The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013520998 ^ cji^ v/" ^ %^mv^^ ^ '4- PKOUT ffirrt planting of the Totatoe iuTrfroi- KEHffiY E. aOE'.M, YMK- S-TISESti COYIS': CaKSJKK. aeis'soX'. C{)e Eeltquts FATHEE PEOUT, '^.^. Df ^alBrpasifliiUj in tIjB &uuIt\ nf fnrk^ IibishI COLLECTED AND AEBANGKD BY OLIVER YORKE, Esq. (eet. feancis mahont.) ILLUSTRATED BY ALFRED CROQUIS, Esq. (d. MACtlSE, E.A.) NEW EDITION, REVISED ANO LARGELY AUGMENTED. EzoBUBE aliquis nostrls ex ossibns auctobI— .^iieuZ, iv. LONDON: BELL & DALDY. 6 YOEK STEEET, COVENT GARDEN, Am) 186 FLEET STEEET. 1866. hi w^ . \^ o p~' Printed by W. Clowes & Sons, Stamford Street and Charing Cross. PEEFACE TO THE PEESENT EDITION, OiiTBE GrOiiDSMiTH, in his green youtli, aspired to he the rural pastor of some village Auburn ; and in after-life gave embodiment to his earlier fancies in a Vicar of "Wakefield. But his Dr. Primrose had immense advantages over Dr. Prout. The oHve branches that sprang from the vicar's roof-tree, if they divided, certainly enhanced the interest felt in his character ; while the lone incumbent of "Watergrasshill was thrown on his own resources for any chance of enlisting sympathy. The " great defender of monogamy " could buy a wedding gown, send his boy Moses to the fair, set out in pursuit of his lost daughter, get into debt and jail ; exploits which the Mndly author felt he could have himself achieved. Prout's misogamy debarred him from these stirring social incidents : he had nothing left for ib but to talk and write, and occasionally " intone'' a genial song. Prom such utterances the mind and feelings of the man have to be distilled. It requires no great palseontological acumen to perceive that he belonged to a class of mortals, now quite gone out of Irish existence, like the elk and woH-dog ; and it has been a main object in this book out of his ' relics ' to ' restore ' him for purposes of comparative anatomy. IV PEErACE TO THE PBESEJiTT EDITIOIT. It will be noticed that the Father's rambles are not limited by any barrier of caste, or coat, or c6terie ; his soul is multilateral, his talk multifarious, yet free, it is hoped, from garrulity, and decidedly exempt from credulity. He seems to have had a shrewd eye for scanning Humbug, and it is well for him (and for others) that he has vacated his parish in due course of nature. He would have stoutly re- sisted in Ireland the late attempted process of Italian Cul- lenization. For though he patronized the effort of Lord Kingston to naturalize in Munster the silkworm from that peninsula (see his version of good Bishop Vida's Bomhices, page 523), mere caterpillars, snails, and slimy crawlers, he would have put his foot on. From Florence the poet Browning has sent for this edi- tion some liaes lately found ia the Euganeian hills, traced on a marble slab that covered the bones of Pietro di Abano, tield ia his old age to be an astrologer. " Studiando le mie oifre con compasso Eilevo ohe sard presto sottc/ terra j Perche del mio saper si fa gran chiasso, B gli ignoranti mi hanno moaso guerra." Of which epitaph the poet has supplied this vernacular, ren- dering verbatim. v " Studying my cyphers vrith the compass, I find I shall be soon under the daisy ; Because of my lore folks make such a rumpus, That every duU dog is thereat unaisy" Browning's attempt suggests a word or two on Prout's jwn theory of translation, as largely exemplified in this vo- PEEFAOE TO THE PEESEKT EDITION. V lume. The only perfect reproduction of a couplet in a dif- ferent idiom occurred ia a.d. 1170, when the Archbishop of York sent a salmon to the chronicler of Malmesbury, with request for a receipt in verse, which was handed to bearer in duplicate — I " Mittitur in disco mihi pisois ab archiepisco- -Po non ponetur nisi potus. Pol ! mihi detur." " I'm sent a i^%\)t, in a Tiasfie, Sg i\)t arcl^6t8]^= =1§ap, is not jput i)eie. lEgatr ! ])e sent noe {leere." Sense, rhythm, point, and even pun are here miraculously reproduced. Prout did his best to rival him of Malmesbury, but he held that in the clear failure of one language to elicit from its repertory an exact equivalent, it becomes not only proper but imperative (on the law principle of Cestui apres in case of trusts) to fall back on an approximate word or idea of kindred import, the interchange in vocabulary showing at times even a balance in favour of the substitute, as hap- pens in the ordinary course of barter on the markets of the world. He quite abhorred the clumsy servility of adhering to the letter while allowing the spirit to evaporate ; a mere Verbal echo distorted by natural anfractuosities, gives back neither the tone nor quality of the original voice ; while the ease and curious felicity of the primitive utterance is marred by awkwardness and effort ; spontaneity of song being the quintessence. Modest distrust of his own power to please deterred Prout from obtruding much of his personal musings ; he preferred chewing the cud of classic fancies, or otherwise approved and substantial stuff; delighting to invest with new and varied forms what had long gained universal recognition. VI ■PEEFACE TO THE PEESENT EDITION. He had strict notions as to what really constitute the Belles lettres. Brilliancy of thought, depth of remark, pathos of sentiment, sprightliness of wit, vigour and aptitude of style, with some scholarship, were requisites for his notice, or claim to be held in his esteem a literary man. It is useless to add how much of recent growth, and how many pre- tenders to that title, he would have eschewed. A word as to the Etchings of D. Maclise, E.A. This great artist in his boyhood knew Prout, and has fixed his true features in enduring copper. The only reliable outline of Sir "Walter Scott, as he appeared in plain clothes, and with- out ideal halo, may be seen at page 54, where he " kisses the Blarney Stone" on his visit to Prout in the summer of 1825. Tom Moore, equally en deshabille, can be, recognized by all who knew him, perpetrating one of his " rogueries" at page 150. The painter's own slim and then youthful figure is doing homage to L.E.L. on a moonlit bank at page 229, whUe the "garret" of B^ranger, page 299, the " night before Larry's execution," page 267, and " Manda- rins robing Venus in silk," page 533, are specimens of Prench, Irish, and Chinese humanity. But it is his great cartoon of vn-iters in Eraser, anno 1835 (^front.), that will most interest coming generations. The banquet he has depicted was no fiction, but a frequent fact in Eegent Street, 212. Dr. Maginn in the chair, ad- dressing the staff contributors, has on his right, Barry Cornwall (Procter), Eobert Southey, Percival Bankes, Thackeray, Churchill, Serjeant Murphy, Macnish, Ain a. worth, Coleridge, Hogg, Q-alt, Dunlop, and Jerdan. Eraser is croupier, having on his right Crofton Croker, Lockhart, PEErACE TO THE PEESE]» mulier formosa superue!' , ., . ; Tou will. get af^jnoiia badgerin^^in,,town when^^ybu are found out to have forsworn the flesh-pots ; and Lent, will be a sad season for ybii among the, Egyptians. But you need not be unprovided with plausible reasons for your abstiaence, besides the sterling considerations of' the rental. Notwith- standing that it has been said or sung by your Lord Byron, that ' Man is a carnivorous production, And cannot live (as woodcocks do) on suction ;' 10 TATHEB PEOUT's EELIQTIBS. still that noble poet (I speak from the record of his life and ^ habits furnished us by Moore) habitually eschewed animal ' food, detested gross feeders, afld in his own case lived most frugally, I might even say ascetically ; and this abstemious- ness he practised from a refinement of choice, for he had registered no vow to heaven, or to a maiden aunt. The observance will no doubt prove a trial of fortitude ; but for your part at the festive board, were you so criminal as to transgress, would not the spectre of the Lady Cresswell, like the ghost of Banquo, rise to rebuke you ? "And besides, these days of fasting are of the most remote antiquity ; they are referred to as being in vogue at the first general council that legislated for Christendom at Nice, ia Bithynia, A.n. 325 : and the subsequent assembly of bishops at Laodicea ratified the institution a.d. 364. Its discipline is fully developed in the classic pages of the accomplished Tertullian, in the second century (Tract, de jejuniis). I say no more. These are what Edmund Burke would call ' grave and reverend authorities,' and, in the silence of Holy Writ, may go as historic evidence of primitive Christianity ; but if you press me, I can no more show cause under the proper hand and seal of an apostle for keeping the fast on these days, than I can for keeping the Sabbath on Sunday. " I do not choose to notice that sort of criticism, in its dotage, that would trace the custom to the well-known avocation of the early disciples: though that they were fishermen is most true, and that even after they had been raised to the apostolic dignity, they relapsed occasionally into the innocent pursuit of their primeval calling, still haunted the Shores of the accustomed lake, and loved to disturb with their nets the crystal surface of Genne- sareth. " Lent is an institution which should have been long since rescued from the cobwebs of theology, and restored to the domain of the political economist, for there is no prospect of arguing the matter in a fair spirit among conflicting divines ; and, of all things, polemics are the most stale and unprofitable. Loaves and fishes have, in aU ages of the church, had charms for us of the cloth ; yet how few would confine their frugal bill of fare to mere loaves and fishes ! So far Lent may be considered a stumbling-block. But AN APOLOGY I'Oa LEITT. 11 here I dismiss theology: nor shall I further trespass on your patience by angling for arguments in the muddy stream of church history, as it roUs its troubled waters over the middle ages. " Tour black-letter acquirements, I doubt not, are con- siderable ; but have you adverted to a clause in Queen Elizabeth's enactment for the improvement of the shipping interests in the year 1564 ? Tou will, I believe, find it to run thus : " Anno 5o Elis. cap. v. sect. 11 : — ' And for encrease of provision of fishe by the more usual eatiag thereof, bee it further enacted, that from the feast of St. Mighell th'arch- angell, ano. Dni. fiftene hundreth threescore foure, every "Wednesdaye in every weeke through the whole yere shal be hereafter observed and kepte as the Saturdays in every weeke be or ought to be ; and that no person shal eat any fleshe no more than on the common Saturdays. Sect. 12. — ' And bee it further enacted by th'auctoritee aforesaid, for the commoditie and benifit of this realme, as well to growe the navie as in sparing and encrease of fleshe victual, that from and after the feast of Pentecost next coming, yt shaU not be lawful for any p'son to eat any fleshe upon any days now usually observed as fish- days ; and that any p'son offending herein shal forfeite three powndes for every tyme.' " I do not attach so much importance to the act of her royal successor, James I., who in 1619 issued a proclama. tion, reminding his English subjects of the obligation of keeping Lent ; because his Majesty's object is clearly ascer- tained to have been to encourage the traffic of his country- men the Scotch, who had just then embarked largely in the herring trade, and for whom the thrifty Stuart was anxious to secure a monopoly in the British markets. " But wheUj in 1627, 1 find the chivalrous Charles I., your martyred king, sending forth from the banqueting-room of "Whitehall his royal decree to the same effect, I am at a loss to trace his motives. It is known that Archbishop Laud's advice went to the effect of reinstating many customs of Catholicity ; but, from a more diligent consideration of the subject, I am more inclined to think that the king wished rather, by this display of austere practices, to soothe and 12 TATHEB PBOTTT'S EELIQTTES. conciliate the Puritanical portion of his subjects, whose religious notions were supposed (I know not how justly) to have a tendency to self-denial and the mortification of the flesh. Certaia it is, that the Calvinists and Eoundheads were greater favourites at Billingsgate than the high-church party ; from which we may conclude that they consumed more fish. A fact corroborated by the contemporary testi- mony of Samuel Butler, who says that, when the great struggle commenced, •Each fisherwoman locked her fish up. And trudged abroad to cry, No Bishop !' " I wiU only remark, in furtherance of my own views, that the king's beef-eaters, and the gormandising Cavaliers of that period, could never stand in fair fight agaiust the aus- tere and fasting Cromwellians. "It is a vulgar error of your countrymen to connect valour with roast beef, or courage with plum-pudding. There exists no such association ; and I wonder this national mistake has not been duly noticed by Jeremy Bentham ia his ' Book of Fallacies.' As soon might it be presumed that the pot-beUied Falstaff, faring on venison and sack, could overcome in prowess Owen Griendower, who, I suppose, fed on leeks ; or that the lean and emaciated Cassius was not a better soldier than a well-known sleek and greasy rogue who fled from the battle of Philippi, and, as he himself unblushingly tells the world, left his buckler behind him : ' Relictd non bene parmuld.' " I cannot contain my bile when I witness the mode in which the lower orders in your country abuse the French, for whom they have found nothing in their Anglo-Saxon vocabulary so expressive of contempt as the term 'frog- eater.' A Frenchman is not supposed to be of the same flesh and blood as themselves; but, like the water-snake described in the Georgics— ' Fiacibus atram, Improbus ingluviem ranisque loquacibua implet.' Hence it is carefully instilled into the infant mind (when the young idea is taught how to shoot), that you won the victories of Poitiers and Agincourt mainly by the superio- rity of your diet. In hewing down the ranks of the foeman. AX APOLO&T FOE LENT. 13 much of the English army's success is of course attributed to the dexterous management of their cross-bills, but con- siderably more to their bill of fare. If I could reason with such simpletons, I would refer them to the records of the commissariat department of that day, and open to their vulgar gaze the folio vii. of Eymer's Foedera, where, in. the twelfth year of Edward III., a.d. 1338, at page 1021, they would find, that previous to the victory of Cressy there were shipped at Portsmouth, for the use of these gallant troops, fifty tons of Yarmouth herrings. Such were the supplies (rather unusual now in the contracts at Somerset House) which enabled Edward and his valiant son to drive the hosts of France before them, and roll on the tide of war till the towers of Paris yielded to the mighty torrent. After a hasty repast on such simple diet, might the Black Prince appropriately address his girded knights in Shakespearian phrase, ' Thus far into the bowels of the knd Have we marched on without impediment.' " The enemy sorely grudged them their supplies. Eor it appears by the chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrellet, the continuator of Eroissart, that in 1429, while the English were besieging Orleans, the Duke of Bedford sent from his head- quarters, Paris, on the Ash "Wednesday of that year, five hundred carts laden with herrings, for the use of the camp during Iient, when a party of French noblemen, viz. XaintraUle, Lahire, De la Tour de Chavigny, and the Che- valier de Lafayette (ancestor of the revolutionary veteran), made a desperate effort to intercept the convoy. But the English detachment, imder whose safeguard was this pre- cious deposit, fought pro aris et focis in its defence, and the assailants were routed with the loss of six score knights and much plebeian slaughter. Head Eapin's account of the affi-ay, which was thence called ' lajownie des harengs.' " W hat schoolboy is ignorant of the fact, that at the eve of the battle of Hastings, which gave to your Norman an- cestors the conquest of the island, the conduct of the Anglo- Britons was strongly contrasted with that of the invaders from France ; for while in Harold's camp the besotted na- tives spent the night in revelling and gluttony, the -Norman 14 FATHEE PEOTTT's EEXIQTJES. chivalry gave their time to fasting and devotion. — (Gold- smith, A.D. 1066.) " It has not escaped the penetrating mind of the sagacious Buffon, in his views of man and man's propensities (which, after