Chapter XXXIV: Appendix: I

LETTERS FROM CHIEF JUSTICE CHARLES KENDAL BUSHE TO MRS. BUSHE

CHARLES KENDAL BUSHE to MRS. BUSHE.

WATERFORD. (Undated.) Probably July or August, 1798.

“Within this day or two the United Irishmen rose in the Co Kilkenny
and disarm’d every gentleman and man in the County except Pierce
Butler. O’Flaherty, Davis, Nixon, Lee, and Tom Murphy was not
spar’d and they even beat up the Quarters of Bob’s Seraglio, but he
had the day before taken the precaution to remove his arms, and
among them my double barrell’d Gun, to Pierce Butler’s as a place
of safety, so that no arms remain’d but the arms of his Dulcinea,
but what they did in that respect Bob says not.... The United men
have done one serious mischief which is that they have discredited
Bank notes to such a degree that in Wexford no one wd give a Crown
for a national note or take one in payment and here tho they take
them they wont give Change for them so that at the Bar Room we are
oblig’d to pass little promissory notes for our Dinner and pay them
when they come to a Guinea. I assure you if you ow’d 17 shillgs
here no one wou’d give you four and take a Guinea. As to Gold it is
vanish’d. I have receiv’d but 2 Gold Guineas in £133.0.0 since I
came on Circuit. There is a good deal of Alarm about these United
Men every where.”

Another letter, written at about the same time as the above, is dated “Wexford, July twenty sixth, 1798.” It seems to have been written while on circuit, a short time after the suppression of the Rebellion.

CHARLES KENDAL BUSHE to MRS. BUSHE.

“My dearest Nancy,

“We return by Ross” (Co. Wexford) “both for greater safety and that
we may see the scene of the famous battle.” (This probably was
Vinegar Hill). “From every observation I can make it appears to me
that this Country is completely quieted; if you were to hear all
the different anecdotes told here you wou’d suppose you were
reading another Helen Maria Williams. I shall give you but
one--Col. Lehunte who is very civil to us was a prisoner to the
Rebels and tolerably well treated as such till one day in the
tattering (_sic_) of his house a Room--furnish’d with antique
ornaments in black and _orange_ was discover’d a small Skreen in
the same colours with heathen divinities on it. This Skreen was
carried instantly by the enrag’d mob thro the town as a proof of an
intended Massacre by the Orange Men. This Skreen, says the famous
fury Mrs. Dixon, was to be the standard of their Cavalry. This,
(Hope) is the anchor on which the Catholic sailors were to be
roasted alive--This, (Jupiter’s Eagle) is the Vulture that was to
pick out the Catholic Children’s Eyes--She went thro the Mythology
of the Skreen in this rational Exposition and entirely convinc’d
the Mob. In a moment Col. Lehunte was dragg’d out to Execution,
and his life was sav’d in the same manner his house was, by the
number of disputants who shou’d take it. He received three pike
wounds and was beat almost to death with sticks and the end of
firelocks and at last taken back for a more deliberate Execution in
the morning, being thrown for the night into a Dungeon where he lay
wounded on fetters, bolts, and broken Bottles. This is a venerable
old Gentleman, near 70 years old.

“We hear many such stories. The Bridge is deep stain’d with blood.

“Ever yours, my darling Nancy,

“C. K. BUSHE.”

The temptation to quote extensively from these early letters of “the Chief” cannot be too freely indulged in, but I may include an account, written from Clonmel, in about 1797, to his wife, giving an account of what he calls “a most novel and extraordinary and disgusting species of crime”; which is a moderate way of defining the comprehensive atrocity of the act in question.

CHARLES KENDAL BUSHE to MRS. BUSHE.

CLONMEL. (_circa 1797._)

“...The woman was clearly convicted and will be exemplarily
punish’d for it. She robb’d a churchyard of the hand of a dead man
which she put into all the milk she churn’d. Butter making is a
great part of the trade of the Country and the unfortunate Wretch
was persuaded that this hand drawn thro the Milk in the devil’s
name would give a miraculous quantity of butter, and it seems _she
has long_ made it a practice.”

From CHIEF JUSTICE BUSHE to MRS. BUSHE.

“OMAGH. _Monday August 16. 1810._

“My dearest Nan,

“By making a forc’d march with Smyly here I have arrived some hours
before the other Judge, Cavalcade &c. and I have for the first time
since I left town sat down in a room by myself with something like
tranquillity, at least that negative Repose that consists in the
absence of stress or clamour fuss and hurry. The day has
fortunately been good and without stopping we rode here, 21 miles
across the mountains. This I found pleasant and indeed necessary
after the Confinement and bad weather which we have had
uninterruptedly since we left Dublin. You have no notion of such a
den as Cavan is. It is no wonder that poor Smyly us’d to get fever
in it, I am only astonish’d that I ever got out of it for I was not
for a moment well. It lies at the bottom of a Bason form’d by many
hills closing in on each other, and is surrounded by bogs and
lakes. The Sun can scarcely reach it, you look up at the heavens as
you do out of a jail yard that has high walls and I was glad to
have a large Turf fire in my Room. The Water is quite yellow and
deranges the stomach &c. so that my poor head was a mass of
confusion and my Spirits were slack enough.... After breakfast, bad
as the day was, I got a boat and went on the lake (Lough Erne) and
sail’d to the Island of Devenish where there is a curious Ruin of
an antient place of worship and a Round Tower in as perfect
preservation as the day it was built.... Short as the time was if
the weather had been favourable I was determined upon seeing Lough
Derg and St. Patrick’s purgatory which is in a small island in the
middle of it and which is in its history certainly one of the
greatest Curiosities in Europe.[18] It has maintained its Character
as the principal place of penance in the World since the first
Establishment of Christianity in Ireland and is as much frequented
now by Pilgrims from all Countries as it was in what we are in the
habit of calling the darker ages, as freely as if our own was
enlighten’d. Miller’s house is about ten miles from it and he has
by enquiries from the Priests and otherwise ascertained that the
average number of pilgrims during the season which begins with the
Summer and ends with the first of August exceeds ten thousand. This
last Season in this present year the number was much greater. They
all perform their journey barefooted and in mean Dress but those
of the upper Class are discover’d by the delicacy of their hands
and feet. There is a large ferry Boat which from morning to night
is employ’d in transporting and retransporting them. Each Pilgrim
remains 24 hours in the Island performing Devotions round certain
stone altars call’d Stations, at which five Priests perpetually
officiate. All this time and for some time before they strictly
fast, and on leaving the Island the Priest gives them what is
called Bread and Wine, that is Bread and Lake water which they
positively assert has the Taste of wine and the power of refreshing
and recovering them....”

The end of this letter, giving a description of a visit to Edgeworthstown, appears in the book, Chapter II, page 47.