Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1879 — In the Connemara Hills. [ARTICLE]

In the Connemara Hills.

Harpers Magazine for October. The rain in which I had begun my journey to Roundstojie disappeared as the day advanced, when the sun came forth, and, driving the mist before it, revealed the scenery through which we were passing. The purple heather blossoms, the green furze, and brown boggy banks dripping with moisture, seemed covered with innumerable diamonds; the air became musical with the songs of the birds; and Nature, joyous and hopeful, seemed recovering from some malady. As I looked back upon the mountains they assumed an entirely different aspect; they appeared heavy and sombre while we journeyed at their base, but now their lines were as varied and full of buoyant grace as those of the most noble Alpine scenery. The dreary moors were changed to beautiful lakes whose wa. ters were dotted with islands, and the sky, so long hidden by its humid veil, was of the deepest blue, and mel tea with exquisite gradation of tint into the piled-up ranges of the distant mountains. The soft perfumed air. the glorious scenery, clear and splendid in the sun’s rays, made me forget all fatigue, and my spirits ascended as rapidly as the birds, which seemed ecstatic in their new found bliss. Lake Ballinahinch, on the borders of which our road lay for two miles, is one of the largest as well as the most picturesque of the watery chain that unites the Conne&ara Hills. The whole of this district formerly belonged to the Martins, whose castle is situated between the lake and the river, surrounded by a forest. As we loitered along I pondered upon the fact of this unfortunate family, whose sway was so recently almost royal. Most of us are familiar with the story through Lever’s novel of the Martins of Cro’ Martin. As I gazed upon the tumbling walls and the rudely boarded windows ofwhatisnow a ruin, my thoughts wandered to the times when these forests were filled by the warlike followers of the family, who so often sounded the note or preparation for those sallies in whlsh they encountered the most formidable enemy, Edward O’Flaherty, surnamed Laider the Strong. These battles, in which the combatants were mounted and heavily armed, were frequent and severe, and when they returned from their victory or defeat, as the case might be, they celebrated the one or the other with the same prodigal festivities. These .fightings and feastings were not the beet means of improving an estate or the conditions of its occupants, and soon deprived the Martins of the greater part of what was the most extensive property owned by any untitled gentlemen in E rope.