all, are the proper study of mankind), that a predilec- tion for light food and spare diet has always been the characteristic of the Celtic and Eastern races; while the Teutonic, the Sclavonian, and Tartar branches of the human family betray an aboriginal craving for heavy meat, and are gross feeders. In many countries of Europe there has been a slight amalgamation of blood, and the international pedi- gree in parts of the Continent has become perplexed and doubtful : but the most obtuse observer can see that the phlegmatic habits of the Prassians and Dutch argue a dif- ferent genealogical origin from that which produced the lively disposition of the tribes of southern Europe. The best specimens extant of the genuine Celt are the Greeks, the Arabians, and the Irish, all of whom are temperate in their food. Among European denominations, in proportion as the Celtic infusion predominates, so in a corresponding ratio is the national character for abstemiousness. Nor would I thus dwell on an otherwise uninteresting specula- tion, were I not about to draw a corollary, and shew how these secret influences became apparent at what is called the great epoch of the Eeformation. The latent tendency to escape from fasting observances became then revealed, and what had lain dormant for ages was at once developed. The Tartar and Sclavonic breed of men flung off the yoke of Eome ; while the Celtic races remained faithful to the successor of the ' Eisherman,' and kept Lent. " The Hollanders, the Swedes, the Saxons, the Prussians, and in Germany those circles in which the Gothic blood ran heaviest and most stagnant, hailed Luther as a deliverer from salt fish. The fatted calf was killed, bumpers of ale went round, and Popery went to the dogs. Half Europe followed the impetus given to free opinions, and the con- genial impulse of the gastric juice; joining in reform, not because they loved Eome less, but because they loved substantial fare more. Meantime neighbours differed. The Dutch, duU and opaque as their ownZuidersee, growled de- fiance at tlie Vatican when their food was to be controlled ; XS APOLOGY FOE LENT. 15 the Belgians, being a stade nearer to the Celtic family, submitted to the fast. "While Hamburg clung to its beef, and Westphalia preserved her hams, Munich and Bavaria adhered to the Pope and to sour-crout with desperate fidelity. As to the Cossacks, and- all that set of northern marauders, they never kept Lent at any time ; and it would be arrant folly to expect that the horsemen of the river Don, and the Esquimaux of the polar latitudes, would think of restricting their ravenous propensities in a Christian fashion ; the ^ very system of cookery adopted by these terrible hordes would, I fear, have given Dr. Kitchiner a fit of cholera. The apparatiis is graphically described by Samuel Butler : I wHl iadulge you with part of the quo- tation : ' For like their countrymen the Huns, They 6tew their meat under + # ' * * m All day on horses' backs they straddle, Then every man eats up his saddle !' A strange process, no doubt : but not without some sort of precedent in classic records ; for the Latin poet iatroduces young lulus at a picnic, in the JEneid, exclaiming — ' Heus ! etiam mensas consumimus.' " In England, as the inhabitants are of a mixed descent, and as there has ever been a disrelish for any alteration in the habits and fireside traditions of the country, the fish- days were remembered long after every Popish observance had become obsolete ; and it was not until 1668 that butchers' meat finally established its ascendency in Lent, at the arrival of the Dutchman. We have seen the exertions of the Tudor dynasty under Elizabeth, and of the house of Stuart under James I. and Charles I., to keep up these fasts, which had flourished in the days of the Plantagenets, which the Heptarchy had revered, which Alfred and Canute had scrupulously observed, and which had come down posi- tively recommended by the Venerable Bede. WiUiam III. gave a death-blow to Lent. Until then it had lingered among the threadbare curates of the country, extrema per + Hudibras, Canto ii. 1. 2V5. 16 TATHEE PBOUT'S EELIQrES. illos excedens terris vestigia fecit, having been long before exiled from the gastronomic haU of both UniversitieB. But its extinction was complete. Its ghost might still remain, flitting through the land, without corporeal or ostensible form ; and it vanished totally with the fated star of the Pretender. It was William who conferred the honour of knighthood on the loin of beef; and such was the progress of disaffection under Queen Anne, that the folks, to mani- fest their disregard for the Pope, agreed that a certain ex- tremity of the goose should be denominated his nose ! "The indomitable spirit of the Celtic Irish preserved Lent in this country unimpaired; an event of such import- ance to England, that I shall dwell on it by and by more fully. The Spaniards and Portuguese, although Gothic and Saracen blood has commiagled ia the pure current of their Phoenician pedigree, clung to Lent with characteristic tenacity. The GaUic race, even in the days of Caesar, were remarkably temperate, and are so to the present day. The French very justly abhor the gross, carcase-eating propen- sities of John Bull. But as to the keeping of Lent, ia an ecclesiastical poiat of view, I cannot take on myself to vouch, since the ruffianly revolution, for their orthodoxy iu that or any other religious matters. They are sadly deficient therein, though still delicate and refined in their cookery, like one of their own artistes, whose epitaph is in P^re la Chaise — ' Ci git qui d&s l'4ge le plus tendre Inventa la sauce Robert ; Mais jamais il ne put apprendre Ni son credo ni son pater.' " It was not so of old, when the pious monarchs of France dined publicly in Passion week on fasting fare, in order to recommend by their example the use of fish — when the heir-apparent to the crown delighted to be called a dolphin — and when one of your own kings, being on a visit to France, got so fond of their lamprey patties, that he died of indigestion on his return. " Antiquity has left us no document to prove that the early Spartans kept certain days of abstinence ; but their black broth, of which the ingredients have puzzled the AN APOIOGT FOE LEWT. 17 learned, must have been a fitting substitute for the soupe maigre of our Lent, since it required a hard run on the banks of the Eurotas to make it somewhat palatable. At aU events, their great lawgiver vf as an eminent ascetic, and applied himself much to restrict the diet- of his hardy coun- trymen ; and if it is certain that there existed a mystic bond of union among the 300 Lacedemonians who stood in the gap of Thermopylse, it assuredly was not a beef-steak club of which Leonidas was president. " The Athenians were too ^ cultivated a people not to appreciate the value of periodical days of self-denial and abstemiousness. Accordingly, on the eve of certain fes- tivals, they fed exclusively on figs ahd the honey of Mount Hymettus. Plutarch expressly tells us that a solemn fast preceded the celebration of the Thermophoria ; thence termed vrigriia. In looking over the works of the great geographer Strabo (Hb. xiv.), I find sufficient evidence of the respect paid io fish by the inhabitants of a distinguished Greek city, in which that erudite author says the arrival of the fishing-smacks in the harbour was announced joyfully by sounding the "tocsin;" and that the musicians in the public piazza were left abruptly by the crowd, whenever the bell tolled for the sale of the herrings : x/ha^taiov ividimmf/^ii/ou Ticiig ,u>sv axgoccc^cii vccvrag- ug ds o xudoiv o Kara, rriv o-vj/offnoX/av e-^o(pri(Se xaraXi'jrovTig a'lrsXkiv im to o-vJ/ov. A custom to which Plutarch also refers in hfs Symposium of Plato, lib. iv. cap. 4. 5-ous 'ffe^i i^Suo'ffcaXiav avaSidovTas xoti tou suadoivog o^jws , " That practices similar to our Lent existed among the Eomans, may be gathered from various sources. In Ovid's Fasti (notwithstanding the title) I find nothing ; but from the reUques of old sacerdotal memorials collected by Stephano Morcelli, it appears that Numa fitted himself by fasting for an interview with the mysterious inmate of Egeria's grotto. Livy tells us that the decemvirs, on the occurrence of certain prodigies, were instructed by a vote of the senate to consult the Sibylline books ; and the result was the establishment of a fast in honour of Ceres, to be observed perpetually every five years. It is hard to teU. whether Horace is in joke or in earnest 1 See Translation in Bohn's Strato, Vol. iii. p. 37. C 1§ FATHEB PEOn'S BELIQUES. when he introduces a vow relative to these days of penance — ' Prigida si puerum quartana reliquerit illo MaD& die quo tu indicia jejunia nudus In T^beri stabit !' Serm. lib. ii. sat. 3. v. 290. But we are left in the dark as to whether they observed their fasts by restricting themselves to lentils and vegetable diet, or whether fish was allowed. On this interesting point we find nothiag in the laws of the twelve tables. However,' a marked predilection for herbs, ' and such frugal fare, was distinctive of the old Eomans, as the very names of the principal families sufficiently indicate. The Pabii, for in- stance, were so called from faba, a bean, on which simple aliment that inde&tigable race of heroes subsisted for many generations. The noble line of the LentuU derive their patronymic from a favourite kind of lentil, to which they were partial, and from which Lent itself is so called. The aristocratic Pisoes were similarly circumstanced ; for their family appellation will be found to signify a kind of vetches. Scipio was titled from cepe, an onion ;' and we may trace the surname and hereditary honours of the great Eoman orator to the same horticultural source, for cicer in Latin means a sort of pea ; and so on through the whole nomen- clature, " Hence the Eoman satirist, ever alive to the follies of his age, can find nothing more ludicrous than the notion of the Egyptians, who entertained a religious repugnance to vege-. table fare : ' Porriim et cepe nefas violare et frangere moreu, ^O sanotas gentes !' Jtjv. Sat. 15. And as' to fish, the fondness of the people of his day for such food can be demonstrated from his fourth satire, where he dwells triumphantly on the capture of a splendid tunny in the waters of the Adriatic, arid describes the assembling of a cabinet council in the " Downing Street '' of Eome to determine how it should be properly cooked. It must be admitted that, since the Whigs came to offi.ce, although they ' Here Prout 18 in error. Scipio means a " walking-etick," and com- loeinorates the filial piety of one of the gens Cornelia, who went about eonetantly supporting his tottering aged fether. — O. Y. AN APOLOGY TOE LENT. 19 have had many a pretty kettle of fish to deliberate upon, they have shown nothing half so dignified or rational in their decisions as the imperial privy council of Domitian. " The magnificence displayed by the masters of the world in getting up fish-ponds is a fact which every schoolboy has learnt, as well as that occasionally the murcence were treated to the luxury of a slave or two, flung in alive for their nutri- ment. The celebrity which the maritime villas of Baise ob- tained for that fashionable watering-place, is a further argu- ment in point ; and we know that when the reprobate Verres was driven into exile by. the brilliant declamation of Cicero, he consoled himself at Marseilles over a local dish oiAnguilles d la Marseillaise. " Simplicity and good taste in diet gradually declining in the Eoman empire, the gigantic frame of the colossus itself soon hastened to decay. It burst of its own plethory. The example of the degenerate court had pervaded the provinces ; and soon the whole body politic reeled, as after a surfeit of debauchery. Yitellius had gorfnandised with vulgar glut- tony ; the Emperor Maximinus was a living sepulchre, where whole hecatombs of butchers' meat were daily entombed ;' and no modern keeper of a table d'Adte could stand a suc- cession of such guests as Heliogabalus. Gribbon, whose penetrating eye nothing has escaped in the causes of the Decline and Fall, notices this vile propensity to overfeeding ; and shows that, to reconstruct the mighty system of dominion established by the rugged republicans (the Tabii, the Lentuli, and the Pisoes), nothing but a bond fide return to simple fare and homely pottage could be efiectual. The hint was duly acted on. The Popes, frugal and abstemious, ascended the vacant throne of the Cassars, and ordered Lent to be observed throughout the eastern and western world. " The theory of fasting, and its practical application, did wonders in that emergency. It renovated the rotten con- stitution of Europe — it tamed the hungry hordes of despe- rate savages that rushed down with a war-whoop on the prostrate ruins of the empire — it taught them self-control, and gave them a masterdom over their barbarous propensi- ties ; — it did more, it originated civilisation and commerce. ' It 18 said that in a single day he could devour forty pounds oimeat and drink an amphora of wine. c2 20 lATHEE PEOUT'S EELIQTTES. " A few straggling fishermen built huts on the flats of the Adriatic, for the convenience of resorting thither in Lent, to procure their annual supply of fish. The demand for that article becalme so brisk and so extensive through the vast dominions of the Lombards ia northern Italy, that from a temporary establishment it became a permanent colony in the lagunes. Working like the coral insect under the seas, with the same unconsciousness of the mighty result of their labours, these industrious men for a century kept on en- larging their nest upon the waters, till their enterprize be- came fuUy developed, and ' Venice sat in state, throned on a himdred isles.' " The fasting necessities of France and Spain were minis- tered to by the rising republic of Genoa, whose origin I delight to trace from a small fishing town to a mighty em- porium of commerce, fit cradle to rock (in the infant Co- lumbus) the destinies of a new world. Pew of us have turned our attention to the fact, that our favourite fish, the John Dory, derives its name from the Genoese admiral, Doria, whose seamanship best thrived on meagre diet. Of Anne Chovy, who has given her name to another fish found in the Sardinian waters, no record remains ; but she was doubtless a heroine. Indeed, to revert to the humble her- ring before you, its etymology shews it to be well adapted for warlike stomachs, heer (its German root) signifying an army. In England, is not a soldier synonymous with a lobster ? " In the progress of maritime industry along the shores of southern, and subsequently of northern Europe, we find a love for freedom to grow up with a fondness for fish. Enter- prise and liberty flourished among the islands of the Archi- pelago. And when Naples was to be rescued from thraldom, it was the hardy race of watermen who plied in her beau- teous bay, that rose at Ereedom's call to effect her deliverance, when she basked for one short hour in its full sunshine under the gallant Masaniello. " As to the commercial grandeur, of which a constant demand for fish was the creating principle, to illustrate its importance, I need only refer to a remarkable expression of AN APOLOGT rOB. LENT. 21 that deep politician, and ezceedinglj clever economist, Charles V., when, on a progress through a part of his do- minions, on which the sun at that period never went down, he happened to pass through Amsterdam, in company with the Queen of Hungary : on that occasion, being compli- mented in the usual form by the burgomasters of his faith- ful city, he asked to see the mausoleum of John Bachalen, the famous herring-barreler ; but when told that his grave, simple and unadorned, lay in his native island in the Zuyder- see, ' What !' cried the illustrious visitor, ' is it thus that my people of the Netherlands shew their gratitude to so great a man ? Know ye not that the foundations of Amsterdam are laid on herring-bones ?' Their majesties went on a pil- grimage to his tomb, as is related by Sir Hugh "WUloughby in his ' Historie of Kshes.' " It would be of immense advantage to these countries were we to return unanimously to the ancient practice, and restore to the full extent of their wise policy the laws of Elizabeth. The revival of Lent is the sole remedy for the national complaints on the decline of the shipping interest, the sole way to meet the outcry about corn-laws. Instead of Mr. Attwood's