Ex LIBRIS 
 IRENE DWEN ANDREWS
 
 A 
 
 MONTH IN MAYO, 
 
 COMPRISING 
 
 CHARACTERISTIC SKETCHES 
 
 (SPORTING AND SOCIAL) 
 OF 
 
 IRISH LIFE; 
 
 WITH 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
 
 BY GEORGE ROOFER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'FLOOD, FIELD, AND FOREST;' 'TALES AND SKETCHES; 
 'THAMES AND TWEED,' ETC., ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, W. 
 1876.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND 
 CHARING CROSS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I ASSUME that the preface to a book, if read at all, 
 is read after the perusal of the book itself ; it is 
 assuredly so written. It seems therefore to savour 
 of impertinence, or at least of a waste of the 
 reader's time, to obtrude a long detail of the 
 author's intentions upon one who is at the time in 
 a position to judge how far he has succeeded, or 
 otherwise, in carrying them out. 
 
 In the following pages, as in all my other little 
 works, my object has been to impart such know- 
 ledge on the subjects of sporting and natural 
 history as I believe myself to have acquired. 
 
 Some time ago I resided, during a portion of 
 each year, in a wild corner of County Mayo, 
 where I had purchased a tract of five thousand 
 acres, and where I rented, for thirty pounds a year, 
 on a long lease, the shooting over upwards of 
 thirteen thousand acres more, and which I enjoyed 
 
 2066172
 
 iv PREFACE. 
 
 until Irish shootings rose in value, when I was 
 informed that my lessor had no title whatever to 
 the property. 
 
 During this period I had many opportunities of 
 studying the habits and customs of the " natives," 
 and I have embodied, in the guise of a partly 
 imaginative narrative, not a few of my personal 
 reminiscences. My former books have, I am proud 
 to say, received as much praise as I could desire, 
 and far more than I ever expected or even hoped 
 for, from young people of both sexes, and it is to 
 them more especially that I now commend my 
 " MOJJTH IN MAYO."
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE LODGE . 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 "THE SMALL STILL" 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 GROUSE SHOOTING 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MY FIRST FISH .... -33 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 AN IRISH BULL .. 43
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SEA FISHING 50 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING .. 60 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 SEAL SHOOTING 68 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST 75 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 "THE LITTLE PILL" 86 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 "LONG TONY" 93 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 FAREWELL 103
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A WALKTHROUGH THE " PHCENIX PARK," 
 
 DUBLIN 119 
 
 A FEW PRACTICAL HINTS ON HORSE DEALING 132 
 
 THE BLIND FISHERMAN 145 
 
 CROSSING SWEEPERS 150 
 
 THE FIRST OF OCTOBER 154 
 
 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY .. 159 
 
 CUB HUNTING 166 
 
 FOX HUNTERS AND GAME PRESERVERS .. 172
 
 A MONTH IN MAYO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE LODGE. 
 
 " WHEN will I be back for yer 'onner ? " inquired 
 the car-driver, as he handed from out the " well " 
 of the car a gun-case with my name and address 
 legibly printed on it, a fishing-case, portmanteau, 
 dressing-bag, and bundle of wraps and waterproofs. 
 "When will I be back for yer 'onner?" There 
 was reason in the question, for, as Tim expressed it, 
 " Divil a sowl that had the English, or knew what 
 dhrink meant, barrin' butthermilk and potheen, 
 or had slept out of a cabin not maning his Rivir- 
 ince or his 'onner was there within thirty miles of 
 Bogleeze." 
 
 Tim spoke truth : there was not a church, nor 
 a house, nor a shop, nor a post-office, nor any other 
 token of civilization within that distance of the lone 
 lodge at which, on the strength of a general but 
 
 B
 
 2 THE LODGE. 
 
 hearty invitation from an old friend of my father, 
 I, a Cambridge man (?), had just been shot off. 
 
