You make me laugh by your gratitude for my diligence in writing. Are you
not aware that I can have no greater enjoyment? I have hardly written a
word before I feel myself at home, and new comfort and courage are
infused into my heart.
Do you remember the young parson at Bray? Though he converted the God of
Mercy into the greatest of all tyrants, he himself is a very
good-hearted fellow 'qui n'y entend pas malice.' He gave me such a
hearty invitation to accompany him to his father's house in
Connaught,--who, as he assured me, was no less hospitable than
rich,--that I consented, 'et m'y voilà!' This wild part of Ireland,
seldom visited by natives, never by foreigners, has such a bad name,
that there is a proverb--'Go to hell and Connaught!' It was therefore a
matter worthy of deliberation; but what deters others often attracts
me;--such situations too I have often found the richest in amusement.
The present promises me this in abundance, at least so far as novelty
and strangeness go.
Yesterday evening after dinner we left the metropolis in my carriage. We
had just a hundred-and-one miles to go. In England this is soon
accomplished; here things are very differently managed, and it took us
four-and-twenty hours.
The scenery is strikingly like the Wendish districts of Lower Lusatia,
whither my unlucky stars once drove me; except that there are thick
woods, while here, with the exception of a few arid furs, they appear
only to _have been_. Boundless plains are covered with bog and turf; the
oakwood, thousands of years old, which is found sometimes at a great
depth, fetches a high price for decorative furniture; snuff-boxes and
ladies' ornaments are likewise made of it. The other part of the soil is
sandy or wet: the dry lands are meagre and barren; but on the other hand
the bog cultivation, which is admirably understood, is very successful.
The bog is first levelled, the projecting part being cut into squares of
turf, and the soil then burnt and sown with corn. All the bogs appear to
be remarkably deep: the principal crops are buckwheat, potatoes, and
oats. The cabins of the inhabitants are beyond description wretched, and
the appearance of all the flat country extremely poor, till you approach
my friend's estate, where Nature becomes more smiling; and blue hills,
the scene of many a wondrous tale, peep above the horizon.
My host, Captain W----, is one of the 'Notables' of his county, but his
house is not better than that of a German nobleman of moderate estate.
English elegance and English luxury are not to be thought of; wax lights
are unknown; port and sherry, but above all 'whiskey-punch,' are the
only beverages: the coffee is detestable; but the food excellent,
nutritious, and plentiful. The house is not over-clean; the small
establishment very respectable from length of service, zeal and
attachment, but of a somewhat unwashed and boorish appearance.
From my chamber windows I penetrate into all the mysteries of the
domestic economy, which is too modest to spread out the dunghills as
chief 'point de vûe,' as in North Germany. The rain (for alas! it does
rain) runs merrily through my windows, and falls in romantic cascades
from the window-sill to the floor, where an old carpet thirstily drinks
the stream. The furniture is rather tottering; but I have tables enough
(a great matter to me with my multitude of things,) and the bed seems at
least large and hard enough. In my chimney burns, or rather smoulders,
capital turf, which not only gives heat, but covers everything with fine
ashes, like an eruption of Vesuvius. All this does not sound
brilliant;--but how largely are these trifles outweighed by the
patriarchal hospitality, the cheerful, easy, unaffected kindness of the
family. It is as if my visit were a distinguished favour, for which all
seem to feel indebted to me as for some real service.
_Sept. 5th._
I like my host very much; he is seventy-two years old, and still hale
and vigorous as a man of fifty. He must have been very handsome, and has
given the world twelve sons and seven daughters,--all by the same wife,
who is still living, though just now too unwell for me to see her. Some
of the sons and daughters have been long married, and the old man sees
his grandsons of twelve at play with his youngest daughter of fourteen.
The greater part of the family is now here, which makes the abode rather
a noisy one; this is increased by the musical talents of the daughters,
who daily perform on an instrument horribly out of tune,--a circumstance
which seems not to annoy them in the slightest degree.[128] The men
generally talk about horses and dogs, and are somewhat uninstructed.