project for a change of currency, Mr. Wilmot Horton's panacea of emigration, and Miss Marti- neau's preventive check, re-enact Lent. But mark, I do not go so far as to say that by this means all and every- thing desirable can be accomplished, nor do I undertake by it to pay /)ff the national debt — though the Lords of the Treasury might learn that, when the disciple's were at a loss to meet the demand of tax-collectors in their day, they caught a fish, and found in its gills sufficient to satisfy the revenue. (-S^. Matthew, chap, xvii.) " Of all the varied resources of this great, empire, the most important, in a national point of view, has long been . the portion of capital afloat in the merchantmen, and the strength invested in the navy of Grreat Britain. True, the British thunder has too long slept under a sailor-king, and under so many galling national insults ; and it were full time to say that it shall no longer sleep on in the grave where Sir James Grraham has laid it. But my con- cern is principally for the alarming depression of our mer- chants' property in vessels, repeatedly proved in evidence 22 FATHEE PEOITt'S EEIIQJTES. before your House of Commons. Poulett Thomson is right to call attention to the cries of the shipowners, and to that dismal howling from the harbours, described by the prophet as the forerunner of the fall of Babylon. " The best remedial measure would be a resumption of fish-diet during a portion of the year. Talk not of a resump- tion of cash payments, of opening the trade to China, or of finding a north-west passage to national prosperity. Talk not of ' calling spirits from the vasty deep,' when you neg- lect to elicit food and employment for thousands from its exuberant bosom. Visionary projectors are never without some complex system of beneficial improvement ; but I would say of them, in the words of an Irish gentleman who has lately travelled in search of religion, ' They may talk of the nectar that sparkled for Helen — Theirs is a fiction, but this is reality.' Melodies. Demand would create supply, flotillas would issue from every sea-port in the spring, and ransack the treasures of the ocean for the periodical market : and the wooden walls of Old England, instead of crumbling into so much rotten timber, would be converted into so many huge wooden spoons to feed the population. " It has been sweetly sung, as well as wisely said, by a genuine English writer, that ' Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark, unfathom'd caves of ocean bear!' To these undiscovered riches Lent would point the national eye, and direct the national energies. Very absurd would then appear the forebodings of the croakers, who with some plausibility now predict the approach of national bankruptcy and famine. Time enough to think of that remote contin- gency when the sea shall be eihausted of its live bullion, and the abyss shall cry ' Hold, enough !' Time enough to fear a general stoppage, when the run on the Dogger Bank ahaU have produced a failure — when the shoals of the teem- ing north shall have refused to meet their engagements in the sunny waters of the south, and the drafts of the net shall have been dishonoured. " I admire Edmund Burke ; who in his speech on Ameri- AN APOLOGX rOE LENT. 23 can conciliation, has an argumentum piscatorium quite to my fancy. Tolle ! lege ! " ' As to the wealth which these colonies have derived from the sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at your bar. Tou surely thought these acquisitions of value ; for they even seemed to excite your . envy. And j'et the spirit with which that enterprising employment has been exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and admiration. And pray, sir, what in the world is equal to it ? Look at the manner in which the people of New England have carried on their fishery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, penetrating into the deepest recesses of Hudson's Bay; while we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, — that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen serpent of the south. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a st^ge and resting place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know, that while some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the shores of Brazil : no sea that is not vexed by their fisheries, no climate that is not witness to their toils !' " Snch glorious imaginings and beatific dreams would (I speak advisedly) be realised in these countries by Lent's magic spfeU ; and I have no .doubt that our patriot King, the patron of so many very questionable reforms, will see the propriety of restoring the laws of Elizabeth in this mat- ter. Stanislaus, the late pious king of Lorraine, so endeared himself to his subjects in general, and market-gardeners in particular, by his sumptuary regulations respecting vege- table diet in Lent, that in the hortus siccus of Nancy his statue has been placed, with an appropriate inscription : — ' Vitales inter sucoos herbasque salubres, Qu^ bene stat populi vita salusque sui !' " A similar compliment would await his present Majesty 24 rATHEE PEorT'S EELIQTJES. William IV. from the shipowners and the ' worshipfiJ. fishmongers' Company,' if he should adopt the suggestion thrown out here. He would figure colossaUy in Trafalgar Square, pointing with his trident to Hungerford Market. The three-pronged instrument in his hand would be a most appropriate emblem (much more so than on the pinnacle of Buckingham Palace), since it would signify equally well the fork with which he fed his people, and the sceptre with which he ruled the world. ' Le trident de Neptune est le sceptre du monde !' " Then would be solved the grand problem of the Corn-law , question. Hitherto my Lord Fitzwilliam has taken nothing by his motions. But were Lent proclaimed at Charing Cross and Temple Bar, and through the market towns of England, a speedy fall in the price of grazing stock, though it might affict Lord Althorp, would eventually harmonise the jarring interests of agriculture and manufacturing in- dustry. The superabundant population of the farming dis- tricts would crowd to the coast, and find employment in the fisheries; while Devonshire House would repudiate for a time the huge sirloin, and receiving as a substitute the pon- derous turbot, Spitalfields would exhibit on her frugal board salt ling flanked with potatoes. A salutary taste for fish would be created in the inmost recesses of the island, an epoch most beneficial to the country would take date from that enactment. ' Omne quum Proteua peous e^t altoa Viaere montes.' STor need the landlords take alarm. People would not plough the ground less because they might plough the deep more ; and while smiling Ceres would still walk through our isle with her horn of plenty, Thetis would follow in her train with a rival cornucopia. " Mark the effects of this observance in Ireland, where it continues in its primitive austerity, undiminished, im- shom of its beams. The Irish may be wrong, but the eon- sequences to Protestant England are immense. To Lent you owe the connexion of the two islands ; it is the golden link that binds the two kingdoms together. Abolish fasting, AN ATOLOaT FOE liENT. 25 and from that evil hour no beef or pork would he suffered by the wild natives to go over to your English markets ; and the export of provisions would be discontinued by a people, that had ujilearned the lessons of starvation. Adieu to shipments of live stock and consignments of bacon ! Were there not some potent mysterious spell over this country, think you we should allow the fat of the land to be ever- lastingly abstracted ? Let us learn that there is no virtue in Lent, and repeal is triumphant to-morrow. We are in truth a most abstemious race. Hence our great superiority over our Protestant fellow-countrymen in the jury-box. It having been found that they could never hold out agaiast hunger as we can, when locked up, and that the verdict was generally carried by popish obstinacy, former administra- tions discountenanced our admission to serve on juries at all. By an oversight of Sergeant Lefroy, all this has escaped the framers of the new jury bill for Ireland. " To return to the Irish exports. The principal item is that of pigs. The hog is as essential an inmate of the Irish cabia as the Arab steed of the shepherd's tent on the plains of Mesopotamia. Both are looked on as part of the house- hold ; and the affectionate manner in ■which these dumb friends of the family are treated, here as weU as there, is a trait of national resemblance, denoting a common origin. We are quite oriental in most of our peculiarities. The learned VaUancey wiU have it, that our consanguinity is with the Je^ws. I might elucidate the colonel's discovery, by shewing how the pig iu Ireland plays the part of the scape-goat of the Israelites : he is a sacred thing, gets the run of the kitchen, is rarely molested, never killed, but alive and buoyant leaves the cabin when taken off by the land- lord's driver for arrears of rent, and is then shipped clean out of the country, to be heard of no more. Indeed, the pigs of Ireland bear this notable resemblance to their cou- sins of Judea, that nothing can keep them from the sea, — • a tendency which strikes aU travellers in the interior of the island whenever they meet our droves of swine precipitating themselves towards the outports for shipment. " To ordinary observers this forbearance of the most iU-fed people on the face of the globe towards their pigs would appear inexplicable; and tf you have read the legend of 26 FATHEE PEOrT's EELIQrES. Saint Anthony and his pig, you will understand the value of their resistance to temptation. " They have a great resource in the potato. This capital esculent grows nowhere in such perfection, not even in America, where it is indigenous. But it has often struck me that a great national delinquency has occurred in the sad neglect of people iu this country towards the memory of the great and good man who conferred on us So valuable a boon, on his return from the expedition to "Virginia. To Sir Walter Ealeigh no monument has yet been erected, and nothing has been done to repair the injustice of his contem- poraries. His head has rolled from the scaffold on Tower Hill ; and though he has fed with his discovery more fami- lies, and given a greater impulse to population, than any other benefactor of mankind, no testimonial exists to com- memorate his benefaction. Nelson has a pillar iu DubHn :— in the city of Limerick a whole column has been devoted to Spring Eice ! ! and the mighty genius of Raleigh is forgotten. I have seen some animals feed under the majestic oak on the acorns that fell from its spreading branches {glande sues lati), without once looking up to the parent tree that showered down blessings on their ungrateful heads." Here endeth the "Apology," and so abruptly terminate my notes of Prout's Lenten vindicice. But, alas ! stUl more abrupt was the death of this respectable divine, which oc- curred last month, on Shrove Tuesday. There was a peculiar fitness in the manner of Anacreon's exit from this life ; but not so in the melancholy termination of Prout's abstemious career, an account of which is conveyed to me in a long and pathetic letter from my agent in Ireland. It was well known that he disliked revelry on all occasions ; but if there was a species of gormandising which he more especially abhorred, it was that practised in the parish on pancake- night, which he frequently endeavoured to discountenance and put down, but unsuccessfully. Oft did he tell his rude auditors (for he was a profound Hellenist) that such orgies had originated with the heathen G-reeks, and had been even among them the source of many evils, as the very name shewed, wai/ xaxov ! So it would appear, by Prout's etymc- logy of the pancake, that in the English language there AN APOLOGY rOE liENT. 27 are many terms which answer the description of Horace, and ' Orseco fonte cadunt paroe detorta.' Contrary to his own better taste and sounder judgment, he was, however, on last Shrove Tuesday, at a wedding-feast of some of my tenantry, induced, from complacency to the newly -married couple, to eat of the profane aliment ; and never was the Attic derivation of the pancake more wofully accomplished than in the sad result— for his condescension cost him his life. The indigestible nature of the compost itself might not have been so destructive in an ordinary case ; but it was quite a stranger and ill at ease in Pather Prout's stomach : it eventually proved fatal in its efi'ects, and hurried him away from this vale of tears, leaving the parish a widow, and making orphans of all his parishioners. My agent writes that his funeral (or herring, as the Irish call it) was thronged by dense multitudes from the whole county, and was as well attended as if it were a monster meeting. The whole body of his brother clergy, with the bishop as usual in full pontificals, were mourners on the occasion ; and a Latin elegy was composed by the most learned of the order, Pather Magrath, one, like Pront, of the old school, who had studied at Florence, and is still a correspondent of many learned Societies abroad. That elegy I have subjoined, as a record of Prout's genuine worth, and as a specimen of a kiad of poetry called Leonine verse, little cultivated at the present day, but greatly in vogue at tho revival of letters under Leo X. IN MOETEM TENBEABILIS ANDEEiB PEOOT, CAEMEN. Quid juvat in pulcAro Sanctos dormire sepukhro ! Optimus usque bonos nonue manebit honos ? Plebs ten\afossd Pastoris oondidit ossa, Splendida sed miri mens petit astra viri. Porta patens esto I coelum reseretur honesto, Neve sit & Petro jussus abire retro. Tota malam sortem sibi flet vioinia mortem, Xrt pro patre solent undique rura dolent ; Sed fures gaudent ; seeuros bacteniks audent Disturbare greges, nee mage tua seges. Audio singultus, rixas, miserosque tumultus, Et pietas luget, sobrietasque/aifiV. 28 FATHEE PROTJT'S EBLIQTJES. Namque flirore brevi liquid^ue ardentis aquiB vi Antiquus Nicholas perdidit agricolas. Jam patre defuncto, meliores fliunine cuncto Lsetautur pisces obtinuiBse vices. Exultans almo, Isetare sub aequore salmo i Carpe, o carpe dies, nam tibi parta quies ! Gaudent angmllin, quia tandem est mortuus ille. Presbyter Andreas, qui oapiebat eas. Petro piscator plaouit pius artis amator, Cui, propter mores, pandit utrosque/ore*. Cur laohrymS./«Ji!« justi comitabitur unus ? Plendum est non tali, sed bene morte mali : Munera nunc Flora spargo. Sic flebile rare Morescat gramen. Pace quiescat. Amen. Sweet upland! where, lite hermit old, in peace sojoum'd This priest devout ; Mark where beneath thy rerdant sod lie deep inurn'd The bones of Prout ! Nor deck with monumental shrine or tapering column His place of rest, Whose soul, above earth's homage, meek yet solemn, Sits mid the blest. Much was he prized, much loved ; his stern rebuke • r • O'erawed sheep-stealers ; ^ And'rogues fear'd more the.good man's single look , ■ * • Than forty Peelers. 