89. St. Columba, who was an O’Donnell.
90. “This bird (the Gannet) flys through the ship’s sails, piercing them with his beak.”—O’Flaherty’s “H-Iar Connaught,” p. 12, published by the Irish Archaeological Society.
91. She was the wife of Oisin, the bard, who is said to have lived and sung for some time at Cushendall, and to have been buried at Donegal.
92. The Rock of Clough-i-Stookan lies on the shore between Glenarm and Cushendall; it has some resemblance to a gigantic human figure.—“The winds whistle through its crevices like the wailing of mariners in distress.”—Hall’s “Ireland,” vol. iii., p. 133.
93. “The Gray Man’s Path” (Casan an fir Leith) is a deep and remarkable chasm, dividing the promontory of Fairhead (or Benmore) in two.
THE BELL-FOUNDER.
PART I.—LABOUR AND HOPE.
In that land where the heaven-tinted pencil giveth
shape to the
splendour of dreams,
Near Florence, the fairest of cities, and Arno, the
sweetest of streams,
’Neath those hills[94] whence the race of the
Geraldine wandered in ages
long since,
For ever to rule over Desmond and Erin as martyr and
prince,
Lived Paolo, the young Campanaro,[95] the pride of
his own little vale—
Hope changed the hot breath of his furnace as into
a sea-wafted gale;
Peace, the child of Employment, was with him, with
prattle so soothing
and sweet,
And Love, while revealing the future, strewed the
sweet roses under his
feet.
Ah! little they know of true happiness, they whom
satiety fills, Who, flung on the rich breast of luxury,
eat of the rankness that kills. Ah! little they
know of the blessedness toil-purchased slumber enjoys,
Who, stretched on the hard rack of indolence, taste
of the sleep that
destroys,
Nothing to hope for, or labour for; nothing to sigh
for, or gain; Nothing to light in its vividness, lightning-like,
bosom and brain; Nothing to break life’s monotony,
rippling it o’er with its breath: Nothing
but dulness and lethargy, weariness, sorrow, and death!
But blessed that child of humanity, happiest man among
men,
Who, with hammer, or chisel, or pencil, with rudder,
or ploughshare, or
pen,
Laboureth ever and ever with hope through the morning
of life,
Winning home and its darling divinities—love-worshipped
children and
wife,
Round swings the hammer of industry, quickly the sharp
chisel rings,
And the heart of the toiler has throbbings that stir
not the bosom of
kings;
He the true ruler and conqueror, he the true king
of his race,
Who nerveth his arm for life’s combat, and looks
the strong world in the
face.