Beautiful Scenery

Asenath Nicholson
1847
Chapter III (7) | Start of Chapter

The battle of Arklow, while "seed-time and harvest remain," will live in the memory of all who saw it, or shall read of it. The prospect was both grand and awful; the river Avoca was at our feet, winding gracefully through the rich vale called by its name. At our right-hand lay the sea; at our left, the mountains of Wicklow; behind us the town of Arklow, and near where I stood was once the skull of Hackett, which had been fixed to the top of the castle, in the days of the rebellion. This man had killed many a Protestant, and in return they shot him, took off his head, and placed it upon the top of the castle, where it remained till a few years since, when a wren made her nest in his mouth, and it finally tumbled down, and received a burial in the side of the tower.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.