CHAPTER VIII.

THE COUNTY WEXFORD.

E enter the County Wexford at Arklow, from which the distance by rail to Gorey is ten miles. The country is comparatively bare and uninteresting, occupied generally by small farms. We leave Croghankinshella Mountain to the right—1,985 feet above the level of the sea-and having an extensive mining district. It is connected southward with the less elevated mountains of Kelkevin Hill, Ballycowran, Slievegower, and Slievboy. On the left, near Gorey, rising above the sea to the height of 826 feet, is Tara Hill. On our way

we pass the demesne of Hyde Park to the left, and Ballinstra, the well-wooded demesne of Sir John Esmonde, M.P., to the right.

Gorey stands on the old line of road from Dublin to Wexford, consisting chiefly of one street. Though little more than a large village, it has some remarkable public buildings. The new parish church is a very fine structure, erected some years ago by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The Roman Catholic church is also a large and handsome building, and there is connected with it a Loretto Convent, with boarding and day schools, under the charge of the nuns. Gorey was one of the corporations created by James I. It consisted of the sovereign, burgesses, and free commons of the borough and town of Newborough. The new name did not stick to the place, and the corporation was little more than a name, except that it returned two members to Parliament, and enabled its patron, Mr. Stephen Ram, to pocket £15,000 as compensation for its disfranchisement, at the Union. history of the town is intimately associated with that of the Ram family. When Mr. Brewer wrote in 1825, there existed a curious building, then used as a barrack, but previously occupied as a hotel, which was the original mansion of that family, and was built by Thomas Ram, Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns, in the reign of James I. Subsequently, Bishop

The

Ram, the founder of the house, which has been long one of the most influential in the county, built, about a mile from the town, a splendid mansion, called Ramsfort, surrounded by an extensive demesne, beautifully planted, and distinguished by its large and venerable trees. It was burnt by the insurgents in 1798. The present house is not large or elevated, but it is a very handsome, commodious residence, in the style of a French chateau, prettily situated on a terrace-like elevation, with an artificial lake in front, and beautiful pleasure grounds, adorned with flower beds in the French style, and with a number of costly statues. When we visited the place last August, it had a neglected, deserted, melancholy appearance, with all the usual marks of absenteeism. A caretaker in charge of the place, and two women weeding, were the only signs of life to be seen. On every side about the house were evidences of the fanciful and costly taste of some presiding genius. At the head of a broad avenue, formed of evergreen hedges, with every variety of floral adornment, stands an artificial island, at one side of which is a tiny chapel, an architectural gem, with an exquisitely pretty altar, a statue of the Virgin and Child, flowers in vases, and a lamp suspended from the ceiling. But all was now lonely and desolate. The flowers, indeed, bloomed as luxuriantly as ever, but there was no fair hand to cull them. The birds sang as joyously as ever, but their music was wasted on the perfumed air. The only thing in keeping with the saddened feeling of the spectator was the large wooden cross erected upon a hill called 'Calvary,' on the opposite side of the lake, facing the chapel, in a gloomy recess formed by overshadowing cypress. The people about the place deeply lamented the absence of the good old family of Ram, always regarded with pride and affection, as kind landlords and liberal employers. They are lost to the place for ever. Since our visit, everything moveable about the place has been sold by public auction; the estate soon followed, cut up into numerous lots, in order to meet the overwhelming demands of creditors. For these results the people bitterly blame the costly tastes and fantastic extravagance of Mrs. Ram; and it is a curious illustration of the vicissitudes of our landed gentry, that this great Protestant house,

founded by a bishop of the Established Church, should have been ruined at last by devotion to the Church of Rome. Mrs. Ram, a lady of great beauty and accomplishments, sister to the late Countess of Enniskillen, embraced the Roman Catholic faith during her sojourn on the Continent, and devoted herself, with enthusiastic zeal, to the making of converts, beginning with her husband and her children. Thenceforth Ramfort became a centre of propagandism, in the furtherance of which the fine arts, statuary, painting, music, processions, school fêtes, amateur theatricals, were made subservient, regardless of expense.

