XIII. The rack-the stake-the scaffold-what of these? Despite contempt, whose sole reward's a den So called-the treacherous shout-the laurell'd car, The hopes of better days that mock not fill- XIV. Yet not the feign'd eternity of name, Not pride, nor pomp, nor power, can bid forget- One faint glow lingering on the Spirit yet! Its torturers now-that touched with holier beam The glorious wretch, ere to true glory blind, He saved from the world's wreck but one poor dream Vain hope! Ambition's worm dies not till it consume! XV. Thus Pride, rapacious of the elect of heaven, Thus the "Lamp-Spirit" of genius, the God-given, Lies buried in the sepulchre of Youth Where all Life's choicest fow'rets scattered be, A heap of wither'd Hopes-HER meetest Monument! XVI. Whose bliss, Pass we to happier men, who prize the place Whose home is in the depths of glowing thought, To Joy, and Joy to that untold Sublime. Whose spell informing moves the troubled Soul, Even as the Angel's presence thrilled Bethesda's pool. Perhaps my Friend had in his thoughts a fine passage in Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre—“ Look at men how they struggle for happiness and contentment! Their wishes, their toil, their gold, are ever straining restlessly; and after what? After that which the Poet has received from Nature; the true enjoyment of the world; the feeling of himself in others; the harmonious conjunction of many things, which seldom coexist. From his heart-its natal soil, springs wisdom's fairest flower; others waking dream, and are vexed with unreal illusions from every sense; he goes through the dream of life as one awake, and the strangest events become to him a portion alike of the past and the future," &c.— Book II. If I cannot grant the full truth of all this, I can, at least, sympathize with the illusion. XVII. The Life of Beauty blooming thus within, XVIII. Ay, heirs of immortality, rejoice! Absolve your starry period! Time, of all Shall burst your bonds, unseal your clouded sight, And loose your panting souls to Freedom, Love, and Light! XIX. For me the blest prerogative, to feel, Is mine, and 'tis enough! to wander o'er Your phantom-peopled Isle-at least to kneel In rapturous worship on its magic shore! A blest abandonment of spirit,-such As on the margin of the lulling Stream, Unslumbering-for the eyelids do not close But Slumber hath no charm more still than this repose! XX. But to my task! for I have yet been straying Whispers of coming thoughts-these thoughts obeying As Echo's scattered images, that make A thousand phantoms of their master-sound; -Din, dimmer, dimmer still, yet still the same, XXI. Wave your wings, Let me retrace, and by this sounding Sea The accents of my youth-they float upon mine ear! 2 x .XXII. I hear the one Loved Voice! the quiet tone By Youth upon that shrine whose God is of this world! XXII. I look without me, and I find all cold! I look within, where yet-even yet-some fires Though few my years. Where are the high desires- A spirit-throng, to shadow forth the Boy Of gladness to the Man of grief, and shower A rain of radiance down-light on a withered flower! The visionary Sorrow pauses here! Some gleaming gush of light that broke in waves THE FORESTS OF IRELAND. THE present aspect of the surface of Ireland, almost everywhere denuded of trees, with scarce a relict of a natural forest, with very few plantations, whose age exceeds a century, exhibits a very unfavourable contrast, with the richly wooded and ornamented state of England. Strange as the fact may appear to our English readers, it is certain, that at no very remote period Ireland was far more abundantly furnished with natural woods than almost any European country. Noble forests once existed in every province, and even on the western shores, so exposed to the violence of the Atlantic gales, stately pines flourished in situations, where it is now imagined that no tree can vegetate. The most authentic evidence of the antiquity of our forests, and of the nature of the trees which composed them may be obtained from an examination of their remains which have been inhumed in the bogs. The great extent of surface covered by bog is wellknown to every one, and although it would be absurd to assert that in every case it owes its origin to the fall of ment of the present era. The timber One Vignoles, three layers of trees are to be found alternating with as many beds of peat, from three to five feet in thickness. The trees in each layer appear to have arrived at maturity, and could not have been co-existent. These trees are of enormous size, and many of them bear the marks of fire. It may appear strange to some, how fir trees should be able to support themselves on the unstable surface of a bog, but at present there are many thriving plantations of fir trees in such situatious, in several parts of the country. What human industry has effected, may also be accomplished without the interference of man, for fir seeds, if committed to the earth, can retain their vitality for many years, and afterwards vegetate when called forth by favourable circumstances. The following statement affords a very curious illustration of this remark. On taking in a common near Maryborough, trees were found at a depth of five or six feet. On the reclaimed portion, an infinite number of young Scotch fir sprung up. The common had been a sheep walk for several centuries, and was formerly part of the ancient manor of Dunamaise, and must have been cleared of trees about the time of the first arrival of the English.