhc buildings at Kingstown,
docks, piers, &c, are constructed of the native
granite; KUliny Hill is one mass of it. No stone
is so handsome ; and this is . peculiarly richly-
grained, and glittering with mica flakes.
The lights were not so good this afternoon ; an en-

TO IRELAND. 257
vious easterly mist wrapped up the mountain-tops as
in a mantle ever and anon ; nevertheless, I set about
my work, and finished an indifferent attempt at
delineating this matchless prospect. One great in
terruption to my sketching was the constant passing
and re-passing of the trains on the railroad between
Dublin and Kingstown, so contrived, as to spoil
the magnificent sea view, by cutting straight across
it behind the Martello Tower.
August 2 — Intermittent knocked under. We were
up betimes, and rejoiced to hear "it was a fine
mornmg, and the sea as smooth as a pool." Coffee
was despatched, and to the Pier we hurried; I, in
the carriage, preceding my companion, who was
detained by the inconceivable time occupied in
making out the biU, though ordered over-night.
Yet the housekeeper seemed a bustling body enough,
and was all day at the heels of the luckless chamber
maids, with her basket of keys. One of these girls — a
nice, rosy-cheeked, chesnut-haired, brown-eyed crea
ture — I took a special liking to ; she waited on me
so kindly when I was ill. Trouble seemed a plea
sure to her ; and on parting, she exclaimed, quite
tenderly, " WeU, then, God bless ye for ever ! and

258 A. SUMMER VISIT
send ye safe home ! and may be some day ye'll
come back to us." Truth to tell, 1 was very sorry
to depart.
Some of the apartments in this hotel are painted
al fresco, and fitted up most beautifuUy in the
foreign style. AU the furniture came from Paris.
The housekeeper said they were often let for whole
weeks together to persons of distinction. No won
der, U they love the " glad waters of the deep blue
sea" as weU as I do. The waiters were most assi
duous, — one in particular, who, proud of my admira
tion of the country, always placed my chair so as to
ensure me the best possible sight of the beautiful
bay before me. Whereupon I recommend all my
friends to patronise Rathbone's.
I was pleased by the discovery that our passage was
to be performed in our old friend, the " Sprightly,"
Captain Moon ; who had a chair placed for me on
' deck, and amused me with his tales of sea-faring
life, when he saUed with Sir Home Popham. He
pointed out all the principal objects in the Bay of
Dublin, — a sight I would not have missed for all
the world. No pen can convey any idea of its
brilliant effect, as the various portions of the city,

TO IRELAND. 259
public monuments, quays, docks, shipping, and
islands, came out guttering in the morning sun.
From the Wicklow Mountains to Kingstown spreads
out a most beautiful reach of shore, and the white
ness of aU the buildings gives them such a Very
foreign look. Then there are aU the islands : —
Howth, Dalkey, Ireland's Eye, and others. On one
of these the last Liverpool steamer was as near as
possible striking in a thick fog, and we blessed our
selves that such had not been our UI fortune.
But the fog came on ; and soon, alas ! the scene
was veiled from us completely. The air became
chilling; and though the sea was, as they said,
extraordinarily smooth, still I could not remain on
deck. So I bade a sorrowful, but I hope not a last,
adieu to dear " Ould Ireland," and retreated to my
former post on the cabin sofa in midships, where
I lay to the end of the voyage flat and quiet, till
my backbone threatened to perforate the chest, —
a position I strongly recommend, though cramped
and uneasy in itself, to all such as wish to avoid or
mitigate the horrors of sea-sickness. Lying with
closed eyes, I was amused by the conversation of two
mercantile gentlemen, over their cheese and porter,
who were discussing the pohtics of Manchester*

260 A SUMMER VISIT
Our passage was performed in six hours, and the
men declared so smooth a one had never been
known between Dublin and Holyhead. New and
large steamers are about to be constructed at the
latter port, which wiU, ere long, convey passengers
across in four hours and a half.
My pleasant task is now accomphshed. I have
completed my travels in Ireland, and there is nothing
left for me to say, saving and excepting that I re
joice to have been there. For, albeit, my heart was
wrung by the spectacle of woes and want I had no
power to alleviate; and, albeit, the general surface
of the country did not come up to the estimate I
had unduly formed of its natural beauty ; and more
over, that I was checked by circumstances over which
we had no control, from exploring much that was
deserving of notice, and especiaUy interesting to me ;
yet I am glad to have been able to judge for myseU;
delighted with much that I have seen ; grateful for
the kindness I have met with — and ready to go
again. Nay, the hope is strong within me, that I
shall one day explore the grand and wUd scenery of
the " far west," and those remnants of the glories
of other days which exist in the ancient round towers,
abbeys, and castles; to say nothing of the lovely

TO IRELAND. 261
northern lakes, and that most remarkable of all
nature's marvels — the Giant's Causeway.
FareweU to Ireland !
Erin mavouraeen, Erin go bragh !

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX.

A.— Page 7.
General Sir George Cockburn, K.G.C. now the
Senior-General of the British Army, is descended from a
family of Scottish origin. I am indebted to him for the
following description of the old hereditary stronghold
of the Cockburns, and for the verses which mourn over
their losses at Flodden Field. Their descendant is
well known as an antiquarian, and a writer on various
subjects. He it is who maintains the authorship of
Junius's Letters to belong to Charles Lloyd, as set
forth in an able Pamphlet. He has ever been a sup
porter of Irish liberties and of rights; and was the
friend of Lord Charlemont, Grattan, Curran, and other
distinguished men of his time, and at eighty-three
retains every faculty unimpaired of mind and body.
N

