clining the offers made them for such service with all that indifference and quiet humour which Miss Edgeworth so admirably delineates; and the difficulty of obtaining assistance appears to increase in proportion with the necessity of the demand.'

"Och! I'd have no objection in life to go wid your honour if supposing I could just leave my troat at home,' is no uncommon reply to your request, and is intended to express a doubt as to the safety of the expedition."

"Did you give the horses a feed of oats at the village where we stopped to sketch?' inquired one of my fellow-travellers of the driver, who for the last three or four miles had with much exertion urged on the jaded hacks.

"I did not, your honour,' was his reply; but sure and they know I promised them a good one at Limerick.'

"Nor is this instance of pretended understanding between man and horse singular. Riding once in company with a poor farmer from Cork to Mallow, I advised him to quicken the pace of his steed, as the evening was closing in, and the lurid appearance of the sky foreboded a

storm.

"Sure then that I would with the greatest pleasure in life for the honour I have out of your company, Sir; but I promised the baste to let him walk, and I never would belie myself to any one, much less to a poor creature that carries me-for, says the baste to me, I'm tired, as good right I have, and I'll not go a step faster-and you won't make me I scorn it, says I, so take your own way.'

"A verbatim dialogue on an

Irish break-down happily characterises that accident: the scene a bleak mountain, and the time, the return of the driver with another chaise from the nearest station which afforded one-seven miles distant.

"Is the brought us safe?' (One of the travellers attempts to get in.)

carriage you have

"Oh, never fear, Sir; wait till I just bale out the water and put a little sop of hay in the bottom-and sure now and 'tis a queer thing that the ould black chaise should play such a trick, and it has gone this road eleven years and never broke down afore. But no wonder, poor cratur, the turnpike people get money enough for mending the roads, and bad luck to the bit of it they mend, but put it all in their pockets.' “'What, the road ?'

"Noe, your honour, the money.'

There is a good account of Limerick, but we can only take one inscription from its Cathedral : "MEMENTO MORY

HERE LIETH LITTLE SAMUELL
BARINGTON THAT GREAT UNDER
TAKER, OF FAMOUS CITTIS
CLOCK AND CHIME MAKER
HE MADE HIS ONE TIME GOE
EARLY AND LATTER.
BUT NOW
HE IS RETURNED TO GOD HIS
CREATOR.

THE 19 OF NOVEMBER THEN DE
SCEST AND FOR HIS MEMORY
THIS HERE IS PLEAST BY HIS
SON BEN 1693."

The superstitions of Ireland do not differ very materially from those of Scotland: the following, however, may be read with gratifi

cation:

and barrows, known by the name of Danish forts, in Ireland, are pointed out as the abode of fairy communities; and to disturb their habitation, in other words to dig, or plough up a rath or fort, whose construction the superstitious natives ascribe to the labour and ingenuity of the good people,' is considered as unlucky and entailing some severe disaster on the violator and his kindred. An industrious peasant, who purchased a farm in the neighbourhood of Mallow, from a near relative of mine, commenced his improvements by building upon it a good stone house, together with a lime-kiln. Soon after, he waited on the proprietor, to state 'the trouble he was come to by reason of the old fort, the fairies not approving of his having placed the lime-kiln so near their dwelling; he had lost his sow with nine bonniveens (sucking pigs), his horse fell into a quarry and was killed, and three of his sheep died, all through the means of the fairies.' Though the lime-kiln had cost him five guineas, he declared he would never burn another stone in it, but take it down, without delay, and build one away from the fort, saying he was wrong in putting that kiln in the way of the good people,' who were thus obliged to go out of their usual track. The back door of his house unfortunately also faced the same fort; but this offence was obviated by almost closing it up, leaving only a small hole at the top, to allow the good people free passage, should they require it. In these raths, fairies are represented as holding their festive meetings, and entering into all the fantastic and wanton mirth

6

that music and glittering banquets are capable of inspiring. A fairy chieftain, of much local celebrity, named Knop, is supposed to hold his court in a rath, on the roadside between Cork and Youghall, where often travellers, unacquainted with the country, have been led astray by the appearance of lights, and by alluring sounds proceeding from within: but when

"The village cock gave note of day,

Up sprang in haste the airy throng; The word went round, Away! away!' The night is short, the way is long"and the delicious viands change into carrion. The crystal goblets become rugged pebbles, and the whole furniture of the feast undergoes a similar metamorphosis.

