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+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #54252 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54252)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 15,
-October 10, 1840, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 15, October 10, 1840
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: February 27, 2017 [EBook #54252]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH PENNY JOURNAL, OCT 10, 1840 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by JSTOR www.jstor.org)
-
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-
-
-
-
- THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
-
- NUMBER 15. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1840. VOLUME I.
-
-[Illustration: THE TOWN AND CASTLE OF LEIXLIP, COUNTY OF KILDARE.]
-
-Localities are no less subject to the capricious mutations of fashion in
-taste, than dress, music, or any other of the various objects on which
-it displays its extravagant vagaries. The place which on account of its
-beauties is at one period the chosen resort of pleased and admiring
-crowds, at another becomes abandoned and unthought of, as if it were
-an unsightly desert, unfit for the enjoyment or happiness of civilized
-man. Some other locality, perhaps of less natural or acquired beauty,
-becomes the fashion of the day, and after a time gets out of favour in
-turn, and is neglected for some other novel scene before unthought of or
-disregarded. Yet the principles of true taste are immutable, and that
-which is really beautiful is not the less so because it has ceased to
-attract the multitude, who are generally governed to a far greater extent
-by accidental associations of ideas than by any abstract feelings of the
-mind.
-
-Perhaps it is less attributable to any characteristic volatility in the
-character of the inhabitants of our metropolis, than to the singular
-variety and number of the beautiful localities which surround our city,
-and in emulous rivalry attract our attention, that this inconstancy
-of attachment to any one locality is more strikingly instanced among
-ourselves, than among the citizens of any other great town with which
-we are acquainted. But, however this may be, the fact is unquestionable,
-that there is scarcely a spot of any natural or improved beauty, within
-a few miles of us, which has not in turn had its day of fashion, and its
-subsequent period of unmerited neglect. Clontarf, with its sequestered
-green lanes, and its glorious views of the bay--Glasnevin, the classical
-abode of Addison, Parnell, Tickell, Sheridan, and Delany--Finglas,
-with its rural sports--Chapelizod, the residence of the younger
-Cromwell--Lucan, Leixlip, with their once celebrated spas, and all
-the delightful epic scenery of the Liffey--Dundrum, with its healthy
-mountain walks and atmosphere, and many others unnecessary to mention,
-all experiencing the effects of this inconstancy of fashion, have found
-their once admired beauties totally disregarded, and the admiration of
-the multitude almost wholly transferred to a wild and unadorned beauty on
-the rocky shores of Kingstown and Bullock, which our forefathers deemed
-unworthy of notice. But let that beauty take warning from the fate of her
-predecessors, and not hold her head too high in her day of triumph, for
-she too will assuredly be cast off in turn, and find herself neglected
-for some rival as yet unnoticed.
-
-Of such unmerited inconstancy and neglect there are no localities in
-the neighbourhood of Dublin which have greater reason to complain than
-the village of Lucan and that which forms the subject of our prefixed
-embellishment. As the establishment of peace in Ireland led to an
-increase of civilization, which exhibited itself in improved roads and
-vehicles of conveyance, and the citizens, emerging from their embattled
-strongholds, ventured to enjoy the pleasures of nature and rural life,
-Lucan and Leixlip, with the beautiful scenery in which they are situated,
-became the favourite places of resort; and their various natural
-attractions becoming heightened by art, were described by travellers,
-and chaunted in song. About “sixty years since” they had reached their
-greatest glory, and Leixlip was the favourite of the day. It is thus
-described at this period by the celebrated Doctor Campbell:--“All the
-outlets of Dublin are pleasant, but this is superlatively so which leads
-through Leixlip, a neat little village about seven miles from Dublin, up
-the Liffey; whose banks being prettily tufted with wood, and enlivened
-by gentlemen’s seats, afford a variety of landscapes, beautiful beyond
-description.” It was at this period also that O’Keefe, in his popular
-opera of “The Poor Soldier,” makes Patrick sing--
-
- “Though Leixlip is proud of its close shady bowers,
- Its clear falling waters and murmuring cascades,
- Its groves of fine myrtle, its beds of sweet flowers,
- Its lads so well dressed, and its neat pretty maids.”
-
-But though Leixlip no longer holds out attractions sufficient to gratify
-those whose tastes are dependent on fashion, it has never ceased to be
-a favourite with all whose tastes had a more solid foundation. It was
-here, and in its immediate vicinity, that the two Robertses, genuine
-Irish landscape painters, found many of the most congenial subjects
-for their pencils. It was here, too, that the strong-headed painter of
-strong heads--the Rembrandt of miniature painters, John Comerford--used
-occasionally to retire, abandoning for a week or two the intellectual
-society of Dublin which he so much enjoyed, and the acquisition of gain
-which he no less relished, to make some elaborate study of one of the
-scenes about the Bridge of Leixlip, which he, in his own dogmatic way,
-asserted, “for genuine landscape beauty, could not be surpassed or
-even rivalled any where!” This estimate of the beauties of Leixlip’s
-“close shady bowers, &c.” was, we confess, a somewhat extravagant one;
-yet, like most other honestly formed opinions of Comerford’s, it would
-not have been an easy task to shake his belief in its truth, and to
-sustain it he could, if combated, adduce the testimony of his and our
-friend Gaspar Gabrielli, the first of Italian landscape painters of our
-times, who notwithstanding his pride in being a Roman, and his national
-predilections in favour of the classic scenery of his dear Italy, has
-often declared in our hearing that he had never seen in his own country
-scenery of its kind comparable with that of the Liffey, in the vicinity
-of Lucan and Leixlip.
-
-But enthusiastic admiration of the scenery of Leixlip has not been
-confined to the painters. Hear with what gusto our friend C. O. lets
-himself out on this subject, not in his drawing-room character as the
-clerical Connaught tourist, but in his more natural, buoyant, and Irish
-one, as Terence O’Toole, our co-labourer in the first volume of the
-_Dublin Penny Journal_:--
-
-“Any one passing over the Bridge of Leixlip, must, if his eye is worth a
-farthing for anything else than helping him to pick his way through the
-puddle, look up and down with delight while moving over this bridge. To
-the right, the river winning its noisy turbulent way over its rocky bed,
-and losing itself afar down amidst embossing woods; to the left, after
-plunging over the Salmon-leap, whose roar is heard though half a mile
-off, and forming a junction with the Rye-water, it takes a bend to the
-east, and washes the rich amphitheatre with which Leixlip is environed. I
-question much whether any castle, even Warwick itself [bravo, Terence!]
-stands in a grander position than Leixlip Castle, as it embattles the
-high and wooded grounds that form the forks of the two rivers. Of the
-towers, the round one of course was built by King John, the opposite
-square one by the Geraldines. This noble and grandly circumstanced pile
-has been in latter days the baronial residence of the White family, and
-subsequently the residence of [lord-lieutenants] generals and prelates.
-Here Primate Stone, more a politician than a Christian [churchman],
-retired from his contest with the Ponsonbys and the Boyles to play at
-cricket with General Cunningham; here resided Speaker Connolly before
-he built his splendid mansion at Castletown; here the _great_ commoner,
-as he was called, Tom Connolly, was born. Like many such edifices, this
-castle is haunted: character and keeping would be altogether lost if
-towers of 600 years’ standing, with rich mullioned ‘windows that exclude
-the light, and passages that lead to nothing,’ with tapestried chambers
-that have witnessed pranks of revelry and feats of war, of Norman,
-Cromwellian, and Williamite possession, if such a place had not its
-legend; and one of Ireland’s wildest geniuses, the eccentric and splendid
-Maturin, has decorated the subject with the colourings of his vivid
-fancy.”
-
-Terence adds:--“Leixlip is memorable in an historic point of view as the
-place where, in the war commencing 1641, General Preston halted when on
-his way to form a junction with the Marquis of Ormonde to oppose the
-Parliamentarians. Acknowledging that his army was not excommunication
-proof, he bowed before the fiat of the Nuncio, and lost the best
-opportunity that ever offered of saving his cause and his country from
-what has been called the ‘curse of Cromwell.’”
-
-To this brief but graphic sketch of our friend we can add but little.
-Leixlip is a market and post town of the county of Kildare, situated in
-the barony of North _Salt_--a name derived from the Latin appellation of
-the cataract called the _Saltus Salmonis_, “Salmon Leap,” in the vicinity
-of the town--and is about eight miles from Dublin. It contains between
-eleven and twelve hundred inhabitants, and consists of one long street of
-houses, well, though irregularly built, but exhibiting for the greater
-number an appearance of negligence and decay. It is bounded on one
-extremity by the river Liffey, which is crossed by a bridge of ancient
-construction, and on the other by the Rye-water, over which there is a
-bridge of modern date. As the focus of a parish, it has a church and a
-Roman Catholic chapel, both of ample size and substantial construction,
-but, like most edifices of their class in Ireland, but little remarkable
-for the purity of their architectural styles. The latter is of recent
-erection. Its most imposing architectural feature is, however, its
-castle, which is magnificently situated on a steep and richly wooded
-bank over the Liffey; but though of great antiquity, it exhibits in its
-external character but little of the appearance of an ancient fortress,
-having been modernised by the Hon. George Cavendish, its present
-occupier. On its west side it is flanked by a circular, and on its east
-by a square tower. This castle is supposed to have been erected in the
-reign of Henry II. by Adam de Hereford, one of the chief followers of
-Earl Strongbow, from whom he received as a gift the tenement of the
-Salmon Leap, and other extensive possessions. It is said to have been the
-occasional residence of Prince John during his governorship of Ireland in
-the reign of his father; and in recent times it was a favourite retreat
-of several of the Viceroys, one of whom, Lord Townsend, usually spent
-the summer here. From an inquisition taken in 1604, it appears that the
-manor of Leixlip was part of the possessions of the abbey of St Thomas in
-Dublin. In 1668, the castle, with sixty acres of land, belonged to the
-Earl of Kildare. They afterwards passed into the hands of the Right Hon.
-Thomas Connolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, and are now the
-property of Colonel Connolly of Castletown.
-
- P.
-
-
-
-
-THE CHASE, A POEM TRANSLATED FROM THE IRISH--CONCLUDED.
-
-
- PATRICK.
-
- O son of kings, adorned with grace,
- ’Twere music to my ear,
- Of Fionn and his wondrous chase
- The promised tale to hear.
-
- OISIN.
-
- Well--though afresh my bosom bleeds,
- Remembering days of old--
- When I think of my sire and his mighty deeds--
- Yet shall the tale be told.
-
- While the Fenian bands at Almhuin’s towers,
- In the hall of spears, passed the festive hours,
- The goblet crowned, with chessmen played,[1]
- Or gifts for gifts of love repaid;
-
- From the reckless throng Finn stole unseen,
- When he spied a young doe on the heath-clad green
- With agile spring draw near:
- On Sceolan and Bran his nimble hounds
- He whistles aloud, and away he bounds
- In chase of the hornless deer.
-
- With his hounds alone and his trusty blade,
- The son of Luno’s skill,
- On the track of the flying doe he strayed
- To Guillin’s pathless hill.
- But when he came to its hard-won height
- No deer appeared in view;
- If east or west she had sped her flight
- Nor hounds nor huntsman knew.
- But those sprang westward o’er the sod,
- While eastward Fionn press’d--
- Why did not pity touch thy God
- To see them thus distress’d?
-
- There while he gazes anxious round,
- Sudden he hears a doleful sound,
- And by a lake of crystal sheen
- Spies a nymph of loveliest form and mien:
- Her cheeks as the rose were crimson bright,
- Her lips the red berry’s glow;
- Her neck as the polished marble[2] white,
- Her breast the pure blossom’s full blow;
- Downy gold were her locks, and her sparkling eyes
- Like freezing stars in the ebon skies.
- Such beauty, O Sage, all cold as thou art,
- Would kindle warm raptures of love in thy heart.
-
- Nigh to the nymph of golden hair
- With courteous grace he drew--
- “O hast thou seen, enchantress fair,
- My hounds their game pursue?”[3]
-
- NYMPH.
-
- “Thy hounds I saw not in the chase,
- O noble prince of the Fenian race;
- But I have cause of woe more deep,
- For which I linger here and weep.”
-
- FIONN.
-
- “O, hast thou lost a husband dear?
- Falls for a darling son thy tear,
- Or daughter of thy heart?
- Sweet, soft-palmed nymph, the cause reveal
- To one who can thy sorrows feel,
- Perchance can ease thy smart?”
-
- The maid of tresses fair replied--
- “A precious ring I wore;
- Dropped from my finger in the tide,
- Its loss I now deplore:
- But by the sacred vows that bind
- Each brave and loyal knight,
- I now adjure thee, Chief, to find
- My peerless jewel bright.”
-
- He feels her adjuration’s ties;
- Disrobes each manly limb,
- And for the smooth-palmed princess hies
- The gulfy lake to swim.
- Five times deep-diving down the wave,
- Through every cranny, nook, and cave,
- With care he searches round and round,
- Till the golden ring at length he found;
- But scarce to shore the prize could bring,
- When by some blasting ban--
- Ah! piteous tale--the Fenian king
- Grew a withered, grey, old man!
-
- Meanwhile the Fenians passed the hours
- In the hall of spears, at Almhuin’s towers;
- The goblet crowned, with chessmen played,
- Or gifts for gifts of love repaid,
- When Caoilte rose and asked in grief,
- “Ye spearmen, where is our gallant chief?
- O, lost I dread is the Fenians’ boast--
- Then who shall lead our bannered host?”
-
- Bald Conan spoke--“A sweeter sound
- Ne’er tingled on my ear;
- If Fionn be lost, may he not be found
- Till end the distant year!
- But, Caoilte of the nimble feet,
- Ye shall not want a chieftain meet;
- In me, till Fionn’s fate be told,
- The leader of your host behold!”
-
- Although the Fenian bands were torn
- With agony severe,
- We burst into a laugh of scorn
- Such arrogance to hear.
-
- To urge the quest, we then decree,
- Of Finn and his hounds the joyous three
- That still to triumph led;
- And soon from Almhuin’s halls away,
- With Caoilte, I, and our dark array,
- North to Slew Guillin sped.
- There, as with searching glance the eye
- O’er all the prospect rolled,
- Beside the lake a wretch we spy,
- Poor, withered, grey, and old.
- Disgust and horror touched the heart
- To see the bones all fleshless start
- In a frame so lank and wan;
- We thought him some starved fisher torn
- From the whelming stream, by famine worn,
- And left but the wreck of man.
-
- We asked if he had chanced to see
- A swift-paced chieftain go,
- With two fleet hounds, across the lea,
- Behind a fair young doe.
-
- He gave us back no answer clear,
- But in the nimble Caoilte’s ear
- He breathed his tale--O, tale of grief!--
- That in him we saw the Fenian chief!
-
- Three sudden shouts to hear the tale
- Our host raised loud and shrill--
- The badgers started in the vale,
- The wild deer on the hill.
-
- Then Conan fierce unsheathed his sword,
- And curs’d the Fenian king and his horde.
- “If true thy tale,” he cries,
- “This blade thy head would off thee smite;
- For ne’er my valour in the fight,
- Nor prowess didst thou prize.
- Would that like thee, both old and weak,
- Were the Fenians all, that my sword might reek
- In their craven blood, and their cairns might swell
- On the grassy lea!--for since Cumhail fell,
- O’ercome in fateful strife
- By Morni’s son of the golden shields,
- Our sons thou hast sent to foreign fields,
- Or of freedom reft and life.”