266 APPENDIX.
COCKBURN's PATH-TOWER, BERWICKSHIRE.
This Tower stands about two miles N.W. of th(
Pease Bridge, in the highway between it and Dunbar.
It overlooks a deep, woody glen, through which runs a
small river, or burn. It was undoubtedly built to
defend this pass, wliich now has a bridge over it. The
remains of this Castle consist of a strong, square tower
of rough stone, having a circular staircase, in its S.W.
angle ; adjoining to its southernmost side is a gate, with
a circular arch : on entering it, on the right hand are a
number of vaulted buildings, aU in ruins. The pos
sessors ofthe Castles of Cockburn's Path and of Dun
bar, were supposed to hold the keys of the kingdom,
such were their strength and importance. In 1488
King James III. was defeated and slain, in attempting
to annex to the Crown the Baronies of Cockburn's
Path and Dunbar, with the Earldoms of March and
Annandale. The first history of this Castle is lost in
the obscurity of ages ; but it is mentioned in some ol
the Chronicles, as having belonged to the Cockburns in
the days of Macbeth. The Cockburn, however, from
which the title of that Ilk is derived, is S.W. of this,
near Dunse, as also Ryslan, Langton, Carriden, Cre-
nishans, &c, &c. Half the counties of Berwick and
Haddington belonged to this family. Of this Castle

APPENDIX. 267
also, Cromwell said that one man would do more to
defend it than fifty to attack — its natural strength was
so great. COCKBURN'S CORONACH.
Oh, wae to us was Flodden's plain,
'Twas there the Royal James was slain !
Fu' oft we've wept the fatal day,
That fill'd our Scottish hearts with wae.
So many a high-born lass and dame,
Their sires and lords nae mair cam hame ;
But waefu' in their ha's alane,
They heard the sad Coronach's mane !
Coronachs that not many now,
Are left to sing o'er thousands low ;
Are rais'd o'er chiefs of noble name,
That with their King to battle came.
That round him there remained to die
Fighting till death right loyally,
How many that fought at morn to brave,
Before e'entide had found their grave ?
Oh ! there amongst fu' many a name
Still dear to Scotland and to fame,
Brave Hume,* that led the right-hand wing,
Sank down in death beside his King.
And with him fell his daughter's spouse,
The noble Lairdf of Cockburn's House,
* Earl of Home.
t The Chief of Cockburn (son-in-law to Earl of Home) with
his two sons and eight Knights of his name and kindred died with
their King.
N 2

268 APPENDIX.
Two sons, and twice four Knights beside,
Of Cockburn's Chieftain bravely died.
Raise, raise 1jhe loud Coronach's cry,
Let every Highland glen reply,
And sadly let each Lowland plain
Return the waefu' sound again !
Our King is dead ! let true hearts mourn ;
Sad Scotland's choicest flow'rs are shorn,
Let Berwick's Towers* be rob'd in gloom,
Let Lothian's sons lament their doom I
On Cockburn's, and on Langton's Towers,
The cloud of desolation low'rs !
There widows wail their perish'd lords
Whilst oft their bairns, in lisping words
Demand their sire, whose face no more
Shall bless with smiles which once it wore,
Those ha's shall ne'er be gay again,
Their Chiefs are in the battle slain.
The two principal seats of the Cockbums in Berwicl
shire, remains of which still exist, Cockburn (no
Cockbums' Path-Tower) had been in the family sine
the days of Macbeth. B.— Page 20.
Mrs. Hall enumerates the Giant's Tower at Goz.
amongst the probable remains of Cyclopian Romii
* In Berwick and Lothian the Humes and Cockbums we
chiefly settled.

APPENDIX. 269
Towers. I have been fortunate in procuring a correct
survey of that very remarkable ruin, which, however,
determines the shape and proportions to have been of a
very different nature to what Mrs. Hall supposes, and
consequently not capable of sustaining a comparison
with the Irish Round-Tower.
" Popular report at the present day, relates that these
Towers were universally built in one night, by some holy
man or other. This legend curiously enough corre
sponds with that prevalent in India concerning the
Cavern-Temples of Elephanta, Salsette, Ellora, &c. ;
and in Mexico, regarding the mysterious cities of
Palenque and Copan. The vernacular name still used,
Cillcagh, or Golcagh, is a compound of two sacred
words, meaning fire and the divinity. Its root seems
to be the same as the Hindoo Coill, from chalana to
burn, and hence probably, our Irish CUI, now applied
to a church. Coupled with the ancient names of
Turaghan, or Aidne, (the Tower of Fire, or the Fire
of the Circle — i.e. the Sun), and Fidh neimedh, a
gnomen, or celestial index, as given in the annals :
nothing can be more indicative of the original Paganism
ofthe structures. But we see this reference to their
connexion with sun-worship and the sacred-fire, still
further borne out in the particular names of several of
them : thus Agh-a-doe, the Field of Fire ; Tegh-a-doe,

270 APPENDIX.
the Fire-House ; Ard-doe — (the land in the vicinity of
Ardmore Tower) — the Height of Fire ; Kennegh, the
Chief-Fire ; Lush, a Fire ; Fertagh, the Sepulchral Fire-
Tower : it was anciently called Fertagh-na- Guaraj or of
the Cabiri, Ghebers, or Gaurs — i.e. Fire-Worshippers.
At Rattoo, in Kerry, we have a number of denomina
tions of adjoining lands, pointing out their possession
by these Gaurs.
The worship of fire by the ancient Irish, is a fact
sufficiently vouched for by the Irish Annals and Saints'
lives, as well as by existing practices on the eves of
May, Midsummer' s-day, &c. Its votaries were divided
into two sects, one which lighted the sacred fire in the
open temple, as at Gall-ti-mor, the Flame of the Great
Circle; Gall-Bailie, the Flame of the Community,' &c. ;
and the other which enclosed it in the Sun-Tower,
(Turaghan), or in low-arched buildings, such as the
Boens, the cells at Gall-erous, &c. The Tower and low
square temple were common to the Persians, with whom
as well as, indeed, with most of the other early Pagan
nations, fire or the sun formed a main object of adora
tion. In India the presiding genius of fire is still
named Agni, a name curiously corresponding with that
of the Irish Tower, Tur-a-ghan, or Aidhne, being pro
nounced nearly as Agni: and the columnar temples
belonging to the ancient worship of that element, still

