WE arrived at Carrs Hotel, in Clifden, between 5 and 6 p.m., and strolled down the main street before dinner. The whitewashed1 houses are much less miserable2 than the cottages we had seen in the country, but we can give no more than negative praise, the general aspect of the town being dreary3 enough. There are happy associations, nevertheless, connected with it, for the whole place arose from a benevolent4 attempt of Mr. D'Arcy, once the owner of Clifden Castle, to improve the condition and evoke5 the energies of his neighbours; and though the estate has passed into other hands, a D'Arcy still maintains, as pastor6 of the people, an honoured name for charity and zeal7. After dinner we had a most delightful8 ramble9 on the cliffs, which overlook the bay; for Clifden is built at the centre of one of those numerous indentations in the land,
“Where weary waves retire to gleam at rest,”
and which give the name Connamara, i.e., “the bays of the sea.” It was one of those evenings, sunlit and serene10, which whisper gratitude11 and peace. There seemed to be a glad smile on land and sea, as the golden light fell in soft splendour on the purple hills, and the pleasant breeze awoke upon the waters [Greek passage] 1
“Like any fair lake that the breeze is upon,
While it breaks into dimples, and laughs in the sun.”
(Yes, good critic, I know it is only a school-boy's quotation13, but it is too beautiful to be ever quite used-up, and is at all events, excusable in an undergraduate, “taking up,” among other books for his Degree, the sublime14 tragedy of Prometheus Bound.) There was no sound except the curlew's note, when suddenly we heard, far down from the sea below us, the loud splash of water, and voices singing, amid merry laughter, strange songs in an unknown tongue.
Gracious Heavens, what were we to see! We were on Irish ground; the stillness and the solitude15, so wildly broken, encouraged all our superstitious16 fancies; and everything we had read or heard of Bogies, Banshees, Kelpies, and Co., came back to our astonised souls. Were we, really, to witness something supernatural at last, something, which, when we got home, should make the teeth of our neighbours chatter18, and cause the hair to stand up on our relations' heads?
Perhaps, we were to contemplate19 the merman bold, playing—
And holding them back by their flowing locks.”
With beating hearts and bated breath, we crawled to the edge of the precipice22, and there saw, to our intense delight, four of the jolliest constables23 in the world, swimming, diving, floating, spluttering, shouting, and singing, until one longed to run back a few yards, plunge24 in, like Cassius, without undressing, and join in their jolly gymnastics. Really, they are glorious fellows! Were I to undertake any distant or dangerous expedition (and indeed, Frank and I have been so much gratified by our sailor-like deportment, between Holyhead and Kingstown, that we think seriously of going round the world in a yacht), I should vastly like to take half a dozen of them with me; and I should not be the first who had so thought and acted.
Walking on, we came in sight of Clifden Castle, a good-looking modern residence, lying low in the valley, and well screened by timber from the rough sea-wind. Here the view is beautiful exceedingly, and we sat among the heather, and gazed upon it,
“till the sun
Grew broader toward his death, and fell; and all
Then we returned to the hotel, and there found our friend the cutler considerably26 advanced in liquor, making a most disconnected oration27 to a select audience, in which, among many other statements unhappily forgotten, he informed us:—“That he was hopen to show pigeons, either Turbits, Pouters, or Short-faced Mottles, against any man in Hengland, bar two; that Ireland was nothing but a big bog17, and he should rather expect as ow no party, as wasn't a snipe, would ever come there twice; that he would play hany gent, as was agreeable so to do, either at quoits or skittles, for the valley of a new 'at;” (being rather a dab28 with the discus, I was about to accept his challenge, when the darkness of the night and absence of the implements29 struck me as being “staggerers” not to be surmounted30, and therefore I held my peace); “that, has no party seem'd hup to nothing, he should beg to propose 'ealth and prosperity to the firm of Messrs. Strop and Blades (I'm Blades); and should conclude by hexpressing his ope, that the cock-eyed gent in the corner would henliven the meeting with a comic song.” The proprietor31 of the insurbordinate eye having very briefly32 expressed himself to the effect, that he would see the company consigned33 to perdition, rather than indulge it with mirthful music, Mr. Blades commenced a concert on his own account; and we ventured to go to bed, in spite of the singer's solemn warning that any person retiring, in a state of sobriety, to his couch, would “fall as the leaves do, fall as the leaves do, fall as the leaves do, that die in October.”
Nemesis34 was the daughter of Nox; and poor Blades looked miserably35 ill, when he came down next morning to breakfast—no, not to break fast, but only to wish he could. At daybreak, we had heard sounds of soda-water, but Schweppe had striven in vain. The fact is, that whiskey, like love, can “brook no rival near its throne,” and Kinahan, and Bass36, and Guinness were at war all over Blades. We scarcely knew him again, as he sat in rueful contemplation of an egg, which he had accepted, hoping against hope, but had now no strength to crack:—
“For his heart was hot and restless,
And his life was full of care;
And the burden laid upon him
Seemed greater than he could bear.”