-
- “Bald, senseless wretch! our care is due
- To Finn’s sad state, or thy mouth should rue
- A speech so vile, and soon atone
- With shattered teeth and fractured bone.”
-
- Indignant Caoilte spoke.
- With equal wrath said Oscar stern,
- “Audacious babbler! silence learn--
- What foe e’er felt thy stroke?”
-
- Then Conan thus--“Vain boy! be dumb,
- Or tell what deed of fame
- Did e’er thy Finn, but gnaw his thumb[4]
- Until the marrow came?
- WE, not Clan-Boske, did the deed
- Whene’er we saw the foemen bleed.
- Behind thee, Oisin, may thy son
- A puling, whining chanter run,
- And bear white book and bell.
- His words I scorn--in open fight,
- Which of us twain is in the right
- Let swords, not speeches, tell.”
-
- Him answered Oscar’s trusty steel;
- When craven Conan, taught to feel,
- And trembling for his worthless life,
- The Fenians prayed to end the strife,
- And stay rough Oscar’s blade.
- Between them swift the Fenians rushed,
- The rising storm of battle hushed,
- And Oscar’s vengeance stayed.
-
- Of Cumhail’s son then Caoilte sought
- What wizard Danan foe had wrought
- Such piteous change--and Finn replied,
- “’Twas Guillin’s daughter--me she bound
- By a sacred spell to search the tide
- Till the ring she lost was found.”
-
- Then Conan spoke in altered mood--
- “Safe may we ne’er depart,
- Till we see restored our chieftain good,
- Or Guillin rue his art!”
- Then close around our chief we throng,
- And bear him on our shields along.
-
- Eight days and nights the caverned seat
- Where Guillin made his dark retreat
- We dig with sleepless care;
- Pour through its windings close the light,
- Till we see, in all her radiance bright,
- Spring forth th’ enchantress fair.
-
- A chalice she bore of angled mould,[5]
- And sparkling rich with gems and gold;
- Its brimming fount in the hand she placed
- Of Finn, whose looks small beauty graced.
- Feeble he drinks--the potion speeds
- Through every joint and pore;
- To palsied age fresh youth succeeds--
- Finn of the swift and slender steeds
- Becomes himself once more.
- His shape, his strength, his bloom returns,
- And in manly glory bright he burns!
-
- We gave three shouts that rent the air--
- The badgers fled the vale:
- And now, O sage of frugal care,
- Hast thou not heard the tale?
-
- D.
-
-[1] The game of chess is repeatedly noticed in connection with various
-historical incidents in the early history of Ireland. Theophilus
-O’Flanagan, in a note to his translation of _Deirdri_, an ancient Irish
-tale, published in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin,
-speaks of it as “a military game that engages the mental faculties, like
-mathematical science.” O’Flaherty’s Ogygia states that Cathir, the 120th
-king of Ireland, left among his bequests to Crimthan “two chess-boards
-with their chess-men distinguished with their specks and power; on which
-account he was constituted master of the games in Leinster.”
-
-In the first book of Homer’s Odyssey the suitors are described as amusing
-themselves with the game of chess:--
-
- _With rival art and ardour in their mien,_
- _At chess they vie to captivate the queen,_
- _Divining of their loves._
-
-In Pope’s translation there is a learned note on the subject, to which
-the curious reader is referred; and also to a passage in Vallancey’s
-Essay on the Celtic Language.
-
-[2] Literally, _as lime_.
-
-[3] This will remind the reader of a similar question by Venus in the
-first Eneid:--
-
- ----Heus inquit, juvenes monstrate mearum
- Vidistis usquam hic errantem forte sororum
- Succinctam pharetra, et maculosæ tegmine lyncis,
- Aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem?--EN. I. 325.
-
- Ho, strangers! have you lately seen, she said,
- One of my sisters, like myself array’d,
- Who cross’d the lawn or in the forest stray’d?
- A painted quiver at her back she bore;
- Varied with spots, a lynx’s hide she wore;
- And at full cry pursued the tusky boar.--DRYDEN.
-
-
-[4] A note in Miss Brooke’s translations informs us that “Finn was
-reproached with deriving all his courage from his foreknowledge of
-events, and chewing his thumb for prophetic information.”
-
-[5] Quadrangular--the ancient cup of the Irish, called _meadar_.
-Specimens of it may be seen in the Antiquarian Museum of the Royal Irish
-Academy.
-
- * * * * *
-
-DISCRETION.--This is a nice perception of what is right and proper
-under the circumstances in which a person is called to act. It may be
-illustrated by the _feelers_ of the cat, which are long hairs placed
-upon her nose, with which she readily measures the space between sticks
-and stones through which she desires to pass, and thus determines, by a
-delicate touch, whether it is sufficiently large to let her go through
-without being scratched. Thus discretion appreciates difficulties,
-dangers, and obstructions around, and enables a person to decide upon the
-proper course of action. “There are many more shining qualities in the
-mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion. It is this which
-gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work, and turns them
-to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it,
-learning is pedantry and wit impertinence; nay, virtue itself often looks
-like weakness. Discretion not only shows itself in words, but in all the
-circumstances of action; and is like an agent of Providence, to guide
-and direct us in the ordinary chances of life.” But how shall discretion
-be cultivated in children? Chiefly by example. It is a virtue especially
-committed to the cultivation of the mother. She may do much to promote
-it, by rebuking acts of imprudence, and bestowing due encouragement upon
-acts of discretion. Let the mother remember that discretion is important
-to men, and see that she cherishes it in her sons; let her remember that
-it is essential to women, and make sure of it in her daughters.--_Dr
-Channing._
-
-
-
-
-THE IRISH MATCHMAKER.
-
-BY WILLIAM CARLETON.
-
-
-Though this word at a glance may be said to explain itself, yet lest our
-English or Scotch readers might not clearly understand its meaning, we
-shall briefly give them such a definition of it as will enable them to
-comprehend it in its full extent. The Irish Matchmaker, then, is a person
-selected to conduct reciprocity treaties of the heart between lovers
-themselves in the first instance, or, where the principal parties are
-indifferent, between their respective families, when the latter happen to
-be of opinion that it is a safer and more prudent thing to consult the
-interest of the young folk rather than their inclination. In short, the
-Matchmaker is the person engaged in carrying from one party to another
-all the messages, letters, tokens, presents, and secret communications of
-the tender passion, in whatever shape or character the said parties may
-deem it proper to transmit them. The Matchmaker, therefore, is a general
-negociator in all such matters of love or interest as are designed by
-the principals or their friends to terminate in the honourable bond of
-marriage; for with nothing morally improper or licentious, or approaching
-to the character of an intrigue, will the regular Irish Matchmaker have
-any thing at all to do. The Matchmaker, therefore, after all, is only
-the creature of necessity, and is never engaged by an Irishman unless
-to remove such preliminary obstacles as may stand in the way of his own
-direct operations. In point of fact, the Matchmaker is nothing but a
-pioneer, who, after the plan of the attack has been laid down, clears
-away some of the rougher difficulties, until the regular advance is made,
-the siege opened in due form, and the citadel successfully entered by the
-principal party.
-
-We have said thus much to prevent our fair neighbours of England and
-Scotland from imagining that because such a character as the Irish
-Matchmaker exists at all, Irishmen are personally deficient in that
-fluent energy which is so necessary to express the emotions of the tender
-passion. Addison has proved to the satisfaction of any rational mind that
-modesty and assurance are inseparable--that a blushing face may accompany
-a courageous, nay, a desperate heart--and that, on the contrary, an
-abundance of assurance may be associated with a very handsome degree of
-modesty. In love matters, I grant, modesty is the _forte_ of an Irishman,
-whose character in this respect has been unconsciously hit off by the
-poet. Indeed he may truly be termed _vultus ingenui puer, ingenuique
-pudoris_; which means, when translated, that in looking for a wife an
-Irishman is “a _boy_ of an _easy_ face, and remarkable modesty.”
-
-At the head of the Matchmakers, and far above all competitors, stands
-the Irish Midwife, of whose abilities in this way it is impossible to
-speak too highly. And let not our readers imagine that the duties which
-devolve upon her, as well as upon matchmakers in general, are slight or
-easily discharged. To conduct a matter of this kind ably, great tact,
-knowledge of character, and very delicate handling, are necessary. To
-be incorruptible, faithful to both parties, not to give offence to
-either, and to obviate detection in case of secret bias or partiality,
-demand talents of no common order. The amount of fortune is often to be
-regulated--the good qualities of the parties placed in the best, or, what
-is often still more judicious, in the most suitable light--and when there
-happens to be a scarcity of the commodity, it must be furnished from her
-own invention. The miser is to be softened, the contemptuous tone of the
-purse-proud _bodagh_ lowered without offence, the crafty cajoled, and
-sometimes the unsuspecting overreached. Now, all this requires an able
-hand, as matchmaking in general among the Irish does. Indeed I question
-whether the wiliest politician that ever attempted to manage a treaty of
-peace between two hostile powers could have a more difficult card to play
-than often falls to the lot of the Irish Matchmaker.
-
-The Midwife, however, from her confidential intercourse with the sex,
-and the respect with which both young and old of them look upon her, is
-peculiarly well qualified for the office. She has seen the youth shoot up
-and ripen into the young man--she has seen the young man merged into the
-husband, and the husband very frequently lost in the wife. Now, the marks
-and tokens by which she noted all this are as perceptible in the young of
-this day as they were in the young of fifty years ago; she consequently
-knows from experience how to manage each party, so as to bring about the
-consummation which she so devoutly wishes.
-
-Upon second thoughts, however, we are inclined to think after all that
-the right of precedence upon this point does not exclusively belong to
-the Midwife; or at least, that there exists another person who contests
-it with her so strongly that we are scarcely capable of determining
-their respective claims: this is the _Cosherer_. The Cosherer in Ireland
-is a woman who goes from one relation’s house to another, from friend
-to friend, from acquaintance to acquaintance--is always welcome, and
-uniformly well treated. The very extent of her connexions makes her
-independent; so that if she receives an affront, otherwise a cold
-reception, from one, she never feels it to affect her comfort, but on the
-contrary carries it about with her in the shape of a complaint to the
-rest, and details it with such a rich spirit of vituperative enjoyment,
-that we believe in our soul some of her friends, knowing what healthful
-occupation it gives her, actually affront her from pure kindness. The
-Cosherer is the very impersonation of industry. Unless when asleep,
-no mortal living ever saw her hands idle. Her principal employment is
-knitting; and whether she sits, stands, or walks, there she is with the
-end of the stocking under her arm, knit, knit, knitting. She also sews
-and quilts; and whenever a quilting is going forward, she can tell you
-at once in what neighbour’s house the quilting-frame was used last,
-and where it is now to be had; and when it has been got, she is all
-bustle and business, ordering and commanding about her--her large red
-three-cornered pincushion hanging conspicuously at her side, a lump of
-chalk in one hand, and a coil of twine in the other, ready to mark the
-pattern, whether it be wave, square, or diamond.
-
-The Cosherer is always dressed with neatness and comfort, but generally
-wears something about her that reminds one of a day gone by, and may be
-considered as the lingering remnant of some old custom that has fallen
-into disuse. This, slight as it is, endears her to many, for it stands
-out as the memorial of some old and perhaps affecting associations, which
-at its very appearance are called out from the heart in which they were
-slumbering.
-
-It is impossible to imagine a happier life than that of the Cosherer. She
-has evidently no trouble, no care, no children, nor any of the various
-claims of life, to disturb or encumber her. Wherever she goes she is
-made, and finds herself, perfectly at home. The whole business of her
-life is carrying about intelligence, making and projecting matches,
-singing old songs and telling old stories, which she frequently does
-with a feeling and unction not often to be met with. She will sing you
-the different sets and variations of the old airs, repeat the history
-and traditions of old families, recite _ranns_, interpret dreams, give
-the origin of old local customs, and tell a ghost story in a style that
-would make your hair stand on end. She is a bit of a doctress, too--an
-extensive herbalist, and is very skilful and lucky among children. In
-short, she is a perfect Gentleman’s Magazine in her way--a regular
-repertory of traditionary lore, a collector and distributor of social
-antiquities, dealing in every thing that is timeworn or old, and handling
-it with such a quiet and antique air, that one would imagine her life
-to be a life not of years but of centuries, and that she had passed the
-greater portion of it, long as it was, in “wandering by the shores of old
-romance.”
-
-Such a woman the reader will at once perceive is a formidable competitor
-for popular confidence with the Midwife. Indeed there is but one
-consideration alone upon which we would be inclined to admit that
-the latter has any advantage over her--and it is, that she _is the
-Midwife_; a word which is a tower of strength to her, not only against
-all professional opponents, but against such analogous characters as
-would intrude even upon any of her subordinate or collateral offices.
-As matchmakers, it is extremely difficult to decide between her and the
-Cosherer; so much so, indeed, that we are disposed to leave the claim for
-priority undetermined. In this respect each pulls in the same harness;
-and as they are so well matched, we will allow them to jog on side by
-side, drawing the youngsters of the neighbouring villages slowly but
-surely towards the land of matrimony.
-
-In humble country life, as in high life, we find in nature the same
-principles and motives of action. Let not the speculating mother of rank,
-nor the husband-hunting dowager, imagine for a moment that the plans,
-stratagems, lures, and trap-falls, with which they endeavour to secure
-some wealthy fool for their daughters, are not known and practised--ay,
-and with as much subtlety and circumvention too--by the very humblest of
-their own sex. In these matters they have not one whit of superiority
-over the lowest, sharpest, and most fraudulent gossip of a country
-village, where the arts of women are almost as sagaciously practised, and
-the small scandal as ably detailed, as in the highest circles of fashion.
-
-The third great master of the art of matchmaking is the _Shanahus_,
-who is nothing more or less than the counterpart of the Cosherer; for
-as the Cosherer is never of the male sex, so the Shanahus is never of
-the female. With respect to their habits and modes of life, the only
-difference between them is, that as the Cosherer is never idle, so the
-Shanahus never works; and the latter is a far superior authority in old
-popular prophecy and genealogy. As a matchmaker, however, the Shanahus
-comes infinitely short of the Cosherer; for the truth is, that this
-branch of diplomacy falls naturally within the manœuvring and intriguing
-spirit of a woman.
-
-Our readers are not to understand that in Ireland there exists, like
-the fiddler or dancing-master, a distinct character openly known by
-the appellation of matchmaker. No such thing. On the contrary, the
-negotiations they undertake are all performed under false colours. The
-business, in fact, is close and secret, and always carried on with the
-profoundest mystery, veiled by the sanction of some other ostensible
-occupation.
-
-One of the best specimens of the kind we ever met was old Rose Mohan, or,
-as she was called, Moan, a name, we doubt, fearfully expressive of the
-consequences which too frequently followed her own negociations. Rose
-was a tidy creature of middle size, who always went dressed in a short
-crimson cloak much faded, a striped red and blue drugget petticoat, and
-a heather-coloured gown of the same fabric. When walking, which she did
-with the aid of a light hazel staff hooked at the top, she generally
-kept the hood of the cloak over her head, which gave to her whole figure
-a picturesque effect; and when she threw it back, one could not help
-admiring how well her small but symmetrical features agreed with the dowd
-cap of white linen, with a plain muslin border, which she wore. A pair of
-blue stockings and sharp-pointed shoes high in the heels completed her
-dress. Her features were good-natured and Irish; but there lay over the
-whole countenance an expression of quickness and sagacity, contracted
-no doubt by a habitual exercise of penetration and circumspection. At
-the time I saw her she was very old, and I believe had the reputation
-of being the last in that part of the country who was known to go about
-from house to house spinning on the distaff, an instrument which has now
-passed away, being more conveniently replaced by the spinning-wheel.