'He's gone ; and discord' soon I ween will visit •j . * The land with quarrels; ; , And the foul _deniori vex with BtUls illicit ..;. The village, morals. No fktal chance could happen more to cross ' '^ ' The pubHo wishes ; And all the neighbourhood deplore his loss. Except the fislies ; For he kept Lent most strict, and pickled herring Preferred to gammon. Grim Death has broke his angling-rod ; his herring Delights the salmon. No more can he hook up carp, eel, or trout, For fasting pittance, — • Arts which Saint Peter loved, whose gate to Prout Q-ave prompt admittance. Mourn not, but verdantly let shamrocks keep His sainted dust ; The bad man's death it well becomes to weep,^ Not so the just. PACE IMPLORA, JBage.2a. 29 No. II. A PLEA rOE PILGBIMAGES ; SIE WALTEB SOOTt's TISIT TO THE BLAENET STONE. " Beware, beware Of the black friar, Who sitteth by Normaii stone : For he mutters his prayer In the midnight air. And his mass of the days that are gone." Bteon. SiiroE the publication of this worthy man's " Apology for Lent," which, with some account of his lamented death and weU-attended funeral, appeared in our last Number, we have written to his executors — (one of whom is Father Mat. Hor- rogan, P. P. of the neighbouring village of Blarney ; and the other, our elegiac poet, Father Magrath) — in the hope of being able to negotiate for the valuable posthumous essays and fugitive pieces which we doubted not had been left behind in great abundance by the deceased. These two dis- interested divines — fit associates and bosom-companions of Prout during his lifetime, and whom, from their joint letters, we should think eminently qualified to pick up the fallen mantle of the departed prophet — have, in the most hand- some manner, promised us all the literary and philosopWc treatises bequeathed to them by the late incumbent of Watergrasshill ; expressing, in the very complimentary note which they have transmitted us, and which our modesty prevents us from inserting, their thanks and that of the whole parish, for our sympathy and condolence on this melan- choly bereavement, and intimating at the same time their regret at not being able to send us also, for our private perusal, the collection of the good father's parochial ser- mons ; the whole of which (a most valuable MS.) had been taken off for his ovni use by the bishop, whom he had made his residuary legatee. These " sermons" must be 30 FATHEE PBOTTt'S EELIQTJES. doubtleas good things in their way — a theological iLiya. da,\jlia — well adapted to swell the episcopal library ; but as we confessedly are, and suspect our readers likewise to be, a very improper multitude amongst whom to scatter such pearls, we shall console ourselves for that sacrifice by plung- ing head and ears into the abundant sources of intellectual refreshment to which we shall soon have access, and from which Prank Creswell, lucky dog ! has drawn such a draught of inspiration. " Sacros ausus recludere foutes !" for assuredly we may defy any one that has perused Prout'a vindication of fish-diet (and who, we ask, has not read it con amore, conning it over with secret glee, and forthwith calling out for a red-herring ?), not to prefer its simple unsophisti- cated eloquence to the oration of TuUy pro Domo sud, or Barclay's " Apology for Quakers." After all, it may have been but a sprat to catch a whale, and the whole afiair may turn out to be a Popish contrivance ; but if so, we have taken the bait ourselves : we have been, like Pestus, " almost persuaded," and Prout has wrought in us a sort of culinary conversion. Why should we be ashamed to avow that we have been edified by the good man's blunt and straight- forward logic, and drawn from his theories on fish a higher and more moral impression than from the dreamy visions of an " English Opium-eater," or any other " Confessions " of sensualism and gastronomy. If this " black friar " has got smuggled in among our contributors, like King Saul among the regular votaries of the sanctuary, it must be admitted that, like the royal intruder, he has caught the tone and chimed in with the general harmony of our political opinions — no Whigling among true Tories, no goose among swans. Argutos inter strepere anser olores. How we long to get possession of " the Prout Papers !" that chest of learned lumber which haunts our nightly visions ! Already, in imagination, it is within our grasp ; our greedy , hand hastUy its lid " Unloots, And all Arcadia breathes from yonder box !" In this prolific age, when the most unlettered dolt can find a mare's nest in the domain of philosophy, why should A PLEA roB PIIGEIMAGES. 31 not we also cry, 'Eu^rixa/iev ! How much of novelty in his views ! how much embryo discovery must not Prout unfold ! It were indeed a pity to consign the writings of so eminent a scholar to oblivion : nor ought it be said, in scriptural phrase, of him, what is, alas ! applicable to so many other learned divines when they are dead, that " their works have followed them." Such was the case of that laborious French clergyman, the Abbe Trublet, of whom Voltaire profaaely sings : " L'Abb^ Trublet Icrit, le Lethe sur sea rives Revolt aveo plaisir sea feuilles fugitives !" Which epigram hath a recondite meaning, not obvious to the reader on a first perusal ; and being interpreted into plain English, for the use of the London University, it may run thus: " Lardner compileB — kind Lethe on her hanks Eeoeivea the doctor's useful page with thanks." Such may be the fate of Lardner and of Trublet, such the ultimate destiny that awaits their literary labours ; but neither men, nor gods, nor our columns (those graceful pil- lars that support the Muses' temple), shall suffer this old priest to remain in the unmerited obscurity from which Frank CressweU. first essayed to draw him. To that young barrister we have written, with a request that he would f arnish us with further details concerning Prout, and, if possible, a few additional specimens of his colloquial wisdom; reminding him that modern taste has a decided tendency towards il- lustrious private gossip, and recommending to him, as a sublime model of the dramatico-biographic style, my Lady Blessington's " Conversations of Lord Byron." How far he has succeeded in following the ignis fatuus of her ladyship's lantern, and how many bogs he has got immerged in because of the dangerous hint, which we gave him in an evil hour, the judicious reader wiU soon find out. Here is the com- munication. OLIVEE TOEKE. May 1, 1834. 32 FATHER PEOTIT'S BEHQTJBS. FurnivaVs Tnn, April 14. AcKNOWLEDGiwa the receipt of your gracious mandate, Queen of Periodicals ! and kissing the top of your ivoiy sceptre, may I be allowed to express untlamed my utter devotion to your orders, in the language of ^olus, quondam ruler of the winds : ' Tuns, O EnanfA, quid optes ■ Explorare labor, mihi jusaa capesaere fas est !" without concealing, at the same time, my wonderment, and that of many other sober individuals, at your patronising the advocacy of doctrines and usages belonging exclusively to another and far less reputable Queen (quean ?) whom I shall have sufficiently designated when I mention that she sits upon seven hills ! — in statmg which singular phenomenon con- cerning her, I need not add that her fundamental maxima must be totally different from yours. Many orthodox people cannot understand how you could have reconciled it to your conscience to publish, in its crude state, that Apology for Lent, without adding note or comment in refutation of such dangerous doctrines ; and are still more amazed that a Popish pariph priest, from the wild Irish hills, could have got among your contributors — " Claimed kindred there, and have that claim aEowed." It will, however, no doubt, give you pleasure to learn, that you have established a lasting popularity among that learned set of men the fishmongers, who are never scaly of their support when deserved ; for, by a unanimous vote of the " worshipful company " last meeting-day, the marble bust of Father Prout, crowned with sea- weeds like a Triton, is to be placed in a conspicuous part of their new hall at London Bridge. But as it is the hardest thing imaginable to please all parties, your triumph is rendered incomplete by the grumbling of another not less respectable portion of the community. By your proposal for the non-consumption of butchers' meat, you have given mortal offence to the dealers in horned cattle, and stirred up a nest of hornets in Smith- field. In your perambulations of the metropolis, go not into the bucolic purlieus of that dangerous district ; beware of the enemy's camp ; tempt not the ire of men armed with A. PlEA TOE PILGEIMAGES. 33 cold steel, else the long-dormant fires of that land celebrated in every age as a tierra del fuego may he yet rekindled, and made " red with uncommon wrath," for your especial roast- ing. Lord Althorp is no warm friend of yours ; and by your making what he calls " a most unprovoked attack on the graziers," you have not propitiated the winner of the prize ox. " Fosnum habet in comu, — huno tii, Komane, caveto !" In vain would you seek to cajole the worthy chancellor of his Majesty's unfortunate exchequer, by the desirable pros- pect of a net revenue from the ocean : you will make no im- pression. His mind is not accessible to any reasoning on that subject ; and, like the shield of Telamon, it is wrapt in the impenetrable folds of seven tough bull-hides. "But eliminating at once these insignificant topics, and setting aside aU miaor things, let me address myself to the- grand subject of my adoption. Verily, since the days of that ornament of the priesthood and pride of Venice, Father Paul, no divine has shed such lustre on the Church of Eome as Father Prout. His brain was a storehouse of iaexhaustible knowledge, and his memory a bazaar, in which the intel- lectual riches of past ages were classified and arranged in marvellous and brilliant assortment. When, by the libe- rality oi his executor, you shall have been, put in possession of his writings and posthumous papers, you wiU find I do not exaggerate ; for though his mere conversation was always instructive, still, the pen in his hand, more potent than the wand of JProspero, embelHshed every subject with an atrial charm ; and whatever department of literature it touched on, it was sure to illuminate and adorn, from the lightest and most ephemeral matters of the day, to the deepest and most abstruse problems of metaphysical inquiry ; vigorous and philosophical, at the same time that it is minute and playful ; having no parallel unless we liken it to the proboscis of an elephant, that can with equal ease shift an obelisk and crack a nut. Nor did he confine himself to prose. He was a chosen favourite of the nine sisters, and flirted openly with them all, his vow of celibacy preventing his forming a permanent alliance with one alone. Hence pastoral poetry, elegy, son- ai FATHEE PEOTTT'S EELIQUES. nets, and still grander eflEusions in the best style of Bob Montgomery, flowed from his muse in abundance ; but, I must confess, his peculiar forte lay in the Pindaric. Be- sides, he indulged copiously in &reek and Latin versifica- tion, as weU as in French, Italian, and High Dutch; of which accomplishments I happen to possess some fine spe- cimens from his pen ; and before I terminate this paper, I mean to introduce them to the benevolent notice of the candid reader. By these you will find, that the Doric reed of Theocritus was to him but an ordinary sylvan pipe — that the lyre of Anacreon was as familiar to him as the German flute — and that he played as well on the classic chords of the bard of Mantua as on the Cremona fiddle ; at all events, he will prove far superior as a poet to the covey of unfledged rhymers who nestle in annuals and magazines. Sad abor- tions ! on which even you, O Queen, sometimes take com- passion, infusing into them a life " Which did not you prolong, The world had wanted many an idle song." To return to his conversational powers : he did not waste them on the generality of folks, for he despised the vulgar herd of Corkonians with whom it was his lot to mingle ; but when he was sure of a friendly circle, he broke out in resplendent style, often humorous, at times critical, occa- sionally profound, and always interesting. Inexhaustible in his means of illustration, his fancy was an unwasted mine, into which you had but to sink a shaft, and you were sure of eHciting the finest ore, which came forth stamped with the impress of genius, and fit to circulate amon^ the most cultivated auditory : for though the mint of his brain now and then would issue a strange and fantastic coinage, ster- ling sense was sure to give it value, and ready wit to pro- mote its currency. The rubbish and dust of the schools with which his notions were sometimes incrusted did not alter their intrinsic worth ; people only wondered how the diaphanous mind of Prout could be obscured by such com- mon stuflf: its brightness was still undiminished by the admixture ; and like straws in amber, without deteriorating the substance, these matters only made manifest its trans- parency. Whenever he undertook to illustrate any subject A PLEA rOE PILGEIMAGES. 35 worthy of him, he was always felicitous. I sh^ll give you an instance. There stands on the borders of his parish, near the village of Blarney, an old castle of the M'Carthy family, rising abruptly from a bold cliff, at the foot of which rolls a not inconsiderable stream — the fond and frequent witness of Prout's angling propensities. The well-wooded demesne, comprising an extensive lake, a romantic cavern, and an artificial wilderness of rocks, belongs to the family of Jef- fereys, which boasts in the Dowager Countess GlengaU a most distinguished scion ; her ladyship's mother having been immortalised under the title of " Lady Jeffers," with the other natural curiosities produced by this celebrated spot, in that never-suificiently-to-be-encored song, the Groves of Blarney. But neither the stream, nor the lake, nor the castle, nor the village (a sad ruin ! which, but for the recent establishment of a spinning-factory by some patriotic Cork- onian, would be swept away altogether, or possessed by the owls as a grant from Sultan Mahmoud) ; — none of these picturesque objects has earned such notoriety for "the Groves " as a certain stone, of a basaltic kind, rather unusual in the district, plaped on the pinnacle of the main tower, and endowed vrith the property of communicating to the happy tongue that comes in contact with its polished surface the gift of gentle insinuating speech, with soft talk in aU its ramifications, whether employed in vows and promises light as air, ima, vrsgoivra, such as lead captive the female heart ; or elaborate mystification of a grosser grain, such as may do for the House of Commons ; aU. summed up and charac- terised by the mysterious term Blarney.* Prout's theory on this subject might have remained dor- * To Crofton Croter belongs the merit of elucidating this obscure tradition. It appears that in 1602, when the Spaniards were exciting our chieftains to harass the English authorities, Cormac M'Dermot Carthy teld, among other dependencies, the castle of Blarney, and had concluded an armistice with the lord-presidpnt, on condition of surren- dering this fort to an English garrison. Day after day did his lordship look for the fixlBlment of the compact ; while the Irish Pozzo di Borgo, as loath to part with his stronghold as Russia to relinquish the Dar- danelles, kept protocohsing with soft promises and delusive delays, until at last Carew became the laughing-stock of Elizabeth's ministers, and "Blarney talk" proverbial. D 2 36 FATHEB PEOUT'S EELIQTJES. mant for ages, and perhaps been ultimately lost to the world at large, were it not for an event which occurred in the summer of 1825, while I (a younker then) happened to be on that visit to my aunt at Watergrasshill which even- tually secured me her inheritance. The occurrence I am about to commemorate was, in truth, one of the first mag- nitude, and weU calculated, from its importance, to form an epoch in the Annals of the Parish. It was the arrival of SiE "Waltee Scott at Blarney, towards the end of the month of July. Tears have now rolled away, and the " Ariosto of the North" is dead, and our ancient constitution has since fallen under the hoofs of the Whigs ; quenched is many a beacon-light in church and state — Prout himself is no more ; and plentiful indications tell us we are come upon evil days : but still may I be allowed to feel a pleasurable, though somewhat saddened emotion, while I revert to that intellec- tual meeting, and bid memory go back in " dream sublime" to the glorious exhibition of Prout's mental powers. It was, in sooth, a great day for old Ireland ; a greater still for Blarney ; but, greatest of all, it dawned, Prout, on theel Then it was that thy light was taken from under its sacer- dotal bushel, and placed conspicuously before a man fit to appreciate the effulgence of so brilliant a luminary — a light which I, who pen these words in sorrow, alas ! shall never gaze on more ! a light " That ne'er shall shine again On, Blarney's stream !" That day it illumined the "cave," the " shady walks," and the " sweet rock-close," and sent its gladdening beam into the gloomiest vaults of the ancient fort ; for all the recon- dite recesses of the castle were explored in succession by the distinguished poet and the learned priest, and Prout held a candle /to Scott. We read with interest, in the historian Polybius, the account of Hannibal's interview with Scipio on the plains of Zama; and often have we, in our school-boy days of unsophisticated feeling, sympathised with Ovid, when he told us that he only got a glimpse of Virgil /but Scott basked for a whole summer's day in the blaze of Prout's A. PLEA FOE PILaElMAGES. 