young wife took to Spain with them, it was next to nothing to the riches that they left behind in the caves of Rahar, but that still remain hidden by enchantment. This I do know, that one of my reasons for taking—and I did so fifty years ago—a long lease of the white house at Rahar was the certainty that there was untold gold hidden in its caves. With that conviction on my mind, I began looking for it; but instead of seeking after the magic treasure in the darkness of night, I went, like a fool, searching for it by day-light,—and, what was the consequence? One day I struck my pick-axe against a stone. Oh! how my heart beat, for I knew well what I was going to find—a chest of stone, shaped like a coffin. Just the very thing in which Moyra Olliffe hid the treasures of the Danes. I removed the stone—and there—instead of diamonds, gold and silver, there was nothing but a heap of old bones and ashes! Ah! if I had found the same things after night-fall, instead of being, as I am now, a hard-working humble farmer, I would be the richest squire in the county.
“There, sir, is my story. I am much obliged to you for listening to it. And now that you have heard it, you cannot be surprised at my taking a strong, and I may say personal interest in the history that has lately been circulating throughout Ireland, as to one of the Irish O’Donnells having been elevated to the dignity of a grandee of Spain.
“If you come up to Rahar any day, I will show you over all the caves that were made under the white house by the Danes. I wish I could also point out to you the places in which the murdering scoundrels hid their plunder, and then covered it over with charms, incantations and witchcraft, so that the eyes of a Christian are not able to recognise it.”
A DAY AT WOOLWICH.
Whenever an east wind blows—and that is we believe for ninety days in the year—it brings with it not only rheums and catarrhs, but the sound of the heavy guns fired at Woolwich by the Royal Regiment of Artillery. On hearing the dull boom some days since, we bethought ourselves that a visit to the “mother dock of England,” and an inspection of the Arsenal, might suffice to wile away a day in which we might forget the intolerably dry cold blast, and collect some new information upon a subject of national interest—
And foreigThe daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implement of war,
And such impress of shipwrights.
Although, happily, in these peaceful times no longer
Doth make the night joThis sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day.
The Royal Arsenal took its origin in a singular incident. In the year 1716 some French cannon, taken by the Duke of Marlborough, were to be recast at the Royal Foundry at Moorfields, in the presence of Colonel Armstrong, then Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, and a brilliant staff of officers. A young Swiss travelling workman, Andrew Schalch, a native of Schaffhausen, who was among the bystanders, observed the presence of moisture in the moulds, the consequence of which, he foresaw, would be the instantaneous formation of steam, which would explode because unable to escape from the moulds. The Master-General, the Duke of Richmond, was warned by him of the circumstance in vain; the Swiss and his friends prudently retired, and scarcely had he quitted the spot when a terrible explosion occurred; the galleries for the spectators were blown down, the roof of the foundry was carried away, and of the workmen many were burned severely and some killed. The authorities advertised for the man who gave the timely warning, and on his appearance desired him to select a site for a new foundry and preside over it. He selected Woolwich for its convenient situation upon the bank of the Thames, and position in the midst of an unoccupied space of ground,—both important considerations, as they furnished an ample practice-ground for artillery and easy means for its embarkation or unshipment. Schalch, after holding his office of master-gunner during sixty years, died at the advanced age of ninety, and lies buried in Woolwich churchyard.
A long high wall marks the boundary of the Arsenal, the only establishment of the name in England, as the smaller yards at Portsmouth, Pembroke, and Chatham, are called gun-wharves. In the year 1535, John Aven was the first Englishman who made brass ordnance, as cannons and culverins. In 1543, Peter Bawd, a French gunfounder, and Peter van Collen, a gunsmith, were employed by Henry the Eighth to cast mortars; and in the reign of Edward the Sixth, Master Peter’s apprentice and successor, John Johnson, cast iron ordnance. The howitzer, an improved mortar, invented by Beledor, was first used at the siege of Ath in 1697: the carronade, a kind of long howitzer, was the design of General Robert Melville, about the year 1779. Iron rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve, and now bearing his name, were first used at the bombardment of Copenhagen, afterwards against the Boulogne flotilla, then at Flushing, and subsequently at the battle of Leipzig, a special rocket troop having for many years been appointed to this service.
On entering the gates of the Arsenal, two sentries are seen pacing up and down, and in the walk immediately beyond two more employed, the charge of the rest of the yard being left to policemen. Upwards of 10,000 artificers are employed in the factories and works; and the number of visitors, who are admitted on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m., is very great. The visitor is furnished with a ticket, and moves about on his inspection under surveillance. The movement of wheels, the rush of steam, the blast of flame, the din of hammers, and the roar of the furnace betoken the variety of the manufactures and processes which are being carried on. The Foundry was erected by Vanbrugh, and may easily be detected among the long ranges of buildings which abut upon the paved footways to which the visitor is restricted. He passes by the Laboratory, where ammunition and projectiles are being made; model-rooms, containing specimens of various mills, machines, and
