TO J.D. ESQ. M.P.
‘Tout s’evanouit sous les cieux,
Chaque instant varie à nos yeux
Le tableau mouvant de la vie.’
Alas! that even this solitude, where all seems
‘The world forgetting, by the world forgot,’
should be subject to that mutability of fate which governs the busiest haunts of man. Is it possible, that among these dear ruins, where all the ‘life of life’ has been restored to me, the worst of human pangs should assail my full all-confiding heart. And yet I am jealous only on surmise; but who was ever jealous on conviction; for where is the heart so weak, so mean, as to cherish the passion when betrayed by the object. I have already mentioned to you the incongruities which so forcibly struck me in Glorvina’s boudoir. Since the evening, the happy evening in which I first visited it, I have often stolen thither when I knew her elsewhere engaged, but always found it locked till this morning, when I perceived the door standing open. It seemed as though its mistress had but just left it, for a chair was placed near the window, which was open, and her book and work-basket lay on the seat. I mechanically took up the book, it was my own Eloisa, and was marked with a slip of paper in that page where the character of Wolmar is described; I read through the passage, I was throwing it by when some writing on the paper mark caught my eye; supposing it to be Glorvina’s, I endeavoured to decypher the lines, and read as follows: ‘Professions, my lovely friend, are for the world. But I would at least have you believe, that my friendship, like gold, though not sonorous is indestructible.’ This was all I could make out — and this I read a hundred times — the hand writing was a man’s — but it was not the priest’s — it could not be her father’s. And yet, I thought the hand was not entirely unknown to me, though it appeared disguised. I was still engaged in gazing on the sibyl leaf when I heard Glorvina approach. I never was mistaken in her little feet’s light bound; for she seldoms walks, and hastily replacing the book, I appeared deeply engaged in looking over a fine Atlas that lay open on the table. She seemed surprized at my appearance, so much so, that I felt the necessity of apologizing for my intrusion. ‘But,’ said I, ‘an immunity granted by you is too precious to be neglected, and if I have not oftener availed myself of my valued privileges, I assure you the fault was not mine.’
Without noticing my innuendo she only bowed her head, and asked me with a smile, ‘what favourite spot on the globe I was tracing with such earnestness when her entrance had interrupted my geographic pursuits.’
I placed my finger on that point of the north-west shores of Ireland, where we then stood, and said in the language of St Preux, ‘The world in my imagination is divided into two regions — that where she is — and that where she is not.’
With an air of bewitching insinuation she placed her hand on my shoulder, and with a faint blush and a little smile shook her head, and looked up in my face, with a glance half incredulous — half tender. I kissed the hand by whose pressure I was thus honoured, and said, ‘professions, my lovely friend, are for the world, but I would at least have you believe that my friendship, like gold, though not sonorous, is indestructible.’
This I said, in the irascibility of my jealous heart, for, though too warm for another, oh! how cold for me! Glorvina started as I spoke, I thought changed colour! while at intervals she repeated, ‘strange! — nor is this the only coincidence!’ ‘Coincidence!’ I eagerly repeated, but she affected not to hear me, and appeared busily engaged in selecting for herself a bouquet from the flowers which filled one of those vases I before noticed to you. ‘And is that beautiful vase,’ said I, ‘another family antiquity? it looks as though it stole its elegant form from an Etruscan model: is this too an effort of ancient Irish taste?’ ‘No,’ said she, I thought confusedly, ‘I believe it came from Italy.’
‘Has it been long in the possession of the family?’ said I, with persevering impertinence. ‘It was a present from a friend of my father’s,’ she replied, colouring, ‘to me!’ The bell at that moment rang for breakfast, away she flew, apparently pleased to be released from the importunities.
‘A friend of her father’s!’ and who can this friend be, whose delicacy of judgment so nicely adapts the gifts to the taste of her on whom they are lavished. For undoubtedly the same hand that made the offering of the vases, presented also those other portable elegancies which are so strongly contrasted by the rude original furniture of the boudoir. The tasteful doneur and the author of that letter whose torn fragment betrayed the sentiment of no common mind, are certainly one and the same person. Yet who visits the castle? scarcely any one; the pride and circumstances of the Prince equally forbid it. Sometimes, though rarely, an old Milesian cousin, or poor relation will drop in, but those of them that I have seen, are more common-place people. I have indeed heard the Prince speak of a cousin in the Spanish service, and a nephew in the Irish brigades, now in Germany. But the cousin is an old man, and the nephew he has not seen since he was a child. Yet after all, these presents may have come from one of these relatives; if so, as Glorvina has no recollection of either, how I should curse that jealous temper which has purchased for me some moments of torturing doubts. I remember you used often to say, that any woman could pique me into love, by affecting indifference, and that the native jealousy of my disposition, would always render me the slave of any woman who knew how to play upon my dominant passion. The fact is, when my heart erects an idol for its secret homage, it is madness to think that another should even bow at the shrine, much less that his offerings should be propitiously received.
But it is the silence of Glorvina on the subject of this generous friend, that distracts me; if after all — oh! it is impossible — it is sacrilege against heaven to doubt her — she practised in deception! she, whose every look, every motion, betrays a soul that is all truth, innocence, and virtue! I have endeavoured to sound the priest on the subject, and affected to admire the vases; repeating the same questions with which I had teased Glorvina. But he too carelessly replied, ‘they were given her by a friend of her father’s.’
Adieu!
LETTER XXV
TO J.D. ESQ. M.P.
