Sure she died the day after too;-that is to say By the comrades of Cutty; and surely the pack The above is not a real Newtown legend, but only soi-disant. In short, it is an invention of the Author; founded on the resemblance to a man on horseback, of a decayed ash tree, either fallen, or flung as a bridge, across the stream at Ballina.-The resemblance was suggested by a lady, while on a visit to Newtown. THE WHITE LADY.† What art thou, phantom, dimly bright? Or rather art thou, Lady white, Say I. Chemise on bush, exposed at night, To dry? Art thou the sheep, that, washed to-day, * A being, supposed to be removed by the fairies, and something else substituted in its place, is, in the idiom of Irish superstition, said to be taken away. † A Newtown Apparition, supposed to haunt its upper grounds.-See Metaphysic Rambles, Dialogue 3, p. 41. Garret Byrne, an old resident in a cottage near the haunted spot. D In you, it seems more likely far, That we should meal-stained miller Yarr* Descry. Some will maintain that Lady White Is consort of a city knight: They 1-. Some call you cow, and some gray mare: And chattering folks conjectures rare Supply. Art thou one of our headless stud, Forth starting from Rath-planted wood? They white are.† But yon is not their ghastly bound: Frequenters of my lower ground They quite are. Be In summer. In early spring it might be so ; Flesh-numb-er. Group you may be of service trees, Gently ; That turning white side of its leaves, The sight with sudden glance deceives: How sly! * The Newtown miller, living not far distant. +The white squadron of headless horses, that haunts Newtown. See Spenser's Fairie Queen. You the gray Newtown Beldams call An apparition but that's all : In my eye.* You come, they'd have it, folks to scare : That you are an old goat, I've heard: O fy! That by old fox a brake is haunted, And the fox white too-may be granted; Provi ded we infringe not Newtown jokes ; That there abides but one old fox; Viz. I. Where else should an apparition be? † Ardrin; the name of one of the upper fields. An adjoining field is called the burial field. A small poodle; her name is generally abbreviated to Tar.-See first Dialogue, p. 108, &c. Her colour, when clean, is white. But she soon and daily scampers herself into a very different colour. As for gray wolves,-the last we had, Lang syne. Whilom, indeed, round bawn and keep,† But where is Newtown Castle now? And pine. Not for the wolves, but for the keep, 'Twere mine, If when said wolves were extirpated, For me. But let me make a frank confession : To be. I would return; but, sadly tired, Am shy. * This may be called historical. It is recorded that the last wolf seen in Ireland, was killed, above a century ago, in the wood of Derryadd, near Newtown. Of Newtown Castle, once situated where the south side of our present square of offices stands. An old gentleman, of the name of Digby, told the author's father, that his (Mr. Digby's) father, who lived to a great age, remembered, as he lay in the old castle of Newtown, to have been kept awake by the howling of wolves, collected round the walls of the bawn, within which the cattle were secured. |