620 Scenes in the Irish Highlands Cunnemara. [JuNE, 



guished, one standing occasionally in front of another ; seen from this, however, 

 they are, as it were, drawn up in line; and being all conical, or nearly so, their 

 appearance is at once unique and grand. 



Cliefden was our head quarters. On the second day after our arrival we rode to 

 Cleggan bay, a spacious inlet, with a bold promontory over its northern shore sur- 

 mounted by a square tower. The course we took, after passing Streamstown, was 

 to follow a wild and scarcely distinguishable track, called, by an audacious figure of 

 speech, a road, and descending to the beach ; from thence we proceeded along the 

 edge of of a stupendous range of cliffs by a path which no other animal but the 

 Cunnemara pony could tread in safety. It was a glorious day, and nothing could 

 surpass the beauty of the ocean except its sublimity. It was blue as the sky and 

 just sufficiently agitated to give the shore, as far as the eye could trace its windings, 

 an edging of spray which glittered in the sun like a fringe of silver. Even the 

 barren islands oft' the coast looked lovely, and reminded us of those in Comus, 



" Which like to rich and various gems inlay 

 The unadorned bosom of the deep." 



A few words about the ponies may not be amiss before we go any further. They 

 are a very useful and curious variety of the horse species. No mule in the Sierra 

 Morena has a surer foot on steep stony ground. It is in going up and down pre- 

 cipices, or in the rocky bed of a mountain torrent they excel ; on smooth level roads 

 they seem actually to'be at fault, and require the continual action of the spur to keep 

 them in motion. They prefer hard ground to soft, and will leave an elastic turf 

 fo ia path hewn out of the living rock, and strewed with blocks of granite. Their 

 maintenance costs the natives almost nothing. When unemployed they wander 

 like goats among the hills, and seldom or never receive the ordinary treatment of 

 horses, either in shoeing, stabling, or feeding. At Corriblodge we ordered one of 

 them a feed of oats, but he did not know what it meant, and positively declined 

 tasting it. In winter, when the peasants have little use for them, it is usual, we 

 were informed, to thatch them with straw, and in this extraordinary housing, they 

 are turned loose, to shift for themselves through all the vicissitudes of the season. 



One of our party being afflicted one morning with a violent headache, we had an 

 opportunity of observing the state of the medical profession in Cunnemara. A dose 



of medicine being advisable, recourse was had to " the doctor" of . It 



was no easy matter to get into his shop, the door being blockaded by a huge pig ; 

 at length it was effected ; there was no one there but an urchin without breeches, 



sitting on the floor. " Is Doctor F at home ? " " eh ! " the question was 



repeated again" eh !" " Zounds, man ! is Doctor F at home ?" " Oh, 



may-be its my father you want; he's in Galway this three days." " Is there any 

 one else here?" "Yes." "Who?" "My mother?" " Where is she ?" "She's 

 in Roundstone," (a place five miles distant). " Well, who sells the medicines?" 

 " Oh, any one that likes." " Why, might I take them ? " " You may if you like." 

 It seemed, however, more prudent to repair to the dispensary, where a rival physi- 

 cian was established. An old man was perceived engaged in feeding an immense 

 drove of geese and turkeys. " Is the doctor at home?" " I'm he, Sir." "I 

 want a little castor oil." " Oh, by dad, I hav'nt a drop ; bad luck to the fellows 

 in Galway, it's three months since I wrote to them for it, and they never sent it 

 ye f , devil's cure to them ! " Such are the sons of Esculapius in Cunnemara. 



We had a glorious day for the excursion to the Killeries, two creeks (for the benefit 

 of those who are not intimate with Irish geography) very unequal in extent, at the 

 northern extremity of the county Galway. The greater separates Galway from 

 Mayo, and is also the boundary of Cunnemara upon that side. At the upper end 

 of the inlet is a place called Leenane, where we were led to expect a wild, but 

 hearty and plentiful entertainment at the house of John Joyce, a renowned charac- 

 ter in the country, commonly called, from his gigantic size and personal prowess, 

 Shawn More or Great John. A hundred stories were told us of the various attrac- 

 tions of this place, or, as the narrators expressed it, " the capers of Leenane." The 

 word " caper' 1 stands in Cunnemara for any thing extremely curious or worth visit- 

 ing. A boatman of Mr Martin, expatiating upon the curiosity of some caves that 

 are to be seen at Cong in the county of Mayo, said " Your honours wont lave 



