: THE CASTLE AND LAKE OF INCHIQUIN, COUNTY OF CLARE. CONNEMARA itself, now so celebrated for its lakes and moun- I will not be content to live on fine scenery, but must have food tains, was not less unknown a few years since than the greater for the body as well as for the mind; and truly they must be portion of the county of Clare. Without roads, or houses of enthusiastic lovers of the picturesque, who, to gratify their entertainment for travellers, its magnificent coast and other taste, will subject themselves to the vicissitudes of such an unscenery were necessarily unvisited by the pleasure tourists, certain climate as ours, without the certainty of such consol. and but little appreciated even by their inhabitants themselves. ing comforts as are afforded in a clean and comfortable inn. But Clare can no longer be said to be an unvisited district : Yet we do not despair of seeing this want soon supplied. the recent formation of roads has opened to observation many Wherever there is a demand for a commodity it will not be features of interest previously inaccessible to the traveller, long wanting; and the people of Clare are too sagacious not and its singular coast scenery—the most sublimely magnifi- to perceive, however slowly, the practical wisdom of holding cent in the British islands, if not in Europe_has at least been out every inducement of this kind to those who might be dismade known to the public by topographical and scientific posed to visit them and spend their money among them. explorers—it has become an attractive locality to artists and The first step necessary, however, to produce such results in pleasure tourists, and will doubtless be visited by increasing any little frequented district, is to make its objects of interest numbers of such persons in each successive year. known to the public by the pencil and the pen—the rest will There is however as yet in this county too great a deficiency follow in due course; and our best efforts, such as they are, in the number of respectable houses of entertainment suited to shall not be unexerted towards effecting such an important the habits of pleasure tourists ; for though the wealthier and good as well for Clare as for many other as yet little known more educated classes in the British empire are becoming localities of our country. daily a more travelling and picturesque-hunting genus, they Clare is indeed on many accounts deserving of greater attede a tion than it has hitherto received. It is a county rich in the lake and castle, which we have drawn as an embellishment attractions for the geologist and naturalist, and interesting in to our present number. This is a locality respecting the the highest degree to the lovers of the picturesque. With a beauty of which there can be no difference of opinion: it has surface singularly broken and diversified, full of mountains, all the circumstances which give interest to a landscapehills, lakes, and rivers, dotted all over with every class of an-wood, water, lake, mountain, and ancient ruin—and the effect cient remains, its scenery is peculiarly Irish, and though of a of their combination is singularly enhanced by the surprise somewhat melancholy aspect, it is never wanting in a poetic created by the appearance of a scene so delightful in a district and historic interest. Such a district is not indeed exactly wild, rocky, and unimproved. suited to the tastes of the common scenery-hunter, for it pos- The lake of Inchiquin is situated in the parish of Kilnaboy, sesses but little of that woody and artificially adorned scenery barony of Inchiquin, and is about two miles and a half in cirwhich he requires, and can alone enjoy; and hence it has usually cumference. It is bounded on its western side by a range of been described by tourists and topographers with a coldness hills rugged but richly wooded, and rising abruptly from its which shows how little its peculiarities had impressed their margin ; and on its southern side, the domain surrounding the feelings, and how incompetent they were to communicate to residence of the Burton family, and the ornamental grounds others a just estimate of its character. Let us take as an of Adelphi, the residence of W. and F. Fitzgerald, Esqrs. conexample the notice given by the writers of Lewis's Topogra- tribute to adorn a scene of remarkable natural beauty. One phical Dictionary, of one of the Clare beauties of which the solitary island alone appears on its surface, unless that be natives are most proud--the caverns called the To-meens or ranked as one on which the ancient castle is situated, and To-mines, near Kiltanan : which may originally have been insulated, though no longer “At