MONAGHAN.

THE inland county of Monaghan, in the province of Ulster, is bounded. on the north by the county of Tyrone, on the south by that of Meath, on the east by the counties of Louth and Armagh, and on the west by those of Fermanagh and Cavan. According to the Ordnance Survey, it comprises an area of 327,048 statute acres, of which 9,236 are unimproved mountain and bog, 6167 are under water, and the remainder are cultivated land. In 1821 the population was 174,697; in 1831 it amounted to 195,536. Its baronies are five-Cremorne, Dartree, Farney, Monaghan, and Trough.

The county was anciently called Mac Mahon's country, from the powerful sept who ruled it, and who proved very troublesome neighbours to the early English settlers—manifesting a strong indisposition to part with their lands at the command of the Anglo-Norman intruders. The earliest of them having entered into a treaty with the native chieftain, confided to him the two forts he had erected; which Mac Mahon soon afterwards deserted and destroyed; and when questioned concerning his breach of faith, proudly answered that "he had not bound himself to keep stone walls, and scorned to shut himself up within so dreary a dwelling, while his native woods were near at hand to give him shelter and afford him protection." The brave and haughty chiefs continued their opposition to the English settlers down to the period of Elizabeth, when the representative of the clan was taken and hanged, his county was made shire-ground, and divided according to the baronial arrangement which it still retains *. The strong arm of power was, however, unable

* The circumstances connected with this legal murder are recorded by old Fynes Moryson-an authority by no means over indulgent to the Irish clans or their chieftains. "About this time [An. 1590] Mac Mahoune, chieftain of Monaghan, died, who in his lifetime had surrendered this his countrey, held by Tanistry, the Irish Law, into her Majesties hands, and received a regrant thereof, under the broad seal of England, to him and his heirs male, and for default of such, to his brother Hugh Roe Mac Mahoune, with other remainders. And this man dying without heires males, his said brother came up to the state, that he might be settled in his inheritance, hoping to be countenanced and cherished as her Majesties Patentee, but he found (as the Irish say) that he could not be admitted till he had promised to give about sixe hundred cows (for such and no other are the Irish bribes). After he was imprisoned (the

to subdue his descendants; and when, during the reign of James II., the famous attorney-general, Sir John Davies, made, with the lord-deputy, a tour of inspection into the county, their forces were compelled to encamp in the open field, "pitching their tents about a quarter of a mile from Monaghan town," which the historian describes as "not deserving the name of a good village,” while of the Mac Mahons he reported that " undoubtedly they are the proudest and most barbarous sept among the Irish; and do ever soonest repine, and kick, and spurn at the English government." New titles to lands were given ;

Irish say for failing in part of this payment), and within few daies againe inlarged, with promise that the Lord Deputy himself would go to settle him in his countrey of Monaghan, whither his lordship tooke his journey shortly after, with him in his company. At their first arrival, the gentleman was clapt in bolts, and within two dayes after, indited, arraigned, and executed, at his owne house, all done (as the Irish said) by such officers as the Lord Deputy carried with him to that purpose. The Irish said, he was found guilty by a jury of souldiers, but no gentlemen or freeholders, and that of them four English souldiers were suffered to goe and come at pleasure; but the other, being Irish kerne, were kept straight, and starved, till they found him guilty. The treason for which he was condemned, was because some two yeeres before, he pretending a rent due unto him out of the Ferney, upon that pretence levied forces, and so marching into the Ferney in warlike manner, made a distresse for the same (which by the English law may perhaps be treason, but in that countrey, never before subject to law, it was thought no rare thing, nor great offence). The greatest part of the countrey was divided betweene four gentlemen of that name, under a veerely rent to the queene, and (as they said) not without payment of a good fine under hand. The marshall, Sir Henry Bagnall, had part of the countrey, Captain Henstowe was made seneschall of the countrey, and had the gentleman's chiefe house, with a portion of land, and to divers other smaller portions of lands were assigned, and the Irish spared not to say that these men were all the contrivers of his death, and that every one paid something for his share. Hereupon the Irish of that name, besides the former allegations, exclaimed that their kinsman was treacherously executed, to intitle the queen to his land, and to extinguish the name of Mac Mahoune, and that his substance was divided betweene the Lord Deputy and the marshall-yea, that a pardon was offered to one of the jury for his son, being in danger of the law, upon condition hee would consent to find this his kinsman guilty. Certaine it is, that upon Mac Mahowne's execution, heart-burnings and lothings of the English government began to grow in the northerne lords against the state, and they shunned, as much as they could, to admit any sheriffes or any English to live among them, pretending to feare like practises to overthrow them."

