Kilburn

“ Kilburn caught up his gun with one hand and his little girl with the other, and ran as fast as he could toward the fort. But before he could reach it he heard a yell, and saw the red men coming up from the river. Then he knew it would be in vain to try to get in, so he looked about for a safe place to hide Matty till he could come for her. He was a brave man, and could fight, so he had no thought of hiding while his neighbors needed help; but the dear little daughter must be cared for first. ”

“ Kilburn up, after the fashion of an ordinary jack-knife, and placed him in the barrel, wedge-extremity first, remarking, as he did so, “She is, is she?” He then rammed Mr. Kilburn carefully home, and put the cover on.
We learn to-day that Mr. Kilburn has resumed his professional duties on the road.
Document No. 28. Account of the same event from the New Centreville “Standard,” December 24th, 1878.
It seems strange that even the holy influences which radiate from this joyous season cannot keep some men [37] from getting into unseemly wrangles. ”

“ Mr. Kilburn emerged from the hostlery without Mr. McMullin. Mr. Kilburn, as we have before stated at his own request, is a gentleman of imposing presence. It is well that we made this statement when we did, for it is hard to judge of the imposing quality in a gentleman's presence when that gentleman is suspended from the arm of another gentleman by the collar of the first gentleman's coat. The gentleman in the rear of Mr. Kilburn was Mr. William Beauvoir, a young Englishman in a check suit. Mr. Beauvoir is not avowedly a man of imposing presence ”

“ With the proceeds he lived a merry life, kept open house at Kilburn Priory, entertained literary, artistic, and dramatic celebrities, purchased a smart carriage, and attended race meetings dressed in approved fashion. Nemesis came in the form of Mr. Fasson, who, while in the office, casually asked for certain certificates. ”

“ There is very little to remark on in this hill. A few of the houses on the west are not aggressively modern, but those on the east are all start [Pg 41] lingly new. St. Cuthbert's Church, built in 1887, stands at the end of St. Cuthbert's Road.
Howitt derives the name of Kilburn from Kule-bourne or Coal-brook. The earliest mention of this locality is when one Godwyn, a hermit, retired here in the reign of Henry I., and "built a cell near a little rivulet, called in different records Cuneburne, Keelebourne, Coldbourne, and Kilbourne, on a site surrounded with wood." ”

“ John Whitfield is said to have preached under this oak. Chalk Farm is a corruption of “Chalcot Farm,” a [156] picturesque farmhouse in whose vicinity duels were usually fought during the century gone by. St. John’s Wood was anciently a thickly wooded district sheltering an “Abbey of the Holy Virgins of St. John the Baptist.” Kilburn owes its name to the Kil, the Celtic word for a cell, occupied by “one Godwyne, a holy hermit,” beside the bourne, or brook. Maida Vale was so called in commemoration of the Battle of Maida, in which the English defeated the French, July 4, 1806. ”

“ KILBURNE, RICHARD (1605–1678) , Kentish topographer, born in 1605, was the fifth and youngest son of Isack Kilburne of London, by Mary, daughter of Thomas Clarke of Saffron Walden, Essex (Visitation of London, 1633–5, Harl. Soc. ii. 31; Kilbourne, Family of Kilbourn, pedigrees facing p. 8) . ”

“ Pearce J. 9 Johnson street, Paddington
Stephens W. 24 Torrington mews, Paddington
Todd —, 14 Charles mews, Paddington
Todd R. 5 Conduit street west, Hyde park
Todd —, 1 Upper Brook mews, Paddington
Ware T. 1 Church place, Paddington
Coach Painters.
Banks E. Hammersmith terrace, Hammersmith
Bullfin W. Queen’s place, Notting hill
Loader H. St. John’s mews, Bayswater
Maggs R. 14 Torrington mews, Paddington
Powell —, Carlton place, Kilburn
Tilley J. Queen’s place, Notting hill
Coachsmiths.
Butler R. 62 Market, Paddington
Ivey I. W. 11a Kensington square, Kensington
Coal Merchant and Companies. ”

“ All the morning and afternoon I searched up and down in vain, meeting not a soul nor any sign of my brother. With heavy misgivings I returned to my boat, and set sail once more towards Knockowen. Half-way down the lough it occurred to me that I would do better to pay a visit first of all to Kilgorman. After the scare of this morning’s business the rebels would hardly have the hardihood to meet there to-night; and although there was little chance of finding Tim there, the place contained a spot known to both of us, in which a message could be safely deposited. ”

