DOWNIE'S PASS.* INTRODUCTORY SCENE. INTERLOCUTORS. MYSELF AND A COUNTRYMAN; AND, IN SOME TIME AFTER, MYSELF AND A COUNTRY WOMAN. MUTE, (with the occasional exception of a neigh) MY MARE. Is there any name for this ford? They call it Athcoola, plaise your Honour. I believe this is the stream that supplies the mill. Where does it come from? Oh! it comes from Tubbernoga, your Worship, beyant Ballylevin.† * See Metaphysic Rambles, Dialogue 3, pages 41 and 42. The (I have no name for them but) poems, contained in this small volume, are now, for the first time, truants. Hitherto, they had not strayed beyond the small domestic circle, for which they were originally and exclusively intended. Tobar-na-hoga; the young men's well, or spring. Tobar is pronounced T'ubber.-Athcoola I take to mean the back or hindmost ford: the ford in the rear. B I never remarked this green lane, to my right, before. Why then, it is n't but it's in it, plaise your Honour, since the wars of Ireland. Sure that 's Downie's lane. And is n't there the War-bush, forenenst Blagrave's,—where I seen your Honour a Thursday,-that 's in it ever since Lady Offaley druv Crummel out of this? Why, you seem to know all about this neighbourhood. May be you can tell me the name of this hill. The Raw Hill, your Worship. And why do you call it the Raw Hill? Because there's a Raw upon it, plaise your Honour. sure there's a Raw in Newtown. And Is n't Kilyeenbeg a Raw? Musha! then, the never a plough goes into one o' them. The ould people does be saying it is n't lucky, plaise your Worship. By this time, knowing what was on the top of the hill, I had discovered that Raw means Rath.* You may be sure I visited the War Bush. follows, occurred. There, what * Rath is pronounced, by the lower orders, Rawh or Rah, which I take to be in accordance with the Irish pronunciation of the name.-In Ireland, it is common, to confound Raths, which were fortresses and magazines, with Moats and Cairns, which were barrows, or sepulchral mounds; or heaps of stones, found in the neighbourhood of cemeteries. At each interment, a custom prevailed, of having a stone flung, by each attendant, on this heap, which was thus gradually formed. Kilyeenbeg (I spell by ear,) I take to be, not a Rath, but a burial-place, doubly diminished. For I apprehend that killeen is a diminutive of Kil; and beg, which means little, or lesser, is added.-Musha, I take to be nearly equivalent to our English exclamation, well! or the Greek aμsλs. I believe musha means, be it so, or as it were. But in Irish I am scarcely even a smatterer. Nor, by the way, am I quite certain that I have rightly interpreted aμλ. Perhaps it rather means do not trouble yourself, or never fear. Your sarvant, Sir. (courtseying.) Well! my good woman, who are you? "The Widow Minton, plaise your Lordship; that lives in this poor cabin, myself and my posterity, ever since the wars of Ireland. Oh! sure, (in answer to a smile from me) all the neighbours can tell your Lordship. Sure I would not tell your Worship a lie." I suspect that my Raw Hill comrade had been telling the Widow of my talk with him, and preparing her for my probable visit to the War Bush; and that she hoped to win my antiquarian heart, by representing an almost ephemeral cabin as having been the cotemporary of Cromwell. I think I have met (perhaps in Shakspeare) with that confusion of ancestors and descendants into which Mrs. Minton fell. But it is not the less certain, that I am repeating truly, and in terms, the genealogical account which she gave me. began to think how the Author of Marmion would harmonize the uncouth and discordant names which I have been repeating; and my mare, in place of Muse or Pegasus, soon jogged the following verses out of me. It is plain enough, that the W. S. who composed them—was not Sir Walter Scott. DOWNIE'S PASS. At Downie's Pass the strife was warm, Its roar was Death; its showers were blood. |