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  BITS OF BLARNEY

  BY

  R. SHELTON MACKENZIE

  EDITOR OF "THE LIFE OF CURRAN," "SHEIL'S SKETCHES OF THE
  IRISH BAR," &c.

  [Illustration]

  REDFIELD

  No 34 BEEKMAN STREET

  NEW YORK.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
J. S. REDFIELD,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for
the Southern District of New York.


  EDWARD O. JENKINS,
  PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,
  26 Frankfort St., N. Y.




TO J. S. REDFIELD, ESQ.


MY DEAR SIR:--The deified heroes of the Norse mythology are believed to
spend their afternoons in drinking something stronger than lemonade out
of their enemies' skulls, and some ill-natured persons, seizing on the
idea, have declared that publishers use the skulls of their authors as
drinking-cups, in the same manner. For my own part, I discredit the
assertion--as far as my relations with yourself enable me to judge; I
suspect that the time has gone by when Napoleon's health was drank as "a
friend of literature," because he had shot a bookseller; and I give you
unlimited permission to use my skull, in the Norse fashion, provided
that you wait until "in death I shall calm recline," when I shall have
no further occasion for it. In such case, the least you can do will be
to drink my memory, "in solemn silence"--the beverage being
whiskey-punch, as a delicate compliment to my country.

Seriously speaking (or writing), however, I take leave to dedicate this
volume to you, with the solemn assurance that my doing so must not be
taken as--a Bit of Blarney.

The book is Irish--to all intents and purposes, and is put forth with
the least possible pretence. It contains Legends--familiar to me in my
youth; Stories, which, more or less, are literally "founded upon facts;"
recollections of Eccentric Characters, whose peculiarities it would have
been difficult to exaggerate;--and Sketches of the two great Irish
leaders of the last and present century, Grattan, who won National
Independence for Ireland, and O'Connell, who obtained Emancipation for
the great majority of his countrymen. The Sketch of the great Agitator
has extended almost to a biography--but I knew the man well, and write
of him on that knowledge. In _this_ volume he is certainly entitled to a
niche, having been the greatest professor of "Blarney" these later days
have seen or heard.

                                                       Yours faithfully,
                                                    R. SHELTON MACKENZIE

  NEW YORK, _August 20, 1855_.




  CONTENTS.


  Legends.
                                               PAGE

  BLARNEY CASTLE                                  9

  LEGEND OF THE LAKE                             16
  LEGEND OF CORRIG-NA-CAT                        21
  LEGEND OF THE ROCK CLOSE                       27

  CON O'KEEFE AND THE GOLDEN CUP                 35

  LEGENDS OF FINN MAC COUL                       48

  FINN AND THE FISH                              53
  THE BREAKS OF BALLYNASCORNEY                   61
  FINN MAC COUL'S FINGER-STONE                   64


Irish Stories.

  THE PETRIFIED PIPER--
  1. WHO THE PIPER WAS                           74
  2. WHAT THE PIPER DID                          85
  3. HOW THE PIPER GOT ON                        91
  4. HOW THE PIPER BECAME A PETRIFACTION        103
  5. HOW IT ALL ENDED                           121

  THE GERALDINE                                 145

  CAPTAIN ROCK--
  1. THE WAKE                                   151
  2. THE LEADER                                 165
  3. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE                    172
  4. CHURCHTOWN BARRACKS                        181
  5. THE ATTACK ON ROSSMORE                     191
  6. THE TRIAL                                  201

  A NIGHT WITH THE WHITEBOYS                    223

  BUCK ENGLISH                                  231


  Eccentric Characters.

  THE BARD O'KELLY                              251

  FATHER PROUT                                  271

  FATHER PROUT'S SERMON                         283

  IRISH DANCING MASTERS                         291

  CHARLEY CROFTS                                305


Irish Publicists.

  HENRY GRATTAN                                 323

  DANIEL O'CONNELL                              342




LEGENDS.




BITS OF BLARNEY.


How many have heard of "Blarney," and how few know how and why this
appropriate term has originated! How could they, indeed, unless they had
made a pilgrimage to the Castle, as I did, in