ject on which their darling wishes rested that was not instantly put into their possession. And such was the ambition of one of their order, that he made a demand on the golden broach or clasp that braced the regal robe on the breast of royalty itself, which was unalienable with the crown, and descended with the empire from generation to generation."

"Good God!" said I, "what an idea does this give of the omnipotence of music and poetry among those refined enthusiasts, who have ever borne with such impatience the oppressive chain of power, yet suffer themselves to be soothed into slavery by the melting strains of the national lyre."

"It is certain," replied the priest, "that no nation, not even the Greeks, were ever attached with more passionate enthusiasm to the divine arts of poesy and song, than the ancient Irish, until their fatal and boundless indulgence to their professors became a source of inquietude and oppression to the whole state. The celebrated St. Columbkill, who was himself a poet, became a mediator between the monarch already mentioned and the "tuneful throng ;" and by his intercession, the king changed his first intention of banishing the whole college of bards, to limiting their numbers; for it was an argument of the liberal saint's that it became a great monarch to patronize the arts; to retain about his person an eminent bard and antiquary; and to allow to his tributary princes or chieftains, a poet capable of singing his exploits, and of registering the genealogy of their illustrious families. This lib eral and necessary plan of reformation, suggested by the saint, was adopted by the monarch; and these salutary regulations became the prominent standard for many succeeding ages: and though the severity of those regulations against the bards, enforced in the tyrannic reign of Henry VIII. as proposed by Baron Finglas, considerably lessened their power; yet until

Item That noe Irish minstralls, rhymers thanaghs, ne bards, be messengers to desire any goods of any man dwelling

6

the reign of Elizabeth their characters were not stript of that sacred stole, which the reverential love of their countrymen had flung over them. The high estimation in which the bard was held in the commencement of the empire of Ireland's arch-enemy is thus attested by Sir Philip Sydney: In our neighbour country,' says he, where truly learning goes very bare, yet are their poets held in devout reverence.' But Elizabeth, jealous of that influence which the bardic order of Ireland held over the most puissant of her chiefs, not only enacted laws against them, but against such as received or entertained them: for Spenser informs us that, even then, their verses were taken up with a general applause, and usually sung at all feasts and meetings. Of the spirited, yet pathetic, manner in which the genius of Irish minstrelsy addressed itself to the soul of the Irish chief, many instances are still preserved in the records of traditional lore. A poem of Fearflatha, family bard to the O'Nials of Clanboy, and beginning thus :-* O the condition of our dear countrymen, how languid their jovs, how acute their sorrow, &c. &c.' the prince of Inismore takes peculiar delight in repeating. But in the lapse of time, and vicissitude of revolution, this order, once so revered, has finally sunk into the casual retention of an harper, piper, or fiddler, which are generally, but not universaily, to be found in the houses of the Irish country gentlemen as you have yourself witnessed in the castle of Inismore and the hospitable mansion of the O'D- -S. One circumstance however, I must mention to you. Although Ulster was never deemed poetic ground, yet when destruction threatened the bardic order in the southern and western provinces, where their insolence, nurtured by false indulgence, often rendered them an object of popular antipathy, hither they filed for protection, and at different periods found it from the northern princes: and Ulster, you pers

within the English pale, upon pain of forfeiture of all their goods, and their bodies to be imprisoned at the king's will. Harris's Hibernica, p. 98.

ceive, is now the last resort of the most ancient of the surviving of the Irish bards, who, after having imbibed inspiration in the classic regions of Connaught, and effused his national strains through every province of his country, draws forth the last feeble tones of his almost silenced harp, amidst the chilling regions of the north; almost unknown and undistinguished, except by a few strangers who are led by chance or curiosity to his hut, and from whose casual bounties he chiefly derives his subsistence."

