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.