Just as I had finished my last, the Prince sent for me to his room; I found him alone, and sitting up in his bed! he only complained of the effects of years and sickness, but it was evident some recent cause of uneasiness preyed on his mind. He made me sit by his bed-side, and said, that my good-nature upon every occasion, induced him to prefer a request, he was induced to hope would not meet with a denial. I begged he would change that request to a command, and rely in every instance on my readiness to serve him. He thanked and told me in a few words, that the priest was going on a very particular, but not very pleasing business for him (the Prince) to the north; that the journey was long, and would be both solitary and tedious to his good old friend, whose health I might have observed was delicate and precarious, except I had the goodness to cheat the weariness of the journey by giving the priest by company. ‘I would not make the request,’ he added, ‘but that I think your compliance will be productive of pleasure and information to yourself; in a journey of an hundred miles, many new sources of observation to your inquiring mind will appear. Besides, you who seem to feel so lively an interest in all which concerns this country, will be glad to have an opportunity of viewing the Irish character in a new aspect; or rather of beholding the Scotch character engrafted upon ours. But,’ said the Prince, with his usual nationality, ‘that exotic branch is not very distinguishable from the old stock.’
I need not tell you that I complied with this request with seeming readiness, but with real reluctance.
In the evening, as we circled round the fire in the great hall, I proposed to Father John to accompany him on his journey the following day. The poor man was overjoyed at the offer, while Glorvina betrayed neither surprize nor regret at my intention, but looked first at her father, and then at me, with kindness and gratitude.
Were my heart more at ease, were my confidence in the affections of Glorvina something stronger, I should greatly relish this little tour, but as it is, when I found every thing arranged for my departure, without the concurrence of my own wishes, I could not check my pettishness, and for want of some other mode of venting it, I endeavoured to ridicule a work on the subject of ancient Irish history which the priest was reading aloud, while Glorvina worked, and I was trifling with my pencil.
‘What,’ said I, after having interrupted him in many different passages, which I thought savoured of natural Hyperbole, ‘what can be more forced than that very supposition of your partial author that Albion, the most ancient name of Britain, was given it as though it were another, or second Ireland because Banba was one of the ancient names of your country?’
‘It may appear to you a FORGED etymology,’ said the priest, ‘yet it has the sanction of Camden, who first risked the supposition. But it is the fate of our unhappy country to receive as little credit in the present day, for its former celebrity, as for its great antiquity, [1] although the former is attested by Bede, and many other early British writers, and the latter is authenticated by the testimony of the most ancient Greek authors. For Jervis is mentioned in the Argonautica of Orpheus, long before the name of England is any where to be found in Grecian literature. And surely it had scarcely been first mentioned, had it not been first known.’
‘Then you really suppose,’ said I, smiling incredulously, ‘we are indebted to you for the name of our country.’ ‘I know,’ said the priest, returning my smile, ‘the fallacies in general of all etymologists, but the only part of your island, anciently called by any name that bore the least affinity to Albion, was Scotland, then called Albin, a word of Irish etymology, Albin signifying mountainous, from Alb a mountain.’
‘But, my dear friend,’ I replied, ‘admitting the great antiquity of your country, allowing it to be early inhabited by a lettered and civilized people, and that it was the Nido paterno of western literature when the rest of Europe was involved in darkness; how is it that so few monuments of your ancient learning and genius remain? Where are your manuscripts, your records, your annals, stamped with the seal of antiquity, to be found?’
‘Manuscripts, annals, and records, are not the treasures of a colonized or a conquered country,’ said the priest; ‘it is always the policy of the conqueror, (or the invader) to destroy those mementi of ancient national splendour which keep alive the spirit of the conquered or the invaded; [2] the dispersion at various periods, [3] of many of the most illustrious Irish families into foreign countries, has assisted the depredations of time and policy, in the plunder of her literary treasures; many of them are now mouldering in public and private libraries on the Continent, whither their possessors conveyed them from the destruction which civil war carries with it, and many of them (even so far back as the Elizabeth day) were conveyed to Denmark. The Danish monarch applied to the English court for some learned man to translate them, and one Donald O’Daly, a person eminently qualified for the task, was actually engaged to perform it, until the illiberality of the English court prevented the intention, on the poor plea of its prejudicing the English interest. I know myself that many of our finest and most valuable MSS are in libraries in France, and have heard that not a few of them enrich the Vatican at Rome.’ [4]
‘But,’ said I, ‘are not many of those MSS supposed to be Monkish impositions?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the Priest, ‘by those who never saw them, and if they did were too ignorant of the Irish language to judge of their authenticity by the internal evidences they contain.’
‘And if they were the works of Monks,’ said the priest, ‘Ireland was always allowed to possess at that era, the most devout and learned ecclesiastics in Europe, from which circumstances it received its title of Island of Saints. By them indeed many histories of the ancient Irish were composed in the early ages of christianity, but it was certainly from pagan records and traditions, they received their information; besides, I do not think any arguments can be advanced more favourable to the truth of their histories, than that the fiction of those histories simply consists in ascribing natural phenomena to super-natural agency.’
‘But,’ returned I, ‘granting that your island was the Athens of a certain age, how is the barbarity of the present to be reconciled with the civilization of the enlightened past?’
‘When you talk of our barbarity,’ said the Priest, ‘you do not speak as you feel, but as you hear.’ I blushed at this mild reproof, and said, ‘what I now feel for this country, it would not be easy to express, but I have always been taught to look upon the inferior Irish as beings forming an humbler link than humanity in the chain of nature.’ ‘Yes,’ said the priest, ‘in your country it is usual to attach to that class of society in ours, a ferocious disposition amounting to barbarity; but this, with other calumnies, of national indolence, and obstinate ignorance, of want of principle, and want of faith, is unfounded and illiberal; [5] “cruelty” says Lord Sheffield, “is not in the nature of these people, more than of other men, for they have many customs among them which discover uncommon gentleness, kindness, and affection; they are so far from possessing natural indolence, that they are constitutionally of an active nature, and capable of the greatest exertions; and of as good dispositions as any nation in the same state of improvement; their generosity, hospitality, and bravery, are proverbial; intelligence and zeal in whatever they undertake will never be wanting: but it has been the fashion to judge of them by their outcasts.”’
