Lord Brougham used to say that he always laughed at the settlement of pin-money, as ladies were generally either kicked out of it, or kissed out of it; but his lordship, in the whole course of his legal practice, never saw a captain of a man-of-war kissed out of forty men by two pretty Irish girls. After this, who would not shout “Erin go bragh!” ANCIENT IRISH LITERATURE. Number 5. The specimen of our ancient Irish Literature which we now present to our readers, is one of the most popular songs of the peasantry of the counties of Mayo and Galway, and is evidently a composition of that most unhappy period of Irish history, the seventeenth century. The original Irish which is the composition of one Thomas Lavelle, has been published without a translation, by Mr Hardiman, in his Irish Minstrelsy; but a very able translation of it was published in a review of that work in the University Magazine for June 1834. From that translation the version which we now give has been but slightly altered so as to adapt it to the original melody, which is of very great beauty and pathos, and one which it is desirable to preserve with English words of appropriate simplicity of character:-- THE COUNTY OF MAYO. I. On the deck of Patrick Lynch’s boat I sit in woful plight, Through my sighing all the weary day, and weeping all the night. Were it not that full of sorrow from my people forth I go. By the blessed sun, ’tis royally I’d sing thy praise. Mayo! II. When I dwelt at home in plenty, and my gold did much abound. In the company of fair young maids the Spanish ale went round-- ’Tis a bitter change from those gay days that now I’m forced to go, And must leave my bones in Santa Cruz, far from my own Mayo! III. They are altered girls in Irrul now, ’tis proud they’re grown and high, With their hair-bags and their top-knots, for I pass their buckles by-- But it’s little now I heed their airs, for God will have it so, That I must depart for foreign lands, and leave my sweet Mayo! IIII. ’Tis my grief that Patrick Loughlin is not Earl in Irrul still, And that Brian Duff no longer rules as Lord upon the hill, And that Colonel Hugh Mac Grady should be lying dead and low, And I sailing, sailing swiftly from the county of Mayo! For the satisfaction of our Gaelic readers, we annex the original Irish words: Condae Maiġeó. Is ar an loingseo Phaidi Loingsiġ do ġnimse an dubron Ag osnaḋ ann san oiḋche is ag siorġol san ló Muna mbeiḋ gur dallaḋ minntleacht is me a ḃḟad om ṁuinntir Dar a maireann! is maiṫ a chaoinfinnsi condae Mhaiġeo. An uair a ṁair mo chairde buḋ ḃreaġ mo chuid oir Dolainn lionn Spaineach i gcoṁluadar ban og Muna mbeidh síor ol na gcártai san dliġ bheit ro láidir Ni a Santícrús a dḟácfainn mo ċnaṁa fán bhḟod.