sunk in oblivion. So important a functionary was consequently subjected to a long and laborious training, and we may, therefore, safely credit the Irish legends about the colleges set apart for the education of fileas alone, at the time when Ireland was free, and the "harp of Tara" was swept with an honoured hand in the palaces of princes. Now, however, his themes as well as his office were of a less elevated description: he was a vagabond among bondmen, and the eulogist of thieves, rebels, and cut-throats, who constituted his principal auditory. So at least say the English writers, who could be little expected to sympathize in those songs, under the inspiration of which their houses were fired or plundered, their cattle driven away, and the national resistance perpetuated from generation to generation. They add, also, that the terrors of the filea among his own countrymen, from the power of his satire, were so great, that, like certain modern journalists, his silence was often purchased with a bribe. Of their songs in general, fallen as they now undoubtedly were from the ancient standard, a competent critic, the author of the "Faerie Queene," says, "I have caused divers of them to be translated unto me, that I might understand them, and surely they savoured of sweet wit, and good invention, but skilled not of the goodly ornaments of poetry; yet were they sprinkled with some pretty flowers of their natural device, which gave good grace and comeliness unto them, the which it is great pity to see abused to the gracing of wickedness and vice, which with good usage would serve to adorn and beautify virtue." Such were the bards of Ireland in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Another important personage, although in a much less degree, was the chief's storyteller, "who bringeth his lord on sleep with tales vain and frivolous whereunto the number give sooth and credence." Such an indulgence, indeed, was necessary among such a lively people, who for the most part had neither books to read, nor scholarship enough to read was overlaid with the barbarism of the country, as well as the monachism of the dark ages. Campion, who describes these seminaries, tells us, "I have seen them where they kept school, ten in some one chamber, grovelling upon couches of straw, their books at their noses, themselves lying flat, prostrate; and so to chant out their lessons piecemeal, being the most part lusty fellows of twenty-five years and upward." As yet, the Irish priest had not obtained his paramount importance. Educated at such schools as these, and regarded as the refuse of his proud order, while Popery was still paramount over Europe, he was little more than the Friar Tuck of a band of outlaws, to bless them on setting out on an expedition, and absolve them of its crimes on their return. But when Protestantism became the established faith of England, and was imposed upon Ireland at sword-point, a new principle of antagonism was introduced, in which the native ecclesiastic was the most distinguished agent. He had now to fight for his order and his faith, as well as his political liberty; and while the people rallied round him as their natural leader, the conflict was aggravated into the tenfold bitterness of a religious war. Such was the element now in active operation, which for centuries after was to produce such disastrous fruits. As might be expected in the state of such country, every native was more or less a soldier, or at least a robber and plunderer. But of those CHARGE OF IRISH HORSEMEN WIELDING THE LANCE. - Harl. MSS. 1319. them, even had they been within their reach. Schools, indeed, there were in the country, but these it would appear, were chiefly for the behoof of the children of the Anglo-Irish, and for those only who were to be trained in medicine, law, or divinity. Of course, Latin was the principal language in requisition, but such Latin as 1 who properly were soldiers, under the names of gallowglasses or yeomen, and kerns or irregular troops, we shall now briefly speak. That their undisciplined cavalry were excellent horsemen, and well fitted for the guerilla warfare of morass and mountain, their enemies were ready to attest. They rode, we are told, with sliding reins, deeds, and hair-breadth escapes of Rorie Oge O'More, already mentioned, and other such chief craft and courage. As the long sharp skein was the favourite national weapon of the Irish, the soldier swore by it as a patron saint, while he was anxious to increase its efficacy by a double portion of magic; and, therefore, before going to battle, he addressed prayers to it, signed it with the cross, muttered conjurations over it, and thrust its point into the earth, after which, he charged the enemy as if he wielded a charmed blade which nothing could resist. As the bonds of chivalry and distinctions of knighthood were useless among such warriors, they were not sought after; but in their stead they had a tie called gossipred, which has existed among the soldiery of more than one nation of savages, both of ancient and