THE GREAT PLANTATION IN ULSTER
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books, walking on their hind legs, with pink ribbons round their necks. Read 'The Fortunes of Nigel,' and you understand the part which the Scots took in the great plantation in Ulster; you comprehend, in a measure, the misshapen little king, although you probably undervalue his practical ability, when he chose to apply himself to business; and you see the poverty of the old land north of the Tweed, and the neediness of the flock of supplicants who followed James to London,--"wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." As in a mirror, too, you see the baneful power of the royal favourites, who lived and had their being by reason of James's vanity and laziness. One sighs in vain for some similar guiding light to assist in the understanding of the men who made history in Ireland; for it is strange that in a country which is bubbling over with humour, the writers on history seem to divide themselves into the stupid people who try to write the truth, and do it stupidly, and the clever people, who do not much trouble to seek the draw-well in which truth takes refuge. And yet the men who played the great parts in this strange drama cannot have been dull uninteresting men. We know partly what the leaders of the English interest were,--Chichester, Carew, Davies,--and they have in them that mixture of good and bad parts which tempts the pencil of the historical painter. Even after kneeling in alabaster in the little church of Carrickfergus for two centuries and a half, with no company but his...continue reading »
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Page 29
The Scot in Ulster:
Sketch of the History of the Scottish Population of Ulster
by John Harrison
1888