Westmeath

“ Westmacott, Richard, sculptor and writer on art, born in London, son of preceding; was distinguished for the grace, simplicity, and purity of his style as an artist; succeeded his father as professor of Sculpture in the Royal Academy, and wrote a "Handbook of Sculpture" (1799-1872) .
Westmeath (71) , an inland county in Leinster, Ireland; is mostly level and gently undulating; the soil in many parts is good, but little cultivated; the only cereal crop raised is oats, but the herbage it yields supplies food for fattening cattle, which is a chief industry. ”

“ He was paid one hundred ounces of gold for the kingdom of Westmeath in 1163. He again aided the Bishop of Derry, and the cathedral was rebuilt in 1164. The Ulidians attacked him in 1165, and he in return ravaged their country, banished Eochaidh MacDuinnsleibhe, their king, burnt their stronghold of Inislachan, and returned with much spoil. ”

“ The feeling against the Land League among the Conservative classes in the north is comparatively languid to the deeper and more intense feeling that prevails southward. The gulf between the two peoples that inhabit the country widens. After leaving Cavan we crossed a small point of Longford and thence into Westmeath, passing quite close to Derryvaragh Lake, and then to Lake Owel after passing Mulingar, getting a glimpse of yet another, Westmeath Lake. ”

“ He married Margaret, daughter of Count Molza of the duchy of Modena in Italy, and was succeeded by his son Thomas, sixth Earl of Westmeath, who conformed to the established religion, being the first protestant peer of his house. ”

“ We hear of no battle in Meath or elsewhere against him immediately preceding the event; nor, is it likely that a secondary Prince, as Melaghlin then was, could have hazarded an engagement with the powerful master of Lough Ree. If the local traditions of Westmeath may be trusted, where Cambrensis is rejected, the Norwegian and Irish principals in the tragedy of Lough Owel were on visiting terms just before the denouement, and many curious particulars of their peaceful but suspicious intercourse used to be related by the modern story-tellers around Castle-pollard. ”

“ On the borders of the Slieve Bloom Mountains there are some very rich and fertile pastures, and there are also extensive grazing districts on the borders of Westmeath, which are chiefly occupied by sheep. ”

“ Before leaving the country Henry granted to Hugo de Lacy all the territory of Meath, by the service of fifty knights. This included Westmeath, with parts of King’s County and Longford, and was about 800,000 acres in extent. De Lacy, to whom Hoveden gives the title of justiciar, must be considered as the first Viceroy of Ireland, and he lost no time in advancing a claim which, if successful, would make him one of the most important vassals of the Crown. Tiernan O’Rourke, the one-eyed King of Meath, consented to meet the Pretender at the Hill of Ward. ”

“ You are with all convenient speed to enter into and upon all and every the honors, baronies, manners, castles, messuages, and other the lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever mentioned in your commission, lying within the said county of Westmeath. And by your oathes of good and lawfull men, and by all other lawfull wayes and meanes, you are to inquire and find out the premisses, and every of them, with their and every of their appurtenances. ”

“ King John, “Lord” of Ireland, formed twelve of them in the twelfth century—Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Uriel (or Louth) , Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary. Henry VIII divided Meath proper into two counties and called one Westmeath. King’s and Queen’s Counties were formed in the reign of Mary I, who married Philip II of Spain, out of the old districts of Leix and Offaly. Hence their capitals are called, respectively, Philipstown and Maryborough. The county Longford was formed out of the territory of Annaly, by Deputy Sir Henry Sydney, about 1565. ”

“ George Rochfort (d. 1730) , long M.P. for Westmeath, married Lady Betty, daughter of Henry Moore, third earl of Drogheda; his son Robert (1708–1774) represented Westmeath till 1737, when he was created an Irish peer, with the title of Baron Bellfield, and subsequently Viscount Bellfield (1751) and Earl of Belvedere (1757) . The title became extinct on the death of the first earl's son George (1738–1814) , who sold Gaulstown to Sir John Browne, first lord Kilmaine, and left all his unentailed estates to his widow, Jane, daughter of the Rev. ”

“ MEATH (pronounced with th soft, as in the) , a county of Ireland in the province of Leinster, bounded E. by the Irish Sea, S.E. by Dublin, S. by Kildare and King’s County, W. by Westmeath, N.W. by Cavan and Monaghan, and N.E. by Louth. Area 579,320 acres, or about 905 sq. m. In some districts the surface is varied by hills and swells, which to the west reach a considerable elevation, although the general features of a fine champain country are never lost. The coast, low and shelving, extends about 10 m., but there is no harbour of importance. Laytown is a small seaside resort, 5 m. ”

“ The last, and it is hoped it will be the last, signal act of treachery in Ireland was committed by the descendant of a settler, Colonel Henry Luttrell, who "sold the pass" at Limerick to King William's forces. Lord Westmeath afterwards endeavoured, but ineffectually, to acquit this unhappy man of the charge; see Ferrar's History of Limerick, 354. He survived, an object of general execration, until the year 1717, when he was shot in a sedan chair in Stafford-street, Dublin. The following Epigram was composed on his death—
If heaven be pleased when mortals cease to sin. ”

“ Weston had organized his larger expedition, and it was already on the sea, having sailed from London about the 1st of April. Thus Thomas Weston played a very prominent part in the early settlement of Weymouth, as he had already done in that of Plymouth. He was always called a merchant, but in fact he was a pure sixteenth century adventurer of the Smith and Raleigh stamp,—a man whose brain teemed with schemes for the deriving of sudden gain from the settlement of the new continent. ”

