"Full of robbers and rascals"

"Full of robbers and rascals"

Lough Derg--Travelogue--Dublin--Journey

An sixteenth-century letter describing a trip to Lough Derg

Francesco Chiericati, c.1480-1539

Francesco Chiericati's letter to Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, p. 11

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts

1516

CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork. J. P. Mahaffy. Electronic edition compiled and proof-read by Beatrix Färber, Janet Crawford. Article written by J. P. Mahaffy; the tour by Francesco Chiericati (c.1480-1539), written 1516, has been translated by J. G. Smyly (1516 (original); 1914 (translation).

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Electronic text transcription

English translation

Article containing translated letter

DD_0588

54.350281, -6.652792

https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T100081.html

"Parting thence we traversed another district called Omagh (?) extending for six miles and full of robbers and rascals. There we found many rivers, where are found in heaps and handfuls the pearls of oysters, which are produced in the following way. During those two months some very black fogs are wont to spread over these rivers in the morning; when the sun rises, they become liquid and their substance is reduced to a drop which falls into the river. If by chance it falls into an open oyster, of which there is a great number there, it begins to congeal into a black substance, and afterwards becomes white and larger. The country people find so many of them that it is astonishing, and they make a good profit out of them. These are the pearls which are called Scottish."

J. P. Mahaffy, Two Early Tours in Ireland in Hermathena, Ed. Members of Trinity College, Dublin. , Dublin; London, Hodges, Figgis & Co. Ltd.; Longmans, Green & Co. (1914) volume 40page 1–3; 10–16