story, for its fairs, and the fun and fighting of the "boys" in fair time.

While in Dublin, we had a most delightful musical entertainment, which was the more pleasing, as it was unexpected. Driving past the barracks, (it was the Queen's birth-day,) and hearing the sound of music, we stopped, and found the entire concentrated bands of the establishment, numbering about two hundred musicians, performing in the highest style, some of the most beautiful music we ever heard.

It really was an exquisite treat, and, although I have very little knowledge of music, still it has a powerful effect upon me, and I believe I have some appreciation of its finer harmonies. I delight to recall the occasion, however, because of the pleasure it afforded Mrs. V., whose musical taste is very great, and has been highly cultivated. It was one of the most pleasing incidents of our visit to Dublin.

CHAPTER V.

Daniel O'Connell-Strong attachments of the Irish-Posting-Londonderry-Giant's Causeway.

OUGHT to have mentioned in the last chapter,

I a

while on the subject of Dublin,) that we visited the tomb of DANIEL O'CONNELL, which is always kept open, to gratify the strong feeling of love and veneration which the people have for his memory. The coffin, which contains his body, is there exposed to the reverential gaze of his almost adoring countrymen. It is covered with crimson velvet. You could scarcely visit the place, at any time, without seeing some of these devotees, venting their lamentations over the beloved form, praying for his soul, and, at the same time, nursing within their hearts, the political doctrines which he so unremittingly and ably taught them while in life.

The strong attachments of the Irish form a beautiful feature in their character, and are a redeeming quality to the many, and, perhaps some of them, glaring defects, which, together with the political oppressions they suffer, have so powerfully tended to weaken and destroy their prosperity as a people. Their attachments, once formed, seem to be almost indestructible. We have occasion to see the evidence of this continually, in the self-denying privations which they so cheerfully endure among us, in order

that they may save and send to their relations in Ireland the means of bringing them to this land of plenty, where honest labor always gains its reward. Out of her small wages, even the household servant, will hoard the greater part for this holy purpose; and, perhaps, it would not be too much to say, that a very large proportion of the multitudes that are daily arriving on our shores, are enabled to do so, entirely through the means thus provided. It is not here and there a solitary instance of strong affec tion, growing out of peculiar circumstances, but it is a universal characteristic of them as a people, and ought, in the minds of all who can appreciate pure, unchanging affection, to "hide a multitude of sins."

From Dublin we traveled by rail to Castleblaney, (en route to Londonderry,) which is as far as the railroad extends in this direction, and proceeded thence by post-chaise to Strabane, within a few miles of Derry, where we again took rail to the city. We had a good deal of amusement, with some vexation, from this mode of traveling, (by post-chaises.) They are called post-chaises, not because they have any connection with the post office, but because they are hired to go a certain distance, which is called a post. The one we started with at Castleblaney was really a very comfortable affair, with good horses, and a competent driver; but almost every change we made was for the worse, and some of the "turn outs" really deserved to be turned out of any civilized country. To hear the praises, however, of the owners and drivers, you would suppose the vehicles and horses to

LONDONDERRY-DUNLUCE CASTLE.

25

be all that could be desired, and ourselves the most lucky persons in the world to meet with such magnificent accommodations. If we anxiously inspected the springs or harness, and ventured to suggest that they might break down, or give way, before the end of the post, they would assure us, with all the earnestness in the world, that they were as safe as the Lord Mayor's carriage and harness, and that such a thing as an accident was entirely out of the question. Then, such a flourish and cracking of the whip, as we started off, causing all the idlers in the place to open their eyes with astonishment, at the style of our equipage, was so ludicrous that we could not help taking it all kindly, although sometimes we really thought our bones in danger.

Londonderry, or Derry, as the place is universally called in Ireland, is, I think, a very dull looking city, having all the marks of age, without any of its picturesqueness. We walked around the ancient walls and through the principal streets, but found little appearance of business activity, or indeed of energy or enterprise of any kind, among the people.

Near the Giants' Causeway, we came to the ruins of Dunluce Castle, an ancient residence of the Earls of Antrim. It stands on a detached rock, overhanging the ocean, and separated from the main land by a frightful chasm, of great depth. It can be reached only by passing over a wall about one foot wide, and twenty-five feet long; a fearful adventure to weak nerves, and one which most persons do not take in an erect position, but crawl over on hands and knees.

There are appearances of having once been a paral· lel wall a few feet from the one that still remains; the two having probably formed the supporters of a drawbridge, when the castle was inhabited. There is a cave underneath the castle, which communicates with the ocean, and which was probably used as the principal entrance, when the state of the sea would permit; for the breakers on this rock-bound shore, even in the calmest times, send up a deafening roar to the very heavens; in wintry storms it must be awful, for the winters are long and dark, and boisterous in this northern clime. It is but a short distance from Greenland, and there is nothing to intercept the frozen blasts that blow from thence, sweeping down upon this, in itself, inhospitable and unprotected coast.

This old castle, I suppose, was built by some one of those renowned "Sea Kings," as they were called, who lived by plunder and piracy. It is now a complete ruin. There is no precise knowledge of the date of erection, or early history of this relic of former ages. Here, as everywhere else, we found persons who make it a business to guide strangers to the most interesting points of observation, and to explain all that is known, and, in many cases, no doubt, a great deal more than is really known, concerning these objects of curiosity.

The Giants' Causeway is, beyond all doubt, one of the most remarkable freaks of nature that the world affords. If it was possible to conceive that art could ever have formed it, or to discover any object for