reflects great honour upon the Irish; and I would like to know if there are similar legends in other Christian lands, by which the people have acknowledged that they wish to be more closely connected with their heathen forefathers by such a reconciliation.

At nightfall we arrived at Cushendall, where we found a woman by a turf fire, who possessed in a high degree the "gift of the gab,"-plainly one of those gifts which, when the different qualities of mind fell down from heaven on the British islands, flew to the west side of St. George's Channel-none of it fell on the east. To the turf fire, which she blew for me, and at which I warmed my frozen feet-to the glass of whisky which she handed me, and which tasted of turf, like every thing else in Ireland-and to the oat-cake which she gave me with it, she added such a commentary of clack as I never before heard on matters so insignificant. Excellent as had been the entertainment provided for our minds on this journey along the coast, that for our bodies was proportionably bad; for, except one glass of whisky, one little bit of oat-cake, and a couple of gleaming sods of turf, no comfort fell to my lot on this journey. Add to this, the open car, the rain, the storm, and the clack of the woman with the "gift of the gab," and it will be readily imagined that it sometimes required all the beauty of the coast of Antrim to compensate for these unpleasant drawbacks. The driver had this advantage, that he had only to travel one stage, and then found another to take his place. As I could not bring myself to stop, I travelled on, exposed to the weather. "Indeed it is wonderful, sir, that you travel in such a night," said she with the "gift of the gab," as I was again making myself comfortable on the new car, with the aid of some fresh straw, while she lighted me with the lantern, and wished to give me another glass of whisky before starting, which I could not bring myself to touch on account of the repulsive taste of turf. However, people generally say that this turfy taste, which is at first so repulsive to the stranger, is particularly pleasing when he has once become accustomed to it; and I know many national dishes which have a flavour extremely disagreeable to those unaccustomed to them, but with which they afterwards become completely enamoured. Thus there may be also national weaknesses and failings, which people in time take for virtues.

"We are nearly alone, your honour !" remarked my new driver, as we turned landwards into the dark valley beyond Cushendall; for at Cushendall the road to the Giant's Causeway quits the coast, leaving to the right the north-eastern mountains and headlands of Antrim. "Indeed, Paddy," I replied, "I think we are quite alone perhaps you see some forms of Fingal's heroes, or

THE MAIDEN ROCKS.-A HEROINE.

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other beings, in the valley, and on that account you are afraid to say, without reservation, that we are quite alone. Are you afraid lest, if you should say we two are quite alone, some one should speak out from the darkness, Ha! stop! Am not I too here ?" " "Indeed, your honour! don't joke in this way by night. No, indeed, I repeat it, we are almost entirely by ourselves !" "The storm is here too, Paddy, and we can almost do without your horse (which you seem to have entirely overlooked), and sail over the hills before the wind!"

The night was pitch dark, and if the heroes of Ossian were but as luminous as decaying wood, we must now have seen them the more plainly, as the rain and hail had ceased, and only a dry storm swept over the rocks. When we came up from the valley on to the hills, our prospect became pretty extensive, and we recognised in the darkness five gleaming lights. One shone from a lighthouse on the opposite coast of Scotland, two from lighthouses near the entrance of Lough Foyle, and two others behind us, from "The Maidens" before described. The two last-mentioned pairs were twenty or twenty-three miles distant, and yet we saw them shimmering through the darkness as plain as stars, which were entirely wanting in our heaven. With what joy must not sailors, returning from America, behold these lights, and what a pleasing feeling of security must they not produce in them whilst engaged in their perilous voyages. Particularly, your honour," Paddy put in his word, "if they could persuade themselves that in each of those towers there lived such a brave maiden as now lies buried some weeks on the Maiden Rocks. Has your honour heard of this brave girl of the Maiden Rocks, who rescued a great part of a ship's crew?"

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I had, in fact, not heard it, although the story was well known through the medium of the newspapers. "Then you must listen to me, for it is a true story. Near those two lights which stand on two rocks, there are some other reefs, at the distance of about half a mile. A few years ago a ship ran on those reefs in a dark foggy night, when they could not see a cable's length from them. As the weather was uncommonly stormy, both ship and crew were soon reduced to a very deplorable condition, and in this state they were perceived next morning from one of the lighthouses, in which an old man and his daughter performed the duty. The poor sailors shouted for help, and made signals for assistance. But the old man shuddered at the idea of rowing through those raging waves, in a frail boat, to the opposite rocks, and he hesitated to embark in the dangerous attempt. His young daughter, however, a girl not quite twenty years old, moved by the cry of distress

from the unfortunates, sprang into the boat, boldly seized the oar, and having persuaded her father to follow her, they both rowed to the wreck, where they took in as many as remained still alive, and, with God's help, brought them safe back to the lighthouse. The girl received the thanks of the rescued and the applause of all Ireland, which filled every newspaper and every mouth with her praises. Large presents were sent to her and her father; advantageous offers of service were also made her, which she rejected, because she wished to remain with her father and her lighthouse. The whole circumstance is celebrated in a play, which has been often acted in London and Dublin. A couple of months ago this heroic girl became sick, and died soon after, and all the papers in Ireland noticed her death with grief. I wonder that some lord, excited by the girl's fame, did not travel to her rock, and woo her. Perhaps this would have happened, had she lived longer; perhaps she would not have died so soon, had a lover taken her from her rock."

At nine o'clock in the evening we arrived, on the wings of the wind, at Ballycastle. This little port lies near the sea, exactly opposite the well-known island of Rathlin. Here ends the mountainous district of the Glens or Glynns, and now begins a waving, high plain, which terminates towards the sea, in a rugged shore, more or less steep.