Kiltanan is a succession of limestone caverns, through so. The castle, which is situated at the northern side of the which a rivulet takes its course : these are much visited in lake, though greatly dilapidated, is still a picturesque and insummer ; many petrified shells are found in the limestone, teresting ruin, consisting of the remains of a barbican tower, some of which are nearly perfect, and-rery curious !” keep, and old mansion-house attached to it; and its situation This it must be confessed is cold enough ; but the descrip-on à rocky island or peninsula standing out in the smooth tion of the same locality given by our friend the author of water, with its grey walls relieved by the dark masses of the the Guide through Ireland, is, as our readers will see, not a wooded hills behind, is eminently striking and imposing. whit warmer. It is as follows: It is from this island or peninsula that the barony takes its “A mile from Tulla is Kiltanan, the handsome residence name; and from this also the chief of the O'Briens, the Mar. of James Moioney, Esq.; and in addition to the pleasure of a quis of Thomond, derives his more ancient title of Earl of inwell-kept residence, in a naked and sadly neglected country, chiquin. For a long period it was the principal residence of some interest is excited by the subterraneous course of the the chiefs of this great family, to one of whom it unquestionrivulet called the To-meens, which waters this demesne!". ably owes its origin; but we have not been able to ascertain Now, would any person be induced by such descriptions as with certainty the name of its founder, or date of its erection. these to visit the said To-meens? We suspect not. But hear There is, however, every reason to ascribe its foundation to with what delight a native writer of this county actually Tiege O'Brien, king or lord of Thomond, who died, accord. revels in a description of these remarkable caves : ing to the Annals of the Four Masters, in 1466, as he is the “ About a mile N. W. of Tulla lies the river of Kiltanan, and first of his name on record who made it his residence, and as Milltown, famous for its ever-amazing and elegant subterra- its architectural features are most strictly characteristic of neous curiosities, called the To-mines: they form a part of the the style of the age in which he flourished. river, midway between Kiltanan House and the Castle of But though the erection of this castle is properly to be Milltown, extending under ground for a space, which (from ascribed to the O'Briens, it is a great error in the writers of its invisible winding banks and crystal meanders) may rea- Lewis's Topographical Dictionary to state that it has been sonably be computed a quarter of an English mile: they are from time immemorial the property of the O'Brien family. vaulted, and sheltered with a solid rock, transmitting a suffi. The locality, as its name indicates, and as history and tradiciency of light and air by intermediate chinks and apertures tion assure us, was the ancient residence of the O'Quins, a gradually offering at cersain intervals. family of equal antiquity with the O'Briens, and of the same " At each side of this Elysian-like river are roomy passages stock -namely, the Dal Cas or descendants of Cormac Cas, or rather apartments, freely communicating one with the the son of Ollioll Oluim, who was monarch of Ireland in the other, and scarcely obvious to any inclemency whatsoever: beginning of the third century. The O'Quins were chiefs of the they are likewise decorated with a sandy beach level along to clan called Hy-Ifearnan, and their possessions were bounded by walk on, whilst the curious spectators are crowned with gar- those of the O'Deas on the east, the O'Loughlins and O'Co. lands of ivy, hanging in triplets from the impending rocky nors (Corcomroe) on the west and north-west, the O'Hynes shades: numbers of the sporting game, the wily fox, the on the north, and the O'Hehirs on the south. At what pewary hare, and the multiplying rabbit, &c. merrily parading in riod or from what circumstance the O'Quins lost their anview of their own singular and various absconding haunts cient patrimony, we have not been able to discover; but it and retreats. Ingenious nature thus entertains her welcome would appear to have been about the middle or perhaps close visitants from the entrance to the extremity of the To-mines of the fourteenth century, to which time their genealogy as Lo! when parting liberally rewarded, and amply satisfied chiefs is recorded in that invaluable repository of Irish family with uch egregious and wonderful exhibitions, a bridge or history, the Book of Mac Firbis; and it would seem