37 Wit, and witnessed the coruscations of his learning. The, great Marius is said never to have appeared to such advan- tage as when seated on the ruins of Carthage : with equal dignity Prout sat on the Blarney stone, amid ruins of kin- dred glory. Zeno taught in the " porch ;" Plato loved to muse alone on the bold jutting promontory of Cape Sunium ; Socrates, bent on finding Truth, " in sylvis Academi qiicerere verum," sought her among the bowers of Academus ; Prout courted the same coy nymph, and wooed her in the " groves of Blarney." I said that it was in the summer of 1825 that Sir "Walter Scott, in the progress of his tour through Ireland, reached Cork, and forthwith intimated his wish to proceed at once on a visit to Blarney Castle. * Tor him the noble river, the magnificent estuary, and unrivalled harbour of a city that proudly bears on her civic escutcheon the well-applied motto, " Statio bene flda carinis" had but little attraction when placed in competition with a spot sacred to the Muses, and wedded to immortal verse. Such was the interest which its connexion with the popular literature and traditionary stories of the country had excited in that master-mind — such the predominance of its local reminiscences — such the transcendent influence of song! Tor this did the then " Grreat Unknown " wend his way through the purlieus of " Grolden Spur," traversing the great manufacturing faux- bourg of " Black Pool," and emerging by the " Eed Porge ;" so intent on the classic object of his pursuit, as to disregard the unpromising aspect of the vestibule by which alone it is approachable. Many are the splendid mansions and hospi- table halls that stud the suburbs of the " beautiful city," eacK boasting its grassy lawn and placid lake, each decked vrith park and woodland, and each well furnished with that paramount appendage, a hatterie de cuisine ; but all these mstles were passed unheeded by, carent quia vote sacro. Gor- geous residences, picturesque seats, magnificent villas, they be, no doubt; but unknown to literature, in vain do they plume themselves on their architectural beauty ; in vain do they spread wide their well-proportioned lomy*— they cannot soar aloft to the regions of celebrity. On the eve of that memorable day I was sitting on_ a Btool in the priest's parlour, poking the turf fire, while 38 TATHEE PEOUT'S EELIQUE3. Prout, wlio had been angling all day, sat' nodding over his " breviary" and, according to my calculation, ought to be at the last psalm of vespers, when a loud official knock, not usual on that bleak hill, bespoke the presence of no ordi- nary personage. Accordingly, the " wicket, opening with a latch," ushered in a messenger clad in the livery of the ancient and loyal corporation of Cork, who announced him- self as the bearer of a despatch from the mansion-house to his reverence ; and, handing it with that deferential awe which even his masters felt for the incumbent of "Water- grasshUl, immediately withdrew. The letter ran thus : — Council Chatnber, July 24, 1825. Veet Eeteeend Dootoe Peotjt, Cork harbours within its walls the illustrious author of Waverley. On receiving the freedom of our ancient city, which we presented to him (as usual towards distinguished strangers) in a box carved out of a chip of the Blarney stone, he expressed his determination to visit the old block itself. As he will, therefore, be in your neighbourhood to- morrow, and as no one is better able to do the honours than you (our burgesses being sadly deficient in learning, as you and I well know), your attendance on the celebrated poet is requested by your old friend and foster-brother, G-EOEGE Knapp,* Mayor. * The repubKo of letters has great reason to complain of Dr. Maginn, for his non-fulfilment of a positive pledge to publish " a great historical work" on the mayors of Cork. Owing to this desideratum in the annals of the empire, I am compelled to bring into notice thus abruptly tlie most respectable civic worthy that has worn the cocked hat and chain since the days of John Walters, who boldly proclaimed Perkin Warbeek, in the reign of Henry VII., in the market-place of that beau- tiftil city. Knapp's virtues and talents did not, like those of Donna Ines, deserve to be called " Classic all, Ifor lay they chiefly in the mathematical," for hie favourite pursuit during the cauicule of 1826, was the extermi- nation of mad dogs j and so vigorously did he urge the carnage during the summer of his mayoralty, that some thought he wished to eclipse the exploit of St. Patrick in destroying t)ie breed altogether, as the taint did that of toads. A Cork poet, the laureate of the mansion- A PLEA rOE PIIGEIMAGES. 39 Never shall I forget the beam of triumph that lit up the old man's features on the perusal of Knapp's pithy- summons ; and right warmly did he respond to my congra- tulations on the prospect of thus coming in contact with bo distinguished an author. " You are right, child!" said he ; and as I perceived by his manner that he was about to enter on one of those rambling trains of thought — half-homUy, half-soliloquy — in which he was wont to indulge, I settled myself by the fire-place, and prepared to go through my accustomed part of an attentive listener. " A great man, Prank ! A truly great man ! 'No token of ancient days escapes his eagle glance, no venerable memo- rial of former times his observant scrutiny ; and still, even he, versed as he is in the monumentary remains of bygone ages, may yet learn something more, and have no cause to regret his visit to Blarney. Yes ! since out ' groves' are to be honoured by the presence of the learned baronet, ' Sylvse sint oonsvile dignse !' let us make them deserving of his attention. He shall fix his antiquarian eye and rivet his wondering gaze on the rude basaltic mass that crowns the battlements of the main tower ; for though he may have seen the " chair at Scone," where the Caledonian kings were crowned ; though he may have examined that Scotch pebble in Westminster Abbey, which the Cockneys, in the exercise of a delightful credu- lity, believe to be " Jacob's piUow ;" though he may have visited the mishapen pillars on Salisbury plain, and the Eock of Cashel, and the "Hag's Bed," and St. Kevin's petrified matelas at Glendalough, and many a cromlech of Druidical celebrity, — there is a stone yet unexplored, which he shall contemplate to-morrow, and place on record among his most profitable days that on which he shall have paid it homage : ' Himc, Macrine, diem numera meKore lapillo !' " I am old, Frank. In my wild youth I have seen many house, has celebrated Knapp's prowess in a didactic composition, en- titled Dog-Killing, a Poem ; in which the mayor is litened to Apollo in the Glreciaji camp before Troy, in the opening of the Iliad: — Avrap jSowj vpuiTov ip' wiciTO xai Kvvag Apyouj. 40 EATHEE EEOTJT's EEIIQTIES. of the celebrated writers tliat adorned ^he decline of the last century, and shed a lustre over ^France, too soon eclipsed in blood at its sanguinary close. I have conversed with Buffon and with Pontenelle, and held intercourse with Nature's simplest child, Bernardin de St. Pierre, author of ' Paul and Virginia ;' Gresset and Marmontel were my college-friends ; and to me, though a frequenter of the halls of Sorbonne, the octogenaire of Ferney was not unknown : nor was I unacquainted with ythe recluse of Ermenonville. But what axe the souvenirs of a single period, however bril- liant and interesting, to the recollections of full seven cen- turies of historic glory, all condensed and concentrated in Scott ? What a host of personages does his name conjure up ! what mighty shades mingle in the throng of attendant heroes that wait his bidding, and form his appropriate retinue ! Cromwell, Claverhouse, and Montrose ; Saladin, Front de Boeuf, and Ccbut de Lion ; Eob Boy, Eobin Hood, and Marmion ; those who fell at Culloden and Flodden- Pield, and those who won the day at Bannockburn, — all start up at the presence of the Enchanter. I speak not of his female forms of surpassing loveliness — his Flora M'lvor, his Eebecea, his Amy Kobsart : these you, Frank, can best admire. But I know not how I shall divest myself of a secret awe when the wizard, with all his spells, shall rise before me. The presence of my old foster-brother, George Knapp, will doubtless tend to dissipate the illusion ; but if so it will be by personifying the Baillie Nicol Jarvie of Glasgow, his worthy prototype. Nor are Scott's merits those simply of a pleasing novelist or a spirit-stirring poet ; his ' Life of Dryden,' his valuable commentaries on Swift, his researches in the dark domain of demonology, his bio- graphy of Napoleon, and the sterling views of European policy developed in 'Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk,' all contribute to enhance his literary pre-eminence. Eightly has Sihus ItaUcus depicted the Carthaginian hero, sur- rounded even in solitude by a thousand recollections of well- earned renown — ' STec credis inermem Quem Tnihi tot cinxere duces : si admoTeria ora, Cannas et Trebiam ante oouloa, Komanaqtie busta, Et Pauli stare ingentem miraberis mnbram !" A I'LEA rOE PILGBIMAGES. 41 Tet, greatly and deservedly as he is prized by his contempo- raries, future ages wiU value him even more ; and his laurel, ever extending its branches, and growing in secret like the ' fame of Marcellus,' will overshadow the earth. Posterity will canonise his every relic ; and his footsteps, even in this remote district, wiU be one day traced and sought for by the admirers of genius. For, notwithstanding the breadth and brilliancy of effect with which he waved the torch of mind while living, far purer and more serene will be the lamp that shall glimmer in his tomb and keep vigil over his hal- lowed ashes : to that fount of inspiration other and minor spirits, eager to career through the same orbit of glory, wiU recur, and ' In their golden uma draw light.' Nor do I merely look on him as a writer who, by the blan- dishment of his narrative and the witchery of his style, has calmed more sorrow, and caused more happy hours to flow, than any save a higher and a holier page, — a writer who, like the autumnal meteor of his own North, has illumined the dull horizon of these latter days with a fancy ever varied and radiant with ioyfulness, — one who, for useful purposes, has interwoven the plain warp of history with the many- coloured web of his own romantic loom ; — but further do I hail in him the genius who has rendered good and true service to the cause of mankind, by driving forth from the temple of Eeligion, with sarcasm's knotted lash, that canting puritanic tribe who would obliterate from the book of life every earthly enjoyment, and change all ite paths of peace into walks of bitterness. I honour him for his efforts to demolish the pestilent influence of a sour and sulky system that would interpose itself between the gospel sun and the world — that retains no heat, imbibes no light, and transmits none ; but flings its broad, cold, and disastrous shadow over the land that is cursed with its visitation. " The excrescences and superfcetations of my own church most freely do I yield up to his censure ; for while in his Abbot Boniface, his Priar Tuck, and his intriguing Eash- leigh, he has justly stigmatised monastic laziness, and de- nounced ultramontane duplicity, he has not forgotten to exhibit the bright reverse of the Eoman medal, but has done fuE. measure of justice to the nobler inspirations of our 42 FATHEE PEOUT'S EELIQITES. creed, bodied fortt in Mary Stuart, Hugo de Lacy, Catlie- rine Seaton, Die Vernon, and Eose de Bdranger. Nay, even in his fictions of cloistered life, among the drones of that ignoble crowd, he has drawn minds of another sphere, and spirits whose ingenaous nature and piety unfeigned were not worthy of this world's deceitful intercourse, but fitted them to commune in solitude with Heaven. " Such are the impressions, and such the mood of mind in which I shall accost the illustrious visitor ; and you, Frank, shall accompany me on this occasion." Accordingly, the next morning found Prout, punctual to Knapp's summons, at his appointed post on the top of the castle, keeping a keen look-out for the arrival of Sir Walter. He came, at length, up the " laurel avenue," so called from the gigantic laurels that overhang the path, " Which bowed. As if each brought a new classic wreath to his head ;" and alighting at the castle-gate, supported by Knapp, he toUed up the winding stairs as well as his lameness -would permit, and stood at last, with aU. his fame around him, in the presence of Prout. The form of mutual introduction was managed by KJaapp with his usual tact an4 urbanity ; and the first interchange of thoughts soon convinced Scott that he had lit on no " clod of the valley " in the priest. The confabulation which ensued may remind you of the " TusculansB Qusestiones " of Tully, or the dialogues " De Oratore," or of Home Tooke's " Diversions of Purley," or of all three together. La void. SCOTT. I congratulate myself, reverend father, on the prospect of having so experienced a guide in exploring the wonders of this celebrated spot. Indeed, I am so far a member of your communion, that I take delight in pilgrimages ; and you be- hold in me a pilgrim to the Blarney stone. PEOTJT. I accept the guidance of so sincere a devotee ; nor has a more accomplished palmer ever worn scrip, or stafi", or BcoUop-shell, in my recollection ; nay, more— right honoured Bhall the pastor of the neighbouring upland feel in afibrding A PLEA rOE PILflEIMAGES. 43 shelter and hospitality, such as every pilgrim has claim to if the penitent will deign visit my humble dwelling. SCOTT. My vow forbids ! I must not think of bodily refresh- ment, or any such profane solicitudes, untU I go through the solemn rounds of my devotional career — until I kiss "the stone," and explore the "cave where no daylight enters," the " fracture in the battlement," the " lake well stored with fishes," and, finally, " the sweet rock-close." PEOTTT. All these shall you duly contemplate when you shall have rested from the fatigue of climbing to this lofty eminence, whence, seated on these battlements, you cap command a landscape fit to repay the toil of the most laborious pere- grination ; in truth, if the ancient observance were not sufficiently vindicated by your example to-day, I should have thought it my duty to take up the gauntlet for that much-abused set of men, the pilgrims of olden time. SCOTT. In all cases of initiation to any solemn rites, such as I am about to enter on, it is customary to give an introductory lecture to the neophyte ; and as you seem disposed to enlighten us with a preamble, you have got, reverend father, in me a most docile auditor. " PEOUT. There is a work, Sir Walter, with which I presume you are not unacquainted, which forcibly and bedutifuUy por- trays the honest fervour of our forefathers in their untu- tored views of Christianity : but if the " Tales of the Crusaders " count among their dramatis persontB the mitred prelate, the cowled hermit, the croziered abbot, and the gallant templar, strange mixture of daring and devotion, — far do I prefer the sketch of that peculiar creation of Catho- Jicity and romance, the penitent under solemn vow, who comes down from Thabor or from Lebanon to embark for Europe : and who in rude garb and with unshodden feet will return to his native plains of Languedoc or Lombardy, 44 FATHEE PEOrT'S EELIQTJES. displaying with pride the emblem of Palestine, and realising what Virgil only dreamt of — " Primus Idiimseas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas !" But I am wrong in saying that pilgrimages belong exclu- sively to our most ancient form of Christianity, or that the patent for this practice appertains to religion at all. It is the simplest dictate of our nature, though piety has conse- crated the practice, and marked it for her own. Patriotism, poetry, philanthropy, all the arts, and all the finer feelings, have their pilgrimages, their hallowed spots of intense in- terest, their haunts of fancy and of inspiration. It is the first impulse of every genuine afiection, the tendency of the heart in its fervent youthhood ; and nothing but the cold scepticism of an age which Edmund Burke so truly designated as that of calculators and economists, could scoff at the enthusiasm that feeds on ruins such as these, that visits with emotion the battle-field and the ivied abbey, or Shakespeare's grave, or Galileo's cell, or Eunnymede, or Marathon. PUial affection has had its pilgrim in Telemachus ; gene- rous and devoted loyalty in Blondel, the best of trouba- dours ; Bruce, Belzoni, and Humboldt, were pilgrims of science ; and John Howard was the sublime pilgrim of philanthropy. Actuated by a sacred feeHng, the son of Ulysses visited every isle and inhospitable shore of the boisterous ^gean, until a father clasped him in his arms ; — propelled by an equally absorbing attachment, the faithful minstrel of Coeur de Lion sang before every feudal castle in Germany, until at last a dungeon-keep gave back the responsive echo of " O Richard ! mon roy !" If Belzoni died toilworn and dissatisfied — if Baron Humboldt is still plodding his course through the South American peninsula, or wafted on the bosom of the Pacific — it is because the domain of science is infinite, and her votaries must never rest : " For there are wanderers o'er eternity, Whose bark goes on and on, and anohor'd ne'er shall be !" But when Howard explored the secrets of every prison-i house in Europe, performing that which Burke classically described as " a circumnavigation of charity ;" nay, when, A PLEA FOE PILGEIMAGES. 