LEA-1
The Dark-Haired Lady of the Coach Road
Leanan Sídhe — the muse of the Irish, who pays for verse in years
- Name
- She has given four names to four clerks. Each clerk entered it as true. None of the four agree, and none of the four clerks can be asked, for reasons the reader may work out from the table below.
- Descent
- Of the aos sí of Ireland, by way of every port town with a printing press and a supply of young men who own quills.
- Present Trade
- Patroness of the arts. Her companions write, paint, and fiddle better than any man in the county — better, some say, than any man alive, which is nearer the mark than they know. She asks no fee. The arrangement settles itself.
- Note by the Clerk
- The parish does not advise against her company. The parish notes only the arithmetic.
| Companion | Trade | Acquainted | Died | Aged | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T—— M——, of Cork | poet | 1749 | 1756 | 29 | four volumes in seven years; the fourth reckoned his best |
| J—— F——, of Bristol | painter | 1757 | 1761 | 26 | portraits said to breathe; his last, of a lady, unfinished at the mouth |
| E—— W——, of the parish | fiddler | 1762 | 1766 | 24 | played at the Howe & Hound; the room wept on request |
| H—— C——, of York | poet | 1767 | 1774 | 33 | his widow burned the seventh volume unread; she is thought wise |
| ———— | engraver | 1788 | the column is blank; the ink was ready | — | current. Works quickly. |
- One man of the parish, a wool merchant with no verse in him, is recorded to have refused her company in 1754. He lived to seventy-eight, prosperously. Nothing he made is remembered.
Entered in the Register the 9th day of May, 1771, at the third attempt; the first two entries are struck through, in a hand very like her own.
Examined & found true — Parish Clerk