To-day a country squire in the neighbourhood searched long and patiently
in a map of Europe for the United States:--at last his brother-in-law
gave him the fortunate suggestion of trying his luck on the map of the
world. The occasion of the search was, that the old gentleman wanted to
show me Halifax and B---- town, which latter takes its name from him. He
laid the first stone of both during the American war, in which he
commanded seven hundred men, and loves to recal those days of his youth
and importance. The scrupulous and chivalrous courtesy of his manners,
the constant and ready sacrifice of his own convenience to others, are
proofs of the education of times long passed, and marks his age more
surely than his appearance does.
Our amusements for some days to come are arranged as follows.--In the
morning we go to church; the day after to the town of Galway, to see
some horse-races, in which the poor animals not only run a German mile,
but in the course of it have to leap several walls! They are ridden by
gentlemen. In the evening is a ball, at which I am promised a sight of
all the beauty of the neighbourhood.
To tell you the truth, touched as I am by the kindness shown me in this
house, I rather dread a long stay: I should, however, vex these
excellent, cordial people if I showed it; 'Je m'exécute donc de bonne
grace.'
_Sept. 7th._
The manners here are so old-fashioned that the master of the house every
day drinks to my health, and we have no napkins at table, for which
pocket-handkerchiefs or the corners of the table-cloth are obliged to
serve as deputies.
We passed four hours this morning in the church of the neighbouring town
of Tuam, and saw four clergymen ordained by the archbishop.
The English Protestant service differs much from ours: it is a strange
mixture of Catholic ceremony and Protestant simplicity. Pictures on the
walls are not suffered,--on the windows they are. The dress of the
priests, even of the archbishops, consists only of a white surplice. On
the other hand, the seat of the latter, built like a throne, covered
with purple velvet and adorned with an archbishop's crown, stands
ostentatiously opposite to the chancel. The sermon is read, and lasts
very long. The most wearisome part, however, both before and after it,
is the endless repetition of antiquated and contradictory prayers, the
burthen to which is occasionally re-echoed in singing from the choir.
These form a perfect course of English history. Henry the Eighth's
ecclesiastical revolution, Elizabeth's policy, and Cromwell's
puritanical exaggerations, meet and shake hands; while certain favourite
phrases are repeated every minute, many of which are more characteristic
of cringing slaves prostrate in the dust before an eastern tyrant, than
of Christian freedom and dignity.
The text was chosen, strangely enough, from the story of the passage of
the evil spirits into the herd of swine; and after this had been
discussed for an hour, the four priests were ordained.
The old archbishop, who enjoys a high reputation for strict orthodoxy,
has a very dignified air, and a fine sonorous voice; but the deportment
of the young divines displeased me exceedingly; it was disgustingly
hypocritical. They continually wiped their eyes with their
pocket-handkerchiefs, held them before their faces as if in the deepest
emotion, answered with a broken voice;--in short, Herrnhuters could not
have acted it better: 'La grace n'y étoit pas;'--of no kind.
One of the oddest customs is, that every body during the short prayer at
coming and going, turns himself to the wall, or into a corner, as if he
were doing something not fit to be seen.
I must frankly confess it,--I do not understand how a reflecting man can
be edified by such a service. And yet how beautiful, how elevating might
the service of God be, if while we dismissed all ridiculous and
unmeaning ceremonies, we did not require an abstract worship, from which
sense were utterly excluded,--an impossibility for creatures of sense!
Why should we not devote all our best powers to the honour of him who
gave them? Why not employ every art in its highest perfection, in order
to consecrate to God the noblest, the finest works that the human
faculties can produce?
I can imagine a congregation, whose piety is equally removed from mean
servility and from arrogant conceit; who meet to praise the infinite
greatness and love of the Universal Father, and the wonders of his
creation--not to bring within the walls consecrated to him the hatred of
bigotry and intolerance;--whose creed demands from each man only that
degree of belief which his own inward revelation makes possible to him.
Before my fancy no longer float separate churches for Jews, and for
fifty sorts of Christians; but true temples of God and Man, whose gates
at all times stand open to every human being, who when oppressed by the
Earthly, seeks to have the Holy and the Heavenly within him, animated
and sustained by all the aids and appliances of sense or spirit; or who
longs to pour out the overflowings of his heart, when filled with
happiness and gratitude.
