singular for a usage which requires that all who cross it for the first time should improvise, at least, a couplet, otherwise some mischance may be the consequence. A similar exercise of the little of poetry within us, is required on passing the rugged pathway of Cahircanawy, overhanging the dizzy cliffs of Castlemain; and, I doubt not but a collection of these effusions would afford a rare picture of the mind of the gentry who frequent these passages of song.

There are few things that sink more deeply into the memory than local songs. A lover at once immortalizes the memory of his mistress by associating her name, even under the mask of Chloe, Phillida, or Pastora, with a romantic scene. From thenceforward the ground is consecrated to her; she becomes the presiding goddess of the place, and her praise is echoed by every admirer of the loveliness of nature. In the songs of England, the same fondness for local association is of parasitical growth. "The pretty Maid of Derby, O!" "The Lass of Richmond Hill," and similar songs, are known to be the productions of Irishmen; all the particulars respecting the composition of the latter, by Mr. MacNally, may be found recorded by Sir Jonah Barrington.

As to the influence of local songs, an old proverb of "Give a dog a bad name," &c., is not inapplicable. We find, for instance, after upwards of three

hundred years, "these bald verses," as Sir Richard Cox calls them, respecting the miserable state of Armagh, quoted against that city.

Who, if "the beautiful city" is mentioned, does not immediately appropriate the phrase to Cork? And why? because Cork was introduced as a rhyme in a ridiculous song called, "I was the Boy for bewitching them," which was a favourite some thirty years ago.

"My father he married a Quaker,

My aunt, she made hay with a fork;
And my uncle's a great grand brogue-maker
In the beautiful city-called Cork."

Among the remarkable particulars connected with local song, may be mentioned the practice which exists in Cork of publishing, on Shrove Tuesday, a certain species of song or ballad, called "Skellig Lists;" of which, in the course of a few days, no less than 30,000 copies are printed and sold. These lists contain a rhyming catalogue of unmarried women and bachelors, whom the poetaster has undertaken to pair together, as suitable companions for what is termed a pilgrimage to the Skelligs, which are dangerous rocks in the Atlantic, distant about twelve miles from the south-west

* A ballad-publisher in Cork told the Editor, that, in 1836, he printed thirteen different Skellig lists. His average press-work was 300 impressions a-day, and his press was fully occupied for twelve days; this gives 3600 impressions. But as, in ballad printing, four or five copies are worked off together, the produce of this press was about 15,000 Skellig lists: and, as no less than twenty-nine varieties were collected by the Editor in that year, he believes that the above estimate of the number circulated is not an unfair one. The following are the titles:

And a Skellig list without title, a woodcut being substituted.

point of the coast of Ireland, and which were formerly much frequented as places suitable for prayer and penance. On pilgrimages of this kind many matrimonial matches were made up. The fun, if it may be so called, of the Skellig lists, consists in associating the most probable and improbable

persons.

"The pilgrims," observes a learned critic upon the Munster Melodies, "are paired as whim or fancy dictates, making as motley an assortment, to use the simile of the melancholy Jacques, as went with Noah into the ark.' Some of these are very amusing, but the humour is too local to be generally understood, and we must add, that the personalities too frequently border on ill-nature."

In 1832, the Editor received the following note from a friend at Cork, inclosing one of these lists :

"Do you remember the local custom of sending all our maids, young and old, accompanied by bachelors of all ages, upon a pilgrimage to Skellig? I have been told that the custom of these lists arose when some Kerry regiment was here. The tumult in the streets, last Tuesday night, was extreme. Bodies of five hundred men and boys paraded the town, blowing horns, firing, ringing the bells of houses, breaking lamps, &c.,; and all on the occasion of the Skellig lists."

Appended to one of these lists, published in 1834, -which lists are invariably without the printer's name, this notice occurs:

"TO SKELLIG LIST WRITERS.

"The following very polite letter has been sent to the printer, of which it is hoped the Skellig List writers will please to notice, and comply with its contents :

'SIR,-You are requested to take notice, that I will hold you responsible for any liberties taken with the names of Mary Ellen Harris, Sarah Harris, and Eliza Driscoll, they being members of my family, and having received intelligence of some person or persons wishing to expose them in the Skellig Lists which are to come to and through your press. I am, therefore, fully determined to indict all persons concerned, if there is any thing prejudicial to their person, interest, or character, in any manner. Most respectfully, &c:

"Jan. 28,

songs

1834."

'HUGH DRISCOLL.'

In making a selection from the popular local of Ireland, the Editor has considerable difficulty, in consequence of the quantity before him. He is, therefore, necessarily guided by space; and his object is, as far as possible, to obtain an agreeable variety in a subject apparently circumscribed by amatory or descriptive effusions.

PROVINCIAL CHARACTERISTICS.

From "The Milesian Magazine, or Irish Monthly Gleaner," edited, and, it is believed, entirely written by Dr. John Brenan of Dublin, who has been termed "The Hudibras of Medicine." Nine numbers of this periodical