The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-12
SOME QUAINT OLD HOMES.
WHERE RALEIGH AND sPENsER LIVED
Edgar L. wakeman's Letter From Ireland
Sleepy Old Cities Full of Interest
Youghal and KIIcoIman-The First
Potatoes in Europe.

MALLow, Ireland, May q, 1SS9.-About
q good days tramp east of Cork, along the
sea, is the sleepiest old city in all Ireland.
This is Youghal. EochaW or "the wood of
the views" isits true Irish name for some
where between twenty and thirty centu-
ries ago, when the Milesians reprowling
about here in their leather-bottomed curra-
CHS, the surprising loveliness of the harbor
scene was crowned by a noble forest of
views, and these swept from the western
nights in billowy curves down 70 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 single street
with moldy warehouses and idle Tharves
at the one side, and with governors shops
at the other. behind which like brown
gypsy tents in a mountain jungle of fra
GRANGE, century-old cabins, mansions and
villas are hidden in mass OF foliage and
bloom. No one can tell why Youghal is
here. Your eye may sweep the wide, sun
ny harbor to the sea horizon in vain Tor
glimpse of a single sail. Even the great
round sun looks in from above the ocean
over the the rippleless bay as If with pass
ing, pressing demand for recognition in
responsive life. The white walls of the
shops. pierced with diminutive windows,
are glaTing and dull. There is no sound of
football upon the stone OF pave or street.
Wooden blinds are drawn and barred If
there be life within the shadowY silences
behind window and door, it must only be
perturbed that the stiffness NAV never
end. There is not even at old Goughal
life left in zevhpr or breeze to shake the
odors and scents from the buds and bios
SONS OF spring. But there is a transcend
ent 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 ofmyTiad
perfumed flower. And it was an old, old
mansion so banked with myrtle so shaded
by yews, and so matted and massed by
wv, that ii could hardly be found by a tip
toeing stranger in the voiceless city. that
had tramped all the way from hospitable
Cork to see.
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 THANH in
the wild and austere time in which it was
built, when the vengeance OF the Des-
monds Redeemed the fair valleys of the
Bride and Blackwater with the crimson
wine of war. This fine old house, al
though it has undergone many changes
and RESERVATIONS is more than four hun
dred years old; for the structure is the
identical one originally founded as col
legiate establishment by the earl of Des-
mond in 1854. and was attached to the
church of 1t. Mary, which dates back to
the thirteenth century. At the founda-
ton of the house the establishment con-
sisted OF "a warden, eight fellows, eight
singing men, and the endowment was $500
per year" Raleigh's first visit to Ireland.
like those of a long and illustrious line OF
Englishmen before and since, was as a
soldier of fortune. He first came as cap
tain in body of troops sent from England
in 1879, to assist Deputy Lord Gray de
Wilton in queliing the dangerous Des-
mond rebellion. His intrepidity, re-
morselessness and skill were qualities
which were in demand at Elizabeth's
court, and Raleigh's fortunate favor there,
under the brilliant and prohigate Dudley.
shortly gave him $4,000 acres of land
about YOughal, in one patent, and under
another, in 1856, under the queens privy
seal. an additional three seigniOries and a
bali were granted in the counties of Cork
and Waterford. This was Raleigh's
splendid portion of the most heartless
confscation and rlunder which ever oc-
Cured in any land. For the vanquished
earl OF Desmond was the greatest, noblest
and richest subject at that time in all Eu-
rope. Exclusive of his own subiect-vassals
he had over five hundred gentlemen of
his kindred and surname; no equal por-
ton OF Europe was so dotted with noble
castles and armed and proyisioned for
tresses, and so rich in the fruits of cultiva-
ton; while the cOnfscation of his estates,
at his atCainder, comprised nearly 100000
English acres, all of which were parcelled
out to EEzabeth's victorious foragers.
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 plumber was first provided
the means which largely aided, if not
actually made possible, the impressive ex-
ercise of his tremendous and intrepid
energies fortune so out OF proportion
TO all Just deserts that he was enabled at
one time to encase his feet in diamond
studded shoes whose cost exceeded
SSO,OOOl
1t is difficult to determine Just how
many years Raleigh occupied this fine old
mansion at Youghal. But it is certain it
was always more or less his loved retreat
between 1856 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 it 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
10 the downfall OF Essex, until Raleigh be-
came the English ambassador to the
Netherlands in 1900. To these visits and
this residence the world undoubtedly
owes its knowledge of the gentle poet,
Edmund Spenser. The latter, like Raleigh,
was court follower in g small way, and
his real or imaginary services to the adj
herents Of Queen Bess, had secured for
him a patent of dreary old Kilcolman
castle and manor of about 5000 acres,
some twenty-five miles to the north of
Raleigh's home, in the valley of the Black
water; but unlike Raleigh, no fortune or
power, and little else in material sense,
save loss, tragedy and final poverty and
distress, came from Sponsors little portion
of the Desmond confiscation. But Raleigh,
genius and poet that he himself was, gen
arors1v recoOnized the greater nOet'a frue