‘It is strange,’ said the prince, ‘that the earliest British writers should be as diffuse in the praise, as the moderns are in calumniating our unhappy country. Once we were every where, and by all, justly famed for our patriotism, ardor of affection, love of letters, skill in arms and arts, and refinement of manners; but no sooner did there arise a connexion between us and a sister country, than the reputed virtues and well-earned glory of the Irish sunk at once into oblivion: as if’ — continued this enthusiastic Milesian, rising from his seat with all his native vehemence — ‘as if the moral world was subject to those convulsions which shake the natural to its centre, burying by a single shock the monumental splendours of countless ages. Thus it should seem, that when the bosom of national freedom was rent asunder, the national virtues which derived their nutriment from its source sunk into the abyss; while on the barren surface which covers the wreck of Irish greatness, the hand of prejudice and illiberality has sown the seeds of calumny and defamation, to choak up those healthful plants, indigenous to the soil, which still raise their oft-crushed heads, struggling for existence, and which, like the palm-tree, rise in proportion to those efforts made to suppress them.’
To repeat the words of the prince is to deprive them of half their effect: his great eloquence lies in his air, his gestures, and the forcible expression of his dark rolling eye. He sat down exhausted with the impetuous vehemence with which he had spoken.
‘If we are to believe Doctor Warner, however,’ said the priest, ‘the modern Irish are a degenerated race, comparatively speaking; for he asserts that, even in the days of Elizabeth, “the old natives had degenerated, and that the wars of several centuries had reduced them to a state far inferior to that in which they were found in the days of Henry the Second.” But still, like the modern Greeks, we perceive among them strong traces of a free, a great, a polished, and an enlightened people.’
Wearied by a conversation in which my heart now took little interest, I made the palinode of my prejudices, and concluded by saying, ‘I perceive that on this ground I am always destined to be vanquished, yet always to win by the loss, and gain by the defeat; and therefore I ought not in common policy to cease to oppose, until nothing further can be obtained by opposition.’
The prince, who was getting a little testy at my ‘heresy and schism,’ seemed quite appeased by this avowal; and the priest, who was gratified by a compliment I had previously paid to his talents, shook me heartily by the hand, and said, I was the most generous opponent he had ever met with. Then taking up his book, was suffered to proceed in its perusal uninterrupted. During the whole of the evening, Glorvina maintained an uninterrupted silence; she appeared lost in thought, and unmindful of our conversation, while her eyes, sometimes turned to me, but oftener on her father, seemed humid with a tear, as she contemplated his lately much altered appearance. Yet when the debility of a man was for a moment lost in the energy of the patriot, I perceived the mind of the daughter kindling at the sacred fire which illumined the father’s; and through the tear of natural affection sparkled the bright beam of national enthusiasm.
I suspect that the embassy of the good priest is not of the most pleasant nature. To- night, as he left me at the door of my room, he said, that we had a log journey before us for that the house of the nobleman to whom we were going lay in a remote part of the province of Ulster; they he was a Scotchman, and only occasionally visited this country (where he had an immense property) to receive his rents. ‘The prince (said he) holds a large but unprofitable farm from this highland chief, the lease of which he is anxious to throw up: the surly-looking fellow who dined with us the other day is his steward; and if the master is an inexorable as the servant, we shall undertake this journey to very little purpose.’
Adieu — I endeavour to write and think on every subject but that nearest my heart, yet there Glorvina and her mysterious friend still awaken the throb of jealous doubt and anxious solicitude. I shall drop this for you in the post-office of the first post-town I pass through; and probably endeavour to forget myself, and my anxiety to return hither, at your expence, by writing to you in the course of my journey.
Adieu,
H.M.
LETTER XXVI
TO J.D. ESQ. M.P.
Can you recollect who was that rational moderate youth who exclaimed in the frenzy of passion, ‘O Gods! annihilate both time and space, and make two lovers happy.’
For my part, I should indeed wish the hours annihilated till I again behold Glorvina; but for the space which divides us, it was requisite I should be fifty miles from her to be more entirely with her; to appreciate the full value of her society; and to learn the nature of those wants my heart must ever feel when separated from her. The priest and I arose this morning with the sun. Our lovely hostess was ready at the breakfast-table to receive us. I was so selfish as to observe without regret the air of languor that invested her whole form, and the heaviness that weighed down her eye-lids, as though the influence of sleep had not renovated the luster of those downcast eyes they veiled. Ah! if I dared believe that these wakeful hours were given to me. But I fear at that moment her heart was more occupied by her father than her lover: for I have observed, in a thousand instances, the interest she takes in his affairs; and indeed the priest hinted to me, that her good sense has frequently retrieved those circumstances the imprudent speculations of her father have as constantly deranged.
During breakfast she spoke but little, and once I caught her eyes turned full on me, with a glance in which tenderness, regret, and even something of despondency was mingled. Glorvina despond! So young, so lovely, so virtuous, and so highly gifted! Oh! at that moment had I been master of worlds! But, dependent myself on another’s will, I could only sympathize in the sufferings while I adored the sufferer.
When we arose to depart, Glorvina said, ‘If you will lead your horses I will walk to the draw-bridge with you.’
Delighted at the proposal, we ordered our horses to follow us; and with an arm of Glorvina drawn through either of ours, we left the castle. — ‘This,’ said I, pressing the hand which rested on mine, ‘is commencing a journey under favourable auspices.’
‘God send it may be so!’ said Glorvina fervently.
‘Amen!’ said the priest.
‘Amen!’ I repeated; and looking at Glorvina, read all the daughter in her eyes.
