L I S 
L I S 
found in the ifiand ; otters and mice, however, are abun¬ 
dant. It contains three finall lakes, two of which ere 
famed for excellent trout, and the third for eels. 
Lifmore was formerly the feat of the bilhop of Argyle, 
who was thence ftyled Epfcopus Lifmorenfrs. Mr. Pennant 
fays there are no remains either of the cathedral or the 
biihop’s palace: iri the Beauties of Scotland, however, it 
is aflerted, that veffiges of both are ftill to be feen. The 
chancel of the former is there dated to be ufed as the 
parifh-church, and the walls of the latter are faid to be 
pretty entire, and diftant about four miles from the ca¬ 
thedral. Several fortified camps can yet be difeovered in 
different parts of the ifiand. A Danilh fort, furrounded 
by a deep foffe, is likewife in tolerable condition : the 
walls are now feventeen feet high, having a gallery within ; 
and round the area a (lone feat, which Mr. Pennant fup- 
pofes might have been intended as a general refling-place 
for the chieftains and their foldiers. The church, fays 
the fame author, in conformity with his afl'ertion that 
there are no remains of the cathedral, “is a mean modern 
building.” In the church-yard feveral old monuments 
are ltill (landing, one of which is very remarkable, ascon- 
fifting of nothing more than a thick log of wood: its an¬ 
tiquity muft be very great, as there is no word in the Erfe 
language to denote this kind of monument. On a rock 
are cut the radii of a dial, but the index is deltroyed. A 
finall bafin is excavated in another rock, which was pro¬ 
bably ufed by the Druids in fome part of their religious 
ceremonies. 
At the fouth end of the ifiand of Lifinore lies a fmall 
rocky ille, over which the fea rolls at high tides; at other 
times it raifes its rough head fomewhat above the furface 
of the water. It is called the Lady’s Rock, from the fol¬ 
lowing traditionary (lory. In former times one of the 
M'Leans of Duart, whole caflle (now in ruins) (lands on 
a promontory in Mull, in nearly an oppofite direction 
to the Lady’s Rock, married a filler of Argyle. The 
lady was handfome and amiable, but unhappily (lie was 
barren. In thofe days it was a high crime in the eye of 
ft hulband, when his w ife Jjore him no children. Duart 
bated his haplefs lady for that caufe, and determined on 
her deltruftion. To accomplish it with eafe, and, as he 
imagined, fafe from detection, he ordered ruffians to con¬ 
vey her fecretly to the bare rock near Lifmore, and there 
leave her to perilh at high tide. The deed was executed 
to Duart’s wiffi; and the lady was left on the rock, watch¬ 
ing the rolling tide riling to overwhelm her. When (lie had 
given herfelf up for lolt, and expected in a very ffiort time 
to be walked from the rock by the waves, (he fortunately 
perceived a velfel failing down the Sound of Mull, in the 
direction of the rock on which (lie was fitting. Every ef¬ 
fort in her power was exerted, and every fignal in her pof- 
feffion was difplayed to attraft the notice of the people in 
the velfel. At length they perceived her, and drew near 
the rock. She made herfelf known ; and related, that it 
■was by the order of her barbarous hulband (lie was left on 
the rock, and thus reduced to the wretched (fate in which 
they found her. The mariners, ever a generous race, 
took compaffion on her, received her on-board their vef- 
fel, and conveyed her fafely to her brother at Inverary. 
M‘Lean Duart made a grand mock funeral for his much¬ 
loved, much-lamented, lady, wholieannounced to have died 
fuddenly. He wrote difconfolate letters to her relations, 
particularly to Argyle; and after a decent time went to 
Inverary in deep mourning, where, with the greateft (how 
of grief, he lamented to his brother-in-law the irreparable 
lofs he had fuftainfti. Argyle faid little; but fent for his 
filter, whofe unexpected appearancein life and health proved 
an eleftric Ihock to her hulband. Argyle was a mild and 
amiable man, and took no other revenge of M‘Lean but 
commanding him to depart inflantly, at the fame time ad- 
vifing him to be cautious not to meet his brother Donald, 
who would certainly take away his life for having intended 
to dtftroy that of his filter. Sir Donald Campbell did 
meet him many years afterwards in a ftreet at Edinburgh, 
\Oh. XII. No. $73. 
