The Irish standard., 1889-12-14
OLD IRELAND'S BALTIMORE.
A Country Which Was Never Un-
happy Except Through Foreign
Interference.
THE ANCIENT DAYS OF ERIN.

THE ANCIENT DAYS OF ERIN.
"reminiscences of the Historic Old Town,
and How it Was Sacked BY
Pirates.
You remember the stirring ballad of
the ''Sack of Baltimore and how it
opens:
''The summer sun is falling soft on Carbry's
hundred isles
The summer sun is cleaning still on Gabriel's
rough defiles-
Old Innisherkin's crumbled fame looks like
moulting bird;
And in calm and sleepy swell the ocean tide is
heard;
The bookers lie upon the beach; the children
cease their play;
The gossips leave the little inn; the households
kneel to pray
And full of love, and peace, and rest-its daily
Upon that cosy creek there lay the town of
BALTIMORE a
With Thomas Davis descriptive lines
inymlnd the first view of Baltimore is
disappointing, a scattered village, few
houses, some little shops in groups
here and there about the road and Its
ofshoots Of roadlets that go down hill
to the shore with its rocks and modest
harbor. Far ahead on the sea the
islands lie lnterlacing each other, but
there is nothing striking about the out.
Tines OF t ose which first meet our
searching gaze, until, having reconciled
our thought to the fact Of ulsencbant.
ment. we proceed further with a lower
standard Of expectation. Leaving the
little harbor behind, and following the
heathery path along the shore under
the cliffs and hills, we find at last,
growing gradually upon us as we strain
onward towards the sun, all and more
than all that beauty which our souls
had craved to see. One bv one the
Islands are discovered in their varied
and shifting charm. Old Innisherkin's
crumbled fame crouches in shadow in a
grave hollow OF the long undulatiug
isle whose blue-water shore lies over
against the ''coasts of Cleire'' and be-
yOnd it stands forth in sLartling and
indescribable beauty the stately and
fantastic headland of Cape Clear, right
II adjudged by the ancient bard to be
the fttest headIand for princely lord
Gazing in surprised delight at the
matchless outlines and details of this
noble rock, Que thinks of the olden
name Of Baltimore, Dunna.sed, for
tress of the Jewels" a mysterious and
quite unaccounted-for title, and the
thought suggests itself that sea-wanler-
ers from afar might once have mistaken
the headland of Cape Clear for for
tress, exqlllsltelY constructed against
the waves, to contain and guard some
jewels Of fabulous worth. OF such a
fortress castle might be those
Easements opening On the foam
OF perilous seas in faery lands forlorn,"
which Keats saw in his midnight dream
of the nightingale. 1t seems poor
compliment to nature to say that the
Auted sides Of those cliffs, with their
wonderful tinting Of greys aud green's,
gradated in the shadows to black, look
as If carved and pencilled by the hand
Of man rather than wrought to their
present state OF delicate sp.endOr by
the action Of the wind that whirls Ill
and out of their caves and channe.s,
and the fret Of the waves wlnnuwiug
wOol-whlte foam perpetually around
them. Never did nature bestow SUCH
dainty paths Oh making strong aud
solid bulwark OF the land against the
sea assume light, exquisite aud almost
aerial proportions, croWniDg it with
crests and fantastic shape aud cOloriug
It like the piuinage Of q pheasaut's
wing. A wonder ut y headiaud, proud.
in its strength, glorious in It's beauty,
it goes forth with the sun Oh its front
to meet the great ocean at the entrance
to Baltimore Harbor, gladden1nx the
ewes Of the sea tarer when he sights it
far ahead Of his mast. No one kn3ws
sWhv Baltimore received its present
name, but II has been suggested that it
WAS derived from Bsal7 IL NOR. the
great habitatiOn Ut B+a!.:' because 1T
Was one Of the Chief centres OF the
Worships Of The Baal. DR.. Joyce, how
ever dispOseso Of this error il the follow
ing passage: s
'. For this silly statement there is not
q particle Of authority. The name is
written in several old Anglo lrlsni
documents, BaImtiMOre, which, accOl ds
sexacly with the present prununc.atluu.
! tue correct IRISH fOrtn IS B4lIs an tlghe5
lnholr, which means merely The town of
TIE laT 81 liO,lse. aud ~ derived LLis name
snO doubt from the Casl lle u the " Drls-
cola.
Tue t) l,rlseolls tht, S princely
tie oltisils n laeaoss siOf tneIl