A tract of MacMorris's country in the territory of HyKinskellagh, was granted by James I. to Sir Edward Fisher, one of the commissioners for settling the County Wexford. This estate was erected into a manor, which passed by marriage to a son of Lord Chichester; and in 1711 it was transferred from that family to James Stopford, Esq., whose son James was created Baron Courtown in 1758; he obtained the dignity of Earl in 1762, and in 1796 James, the second Earl, was made a peer of Great Britain, with the title of Baron Saltersford in Cheshire, by virtue of which his successor sits in the Imperial Parliament. Courtown

House is built in a hollow just at the mouth of the river Owenbarra, sheltered from the sea by a sandy cliff and by dense masses of timber. Shelter seems to have been the great object of builders in the last century, for, in many cases, they sacrificed everything to it in the selection of sites. The Courtown demesne has a beautifully undulating surface; and there are spots upon it which would have given even a plain mansion a grand and imposing appearance, as well as a magnificent prospect. As it is, the house is confined, and seems almost smothered in the trees, which prevent the free circulation of air. One great advantage it certainly possesses, the river brings trout and salmon in abundance almost to the door. During last year a considerable addition has been made to the house, which is large and commodious. Evergreens flourish here in great luxuriance. Among them is an evergreen oak, the stem of which, according to Mr. Frazer, is sixteen feet in circumference, with branches which extend over an area whose periphery is 210

feet; the garden is situated on higher ground, more inland, with a southern aspect. The visitor cannot fail to admire the skill with which it is laid out, or the excellent arrangements of the farm-yard at the opposite side of the avenue, making altogether an establishment which gives one the idea of thorough comfort and completeness, and makes one regret that the noble owner should be even occasionally an absentee. The Lords of Courtown have been always greatly esteemed as landlords; and wherever the various scions of the Stopford family have been found, in the Church, in the army, or the navy, they have been distinguished by benevolence, honour, and many noble qualities, but especially for their attachment to England and to Protestantism.

In the neighbourhood of Gorey is Oulart Hill, where the rebels encamped in 1798. The assembly, the Rev. Mr. Gordon tells us, was a confused multitude of both sexes and all ages. The fighting portion were commanded by Father John Murphy. They were attacked by 110 chosen men of the North Cork Militia, under the command of Colonel Foote. The rebels fled at the first onset, but, rallying at the other side of the hill, they faced round with their pikes, and fought with such fury that they killed almost in an instant all of the detachment except the Lieutenant-Colonel, a serjeant, and three privates.' A body of cavalry, which should have supported the North Cork Militia, retreated precipitately to Gorey, followed by great numbers of Protestants, hastening to the town for protection, and carrying what they could of their effects with them, some, through terror, leaving all behind. Luckily for those who remained in Gorey, in which a great deal of property was stored for safety, the rebels were employed elsewhere, and the respectable Catholic inhabitants united to protect the Protestants from plunder by the lower orders.

Gordon says that the rebels burned but a very small part of the town of Gorey, and only two houses of gentlemen in its immediate vicinity: Ramsfort, the mansion of Stephen Ram, Esq., and Clonattin, that of Colonel Abel Ram, of the Wexford Militia, who was bravely fighting against the insurgents. This, he says, can cause no surprise, though much regretted, because his father and himself had been

C

remarkable for their humanity and generosity to their

tenants.

There is a large number of wealthy farmers occupying respectable houses in this part of the County Wexford, and indeed in most parts of it. Among the other gentlemen's seats about Gorey are, Wells, the seat of R. Doyne, Esq., and Ballywalter House, the residence of J. Pounden, Esq.

The railway, which follows the course of the old coach road to Enniscorthy, passes Camolin, a deserted and decayed village, remarkable only for an extensive demesne, the seat of the Earl of Valentia, which has long been unoccupied by the owner. If Camolin shows upon a small scale the vicissitudes of life, we now arrive at a place which shows them on a large scale. Ferns, three miles from Camolin, and ten from Gorey, is now but a poor village, with scarcely a house in it indicating that the owner is a man of substance; yet it was once 'the stately and beautiful city,' standing on an elevated table-land, and commanding a view of the whole county of Wexford, from Mount Leinster all round to the sea, and the whole sweep of the coast. The remnant of its castle, once the regal seat of Dermot MacMurrough, of which only one tower now remains complete, is one of the grandest objects to be seen in any landscape in the country. Dermot MacMurrough, the King of Leinster, is branded by Irish historians as a 'traitor,' because he invited Strongbow and his followers to help him against his enemies. But this term gives a false idea, implying that Ireland was then one kingdom, and that Dermot was only a vassal. But it consisted of several kingdoms, and he of Leinster was a sovereign prince. Besides, unfortunately, the Irish had been too well familiarized, like the Saxons in England, to foreign settlements, and alliances, and leagues with the stranger against native rivals and enemies. And the English colonies on the eastern coast no more involved the conquest of the country, than the Danish colonies on the same coast before them. In fact it was the Norman succeeding the Dane in Danish cities, nothing more, except that leader married the daughter of a native king, who was a sovereign in his own dominions. It is true that MacMurrough was an unprincipled king, and had behaved very