While the Duke was engaged in the foregoing expostulation with "the men of the mountains," the farrier, as he called himself, was meantime actively employed, in which his tongue was as prompt as his hand was ready, in performing, as he conceived it, the proud destiny of replacing the fore shoe on the noble leader, in lieu of that which had been lost; and thus from his anvil he addressed the Duke's valet: "Och then, plaze your honour, master Brushwell, may be it isn't I who understands, any how, in a jiffy to whip on a shoe upon any poor beast in the four bordering counties; and a great sin and shame in me it would be if I didn't exart myself for one of the true ould Irish stock? In troth in a jiffy I will knock off the job, and by J—— it shall be properly well done! for oh, naboclish, sure enough may be Tom Hob isn't the boy, after all, for quickly knocking off a job for a parson he loves; and in troth he may say with the ould ballad—
'Tom's heart, like his iron, is hissingly hot, Though his iron should cool, his heart it shall not!'"
In these remote days the peaceful methods of life, the arts of agriculture and husbandry, were but imperfectly known; and the practice of farriery was rudely and ignorantly performed; then veterinary professors did not exist, [the foregoing incident of the lost horse-shoe has led to this short digression,] and farriery was clumsily practised, save, perchance in the forge of some farrier of heavy dragoons. The arts of war, meanwhile, were but too successfully carried on, while the happy arts of peace slumbered in the shade, and neglected agriculture sunk depressed beneath the warlike tone and temper of the times. The sickle and the ploughshare, the attributes and implements of husbandry, were destined to be neglected, else otherwise to be transmuted into the spear and falchion of war.
But we resume our narrative.—The first day and night of the Duke's departure he dined and slept at the hospitable abode of Castle-Caldwell, the noble and magnificent mansion of the Baronet of the same name, which delightful residence derived its name from the owner. The promontories that raised their peninsular summits above and around the beautiful and expanded lake of Lough Erne, were all brilliantly illuminated by bonfires made by the peasantry. The beacon-flame also blazed from the crowned summit of every surrounding hill and mountain. These bright testimonies of gladness burst forth to hail the Duke's welcome arrival. In furtherance of which the furze, fern, heath, and tall sword-grass, on hill and rock, were all set into one universal conflagration, the brilliant coruscations of which flashed, flamed, and undulated upon the expanded waters of Lough Erne; while bonfires were seen to burn and blaze upon the cloud-crested heights of the Tyraugh mountains.
Meanwhile, in sympathy with the scene, the great promontory of Ross-a-Goul brightly bore the beacon blaze upon his lofty brow, which flamed forth and flashed volcano-like above the adjacent woods and groves, illuminating every islet, rock, and indented shore, and reflecting its ruddy light in brilliance upon the dark waves of Ross-Moor, which seemed emulous to flash back their radiance on Ross-Goul.
The town of Churchill manifested similar demonstrations of joy and gratulation upon the arrival of the popular viceroy. It is time, however, to return to the hospitable board of the worthy host, who, with his noble and distinguished guests, sat down to a magnificent dinner at the good, early, rational, but now antiquated hour of four o'clock, which was the healthy custom in these times remote. Among many surrounding nobles and gentry present at this splendid banquet, we must not pass by unobserved two notable characters who were seated at the Baronet's table: the one was the Lord Viscount Glandarah, and the other was the Rev. Doctor Dismal Drew, L.L.D., a quondam Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin,[16] and who had been collated to the valuable living of ----, the advowson of which was in the gift of the University of Dublin. These two worthies formed a remarkable and striking contrast to each other.