Darragh. The next time you go on a message down a steep bank, Walter, you must keep your feet better, and tumble less. You had a most ungraceful fall yonder, I assure you, just as you completed your descent; and I was by no means certain that you had not broken some of your bones, till I saw you bounding over the river like a stag-hound." And thus the good old man's pleasantry relieved me from all embarrassment. "How singularly still is every thing here," remarked Mrs. Cardonald-(we were all sitting together on a mossy knoll)- -" I can hear nothing but the faint bleat of yonder lambs, and that but indistinctly." She had scarcely spoken, when a wild cry or bark resounded from above us, and over a lofty scarp of rock at the opposite side of the gien, a large brown eagle sailed with the wind into the valley: we all started to our feet to watch him.

us."

Ha," said the General, "parlez des agneaux et voila le loup. I hope he is not going to meddle with our bleating population; yet the poor people here say that the eagle is like the agent-he always comes at Lammas time. See how he is wheeling over We watched him as he flew slowly up and down the valley. "I declare he is a noble bird," said the General: "a fine golden eagle-the aquila chrysuctos, as my friend Dr. Macrologos of T.C.D. would style him. He is the gentleman of his tribe, and as stately as you please,-proud eye; plumed limb; fierce claw; strong wing,' is an old definition of this bird. See how he is rowing himself with those strong wings out of the glen; and borne on the breeze, he will be among my rabbits at once, and will scarce go home to his eyrie in the cliff without having made a full meal. But what is that you are saying, Miss Cardonald, about destroying these birds?"

Miss Cardonald.- "I was telling Mr. Nugent, sir, how my father had all the eagles on his estate in Scotland killed, they were so destructive to his lambs; and how he was in the habit of quoting the practice of a certain grand jury in the North of Ireland, who paid out of the county funds 20s. for every dead eagle, 10s. for every hawk, and so on in a decreasing scale down to foxes, otters, and ferrets."

The General (rather indiguant).—

"And did these gentlemen classify these animals, noble and ignoble, altogether as vermin?"

Miss Cardonald." I believe that was the name they gave to all."

The General (much excited).-"I confess I am not utilitarian enough to join this guerilla warfare against animated nature; if I had lived in King Edgar's days, I would have shot my wolf, and joined heartily in extirpating the savage enemy of my species; but I could not-would not shoot an eagle; he is, at all events when here, my noble guest; and is welcome to his dinner, choose it where he will. Why should we quarrel with him because he has, like ourselves, carnivorous tastes? I think it is La Fontaine who makes an ox the judge, who with a sober jury of twelve calves, brings in man guilty of death for eating beef and having an appetite for veal. Nomine mutato, de te fabula narratur.' the tables were thus to be turned, I am afraid it would go very hard with us all; not to speak of our penchant for venison, and our decided mutton iniquities. But this is a rare and wonderful bird. I could not maim so noble a creature, or break with ruffian shot the proud brown wing which ears him to the sun, or dim that kingly eye."

If

Miss Cardonald (smiling)." Yet, sir, I have heard you speak with much enthusiasm of a day in the mountains spent in killing grouse."

The General." A fair rejoinder! dear young lady. I suppose I am a little inconsistent; but wild-fowl like the grouse are our natural food. We are permitted, nay enjoined their use in the Bible. We may arise, kill, and eat;' but we should not arise, kill, and torture; much less ought we to arise, kill, and extirpate; and that, one of the Creator's truest patterns of nobleness; which this bird, living so lonely a life in his lofty eyrie, so dignified in his habits, and so independent and so rarely obtrusive, most surely is.

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Mrs. Cardonald. My dear General, I quite agree with you; your sentiments are mine precisely, and I think the sweet Bard of Avon has a fine idea about cruelty to animals, and how excessively improper it is to kill flies, or tread on a beetle, if we can possibly help it. The late Judge lost a good number of lambs off his sheep

braes in Glenmorloch; but the truth was, he had a dishonest shepherd, who purloined the animals, and laid the blame on the eagles, and the Judge was too much occupied professionally and too ignorant of country matters, to attend to his Highland farms; so he would cry, 'Shoot the earns-shoot them all;' but at all events he never would suffer me to interfere in any thing, he was 80 clever himself and wise." Here the lady's voice sunk to a lachrymose tone, and as we pursued our way up the path, she went off into one of her long, soft, silly, reiterative monotones, in which she repeated herself a hundred times-in which she spoke much and said nothing-in which she was droll enough to listen to at the beginning, but became dull and wearisome at the end. Her daughter seemed to be a reaction from this; she certainly was at times a little short in her manner, matter-of-fact, and even abrupt. Perhaps she inherited this from her father, old Glenmorloch, who had been a Scotch Lord of Session, with a proverbially short temper, but surely greatly softened in its transmission to his fair daughter.