APPENDIX- 271
subsist there. The similarity of name and design, led
Vallancey to recognise the almost identity of the
western and oriental Towers ; and he it was who first
announced the real origin and purpose of the former,
so long involved in darkness. He has been followed
by some of the ablest writers on Irish antiquities that
have hitherto appeared : by "Webb, "Weld, O' Conor,
Lanigan, Dalton, O'Brien, Beaufort, Moore, and
Betham, who agree in their description as s«-temples,
whilst O'Brien and Betham only hesitate in supposing
that all were _/?re-temples. Their sepulchral purpose
was only guessed at by O'Brien. Sir William Betham
is cognizant of it by the discoveries recently made. —
See Hall's Ireland, p. 199—200.
C— Page 22.
In " Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Offi
cial" — a very interesting and richly illustrated work by
Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Sleeman, of the Bengal
Army, there is a beautiful plate of the Taj Mahal, that
most splendid of mausoleums, constructed by Shah
Jehan over his own ashes, and those of his beloved and
favourite wife, " Moontaj i Mahal Ranoo Begum," who
died 1631 — the date of the Shah's death being 1666.
Four absolute Round-Towers decorate the extreme

272 APPENDIX.
angles of this edifice, barring the circular ornaments, and
the arches near the summit, one of these I have copied ;
and the same author makes mention of a very remark
able pointed pillar or tower, called the Meenar of
Kootubooddeen, not far from Delhi.
He speaks in enthusiastic terms of the effect of this
" Khillee," (pillar) rising in its "single majesty," upon
the mind of the beholder. I do not quote it from the
similitude of its form to the Round-Towers, because
it differs from all other Towers in its very peculiar
shape and elaborate ornament; but from an apparent
similarity of purpose in its erection — supposing it to be
Hindoo and not Mahometan. It is 242 ft. in height,
and 106 ft. in circumference round the base, took
forty-four years in building, and forms one of the
Meenars of a mosque hard by. Sentences from tbe
Koran in the Kufic character, encircle the first story
in fine horizontal belts. It is partly composed of fer
ruginous sandstone, and partly of white marble, tapering
at the top and fluted vertically, divided, moreover, by
four balconies, and ascendable by a spiral stair of
three hundred and eighty steps. The Hindoos believe
it, as the author supposes erroneously, to be of Hindoo
origin, and he says, "a silly old Moonshee, in the
service of the Emperor, told him, ' that he believed it

APPENDIX. 273
was built by a former Hindoo Prince for his daughter,
who wished to worship the rising sun, and view the
waters ofthe Jumun from the top every morning."
The founder was Shumshoodeen.
Colonel Sleeman says, "There is no other Hindoo
building in India at all like this." " The slope is the
peculiar architecture of the Pythans, by whom the
church to which this tower belongs was built." —
See vol. ii, chap, xix, p. 252 — 5.
A second Tower was begun, but remains incomplete.
" The church was entire, with the exception of the
second Meenar, when Tamerlane invaded India." —
Ibid. D.— Page 22.
VULCAN.
" Vulcan is said to have been the father or founder
of the Cabiri.* This name in Celtic signifies, the
profound metallurgist, smith, or worker in metals : Fol-
Gaun, or Bal-Gaun, tbe lord-smith. It is also worthy
of remark that in Sancoaicathon' s account of the descent
or pedigree from the first man, Vulcan stands contem
porary with Tubal Cain of the Scriptures, who " was
the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron,"
* The word Cabiri in Celto — Phoenician, literally means, the.
Confederacy or Brotherhood of Science. Cabar is a Confederacy
or Secret Society, i. e. — of Science.
N 3

274 APPENDIX.
and this last name is of the same signification in the
Celto-Phcenician, i.e. — the celebrated lord-smith, or
metallurgist." — See Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy, vol. i. p. 35. E.— Page 35.
"A Paper was read by Mr. J. Huband Smith,
descriptive of certain porcelain seals, amounting to
upwards of a dozen, found in Ireland within the last
six or seven years, and in places very distant from
each other  They were all uniform, consisting of
an exact cube, having, by way of handle, some animal
(probably an ape) seated upon it ; and that they were
so precisely similar in size and general appearance, as
to be undistinguishable, except by tbe characters on the
under surface.
"An extract from the Chinese Grammar of Abel-
Remusat, showed that the inscriptions on these seals
are those of a very ancient class of Chinese characters,
"in use since the time of Confucius," who is supposed
to have flourished in the middle of the sixth cen
tury, b.c. The remote period to which these characters
are assigned, leaves open a wide field for conjecture as to
the time in which these porcelain seals found their way
into this country.
" The situations in which some of them were found,

APPENDIX. 275
are remarkable. One was discovered in ploughing
a field near Burrisokane, County of Tipperary, in 1 832 ;
another was found last year, in the County of Down ;
another in the bed of the River Boyne, near Clonard,
in the County of Meath, in raising gravel ; and a fourth
was discovered many years ago, at a short distance from
Dublin. " Mr. Smith then called the attention of the Academy
to the remarkable discovery by Rosellini, Lord Prudhoe,
and other recent travellers, of unquestionable Chinese
vases, in the tombs of Egypt. He read a passage from
Davis's China, in which some of them were described ;
and also an extract from Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians
from which it appeared that the number of Chinese
vases found at Coptos, Thebes, and elsewhere, amounted
to seven or eight, and that the inscriptions on them had
been translated by Chinese scholars to mean, "The
flower opens, and lo! another year !" being a line from
an ancient Chinese poem.
" From this the trade of China with distant countries
being clearly proved, Mr. Smith submitted to the
Academy that a case of strong probability had been
made out, that the porcelain seals found their way into
Ireland at some very distant period.
" It is therefore possible, that they may have arrived
hither from the East, along with the weapons, oma-

