JOURNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY so extensive . and desolately wild or so th1nly inhabited as the region tnrough which we have wande::ed since I wrote last. It is sublime'.y barren, and at night poeticaliy gloomy and horrible." ,'Dung1ow Oct. 12th 1835) "We veered a little to the S:iuth-West with an intention of visiting the townlands of Min A. Gl:obhann a n d Dumhaidh (Dooey) where the most intelligent natives of the parish ·reside . . . . on the road we met with c:oNds of women of the mountains loaded with stockings going t:i th3 stocking fair at Dunglow and who bore deep graven on \~lsages the effects of pove:iity and smoke. :(Glenties, Oct. 15th l •'.:35). "Glencolumbkille . ... what their forefathers thought, believed, said and did, a thousand years ago, they think, believe, say and do at p:esent. They are primitive beings who have hut few points of cemtact with the civilized world. They ·hate, as indeed. they should, the travelling preaclier. and cling to the notions of their fathers 'With dignified indepe:idence. Social immobility seems to be the dominant trait in the character of these people., who live in what may be callM the extreme brink of the world. far from the civilization of cities. and the lectures of pbilopher. (Oct. 20th, 1835). The inhabitants of these glens a nd mountains are fair specimens of what the Irish were in times of yore. They have no idea of comfort; the smoky cabin of the cottier is perhaps not much less comfortable than the slated house of the grocer or the leather-cutter; the wet potatoes that grow in the bolm or bog serves them for food, and if they can procure buttennilk for kitchen ·I as they call it) it is deemed a luxury; everything else (eggs, butter, <;>ats, pigs, sheep, etc.) is sold to make the ·rent or to buv tobacco. It is probable that their condition is worse now 243. '.~3.::1 in ancient Irish times before ·..:.:: introduction of peace and the t:::;t'.Lto; for then they had Litle or no rent to pay except a few methE:·:-s of butter in the ve.SJ.r; and the population bei:ng small they were well able to live un.::m t:J.e little corn produced by the rich spots in the mountains wnd glens. and upon the milk a·1d flesh of the cattle fed upon the mountains. adding now and the1n the creachs or preys car::ied of in t;iumoh from their lowland neighbours. Fish also was a ,,.reat source of support. (Oct. 25th. 1835). " H a v e reached Mount ~harles .... we shall have a f'ir here to-morrow and a pitched battle between the McG::oartvs and the O'Dohertys ... ... there bein,g no appearance of the batlle, the police flack~d from th~ir statio:is to prevent it. we left the town as soon as the ~bowers were over, and so lost a ~iew of the sounk of old time." /Oct. 20th. 1835). "A wrek at Pettigoe and another at Ballyshannon will now finish this dull county." (Donegal, Oct. 24.rth, 1·835). Though my letters are wild as the mountains i•n .which they were written. still I do feel myself very sober in thought, and exceedingly (excessive) in love with truth even to the prejudice of all national feelings. But when you consider the subject, the difficulty of my task-that of seeking through the dim vista of tradition some faint glimme::ings of truth-and the incoherency of rude tales which I have attempted to digest, you will, perhaps feel convinced that I could not be at all times serious or sober in expression. (Pettigoc, Oct. 28th, 1835).
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