45 on a still holier errand, three eastern sages came from the boundaries of the earth to do homage to a cradle ; think ye not that in theirs, as in every pilgrim's progress, a light unseen to others shone on the path before them ? derived they not untiring vigour from the exalted nature of their pursuit, felt they not " a pinion lifting every limb ?" Such are the feelings which Tasso beautifully describes when he brings his heroes within view of Sion : " Al grand piacer che quella prima vista Doloemente epird, uell' altrui petto, Alta contrizion successe, mista Di timoroso e riverente aifetto. Osano appena d' innalzar la vista Ver la oittJl, di Cristo albergo eletto. Dove mori, dove sepolto £ue. Dove poi rivesfi le membra sue !" Canto III. I need not tell you. Sir Walter, that the father of history, previous to taking up the pen of Clio, explored every monu- ment of Upper Egypt ; or that Herodotus had been pre- ceded by Homer, and followed by Pythagoras, in this philo- sophic pilgrimage ; that Athens and Corinth were the favourite resorts of the Eoman literati, Sylla, Lueullus, and Mecsenas, when no longer the seats of empire; and that Eome itself is, in its turn, become as weU the haunt of the antiquarian as the poet, and the painter, and the Christian pilgrim ; for dull indeed would that man be, duller than the stagnant weed that vegetates on Lethe's shore, who again would put the exploded interrogatory, once fallen, not in- aptly, from the mouth of a clown — " Quse tanta fuit Eomam tibi causa videndi ?" I mean not to deny that there exist vulgar minds and souls without refinement, whose perceptions are of that stunted nature that they can see nothing in the " pass of Thermo- pylae" but -a gap for cattle; in the "Forum" but a cow- yard ; and for whom St. Helena itself is but a barren rock : but, thank Heaven ! we are not all yet come to that unen- viable stage of utilitarian philosophy ; and there is still some hope left for the Muses' haunts, when he of Abbotsford blushes not to visit the castle, the stone, and the groves of Blarney. 46 TATHEE PBOn'S EELIQUES. Nor is lie unsupported in the indulgence of this classic fancy ; for there'texists another pilgrim, despite of modem cavils, who keeps up the credit of the profession — a way- ward childe, whose restless spirit has long since spurned the solemn dulness of conventional life, preferring to hold intercourse with the mountain-top and the ocean-brink : Ida and Salamis " are to him companionship ;" and every broken shaft, prostrate capital, and marble fragment of that sunny land, tells its tale of other days to a fitting listener ia Harold : for him Etruria is a teeming soil, and the spirit of song haunts Eavenna and Parthenope : for him " There is a tomb in ArquV' which to the stolid peasant that wends his away along the Euganeian hills is mute , indeed as the grave, nor breathes the name of its indweller ; but a voice breaks forth from the mausoleum at the passage of Byron, the ashes of Pe- trarch grow warm in their marble bed, and the last wish of the poet La his " Legacy" is accomplished: " Then if some bard, who roams forsaken. Shall touch on thy cof ds in passing along, O may one thought of its master waken The sweetest smile for the Childe of Song .'" SCOTT. Proud and flattered as I must feel, O most learned divine ! to be classified with Herodotus, Pythagoras, Bel- zoni, Bruce, and Bjrron, I fear much that I am but a sorry sort of pilgrim, after all. Indeed, an eminent writer of your church has laid it down as a maxim, which I suspect applies to my case, " Qui multiim peregrinantur rarb sancti- ficantur." Does not Thomas 4 Kempis say so ? PEOXJT. The doctrine may be sound ; but the book from which you quote is one of those splendid productions of uncertain authorship which we must ascribe to some " great unknown" of the dark ages. SCOTT. Be that as it may, I can give you a parallel sentiment from one of your Erench poets ; for I understand you are A PLEA rOE PILGEIMAGEP 47 partial to the literature of that merry nation. The pUgrim's wanderings are compared by this gallic satirist to the meandering course of a river in Germany, which, after watering the plains of Protestant Wirtemberg and Catholic Austria, enters, by way of finale, on the domaias of the Grand Turk : " J'ai Tu le Danube inconstant, Qui, tantot Catholique et tant6t Protestant, Sert Rome et Luther de son onde ; Mais, comptant aprfes pour rieu Komain et Luth&ien, Finit sa course vagabonde Par n'etre pas mSme Chretien. Earement en eourant le monde On devient homme de bien !" By the way, have you seen Stothard's capital print, " The Pilgrimage to Canterbury ?" PBOTJT. < Such orgies on pious pretences I cannot but deplore, with Chaucer, Erasmus', Dryden, and Pope, who were all of my creed, and pointedly condemned them. The Papal hierarchy IQ this country have repeatedly discountenanced such unholy doings. Witness their efforts to demolish the cavern of Loughderg, called St. Patrick's Purgatory, that has no better claim to antiquity than our Blarney cave, in which " bats and badgers are for ever bred." And still, concerning this truly Irish curiosity, there is a document of a droU description in Eymer's " Foedera," in the 32d year of Ed- ward III., A.D. 1358. It is no less than a certificate, duly made out by that good-natured monarch, shewing to aU men as how a foreign nobleman did really visit the Cave of St. Patrick,* and passed a night in its mysterious recesses. * This is, we believe, what Prout alludes to ; and we confess it is a precious relic of olden simpUcity, and ought to see the Ught : — " A.D. 1358, an. 32 Edw. III. "Litterse teBtimonialea super mor^ in S"' Patricii Purgatorio. Eex universis et singulis ad quos prsesentes Htterte pervenerint, salutem ! "Nobilis vir Malatesta TJngarus de Arimeftio, miles, ad prsesentiam nostram veniens, mature nobis exposuit quod ipse nuper a terras suse discedens laribus, Purgatorium Sancti Patricii, infra terram nostram Hybemiae constitutum, in miiltis corporis sui laboribus peregre visittoat, 48 FA.THEE PEOUT'S EELIQTTES. SCOTT. I was aware of the existence of that document, as also of the remark made by one Erasmus of Rotterdam concerning the said cave: "Non desunt hodiii qui descendunt, sed pritis triduano enecti jejunio ne sano capite ingrediantur." * Erasmus, reverend friend, was an honour to your cloth ; but as to Edward III., I am not surprised he should have encouraged such excursions, as he belonged to a family whose patronymic is traceable to a pilgrim's vow. My reverend friend is surely in possession of the historic fact, ao per integrse diei ac noctis eontinuatum spatium, ut est moris, cJausus manserat in eodem, nobis cum instantiS, supplicando, ut in prsemissorum veraciuB fulcimentum regales nostras litteras inde sibi concedere dJgna- remur. "Nos autem ipsius peregrinationis considerantes perictdosa discri- mina, licet tanti nobilis in h4o parte nobis assertio eit accepta, quia tamen dileoti ao fidelis nostri Almarici de S'° Amaudo, militis, justioiarii nostri Hybernise, simul ao Prioris et Conventds loci dicti Purgatorii, et etiam aliorum auctoritatis multse virorum litteris, aKisque Claris eviden- tiis informamur quod diotus nobilis banc peregrmationem ril^ perfecerat et etiam animosh. " Dignum duximus super bis testimonium nostrum faTorabUiter ad- hibere, ut sublato cujusvis dubitationis involucro, prEemissorum Veritas singulis lucidius patefiat, bas litteras nostras sigillo regio consignatas illi duximus concedendas. " Dat' in palatio nostro West', xxiv die Octobris, 1358." Rymer's Foedera, by Caley. London, 1825. Tol. iii. pt. i. p. 408. * Erasmus in Adagia, artic. de antro Trophonii. See also Camden's account of tbis cave in bis Hybernice Descriptio, edition of 1 594, p. 671. It is a singular fact, though little known, that from the visions said to occur in this cavern, and bruited abroad by the fraternity of monks, whose connexion with Italy was constant and intimate, Dante took the first hint of his Divina Commedia, II Purgatorio. Such was the cele- brity this cave had obtained in Spain, that the great dramatist Calderon made it the subject of one of his best pieces ; and it was so well known at the court of Ferrara, that Ariosto introduced it into his Orlando Furinso, canto x. stanza 92. " Q.uindi Euggier, poioh6 di banda in banda Tide gl' luglesi, and6 verso 1' Irlanda E vide Ibernia fabulosa, dove II santo vecchiarel fece la cava In che tanta merce par che si trove, C!he 1' uom vi purga ogni sua colpa prava !" A PLEA TOE PILSEIMAGES. 49 that the name of Plantagenet is derived from plante de genest, a sprig of heath, which the first Duke of Anjou wore in his helmet as a sign of penitential humiliation, when ahout to depart for the holy land : though why a broom- sprig should iadicate lowliness is not satisfactorily explaiaed. PEOTJ!^. The monks of that day, who are reputed to have been very ignorant, were perhaps acquainted with the " G-eorgics" of Virgil, and recollected the verse — "Quidmajora sequar? SisRoea humilesgue Genista." II. 434. SCOTT. I suppose there is some similar recondite allusion in that imaccountable decoration of every holy traveller's accoutre- ment, the scoUop-shell ? or was it merely used to quaff the waters of the brook ? PEOTTT. It was first assumed by the penitents who resorted to the shriue of St. Jago di ComposteUa, on the western coast of Spain, to betoken that they had extended their penitential excursion so far as that sainted shore ; just as the palm- branch was sufficient evidence of a vfsit to Palestine. Did not the soldiers of a Eoman general fill their helmets with cockles on the brink of the German Ocean ? By the by, when my laborious and learned friend the renowned Abb6 Trublet, in vindicatiag the deluge against Voltaire, instanced the heaps of marine remains and conchy lia on the ridge of the Pyrenees, the witty reprobate of Perney had the unblushing effrontery to assert that those were sheUs left behind by the pilgrims of St. Jacques on re-crossing the mountains. SCOTT. I must not, meantime, forget the objects of my devotion ; and with your benison, reverend father, shall proceed to examine the " stone." PEOTJT. Tou behold, Sir "Walter, in this block the most valuable 50 I'ATHEE PEOUT's EELIQUES. remnant of Ireland's ancient glory, and the most precioiiB lot of her Phoenician inheritance ! Possessed of this trea- sure, she may well be designated " First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea ;" for neither the musical stone of Memnon, that " so sweetly played in tune," nor the oracular stone at Delphi, nor the lapidary talisman of the Lydian Gyges, nor the colossal granite shaped into a sphinx in Upper Egypt, nor Stone- henge, nor the Pelasgic walls of Italy's Palsestruia, offer BO many attractions. The long-sought lapis philosophorum, compared with this jewel, dwindles into insignificance ; nay, the savoury fragment which was substituted for the infant Jupiter, when Saturn had the mania of devouring his child- ren ; the Luxor obelisk ; the treaty-stone of Limerick, with all its historic endearments ; the zodiacal monument of Denderach, with all its astronomic importance ; the Elgin marbles with all their sculptured, the Arundelian with all their lettered riches, — cannot for a moment stand in com- petition with the Blarney block. What stone in the world, save this alone, can communicate to the tongue that suavity of speech, and that splendid effrontery, so necessary to get through life ? Without this resource, how could Brougham have managed to delude the English public, or Dan O'Con- neU to gull even his own countrymen? How could St. John Long thrive ? or Dicky Sheil prosper ? What else could have transmuted my old friend Pat Lardner into a man of letters— LL.D., F.E.S.L. and E., M.R.I.A., E.E.A.S., E.L.S., F.Z.S., E.C.P.S., &c. &c. ? What would have be- come of Spring Eice ? and who would have heard of Charley Phillips ? When the good fortune of the above-mentioned individuals can be traced to any other source, save and except the Blarney stone, I am ready to renounce my belief in, it altogether-. This palladium of our country was brought hither origi- nally by the Phoenician colony that peopled Ireland, and is the best proof of our eastern parentage. The inhabitants of Tyre and Carthage, who for many years had the Blarney stone in their custody, made great use of the privilege, as the ^noy&vhs fides Punica, Tyriosque bilinffues, testify. Hence A PlEA I'OE riLGBIMAGES. 51 the origin of this wondrous talisman is of the remotest antiquity. Strabo, Diodorus, and PHny, mention the arrival of the Tyrians in Ireland about the year 883 before Christ, accord- ing to the chronology of Sir Isaac Newton, and the twenty- first year after the sack of Troy. Now, to show that in all their migrations they carefully watched over this treasure of eloquence and source of di- plomacy, I need only enter into a few etymological details. Carthage, where they settled for many centuries, but which turns out to have been only a stage and resting-place in the progress of their western wanderings, bears in its very name the trace of its having had in its possession and cus< tody the Blarney Stone. This city is called in the Scripture Tarsus, or Tarshish, ip'irnn, which in Hebrew means s valuable stone, a stone of price, rendered in your authorised ( ?) version, where it occurs in the 28th and 39th chapters oi Exodus, by the specific term beryl, a sort of jewel. In his commentaries on this word, an eminent rabbi, Jacob Eodri- gues Moreira, the Spanish Jew, says that Carthage is evi- dently the Tarsus of the Bible, and he reads the word thus — Uinn, accounting for the termination in ish, by which Carthago becomes Garskish, iu a veryplausible way: "now," says he, " our peoplish have de very great knack of ending dere vords in ish ; for if you go on the 'Change, you will hear the great man NichoUsh Eotchild calling the English coin, monuh." — ^ee Lectures delivered in the Western Syna- gogue, by J. E. M. But, further, does it not stand to reason that there must be some other latent way of aceountiag for the pur- chase of as much ground as an ox-hide would cover, besides the generally received and most unsatisfactory explanation ? The fact is, the Tyrians bought as much land as their Blarney stone would require to fix itself golidly,— " Taurino quantum potuit circumdare tergo ;'' and having got that much, by the talismanic stone they humbugged and deluded the simple natives, and finally be- came the masters of Africa. SCOTT. I confess you have thrown a new and unexpected light on E 2 52 FATHEE PEOn'S EELIQTJBS. a most obscure passage in ancient history; but how the stone got at last to the county of Cork, appears to me a difficult transition. It must give you great trouble. PEOTTT. My dear sir, don't mention it ! It went to Minorca with a chosen body of Carthaginian adventurers, who stole it away as their best safeguard on the expedition. They first settled at Port Mahon, — a spot so called from the clan of the O'Mahonys, a powerful and prolific race stUl flourishing in this county ; just as the Nile had been previously so named from the tribe of the O'NeUs, its aboriginal inhabi- tants. All these matters, and many more curious points, will be one day revealed to the world by my friend Henry O'Brien, iu his work on the Eound Towers of Ireland. Sir, we built the pyramids before we left Egypt ; and aU thos6 obelisks, sphinxes, and Memnonic stones, were but emblems of the great relic before you. George Knapp, who had looked up to Prout with dumb amazement from the commencement, here pulled out his spectacles, to examine more closely the old block, while Scott shook his head doubtingly. " I can convince the most obstinate sceptic. Sir "Walter," continued the learned doctor, " of the intimate connexion that subsisted between us and those islands which the Eo- mans called insula Baleares, without knowing the sigrufieatioQ of the words which they thus applied. That they were so called from the Blarney stone, will appear at once to any person accustomed to trace Celtic derivations : the Ulster king of arms, Sir William Betham, has shown it by the fol- lowing scale." Here Prout traced with his cane on the muddy floor of the castle the words " BaLeAEcs iSsulM='Eisrxi^ !" SOOTT. Prodigious ! My reverend friend, you have set the point at rest for ever — rem acu tetigisti ! Have the goodness to proceed. A PLEA FOE PILGEIMAGES. 