most proarch over the same river, curiously composed of solid stone, bable that they were transplanted by the O'Briens about this appears to them as a lively representation of an artificial one. period to the county of Limerick, in which they are subse What can the much boasted of Giants' Causeway, in the north quently found. Their removal is indeed differently accounted of this kingdom, produce but scenes of horror and obscurity? for in a popular legend still current in the barony, and which, whilst the To-miges of the barony of Tulla, like unto the artifi- according to our recollections of it, is to the following effect ! cial beauties of the Latomi of Syracuse, freely exhibit the In the youth of the last O'Quin of Inchiquin, he saw from most natural and pleasing appearances. his residence a number of swans of singular beauty frequenting Let the literati and curious, after taking the continental the west side of the lake, and wandering along its shore. tour of Europe, praise and even write of the imaginary beau. Wishing, if possible, to possess himself of one of them, he was ties and natural curiosities of Italy and Switzerland–pray, in the habit of concealing himself among the rocks and woods let them also, on a cool reflection, repair to the county of in its vicinity, hoping that he might take them by surprise, Clare, view and touch upon the truly subterraneous and and he was at length successful : one of them became his capreally unartificial curiosities of the To-mines : they will im. tive, and was secretly carried to his residence, when, to his partially admit that these naturally enchanting rarities may amazement and delight, throwing off her downy covering, she be freely visited, and generously treated of, by the ingenious assumed the form of a beautiful woman, and shortly after beand learned of this and after ages.”-A Short Tour, or an came his wife. Previous to the marriage, however, she imImpartial and Accurate Description of the County of Clare, posed certain conditions on her lover as the price of her conby John Lloyd, Enais; 1780. sent, to which he willingly agreed. These were-first, that Excellent, Mr Lloyd! Your style is indeed a little pecu- their union should be kept secret; secondly, that he should liar, and what some would think extravagant and grotesque; not receive any visitors at his mansion, particularly those but you describe with feeling, and we shall certainly visit your of the O'Briens; and, lastly, that he should wholly aba To-meens next summer. But in the mean time we must notice stain from gambling. For some years these conditions were another Clare lion, of which you have given us no account- strictly adhered to; they lived in happiness together, and two children blessed their union. But it happened unfortu. without issue in 1168, and was succeeded by his brother P. ANCIENT IRISH LITERATURE-No. II. bled, and were engaged in merriment, she withdrew to her In a preceding paper under this heading we lately gave a own apartment, to which she called her children, and after sample from the lighter class of native Irish poetry of the sevenembracing them in a paroxysm of grief, which they could not teenth century, namely, “ The Woman of Three Cows." account for, she took her original feathery covering from a We have now to present our readers with a specimen of a press in which it had been kept, arrayed herself in it, and more serious character, belonging to the same age--an Elegy assuming her pristine shape, plunged into the lake, and was on the death of the Tironian and Tirconnellian princes, who never seen afterwards. On the same night, O'Quin, again having fled with others from Ireland in the year 1607, and forgetful of the promises he had made her, engaged in play afterwards dying at Rome, were there interred on St Peter's with Tiege-an-Cood O'Brien, the most distinguished of his Hill, in one grave. guests, and lost the whole of his property. The poem is the production of O'Donnell's bard, Owen The reader is at liberty to believe as much or as little of Roe Mac an Bhaird, or Ward, who accompanied the family this story as he pleases : but at all events the legend is valu- in their flight, and is addressed to Nuala, O'Donnell's sister, able in a historical point of view, as indicating the period who was also one of the fugitives. As the circumstances conwhen the lands of Inchiquin passed into the hands of the nected with the flight of the Northern Earls, and which led to O'Brien family; nor is it wholly improbable that under the the subsequent confiscation of the six Ulster Counties by guise of a wild legend may be concealed some indistinct James I., may not be immediately in the recollection