Leitrim

“ Leitrim was not a very inviting country, and the undertakers were very slow to settle; so that the business was not done until far into the new reign, and was never done thoroughly at all. Carrigdrumrusk, now Carrick-on-Shannon, had been made a borough for the Parliament of 1613, and the castle there was held for the King, but was of little use in preventing outlaws and cattle-drivers from passing between Leitrim and Roscommon. A more vigorous attempt was made at Tullagh, a [Pg 167] little lower down the Shannon, where a corporation was founded and called Jamestown. ”

“ This in common with most others I have often felt, but rarely more so than during a casual residence some short time since among the little celebrated, and therefore perhaps a little more charming, mountain scenery of the county, which either has been, or might be, called Leitrim of the Lakes; for a tract more pleasantly diversified with well-set sheets of water, it would I think be difficult to name. ”

“ I blame the system, not the men. There were and are landlords in Ireland too noble to abuse their power, of which class the Earl of Belmore is an illustrious example; but these men are noble in spite of the system which afforded every facility for the enormities of Lord Leitrim. ”

“ Leitrim, and one of the judges of the court of common pleas in Ireland, by Bridget, daughter and heiress of John Sankey of Tenelick, co. Longford. He was educated at the university of Dublin (B.A. 1737, M.A. 1742) . After practising with success as a junior for some years he was appointed king's counsel and counsel to the commissioners of the revenue. ”

“ An ordinary sort of man, with the round face and mean features of the typical Keltic farmer. He holds that the people should take their political faith from their priests, but the Northerners hardly agree, and are not so proud of their cardinal as they should be, seeing that he has been raised from the ranks, his father (so they say) having been Lord Leitrim's coachman, and the coachman who was driving when Lord Leitrim was shot. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Armagh has an imposing position on the summit of a steep hill. ”

“ The gross amount which is levied off the people will be about fifteen millions and a half, or nearly one third of the total amount of the income of the country, towards which Ireland does not contribute a single shilling.
[6] According to the Government survey, Leitrim contains 375,992 acres; the valuation, including the houses of the gentry and shopkeepers, is L.120,000: add 25 per cent, or L.30,000, and we have the fair rent at L.150,000, or under eight shillings an acre. ”

“ Leitrim, and burnt five English castles; he died on 3 May 1274, and was buried in the abbey of Boyle. The chiefship of the Sil Muireadhaigh passed to the descendants of Aedh, elder brother of Feidlimidh, son of Cathal Crobhdhearg, through his grandson Eoghan, who died in 1274; but after the death of Turlough O'Connor in 1466 the clan lost most of its power, owing to its complete division into the two septs, of which the chiefs were called in Irish Ua Conchobhair donn and Ua Conchobhair ruadh, or brown O'Connor and ruddy O'Connor. ”

“ This family long maintained its independence; even in 1579, when the other existing counties of Connaught were created, the creation of Leitrim was deferred, and did not take place until 1583. Large confiscations were made in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., in the Cromwellian period, and after the Revolution of 1688. ”

“ The blood upon O’Connor’s blisters hardened with the heat, and [Pg 432] he had to be carried by four men until they found a lean and blind old horse, on whose sharp backbone the sufferer was rather balanced than laid. The Curlews were safely passed, and at daybreak on the sixteenth day of their pilgrimage O’Rourke’s castle of Leitrim was in sight. Of over a thousand persons who started from Glengariffe, but eighteen soldiers, sixteen horseboys, and one woman reached the house of refuge. ”

“ On a point stretching out into this bay stands his residence, Manor Vaughan. The road leading from Manor Vaughan to Milford is screened by a plantation of trees. On the opposite side of the bay the hills are really mountains. The murderers crossed the bay, tied their boat to a stone, and waited in the plantation. Lord Leitrim, with his clerk, was driven along on one car, followed by another containing his servants. His car, somewhat in advance, went slowly up a little hill. Those lying in wait fired; the driver fell dead. ”

“ Leitrim; and in 1887 one volume of the ‘Annals of Ulster,’ carrying that chronicle up to 1056. He translated the ‘Tripartite Life of St. Patrick’ (1871) ; revised the ‘Pedigree of the White Knight’ (1856) ”