With the district of the Glynns ends also the Irish language. The people pointed out to me the little stream which flows eastwards from Ballycastle, as the boundary dividing the English and Irish languages. "On this side of the bridge," said they, "almost all the people speak Irish, but most of them understand English too. But on that side, from Ballycastle westward, no one understands Irish." For the last couple of miles from Ballycastle, I had a policeman sitting with me on our little car. I asked him if he had much to do here in the Glens. "Yes," said he, " we have much more to do than our companions near Londonderry. The people here in the Glens are more quarrelsome and unquiet than these in Derry, and we must keep careful watch. They would be very mischievous, if they were not so much afraid of the law. In the Glens, too, they are poorer than in Derry; as you must know, since you have travelled so much, that the Catholics are all over the world poorer than the Protestants." I give this man's testimony in his own words, for I believe there is some truth in it, but I do not venture to say how much.

At last a friendly little inn at Ballycastle opened to us its hospitable doors and calm chambers. We found a right comfortable room, a cheerful tea-table, a homely, warm fire, and by the fire

BALLYCASTLE.-AN AGREEABLE MEETING.

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-oh! wonderful! the last part of the before-mentioned popular rhyme about the counties of Down and Antrim: "The county of Antrim for lambs and lasses!"—lasses, young lasses! They had come, as the hostess told me, to pay a visit to their relative, the Rector of Rathlin; but the violence of the storm had detained them three days on the mainland, there being no fewer than eight fishing boats from Rathlin laid up in the harbour of Ballycastle for still a longer time, not venturing to return home on account of the high sea that ran between the island and the mainland, although the distance was hardly six miles.

I blessed the storm, however, which brought with it consequences so agreeable to me. One must travel in extraordinary weather to meet with extraordinary things; and the traveller in England may indeed call it extraordinary luck if he can take his tea at an inn in the agreeable society of young ladies; for in this country it is the general rule that every one, while sipping this beverage, should shut himself up in his own chamber, and, without troubling himself about his fellow-travellers, enjoy himself alone, or, at the most, whisper in a low tone with his own friends. But in the little inn at this end of the world, there were, besides the common sitting-room, only two small bedrooms; and as the storm and the darkness forbade all escape to Rathlin, necessity thus broke through the barrier even of strait-laced English manners, or rather unmanners. The young ladies were obliged to receive the wet, frozen, very pitiable-looking traveller, and make room for him at the fire, without asking leave of papa and mamma. I cannot deny that a certain love of mischief mingled with my feelings; for when I thought of those little Antrim mice, caught here nolens volens, I determined to take full revenge on English customs, which condemn the traveller to so many privations and tedious lonesome hours, and not to let them off so entirely undisturbed; that is to say, I resolved to pass the evening pleasantly, conversing with them to my heart's content.

was;

The ladies were, of course, called Misses Mac Donnell; for in this part of the world every respectable person bears that name. My last postilion was called M'Donnell, and an honest fellow he and even the innkeeper said his name was Mac Donnell. The estate of the young ladies' relation, the island of Rathlin, formed the principal theme of our conversation. Seeing plainly that I must relinquish all hopes of a visit to this island, which I had so much desired, for all told me that no one could take me across in this weather, I was obliged to be content with surveying it in the image which these Antrim lasses set before me; to which I afterwards added as much information as I could myself acquire from the coast next morning, through my telescope.

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CHAPTER XXXV.

THE ISLAND OF RATHLIN.

NAMES OF THE ISLAND-ITS VOLCANIC ORIGIN-PECULIAR TIDES-INTERRUPTION OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN RATHLIN AND IRELANDROBERT BRUCE-HIS SUCCESSOR-MR. GAGE-THE POSSESSORS OF THE SOIL-POPULATION OF RATHLIN-PONIEs and foxes—PREPARATION OF KELP THE USHET MEN AND THE KENRAMER MEN-GRAVE MOUNDSTHE CAMPBELLS-THE MONASTERY OF ST. COLUMBA.

The island of Rathlin, or Rachlin, or Raughlinds, or Raghery, or Rachery, for in all those different ways is its name written,is the largest of the islands which lie near the north coast of Ireland, and are considered as a part of it. All the others are small and insignificant, with the exception of Tory or Robber island, which is of some importance, and is inhabited. There are other ways of writing the name of this island, as Recarn, Recraiu, Raghlin, Rachri, Raclinda. Pliny calls it Rienia, and Ptolemy Ricinia. I cannot conceive whence all these names have arisen, since the inhabitants themselves, and the neighbours round, call it plainly Rachri, or Rachrin, in which they agree with Hamilton at the close of the last century, and M'Kenzie still earlier. It is thought that this name is compounded of "Ragh Eri" (Erin's Fort), which is not improbable, as the Irish have given to several of the islands on their coast names signifying their situation with respect to the mainland; for instance, they call the little island near Dublin, Ireland's Eye;" and the insular promontory in Connaught, "Erin's Head," (Errishead.) Rathlin consists of two tracts of land, united at a right angle. One of those arms, which runs parallel with the coast of Ireland, is something more than five miles long, and the other about three. In the middle, where the legs of the angle meet, is a bay, at the head of which stand the church of the island, and the seat of the Rector and owner of the island; whence it is called Church Bay. The entire island, as it stands, is the product of a volcanic eruption; the same, no doubt, which formed the opposite coast of Ireland, for the structure of both exactly corresponds. The basis is a white chalky limestone, on which rests a mass of black basalt, which shows itself in Rathlin, as on the coast of Ireland, regularly in a large handsome columnar formation.

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The tides and currents, which run near the island, and between it and the mainland, are particularly remarkable. This northern point of Ireland is, in this respect, as remarkable as the south-west.