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FAMOUS SONGS
music except the Irish.'* The fruits of all ancient Scotch music may be said to have germinated from Irish seeds. Francesco Geminiani was born at Lisbon, 1680, and visited England and Ire-land several times. He died in Dublin 1761.
Of the work by the last Irish bard, the Ode to " Bridget Cruise/' the music as well as the words were by Turlough O'Carolan, and it may be said that without being entitled to the lavish praise bestowed upon it by some enthusiasts, it is very plaintive and touching and worth pre-serving. These words of Hardiman, so pregnant with truth, deserve recording: " It has been the fate of Irish poetry, from the days of Spenser to the present time, to be praised or censured by the extremes of prejudice, while the world was unable to decide for want of the original poems or translations of them." It is to be re-gretted that these " extremes" are still at work.
A singular anecdote, highly illustrative of the romantic tendency of O'Carolan's first love, Bridget Cruise, to whom he wrote several songs, may be mentioned. He once went on a pil-grimage to a cave located on an island situated on Lough Dearg, in the county Donegal. On returning to the shore he found several persons waiting for the boat in which he had been con-veyed to the spot. In his kind desire to help
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