_Galway, Sept. 8th._
We arrived very late on the 'race-course,' and saw little of this day's
sport. The sight of the people was however extremely curious and
interesting to me. In many points of view this nation is really
semi-barbarous. The universal want of decent clothing among the lower
classes, even on festivals like the present; their utter inability to
resist ardent spirits, so long as they have a penny in their pockets;
the sudden and continual wild quarrels and national pitched battles with
the shillelah (a murderous sort of stick which every man keeps hidden
under his rags), in which hundreds take part in a minute, and do not
resist till several are left dead or wounded on the field; the frightful
war-whoop which they set up on these occasions; the revenge for an
affront or injury, which is cherished and inherited by whole
villages:--on the other hand, the light-hearted carelessness which never
thinks of the coming day; the heart-felt merriment, forgetful of all
want and suffering; the kind hospitality which ungrudgingly shares their
last morsel; the unreserved cordiality with the stranger, who makes any
advances to them; the natural fluency and eloquence which they have ever
at command;--all are characteristics of a half-civilized people.
Hundreds of drunken men accompanied our carriages as we drove from the
race-course to the town, and more than ten times, fights arose among
them. The confluence of guests was so great that we with difficulty
found a miserable lodging:--our dinner was however good and very
abundant.
Galway was chiefly built by the Spaniards. Some descendants of the
ancient families still exist, as do several very curious houses of that
period. It struck me as characteristic, that in a town of forty thousand
inhabitants there was not a single bookseller's shop or circulating
library to be found. The suburbs and all the villages through which we
passed on our way, were of a kind which I should vainly attempt to liken
to any thing ever seen before:--pigsties are palaces in comparison; and
I often saw numerous groups of children (for the prolificness of the
Irish people seems to keep pace with their wretchedness), naked as they
came into the world, roll and paddle about with the ducks in the filthy
kennels, with the greatest delight.
_Athenrye, Sept. 10th: Morning._
I write to you this morning from the house of one of the sweetest women
I ever saw in my life: an African too,--and as she tells me, by birth a
Mademoiselle H----. 'Que dites vous de cela?' But more of her hereafter.
You must now accompany me to the 'race-course,' and see the running and
leaping from the beginning. It is a remarkable sight of its kind, and
exactly suited to a half-savage nation. I confess that it far exceeded
my expectations, and kept me in a state of intense anxiety; only one
must leave pity and humanity at home, as you will see from what
follows.--The race-course is an elongated circle. On the left side is
the starting post; opposite to it, on the right, is the goal. Between
them, at the opposite points of the circumference, are built walls of
stone without mortar, five feet high and two broad. The course, two
English miles in length, is run over once and a half. You see then, from
my description, that the first wall must be leaped twice, the second
only once in each heat. Many horses run, but none is declared winner
till he has beaten the others in two heats; so that this is often
repeated three, four, or even five times, if a different horse comes in
a-head each time. To-day they ran four times; so that the winner, in a
space of less than two hours, reckoning the intervals, ran twelve
English miles at full speed and leaped the high wall twelve times!--a
fatigue which it is difficult to conceive how any horse can stand. Six
gentlemen in elegant jockey dresses of coloured silk jackets and caps,
leather breeches and top-boots, rode the 'race.' I had an excellent
hunter belonging to the son of my host, and could, therefore, by
crossing the course, keep up perfectly well, and be present at every
leap.
It is impossible not to have a favourite on such occasions. Mine, and
indeed that of the public, was an extremely beautiful dark bay, called
Gamecock, ridden by a gentleman in yellow,--a handsome young man of good
family, and a most admirable rider.