of many tradition of such a real occurrence as that O'Quin made a of our readers, it may be proper briefly to state, that their union long kept hidden, with a person of inferior station, and departure from this country was caused by the discovery of a that its discovery drew down upon his head the vengeance letter directed to Sir William Ussher, Clerk of the Council, of his proud compeers, and led to their removal to another which was dropped in the Council-chamber on the 7th of May, district of the chiefs of the clan Hy-Ifearnan. and which accused the Northern chieftains generally of a conBe this, however, as it may, the ancient family of O'Quinspiracy to overthrow the government. Whether this charge - more fortunate than most other Irish families of noble was founded in truth or not, it is not necessary for us to exorigin-has never sunk into obscurity, or been without a press any opinion ; but as in some degree necessary to the representative of aristocratic rank; and it can at present illustration of the poem, and as an interesting piece of hitherto boast of a representative among the nobility of the empire in unpublished literature in itself, we shall here, as a preface to the person of its justly presumed chief, the noble Earl of the poem, extract the following account of the flight of the Dunraven. Northern Earls, as recorded in the Annals of the Four Mas. We have thus slightly touched on the history of the O'Quins, ters, and translated by Mr O'Donovan :not only as it was connected with that of the locality which we • Maguire (Cuconnaught) and Donogh, son of Mahon, who had to illustrate, but also as necessary to correct a great error was son of the Bishop O'Brien, sailed in a ship to Ireland, and into which Burke and other modern genealogists have fallen put in at the harbour of Swilly. They then took with them in their accounts of the origin of the name and descent of this from Ireland the Earl O'Neill (Hugh, son of Ferdoragh) and family. Thus it is stated by those writers that “the sur the Earl O'Donnell (Rory, son of Hugh, who was son of Magname is derived from Con Ceadcaha, or Con of the hundred nus) and many others of the nobles of the province of Ulster. battles, monarch of Ireland in the second century, whose These are the persons who went with O'Neill, namely, his grandson was called Cuinn (rather O'Cuinn), that is, the Countess, Catherina, daughter of Magennis, and her three descendant of Con, when he wielded the sceptre in 254.” sons; Hugh, the Baron, John and Brian; Art Oge, son of But those writers should not have been ignorant that Con, Cormac, who was son of the Baron ; Ferdoragh, son of Con, which literally signifies the powerful, was a common name in who was son of O'Neill; Hugh Oge, son of Brian, who was Ireland both in Christian and Pagan times ; and still more, son of Art O'Neill; and many others of his most intimate they should not have been ignorant of the inportant fact for friends. These were they who went with the Earl O'Donnell, a genealogist, that the use of surnames was unknown in Ire- namely, Caffer, his brother, with his sister Nuala; Hugh, land till the close of the tenth century. The story is altoge. the Earl's child, wanting three weeks of being one year old; ther a silly fiction ; and as the real origin of the family Rose, daughter of O'Doherty and wife of Caffer, with her son appears to be now unknown even to themselves, and as their Hugh, aged two years and three months ; his (Rory's) bropedigree has never as yet been printed, we are tempted to ther son Donnell Oge, son of Donnell, Naghtan son of Cal. give it in an English form, translated from the original, pre- vach, who was son of Donogh Cairbreach O'Donnell, and served in the books of Lecan and Duald Mac Firbis :--- many others of his intimate friends. They embarked on the “ Conor O'Quinn, Festival of the Holy Cross in Autumn. the son of Donell, “ This was a distinguished company; and it is certain that Donell, the sea has not borne and the wind has not wafted in modern Thomas, times a number of persons in one ship more eminent, illustriDonell, ous, or noble, in point of genealogy, heroic deeds, valour, feats Donogh, of arms, and brave achievements, than they. Would that God Giolla Seanain, had but permitted them to remain in their patrimonial inheriDonogh, tances until the children should arrive at the age of manhood! Morough, Woe to the heart that meditated, woe to the mind that conCorc, who was the tutor of Murtogh O'Brien ceived, woe to the council that recommended the project of (the great grandson of Brian Boru), this expedition, without knowing whether they should, to the Feidhleachair, end of their lives, be able to return to their native principaliNiall, who was henchman to Morough, the son ties or patrimonies.” of Brian Boru, whose fate he shared AN ELEGY Conn, from whom the name is derived." “ bhean flair faill air an freart!" common progenitor of all the tribes of the Dal-('assians. 