his fist. If he travels, he will beg, borrow, or steal a shillelah; if he goes to play, he hurls with a crooked oakstick; if he goes to a fair, it is delightful to hear the sound of his cloghel-peen on the cattle horns; if he fights, as fight he must, at market or at fair, the cudgel is brandished on high; and, as Fin Ma' Coul of old smiled grimly in the joy of battle, so his descendants shout lustily in the joy of the cudgels- Bello gaudentes-prælio ridentes!'

In 'ruxion delighting,

Laughing while fighting!'

"Leather away with your oak sticks!' is still the privilege, the glory, and the practice of Irishmen. Nay, more, while living, their meal, their meat, and their valuables (if they have any, of course), are kept in oak chests; and when dying, Paddy dies quietly, if assured that he shall have a decent berrin,' be buried in an oaken coffin, and attended to the grave by a powerful faction, well provided with oak saplings!"

It has been observed to the Editor by an ingenious friend, that when Shakspere made Hamlet swear by St. Patrick, it was with the view of shewing the ancient connexion which existed between Denmark and Ireland. But that Hamlet had no Milesian blood in his veins, is clear from his not carrying a shillelah, which he might then have used with so much effect to illustrate his doctrine of suiting" the word to the action."

"Horatio.

There's no offence, my lord. Hamlet. Yes, by St. Patrick, but there is, Horatio;

And much offence, too."

The superiority of the Shillelah oak will be hereafter spoken of. From "A practical Treatise on Planting," published in Dublin in 1794, by Mr. Hayes of Avondale, the following particulars have been collected respecting the disappearance of trees" of ancient birth," from this renowned wood. "It is generally understood, that a sale was made of some of the finest timber of Shillelah, which remained in Charles the Second's time, into Holland for the use of the Stadthouse, and other buildings constructed on piles driven close together, to the number of several thousand. In 1669, William, earl of Strafford, furnished Lawrence Wood of London with such pipe-staves, to a great amount, at 107. per thousand, as are now sold for 50l., and are only to be had from America. The year 1692 introduced into Shillelah that bane of all our timber, iron forges and furnaces; and, as the parties were allowed to fell for themselves several thousand cord of wood yearly, and were only confined to a particular district, they cut whatever was most convenient to them for the purpose, and it is inconceivable what destruction they must have made in the course of twenty years, which was the term of their contract."

From a paper in the handwriting of Thomas, marquess of Rockingham, it appears that, in 1731, there were standing in that part of Shillelah called the Deer Park, 2150 oak trees; of these, in 1737, there remained 1540 trees. In 1780, thirty-eight

"The

only of the old reserves were in existence. evident symptoms of decay which from that time. they began to exhibit, owing to windshakes and other disorders incidental to all old trees which have lost a mass of shelter on every side, made it expedient to cut them nearly all down from time to time. The last I remember to have been felled," adds Mr. Hayes, "produced, at three shillings per foot, 271. 1s. 8d. ; another, about the same time, was purchased for the arm of a fire-engine at Donane Colliery, and with the rough end sawed off after the axe, for which two guineas was given, produced 261. 4s. 3d. There still remains one entire tree, about ten feet round at five feet from the ground, straight as a pine for sixty feet, and about six feet round at that height; there is also in a little island in the Forge Pool, a short trunk, which measures twenty-one feet round."

Mr. Hayes also mentions an oak in the domain of Ballybeg," which measures round the forked trunk upwards of twenty-seven feet; round one of the stems, twenty feet, and round the other twelve, and is gross timber for more than forty feet in height. This last," he continues, "has the honour of being one of the few remaining trees of those woods which rendered the barony of Shillelah, in the county of Wicklow, proverbially famous for its timber, and gave the denomination of Fairwood Park, to that district in which the great, but unfortunate Earl of Strafford, built his hunting-lodge.

His descendant, Earl Fitzwilliam, now possesses this estate, from whose liberal attention to whatever may in any way promote the benefit of the country, and from the excellent system adopted by the gentlemen who have the present management of his lordship's woods, I flatter myself that posterity may see Shillelah as remarkable for timber in the next century as in the last, when its oak (if we may judge from the specimens which still remain) was as superior to most others in the firmness of its texture, as in its stately height and great dimensions."

THE SPRIG OF SHILLELAH.

"The fair of Donnybrook, near Dublin," observes Sir Jonah Barrington, "has been long identified with the name and character of the lower classes of Irish people; and, so far as the population of its metropolis may fairly stand for that of a whole country, the identification is just. This remark applies, it is true, to several years back; as that entire revolution in the natural Irish character, which has taken place within my time, must have extended to all their sports and places of amusement; and Donnybrook fair, of course, has had its full share in the metamorphosis.

"The old Donnybrook fair, however, is on record; and so long as the name exists, will be duly appreciated. Mr. Lysaght's popular song of The Sprig of Shillelah and Shamrock so green,' gives a most lively sketch of

that celebrated meeting, some of the varieties and peculiarities of which may be amusing, and will certainly give a tolerable idea of the Dublin commonalty in the eighteenth century." Sir Jonah's description of the humours of Donnybrook fair, although very laughably told in the third volume of "Personal Sketches of his own Times," is too lengthy for transcript beyond the following passage, which completely illustrates the song. There"Love reigned in all his glory, and Cupid expended every arrow his mother could make for him; but with this difference, that Love is in general represented as discharging his shafts into people's hearts, whereas at Donnybrook, he always aimed at their heads; and, before it became very dusk, he never failed to be very successful in his archery. It was after sunset, indeed, that sweethearts made up their matches; and a priest (Father Kearny of Liffy Street, a good clargy) told me that more marriages were celebrated in Dublin the week after Donny. brook fair, than in any two months during the rest of the year; the month of June being warm and sung (as he termed it) smiled on every thing that was good, and helped the liquor in making the arrangements; and with great animation he added, that it was a gratifying sight to see his young parishioners, who had made up their matches at Donnybrook, coming there in a couple of years again to buy whistles for their children."

Edward Lysaght, the author of this humorous and descriptive song, generally known as "pleasant Ned Lysaght," was the son of John Lysaght, Esq. of Brickhill, in the county of Clare. He was born on the 21st December, 1763, and educated at the school of the Reverend Patrick