“ Kilcorban, “what assurance! Why, madam, many a better man’s child would be glad to jump at such an offer.” “Dear madam,” said Miss Kilcorban, “perhaps the young lady has a better settlement in view. We forget Lord Mortimer has been lately at Castle Carberry, and we all know his lordship is a friend to Captain Fitzalan’s daughter.” “Or perhaps,” cried Miss Alicia, in a giggling tone, “she means to be a nun.” “Indeed, I suppose she means to be nothing good,” rejoined Mrs. Kilcorban; “and I suppose it was by some impertinence or other she had a tiff with Lady Greystock. ”

“ Miss Kit was in her wonted high spirits, and alarmed me by plunging at once into the story of yesterday’s adventure.
“Father,” she said, “why is Kilgorman all barred and bolted against its future mistress? Here was I, yesterday, standing humbly like a beggar on the doorstep of our own house, and obliged to slink away disappointed after all.”
His honour looked up with an angry flush on his pale face.
“Kilgorman!” cried he; “what took you there? Don’t you know no one is allowed within the grounds?”
“I didn’t know till Barry told me. ”

“ She’s more to me than all Kilgorman! Trust me, Mr Maurice—I’ll breathe never a word if you’ll but save Mike. It’s false—he never had a hand in it! Some day truth will out—if the lad’s mine no harm shall come to him. I’ll use him against you, Mr Maurice. The truth’s buried, but it’s safe. There’s more than earth under a hearthstone. ”

“ But Tim was not to be hindered, and paced sturdily down the long avenue, summoning me to keep close and hold my tongue, for fear any one might be within earshot.
Kilgorman was a big, irregular mansion of several stories, with some pretensions to architecture, and space enough within its rambling walls to quarter a ship’s company. In front a field of long, rank grass stretched up to the very doorway, having long since overgrown the old carriage-drive. In the rear was a swampy bog, out of which the house seemed to rise like a castle out of a moat. ”

“ Even Tim forgot the guns. With all the speed we could we ran to the stairs and so to my lady’s chamber, against which stood the friendly ladder, down which we slid, and not waiting even to restore it to its place, sped like hunted hares down the avenue and along the steep path, till we came to the harbour in the creek where lay our boat.
Nor was it till we were safely afloat, with sail hoisted and our bows pointing to Fanad, that we drew breath, and dared look back in the dim dawn at the grim walls and chimneys of Kilgorman as they loomed out upon us from among the trees and rocks. ”

“ My friend Captain Felton was my “best man.” At first our home was in Belfast, but we made frequent expeditions to Knockowen and Kilgorman as the countryside became more settled; for the place, in spite of all that had passed, had a fascination for both of us. And as the painful associations died away, we have long since returned to Donegal. There for many a day we and our little ones—beloved Tim and Kit and Eileen—have made our home by the side of our lovely lough, as happy a home as any to be found throughout Ireland, in a renovated and regenerated Kilgorman. ”

“ Now his honour’s order to me about Kilgorman had been a very strict one, so much so that I suspected he had a shrewd idea who it was, eighteen months ago, had broken the window and knocked over the stand of arms in the kitchen.
“Mind, Barry,” said he, “I allow no one on the road that leads up to Kilgorman. No one is to go to the house on any excuse. ”

“ Knockowen, next to the Cigale where Tim was, held what counted most to me of this world’s good. Kilgorman held the spirit of my dead mother, waiting to be relieved of its trouble. How could I desert the one or the other and call myself a brave man?
What I could not decide, fate decided for me. The cave below me was guarded by the pirate’s men, who clattered their muskets on the stones and kept a keen look-out on all sides for any chance intruder. To quit my present perch would be certain death. ”

“ If it was our wish to exhibit to a stranger the picture of an Irish estate in which all the blessings of good management, intelligence, kindliness, and Christian charity were displayed; to show him a property where the wellbeing of landlord and tenant were inextricably united, where the condition of the people, their dress, their homes, their food, and their daily comforts, could stand comparison with the most favoured English county, we should point to the Kearney estate of Kilgobbin ”