276 APPENDIX.
ments, and other articles of commerce, which were
brought to these islands by the ships of the great
merchant-princes of antiquity — the Phoenicians, to
whom our ports and harbours were well known. —
See Proceedings qf the Royal Irish Academy, vol. i,
1836—1840, p. 381—2. F.— Page 36.
The Seal of Murtagh O'Neill, who, as Mr. Petrie
believes, was the Lord of Clannaboy of this name, whose
death is recorded in the Irish Annalists in 1471 . The
device is the bloody hand of O'Neill, and the legend
reads, " S. Mauritius Ui Neill."
— See Proceedings ofthe Royal Irish Academy, p. 384.
G.— Page 36.
Two golden collars, or torques, found about twenty-
five years ago, on the Hill of Tara, the residence of the
Irish Monarchs anterior to the sixth century. The
first is 5 ft. 7 in. in length, and weighs 27 oz. 9 dwts.
The second is 5 ft. 6 in. in length, but weighs only
12 oz. 6 dwts. These torques are of a screw, or a
spiral pattern, and though the design is rude, the
workmanship is of great beauty. Torques of similar
size and pattern have been frequently found in Ireland,

APPENDIX. 277
and are often accompanied by armillse, or bracelets of the
same description. ' The term^orques, by which antiqua
rians usually designate these ornaments, is one of frequent
occurrence in the classic authors. The word is gene
rally derived from the Celtic tore, a twisted collar,
or perhaps more correctly, a twisted circular ornament
of any kind, as the ancient Irish called a collar or neck-
chain, mun-lorc. And since the Latin verb, torqueo,
has no cognate in Greek, it is probably formed from the
same Celtic root.
Collars of this kind seem to have been common to all
the Celtic nations, as we find from ancient writers.
Livy tells us that Publius Cornelius, in his triumph
over the Boii — a Gallic nation, collected among the
spoils one thousand four hundred and seventy torques ;
and we find in Propertius that Virdumarus, King of the
Gauls, wore such an ornament. Dio Cassius notices a
tore of this description, as ornamenting the person of
the British Queen, Boadicea ; and even within a few
centuries of the present time, a Welsh Prince was
called Llewellin aur Dorchag, or Llewellin of the
Golden Tore. The tores found in France and Wales,
are exactly similar to the Irish 
It does not appear that they were generaUy worn by
the Romans ; and the very appellation Torquatus, which
was bestowed upon Titus Manhus, from the golden

278 APPENDIX.
tore taken by him from a Gaul, whom he slew in the
year of Rome 393, and which was continued as a
surname in his family, seems to indicate, that the tore
was not famihar to the Romans at that time. — See Pro
ceedings ofthe Royal Irish Academy, Vol. i. p. 274 — &
H.— Page 36.
The Rev. Dr. Todd exhibited to the Academy a gold
ring, the property of William Farren, Esq., wliich was
received in barter, from the natives of the Western
coast of Africa. The similarity of the twist in this
ring to that of the gold torques found at Tara, and
recently presented to the Academy, renders it extremely
worthy of attention.
The following extract of a letter from Mr. Weston, of
London, by whom the gold ring was presented to Mr.
Farren, and which is addressed to that gentleman, was
read. London, March 31, 1840.
" In reference to the African gold, or torque, as you
call it, a young correspondent of mine, resident at
Sierra Leone, and a merchant there happens to be at
this time in London ; from him and his father I have
received many boxes of this pure gold  He tells
me there are large rings or torques, full the size of

APPENDIX. 279
those I saw in the Library of the Royal Irish
Academy.
¦Extract of a Letter from the African gentleman alluded
to by Mr. Weston.
" The gold out of which these rings are twisted,
is found in the countries of Seral-Doolley, Timbuctoo,
Seran-Colley, Follah, Bondou, &c, all of which tribes
are distant about fourteen hundred miles from, (in
latitude 15° N.) and visit Sierra Leone, in hordes of
from two to four or five hundred at a time, travelling
generaUy on foot : these journeys take them from two
to four months, and equally long to return to their
homes. They are all of the Mahometan persuasion,
and proficient Arabic scholars. Their manners are easy
and insinuating, and in conversation — wliich is always,
or generally done through an interpreter — they are full
of compliments and flattery  They are for the most
part, very uncleanly in their habits, and particularly so in
their dress — oftentimes wearing one apparel without ever
taking it off to cleanse their bodies, the whole time they are
away from home; their clothes are consequently almost in
rags before they put on new ones 
" The natives cultivate farms, but in a very careless
and rough manner, merely cutting down the trees, but
never rooting up the stumps, or clearing away the smaller

280 APPENDIX.
plants, but plant the rice and cassava negligently among
the whole of this stubble, waiting till the rice, &c, may
grow, to distinguish one from the other 
" Domestic poultry is plentiful; also sheep and other
horned cattle. They take great care of their cows, — milk
forming a principal luxury in their diet."* — See Proceed
ings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. i, p. 431 — 3.
Extract of a Letter from Mr. Bonomi to T. Crofton
Croker, Esq.
" You ask me for a note on the ring-money of Africa :
— here it is. So little has the interior of the country
changed in that particular since the days of the
Pharaohs, that to this day, among the inhabitants
of Sennaar, pieces of gold in the form of a ring pass
current as money. The rings have a cut in tbem, for
the convenience of keeping them together : the gold
being so pure you can easily bend them and unite them
in the manner of a chain. This money is weighed, as
in the days of Joseph."
It is a remarkable fact that the name manilla, which
those brass and iron articles still bear in Africa, signifies
* The Author is sorry to remark, being compelled by candour to
do so, that this Tribe of Africans appears to have exported into
Ireland, not merely Ring Money, but some customs and habits,
" more honoured in the breach than in the observance."

