the preference is given to the green frog. The vulgar opinion that Frenchmen eat frogs for want of better food is quite erroneous; the contrary is the fact; for a fricassee of these animals is an expensive dish in France, and is considered a delicacy. Its chief merit appears to me to be its freedom from strong flavour of any kind; a delicate stomach may indulge in it without fear of a feeling of repletion. In this country the foolish prejudices which forbid the use of many attainable articles of wholesome food, applies with force to frogs. Our starving peasants loath what princes of other nations would banquet on, and leave to badgers, hedgehogs, buzzards, herons, pike and trout, sole possession of a very nutritive and pleasant article of food. When devoured by the heron, it is in part converted into a source of wonder to the unenlightened; for the curious masses of whitish jelly found on the banks of rivers and other moist places, and said by the country people to be fallen stars, are, so far as I have been able to observe, masses of immature frog spawn in a semi-digested state; and they seemed to me to have been rejected by herons, just as we see hawks and owls reject balls of hair, feathers, or other indigestible portions of their prey.

While on the subject of eating frogs, one of many of my adventures with the animal comes upon me with something like a feeling of compunction. When I was at school, it happened on a great occasion that a party of the 'big boys' were allowed to sit up much beyond the ordinary time of retiring. Finding it cold, it was proposed to adjourn to the kitchen, poke up the fire, and make warm before going to bed. Proceeding accordingly, we were startled by the repetition of some heavy sounds on the floor, and on getting up a blaze we discovered a frog of gigantic proportions jumping across the room. He was seized, and a council being held upon him, it was resolved that he should be killed, roasted, and eaten; and this awful sentence was at once put into execution the curious for curiosity, the braggarts for bravado, and the cowards, lest they be thought so, partaking of the repast. We discovered next day that the unfortunate devoured had been for three years a settled denizen of the kitchen, where he dealt nightly havoc on the hordes of crickets and cockroaches it contained. I have had for three years a frog in confinement where his food is not very abundant, and he has grown proportionally slowly, being still of a very diminutive size. Linnæus and others distinguished ours as the mute frog, believing it did not possess a voice. They were mistaken: you hear our captive, when I press his back, give utterance to his woes; but if you desire to attend his concert, get up some bright night in spring, seek out his spawning place about the witching hour, and you will then hear sounds, of strange power, which seem to make the earth on which you stand to tremble. On investigation you will find it to proceed from an assembled congregation of frogs, each pronouncing the word Croak, but dwelling, as a musician would say, with a thrill on the letter r. When speaking of the tadpole, I forgot to allude to the fact, that recent experimenters find that by placing them in covered jars, the developement of the frog is arrested. The tadpole will continue to grow until it reaches a size as great as that of an adult frog. This has been attributed by the discoverer to a withdrawal of the agency of light; but it strikes me he has, in his anxiety to prop a theory, lost sight of the true reason, which appears to be, that while he excluded the young animal from light, he also put it in such a situation as to compel it to breathe alone by its gills, and afford it no opportunity for the developement of its lungs, and so it retained of necessity its fish-like functions. As you are probaby more of a sportsman than a naturalist, you have observed in rail shooting, your pointer, after a show of setting, roll on the ground: if you had examined, the chances are you would have found a dead frog of no very pleasing perfume. Why the dog so rolled, I cannot say, unless it be, that he like other puppies wished to smear his hair with nasty animal odours. I have now I think worked out your patience; and though I could dwell much longer on the subject, and eke out much from ancient lore, I will end by a less pompous quotation of part of a well-known song"A frog he would a-wooing go,

Whether his mother would let him or no.'

And the catastrophe,

A lily white duck came and gobbled him up.' Pray apply the moral. Had the said frog had his mind cultivated, and had he been acquainted with nature, he would not have engaged in a thoughtless courtship, that could have no good end, nor have disobeyed the voice of experience, and

so met with the fate that awaited him. You may now go on your walk; and if a common frog cannot interest you, take care of the lily white duck." B.

GARDENS FOR THE LABOURING CLASSES.
BY MARTIN DOYLE.