*Of the mode adopted by the attorney-general to humble the pride of the Mac Mahons, and bring their people under shelter of the wings of the English government, we have a striking and characteristic account in the "letter of Sir John Davies to Robert Earl of Salisbury." "Touching the service performed in this country by the justices of Assize: albeit they found few prisoners in the gaols, the most part being bailed by Sir Edward Blaney, to the end the fort where the gaol is kept might not be pestered with them; yet when such as were bailed came in upon their recognisances, the number was greater than we expected. One grand jury was so well chosen, as they found with good expedition all the bills of indictment true; but on the other side, the juries, that were impannelled for trial of the prisoners, did acquit them as fast, and found them not guilty; which whether it was done for favour, or for fear, it is hard to judge for the whole county, consisting of three or four names only, viz. M'Mahoune, M'Rena, M'Cabe, and O'Connaly, the chief was ever of one of those names, and of these names this jury did consist; so that it was impossible to try him but by his kinsmen, and therefore it was probable that the malefactors were acquitted for favour: but on the other part, we were induced to think that fear might be the cause; forasmuch as the poor people seemed very unwilling to be sworn of the juries, alleging, that if they condemned any man, his friends in revenge would rob, or burn, or kill them for it; and that the like mischief had happened to divers jurors since the last session holden there such is the barbarous malice and impiety of this people. Notwithstanding, when we

the old ones having been of course "found defective," being indeed no other than those derived from "old time;" and all difficulties having been adjusted-the troops being all the while close at hand-" his lordship, the lord-deputy, did," according to the testimony of his attorneygeneral," make the year a year of jubilee to the inhabitants of this county of Monaghan."

The county is described by old writers as being not only mountainous, but covered with wood; the mountains endure, but the forests have long since vanished. The lakes, of which there are many, are, however, of considerable beauty, and supply abundant subjects for the pencil of the artist.

We supply an example, borrowed from a lough which divides Monaghan from Cavan, close to the lovely demesne of Lord Cremorne, in the barony of Dartree. In the distance is seen, peering above luxuriant foliage, the spire of Kilcrow church.

The principal town of the county is the town of Monaghan, from which,

had punished one jury with good round fines and imprisonment, for acquitting some prisoners, contrary to direct and pregnant evidence, another jury being impannelled for trial of others, found two notorious malefactors guilty; whereof one was a notable thief, and the other a receiver of thieves; both which were presently executed, and their execution struck some terror in the best men of the country; for the beef, which they eat in their houses, is for the most part stolen out of the English Pale; and for that purpose, every one of them keepeth a cunning thief, which he calleth his Cater. Brian Oge M'Mahoune, and the Art M'Rorie, two of the principal gentlemen before named, were indicted for the receiving of such stealths; but they acknowledging their faults upon their knees before my lord-deputy, had their pardon granted unto them; so that I believe stolen flesh will not be so sweet unto them hereafter."

indeed, the county is said to have taken its name, derived from Muinechan,

the dwelling of the monks, although all traces of monastic establishments have disappeared from its vicinity. Vestiges of ancient structures, either of religious houses or castellated mansions, are indeed rare throughout Monaghan; and in this respect it forms a singular contrast to its immediate neighbours, Armagh, Louth, and Down. The abbey of Clones is perhaps the only ecclesiastical building of which any remains exist; and these are of small account; but adjoining them is one of the far-famed and long-famed Round-towers: the cap is gone; the doorway is nearer to the ground than usual; and it possesses another somewhat peculiar feature, being composed of rough stones without, and of smooth stones within. Of relics

of a more remote antiquity Monaghan has its full share, druidical temples and raths being found in nearly every district of it*.

