THE GROVES OF BLARNEY.

The memoir prefixed to the little volume entitled "Poetical Fragments of the late Richard Alfred Millikin " (see p. 92), contains the following passage:—

"Amongst his poetical effusions were innumerable songs, tender, classical, and comic. Of the latter, that entitled The Groves of Blarney' is frequently adverted to of late (with a degree of consequence* attached to it, quite astonishing to those who know the foolish thing), requires to be particularised, and had its origin as follows:-An itinerant poet, with the view of being paid for his trouble, composed a song in praise (as he doubtless intended it) of Castle Hyde, the beautiful seat of the Hyde family on the river Blackwater; but, instead of the expected remuneration, the poor poet was driven from the gate by order of the then proprietor, who, from the absurdity of the thing, conceived that it could be only meant as mockery: and, in fact, a more nonsensical composition could scarcely escape the pen of a maniac. The author, however, well satisfied of its merits, and stung with indignation and disappointment, vented his rage in an additional verse against the owner, and sung it wherever he had an opportunity of raising his angry voice. As satire, however gross, is but too generally well received, the song first became a favourite with the lower orders;

*"Called, in a London print,

The National Irish Poem."". Attributed by Mr. Lockhart, in

Note in the Memoir on this passage. his "Life of Sir Walter Scott," vi. 75, to "the poetical Dean of Cork." Quoted by Lord Brougham in one of his speeches, &c.

then found its way into ballads, and at length into the convivial meetings of gentlemen. It was in one of those that Mr. Millikin undertook, in the gaiety of the moment, to produce a song that, if not superior, should be at least equal in absurdity to Castle Hyde;' and accordingly adopting the tune, and taking Blarney* for his subject, he soon made good his promise.

"The Groves of Blarney,' which was received by the company with a burst of applause, soon rivalled its predecessor Castle Hyde,' and continued long the favourite of every laughter-loving party. Of late it has been introduced on the stage by Mathews, the comedian, and is very well received by the London audience. During the rebellion, several verses were, in the heat of party, added to this song, particularly those alluding to the mean descent of a certain noble lord; but they were not the production of the original author, who, incapable of scurrility or personal enmity to those with whom he dif fered in opinion, scorned such puerile malice."

Millikin's intention was to ridicule the songs which ignorant Irish village bards-with a vast fondness for rhyme, an imperfect knowledge of the English language, and a pedantic ambition to display the full extent of their classical knowledge—were, and still are, in the habit of composing and in Ireland, rhyme, or even the approach to it, is often far more effective than reason.†

"A fine old domain and castle, within three miles of Cork." + The village schoolmaster having remonstrated with a worthy of this class respecting the grammatical construction of a sentence, was answered with, and silenced by

"Who is Grammar?

I say, damn her."

Upwards of two hundred years before Millikin's satirical effusion, Stanihurst published an imitation of the Anglo-Irish style, attached to his translation of "The First Foure Bookes of Virgil's Eneis," 1583; which burlesque he called" An Epitaph, entitled Commune Defunctorum, such as our unlearned Rithmours accustomably make upon the death of everie Tom Tyler, as if it were a last for every one his foote, in which the quantities of sillables are not to be heeded."

"Come to me, you Muses, and thou most chiefly Minerva,
And ye
that are dwellers in dens of darckened Averna!
Help my pen in writing a death most soarie reciting,

Of the good old Topas; soon too thee, mightie syr Atlas.
For gravitee, the Cato; for wit, Mars, Bacchus, Apollo;
Scipio, for warfare; for gentil curtesie, Cæsar;

A great Alexander, with a long white neck like a gaunder.”

&c. &c.

Little did Millikin foresee the extended celebrity of his "Groves of Blarney;" and it would seem that he even felt some regret at having written this song, from the following lines which were found, after his death, among his papers, and were probably composed by him with the idea of introducing them as an apology into his poem of "The River-side :"

"O! Blarney, in my rude unseemly rhymes,
Albeit abused, lo! to thy bowers I come

I come a pilgrim to your shades again,

And woo thy solemn scenes with votive pipe.

Shut not your glades, nymphs of the hollow rock,
'Gainst one who, conscious of the ill he did,
Comes back repentant! Lead me to your dens,
Ye fays and svlvan beings-lead me still

Through all your wildly tangled grots and groves,
With nature and her genuine beauties full;

And on another stop, a stop thine own,

I'll sound thy praise, if praise of mine can please,

A truant long to Nature, and to thee!"

The Editor is in possession of several various readings of "The Groves of Blarney," which he declines noticing, as the following, with the exception of the fifth verse, is copied from the author's manuscript (in pencil, upon the back of a letter addressed to him); although, in many instances, especially in the version of Father Prout, — it must be admitted that there are some improvements.

The fifth verse, which has been already particularly noticed as "alluding to the mean descent of a certain noble lord," was an impromptu addition at an electioneering dinner in the south of Ireland, and is attributed, but probably incorrectly, to Mr. John Lander. It is said to have been intended as an insult to Lord Donoughmore, who happened to be present. His lordship's readiness, however, completely turned the tables: he applauded the verse, and when the song was ended arose, and, in a very humorous speech, acknowledged the relationship,-thanked the author for his mention of it, and requested leave to toast the Murphys, Clearys, and Healys, with all others who in the recent political contest had ventured life and limb in support of the Hutchinson cause, and had thus made their blood relationship with him unquestionable.

The late Lord Donoughmore (then Lord Hutchinson) always laughed heartily at this verse, which has become so completely identified with Millikin's song, that it would be scarcely recognized as perfect without it.

In that remarkable combination of humour and erudition, "The Reliques of Father Prout," translations of "The Groves of Blarney " into Latin, Greek, and French, may be found: a polyglot edition" of this far-famed song (vol. i. pp. 90-95); in which, however, the verse commencing "'Tis there's the kitchen is omitted, and the following verse appended :

"There is the stone there, that whoever kisses,

Oh! he never misses to grow eloquent;

'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,
Or become a member of parliament;

A clever spouter he'll sure turn out, or
An out-and outer- to be let alone.'

Don't hope to hinder him, or to bewilder him,—
Sure he's a pilgrim from the Blarney stone."

Among the pilgrims to the Blarney stone was Sir Walter Scott. The Editor remembers observing to Sir Walter, that the good people of Cork were not half pleased with him for going to see an old and neglected ruin such as Blarney, in preference to their noble harbour; of which the citizens are so justly proud, that they have adopted "Statio bene fida carinis" as the motto to the civic arms. Sir Walter Scott's reply was highly characteristic of his temper. "If I had known," said he, "what you tell methat any one had a wish on the subject of my proceedings, I would have gone any where, or have done any thing, in my power to please the good citizens of Cork; although it would have cost me a pang not to have visited— (here Sir Walter hummed)

'The Groves of Blarney, that are so charming,

All by the purling of sweet silent streams.""

H