APPENDIX. 281
money, an the Celto- Phoenician Irish. Main is 'value,'
' worth ;' and aillech is ' cattle,' ' household stuff,' or
' any kind of property.' So that in this respect, the
derivation is similar to that of pecunia from pecus.
The manillas were, no doubt, introduced into Africa
by the same people that brought them to Ireland ;
and as the Negro nations have changed but little, if
at all, they still pass as money by their old Phoenician
name. — See Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy,
vol. i, p. 21. I.— Page 40.
The Annals of Kilronan, or Book of the O'Duige-
nans, a work hitherto supposed to be lost.
The volume is in quarto, and in its original state
consisted entirely of parchment. It is now imperfect,
both at the beginning and the end, and has also some
intermediate chasms.
The Chronicle in its present state, begins with the
year 1014, and ends with 1571. The discovery of the
Book of the 0'Duigenans,'"6r Annals of Kilronan, will
be of great importance, if ever the liberality of Govern
ment, or the contributions of individuals, should supply
the means of printing the ancient historical records of this
i
country. To a complete edition of the Annals of the
Four Masters, it is essential that as many as possible of

282 APPENDIX.
the original documents from which they drew their
materials, should be in our hands. And this discovery
supplies us with one of these documents, whose existence
was hitherto unknown to Irish antiquarians. — See Pro
ceedings ofthe Royal Irish Academy, Vol. i. p. 22 — 4.
J.— Page 134.
As a specimen of the style of the Moorish Ballad,
I insert the following free translation I have made
of one in Quintana's Collection of " Poesias selectas
Castellanas," the origmal will be found in Vol. n,
p. 1 ; being the first of the Romances Moriscos, and
excels most of tbem in spirit and imagery, besides
affording a vivid picture of the manners and hfe of the
people from whom it emanates.
ROMANCE MORISCO.
The Star of Venus brightly rose
What time the sun went down,
And day's dark foe on all around
Her sable veil had thrown.
When with her, lo ! a gallant Moor
Forth from Sidonia sped,
Like Rodomont armed — and Xeres plain
He crossed with rapid tread.
Where the bright waves of Guadalete
Flow to the Seas of Spain,
And Holy Mary's sacred gate,
Its glorious name doth gain.

APPENDIX. 283

He rides like one in desperate state,
For though of proud degree,
Left by his Ladye-love ingrate
Since land and gold lacks he.
And this very night is she to wed
A vile ill-favoured Moor,
Of fair Seville, the rich Alcayde
Of Alcazar and the Tower.
And as he wends in mournful strain,
He wails his heavy wrong ;
And all bis words the pitying plain,
And Echo soft prolong.
" Zayda," quoth he, " more cruel thou
Than bark-devouring waves :
More stony far, more cold thy heart ; ' '
Than Earth's dark depths and caves.
How can'st thou leave me, cruel one !
Of all thy favour shorn ?
And yield thy charms once mine alone,
A stranger's halls to adorn ?
How can thy tender arms embrace
The oak's coarse rugged stem,
Thine own tree naked reft of fruit,
And flowery diadem.
Thou leav'st me poor, yet rich in worth,
For one whom poor thou'lt find,
Can'st thou prefer yon Caitiffs dross
To treasures of the mind ?
Thou leav'st — six years of love forgot
Gazul the nobly born,
And giv'st thy hand to Albenzayde,
Brief wooer of a morn !
Now Allah grant, fair enemy !
That he may hate, and thou adore,

284 APPENDIX.
That thou may'st sigh with jealousy,
With tears his absence long deplore !
And that by night thou may'st not sleep,
And know no rest from day to day,
And rise up in thy bed to weep,
And from thy food turn loathingly !
And at high feast and festival,
Thy colours may he never wear,
Nor suffer thee to see the sport,
Nor from thy lattice breathe the air !
And at the lordly tournament,
May be to sink thy heart with dread,
Despise the scarf that thou did'st gem,
The sleeve by thee embroidered !
And don that of his paramour,
Wrought with the cypher of her name,
To whom may he his captives give,
When from the war he comes with fame !
In terror live lest he should bleed
Upon the Christian's battle field !
Now Allah grant this curse may speed
That hour thy hand to him thou yield !
And if thou hat'st him — may ye hve
Long weary hours nor ever part !
Surely tbis is the bitterest curse,
That ever sprung from human heart !"
Then spurring on, he Xeres reached
At the mid hour of night ;
And found the palace all astir,
With shout, and song, and Ught.
And troops of Moors came bounding out,
Who blazing torches bore, —
A thousand torches scarce outshone
The gUttering garb they wore.

APPENDIX. 285
Before the bridegroom halts he now,
In stirrup firm, upright,
For he parades on his goodly steed
To honour his bridal night.
He hurled the lance with deadly aim,
It pierced him through and through —
The shuddering crowd fell back a space,
Gazul his sabre drew ;
And midst all towards Sidonia turned,
And away like a whirlwind flew !
Having given the translation of such to my readers
as have no Spanish, I think it right to furnish them
with the original, that tbe Spanish scholar may
benefit. ROMANCE MORISCO.
Sale la estrella de Venus
Al tiempo que el sol se pone
Y la enemiga del dia
Su negro manto descoge :
Y con ella un fuerte Moro,
Semejante a Rodomonte
Sale de Sidonia armado :
De Xerez la vega corre
Por do entra Guadalete
Al mar de Espana, y por donde
De Santa Maria el puerto
Recibe famoso nombre.
Desesperado camina
Que aunque es de linage noble,
Le dexa su dama ingrata
Porque se suena que es pobre,