After him the horse which pleased me the most was a dark brown mare
called Rosina, ridden by a cousin of Captain B----; a bad rider, in sky
blue. The third in goodness, in my opinion, Killarney, was a strong, but
not very handsome horse, ridden by a young man who showed more power of
endurance than perfect horsemanship: his dress was crimson. The fourth
gentleman, perhaps the most skilful, though not the strongest of the
riders, rode a brown horse, not remarkable in its appearance, and was
dressed in brown. The other two deserve no mention, as they were 'hors
du jeu' from the beginning: they both fell at the first leap; the one
sustained a severe injury on the head, the other came off with a slight
contusion, but was disabled from riding again. Gamecock, who darted off
with such fury that his rider could hardly hold him in, and flew, rather
than leapt, over the walls, with incredible bounds, won the first heat
with ease. Immediately after him came Rosina without her rider, whom she
had thrown, and took the remaining leaps of her own accord with great
grace. Gamecock was now so decidedly the favourite that the bets were
five to one upon him: but the result was far different from these
expectations, and very tragical. After this noble animal had distanced
the other two in two successive heats, and had achieved the two first
leaps in the most brilliant manner, he set his foot, in the third, on a
loose stone which one of the less skilful horses had pushed down as he
fell, and which _it was not permitted to remove out of the course_. He
fell backward upon his rider with such violence that both lay
motionless, when the other riders came up, took not the slightest notice
of them, and accomplished the leap. After a few seconds Gamecock got up,
but his rider did not recover his senses. A surgeon present soon
pronounced his state to be hopeless; both his breast-bone and skull were
fractured. His old father, who stood by when the accident happened, fell
senseless on the ground, and his sister threw herself with heart-rending
cries on the yet palpitating though unconscious body. But the general
sympathy was very slight. After the poor young man had been repeatedly
bled, so that he lay on the turf weltering in his blood, he was taken
away, and the race began again at the appointed time as if nothing had
happened.
The brown rider had been the first in the preceding heat, and hoped to
win the last and decisive one. It was what the English call 'a hard
race.' Both horses and men did their part admirably, they ran and leaped
almost in rank. Killarney at last won only by a quarter of a head:--it
was necessary therefore to run again. This last contest was of course
the most interesting, since one of the two running must of necessity win
everything. There was a great deal of betting, which at first was even.
Twice did the victory appear decided, and yet at last terminated on the
contrary side. At the first leap the horses were together; before they
reached the second it was evident that the brown was exhausted, and
Killarney gained so much upon him that he reached the second wall more
than a hundred paces before him. But here, contrary to all expectations,
he refused to leap, and the rider had lost all power over him. Before he
could be brought to obey, the brown came up,--made his leap well; and
now putting out all his strength, was so much a-head that he seemed sure
of winning. Bets were now ten to one. But the last wall was yet to
cross, and this was fatal to him. The tired animal, who had exhausted
his last remaining strength in fast running, tried the leap willingly
enough indeed, but had no longer power to effect it; and half breaking
down the wall, he rolled bleeding over and over, burying his rider under
him so that it was impossible for him to rise. Killarney's rider had in
the mean time brought his refractory horse into subjection, achieved the
two remaining leaps amid the cheers of the multitude, and then rode at a
foot pace, perfectly at his ease and without a rival, to the goal. He
was so exhausted, however, that he could scarcely speak.
In the intervals between the preceeding heats I was introduced to many
ladies and gentlemen, all of whom most hospitably invited me to their
houses. I however preferred following my young host, who promised to
show me the fairest of the fair, if I would give myself up to his
guidance, and not object to riding ten miles in the dark. On the way he
told me that this lady was called Mrs ----, and was the daughter of the
late Dutch governor of ----, that she had had a complaint in the lungs,
and was now staying in the solitary village of Athenrye, on account of
the salubrity of its air.
We did not arrive till ten; and surprised her in her little cottage (for
the place is miserable) at tea.
I wish I could describe this sweet and lovely being to you in such a
manner as to place her visibly before you; certain that you, like me,
would love her at the first glance. But I feel that here all description
falls short:--all about her is heart and soul, and that is not to be
described;--she was dressed in black, with the greatest simplicity, her
dress up to the neck, but fitting closely to her beautiful form. Her
person is slender and extremely youthful, full of gentle grace, and yet
not without animation and fire in her movements. Her complexion is of a
pure and clear brown, and has the soft polish of marble. More beautiful
and brilliant black eyes, or teeth of more dazzling whiteness, I never
beheld. Her mouth too, with the angelic, childlike character of her
smile, is enchanting.
