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diff --git a/38817.txt b/38817.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..295bac6 --- /dev/null +++ b/38817.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1629 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, No. 1, Vol. 1, +July 4, 1840, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Irish Penny Journal, No. 1, Vol. 1, July 4, 1840 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 10, 2012 [EBook #38817] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH PENNY JOURNAL, JULY 4, 1840 *** + + + + +Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net ((This file was produced from +images generously made available by JSTOR +http://www.jstor.org/stable/i30000991)) + + + + + + + + + +THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL. + +NUMBER 1. SATURDAY, JULY 4, 1840. VOLUME I. + + + + +[Illustration: THE CASTLE OF AUGHNANURE.] + +THE CASTLE OF AUGHNANURE, + +COUNTY OF GALWAY. + + +Not many years since there was an extensive district in the west of +Ireland, which, except to those inhabiting it, was a sort of terra +incognita, or unknown region, to the people of the British isles. It had +no carriage roads, no inns or hotels, no towns; and the only notion +popularly formed of it was that of an inhospitable desert--the refugium +of malefactors and Irish savages, who set all law at defiance, and into +which it would be an act of madness for any civilized man to venture. +This district was popularly called the Kingdom of Connemara, a name +applied to that great tract extending from the town of Galway to the +Killery harbour, bounded on the east by the great lakes called Lough +Corrib and Lough Mask, and on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and +comprising within it the baronies of Moycullen and Ballinahinch, and the +half barony of Ross. It is not an unknown region now. It has two +prosperous towns and several villages, good roads, and comfortable +hotels. "The Queen's writ will run in it;" and the inhabitants are +remarkable for their intelligence, quietness, honesty, hospitality, and +many other good qualities; and in the summer months it is the favourite +resort of the artist, antiquary, geologist, botanist, ornithologist, +sportsman--in short, of pleasure tourists of all descriptions, and from +every quarter of the British empire; for it is a district singularly +rich in its attractions to all those who look for health and pleasure +from a summer's ramble, combined with excitable occupation. Of its +picturesque beauties much has already been written. They have been +sketched by the practised hand of Inglis, and by the more graphic pencil +of Caesar Otway; but its history and more important antiquities have been +as yet but little noticed, and, consequently, generally passed by +without attracting the attention or exciting any interest in the mind of +the traveller. We propose to ourselves to supply this defect to some +extent, and have consequently chosen as the subject of our first +illustration the ancient castle, of which we have presented our readers +with a view, and which is the most picturesque, and, indeed, important +remain of antiquity within the district which we have described. + +Journeying along the great road from Galway to Oughterard, and at the +distance of about two miles from the latter, the attention of the +traveller will most probably be attracted by a beautiful little river, +over which, on a natural bridge of limestone rock, the road passes; and +looking to the right, towards the wide expanse of the waters of Lough +Corrib, he will perceive the grey tower or keep of an extensive castle, +once the chief seat or fortress of the O'Flaherties, the hereditary +lords of West Connaught, or Connemara. This castle is called the Castle +of Aughnanure, or, properly, _Achaidh-na-n-Jubhar_, Acha-na-n-ure, or +the field of the yews--an appellation derived from the number of ancient +trees of that description which grew around it, but of which only a +single tree now survives. This vestige is, however, the most ancient and +interesting ruin of the locality. Its antiquity must be great +indeed--more than a thousand years; and, growing as it does out of a +huge ledge of limestone rock, and throwing its withered and nearly +leafless branches in fantastic forms across the little river which +divides it from the castle, the picturesqueness of its situation is such +as the painter must look at with feelings of admiration and delight. It +has also its historical legend to give it additional interest; and +unfortunately this legend, though quite in harmony with the lone and +melancholy features of the scene, is but too characteristic of the +unhappy social and political state of Ireland at the period to which it +relates--the most unfortunate period, as it may be emphatically called, +of Ireland's history--that of the civil wars in the middle of the +seventeenth century. The principle, however, which we propose to +ourselves in the conducting of our publication, will not permit us to +give this legend a place in its pages; it may be learned on the spot; +and we have only alluded to it here, in order to state that it is to the +religious veneration kept alive by this tradition that the yew tree of +Aughnanure owes its preservation from the fate which has overtaken all +its original companions. + +The Castle of Aughnanure, though greatly dilapidated by time, and +probably still more so by the great hurricane of last year, is still in +sufficient preservation to convey to those who may examine its ruins a +vivid impression of the domestic habits and peculiar household economy +of an old Irish chief of nearly the highest rank. His house, a strong +and lofty tower, stands in an ample court-yard, surrounded by outworks +perforated with shot-holes, and only accessible through its drawbridge +gateway-tower. The river, which conveyed his boats to the adjacent lake, +and supplied his table with the luxuries of trout and salmon, washes the +rock on which its walls are raised, and forms a little harbour within +them. Cellars, bake-houses, and houses for the accommodation of his +numerous followers, are also to be seen; and an appendage not usually +found in connection with such fortresses also appears, namely, a +spacious banqueting-hall for the revels of peaceful times, the ample +windows of which exhibit a style of architecture of no small elegance of +design and execution. + +We shall probably in some early number of our Journal give a +genealogical account of the noble family to whom this castle belonged; +but in the mean time it may be satisfactory to the reader to give him an +idea of the class of persons by whom the chief was attended, and who +occasionally required accommodation in his mansion. They are thus +enumerated in an ancient manuscript preserved in the College +Library:--O'Canavan, his physician; Mac Gillegannan, chief of the horse; +O'Colgan, his standard-bearer; Mac Kinnon and O'Mulavill, his brehons, +or judges; the O'Duvans, his attendants on ordinary visitings; Mac +Gille-Kelly, his ollave in genealogy and poetry; Mac Beolain, his keeper +of the black bell of St Patrick; O'Donnell, his master of revels; +O'Kicherain and O'Conlachtna, the keepers of his bees; O'Murgaile, his +chief steward, or collector of his revenues. + +The date of the erection of this castle is not exactly known, though it +was originally inscribed on a stone over its entrance gateway, which +existed in the last century. From the style of its architecture, +however, it may be assigned with sufficient certainty to the middle of +the sixteenth century, with the exception, perhaps, of the +banqueting-hall, which appears to be of a somewhat later age. + +While the town of Galway was besieged in 1651 by the parliamentary +forces under the command of Sir Charles Coote, the Castle of Aughnanure +afforded protection to the Lord Deputy the Marquess of Clanricarde, +until the successes of his adversaries forced him and many other nobles +to seek safety in the more distant wilds of Connemara. This event is +thus stated by the learned Roderick O'Flaherty in 1683:-- + +"Anno 1651.