The Irish standard., 1888-06-30
IRISH GRAVES IN ENGLAND.
BY MICHAEL MAcDONAGH.
THOMAS MOORE,
A green grave rises
Der thy sward, Devices,


A green grave rises
Der thy sward, Devices,
Where Moore lies sleeping from his land afar.
Denis Florence MacCalthy, IN the
lines I have quoted-taken from his
well-known poem on Father Prout--
gives to Devices, III Wiltshire, the honor
of holding the ashes Of Moore. AS a
matter of fact the Bard is buried IL
Bromham. which hes FIVE miles from
Devices. MacCarthy had evidently to
bow to the exigenc,es of rhyme, Devices
being more rhythmioal word than
Bromham, 50 we, 1 supppose, must bow
without question to his right to have
taken this poetical license, though it
somewhat misleads as to facts. The
town of Devices has population of
about ten Thousand, its shops and streets
are large and handsome, there ore no
Sums or other such abodes Of poverty to
be met with, it boasts in its old castle
rs fine specimen Of Norman architect
ure as have seen, and it's. ctommlodlous
1narketplace is adorned by jotting
fountain, a statue to some local celeb
rity, and small, tower-shaped building
called 'sth6 market-cross, which con-
tains the following extraordinary inscrlp-
tion.
:'rhe mayor and corporation ofDevizes
avail themselves OF the suitability Of
this building to transmit to future times
the record Of ali awful event which &C.
Cured in this market place in the year
1853, hoping that such record may serve
as a salutary warning against the danger
of inpiously invoking Divine vengeance
Of calling on the holy name of God to
conceal the devices of falsehood and
fraud. On Thursday, the 25th OF Jan
uary, 1883, Ruth Pierce, of Pottern, in
this county, agreed with three osher
women to buy sack OF wheat in the
market, each paying her due proportion
towards the same. One of the women,
in collecting theseveral quotas of money,
discovered deficiency. and demanded
OF Ruth Pierce the sum which was want
ing to make good the amount. Ruth
Pierce protested that she had paid her
share, and saia "she wished she might
drop down dead ii she had not" She
rasilly repeated this awful wish, when,
to the CONSERVATION and terror of the
surrounding multitude, she suddenly
fell down and expired, having the money
concealed in her hand.''
During my walk through the town in
the May OF 1887 got i'll q booksellers
shop photograph OF Superior Cottage
in which Moore resided, the only
mernento Of the poet to be had, and I
discovered 81 hostelry which had some as
sociations OF interest to me as a Limerick
man. This was the '*Castle Inn in
which Gerald Griffin (author of ''.fhe
Colleg1ans'') and his brother, Daniel
the writer of the novelist's biography
stayed for few days in 1882, when they
were sens as a deputation from the
electors of Limerick to ask Moore to
represent the city in Parliament. The
honor was declined by Moore on The
ground that he could not devote tho
necessary time to the discharge OF the
duties. Gerald Griffin, in a letter de-
soribing the visit, mentions that one
morning at breakfast he asked the waiter
at the Inn did he know anything about
Mr.. Moore, OF Sloperton Cottage Eyes, -
replied the waiter, she is poet. II
did not know" writes Griffin, whether
to embrace the man for knowing SO much
or to kick him for knowing SO little"
Alas, we live in more degenerate times.
The fact that great poet named Moore
lived for thirt7~fve years at Bromham,
within five miles OF Devices, and has
been sleeping there IN his grave thirty
five years more, was unknown to the
present occupier OF the position OF
waiter at the Castle Inn. What is worse
is that this ignorance of Moore and his
works in the district is not monopolized
by the waiter of the Castle Inn. Before
the day was ov-r I got many illustra-
tions of the sad fact that our greatest
poet is unknown to most people even by
NAME in the county Of Wits, the nome
of his adoption. But there was comfort
in the thought that Moore did not write
for the dull, stolid, and uninagi1ative
Inhabitants of Wiltshire, who as rule
are So thick headed that they can find no
answers to your questions beyond long
drawn out ''no-abs" and "e-e-eses. )" It
is said that during Moore's Life among
them the people Of Bromham looked
upon him as the author of ''Moore's
Almanac" to which they were wont to
apply for forewarnipgs against crop-de-
stroying weather! In the most remote
districts of the west and south of Ire