Autumnal Rovings. 197 



of one of the nets, but the other imprisons in its meshes 

 two brace and a half of nice trout, that cut pink and firm 

 as a salmon, when dexterously tickled at table, by-and-by, 

 with an antique silver fish slice. 



Shane's Castle looks very spectral as we up sail and run 

 at express speed for its projecting grounds. The sun sink- 

 ing rapidly over the western shore of the lough, warms the 

 hoary brown of the ruins, and bathes the splendid wood 

 behind, while the shadows seem to add a few extra turrets to 

 the pile. If you have ever seen a yacht belonging to the 

 Ulster Club (whose head-quarters are in Belfast Lough) you 

 may have noticed that the burgee displayed a bloody hand. 

 A sinister hand, gules, is the armorial ensign of the province, 

 and it was a Shane's Castle chieftain who figured in the story, 

 which suggested the emblem. The chief of an invading 

 expedition, so the story runs, approaching the shores of 

 Ireland, said that the follower who first touched the coveted 

 territory should possess it. One man outwitted his fellows 

 by ^chopping off his hand and hurling it on shore before the 

 foremost boat could touch land. This was the founder of 

 the great Ulster chieftains, the O'Neills of the Red Hand. 

 The member of the family after whom the castle was 

 named, Shane O'Neill, was a name known at the English 

 Court. He of the red hand lorded it over the other chiefs, 

 and in Queen Elizabeth's time the reigning chieftain O'Neill 

 was virtually king of Ulster. This was Shane O'Neill, who, 

 with a body-guard of 600 soldiers, and an army of 5000 

 horse and foot, had many a brush with the English troops', 

 made a journey with the armed retinue of an independent 

 prince to London, and treated personally with the British 

 maiden Queen. 



The days of Red Hands are gone; the O'Neills no 

 longer summon body-guards of long, curled gallow glasses, 