--Among the many strange and rare vicissitudes of our own +present age, the Marquis of Clanricarde, Lord Deputy of Ireland, the +Earl of Castlehaven, and Earl of Clancarty, driven out of the rest of +Ireland, were entertained, as they landed on the west shore of this lake +for a night's lodging, under the mean roof of Mortough Boy Branhagh, an +honest farmer's house, the same year wherein the most potent monarch of +Great Britain, our present sovereign, bowed his imperial triple crown +under the boughs of an oak tree, where his life depended on the shade of +the tree leaves." + +There are several of the official letters of the Marquis preserved in +his Memoirs, dated from Aughnanure, and written during the stormy period +of which we have made mention. + +The Castle of Aughnanure has passed from the family to whom it +originally belonged; but the representative and the chief of his name, +Henry Parker O'Flaherty, Esq. of Lemonfield, a descendant in the female +line from the celebrated Grania Waille, still possesses a good estate in +its vicinity. P. + + + + +THE IRISH IN ENGLAND. + +NO. 1.--THE WASHERWOMAN. + +BY MRS S. C. HALL. + + +The only regular washerwomen extant in England at this present moment, +are natives of the Emerald Isle. + +We have--I pray you observe the distinction, gentle reader--laundresses +in abundance. But washerwomen!--all the _washerwomen_ are Irish. + +The Irish Washerwoman promises to wash the muslin curtains as white as a +hound's tooth, and as sweet as "new mown hay;" and she tells the truth. +But when she promises to "get them up" as clear as a kitten's eyes, she +tells a story. In nine cases out of ten, the Irish Washerwoman mars her +own admirable washing by a carelessness in the "getting up." She makes +her starch in a hurry, though it requires the most patient blending, the +most incessant stirring, the most constant boiling, and the cleanest of +all skillets; and she will not understand the superiority of powder over +stone blue, but snatches the blue-bag (originally compounded from the +"heel" or "toe" of a stocking) out of the half-broken tea-cup, where it +lay companioning a lump of yellow soap since last wash--squeezes it into +the starch (which, _perhaps_, she has been heedless enough to stir with +a dirty spoon), and then there is no possibility of clear curtains, +clear point, clear any thing. + +"Biddy, these curtains were as white as snow before you starched them." + +"Thrue for ye, ma'am dear." + +"They are _blue_ now, Biddy." + +"Not all out." + +"No, Biddy, not all over--only _here_ and _there_." + +"Ah, lave off, ma'am, honey, will ye?--'tisn't that I mane; but there's +a hole worked in the blue-rag, bad luck to it, and more blue nor is +wanting gets out; and the weary's in the starch, it got lumpy." + +"It could not have got 'lumpy' if it had been well blended." + +"It was blended like butther; but I just left off stirring one minute to +look at the soldiers." + +"Ah, Biddy, an English laundress would not 'run after the soldiers!'" + +Such an observation is sure to offend Biddy's propriety, and she goes +off in a "huff," muttering that if they didn't go "_look_ afther them, +they'd _skulk_ afther them; it's the London Blacks does the mischief, +and the mistress _ought_ to know that herself. English laundresses +indeed! they haven't power in their elbow to wash white." + +Biddy says all this, and more, for she is a stickler for the honour of +her country, and wonders that I should prefer _any_ thing English to +_every_ thing Irish. But the fact remains the same. + +The actual labour necessary at the wash-tub is far better performed by +the Irish than the English; but the order, neatness, and exactness +required in "the getting up," is better accomplished by the English than +the Irish. This is perfectly consistent with the national character of +both countries. + +Biddy Mahony is without exception the most useful person I know, and +_she_ knows it also; and yet it never makes her presuming. It is not +only as a washerwoman that her talent shines forth: she gets through as +much hard work as two women, though, as she says herself, "the mistress +always finds fault with her _finishing touches_." There she stands, a +fine-looking woman still, though not young; her large mouth ever ready +with its smile; her features expressive of shrewd good humour; and her +keen grey eyes alive and about, not resting for a moment, and withal +cunning, if not keen; the borders of her cap are twice as deep as they +need be, and flap untidily about her face; she wears a coloured +handkerchief inside a dark blue spotted cotton gown, which wraps loosely +in front, where it is confined by the string of her apron; her hands and +wrists have a half-boiled appearance, which it is painful to look +at--not that she uses as much soda as an English laundress, but she does +not spare her personal exertions, and rubs most unmercifully. One bitter +frosty day last winter, I saw Biddy standing near the laundry window, +stitching away with great industry. + +"What are you doing, Biddy?" "Oh, never heed me, ma'am, honey." + +"Why, Biddy, what a state your left wrist is in!--it is positively +bleeding; you have rubbed all the skin off." "And ain't I going to put +a skin on it?" she said, smiling through the tears which positive pain +had drawn from her eyes, in spite of her efforts to conceal them, and +showing me a double piece of wash leather which she was sewing together +so as to cover the torn flesh. Now, was not _that_ heroism? But Biddy +_is_ a heroine, without knowing it. + +And in common with many others of her sex and country, her heroism is of +that patient, self-denying character which "passeth show." She is +uniformly patient--can bear an extraordinary quantity of abuse and +unkindness, and knows quite well that to a certain degree she is in an +enemy's country. Half the bad opinion of the "low Irish," as they are +often insultingly termed, arises from old national prejudices; the other +half is created by themselves, for many of them are provokingly +uproarious, and altogether heedless of the manners and opinions of those +among whom they live. This is not the case with Biddy; she has a great +deal of what we are apt to call "cunning" in the poor, but which we +genteelly denominate "tact" in the rich. While you imagine she is only +pulling out the strings of her apron, she is all eye, ear, and +understanding; she is watchful as a cat; and if she indulges in an +_aside_ jest, which sometimes never finds words, on the peculiarities of +her employers, there is nothing very atrocious in the fact. Poor Biddy's +betters do the same, and term it "badinage." It is not always that we +judge the poor and rich by the same law. + +With young servants the Irish Washerwoman is always a favourite: she is +cheerful, tosses a cup to read a fortune in perfection, and not +unfrequently, I am sorry to say, has half of a dirty torn pack of cards +in her pocket for the same purpose. She sings at her work, and through +the wreath of curling steam that winds from the upraised skylight of the +laundry, comes some old time-honoured melody, that in an instant brings +the scenes and sounds of Ireland around us. She will rend our hearts +with the "Cruskeen laun," or "Gramachree," and then strike into +"Garryowen" or "St Patrick's Day," with the ready transition of interest +and feeling that belongs only to her country. + +Old English servants regard the Irish Washerwoman with suspicion; they +think she does too much for the money, that she gives "Missus" a bad +habit; and yet they are ready enough to put their own "clothes" into the +month's wash, and expect Biddy to "pass them through the tub;" a favour +she is too wise to refuse. + +Happily for the _menage_ of our English houses, the temptation to +thievery which must exist where, as in Dublin, servants are allowed what +is termed "breakfast money," which means that they are not to eat of +their employers' bread, but "find themselves," and which restriction, +all who understand human nature know is the greatest possible inducement +to picking and stealing; happily, I say, English servants have no +temptation to steal the _necessaries_ of life; they are fed and treated +as human beings; and consequently there is not a tithe of the +extravagance, the waste, the pilfering, which is to be met with in Irish +kitchens. + +For all this I blame the system rather than the servant; and it is quite +odd how Biddy accommodates herself to every modification of system in +every house she goes to. The only thing she cannot bear is to hear her +country abused; even a jest at its expense will send the blood mounting +to her cheek; and some years ago (for Biddy and I are old acquaintances) +I used to tease her most unmercifully on that head. There is nothing +elevates the Irish peasant so highly in my esteem as his earnest love +for his country when absent from it. Your well-bred Irishman, in nine +cases out of ten, looks disconcerted when you allude to his country, and +with either a _brogue_ or a _tone_, an oily, easy, musical swing of the +voice, which is never lost, begs