Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09
A QUAINT OLD CITY
Where Sir Walter Raleigh Once Lived
and Ruled and Where
EDMUND SPENSER WON HIS WIFE.
ALuvely Spot in ireland HallcWed BY the
Memories Of
TIE POETS AND COURTIERs OF OLD
,ooRREsroxpExcE OF THE DISPATCH

is the sleepiest old city In all Ireland. This
is Yougbal Eochaill, or ''the wood of the
vews,'' is its true Irish name; for some
where between 20 and 80 centuries
ago. when the Milesians were prowling
about here in their leather-bottom curraghs,
the surprising loveliness of the harbor
scene was crowned by noble forest of
yews, and these swept from the western
heights in billowy curves down to the very
edge of the romantic BlackWater, which
here reposeful finds its estuary and the sea-
The little old city winds along the Black
water shore in practically q single street
with mOldy warehouses and idle wharves at
the one side and with cavernous shops at
the other, behind which, like brown Gypsy
tents in mountain jungle of fragrance, cen
tury old cabins, mansions and villas are hid
den in a mass of foliage and bloom. No one
can tell why Youghal is here. Your eye may
sweep the wide, sunny harbor to the sea hor-
izon in vain for glimpse of a single sail.
Even the great round sun looks in from
above the ocean over the rippleless bay as II
with passing, pressing demand for recognl,
ton in responsive life. The white walls OF
SD
are glaring and dull There is no sound OF
football upon the stone of pave or street.
Wooden blinds are drawn and barred. Ii
there be life within the shadowy sllences
behind window and door, it must only be
perturbed that the stiffness may never END.
There is not even at old Youghal life left in
ZEPHYR or breeze to shake the odors and
scents from the buds and blossoms offspring.
But there is a transcendent smile upon the
face of Youghal dead, or In trance. Only
IN tropic land are such skies, such palpable
throbbings of natures lavish life that Will
pulse and thrill despite the sleep of human
activities, such miracle in foliage, marvel
in plant and shrub, and such delicious
languor in breath of myriad perfumed
flower. And it was an old, old mansion SO
banked with myrtle, so shaded by yews, and
so matted and massed by ivy that it could
hardly be found by tip-toeing stranger in
the voiceless city that had tramped all
the way from hospitable Cork to see.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH's HOME.
But there it stood, this old home of Sir
Walter Raleigh, as lovely picture as one
would wish to see; lovelier to-day, no doubt,
with its ivy-rounded gables than in the wild
and austere time in which it was built,
when the vengeance OF the Desmonds red
dened the fair valleys of the Bride and
Blackwater with the crimson wine Of war.
This fine old house, although it has under
gone many changes and ''restorations," is
more than 400 years old; for the structure is
the identical one originally founded as
collegiate establishment by the Earl of
Desmond in 1864, and was attached to the
Church of st. Mary, which dates back to
the thirteenth century. At the foundation
of the house the establishment consisted of
"a warden, eight fellows, eightsinging men,
and the endowment was e6O0 per year."
Raleigh's first visit to Ireland, like those
of long and illustrious line of English
men before and since, was as a soldier of
fortune. He first came as captain in body
of troops sent from England in 1879 to as
sist Deputy Lord Gray de Wilton in quell-
ing the dangerous Desmond rebellion. His
iIrepidity, remorselessness and skill were
qualities which were in demand at Eliza
beth's court, and Raleigh's fortunate favor
there, under the brilliant and profigate
Dudley, shortly gave him 1000 acres of
land about Youghal, in one patent, and un-
der another, in 1886, under the Queens
privY seal, an additional three seigniories
and half were granted in the counties of
Cork and Waterford. This was Raleigh's
splendid portion of the most heartIess con-
fscation and plunder which ever occurred
in any land. For the vanquished Earl of
Desmond was the greatest, noblest and
richest subject of that time in all Europe.
Exclusive of his own subject vassals he had
over 500 gentlemen of his kindred and sur
name; no equal portion of Europe was SO
dotted with noble castles and armed and
provisioned fortresses and so rich in the
fruits Of cultivation; while the confscation
of his estates, at his attainder, comprised
nearly 600, 900 English acres, all of which
were parceled out TO Elizabeth's victorious
foragers.
HE PLUNDERED THE IRISH.
With whatever admiration we may con-
template Raleigh's splendid genius and his
daring and eventful career, or with however
much commiseration deplore his melancholy
and cruel taking of, it cannot be gainsaid
that through his share of this colossal Irish
plunder was first provided the means which
largely aided, If not actually made possible,
the impressive exercise of his tremendous
and intrepid energies; fortune so out of
proportion to all just deserts that he was en-
abled at one time to encase his feet in dia-
mond-studded shoes whose cost exceeded
$50, ,0O0l
1t is difficult to determine Just how many
wears Raleigh occupied this fine old man.
sion at Youghal But it is certain it was
always more or less his loved retreat between
1886 and 1902, when by deed to the crafty
Richard Boyle, afterward Earl of Cork, for
an ignoble sum, he disposed of his entire
vast Irish estates; and il is also certain that
Sir Walter retired to this spot after his
quarrel with the Earl of Essex, in 1897, at
the taking of Fayal, in the Azores, which
afterward contributed to the downfall of
Essex, until Raleigh became the English
Ambassador to the Netherlands in 1000. To
these visits and this residence the world I'M
doubtedly owes its knowledge of the
gentle poet, Edmund Spenser. The
latter, like Raleigh, was a court
follower in a small way, and his
real or imaginary services to the adherents
Of Queen Bess, had secured for him pat
ent of dreary old Kilcolman Castle and
manor of about 3, 200 acres, some Is miles
to the north of Raleigh's home in the val
ley OF the Blackwater; but, unlike Raleigh,
no fortune or power, and little else in mate
rial sense save loss, tragedy and final pov-
erty and distress, came from Spenser's little
portion of the Desmond confscation. But
Raleigh, genius and poet that he himself
was, generously recognized the greater
poets true greatness, warmed his heart with
sunny hospitalities, sustained his doubtful
dreamings with a strong and heartsome
friendship, and, in 1889, bodily took the
timorous Spenser to London, personally in
treduced him to the Queen, and that very
year saw the publication of the first three
books of "Faerie Queene."
WHERE sPENsER LIVED.
The old house at Youghal is still occu-
pied 1t is owned by, and is the residence
of. the widow and family of the late Colonel
Faunt, who purchased it from the Duke of
Devonshire As it stands to-day, it is a
Eiugularly apt illustration of the now scarce
manor houses; and at first
glance one instinetively recalls Hawthorne's