-
-The manner and style of Rose’s visits were different from those of any
-other who could come to a farmer’s house, or even to an humble cottage,
-for to the inmates of both were her services equally rendered. Let
-us suppose, for instance, the whole female part of a farmer’s family
-assembled of a summer evening about five o’clock, each engaged in
-some domestic employment: in runs a lad who has been sporting about,
-breathlessly exclaiming, whilst his eyes are lit up with delight,
-“Mother! mother! here’s Rose Moan coming down the boreen!” “Get out,
-avick; no, she’s not.” “Bad cess to me but she is; that I may never stir
-if she isn’t! Now!” The whole family are instantly at the door to see
-if it be she, with the exception of the prettiest of them all, Kitty,
-who sits at her wheel, and immediately begins to croon over an old Irish
-air which is sadly out of tune; and well do we know, notwithstanding
-the mellow tones of that sweet voice, why it is so, and also why that
-youthful cheek in which health and beauty meet, is now the colour of
-crimson.
-
-“_Oh, Rosha, acushla, cead millie failte ghud!_ (Rose, darlin’, a hundred
-thousand welcomes to you!) Och, musha, what kep you away so long, Rose?
-Sure you won’t lave us this month o’ Sundays, Rose?” are only a few of
-the cordial expressions of hospitality and kindness with which she is
-received. But Kitty, whose cheek but a moment ago was carmine, why is it
-now pale as the lily?
-
-“An’ what news, Rose?” asks one of her sisters; “sure you’ll tell us
-every thing; won’t you?”
-
-“Throth, avillish, _I have no bad news_, any how--an’ as to tellin’ you
-_all_--Biddy, _lhig dumh_, let me alone. No, I have no bad news, God be
-praised, _but good news_.”
-
-Kitty’s cheek is again crimson, and her lips, ripe and red as cherries,
-expand with the sweet soft smile of her country, exhibiting a set of
-teeth for which many a countess would barter thousands, and giving out
-a breath more delicious than the fragrance of a summer meadow. Oh, no
-wonder, indeed, that the kind heart of Rose contains in its recesses a
-message to her as tender as ever was transmitted from man to woman!
-
-“An’, Kitty, acushla, where’s the welcome from _you_, that’s my
-favourite? Now don’t be jealous, childre; sure you all know she is, an’
-ever an’ always was.”
-
-“If it’s not upon my lips, it’s in my heart, Rose, an’ from that heart
-you’re welcome!”
-
-She rises up and kisses Rose, who gives her one glance of meaning,
-accompanied by the slightest imaginable smile, and a gentle but
-significant pressure of the hand, which thrills to her heart and diffuses
-a sense of ecstacy through her whole spirit. Nothing now remains but the
-opportunity, which is equally sought for by Rose and her, to hear without
-interruption the purport of her lover’s communication; and this we leave
-to lovers to imagine.
-
-In Ireland, however odd it may seem, there occur among the very poorest
-classes some of the hardest and most penurious bargains in matchmaking
-that ever were heard of or known. Now, strangers might imagine that all
-this close higgling proceeds from a spirit naturally near and sordid, but
-it is not so. The real secret of it lies in the poverty and necessity
-of the parties, and chiefly in the bitter experience of their parents,
-who, having come together in a state of destitution, are anxious, each as
-much at the expense of the other as possible, to prevent their children
-from experiencing the same privation and misery which they themselves
-felt. Many a time have matches been suspended or altogether broken off
-because one party refuses to give his son a slip of a pig, or another his
-daughter a pair of blankets; and it was no unusual thing for a matchmaker
-to say, “Never mind; I have it all settled _but the slip_.” One might
-naturally wonder why those who are so shrewd and provident upon this
-subject do not strive to prevent early marriages where the poverty is
-so great. So unquestionably they ought, but it is a settled usage of
-the country, and one too which Irishmen have never been in the habit
-of considering as an evil. We have no doubt that if they once began to
-reason upon it as such, they would be very strongly disposed to check a
-custom which has been the means of involving themselves and their unhappy
-offspring in misery, penury, and not unfrequently in guilt itself.
-
-Rose, like many others in this world who are not conscious of the same
-failing, smelt strongly of the shop; in other words, her conversation
-had a strong matrimonial tendency. No two beings ever lived so decidedly
-antithetical to each other in this point of view as the Matchmaker and
-the Keener. Mention the name of an individual or a family to the Keener,
-and the medium through which her memory passes back to them is that of
-her professed employment--a mourner at wakes and funerals.
-
-“Don’t you know young Kelly of Tamlaght?”
-
-“I do, avick,” replies the Keener, “and what about him?”
-
-“Why, he was married to-day mornin’ to ould Jack M’Cluskey’s daughter.”
-
-“Well, God grant them luck an’ happiness, poor things! I do indeed
-remember his father’s wake an’ funeral well--ould Risthard Kelly of
-Tamlaght--a dacent corpse he made for his years, an’ well he looked. But
-indeed I _knewn_ by the colour that sted in his checks, an’ the limbs
-remainin’ soople for the twenty-four hours afther his departure, that
-some of the family ’ud follow him afore the year was out: an’ so she
-did. The youngest daughter, poor thing, by raison of a could she got,
-over-heatin’ herself at a dance, was stretched beside him that very day
-was eleven months; and God knows it was from the heart my grief came
-for _her_--to see the poor handsome colleen laid low so soon. But when
-a gallopin’ consumption sets in, avourneen, sure we all know what’s to
-happen. In Crockaniska churchyard they sleep--the Lord make both their
-beds in heaven this day!” The very reverse of this, but at the same time
-as inveterately professional, was Rose Moan.
-
-“God save you, Rose.”
-
-“God save you kindly, avick. Eh!--let me look at you. Aren’t you red
-Billy M’Guirk’s son from Ballagh?”
-
-“I am, Rose. An’, Rose, how is yourself an’ the world gettin’ an?”
-
-“Can’t complain, dear, in such times. How are yez all at home, alanna?”
-
-“Faix, middlin’ well, Rose, thank God an’ you.--You heard of my
-granduncle’s death, big Ned M’Coul?”
-
-“I did, avick, God rest him. Sure it’s well I remimber his weddin’, poor
-man, by the same atoken that I know one that helped him on wid it a
-thrifle. He was married in a blue coat and buckskins, an’ wore a scarlet
-waistcoat that you’d see three miles off. Oh, well I remimber it. An’
-whin he was settin’ out that mornin’ to the priest’s house, ‘Ned,’ says
-I, an’ I fwhishspered him, ‘dhrop a button on the right knee afore you
-get the words said.’ ‘_Thighum_,’ said he, wid a smile, an’ he slipped
-ten thirteens into my hand as he spoke. ‘I’ll do it,’ said he, ‘and thin
-a fig for the fairies!’--becase you see if there’s a button of the right
-knee left unbuttoned, the fairies--this day’s Friday, God stand betune us
-and harm!--can do neither hurt nor harm to sowl or body, an’ sure that’s
-a great blessin’, avick. He left two fine slips o’ girls behind him.”
-
-“He did so--as good-lookin’ girls as there’s in the parish.”
-
-“Faix, an’ kind mother for them, avick. She’ll be marryin’ agin, I’m
-judgin’, she bein’ sich a fresh good-lookin’ woman.”
-
-“Why, it’s very likely, Rose.”
-
-“Throth it’s natural, achora. What can a lone woman do wid such a large
-farm upon her hands, widout having some one to manage it for her, an’
-prevint her from bein’ imposed on? But indeed the first thing she ought
-to do is to marry off her two girls widout loss of time, in regard that
-it’s hard to say how a stepfather an’ thim might agree; and I’ve often
-known the mother herself, when she had a fresh family comin’ an her,
-to be as unnatural to her fatherless childre as if she was a stranger
-to thim, and that the same blood did’nt run in their veins. Not saying
-that Mary M’Coul will or would act that way by her own; for indeed she’s
-come of a kind ould stock, an’ ought to have a good heart. Tell her,
-avick, when you see her, that I’ll spind a day or two wid her--let me
-see--to-morrow will be Palm Sunday--why, about the Aisther holidays.”
-
-“Indeed I will, Rose, with great pleasure.”
-
-“An’ fwhishsper, dear, jist tell her that I’ve a thing to say to
-her--that I had a long dish o’ discoorse about her wid _a friend o’
-mine_. You wont forget now?”
-
-“Oh the dickens a forget!”
-
-“Thank you, dear: God mark you to grace, avourneen! When you’re a little
-ouldher, maybe I’ll be a friend to you yet.”
-
-This last intimation was given with a kind of mysterious benevolence,
-very visible in the complacent shrewdness of her face, and with a twinkle
-in the eye, full of grave humour and considerable self-importance,
-leaving the mind of the person she spoke to in such an agreeable
-uncertainty as rendered it a matter of great difficulty to determine
-whether she was serious or only in jest, but at all events throwing the
-onus of inquiry upon him.
-
-The ease and tact with which Rose could involve two young persons of
-opposite sexes in a mutual attachment, were very remarkable. In truth,
-she was a kind of matrimonial incendiary, who went through the country
-holding her torch now to this heart and again to that--first to one and
-then to another, until she had the parish more or less in a flame. And
-when we consider the combustible materials of which the Irish heart is
-composed, it is no wonder indeed that the labour of taking the census
-in Ireland increases at such a rapid rate during the time that elapses
-between the periods of its being made out. If Rose, for instance, met
-a young woman of her acquaintance accidentally--and it was wonderful
-to think how regularly these accidental meetings took place--she would
-address her probably somewhat as follows:--
-
-“Arra, Biddy Sullivan, how are you, a-colleen?”
-
-“Faix, bravely, thank you, Rose. How is yourself?”
-
-“Indeed, thin, sorra bit o’ the health we can complain of, Bhried,
-barrin’ whin this pain in the back comes upon us. The last time I seen
-your mother, Biddy, she was complainin’ of a _weid_.[6] I hope she’s
-betther, poor woman?”
-
-“Hut! bad scran to the thing ails her! She has as light a foot as e’er a
-one of us, an’ can dance ‘Jackson’s mornin’ brush’ as well as ever she
-could.”
-
-“Throth, an’ I’m proud to hear it. Och! och! ‘Jackson’s mornin’ brush!’
-and it was she that _could_ do it. Sure I remimber her wedding-day
-like yestherday. Ay, far an’ near her fame wint as a dancer, an’ the
-clanest-made girl that ever came from Lisbuie. Like yestherday do I
-remimber it, an’ how the squire himself an’ the ladies from the Big
-House came down to see herself an’ your father, the bride and groom--an’
-it wasn’t on every hill head you’d get sich a couple--dancin’ the same
-‘Jackson’s mornin’ brush.’ Oh! it was far and near her fame wint for
-dancin’ that.--An’ is there no news wid you, Bhried, at all at all?”
-
-“The sorra word, Rose: where ud I get news? Sure it’s yourself that’s
-always on the fut that ought to have the news for _us_, Rose alive.”
-
-“An’ maybe I have too. I was spaikin’ to a friend o’ mine about you the
-other day.”
-
-“A friend o’ yours, Rose! Why, what friend could it be?”
-
-“A friend o’ mine--ay, an’ of yours too. Maybe you have more friends than
-you think, Biddy--and kind ones too, as far as wishin’ you well goes,
-’tany rate. Ay have you, faix, an’ friends that e’er a girl in the parish
-might be proud to hear named in the one day wid her. Awouh!”
-
-“Bedad we’re in luck, thin, for that’s more than I knew of. An’ who may
-these great friends of ours be, Rose?”
-
-“Awouh! Faix, as dacent a boy as ever broke bread the same boy is, ‘and,’
-says he, ‘if I had goold in bushelfuls, I’d think it too little for that
-girl;’ but, poor lad, he’s not aisy or happy in his mind in regard o’
-that. ‘I’m afeard,’ says he, ‘that she’d put scorn upon me, an’ not think
-me her aiquals. An’ no more I am,’ says he again, ‘for where, afther all,
-would you get the likes of Biddy Sullivan?’--Poor boy! throth my heart
-aches for him!”
-
-“Well, can’t you fall in love wid him yourself, Rose, whoever he is?”
-
-“Indeed, an’ if I was at your age, it would be no shame to me to do so;
-but, to tell you the thruth, the sorra often ever the likes of Paul
-Heffernan came acrass me.”
-
-“Paul Heffernan! Why, Rose,” replied Biddy, smiling with the assumed
-lightness of indifference, “is that your beauty? If it is, why, keep him,
-an’ make much of him.”
-
-“Oh, wurrah! the differ there is between the hearts an’ tongues of some
-people--one from another--an’ the way they spaik behind others’ backs!
-Well, well, I’m sure that wasn’t the way he spoke of you, Biddy; an’
-God forgive you for runnin’ down the poor boy as you’re doin’. Trogs! I
-believe you’re the only girl would do it.”
-
-“Who, me! I’m not runnin’ him down. I’m neither runnin’ him up nor down.
-I have neither good nor bad to say about him--the boy’s a black sthranger
-to me, barrin’ to know his face.”
-
-“Faix, an’ he’s in consate wid you these three months past, an’ intinds
-to be at the dance on Friday next, in Jack Gormly’s new house. Now, good
-bye, alanna; keep your own counsel till the time comes, an’ mind what
-I said to you. It’s not behind every ditch the likes of Paul Heffernan
-grows. _Bannaght lhath!_ My blessin’ be wid you!”
-
-Thus would Rose depart just at the critical moment, for well she knew
-that by husbanding her information and leaving the heart something to
-find out, she took the most effectual steps to excite and sustain that
-kind of interest which is apt ultimately to ripen, even from its own
-agitation, into the attachment she is anxious to promote.
-
-The next day, by a meeting similarly accidental, she comes in contact
-with Paul Heffernan, who, honest lad, had never probably bestowed a
-thought upon Biddy Sullivan in his life.
-
-“_Morrow ghud_, Paul!--how is your father’s son, ahager?”
-
-“_Morrow ghuteha_, Rose!--my father’s son wants nothin’ but a good wife,
-Rosha.”
-
-“An’ it’s not every set day or bonfire night that a good wife is to be
-had, Paul--that is, a _good_ one, as you say; for, throth, there’s many
-o’ them in the market sich as they are. I was talkin’ about you to a
-friend of mine the other day--an’, trogs, I’m afeard you’re not worth all
-the abuse we gave you.”
-
-“More power to you, Rose! I’m oblaged to you. But who is the friend in
-the manetime?”
-
-“Poor girl! Throth, when your name slipped out an her, the point of a
-rush would take a drop of blood out o’ her cheek, the way she crimsoned
-up. ‘An’, Rose,’ says she, ‘if ever I know you to breathe it to man or
-mortual, my lips I’ll never open to you to my dyin’ day.’ Trogs, whin I
-looked at her, an’ the tears standin’ in her purty black eyes, I thought
-I didn’t see a betther favoured girl, for both face and figure, this many
-a day, than the same Biddy Sullivan.”