THE advantage which the working man, possessed of a little patch of land at a moderate rent, has over him who is without any, or holds it at a rate greatly above its value (a common case with the Irish labourer), can only be fully understood by those who have narrowly observed in England the respective conditions of the field labourer, with his allotment of a rood or half a rood of garden, and the workman in a town factory. It is very obvious that the garden gives healthful recreation to the family, young and old, who have always some little matter to perform in it, and if they really like the light work of cultivating kitchen vegetables, fruits and flowers, they combine pleasure with profit. Here is something on which they can always fall back as a resource if a day's work for hire is interrupted-they can make up at home for so much lost time—the children have something rational and useful to do, instead of blackguarding about roads and streets-they help to raise the potatoes and cabbages, &c, which with prudent management materially assist their housekeeping.

The benefits which have arisen to the labourer and all the rural poor in England who have obtained from ten to forty perches of garden from land-proprietors or farmers, or those who have the privilege of encroaching upon commons for the purpose, is truly surprising. Much of this is attributable to the exertions of the London Labourers' Friend Society, who, in an age when party violence divides man from his fellows, and excites from some quarter or other opposition to every system designed for the common good, have quietly but steadily pursued their own way.

I have had occasion more than once to press upon the attention of those who have the disposal of land in Ireland, the great benefits which would result to our poor if they would act upon the principle which actuates this benevolent society; and strange though it be, the fact is, that some landlords possessing estates both in England and Ireland are at pains to secure to the English labourer advantages which they take no trouble to provide for the labourer on the soil of Ireland.

I have referred to the principle which guides the society. It is, that the labouring classes should have such allotment of land as will not interfere with their general course of fixed labour, nor render them at all independent of it, but merely give them employment during those hours which they have at command in the intervals of their more profitable occupations. I have myself seen innumerable instances of the happy effects of giving to the labourer or little mechanic even half a rood of land, which he generally has in the highest state of productiveness, and from it his table is frequently supplied; while gooseberry and currant trees, in luxuriant bearing, and flowers close to the road, and without a higher fence than a paling or hedge three feet high, attest the high degree of honesty and decorum which the habit of having such productions in this unprotected way undoubtedly generates.

The local poor-rates have in all instances been greatly lessened by this mode of enabling labourers to help themselves; and if in this country the compulsory system of providing food or employment for the sick or hungry poor had prevailed long ago as in England, the landlords would have found means to guard against those dreadful realities of destitution with which we have been familiarized. Not that it is desirable to give a very open invitation to the parish manger, for this destroys the feeling of self-dependence and weakens the motives to economy and industry. "But there should have long since been more practical exertion to place the labourer within reach of reasonable comforts.

What are the circumstances of tens of thousands of working people in the great manufacturiug towns of Great Britain, in which no land can be given to them? Families so circumstanced wear out their health and existence in unvarying la bour-not requiring much immediate exertion of strength, it is

When work is in good demand, the joint labours of the parent and their children earn considerable weekly wages. There is then plenty of bread and butter and some bacon for the children, and beer and gin besides for their parents; but nothing is saved for less prosperous times, and the family is not eventually the better for the short run of high earnings. The want of a bit of land is more serious than many will believe, not only in its effect upon health, but upon moral conduct also.

Among some facts published by the London Labourers' Friend Society, are the details of the complete reformation of twelve men, who had been severally committed to gaol for different offences of a very serious nature, in consequence of their obtaining portions of land, varying from two acres and a half to one rood; and I may add, that out of eighty occupants of land-allotments in the same neighbourhood, there has been only one case of robbery within seven years.

Some of the foregoing remarks tend to show that the Irish poor would not gain in happiness by the establishment of the modern British factory system among them, unless the advantage of a little land could be afforded them at the same time. A proof of this exists in the altered circumstances of the people who were once employed in the domestic manufacture of linen in Ulster. These had a patch of land, to which they could at pleasure turn from the loom and the reel; and as the labour of their children was not prematurely demanded, they could enjoy the green fields or the garden, and be employed in school, with a certainty of substantial food (instead of bad coffee and adulterated tea), until they attained the age of thirteen or fourteen, when they could take an active part in the labour of the loom.