modern times. Under this gossipred, the Irish bound themselves to stand by each other to the death, whether in evil or in good; and to ratify the bargain, they opened their veins and drank a small portion of each other's blood. and a shank-pillion without stirrups, and held their lances overhead instead of couching them, so that they could thrust suddenly, and at un-tains, were attributed, and not to mere natural awares, wherever an enemy was exposed. They could also dismount, run by the side of the horse in full gallop, and vault into the saddle without abating the career. In addition to their lances which they used in hand-to-hand fight, these wild cavaliers carried darts of knotted wood about four feet long, and terminating in a broad steel head, which they threw with great dexterity and force. The defensive armour of the Irish soldiery, whether of horse or foot, consisted of a quilted jack, which they wore every day as part of their necessary clothing, and a light broad shield of wicker work, resembling those of the ancient Britons at the period of the Roman invasion. Besides these, the cloak was of such tough texture that it could blunt the ordinary stroke of a sword, while it was of such ample dimensions, that during a long campaign, it served the wearer for tent, bed, and clothing. With a helmet the Irish soldier often dispensed; but in lieu of it, he wore his hair at full length, platted into cords, and wound round his head; and this defence, which was called a glib, could withstand both a sharp edge and heavy blow. With this glib, too, uncoiled and thrown over his face, an Irish soldier could disguise himself for the purposes of plunder or espial; and when in danger of detection he could cut it off in a trice, and look as demure as a harmless palmer. For offensive weapons, the Irish gallowglasses or foot soldiers had battles-axes, long sharp broadswords or skeins-and for distant fight, short bows, and short bearded arrows. It will be seen that a military force like this was no match in the open field for the superior intelligence, arms, and discipline of the English; and the experiment, therefore, after a few trials, the Irish seldom cared to hazard. Instead of this, they confined themselves to the irregular warfare for which they were best fitted-to feigned flights, skirmishes, and surprises. As might have been expected, too, the English who were harassed by such a mode of resistance, which had continued for centuries, and been conducted with admirable cunning, were loud in their complaints of Irish treachery, cowardice, and cruelty-forgetting that every people so situated resist after the same fashion. The Irish being also the weaker party, although the most numerous, had recourse to supernatural aid besides the ordinary resources; and as their conquerors were not much more enlightened than themselves upon such a subject, they trembled more at the spells and incantations, than at the weapons of the Irish, who, they complained, had enlisted the devil upon their side as an auxiliary. To this, the daring In turning to the domestic usages and modes of life among the Irish at the close of this period, we find a ruder barbarism than had ever prevailed either in England or Scotland. What kind of houses could be expected among a people composed of predatory soldiers or wandering shepherds, and whose daily scramble was not merely for the means of subsistence, but for life itself! The dwellings of the peasantry were, therefore, such hovels as could be raised without trouble, and abandoned without regret mere shelters of a mud inclosure, in which, we are told by Spenser, men, women, children, and beasts, were littered together without distinction, “in one house, in one room, in one bed, that is, clean straw, or rather a foul dunghill." This coarse mode of living was further confirmed by the looseness of the marriage tie, in which man and wife lived together for mutual convenience, and parted upon the most frivolous quarrel, when they went forth in quest of new partners. “They seldom marry out of their own town," says Camden, "and contract with one another not in præsenti, but in futuro, or else consent without any manner of deliberation. Upon this account the least difference generally parts them, the husband taking another wife, and the wife another husband; nor is it certain whether the contract be true or false till they die. Hence arise feuds, rapines, murders, and deadly animosities about succeeding to the inheritance." As for the children of such a union, Campion informs us, "the natives neither swaddled nor lapped them in linen, but folded them up stark naked in a blanket, after which it was fortunate if a rag could be found to cover them." The truth of these squalid pictures of Irish de mestic life, the experience of the nineteenth cen- | is a cap of the simplest and most demure kind, tury can but too well verify. As for the dress of allowing not a single tress or ringlet to escape the people-a scanty theme-it in most instances from its envelopment; while the whole form, from consisted of