* (\0 
4 9 > 
and there (tabbed him for his crime towards his filter, 
when M £ Lean was eighty years of age. Mrs. Murray's 
Companion to the Hebrides. 
LIS'MORE, a poit-town of Ireland, in the county of 
Waterford, and province of Munfter, 100 miles from 
Dublin. It was anciently called I.ejfmore, or Lios-morc y i. e. 
“The Great Enclofure, or Habitation;” it is now a bi- 
fhopric, and formerly had an univerfity. St. Carthagh, or 
Mochuda, in the beginning of the feventh century, founded 
an abbey and fchool in this place, which in a (horl time 
was much relorted to, not only by the natives, but alfo 
by the Britons and Saxons, during the middle ages. Ac¬ 
cording to an ancient writer of the life of St. Carthagh, 
Lifmore was in general inhabited by monks, half of it being 
an afylum into which no woman dared enter; confiding 
entirely of cells and monalteries, the ruins of which, with 
feven (out of twenty) churches, are yet vifible. The fite 
of Lifmore was in early ages denominated Magk Shia, or 
the Chofen Shield, being the lituation of a dun, or fort, of 
the ancient chieftains of the Decies, one of whom granted 
it to St. Carthagh on his expulfion from the abbey of Ra- 
theny in Weftmeath. On becoming an univerfity, Magk 
Skia obtained the name of Dunfginne , or the Fort of the 
Saxons, from the number of Saxons who reforted thereto; 
but, loon after, it was called I.ios-more or Lefs-rnore, and 
now Lifmore-, the billiopric of which was united to that of 
Waterford in 1363, being feven hundred and thirty years 
afteiffits foundation. The public road to Cork was for¬ 
merly through this place, and at that time it had a better 
face of bufinefs. St., Carthagh, who retired to this place 
with fome of his religious in 636, to avoid the fury of the 
then Iri(h monarch, tied his difciples to a moll drift rule 
of life; they never were allowed the ufe of fleffi, fifh, or 
fowl; only the vegetables that the ground produced at 
the expenfe of their own labour. Father Daniel, in his 
Hiltoire Monaftique, mentions one on the fame founda¬ 
tion in France. The cattle here, which was built by king 
John, was erefted in'1x95 on the ruins of the abbey of 
St. Carthagh. In 1189 it was demolilhed by the Iriffi, 
who took it by furprife. Being afterwards re-edified, it 
was for many years an epifcopal refidence, fill Myler Ma- 
grath, archbifiiop of Catliel, and biffiop of this fee, granted 
the manor of Lifmore to that noted fcholar and foldier fir 
Walter Raleigh, .in the reign of queen Elizabeth, at the 
yearly rent of 13I. is. 8d. but that eftate was lopped off" 
with his head in tile- reign of king James I. After this 
it fell into the hands of fir Richard Boyle, afterwards the 
firft earl of Cork; and his youngelt fon, the celebrated 
and defervedly-elteemed philofopher Robert Boyle, was 
born in it. It has lince become the property of the duke 
of Devonlhire, who is delcended by the female line from 
the eldeit branch of the Boyle family. On entering Lif¬ 
more, the traveller is (truck with the fight of this vener¬ 
able caftle, lifting its high and embattled towers in a kind 
of melancholy grandeur, bordering on fadnels; the anci¬ 
ent avenue, whofe tall dark trees died a gloom over the 
outer gate-houfe, gives its neglefted front a deeper and 
more iolemn (hade. O11 the angles are ruined towers of 
prodigious (trength, in the- fame rooflds (fate that the 
wars of 1641 left them. Within the great gate-houfe 
there is a l’pacious court; on each fide are the ranges of 
offices belonging to the caftle, which faces the entrance, 
and forms a parallelogram. Over the gate-houfe are the 
arms of the firlt earl of Cork, who beautified and enlarged 
it. Descending on the eaftern fide to the bridge, you are 
charmed with its grand elevation; the north front-rifing 
from a perpendicular range of wooded rock, overhanging 
the Blnckwater. Imagination cannot paint a more roman¬ 
tic feene. - The broad and placid river, from which, on the 
left, arife loity and richly-covered rocks, to a fearful 
height, crowned with nodding groves, in fome parts rang¬ 
ing down from the deep fummit, caft their green branches 
in the Itream; while, in others, they are feparated by the 
jutting heads of mois-clad rocks, whofe variegated fidesof 
grey and fpangled brown contrail in a lively manner with 
9 Q the 