 " Let me see," said I ; " this is Thursday come 
 down for me, will you, on Wednesday ? " 
 
 " Shure I will, yer 'onner ; I'll not fail." 
 
 " Tim, you thief of the world ! " roared a voice from 
 the clouds. " Tim, you thundering vagabond ! " 
 
 " That's me, shure enough ; long life to yer 
 'onner, I'm moighty glad to see ye looking so fresh 
 and hearty." 
 
 " Do ye see this, Tim, you murtherin' villain ? " 
 
 " I do, yer 'onner." 
 
 " What is it at all ? " 
 
 " Shure it's the blunderbuss herself ; the holy 
 Virgin save us ! " 
 
 " Now, Tim, by this and by that, and by every 
 book that ever was shut and opened, if you come 
 out to Bogleeze till I send for ye, I'll put the con- 
 tents of this into ye. Do ye hear that, and be 
 d d to you ? " 
 
 " Shure, yer 'onner is the gintleman entirely, and 
 I'll not show my face in the demesne till yer 'onner 
 sends for me." 
 
 " You're a good boy, Tim ; get out of that, will 
 ye, and ask Mrs. Maloney for something to eat ; 
 maybe it's hungry you are, Tim ? " 
 
 " Thank yer 'onner kindly for that same ; but it's
 
 THE LODGE. 3 
 
 mighty little appetite I have at all, and what I 
 have I keep for the dhrink." 
 
 " Well, get along in with ye to Misthress 
 Maloney, and see what she's got in her cupboard." 
 
 " God bless yer 'onner ! Long life to yer 'onner ! 
 It's the foine gintleman you are entirely." 
 
 The arbitrary speaker, who now descended from 
 the upper regions, out of which his voice had been 
 heard, to welcome his young guest, presented by 
 no means an ordinary appearance. He was at least 
 six feet two in his socks, and his attire, a flowered 
 dressing-gown reaching down to his ankles, made 
 him look even taller than he was ; his age some 
 fifty, " or by'r Lady, three score," but hale and 
 hearty, and except by a sprinkling of grey hairs on 
 head and beard, showing little sign of old age ; 
 there was a pleasant, kindly expression in his 
 bright eye, which seemed to glitter with suppressed 
 fun and humour, and a joke seemed to be ever 
 playing round the corners of his expressive mouth. 
 To my thinking, he bore upon his face and in his 
 manner the characteristic marks of the Irish gentle- 
 man of the day before yesterday courteous but 
 shrewd, humorous and slightly sarcastic, open, 
 friendly, observant, and discriminating. The warm 
 greeting and implied approval of the personal 
 appearance of the young man before him were 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE LODGE. 
 
 highly flattering, and went straight to a heart ever 
 open to kindness. 
 
 " Cead mille failtha ! A hundred thousand 
 welcomes ! I'm right glad to see your father's son 
 in these wild parts. It's not in a hurry we'll let 
 you go, unless you weary of an old man and bad 
 cookery." 
 
 " Old, my dear sir ! you don't look much 
 older than myself; and as for cookery, it's not 
 so long since I left school, where the word was 
 unknown. It's precious jolly, I tell you, finding 
 myself here, and I'm very much obliged by your 
 receiving me so kindly." 
 
 The car in the meantime had moved off; the 
 little mare that had trotted, without apparent effort, 
 thirty English miles, having been refreshed by a 
 drink of water and a hatful of corn, was perfectly 
 ready to trot back again, and return that night if 
 required. 
 
 " A thousand welcomes, my dear boy ! " cried the 
 old man, wringing my fingers, and marshalling the 
 way down a narrow passage to the foot of a rather 
 steep stair. 
 
 " Thady ! hurry now ; bring up the luggage 
 and some sherry and biscuits ; and put the rod- 
 case in the hall, and give the gun-case to Larry, 
 and what is it, you little disciple ? " this to a
 
 THE LODGE. 5 
 
 ragged, breechless, stockingless, shoeless, capless 
 varlet, some six years old, with sturdy legs, blue 
 eyes, and flaxen, unkempt hair. " What is it 
 you're wanting, you little mischief?" 
 
