Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-01-14
|M[he Mtnhttatar.
FRIDAY MORNING, JAN. IA, 1875.
Local..
LECTURE ON IRELAND.

INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS OF A VISIT BY
MAI. JED. HoTCHKIss-wHo OUR AN
CEsToRs WE'RE AND HOW THEY LIVED
WHERE OUR NAMES CAME FROM
SOME CURIOUS FACTS,
&C., &C., &c.
On Tuesday night large audience, re-
preventative of the intelligence Of our city,
assembled at the hall of the Y. M. g. A.
to listen to lecture from Major Jed.
Hotchkiss, on the North of Ireland, from
which locality SO many Of our Scotch-Irish
ancestors came-perhaps nine-tenths. The
yery names of those in the audience were
similar to those mentioned in the lecture,
and the familiar story OF ''Betsey Bell and
Mary Gray.'' was told to the descendants
of those immigrants who brought the name
here.
The lecturer exhibited map OF his own
design, showing the climate as we'll as the
topography of Ireland. The lands Of the
province of Ulster lie about half in
valleys and h alf in hills and the soil is the
limestone like the Valley Of Virginia which
probably attracted the emigration of the
Scotch who always go to good land, and
emigration generally, which always goes
from poor to a rich country The climate
is a moderate one and favorable to the in
crease of the human race. The hottest day
in ireland for Is years was in August, 1868
when the thermometer stood at $50 and the
coolest in the same period WAS in 1857 when
the mercury stood at 10. The average tenn
perature of July there is $50 and that of
January $50 so it may be called mild eli
mate The divisions of the country are
Leinster, Munster, Connaught and Ulster,
and it was of the last that the lectnfer
chiefly spoke. Twas a limestone country
of plateaus with intervening valleys and
in the later geological period was filed with
volcanoes the whole country being inter
sected by trap dykes of lava which project
into the sea, the famous Giants CauseWay
being simply the end Of one of those pro-
jections. Its minerals are rich and the lee
turer showed specimens of rock salt taken
from salt mine 900 feet deep. The peat
which is used for fuel is the moss, of which
there are 80 species; which forms in the
bogs and sinks, then another layer forms
and so on and the bottom layers become
like coal. Ulster is peculiarly the province
of flax and last year had 1O3, 900 acres in it
while all the rest of Ireland had only 1000
acres; This flax they rot in ponds and
when the speaker was there in the month OF
August, the period of this rotting process.
the country through which he passed was
filled with the fearful stencil arising from
it, making travel disagreeable. At that
time they were also reaping their oats and
moving their hay; they don't raise much
wheat: but they have the finest potatoes in
the world.
THE IRISH ANCESTRY.
The lecturer then gave description Of
the settlement of the country by the Fir
bolgs, the pure Irish ancestors. They
were succeeded by the Dannans. who con-
quered them. but finally united with then
to resist other invaders. The Firbolgs
came from India, the settlers of the NORTH
of Europe. The united races formed thu
Tuatha-de- Dannans. Then the Milesians
said to have come from Spain, came in, ;tnc
they were followed by the Norsemen, WAC
ruled the country from 1876 to 10l4, when
the Angle-N ormans, under Henry H., in
vaded the country. It might be said OF I'll
these, that the Firbolgs brought will
them agriculture; the Dannans, metal
| working, and the Milesians personal beaut,
and governing power, and the Anglo-No or
man organized government. The Hu
guenots, after the massacre in France, I'm
migrated in large numbers, and introduced
the art of weaving, and in the town o
Lisburn, at this day, nearly all the popula
ton, are the descendants of Huguenots
All these form the basis Of the population
but in the troubles the Irish had undo
James 1, the whole province Of Ulster wa
confiscated, and the English undertook tt
re-settle it from Scotland and England
They called it the ''Plantation of Ulster.
Cromwell, at a later date, parcelled it ou
to Scotch and English. The Engllsi
brought with them the names of Chiches
ter, Conway, Hill, Rawdon, Hawkins ant
Magill, and the Scotch brought this names
of Hamilton, Mcdonald, Mcneil, Nc
Naughten, McAllster and so forth. 1t 4
said that in 1888, and '34, over 5000 Scotcl
agriculturalists crossed into Ireland. TIL
Irish were forced back by that immigra
ton into the hill and bog country, and tn
Scotch and English took the best of thu
lands. They called the Irish from tina
fact, the ''mountainy people;' the chill
folk" and 'sbog trotters." The old rea
Irish still occupy the mountain and bos
country there. The lecturer spoke of thu
peculiarities of. the Scotch-Irish race-thei
courage, as illustrated in the defence o1
Derry; their Independence; their loye Of
justice, as shown in the tenant system OF
Ulster, and their industry and energy al
shown in the growth of Belfast, now q
thriving city of 900 inhabitants.'
ANTIQUITIES, AND MODERN CHANGEs-
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT NAMES
The lecturer spoke of the antiquities of
Ireland, and in illustration showed one OF
their old time ''querns,' an old stone hand
mill, and some flint implements of print
tive times, and described the ''crannogs''-
houses built on piles in the lakes.
One of the first results he said of the
mixture of the three races, English, Scotch
and Celts (the Irish pronunciation is Kelts]
in the North Of Ireland was the change of
the names of places. Bally-maes, meaning
the ssplace of the ridge' became Bally-
maze, Cassan, meaning pathway became
Cash. They also translated names, Bally-
ra-shane was translated to St. Johnstown,
Bally-gowan became Smithtown, Bally--
knocksbecame Hilltown and Slieve-bawn
became White Mountain. Names also
i ~ j. ~. L. a.