Her refined unaffected good-breeding, the sportive graces of her gay and
witty conversation, were of that rare sort which are innate, and must
therefore please, whether in Paris or in Pekin, in town or country. The
greatest experience of society could not give more ease or address, and
no girl of fifteen could blush more sweetly, or jest more joyously. And
yet her life had been the most simple and uniform, and her youth was
rather the unfading spring of the soul than that of the body; for she
was mother of four children, near thirty, and but just recovered from an
attack on the lungs which had threatened to prove fatal. But the fire of
all her movements, the lightning-flashes of her conversation, had all
the freshness and all the power of youth, imparting a resistless charm
to the gentleness of her nature. One felt that this was the child of a
warmer and kindlier sun, of a more luxuriant soil, than are to be found
in our misty climes. And indeed she felt the most melancholy longings
after her native land, and a painful expression passed over all her
lovely features as she said, she should never more breathe that balmy
air charged with sweet odours. I was too much absorbed in looking at her
to think of food, had she not, with all the kind activity of a good
housewife, made preparations for entertaining us as well as she could
in her little cabin. A table was set in the room in which we sat; so
that our frugal meal caused no interruption to the conversation, and it
was long after midnight ere we separated.
It was not till I was in bed that I learned that, finding it impossible
to get us beds in a place consisting of only a few cabins, this
kind-hearted and unceremonious woman had quitted her own for me, and
gone to sleep with her eldest daughter.
Concerning her family, whose name was necessarily so striking to me,
Mrs ---- herself could tell me but little. She had married Mr ----, then a
captain in the British army, in her twelfth year: immediately afterwards
she lost her father, and embarked with her husband for Ireland, which
she has never left. She had heard, indeed that she had relations in
Germany, but never corresponded with them. Three years ago she received
a business letter from a cousin in A----, announcing that her father's
brother had died and had left her heir to his whole property. The
indifference of this African child of nature went so far, that she had
not only up to the present time left this letter unanswered, but, as she
told me, had never been able to decypher the whole of it, as it was
written in Dutch, and she had almost entirely forgotten the language. "I
don't know the man," added she innocently, "and the money affairs I left
to my husband."
This bathing-place, Athenrye, is also one of the curiosities of Ireland.
From what I have already said, you will conclude that no Polish village
can have a more wretched aspect. The cluster of cabins is on a bare hill
rising out of the bog, without tree or bush, without an inn, without any
convenience, inhabited only by ragged beggars, and by the few invalids
who bring with them everything they want, and must send for even the
most trifling article of food to Galway, a distance of twelve miles.
Once it was otherwise; and it saddens one to see at the further
extremity of this wretched village the proud ruins of better times. Here
stood a rich abbey, now overgrown with ivy: the arches which once
protected the sanctuary lie in fragments amid the unsheltered altars and
tombstones. Further on is a castle, with walls ten feet thick, in which
King John held his court of justice when he came over to Ireland.
I visited these ruins with a most numerous company: I do not exaggerate
when I say that at least two hundred half-naked beings, two-thirds of
whom were children, had collected round my carriage at a very early hour
in the morning, doing nothing: they now thronged round me, all begging,
and shouting, "Long life to your honour!" Every individual among them
stuck faithfully by me, leaping over stones and brambles. The strangest
compliment now and then resounded from the midst of the crowd: at last
some called out, "Long life to the King!" On my return I threw two or
three handfuls of copper among them; and in a minute half of them, old
and young, lay prostrate in the sand, while the others ran with all
speed into a whiskey-shop, fighting furiously all the way.
Such is Ireland! Neglected or oppressed by the government, debased by
the stupid intolerance of the English priesthood, and marked by poverty
and the poison of whiskey, for the abode of naked beggars!--I have
already mentioned that even among the educated classes of this province,
the ignorance appears, with our notions of education, perfectly
unequalled: I will only give you one or two examples. To-day something
was said about magnetism, and no one present had ever heard the
slightest mention of it. Nay, in B----m, in a company of twenty
persons, nobody knew that such places as Carlsbad and Prague existed.
The information that they were situated in Bohemia did not mend the
matter:--Bohemia was not less unknown; and in short, everything out of
Great Britain and Paris was a country in the moon.[129] "And where do
you come from?" asked one. "From Brobdignag," said I in jest. "O! is
that on the sea? Have they whiskey there?" asked another. The son of my
host, whom I have repeatedly mentioned, asked me one day very seriously
as we met some asses, whether there were any such animals in my country?
