To-morrow I set out, 'et bien à regret.' I carry with me a precious
memorial,--one of the few perfectly delightful pictures which I have met
with in my wanderings.
In my walk this morning, I found heath-plants of such luxuriance hanging
from the rocks, that one stalk measured ten feet in length. The
gardener, who accompanied me, drew my attention to another curiosity. In
a secluded spot, not far from the pretty rustic dairy, a swarm of bees
had made a large honeycomb in the open air; it was suspended to the
branch of a blackberry-bush in the thicket. The weight of the honey
bowed the branch to the earth; and they were still busily adding to the
store. The dairy is roofed with earth, out of which the purple heather
is growing. A clear spring flows through it, on whose banks the Egyptian
lotus thrives admirably, and stands through the winter.
In the afternoon I rode out with Colonel W---- to visit an eagle's nest.
We first passed the belt of wood in which Lord B----'s pretty
shooting-lodge stands, then forded the swollen river three times, and
after some hours riding, reached a wild desert, where at the foot of a
perpendicular rock stand two solitary huts. About five hundred feet over
head is the eagle's eirie, in a cleft overhung with ivy. At their
hatching season they are frequently seen flying home with fowls, hares,
lambs, &c. for the family table; by some curious instinct, however, they
are warned never to carry off any thing from the two families below
them, but to respect the same laws of hospitality which are observed
towards themselves. I was greatly disappointed that these monarchs of
the rocks did not make their appearance; they were both gone on some
distant expedition.
We returned across the Sugar-loaf. This is the haunt of a wild huntsman,
and no mortal tally-ho may sound as far as his right of sporting
extends. If any attempt it, he quickly rushes by with all his wild
troop, and hurries the rash offender along in his train. He is of a
totally different nature from his German comrade. He is an elfin king,
as small as Tom Thumb, splendidly dressed in emerald green, and
accompanied by a train mounted on horses as big as rats, who gallop over
rock and sea with the swiftness of lightning. The Sugar-loaf itself is
the great resort of all the Irish fairies: its caverns are full of
fossil-shells and stones of fantastic shapes, which excite the curiosity
of the visitor; but no native would pass a night in one of them for all
the treasures the earth contains. From the summit of this mountain, or
rather rock, down to the cavern, a strange sport of nature is visible in
clear weather;--two channels or grooves, winding, but always parallel,
which in the distance look exactly like ruts: what could they be but the
track of the fairy queen's carriage, in which indeed many an old
mountaineer has seen her at rise or set of sun, riding in unearthly pomp
to grace the annual feast with her presence. The old man would doubtless
be ready to confirm his statement with the most solemn oaths,--for he
believes it. This it is which gives to the legends of the Irish such a
wonderful charm that it is almost impossible to withstand it.
Colonel W----, who was formerly a passionate lover of the chase, knows
every mountain in the district from the summit to the foot, and 'chemin
faisant,' told me so many interesting particulars about them, that my
letter would never come to an end if I attempted to make it the faithful
echo of all his stories.
Hunting is here attended with dangers of no trifling kind. They are of
three sorts: first, the being suddenly surprised in the midst of the
rocks with one of those cold fogs which here frequently come on, and
enwrap the wanderer with almost instant darkness and icy chill; he has
then only the alternative either of perishing from cold (for the fogs
sometimes hang in the gorges for whole days and nights,) or of falling
headlong down some invisible precipice. If he is in favour with the
fairies, he emerges happily into light; but wo to him who has incurred
their displeasure!--his friends find him the next morning frozen or
dashed to pieces. The second peril is of quite a different kind. On the
wide interminable tablelands, which blend with the horizon like the sea,
not a bush or hillock breaking the sublime monotony, are extensive bogs,
which the game (the grouse, a bird somewhat like a partridge, peculiar
to the British islands,) chooses as its favourite haunt. These bogs are
full of little clumps like mole-hills, formed by the heather, scattered
about at intervals. The bogs can only be traversed by jumping from one
of these clumps to another: if in the ardour of the chase the sportsman
misses his leap, and does not find another clump close by to jump to
instantly, he is certain to sink in the morass. The only means of
deliverance is instantly to stretch out his arms, or to hold his gun
horizontally, till help arrives, or till he can struggle on to the next
clump.