to inquire "how you knew he was Irish?" +and has sometimes the audacity to remark, "that people cannot help their +misfortunes." + +But the peasant-born have none of this painful affectation. Hear Biddy +when challenged as to her country: the questioner is a lady. + +"Thrue for ye, madam, I am Irish, sure, and my people before me, God be +praised for it! I'd be long sorry to disgrace my counthry, my lady. Fine +men and women stays in it and comes out of it, the more's the pity--that +last, I mane; it's well enough for the likes of me to lave it; I could +do it no good. But, as to the gentry, the _sod_ keeps them, and _sure +they might keep on the sod_! Ye needn't be afraid of me, my lady; I +scorn to disgrace my counthry; I'm not afraid of my character, or +work--it's all I have to be proud of in the wide world." + +How much more respect does this beget in every right-thinking mind, than +the mean attempt to conceal a fact of which we all, as well as poor +Biddy, have a right to be proud! The greatest hero in the world was +unfortunate, but he was not less a hero; the most highly favoured +country in the world has been in the same predicament, but it is not +less a great country. + +Biddy's reply, however, to any one in an inferior grade of society, is +very different. + +"Is it Irish?--to be sure I am. Do ye think I'm going to deny my +counthry, God bless it! Throth and it's myself that is, and proud of +that same. Irish! what else would I be, I wonder?" + +Poor Biddy! her life has been one long-drawn scene of incessant, almost +heart-rending labour. From the time she was eight years old, she earned +her own bread; and any, ignorant of the wild spirit-springing outbursts +of glee, that might almost be termed "the Irish epidemic," would wonder +how it was that Biddy retained her habitual cheerfulness, to say nothing +of the hearty laughter she indulges in of an evening, and the Irish jig +she treats the servants to at the kitchen Christmas merry-making. + +Last Christmas, indeed, Biddy was not so gay as usual. Our pretty +housemaid had for two or three years made it a regular request that +Biddy should put _her own_ wedding ring in the kitchen pudding--I do not +know why, for Jessie never had the luck to find it in her division. But +so it was. A merry night is Christmas eve in our cheerful English +homes--The cook puffed out with additional importance, weighing her +ingredients according to rule, for "a one-pound or two-pound pudding;" +surveying her larded turkey, and pronouncing upon the relative merits of +the sirloin which is to be "roast for the parlour," and "the ribs" that +are destined for the kitchen; although she has a great deal to do, like +all English cooks she is in a most sweet temper, because there is a +great deal to eat; and she exults over the "dozens" of mince pies, the +soup, the savoury fish, the huge bundles of celery, and the rotund +barrel of oysters, in a manner that must be seen to be understood. The +housemaid is equally busy in _her_ department. The groom smuggles in the +mistletoe, which the old butler slyly suspends from one of the bacon +hooks in the ceiling, and then kisses the cook beneath. The +green-grocer's boy gets well rated for not bringing "red berries on all +the holly." The evening is wound up with potations, "pottle deep," of +ale and hot elderberry wine, and a loud cheer echoes through the house +when the clock strikes twelve. Poor must the family be, who have not a +few pounds of meat, a few loaves of bread, and a few shillings, to +distribute amongst some old pensioners on Christmas eve. + +In our small household, Biddy has been a positive necessary for many +Christmas days, and as many Christmas eves. She was never told to +come--it was an understood thing. Biddy rang the gate bell every +twenty-fourth of December, at six o'clock, and even the English cook +returned her national salutation of "God save all here," with +cordiality. + +Jessie, as I have said, is her great ally; I am sure she has found her +at least a score of husbands, _in the tea cups_, in as many months. + +The morning of last Christmas eve, however, Biddy came not. Six o'clock, +seven o'clock, eight o'clock, and the maids were not up. + +"How did they know the hour?--Biddy never rang." The house was in a +state of commotion. The cook declaring, bit by bit, "that she knew how +it would _hend_!--it was _halways_ the way with them _Hirish_. Oh, +dirty, ungrateful!--very pretty! Who _was_ to _eat_ the copper, or boil +the _am_, or see after the _sallery_, or butter the tins, or _old_ the +pudding cloth?"--while Jessie whimpered, "_or drop the ring in the +kitchen pudding_!" + +Instead of the clattering domestic bustle of old Christmas, every one +looked sulky, and, as usual when a household is not astir in the early +morning, every thing went wrong. I got out of temper myself, and, +resolved if possible never to speak to a servant when angry, I put on my +furs, and set forth to see what had become of my poor industrious +countrywoman. + +She lived at the corner of Gore Lane!--the St Giles's of our respectable +parish of Kensington; and when I entered her little room--which, by the +way, though never orderly, was always clean--Biddy, who had been sitting +over the embers of the fire, instead of sending the beams of her +countenance to greet me, turned away, and burst into tears. + +This was unexpected, and the ire which had in some degree arisen at the +disappointment that had disturbed the house, vanished altogether. I +forgot to say that Biddy had been happily relieved from the blight of a +drunken husband about six years ago, and laboured to support three +little children without ever having entertained the remotest idea of +sending them to the parish. + +She had "her families," for whom she washed at their own houses, and at +over hours "took in" work at her small cottage. + +To assist in this, and also from motives of charity, she employed a +young girl distinguished by the name of Louisa, whom she preserved from +worse than death. This creature she found _starving_; and although she +brought fever amongst her children, and her preserver lost much +employment in consequence, Biddy "saw her through the sickness, and, by +the goodness of Almighty God, would be nothing the worse or the poorer +for having befriended a motherless child." + +Those who bestow from the treasures of their abundance, deserve praise; +but those who, like the poor Irish Washerwoman, bestow half of their +daily bread, and suffer the needy to shelter beneath their roof, deserve +blessings. + +The cause of Biddy's absence, and the cause of Biddy's tears, I will +endeavour to repeat in her own words:-- + +"I come home last night, as usual, more dead than alive, until I got +sitting down with the childre; for, having put two or three potatoes, as +usual, my lady, to heat, just on the bar, I thought, tired as I was, I'd +iron out the few small things 'Loo' had put in blue, particularly a +clane cap and handkercher, and the aprons for to-day, as yer honor likes +to see me nice; and the boy got a prize at school; for, let me do as I +would, I took care they should have the _edication_ that makes the poor +rich. Well, I noticed that Loo's hair was hanging in ringlets down her +face, and I says to her, 'My honey,' I says, 'if Annie was you, and +she's my own, I'd make her put up her hair plain; the way her Majesty +wears it is good enough, I should think, for such as you, Louisa;' and +with that she says, 'It might do for Annie; but for her part, _her_ +mother was a tradeswoman.' Well, I bit my tongue to hinder myself from +hurting her feelings by telling her _what_ her mother was, _for the +blush of shame is the only one that misbecomes a woman's cheek_. + +But I waited till our work was over, and, _picking her out the two mealy +potatoes_, and sharing, as I always did, my half pint of beer with her, +when I had it, I raisoned with her, as I often did before; and looking +to where my three sleeping childre lay, little Jemmy's cheek _blooming +like a rose_, on his prize book, which he took into bed with him, I +called God to witness, that though nature, like, would draw my heart +more to my own flesh and blood, yet I'd see to her as I would to them. + +She made me no answer, but put the potatoes aside, and said, 'Mother, go +to bed.' I let her call me mother," continued Biddy, "it's such a sweet +sound, and hinders one, _when one has it to call_, from feeling lonesome +in the world; it's the shelter for many a breaking heart, and the home +of many a wild one; ould as I am, I miss my mother still! 