“ One who has studied the Westmorland character, says that its meaning is, that the people living on the banks of the Eden are as firm and persevering in their own way as the river itself; and that when they have once made up their minds as to what is their duty, all attempts to turn them aside from walking in the right way and doing their duty are equally futile.'
'Hurrah for the Edenites!' exclaimed Roy, enthusiastically. 'I don't believe there is a county in England to beat Westmorland.'
'I must tell you what a quaint old writer says of it. ”

“ The views from Ditchling, though fine, are not nearly the best, for there is a tameness in the immediate country to the north. A glorious walk, however, can be taken by keeping along the edge past "Black Cap," the clump of trees about two miles east, and then either over or round Mount Harry to Lewes. Those who must see all the settlements of men should proceed downwards to Westmeston, a beautiful little place embowered in trees, some of which are magnificent in shape and size, particularly the great ash at the east of the church which is literally overshadowed by the Beacon. ”

“ As for Weston’s colony, this was the last of it. Some of the better of the pioneers went to Plymouth; others finally found their way back to England. They had landed under far better auspices than the Pilgrims. They were welcomed by fellow-countrymen, and sheltered throughout the winter. They commenced their settlement in the summer, when nature laughed, and the hill-sides were gay with flowers, and the air sweet with the songs of birds. They possessed a ship. They had been left competently provided in the wilderness. ”

“ It stands at the landward extreme of a rocky ledge, on the margin of a green àiridh. Westward is a small dark-blue sea loch, no more than a narrow haven. To the north-west rise precipitous cliffs; northward, above the green pasture and a stretch of heather, is a woodland belt of some three or four hundred pine-trees. It well deserves its poetic name of I-monair, as Aodh the Islander sang of it; for it echoes ceaselessly with wind and wave. If the waves dash against it from the south or east, a loud crying is upon the faces of the rocks ”

“ The essential fact, stated on this best of authority, is, that “Mr. Weston and the chiefe of them [their sponsors, i.e. Weston and Lord Warwick, both in league with Gorges] begane to incline to Gorges’s new Council for New England.” Such an attitude (evidently taken insidiously) meant, on Weston’s part, of necessity, no less than treachery to his associates of the Adventurers; to the (London) Virginia Company, and to the Leyden company and their allied English colonists, in the interest of Sir Ferdinando Gorges and his schemes and of the new “Council” that Gorges was organizing. ”

“ We fight against the devil himself; and stronger is He that is within us than he that is against us.
Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied the fleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her Majesty the slip, and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's advice. It is likely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it. At all events, on the 11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says Mr. Hayes, "in number about 260 men, among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths, and suchlike, requisite for such an action ”

“ A group of small houses clustered round the village church of Westmorton, distant about three miles from the mansion of the Collingham family; and a solitary posting-house, on what was then the great north road, could be reached by a horseman in about an hour, though the only practicable road for carriages was at least fifteen miles from the highway to Collingham-Westmore. Wild and lovely in the eyes of an admirer of nature were the hills and ‘cloughs’ among which I pursued my botanical studies for many a long, silent summer day. ”

“ He seemed anxious to learn the condition and prospects of Weston’s settlement, and was evidently ignorant of its untoward fate. On being informed of the conspiracy, massacre, and abandonment of the project, he seemed to be profoundly agitated. This stranger was Weston himself, once a prosperous London merchant, now alone in the wilderness, a ruined man. “A strange alteration there was in him to those who had known him in his former flourishing condition,” moralizes the old Plymouth governor; “so uncertain are the mutable things of this unstable world. ”

“ As yet Tom had had little opportunity to look at the many points of interest around West Point, with its Revolutionary associations, and the part it played in the treason of Arnold. He made up his mind that some day he would take the time to visit all these spots and see those which history had made famous.
The four chums started off together, bent on having a good time. Money rattled in the pockets of Sam, at least. As a matter of fact, cadets are not supposed to have any cash. ”

“ Before leaving Pevensey I must say a word of Westham, the village which adjoins it. Westham and Pevensey are practically one, the castle intervening. Westham has a vicar whose interest in his office might well be imitated by some of the other vicars of the county. His noble church, one of the finest in Sussex, with a tower of superb strength and dignity, is kept open, and just within is a table on which are a number of copies of a little penny history of Westham which he has prepared, and for the payment of which he is so eccentric as to trust to the stranger's honesty. ”

“ Shortly before the three chums had been telling one another some of their experiences [Pg 77] before they came to West Point, and all had agreed that the fun they had had while camping in the summer was best of all.
“Oh well, we’ll have a taste of camp life here,” observed Harry, as he looked around the room, to make sure it was in perfect order against the unexpected inspection of some “tac.”
“Yes we’ll have a taste of it, and that’s about all!” Tom went on. “We’ll have to drill harder than we do now, and we’ll have to wait on some of the upper classmen like slaves.” ”

“ His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay to look at them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the ocean; and the ocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move Westward-ho. Perhaps we may move that way ourselves some day, Amyas. ”

“ The Westons soon became favourites with both the officers and cabin passengers of the Surat Castle. Mr Weston himself was a well-bred, well-informed man of pleasing address and manners; in person tall and powerfully built (old Weatherhelm was the only one on board who approached him in height) , with a handsome but rather sad countenance, and dark curly hair just slightly grizzled.
George Weston, though he had not had the advantage of a public-school education, was as nice a lad as anyone could wish to meet; well-behaved and intelligent, quiet and studiously inclined. ”

“ I have lost the best friend and the noblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, in that same confounded gulf of Westward-ho.”
“Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West—why not? Sun, moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lower world? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?”
“God forbid, Frank!”
“Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams? Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, and long to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? ”