 "Shure, dadda's afther takin' the pledge, and 
 Minnie sent me to ax yer 'onner to sarve him." 
 
 " Your Minnie ! Why, you young sorrow, Minnie's 
 dead." 
 
 " Yes, shure, but dadda's got a new Minnie, and 
 she bid me bring him to yer 'onner to take the 
 pledge." 
 
 Here entered a wild-looking man, lightly clad 
 in what was once a shooting-jacket, evidently of 
 English make, but sadly dilapidated, a pair of 
 corduroy breeches loose at the knee, worsted 
 stockings, and strong clouted shoes. He carried 
 an old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun in the hollow 
 of his arm, and at his heels, evidently abashed at 
 the company he was in, but comforted and en- 
 couraged by the child's countenance, followed a 
 well-bred, half-starved Irish retriever, a yellowish- 
 brown, curly-haired beast, with hazel eyes and a 
 sandy top-knot, a member of perhaps the wisest 
 race of dogs in existence. 
 
 " Well, Larry, what is it ? What scrape have you 
 been getting into now, that you want to take the 
 pledge again ? "
 
 6 THE LODGE. 
 
 "Faith, yer 'onner, it's the pledge I'd be after 
 taking and keeping for Katie's sake, and Dinny's 
 there, the crathur." 
 
 "Who's Katie?" 
 
 " Faith, thin, yer 'onner, she's a little gal that 
 lives foreanent the chapel down bey ant there." 
 
 "What, Katie McGrath ?" 
 
 " Just herself, yer 'onner ; I'm married upon her 
 since yesterday." 
 
 " And why didn't you tell me about it, Larry ? " 
 
 " Troth and I would, yer 'onner, but thim things 
 are best not talked too much about before they 
 come off. The pledge, yer 'onner ? " 
 
 "Why, Larry, it's not six months since you took 
 it, for a year and a day, and you were found 
 screaming drunk on your own threshold within a 
 month." 
 
 " Faix, thin, and that's thrue for yer 'onner, but 
 it was not forsworn I was ; I swore not to taste 
 the dhrop ' inside the house nor outside,' and 
 it was sitting on the threshold itself one leg 
 in and one leg out that I took an eggshell, or 
 maybe two, of the craythur. It was my sister's 
 wedding." 
 
 " But you took the pledge again, Larry, not six 
 weeks since, and you were roaring drunk on Tues- 
 day was a week ; you know it, Larry, and you had
 
 THE LODGE. 7 
 
 9 
 
 sworn not to taste liquor on the face of God's earth 
 or under it." 
 
 " That's blessed thruth itself, an' I'd scorn to tell 
 a lie, let alone swearing one. It was in the boll of 
 the ould pollard nut that I sat, when the little 
 dhrop was brought to me : it was the christening, 
 and troth, that same came mighty quick after the 
 wedding ! " 
 
 " Well, come and take the pledge at once, then, 
 and mind you keep it, or I'll tell his Reverence and 
 your new wife too." 
 
 " I, Larry Toole, do solemnly swear ' 
 
 " Beg pardon, Mr. Blake," whispered I ; " you've 
 got a volume of the Sporting Magazine there, not 
 the " 
 
 "Good enough for him, the blaggard ! " was the re- 
 sponse, and the newly-married convert to teetotalism 
 departed, deeply imbued with the sanctity of the 
 oath, and resolved to observe it, at least until he 
 could find a specious pretext for breaking it. 
 