-
-“Biddy Sullivan! Is that long Jack’s daughter of Cargah?”
-
-“The same. But, Paul, avick, if a syllable o’ what I tould you----”
-
-“Hut, Rose! honour bright! Do you think me a _stag_, that I’d go and
-inform on you?”
-
-“Fwhishsper, Paul; she’ll be at the dance on Friday next in Jack Gormly’s
-new house. So _bannaght lhath_, an’ think o’ what I betrayed to you.”
-
-Thus did Rose very quietly and sagaciously bind two young hearts
-together, who probably might otherwise have never for a moment even
-thought of each other. Of course, when Paul and Biddy met at the dance on
-the following Friday, the one was the object of the closest attention to
-the other; and each being prepared to witness strong proofs of attachment
-from the opposite party, every thing fell out exactly according to their
-expectations.
-
-Sometimes it happens that a booby of a fellow during his calf love will
-employ a male friend to plead his suit with a pretty girl, who, if the
-principal party had spunk, might be very willing to marry him. To the
-credit of our fair countrywomen, however, be it said, that in scarcely
-one instance out of twenty does it happen, or has it ever happened, that
-any of them ever fails to punish the faint heart by bestowing the fair
-lady upon what is called the blackfoot or spokesman whom he selects to
-make love for him. In such a case it is very naturally supposed that
-the latter will speak two words for himself and one for his friend,
-and indeed the result bears out the supposition. Now, nothing on earth
-gratifies the heart of the established Matchmaker so much as to hear
-of such a disaster befalling a spoony. She exults over his misfortune
-for months, and publishes his shame to the uttermost bounds of her own
-little world, branding him as “a poor pitiful crature, who had not the
-courage to spaik up for himself or to employ them that could.” In fact,
-she entertains much the same feeling against him that a regular physician
-would towards some weak-minded patient, who prefers the knavish ignorance
-of a quack to the skill and services of an able and educated medical
-practitioner.
-
-Characters like Rose are fast disappearing in Ireland; and indeed in a
-country where the means of life were generally inadequate to the wants
-of the population, they were calculated, however warmly the heart may
-look back upon the memory of their services, to do more harm than good,
-by inducing young folks to enter into early and improvident marriages.
-They certainly sprang up from a state of society not thoroughly formed
-by proper education and knowledge--where the language of a people, too,
-was in many extensive districts in such a state of transition as in the
-interchange of affection to render an interpreter absolutely necessary.
-We have ourselves witnessed marriages where the husband and wife spoke
-the one English and the other Irish, each being able with difficulty to
-understand the other. In all such cases Rose was invaluable. She spoke
-Irish and English fluently, and indeed was acquainted with every thing in
-the slightest or most remote degree necessary to the conduct of a love
-affair, from the first glance up until the priest had pronounced the last
-words--or, to speak more correctly, until “the throwing of the stocking.”
-
-Rose was invariably placed upon the _hob_, which is the seat of comfort
-and honour at a farmer’s fireside, and there she sat neat and tidy,
-detailing all the news of the parish, telling them how such a marriage
-was one unbroken honeymoon--a sure proof by the way that she herself had
-a hand in it--and again, how another one did not turn out well, and she
-said so; “there was always a bad dhrop in the Haggarties; but, my dear,
-the girl herself was _for_ him; so as she made her own bed she must lie
-in it, poor thing. Any way, thanks be to goodness I had nothing to do wid
-it!”
-
-Rose was to be found in every fair and market, and always at a particular
-place at a certain hour of the day, where the parties engaged in a
-courtship were sure to meet her on these occasions. She took a chirping
-glass, but never so as to become unsteady. Great deference was paid to
-every thing she said; and if this was not conceded to her, she extorted
-it with a high hand. Nobody living could drink a health with half the
-comic significance that Rose threw into her eye when saying, “Well, young
-couple, here’s everything as you wish it!”
-
-Rose’s motions from place to place were usually very slow, and for the
-best reason in the world, because she was frequently interrupted. For
-instance, if she met a young man on her way, ten to one but he stood
-and held a long and earnest conversation with her; and that it was both
-important and confidential, might easily be gathered from the fact that
-whenever a stranger passed, it was either suspended altogether, or
-carried on in so low a tone as to be inaudible. This held equally good
-with the girls. Many a time have I seen them retracing their steps, and
-probably walking back a mile or two, all the time engaged in discussing
-some topic evidently of more than ordinary interest to themselves. And
-when they shook hands and bade each other good bye, heavens! at what a
-pace did the latter scamper homewards across fields and ditches, in order
-to make up for the time she had lost!
-
-Nobody ever saw Rose receive a penny of money, and yet when she took
-a fancy, it was beyond any doubt that she has often been known to
-assist young folks in their early struggles; but in no instance was the
-slightest aid ever afforded to any one whose union she had not herself
-been instrumental in bringing about. As to the _when_ and the _how_ she
-got this money, and the great quantity of female apparel which she was
-known to possess, we think we see our readers smile at the simplicity of
-those who may not be able to guess the several sources from whence she
-obtained it.
-
-One other fact we must mention before we close this sketch of her
-character. There were _some_ houses--we will not, for we dare not, say
-_how many_--into which Rose was never seen to enter. This, however, was
-not her fault. Every one knew that what she did, she did always for the
-best; and if some small bits of execration were occasionally levelled
-at her, it was not more than the parties levelled at each other. All
-marriages cannot be happy; and indeed it was a creditable proof of Rose
-Moan’s sagacity that so few of those effected through her instrumentality
-were unfortunate.
-
-Poor Rose! matchmaking was the great business of your simple but not
-absolutely harmless life. You are long since, we trust, gone to that
-happy place where there are neither marryings nor givings in marriage,
-but where you will have a long Sabbath from your old habits and
-tendencies. We love for more reasons than either one or two to think of
-your faded crimson cloak, peaked shoes, hazel staff, clear grey eye,
-and nose and chin that were so full of character. As you used to say
-yourself, _bannaght lhath!_--my blessing be with you!
-
-[6] A feverish cold.
-
-
-
-
-RANDOM SKETCHES.--No. I.
-
-FELINE RECOLLECTIONS.
-
-
-One result of perusing such interesting papers on “the Intellectuality of
-Domestic Animals” as that which lately appeared in the _Dublin University
-Magazine_, should be the publication of similar facts; another, the
-promotion of that kindness towards the inferior creation which is still,
-alas! so sparingly manifested. I therefore propose stuffing a cranny
-of the _Irish Penny Journal_ with a few particulars relating, firstly,
-to the maternal and filial piety of the cat; secondly, to the humanity
-(or, psychologically speaking, brutality) of the same animal. Of the
-facts illustrative of the former virtues I was an eye-witness--those
-illustrative of the latter I had from a member of the family in which
-they occurred.
-
-In my early home two cats, a mother and a son, formed part of the
-establishment. The former, a dark-grey matron, rejoiced in the euphonious
-name of SMUT--the colour of the latter may be inferred from his
-appellation, FOX. Smut was, to be brief, the most lady-like cat I ever
-saw; Fox was a huge Dan Donnelly of a brute, a very hero of the slates,
-and the terror of all the cats in the neighbourhood, _save one_; he
-walloped them right and left; and many a smirking sylph of the gutters,
-wont to pick her steps daintily to avoid all possible contact with the
-wet, was seen to scamper away screaming when Fox appeared in view, for
-truth obliges me to record that he spared neither age nor sex. Nor was he
-formidable to the brute creation alone--humanity often suffered under his
-visitations. There was no keener forager among the larders and pantries
-of the neighbourhood. A poor dancing-master who had a way of leaving his
-window open was most frequently victimized; for as the said window was
-_convenient_ to the low roof of a back house, our hero used to quietly
-walk in and purvey to his liking. In the recess of a chimney, and several
-feet above the roof of our house, was a kind of small platform, where
-Master Fox was usually pleased to regale himself on his ill-gotten gains.
-One day I saw him with a calf’s or lamb’s pluck in his mouth, twice as
-long as himself, darting aloft towards his refectory. The weight of the
-booty several times dragged him back; but he persevered till he gained
-his point: it was a sight ludicrous beyond all imagining.
-
-But as it was not every day Master Fox could mulct the circumambient
-dancing-master in a beef-steak or a calf’s pluck, he often returned home
-hungry; and I am now come to the point of proving the “intellectuality”
-of Madam Smut, as evidenced in her maternal piety. Within the
-kitchen-door lay a mat, in a hole in which she daily hid a portion of her
-lights. She was generally dozing before the fire when her son came in for
-the night, and whenever I happened to follow him and watch her movements,
-she invariably looked up to see whether he had scented the provender:
-and when satisfied on that point, coiled herself up to sleep again. But
-her maternal tenderness never interfered with her matronly dignity. Woe
-betide Fox, if, in proceeding to take his place at the fire, he attempted
-to pass between her and it. She would instantly spring up and deal him
-a dab, which prevented for that time a repetition of the indecorum. I
-have seen him steal most cautiously along the forbidden path in the
-presumption that she was asleep, but I do not remember to have ever seen
-him effect a passage. I have said that he leathered all the cats about
-him save one--that one was his mother. Determined pugilist and fire-eater
-as he was, he never returned the dab she gave him.
-
-The fact of which I was only an ear-witness may be briefly related. A
-lady of this city observing one day a wretched kitten which had been
-ruthlessly flung into the street before her residence, had it taken into
-the house and carefully tended. Some time after, when it had grown into
-a thorough-bred mouser, a strange cat with a broken leg hobbled into the
-yard, where it was discovered by the foundling, which immediately took
-charge of it, and regularly allotted to the sufferer a portion of its own
-daily food till it was sufficiently recovered to shift for itself.
-
-As a warm friend of the inferior creation, I was much pleased to find
-their cause pleaded towards the close of the article, which gave rise
-to the present sketch, and a just encomium passed on the author of “the
-Rights of Animals.” And much was I gratified to find that the same cause
-appears to maintain an abiding interest in the bosom of the first of
-living poets. “C. O.” alludes as follows to a conversation he had with
-Mr Wordsworth on the subject:--“I remember an observation made to me
-by one of the most gifted of the human race--one of the stars of this
-generation--the poet of nature and of feeling--the good and the great Mr
-Wordsworth. Having the honour of a conversation with him after he had
-made a tour through Ireland, I in the course of it asked what was the
-thing that most struck his observation here as making us differ from the
-English; and he without hesitation said it was the ill-treatment of our
-horses: that his soul was often, too often, sick within him at the way
-in which he saw these creatures of God abused.” One evening, which I
-had the happiness of spending at Rydal Mount, the very same subject was
-broached by Mr W. Defend my countrymen I could not, but I parried the
-attack by showing that other segments of the united kingdom had little
-right to boast over them in this particular. This I proved by adverting
-to the notorious cat-skinning of London--a horror unknown in Ireland,
-bad as we are--and to certain atrocious cruelties which had just been
-perpetrated on some horses in Sutherland (though I must confess that I
-know too little of Scotland to pronounce whether its national character
-is tarnished by cruelty to animals or not). And much was I surprised when
-the son of the poet threw discredit on the character of one of the first
-of London newspapers, from which I had cited a recent case in proof of
-my assertion. It was in 1833 I visited Rydal Mount. Should this paper
-reach the eye of Mr W. jun., he may find my statement corroborated, and
-the perpetration of the barbarous trade demonstrated, by referring to the
-case of Elizabeth Rogerson, an old offender, who in 1839 was condemned
-to the ridiculously lenient penalty of two months’ imprisonment for the
-crime, without hard labour. A diametrically opposite opinion respecting
-the treatment of horses in Ireland was once expressed to me by another
-English gentleman of some celebrity in the religious world. He passed an
-encomium on the kindness to animals observable in this country, from the
-habit he had noticed among the drivers of jaunting-cars, during his short
-stay in Dublin, of feeding their horses from their hands with a wisp of
-hay at leisure moments--a pitch of humanity just equivalent to that of
-greasing the wheels of their vehicles.
-
- * * * * *
-
- Printed and published every Saturday by GUNN and CAMERON,
- No. 6, Church Lane, College Green, Dublin; and sold by all
- Booksellers.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No.
-15, October 10, 1840, by Various
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 15,
-October 10, 1840, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 15, October 10, 1840
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: February 27, 2017 [EBook #54252]
-
-Language: English
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-Character set encoding: UTF-8
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-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRISH PENNY JOURNAL, OCT 10, 1840 ***
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-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
-
-<h1>THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.</h1>
-
-<table summary="Headline layout">
- <tr>
- <td class="smcap">Number 15.</td>
- <td class="center">SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1840.</td>
- <td class="right smcap">Volume I.</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="figcenter gap4" style="width: 500px;">
-<img src="images/leixlip.jpg" width="500" height="410" alt="Leixlip town and castle" />
-</div>
-
-<h2>THE TOWN AND CASTLE OF LEIXLIP, COUNTY OF KILDARE.</h2>
-
-<p>Localities are no less subject to the capricious mutations
-of fashion in taste, than dress, music, or any other of the
-various objects on which it displays its extravagant vagaries.
-The place which on account of its beauties is at one period
-the chosen resort of pleased and admiring crowds, at another
-becomes abandoned and unthought of, as if it were an unsightly
-desert, unfit for the enjoyment or happiness of civilized
-man. Some other locality, perhaps of less natural or
-acquired beauty, becomes the fashion of the day, and after a
-time gets out of favour in turn, and is neglected for some
-other novel scene before unthought of or disregarded. Yet
-the principles of true taste are immutable, and that which is
-really beautiful is not the less so because it has ceased to attract
-the multitude, who are generally governed to a far greater
-extent by accidental associations of ideas than by any abstract
-feelings of the mind.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps it is less attributable to any characteristic volatility
-in the character of the inhabitants of our metropolis,
-than to the singular variety and number of the beautiful
-localities which surround our city, and in emulous rivalry attract
-our attention, that this inconstancy of attachment to
-any one locality is more strikingly instanced among ourselves,
-than among the citizens of any other great town with which
-we are acquainted. But, however this may be, the fact is
-unquestionable, that there is scarcely a spot of any natural or
-improved beauty, within a few miles of us, which has not in
-turn had its day of fashion, and its subsequent period of unmerited
-neglect. Clontarf, with its sequestered green lanes,
-and its glorious views of the bay&mdash;Glasnevin, the classical
-abode of Addison, Parnell, Tickell, Sheridan, and Delany&mdash;Finglas,
-with its rural sports&mdash;Chapelizod, the residence
-of the younger Cromwell&mdash;Lucan, Leixlip, with their once
-celebrated spas, and all the delightful epic scenery of the
-Liffey&mdash;Dundrum, with its healthy mountain walks and atmosphere,
-and many others unnecessary to mention, all experiencing
-the effects of this inconstancy of fashion, have found
-their once admired beauties totally disregarded, and the admiration
-of the multitude almost wholly transferred to a wild
-and unadorned beauty on the rocky shores of Kingstown and
-Bullock, which our forefathers deemed unworthy of notice.