53 PEOrT. Setting sail from Minorca, the expedition, after encounter- ing a desperate storm, cleared the Pillars of Hercules, and landing in the Cove of Cork, deposited their treasure in the greenest spot and the shadiest groves of this beautiful vi- cinity. SCOTT. How do you account for their being left by the Cartha- ginians in quiet possession of this invaluable deposit ? PEOUT. They had sufficient tact (derived from their connexion with the stone) to give out, that in the storm it had been thrown overboard to relieve the ship, in latitude 36° 14", longitude 24°. A search was ordered by the senate of Car- thage, and the Mediterranean was dragged without effect \ but the mariners of that sea, according to Virgil, retained a superstitious reverence for every submarine appearance of a stone : " SaXB, TOcant Itali mediis qase in fluctibus aras !" And Aristotle distinctly says, in his treatise " De Mirandis," quoted by the erudite Justus Lipsius, that a law was enacted against any further intercourse with Ireland. His words are ; " In man, extra Herculis Columnas, insulam desertam inventam fuisse sylvd netnorosam, in quam crebr6 Carthagini- enses commeirint, et sedes etiam fixerint : sed veriti ne nimis cresceret, et Carthago laberetur, edicto cavisse ne quis poBnA capitis e6 deinceps navigaret." The fact is, Sir "Walter, Ireland was always considered a lucky spot, and constantly excited the jealousy of Greeks, Eomans, and people of every country. The Athenians thought that the ghosts of departed heroes were transferred to our fortunate island, which they call, in the war-song of Harmodius and Aristogiton, the land of O's and Macs : ^iXraS' 'Agf/,odi, outs vou Tihrixag, Nnaoif d' IV MAK ag' XIN (fs (paeiv umi. And the " Groves of Blarney " have been commemorated by the Greek poets many centuries before the Christian era. 51 TATnEE pboitt's eemques. BCOTT. There is certainly somewhat of Grecian simplicity in the old song itself ; and if Pindar had been an Irishman, I think he would have celebrated this favourite haunt ia a style not very different from Millikin's classic rhapsody. PEOTTT. MilUkin, the reputed author of that song, was but a, simple translator from the Greek origiaal. Indeed, I have discovered, when abroad, in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, an old Greek manuscript, which, after diligent examination, I am convinced must be the oldest and .";princeps editio " of the song. I begged to be allowed to copy it, in order that I might compare it vrith the ancient Latin or Vulgate translation which is preserved rathe Brera at Milan ; and from a strict and minute comparison with that, and with the Norman-French copy which-is appended to Doomsday-book, and the .Celtic-Irish fragaaent preserved by Crofton Croker, (rejecting as spurious the Arabic, Armenian, and Chaldaic stanzas on -the same subject, to be found in the collection of the.Sojfal. Asiatic Society,) r have come to the conclusion that "the- Greeks were tlie undoubted original contrivers of that spl^hdid'ode ; though whether' we ascribe it to Tyrtaeus or GaUimachus will depend on future evidence ; and per- haps, 'Sir Walter, you would give me your opinion, as I have copies of aU the versions I alludfe- to at my dwelling on the hill. - SbpTT. I cannot boast, learned father, of .much vous in Hellenistic matters; but should find myself quite. at home in the Gaelic and Norman- Erench, to inspect which I shall with pleasure accompany you : so here I kiss- the stone ! The wonders of " the castle," and " cave," and " lake," were speedily gone over ; and now, according to the usage of the dramatist, modo Roma, modb ponit Athenis, we shift the scene to the tabernacle of Father Prout on Watergrass- hill, where, round a small table, sat Scott, Knapp, and Prout — a triumvirate of critics never equalled. The papers So iL^rp 1 lEiss ttiG Sione A PLEA Jl'OE PILOEIMAGES. 55 fell into my hands when the table was cleared for the subsequent repast ; and thus I am able to submit to the world's decision what these three could not de- cide, viz. which is the original version of the " Groves of Blarney." P.S. At the moment of going to press with the Doric, the Vulgate, and Grallic texts in juxta-position with the sup- posed original, (Corcagian) a fifth candidate for priority starts up, the Italic, said to be sung by Garibaldi in bivouac amid the woods over Lake Como, May 25, 1859. Dr Blame' i bosohi Bei, benclie fosohi, In Tersi Toschi Vorrei oantar — Lk doTe meschi Son fiori freschi Ben pittoreachi Pel passegiar. Vi Bono gigli Bianch' e TermigU Ch' ogntm ne pigli In UbertS. — Anch' odorose Si eoglian' rose Da gioyin' spose Kor di belU ! Miladi &ifra Si gode qni ir^ Immensa cifra Di rioehi ben, E tutti sanno Se Carlomanno E Cesare hanno Piii cor nel sen. II fier' CromweUo Si sa, fa quelle Ch' a sue castello Assalto di^, Si dice per6 Ch' Oliriero Al quartiero La breccia & I J J3oJicT)t "Hi JSlarnea. Quei luoghi dimqne Veggo ; chivinque Brama spelunche Non cerch' in van, Dentr' una grotta Vi'^ fiera lotta Mai interrotta Era gatti stran'. Ma fuor si serba Di musco ed erba Sedia superba Per qiii pescar Nel lago anguille j Poi faggi mOIe L'acque tranquille Stan per ombrar. Con cheto passo Si va a spasso Q.ui, fin che lasso Si Tuol seder ; II triste amante Pu6 legger Dante Od ascoltar canti DeUo pivier. Poi se la gonna Di gentn donna, Won mica nonna, Vien quk passar, H corteggiano Non pregh' in rano Sarebbe strano Di nou amar ! lutomo, parmi, Scolpiti marmi Vi son, per farmi Stupir ancor' ; Quei sembran' essere Plutarch' e Cesare Con Nebuchnezzere, Venere ed Amor ! cosa unica. Qui senza tunica ! Mentre oomunica Con altro mar' Leggiadra baroa ; — Ma ci vuol' Petrarca Per la gran carca Di quel narrar. Sar6 ben basso Se oltre passo Un certo sasso D' alto valor ; In su la faccia Di chi lo baccia Perenne traooia Kiman talor : Quel si distingue Con usar lingue Pien di lusinghe Per ingannar : Eamosa Pietra ! Mia umil' cetra Or qui dipongo Su quest' altar* 1 56 TATHBE PEOri'S EELIQTJES. W^t &xobtS of 3^laxntia. Le Bois be Blaenatf. I. The groves of Blarney, They look so charming, Down by the purlings Of sweet silent brooks, All decked by posies That spontaneous grow there, Planted in order In the rocky nooks. 'Tis there the daisy, And the sweet carnation. The blooming pink, And the rose so &ir ; Likewise the lily, And the daffodilly — All flowers that scent The sweet open air. II. 'Tis Lady Jeflers Owns this plantation ; Like Alexander, Or like Helen fair. There's no commander In all the nation. For regulation Can with her compare. Such walls siuTOund her, That no nine-pounder Could ever plunder Her place of strength ; But Oliver CromweU, Her he did pommel. And made a breach In her battlement. Clmrmcms hoeaget ! Vous me rimissez, Que d'lmantages Vous rStmissez ! Rochera sauvagea, Faisihles ruisseaux, Tendrea ramages De gentila oiseaux : Mans ee doux parage Aimaile Stature A fait 4talage D'eternelle verdure ; Et lesfleurs, a mesure Qu'ellea croiasmt, a raiaon Se la belle aaison Font brtller lew parure. IL Ceat Madame de Jefferta, Femme pleine d'ad^ease, Qui aur cea leaux deaerta S^gne en Jiere princeaae. File exerce aea droita Comme dame maitretae, Dana cette foriereeee Que la hautje vois. Flue sage millefois Qu' Sileni ou CUopatre, Cromvel seulput I'aUAtre, La mettant aux dboia^ Quand, allumant an miche. Point ne tira au haaard, Maia hien dana son rempart Fit irreparable breche. THE GEOTES OE BIAENET. 57 'H 'TX)j BXagnxn- Ti/j BXopviag ai i\«t $Epiffrai, Ka\Xi0u\\ai, "Ojrow (Tiyj peotKTi Ilqyai ;(/i9upi?ow(7ai' 'E/cowra yivvr\9tvTa 'OjlOIQ T£ VTivdlVTa Me<7(roi£ ev ayicoveo'irii/ Effr' aj/fle' jrerpwJtffffiv. E«i £} Se, fjiiKpe \iyvfj>tt)ve ] Ei rig re Kai Stairoiva Evet KaXq fiePoiVf AXaaOai Tejieveaai "LaitiQ ev (TKioeafftj Tiff evyevrjg ytvoiTO Avrriv oj avayoiTO Elf TTVpyOV Tl IJ TTpOJ (TE, Q XtBivov aveoc ye ! IV. Cemis in has valles Qu6 duount tramite calles, Hanc mente in sedem Per meditante pedem, Quisquis ades, bellae TransfixuB amore pueUae Aut patrise carse TempuB inane dare ! Dumque jaoes herbA, Turtur flet voce superbi, Arboreoque throno Met philomela Bono : Spelunca apparet Qnam dux TrojanuB amaret, In simili nido Nam fait icta Dido. 60 FATHES PEOTTT'S EELIQUE3. There are statues gracing , Tliis noble place in — All heathen gods, And nymphs so fair ; Bold Neptune, Caesar, And Nebuchadnezzar, All standing naked In the open air ! There is a boat on The lake to float on, And lots of beauties Which I can't entwine : But were I a preacher. Or a classic teacher, In every feature I'd make 'em shine t V. Dans oes classiques lima Plus iCune statue brille, Et seprisente aim yma En parfait dishabille 1 La Neptune on discerne, Et Jules Cesar^ en plomb, Et Venus, et le trone Dtt Oeniral Soloferne. Veut-on voguer au large Sur ce lac ? un esquif Offre a i'amateur craintif Les chances d'un naufrage. Que nc'suis-je vn Hugo, Ou quelqu' auteur en vogue. En ce genre deglogue. Je riaurais pas d''egaux. VI. There is a stone there, That whoever kisses. Oh ! he never misses To grow eloquent. 'Tis he may clamber To a lady's chamber. Or become a member Of parliament : A clever spouter He'U sure turn out, or An out-and-outer, "To be let alone," Don't hope to hinder him. Or to bewUder him ; Sure he's a pilgrim From the Blarney stone !* * End of Minikin's Translation of the Groves of Blarney. VI. Tine pierre s'y rencontre, Ettimable tresor, Qui vaut son poids en or Au guide qui la montre. Qui baise ce monument, Acquiert la parole Qui doucement cajole; , II devient eloquent. Au boudoir d'une dame H sera bien regu, Et mime a son insfu Fera naitre une flamme. Somme a bonnes fortunes, A lui on pent sejier Pour mystijier La Chambre des Communes t t Ici finist le Po^rae dit le Bois cle Bla; naye, copig du Livre de Doomadaye, a. d, loes THE GEOTES 03? BLAENET. 61 Effrt Siov roTTOV re. Tojv tBviKmv deiav Tt, Twv Af)va3tov KaXfiiV Tt' TloaeiSiov ijffs Kaiaap T' i^ou NajSExw^i^nffop" Ev aiSpif diravTag Ear' ijetv yv^vovg aravrag. Ev Xijivy ttrri irXoioj', Et ns TrXefiv dtXoi av *Kat KaXa offff' fyw ffoi Ou Swan' eKTViruiaaf AXX' El y' f 17)V Xoyirrrijc, H liSaaKa\oe iroipiaTtiQ, Tot' sKox^^Tar' av (70i Aci$ai/i( TO dirav aoi. V. Plumbea signa Dev Kat tv Taig ayopaiai " KadoXiKaif" fioaiai Lrinog aoi 'KoXovOtjati, Kai xEipaj - nensi. Ex Codice No. 464 in Bibllattiec& Bi*erae apud Mediolanum. 62 EATHEE PEOTJT'S EEHQTJES. leir A1J be le^nf beAijAjr A1 ajc reo Corii)-vil lejc] cuiD AfPAccAjr 6' r-*o*l'- Ca cAirlSAft 'pA cioiflcioll, ijAleopTC pleutiiA, a bAiiAiD ceAflA s'AnsMi) i)A TsnloT ; Her. Oliberi Cponjpll; »'F''i3 5° FA^ f, 21T fl') beAfiijA lijoit joijA (r&lcA ni).» No. III. TATHEE PEOrT'S CAEOUSAL. " He spread his vegetable store, And gaily pressed and smiled ; And, skilled in legendary lore, The lingering hours beguiled." Q-OLDSMITH. Bei'Oee we resume the thread (or yarn) of Prank Cress- well's narrative concerning the memorable occurrences which took place at Blarney, on the remarkable occasion of Sir "Walter Scott's visit to " the groves," we feel it impera- tive on us to set ourselves right with an illustrious corre- spondent, relative to a most important particular. We have received, through that useful medium of the inter- change of human thought, " the twopenny post," a letter which we think of the utmost consequence, inasmuch as it goes to impeach the veracity, not of Father Prout {patrem quis dicere falsum a/udeat ?), but of the young and somewhat facetious barrister who has been the volunteer chronicler of his life and conversations. For the better understanding of the thing, as it is likely to bejcome a quastio vexata in other quarters, we may he allowed to bring to recollection that, in enumerating the * Fragment of a Celtic MS., from the Zing's Library, Copenhagen. THE WATEBGEASSniLL CAEOUSAL. 63 many emiiient men who had kissed the Blarney stone during Ptout's residence in the parish — an experience extending itself over a period of nearly half a century — Doctor D. Lardner was triumphantly mentioned by the benevolent and simple-minded incumbent of "Watergrasshill, as a proud and incontestable instance of the virtue and efficacy of the talis- man, applied to the most ordinary materials with the most miraculous result. Tnstead of feeling a lingering remnant of gratitude towards the old parent-block for such super- natural interposition on his behalf, and looking back to that "kiss" with fond and filial recollection — instead of allowing "the stone" to occupy the greenest spot in the wUderness of his memory — "the stone" that first sharpened his intel- lect, and on which ought to be inscribed the line of Horace, " Fungor vice cotis, aeutum Eeddere quse valeat ferrum, exsors ipsa secandi" — instead of this praiseworthy expression of tributary acknow- ledgment, the Doctor writes to us denying aU obligation in the quarter alluded to, and contradicting most flatly the "soft impeachment" of having kissed the stone at aU. His note is couched in such peevish terms, and conceived in such fretful mood, that we protest we do not recognise the tame and usually uneicited tracings of his gentle pen ; but rather suspect he has been induced, by some medical wag, to use a quill plucked from the membranous iategument of that cele- brated " man-porcupine " who has of late exhibited his hir- Buteness at the Middlesex hospital. "London University, May ith. , "SlE, " I owe it to the great cause of ' Useful Kiow- l]sdge,' to which I have dedicated my past labours, to rebut temperately, yet firmly, the assertion reported to have been made by the late Eev. Mr. Front (for whom I had a high legard), in conversing with the late Sir "Walter Scott on the occasion alluded to in your ephemeral work ; particularly as I find the statement re-asserted by that widely-circulated journal the Morning Herald of yesterday's date. Were either the reverend clergyman or the distinguished baronet now living, I would appeal to their candour, and so shame 64 FATHEE PEOTJT'S EELIQ0ES. the iiiTentor of that tale. But as both are withdrawn by death from the literary world, I call on yon, sir, to insert in your next Number this positive denial on my part of having ever kissed that stone ; the supposed properties of which, I am ready to prove, do not bear the test of chymical analysis. I do recollect having been solicited by the present Lord Chancellor of England (and also of the London University), whom I am proud to call my friend (though you have given him the sobriquet of Bridlegoose, with your accustomed want of deference for great names), to join him, when, many years ago,.he privately embarked on board a "Westmoreland colHer to perform his devotions at Blarney. That circumstance is of old date : it was about the year that, Paris was taken by the allies, and certainly previous to the Queen's trial. But I did not accompany the then simple Harry Brougham, con- tent with what nature had done for me in that particular department. " Tou wUl please insert this disavowal from, " SlE, " Tour occasional reader, "DiONYsirs Laednee, D.D, " P.S. — If you neglect me, I shall take care to state my own case in the Cyclopaedia. I'll prove that the block at Blarney is an ' AeroUthe,' and that your statement as to its Phoenician origin is imsupported by historical evidence. Eecollect, you have thrown the first stone." Now, after considering these things, and much pondering on the Doctor's letter, it seemed advisable to refer the matter to our reporter, Frank Cresswell aforesaid, who has given us perfect satisfaction. By him our attention was called, first, to the singular bashfulness of the learned man, in curtailing from his signature the usual appendages that shed such lustre o'er his name. He lies before us in this epistle a simple D.D., whereas he certainly is entitled to write himself P.E.S., M.E.I.A., P.E.A.S., P.L.S., P.Z.S., P.C.P.S., &c. Thus, in his letter, " we saw him," to borrow an illustration from the beautiful episode of James Thomson, " We saw him charming ; but we saw not half — The rest his downcast modesty concealed." THE WATEEGEASSHILL CAKOTTSAl. 