* We see, therefore, that nature possesses ample resources for maintaining a succession of trees, even in the most unlikely situations If the bogs afford us a record of the ancient forests of the country, at a period antecedent to the commencement of authentic written traditions, we will The origin of many bogs, from the de- find that in this instance the indications cay of ancient forests, is strikingly illus- of natural and civil history are in strict trated by the fact, that the roots of suc- accordance. We have but small faith cessive generations of trees have been in Celtic etymologies, which, as they found resting upon each other. A have the property of proving everybeautiful instance of a succession of thing aud anything, most unfortunately forests on the same spot, occurs near establish nothing; but it may be adPortmore, in the county of Antrim. mitted that in the present case, the The superficial stratum of bog timber, names of places afford good evidence in this district, consists of oak, often of the former wooded state of the of very great dimensions; beneath country, especially as this evidence is these we find another stratum of in harmony with what we know from timber, consisting almost entirely of other sources to have been the case. the trunks of fir trees. In the parlia- Thus, the word daragh, an oak, is an mentary reports concerning the bogs element in the appellatives of many of Ireland, there is an account of a places, as Kildare, Derry, &c. obvibog in which there is a succession of ously indicating that the places so dethree layers of roots of firs, proving signated were remarkable either for the that three forests have flourished in abundance or magnitude of their oaks. succession on the same spot. In In like manner, the word Jur, a yew Westmeath, according to Archdeacon tree, has been employed to desiguate Anthologia Hibernica. many places, as Newry Na Jur, or the yew trees, Ballynure, Killynure, &c.* Before quitting this part of the subject, we cannot but allude to a very extraordinary passage in the Brehon laws, which have been translated by Vallancey: "What are the timber trespasses?Cutting down trees, and taking them away, as airigh timber, athar timber, fogla timber, and losa timber. Airigh timber, are the oak, hazel, holly, yew, Indian pine, and apple; five cows' penalty for cutting down those trees; yearling cow calves for cutting down the limbs; heifers for cutting down the branches. Athar wood, are willow, aldar, hawthorn, quick beam, birch, elm; penalty, a cow for each tree, and a heifer for the branches. Fogla timber, are blackthorn, elder, spindle-tree, white hazel, aspen; penalty, a heifer for each. Losa wood, fern, furze, briar, heath, ivy, reeds, thorn bush; penalty not stated." We can scarcely believe that such absurdities ever passed for legislation, even in the most unlettered ages. It is far more probable, that they were the fictions of some idle and inventive monk. The expression, Indian pine, is alone sufficient to detect the true source of such imaginary legislation. The penalty of a heifer for cutting down a hazel or an elder, is abundantly ridiculous, if it was not outdone by the absurdity of imposing any penalty for cutting down furze, heath, or brier. During the twelfth century, and long before it, extensive forests abounded throughout the country, affording shelter for wolves, and all kinds of wild animals; the churches were built of timber, and in short, till the commencement of the 17th century, Ireland generally had more reason to give premiums for the destruction of forests than to enact laws for their perpetuation. Forests abounded in Ireland during the reign of Henry the Second, and down to a much later period, Shillela, (the fair wood) in the county of Wicklow, was famed for its beautiful oaks. "Tradition," says Mr. Hayes, “gives the Shillela oak the honor of roofing Westminster Hall, and other buildings of that age; the timbers which support the leads of the magnificent chapel of King's College, Cambridge, which was built in 1444, as also, the roof of Henry the Eighth's chapel, in Westminster Abbey, are said to be of oak brought from these woods. The destruction of our forests did not proceed with rapidity till the commencement of the 17th century. Dr. Boate, whose history of Ireland appeared in 1652, complains of the disappearance of the woods. Such, he says, has been the loss of timber, that in some parts of the country, you may travel whole days without seeing any woods or trees, except a few about gentlemen's houses, as, namely, from Dublin, aud from some places that are farther to the south of it, and to Tredagh, Dundalk, and the Newry, and as far as Dromore, in which whole extent of land being above three score miles, one doth not come near any woods worth the speaking of, and in some parts thereof, you shall not see so much as one tree, even in many miles. Still, many extensive forests remained. According to Boate Wicklow, King's County, and Queen's County, were throughout full of woods, some whereof are many miles long and broad. At this period, there were also great forests in Donegal, in Tyrone, and along Lough Erue, and in many other places in the province of Ulster. Peter Lombard, a Roman Catholic priest, who published an account of Ireland, in the year 1632, states that wolves were so numerous, that sheep had to be penned up every night, to protect them from those ravenous animals. Wild boars abounded in the woods, which also swarmed with martins, so that the chief wealth of the country consisted in peltries. Such an • Colgan, and other writers on the early ecclesiastical history of Ireland, have been at some pains to preserve the etymologies of the names of many of the localities in which monastic communities were established. Kildare, in Irish Kill-dara, was called in Latin cella quereus, or the church of the oak, on account of a lofty tree of that species which grew there. Derry derives its name from that of a monastery erected by Columba, at a place covered with oaks, called in Irish Doire Calgaich, which Adamnan renders in Latin by Roboretum, Calgaichi, or the Oak Wood of Calgaich. Durragh, in King's County, according to Adamnan, was formerly Dair-magh, which he translates by Roboretem, Campus, or the Plain of Oaks. Cloneneagh, near Maryborough, was called Cluneneduach; in Latin Latabulum Hederosum, the retired spot with ivy, or the Ivy Hermitage. |
