sorrow *. I was not able to learn, whether she was one of those persons common at Killarney, who are hired to attend funerals and to sing the death song; but very probably she was. * It would be wrong to infer from this recital that the lower classes of the Irish are devoid of sensibility: on the contrary, where strong demonstrations of passion are commonly observed amongst a people, it may fairly be concluded that they are possessed of acute feelings. But to the violence of grief or joy, amongst the Irish, the same importance is not to be attached as amongst a more sedate and sober people. Giraldus Cambrensis, who was no inaccurate observer of the character of the Irish, though credulous and mistaken in many points, says that all their actions were immoderate, and their passions most vehement :-" Est enim gens hæc cunctis fere in actibus immoderata, et in omnes affectus vehementissima." This remark is still apposite, and may be illustrated by the following incident. One morning, whilst I was sitting in my apartment in Killarney, giving some directions to a tradesman, a sudden noise was heard through the town; A troublous noise That seemed some perilous tumult to desine, Confus'd with women's cries and shouts of boyes. The man dropped on his knees, crossed his forehead, and uttered a prayer. On looking out of the window, the people in the streets all appeared in the extremity of distress: some piteously wringing their hands, others beating their breasts. One of the principal inhabitants came running out of his house, with loud lamentations clasping his hands, and exclaiming, in all the bitterness of grief, that "though he had had daughters that morning, he was now childless." Had an earthquake swallowed up a part of the town, or half the inhabitants been put to the sword, the confusion could not have been greater. The moment was really awful. It was impossible to learn from the people, deeply occupied as they were with their individual sufferings, what had happened; and dragoons were seen, with drawn swords, galloping across the end of the street. An officer who was exercising some companies of militia, in the court before Lord Kenmare's house, had actually marched them into the street, and had drawn them up ready for action, before he could get the least intimation of the occasion of the tumult. At last we learned that the Roman-catholic chapel had fallen upon great numbers of the people, and that the troopers were hastening to the spot to keep off the crowd, and to facilitate the removal of those killed or wounded. I ran to the place, prepared to witness some spectacle of excessive calamity; when the intelligence I received removed every uneasy apprehension. The rafters of the gallery, which was exceedingly thronged in consequence of a festival, had cracked. A general panic followed, but not an individual was injured. The death song, or death cry as it more properly deserves to be, and indeed is most commonly called, is there kept up, incessantly, for several days and nights in the house of the deceased: those women who have the best lungs, and the most lively imagination, get the most money for their services. A friend of mine was induced by curiosity to procure a translation of one of these extemporaneous death songs. It dwelt much on those virtues in the deceased which are the usual subject of admiration among uncivilized nations; and in particular on his extreme hospitality; each verse concluding with the burthen, "O O may the grass never grow before his door!" The exact period of the foundation of Mucruss abbey is not well ascertained. According to some statements, it was founded as early as the year 1340; but the authority of Wading* has been adduced to the contrary, who declares that he had seen a bull of Pope Paul the Second, which proved that it was founded by one of the earls of Desmond, and not until the year 1449. In the Monasticon Hibernicum, by the Reverend Mervyn Archdall, the foundation is fixed at 1440, and ascribed to Donald McCarthy. It was inhabited by the Conventual Franciscans; the rules of whose order, though so considerably relaxed in comparison with those that were imposed by their patron and founder St. Francis, as to have occasioned a final schism in the brotherhood, did not allow them to hold extensive territorial possessions; but in the superior construction of their convents, and the convenience of their accommodations, they endeavoured to make themselves amends for the mortifications they were subjected to in other respects. This abbey was granted to Robert Collam, by Queen Eliza'beth; but from an inscription on a stone in the north wall of the chancel of the church, of which the following is a transcript, → Smith's History of Kerry. it appears to have undergone a thorough repair, or to have been rebuilt, as late as the year 1626. "Pray for the happy state of brother Thadeus Holenus, who superintended the rebuilding or repairing of this sacred convent A. D. 1626." The beginning of the last word on the fifth line is obliterated, and the remainder of it, rare, can only be traced with difficulty. I have made the word reparare. The use of this character, which is Meso-Gothic, at so late a period, and long after it had ceased to be employed in England, and even in other parts of Ireland, is a proof of the slow progress which arts and literature had made in Kerry. The history of the decay of this abbey, notwithstanding its more recent date, is involved in still deeper obscurity. Dr. Smith, in his History of Kerry, informs us that in his days the bell of the convent was discovered in the lake, at a short distance from the shore of Mucruss; from which circumstance it may be inferred that the building, at some period, suffered from violence. Probably the soldiers of the parliamentary army were instrumental to its destruction; of whose outrages the country about Killarney was a distinguished scene. From the borders of the grove which envelops the abbey, a smooth verdant lawn stretches down to the lake. On leaving the domain of Mucruss, if you should have entered it by the gate at the village, it is desirable for the sake of variety to traverse this lawn, keeping near the water: and after having crossed the little stream which bounds the domain, there is an agreeable ride along the gravelly beach, at the head of Castle lough bay ; from which place a private avenue leads to the high road. As you pass along this part of the domain of Mucruss, two small islands are observable at a short distance from the main shore. One of them is called Heron or Friar's island; the other Osprey rock it better deserves, however, the name of Cormorant rock, from being so much more frequently the resort of the latter bird. Seldom, indeed, is it seen without many of these voracious animals sitting upon its craggy point, in eager expectation of the approach of their finny prey. The neighbouring island is frequented by herons; and, what seems remarkable, these birds never invade each other's territories. Numerous other aquatic birds are also generally to be seen about this part of the lake, attracted by the fish which frequent the shallows. In light-wing'd squadrons, gulls of every name, Screaming discordant, o'er the surface hang, Their wild and devious flights enliven the scene; and their cries, though shrill, are not devoid of interest. Sounds inharmonious in themselves and harsh, Homer, in his description of the enchanting island of Calypso, did not think the noisy birds which commonly frequent the seashores beneath his verse; and it will not readily be admitted that his faithful representation of nature is less pleasing than that of the writers of romance, who were wont, on all occasions, to fill the groves of fairy land with birds of gaudy plumes and soft melodious notes*. The herons breed in the woods of Mucruss, and pains are taken to preserve them from the wanton attacks of fowlers: nor * *Ενθα δέ τ' ὄρνιθες τανυσίπτεροι εὐνάζοντο, Thus rendered by Pope: Od. lib. 5. lin. 65. On the high branches waving in the storm F |