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                     THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.

    NUMBER 23.      SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1840.      VOLUME I.

[Illustration: TULLY CASTLE, COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, LOOKING OVER LOUGH
ERNE.]

We have chosen the prefixed view of the Castle of Tully as a subject
for illustration, less from any remarkable picturesqueness of character
or historical interest connected with the castle itself, than for
the opportunity which is thus afforded us of making a few remarks on
the beautiful lake--the Windermere of Ireland, as Mr Inglis happily
called it--on the bank of which it is situated. We cannot conceive any
circumstance that better illustrates the truth of the general principle
that, as Shakspeare expresses it, “what we have we prize not at its
worth,” than the fact that Lough Erne--the admiration and delight of
strangers, the most extensive and beautifully diversified sheet of water
in Ireland--is scarcely known as an object of interest and beauty to the
people of Ireland generally, and is rarely or never visited by them for
pleasure. It is true that the nobility and gentry who reside upon its
shores or in their vicinity, are not deficient in a feeling of pride in
their charming locality, and even boast its superiority of beauty to the
far-famed Lakes of Killarney; yet till very recently this admiration was
almost exclusively confined to themselves, and the beauties of Lough
Erne were as little known to the people of Ireland generally as those of
the lakes and highlands of Connemara, neither of which have ever yet
been included in the books concocted for the use of pleasure tourists in
Ireland.

But Lough Erne will not be thus neglected or unappreciated much longer.
Its beauties have been discovered and been eulogised by strangers, who
have taught us to set a juster value on the landscape beauties which
Providence has so bountifully given to our country; and it will soon be a
reproach to us to be unfamiliar with them.

It would be utterly impossible, within the limits necessarily assigned
to our topographical articles, to give any detailed account of a lake so
extensive as Lough Erne, and whose attractive features are so numerous;
but as these features shall from time to time be included among our
subjects for illustration, it will be proper at least to give our readers
a general idea of its extent, and the pervading character of its scenery,
on this our first introduction of it to their notice; and with this
view we shall commence with a description given of it by an author of a
History of the County of Fermanagh, written in the seventeenth century,
but not hitherto published.

“This lake is plentifully stocked with salmon, pike, bream, eel, trout,
&c.

Seven miles broad in the broadest part. Said to contain 365 islands,
the land of which is excellent. The largest of the islands is
Inismore, containing nine tates and a half of old plantation measure.
Bally-Mac-Manus, now called Bell-isle, containing two large tates much
improved by Sir Ralph Gore; Killygowan, Innis Granny, Blath-Ennis,
Ennis-Liag, Ennis M’Knock, Cluan-Ennis, Ennis-keen, Ennis-M’Saint, and
Babha.

These are the [islands] most notable, except the island of Devenish, of
which I’ll speak in its proper place; however, by the bye, in Devenish is
remembered the pious St Molaishe, who herein consecrated two churches and
_a large aspiring steeple_ [the round tower], and an abbey, which abbey
was rebuilt A. D. 1430 very magnificently by Bartholomew O’Flanagan,
son of a worthy baron of this county, and was one of the finest in the
kingdom. In this island there is a house built by the Saint, to what
use is not known, but it is as large as a small chapel-of-ease. It’s of
great strength and cunning workmanship that may seem to stand for ever,
having no wood in it; the inside lined and the outside covered with large
flat hewn stone, walls and roof alike. On the east of this island runs
an arm of the Lough called in Irish Cumhang-Devenish, which is of use to
the inhabitants, viz, if cattle infected with murrain, black-leg, &c.,
be driven through the same, they are exempted from the same that season,
as is often experienced. The said waters run northwards for twelve hours
daily, and back again the same course for twelve hours more, to the
admiration of the many.

Some authors write this Lough Erne to have been formerly a spring well,
and being informed by their Druids or philosophers that the well would
overflow the country to the North Sea, for the prevention of which they
caused the well to be inclosed in a strong wall, and covered with a door
having a lock and key, signifying no danger while the door was secured;
but an unfortunate woman (as by them came more mischief to mankind)
opening the door for water, heard her child cry, and running to its
relief, forgot to secure the well, and ere she could return, she with
her house and family were drowned, and many houses more betwixt that
and Ballyshannon, and so continues a Lough unto this day. But how far
this may pass for a reality, I am not to aver--however, it is in the
ancient histories of the Irish. If true, it must be of a long standing,
seeing this Lough is frequently mentioned in our chronicles amongst the
ancientest of Loughs. Fintan calls it _Samhir_.”

We shall not, any more than our old author, “aver for the reality” of
this legend, which by the way is related of many other Irish lakes; but
we may remark, in passing, that the story would have more appearance of
“reality” if it had been told of Lough Gawna--or the Lake of the Calf--in
the county of Longford, which is the true source of the river Erne, of
which Lough Erne is but an expansion. At Lough Gawna, however, they tell
a different story, viz, that it was formed by a calf, which, emerging
from a well in its immediate vicinity, still called Tobar-Gawna, or
the Well of the Calf, was chased by its water till he entered the sea
at Ballyshannon. The expansion of the Samhir or Erne thus miraculously
formed, is no less than forty miles in extent from its north-west to
its south-east extremities, being the length of the whole county of
Fermanagh, through which it forms a great natural canal. Lough Erne,
however, properly consists of two lakes connected by a deep and winding
strait, of which the northern or lower is more than twenty miles in
length, and seven and a half miles in its greatest breadth, and the
southern or upper is twelve miles long by four and a half broad. Both
lakes are richly studded with islands, mostly wooded, and in many places
so thickly clustered together as to present the appearance of a country
accidentally flooded; but these islands are not so numerous as they are
stated to be by the old writer we have above quoted, or as popularly
believed, as accurate investigation has ascertained that their number
is but one hundred and ninety-nine, of which one hundred and nine are
situated in the lower lake, and ninety in the upper. But these are
in truth quite sufficient for picturesqueness, and it may be easily
conceived that two sheets of water so enriched, and encircled by shores
finely undulating, to a great extent richly wooded, and backed on most
points by mountains of considerable elevation, must possess the elements
of beauty to a remarkable degree; and the fact appears to be, that though
the Killarney and other mountain lakes in Ireland possess more grandeur
and sublimity of character, Lough Erne is not surpassed, or perhaps
equalled, by any for exquisite pastoral beauty. Perhaps, indeed, we
might add, that if it were further improved by planting and agricultural
improvements, it might justly claim the rank assigned to it by Mr Inglis,
that of “the most beautiful lake in the three kingdoms.”

Long anterior to the arrival of the English in Ireland, the beautiful
district on each side of Lough Erne, now constituting the county of
Fermanagh, was chiefly possessed by the powerful family of Maguire, from
the senior branch