-But let that beauty take warning from the fate of her predecessors,
-and not hold her head too high in her day of triumph,
-for she too will assuredly be cast off in turn, and find
-herself neglected for some rival as yet unnoticed.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Of such unmerited inconstancy and neglect there are no
-localities in the neighbourhood of Dublin which have greater
-reason to complain than the village of Lucan and that which
-forms the subject of our prefixed embellishment. As the
-establishment of peace in Ireland led to an increase of civilization,
-which exhibited itself in improved roads and vehicles
-of conveyance, and the citizens, emerging from their embattled
-strongholds, ventured to enjoy the pleasures of nature and
-rural life, Lucan and Leixlip, with the beautiful scenery in
-which they are situated, became the favourite places of resort;
-and their various natural attractions becoming heightened
-by art, were described by travellers, and chaunted in
-song. About “sixty years since” they had reached their
-greatest glory, and Leixlip was the favourite of the day. It
-is thus described at this period by the celebrated Doctor
-Campbell:&mdash;“All the outlets of Dublin are pleasant, but
-this is superlatively so which leads through Leixlip, a neat
-little village about seven miles from Dublin, up the Liffey;
-whose banks being prettily tufted with wood, and enlivened
-by gentlemen’s seats, afford a variety of landscapes, beautiful
-beyond description.” It was at this period also that O’Keefe,
-in his popular opera of “The Poor Soldier,” makes Patrick
-sing&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">“Though Leixlip is proud of its close shady bowers,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Its clear falling waters and murmuring cascades,</div>
-<div class="verse">Its groves of fine myrtle, its beds of sweet flowers,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Its lads so well dressed, and its neat pretty maids.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But though Leixlip no longer holds out attractions sufficient
-to gratify those whose tastes are dependent on fashion, it has
-never ceased to be a favourite with all whose tastes had a
-more solid foundation. It was here, and in its immediate
-vicinity, that the two Robertses, genuine Irish landscape
-painters, found many of the most congenial subjects for their
-pencils. It was here, too, that the strong-headed painter of
-strong heads&mdash;the Rembrandt of miniature painters, John
-Comerford&mdash;used occasionally to retire, abandoning for a week
-or two the intellectual society of Dublin which he so much
-enjoyed, and the acquisition of gain which he no less relished,
-to make some elaborate study of one of the scenes about
-the Bridge of Leixlip, which he, in his own dogmatic way,
-asserted, “for genuine landscape beauty, could not be surpassed
-or even rivalled any where!” This estimate of the
-beauties of Leixlip’s “close shady bowers, &amp;c.” was, we confess,
-a somewhat extravagant one; yet, like most other honestly
-formed opinions of Comerford’s, it would not have been
-an easy task to shake his belief in its truth, and to sustain it he
-could, if combated, adduce the testimony of his and our friend
-Gaspar Gabrielli, the first of Italian landscape painters of our
-times, who notwithstanding his pride in being a Roman, and his
-national predilections in favour of the classic scenery of his
-dear Italy, has often declared in our hearing that he had never
-seen in his own country scenery of its kind comparable with
-that of the Liffey, in the vicinity of Lucan and Leixlip.</p>
-
-<p>But enthusiastic admiration of the scenery of Leixlip has
-not been confined to the painters. Hear with what gusto our
-friend C. O. lets himself out on this subject, not in his drawing-room
-character as the clerical Connaught tourist, but
-in his more natural, buoyant, and Irish one, as Terence
-O’Toole, our co-labourer in the first volume of the <cite>Dublin
-Penny Journal</cite>:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>“Any one passing over the Bridge of Leixlip, must, if his
-eye is worth a farthing for anything else than helping him to
-pick his way through the puddle, look up and down with delight
-while moving over this bridge. To the right, the river
-winning its noisy turbulent way over its rocky bed, and losing
-itself afar down amidst embossing woods; to the left,
-after plunging over the Salmon-leap, whose roar is heard
-though half a mile off, and forming a junction with the Rye-water,
-it takes a bend to the east, and washes the rich amphitheatre
-with which Leixlip is environed. I question much
-whether any castle, even Warwick itself [bravo, Terence!]
-stands in a grander position than Leixlip Castle, as it embattles
-the high and wooded grounds that form the forks of the
-two rivers. Of the towers, the round one of course was
-built by King John, the opposite square one by the Geraldines.
-This noble and grandly circumstanced pile has been
-in latter days the baronial residence of the White family, and
-subsequently the residence of [lord-lieutenants] generals and
-prelates. Here Primate Stone, more a politician than a
-Christian [churchman], retired from his contest with the
-Ponsonbys and the Boyles to play at cricket with General
-Cunningham; here resided Speaker Connolly before he built
-his splendid mansion at Castletown; here the <em>great</em> commoner,
-as he was called, Tom Connolly, was born. Like many such
-edifices, this castle is haunted: character and keeping would
-be altogether lost if towers of 600 years’ standing, with rich
-mullioned ‘windows that exclude the light, and passages that
-lead to nothing,’ with tapestried chambers that have witnessed
-pranks of revelry and feats of war, of Norman, Cromwellian,
-and Williamite possession, if such a place had not its legend;
-and one of Ireland’s wildest geniuses, the eccentric and splendid
-Maturin, has decorated the subject with the colourings of
-his vivid fancy.”</p>
-
-<p>Terence adds:&mdash;“Leixlip is memorable in an historic point
-of view as the place where, in the war commencing 1641, General
-Preston halted when on his way to form a junction with
-the Marquis of Ormonde to oppose the Parliamentarians.
-Acknowledging that his army was not excommunication proof,
-he bowed before the fiat of the Nuncio, and lost the best opportunity
-that ever offered of saving his cause and his country
-from what has been called the ‘curse of Cromwell.’”</p>
-
-<p>To this brief but graphic sketch of our friend we can add
-but little. Leixlip is a market and post town of the county of
-Kildare, situated in the barony of North <em>Salt</em>&mdash;a name derived
-from the Latin appellation of the cataract called the
-<i>Saltus Salmonis</i>, “Salmon Leap,” in the vicinity of the town&mdash;and
-is about eight miles from Dublin. It contains between eleven
-and twelve hundred inhabitants, and consists of one long
-street of houses, well, though irregularly built, but exhibiting
-for the greater number an appearance of negligence and decay.
-It is bounded on one extremity by the river Liffey,
-which is crossed by a bridge of ancient construction, and on
-the other by the Rye-water, over which there is a bridge of
-modern date. As the focus of a parish, it has a church and a
-Roman Catholic chapel, both of ample size and substantial
-construction, but, like most edifices of their class in Ireland,
-but little remarkable for the purity of their architectural
-styles. The latter is of recent erection. Its most imposing
-architectural feature is, however, its castle, which is
-magnificently situated on a steep and richly wooded bank over
-the Liffey; but though of great antiquity, it exhibits in its
-external character but little of the appearance of an ancient
-fortress, having been modernised by the Hon. George Cavendish,
-its present occupier. On its west side it is flanked by a
-circular, and on its east by a square tower. This castle is
-supposed to have been erected in the reign of Henry II. by
-Adam de Hereford, one of the chief followers of Earl Strongbow,
-from whom he received as a gift the tenement of the
-Salmon Leap, and other extensive possessions. It is said to
-have been the occasional residence of Prince John during his
-governorship of Ireland in the reign of his father; and in recent
-times it was a favourite retreat of several of the Viceroys,
-one of whom, Lord Townsend, usually spent the summer here.
-From an inquisition taken in 1604, it appears that the manor
-of Leixlip was part of the possessions of the abbey of St Thomas
-in Dublin. In 1668, the castle, with sixty acres of land,
-belonged to the Earl of Kildare. They afterwards passed
-into the hands of the Right Hon. Thomas Connolly, Speaker
-of the Irish House of Commons, and are now the property of
-Colonel Connolly of Castletown.</p>
-
-<p class="right">P.</p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">THE CHASE,<br />
-<span class="smaller">A POEM TRANSLATED FROM THE IRISH&mdash;CONCLUDED.</span></h2>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse speaker">PATRICK.</div>
-<div class="verse">O son of kings, adorned with grace,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">’Twere music to my ear,</div>
-<div class="verse">Of Fionn and his wondrous chase</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">The promised tale to hear.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse speaker">OISIN.</div>
-<div class="verse">Well&mdash;though afresh my bosom bleeds,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Remembering days of old&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">When I think of my sire and his mighty deeds&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Yet shall the tale be told.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">While the Fenian bands at Almhuin’s towers,</div>
-<div class="verse">In the hall of spears, passed the festive hours,</div>
-<div class="verse">The goblet crowned, with chessmen played,<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></div>
-<div class="verse">Or gifts for gifts of love repaid;</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">From the reckless throng Finn stole unseen,</div>
-<div class="verse">When he spied a young doe on the heath-clad green</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">With agile spring draw near:</div>
-<div class="verse">On Sceolan and Bran his nimble hounds</div>
-<div class="verse">He whistles aloud, and away he bounds</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">In chase of the hornless deer.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">With his hounds alone and his trusty blade,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">The son of Luno’s skill,</div>
-<div class="verse">On the track of the flying doe he strayed</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">To Guillin’s pathless hill.</div>
-<div class="verse">But when he came to its hard-won height</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">No deer appeared in view;</div>
-<div class="verse">If east or west she had sped her flight</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Nor hounds nor huntsman knew.</div>
-<div class="verse">But those sprang westward o’er the sod,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">While eastward Fionn press’d&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Why did not pity touch thy God</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">To see them thus distress’d?</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">There while he gazes anxious round,</div>
-<div class="verse">Sudden he hears a doleful sound,</div>
-<div class="verse">And by a lake of crystal sheen</div>
-<div class="verse">Spies a nymph of loveliest form and mien:</div>
-<div class="verse">Her cheeks as the rose were crimson bright,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Her lips the red berry’s glow;</div>
-<div class="verse">Her neck as the polished marble<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> white,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Her breast the pure blossom’s full blow;</div>
-<div class="verse">Downy gold were her locks, and her sparkling eyes</div>
-<div class="verse">Like freezing stars in the ebon skies.</div>
-<div class="verse">Such beauty, O Sage, all cold as thou art,</div>
-<div class="verse">Would kindle warm raptures of love in thy heart.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Nigh to the nymph of golden hair</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">With courteous grace he drew&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">“O hast thou seen, enchantress fair,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">My hounds their game pursue?”<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse speaker">NYMPH.</div>
-<div class="verse">“Thy hounds I saw not in the chase,</div>
-<div class="verse">O noble prince of the Fenian race;</div>
-<div class="verse">But I have cause of woe more deep,</div>
-<div class="verse">For which I linger here and weep.”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse speaker">FIONN.</div>
-<div class="verse">“O, hast thou lost a husband dear?</div>
-<div class="verse">Falls for a darling son thy tear,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Or daughter of thy heart?</div>
-<div class="verse">Sweet, soft-palmed nymph, the cause reveal</div>
-<div class="verse">To one who can thy sorrows feel,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Perchance can ease thy smart?”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">The maid of tresses fair replied&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">“A precious ring I wore;</div>
-<div class="verse">Dropped from my finger in the tide,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Its loss I now deplore:</div>
-<div class="verse">But by the sacred vows that bind</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Each brave and loyal knight,</div>
-<div class="verse">I now adjure thee, Chief, to find</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">My peerless jewel bright.”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">He feels her adjuration’s ties;</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Disrobes each manly limb,</div>
-<div class="verse">And for the smooth-palmed princess hies</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">The gulfy lake to swim.</div>
-<div class="verse">Five times deep-diving down the wave,</div>
-<div class="verse">Through every cranny, nook, and cave,</div>
-<div class="verse">With care he searches round and round,</div>
-<div class="verse">Till the golden ring at length he found;</div>
-<div class="verse">But scarce to shore the prize could bring,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">When by some blasting ban&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Ah! piteous tale&mdash;the Fenian king</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Grew a withered, grey, old man!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Meanwhile the Fenians passed the hours</div>
-<div class="verse">In the hall of spears, at Almhuin’s towers;</div>
-<div class="verse">The goblet crowned, with chessmen played,</div>
-<div class="verse">Or gifts for gifts of love repaid,</div>
-<div class="verse">When Caoilte rose and asked in grief,</div>
-<div class="verse">“Ye spearmen, where is our gallant chief?</div>
-<div class="verse">O, lost I dread is the Fenians’ boast&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Then who shall lead our bannered host?”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Bald Conan spoke&mdash;“A sweeter sound</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Ne’er tingled on my ear;</div>
-<div class="verse">If Fionn be lost, may he not be found</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Till end the distant year!</div>
-<div class="verse">But, Caoilte of the nimble feet,</div>
-<div class="verse">Ye shall not want a chieftain meet;</div>
-<div class="verse">In me, till Fionn’s fate be told,</div>
-<div class="verse">The leader of your host behold!”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Although the Fenian bands were torn</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">With agony severe,</div>
-<div class="verse">We burst into a laugh of scorn</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Such arrogance to hear.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">To urge the quest, we then decree,</div>
-<div class="verse">Of Finn and his hounds the joyous three</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">That still to triumph led;</div>
-<div class="verse">And soon from Almhuin’s halls away,</div>
-<div class="verse">With Caoilte, I, and our dark array,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">North to Slew Guillin sped.</div>
-<div class="verse">There, as with searching glance the eye</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">O’er all the prospect rolled,</div>
-<div class="verse">Beside the lake a wretch we spy,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Poor, withered, grey, and old.</div>
-<div class="verse">Disgust and horror touched the heart</div>
-<div class="verse">To see the bones all fleshless start</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">In a frame so lank and wan;</div>
-<div class="verse">We thought him some starved fisher torn</div>
-<div class="verse">From the whelming stream, by famine worn,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">And left but the wreck of man.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">We asked if he had chanced to see</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">A swift-paced chieftain go,</div>
-<div class="verse">With two fleet hounds, across the lea,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Behind a fair young doe.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">He gave us back no answer clear,</div>
-<div class="verse">But in the nimble Caoilte’s ear</div>
-<div class="verse">He breathed his tale&mdash;O, tale of grief!&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">That in him we saw the Fenian chief!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Three sudden shouts to hear the tale</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Our host raised loud and shrill&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">The badgers started in the vale,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">The wild deer on the hill.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Then Conan fierce unsheathed his sword,</div>
-<div class="verse">And curs’d the Fenian king and his horde.</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">“If true thy tale,” he cries,</div>