286 APPENDIX.
Y aquella noche se casa
Con un Moro feo y torpe,
Que es Alcayde de Sevilla
Del Alcazar y la Torre.
Quexabase gravemente
De un agravio tan enorme,
Y a sus palabras la vega
Con el eco le responde.
Zayda, dice, mas ayrada
Que el mar que las naves sorbe,
Mas dura e inexorable
Que las entranas de un monte ;
jComo permites cruel,
Despues de tantos favores,
Que de prendas que son mias.
Agenas manos se adornen ?
<Es posible que te abraces
A las cortezas de un roble,
Y dexes el arbol tuyo
Desnudo de fruto y flores ?
jDexas un pobre muy rico,
Y un rico muy pobre escoges,
Y las riquezas del cuerpo,
A las del alma antepones ?'
iDexas al noble Gazul,
Dexas seis arios de amores,
Y das la mano a Albenzayde,
Quando apenas le1 conoces ?
Al£ permita, enemiga,
Que te aborrezca y le adores,
Que por zelos le suspires,
Y por ausencia le llores.
Y que de noche no duermas,
Y de dia no reposes,

APPENDIX. 287

Y en la cama Ie fastidies,
Y que en la mesa le enojes :
Y en las fiestas y en las zambras
- No se vista tus colores,
Ni aun para verie permita
Que a la ventana te asomes.
Y menosprecie en las carias
Para que mas te alborotes,
El almayzar que le labres,
Y la manga que le bordes ;
Y se ponga el de su amiga
Con la cifra de su nombre,
A quien le de Ios cautivos,
Quando de la guerra tome.
Y en batalla de Cristianos
De velle muerto te asombres,
Y plegue a Ala que suceda
Quando la mano le tomes.
Y si le has de aborrecer
Que largos arios le goces,
Que es la mayor maldicion
Que pueden.darte los hombres.
Con esto llegd a Xerez
A la mitad de la noche,
Halld el palacio cubierto
De luminarias y voces,
Y los Moros fronterizos,
Que por todas partes correa,
Con mil hachas encendidas
Y las libreas conformes.
Delante del desposado
En los estribos se pone,
Que tambien anda a caballo
Por honra de aquella noche.

288 APPENDIX.
Arrojado le ha una lanza
De a parte a parte pasdle :
Alborot6se la plaza,
Desnudo el Moro su estoque,
Y por en medio de todos,
Para Medina volvidse.
K.— Page 136.
Among the national ballads, I have collected the
following four as best suited to illustrate my observation.
For the residue, I refer my reader's to the "Songs of
Ireland," edited by Michael Joseph Barry, and in
scribed to "the National Bard of Ireland — Thomas
Moore." ERIN.
BY DR. DBENNAN.
When Erin first rose from the dark swelling flood,
God blessed the green island, and saw it was good ;
The Em'rald of Europe, it sparkled and shone,
In the ring of the world, the most precious stone.
In her sun, in her soil, in her station thrice blest,
With her back towards Britain, her face to the West,
Erin stands proudly insular, on her steep shore,
And strikes her high harp mid the ocean's deep roar.
But when its soft tones seem to mourn and to weep,
The dark chain of silence is thrown o'er the deep ;
At the thought of the past the tears gush from her eyes,
And the pulse of her heart makes her white bosom rise.

APPENDIX. 289
0 ! sons of green Erin, lament o'er the time,
When rehgion was war, and our country ajcrime
When man in God's image, inverted his plan,
And moulded his God in the image of man.
When the interest of state wrought the general woe,
The stranger a friend, and the native a foe ;
While the mother rejoic'd o'er her children oppressed,
And clasp'd the invader more close to ber breast.
When with pale for the body, and pale for the soul,
Church and State joined in compact to conquer the whole ;
And as Shannon was stained with Milesian blood,
Ey'd each other askance, and pronounced it was good.
By the groans that ascend from your forefathers' grave,
For their country thus left to the brute and the slave,
Drive the Demon of Bigotry home to his den,
And where Britain made brutes, now let Erin make men.
Let my sons like the leaves of the shamrock unite,
A partition of sects from one footstalk of right,
Give each bis full share of the earth and the sky,
Nor fatten the slave where the serpent would die.
Alas ! for poor Erin that some are still seen,
Who would dye the grass red from their hatred to Green ;
Yet, oh ! when you're up, and they're down, let them live,
Then yield them that mercy which they would not give.
Arm of Erin be strong ! but be genti? as brave !
And uplifted to strike, be still ready to save !
Let no feeling of vengeance, presume to. defile
The cause of, or men of, the Emerald Isle.
The cause it is good, and the men they are true,
And the Green shall outlive both the Orange and Blue !
And the triumphs of Erin -her daughters shall share,
With the full swelling_chest, and the fair flowing hair.

290 APPENDIX.
Their bosom heaves high for the worthy and brave,
But no coward shall rest in that soft-swelling wave ;
Men of Erin ! awake, and make haste to be blest,
Rise — Arch of the Ocean, and Queen of the West !
See Songs qf Ireland, p. 54.

A NEW YEAR'S SONG.
BY d. r. m'cabthy,
Author of" The Poets and Dramatists qf Ireland."
My countrymen, awake ! arise!
Our work begins anew,
Your mingled voices rend the skies,
Your hearts are firm and true,
You've bravely marched, and nobly met,
Our httle green isle through ;
But, oh ! my friends, there's something yet
For Irishmen to do '.
As long as Erin hears the clink
Of base ignoble chains —
As long as one detested link
Of foreign rule remains —
As long as of our rightful debt
One smallest fraction's due,
So long, my friends, there's something yet
For Irishmen to do !
Too long we've borne the servile yoke —
Too long the slavish chain —
Too long in feeble accents spoke,
And ever spoke in vain —

APPENDIX. 291
Our wealth has filled the spoiler's net,
And gorg'd the Saxon crew ;
But, oh! my friends, we'll teach them yet
What Irishmen can do !
The olive branch is in our hands,
The white flag floats above !
Peace — peace pervades our myriad bands,
And proud forgiving love !
But, oh ! let not our foes forget
We're men, as Christians, too,
Prepared to do for Ireland yet
What Irishmen should do !
There's not a man of all our land
Our country now can spare,
The strong man with his sinewy hand
The weak man with his prayer !
No whining tone of mere regret,
Young Irish bards, for you ;
But let your songs teach Ireland yet
What Irishmen should do !
And wheresoe'er that duty lead,
There — there your post should be
The coward slave is never freed ;
The brave alone are free !
Oh ! Freedom, firmly fixed are set
Our longing eyes on you ;
And though we die for Ireland yet,
So Irishmen should do !*
See Songs of Ireland, p. 123.

