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CHAPTER XIX. 



Irish Ruins Church Islands Things in General Boyle Lough Gara 

 Lough Key Lough Arrow Prophetic of Good We go to the Erne. 



Boyle, June 8, 

 Ireland lias been called ''the land of ruins." Poets have employed 

 the theme to make us sad orators to make us savage. The former 

 asked only a sentimental tear, but the latter, by party legislation, 

 senseless clamour, abuse, and bigotry, for many and many a year 

 raised men's blood to the boiling point, and scalded poor common 

 sense and charity nearly to death. No one need deny Ireland to be 

 a land of ruins, but this is a far different thing from a ruined land ; 

 and that she does not present this mournful spectacle is certainly 

 not the fault of the oratorical quacks, who not so long since under- 

 took to cure all her earthly ills. She is pre-eminently' a land of 

 ruins, and possesses monuments as old, if not older, than any other 

 country in Europe, which, could they be deciphered, would afford 

 marvellous ethnological interest, and throw a light on peoples and 

 races whose origin, civilisation and habits are now lost. Pictorial 

 blocks, inscribed stones, Cyclopean forts, graceful towers, tumuli, 

 earthworks by lonely strands and stormy headlands, ecclesiastical 

 ruins, military ruins, and, worse than all, clusters of roofless cottages 

 in deserted districts, swept bare by emigration, famine, and fever, all 

 justify her claim to the mournful title. These deserted dwellings 

 fill the stranger with horror, for they force on his consideration 

 fearful pictures of want, sorrow, and suffering, endured before the last 

 miserable creature passed from the spot where so much wretchedness 

 must have been undergone. 



Whilst we renovate and investigate ancient ruins, may Heaven 

 avert new ones from the land ! There is one order, however, which 

 more constantly comes under the angler's notice than under that of 

 other men remains of ecclesiastical edifices on the lakes. Few of 



