ring mountain covered with rough, bent grass--or sedge, as it
is called here. Grey plover and curlew scud across the road, a sign of
hard weather, and near the rarer homesteads towers the hawk, looking
for his prey. Now and again come glimpses of the bay, of the great
island of Innisturk, of Clare Island, and of Innisboffin. Wilder and
wilder grows the scenery as we approach Grace O'Malley's Castle, a
small tenement for a Queen of Connaught. It is a lone tower like a
border "peel," but on the very edge of the sea. The country folk show
the window through which passed the cable of a mighty war ship to be
tied round Grace O'Malley's bedpost, whom one concludes to have been,
in a small way, a kind of pirate queen. As we approach Tiernaur the
road becomes lively with country folk going to and from chapel, and
stopping to exchange a jest--always in the tongue of the country--by
the way. In this part of the wild road the Saxon feels himself,
indeed, a stranger--in race, in creed, and in language. Now and then
he sees the Irishman of the stage, clad in the short swallow-tailed
coat with pocket-flaps, the corduroy breeches, the blue worsted
stockings and misshapen caubeen, made familiar by a thousand novels
and plays. These articles of attire are becoming day by day as rare as
the red petticoats formerly worn by the peasant women. On the latter,
however, may still be seen, now and then, the great blue cloth cloaks
which once formed a distinctive article of costume, and a very
necessary one in this severe climate. Presently jog by a few men on
horseback, very ill-mounted on sorry beasts, and riding in unison with
the quality of their animals. Men, women and children are in their
Sunday best, and to all outward appearance scrupulously clean. I am
constrained to believe that among the very lowest class--that which
comes under prison regulations--the preliminary washing is counted as
the severest part of the punishment; but the evidence of my own
eyesight is in favour of the strict personal cleanliness of Sunday
folk in this part of the country. Near Tiernaur I find bands of men
marching to the gathering, which is a purely local affair, not
regularly organized by the Land League. But the men themselves appear
to be very strictly organized, to march well, and to obey their bugler
promptly. They are all in Sunday clothes, wear green scarves, and
carry green banners. The latter are inscribed with various mottoes
proper to the occasion.