* This Song first appeared in the Nation Newspaper.

292 APPENDIX.

PADDIES EVERMORE.
The hour is past to fawn or crouch
As suppliants for our right ;
Let word or deed unshrinking vouch
The banded millions' might :
Let them who scorned the fountain rill,
Now dread the torrent's roar,
And hear our echoed chorus still,
We're Paddies evermore.
What, though they menace, suffering men
Their threats, and them despise ;
Or promise justice once again,
We know their words are Ues ;
We stand resolved those, rights to claim
They robbed us^ of before,
Our own dearNation and, our name,
As Paddies evermore.
Look round — The Frenchman governs France,
The Spaniard rules in Spain,
The gallant Pole but waits his chance
To break the Russian chain ;
The strife for freedom here begun,
We never will give o'er,
Nor own a land on earth but one—
We're Paddies evermore.
That strong and single love to crush,
The despot ever tried —
A fount it was whose hving gush
His hated arts defied.

APPENDIX. 293
'Tis fresh, as when his foot accursed
Was planted on our shore,
And now and still, as from the first,
We're Paddies evermore.
What reck we though six hundred years
Have o'er our thraldom rolled,
The soul that roused O'Connor's spears,
Still hves as true and bold ;
The tide of foreign power to stem,
Our fathers bled of yore,
And we stand here to-day, like them,
True Paddies evermore.
¦Where's our allegiance ? With the land
For which they nobly died ;
Our duty ? By our cause to stand,
Whatever chance betide ;
Our cherished hope ? To heal the woes,
That rankle at her core ;
Our scorn and hatred ? To her foes,
Like Paddies evermore.
The hour is past to fawn or crouch
As suppliants for our right j
Let word and deed unshrinking vouch
The banded milhons' might ;
Let them who scorned the fountain rill,
Now dread the torrent's roar,
And hear our echoed chorus still,
We're Paddies evermore. See Songs qf Ireland, p. 178.

294 APPENDIX.

DEAR LAND.
When comes the day, all hearts to weigh,
If staunch they be, or vile,
Shall we forget the sacred debt
We owe our mother isle ?
My native heath is brown beneath,
My native waters blue ;
But crimson red o'er both shall spread,
Ere I am false to you, Dear Land —
Ere I am false to you.
When I behold your mountains bold —
Your noble lakes and streams —
A mingled tide of grief and pride
Within my bosom teems.
I think of all, your long, dark thrall —
Your martyrs brave and true ;
And dash apart the tears that start —
We must not weep for you,
Dear Land —
We must not weep for you.
My grandsire died, his home beside ;
They seized and hanged him there ;
His only crime, in evil time,
Your hallowed green to wear.
Across the main his brothers twain
Were sent to pine and rue ;
And still they turned, with hearts that burned,
In hopeless love to you, Dear Land —
In hopeless love to you.

APPENDIX. 295
My boyish ear still clung to hear
Of Erin's pride of yore,
Ere Norman foot had dared pollute
Her independent shore :
Of chiefs, long dead, who rose to head
Some gallant patriot few,
Till all my aim on earth became,
To strike one blow for you, Dear Land
To strike one blow for you.
What path is best your rights to wrest,
Let other heads divine ;
By work or word, with voice or sword,
To follow them be mine.
The breast that zeal and hatred steel,
No terrors can subdue ;
If death should come, that martyrdom,
Were sweet, endured for you,
Dear Land —
Were sweet, endured for you.
See Songs of Ireland, p. 198.

L. — Page 144.
The profound veneration which the peasantry of
Ireland, particularly in the provinces of Munster and
Connaught, entertain for these Sacred Fountains, and
the singular reUgious ceremonies practised by the
devotees who resort to them, form a most curious and
interesting subject of inquiry to the philosopher and
antiquarian.

296 APPENDIX.
The late Dr. Charles O'Connor, an enlightened
Roman Cathohc Divine, who wrote a learned Essay
upon the practice of Well- Worship in Ireland, satis
factorily proves that it is of Pagan origin. Its intro
duction into the island he attributes to the Phoenicians,
and he adduces several authorities to show that if it did
not arise amongst the Chaldeans, it can at least be
traced back to them ; and that from Chaldea it passed
into Arabia, thence into Egypt and Lybia, and lastly
into Greece, Italy, Spain, and Ireland. In all these
countries the vestiges of Well-Worship are still dis
covered by the antiquarian ; but in none of them are
they so numerous, or preserved with such reverence as
in Ireland, where the attachment to ancient customs
and usages is so strong as to have become a national
characteristic. The practice of attaching to the trees in the neigh
bourhood of Wells, bits of rags and other offerings
of propitiation and gratitude to the patron Saint of the
spot, is also an undoubted rehc of Paganism.
Travellers in the East frequently meet with trees
beside fountains covered with similar votive offerings.
Hanway in his "Travels in Persia," says, "we arrived
at a desolate caravanserai, where we found nothing but
water : I observed a tree with a number of rags to the
branches. These were so many charms, which passen-

APPENDIX. 297
gers coming from Ghilan, a place remarkable for agues,
had left there, in a fond expectation of leaving their
disease also in the same spot."— N. P. Willis's Scenery
of Ireland, p. 54 — 5. M.*— Page 147.
Baal's Bridge : — no doubt its name is derived from
the Divinity of Ancient Ireland.
"According to Sanchoniathon, men in the third
generation from Protogonus began to worship the sun
under the name of Baal Samen. The Irish, and all the
other Celtse, worshipped the sun under the very same
title of beat Samam the Lord of Heaven, and the aestuary
of the Mersey is named A&stuarium Belasamena by
Ptolemy." — Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,
Vol. i. p. 63. N.— Page 232.
" Mr. Chbborn explained that about five years ago,
when in company with several advocates of the O'Brien
theory of the Round Towers of Ireland, he was led to
express an opinion, that possibly these buildings,
though erected subsequently to the introduction of
nominal Christianity into Ireland, might still have, to
a certain extent, some analogies to views entertained by
* The Pools of Bethesda and Siloam, and the washing in the
River Jordan afford proofs of the ancient practice of attempting to
effect a cure through the medium of Holy Water.