'Louisa,' I +says, 'I've heard my own childre their prayers--kneel down, a'lanna, +there, and get over them.' + +'My throat's so sore,' she says, 'I can't say 'em out. Don't ye see I +could not eat the potatoes?' This was about half past twelve, and I had +spoke to the po-lis to give me a call at five. But when I woke, the grey +of the morning was in the room with me; and knowing where I ought to +have been, I hustled on my things, and hearing a po-lis below the window +(we know them by the steady tramp they have, as if they'd rather go slow +than fast), I says, 'If you plaise, what's the clock, and why didn't you +call me?' 'It's half past seven,' he says; 'and sure the girl, when she +went out at half past five, said you war up.' + +'My God!--what girl?' I says, turning all over like a _corpse_; and then +I missed my bonnet and shawl, and saw my box empty; she had even taken +the book from under the child's cheek. But that wasn't all. I'd have +forgiven her for the loss of the clothes, and the tears she forced from +the eyes of my innocent child; I'd forgive her for making my heart grow +oulder in half an hour, than it had grown in its whole life before; _but +my wedding ring_, ma'am!--her head had often this shoulder for its +pillow, and I'd throw this arm over her, so. Oh, ma'am darlint, could +you believe it?--she stole my wedding ring aff my hand--the hand that +had saved and slaved for her! The ring! oh, many's the tear I've shed on +it; and many a time, when I've been next to starving, and it has +glittered in my eyes, I've been tempted to part with it, but I couldn't. +It had grown thin, _like myself_, with the hardship of the world; and +yet when I'd look at it twisting on my poor wrinkled finger, I'd think +of the times gone by, of him who had put it on, and _would_ have kept +his promise but for the temptation of drink, and what it lades to; and +those times, when throuble would be crushing me into the earth, I'd +think of what I heard onct--that a ring was a thing like etarnity, +having no beginning nor end; and I'd turn it, and turn it, and turn it! +and find comfort in _believing_ that the little penance here was nothing +in comparison to that without a beginning or an end that we war to go to +hereafter--it might be in heaven, or it might (God save us!) be in the +other place; and," said poor Biddy, "I drew a dale of consolation from +_that_, and _she_ knew it--she, the sarpint, that I shared my children's +food with--_she_ knew it, and, while I slept _the heavy sleep of hard +labour_, she had the heart to rob me!--to rob me of the only treasure +(barring the childre) I had in the world! I'm a great sinner; I can't +say, God forgive her; nor I can't work; and it's put me apast doing my +duty; and Jessie, the craythur, laid ever so much store by it, on +account of the little innocent charrums; and, altogether, it's the +sorest Christmas day that ever came to me. Oh, sure, I wouldn't have +that girl's heart in my breast for a goolden crown--the ingratitude of +her bates the world!" + +It really was a case of the most hardened ingratitude I had ever +known--the little wretch! to rob the only friend she ever had, while +sleeping in the very bed where she had been tended, and tendered, and +cared for, so unceasingly. "She might take all I had in the world, if +she had only left me _that_" she repeated continually, while rocking +herself backwards and forwards over the fire, after the fashion of her +country; "the thrifle of money, the _rags_, and the child's +book--all--and I'd have had a _clane breast_. I could forgive her from +my heart, but I can't forgive her for taking my ring--for taking my +wedding ring!" + +This was not all. The girl was traced and captured; and the same day +Biddy was told she must go to Queen-square to identify the prisoner. + +"Me," she exclaimed, "who never was in the place of the law before, what +can I say but that she tuck it?" + +An Irish cause always creates a sensation in a police-office. The +magistrates smile at each other, the reporter cuts his pencil and +arranges his note-book, and the clerk covers the lower part of his face +with his hand, to conceal the expression that plays around his mouth. + +Biddy's curtsey--a genuine Irish dip--and her opening speech, which she +commenced by wishing their honours "a merry Christmas and plenty of +them, and that they might have the power of doing good to the end of +their days, and never meet with ingratitude for that same," was the only +absurdity connected with her deposition. + +When she saw the creature with whom her heart had dwelt so long, in the +custody of the police, she was completely overcome, and intermingled her +evidence with so many entreaties that mercy should be shown the hardened +delinquent, that the magistrate was sensibly affected. Short as was the +time that had elapsed between Louisa's elopement and discovery, she had +spent the money and pawned the ring: and twenty hands at least were +extended to the Irish Washerwoman with money to redeem the pledge. + +Poor Biddy had never been so rich before in all her life; but that did +not console her for the sentence passed upon her protege, and it was a +long time before she was restored to her usual spirits. She flagged and +pined; and when the spring began to advance a little, and the sun to +shine, her misery became quite troublesome, her continual wail being +"for the poor sinful craythur who was shut up among stone walls, and +would be sure to come out worse than she went in!" + +The old cook lived to grow thoroughly ashamed of the reproaches she cast +on Biddy, and Jessie shows her off on all occasions as a specimen of an +Irish Washerwoman. + + + + +QUICK SENSES OF THE ARAB.--Their eyesight is peculiarly sharp and keen. +Almost before I could on the horizon discern more than a moving speck, +my guides would detect a stranger, and distinguish upon a little nearer +approach, by his garb and appearance, the tribe to which he +belonged.--_Wellsted's City of the Caliphs._ + + + + +THE IRISH IN 1644: + +AS DESCRIBED BY A FRENCHMAN OF THAT PERIOD. + + +We are indebted to our talented countryman, Crofton Croker, for the +translation of the tour of a French traveller, M. de la Boullaye Le +Gouz, in Ireland in 1644. Its author journeyed from Dublin to the +principal cities and towns in Ireland, and sketches what he saw in a +very amusing manner. The value of the publication, however, is greatly +enhanced by the interesting notes appended to it by Mr Croker and some +of his friends; and as the work is less known in Ireland than it should +be, we extract from it the Frenchman's sketch of the habits and customs +of the Irish people as they prevailed two centuries back, in the belief +that they will be acceptable to our readers. + +"Ireland, or Hibernia, has always been called the Island of Saints, +owing to the number of great men who have been born there. The natives +are known to the English under the name of Iriche, to the French under +that of Hibernois, which they take from the Latin, or of Irois, from the +English, or Irlandois from the name of the island, because land +signifies ground. They call themselves Ayrenake, in their own language, +a tongue which you must learn by practice, because they do not write it; +they learn Latin in English characters, with which characters they also +write their own language; and so I have seen a monk write, but in such a +way as no one but himself could read it. + +Saint Patrick was the apostle of this island, who according to the +natives blessed the land, and gave his malediction to all venomous +things; and it cannot be denied that the earth and the timber of +Ireland, being transported, will contain neither serpents, worms, +spiders, nor rats, as one sees in the west of England and in Scotland, +where all particular persons have their trunks and the boards of their +floors of Irish wood; and in all Ireland there is not to be found a +serpent or toad. + +The Irish of the southern and eastern coasts follow the customs of the +English; those of the north, the Scotch. The others are not very +polished, and are called by the English savages. The English colonists +were of the English church, and the Scotch were Calvinists, but at +present they are all Puritans. The native Irish are very good Catholics, +though knowing little of their religion; those of the Hebrides and of +the North acknowledge only Jesus and St Colombe [_Columkill_], but their +faith is great in the church of Rome. Before the English revolution, +when an Irish gentleman died, his Britannic majesty became seised of the +property and tutellage of the children of the deceased, whom they +usually brought up in the English