“ You may guess if I cast loose the boat with a merry heart, and bade farewell to my chance of seeing Tim, let alone of obeying my mother’s call to Kilgorman.
More than that, this voyage to Rathmullan reminded me of another time when my crew was more to my taste than this lumbering trooper; and, as if to complete my trouble, Miss Kit came down gaily to the jetty to speed the parting guest.
“It’s a pity we could not keep you, Captain Lestrange, till my father returned. You must come again when times are quieter.” ”

“ In later times, again, the Kearneys returned to the old faith of their fathers and followed the fortunes of King James; one of them, Michael O’Kearney, having acted as aide-de-camp at the ‘Boyne,’ and conducted the king to Kilgobbin, where he passed the night after the defeat, and, as the tradition records, held a court the next morning, at which he thanked the owner of the castle for his hospitality, and created him on the spot a viscount by the style and title of Lord Kilgobbin.
It is needless to say that the newly-created noble saw good reason to keep his elevation to himself. ”

“ Kilmore generally means the great church, but Kilmore, Co. Cork, is from Coillmhor (great wood) , and in many places in Ireland and Scotland it is difficult to determine whether the root of the names is cill or coill; Kildare, from Cill-dara (the cell of the oak blessed by St. Bridget) ; Kilmun, in Argyleshire, is named from St. Munna, one of St. Columba’s companions; Kilrush, Co. Clare (the church of the promontory or of the wood) ; Kells (the cells) is the name of several places in Ireland, and of a parish in Dumfries ”

“ I cared not much where the tide took me after that, till presently the tossing of my boat warned me that I must be on the reef off Kilgorman cliffs. In the darkness I could see nothing, but my memory was strong enough to serve for moon and compass both. On this tide and with this wind ten minutes would bring me into the creek.
Why not? Why not now as well as any other time? I was a man, and feared ghosts no longer. Love had been warned away from Knockowen; duty should welcome me at Kilgorman. So I put down my helm, let out my sheet, commended myself to my Maker, and made for the black rocks. ”

“ There are scores of men who will wait to hear what you and I say of this business. There are hundreds more who will expect us to disagree. Let us prove to them that this is no feud between Orange and Green, this is nothing of dispute between Whig and Tory, or Protestant and Papist; but a free fight, where, more shame to them, fifty fell upon one. Now what you must grant me is leave to send this boy back to Kilgobbin in my own carriage, and with my own liveries. There is not a peasant cutting turf on the bog will not reason out his own conclusions when he sees it. ”

“ I told Tim all I knew about her, and of my errand to Derry.
“What are the guns for?” said he. “What’s there to be fighting about? Man, dear, I’d like a gun myself.”
“There’s plenty up at the house there,” said I, pointing to Kilgorman—“two hundred.”
“Two hundred! and we’re only needing two. Come away, Barry; let’s see where they’re kept.”
“You’re not going up to Kilgorman House, sure?” said I in amazement.
“’Deed I am. I’m going to get myself a gun, and you too.”
“But his honour?”
“Come on!” cried Tim, who seemed greatly excited; “his honour can’t mind. ”

“ While I held his hand, stooping over him, with a heart too full for speech, he opened his eyes again, and said,—
“Barry, brother, you have forgiven me for that stone I threw at ye on Fanad Head?—ay, and the poor old mother is gone, and father too—and the guns are in Kilgorman—and Wolfe Tone is coming—and the French are preparing to deliver us; yes, they are on the way—and a time of joy is coming to Ireland—Barry, Barry, do ye hear the rustle of silk by the hearthstone? Do ye think the ghost is here?—I hear something—put but the light, boy, and lie close—there, there—my God, it is mother!” ”

“ I hear Gorman has become a rich man since. The English estates that belonged to the master of Kilgorman have yielded a great profit, and besides that he has got hold of the Lestrange property too. The young lady is an heiress, and this Captain Lestrange you spoke of, who saved them out of Paris, is not likely to lose the chance of getting a wife and his family estates back into the bargain. Don’t be a fool, Barry. You and I are only sailor lads. It does not become us to be hankering after heiresses. But the freedom of Ireland we may and must strive for ”

“ That was the time, when knowing that more of the Kilconnel boys were forced to come over the Crag-road—where no road was ever made, only all bog—the Kilmurray men laid wait for them, and snared them into a gamekeeper’s lodge, making believe it was a whiskey-still—just a place where they had plenty of the mountain-dew—which (bad luck to it) is a wonderful strengthener of sin, and kept them there drinking and dancing until the election was over; and then, leaving the Kilconnel boys sleeping, the Kilmurray men disappeared in the night. ”