We had emerged up from the glen, and were standing on a piece of high table land adjoining the cliffs. "Now, ladies," said the General, "take your last look at bonny Glenroe, its woods, its waters, its shadows, and its stillness, for you must henceforth battle with the wind and hear the waves roar. Ha! here we are; the gale, too, is lulling. Yonder is the Thubber-aThallin, about three hundred yards off, just under where the sea-gull is wheeling, and there goes a splendid shot from its great stone gun-barrel." As he spoke, a bright green jet of water arose from the distant rocks in a liquid pillar of considerable height, and, broken and shattered into a million of diamonds, or aqua marine gems, as it fell back, was swept through its funnel into the deep sea vault from which it had been forced by the action of the waves and the wind below, and accompanied by a report as loud as that of a sixtypounder.

"Well done! brave Thubber," said the General; "that was a noble shot, but we shall have an unwished-for shower-bath by standing here. The

next discharge will wet us through, and though blue water' will not give cold, it will spoil clothes. So, Walter, let us bring the ladies round to windward of the Thubber, and we can stand within a few yards of it, and sustain no damage." This we accordingly did, and remained for nearly an hour watching this singular natural phenomenon.

"This Thubber-a-Thallin," said the General, "signifies the 'Salt Fountain,' and for brightness, volume, and power, Versailles can boast of nothing like it. It is also called 'M'Loughlin's Cup'-I never heard why. Puffing holes like these are common among the Irish sea-cliffs; the finest of them is in the county of Donegal, on the noble promontory of Horn Head. This, when compared to that, is but as a pop-gun to a pistol shot. On the same precipitous and ironbound coasts are the loftiest cliffs perhaps in Great Britain-certainly in Ireland. They are called the cliffs of Slieve League, aud are close on two thousand feet high. Still more southward, as Donegal approaches Sligo, there is on the sea-shore what is called the Fairy Hole.' Here, when the winds are high, a perpetual mist issues from the orifice, which is accompanied by a wild sound like chanting, and so loud as to be heard from a distance. This I have never seen, but know it to be the fact."

"Yes," I added as my uncle paused, "and we have the subjoined testimony of Peter Sleveen, who was there in one of his wanderings, and actually looked down into the hole during a gale of wind, and saw through the rifts of the mist most wondrous sights: a round table covered with a sea-green cloth, and tassels of searack, and seated about it a whole bevy of musicians, and none of them more than six inches high; little old men with brown coats, and yellow waistcoats, and grey small-clothes, and sky-blue caps, and white silks, and diamond knee-buckles; and tiny old ladies also, no bigger, Peter said, than a child's doll, in red velvet gowns, and large fans, and their cheeks beautifully rouged, and their hair powdered. And they were all singing and playing on flutes, and trombones, trumpets, and triangles, and jewsharps, tambourines and barrel-organs. And the king of the fairics was there, a little

old minnikin of a man, dressed all in green and gold, with gold buckles to his shoes, each of them as large as a pancake, and a gold chain dangling from his fob, and real gold spectacles on his nose like a complete gentleman, as no doubt he was; and the weeshy creature was seated on a three-legged stool in the middle of the table, and sawing away with his fiddle at Planxty O'Connor Dhu.' And all this time, said Peter, the great waves were rolling and rushing into the cave, and whirling round its sides, but never touched or wet the good people or their table; and big fishes were there whales, and sharks, and dolphins, and congour eels, grinning and gaping and glaring at the little folk, and swimming round them, but did not touch or harm them, or offer to lay a hand on them, but kept still going round and round the inside of the cave, listening to the fairy music, and humouring it too: the sharks whisking their tails to and fro, and snapping their white teeth; and the dolphins splashing the salt water up into Peter's face in their admiration of the performance; and the congour eels wagging and wriggling their bodies, and winking with their eyes; and the whales swimming slowly, and beating time steadily with their fins on their long fat sides to the Planxty; and the little people, all the time, sitting in the hollow of the water, quite dry and comfortable. At last Peter became so excited that he could stand it no longer, but got desperate; so pulling off his boots, he seized his kit, and was just in the act of slipping on his dancing shoes, that he might hark in with the concert, and fling and foot it to the Planxty, when the wind ceased, and the mist fell thick and heavy, and the music died away in a deep mournful wail; and when Peter bent over the funnel to look down, all was dark and still; he heard nothing but the sobbing of the waves, and the hollow plashing of the water against the sides of the cavern. And so ends my version of Peter Sleveen's vision at the Fairy Hole."

"Which," said my uncle, smiling, "would have been told with more spirit and about as much truth by Peter himself, whose semi-insane stories please my fancy, though I dislike his dancing, and pronounce it a satire upon our common manhood. I

trels, and others of the great gull tribe, were now seen flying and alighting on the breast of the unquiet ocean.

A large barque, with all her snowy sails set, and her bright yellow sides and smart taper spars, was fast heaving into sight. The General unslung a glass which we had used much in the glen; the ladies had a good view of the handsome craftwhich appeared to be an American packet-ship. My uncle then took the telescope, and after sweeping the horizon, he remained looking in the one direction for some time. The ladies were now at a distance from us, and he said, "Walter, take the glass, and tell me who are those figures walking on the strand, near the mouth of the Trasna, and opposite Inniskeadallow Island?"

I took the glass, and plainly saw my cousin Gilbert pacing the sands, with a female whose back was towards me.