Protestant religion. Lord Insequin +[_Inchiquin_] was educated in this manner, to whom the Irish have given +the name of plague or pest of his country. + +The Irish gentlemen eat a great deal of meat and butter, and but little +bread. They drink milk, and beer, into which they put laurel leaves, and +eat bread baked in the English manner. The poor grind barley and peas +between two stones, and make it into bread, which they cook upon a small +iron table heated on a tripod; they put into it some oats, and this +bread, which in the form of cakes they call haraan, they eat with great +draughts of buttermilk. Their beer is very good, and the eau de vie, +which they call brandovin [_brandy_] excellent. The butter, the beef, +and the mutton, are better than in England. + +The towns are built in the English fashion, but the houses in the +country are in this manner:--Two stakes are fixed in the ground, across +which is a transverse pole to support two rows of rafters on the two +sides, which are covered with leaves and straw. The cabins are of +another fashion. There are four walls the height of a man, supporting +rafters over which they thatch with straw and leaves. They are without +chimneys, and make the fire in the middle of the hut, which greatly +incommodes those who are not fond of smoke. The castles or houses of the +nobility consist of four walls extremely high, thatched with straw; but, +to tell the truth, they are nothing but square towers without windows, +or at least having such small apertures as to give no more light than +there is in a prison. They have little furniture, and cover their rooms +with rushes, of which they make their beds in summer, and of straw in +winter. They put the rushes a foot deep on their floors, and on their +windows, and many of them ornament the ceilings with branches. + +They are fond of the harp, on which nearly all play, as the English do +on the fiddle, the French on the lute, the Italians on the guitar, the +Spaniards on the castanets, the Scotch on the bagpipe, the Swiss on the +fife, the Germans on the trumpet, the Dutch on the tambourine, and the +Turks on the flageolet. + +The Irish carry a scquine [_skein_] or Turkish dagger, which they dart +very adroitly at fifteen paces distance; and have this advantage, that +if they remain masters of the field of battle, there remains no enemy; +and if they are routed, they fly in such a manner that it is impossible +to catch them. I have seen an Irishman with ease accomplish twenty-five +leagues a day. They march to battle with the bagpipes instead of fifes; +but they have few drums, and they use the musket and cannon as we do. +They are better soldiers abroad than at home. + +The red-haired are considered the most handsome in Ireland. The women +have hanging breasts; and those who are freckled, like a trout, are +esteemed the most beautiful. + +The trade of Ireland consists in salmon and herrings, which they take in +great numbers. You have one hundred and twenty herrings for an English +penny, equal to a carolus of France, in the fishing time. They import +wine and salt from France, and sell there strong frize cloths at good +prices. + +The Irish are fond of strangers, and it costs little to travel amongst +them. When a traveller of good address enters their houses with +assurance, he has but to draw a box of sinisine, or snuff, and offer it +to them; then these people receive him with admiration, and give him the +best they have to eat. They love the Spaniards as their brothers, the +French as their friends, the Italians as their allies, the Germans as +their relatives, the English and Scotch as their irreconcileable +enemies. I was surrounded on my journey from Kilkinik [_Kilkenny_] to +Cachel [_Cashel_] by a detachment of twenty Irish soldiers; and when +they learned I was a Frankard (it is thus they call us), they did not +molest me in the least, but made me offers of service, seeing that I was +neither Sazanach [_Saxon_] nor English. + +The Irish, whom the English call savages, have for their head-dress a +little blue bonnet, raised two fingers-breadth in front, and behind +covering their head and ears. Their doublet has a long body and four +skirts; and their breeches are a pantaloon of white frize, which they +call trousers. Their shoes, which are pointed, they call brogues, with a +single sole. They often told me of a proverb in English, 'Airische +brogues for Englich dogues' [_Irish brogues for English dogs_] 'the +shoes of Ireland for the dogs of England,' meaning that their shoes are +worth more than the English. + +For cloaks they have five or six yards of frize drawn round the neck, +the body, and over the head, and they never quit this mantle, either in +sleeping, working, or eating. The generality of them have no shirts, and +about as many lice as hairs on their heads, which they kill before each +other without any ceremony. + +The northern Irish have for their only dress a breeches, and a covering +for the back, without bonnets, shoes, or stockings. The women of the +north have a double rug, girded round their middle and fastened to the +throat. Those bordering on Scotland have not more clothing. The girls of +Ireland, even those living in towns, have for their head-dress only a +ribbon, and if married, they have a napkin on the head in the manner of +the Egyptians. The body of their gowns comes only to their breasts, and +when they are engaged in work, they gird their petticoat with their sash +about the abdomen. They wear a hat and mantle very large, of a brown +colour [_couleur minime_] of which the cape is of coarse woollen frize, +in the fashion of the women of Lower Normandy." + + + + +BARBARITY OF THE LAW IN IRELAND A CENTURY AGO. + + +"Last week, at the assizes of Kilkenny, a fellow who was to be tried for +robbery, not pleading, a jury was appointed to try whether he was +wilfully mute, or by the hands of God; and they giving a verdict that he +was wilfully mute, he was condemned to be pressed to death. He +accordingly suffered on Wednesday, pursuant to his sentence, which was +as follows:--That the criminal shall be confined in some low dark room, +where he shall be laid on his back, with no covering except round his +loins, and shall have as much weight laid, upon him as he can bear, _and +more_; that he shall have nothing to live upon but the worst bread and +water; and the day that he eats he shall not drink, nor the day that he +drinks he shall not eat; and so shall continue till he dies."--_Reilly's +Dublin News Letter, August 9, 1740._ + + + + +WHIPS FOR A PENNY. + +BY MARTIN DOYLE. + + +"Whips for a Penny!" This cry attracted my attention; I looked about, +and saw a stout young man with a bundle of children's whips under his +arm, standing on a flagway in Ludgate-street, in the centre of a group +of little boys, who if not wealthy enough to buy from his stock, were at +least unanimously disposed to do so. The whips, considering the price, +were very neatly made, and cracked melodiously, as the man took frequent +opportunities of proving, for the cadences of his almost continuously +repeated cry "Whips for a penny, whips for a penny!" were emphatically +marked by a time-keeping "crack, crack," to the delight of the juvenile +auditors. + +Curious to ascertain if this person would meet such a demand for these +Lilliputian whips as would afford him the means of living with +reasonable comfort, I watched his movements for nearly an hour, during +which period he disposed of five or six of them. One of the purchasers +was a good-natured looking woman, with a male child about two years old, +to whom she presented the admired object. The infant, with instinctive +perception of its proper use, grasped the handle with his tiny fingers, +and promptly commenced a smart but not very effective course of +flagellation on the bosom from which he had derived his earlier aliment, +to the infinite delight of the doting mother. A fine boy, strutting +about in frock and trousers, was next introduced by his nurse to the +vender of thongs, and the first application of his lash was made to an +unfortunate little dog which had been separated from his owner, and was +at this time roaming about in solicitude and terror, and probably with +an empty stomach, when Master Jack added a fresh pang to his miseries. + +A hardier customer came next, and flourished his whip the moment he +bought it, at some weary and frightened lambs which a butcher's boy was +urging forward through every obstacle, with a bludgeon, towards their +slaughter-house. A half-starved kitten, which had ventured within the +threshold of a shop, where in piteous posture it seemed