Various

“ They were all by this time heartily sick of Rooshkulum, especially the old lady, who had never left her bed; and one morning, feeling something better, she called the farmer to her bedside, and addressed him thus:—“You know, my son, that your agreement with that rascal will terminate when you both shall hear the cuckoo. Now, in my youth I could imitate the cuckoo so well that I have had them flying round me. Put me up, therefore, in the big holly bush; take him along with you to cut a tree near; I will then cry ‘cuckoo!’ ‘cuckoo!’ and the agreement will be broken!” ”

“ They went on tolerably for a few days, for they were afraid of Rooshkulum, and let him alone, till one morning the farmer told him he was going to a wedding that night, and that he might go with him.
“Well,” said Rooshkulum, “what is a wedding? what will they do there?”
“Why,” answered the farmer, “a wedding is a fine place, where there is a good supper, and two people are joined together as man and wife.” ”

“ Still, nothing daunted, he asked the master of the house at once for employment.
“Plenty of employment have I, friend, and good wages,” answered he, “but I am a man of a thousand: and I may also say, not one man of a thousand will stop with me in this house.”
“And may I ask the reason of this, sir?” said Mihal, taking off his hat respectfully.
“I will answer you immediately; but first follow me into my garden. There,” said he, pointing to a heap of bones which lay bleaching on the ground, “they are the bones of those unfortunate persons who have followed in my service ”

“ Having left a strong garrison in Limerick under the command of his kinsman Milo of St David’s, Reymond returned to Leinster with the remainder of his army. But in consequence of unfavourable representations respecting his conduct made to the king, he was on the point of returning to England, when intelligence reached Strongbow that Donnell O’Brien was again in arms, and investing Limerick with a powerful army; and that, as the garrison had nearly consumed their whole winter stock of provisions, immediate succour was absolutely necessary. ”

“ I could never refuse you any thing; and you will want the cake and the hen badly enough. And, Mihal, a vick asthore! if you should ever meet one of the good people, or any thing you may think isn’t right, pass it by, and say not a word. ”

“ It appeared to me an inconceivable caprice of nature to have produced such prodigies of perfection amidst such a rude and barbarous people, who value their women less than their stirrups. My companion, who like myself was obliged to accept of their refreshments, remarked to me, whilst the old man was conversing with them, what celebrity a woman so transcendantly beautiful as the daughter was, would acquire in any of the capitals of Europe, had she but received the benefits of a suitable education.—New Monthly Magazine. ”

“ This is, in its turn, a poser; but probably the number of schemes, tricks, and contrivances, in an Irish cranium, might be found as hard to be enumerated as the grains of meal in the aforesaid foot of stirabout!
Thus, while around the blazing turf fire, on a winter’s evening, the story, the pipe, and the joke, take their rounds by turn, you will invariably discover that that tale always gains a double share of applause which may contain a relation of some clever successful scheme or trick, or the “sayings and doings” of some remarkably clever fellow, albeit perhaps a great rogue ”

“ That agricultural improvement is extending with very rapid strides in many parts of Ireland, is evident to all who have had an opportunity of observing the country; the best proof of which is, perhaps, that our agricultural exports have been greatly increased for some years past, whilst during the same period the population has been augmented to a degree unprecedented in any of the old countries of the world. ”

“ Strongbow returned to Dublin, and summoning a council of the chiefs, it was determined to carry on the war with the king of Limerick with the greatest vigour. The success which they experienced might, however, have been of a different kind, if they had not been joined on this occasion by the king of Ossory, who had been already so grievously treated by O’Brien, and who was naturally rejoiced at the opportunity thus afforded him of wreaking his revenge upon his old enemy. ”

“ The farmer called Rooshkulum to him, and taxed him with what he had done to his mother.
“And,” said Rooshkulum, “could you blame me?”
“Why, no,” answered the farmer, remembering his part of the agreement, “I don’t blame you, but you must never do it any more. And now you must take these (pointing to the sheep) , and because the bog is soft on the road to the ‘land of the giant,’ you must make ‘the road of the sheeps’ feet’ for them to go over, and come back when they are fat, and the giant will support you while you are there. ”

“ Since these schools have come into action, an entirely new generation of cultivators has arisen; and the consequence is, that agriculture in Bavaria, and especially what may be called cottage agriculture and economy, is, as far as we are able to judge, carried to a higher degree of perfection than it is any where else in the central states of Germany; at all events, we can affirm that we never saw finer crops of drilled Swedish and common turnips, or finer surfaces of young clover, than we observed along the road sides in October and November 1828. ”

“ The death of Earl Strongbow, however, which followed soon after these events, once more restored Limerick to its native prince, never again to be wrested from him but by death. In consequence of the necessary departure of Reymond from Ireland, it was deemed expedient, as well by himself as by his friends, to relinquish the possession of a city so surrounded by enemies, and which it required so large a force to defend, and particularly as no person could be found willing to take the command of its garrison after his departure. ”

“ An editor is never wrong; it is invariably his “contemporary,” who has misunderstood or misrepresented him, either through ignorance or wilfulness. He did not say that—what he did say was this; and if his contemporary had read his article with ordinary attention, he would have found it so. ”

