IRELAND.
INTRODUCTION.
This interesting country becoming every day more and more the subject of inquiry and personal investigation, an Hibernian Tourist's Guide consequently forms a necessary adjunct to our original plan. In prosecuting this design, our object is, by method and selection, to enable even the casual six-weeks visitant to explore readily the most important and curious specimens of nature and art, and that without subjecting him to those travelling inconveniences which it has been too much the fashion to complain of. Whilst travelling, at all times and in all countries, the tourist must learn to suffer petty vexations, privations, and delays; but a very amusing ramble may be executed in Ireland, without more of these than the usual share. The MEANS OF CONVEYANCE are now varied, extensive, rapid, and generally convenient; not only from the capital in all directions, but also by means of provincial coaches diverging from all the principal points; whilst good roads and improving inns give facility and comfort to those who travel with their own horses and carriages. In some places also, the INLAND NAVIGATION affords a change of scenery and of general amusement to the independent traveller.
Ireland, being only about 300 miles in length, and 200 in breadth, containing 30,370 sq. m.[1], does not require a long period to traverse its most important routes. Its Climate is good, with a mean temperature from 48 to 52; its face mostly level, but with extensive ranges of mountainous tracts and rocky soil. It contains romantic Lakes, both fresh and salt, viz. Neagh, Erne, Killarney, Swilly, Foyle, Corrib, &c. &c.; also many majestic Rivers, Shannon, Liffy, Boyne, Blackwater, Suir, Barrow, Lagan, &c. Its Mountainous Tracts are principally in Donnegal and Tyrone in the north, with part of Antrim; also the Mourne Mountains in Down; the mountains of Wicklow; in Kerry, and the s.w.; together with the extensive ranges to the west of the Shannon. The Bogs are extensive, occupying many of the mountains, indeed often undulating in hill and dale, particularly in Donnegal; whilst both they and the dry heaths are covered with wild myrtles, sedgy grass, rushes, saggons, or iris, orchis, wild rockets, &c. Of its Forests few remain, being now sunk under the turf-bogs or peat mosses; yet of minor Botany there is a great field for examination in the Ericæ, numerous alpine plants, and wild flowers on the heaths, bogs, and rocky fastnesses. Its Mineralogy is very varied, from the gold mines of Wicklow, down to the silver mines of the same county, those of copper at Cronbane, with marble, coal, slate; whilst its Mineral Springs, vitriolic, alkaline, saline, sulphureous, &c. offer frequent opportunities of analysis to the man of science.
The importance of any plan which will tempt Englishmen of fortune, especially the members of the legislative body, to visit Ireland, cannot be more clearly expressed than in Mr. Wakefield's introduction to his work on that country, where he observes, that a knowledge of the natural situation, of the political institutions, and of the local advantages even of a foreign nation, form an object of considerable magnitude, and must to an inquiring and enlightened mind be a source of no small gratification; but to become acquainted with these relations, as they respect the great divisions of the empire of which we are ourselves subjects, is of much greater importance.
It is impossible to tread the green sod of Erin, without a considerable portion of antiquarian enthusiasm,—at least not to traverse her wilds, without a portion of that spirit, even though we may be tempted to deny that extreme antiquity of record drawn from the earliest periods, and claimed by the Old Irish in the indulgence of their national vanity. But the true enthusiast requires not always absolute historical proof to justify his feelings; and it is well that he does not; for then many of his aërial pictures must fade from existence; and the sober truth certainly is, as the elaborate Leland has expressed himself, that it cannot be denied that no literary monuments, to confirm tradition, have yet been discovered in Ireland earlier than the introduction of Christianity into that country; and that the evidence of any transactions previous to that period, rests entirely on the credit of Christian writers, and their collections from old poets, or their transcripts of records deemed to have been made in times of paganism. It seems indeed, as he adds, unreasonable to expect that any other domestic evidence of Irish antiquity should subsist at this day; but from these the antiquary forms a regular history of a long succession of kings and of romantic events from the earlier ages of the world. Still do these details impart considerable interest to the scenes where they are supposed to have been acted; and from the poetical annals that furnish the catalogue of monarchs, we have a lively picture of manners, most certainly of great antiquity, however low we reduce the scale of chronology, and highly worthy of attention, even though we smile at the tales connected with them, with a most profuse intermixture of giants, necromancers, obscure allegories, and extravagant fables. In those annals, we have an animated picture of a brave people, driven from their native land in search of new settlements, establishing themselves by their valour in a fair and fertile island; the chieftains parcelling out lands to their attendants, and the whole collection of adventurers, from the moment of their peaceful establishment, devising means to give stability to their acquisitions. As a bond of unity to the whole, they elect a monarch; but preserve their own individual sovereignty in their domains, forming a complete feudal system, and filling the land with little courts where politeness and chivalry, attended by poetry and romance, went hand in hand. Such is the sketch which arises from Leland's masterly delineation; who adds, that in this state of things a robust frame of body, a vehemence of passion, an elevated imagination, were the characteristics of the people; whilst noble instances of valour, generous effusions of benevolence, ardent resentments, desperate and vindictive outrages, abound in their annals. From hence too it is that scarcely a romantic dell or simple green knoll exists without its