Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/56

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2nd s. N 3., JAN. 19. '56.

1711 ; so that Mr. Macaulay's " reasonable " grounds for the suspicion, either fail altogether, or are greatly reduced in value. II. S. F. D. P.

The Battle of Aughrim. Now that the new volumes of Mr. Macaulay's History of England are in the hands of most of the readers of " N. & Q.," the following anecdotes and traditions of the battle of Aughrim may not be uninteresting, most of which I received from an old lady who had resided within two miles of the battle-field all her life, and who died a few years ago at the age of 108, in full possession of all her faculties, mental and bodily, except her sight, which began to fail when she was about 102 ; she perfectly re- collected her grandfather, who had been an eye- witness of the battle. The two armies were in sight of each other from the evening of the 1 1 th of July, but the battle did not begin till near five o'clock on the afternoon of the 12th ; the morning of that day having been occupied by skirmishes, and by various attempts on the part of De Ginkell to force the Pass of Urrachree on the right of King James's army, and by attempts to find a practicable road through the red bog which nearly filled the whole of the valley between Kilcommodon Hill (St. Ruth's position) and the rising ground on which his army was encamped. In the course of the morning a person named O'Kelly went into St. Ruth's camp with his herdsman, to seek redress for the loss of some sheep, which had been carried off the day before by the foragers of the Irish army. On being brought before St. Ruth, his complaint was treated by that general with his usual overbearing haughtiness, and on O'Kelly's pressing the matter, he was threatened with death if he did not desist ; and when the herdsman re- quested that the skins at least of the slaughtered animals might be given him, he and his master narrowly escaped being hanged. Burning with rage, O'Kelly proceeded towards the English camp, and surrendering himself to some of Port- land's horse, was conducted before De Ginkell. Having been closely questioned relative to the state of the Jacobite army, among other things he stated that the general was a man gorgeously dressed and mounted on a white horse ; an ex- perienced artillery officer was sent for, and having heard O'Kelly's statement, he was ordered to take a field-piece, with a picked company of gunners, and to fire according to the directions O'Kelly should give him. Having brought the gun to the edge of the bog, he planted it on a small circular clay fort, vast numbers of which, of various sizes, are scattered about that part of Ireland on the tops of the hills and rising grounds. Having watched the movements of the opposing army for a short time, an officer of rank was seen mounted on a white horse in front of his men on the slope

of the hill ; the gun was carefully levelled for him and fired, when the smoke blew away he was still seen sitting on his horse, to the great disappoint- ment of the artillery officer, but immediately after- wards was observed to fall. This was St. Ruth, who was at the moment of his death in the act of placing himself at the head of his guards ; a thorn- bush in the ground at the back of Aughrim Vi- carage marks the spot. Some years ago, when the old vicarage was pulled down, on the erection of the present one, human bones were found under the foundations, r.elics of the battle. When the passage through the bog was discovered by Lut- trell's treachery, it was so narrow that only one horseman could advance along it at a time, but each of them took up a foot soldier behind him. At this battle King James's regiment of Yellow Dragoons, contrary to the behaviour of the rest of his army, considered that discretion was the best part of valour, and headed the flight ; one of them never drew bridle till he reached a place called Kilneboy, in the co. Clare, about forty miles from the field ! where are the ruins of a fine old abbey, a castle (the subject of one of the " Le- gends of co. Clare," already published in " N. & Q."), and the Deanery House, then occupied by Dean Blood, a very old man. Some reports of the battle having already reached him, the old man hearing that a soldier was approaching bear- ing tokens of having been engaged in it, hastened to the door, and asked the fugitive " What news ?" The hero's nerves, however, had not yet recovered their recent disturbance, and in reply he drew a pistol from his holster and fired at the old man ; the ball grazed his head and lodged in the door- post. An Irish song was made on the Yellow Dragoons in consequence of their gallant be- haviour ; I have heard an old man repeat a few lines of it; the burden of it was, Coss, cos*, a Dliragone buidhe, " Turn, turn, Yellow Dragoon." The name of the unfortunate James is always among the Irish peasantry coupled with an Irish word not translateable to ears polite, in conse- quence of his supposed poltroonery. Tempest mentions that at the siege of Athlone, De Ginkell, among other guns, had nine eighteen-pounders; one of these at least he must have brought with him to Aughrim, for in 1840, a man who rented some of the fields on Kilcommodon Hill, turned up with the plough an eighteen-pounder shot, which is now in my possession ; it weighs now fifteen pounds, and notwithstanding its having been 149 years buried, is in excellent preservation. The night before the battle, De Ginkell ordered the grenadiers, who carried then the species of pro- jectile from which their name is derived, to be drawn up on the right and left of each regiment, each man carrying two grenades. Among other relics of the battle, one of these in perfect pre- servation having missed exploding, and a six-