armies. Having dismissed these urchins with a few halfpence, I was left alone with my Cicerone; and walking on for about a mile over one or two hilly ridges, at length, at the turn of a craggy mountain point, I saw a beautiful circular vale before me, surrounded on every side, except where I was standing, by craggy mountains, that rose like mural battlements around. So perpendicular to the north and west were they, that they bore neither heath nor furze; the ledges of the stratification were all bare and waterwashed, except that here and there some white lichen or yellow moss variegated the grey undulation of the rock veins-and in the middle of this mountain vale lay the lake of Gougan Barry, and out of that smooth glassy lough rose an island covered with ash trees, through whose boughs were seen some moss-crowned walls and ruins.-The day was certainly as fine for viewing a mountain-scene as could be desired: the atmosphere transparently clear -the sun abroad in heaven; there was a braciness in the air, that nerved you to

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take exercise, and without lassitude enjoy the scenery your activity had made you acquainted with. Besides, there were a number of fleecy clouds that occasionally passed over the sun, and now veiled and again revealed it; and the different lights and shadows that careered along the faces of the mountains, gave an astonishing variety to their groupings, presenting new outlines aud new colours with the fertility of a kaleidoscope. Arriving at the shore of the lake, a little causeway brought us to the island.

My conductor, whom I beg, Mr. Reader, to introduce you to by the name of Cornelis Colclough, showed me, as we entered by the causeway, a little covered enclosure, which admitted the waters of the lake. "That is the Holy Well, wherein pilgrims coming to go their rounds at this holy place, wash themselves, and begin their prayers." As we proceeded onward, "Do you observe, Sir, these ash trees?

There are not the likes of of them in all Ireland. Do you notice how white the bark of them is? and their leaves

are twice as big as the leaves of any other ash tree in the county." That I could not observe, for they were now only putting forth their black and bursting buds. We now came into a sort of quadrangle surrounded by those trees, and which contained an open space enclosed by a sort of coarse dry wall; and up against this wall, within the quadrangle, was eight open vaults, somewhat like the vaults in front of unfinished houses in Dublin, in each of which was held one of the stations of the round. When I came into the quadrangle, there were seven or eight men and women, sitting round a fire in one of the vaults, laughing very loudly. I asked Cornelis what they were doing there. "Oh, Sir, they are only laughing and chatting like happy pardoned Christhens, after performing the rounds.” As I went on to another vault, I observed a comely young girl on her knees her head was covered with her mantle and her long, lank, black hair, hanging like a a veil over her face: a little iron crucifix was before her; in her lap was a number of

small stones, like jack-stones, and before her, under the crucifix, another heap of little pebbles. She was motionless, and intent on the repetition of prayer, which her lips ran on with, in an under suppressed tone; and every now and then, at the close of a prayer, she transferred a stone from her lap to the heap before the crucifix. "What is she about, Cornelis ?" "Oh, she is going the round." "And what is the round ?"-" Come with me, Sir, and I will shew you." So he brought me outside the quadrangle, where, leaning against a tree, was a sort of tombstone, on which was engraved the following inscription :

This place of Devotion is dedicated

To Almighty God, and to the Virgin, and Saint Fin Barry, By the Rev. Denis O'Mahony,

Who, after erecting these buildings, made them his residence to the end of his religious days in this world, and died A. D. 1700.

God be merciful to his soul, and the souls of the faithful departed. 'Tis said, and is probable, that St. Fin Barry, in his sanctimony, had recourse to this place, from whence it has acquired the name of Gougan Barry. The duties usually performed here are in the following manner, and divided into

thirteen places or squares, to agree with the places appointed for prayers, in the afternoon of the 24th of June, the festival of St. John the Baptist; and on the afternoon of the 24th of December, the festival of St. Fin Barry, When, on each time, at each particular place, in alternate form, recite the Lord's Prayer, and the Salutation of the Virgin, as often as they are laid down in the subsequent square, and at the finale of each part of prayer, then recite the general Confession and the Creed.

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Underneath the above written direction is a regular scheme of prayer. For instance, there are thirteen stations or places in the island when the pilgrim comes to the first station, he goes on his or her knees, kisses the ground, crosses him or herself, and then says five Paters and five Aves. At the next station ten Paters, and ten Aves; and so on in arithmetical progression until he finishes at the thirteenth station. So that, according to my computation, the devotee repeats 936 Paters, Aves, and Credos, before he has done. A fine specimen this of disobedience to the Saviour's injunction, "Use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do."

"And pray, Cornelis, who was Father Denis O'Mahony, and why did he go to the