“ I was a very young fellow when I first went out to Surinam. I have not been what I call "a very young fellow" for, anyhow, fifty years now, so that the survey I am taking is a fairly comprehensive one. Plantation life did not then hold out anything very seductive to my imagination. I considered cotton one of the planet's least romantic necessities. But it had been decided in family council, firstly, that some one ought to go out and work the place; secondly, that this some one ought to be myself. So I shipped from Hull to Rotterdam, and thence, per Hollander to Paramaribo. ”

“ Had the overlords been more considerate incorporation with Edinburgh would not have been so bitterly resisted. Several of the quaint bits of ancient Leith yet remain, and the appearance of the shore as it was in the 17th and 18th centuries, and even at a later date, was picturesque in the extreme. During the centuries of strife between Scotland and England its situation exposed the port to attack both by sea and land. ”

“ There were many wealthy people in the neighbourhood, and the poor-box generally yielded a plentiful harvest for the destitute.
'The key of the box was always kept in the rector's study, and occupied the same hook with the key of the church. The windows of this room were directly opposite to the church. No person had access to this apartment but Dr. Leatrim, his wife and son, and old Ralph. The latter kept it in order, for fear the women folk should disarrange his master's papers. He performed all the dusting and cleaning, and never was there a room kept more scrupulously neat. ”

“ Tears fell from the poor creature's eyes, which it is said often happens when a horse is going to be sold, and it acted in a strangely familiar way, as it moved its short tail restlessly and pressed close to the wall.
Gjermund did not know how it happened - he was probably in an excited mood - but he could not help thinking of the Grey, and the day it was taken away from Strömshagen. The Birkberg, with the grey houses and the red Evjen-Hof on the opposite side of the mountain stream, suddenly appeared before his memory as distinctly as if reflected in a mirror. ”

“ The Duchess walked with Letitia in the high-walled garden at Mandeleys, on the morning after her arrival. She appeared to be in a remarkably good temper.
"I have not the least intention of boring myself, my dear Letitia," she said, in reply to some conventional remark of her niece's. "So long as I get plenty of fresh air during the day, good plain food, and my bridge between tea and dinner, I am always contented. Let me see," she went on, coming to a standstill and pointing with her stick to the little belt of tall elm trees and the fir plantation behind, "Broomleys is that way, isn't it? ”

“ The mother invited the messenger into the house to get something to eat; he would need it, she said, to strengthen him for the evil work he had to do, and it was already late in the day. And now the two were standing alone with the horse. Sigrid put its head on her shoulder, patted its slender neck, and took out some bread and salt she had brought with her; but the Grey, which had neighed softly at her approach, would not eat. The animal understood that something was going to happen. Gjermund stood silently leaning on its back, gazing at her. ”

“ A day or two afterwards the newspapers contained the announcement of the marriage of Colonel Rupert Kirke, C. B., Commandant Kirke's Horse, to Olivia, daughter of the late Archibald Cunningham, Esquire, Bengal Civil Service.
No allusion to her being Falkland's widow, thought the young man bitterly, as he read the notice; it is as well, forsooth, that noble fellow should be forgotten. And yet, he added, apostrophizing himself, why be a hypocrite? You would have been pleased enough, you know in your heart, that she should forget Falkland for your benefit. ”

“ Latimer looked at him plodding along in the scorching, pitiless sunshine, a weary, bent man dragging one ill-shod foot wearily after the other, a man who had no faith in tenderness or love, no belief in the kindliness of human nature. He felt he hated him for one brief second, and then he pitied him. And yet it shamed him to think he had fallen so low that this man was his mate. He would get out, he would. There was a man he knew in Adelaide, he would go to him and ask him to give him another chance, for his father's sake to give him another chance. ”

