The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through IrelandNorah
History
The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Norah
Ireland -- Description and travel
Along the road, winding up and down among the hills, by sudden bogs and
rocky crags still more desolate and lonely looking, we came upon a
cultured spot, now and then, where a solitary man would be digging round
the edges of the rocks. Again we were among wild mountains heaving up
their round heads to the sky and looking down at us over one another's
shoulders. It brought to my mind the Atlantic billows during the last
stormy February. It is as if the awful rolling billows mounting to the
sky were turned into stone and fixed there, and the white foam changed
into dark heather. After driving some time the landscape softened down
into rolling hills beautifully cultivated, and sprinkled here and there
with grazing cattle.
We are coming to Gartan Lake, and where there is a belt of trees by the
lake shore stands the residence of Mr. Stewart, another landlord. He,
when cattle became high-priced, thought that cattle were much preferable
to human beings, so he evicted gradually the dwellers who had broken in
the hills, and entered into possession, without compensation, of the
fields, the produce of others' toil and sweat. His dwelling is in a
lonely, lovely spot, and it stands alone, for no cottage home is at all
near. He has wiped out from the hill sides every trace of the homes of
those who labored on these pleasant fields and brought them under
cultivation. Since the Land League agitation began he has given a
reduction of rents, and the whole country side feel grateful and
thankful.
There is no solitude so great that we do not meet bailiffs at their
duty, or policemen on the prowl.
We are now nearing Derryveigh. There are two lakes lying along the
valley connected with a small stream. My guide informed me that both
lakes once abounded with salmon. The celebrated St. Colombkill was born
on the shores of the Gartan Lake. Being along the lake one day he asked
some fishermen on the lower lake to share with him of the salmon they
had caught. They churlishly refused, and the saint laid a spell on the
waters, and no salmon come there from that day to this. They are
plentiful in Upper Gartan Lake, and come along the stream to the
dividing line, where the stream is spanned by a little rustic bridge;
here they meet an invisible barrier, which they cannot pass. I told my
guide in return the story of the Well of St. Keyne, but he thought it
unlikely. So there is a limit to belief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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