‘We shall sleep to-night,’ said the priest, endeavouring to dissipate the gloom which hung over us by indifferent chit-chat; ‘we shall sleep to-night at the hospitable mansion of a true-born Milesian, to whom I have the honour to be distantly allied; and where you will find the old Brehon law, which forbids that a sept should suddenly break up lest the traveller should be disappointed of the expected feast, was no fabrication of national partiality.’
‘What, then,’ said I, ‘we shall not enjoy ourselves in all the comfortable unrestrained freedom of an inn?
‘We poor Irish,’ said the priest, ‘find the unrestrained freedom of an inn not only in the house of every friend, but of every acquaintance however distant; and indeed if you are at all known, you may travel from one end of a province to another without entering a house of public entertainment; [6] the host always considering himself the debtor of the guest, as though the institution of the Beataghs [7] were still in being. And besides a cordial welcome from my hospitable kinsman, I promise you an introduction to his three handsome daughters. So fortify your heart, for I warn you it will run some risk before you return.’
‘Oh!’ said Glorvina archly, ‘I dare say that, like St Paul, he will “count it all joy to fall into divers temptations.”’
‘Or rather,’ returned I, ‘I shall court them, like the saints of old, merely to prove my powers of resistance; for I bear a charmed spell about me; and now “none of woman born can harm Macbeth.”’
‘And of what nature is your spell?’ said Glorvina smiling while the priest remained a little behind us talking to a peasant. ‘Has father John given you a gospel? or have you got an amulet, thrice passed through the thrice blessed girdle of St Bridget, or great Irish charm?’ [8]
‘My charm,’ returned I, ‘in some degree certainly partakes of your religious and national superstitions; for since it was presented me by YOUR hand, I could almost believe that its very essence has been changed by a touch!’ And I drew from my breast the withered remains of my once blooming rose. At that moment the priest joined us; and though Glorvina was silent, I felt the pressure of her arm more heavily on mine, and saw her pass the draw-bridge without a recollection on her part that it was to have been the boundary of her walk. We had not, however, proceeded many paces, when the most wildly mournful sounds I ever heard rose on the air and slowly died away.
‘Hark!’ said Glorvina, ‘some one is going to “that bourne from whence no traveller returns.”’ As she spoke an hundred voices seemed to ascend to the skies; and, as they subsided, a fainter strain lingered on the air, as though this truly savage choral symphony was reduced to a recitativo, chanted by female voices. All that I heard of the Irish howl, or funeral song, now rushed to my recollection; and turning at that moment the angle of the mountain of Inismore, I perceived a procession advancing towards a little cemetery, which lay by a narrow path-way to the left of the road.
The body, in a plain deal coffin, covered with a white shirt, was carried by four men, immediately preceded by several old women, covered in their mantles, and who sung at intervals in a wild and rapid tone. [9] Before them walked a number of young persons of both sexes, each couple holding by a white handkerchief, and strewing flowers along the path. An elderly woman, with eyes overflown with tears, disheveled hair, and distracted mien, followed the body, uttering many passionate exclamations in Irish; and the procession was filled up by upwards of three hundred people; the recitative of the female choristers relieved at intervals by the combined howlings of the whole body. In one of the pauses of this dreadful death-chorus, I expressed to Glorvina my surprize at the multitude which attended the funeral of a peasant, while we stood on a bank as they passed us.
‘The lower order of Irish,’ she returned, ‘entertain a kind of post-humous pride respecting their funerals; and from sentiments that I have heard them express, I really believe there are many among them who would prefer living neglected to the idea of dying unmourned, or unattended, by a host to their last home.’ To my astonishment she then descended the bank, and, accompanied by the priest, mingled with the crowd.
‘This will surprize you,’ said Glorvina; ‘but it is wise to comply with those prejudices which we cannot vanquish. And by those poor people it is not only reckoned a mark of great disrespect not to follow a funeral (met by chance) a few paces, but almost a species of impiety.’ ‘And mankind, you know,’ added the priest, ‘are always more punctilious with respect to ceremonials than fundamentals. However you should see an Irish Roman Catholic funeral; to a protestant and a stranger it must be a spectacle of some interest.
‘With respect to the attendant ceremonies on death,’ he continued, ‘I know of no country which the Irish at present resemble but the modern Greeks. In both countries when the deceased dies unmarried, the young attendants are chiefly dressed in white, carrying garlands, and strewing flowers as they proceed to the grave. Those old women who sing before the body are professional improvisatori; they are called Caoiners or Keeners, from the Caione or death song, and are hired to celebrate the virtues of the deceased. Thus we find St Chysostom censuring the Greeks of his day, for the purchased lamentations and hireling mourners that attended their funerals. And so far back with us as in the days of druidical influence, we find it was part of the profession of the bards to perform the funeral ceremonies, to sing to their harps the virtues of the dead, and to call on the living to emulate their deeds. [10] This you may remember is a custom frequently alluded to in the poems of Ossian. [11] Pray observe that frantic woman who tears her hair and beats her bosom: — It is the mother of the deceased. She is following her only child to an early grave; and did you understand the nature of her lamentations you would compare them to the complaints of the mother of Euriales in the Eneid: — the same passionate expressions of sorrow, and the same wild extravagance of grief. They even still most religiously preserve here that custom never lost among the Greeks, of washing the body before internment, and strewing it with flowers.’
‘And have you also,’ said I, ‘the funeral feast, which among the Greeks composed so material a part of the funeral ceremonies?’
‘A wake, as it is called among us,’ he replied, ‘is at once the season of lamentation and sorrow, and of feasting and amusement. The immediate relatives of the deceased sit near the body, devoted to all the luxury of woe, which revives into the most piercing lamentations at the entrance of every stranger, while the friends, acquaintances, and guests give themselves up to a variety of amusements; feats of dexterity, and even some exquisite pantomimes are performed; though in the midst of all their games should any one pronounce an Ave Maria, the merry groupe are in a moment on their knees; and the devotional impulse being gratified, they recommence their sports with new vigour. The wake, however, is of short duration; for here, as in Greece, it is thought an injustice to the dead to keep them long above ground; so that interment follows death with all possible expedition.’