When field or garden labour can be combined with factory work, the miseries of the manufacturing system are much removed, and manufactures in such a case become serviceable under judicious and moral management: the present state of the town of Lancaster affords some illustration of this. It verges on a purely agricultural district, and now contains both manufacturing and farm labourers. Upon the introduction of cotton manufactures (and half the few mills now existing there were established only seven years ago), the wages of each individual workman were rendered less than they had been before, but the earnings of his whole family increased considerably. Children before that period were burdensome to their parents, who when making application for parish aid pleaded the number of their family. Now children are sources of increased comfort to such parents; and even step-children, grand-children, nephews, and nieces, who were formerly pressed into the list of mouths to be fed from the parish rates, are now studiously kept out of sight, because they earn wages, and contribute to the support of those who would otherwise shift them off their hands. On the whole, those with families are better off than if without them; and the children themselves, except in times of very hurried work, and allowing for occasional abuses by employers and parents over-working them, are better off than formerly. The comparatively good state of the Lancaster operatives arises from the circumstance, that in times of difficulty in the factories many of the work people have farm work to turn to, and numbers of them have allotments of their own.

In proportion as the labouring poor of any community are deprived of the advantage of gardens, is a decrease in their health, happiness, and moral state. Of this, as regards another nation, I have a proof before me in the letter of Mr T. Bastard, who in a communication from Germany (I shall only

I believe that a much greater proportion of the labouring classes of Saxony possess some stake in the hedge' than those of England. I am sorry, however, to add, that Saxony appears to me, by the increase that is taking place in her population, and by her efforts to push her manufactures, to be approaching the evil which we have long suffered under in England, that of having the sole interest of a great portion of her people dependent entirely on the amount of weekly wages that they can obtain.

one,

During three months of last year I resided in a village at some distance from Dresden, and in every sense a rural the occupations of the inhabitants, of which there were be tween seven and eight hundred living in about one hundred houses, being confined to agriculture, with the exception of some handicraftsmen, such as shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, &c. and a few who worked in some stone quarries. Besides two considerable estates belonging to two persons who stood in the position of esquires, and shared the manorial privileges, the land was much divided, two or three persons having as much as 140 acres, but the greater part only from one to five acres, which were held under a sort of feudal tenure; and all the cottages had at least gardens. The appearance of general comfort and happiness certainly exceeded that which I have ever seen in an English village of the same kind and size. The inhabitants were healthy-looking: their houses were all good substantial ones, provided (at least several that I entered) with decent furniture, and they were invariably well clothed. The two latter points are remarkable in Saxony. I have never seen a row of cottages, or rather huts here, and very rarely a raggedly-dressed person. I will here add, also, that the Saxons who visit rich England are particularly struck with the numbers of persons they see in rags and tatters. I found, however, that there were several persons, and even families, who had merely lodgings in the cottages without any land, and these were invariably in bad circumstances. In fact, they were dependent solely on wages; and here was the commencement of that evil to which I have before adverted, and for which I can think of no other effectual remedy than the allotment system."

IRISH BRAVERY AND HONOUR.-On the surprise of Cremona by Prince Eugene in 1702, when Villeroy, the French general, most of the officers, military chests, &c. were taken, and the German horse and foot in possession of the town, excepting one place only, the Po Gate, which was guarded by two Irish regiments commanded by O'Mahony and Bourk, before the Prince commenced the attack there, he sent to expostulate with them, and show them the rashness of sacrificing their lives where they could have no probability of relief, and to assure them if they would enter into the imperial service, they should be directly and honourably promoted. The first part of this proposal they heard with impatience, the second with disdain." Tell the Prince," said they, "that we have hitherto preserved the honour of our country, and that we hope this day to convince him that we are worthy of his esteem. While one of us exists, the German eagle shall not be displayed upon these walls. This is our deliberate resolution, and we will not admit of further capitulation." The attack was commenced by a large body of foot, supported by five thousand cuirassiers, and after a bloody conflict of two hours the Germans retreated: the Irish pursued their advantage, and attacked them in the streets. ing the enemy were expelled the town, and the general and the military chests recovered.

Before even

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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 height ened 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 :

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 townand 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 decav. 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 1658, 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 FRO 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,*
Or gifts for gifts of love repaid;

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

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 checks as the rose were crimson bright,
Her lips the red berry's glow;

Her neck as the polished marblet 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?"‡

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 loval knight,
I now adjure thee, Chief, to find
My peerless jewel bright."

He feels her adjuration's ties;
Disrobes each manly limb,

O'Fla

game that engages the mental faculties, like mathematical science." herty'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.

Literally, as lime.

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 maculosa 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.

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,"