-<div class="verse">“This blade thy head would off thee smite;</div>
-<div class="verse">For ne’er my valour in the fight,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Nor prowess didst thou prize.</div>
-<div class="verse">Would that like thee, both old and weak,</div>
-<div class="verse">Were the Fenians all, that my sword might reek</div>
-<div class="verse">In their craven blood, and their cairns might swell</div>
-<div class="verse">On the grassy lea!&mdash;for since Cumhail fell,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">O’ercome in fateful strife</div>
-<div class="verse">By Morni’s son of the golden shields,</div>
-<div class="verse">Our sons thou hast sent to foreign fields,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Or of freedom reft and life.”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">“Bald, senseless wretch! our care is due</div>
-<div class="verse">To Finn’s sad state, or thy mouth should rue</div>
-<div class="verse">A speech so vile, and soon atone</div>
-<div class="verse">With shattered teeth and fractured bone.”</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse indent1">Indignant Caoilte spoke.</div>
-<div class="verse">With equal wrath said Oscar stern,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">“Audacious babbler! silence learn&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">What foe e’er felt thy stroke?”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Then Conan thus&mdash;“Vain boy! be dumb,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Or tell what deed of fame</div>
-<div class="verse">Did e’er thy Finn, but gnaw his thumb<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Until the marrow came?</div>
-<div class="verse"><span class="smcap">We</span>, not Clan-Boske, did the deed</div>
-<div class="verse">Whene’er we saw the foemen bleed.</div>
-<div class="verse">Behind thee, Oisin, may thy son</div>
-<div class="verse">A puling, whining chanter run,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">And bear white book and bell.</div>
-<div class="verse">His words I scorn&mdash;in open fight,</div>
-<div class="verse">Which of us twain is in the right</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Let swords, not speeches, tell.”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Him answered Oscar’s trusty steel;</div>
-<div class="verse">When craven Conan, taught to feel,</div>
-<div class="verse">And trembling for his worthless life,</div>
-<div class="verse">The Fenians prayed to end the strife,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">And stay rough Oscar’s blade.</div>
-<div class="verse">Between them swift the Fenians rushed,</div>
-<div class="verse">The rising storm of battle hushed,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">And Oscar’s vengeance stayed.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Of Cumhail’s son then Caoilte sought</div>
-<div class="verse">What wizard Danan foe had wrought</div>
-<div class="verse">Such piteous change&mdash;and Finn replied,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">“’Twas Guillin’s daughter&mdash;me she bound</div>
-<div class="verse">By a sacred spell to search the tide</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Till the ring she lost was found.”</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Then Conan spoke in altered mood&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">“Safe may we ne’er depart,</div>
-<div class="verse">Till we see restored our chieftain good,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Or Guillin rue his art!”</div>
-<div class="verse">Then close around our chief we throng,</div>
-<div class="verse">And bear him on our shields along.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Eight days and nights the caverned seat</div>
-<div class="verse">Where Guillin made his dark retreat</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">We dig with sleepless care;</div>
-<div class="verse">Pour through its windings close the light,</div>
-<div class="verse">Till we see, in all her radiance bright,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Spring forth th’ enchantress fair.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">A chalice she bore of angled mould,<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></div>
-<div class="verse">And sparkling rich with gems and gold;</div>
-<div class="verse">Its brimming fount in the hand she placed</div>
-<div class="verse">Of Finn, whose looks small beauty graced.</div>
-<div class="verse">Feeble he drinks&mdash;the potion speeds</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Through every joint and pore;</div>
-<div class="verse">To palsied age fresh youth succeeds&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Finn of the swift and slender steeds</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Becomes himself once more.</div>
-<div class="verse">His shape, his strength, his bloom returns,</div>
-<div class="verse">And in manly glory bright he burns!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">We gave three shouts that rent the air&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">The badgers fled the vale:</div>
-<div class="verse">And now, O sage of frugal care,</div>
-<div class="verse indent1">Hast thou not heard the tale?</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse right">D.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The game of chess is repeatedly noticed in connection with various historical
-incidents in the early history of Ireland. Theophilus O’Flanagan,
-in a note to his translation of <cite>Deirdri</cite>, an ancient Irish tale, published in the
-Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, speaks of it as “a military
-game that engages the mental faculties, like mathematical science.” O’Flaherty’s
-Ogygia states that Cathir, the 120th king of Ireland, left among his
-bequests to Crimthan “two chess-boards with their chess-men distinguished
-with their specks and power; on which account he was constituted master
-of the games in Leinster.”</p>
-
-<p>In the first book of Homer’s Odyssey the suitors are described as amusing
-themselves with the game of chess:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse"><i>With rival art and ardour in their mien,</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>At chess they vie to captivate the queen,</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>Divining of their loves.</i></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>In Pope’s translation there is a learned note on the subject, to which the
-curious reader is referred; and also to a passage in Vallancey’s Essay on the
-Celtic Language.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Literally, <em>as lime</em>.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This will remind the reader of a similar question by Venus in the first
-Eneid:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse indent2">&mdash;&mdash;Heus inquit, juvenes monstrate mearum</div>
-<div class="verse">Vidistis usquam hic errantem forte sororum</div>
-<div class="verse">Succinctam pharetra, et maculosæ tegmine lyncis,</div>
-<div class="verse">Aut spumantis apri cursum clamore prementem?&mdash;<span class="smcap">En.</span> I. 325.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Ho, strangers! have you lately seen, she said,</div>
-<div class="verse">One of my sisters, like myself array’d,</div>
-<div class="verse">Who cross’d the lawn or in the forest stray’d?</div>
-<div class="verse">A painted quiver at her back she bore;</div>
-<div class="verse">Varied with spots, a lynx’s hide she wore;</div>
-<div class="verse">And at full cry pursued the tusky boar.&mdash;<span class="smcap">Dryden.</span></div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A note in Miss Brooke’s translations informs us that “Finn was reproached
-with deriving all his courage from his foreknowledge of events,
-and chewing his thumb for prophetic information.”</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Quadrangular&mdash;the ancient cup of the Irish, called <i lang="ga">meadar</i>. Specimens
-of it may be seen in the Antiquarian Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="gap4"><span class="smcap">Discretion.</span>&mdash;This is a nice perception of what is right
-and proper under the circumstances in which a person is
-called to act. It may be illustrated by the <em>feelers</em> of the cat,
-which are long hairs placed upon her nose, with which she
-readily measures the space between sticks and stones through
-which she desires to pass, and thus determines, by a delicate
-touch, whether it is sufficiently large to let her go through
-without being scratched. Thus discretion appreciates difficulties,
-dangers, and obstructions around, and enables a person
-to decide upon the proper course of action. “There are
-many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is
-none so useful as discretion. It is this which gives a value to
-all the rest, which sets them at work, and turns them to the
-advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without
-it, learning is pedantry and wit impertinence; nay, virtue
-itself often looks like weakness. Discretion not only shows
-itself in words, but in all the circumstances of action; and is
-like an agent of Providence, to guide and direct us in the ordinary
-chances of life.” But how shall discretion be cultivated
-in children? Chiefly by example. It is a virtue especially
-committed to the cultivation of the mother. She may do
-much to promote it, by rebuking acts of imprudence, and bestowing
-due encouragement upon acts of discretion. Let the
-mother remember that discretion is important to men, and
-see that she cherishes it in her sons; let her remember that it
-is essential to women, and make sure of it in her daughters.&mdash;<cite>Dr
-Channing.</cite></p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">THE IRISH MATCHMAKER.<br />
-<span class="smaller">BY WILLIAM CARLETON.</span></h2>
-
-<p>Though this word at a glance may be said to explain itself,
-yet lest our English or Scotch readers might not clearly understand
-its meaning, we shall briefly give them such a definition
-of it as will enable them to comprehend it in its full extent.
-The Irish Matchmaker, then, is a person selected to conduct
-reciprocity treaties of the heart between lovers themselves in
-the first instance, or, where the principal parties are indifferent,
-between their respective families, when the latter happen
-to be of opinion that it is a safer and more prudent thing to
-consult the interest of the young folk rather than their inclination.
-In short, the Matchmaker is the person engaged in
-carrying from one party to another all the messages, letters,
-tokens, presents, and secret communications of the tender passion,
-in whatever shape or character the said parties may deem
-it proper to transmit them. The Matchmaker, therefore, is
-a general negociator in all such matters of love or interest as
-are designed by the principals or their friends to terminate in
-the honourable bond of marriage; for with nothing morally
-improper or licentious, or approaching to the character of an
-intrigue, will the regular Irish Matchmaker have any thing at
-all to do. The Matchmaker, therefore, after all, is only the
-creature of necessity, and is never engaged by an Irishman
-unless to remove such preliminary obstacles as may stand in
-the way of his own direct operations. In point of fact, the
-Matchmaker is nothing but a pioneer, who, after the plan of
-the attack has been laid down, clears away some of the rougher
-difficulties, until the regular advance is made, the siege opened
-in due form, and the citadel successfully entered by the principal
-party.</p>
-
-<p>We have said thus much to prevent our fair neighbours of
-England and Scotland from imagining that because such a
-character as the Irish Matchmaker exists at all, Irishmen are
-personally deficient in that fluent energy which is so necessary
-to express the emotions of the tender passion. Addison has
-proved to the satisfaction of any rational mind that modesty
-and assurance are inseparable&mdash;that a blushing face may accompany
-a courageous, nay, a desperate heart&mdash;and that, on
-the contrary, an abundance of assurance may be associated
-with a very handsome degree of modesty. In love matters, I
-grant, modesty is the <i lang="it">forte</i> of an Irishman, whose character in
-this respect has been unconsciously hit off by the poet. Indeed
-he may truly be termed <i lang="la">vultus ingenui puer, ingenuique pudoris</i>;
-which means, when translated, that in looking for a wife an
-Irishman is “a <em>boy</em> of an <em>easy</em> face, and remarkable modesty.”</p>
-
-<p>At the head of the Matchmakers, and far above all competitors,
-stands the Irish Midwife, of whose abilities in this way
-it is impossible to speak too highly. And let not our readers
-imagine that the duties which devolve upon her, as well as
-upon matchmakers in general, are slight or easily discharged.
-To conduct a matter of this kind ably, great tact, knowledge
-of character, and very delicate handling, are necessary. To
-be incorruptible, faithful to both parties, not to give offence
-to either, and to obviate detection in case of secret bias or partiality,
-demand talents of no common order. The amount of
-fortune is often to be regulated&mdash;the good qualities of the parties
-placed in the best, or, what is often still more judicious,
-in the most suitable light&mdash;and when there happens to be a
-scarcity of the commodity, it must be furnished from her own
-invention. The miser is to be softened, the contemptuous
-tone of the purse-proud <i lang="ga">bodagh</i> lowered without offence, the
-crafty cajoled, and sometimes the unsuspecting overreached.
-Now, all this requires an able hand, as matchmaking in general
-among the Irish does. Indeed I question whether the
-wiliest politician that ever attempted to manage a treaty of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
-peace between two hostile powers could have a more difficult
-card to play than often falls to the lot of the Irish Matchmaker.</p>
-
-<p>The Midwife, however, from her confidential intercourse
-with the sex, and the respect with which both young and old
-of them look upon her, is peculiarly well qualified for the office.
-She has seen the youth shoot up and ripen into the young man&mdash;she
-has seen the young man merged into the husband, and
-the husband very frequently lost in the wife. Now, the marks
-and tokens by which she noted all this are as perceptible in
-the young of this day as they were in the young of fifty
-years ago; she consequently knows from experience how to
-manage each party, so as to bring about the consummation
-which she so devoutly wishes.</p>
-
-<p>Upon second thoughts, however, we are inclined to think after
-all that the right of precedence upon this point does not exclusively
-belong to the Midwife; or at least, that there exists another
-person who contests it with her so strongly that we are
-scarcely capable of determining their respective claims: this
-is the <em>Cosherer</em>. The Cosherer in Ireland is a woman who goes
-from one relation’s house to another, from friend to friend,
-from acquaintance to acquaintance&mdash;is always welcome, and
-uniformly well treated. The very extent of her connexions
-makes her independent; so that if she receives an affront,
-otherwise a cold reception, from one, she never feels it to affect
-her comfort, but on the contrary carries it about with her
-in the shape of a complaint to the rest, and details it with
-such a rich spirit of vituperative enjoyment, that we believe
-in our soul some of her friends, knowing what healthful occupation
-it gives her, actually affront her from pure kindness.
-The Cosherer is the very impersonation of industry. Unless
-when asleep, no mortal living ever saw her hands idle. Her
-principal employment is knitting; and whether she sits, stands,
-or walks, there she is with the end of the stocking under her
-arm, knit, knit, knitting. She also sews and quilts; and
-whenever a quilting is going forward, she can tell you at once
-in what neighbour’s house the quilting-frame was used last,
-and where it is now to be had; and when it has been got, she
-is all bustle and business, ordering and commanding about
-her&mdash;her large red three-cornered pincushion hanging conspicuously
-at her side, a lump of chalk in one hand, and a coil of
-twine in the other, ready to mark the pattern, whether it be
-wave, square, or diamond.</p>
-
-<p>The Cosherer is always dressed with neatness and comfort,
-but generally wears something about her that reminds one of
-a day gone by, and may be considered as the lingering remnant
-of some old custom that has fallen into disuse. This,
-slight as it is, endears her to many, for it stands out as the
-memorial of some old and perhaps affecting associations, which
-at its very appearance are called out from the heart in which
-they were slumbering.</p>
-
-<p>It is impossible to imagine a happier life than that of the
-Cosherer. She has evidently no trouble, no care, no children,
-nor any of the various claims of life, to disturb or encumber
-her. Wherever she goes she is made, and finds herself, perfectly
-at home. The whole business of her life is carrying
-about intelligence, making and projecting matches, singing old
-songs and telling old stories, which she frequently does with
-a feeling and unction not often to be met with. She will sing
-you the different sets and variations of the old airs, repeat the
-history and traditions of old families, recite <i lang="ga">ranns</i>, interpret
-dreams, give the origin of old local customs, and tell a ghost
-story in a style that would make your hair stand on end. She
-is a bit of a doctress, too&mdash;an extensive herbalist, and is very
-skilful and lucky among children. In short, she is a perfect
-Gentleman’s Magazine in her way&mdash;a regular repertory of
-traditionary lore, a collector and distributor of social antiquities,
-dealing in every thing that is timeworn or old, and handling
-it with such a quiet and antique air, that one would imagine
-her life to be a life not of years but of centuries, and
-that she had passed the greater portion of it, long as it was,
-in “wandering by the shores of old romance.”</p>
-
-<p>Such a woman the reader will at once perceive is a formidable
-competitor for popular confidence with the Midwife.
-Indeed there is but one consideration alone upon which we
-would be inclined to admit that the latter has any advantage
-over her&mdash;and it is, that she <em>is the Midwife</em>; a word which is
-a tower of strength to her, not only against all professional
-opponents, but against such analogous characters as would
-intrude even upon any of her subordinate or collateral offices.
