48 



the plot was designed to present the most picturesque scenery of Ire- 

 land. The Festivals of the Church mark the time of each canto — twelve 

 in number ; while the Danes, not being entirely converted to Chris- 

 tianity, afforded him the opportunity of describing the rites of Odin, and 

 other deities of Scandinavian mythology. 



Although I had marked many passages for extracting, time only 

 allows me to select one. It describes scenery familiar, I am sure, to 

 most of my hearers, and therefore the general fidelity of the descriptive 

 passages can be fairly tested — Ex uno disce omnes. 



Dermid, having escaped to the Wicklow coast from captivity in the 

 Isle of Man, meets with a widowed lady on St. Patrick's Day, who gives 

 him much-needed sustenance : — • 



" While Eveleen, with humble food, 

 Refreshed him in her solitude, 

 Often his wistful eye would steal 

 Along the windings of the vale, 

 Where, girt by many a mountain grey, 

 Rolled in itself unsociably, 

 The valley of the lakes displayed 

 Its shrines, embrowned in thickest shade 

 Of circling mountains, that appeared, 

 With rude stupendous height, to guard 

 This hallowed region of repose. 

 Here in dark horror Lugduff rose — 

 The southern sentinel — beside 

 Towered Derrybawn, in waving pride ; 

 Between them, o'er its rocky bed, 

 By woods embrowned, a torrent sped ; 

 While with contrasted brightness fell 

 Prom hills, that westward bound the vale, 

 Glaneola's cascade ; and, north, 

 Broccagh his mountain mists sent forth ; 

 But in the east no envious height 

 Shut out the golden flood of light ; 

 No interposing forest stood 

 To veil the rising orb — that rode 

 Full in the breach — e'en now, as fate 

 Had placed it there a golden gate, 

 To guard and gild this sacred ground ; 

 While, brightly arched o'er all, and wound 

 About the mountains' tops, the sky 

 Closed up the enchanted scenery." 



This poem won a hearty tribute of praise from Scott, and was not 

 unknown to Moore and Byron. 



A few years after the publication of his poem, Mr. D' Alton mar- 

 ried Miss Phillips — a lady of good family, whose amiable disposition 

 and domestic virtues constituted the chief charms of his hospitable home 

 for the greater part of his life. 



In 1827, the Eoyal Irish Academy, desirous of directing attention 

 to the too much neglected history of Ireland, offered a prize of £80 for 

 the best essay on the social and political state of the people of Ireland, 