"Ah! but too many," replied I.
_B----m, Sept. 12th._
Yesterday we returned home, tearing ourselves away from the lovely
African, who however had promised soon to follow us. To-day I took
advantage of a leisure day to ride to Castle Hackett, a solitary hill in
the neighbourhood, believed by the people to be a favourite resort of
the fairies, or 'good people' as they call them. No nation is more
poetical, or more richly endowed with fancy. An old man who has the care
of the woods of Castle Hackett, and has the reputation of knowing more
than other men about the 'good people,' told us these circumstances
connected with the death of his son, in the style of a romance.
"I knew it," said he, "four days before--I knew he would die; for as I
was going home that evening about twilight, I saw them scouring in a
wild chase over the plain: their red dresses fluttered in the wind; and
the lakes turned to ice as they came near, and walls and trees bowed
themselves to the earth before them; and they rode over the tops of the
thicket as if it were over the green grass. In front rode the queen, on
a white stag-like horse; and by her I saw, with a shudder, my son, whom
she smiled upon and caressed; while he, with a fevered eye, looked
wistfully at her, till all were past Castle Hackett. Then I knew it was
all over with him;--that same day he took to his bed;--on the third I
carried him to the grave. There was not a handsomer or a better lad in
Connemara, and it was for that the queen chose him."
The old man seemed so firmly and unaffectedly convinced of the truth of
his story, that it would only have offended him to express the least
doubt of it. He replied to our inquiries for further details with great
readiness, and I promise myself the pleasure of giving you the most
accurate description of the dress of the fairy queen for your next
masked ball. At the foot of this hill is a pretty country-seat; and the
hill itself is covered to its summit with young and thriving
plantations. On the top is a sort of artificial ruin, made of loose
stones piled together,--laborious and almost dangerous to climb. The
view from it is, however, worth the exertion. On two sides the eye
wanders over the almost immeasurable plain; on the other two lies Lough
Corrib, a lake thirty miles in length, behind which are the mountains of
Clare; and in still remoter distance the romantic ridge of Connemara.
The lake just at its middle bends inland like a river, and its waters
gradually lose themselves between the lofty mountains, which seem to
form a gateway for their entrance. Just at this point the sun set; and
Nature, who often rewards my love for her, displayed one of her most
wondrous spectacles. Black clouds hung over the mountains, and the whole
heavens were overcast. Only just at the point where the sun looked out
from beneath the dusky veil, issued a stream of light which filled the
whole ravine with a sort of unearthly splendour. The lake glittered
beneath it like molten brass; while the mountains had a transparent,
steel-blue lustre, like the gleam of diamonds. Single streaks of
rose-coloured cloud passed slowly across this illumined picture over the
mountains; while on both sides of the opened heavens, distant rain fell
in torrents, and formed a curtain which shut out every glimpse of the
remaining world. Such is the magnificence which Nature has reserved for
herself alone, and which even Claude's pencil could never imitate.
On our way home my young friend discoursed largely on the perfections of
Mrs L----. Among other things, he said, "Never with all her vivacity did
I see, even for an instant, the least trace of impatience or ill-humour
about her; never had a woman a sweeter temper." This word is, like
'gentle,' untranslatable. Only the nation which invented 'comfort' was
capable of conceiving 'good temper,' for 'good temper' is to the moral
what 'comfort' is to the physical man. It is the most contented, the
most _comfortable_ state of the soul: the greatest happiness both for
those who possess it, and for those who feel its influence. Perhaps it
is found in perfection in woman alone; for it is rather a passive than
an active quality: and yet we must by no means confound it with mere
apathy, which is either tedious, or exasperates one's anger and
contempt; whereas 'good temper' soothes and tranquillizes all who
approach it. It is a truly kind, loving and cheerful principle; mild and
balmy as a cloudless Mayday. With 'gentleness' in his own character,
'comfort' in his house, and 'good temper' in his wife, the earthly
felicity of man is complete. 'Good temper,' in the highest sense, is
doubtless one of the rarest qualities;--the consequence of an absolute
harmony, or equilibrium of the moral powers,--the most perfect _health
of the soul_. Great and striking single qualities cannot therefore be
combined with it; for wherever one quality is predominant, the
equilibrium is destroyed. It is possible to be most captivating, to
inspire passionate love, admiration or esteem, without 'good
temper;'--to be _perfectly_ and lastingly amiable without it, it is
impossible. The contemplation of harmony in all things has a salutary
effect on the mind; often unconscious of the cause, the soul is
gladdened and refreshed by it, whatever be the sense through which it is
communicated. A person therefore who is gifted with 'good temper,'
affords us continual enjoyment, without ever awakening our envy, or
exciting any vehement emotion. We gain strength from his tranquillity,
courage from his cheerfulness, comfort from his resignation; we feel our
anger vanish before his loving patience, and are finally the better and
the happier for listening to the spiritual music of his harmony.