-As matchmakers, it is extremely difficult to decide between
-her and the Cosherer; so much so, indeed, that we are disposed
-to leave the claim for priority undetermined. In this
-respect each pulls in the same harness; and as they are so well
-matched, we will allow them to jog on side by side, drawing
-the youngsters of the neighbouring villages slowly but surely
-towards the land of matrimony.</p>
-
-<p>In humble country life, as in high life, we find in nature the
-same principles and motives of action. Let not the speculating
-mother of rank, nor the husband-hunting dowager, imagine
-for a moment that the plans, stratagems, lures, and trap-falls,
-with which they endeavour to secure some wealthy fool
-for their daughters, are not known and practised&mdash;ay, and
-with as much subtlety and circumvention too&mdash;by the very
-humblest of their own sex. In these matters they have not
-one whit of superiority over the lowest, sharpest, and most
-fraudulent gossip of a country village, where the arts of women
-are almost as sagaciously practised, and the small scandal as
-ably detailed, as in the highest circles of fashion.</p>
-
-<p>The third great master of the art of matchmaking is the
-<em>Shanahus</em>, who is nothing more or less than the counterpart of
-the Cosherer; for as the Cosherer is never of the male sex, so
-the Shanahus is never of the female. With respect to their
-habits and modes of life, the only difference between them is,
-that as the Cosherer is never idle, so the Shanahus never works;
-and the latter is a far superior authority in old popular prophecy
-and genealogy. As a matchmaker, however, the Shanahus
-comes infinitely short of the Cosherer; for the truth is,
-that this branch of diplomacy falls naturally within the manœuvring
-and intriguing spirit of a woman.</p>
-
-<p>Our readers are not to understand that in Ireland there
-exists, like the fiddler or dancing-master, a distinct character
-openly known by the appellation of matchmaker. No such
-thing. On the contrary, the negotiations they undertake are
-all performed under false colours. The business, in fact, is close
-and secret, and always carried on with the profoundest mystery,
-veiled by the sanction of some other ostensible occupation.</p>
-
-<p>One of the best specimens of the kind we ever met was old
-Rose Mohan, or, as she was called, Moan, a name, we doubt,
-fearfully expressive of the consequences which too frequently
-followed her own negociations. Rose was a tidy creature of
-middle size, who always went dressed in a short crimson cloak
-much faded, a striped red and blue drugget petticoat, and a
-heather-coloured gown of the same fabric. When walking,
-which she did with the aid of a light hazel staff hooked at the
-top, she generally kept the hood of the cloak over her head,
-which gave to her whole figure a picturesque effect; and when
-she threw it back, one could not help admiring how well her
-small but symmetrical features agreed with the dowd cap of
-white linen, with a plain muslin border, which she wore. A
-pair of blue stockings and sharp-pointed shoes high in the
-heels completed her dress. Her features were good-natured
-and Irish; but there lay over the whole countenance an expression
-of quickness and sagacity, contracted no doubt by a
-habitual exercise of penetration and circumspection. At the
-time I saw her she was very old, and I believe had the reputation
-of being the last in that part of the country who was
-known to go about from house to house spinning on the distaff,
-an instrument which has now passed away, being more
-conveniently replaced by the spinning-wheel.</p>
-
-<p>The manner and style of Rose’s visits were different from
-those of any other who could come to a farmer’s house, or
-even to an humble cottage, for to the inmates of both were
-her services equally rendered. Let us suppose, for instance,
-the whole female part of a farmer’s family assembled of a summer
-evening about five o’clock, each engaged in some domestic
-employment: in runs a lad who has been sporting about,
-breathlessly exclaiming, whilst his eyes are lit up with delight,
-“Mother! mother! here’s Rose Moan coming down the boreen!”
-“Get out, avick; no, she’s not.” “Bad cess to me
-but she is; that I may never stir if she isn’t! Now!” The
-whole family are instantly at the door to see if it be she, with
-the exception of the prettiest of them all, Kitty, who sits at
-her wheel, and immediately begins to croon over an old Irish
-air which is sadly out of tune; and well do we know, notwithstanding
-the mellow tones of that sweet voice, why it is
-so, and also why that youthful cheek in which health and
-beauty meet, is now the colour of crimson.</p>
-
-<p>“<i lang="ga">Oh, Rosha, acushla, cead millie failte ghud!</i> (Rose, darlin’,
-a hundred thousand welcomes to you!) Och, musha, what
-kep you away so long, Rose? Sure you won’t lave us this
-month o’ Sundays, Rose?” are only a few of the cordial expressions
-of hospitality and kindness with which she is received.
-But Kitty, whose cheek but a moment ago was carmine, why
-is it now pale as the lily?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“An’ what news, Rose?” asks one of her sisters; “sure
-you’ll tell us every thing; won’t you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Throth, avillish, <em>I have no bad news</em>, any how&mdash;an’ as to
-tellin’ you <em>all</em>&mdash;Biddy, <i lang="ga">lhig dumh</i>, let me alone. No, I have no
-bad news, God be praised, <em>but good news</em>.”</p>
-
-<p>Kitty’s cheek is again crimson, and her lips, ripe and red as
-cherries, expand with the sweet soft smile of her country, exhibiting
-a set of teeth for which many a countess would barter
-thousands, and giving out a breath more delicious than the
-fragrance of a summer meadow. Oh, no wonder, indeed, that
-the kind heart of Rose contains in its recesses a message to
-her as tender as ever was transmitted from man to woman!</p>
-
-<p>“An’, Kitty, acushla, where’s the welcome from <em>you</em>, that’s
-my favourite? Now don’t be jealous, childre; sure you all
-know she is, an’ ever an’ always was.”</p>
-
-<p>“If it’s not upon my lips, it’s in my heart, Rose, an’ from
-that heart you’re welcome!”</p>
-
-<p>She rises up and kisses Rose, who gives her one glance of
-meaning, accompanied by the slightest imaginable smile, and
-a gentle but significant pressure of the hand, which thrills to
-her heart and diffuses a sense of ecstacy through her whole
-spirit. Nothing now remains but the opportunity, which is
-equally sought for by Rose and her, to hear without interruption
-the purport of her lover’s communication; and this we
-leave to lovers to imagine.</p>
-
-<p>In Ireland, however odd it may seem, there occur among
-the very poorest classes some of the hardest and most penurious
-bargains in matchmaking that ever were heard of or
-known. Now, strangers might imagine that all this close higgling
-proceeds from a spirit naturally near and sordid, but it
-is not so. The real secret of it lies in the poverty and necessity
-of the parties, and chiefly in the bitter experience of their
-parents, who, having come together in a state of destitution,
-are anxious, each as much at the expense of the other as possible,
-to prevent their children from experiencing the same
-privation and misery which they themselves felt. Many a
-time have matches been suspended or altogether broken off
-because one party refuses to give his son a slip of a pig, or
-another his daughter a pair of blankets; and it was no unusual
-thing for a matchmaker to say, “Never mind; I have
-it all settled <em>but the slip</em>.” One might naturally wonder why
-those who are so shrewd and provident upon this subject do
-not strive to prevent early marriages where the poverty is so
-great. So unquestionably they ought, but it is a settled usage
-of the country, and one too which Irishmen have never been
-in the habit of considering as an evil. We have no doubt
-that if they once began to reason upon it as such, they would
-be very strongly disposed to check a custom which has been
-the means of involving themselves and their unhappy offspring
-in misery, penury, and not unfrequently in guilt itself.</p>
-
-<p>Rose, like many others in this world who are not conscious
-of the same failing, smelt strongly of the shop; in other words,
-her conversation had a strong matrimonial tendency. No two
-beings ever lived so decidedly antithetical to each other in this
-point of view as the Matchmaker and the Keener. Mention
-the name of an individual or a family to the Keener, and the
-medium through which her memory passes back to them is
-that of her professed employment&mdash;a mourner at wakes and
-funerals.</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t you know young Kelly of Tamlaght?”</p>
-
-<p>“I do, avick,” replies the Keener, “and what about him?”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, he was married to-day mornin’ to ould Jack M’Cluskey’s
-daughter.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, God grant them luck an’ happiness, poor things!
-I do indeed remember his father’s wake an’ funeral well&mdash;ould
-Risthard Kelly of Tamlaght&mdash;a dacent corpse he made for
-his years, an’ well he looked. But indeed I <em>knewn</em> by the
-colour that sted in his checks, an’ the limbs remainin’ soople for
-the twenty-four hours afther his departure, that some of the
-family ’ud follow him afore the year was out: an’ so she did.
-The youngest daughter, poor thing, by raison of a could she
-got, over-heatin’ herself at a dance, was stretched beside him
-that very day was eleven months; and God knows it was from
-the heart my grief came for <em>her</em>&mdash;to see the poor handsome
-colleen laid low so soon. But when a gallopin’ consumption
-sets in, avourneen, sure we all know what’s to happen. In
-Crockaniska churchyard they sleep&mdash;the Lord make both their
-beds in heaven this day!” The very reverse of this, but at
-the same time as inveterately professional, was Rose Moan.</p>
-
-<p>“God save you, Rose.”</p>
-
-<p>“God save you kindly, avick. Eh!&mdash;let me look at you.
-Aren’t you red Billy M’Guirk’s son from Ballagh?”</p>
-
-<p>“I am, Rose. An’, Rose, how is yourself an’ the world gettin’
-an?”</p>
-
-<p>“Can’t complain, dear, in such times. How are yez all at
-home, alanna?”</p>
-
-<p>“Faix, middlin’ well, Rose, thank God an’
-you.&mdash;You heard of my granduncle’s death, big Ned M’Coul?”</p>
-
-<p>“I did, avick, God rest him. Sure it’s well I remimber his
-weddin’, poor man, by the same atoken that I know one that
-helped him on wid it a thrifle. He was married in a blue coat
-and buckskins, an’ wore a scarlet waistcoat that you’d see
-three miles off. Oh, well I remimber it. An’ whin he was
-settin’ out that mornin’ to the priest’s house, ‘Ned,’ says I,
-an’ I fwhishspered him, ‘dhrop a button on the right knee
-afore you get the words said.’ ‘<i lang="ga">Thighum</i>,’ said he, wid a
-smile, an’ he slipped ten thirteens into my hand as he spoke.
-‘I’ll do it,’ said he, ‘and thin a fig for the fairies!’&mdash;becase
-you see if there’s a button of the right knee left unbuttoned,
-the fairies&mdash;this day’s Friday, God stand betune us and harm!&mdash;can
-do neither hurt nor harm to sowl or body, an’ sure that’s
-a great blessin’, avick. He left two fine slips o’ girls behind
-him.”</p>
-
-<p>“He did so&mdash;as good-lookin’ girls as there’s in the parish.”</p>
-
-<p>“Faix, an’ kind mother for them, avick. She’ll be marryin’
-agin, I’m judgin’, she bein’ sich a fresh good-lookin’ woman.”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, it’s very likely, Rose.”</p>
-
-<p>“Throth it’s natural, achora. What can a lone woman do
-wid such a large farm upon her hands, widout having some
-one to manage it for her, an’ prevint her from bein’ imposed
-on? But indeed the first thing she ought to do is to marry off
-her two girls widout loss of time, in regard that it’s hard to
-say how a stepfather an’ thim might agree; and I’ve often
-known the mother herself, when she had a fresh family comin’
-an her, to be as unnatural to her fatherless childre as if she
-was a stranger to thim, and that the same blood did’nt run in
-their veins. Not saying that Mary M’Coul will or would act
-that way by her own; for indeed she’s come of a kind ould
-stock, an’ ought to have a good heart. Tell her, avick, when
-you see her, that I’ll spind a day or two wid her&mdash;let me
-see&mdash;to-morrow will be Palm Sunday&mdash;why, about the Aisther
-holidays.”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed I will, Rose, with great pleasure.”</p>
-
-<p>“An’ fwhishsper, dear, jist tell her that I’ve a thing to say
-to her&mdash;that I had a long dish o’ discoorse about her wid <em>a
-friend o’ mine</em>. You wont forget now?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh the dickens a forget!”</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you, dear: God mark you to grace, avourneen!
-When you’re a little ouldher, maybe I’ll be a friend to you yet.”</p>
-
-<p>This last intimation was given with a kind of mysterious
-benevolence, very visible in the complacent shrewdness of her
-face, and with a twinkle in the eye, full of grave humour and
-considerable self-importance, leaving the mind of the person
-she spoke to in such an agreeable uncertainty as rendered it
-a matter of great difficulty to determine whether she was serious
-or only in jest, but at all events throwing the onus of
-inquiry upon him.</p>
-
-<p>The ease and tact with which Rose could involve two young
-persons of opposite sexes in a mutual attachment, were very
-remarkable. In truth, she was a kind of matrimonial incendiary,
-who went through the country holding her torch now
-to this heart and again to that&mdash;first to one and then to another,
-until she had the parish more or less in a flame. And
-when we consider the combustible materials of which the Irish
-heart is composed, it is no wonder indeed that the labour of
-taking the census in Ireland increases at such a rapid rate
-during the time that elapses between the periods of its being
-made out. If Rose, for instance, met a young woman of her
-acquaintance accidentally&mdash;and it was wonderful to think
-how regularly these accidental meetings took place&mdash;she
-would address her probably somewhat as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>“Arra, Biddy Sullivan, how are you, a-colleen?”</p>
-
-<p>“Faix, bravely, thank you, Rose. How is yourself?”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed, thin, sorra bit o’ the health we can complain of,
-Bhried, barrin’ whin this pain in the back comes upon us. The
-last time I seen your mother, Biddy, she was complainin’ of a
-<i lang="ga">weid</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> I hope she’s betther, poor woman?”</p>
-
-<p>“Hut! bad scran to the thing ails her! She has as light
-a foot as e’er a one of us, an’ can dance ‘Jackson’s mornin’
-brush’ as well as ever she could.”</p>
-
-<p>“Throth, an’ I’m proud to hear it. Och! och! ‘Jackson’s
-mornin’ brush!’ and it was she that <em>could</em> do it. Sure I remimber<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
-her wedding-day like yestherday. Ay, far an’ near
-her fame wint as a dancer, an’ the clanest-made girl that ever
-came from Lisbuie. Like yestherday do I remimber it, an’
-how the squire himself an’ the ladies from the Big House came
-down to see herself an’ your father, the bride and groom&mdash;an’
-it wasn’t on every hill head you’d get sich a couple&mdash;dancin’
-the same ‘Jackson’s mornin’ brush.’ Oh! it was far
-and near her fame wint for dancin’ that.&mdash;An’ is there no news
-wid you, Bhried, at all at all?”</p>
-
-<p>“The sorra word, Rose: where ud I get news? Sure it’s
-yourself that’s always on the fut that ought to have the news
-for <em>us</em>, Rose alive.”</p>
-
-<p>“An’ maybe I have too. I was spaikin’ to a friend o’ mine
-about you the other day.”</p>
-
-<p>“A friend o’ yours, Rose! Why, what friend could it be?”</p>
-
-<p>“A friend o’ mine&mdash;ay, an’ of yours too. Maybe you have
-more friends than you think, Biddy&mdash;and kind ones too, as far
-as wishin’ you well goes, ’tany rate. Ay have you, faix, an’
-friends that e’er a girl in the parish might be proud to hear
-named in the one day wid her. Awouh!”</p>
-
-<p>“Bedad we’re in luck, thin, for that’s more than I knew of.
-An’ who may these great friends of ours be, Rose?”</p>
-
-<p>“Awouh! Faix, as dacent a boy as ever broke bread the
-same boy is, ‘and,’ says he, ‘if I had goold in bushelfuls, I’d think
-it too little for that girl;’ but, poor lad, he’s not aisy or happy
-in his mind in regard o’ that. ‘I’m afeard,’ says he, ‘that
-she’d put scorn upon me, an’ not think me her aiquals. An’ no
-more I am,’ says he again, ‘for where, afther all, would you
-get the likes of Biddy Sullivan?’&mdash;Poor boy! throth my heart
-aches for him!”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, can’t you fall in love wid him yourself, Rose, whoever
-he is?”</p>
-
-<p>“Indeed, an’ if I was at your age, it would be no shame to
-me to do so; but, to tell you the thruth, the sorra often ever
-the likes of Paul Heffernan came acrass me.”</p>
-
-<p>“Paul Heffernan! Why, Rose,” replied Biddy, smiling
-with the assumed lightness of indifference, “is that your
-beauty? If it is, why, keep him, an’ make much of him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, wurrah! the differ there is between the hearts an’
-tongues of some people&mdash;one from another&mdash;an’ the way they
-spaik behind others’ backs! Well, well, I’m sure that wasn’t
-the way he spoke of you, Biddy; an’ God forgive you for runnin’
-down the poor boy as you’re doin’. Trogs! I believe
-you’re the only girl would do it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Who, me! I’m not runnin’ him down. I’m neither runnin’
-him up nor down. I have neither good nor bad to say about
-him&mdash;the boy’s a black sthranger to me, barrin’ to know his
-face.”</p>
-
-<p>“Faix, an’ he’s in consate wid you these three months past,
-an’ intinds to be at the dance on Friday next, in Jack
-Gormly’s new house. Now, good bye, alanna; keep your
-own counsel till the time comes, an’ mind what I said to you.