He was earnestly gesticulating, while she appeared to hang her head, and listen silently. Suddenly she turned her face, and I saw the great

dark eyes of the Spanish girl Marellos, and I caught the glitter of her large ear-rings in the sun.

In a few minutes a third figure came round a rock, and joined them, who I saw was Marellos himself, when his daughter moved on and left the men together. I gave the glass back to the General, intimating what I had seen, and he continued looking through it a long time, and no doubt watching the motions of the distant party. At last he said, "What can Gilbert be doing with these people ; I thought he was twenty miles off with his friend O'Skerrett. It is very strange; but I shall ask him to explain when we meet."

We returned to where we had left our car, by the cliffs, our ladies were in great spirits, and oh how happy was I during that drive back to our house in the evening; and that the chain was weaving round me which so much influenced my life to come, I did not then consider, though I cannot but now regret.

It is now just five years since we reviewed the first two volumes of this work. Within that time a third volume has been given to the public, but great as are the actions therein recorded, we did not consider that it comprised a sufliciently important portion of history to demand a separate notice. We have, therefore,

waited for the continuation of the work, which has now been vouchsafed to us.

Mr. Merivale's third volume includes the triumphs of Antony after the death of Cæsar, his coalition with the young Octavius, his loves with Cleopatra, and his final overthrow. It tells us of the battles of Philippi and of Actium, and finally seats Octavius, or, as he must then be called, Augustus, on the imperial throne. The fourth and fifth volumes contain the history of Rome under the Emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius.

Vols. 4 & 5. 1856.

one who can write such excellent English, driven into what appears to be a pedantic Latinity, by the habits of his mode of study.

This practice with Mr. Merivale springs not from pedantry, but from thoughtlessness. He has imbued,

as it were, the ears of his mind with classic phraseology, till he has come to regard certain Latin terms as belonging to his own vernacular, and has forgotten to reflect that they do not, at any rate, belong to the vernacular of those numerous readers for whom his studies are intended. We can forbear to blame him when he calls Pompey and Antony, Pompeius and Antonius, understanding, as we do, his desire to maintain the dignified nomenclature of his heroes; though, as he does so, he should, we think, also call Neptune, Neptunus, and should not designate the King of Judea sometimes as Herod, and sometimes Herodes. We can understand, however, that he was embarrassed by a difficulty as to the extent to which he should carry the classicalism of his proper names; but he should have had no difficulty in abstaining from writing Latin when his mother English would equally have served his purpose.

He tells us that the shrine of the hero, Julius, had been erected on the "spot of his cremation," meaning, thereby, the spot where his body had been burnt. He tells that the voice of Augustus was more influential than that of the "prerogative century." The word, century, in English, we take to mean a period of a hundred years, and that only. We all know that Mr. Merivale alludes to that division of the Roman people to which a certain franchise was in old times allotted. He tells us of the perpetuation" of a gens through its clientete," and of the perpetuation of "the Gentile cults." Of this word, cult, he is peculiarly fond. We hear of the "Darren simplicity of the Etruscan cult," and of the ancient cult." Why not say "worship?" To Mr. Merivale's ears, the Saxon word may not be so expressive as that which he uses, but it is, at any rate, English, and if it did not suit him, it was his business to find some English phrase that did. "The Gentile cult" does not, in our language, signify the peculiar mode of worship

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VOL. XLVII.-NO. CCLXXXII.

of a peculiar family. We hear of the " pronaos of a temple," and of the " censure of Canillus." Now we venture to assert that no Englishman will attribute any but one meaning to this latter phrase, and yet that meaning is entirely different from Mr. Merivale's. He speaks of the censure of Camillus, as we speak of the mayoralty of Mr. Moon; Camillus had held the office of censor, and, as such, had been very vigorous, and his "censure" is spoken of as having been celebrated. The word, however, in every-day English, means blame, and we believe that it means nothing else.

Mr. Merivale, though a scholar, is no pedant. There is enough in the work now before us to prove what we say in this respect; but, nevertheless, it should be worth his while to protect himself from any such accusation. And, moreover, we regard it to be his imperative duty as an English historian, to write his history in pure English. That he can do so is one of his greatest merits. While on this subject, we will venture to point out that there are one or two slips which a little more care in revision would have avoided. When he speaks, for instance, of "commanders too daring to overawe, and too distant to control," he means that they were too daring to be overawed, and too distant to be controlled.

It is difficult to invest with their popular and yet proper attributes the heroes of the old classic times. Those who in their youth became familiar with the great names of antiquity, have generally carried away ideas formed rather by the imagination of the poets than the records of the historians: and those who, in early years, had no such advantage hardly care to trouble themselves, in after life, with much study as to what was done in Greece or in Rome. The Trojan war, the wrath of Juno, the quarrels of Agamemnon and Achilles, the wanderings of Ulysses and Eneas, the miseries of Prometheus and Edipus, the urbanity of Maecenas, and the stern courage of Regulus-these are the classic incidents which boys carry with them from school, never to be eradicated; but they too generally fail to acquire an historic knowledge of the names with which they are familiar.

C