We had now reached the burial ground; near which the funeral was met by the parish priest, and the procession went three times round the cemetery, preceded by the priest, who repeated the De profundis, as did all the congregation.
‘This ceremony,’ said Father John, ‘is performed by us instead of the funeral service, which is denied to the Roman Catholics. For we are not permitted, like the protestant ministers, to perform the last solemn office for our departed fellow creatures.’
While he spoke we entered the church yard, and I expressed my surprize to Glorvina, who seemed wrapt in solemn meditation, at the singular appearance of this rustic little cemetery, where instead of the monumental marble,
‘The storied urn, or animated bust,’
an osier, twisted into the form of a cross, wreathed with faded foliage, garlands made of the pliant sally, twined with flowers; alone distinguished the ‘narrow house,’ where
‘The rude forefathers of the hamlet slept.’
Without answering, she led me gently forward towards a garland which seemed newly planted. We paused. A young woman who had attended the funeral, and withdrawn from the crowd, approached the garland at the same moment, and taking some fresh gathered flowers from her apron, strewed them over the new made grave, then kneeling beside it wept, and prayed. ‘It is the tomb of her lover,’ said I. — ‘Of her Father!’ said Glorvina, in a voice whose affecting tone sunk to my heart, while her eyes, raised to heaven, were suffused with tears. The filial mourner now arose and departed, and we approached the simple shrine of her sorrowing devotion. Glorvina took from it a sprig of rosemary — its leaves were humid! ‘It is not all dew,’ said Glorvina with a sad smile, while her own tears fell on it, and she presented it to me.
‘Then you think me worthy of sharing in these divine feelings,’ I exclaimed as I kissed off the sacred drops; while I was now confirmed in the belief that the tenderness, the sufferings, and declining health of her father rendered him at that moment the sole object of her solicitude and affection. And with him only could I, without madness, share the tender, sensible, angelic heart of this sweet interesting being.
Observing her emotion increase, as she stood near the spot sacred to filial grief, I endeavoured to draw away her attention by remarking, that almost every tomb had now a votarist. ‘It is a strong instance,’ said Glorvina, ‘of the sensibility of the Irish, that they repair at intervals to the tombs of their deceased friends to drop a tender tear, or heave a heart-breathed sigh, to the memory of those so lamented in death, so dear to them in life. For my own part, in the stillness of a fine evening, I often wander towards this solemn spot, where the flowers newly thrown on the tombs, and weeping with the tears of departed day, always speak to my heart a tale of woe it feels and understands. While, as the breeze of evening mourns softly round me, I involuntarily exclaim, “And when I shall follow the crowd that presses forward to eternity, what affectionate hand will scatter flowers over my solitary tomb; for haply ere that period arrive, my trembling hand shall have placed the cypress on the tomb of him who alone loved me living, and would lament me dead.”’
‘Alone!’ I repeated, and pressing her hand to my heart, inarticulately added, ‘Oh! Glorvina, did the pulses which now throb against each other throb in unison, you would understand, that even love is a cold inadequate term for the sentiments you have inspired in a soul, which would claim a closer kindred to yours than even parental affinity can assert; if (though but by a glance) yours would deign to acknowledge the sacred union.’
We were standing in a remote part of the cemetery, under the shade of a drooping cypress — we were alone — we were unobserved. The hand of Glorvina pressed to my heart, her head almost touched my shoulders, her lips almost effused their balmy sighs on mine. A glance was all I required — a glance was all I received.
In the succeeding moments I know not what passed; for an interval all was delirium. Glorvina was the first to recover presence of mind; she released her hand, which was still pressed to my heart, and covered with blushes advanced to Father John. I followed, and found her with her arm entwined in his, while those eyes from whose glance my soul had lately quaffed the essence of life’s richest bliss, were now studiously turned from me in love’s own downcast bashfulness.
The good Father Director now took my arm; and we were leaving this (to me), interesting spot, when the filial mourner who had first drawn us from his side, approached the priest, and taking out a few shillings from the corner of her handkerchief, offered them to him, and spoke a few words in Irish; the priest returned her an answer and her money at the same time: she curtseyed low, and departed in silent and tearful emotion. At the same moment another female advanced towards us, and put a piece of silver and a little fresh earth into the hand of Father John; he blessed the earth and returned the little offering with it. The woman knelt and wept, and kissed his garment; then addressing him in Irish, pointed to a poor old man, who, apparently overcome with weakness, was reposing on the grass. Father John followed the woman, and advanced to the old man, while I, turning towards Glorvina, demanded an explanation of this extraordinary scene.
‘The first of those poor creatures,’ said she, ‘was offering the fruits of many an hour’s labour to have a mass said for the soul of her departed father, which she firmly believes will shorten his sufferings in purgatory: the last is another instance of weeping humanity stealing from the rites of superstition a solace for its woes. She brought that earth to the priest, that he might bless it ere it was flung into the coffin of a dear friend, who, she says, died this morning; for they believe that this consecrated earth is a substitute for those religious rites which are denied them on this awful occasion. And though these tender cares of mourning affection may originate in error, who would not pardon the illusion, that soothes the sufferings of a breaking heart? Alas! I could almost envy these ignorant prejudices, which lead their possessors to believe, that by restraining their own enjoyments in this world, they can alleviate the sufferings, or purchase the felicity of the other for the objects of their tenderness and regret. Oh! that I could thus believe!’
‘Then you do not,’ said I, looking earnestly at her, ‘ you do not receive all the doctrines of your church as infallible?’
Glorvina approached something closer towards me, and in a few words convinced me that on the subject of religion, as upon every other, her strong mind discovered itself to be an emanation of that divine intelligence, which her pure soul worships ‘in spirit and in truth,’
‘The bright effluence of bright essence uncreate.’
