. Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; . Here, in this cornerof the wood, the Roman Catholics used to hold their service, atthe foot of an old oak tree. But the people thought it hardthere should be no mark of the sacredness of the place; andtalk came that there was a good stone in one of the Scotchislands—Staffa or Iona, I know not which. Accordingly some boys of the neighbourhood went over one day in a boat,and it was a dangerous journey they were on; for the peopleof the island would have had their lives if it were known thatthey meant to lay a finger on this treasure; and besides, wh
. Highways and byways in Donegal and Antrim; . Here, in this cornerof the wood, the Roman Catholics used to hold their service, atthe foot of an old oak tree. But the people thought it hardthere should be no mark of the sacredness of the place; andtalk came that there was a good stone in one of the Scotchislands—Staffa or Iona, I know not which. Accordingly some boys of the neighbourhood went over one day in a boat,and it was a dangerous journey they were on; for the peopleof the island would have had their lives if it were known thatthey meant to lay a finger on this treasure; and besides, whocould say but if they touched a holy thing the power thatguarded it might rise up and drown them for their boldness in the 278 A PIOUS THEFT CHAP. crossing—as the ONeills boat was swamped in Lough Swilly,with the bell of Killydonnell on board of her. With whatpiety they undertook it, and with what terror they accomplishedthe task, should one day be written by some one who knowsthe heart of this glenfolk • but the stone is there now for. Cushcndun and Mouth of the Cushendun River. tourists to see and journalists to write about. It is sculpturedand inscribed, with some skill, it seems, but wind and weatherhave worn it to the stage in which the rudest sculpture isbeautiful and the baldest inscription mysterious. Before itpeople came from miles off to pray, with no shelter but the oak XVIII GLEN DUX TO CUSHENDAL 279 trees; till, they say, an Englishman staying in the village wastouched with their devotion and poverty and sent as muchmoney as sufficed to build them the chapel where now thecongregation assembles. Leaving this altar in the wood you follow the river inlandfor about a mile and reach a surprising viaduct which spansthe whole width of the glen, here much contracted—a fine workbut eloquent of a wretched past, for it is one of the manygreat undertakings set on foot in Ireland to grapple with road that crosses it will take you, after a run of four miles,t
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Keywords: ., bookauthorthomsonh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1903