the thick sword-proof mantle we have the shoulders to the feet, is shrouded in an ample alreadly described, which served as the wearer's cloak, descending in stiff folds, and giving no clothes by day and blanket by night, and consti- token of ornament, except the fur, with which tuted the whole of his wardrobe. But among the the cape and edges are lined. Her rank, indeed, higher and wealthier classes a more becoming is chiefly attested by the necklace and its pendant style prevailed, the memorial of what the national cross; but as for the other embellishments of her costume had been when the nation was free inner attire, if they really exist, these are so efand independent. This, besides the cloak, a flow- fectually concealed by the external covering, that ing toga of saffron colthe fact of their exour, which was the national hue, consisted of a cota or cotaigh. the classical tunica of ancient Rome, and as Walker in his History of Irish Bards informs us, was "a kind of shirt of plaided stuff or linen, dyed yellow, and ornamented also with needle-work according to the rank of the wearer. This shirt," he adds, "was open before, and came as low as mid-thigh; the trunk being thus open was folded round the body, and made fast by a girdle round the loins. The bosom was cut round, leaving the neck and upper part of the shoulders bare." COSTUME OF AN IRISHMAN OF RANK,1 This costume, sufficiently picturesque as well as comfortable, constituted the full dress of a native Irish gentleman; but his attire for ordinary occaPions, was a short woollen jacket with flowing skirts, and a pair of long trousers that fitted close to the body, and were striped with a variety of gay colours, like the tartan trews of the Highland gentlemen of Scotland. Of the costume of the Irish ladies of condition we are unable to be so explicit, owing to the silence of the old English authors on this subject. The specimen, however, which we annex in the way of illustration, gives us little cause to regret the omission. Here, the head-dress "This figure is from the effigy of Richard de Burgo, in the abbey of Athassel, county of Tipperary, and represents the earl clothed in his civil robes, and without any cap or covering on his head; the hair is divided on the forehead, and falls over the ears in short curls, whilst on the upper lip are seen moustachios. The dress consists of a loose robe girded around the waist, and falling to the ankles in straight folds. The shoulders are covered by a small cape or tippet, which is fastened on the breast by a circular brooch."-Archaological Journal, vol. ii. p. 124. COSTUME OF AN IRISHWOMAN. istence can only be taken for granted. In the cookery and diet of the Irish people of this period, among whom materials were so scanty and famine so frequent, we can scarcely expect much refinement. A meal was an uncertainty, and the stomachs that awaited it were in no mood for delay. Besides this, as agriculture was so limited among them, not only from the precariousness of its profits, but the contempt with which it was regarded as an occupation only fit for Englishmen, a meal was almost wholly a flesh-feast, unqualified by the humanizing influences of vegetables and bread. The Bohemian baron, whose visit to the Earl of Tyrone we have already mentioned, found, during an eight days' journey in his progress, no bread, no, not so much as a cake of oatmeal, until he reached the table of the mighty satrap himself. This, however, was not to be wondered at, when we are informed of the patriotism of the earl, which was of such a fierce description, that he cursed any of his pedigree who should learn the English language, build houses, or sow corn. Even when a plentiful table was spread, its coarse dainties were served up on turned wooden platters, for even pewter was too costly a rarity; and when the luxury of a table itself was wanting, which often happened, a bundle of grass sufficed, that served the purposes of table, table-cloth, ewer, and napkin. Descending from these "good men's feasts" to the Irish common diet and processes of cookery. we are informed by an author of the period (Morgan): "They scum the seething-pot with a handful of straw, and strain their milk taken from the cow through a like handful of straw, none of the cleanest, and so cleanse, or rather more defile the pot and milk. They devour great morsels of beef unsalted, and they eat commonly swine's flesh, seldom mutton; and all these pieces of flesh, as also the entrails of beasts unwashed, they seethe in a hollow tree, lapped in a raw cow's hide, and so set over the fire, and there with swallow whole lumps of filthy butter. Yea (which is most contrary to nature) they will feed on horses dying of themselves, not only upon small want of flesh, but even for pleasure." To this account we may add a few notices from Campion, who informs us, that "in haste and hunger they would squeeze out the blood of raw flesh, and ask no more dressing thereto; the rest boileth in their stomachs with aquavitæ, which they swill in after such a surfeit by quarts and