6

(from whose "Irish Bards," and Mr. Hardiman's "Irish Minstrelsy," those particulars are chiefly gleaned), "he built a neat little house, in which he gave his friends, if not a sumptuous welcome, yet a kind;' hospitality consumed the produce of his little farm; he ate, drank, and was merry, and improvidently left to to-morrow to provide for itself, which soon occasioned embarrassments in his domestic affairs." He appears thereon, to have renewed his itinerancy, and his old acquaintances. At the house of Belanagare, to which Mr. Denis O'Conor had been, by this time, restored, he was a most welcome guest, and in return he used himself to say, "When I am amongst the O'Conors, I think the harp has the old sound in it." About this time, Geminiani, the celebrated musician, being in Dublin, and hearing of Carolan's fame, resolved to test its justice, and singling out a piece of excellent Italian music, he mutilated it in such a manner, that only a very superior judge could rectify the air, or supply the deficiencies; it is, however, stated, that on its being played to Carolan, the minstrel, closely attending to the performance, declared it an admirable piece of music, but that (according to his phrase) it limped and stumbled, when he at once re-constructed the air to its original scope. About this time possibly, he composed his unrivalled piece, the "Receipt for Drinking," a composition which he is said to have begun in Boyle, over a beverage, that, after six weeks' denial, he could then no

longer resist, and on the following morning to have sung and played in the parlour of his friend, Mr. Stafford, at Elphin.

In 1733, his wife, to whom he appears to have been devotedly attached, died, an event that threw a gloom over his mind, never after entirely dissipated. When the first transports of grief somewhat subsided, he composed a fine monody, which has been translated by Miss Brooke. Many other of his songs have been given to the world in "Hardiman's Minstrelsy," the original Irish being accompanied with sweet translations from the pen of the talented, the too-early-departed, Thomas Furlong. Carolan did not long survive his wife; in 1737, his health, which had been for some years declining, gave evident symptoms of approaching dissolution. At Tempo, finding himself grow weak, he resolved to proceed to Alderford, the house of his never-failing patroness, Mrs. Mac Dermott, then in health and spirits, though nearly in her eightieth year. He was received with the expected warmth and welcome, and, "after he had rested a little," writes Mr. Hardiman, "he called for his harp; his relaxed fingers for awhile wandered feebly over the strings, but, soon acquiring a momentary impulse, he played his well-known 'Farewell to Music,' in a strain of tenderness and feeling, which drew tears from the eyes of his auditory. This was his last effort; nature was subdued, and the dying bard was carried in a state of exhaustion to his room," where, it must be stated with regret, he only lingered for some time, to evince

that fatal devotion to inebriety, in which he had for many years indulged, and more especially since he had lost the partner of his life; he died at Alderford, on the 25th of March, 1738. When his death was known, it is related that upwards of sixty clergymen, as well Protestant as Roman Catholic, a number of gentlemen, from the surrounding counties, and a vast concourse of country people, assembled to pay the last mark of respect to their favourite bard. "All the houses in Ballyfarnon were occupied by the former, and the people erected tents in the fields round Alderford House; the harp was heard in every direction, the wake lasted four days; on each side of the hall was placed a keg of whiskey, which was replenished as often as emptied" (a). On the fifth day his remains were brought forth, and the funeral was one of the greatest that for many years had taken place in Connaught. He was interred, as before mentioned, at Kilronan. A musical commemoration of him was celebrated in 1809, in Dublin; it was chiefly composed of his own popular pieces, but, after an effort of unsteady enthusiasm, though then held twice in one week, it never was since repeated. He left by his wife six daughters and one son; the latter, who had studied music, having, in 1747, published an imperfect copy of his father's compositions, emigrated to London, where he afterwards taught the harp.

(a) Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, vol. i. p. lxv.

Doctor R. R. Madden, the author of some works of travel in the East, wrote lines on revisiting Kilronan, the first two verses of which seem of applicable insertion here.

"Time, after all, deals leniently with things.
Sacred to genius and religion's name;
The gorgeous piles and palaces of kings
Leave no such lasting monument of fame;
But thy old walls, Kilronan, are the same
Unchanging ruins, I beheld them last,
When, five-and-twenty years ago, I came
And pondered o'er these records of the past,
Graven on stone that age had long o'ercast.

"The same old ivy clings to thy grey stones,
And this unfading drapery of yore,

The Gothic arch and sculptured casement crowns,
And shrouds these sacred walls as heretofore.
These hallowed graves the old trees still wave o’er ;
Before thee yet, in peaceful slumber, lies

The tranquil lake; and, on the noiseless shore
The pilgrim stands, and vainly turns his eyes,
Where our 'Last Minstrel's' monument should rise."

The absence of such a monument is still to be regretted, for, although there is no doubt, that this "son of song" was here inhumed, in the vault of the Mac Dermotts Roe, and though a skull, traditionally believed to be his, was long an object of veneration, and so exhibited, in a niche within the old walls, until stolen by some unconscientious virtuoso, yet, the precise spot of his last repose is not marked by

any distinct gravestone, mound, or enclosure; the whole site is, however, consecrated, not less by this association, than by the circumstance of its having been the scene where was compiled that muniment of Irish history, hence termed "the Book of Kilronan," which the Four Masters have designated as one of the sources of authority for their Annals, and stamped with their approval. A volume, said to be the original of this work, but in a very imperfect state, exists in the Manuscript room of Trinity College; it is in quarto, wanting not only the beginning and the end, but also defective in some intermediate places. In its present state, it purports to commence with the year 1014, and to end with 1571; the principal chasms are between the years 1138 and 1170, and between 1316 and 1462. Amongst its contents is a Chronicle of the Kings of Connaught, as from the arrival of St. Patrick to 1464, a transcript of which is in the Manuscript Collections at Stowe. The death of the last O'Conor, to whom these Annals concede the title of king, is thus recorded: "1464, died Teigue O'Conor; he was buried in Roscommon, the nobility of Connaught all witnessing that interment, so that not one of the kings of Connaught, down from the reign of Cathal of the Red Hand, was more honourably interred, and no wonder, since he was the best of the kings of Connaught, considering the gentleness of his reign. There was no king of Connaught after him; they after obtained the title of "O'Conor," and, because