Hugh O'Neill. The outer entrance led into a hypogeum, in a dark corner of which was a sub-ingression that led to the ascent, which was by a winding stair, perforated at every floor or landing-place by a square hole, popularly called a "murdering hole," where a few men armed with muskets could dispute the passage with thousands. The walls are of considerable thickness and strength. It was roofed with large flags, part of which, on the citadel, remain perfect; but a new roof has been put upon the main tower by Mr. Mateer, whose good taste merits great praise. We ascend to the "King's Seat," on the topmost pinnacle, so called, tradition says, because the Lord Thomas of Lancaster, son of King Henry IV, who landed here in 1408 as lord lieutenant of Ireland, used often to sit upon a stone seat between the battlements to enjoy the glorious prospect;-if tradition err not, this castle must have been erected long antecedent to the days of Elizabeth.

Our attention is next invited by the ancient castle of King John, which has sat here, notwithstanding the hostile assaults of time, and the war of the elements, for 640 years. "Moored on a

rifted rock," whose base forms an adamantine barrier to old Neptune's boisterous domain, stand the majestic and venerable remains of this massive fortress. When approaching it by sea, it brings to our recollection the words of the poet :

Our sketch represents it as still "splendid in ruin." It was an immense pile, the walls, which are now overrun with ivy, of great thickness, in some places eleven feet; and their tops are now profusely adorned with shamrocks, daisies, cowslips, violets, and wall-flowers. This fortress commanded the entrance to the harbour, and the narrow pass between itself and the lofty mountain, which here terminates that mountainous chain which guarded the frontiers of Ulster, from Carlingford to the Moyry Pass. Its form is unshapely, owing to the necessity of adapting it to the configuration of the rock which forms its site. It consisted of several apartments, all unlike most other ancient baronial halls, and its court yard is surrounded by traces of galleries, with arched recesses at each loop-hole capable of holding four or five archers. There are, underneath the strongly arched ground-floor, several dungeon-like apartments hewed out of the rock. This heavy

martial pile had no occasion for the ramparts, mounds, moats, drawbridges, portcullises, and all the other ponderous defences in use in other ancient fortresses, to keep out the hostile hordes whom, in a semi-savage state of society, such massive buildings were constructed to repel; for here nature supplied all these in this isolated rock.

Carlingford was a walled 'town-some portions of the walls still remaining. It owes its origin chiefly to the early English adventurers. The old castle, erected to carry out the original policy of Henry II., was the first building of note; then the early settlers in the Pale flocked thither to seek a refuge under its protecting wing; and thus in a short time it became a station of considerable importance, even in the earliest ages of the English ascendancy in Ireland. Most of the early houses were constructed as fortalices, or castles; because they were, from the position of the town on the frontiers of the Pale, constantly exposed to danger from the marauding attacks of the "Irish enemy." Our aged guide informed us that his father remembered, about 120 years ago, no fewer than THIRTY-TWO castellated edifices and churches, the ruins of many of which remained till a much later period. Of the former, only the three castles we have described now remain; and of the latter, there is only the dismantled and dilapidated Abbey, whose ruins will be found pictured in the subjoined engraving, after Nicholls.

This fallen shrine was a Dominican monastery, founded in 1305, by Richard De Burgh, Earl of Ulster, under the invocation of St. Malachi. It was a very extensive pile, and is still a picturesque ruin. Its architecture was chaste and beautiful for the rude age in which it was built. The only parts that now remain are the long aisles and central belfry, with the immense pointed windows, now built up, and part of the exquisite Gothic arch which formed the large eastern window; the other partsthe sacristy, the muniment house, the chapter house, the studious cloister-all have been laid as low as sacrilege could lay them. Well might we ask, when looking upon ruins once so splendid, now so dismal as these, withthe poet of "Cooper's Hill," "What would the sacrilege of the Christian king, who with faithless hands defaced this holy shrine, spare, when such are the effects of his devotion?" During the interregnum, this venerable and antiquely picturesque edifice was converted by Cromwell's general, Lord Inchiquin, into the ignoble purpose of a stable; and some twenty years ago a few of his horses' shoes were found imbedded in the floor, when it was being cleared out, to be still further desecrated to the purposes of a ball-alley, or tennis-court!