"An eddy of dust, raised by the wind, is attributed to the fairies journeying from one of their haunts to another; on perceiving which, the peasant will obsequiously doff his hat, muttering, God speed ye, God speed ye, gentlemen; and returns it to his head, with the remark, 'Good manners are no burthen,' as an apology for the motive, which he is ashamed to acknowledge. Should he, however, instead of such friendly greeting, repeat any short prayer, or devoutly cross himself, using a religious response, the fairy journey is interrupted, and if any mortals are in their train, the charm by which they were detained is broken, and they are restored to human society. On these occasions, the production of a blackhafted knife is considered as extremely potent in dissolving the spell. This weapon is believed to be effective not only against fairy incantation, but also against

any supernatural being; and accounts of many twilight rencontres between shadowy forms and mortals are related, to establish its power, gouts of blood or jelly being found in the morning where the vision had appeared. A respectable farmer has been pointed out to me, whose familiar appellation in Irish was Kill the Devil,' from the report of his having quelled, by means of a black-hafted knife, a phantom that long had haunted him."

"Cluricaune or Leprehaune is the name given to the Irish Puck. The character of this goblin is a compound of that of the Scotch Brownie and the English Robin Goodfellow. He is depicted (for engraved portraits of the Irish Leprehaune are in existence) as a small and withered old man, completely equipped in the costume of a cobbler, and employed in repairing a shoe. A paragraph recently appeared in a Kilkenny paper, stating that a labourer, returning home in the dusk of the evening, discovered a Leprehaune at work, from whom he bore away the shoe which he was mending: as a proof of the veracity of his story it was further stated, that the shoe lay for the inspection of the curious at the newspaper office. The most prominent feature in the vulgar creed respecting the Leprehaune is, his being the possessor of a purse supposed to be, like that of Fortunatus, inexhaustible; and many persons, who have surprised one of these fairies occupied in shoe-making, have endeavoured to compel him

to deliver it: this he has ingeniously avoided, averting the eye of his antagonist by some stratagem, when he disappears, which it seems he has not the power of doing as long as any person's gaze is fixed upon him."

"On the whole, from what may be collected, the present state of Irish superstition closely resembles that of England during the age of Elizabeth; a strong proof of the correct measurement of those who have stated a space of two centuries to exist between the relative degree of popular knowledge and civilization attained by the sister kingdom."

"The belief in witches is not so strong as in other parts of the British empire; but this is compensated by greater bigotry in more serious respects. At Youghall, Mr. C. states,

-- "The bigotry of the Protestants against their Roman Catholic brethren in those towns under its influence reached a degree of marked violence unknown in any other part of the kingdom, and which feeling is not entirely eradicated at the present hour; I need only instance the town of Bandon, where, over the principal gate, an inscription once stated that

JEW, TURK, OR ATHEIST

MAY ENTER HERE BUT NOT A PAPIST.* "At Youghall it was forbidden, in 1678, and remains on record, that a Papist should buy or barter any thing in the public market; and the manuscript annals of the town, from which I have been

favoured

favoured with extracts, afford evidence of the illiberality of its corporation towards those of the Catholic persuasion; nor is it with out regret that I add, the enactments quoted were made during the mayoralties of ancestors of

my own.

"In 1696, it was ordered that any person but a Protestant freeman, presuming to go to the mayor's feast, should pay five shillings, or be set in the stocks. "1702. Several Papists, who had been admitted freemen, were disfranched, and it was ordered that no Papist should be made free again.

"1744. Gregory Grimes, victualler, was disfranched, for having a Popish wife.

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"I am tempted to notice, as curiosities, two other enactments of the same body. In the years 1680 and 1700, a cook and a barber were made freemen, on condition that they should severally dress the mayor's feasts, and shave the corporation, gratis."

