SKETCHES IN DONEGAL.

LETTER II.

TO THE REV. SIR F. L. B-SSE.

THE Lake of Garton, to which I brought you in my last letter, is one of the finest of those numerous sheets of water which are interspersed through the vallies and mountains of this highland district; either in the midst of the mountains, forming the sources of rivers, or in the lowland vallies, expanding as their receptacles or reservoirs. High or low, small or large, they form interesting objects for the tourist; and I am not sure whether in this way our Irish lake may not be found as worthy of a visit as one in Cumberland, or Scotland, or even Switzerland.

The lake is of considerable extent, its shores are ornamented with some timber, and a few gentlemen's seats; a very pretty parsonage reposes in a peninsula, and to the west and south the mountains extend in elevated ranges-beyond the lake I was shown an ancient ruin, said to be a church of St. Columkill; and a stone was described to me as a spot of peculiar sanctity and a place of ancient veneration and worship, to which, in old times, thousands of pilgrims used to flock-but it has fallen into disuse, and Doune Well has carried away almost all its votaries. The stone, the subject of veneration, is flat, and has four holes or cavities on its surface, which are said to be the marks of the hands and knees of Ethne, the mother of Columkill, who, large with child, was told by an old Druid, that she never would bring her son to the birth, till she came and knelt on this stone. So leaving the house of her princely father, the descendant of Nial of the Nine Hostages, she traversed the mountains of Tyrconnel until she came hither, and here taken in

labour, was safely delivered of the pigeon of the Church and certainly the founder of the Culdees could not be born in a spot more befitting the wild and solitary rule that he established; the father of the Culdees could not come to the birth in a more appropriate place.

This country on every side presents memorials of Columkill, the peculiar Saint of Tyrconnell, and certainly he was, after all, a passionate pigeon of the Church, and very like a real Irishman--he was sometimes the best humoured and softest-hearted fellow in the world; but vex him, and he would kick up such a row, set all about him fighting, and breaking heads like a Tipperary faction on a fair-green-to account for all this, his historians tell us, that at one time he was attended by a guardian angel called Axaland then he was in sweet mood, and he might be heard two miles away singing hymns, and chaunting mass amongst the mountains-at other times, an evil genius, called Demal, used to infest him, inspire his mind with

wicked thoughts, and still wickeder designs; and therefore, poor Columkill, under the influence, no doubt, of this demon-was the cause of three bloody battles in Ireland; and in consequence of these pugnacious propensities, he was banished out of the country and sent to Iona, and was never permitted to look on Ireland again; and so strict was this religious penance enforced on him, that some years afterwards when his presence was necessary to compose a feud which his earlier passions had excited—he came over with an oiled cloth before his eyes, and the poor fellow was not permitted to cast even a side look at the green hills he loved so well.

I was shown, not far from this, the place of one of Columkill's numerous feats-an old ruin near Garton, concerning which the tradition goes, that once upon a time, there was an old magician who had built himself a tower in an island on this lake, of great strength and beauty, and in this tower he had a magic glass, which told him all that was passing through the world; and he had an altar made

of an emerald on which were elevated the idols of the sun and moon which he adored. And here he lived, happy in his wisdom, and all the world feared him; but so it befel, that on a certain day he was overtaken by a sore distemper, and fell into a death-like trance without sense or motion, and then the Devil watching his opportunity, determined to take of the man he hated, what was nothing better, than a dirty advantage for seizing him in his talons, he was hurrying away through the air, and they were going you may guess where at this critical moment,Columkill who was out upon the hills, looking out for a well to bless for the people, happened to cast his eyes upwards, and saw Satan like a kite with a lark in its claws, sailing under the sun with his prey in possession; and just as he was directly over head, Collum made the sign of the cross in the air; and this perfectly astonished the Devil, it made him let go his gripe of the poor magician, as you, my dear, would let go your hold of a too hot potato, and so down he dropt at Columkill's feet; and to