This scattered little town is situated at the head of a cove of the Lough, running in at the base of Sliev Foy. It has a popu lation of 1400, and 230 neat houses, arranged into two principal and several smaller streets. There is a small pier, constructed by a merchant of the town (Mr. Archibald Mateer), which is quite sufficient for the present wants of the shipping, as only a few fishing smacks and colliers approach it. Although formerly of considerable note, and although occupying a situation which combines scenic beauty with commercial advantages more than many other towns along the coast, Carlingford carries on little trade, notwithstanding its contiguity to the deep sea, and its various natural possessions, owing chiefly to its inland communication being so bad that the town is completely isolated, and its noble expanse of waters comparatively valueless to it. Its exports are corn and other provisions, and limestone to England; its imports are inconsiderable, only for the supply of the town and adjacent districts.

The chief employment is the herring and oyster fisheries. As the Carlingford oysters are famous for their superiority over every other testaceous or crustaceous dweller in the deep, which contributes to the creature comforts of the lord of the creation ;— as they are everywhere heard of throughout England and Ireland, though the rale Carlingfords are but seldom seen far away from home, it will be expected that we shall relate something of the manner of catching them. But first let us give the reader a taste of our learning on oysters in general, before we proceed to oysters in particular, and Carlingford oysters especially.

Oyster, from the Latin ostrea, is the name generally understood to signify the species of Ostracean bivalve, called Ostrea edulis, which is one of a numerous genus, characterised by an inequivalve shell, composed of two irregular lamellated valves, of which the convex or under one adheres to rocks, piles, or the shell of any other individual. The animal is unprovided either with a byssus or a foot:—it is the best flavoured of its class, and has, consequently, been always much esteemed. Vast oyster beds are artificially formed, and attended to with great care, at the estuary of the Thames and many other localities, where the temperature of the water is somewhat raised, by a mixture of salt and fresh, in which they best thrive. Certain restrictions and regulations are enforced in the English metropolis in order to favour their multiplication and improvement. They are permitted to be sold from August to May-the close months being May, June, and July-though the common belief is that the interdiction extends to any month without an r in it. They differ in quality according to the nature of the soil or bed. The best British oysters are found at Purfleet-the worst near Liverpool. The nursing and feeding of oysters are almost exclusively carried on at Colchester, and other places in Essex. They are brought from Hants, Dorset, and other maritime counties, even as far as Scotland, and laid on beds or layings, in creeks, along the shore, where they grow, in two or three years, to a considerable size, and have their flavour improved. Upwards of 200 vessels, from twelve to fourteen tons burden, and having from 400 to 600 men and boys attached to them, are employed dredging oysters for London alone, where from 14,000 to 16,000 bushels a year are consumed. Oysters formed a great luxury with the Romans, and, as in France, were served at the commencement of a repast. The largest and best of Italy were caught on the shores of the Lucrine; but the Romans used to send to Britain in quest of this luxury.

Now, will it be credited, that the erudite Vandals, from whom we have compiled all this, say not one word of Carlingford oysters. And this is English justice-this Saxon fair play! The oysters of Ireland-nay, the oysters of Carlingford-passed over in a tyrannous, despotic, autocratic, Czaritic, Neroish, Heliogabalus-ish silence! Guns, blunderbusses, trumpets, drums, and- -But we suppress our feelings, and proceed.

There is a rule here in Carlingford, in force for many years, which prevents the oyster fishing commencing before the first Monday in November, and causes it to end on the first Saturday in March. The oysters in the Carlingford beds were not so plentiful for some years past as they used to be, for they had been run too close; but last year the fishermen left more to breed, and