seemed in all its details, to be carried on in nastiness. John Barlycorn, though hero bold, Of noble enterprise ; When Irishmen distil his blood, They cleanliness despise. The whole area of the Island was one dunghill composed of fermenting grains; there were about twenty immense hogs either feeding or snoring on the food that lay beneath them; and so alive with rats was the whole concern that one of the boatmen compared them in number and intrusiveness to flocks of sparrows on the side of a shelling-hill adjoining a corn-mill. I asked one of the boatman where the men who attended the still slept. 'Och, where should they sleep but on the grains with the pigs; they have never been off the island these six months, they have never changed their clothes, and I believe, though they are convenient enough to the water, they have never washed themselves." "And are they not afraid?" "Why who would they be afraid of but the rats." "And do they never go to divine worship?” “Ah, that they don't, it's little they care about religion--one of them is a Protestant, and he curses so much that its enough to keep ghost, angel, or devil off the place—and in troth the Catholic is not much better, may be the Priest wont have work enough with him yet.' I was truly disgusted with the whole scene, and anxious to quit it.* I was vexed and disappointed to find such a romantic or beautiful spot so defiled, so desecrated, I might say, by a manufacture, that has proved of incalculable mischief to the peaceful habits, the moral character, and religious duties of the people of the country-but we would not be allowed to depart before we partook of the produce of the pot. With all his faults, Pat is not deficient in generosity, and he is ever ready to share-yes, and often to waste the liquor which he has a peculiar delight in manufacturing; because, perhaps, the undertaking is attended with risque, and gives The visit to Glen Veagh, took place four years ago. I have reason to believe, that in consequence of better arrangements in the revenue department, illicit distillation has ceased long ago in Glen Veagh. birth to adventurous engagements, and escapes and as the song says. An Irishman all in his glory is there. I cannot take leave of Glen Veagh, without calling to mind a visit we paid to a characteristic dweller of this singular and solitary scene. In a sunny nook where a dark deep ravine expanded itself into a little grassy valley, affording room for potato garden and a small meadow, and beside a small garrulous brook, rose a cabin, I dare not call it a cottage, for that supposes comfort, and associates cleanliness, neatness, the woodbine bower, the rose-covered lattice, with its idea, -and such a spot on Ulleswater or Windermere would have been blessed and beautified with such accompaniments; but here we had no such amenities-the grunt of a starving sow, the growl of a gaunt greyhound, were the sounds that accosted us as we bent our heads to enter the narrow aperture that served almost as much for a chimney as an entrance. But when you entered, things bore somewhat a more satisfactory appear ance; there was better furniture than is ge nerally to be seen in an Irish cabin; some old-fashioned high backed chairs, some old carved, oaken, brass-mounted chests; a decent dresser, on which were ranged some pewter dishes and plates; implements of fishing were suspended along the walls, and a long French musket, its barrel mounted with brass, hung right over the immense mantle-piece of the chimney that jutted out almost into the centre of the apartment; above the gun was an old mezzotinto print of the Holy Family after Raphael, and over that again an old armorial bearing, on which you could observe a salmon, a lion passant and a bloody hand, all well smoked, Beneath the canopy of the immense chimney, and beside the hob, in a comfortable high backed chair, made of straw in the manner of a beehive, sat Jack M'Swine, the master of the mansion. He rose apparently with pain as we entered.-I thought he would never cease rising, so slowly did he unbend his extraordinary height, and with apparent difficulty, as suffering un der rheumatic pains, he advanced to meet my friend, whom he accosted with all the ease of an old gentleman, and all the cordiality of an ancient Irishman. All the lower class of Irish are particularly civil and attentive to you when you enter their houses: I never in any of the provinces entered under a poor man's roof, that I was not received with the smile of pleasure and the language of benignity, the best seat wiped, and offered for my acceptance, the pig expelled, the dog punished if he dared to growl at my entering,—but here was even something better than this, for there was the Irish heartiness adorned with the urbanity of a gentleman; if he were the lord of a palace he could not have received us with more kind and unembarrassed courtesy, than did this dweller of the lonely mountain hut; and when I was introduced to him as one who had come from Dublin to see and admire the beauties of Glen Veagh, nothing could exceed the anxious kindness with which he expressed his desire to do every thing to further my views; he lamented he |