But worse and more tremendous than all this, is an attack from one of
the wild oxen which inhabit these mountains. Colonel W---- has been
several times in this predicament, and always had the good fortune to
escape, though in different ways. Once he or his servant shot the bull
before he came up with them: another time he took refuge in one of the
bogs I have just described, where the furious beast dare not follow him,
but laid regular siege to him for more than an hour. The history of his
latest adventure seemed to me particularly curious, and proves that man,
with strength, courage and address, may single-handed resist any other
living creature. Colonel W---- was accompanied by a friend, and by a
native of these mountains, who led the dogs, and was furnished with a
long white staff, such as is in use here. Just as the Colonel's friend
shot a grouse, he saw at the distance of about eighty feet a bull
advancing furiously towards them. Colonel W---- called out to his friend
to load instantly, while he fired; and was taking aim, when the man
called out, "Promise me a glass of whiskey extra, and I will manage the
beast by myself." W---- fired, but his gun missed fire; his friend had
not loaded; and he had hardly time to call out, "You shall have a dozen
bottles," when this hero of the mountains ran towards the ox at the same
speed with which it was rushing upon them. In the twinkling of an eye
they were together. The young man, with singular dexterity, caught the
horns of the bull, whose head grazed the earth, darted a step sideways,
and then during the spring of his antagonist, making a similar step
backwards, with the rapidity of lightning caught the bull's tail,
without letting go his stick. All this was done with the quickness of
thought; and now began the strangest race that ever was beheld. The bull
tried by every means to get rid of the burthen hanging at his tail, but
in vain. Up hill and down, over rock, and through river, he ran like
mad; while his companion, like a Kobold, swung himself over every
obstacle, often flying rather than running, at the end of the creature's
tail. In a short time the bull was wearied by fear and fatigue, and at
length sank down exhausted and powerless at the foot of a green
declivity, immediately in front of the spot where Colonel W---- and his
friend beheld with astonishment the issue of the contest. But his
punishment only now began, and probably his vicious temper was on that
day cured for ever. For now the mountaineer began to employ his stick,
weighted with lead and armed with an iron point, which he had
providentially kept as an instrument of correction, and belabouring the
beast with all his might, forced him to crawl down the mountain, where
he at length sank, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and panting
for breath, at Colonel W----'s feet, who left him in this state of
total exhaustion. The young peasant, whom Colonel W---- described as a
wonder of youthful power and agility, seemed, on the contrary, not the
least fatigued by his chase, nor vain of his achievement; but coolly
looking about for his powder-horn and his dogs, did not expend a word on
the past, except just to wink to Colonel W----, and say, "Now, master,
don't forget the bottles."
The sight of a fox-chase among these rocks must be magnificent,--now
sweeping along their heights or sides,--now fox and hounds darting down
the steep declivities, all suddenly vanishing like a shadowy picture in
the gorges. Colonel W---- once saw such a one from Hungry Hill, in which
the whole pack ran under the arch of the waterfall, while their cry
mingled wildly with the roaring of the cataract, till at last Reynard
experienced the same lot which had befallen three or four of the dogs;
he slipped from the polished rock, and fell, amid shouts and halloos,
from a height of several hundred feet into the midst of the hunters, who
were looking on at their ease from the meadow below.
Shall I tell you any more stories?--Well, then, once more for witches
and fairies: saddle me the poney, and away to the land of tales and
legends; of the land-rocks, and the waves which for ages have fretted
them away with their snow-white teeth.
Jump up behind me, Julia, 'en croupe,' like an Irish girl, and follow me
quickly through the air, back to Iveragh, O'Connell's wild region. Truly
is it a land of the eagle and the vulture, of the stormy wave and the
rugged rock! But there is a spot in Ballinskellig bay, not far from
O'Connell's Castle-abbey, where in old times many a dance was danced,
and many a wedding celebrated. For peaceful and lovely was the lonely
spot, with its velvet turf; its high walls of rock sheltered it from the
storm, and sand smooth as satin edged the sea, which seemed to sleep,
like the entire creation, in the clear moonlight, its little billows
only lightly ruffled by the zephyr's breath, rolling and curling with a
dreamy soothing motion.