You, know, these lads were up to a bit of vandalism but it was nothing to what Dublin Local Authorities did to the great Woods of Farnham House and other great woods in Finglas. They even culverted the Bright Stream that gave the place its name, — and they got away with it! Don’t worry about the bit of Latin at the end, all it means is: “If you are travelling through Finglas, watch your bag!” CHAPTER LIV. HOW SOME ARCHERS AT FINGLASS WERE PUNISHED BY HEAVEN. IT happened in our time, during an unusually violent thunder- storm, while king Henry was engaged in his expedition to Ireland, that several troops of archers were quartered for a time at a town of the archbishop of Dublin, called Finglass. The illustrious abbot Kenach and other holy men in succession, through whose fervent piety the place became celebrated, had formerly planted with their own hands ash trees and yews, and various other kinds of trees, round the cemetery for the ornament of the church.1 On these the archers began to lay violent hands in the most irreverent and atrocious manner. For there being no woods near at hand, they fell on these trees with the usual insolence and recklessness of a depraved people and the license of soldiers, and lopping off the boughs of some of them, and tearing up others by the roots, speedily consumed nearly the whole in their fires.2 But they were forthwith smitten by God, whose divine indignation reserves vengeance to himself, and condescends to vindicate the injuries offered to his saints, on earth, by a sudden and singular pestilence ; so that most of them miserably perished within a very few days in the same village, being brought to judgment by a severe inquisitor in the same court wherein they had offended. The 1 It is a pleasant relief to the dark shades of the ascetic life of these old recluses, to picture them planting trees, quce alteri seeculo prosint, for shelter and ornament in future ages, ahout their churches and religious houses. Finglas, an agreeable village, about two miles from Dublin, is still remarkable for its shady groves. Besides the modern cemetery, it possesses at Glassnevin the most picturesque of botanical gardens, in the grounds of which are old trees, that we may almost fancy coeval with the plantations of abbot Kenach or his successors. 2. The sentence following is omitted, it not being material to the sense, and so full of alliterations and antithesis, that it is impossible to give it point in a translation : " Et vere officium illud et ab officiendo, non per antiphrasin sed proprie dictum est. Talibus enim ascripti offidiis afficiocissime semper potius officere parati sunt, quam proficere." — From THE HISTORICAL WORKS OF GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS CONTAINING THE TOPOGRAPHY OF IRELAND, AND THE HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF IRELAND, TRANSLATED BY THOMAS FORESTER, M.A. THE ITINERARY THROUGH WALES, AND THE DESCRIPTION OF WALES, TRANSLATED BY SIR RICHARD COLT HOARE, BART. REVISED AND EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A., F.S.A., &c. LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1905
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 12:34:57 +0000
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