 Locking his arm in mine, and reiterating words 
 of kindliest welcome, the old man now led me 
 down a long passage and up a steep stair to the 
 first floor the only upper one, in fact and open- 
 ing the door, as he passed, of a plainly, but com- 
 fortably furnished bedroom, with the brief intima- 
 tion, " Your den, my dear boy ! " ushered me into the
 
 8 THE LODGE. 
 
 drawing that is, the sitting room, as distinguished 
 from the dining-room below. It was a long, low 
 room ; a bay window at the end, facing the west, 
 admitted a flood of mellow light as the setting sun 
 shone on the glittering streams, and alternating 
 black and golden pools of the distant river. The 
 mountains in the background, streaked with silvery 
 stripes, the streams awakened into life by the recent 
 downfall, the dark plantations of firs, and the still 
 purple heathery knolls in the foreground, formed a 
 picture which would have gladdened a painter's eye. 
 But in the immediate foreground, in the deep em- 
 brasure of the window, the bright beams of the 
 setting sun illumining her golden hair, and tinting 
 her joyous face, my eye rested on an object that, 
 for the time, excluded any other. I gazed, and as 
 I gazed I felt my fate my young heart's affec- 
 tions were fixed irrevocably fixed. 
 
 Laugh not, blase boy of the present day ; smile 
 not, sage of the past time : we lived in a day 
 when chivalry, or something akin to chivalry, still 
 existed ; when to ride across two counties to in- 
 quire of the well-being of " the ball's fair partner," 
 was as nothing ; when the flash of a bright eye 
 kindled feelings indelible, ineffaceable until sup- 
 plemented by other flashes from other bright eyes, 
 when 
 
 " Eyes looked love to eyes that spake again."
 
 THE LODGE. 9 
 
 But why expatiate ? She, the arbitress, as I felt, of 
 my destiny stood before me, 
 
 " In full, voluptuous, but not o'ergrown bulk." 
 
 Miss Honoria O'Hara, by which name she was 
 introduced by Mr. Blake as, "My niece," was, with- 
 out doubt, considerably my senior why do boys 
 always fall in love with their grandmothers, whom 
 the rubric forbids them to marry ? but she was 
 " beautiful exceedingly " ; with golden hair and 
 bright blue eyes, a light, elastic tread, and faultless 
 figure, slightly inclining to the embonpoint, but above 
 the middle height. She advanced towards me, and 
 at her uncle's introduction, " My niece, Miss Honor 
 
 O'Hara ; my old friend's son, Mr. Charles ," 
 
 she held out her hand with winning frankness. I 
 have seen whiter and smaller hands, but as I took 
 and bowed over it, I mentally swore that never was 
 hand so fair and faultless, and as I pressed it, reve- 
 rentially, in my own, dubbed myself her true knight 
 from that time for evermore. 
 
 " Shure, Mr. Charles," said the sweetest voice that 
 ever issued from mortal lips, " we've wearied for ye." 
 
 I murmured out some boyish acknowledgment. 
 
 " I may call you Charlie" she pronounced it 
 Chorley " may I not ? Your father's sister-in-law 
 and my mother were first cousins once removed, 
 you know."
 
 io THE LODGE. 
 
 Of course, could there be greater happiness ? 
 And so in ten minutes I found myself perfectly at 
 home, and in twenty as much at my ease, barring 
 the intense fire that was kindled in my bosom and 
 consuming my heart, as though I had dwelt in 
 Mayo and under my kind friend's roof all the days 
 of my life. 
 
 We had salmon for dinner, fresh, hard, curdy 
 salmon, such as had never before gratified my 
 palate ; the sauce, the liquor in which it had been 
 boiled. Was it that Honor had caught the fish, or 
 was it really the most delicious fish I had ever 
 eaten ? Speaking calmly, and after long later ex- 
 perience, I pronounce in favour of the reality. No 
 one who has been accustomed to the luscious, half- 
 frozen, half-rotten, ten-days-from-the-water fish, not 
 uncommonly a kelt, which is sold at a fabulous 
 price in London, and eaten with its rich adjunct of 
 lobster sauce and dressed cucumber, can form the 
 least idea of what a salmon fresh from the river 
 and properly dressed is like.* 
 
 * The following recipe for cooking fresh salmon is offered to the 
 reader. It is an extract, but I know not from whence : " Put 
 rather an extra allowance of salt in the water ; have your fish, cut 
 in slices of rather less than an inch thick, ready ; when the water 
 boils fiercely then throw in an additional handful of salt : this will 
 form a sort of crust, into which plunge the slices. Serve up, with 
 the liquor in which they were boiled for sauce."
 