0, Woman of the Piercing Wail, In this notice we may add, as an evidence of the ancient Who mournest o'er yon mound of clay With sigh and groan, Thou voulust not then from day to day Weep thus alone. ON TIE TIRONIAN AND TIRCONNELLIAN PRINCES BURIED AT ROME. 'Twere long before, around a grave This loneliness; Companionless. Or Killilee, This could not be. In olden years, Fresh floods of tears! From Lissadill, To Tara's hill; On Leitrim's plains, And swell thy strains ! Was crucified. Would echo wide. For museful thought, Als woe-distraught ! O'Donnell Roe: For Erin's woe! Display to view, Resound anew ! Of Aileach's lands; By Ulster's bands. Decrepitude ! Or chill their blood. Beside his brother Cathbar, whom In deep despair- A peerless pair. Their mate in death The field their breath, From shore to sea, Of jubilee! Through Erin's gloom, The hero's doom ! The shock of spears, With heart-wrung tears ! A warrior's fate, From Niall the Great ! At Mullach-brack, On victory's track! Been rudely torn Could ill have borne. The chieftain low, And groans of woe ! For Ashaneet Their mirthful glee. From Limerick's towers, With tears in showers ! His blood had flowed, Amiction's load! On Victory's shrine, Would echo thine! Ballyshannon. And who can marvel o'er thy grief, That knows their source ? Lies here a corse * St Peter. This passage is not exactly a blunder, though at first it may seem one: the poet supposes the grave itself transferred to Ireland, and he naturally includes in the transference the whole of the immediate locality around the grave.-TR. Caoine, the funeral-wail. • Song. O, had the fierce Dalcassian swarm invisible, unless to such as came very close to it. Being so That bloody night on Fergus' banks, completely hemmed in and concealed by the round and angular But slain our Chief, projections of the mountain hills, you could never dream of When rose his camp in wild alarm its existence at all, until you came upon the very verge of the How would the triumph of his ranks little precipitous gorge which led into it. This advantage of Be dashed with grief ! position was not, however, its only one. It is true indeed that How would the troops of Murbach mourn the moment you had entered it, all possibility of its being apIf on the Curlew Mountains' day, plied to the purposes of distillation at once vanished, and you Which England rued, consequently could not help exclaiming, "what a pity that so Some Saxon hand had left them lorn, safe and beautiful a nook should have not a single spot on By shedding there, amid the fray, which to erect a still-house, or rather on which to raise a suffiTheir prince's blood ! cient stream of water to the elevation necessary for the proRed would have been our warriors' eyes cess of distilling.” If a gauger actually came to the little Had Roderick found on Sligo's field chasm, and cast his scrutinizing eye over it, he would imme diately perceive that the erection of a private still in such a A gory grave, No Northern Chief would soon arise place was a piece of folly not generally to be found in the plans of those who have recourse to such practices. This absence, however, of the requisite conveniences was Long would Leith-Cuinn have wept if Hugh only apparent, not real. To the right, about one hundred Had met the death he oft had dealt yards above the entrance to it, ran a ledge of rocks, some fifty feet high, or so. Along their lower brows, near the Among the foe; But, had our Roderick fallen too, ground, grew thick matted masses of long heath, which covered the entrance to a cave about as large and as high as All Erin must, alas ! have felt The deadly blow! an ordinary farm-house. Through a series of small fissures in the rocks which formed its roof, descended a stream of What do I say? Ah, woe is me! clear soft water, precisely in body and volume such as was Already we bewail in vain actually required by the distiller; but, unless by lifting up Their fatal fall! this mass of heath, no human being could for a moment imaAnd Erin, once the Great and Free, gine that there existed any such grotto, or so unexpected and Now vainly mourns her breakless chain, easy an entrance to it. Here there was a private still-house And iron thrall ! made by the hand of nature herself, such as no art or ingeThen, daughter of O'Donnell ! dry nuity of man could equal. Thine overflowing eyes, and turn Now it so happened that about the period we