“ By gaining possession of Timbuctoo, Russia would gain possession of Africa; and by gaining possession of Africa, Russia would gain possession of Cape Coast Castle, the coast of Guinea, and the Cape of Good Hope; and by gaining the Cape of Good Hope, she would deprive us of the East Indies. And, pray, where would we be then? We put the question to our contemporary with solemn earnestness, and with calm composure wait for his reply.
Really, our friend “The Watch Tower” is but a so-so hand at politics. He positively should be more cautious how he speaks of matters with which he is unacquainted. ”

“ The agriculture of Bavaria has experienced a great improvement in consequence of the system of national education which has been adopted, and by the teaching of agriculture and gardening both by books and examples in the schools. One of the first consequences was an improved rotation of crops. Almost the whole of the details of agricultural improvement in Bavaria have originated with M. Hazzi, an agricultural writer, and editor of an agricultural journal in Munich. ”

“ The return of the king to England was soon followed by a general outburst of the Irish princes against the unjust encroachments of the adventurers, and Donnell O’Brien, once more taking possession of Limerick, led his troops, which were strengthened by the battalions of West Connaught, into the strongholds of the English in Kilkenny, who hastily retreated before them into Waterford, and left the country a prey to their devastations. ”

“ That our exporting food to such an extent is a proof of the wealth or happiness of those who produce it, may well admit of doubt, otherwise the miserable serfs of Russia, Poland, and other corn-growing countries, would be entitled to rank higher in the scale of happiness than the English farmers, who are not able to raise sufficient food for their own country! ”

“ The most pleasant feature perhaps in the whole, however—and it is one that pervades all the manifestoes of their High Mightinesses—is the obvious conviction of each that he is demolishing, annihilating his antagonist ”

“ But when, in the course of another year, neither Mihal nor Pauthrick appeared, the widow’s grief was unbounded. How was she, then, astonished, when “the fool,” as he was yet always called, although his real name was Rooshkulum, actually volunteered to do the same! Nothing could stop him: go he would. So the cake was baked, the hen was killed and roasted, and Rooshkulum, “the fool,” set out on his expedition. And there, at the rock in the wood, was that very same greyhound ”

“ Agricultural schools, with even a single acre of land attached, and worked by the elder boys on a system of rotation adapted to the ground and to the district in which it happened to be situated, would soon effect a wonderful reformation in the farming of the country. ”

“ Its king, Donnell O’Brien, was indeed one of the first of the Irish princes, who, forsaking the Irish monarch after the arrival of Strongbow, leagued himself with the English in support of Mac Murrogh, whose daughter, the half sister of the Earl’s wife, he had married; and as a reward for his defection, the king of Limerick claimed the assistance of Strongbow in attacking the king of Ossory. ”

“ We cannot, perhaps, better second the exertions of Captain Kennedy and other philanthropists engaged in the regeneration of their country, than by bringing under the notice of the public an instance of the successful working of the system we have here advocated. ”

“ In reply to certain captious remarks that appeared in yesterday’s Patagonian on our leading article of the 15th instant, we beg to say, for the information of the editor of that paper, that we did not say that Ministers were outvoted on the potato question. What we did say was, that Ministers would have been outvoted on that question had they brought it to issue. Strange that our contemporary will not read us aright. ”

“ The Erle was no sooner come to the city (Waterford) but a messenger from O’Brien, kyng of Limerick, repaired unto him from his master, praying hym with all his forces to march into Ossery against Donald, that common enemie. The cause of friendship between the Erle and O’Brien was, that O’Brien had married one of the daughters of Dermond, kyng of Leinster, and half sister to the Erle’s wife. Unto the message the Erle made answeare, that he would satisfie O’Brien’s request, and they met at Ydough, and being joined, their forces were two thousand strong. ”

“ But notwithstanding the pleasing proofs of improvements in farming which meet the eye of the tourist in various parts of the country, and particularly in the north, he will in too many places find it difficult to imagine anything worse either in the farms, the habitations, the cattle, or the implements, even should he extend the retrospect to a period ever so remote. ”

“ THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
THOMOND BRIDGE AND THE CASTLE OF LIMERICK.
There is scarcely in all Ireland a scene which has so many exciting associations connected with it as that which we have chosen as the pictorial subject for the present number of our Journal. The bridge is indeed a new one; but it is erected on the site of that most ancient one which was the scene of so many a hard-fought battle for all that men hold dear ”

“ The price asked for two cleaves was only 31⁄2d, but as demands of this kind ordinarily exceed the selling price, 11⁄2d might probably be set down as the utmost price of a single cleave; from this was to be deducted the price of the turf at the bog, the small surplus being all the gains for bearing this heavy burden, mostly up hill, and afterwards hawking it from house to house.” The cattle in the demesnes of the gentry and on dairy farms have in like manner been greatly improved within a few years, but amongst the small farmers the description of stock is in many places bad in the extreme ”

“ It was besieged in 1157 by Murtogh, the son of Niall Mac Loughlin, at the head of the forces of the North and of Leinster, when the Danish inhabitants were forced to renounce the authority of Turlogh O’Brien, and to banish him east of the Shannon ”

“ They [Pg 306] were, however, at length conquered, but not removed, by the victorious arms of Brian Boru, and afterwards Limerick appears in history only as an Irish city, though its inhabitants were chiefly of Danish descent. It was here that Turlogh O’Brien, king of Munster, received in 1064 the homage of Donlevy, king of Ulidia ”