 THE LODGE. n 
 
 " Can ye fish, Charlie ?" asked my host. 
 
 I confessed my ignorance of the gentle art ; but 
 added, to save my credit, I was reckoned a fair 
 shot. 
 
 " Never mind, then, Honor shall teach you ! 
 There's not a man or a boy, let alone the girls, in the 
 Barony can come near her for tying a fly or throw- 
 ing one. You'll give him a lesson, Honor darling !" 
 
 A smiling assent was returned, and the dinner 
 passed merrily away. 
 
 I remember that dinner as though it were yester- 
 day. After the fish, we had an Irish stew and a 
 brace of grouse, a rice pudding with jam tartlets, 
 some capital cheese, and roast chestnuts by way 
 of dessert. Beer or ale there was none, but the 
 whisky was superb, and a bottle of decent sherry 
 left nothing to be desired. 
 
 " Are ye for the screw or the kettle, Charlie ? " 
 asked my kind host, as the dishes were removed. 
 " Are ye for the screw or the kettle ? " 
 
 The meaning of the rather enigmatical question 
 dawned at once upon me, and, evidently to his 
 satisfaction, I pronounced in favour of " the kettle." 
 
 " Honor darling, make a brew for the two of us ;" 
 and the bright girl at once busied herself in the 
 mystic compound : it was delicious ! " And now, 
 Honor, sing your old uncle a song."
 
 12 THE LODGE. 
 
 There was no coy refusal on the young lady's 
 part, but sitting down at once to the piano, she 
 poured forth song after song, mostly Moore's Irish 
 melodies surely the sweetest songs that ever were 
 set to music. 
 
 I hung upon the notes, and listened with my 
 whole soul, as well as with my ears. I was en- 
 tranced, fascinated, enchanted. No wonder ! under 
 the combined influence of music, beauty, Moore's 
 melodies, and whisky punch. Mr. Blake, who had 
 signified his satisfaction, not only by words and 
 by beating time to the airs, but occasionally by 
 joining in the melody, had subsided into a sound 
 slumber, and his snores were rather out of tune ; 
 in fact, a drawback to the perfect harmony of 
 the performance, although Miss O'Hara managed 
 to utilize them as far as practicable. He awoke, 
 though late, all too soon, and conducting me to the 
 door of my bedroom left me, with a hearty Irish 
 blessing, to my repose.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "THE SMALL STILL." 
 
 VERY sound were my slumbers, and very fresh I 
 awoke in the morning. Hastily dressing, I sought 
 to examine the premises before my host should 
 have risen. It was still early, but, as I soon found, 
 I was the last, not the first, up. Crossing the 
 paved courtyard, and passing under the rustic arch 
 which formed the entrance to the ill-kept garden, I 
 found Miss Honor, looking, if possible, fresher 
 and lovelier than on the previous evening. An 
 ample scarlet scarf, or cloak, was thrown over her 
 shoulders, and hanging in graceful folds about her 
 person, was twisted in some mysterious manner 
 coquettishly around her head, so as to form a com- 
 plete covering, or hood, out of which her dark eyes 
 seemed positively to glitter. The rather short 
 petticoats, I had before remarked, conduced to 
 the appearance of grace and activity which every 
 motion betokened. She was gathering parsley, 
 and she held a bunch of that " crisp, curly herb " in
 
 14 " THE SMALL STILL? 
 
 one hand, as she frankly held out the other and 
 warmly greeted me. 
 
 " It's the lobsters I'm picking the parsley for," 
 she said. " Do you like lobsters, Mr. Charles ? " 
 
 " I thought you were not to call me that name," 
 said I. 
 
