48
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-