traditionary tale; sometimes stained with blood, but as often enlivened by love—for to verse and music they were particularly addicted. Hence arose that peculiar turn of character by which those who are possessed of any superior degree of knowledge, they who operate on their fancies and passions by the liveliest strains of poetry, have long been held in extraordinary veneration; and hence, even at the present day, the ministers of their religion are accounted more than human. The effects of those early events may indeed still be traced by the modern tourist; and even the historian of cotemporary transactions is obliged to coincide with the elegant Littleton when he observes, that the songs of the bard had usually more power to incite and inflame, than the music of the harp to soften or mitigate the ferocity of the chief; so that even this recreation, which seems to indicate something gentle and approaching to politeness in the temper of the Irish, contributed to keep up that turbulent spirit, averse to order and peace, which no prince or legislator that their country ever produced, had sufficient skill to control. But still, from the remnants of these ancient customs will the modern tourist derive considerable advantages, and from none more than their proverbial hospitality, if he himself has sense enough to keep it within bounds of propriety. Of this hospitality much arises from the natural temper of the people; much from the natural curiosity connected with the arrival of a stranger in a district where intercourse is unfrequent; and some portion perhaps derivable from ancient custom; for, as Leland observes, hospitality was not only a principal virtue amongst these rude people, but was even enjoined by law; and as neither lords nor tenants were bound to each other, as the whole tribe might migrate to some more favourable district, the ancient Brehon laws expressly stipulate that no rath shall break up suddenly, lest the traveller should be disappointed of his expected reception. But neither the duties to be received by the lord, nor the entertainment he was to expect from his inferiors, were determined by his arbitrary will and pleasure. They were proportioned to the benefits received from him—nay, even the lowest of the people claimed reception and refreshment by an almost perfect right; and so ineffectual is the flux of many centuries to efface the ancient manners of a people, that at this day the wandering beggar enters the house of a farmer or gentleman with as much ease and freedom as an inmate. From this strict adherence to old customs, it arose that even on the introduction of Christianity, many of the Pagan and Druidical ceremonies of religion, interwoven with secular ordinances, were preserved throughout the island. Indeed, as the author already quoted very justly affirms, the first Christian missionaries seem to have industriously avoided all unnecessary violence to the ancient manners of their converts; favouring and protecting their poets; avoiding all persecution towards the remains of the Druidical order; and even whilst thundering the divine vengeance against the worshippers of the sun, moon, stars, and wind, yet exercising indulgence towards many remains of Pagan superstition. In consequence of this, the inquisitive tourist will find many vestiges of those superstitions even in the most enlightened parts of the kingdom, where their origin is unknown or forgotten; and they are complied with in conformity to general custom, or prompted by the association of early ideas and prejudices. Of these the most conspicuous are the fires still lighted up at particular times, remnants of the worship of Baal or Apollo; the collecting oaken sprigs in May, a Druidical rite; and many others, which cannot fail to interest the observer.
As the inquisitive traveller will doubtless make statistical observations in his progress through the country, the following quotation from Mr. Wakefield's multifarious and very intelligent work may form the basis of a series of reasoning highly deserving the attention of the politician. Speaking of the county of Louth, vol. 2. p. 616, he says—"This county has two large towns, one of which, Drogheda, is of considerable extent, but its inhabitants are remarkably poor. To those who have compared this place with Belfast, where the population is nearly the same, the difference must be very striking; and nothing can more clearly evince the superior condition of the Protestants over that of the Catholics, there being as many Protestants in Belfast as there are Catholics in Drogheda. The humbler classes of the Protestants are ashamed to be seen dirty, or with bad clothes; but, being so much outnumbered, they in consequence find very little society amongst persons of their own faith, and have a stronger propensity to emigrate."—This pictorial contrast of two towns is, in fact, but a picture of the whole island. Let the tourist then examine the Protestant and Catholic districts with impartiality—let him closely examine from what it is that the Catholics require to be emancipated! We do not anticipate—we are of no party; but the inquiry is of consequence and deserves attention, especially at a moment when the question of Emancipation is likely again to become a subject of parliamentary and public discussion.
To do justice to that subject requires facts, and not mere abstract reasoning. It cannot be the wish of any liberal Protestant to retain the Roman Catholics under undue subjection; but liberality has its bounds; and though a misplaced philanthropy may render us careless respecting our own individual rights, yet it must be remembered that it cannot justify us in yielding up the rights and the security of others. As far as Catholic Emancipation, as it is called, is consistent with Protestant Security, so far it is not only right but just and prudent to concede; but before Protestant Ascendancy is given up, let us be certain, from an accurate investigation of facts, that Protestant Security will remain inviolate. Let us examine the history of past times; and also examine mankind at the present day, with a strict reference to it. This cannot be done in a closet or editorial apartment in the metropolis; he who would investigate surely, and therefore safely, must visit the spot where, and the people by whom, these claims are made.