North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-11-12
4 SCENE FROM IRISH LIFE.

rIo ,,,oo-lorA was wide level and black black
nc n;Sbt. if YOU could suppose night condensed on
the s,rf1sA of the earth, and that you could ueao
~, soi5S darkness in the midst of day. The Gay
;tseIf was fast dropping into night altbONghlt was
,S+earv and gloomy at the best; for y was w
Samber day. The moor, for miles around WA uee
(esss and houseless devoid of vegetation, excePe
heather which clad with its gloomy freze coat the
sbivering landscape. At distance you couio oiSr
Germ through the misty atmosphere, the ou!lne ~
mountains apparently as bare and stony as tnis WI
derness which thew bounded. here were no neius'
no hedgefows, no marks OF the hano VI nan,
cept the nakedness itself. which was tne TOrA y,
man in past ages when, period after Peroo' ne na9
frau1ned over the scene with fire and sword ana
laff al that could not fly before him, either asnes
To be scattered by the savage winds, or stems Vi
xyoes and carcases of men trodden into the swamPy
Garth AS the Roman historian said OF other des.
trovers They created solitude and called IL Peace'
That all this was the work of man, and not OF Ma
ture, any one spot of this huge and nowlmg "n-
derness could testify if you would only turn up us
sable surface In its bosom lay thousands OF an
Gent oaks and pines, black as ebony; which told,
nv their gigantic bulk that forests must have once
existed on this spot, as rich as the scene was now
black Nobler things than trees lay buried there !;
but were for the most part resolved INTO the suo-
stance of the inky EARTH The dwellings, OF men
had left few or no traces, for they had oeen con-
stunned in flames and the hearts that had loved
and suffered and persisted beneath the hand OF NO
lence and insult, were no longer human hearts, but
slime. IF a man were carried bllndtold to that
place, and asked when his eyes were unbandaged
where he was, he would say" Ireland.
He would want no clew to the identity OF the
Mace. but the scene before him. THERE'S no heath
like an Irish heath. There is no desolaton ike an
Irish desolation Where Nature herself has spread
the expanse of a solitude, it is cheerful solitude
I'll. a - 1ox Wv
dance in gladness; the soil breathes up spirit OF
wild fragrance. which communicates buoyant SEN
sat;on to the heart You feel that you tread on
ground where the peace of God, and not the
"peace ," of man created in the merciless hurricane
of war, has soiourned where the sun shone on
creatures sporting ground or on tree, as the Dl-
vine Goodness of the Universe meant them 70 sport
where the hunter disturbed alone the enjoyment OF
the lower animals by his own bosterous JOY: where
the traveller sung as he went it. because he felt
a spring of inexpressible music IN his heart Where
the weary wayfarer sat beneath bush, and
blessed God, though his limbs ached with travel
and his goal was far off. in Gods deserts dwells
gladness: in mans deserts, death. A melancholy
sntes YOU as YOU enter them. There is a darkness
from the past that envelopes your heart, and the
means and signs of ten-times perpetrated misery
seem still to live in the very winds.
One shallow, and widely-spread stream strug-
es of grav stone. Sedges and the white-headed
cotton-rush whstled on its margin, and on island
like expanses that here and there rose above the
surface of its middle course.
have said that there was no sign of life but on
one of those gray stones stood heron watching
for prey He had remained straight, rigid, and
motionless for hours. Probably his appetite was
appeased by his days success among the trout OF
that dark red-bEown stream, which was colored by
the peat from which it oozed. When he did move,
he sprung up at once, stretched his broad wings,
and silent as the scene around him, made a circuit
in the air; rising higher as he went with slow and
solemn flight. He had beeen startled by sound.
There was life in the desert now. Two horsemen
came galloping along highway not far distant,
and the heron, continuing his grave gyratlons sur
waved them as he went. Had they been travellers
over plain of India, an Australian waste, or the
Pampas of South America, they could not have
been grimmer of aspect, or more thoroughly chill
dren of the wild. They were Irish from head to foot.
They were mounted on two spare but by no
means clumsy horses. The creatures had marks of
blood and breed that had been introduced by the
English to the country. They could claim, if they
knew it, lineage of Arabia. The one was pure
bay, the other and lesser, black but both were
lean as death, haggard as famine They were wet
with the speed with which they had been hurried
along. The soil of the damp moorland, or of the
field in which, during the day, they had probably
been drawing the peasants cart, still smeared their
bodies and their names flew as wildly and untrim-
med as the sedge of the cotton-rush on the waters
through which they carcored. Their riders, WELD
ing each heavy stick instead of riding whip,
which they applied ever and anon to the shoulders
or TANKS of their smoking animals, were mounted
on their bare backs, and guided them by halter.
instead of bride. They couple of the short
frieze-coated, kneebreeches and gray-stocking fell
lows who plentiful on Irish soil potatoes.
From beneath their narrow brmmed, old, weather.
beaten hats, streamed hair as unkemped as their |
horses names. The Celtic physiognomy was dis |
tinctly marked-the small and somewhat upturned |
nose the black tint of skin the eye now looking
gray, now black; the freckled cheek, and sandy |
hair. Beard and whiskers covered half the face, |
and their short square-shouldered bodies were bent
forward with eager impotence, as they thumped |
and kicked along their horses, muttering curses as
they went.
The heron, sailing on broad and seemingly slow
vans, still kept them in view. Anon, they reached
a part of the moorland where traces of human la
Dor were visible. Black piles of peat stood on the
solitary ground, ready, after summers cutting
and drying. Presently patches of cultivation pre-
each few feet wide, with intervening trenches to
carry off the DOGGY water, where potatoes had |
grown, and small fields where grew more stalks of
;agwort than grass, inclosed by banks cast up and
tipped here and there with briar or a stone. It
vas the husbandry of misery and indulgence The
ground had already been freshly manured by sea-
weeds, bat the village-where was it! Blotches
# burnt ground; seorched heaps of rubbish, and
of blackened walls, alone were visible.
were trodden down, and their few
hoe ronf nm ar h1no with fatfors nf nov,