65 Next as to dates : how redolent of my Uncle Toby — ■ "about the year Dendermonde was taken by the allies." The reminiscence was probably one of which he was uncon- scious, and we therefore shall not call him a plagiary ; but how slily, how diabolically does he seek to shift the onus and gravamen of the whole business on the rickety shoulders of his learned friend Bridlegoose ! This' will not do, O sage Thaumaturffus ! By implicating " Bridoison," you shall not extricate yourself — " et vituld tu dignus, et hie •" and Prank Cresswell has let us into a secret. Know then, aU men, that among these never-too-anxiously-to-be-looked-out- for " Prout Papers," there is a positive record of the initia- tion both of Henry Brougham and Patrick Lardner to the dSreemasonry of the Blarney stone ; and, more important still — (0, most rare document !) — there is to be found amid the posthumous treasures of Pather Prout the original pro- ject of a University at Blarney, to be then and there founded by the united efforts of Lardner, Dan 0' ConneU, and Tom Steele; and of which the Doctor's " aebolithe " was to have been the corner-stone.* "We therefore rely on the forthcoming Prout Papers for a confirmation of all we have said ; and here do we cast down the glove of defiance to the champion of Stinkomalee, even though he come forth armed to the teeth in a panoply, not, of course, forged on the classic anvil of the Cyclops, however laboriously hammered in the clumsy arsenal of his own " Cyclopsedia." * This proieoted •university has since assumed another shape, and a house in Steven's Green, Dublin, ouoe the residence of " SmcA WhaUey,' or "Jerusalem WhaUey," (he having walked there and back for a wagerj, has been bought by Dr. CuUen, to whom Mr. DiaraeU will grant a charter to put down the " Queen's coUeges." The Blarney university woiild have cultivated fun and the genial development of nation^ aouteness, but the Cullen affair can ha,ve naught in common with Blarney, save being " A cave where no daylight enters, But cats and badgers are for ever bred!" a foul nest of discord, rancour, hopeless gloom, and Dens' theology, or as the Italiao version, page 55, has it, " In questa grotta Mai interrotta Yi e fiera lotta, fra gatti stran ! ^ 66 FATHEE PEOUT'S EEIilQUBS. "We know there is amotlier world, where every man will get his due according to his deserts ; but if there' be a limbus patrum, or literary purgatory, where the effrontery and ingra- titude of folks ostensibly belonging to the republic of letters are to be visited with condign retribution, we think we behold in that future middle state of purification (which, from our friend's real name, we shall caU FatricKs Purgatory), Pat Lardner roUing the Blarney stone, h, la Sisyphus, up the hill of Science. Ka/ fitiv "Sidupov eiaiidov x^arsp' aXys' sp^oi/ra AuTig i'Xsira teSovSs xuXivSito AAA2 ANAIAH2 ! And now we return to the progress of events on Water- grasshiU, and to matters more congenial to the taste of our Eegina. OLIVEE TOEKE. Regent Street, \st June, 1835. Fumival't Inn, May 14. Accept, Queen! my compliments congratulatory on the unanimous and most rapturous welcome with which the whole literary world hath met, on its first entrance into life, that wonderful and more than Siamese bantling your " Polyglot edition" of the " Groves of Blarney." Of course, various are the conjectures of the gossips in Paternoster Eow as to the real paternity of that " most delicate mon- ster ;" and some have the unwarrantable hardihood to hint that, like the poetry of Sternhold and Hopkins, your incom- parable lyric must be referred to a joint-stock sort of pa- rentage : but, entre nous, how stupid and malignant are all such insinuations ! How little do such simpletons suspect or know of the real source from which hath emanated that rare combination of the Teian lyre and the Tipperary bag- pipe — of the Ionian dialect blending harmoniously with the Cork brogue ; an Irish potatoe seasoned with Attic salt, and the humours of Donnybrook wed to the glories of Marathon ! Verily, since the days of the great Complutensian Polyglot (by the compilation of which the illustrious Cardinal Xi- menes so endeared himself to the bibliomaniacal world), since the appearance of that stiU grander effort of the " Claren- don" at Oxford, the "Tetrapla," originally compiled by the THE WATBEGEASSHILIi CAEOUSAL. 67 most laborious and eccentric father of the Churcli, Origen of Alexandria, nothing has issued from the press in a com- pleter form than your improved quadruple version of the " Groves of Blarney." The celebrated proverb, lucus d. non lueendo, so often quoted with malicious meaning and for invidious purposes, is no longer applicable to your " Groves :" this quaint conceit has lost its sting, and, to speak in Gully's phraseology, you have taken the shine out of it. What a halo of glory, what a flood of lustre, will henceforth spread itself over that romantic " plantation !" How oft shall its echoes resound with the voice of song, Greek, Prench, or' Latin,' according to the taste or birthplace of its European visitors ; all charmed with its shady bowers, and enraptured with its dulcet melody ! From the dusty purlieus of High Holbom, where I pine in a foetid atmosphere, my spirit soars afar to that enchanting scenery, wafted on the wings of poesy, and transported with the ecstacy of Elysium — ■ " Videor pios Errare per lucoa, amoenae Quos et aquffi subeunt efc aurae !" Mine may be an illusion, a hallucination, an "amabilis in- sania," if you will ; but meantime, to find some solace in my exile from the spot itself, I cannot avoid poring, with more than antiquarian relish, over the different texts placed by you in such tasteful juxtaposition, anon comparing and collatiag each particular version with alternate gusto. — " Amant altema CamcenEe." How pure and pellucid the flow of harmony ! how reaplbn- dent the well-grouped images, shining, as it were, in a sort of milky way, or poetic galaxy, through your glorious co- lumns ; to vhich I cannot do better than apply a line of St. Gregory (the accomplished Greek father) of Nazian- zene — 'H eofmz iTTiyii ev jSilSXioigi guil' A great minister is said to have envied his forei^ secretary the ineffable pleasure of reading " Don Quixote" in the original Spanish, and it would, no doubt, be a rare sight to. get a peep at Lord Palmerston's-Erench notes to Talleyrand.;; 68 FATHEE PKOTJt'S EELIQUES. but how I pity the sorry wight who hasn't learnt Greek ? What can he know of the recondite meaning of certain passages in the " Groves ?" He is incapacitated from en- joying the full drift of the ode, and must only take it di- luted, or Velluti-ed, in the common English version. N6runt fideles, as Tom Moore says. Por my part, I would as soon see such a periwig-pated fellow reading your last Number, and fancying himself ca- pable of understanding the full scope of the poet, as to be- hold a Greenwich pensioner with a wooden leg trying to run a race with Atalanta for her golden apple, or a fellow with a modicum quid of legal knowledge affecting to sit and look big under a chancellor's peruke, Eke Bridlegoose on the woolsack. In verity, gentlemen of the lower house ought to supplicate Sir Daniel Sandford, of Glasgow, to give them a few lectures on Greek, for the better inteUigenee of the real Blarney style ; and I doubt not that every member will join in the request, except, perhaps, Joe Hume, who would naturally oppose any attempt to throw light on Greek matters, for reasons too tedious to mention. Verb, sap. To have collected in his youthful rambles on the conti- nent, and to have diligently copied in the several libraries abroad, these imperishable versions of an immortal song was the pride and consolation of !Father Prout's old age, and still, by one of those singular aberrations of mind in- cident to all great men, he could never be prevailed on to give further publicity to the result of his labours ; thus sitting down to the banquet of literature with the egotistic feeling of a churl. He would never listen to the many offers from interested publishers, who sought for the prize with eager competition ; but kept the song in manuscript on detached leaves, despite of the positive injunction of tho sibyl in the .^neid — " Non foliis tu carmina manda, Ne correpta volent rapidis ludibria ventis !" I know full well to what serious imputations I make myself liable, when I candidly admit that I did not come by the treasure lawfully myself ; having, as I boldly stated in the last Number of Eeguta, filched the precious papers, disjeeti THE ■VTATEEGBASSHILIi CAEOTJSAI,. 69 membra poetts, wien the table was being cleared by Prout'8 servant maid for the subsequent repast. But there are certain " pious frauds" of which none need be ashamed in the interests of science : and when a great medal-collector, (of whom " Tom England" will tell you the particulars), being, on his homeward voyage from Egypt, hotly pursued by the Algerines, swallowed the golden series of the Ptole- mies, who ever thought of blaming Mr. Dufour, as he had purchased in their human envelope these recondite coins, for having applied purgatives and emetics, and every pos- sible stratagem, to come at the deposit of glory ? But to describe " the repast" has now become my solemn duty — a task imposed on me by you, O Queen ! to whom nothing relating to Sir "Walter Scott, or to Father Prout appears to be uninteresting. In that I agree with you, for nothing to my mind comes recommended so powerfully as what hath appertained to these two great ornaments of "humanity ;" which term I must be understood to use in its double sense, as relating to mankind in general, and in par- ticular to the litei-m Aumaniores, of which you and I are rap- turously fond, as Terence was before we were born, according to the hackneyed line — " Homo sum : humani nihil it me alienum puto !" That banquet was in sooth no ordinary jollification, no mere bout of sensuality, but a philosophic and rational com- mingling of mind, with a pleasant and succulent addition of matter — a blending of soul and substance, typified by the union of Cupid and Psyche — a compound of strange ingre- dients, in which a large infusion of what are called (in a very Irish-looking phrase) " animal spirits" coalesced with an stbundance of distilled ambrosia ; not without much eru- dite observation, and the interlude of jovial song ; wit con- tending for supremacy with learning, and folly asserting her occasional predominance like the tints of the rainbow in their tout ensemble, or like the smile and the tear in Erin's left eye, when that fascinating creature has taken " a drop" of her own mountain dew. But though there were lots of fiin at Prout's table at aU times, which the lack of provi- sions never could interfere with one w ay or another, I have fapecial reason for recording in full the particulars of this 70 TATHEE PBOTIT's EELIQUES. carousal, having learned with indignation that, since the ap^ pearance of the Father's "Apology for Lent," calumny has been busy with his character, and attributed his taste for meagre diet, to a sordid principle of economy. No ! Prout was not a penurious wretch ! And since it has been indus- triously circulated in the club-houses at the west-end, that he never gave a dinner in his life, by the statement of one stubborn fact I must silence for ever that " whisper of a faction." From the first moment of delight, when the perusal of George Knapp's letter, (dated July 25, 1825) had apprised Prout of the visit intended by Sir Walter Scott to the Blarney stone, he had predetermined that the Great Un- known should partake of sacerdotal hospitality. I recollect well on that evening (for you are aware I was then on a visit to my aunt at "WatergrasshiU, and, as luck would have it, happened to be in the priest's parlour when the news came by express) how often he was heard to mutter to himself, as if resolving the mighty project of a " let out," in that beautiful exclamation borrowed from his favourite Milton — " What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste with -wiae ?" I then foresaw that there really would be " a dinner" and sure enough there was no mistake, for an entertainment en- sued, such as the refinement of a scholar and the tact of a well-informed and observant traveller naturally and unafiieet- edly produced, with the simple but not less acceptable ma- terials which circumstances allowed of and a style as far removed froili the selfishness of the anchorite as the extra- vagance of the glutton. Prout had seen much of mankind ; and in his deportment through life shewed that he was weU versed in all those varied arts of easy, but still gradual acquirement, which sin- gularly embellish the intercourse of society : these were the results of his excellent continental education — TloXXciiv d' avS^WTTiiiv idov aSria, xai \iqov lyvu- But at the head of his own festive board he particularly shone ; for though in hia ministerial functions, he was ex- THE ■WATEEGEASSHIH CAEOfSAIi. 71 emplary and admirable, ever meek and unaffected at the altar of his rustic chapel, where > " His looks adorned the venerable place," still, surrounded by a few choice friends, the calibre of whose genius was in unison with his own, with a bottle of his choice old claret before him, he was truly a paragon. I say claret. ; for when, in his youthful career of early travel, he had sojourned at Bourdeaux in 1776, he had formed an acquaintanceship with the then representatives of the still flourishing house of Maccarthy and Co. ; and if the prayers of the old priest are of any avail, that firm will long pros- per in the splendid capital of Gascony. This long -remem- bered acquaintanceship was periodically refreshed by many a quarter cask of excellent medoe, which found its way (no matter how) up the rugged by-roads of "WatergrasshUl to the sacerdotal cellar. / Nor was the barren upland, of which he was the pastor (and which will one day be as celebrated for having been his residence as it is now for water-cresses), so totally estranged from the wickedness of the world, and so exalted above the common level of Irish highlands, that no whisky was to be found there ; for though Prout never openly countenanced, he still tolerated Davy Draddy's public-house at the sign of the " Mallow Cavalry." But there is a spirit, (an evil one), which pays no duty to the King, under pre- tence of having paid it to her majesty the Queen (God bless her!) — a spirit which would even tempt you, Eegina! to forsake the even tenour of your ways — a spirit which Pather Prout could never effectually chain down in the Eed Sea, where every foul demon ought to lie in durance until the vials of wrath are finally poured out on this sinful world — that spirit, endowed with a smoky fragrance, as if to indicate its caliginous origin — not a drop of it would he give Sir Walter. He would have wished, such was his anxiety to protect the morals of his parishioners from the baneful effects of private distillation, that what is called technically " mountain-dew" were never heard of in the district ; and that in this respect Watergrasshill had resembled the moun- tain of Gilboa, in the country of the Philistines. But of legitimate and excellent malt whisky he kept a 72 FATHEE PEOITT'S EBLIQUES. constant supply, througL. the friendship of Joe Hayes, a capital feUow, who presides, with great credit to himself, and to his native city, over the spiritual concerns of the GUin DistiUery. Through his intelligent superintendence, he can boast of maintaining an unextinguishable furnace and a worm that never dies ; and O ! may he in the next life, through Prout's good prayers, escape both one and the other. This whisky, the pious offering of Joe Hayes to his confessor, Father Prout, was carefully removed out of harm's way ; and even I myself was considerably puzzled to find out where the good divine had the habit of conceal- ing it, until I got the secret out of Margaret, his servant- maid, who, being a 'cute girl, had suggested the hiding-place herself. I don't know whether you recollect my description, in your AprD. Number, of the learned Father's bookcase and the folio volumes of stone-flag inscribed " Coenehi a Lapide Opera qu