_Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant_ (Vol. viii., p. 366.).--I venture to
suggest whether this expression may not be something more than a bull, as
[Old English W]. inclines to call it. If any one will look at a physical
map of Ireland at some little distance, a very slight exercise of the
"mind's eye" will serve to call up in the figure of that island the shape
of a creature kneeling and in pain. Lough Foyle forms the eye; the coast
from Bengore Head to Benmore Head the nose or snout; Belfast Lough the
mouth; the coast below Donaghdee the chin; County Wexford the knees. The
rest of the outline, according to the imagination of the observer, may
assume that of an elephant, or something, perhaps, "very like a whale."
Some fanciful observation of this kind may have suggested the otherwise
unaccountable simile to Curran.