-It’s not behind every ditch the likes of Paul Heffernan grows.
-<i lang="ga">Bannaght lhath!</i> My blessin’ be wid you!”</p>
-
-<p>Thus would Rose depart just at the critical moment, for
-well she knew that by husbanding her information and leaving
-the heart something to find out, she took the most effectual
-steps to excite and sustain that kind of interest which is apt
-ultimately to ripen, even from its own agitation, into the
-attachment she is anxious to promote.</p>
-
-<p>The next day, by a meeting similarly accidental, she comes
-in contact with Paul Heffernan, who, honest lad, had never
-probably bestowed a thought upon Biddy Sullivan in his life.</p>
-
-<p>“<i lang="ga">Morrow ghud</i>, Paul!&mdash;how is your father’s son, ahager?”</p>
-
-<p>“<i lang="ga">Morrow ghuteha</i>, Rose!&mdash;my father’s son wants nothin’
-but a good wife, Rosha.”</p>
-
-<p>“An’ it’s not every set day or bonfire night that a good
-wife is to be had, Paul&mdash;that is, a <em>good</em> one, as you say; for,
-throth, there’s many o’ them in the market sich as they are. I
-was talkin’ about you to a friend of mine the other day&mdash;an’,
-trogs, I’m afeard you’re not worth all the abuse we gave you.”</p>
-
-<p>“More power to you, Rose! I’m oblaged to you. But who
-is the friend in the manetime?”</p>
-
-<p>“Poor girl! Throth, when your name slipped out an her, the
-point of a rush would take a drop of blood out o’ her cheek,
-the way she crimsoned up. ‘An’, Rose,’ says she, ‘if ever I
-know you to breathe it to man or mortual, my lips I’ll never
-open to you to my dyin’ day.’ Trogs, whin I looked at her,
-an’ the tears standin’ in her purty black eyes, I thought I
-didn’t see a betther favoured girl, for both face and figure,
-this many a day, than the same Biddy Sullivan.”</p>
-
-<p>“Biddy Sullivan! Is that long Jack’s daughter of Cargah?”</p>
-
-<p>“The same. But, Paul, avick, if a syllable o’ what I tould
-you&mdash;&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>“Hut, Rose! honour bright! Do you think me a <em>stag</em>,
-that I’d go and inform on you?”</p>
-
-<p>“Fwhishsper, Paul; she’ll be at the dance on Friday next
-in Jack Gormly’s new house. So <i lang="ga">bannaght lhath</i>, an’ think
-o’ what I betrayed to you.”</p>
-
-<p>Thus did Rose very quietly and sagaciously bind two young
-hearts together, who probably might otherwise have never for
-a moment even thought of each other. Of course, when Paul
-and Biddy met at the dance on the following Friday, the one
-was the object of the closest attention to the other; and each
-being prepared to witness strong proofs of attachment from
-the opposite party, every thing fell out exactly according to
-their expectations.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes it happens that a booby of a fellow during his
-calf love will employ a male friend to plead his suit with a
-pretty girl, who, if the principal party had spunk, might be
-very willing to marry him. To the credit of our fair countrywomen,
-however, be it said, that in scarcely one instance out
-of twenty does it happen, or has it ever happened, that any of
-them ever fails to punish the faint heart by bestowing the fair
-lady upon what is called the blackfoot or spokesman whom he
-selects to make love for him. In such a case it is very naturally
-supposed that the latter will speak two words for himself
-and one for his friend, and indeed the result bears out the
-supposition. Now, nothing on earth gratifies the heart of
-the established Matchmaker so much as to hear of such a disaster
-befalling a spoony. She exults over his misfortune for
-months, and publishes his shame to the uttermost bounds of
-her own little world, branding him as “a poor pitiful crature,
-who had not the courage to spaik up for himself or to employ
-them that could.” In fact, she entertains much the same feeling
-against him that a regular physician would towards some
-weak-minded patient, who prefers the knavish ignorance of a
-quack to the skill and services of an able and educated medical
-practitioner.</p>
-
-<p>Characters like Rose are fast disappearing in Ireland; and
-indeed in a country where the means of life were generally inadequate
-to the wants of the population, they were calculated,
-however warmly the heart may look back upon the memory
-of their services, to do more harm than good, by inducing
-young folks to enter into early and improvident marriages.
-They certainly sprang up from a state of society not thoroughly
-formed by proper education and knowledge&mdash;where
-the language of a people, too, was in many extensive districts
-in such a state of transition as in the interchange of affection
-to render an interpreter absolutely necessary. We have ourselves
-witnessed marriages where the husband and wife spoke
-the one English and the other Irish, each being able with difficulty
-to understand the other. In all such cases Rose was
-invaluable. She spoke Irish and English fluently, and indeed
-was acquainted with every thing in the slightest or most remote
-degree necessary to the conduct of a love affair, from the
-first glance up until the priest had pronounced the last words&mdash;or,
-to speak more correctly, until “the throwing of the
-stocking.”</p>
-
-<p>Rose was invariably placed upon the <em>hob</em>, which is the seat
-of comfort and honour at a farmer’s fireside, and there she
-sat neat and tidy, detailing all the news of the parish, telling
-them how such a marriage was one unbroken honeymoon&mdash;a
-sure proof by the way that she herself had a hand in it&mdash;and
-again, how another one did not turn out well, and she said so;
-“there was always a bad dhrop in the Haggarties; but, my
-dear, the girl herself was <em>for</em> him; so as she made her own bed
-she must lie in it, poor thing. Any way, thanks be to goodness
-I had nothing to do wid it!”</p>
-
-<p>Rose was to be found in every fair and market, and always
-at a particular place at a certain hour of the day, where the
-parties engaged in a courtship were sure to meet her on these
-occasions. She took a chirping glass, but never so as to become
-unsteady. Great deference was paid to every thing she
-said; and if this was not conceded to her, she extorted it with
-a high hand. Nobody living could drink a health with half
-the comic significance that Rose threw into her eye when saying,
-“Well, young couple, here’s everything as you wish it!”</p>
-
-<p>Rose’s motions from place to place were usually very slow,
-and for the best reason in the world, because she was frequently
-interrupted. For instance, if she met a young man
-on her way, ten to one but he stood and held a long and earnest
-conversation with her; and that it was both important
-and confidential, might easily be gathered from the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
-whenever a stranger passed, it was either suspended altogether,
-or carried on in so low a tone as to be inaudible. This
-held equally good with the girls. Many a time have I seen
-them retracing their steps, and probably walking back a mile
-or two, all the time engaged in discussing some topic evidently
-of more than ordinary interest to themselves. And when they
-shook hands and bade each other good bye, heavens! at what
-a pace did the latter scamper homewards across fields and
-ditches, in order to make up for the time she had lost!</p>
-
-<p>Nobody ever saw Rose receive a penny of money, and yet
-when she took a fancy, it was beyond any doubt that she has
-often been known to assist young folks in their early struggles;
-but in no instance was the slightest aid ever afforded to
-any one whose union she had not herself been instrumental in
-bringing about. As to the <em>when</em> and the <em>how</em> she got this
-money, and the great quantity of female apparel which she was
-known to possess, we think we see our readers smile at the
-simplicity of those who may not be able to guess the several
-sources from whence she obtained it.</p>
-
-<p>One other fact we must mention before we close this sketch
-of her character. There were <em>some</em> houses&mdash;we will not, for
-we dare not, say <em>how many</em>&mdash;into which Rose was never seen
-to enter. This, however, was not her fault. Every one knew
-that what she did, she did always for the best; and if some
-small bits of execration were occasionally levelled at her, it
-was not more than the parties levelled at each other. All
-marriages cannot be happy; and indeed it was a creditable
-proof of Rose Moan’s sagacity that so few of those effected
-through her instrumentality were unfortunate.</p>
-
-<p>Poor Rose! matchmaking was the great business of your
-simple but not absolutely harmless life. You are long since,
-we trust, gone to that happy place where there are neither
-marryings nor givings in marriage, but where you will have a
-long Sabbath from your old habits and tendencies. We love
-for more reasons than either one or two to think of your faded
-crimson cloak, peaked shoes, hazel staff, clear grey eye, and
-nose and chin that were so full of character. As you used to
-say yourself, <i lang="ga">bannaght lhath!</i>&mdash;my blessing be with you!</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A feverish cold.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">RANDOM SKETCHES.&mdash;No. I.</h2>
-
-<h3>FELINE RECOLLECTIONS.</h3>
-
-<p>One result of perusing such interesting papers on “the Intellectuality
-of Domestic Animals” as that which lately appeared
-in the <cite>Dublin University Magazine</cite>, should be the publication
-of similar facts; another, the promotion of that kindness
-towards the inferior creation which is still, alas! so sparingly
-manifested. I therefore propose stuffing a cranny of
-the <cite>Irish Penny Journal</cite> with a few particulars relating,
-firstly, to the maternal and filial piety of the cat; secondly,
-to the humanity (or, psychologically speaking, brutality) of
-the same animal. Of the facts illustrative of the former virtues
-I was an eye-witness&mdash;those illustrative of the latter I
-had from a member of the family in which they occurred.</p>
-
-<p>In my early home two cats, a mother and a son, formed
-part of the establishment. The former, a dark-grey matron,
-rejoiced in the euphonious name of <span class="smcap">Smut</span>&mdash;the colour of the
-latter may be inferred from his appellation, <span class="smcap">Fox</span>. Smut was,
-to be brief, the most lady-like cat I ever saw; Fox was a
-huge Dan Donnelly of a brute, a very hero of the slates, and
-the terror of all the cats in the neighbourhood, <em>save one</em>; he
-walloped them right and left; and many a smirking sylph of
-the gutters, wont to pick her steps daintily to avoid all possible
-contact with the wet, was seen to scamper away screaming
-when Fox appeared in view, for truth obliges me to record
-that he spared neither age nor sex. Nor was he formidable
-to the brute creation alone&mdash;humanity often suffered
-under his visitations. There was no keener forager among
-the larders and pantries of the neighbourhood. A poor dancing-master
-who had a way of leaving his window open was
-most frequently victimized; for as the said window was <em>convenient</em>
-to the low roof of a back house, our hero used to
-quietly walk in and purvey to his liking. In the recess of a
-chimney, and several feet above the roof of our house, was a
-kind of small platform, where Master Fox was usually pleased
-to regale himself on his ill-gotten gains. One day I saw him
-with a calf’s or lamb’s pluck in his mouth, twice as long as
-himself, darting aloft towards his refectory. The weight of
-the booty several times dragged him back; but he persevered
-till he gained his point: it was a sight ludicrous beyond all
-imagining.</p>
-
-<p>But as it was not every day Master Fox could mulct the
-circumambient dancing-master in a beef-steak or a calf’s pluck,
-he often returned home hungry; and I am now come to the
-point of proving the “intellectuality” of Madam Smut, as
-evidenced in her maternal piety. Within the kitchen-door lay
-a mat, in a hole in which she daily hid a portion of her lights.
-She was generally dozing before the fire when her son came
-in for the night, and whenever I happened to follow him and
-watch her movements, she invariably looked up to see whether
-he had scented the provender: and when satisfied on that
-point, coiled herself up to sleep again. But her maternal
-tenderness never interfered with her matronly dignity. Woe
-betide Fox, if, in proceeding to take his place at the fire, he
-attempted to pass between her and it. She would instantly
-spring up and deal him a dab, which prevented for that time
-a repetition of the indecorum. I have seen him steal most
-cautiously along the forbidden path in the presumption that
-she was asleep, but I do not remember to have ever seen him
-effect a passage. I have said that he leathered all the cats
-about him save one&mdash;that one was his mother. Determined
-pugilist and fire-eater as he was, he never returned the dab
-she gave him.</p>
-
-<p>The fact of which I was only an ear-witness may be briefly
-related. A lady of this city observing one day a wretched
-kitten which had been ruthlessly flung into the street before
-her residence, had it taken into the house and carefully tended.
-Some time after, when it had grown into a thorough-bred
-mouser, a strange cat with a broken leg hobbled into the yard,
-where it was discovered by the foundling, which immediately
-took charge of it, and regularly allotted to the sufferer a portion
-of its own daily food till it was sufficiently recovered to
-shift for itself.</p>
-
-<p>As a warm friend of the inferior creation, I was much
-pleased to find their cause pleaded towards the close of the
-article, which gave rise to the present sketch, and a just encomium
-passed on the author of “the Rights of Animals.”
-And much was I gratified to find that the same cause appears
-to maintain an abiding interest in the bosom of the first of
-living poets. “C. O.” alludes as follows to a conversation he
-had with Mr Wordsworth on the subject:&mdash;“I remember an
-observation made to me by one of the most gifted of the human
-race&mdash;one of the stars of this generation&mdash;the poet of nature
-and of feeling&mdash;the good and the great Mr Wordsworth.
-Having the honour of a conversation with him after he had
-made a tour through Ireland, I in the course of it asked what was
-the thing that most struck his observation here as making us
-differ from the English; and he without hesitation said it was
-the ill-treatment of our horses: that his soul was often, too
-often, sick within him at the way in which he saw these creatures
-of God abused.” One evening, which I had the happiness
-of spending at Rydal Mount, the very same subject was
-broached by Mr W. Defend my countrymen I could not,
-but I parried the attack by showing that other segments of
-the united kingdom had little right to boast over them in this
-particular. This I proved by adverting to the notorious cat-skinning
-of London&mdash;a horror unknown in Ireland, bad as we
-are&mdash;and to certain atrocious cruelties which had just been
-perpetrated on some horses in Sutherland (though I must confess
-that I know too little of Scotland to pronounce whether
-its national character is tarnished by cruelty to animals or
-not). And much was I surprised when the son of the poet
-threw discredit on the character of one of the first of London
-newspapers, from which I had cited a recent case in proof of
-my assertion. It was in 1833 I visited Rydal Mount. Should
-this paper reach the eye of Mr W. jun., he may find my statement
-corroborated, and the perpetration of the barbarous
-trade demonstrated, by referring to the case of Elizabeth Rogerson,
-an old offender, who in 1839 was condemned to the
-ridiculously lenient penalty of two months’ imprisonment for
-the crime, without hard labour. A diametrically opposite
-opinion respecting the treatment of horses in Ireland was
-once expressed to me by another English gentleman of some
-celebrity in the religious world. He passed an encomium on
-the kindness to animals observable in this country, from the
-habit he had noticed among the drivers of jaunting-cars, during
-his short stay in Dublin, of feeding their horses from their
-hands with a wisp of hay at leisure moments&mdash;a pitch of humanity
-just equivalent to that of greasing the wheels of their
-vehicles.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Printed and published every Saturday by GUNN and CAMERON, No. 6,
-Church Lane, College Green, Dublin; and sold by all Booksellers.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
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-
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-15, October 10, 1840, by Various
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