longer strokes crossing obliquely; and fourth, small notches on the edge itself. It reads thus:-Nocati maqui maqui Ret. "That is, the stone of Nocat, the son of Mac Reithe." Now, we may observe the word Mac Reith occurs in the Book of Leacan. It may also be observed that Ogham monuments were used first as sepulchral monuments, and secondly as boundaries of properties.

From the "Ulster Visitation Book," preserved among the MSS. in Trinity College, Dublin, in 1622, we find Culdaff was written Coldaugh. In the Protestant church at that time Culdaff and Moville were one parish, the minister of which was Robert Kean, A.M. To this is annexed an observation from the bishop. "He also discharges the cure of Coldaugh as occasion is offered, there being one English family in the parish."

I may observe, in this place, that Eugene O'Doherty, who was consecrated bishop of Derry in 1554, was a native of Inishowen. From the following document, taken from the Barberini archives, it appears he was an Augustinian monk, was of noble origin, and succeeded Rory O'Donnell. His successor was Redmond O'Gallagher. "Die Lunæ Junii 1554, referente Reverendissimo Carpensi, sua sanctitas providit ecclesiæ Derensi in regno Hiberniæ vacanti per obitum Rurici Ydomnael, extra Romanam curiam defuncti, de persona Eugenii Odochartaid Abbatis monasterii Cellæ nigræ et Derensis ordinis Sancti Augustini, de nobile genere ex utroque parente."

The first parish priest of Culdaff for the past century whose name we could obtain was the Rev. Mr. Cramsey, a native of the parish. The following are his successors in regular order, namely:-First, the Rev. Mr. Orr, a native of the parish, who died about eighty-four years ago; he was succeeded by the Rev. Manasses Divine, a native of county Derry, who lived at Cashel, and remained only a few years in the parish; he was succeeded by the Rev. Denis O'Donnell, a native of the townland of Gortaherin, in the parish of Donagh, and who died about sixty years ago; he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. O'Kane, a native of the county Derry, who lived at Ballinagran for many years, and about 1824 exchanged with the Rev. Mr. Doherty for Moville, where he died; he was succeeded by the Rev. Gerald Doherty, a native of Urney, who lived only about one year in Culdaff; he was succeeded by the Rev. Mr. O'Connor, who died in 1831, and was buried in his native

parish in county Derry; he was succeeded by the Rev. James M'Devitt, the present parish priest. Before the erection of the chapel mass was celebrated four Sundays in succession, and alternately, at each of the little altars.

CHAPTER XV.-Lower Moville.

From the parish of Culdaff we will proceed to Lower Moville. For a part of the way the road passes along Brady Glen, which, in ancient times, belonged to the M'Dermotts, who, in the Annals of the Four Masters, are styled the lords of Bradyglen, and the princes of hospitality. There is a bridge in this glen named Friar's Bridge, from a tradition that a friar was drowned in crossing the river at that place. I will take occasion as we travel along this road to relate the following story, and before I begin I simply say that every item it contains is perfectly true. Comment would be superfluous; let the facts speak for themselves.

It was a cold day in December. The wind blew from the north, and swept over the hills, accompanied with sleet-like rain. A number of men were busily engaged making a new road along the ridge of a wild mountain side. It was a bleak dreary spot. There were little signs of vegetation, even the heather lacked its usual purple hues, and the stunted grass scarce appeared above the surface of the soil. The screaming of the sea-birds and the flight of the wild geese to the mountains bespoke an impending storm. These poor fellows had been working all day amid the pitiless pelting hail, badly fed and badly clothed.

“For whom are you working on such a day, and in such a place," inquired a stranger who was passing by. low subdued whisper, "shall we tell," said they.

There was a

"Yes," said

one, who appeared better instructed than the others, and acted as spokesman; then, turning to the stranger, he said, "it is for our landlord."

"Does

your

"He is

landlord make the road at his own expense," said the stranger. No," was the reply, "he is paid for it." "Is he road contractor, then," asked the stranger. not the nominal contractor; but he is after all the real contractor. His man of business, Bernard Doherty, is the nominal contractor, but it is for his master he acts."

"A curse on that same Barney," said one of the crowd, "he has made many a home desolate in Glenroan."

"Are you well paid," said the stranger,

66

66

"for this work."

Nothing," was the reply. "These roads, for the most part, are made by duty days; but we don't so much complain of this (for the road will serve ourselves) as to be obliged to assist in cutting down hills and building walls near our landlord's residence, which serve no public end, but merely ornament the demesne." "And," said the stranger, 66 are those works paid for by the public?" "Yes," said the other, "and the landlord's man of business is the contractor for them also." "How does it happen that such things are tolerated; I really cannot comprehend them?" Oh, sir, it is quite simple. If any gentleman wishes to have his demesne beautified by some additional fences, or the approaches to his residence improved, he has only to ask the assistance of the neighbouring gentry, and the job can be easily manufactured, for the associated cesspayers are usually taken from such a class as are known to be the tools of the gentry. The great public thoroughfares are neglected, and what is worse, when the ordinary contractors have their work completed there is great difficulty in having the work approved; but as for the improvements that affect the interests of the gentry there is no such obstacle."

