80 A YEAB OF LIBERTY ; OB, 



local habitation " for her name. Thus are the mighty fallen ; and 

 can Antrim keep her feet ? Poor, dirty, tattered old dame ! yet she 

 was a sovereign once, till the quiet, orderly republico-aristocratie 

 BeKast took the crown from her brows, and employed, I must say, 

 the usurpation nobly. 



Fancy this long row of cabins with here and there a wretched 

 huckster, selling everything on the earth and under the earth, in a 

 space 9ft. by 7ft., sending two members to Parliament I Your 

 splendid premises, Mr. O'Dogherty, and yours, Mr. M'Manus, are of 

 course excepted. Then, too, she had a mayor, who was admiral 

 over hundreds of miles of coast, and rode in plate and mail, like a 

 good knight as he doubtless was, to collect his dues and astonish 

 the natives. But, apart from history, Antrim has a special chann 

 for me. 



How well I remember my last visit, when you, dear lady, in hat 

 plume and riding whip, walked by my side with a step more light, 

 free, and elastic than ever trod on earth. Do you remember, 

 brightest and pleasantest of companions? For the sake of those 

 days I will visit the " Bound Tower," if only to stand where we 

 stood, and once more make the Past present ; after which we will 

 swallow our grief at the '' Antrim Anns," even as you did the fine 

 lake trout, by way of a light refection before dinner. Dear old 

 happy days ! Ah ! Time, you are a sad thief. I wish from my 

 heart the autocrat of Bow-street would stop your proceedings, and 

 sign a warrant for your committal usque ad cetemum. 



Did you ever see a round tower ? Here is one, perfect as the day 

 on which it was finished. But who shaped this graceful needle ? 

 for what purpose was it erected ? Ah, there you are with your 

 questions, Mr. Brown. On my word of honour, I know no more 

 than the chairman of the Pre-Mediseval Society in Piccadilly. In a 

 legendary land like this it must be old indeed to have outlived 

 tradition. There must have been a sanctity about these mystic 

 towers, since no ingenious monk ever hatched a new old chronicle to 

 tell us all about them. The one before me is 95ft. high, and 

 scarcely greater in circumference than the trunk of many an old 