to crave +protection and a drop of milk, caught the quick eye of a fourth urchin, +just as he had untwisted his lash, and was immediately started from its +momentary place of refuge by the pursuing imp. A fifth came up, a big, +knowing-looking chap, about twelve years old, who, after a slight and +contemptuous examination of them, loudly remarked to their owner, "Vy, +these ere vhips a'n't no good to urt no vun--I'm blowed hif they his." +You young tyrant! thought I to myself. I was moving off in disgust, when +a benevolent-looking gentleman came up and was about to buy one for the +happy, open-countenanced boy, who called him uncle, when I took the +liberty of putting one of my forefingers to my nose, as the most ready +but quiet method of indicating my desire to prevent the completion of +his purpose. The gentleman took my hint at once, supposing in all +probability that there was some mystery in the matter--perhaps that I +wished to save him from the awkward consequences of purchasing stolen +goods, and walked away. I followed him, and overtaking him, touched the +rim of my beaver, as nearly as I could imitate the London mode, and at +once said, "My dear sir, excuse me for obtruding my advice upon you, but +as _you_ have the organ of benevolence strongly developed, and your +little nephew has already indication of its future prominence, if duly +exercised, I thought it better that you should not put a whip into his +hands, lest his better feelings should be counter-influenced. Look +there," continued I, as we reached the steep part of Holborn-hill, "see +that pair of miserable horses endeavouring to keep their footing on the +steep and slippery pavement; hear the constant reverberations of the +driver's whip, which he applies so unmercifully to keep them from +falling, by the most forced and unnatural efforts; see them straining +every muscle to drag along their burden, while they pant from pain, +terror, and exhaustion; look at the frequent welts on their poor skins. +Depend upon it, the fellow who drives had a penny whip for his first +plaything!" The gentleman looked rather earnestly at me. "You are right, +sir," said he; "early initiation in the modes of cruelty"----"Precisely," +said I. "The boy-child is taught to terrify any animal that comes within +his reach, as soon as he is able to do so; his parents, sponsors, nurses, +friends, are severally disposed to give him for his first present a toy +whip, and he soon acquires dexterity in using it. Man, naturally +overbearing and cruel, is rendered infinitely more so by education. He +first flogs his wooden horse (the little boy pricked up his ears, and I +hope will retain the impression of what passed) and then his living pony +or donkey, as the case may be; he whips every thing that crosses his way; +and even at the little birds, which are happily beyond the reach of his +lash, he flings stones, or he robs them of their young, for the mere +satisfaction of rendering them miserable." + +"Ay, sir," said the gentleman, "and he becomes a sportsman in course of +time, and flogs his pointers, setters, and hounds, for pursuing their +instincts--he becomes their tyrant. He goes to one of our universities, +perhaps, and drives gigs, tandems, and even stage-coaches, without +knowing how to handle the reins; he blunders, turns corners too sharply, +pulls the wrong rein, diverts the well-trained horses from their proper +course, which they would have critically pursued but for his +interference, nearly oversets the vehicle by his awkwardness, and then, +as if to persuade the lookers on that the fault was not his, he +belabours the poor brutes to the utmost of his power; or it may be, lays +on the thong merely for practice until he is proficient enough to apply +it _knowingly_. Are the horses tired," continued he, "worn out in +service?--he flogs to keep them alive, and makes a boast of his +ingenuity in forcing a jaded set to their journey's end, by establishing +a 'raw,' and torturing them there." + +"Depend upon it," said I, "such a chap had 'whips for a penny' when he +was a child." "Quite so," said my companion; "you have put this matter +before me in a new point of view." Here we were startled by the familiar +sound of the coach whip, and saw a stage-driver flogging in the severest +style four heated, panting, and overpowered horses, coming in with a +heavily laden coach; the lash was perpetually laid on; even the keenest +at the draught were flogged, that they might pull on the rest, and the +less powerful were flogged to keep up with them. The coachman, no doubt, +when a child, had his share of 'whips for a penny.' When he grew up and +entered upon his vocation, he perhaps at first compassionated the horses +which he was obliged to force to their stages in a given time; he might +have had his favourites among them too, and yet often and severely +tested their powers of speed or endurance; and at length, as they became +diseased and stiff in the limbs, and broken-winded from overwork, he may +have satisfied himself with the reflection, that the fault was not his, +that his employer ought to have given him a better team, and that it was +a shame for him to ask any coachman to drive such "rum uns." Habit +renders him callous; he does not now _feel_ for the sufferings of the +wretched animals he guides and punishes; nay, he often coolly takes from +the boot-box the short handled _Tommy_, which is merely the well-grown +and severer whip of the species which his employer and himself had used +in childhood, when they both bought "whips for a penny," and lays it as +heavily as his vigorous arm empowers him, on one of the worn-out +wheelers, which unhappily for themselves are within range of its +infliction. The hackney-coachmen and cabmen, too, + + "Though oft I've heard good judges say + It costs them more for whips than hay," + +are not much worse than their more consequential brethren of the whip; +all of them consider the noble creature, subjugated by their power, and +abused most criminally through their cruelty, as a mere piece of +machinery, to be flogged along like a top as long as it can be kept +going. + +We reached the upper end of one of the numerous lanes leading from the +Thames; five splendid horses were endeavouring to draw up a heavy +waggon-load of coals; but as the two first turned into the street at +right angles to the others, they were not aiding those behind them. +Being stopped in their progress for some time, by a crowd of coaches, +chaises, cabs, carts, and omnibuses, the labour of keeping the waggon on +the spot it had already attained, and which was steep and slippery, +rested upon the three hinder horses. At length the team was put in +motion, all the leading ones being useless in succession as they turned +to the angle of the street; and just at the critical point, when the +whole enormous draught rested on the shaft horse, the waggoner, taxing +its strength beyond its capability, struck it with the whip. The noble +brute made one desperate plunge to execute his tyrant's will, and +fell--dead upon the pavement. "I think," said my companion, "that we +have had a good lesson upon whips to-day; I should prefer any other gift +for my little boy here; for though it may be urged that he, like the +rest of his sex at the same age, would merely make a noise with a whip, +and would inflict no serious pain, I am bound to bear in mind the actual +fact, that with the very sound of a whip is associated in the +imagination of all domesticated animals, the apprehension of pain; that +they are _terrorized_ when they hear that sound, even through a child's +hand, and I must therefore conclude that this symbol of cruelty should +not be his plaything." I agreed with him fully, and as our business lay +in different directions, we parted at Blackfriar's Bridge, not, however, +until my companion of the hour had handed me his card of address. This +was an act of unexpected compliment which I could not return exactly in +the same way; I told him that I had never written my name on a visiting +card in my life, but that I was Martin Doyle, at his service, and a +contributor to the new _Irish Penny Journal_, just started in Dublin. +"Is not Dublin," said he, "in Ireland?" I stared. "I believe," added he, +"that Ireland is a pretty place." I wished the geographical gentleman a +rather hasty farewell. + +As I walked on, I pondered on the many other instances in which the whip +is an instrument of terror or tyranny. First, I thought of the Russian +bride meekly offering a horsewhip to her lord, as the token of her +submission to the infliction of his blows, whenever it might suit his +temper to bestow such proofs of tenderness upon her, and of the perpetual +system of flagellation, which, as we are told by travellers, is exercised +in the dominions of the great autocrat upon wives, children, servants, +and cattle. I thought of French postilions--flagellators of the first +order, at least as far as "cracking" without intermission testifies; and, +finally, of the British horse-racer. + +Horses high in mettle, ardent in the course, without a stimulus of any +kind, struggle neck and neck for victory; they approach the winning +post; one jockey flogs more powerfully than his compeers; the agonized +horse, in his fearful efforts, is lifted as it were from the ground, by +two or three desperate twinings (the stabbing at the sides is but a +variety of the torture) of the cutting whalebone round his flanks; and +at the critical instant, making a bound, as it were, to escape from his +half-flayed skin, throws his head forward in his effort, half a yard +beyond that of his rival, who has had his share of torture too, and is +declared the winner--of what?