The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
History
The Cathedral Towns and Intervening Places of England, Ireland and Scotland:: A Description of Cities, Cathedrals, Lakes, Mountains, Ruins, and Watering-places.
Silloway, Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Great Britain -- Description and travel
The house is solitary, and stands on the left of the roadside, with
high hills about it. It is but one story high, and is some forty feet
long, and twenty wide. It is made of stone, plastered and whitewashed,
has a thatched roof, and is occupied by the reputed granddaughter of
the famous Kate, and of course she bears the same name. On our arrival,
she appeared at her door as usual--an old woman of sixty years, of
small stature. She wore a short dress, heavy shoes, the inevitable
kerchief, or miniature shawl, folded diamond-ways over her shoulders,
and a frilled white muslin cap on her head. She held a mug in one
hand, and a common wine bottle in the other, with glass tumbler to
match. She poured out the goat's milk, and then naïvely, with an almost
young-maidenly tone of voice, asked: "And will ye not have put into it
a drop of the mountain dew?" We must, though total abstinence men, run
a bit of risk now, to do all that curious tourists do, so we said Yes.
A drop or two mingled with the milk, when the thought instantly came
that at home the dew would have been so like whiskey that we couldn't
convince ourselves it was not, and so we cried "Hold! Enough!" She
held, and it _was_ enough. A shilling was presented; but no, she had
done business too long, and her distinguished grandmother before her,
to be outgeneralled by Yankees, and so came a demand for more, which
was refused. Her maiden-like demure condition changed, and we left,
thinking discretion and valor were synonymous terms; and she, probably
of the same opinion, retired to try her luck with the next comer that
way.
And now we enter the Gap of Dunloe, one of the notable places of
Ireland. It is a narrow, wild, and romantic mountain pass, between
highlands known as Macgillicuddy's Reeks on the right, and Purple
Mountain on the left. The length of the pass is about four miles, and
the road is circuitous and hilly. At the side, and at times crossing
it, is a narrow stream called the Loe, at as many places expanded
into five small lakes, or pools. The mountain-sides are rocky and
often precipitous, and the road is here and there little more than a
cart-path, winding right and left romantically between these hills,
from which echoes finely the sound of our voices, or the bugle blown or
the musket fired by peasants for the tourists' amusement. The journey
is one thrillingly interesting, and about the only one of the kind that
can be made on the island.
One of the five lakes, each of which has a name, is called Black Lough;
and it is in this--a basin some one hundred feet long and thirty feet
wide, with walls of stone, partially filled with a dark water--that St.
Patrick is said to have banished the last snake. The guides have the
story at their tongue's end, and glibly relate it in a schoolboy-like
fashion, never tripping, nor leading one to so much as surmise that
they have not told the story before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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