How many words, you will say, to describe one! And yet, dear Julia, I
have very imperfectly expressed what 'good temper' is.
_September 13th._
The beautiful view of yesterday evening enticed me to take a nearer
survey of what I had beheld at a distance. My obliging friend speedily
fitted out an equipage for this purpose, a little 'char à banc,' which
was drawn by two horses 'tandem' (one horse before another). We
determined to visit Lake Corrib, Cong and its caverns, and to return in
the night. After four hours smart trotting, and some little accidents
to our frail tackle, we reached Cong, at a distance of twenty miles,
where we ate a breakfast we had brought with us, of lobster prepared
after the Irish fashion.[130] Knives and forks were not to be had, so
that we adopted the Chinese mode of eating. We then set out to the
caverns, accompanied as usual by a half-naked _cortège_.
Every one of them was on the watch to do us some service: if I stooped
to pick up a stone, ten or a dozen scrambled for it, and then asked for
money; if there was a gate to open, twenty rushed to it, and expected a
like reward. After I had given away all my small money, came one who
affirmed that he had shown me some trifle or other. I unwillingly
refused him, and told him my purse was empty. "Oh," said he, "a
gentleman's purse can never be empty!"--no bad answer; for under the
form of a compliment lurks a sort of reproach. "You look too much like a
'gentleman' not to have money, but if you are so ungenerous as not to
give any, you are not a true gentleman; and, if you really have none,
still less are you one." The crowd felt this, and laughed till I bought
my deliverance from him.
But to return to the 'Pigeon-hole.' It lies in the middle of a field,
bare, and treeless, which, although flat, is covered with masses of
limestone of a peculiar form, between which the scanty soil is with
difficulty cultivated. These pieces of rock are as smooth as if polished
by art, and look like stones regularly piled and half prepared for some
colossal building. In this rocky plain, at about half a mile from Lough
Corrib, is the entrance of the cave, like a broad dark well, in which
thirty or forty steps, roughly hewn in the rock, lead down to the
stream, which here flows subterraneously, making its way through long
and romantic arches, till at length it rises into day, and turns a mill.
It then buries itself a second time in the earth, and at length appears
again as a broad, deep, and crystal river, and thus flows on till it
falls into the lake.
Not far from the cave before which we were now standing lives a 'Donna
del Lago' who pays the lord of the soil four pounds a-year for the
privilege of showing the 'Pigeon-hole' to strangers. She was admirably
fitted for the porteress of such an entrance to the nether world, and
indeed the whole scene could not be better 'in character,' as the
English say. We had descended the steps in the dark, and heard the rush
of invisible waters, when the gigantic, haggard old woman, with a
scarlet cloak loosely thrown around her, long streaming white hair, and
a firebrand in each hand, came down--the living original of Meg
Merrilies. It was a wild scene! Her flickering torches threw fitful
gleams on the rolling water, and the lofty vaulted roof bristling with
stalactites; and now and then brought out the pale and squalid figures
behind her with a broad red glare. She took some bundles of straw, and
with words which sounded like an incantation, lighted them and threw
them blazing into the stream. As they floated rapidly away, they
disclosed new grottoes, more grotesque forms, and at length, after a
hundred windings, disappeared in the distance like small tapers. We
followed them, scrambling over the slippery stones as far as we could,
and discovered here and there a trout in the ice-cold water. They have
this peculiarity, that whatever bait may be offered them, no attempt to
catch one has ever succeeded. The people of course think them enchanted.
