Blue-Stocking Hall, (Vol. 2 of 3)Scargill, William Pitt
General
Blue-Stocking Hall, (Vol. 2 of 3)
Scargill, William Pitt
Epistolary fiction; Women -- Conduct of life -- Fiction; Women -- Education -- Fiction
But it seems that this precious morsel of antiquity, said to be the
pillow of Jacob, on which he laid his head, when he slept on the plain
of Luz, and dreamed of the ladder that reached to the skies, was really
wrested from Ireland (whither it had travelled from its original site,
first to Jerusalem, from thence into Spain, and thence again into this
country, where it lay treasured as it deserved to be, in the great
Cathedral on the rock of Cashel) by Fergus the First of Scotland, who
conveyed it to Scone, and on it the Scottish Kings were always placed
to be crowned, till Edward the First transported this "Patriarchal
bolster" to Westminster, where it is still preserved with veneration,
not unmixed perhaps with a certain dread of seeing the dynasty pass
away, should the stone set out again upon a _tour_, as the marriage of
Margaret of Scotland into the Royal Family of England, gave colour to
the fidelity of that prophecy to which I have alluded, when this bone
of contention quitted its Northern abode.
If Domine had not soon come to the end of his story, we should probably
have been out all night in the lakes, for so intense was the curiosity
of M'Carty and his myrmidons to devour every syllable of the tale, that
they lay upon their oars, and appeared in danger of being metamorphosed
into images of stone themselves, such fixed attention did they bestow
upon a legend which I am certain they quickly made their own.
To avoid producing a dearth of paper at Tralee, whence I procured
my last supply, I shall now pack you up, and placing you in the car
of a balloon, permit you no longer to loiter your happy hours amid
scenes of enchantment. You must neither land on Ronayve's Island,
nor accompany me to Fure Lake, nor wander by moonlight through the
Abbey of Muccruss, nor toil to the top of the eagle's nest, nor visit
Dunlow-gap, Mangerton punch-bowl, nor any other spot in this region
of fascination. Were I to indulge your passion for romance, and allow
you to linger any longer at Killarney, I should fear your becoming a
hermit, and requesting Lord Kenmare's permission to build a cell, in
which the remainder of your days would be dedicated to solitude and
contemplation. Take then your bird's-eye view of the map, as it lies
spread beneath you; return to your inn; with a mind torn between love
and curiosity, quit the society of our charming female companions,
leaving them under the care of Messieurs Otway, Oliphant, and Bentley
senior, descend from your balloon, mount a rough Kerry poney, and if
you can ride like a Tartar through the desert, you may join Russell,
Annesley, Frederick, Bentley _secundus_, and your humble servant,
in a two day's trip over Kenmare mountain, the Priest's leap, and
through Neddeen to Bantry. Oh Glengariffe, surpassing Glengariffe! thou
"brightest gem of the Western wave," in what words am I to paint thee?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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