"Really," said the stranger, "this is too bad." "Oh, sir, I can tell you worse, but I would not wish it were told on me. Our landlord is a needy man, his debts amount to a large sum. Now, if he wants money, his custom is to subdivide the estate. He says it is in order to improve it, but the real object is to put money into his own pocket. He will take a few acres from the farm of the poor man and add them to the farm of the rich neighbour, receive £5 to the pound rent for this, and put the money in his pocket."

"Positively," said the stranger, "what you tell me is almost incredible. Do duty days prevail to any extent?" "Well, sir," said the other, "they are claimed by most of the resident landlords, but duty-hens are discontinued. But, I'll tell you, sir, a thing that happened about them before they were done away with. One day Mr. Maxwell, the magistrate who lives over yonder, was walking with an English gentleman who came to visit him, in front of the hall door, and one of the tenants, Jeamie M'Daid, came up to them, took a hen from under his coat, and apologised for being so late by saying, he waited till

she would lay, but he hoped she would be in time for the dinner."

Until 1788 Moville formed but one parish, but it was then divided into the parishes of Upper and Lower Moville. Iu the Roman Catholic division, however, the whole as yet forms but one parish. Lower Moville is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by Lough Foyle, and on the west by Culdaff. It contains 15,950 acres. Population, 5,192. Much of the land is cold and of rather inferior quality; the inhabitants engage themselves with fishing fully as much as agriculture. The coast of the parish, which extends from Glenagivney on the north-west around Inishowen Head and along the Foyle to the town of Moville, is singularly bold and rocky. Doyle, in his Tours in Ulster, says :—“Inishowen Head is a place of great interest, and commands magnificent coast and sea views. From this the coast runs westward to Culdaff Bay, and for about eight miles is much varied by steep and lofty cliffs, against which the Atlantic breaks with great fury. The water is very deep, from ten to fifteen fathoms up to the base of the cliffs. The same remarkable variation in the ebb and flow of the tide, observed on the coast of Antrim, occurs here also." I may state that the tides move similarly from Bushmills in Antrim to Bloody Foreland Point in Donegal. Mr. Doyle goes on to say :— "Outside, a line east and west, distant two miles from the shore, the line of flood sets east six hours, and ebbs six hours to the west; but within that line the stream turns at half flood to the westward, and at half ebb to the eastward, a phenomenon of great advantage in navigating this coast." Around Moville the land is in a good state of cultivation, and there are some handsome residences in the neighbourhood. Between Shrove Head on the one side and the point of Magilligan on the Londonderry coast on the other, is the entrance to Lough Foyle. This extensive inlet is admitIt is remarkably

tedly one of the best of our Irish harbours. well sheltered, especially from the westerly winds, and affords safe anchorage for ships of the largest tonnage in all kinds of weather. It is to the facilities for trade which this lough affords, seconded by the energy and enterprise of her inhabitants, that the city of Derry owes her increasing commercial prosperity. The channel which lies near the Inishowen coast is all along indicated by buoys and lights, and at Shrove Head are lighthouses which have been constructed by the Ballast

Board to guard against shipwrecks on the "Touns," sand banks which lie beyond the entrance to the lough, and which will be noticed by and bye. Herrings, sole, salmon, and oysters are met with abundantly in Lough Foyle, but the Hon. the Irish Society of London claim a several fishery and right to every living thing within it, nay, to the very mud and sand which lie at its bottom, to the exclusion of all interference on the part of the inhabitants of its shores. This anomalous claim is founded on a Charter, which, they say, was granted them by James I., and renewed at the Restoration.

Convenient to the ruins of the old castle of the O'Dohertys at the northern extremity of the parish, the English have erected a fortress, and this, with a battery at Magilligan on the opposite side, commands the entrance to the lough. The Greencastle fortress consists of a battery, tower, and magazine, and there is accommodation within it for forty-two men and four officers. The Magnetic Telegraph Company have an office at Greencastle, from which messages are transmitted to any part of the United Kingdom, &c. Here are also stations of the Pilots and Tide-waiters of the port of Derry, and a Coastguard station; there is also a station of the Coastguards at Port Kennego.

The following fairy tale is related regarding these coasts; the towns are even yet considered "gentle."

Manannan M'Lir, the Irish Neptune, lies buried in the Tonn Banks. His spirit sallies from them at intervals. Many shipwrecks have occurred here. The roar of the Tonns is heard several miles off when a storm is impending. They form

one of the celebrated "Three waves of Erinn." The wave of the North, (here) the wave of Rury, (in Dundrum Bay) and the wave of Cliona, (off Cape Clear.) Whenever Cuchulain smote his shield, the three waves lifted up their voices and answered.

Hosts of fairies had their abode around these coasts, in midchannel, and along the Scottish shores. Many years ago a young man of the O'Dohertys, of Tullagh, in Clonmany, set out with a view of paying his addresses to a young lady of the name of O'Kane, who lived near Magilligan, in the County Derry, and whose fame for beauty and accomplishments had extended over half the province. O'Doherty took with him his brother as companion, with a train of twenty chosen young men as attendants-ten to each. Railway conveyance has, even yet,

1