“ To the west, the wide arms of the Granton breakwaters enclose a harbour, built at the cost of the Duke of Buccleuch. Nearer to Leith is the white pier-head of Newhaven, with stalwart fishermen, and comely fishwives in white “mutches” and short petticoats, grouped about its quays. Leith itself is an old as well as a brisk seat of trade and shipping. The large business it continues to conduct with the ports of the Baltic and the North Sea it has carried on for many centuries, and in these days it has extended its commercial [Pg 68] relations to nearly all parts of the world. ”

“ The information he obtained from this quarter did not lessen the difficulty.
'The Earl told him at once that he had given five sovereigns in gold, and that he believed the Duke of A——, who was a guest at the castle, had done the same; that a maiden aunt of the Earl's, who was very rich, had put in ten; and all the members of his household, not excluding the servants, who were constant attendants upon Dr. Leatrim's ministry, had given liberally; that the box must have been robbed, and that to a considerable amount. My uncle returned home a miserable man. ”

“ But when we had cleared the Roads of Leith and were making fair way down the firth, with a good north-westerly breeze behind us, then there was a sight worth the seeing. For behind lay Leith, with its black masts and tall houses, and at the back again, Edinburgh, with its castle looming up grim and solemn, and further still, the Pentlands, ridged like a saw, running far to the westward. In front I marked the low shore of Fife, with the twin Lomonds, which you can see by climbing Caerdon, or Dollar Law, or any one of the high Tweedside hills. ”

“ Yet when one Sunday, on the way home from church, three of the richest peasants, who had vainly asked for Sigrid's hand, walked stiffly and proudly past them, old Jon Evjen could not help saying, "it seemed to him she would reject all her suitors till there was nobody left except that brawler Gjermund Strömshagen, who could scarcely support himself on his farm." ”

“ They knew who Captain Blount was, had heard of him as one of Arthur's brother officers, but not a word of his coming to Castle Graeme till that morning.
One thing was good — they were not to arrive till late; and Lady Graeme breathed a sigh of relief as she read the words. Her housekeeping difficulties are great at this time of year, and potato-soup and Loch Fyne herrings would not commend themselves to the young guardsman as first courses, when his friend is there.
When alone, Arthur can make very short work of the soup, and will come back for herrings a second and a third time ”

“ I want you to give me some clue by which the real culprit could be brought to justice."
'The old man cast a hasty glance at his master, as if he could do so if he pleased, but remained silent.
'The look did not escape Doctor Leatrim's keen eye. "Speak, Ralph!
Speak out like a man. I feel certain that you know something about it."
'"And suppose I do,"—he came a step nearer to his master, and spoke in low, mysterious tones,—"that something had better remain unsaid. You are a rich man; twenty or thirty pounds are nothing to you. ”

“ Innocence is stronger than guilt. I never took the money. I know nothing about it, so help me God!"
'Dr. Leatrim's heart was touched. His eyes were full of tears. He made a motion to Ralph Wilson to speak.
'"Master George," said the old man, coming close up to the agitated youth, and laying his hand upon his shoulder. The lad shuddered, and shrank from his touch as if he had suddenly come in contact with a viper. "How can you speak in that hardened manner to your father? Are not you ashamed of what you have done? Will you add falsehood to theft?" ”

“ Of all the men in Lerwick, he knew best the king stories and the tellings-up of the ancients; and when the boats with bare spars rocked idly on the summer seas waiting for the shoal, or the men and women were gathered together to pass the long winter nights, Liot was eagerly sought after. Then, as the women knit and the men sat with their hands clasped upon their heads, Liot stood in their midst and told of the wayfarings and doings of the Borsons, who had been in the Varangian Guard, and sometimes of the sad doom of his fore-elder Gisli, who had been cursed even before he was born. ”

“ Leith Links, one of the homes of golf in Scotland, is a popular resort, on Lochend Road are situated Hawkhill recreation grounds, and Lochend Loch is used for skating and curling. There are small links at Newhaven, and in Trinity are Starbank Park and Cargilfield playing ground. The east pier (1177 yds. long) and the west pier (1041 yds.) are favourite promenades. The waterway between them is the entrance to the harbour. Leith cemetery is situated at Seafield and the Eastern cemetery in Easter Road.
The oldest industry is shipbuilding, which dates from 1313. ”