ough Derg, with its
far-famed isle, reposing there as the monstrous birth of a dreary and
degraded superstition, the enemy of mental cultivation, and destined to
keep the human understanding in the same dark unproductive state as the
moorland waste that lay outstretched around. I was soon joined by my
guide and by two men carrying oars, with whom I descended from the ridge
on which I was perched, towards the shores of the lake, where there
was a sort of boat, or rather toll-house, at which the pilgrims paid a
certain sum before they were permitted to embark for the island. In a
few minutes we were afloat; and while sitting in the boat I had time to
observe my ferrymen: one was a stupid countryman, who did not speak;
the other was an old man with a Woollen night-cap under his hat, a
brown snuff-colored coat, a nose begrimed with snuff, a small gray eye
enveloped amidst wrinkles that spread towards his temples in the form of
birds' claws, and gave to his countenance a sort of leering cunning
that was extremely disagreeable. I found he was the clerk of the island
chapel; that he was a sort of master of the ceremonies in purgatory, and
guardian and keeper of it when the station time was over and priests and
pilgrims had deserted it. I could plainly perceive that he had smoked me
out as a Protestant, that he was on his guard against me as a spy,
and that his determination was to get as much and to give as little
information as he could; in fact, he seemed to have the desire to obtain
the small sum he expected from me with as little exposure of his cause,
and as little explanation of the practices of his craft as possible.
The man informed me that the station time was over about a month, and he
confirmed my guide's remark that the Pope's jubilee had much diminished
the resort of pilgrims during the present season. He informed me also
that the whole district around the lough, together with all its islands,
belonged to Colonel L------, a relation of the Duke of Wellington; and
that this gentleman, as landlord, had leased the ferry of the island to
certain persons who had contracted to pay him L260 a year; and to make
up this sum, and obtain a suitable income for themselves, the ferrymen
charged each pilgrim five pence. Therefore, supposing that the
contractors make cent, per cent, by their contract, which it may be
supposed they do, the number of pilgrims to this island may be estimated
at 13,000; and, as my little guide afterwar