pottles." He also mentions a still more loathsome and inhuman dish which was in use among the Irish. This was procured by bleeding their cattle, and letting the blood congeal, after which it was baked, larded with butter, and devoured in lumps. The milk of their cattle was also plentifully used at Irish meals, warmed or curdled, by the process of dropping a stone into it that had been heated in the fire for the purpose; and sometimes this simple posset was enriched by an admixture of beef-broth. Whatever vegetables they chanced to use, were those that grew wild, such as the water-cress, and especially the shamrock: this last by its acid taste was particularly grateful to outlawed and starving fugitives, who snatched it "like beasts out of ditches, as they ran and were chaced to and fro." Of the drinks used by the Irish, the chief was aquavitæ or whiskey, exclusively a Celtic beverage, which was common from a very early period both to Irishmen and Highlanders, and sometimes it was flavoured by the former with raisins, fennel-seed, or saffron. Sometimes sack found its way to the tables of the rich from Spain, and ale and beer from England, but these last in smaller quantities. It speaks much for the Arab-like character of the people, that although they denied themselves so much the luxury of bread, yet they carefully hoarded their scanty stores of oats for the exclusive sustenance of their horses. Such was the state of Ireland at the close of the sixteenth and commencement of the seventeenth centuries. It is truly a sickening picture; and on considering it, we are naturally induced to wonder that so little improvement has been ac complished in the character and condition of the native Irish, from that period till the present day. Are we to attribute this political phenomenon to the Asiatic tenacity and indisposition to change, manifested by the whole Celtic race, aggravated in the case of Ireland by foreign domination and misrule? Such a conclusion the whole history of that unhappy land seems too well calculated to verify BOOK VII. PERIOD FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES I. TO THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II.-57 YEARS. CHAPTER I.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.—A.D. 1603-1606. JAMES I.-ACCESSION, A.D. 1603-DEATH, A.D. 1625. Tidings of Queen Elizabeth's death sent to James VI. of Scotland-He is proclaimed King of England, &c.—His journey to England-His arrival in London-Court paid to him by foreign states-Plots against him in London--Apprehension of the principal conspirators—Apprehension and trial of Sir Walter Raleigh-He and his associates respited-Petition of the Puritans for religious reform and a conference-The conference held at Hampton Court-James's conduct as a disputant-Flattery paid to him by the bishops and courtiersMeeting of his first parliament-James's love of hunting-Disappointment of the Catholics at not receiving toleration-Conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot-Their purpose and proceedings-Detection of the plotApprehension of Fawkes-Flight of the conspirators-Their desperate resistance and death-Trial and execu tion of Fawkes-Trial and execution of others of the conspirators-Apprehension of Garnet, the Jesuit, and his associate, Hall—Their imprisonment in the Tower-Nefarious practices to make them confess their guilt ―Their trial-They are executed—Arbitrary proceedings of the Star Chamber. LIZABETH had no sooner secret, until the formal despatch from London breathed her last, than Lady | should reach him. Sir Robert Carey had scarcely Scrope, a daughter of her rela- taken horse for the north when Cecil, Nottingtive, the late Lord Hunsdon, ham, Egerton, and others, met in secret debate communicated the intelligence at Richmond at an early hour, before the queen's to her brother, Sir Robert Ca- death was known; and these lords "knowing rey, who had been on the watch; above all things delays to be most dangerous," and who, anticipating Cecil and the proceeded at once to London, and drew up a proother lords of the council, stole out clamation in the name "of the lords spiritual of the palace at Richmond, where the and temporal, united and assisted with the late queen had expired at three o'clock on the morn- queen's council, other principal gentlemen, the ing of Thursday, the 24th of March, and posted lord-mayor, aldermen, and citizens of London, a down to Scotland, in order to be the first to multitude of other good subjects and commons hail James Stuart as King of England. This of the realm." This proclamation bore thirty-six tender relative arrived at Edinburgh on the signatures, the three first being those of Robert night of Saturday the 26th, four days before Sir Lee, lord-mayor of London, the Archbishop Charles Percy and Thomas Somerset, Esq., who of Canterbury, and the Lord-keeper Egerton; were despatched by the council; but it was the three last, those of Secretary Sir Robert Ce agreed with James to keep the great matter a cil, Sir J. Fortescue, and Sir John Pophamn. It VOL. II. 143-4 |