--a gold-handled prize-whip, which is borne +away in triumph by the owner of the winning horse! To be sure, he +pockets some of that which is so truly designated "the root of all +evil;" but the acquisition of the whip is the distinguishing honour. + +And how does this whip in reality differ from any of the "whips for a +penny?" It is of pure gold and whalebone; the others are but of painted +stick and the cheapest leather; yet they are both but _playthings_--the +one in the hand of a man who has spent, it may be, half his patrimony, +and as much of his time in the endeavour to win it, while he attaches no +real or intrinsic value to it afterwards; the other in the hand of the +child, to whom it appears a real and substantial prize. The jockey-man +is not a whit more rational in this respect than the boy who bestrides +his hobby-horse, and flourishes his penny whip. + +Then succeeded to my imagination a far more brutal scene, the +steeple-chase. A horse is overpowered in a deep and heavy fallow; he is +flogged to press him through it; he reaches a break-neck wall; a +desperate cut of the whip sends him flying over it; again and again he +puts forth his strength and speed, and falls, and rises again at the +instigation of the whip. He comes to a brook; it is too wide for his +failing powers, and there is a rotten and precipitous bank at the other +side; he shudders, and recoils a moment, but a tremendous lash, worse +than the dread of drowning, and the goading of the spur, force him in +desperation to the leap; his hind feet give way at the landing side; he +falls backward; his spine is broken, and at length a pistol bullet ends +his miseries. + +In a word, the donation of "whips for a penny" to any child, fairly +starts him on the first stage of cruelty; and if, from peculiarity of +temperament or the restraining influence of the beneficent Creator (who, +though he has allowed man to have dominion, and has put under his feet +all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, has withheld from +him the authority to abuse his privilege), the child grows into the man +who is merciful to his beast, the merit is not due to the injudicious +person who first presents him with his mimic whip in infancy. + + + + +THE WORLD'S CHANGES. + +"Contarini Fleming wrote merely, TIME."-- + + _D'Israeli the Younger._ + + + The Solemn Shadow that bears in his hands + The conquering Scythe and the Glass of Sands, + Paused once on his flight where the sunrise shone + On a warlike city's towers of stone; + And he asked of a panoplied soldier near, + "How long has this fortressed city been here?" + And the man looked up, Man's pride on his brow-- + "The city stands here from the ages of old + And as it was then, and as it is now, + So will it endure till the funeral knell + Of the world be knolled, + As Eternity's annals shall tell." + + And after a thousand years were o'er, + The Shadow paused over the spot once more. + + And vestige was none of a city there, + But lakes lay blue, and plains lay bare, + And the marshalled corn stood high and pale, + And a Shepherd piped of love in a vale. + "How!" spake the Shadow, "can temple and tower + Thus fleet, like mist, from the morning hour?" + But the Shepherd shook the long locks from his brow-- + "The world is filled with sheep and corn; + Thus was it of old, thus is it now, + Thus, too, will it be while moon and sun + Rule night and morn, + For Nature and Life are one." + + And after a thousand years were o'er, + The Shadow paused over the spot once more. + + And lo! in the room of the meadow-lands + A sea foamed far over saffron sands, + And flashed in the noontide bright and dark, + And a fisher was casting his nets from a bark; + How marvelled the Shadow! "Where then is the plain? + And where be the acres of golden grain?" + But the fisher dashed off the salt spray from his brow-- + "The waters begirdle the earth alway, + The sea ever rolled as it rolleth now: + What babblest thou about grain and fields? + By night and day + Man looks for what Ocean yields." + + And after a thousand years were o'er, + The Shadow paused over the spot once more. + + And the ruddy rays of the eventide + Were gilding the skirts of a forest wide; + The moss of the trees looked old, so old! + And valley and hill, the ancient mould + Was robed in sward, an evergreen cloak; + And a woodman sang as he felled an oak. + Him asked the Shadow--"Rememberest thou + Any trace of a Sea where wave those trees?" + But the woodman laughed: Said he, "I trow, + If oaks and pines do flourish and fall, + It is not amid seas;-- + The earth is one forest all." + + And after a thousand years were o'er, + The Shadow paused over the spot once more. + + And what saw the Shadow? A city agen, + But peopled by pale mechanical men, + With workhouses filled, and prisons, and marts, + And faces that spake exanimate hearts. + Strange picture and sad! was the Shadow's thought; + And, turning to one of the Ghastly, he sought + For a clue in words to the When and the How + Of the ominous Change he now beheld; + But the man uplifted his care-worn brow-- + "Change? What was Life ever but Conflict and Change? + From the ages of eld + Hath affliction been widening its range." + + Enough! said the Shadow, and passed from the spot + At last it is vanished, the beautiful youth + Of the earth, to return with no To-morrow; + All changes have checquered Mortality's lot; + But this is the darkest--for Knowledge and Truth + Are but golden gates to the Temple of Sorrow! M. + + + + +ANCIENT MUSIC OF IRELAND. + + +A great and truly national work--the Ancient Music of Ireland--collected +and arranged for the piano-forte by Edward Bunting, has just issued from +the Dublin press; and whether we consider its intrinsic merits, the +beauty of its typography and binding, or the liberal and enterprising +spirit of its publishers, they are all equally deserving of the highest +approbation. This is indeed a work of which Ireland may feel truly +proud, for, though in every respect Irish, we believe nothing equal to +it in its way has hitherto appeared in the British empire, and we trust +that all the parties concerned in its production will receive the +rewards to which they are so justly entitled. To all lovers of national +melody this work will give the most intense pleasure; while by those who +think there is no melody so sweet and touching as that of Ireland, it +will be welcomed with feelings of delight which no words could +adequately express. It is a work which assuredly will never die. To its +venerable Editor, Ireland owes a deep feeling of gratitude, as the +zealous and enthusiastic collector and preserver of her music in all its +characteristic beauty; for though our national poet, Moore, has +contributed by the peculiar charm of his verses to extend the fame of +our music over the civilised world, it should never be forgotten that it +is to Bunting that is due the merit of having originally rescued from +obscurity those touching strains of melody, the effect of which, even +upon the hearts of those most indifferent to Irish interests generally, +Moore has so feelingly depicted in his well-known lines:-- + + "The stranger shall hear thy lament on his plains; + The sighs of thy harp shall be sent o'er the deep; + Till thy masters themselves, as they rivet thy chains, + Shall pause at the song of their captive, and weep." + +The merits of this work are, however, of a vastly higher order than +those of either of the former collections which Mr Bunting gave to the +world; for, while the melodies are of equal