When she observed my surprize and delight, she added, ‘believe me, my dear friend, the age in which religious error held her empire undisputed, is gone by. The human mind, however slow, however opposed its progress, is still, by a divine and invariable law, propelled towards truth, and must finally attain that goal which reason has erected in every beast. Of the many who are the inheritors of our persuasion, all are not devoted to its errors, or influenced by its superstitions. If its professors are coalesced, it is in the sympathy of their destinies, not in the dogmas of their belief. If they are allied, it is by the tye of temporal interest, not by the bond of speculative opinion; they are united as men, not as sectaries; and once incorporated into the great mass of general society, their feelings will become diffusive as their interests; their affections, like their privileges, will be in common, the limited throb with which their hearts now beat towards each other, under the influence of a kindred fate, will then be animated to the nobler pulsation of universal philanthropy; and, as the acknowledged members of the first of all human communities, they will forget they had ever been the individual adherents of an alienated body.’
The priest now returned to us, and was followed by the multitude, who crowded round this venerable and adored pastor: some to obtain his benediction for themselves, others his prayers for their friends, and all his advice or notice; while Glorvina, whom they had not at first perceived, stood like an idol in the midst of them, receiving that adoration which the admiring gaze of some, and the adulatory exclamations of others, offered to her virtues and her charms. While those personally known to her, she addressed with her usual winning sweetness in their native language, I am sure that there was not an individual among this crowd of ardent and affectionate people that would not risk their lives ‘to avenge a look that threatened her with danger.’
Our horses now coming up to the gate of the cemetery, we insisted on walking back as far as the draw-bridge with Glorvina. When we reached it, the priest saluted her cheek with paternal freedom, and gave her his blessing. While I was put off with an offer of the hand; but when, for the first time, I felt its soft clasp return the pressure of mine, I no longer envied the priest his cold salute; for oh! cold is every enjoyment which is unreciprocated. Reverberated bliss alone can touch the heart.
When we parted with Glorvina, and caught a last view of her receding figure, we mounted our horses and proceeded a considerable way in silence. The morning though fine was gloomy; and though the sun was scarcely an hour high, we were met by innumerable groupes of peasantry of both sexes, laden with their implements of husbandry, and already beginning the labours of the day. I expressed my surprize at observing almost as many women as men working in the fields and bogs. ‘Yes,’ said the priest, ‘toil is here shared in common between the sexes, the women as well as the men cut the turf, sow the potatoes, and even assist to cultivate the land; both rise with the sun to their daily labour; but his repose brings not theirs; for after having worked all day for a very trivial remuneration (as nothing here is rated at a lower price than human labour), they endeavour to snatch a beam from retreating twilight; by which they labour in that little spot of ground, which is probably the sole support of a numerous family.’
‘And yet,’ said I, ‘idleness is the chief vice laid to the account of your peasantry.’
‘It is certain,’ returned he, ‘that there is not, generally speaking, that active spirit of industry among the inferior orders here, which distinguished the same rank in England. But neither have they the same encouragement to awaken their exertions. “The laziness of the Irish,” says Sir William Petty, “seems rather to proceed from want of employment, and encouragement to work, than the constitution of their bodies.” And an intelligent and liberal countryman of yours, Mr Young, the celebrated traveller, is persuaded that, circumstances considered, the Irish do not in reality deserve the character of indolence; and relates a very extraordinary proof of their great industry and exertion in their method of procuring lime for manure; which the mountaineers bring on the backs of their little horses many miles distance, to the foot of the steepest acclivities; and from thence to the summit on their own shoulders, while they pay a considerable rent for liberty to cultivate a barren, waste and rigid soil. In short, there is not in the creation a more laborious animal than an Irish peasant, with less stimulus to exertion, or less reward to crown his toil. [12] He is indeed in many instances the creature of the soil, and works independent of that hope, which is the best stimulus to every human effort, the hope of reward. And yet it is not rare to find among these oft misguided beings, some who really believe themselves the hereditary proprietors of the soil they cultivate.’
‘But surely,’ said I, ‘the most ignorant among them must be well aware that all could not have been proprietors?’
‘The fact is,’ said the priest, ‘the followers of many a great family having anciently adopted the name of their chiefs, that name has descended to their progeny, who now associate to the name an erroneous claim on the confiscated property of those to whom their progenitors were but vassals or dependants. [13] And this false but strong rooted opinion, co-operating with their naturally active and impetuous characters, renders them alive to every enterprize, and open to the impositions of the artful or ambitious. But a brave, though misguided, people is not to be dragooned out of a train of ancient prejudices, nurtured by fancied interest and real ambition, and confirmed by ignorance, which those who deride, have made no effort to dispel. It is not by physical force, but moral influence, the illusion is to be dissolved. The darkness of ignorance must be dissipated before the light of truth can be admitted, and though an Irishman may be argued out of an error, it has been long proved he will never be forced. His understanding may be convinced, but his spirit will never be subdued. He may culminate to the meridian of loyalty [14] or truth by the influence of kindness, or the convictions of reason, but he will never be forced towards the one, nor oppressed into the other, by the lash of power, or the “insolence of office.”
‘This has been strongly evinced by the attachment of the Irish to the House of Stuart, by whom they have always been so cruelly, so ungratefully treated. For what the coercive measures of 400 years could not effect, the accession of one prince to the throne accomplished. Until that period, the unconquered Irish, harassing and harassed, struggled for that liberty which they at intervals obtained, but never were permitted to enjoy. Yet the moment a Prince of the Royal line of Milesius placed the British diadem on his brow, the sword of resistance was sheathed, and those principles which force could not vanquish yielded to the mild empire of national and hereditary affection: the Irish of English origin from natural tenderness, and those of the true old stock, from the firm conviction that they were then governed by a Prince of their own blood. Nor is it now unknown to them that in the veins of his present Majesty, and his ancestors, from James the First, flows the Royal blood of the three kingdoms united.’