We had now reached the door of our auberge; and the dog of the house jumping on me as I alighted, our hostess exclaimed, "Ah, sir! our wee doggie kens you unco weel." Is not this the language of the Isle of Sky? The priest left me early this morning on his evidently unpleasant embassy. On his return we visit the Gi ants' Causeway, which I understand is but sixteen miles distant. Of this pilgrimage to the shrine of Nature in her grandest aspect, I shall tell you nothing; but when we meet, will put into your hands a work written on the subject, from which you will derive equal pleasure and instruction. At this moment the excellent priest appears on his little nag; the rain no longer beats against my casement; the large drops suspended from the foliage of the trees, sparkle with the beams of the meridian sun, which, bursting forth in cloudless radiancy, dispels the misty shower, and brilliantly lights up the arch of heaven's promise. Would you know the images now most buoyant in my cheered bosom; they are Ossian and Glorvina : it is for him to describe, for her to feel, the renovating charms of this interesting moment. Adieu! I shall grant you a reprieve till we once more reach the dear ruins of Inismore.

H. M.

Y

1

256

LETTER XXVIII.

TO J. D. ESQ. M. P.

PLATO Compares the soul to a small republic, of which the reasoning and judging powers are stationed in the head as in a citadel, and of which the senses are the guards or servants.

Alas! my dear friend, this republic is with me all anarchy and confusion, and its guards, disordered and overwhelmed, can no longer afford it protection. I would be calm, and give you a succinct account of my return to Inismore; but impetuous feelings rush over the recollection of trivial circumstances, and allconcentrate on that fatal point which transfixes every thought, every emotion of my soul.

Suffice it now to say, that our second reception at the mansion of the O’D- -'s had lost nothing of that cordiality which distinguished our first; but neither the cheerful kindness of the parents, nor the blandishments of the charming daughters, could allay that burning impatience which fired my bosom to return to Glorvina, after the tedious absence of five long days. All night I tossed on my pillow in the restless agitation of expected bliss, and with the dawn of that day on which I hoped once more to taste "the life of life," I arose and flew to the priest's room to chide his tar diness. Early as it was I found he had already left his apartment, and, as I turned from the door to seek him, I perceived a written paper lying on the floor. I took it up, and carelessly glancing my eye over it, discovered that it was a receipt from the Prince's inexorable creditor, who, (as father John informed me,) refusel to take the farm off his hands: but what was my amazement to find that this receipt was an acknowledgment for those jewels which I had so often seen stealing their lustre from Glorvina's charms; and which were now individually mentioned, and given in lieu of the rent for this very farm, by which the

Prince was so materially injured. The blood boiled in my veins, I could have annihilated this rascally cold-hearted landlord; I could have wept on the neck of the unfortunate Prince; I could have fallen at the feet of Glorvina, and worshipped her as the first of the Almighty's works. Never in the midst of all my artificial wants, my boundless and craving extravagance, did I ever feel the want of riches as at this moment, when a small part of what I had so worthlessly flung away, would have saved the pride of a noble and indignant spirit from a deep and deadly wound, and spared the heart of filial solicitude and tender sensibility many a pang of tortured feelin gs, The rent of the farm was an hundred pounds per annum. The Prince, I understood, was three years in arrear; yet, though there were no diamonds, and not many pearls, I should suppose the jewels worth more than the sum for which they were given*.

While I stood burning with indignation, the paper still trembling in my hand, I heard the footstep of the priest; I let fall the paper; he advanced, snatched it up, and put it in his pocket-book, with an air of selfreprehension that determined me to conceal the knowledge so accidentally acquired. Having left our adieux for our courteous hosts with one of the young men, we at last set out for Inismore. The idea of so soon meeting my soul's precious Glorvina, banished every idea less delightful.

"Our meeting, (said I,) will be attended with a new and touching interest, the sweet result of that perfect intelligence which now for the first time subsisted be. tween us, and which stole its birth from that tender and delicious glance which love first bestowed on me beneath the cypress tree of the rustic cemetery."

Already I beheld the "air lifted" figure of Glorvina

* I have been informed that a descendant of the provin cial kings of Connaught parted not many years back with the golden crown which for so many ages encircled the royal brows of his ancestors.