On emerging from the darkness to the spot where daylight breaks faintly,
as down a shaft, you see the ivy and creeping plants hang around the
rocks in the most picturesque festoons and garlands. Here flocks of wild
pigeons roost, whence the cave has its name. The popular superstition
permits no sportsmen to molest them in this spot, so that they are
fearless as in a dove-cote.
We quitted this gloomy region, where all is close and oppressive, and
wandered down to the broad sea-like lake, where all seems to lose itself
in boundless space. This majestic body of water fills a basin of twelve
German miles long, and at its widest point, three broad. It contains
just as many islands as the year days; at least so the natives
assert,--I did not count them. It is bounded on two sides by the high
mountains of Connemara; on the others its waters are nearly level with
the plain: the approach to it opposite to the mountains was, therefore,
more beautiful than the return. The navigation of this lake is very
dangerous from its numerous rocks and islands, and the sudden squalls
which often arise upon it. We saw in a newspaper a short time ago, that
a boat, having on board a butcher and his sheep, had gone down, and man
and beast perished. We had a very calm, though not a bright day. When we
landed, my companion went before to give some orders; while as the sun
was setting, I visited the ruins of an abbey, which contained some
striking remains of architectural and sculptural beauty.
Ireland is studded with ruins of old castles and monasteries more
thickly than any country in Europe, though they do not present such
enormous masses as those in England. These _old_ ruins (for
unfortunately even here are many new ones) are constantly used by the
people as places of burial,--a poetical idea, peculiar, I believe, to
this nation. As there are none of those tasteless modern monuments which
deform English churches, and the grave is marked only by a mound of
earth, or at most a flat stone, the touching picture of human frailty is
enhanced, not impaired, by this custom. The impression is, however,
sometimes heightened into horror by the little heed paid by those who
dig the graves to the earlier buried, whose skeletons are thrown out
without ceremony as soon as there is a want of room. The ruins are
consequently filled with heaps of skulls and bones thrown confusedly
together, and sometimes placed in pyramids or other forms by children at
play. I climbed over a heap of mingled stones and bones, and crawled up
into a ruinous chamber of the first story, where I feasted myself on the
strange romantic picture. On my left the wall had fallen in, and opened
to the eye the beautiful landscape which surrounds the lake, with its
bright-green foreground, the mountains in the distance, and on one side
the house and the high trees in the park of the Macnamaras, who reside
here. Before me was a window in good preservation, surrounded with
carvings like 'point d'Alençon;' above it hung large bunches of deep
purple blackberries pendant from their luxuriant branches, which crept
in one continuous mass along the open wall. On the right, where the wall
of the chamber remained perfect, was a low niche, which no doubt
formerly contained a saint, but was now occupied by a skull; the empty
eye-sockets were directed exactly towards the beautiful landscape spread
before it, as if its brilliancy and freshness had power to gladden even
death itself. Following the same direction, I discovered a grated window
just above the ground, which I had till then overlooked: it gave light
to a spacious cellar, in which I descried a vast heap of bones, all
arranged in the way I have mentioned, in various forms. The sunny
landscape above, the dark charnel-house below, in which childhood
sported with death,--it was a glance at once into life and the
grave,--the joys of the one, and the unsympathizing calm of the other;
while the rays of the setting sun threw a cheering glow over the living
and dead, like messengers from a fairer world.
Our return in a dark night, with incessant rain, was fatiguing and
unpleasant; we broke several springs of our carriage, and had all sorts
of calamities to endure. We arrived at B---- after midnight, and to my
real dismay found the good old Captain and the whole family still up,
and waiting supper for us. The prodigal attentions and the infinite
kindness of these excellent people daily put me to shame, and I
continually admire to see that their cordial hospitality is not deformed
by the slightest trace of ostentation.
That my letter may not be too large, and cost too much postage, (for I
have to pay some pounds sterling to the English post-office for my
voluminous packets,) I close it before I leave B----m. You will know me
safe and well up to this point, and in the care of people whose hearts
are like your own, however inferior to you they may be in mind and
cultivation.--Heaven bless and preserve you.
Your most faithful L.----.