* Within the present year a singular discovery was made about three miles from Monaghan; from its perfect state of preservation it forms a most curious relic of antiquity. It is an ancient structure-a dwellinghouse. A man who had recently got possession of the farm upon which it is situated went to remove an unsightly hillock in a small meadow close to his cottage; this little field had been reclaimed a few years ago after the turf had been cut off it, and from it to the small lake of Keshlin (about three hundred yards below it) was, in the memory of an old man living near it, one continued heath moor, with several spades deep of turf under it; and he had seen seven spits deep of turf cut off the hillock which formed the roof of the house. The outer wall is forty-six feet by about sixteen. Outside the entrance is a semicircular courtyard; the base of the wall surrounding it, as well as all the other walls, is composed of large rough stones, some of them several tons weight, standing on their ends, something like Stonehenge. The entrance divided the semicircular wall into two equal segments, and was formed with two larger stones than the others, sufficiently apart to admit a man with ease. Inside the entrance was an oval apartment about twelve feet by eight, which was arched over from within about four feet of the base. The arch was composed of flat stones of different sizes, so carefully selected and fitted (though there was not a cut stone in the whole building), that the point of a penknife could scarcely be inserted between them. Each stone projected about a quarter of an inch over the underneath one, until they met at the top of the roof, which was about six feet from the ground. Opposite the entrance, at the other side of this room, was a similar entrance into the lobby which led straight to the other extremity of the building, and in which were six other apartments, all square and built and roofed in the same manner as the first oval one. The two standing stones forming the entrance from this latter room into the corridor stood somewhat narrower than those of the principal part, and seemed rubbed and worn on one particular part, as it were from the weapons of the inhabitants returning from their hunting or plundering excursions. The whole of the floor inside was flagged with slabs of the same stone, and the outside of the roof covered with the same material, which is the most remarkable circumstance connected with it, as the nearest freestone quarry is on Carronmore mountain in Fermanagh, about twenty miles from this place, and the stone there does not split into slabs, and is of a quite different grain, the former exactly resembling the Scotch sandstone found along the Clyde. Some maintain that this antique piece of architecture must

As the county of Monaghan affords us but a scanty supply of materials of an original character, we shall avail ourselves of an opportunity to relate some anecdotes illustrative of the habits and peculiarities of the " good people ;❞—the good people of Ireland being, as everybody knows, fairies. It is necessary, indeed, that we should no longer postpone the treatment of this subject; for in the comparatively matter-of-fact north, they lose their reputation and their influence, and cease to extort that respect, arising from fear, with which they are still almost universally regarded in the more poetical south. A belief in fairies is certainly on the decline throughout Ireland: national schools are ruining their repute; education is turning their memories into a mockery; and little growing-up urchins are found absolutely to laugh at the tiny beings about whom their fathers have so many stories-to the truth of which they will swear, in spite of all that is taught by reason or written in books. We have already "said our say " concerning the Phooka; of the Banshee we shall record some startling "facts" when we visit Shane Castle—the ruined castle of the O'Neils, among the broken walls of which the spectre wails over the fallen grandeur of the once proudest and most powerful of the ancient Irish kings. Of the Cluricaune we shall here relate an illustrative tale or two; and these three seem to us to be the only "spirits," strictly speaking, peculiar to Ireland *. For the fairies in the "gross," if we

be antediluvian but the circumstance of the interior having been found perfectly clean, with the exception of the juice of the bog-stuff covering it having trickled down the walls (and this black appearance may have been caused by the effect of smoke, although there were no other indications of fire having been used inside), it may be concluded, from the number of what are called in the south of Ireland "follagh feeah" (deer fire), that this edifice has been the abode of hunters, and that the turf-mould was first excavated in order to build it, and then laid back again for the purpose of concealment. Many of his neighbours say that the owner of the ground, who has dug up part of the house, found some great curiosities in it, but he himself denies it, with the exception of a round slab of sandstone, with some characters scratched on it, and one of his children let it fall and broke it.

* Mr. Crofton Croker, the historian of the "good people," who has indeed left little for other writers upon the subject, states that the Cluricaune of the county of Cork, the Luricaune of Kerry, the Lurigadawne of Tipperary, appear to be the same as the Leprechan or Leprochaune of Leinster, and Logheryman of Ulster; and that these words are probably all provincialisms of the Irish name for a pigmy. Mr. Croker has pictured his person and described his habits so accurately, that we do not apologise for extracting his account. "The Cluricaune is never met with in company, but always alone. He is much more corporcal, and appears in the day-time as a little old man with a wrinkled countenance, in an antiquated dress. His pea-green coat is adorned with large buttons, and he seems to take a particular delight in having large metal shoe-buckles. He wears a cocked hat in the ancient French style. He is detested on account of his evil disposition, and his name is used as an expression of contempt. People try to become his master, and therefore often threaten him; sometimes they succeed in outwitting him, sometimes he is more cunning, and cheats them. He employs himself in making shoes, at the same time whistling a tune. If he is surprised by man when thus engaged, he is indeed afraid of his superior strength, but endowed with the power of vanishing, if he can contrive to make the mortal turn his eyes from him even for an instant. The Cluricaune possesses a knowledge of hidden treasures, but does not discover them till he is pressed to the utmost. He frequently