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'the Island of Saints'; Or, Ireland in 1855
'the Island of Saints' Or Ireland in 1855 Author:John Eliot Howard Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. We left Galway by car, and proceeded towards Tuam, through a limestone country, more pestered with stones than any I remember to have seen, but wi... more »thal fertile, as is the case in general with the districts of limestone formation in Ireland. In order to cultivate the fields, it appears to be necessary first to remove the large stones cumbering the surface. These furnish the materials for interminable stone walls dividing the fields, and rising thus to view, wall behind wall, often as far as the eye can reach; but, in addition to this, it is necessary at times to pile up the superfluous material in great heaps, and I was amused to notice the ingenuity with which every projecting mass of rock which cannot be removed from the field is made useful as a stowage place for the lumber of smaller rocks, which are thus placed hen and chicken fashion upon its back. This is the Celtic plan through the West of Ireland; but in the districts brought under the Saxon sphere of cultivation, I noticed that the stones were collected, and carried quite off the field by a handbarrow, or some other similar contrivance. 22 ABBEY OF CLABE. We visited the ruins of the Abbey of Clare, Galway, rising above the stream which conveys the water of the thurloughs of Tuam into Lough Corrib. These arc described as vast winter accumulations of water in the flat country towards Tuam; in summer, however, the beds of these loughs afford excellent pasturage, and, as has been quaintly observed, on them horse and boat races are alternately held. The word probably gives origin to the family name Thurlow. In Clare Abbey I copied the following characteristic inscription: " O Lord have mercy on the soul of Patrick Morris, who departed this life on the 20th Nov., 1824, aged 70 years. This stone was place...« less