‘I am delighted to find,’ said I, ‘the lower ranks of a country, to which I am now so endeared, thus rescued from the obloquy thrown on them by prejudiced illiberality; and from what you have said, and indeed from what I have myself observed, I am convinced that were endeavours [15] for their improvement more strictly promoted, and their respective duties obviously made clear, their true interests fully represented by reason and common sense, and their unhappy situations ameliorated by justice and humanity, they would be a people as happy, contented, and prosperous, in a political sense, as in a natural and a national one. They are brave, hospitable, liberal, and ingenious.’
We now continued to proceed through a country, rich in all the boundless extravagance of picturesque beauty, where Nature’s sublimest features every where present themselves, carelessly disposed in wild magnificence; unimproved, and, indeed, almost unimproveable by art. The far-stretched ocean, mountains of alpine magnitude, heaths of boundless desolation, vales of romantic loveliness, navigable rivers, and extensive lakes, alternately succeeding to each other, while the ruins of an ancient castle, or the mouldering remains of a desolated abbey, gave a moral interest to the pleasure derived from the contemplation of Nature in her happiest and most varied aspect.
‘Is it not extraordinary,’ said I, as we loitered over the ruins of an abbey, ‘that though your country was so long before the introduction of chrisitianity inhabited by a learned and ingenious people, yet that among your gothic ruins, no traces of a more ancient and splendid architecture are to be discovered. From the ideas I have formed of the primeval grandeur of Ireland, I should almost expect to see a Balbec or Palmyra rising amidst these stupendous mountains, and picturesque scenes.’
‘My dear Sir,’ he replied, ‘a country may be civilized, enlightened, and even learned and ingenious, without attaining to any considerable memorials of its passed splendour. The ancient Irish, like the modern, had more soul, more genius, than worldly prudence, or cautious calculating forethought. The feats of the hero engrossed them more than the exertions of the mechanist; works of imagination seduced them from pursuing works of utility. With an enthusiasm, bordering on a species of mania, were they devoted to poetry and music; and to “Wake the soul of song” was to them an object of more interesting importance, than to raise that edifice which would betray to posterity their ancient grandeur; besides, at that period to which you allude, the Irish were in that era of society, when the iron age was yet distant, and the artist confined his skill to the elegant workmanship of gold and brass, which is ascertained by the number of warlike implements and beautiful ornaments of dress of those metals, exquisitely worked, which are still frequently found in the bogs of Ireland.’
‘If, however,’ said I, ‘there are no remnants of a Laurentinum, or Tusculum, to be discovered, I perceive that at every ten or twelve miles, in the fattest of the land, the ruins of an abbey and its granaries are discernible.’
‘Why,’ returned the priest laughing, ‘you would not have the good father abbots advise the dying but generous sinner to leave the worst of his lands to God! that would be sacrilege — but besides the voluntary donation of estates from rich penitents, the regular monks of Ireland had landed properties attached to their convents. Sometimes they possessed immense tracts of a country, from which the officiating clergy seldom of ever derived any benefit; and I believe that many, if not most, of the bishops’ leases now existing are the confiscated revenues of these ruined abbeys.’
‘So,’ said I, ‘after all it is only a transfer of property from one opulent ecclesiastic to another; [16] and the great difference between the luxurious abbot of other times, and the rich church dignitary of the present, lies in a few speculative theories which, whether they are or are not consonant to reason and common sense, have certainly no connexion with true morality. While the bishopricks now, like the abbeys of old, are estimated rather by the profit gained to the temporal, than the harvest reaped to the heavenly Lord. However I suppose they borrow a sanction from the perversion of scriptural authority, and quote the Jewish law, not intended for the benefit of individuals to the detriment of a whole body, but which extended to the whole tribe of Levi, and doubtlessly strengthen it by a sentiment of St Paul: “If we sow unto you spiritual things is it not just we reap your carnal, &c.” It is, however, lucky for your country that your abbots are not as numerous in the present day as formerly.’
‘Numerous, indeed, as you perceive,’ said the priest, ‘by these ruins; for we are told in the Life of St Rumoloi, that there were a greater number of monks and superb monasteries in Ireland than in any other part of Europe. St Columbkill, and his contemporaries, alone erected in this kingdom upwards of 200 abbeys, if their biographers are to be credited; and the luxury of their governors kept pace with their power and number.
‘In the abbey of Enis a sanctuary was provided for the cowls of the friars and the veils of the nuns, which were costly and beautifully wrought. We read that, knights excepted, the prelates only were allowed to have gold bridles and harnesses; and that among the rich presents bestowed by Bishop Snell, in 1146, on a cathedral, were gloves, pontificals, sandals, and silken robes, interwoven with golden spots, and adorned with precious stones.
‘There is a monument of monkish luxury still remaining among the interesting ruins of Sligo Abbey. This noble edifice stands in the midst of a rich and beautiful scenery, on the banks of a river, near which is a spot still shewn, where (as the tradition runs) a box or weir was placed in which the fish casually entered, and which contained a spring that communicated, by a cord, with a bell hung in the refectory. The weight of the fish pressed down the spring; the cord vibrated; the bell rung; and the unfortunate captive thus taken suffered martyrdom, by being placed on the fire alive.’
‘And was served up,’ said I, ‘I suppose on a fast day, to the abstemious monks, who would, however, have looked upon a morsel of flesh meat thrown in this way as a lure to eternal perdition.’
Already weary of conversation in which my heart took little interest, I now suffered it to die away; and while father John began a parley with a traveller who socially joined us, I gave up my whole soul to love and to Glorvina.