 "Well, Charlie, then, do you like lobsters 
 fresh lobsters ? Have you ever tasted one ? " 
 
 " Yes, often." 
 
 " I daresay, what you call fresh lobsters in 
 London. I never saw one there ; they are stale 
 before they are boiled. Wait now till you taste 
 our lobsters, fresh this morning from the Atlantic." 
 
 " Why," said I, " they are alive when they are 
 boiled in London ; horribly cruel it is, too." 
 
 " They're stale for all that ; but never mind, 
 Charlie, wait till you've tasted ours ! " 
 
 We walked together to the room in which we 
 had dined the previous day, and found Mr. Blake 
 already seated at the table. Our English ideas of 
 a breakfast are, after all, very limited ; to under- 
 stand what is meant by the term one must travel 
 northward or westward. For my own part, I had 
 never witnessed a table so furnished with good 
 things before fish, flesh, and fowl, salmon, chops, 
 and grouse, tea and coffee, eggs, milk, and honey ; 
 conspicuous above all, the bright shells of half a
 
 " THE SMALL STILL.'"' 15 
 
 dozen small lobsters, peeping with their round 
 black eyes from their fringe of parsley, and looking 
 like scarlet poppies in a field of green tares ; then 
 there were scones and stirabout, jam and mar- 
 malade, fresh butter and clotted cream, brown 
 bread and white, rolls and buttered toast. I did 
 ample justice to pretty nearly all these delicacies, 
 and my youthful appetite evidently raised me in 
 the estimation of my hospitable host. 
 
 " Charlie, my dear boy," he said, " I've cut out 
 your day's work for ye. You'll not mind my not 
 asking your leave, but Larry and I were in your 
 room before six this morning, and he said it would 
 be murder to awaken ye ; faith, Charlie, you looked 
 like a snoring cherub." 
 
 I blushed, and expressed my gratitude and 
 acquiescence in any plan he was good enough to 
 suggest. It had been arranged that I should shoot 
 my way across the bog " mountain," Mr. Blake 
 called it to the Deadman's Pool, so designated 
 from the fact of a poor starved peasant, who, 
 having been found on the bank there, dead from 
 hunger, lay buried, in unhallowed ground, under a 
 large flat stone hard by. At this pool Jemmy, 
 the under keeper, was to meet us with the fishing- 
 rods, and Miss Honor half promised to accompany 
 him and give me my first lesson in the art and
 
 16 " THE SMALL STSLL." 
 
 mystery of throwing a fly. Of fishing, save as 
 practised by the patient race of punt-fishers on the 
 silver Thames, I was, as I have said, profoundly 
 ignorant. 
 
 Our breakfast over, accompanied by Larry, who 
 was waiting at the gate with a brace of well-fed 
 but rather ragged-looking dogs, coupled together, 
 at his heels, I started forth highly excited at the 
 prospect of my first essay at the two long-wished-for 
 objects of my sporting ambition, grouse shooting 
 and salmon fishing. 
 
 Our course, for a considerable distance, lay along 
 the pleasant banks of the river, which, still swollen 
 and turbid from the recent rains, my companion 
 averred would be in fine order for fishing by the 
 afternoon. I cheerfully acquiesced in Larry's sug- 
 gestion, and trudged cheerily along, elate with hope 
 and brimful of joyous anticipations. 
 
 There was indeed everything to exhilarate and 
 encourage one ; the air was fresh and crisp, the sun 
 shone brightly, but not too ardently, the birds were 
 singing their autumnal songs, and the coffee-coloured 
 water came rattling, roaring, dancing down, leaping 
 over the rocks, and constructing huge balls of 
 yellow-tinged foam, which floated merrily along, 
 and, careless of the rapids which vainly sought to 
 engulph them,- circled demurely round the outer
 