Our last quotation relates to that very marked feature in the Irish character-the regard of the natives for their funeral ceremonies:

"An easy death and a fine funeral' is a proverbial benediction amongst the lower orders in Ireland. Throughout life the peasant is accustomed to regard the manner and place of his interment as matters of the greatest importance; to be decently put in the earth, along with his own people,' is the wish most frequently and fervently expressed by him. When advanced in life, it is usual, particularly with those who are destitute and friendless, to deny themselves the common

to

necessaries of life, and to hoard up every trifle they can collect, for the expenses of their wake and funeral. Looking forward their death as to a gala given by them to their acquaintances, every possible preparation is made for rendering it, as they consider, 'creditable;' their shroud and burial dress are often provided many years before they are wanted; nor will the owners use these garments whilst living, though existing in the most abject state of wretchedness and rags. It is not unusual to see even the tombstone in readiness, and leaning against the cabin wall, a perpetual

memento mori' that must meet the eye of its possessor every time he crosses his threshold.

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There is evidently a constitutional difference in the composition of the English and Irish peasant; but this peculiarity may be more satisfactorily accounted for by the prevailing belief with the latter of a future state being a material one, and subject to wants even more urgent than those of this life: under this impression, shoes, considered a luxury quite unworthy a thought, are believed almost indispensable after death, when it is supposed much walking has to be performed, probably through rough roads and inclement weather. The superstition evidently proceeds from the tenet of purgatory or qualification for heaven, held by the Romish Church; and on this particular, the general belief of the Irish peasantry is somewhat at variance with the representations of their pastors: the priest describes it as a place of fire, but the people imagine it to be a vast and dreary extent, strewed with sharp stones

and

and abounding in thorns and brambles.

"The influence of this doctrine affects rich and poor, according to their circumstances, and is a most valuable one, for I have been assured the emolument it yields to the Catholic church of Ireland, by a late limited calculation, exceeds 650,000l. per annum.

"The attachment manifested towards particular burial places arises from the same cause; and the anxiety amongst the vulgar to be interred with their deceased relatives, bestows even on death a feeling of social interest.

"A remarkable instance occurred not long since. An old beggar woman, who died near the city of Cork, requested that her body might be deposited in White Church burial ground. Her daughter, who was without the means to obtain a hearse or any other mode of conveyance, determined herself to undertake the task, and, having procured a rope, she fastened the coffin on her back, and, after a tedious journey of more than ten miles, fulfilled her mother's request."

"Separate interests (as in the case of marriage) often cause disputes at funerals; and as no acknowledged rule exists in such cases, a battle usually ends the dissension, and the corpse is borne away in triumph by the victorious party to a cemetery perhaps twenty miles distant from that originally intended."

"I remember once overhearing a contest between a poor man and his wife, respecting the burial of their infant. The woman wished to have the child laid near some of her own relations, which the husband strongly opposed, coneluding her attachment to her

friends was superior to her love for him; but he was soon convinced by his wife's argument, that as her sister had died in childbirth only a few days previous, she would afford their poor infant suck, which nourishment it might not have if buried elsewhere.

"Another instance of similar superstition occurred in the case of a woman, who presented several beggars with a loaf and porringer, that her deceased child might not want a porringer or bread in the next world. She accounted for her knowledge of the wants of an after-state, by saying that a very good man, who used to have occasional trances, in which it was known his soul left his body and became familiar with disembodied spirits, returning to its former habitation after a short absence, told her, on his recovery from one of these fits, that children, dying at an early age, whose parents' neglect deprived them of the use of a porringer, were obliged to lap milk out of their hands; whilst others, who were provided in life with one, had a similar article prepared for their comfort in a future state; and 'now,' continued the woman, as she bestowed her last loaf and porringer on a mendicant, my mind is eased of its burthen, and my poor child is as happy as the best of them.""

25. Narrative of an Ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc, August 18, 1822. By Frederick Clissold, Esq.

Mr. Clissold, having procured proper guides, obtained a pair of peculiar snow-shoes fitted with about twenty pyramidal broad-based steel spikes,