St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-07-19
LETTER FROM IRELAND
DR.. E. H. Ross Writes Of His
Visit to Some of the Cathe-
draIs and Country.

letter written by DIR. Ross to his
family, and is of such general interest
that The Caledonian takes pleasure
in publishing it.
Hotel Metropole,
Dublin, Ireland,
July Z, 1911.
We have been on the jump since
leaving the ship at Queenstown, at
IL D. m. The 5th we spent in Cork.
There we took a tramcar and Went
hack and forth over the main streets,
looking at the people and getting our
bearings.
Everything is built of brick or
stone. the buildings not more than
| four stories high. The roofs are or
slate. They are nearly fire proof
The principal things Of interest are
ST. Finn Barre's Cathedral, built by
the Church of England. The present
cathedral is the seventh church to be
built on the same site. 1T is~a mas
siye pile of granite. In the interlo
it is S5 feet to where the rafters join
the walls. and 109 feet to the highest
point of the roof. The walls at the
base for 10 feet are paneled with pol
ished marble set in gold mosaic. The
edifice is not yet finished, but has al
ready cost 10000 pounds, and VIII
probably cost $4,000 pounds more
before it is completed. The thing
which interested me most was tab
let set in the floor in memory of the
only female Mason. The story goes
that she hid herself behind curtains
and saw her brothers initiated in the
first two degrees. She was then dis
covered and was given her choice
after some discussion between death
and being initiated in the same de-
grees she had spied upon. The tab
let reads:
I'm pious memory of the Honora-
BILE Elizabeth ellsworth, wife of
Richard ellsworth, Of Newmarket
Court, Co. Cork, ESQ, daughter
of Arthur, first Viscount Doneraile.
Her remains lie close to this spot.
Born 1895, died 1775. Initiated into
F'reemasonry in Lodge A at Doner-
ale Court in this county in 1712.'
In the afternoon we took an Irish
haunting car, which is a tWo-Wheeled
vehicle with seat in front and in
the center for the driver, and on each
side a seat for two people facing out
ward with their feet resting on step.
The body is suspended on very long
springs and unless perfectly balanced
it sWays and rocks like boat in
only three of us you can imagine how
nice it was. | had not ridden mile
before | was sure the devil invented
it and left it as a plague for the
Irish. Submitting to this new form
of torture WE rode all over the city
and out to Barney Castle, a total of
about / or / 5 miles. The road was
what we would consider excellent ma
cadam, and wound along The bank OF
the river Lee, through good farming
land with the farmers cutting their
hay. Massive walls of masonry
bound the road most. of the way and
every few rods there is pile of stone
at one side which are used to make
necessary repairs. Here and there
we came upon a man sitting or
kneeling beside one of these piles and
breaking the stones to even size with
a small hammer.
Time is no object here. The men
receive about nine shiInngs a week
for farm work and can have a cot
tage with four rooms and an acre
of land for shilling week. There
is now a compulsory school act so
that all children must attend school
in either the parochial or Protestant
schools, whichever they choose.
Barney Castle is an cid ruin
WHICH IuIulSHSS SOOu 1ACOAA0 W lis
owner, as every one who goes there
pays sixpence admission. 1t is sim
ply an old moss and. ivy covered tow
er about 120 feet high. The Blair
ney Stone itself is SO placed that only
trained athlete or a blamed fool
would ever think of trying to kiss it,,
From the summit of the tower one
looks our over wide expanse/ of green
fields divided into squares by hedge
rows of hawthorne. Rocks and
crows are very abundant. Trees are
rather scarce. The principal crops
We saw growing were oats, barley,
peas and potatoes.
We passed many cottages, two or
three of which were matched with
straw or rushes, consisting of two
rooms with fire place, and dirt or
cement or cobble stone floor. These
are going out of date and are being
replaced by trim four room cottages
with slate roofs. AS we rode along
children raced after us calling
Penny Sor!'' Penny Sor!' for a
quarter of a mile or more.
AS we returned to Cork we visited
ST. AIMS church where are placed
the Bells of Shandon. There are
twelve in number and give a perfect
octave. The keeper delights in play
I ing tunes Oh Ln0m-IOr COnS1Q6fa-
tion-and has become very expert
He played many tunes for us and
ended by playing America. To play
this he produced a sheet of paper on
which was written series of figures
instead of notes-I suppose the fig
ures indicated the bell to be struck
The tower of this church is built
partly of red and partly of white
stone so that it can be distinguished
long distance away. Three sides
of the tower are white and one red
That evening we went on to Kill
arney arriving at about IL p. M,
tired and sleepy and very grateful
for the comfortable beds and rooms
which awaited us at the Globe Hotel
These were the best we have had
since leaving home
e. Fl. ROSS, NJ d.
Miss Lena Shaw of St. Johnsbury