beauty, they are arranged +with such exquisite musical feeling and skill as to enhance that beauty +greatly; and we do not hesitate to express our conviction that there is +not any musician living who could have harmonized them with greater +judgment or feeling. This volume contains above one hundred and sixty +melodies, and of these only a few have been previously made known to the +public. It also contains an interesting preface, and a most valuable +dissertation on the ancient music of Ireland, in which its +characteristic peculiarities are admirably analysed; and on the method +of playing the Harp; the Musical Vocabulary of the old Irish Harpers; a +Treatise on the Antiquity of the Harp and Bagpipe in Ireland by Samuel +Ferguson, Esq., M.R.I.A., full of curious antiquarian lore, and in which +is comprised an account of the various efforts made to revive the Irish +Harp; a dissertation by Mr Petrie on the true age of the Harp, popularly +called the Harp of Brian Boru; and, lastly, anecdotes of the most +distinguished Irish Harpers of the last two centuries, collected by the +Editor himself. To these are added, Remarks on the Antiquity and Authors +of the Tunes when ascertained, with copious indices, giving their +original Irish names, as well as the names and localities of the persons +from whom they were obtained. The work is illustrated with numerous +wood-cuts, as well as with copperplate engravings of the ancient Irish +Harp above alluded to. This slight notice will, it is hoped, give our +readers for the present some idea of the value and importance of this +delightful work; but we shall return to it again and again, for we +consider it is no less than our duty to make its merits familiar to our +readers, as our music is a treasure of which all classes of our +countrymen should feel equally proud, and in the honour of extending the +celebrity of which they should all feel equally desirous to participate. +P. + + + + +SIMPLICITY OF CHARACTER. + + +Dr Barrett having on a certain occasion detected a student walking in +the Fellows' Garden, Trinity College, Dublin, asked him how he had +obtained admission. "I jumped over the library, sir," said the student. +"D'ye see me now, sir?--you are telling me an infernal lie, sir!" +exclaimed the Vice-Provost. "Lie, sir!" echoed the student; "I'll do it +again!" and forthwith proceeded to button his coat, in apparent +preparation for the feat; when the worthy doctor, seizing his arm, +prevented him, exclaiming with horror, "Stop, stop--you'll break your +bones if you attempt it!" + + + + +TO OUR READERS. + + +The want of a cheap literary publication for the great body of the +people of this country, suited to their tastes and habits, combining +instruction with amusement, avoiding the exciting and profitless +discussion of political or polemical questions, and placed within the +reach of their humble means, has long been matter of regret to those +reflecting and benevolent minds who are anxious for the advancement and +civilization of Ireland--and the reflection has been rather a +humiliating one, that while England and Scotland abound with such cheap +publications--for in London alone there are upwards of twenty weekly +periodicals sold at one penny each--Ireland, with a population so +extensive, and so strongly characterised by a thirst for knowledge, has +not even one work of this class. It is impossible to believe that such +an anomaly can have originated in any other cause than the want of +spirit and enterprise on the part of those who ought to have the +patriotism to endeavour to enlighten their countrymen, and thereby +elevate their condition, even although the effort should be attended +with risk, and trouble to themselves. + +It may be objected that some of the cheap publications already and for +some years in existence, though in all respects fitted for the +introduction of the people, and enjoying such an extensive circulation +in the Sister Island as they justly deserve, have never obtained that +proportionate share of popularity here which would indicate a conviction +of their usefulness or excellence on the part of the Irish people. But +the obvious reply to this objection is, that, undeniable as the merits +of many of these publications must be allowed to be, none of them were +adapted to the intellectual wants of a people, distinguished, as the +Irish are, by strong peculiarities of mind and temperament, as well as +by marked national predilections--and who, being more circumscribed in +their means than the inhabitants of the Sister Countries, necessarily +required a stimulus more powerful to excite them. A work of a more +amusing character, and more essentially Irish, was therefore necessary; +and such a work it is now intended to offer to the Public. + +The IRISH PENNY JOURNAL will be in a great degree devoted to subjects +connected with the history, literature, antiquities, and general +condition of Ireland, but it will not be devoted to such subjects +exclusively; it will contain, in a fair proportion, articles on home and +foreign manufactures, information on the arts and sciences, and useful +knowledge generally. + +All subjects tending in the remotest degree to irritate or offend +political or religious feelings will be rigidly abstained from, and +every endeavour will be made to diffuse Sentiments of benevolence and +mutual good-will through all classes of the community. + +The matter will also be, to a considerable extent, original--and to +render it so, contributions will, be obtained from a great number of the +most eminent literary and scientific writers of whom Ireland can boast. + +A publication thus conducted, and, as may be confidently anticipated, +displaying merits of a very superior order, while it will effect its +primary object of conveying instruction to the people generally, will at +the same time, it is hoped, be found not undeserving of the support of +the higher and more educated classes, while to the inhabitants of Great +Britain it will be found extremely interesting, as embodying a large +amount of information respecting Ireland, and the manners of her people +as they really exist, and not as they have been hitherto too frequently +misrepresented and caricatured. + +To give to such a work a reasonable prospect of success, it is indeed +essential that it should be patronised by all classes; and an appeal is +therefore confidently made to the high-minded and patriotic people of +Ireland in its behalf, as without a very extensive circulation it could +not be given at so low a price as would bring it within the reach of the +poorer classes of the country, whose limited means would preclude the +possibility of purchasing a dearer publication. + +On their own parts, the Proprietors of the IRISH PENNY JOURNAL have only +to observe, that no efforts shall be spared to render their Work +deserving of general support; and that as their expectations of +immediate success are not extravagant, they will not be deterred, by +temporary discouragements in the commencement of their undertaking, from +persevering in their exertions to establish, upon a firm basis of +popularity, a publication of such merit in itself, and so essential, as +they conceive, to the improvement and advantage of the people of +Ireland. + +The IRISH PENNY JOURNAL will be published every Saturday morning at the +Office of the GENERAL ADVERTISER, Church-lane, College-green. It will be +printed upon fine paper and each Number will be embellished with at +least one wood-cut Illustration of high character as a work of art; and +in point of quality as well as quantity of letter-press, it will be +inferior to no Publication of the kind that has hitherto appeared. + + +Printed and Published every Saturday by GUNN AND CAMERON, at the Office +of the General Advertiser, 6 Church Lane, College Green, Dublin. + + + + +TRANSCRIBERS' NOTES + +General: Corrections to punctuation have not been individually noted. + +Page 2: skillits corrected to skillets after "and the cleanest of all" + +Page 3: eqally corrected to equally after "The housemaid is" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, No. 1, Vol. +1, July 4, 1840, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH PENNY JOURNAL, JULY 4, 1840 *** + +***** This file should be named 38817.txt or 38817.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/1/38817/ + +Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net ((This file was produced from +images generously made available by JSTOR +http://www.jstor.org/stable/i30000991)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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