On the inside of the arch run along ribs
of hewn stone cemented into their places, running up to meet in a carved
point at the extreme top. These groinings spring from short pillars of
hewn stone that only reach part way down the wall to the floor and run
to a point. These consoles are highly ornamented with sculpture. The
mouldings round the doors, and the stone window frames and sashes, are
wonderfully well done, and would highly ornament a church of the
nineteenth century.
I think we undervalue the civilization of the far past of Connaught.
Those who erected such churches, such abbeys and such castles were both
intelligent and possessed of wealth in no small degree. The ingenuity of
the cut stone hinge on the stone that closes the tomb in the chancel,
the carving on the tomb of the Prince of the O'Connor line, the staunch
solidness of every wall, the immense strength of every arched roof, show
skilled builders, whether they worked under the direction, of the Gobhan
Saer or another man. The plans of the castles, for offence, defence or
escape, show them to have been built by men of skill for men of large
means and great power.
XXXVIII.
OVER-POPULATION OF THE WEST - HOW PEOPLE FORM THEIR OPINIONS - MR.
SMITHWICK AND JONATHAN PYM - A DEARTH OF FISH.
Left Castlebar with regret and went down to Westport. I find at every
step since I landed the information that in going round Ireland I should
have begun at Dublin. In Dublin I could have procured a guide book. I
have sought for one in every considerable town from Belfast round to the
edge of Galway without obtaining it. If I had started from Dublin I
should have taken a tourist's ticket there. Well, I am not sorry for
that, for it is rather hard on me when I get into the beaten track where
I encounter tourists - some of them are trying specimens of humanity.
However, I am made to feel as if I was patting the wrong foot, instead
of the best foot foremost.
I got into Westport in the fair sunlight in the early part of June.
Between Castlebar and Westport the land is part stony, part bog, part
better land under grass. Mountains with hard names, that one makes haste
to forget, are to be seen all round from whatever side of the car you
look. They are all over - a good deal over - one thousand feet high. A few
lakes are spread out here and there also. I am as ignorant of their
names as of those of the lakes I saw crossing Maine.
