e relations
of private life."

The "Party Fight," described in the foregoing sketch, is unhappily no
fiction, and it is certain that there are thousands still alive who
have good reason to remember it. Such a fight, or I should rather say
battle--for such in fact it was--did not take place in a state of civil
society, if I can say so, within the last half century in this country.
The preparations for it were secretly being made for two or three months
previous to its occurrence, and however it came to light, it so happened
that each party became cognizant of the designs of the other. This
tremendous conflict, of which I was an eye-witness,--being then but
about twelve years of age--took place in the town, or rather city, of
Clogher, in my native county of Tyrone. The reader may form an opinion
of the bitterness and ferocity with which it was fought on both
sides when he is informed that the Orangemen on the one side, and the
Ribbonmen on the other, had called in aid from the surrounding counties
of Monaghan, Cavan, Fermanagh, and Derry; and, if I mistake not, also
from Louth. In numbers, the belligerents could not have been less than
from four to five thousand men. The fair day on which it occurred is
known simply as "the Day of the great Fight."

THE LOUGH DERG PILGRIM.

In describing the habits, superstitions, and feelings of the Irish
people, it would be impossible to overlook a place which occupies
so prominent a position in their religious usages as the celebrated
Purgatory of St. Patrick, situated in a lake that lies among the bleak
and desolate looking mountains of Donegal.

It may also be necessary to state to the reader, that the following
sketch, though appearing in this place, was the first production from my
pen which ever came before the public. The occasion of its being written
was this:--I had been asked to breakfast by the late Rev. Caesar Otway,
some time I think in the winter of 1829. About that time, or a little
before, he had brought out his admirable work called, "Sketches in
Ireland, descriptive of interesting portions of Donegal, Cork, and
Kerry." Among the remarkable localities of Donegal, of course it was
natural to suppose, that "_Lough Derg_," or the celebrated "_Purgatory
of St. Patrick_," would not be omitted. Neither was it; and nothing
can exceed the accuracy and truthful vigor with which he describes its
situation and appearance. In the course of conversation, however, I