Had he been Tyndarus, and the egg before him one of Leda's, he could not have looked at it with a more fixed37 and mystified expression; or he might have been reflecting sorrowfully upon that fatal goose egg, which, long before the Norman Conquest, had wrought38 such woes39 on Ireland. I will venture, at all events, to repeat the legend. Domhnall, the king, having invited Congal, his foster-son, together with the principal swells40 of his court, to a grand banquet (though he had been warned by Maelcobba, a celebrated41 monk42 and fortune-teller, to do nothing of the kind), sent out his purveyors to procure43 a supply of delicacies44 in general, and of goose eggs in particular. Now there lived, in the county of Meath, a Bishop45 Ere of Slaine, who spent his days in the river Boyne, immersed up to his arm-pits, and reading his psalter, which lay upon the bank. Whether he entertained hopes of being translated to the see of Bath and Wells, and was under a course of preparatory training, or whether he had a prescient belief in the water-cure, or whatever his motives46 may have been, thus he passed his mornings (to the immense edification of his diocese, and with nothing on but his mitre), and then went home to dine. One evening he had hurried to his hermitage, a little ruffled47 in temper, having been very disrespectfully accosted48 during the day by some boatmen, who had hit him in the eye with a decayed pear, but consoling himself with the prospect49 of his favourite dinner, namely, “a goose egg and a half, and three sprigs of watercresses,” when he was dismayed to find his establishment (which consisted of an elderly charwoman) in tears, and to hear that the king's purveyors had been, and poached his eggs for him. Then (the chroniclers proceed to tell) the Bishop he “cussed, and eke50 swore hee, verrye bewtifulle.” He excommunicated the auxiliary51 gander and put the goose under a perpetual pip, “bekase,” said he, “if they'd niver layed them, and she (the charwoman) had only popped them under the bedclothes, he'd bet six to four they'd niver been found.” But he was grandest of all, when he cursed the eggs, shell, white, and yolk52, solemnly imploring53 complete and speedy suffocation54 upon any party who should stick a spoon in them. And his anathemas55, we read, were so far fruitful, that on the night of the King's banquet, Congal's goose egg changed, as he was gloating over it, into a common hen egg, whereupon he was so greatly exasperated56, that he felt himself under the necessity of slashing57 at his neighbours indiscriminately with a drawn58 sword; a general battle ensued; and “Ireland was not for one night thenceforward in the enjoyment59 of peace or tranquillity60.” 1
1 From The Banquet of Dun na-gedh, and the Battle of Magh
Rath. Translated from the original Irish by John O'Donovan.
Printed for the Irish Archaeological Society.
Blades, I say, might have been meditating61 mournfully on this accursed egg, but, whether or no, there he sat; and Melancholy62 marked him for her own. Quantum mutatus! The remains63 of a fire balloon, soaked and rusting64 in some long damp grass, not less resemble the gaudy65 globe, which went up yesternight; and never can I obliviate the agony of his expression, as the waiter presented a large dish of bacon in close proximity66 to his nose.
“A moment o'er his face
A tablet of unutterable thoughts was traced,
excessif, evasit, erupi, Anglicé, poor Blades, he bolted!
We also, having contributed to Mr. Carr's Album autographs, which will, no doubt, be ultimately sold at sixty guineas a-piece, (say pounds, if you take the pair) proceeded by the car to Kylemore.
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1
whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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7
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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8
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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9
ramble
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| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
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10
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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11
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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12
prettily
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| adv.优美地；可爱地 | |
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13
quotation
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| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
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14
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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15
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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16
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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17
bog
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| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
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18
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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19
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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20
mermaids
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| n.（传说中的）美人鱼( mermaid的名词复数 ) | |
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21
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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22
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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23
constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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24
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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25
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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26
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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27
oration
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| n.演说，致辞，叙述法 | |
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28
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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29
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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30
surmounted
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| 战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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31
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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32
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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33
consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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34
nemesis
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| n.给以报应者，复仇者，难以对付的敌手 | |
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35
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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36
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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37
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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38
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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39
woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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40
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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41
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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42
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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43
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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44
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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45
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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46
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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47
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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48
accosted
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| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
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49
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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50
eke
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| v.勉强度日，节约使用 | |
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51
auxiliary
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| adj.辅助的，备用的 | |
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52
yolk
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| n.蛋黄，卵黄 | |
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53
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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54
suffocation
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| n.窒息 | |
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55
anathemas
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| n.（天主教的）革出教门( anathema的名词复数 )；诅咒；令人极其讨厌的事；被基督教诅咒的人或事 | |
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56
exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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57
slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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58
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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59
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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60
tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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61
meditating
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| a.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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62
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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63
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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64
rusting
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| n.生锈v.（使）生锈( rust的现在分词 ) | |
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65
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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66
proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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67
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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