298 APPENDIX.
the African and Asiatic ascetics, and which might have
been imported into Ireland by the first Christians in
the third century, who, if from Africa or Spain, may
have brought with them more or less of Gnosticism.
The first nominal Christians, if he had been correctly
informed, who came to Ireland, were lay Ascetics ; and
like the Ascetics of Egypt and the East, they selected
secluded vaUeys in the mountains, or islands in lakes,
where they gave themselves up to those penitential
observances calculated, according to their views, to
destroy the "hylic or material," to humble and conquer
the "psychic or animal," and to elevate and cultivate
the "pneumatic or spiritual" principle of thefr natures.
It was argued that if the Tower was the residence of
the Irish Ascetics during their Uves, it may have been
considered the type of the plus " male pneumatic," or
spiritual principle ; and so the earth, grave, crypt, or
church near it, in which were deposited the bodies, or
material principles of the deceased, originally derived
from mother earth, may have been considered the type
of the negative female, hylic, or material principle, and
have been considered analogous to Ge, or De-Meter, to
whom the body of the dead returned, by interment.
The "hylic principle" including the materials com
posing the body, was little more than the locus where
the battle of the two other principles was fought during

APPENDIX. 299
the life of the Ascetic ; and if he persevered to death in
the practices prescribed for the evolution of the pneu
matic principle, and lost his Ufe in these observances, or
in the fulfilment of the duties which belonged to this
system, his victory over the hylic, or psychic principles
was complete, and he was said to have arrived at
" perfect virtue," and consequently became, according
to Asiatic views, an inferior or little Bauddha, which
may, possibly, give us an origmal of the name Monas-
terboyse, in Irish, the Monastery of Boaithin, or the
little Bauddha. The legend of St. Columbe Cille, who
struck his crozier against the glass ladder, by which he
went to Heaven, which belongs to this place, and which
strongly corroborates a Ceylonese legend, increases the
suspicion, that the system which was called here
Christian, originally may have been analogous to that
Ascetic system which existed under the same name in
Egypt and the East, and was closely allied to Baudd-
hism, which was, and is, a system of Asceticism, mixed
up with more or less pure Gnosticism ; for " the
greatest parts of the Gnostics adopted very austere
rules of life, recommended vigorous abstinence, and
prescribed severe bodily mortifications, with the view
of purifying and exalting the mind" like the Irish
Ascetics. " These tenets were revived in Spain in the
fourth centurv, bv a Sect called Priscillianists," where

300 APPENDIX.
they may have been to a certain degree, suppressed by
the instrumentality of Missionaries and Seculars from
Rome. The same system which existed in Spain
previously, and which planted those views there after
wards, may have also planted them here ; and the
same means which suppressed them there for a time,
may have here suppressed them : or there may have
been, to a certain degree, for several centuries, a com
promise between the advocates of both systems ; and
that which was finaUy adopted here, and caUed Chris
tianity, may have, in a correct way, contained much
Gnosticism, particularly that branch of it, which was
adopted by the Ascetics, or Culdees, and small reUgious
Communities, and by whom the first Towers may have
been originaUy built. It is a curious circumstance, not
hitherto noticed by any writer on the Round Towers,
that the technical term for a Bauddhist Monastery in
the East, is a tower ; no matter whether it be a cave in
the earth, or a cabin, or palace on its surface." —
Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. n.
p. 566—9. O.— Page 239.
Ware, in his work on the Antiquities of Ireland,
states it as his opinion, that the Phoenicians were the
original colonisers of this country, and that they used

APPENDIX. 301
boats made of osiers or wicker-work, and covered with
skins, in which they navigated the bays and the mouths
of the rivers. The ancient Irish, he says, made use of
another kind of boat in the rivers and lakes, formed out
of an oak wrought hoUow, which is called by the Irish
coiti, and by the EngUsh cott, a vessel weU known to
antiquity under other names. PUny calls boats hollowed
out of a single beam monoxyloe, from a Greek word of
that import, and describes them to be — lintres ex uno
ligno excavates, — i. e. boats formed out of one piece of
timber wrought hoUow.
And in another place PUny relates that the German
pirates sailed in boats hoUowed out of single trees, each
of which they made so large as to contain thirty men.
— Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. n.
p. 248.

P.— Page 246.
LETRILLA.
A coger el trebol damas,
La maflana de San Juan,
A coger el trebol damas,
Que1 despues no habra lugar.
Sahd con la aurora
Quando el campo dora ;
Y vereis bordado,
De aljofar el prado,

302 APPENDIX.
Cogereis las flores,
De varios colores,
De que en vuestras faldas
Texereis guirnaldas,
Con qui al nino ciego
Podreis coronar :
A coger el trebol, etc.
Vereis como el alba
Hace al mundo salva,
Y cantan las aves,
Con voces suaves ;
Crista! transparente
Que por mil soslayos
Le hieren los rayos
A donde del fresco
Podreis bien gozar :
A coger el trebol etc.
Cogereis la rosa
La violet a hermosa,
El jazmin preciado,
Y el lirio morado,
Los roxos claveles,
Con los mirabeles,
Y a vueltas de grama,
Pagiza retama,
Con otras mil flores
Dignas de loar :
A coger el trebol etc.
See Quintana's Collection, Vol. n. p. I35.

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