In the course of the evening we arrived at the house of our destined host. Although it was late the family had not yet gone to dinner, as the servant who took our horses informed us that his master had but that moment returned from a fair. We had scarcely reached the hall, when, the report of our arrival having preceded our appearance, the whole family rushed out to receive us. What a group! — the father looking like the very Genius of Hospitality, the mother like the personified spirit of a cordial welcome, three laughing Hebe daughters, two fine young fellows supporting an aged grandsire (a very Silenus in appearance), and a pretty demure little governess with a smile and a hand ready as the others.
The priest, according to the good old Irish fashion, saluted the cheeks of the ladies, and had his hands nearly shaken off by the men; while I was received with all the cordiality that could be lavished on a friend, and all the politeness that could be paid a stranger. A welcome shone in every eye; ten thousand welcomes echoed from every lip; and the arrival of the unexpected guests seemed a festival of the social feelings to the whole warm-hearted family. If this is a true specimen of the first rites of hospitality among the independent country gentlemen of Ireland, [17] it is to me the most captivating of all possible ceremonies.
When the first interchange of courtesies had passed on both sides, we were conducted to the refreshing comforts of a dressing-room; but the domestics were not suffered to interfere, all were in fact our servants.
The plenteous dinner was composed of every luxury the season afforded; though only supplied by the demesne of our host and the neighbouring sea-coast, and though served up in a style of perfect elegance, was yet so abundant, so over plenteous, that compared to the compact neatness and simple sufficiency of English fare in the same rank of life, it might have been thought to have been ‘more than hospitably good.’ But to my surprize, and indeed not much to my satisfaction, during dinner the door was left open for the benefit of receiving the combined efforts of a very indifferent fiddler and a tolerable piper, who, however, seemed to hold the life and spirits of the family in their keeping. The ladies left us early after the cloth was removed; and though besides the family there were three strange gentlemen, and that the table was covered with excellent wines, yet conversation circulated with much greater freedom than the bottle; every one did as he pleased, and the ease of the guest seemed the pleasure of the host. [18] For my part, I arose in less than an hour after the retreat of the ladies, and followed them to the drawing-room. I found them all employed; one at the piano, another at her work, a third reading; mamma at her knitting, and the pretty little duenna copying out music.
They received me as an old acquaintance, and complimented me on my temperance is so soon retiring from the gentlemen, for which I assured them they had all the credit. It is certain, that the frank and open ingenuousness of an Irishwoman’s manners forms a strong contrast to that placid but distant reserve which characterizes the address of my own charming countrywomen. For my part, since I have known Glorvina, I shall never again endure that perpetuity of air, look, and address, which those who mistake formality for good-breeding are so apt to assume. Manners, like the graduated scale of the thermometer, should betray, by degrees, the expansion or contraction of the feelings, as they are warmed by emotion of chilled by indifference. They should breathe the soul in order to win it.
Nothing could be more animated yet more modest than the manners of these girls; nor should I require any stronger proof of that pure and exquisite chastity of character which, from the earliest period, has distinguished the women of this country, than the ingenuous candour and enchanting frankness which accompanies their ever look and word.
‘The soul as sure to be admired as seen,
Boldly steps forth, nor keeps a thought within.’
But although the Miss O’D—s are very charming girls, although their mother seems a very rational and amiable being, and although their governess appears to be a young woman of distinguished education and considerable talent; yet I in vain sought in their conversation for that soul-seizing charm which with a magic undefinable influence breathes round the syren princess of Inismore. O! it was requisite I should mingle, converse, with other women to justly appreciate all I possess in the society of Glorvina; for surely she is more, or every other woman is less, than mortal!
Before them men joined us in the drawing-room, I was quite boudoirized with these unaffected and pleasing girls. One wound her working-silk off my hands, another would try my skill at battledore, and the youngest, a charming little being of thirteen, told me the history of a pet dove that was dying in her lap; while all intreated I would talk to them of the princess of Inismore.
‘For my part,’ said the youngest girl, ‘I always think of her as of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, or some other princess in a fairy tale.’
‘We know nothing of her, however,’ said Mrs O’D—, ‘but by report; we live at too great a distance to keep up any connexion with the Inismore family; besides that it is generally understood to be Mr O’Melville’s wish to live in retirement.’
This is the first time I ever heard my soi-disant prince mentioned without his title; but I am sure I should never endure to hear my Glorvina called Miss O’Melville. For to me too does she appear more like the Roganda of a fairy tale than ‘any mortal mixture of earth’s mould.’
The gentlemen now joined us, and as soon as tea was over the piper struck up in the hall, and in a moment every one was on their feet. My long journey was received as a sufficient plea for my being a spectator only; the priest refused the immunity, and led out the lady mother; the rest followed, and the idol amusement of the gay-hearted Irish received its usual homage. But though the women danced with considerable grace and spirit, they did not, like Glorvina,
‘Send the soul upon a jig to heaven.’
The dance was succeeded by a good supper; the supper by a cheerful song, and every one seemed unwilling to be the first to break up a social compact over which the spirit of harmony presided.
As the priest and I retired to our rooms, ‘You have now,’ said he, ‘had a specimen of the mode of living of the Irish gentry of a certain rank in this country: the day is devoted to agricultural business, the evening to temperate festivity and innocent amusement; but neither the avocations of the morning nor the engagements of the evening suspend the rites of hospitality.’
Thus far I wrote before I retired that night to rest, and the next morning at an early hour we took our leave of these courteous and hospitable Milesians; having faithfully promised on the preceding night to repeat our visit on our return from the north.
We are now at a sorry little inn, within a mile or two of the nobleman’s seat to whom the priest is come, and on whom he waits to-morrow, having just learned that his lordship passed by here today on his way to a gentleman’s house in the neighbourhood, where he dines. The little post-boy at this moment rides up to the door; I shall drop this in his bag, and begin a new journal on a fresh sheet.
Adieu,
H.M.