write of, there Thy heart aside! lived in our parish two individuals so antithetical to each For Adam's race is born to die, other in their pursuits of life, that we question whether And sternly the sepulchral urn throughout all the instinctive antipathies of nature we could Mocks human pride ! find any two animals more destructive of each other than the two we mean—to wit, Bob Pentland the gauger, and little Look not, nor sigh, for earthly throne, George Steen the illicit distiller. Pentland was an old, Nor place thy trust in arm of clay stanch, well-trained fellow, of about fifty years or more, But on thy knees steady and sure, and with all the characteristic points of the Uplift thy soul to God alone, high-bred gauger about him. He was a tallish man, thin but For all things go their destined way latbv, with a hooked nose that could scent the tread of a disAs He decrees. tiller with the keenness of a slew-hound; his dark eye was Embrace the faithful Crucifix, And seek the path of pain and prayer deep-set, circumspect, and roguish in its expression, and his shaggy, brow seemed always to be engaged in calculating Thy Saviour trod; Nor let thy spirit intermix whereabouts his inveterate foe, little George Steen, that eter nally blinked him, when almost in his very fangs, might then With earthly hope and worldly care be distilling. To be brief, Pentland was proverbial for his Its groans to God! sagacity and adroitness in detecting distillers, and little And Thou, O mighty Lord! whose ways George was equally proverbial for having always baffled him, Are far above our feeble minds and that, too, sometimes under circumstances where escape To understand, seemed hopeless. Sustain us in these doleful days, The incidents which we are about to detail occurred And render light the chain that binds at that period of time when the collective wisdom of our legisOur fallen land! lators thought it advisable to impose a fine upon the whole Look down upon our dreary state, townland in which the still head and worm might be found ; And through the ages that thus opening a door for knavery and fraud, and, as it proved Roll sadly on, in most cases, rendering the innocent as liable to suffer for an Watch Thou o'er hapless Erin's fate, offence they never contemplated as the guilty who planned And shield at least from darker ill and perpetrated it. The consequence of such a law was, that The blood of Conn! M. still-houses were always certain to be erected either at the very verge of the neighbouring districts, or as near them as BOB PENTLAND, OR THE GAUGER OUTWITTED. the circumstances of convenience and situation would permit. The moment of course that the hue-and-cry of the gauger and BY WILLIAM CARLETON. his myrmidons was heard upon the wind, the whole apparatus That the Irish are a ready-witted people, is a fact to the truth was immediately heaved over the mering to the next townof which testimony has been amply borne both by their friends land, from which the fine imposed by parliament was necessaand enemies. Many causes might be brought forward to rily raised, whilst the crafty and offending district actually account for this questionable gift, if it were our intention to escaped. The state of society generated by such a blunderbe philosophical ; but as the matter has been so generally con- ing and barbarous statute as this, was dreadful. In the course ceded, it would be but a waste of logic to prove to the world of a short time, reprisals, law-suits, battles, murders, and that which the world cares not about, beyond the mere fact massacres, multiplied to such an extent throughout the whole that it is so. On this or any other topic one illustration is country, that the sapient senators who occasioned such comworth twenty arguments, and, accordingly, instead of broach-motion were compelled to repeal their own act as soon as they ing a theory we shall relate a story. found how it worked. Necessity, together with being the Behind the hill or rather mountain of Altnaveenan lies mother of invention, is also the cause of many an accidental one of those deep and almost precipitous vallies, on which the discovery. Pentland had been so frequently defeated by little practised eye of an illicit distiller would dwell with delight, as George, that he vowed never to rest until he had secured him; à topography not likely to be invaded by the unhallowed feet and George on the other hand frequently told him--for they of the gauger and his red-coats. In point of fact, the spot were otherwise on the best terms—that he defied him, or as we speak of was from its peculiarly isolated situation nearly 1 he himself more quaintly expressed it, " that he detied the |