God give them the victory!
Say amen for charity.

In no other isle is known
Such a hospitable town;
Joyously the people greet
Every stranger in their street.
Free is he to sell and buy,
And sustain no tax thereby.
Town and people once again
I commend to God. Amen.

!

Deu lur doint si en venger
E la vile à bonur garder;
Qe deus en seit de tot paié ;
E tuz diez amen pur charité.
Kar ce est la plus franch vile
Qe seit en certein ne en yle;
E tot hom estrange est ben venu,
E de grant joi est resceü,

E chater e vendre en pute ben,

Qe nul hom ne li demandra reen.

A deu la vile je command,

E tous qe dedens sunt habitand.

Amen, amen, amen.

Ce fu fet l'an del incarnacion nostre Seignur, m.cc.lxv.

SHANDRUM BOGGOON.

Boggoon is the Irish for bacon. Stanihurst quotes the fragment of a song that probably was popular in Ireland in the reign of Elizabeth; according to which,

"He is not a king that weareth saten,

But he is a king that eateth bacon."

Shandrum (in English, the old hill) is the seat of William Allen, Esq. near Charleville, in the county of Cork,-a gentleman no less remarkable for his hospitality than Shandrum is for the excellence of the bacon produced there.

The author of the song in praise of Shandrum boggoon is Mr. Edward Quin, also the writer of another popular song, called "Bobety Dawly," and the brother of Mr. Simon Quin, whose "Town of Passage" may be found at p. 269. Both the brothers have long since abandoned their coquetry with the Irish Muse for the more substantial employment of English coach-building, which Mr. Edward Quin successfully carries on in London.

Blackrock Castle, and the Baths, mentioned in the second verse, are prominent objects on the south shore of the river Lee, along which the New Wall, a stone embankment, extends for more than a mile from Cork. Mount Prospect race-course is distant about four miles from "the beautiful city."

On the circumstance alluded to in the third verse, it is only necessary to state, that the ingenious fancy of the Irish ballad publishers produces annually, or sometimes more frequently, a marvellous story of the appearance of the evil one, with various minute particulars of his dining, supping, or spending the evening in the company of some individual; and which stories, adorned with a fearful woodcut, being duly printed, sell and circulate, to the no small profit of the publishers, advantage of the venders, and terror of all true believers therein.

Air-" The Black Joke."

To Goddesses, Graces, the Lakes of Killarney,
To "Bobety Dawly," to Passage, to Blarney,

Some folks have attempted their lays to attune;
But the subject on which these few lines are compose'
Was never yet chanted in verse or in prose.

The reason is plain,-no praise did it need ;

If you ever should taste it, you'd swear it, indeed :
What I mean now, an' please you, is Shandrum boggoon.

Of old greedy Midas a strange story's told,

That, whatever he'd touch, it would turn into gold.
Were that attribute mine, I would barter it soon
For the gift that, whatever I'd touch, I'd at ease
Convert to the substance or form that I'd please:
Oh! I'd touch Blackrock Castle, the Baths, and New Wall,
Mount Prospect race-course, the racers and all,

And I'd turn them at once into Shandrum boggoon.

If you credit report, about this time last year
His terrific highness the Devil did appear,

And dined with one Martin, who lives in Johnstown.
'Tis said in that place he has chosen to dwell,
Perhaps somewhere near us. Lord save us! 'tis well
That they've got no boggoon: by my soul, 'twould require
A host of the clargy to banish the squire,

If he e'er set his eyes upon Shandrum boggoon.

Since in praise of boggoon I've the honour to start,
Indulge me, for once, in a wish of my heart-

And this wish shall be mine till I'm laid in the tomb:

May the inmates of Shandrum, encircling that board,
Enjoy every comfort this world can afford-

Have always a plenty, and, should we go there,

A heart to divide it, and never worse fare

Than a ham, flitch, or gammon of Shandrum boggoon.

SHANNON'S FLOWERY BANKS.

The music of this song was by Mr. Carter, a member of the choir of Cloyne, who also composed the beautiful and well-known melody of "O, Nannie, wilt thou gang with me?" The Shannon, and its banks, have been long a favourite locality with Irish poets. Among the popular broadsides now lying before the Editor, are songs entitled "The Shannon Side," " Lovely Jane of the Shannon Side," "Shannon's Cottage Maid," &c.; and, in a very small book among the Sloane MSS. (No. 3514),* may be found, "The Shannon's Praise," wherein, after other matters, it is stated, that

"For sixty miles and more, the swelling sea
Comes rouling up its streams twice every day,
Where vessels of great burden safely ride,
And swiftly saile, assisted by the tyde;
And if that craggy, steep, confounded rock,
Near Killaloe, were, by good fortune, broak

* This manuscript is chiefly in the Irish character. The following notes occur in it: :-" Written in Ireland Novbr ye 17, 1713."— "Mr. John Scanlan to Mr. Dennis Connor, Traly."—Also, 4th, 1727." Some of the initial letters are rather grotesque.

66

Sepr ye

Up to its very head, from raging sea,
Yon vessels of great burden might convey:
Which winding voyage, if you rightly count,
To twice a hundred miles it will amount.
Some rivers are for their great bridges praised,
And for the many arches on them raised;
The Thems has nineteen arches, and no more,
Portumney nineteen, and, besides, a score,
Which shews the Shannon doth widely exceed
The Thems, the Clyde, and the dividing Tweed.”

Lord Macartney, when embarking, in 1781, for his government at Madras, thus addressed this noble river:

66

Raptured, I try the strain,

Great king of floods! to hail thy new-born reign,
Which breaks from darkness like the rise of day,
And gives the promise of imperial sway!
Already Commerce spreads her ample stores,
Pours Afric's riches on Ierne's shores;
Brings either India's treasures to her view,
Brazilian gold, and silver of Peru!

Bids wondering navies on thy billows ride,

Rolls the world's wealth, O Shannon, to thy tide!"

The view of Tarbert, given in Milton's "Seats of the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland," engraved after a picture by Wheatley, refers to the embarkation of Lord Macartney from the seat of Edward Leslie, Esq., afterwards Sir Edward Leslie, Bart., and the projected railroad may realise his lordship's anticipations of the Shannon.

In summer when the leaves were green,
And blossoms decked each tree,
Young Teddy then declared his love-
His artless love, to me.