 " THE SMALL STILL." 17 
 
 edge of the whirlpool and sailed gracefully away, 
 assisting in some quiet corner in the manufacture 
 of a treacherous crust of fictitious solidity. In 
 places the river, struggling through a group of 
 detached rocks, might readily have been crossed 
 dry-foot by an active man ; in others, stretching 
 over a great bank of flat shingle, it spread uncon- 
 fined for sixty yards or more, in a uniform depth of 
 less than a yard. In others, the yellow broom, and 
 the bright red berries of the mountain-ash around 
 the steep rocky banks were reflected in the water ; 
 a pair of eagles soared far above our heads, and 
 the water-ouzel, the prettiest and most calum- 
 niated* bird that frequents the mountain stream, 
 ever and anon flitted before us, and settling on a 
 nearly submerged stone, faced us with spotless 
 white waistcoat and bright inquiring eye ; appa- 
 rently satisfied by the scrutiny, she sat confidently 
 as we passed, merely jerking her apology for a tail 
 by way of salute. Even the croak of a pair of 
 carrion crows, unwontedly tame, fell musically on 
 my ear, but the sound jarred discordantly on that 
 of my companion. 
 
 * A long and interesting controversy on the habits of this little 
 bird CJ ' urdus cinctus) was carried on a year or two since in the 
 pages of Land and Water ; the result being its complete vindication 
 from the charge of devouring the eggs of salmon, which had been 
 ignorantly laid to its charge. 
 
 C
 
 18 " THE SMALL STILL." 
 
 " Bad luck to thim crows," he muttered, adding 
 some words in Irish which sounded very like a 
 curse, " not loud, but deep." 
 
 To my question he poured out a string of objur- 
 gatory ejaculations, I fear but too well merited, 
 against the character of what Waterton termed 
 " the warrior bird." 
 
 " He dhrinks the egg, yer 'onner, he murders the 
 young birds, he drives the old grouse from her nest, 
 the thief of the world ! " 
 
 I fear the accusations are but too true ; the 
 hoodie crow, the great pest of the moor, is not 
 content, like the hawk, with killing and devouring 
 the prey he requires for his sustenance, but, like the 
 fox, and some of the weasel tribe, kills for the mere 
 pleasure of killing ; and having discovered a nest of 
 eggs or a covey of newly-hatched birds, he will not 
 leave a solitary one, but returns time after time, 
 destroying and hiding what he cannot eat. When, 
 immediately afterwards, I stumbled over a nest 
 built on the ground* amid the heather, containing 
 
 * This is not the only instance I have met with of birds, under 
 difficult circumstances, building in unaccustomed places. I have 
 taken kites' and some species of hawk's eggs from nests built upon 
 the ground ; and it maybe in the recollection of some of my readers 
 that a pair of kites hatched two eggs on the floor of their wretched 
 cage in the Zoological Gardens. Let the situation of the nest, 
 however, be what it may, the materials and the construction are the 
 same.
 
 " THE SMALL STILL." 19 
 
 four half-fledged young ones, I could hardly object 
 to the summary destruction awarded them by 
 Larry, who hurled the struggling wretches incon- 
 tinently into the pool below. 
 
 As we proceeded, and quitted the banks of the 
 river, walking became more and more difficult ; big 
 stones intercepted the path, masses of rushes en- 
 cumbered it, and our footsteps alternated between 
 these, coarse heather, and coarser grass ; anon we 
 found ourselves jumping from tussock to tussock, 
 the treacherous half-baked surface intervening, and 
 a mass of bog on each side, which, light as was our 
 tread, quaked for thirty yards on each side as we 
 passed. 
 
 Suddenly we come upon a little hillock of burning 
 turf; the thin white smoke curled gracefully up, 
 and I marvel at its incongruous appearance; the 
 surrounding surface is wet, nay, floating in water, 
 yet the latent fire seems to struggle gallantly with 
 its natural enemy, and, judging from the deposit of 
 white ashes around, must have struggled for many 
 a day, nay, week, and successfully. In passing, 
 my companion took the opportunity of aiding 
 the unequal contest by heaping together a few 
 lumps of comparatively dry turf which he kicked 
 out of the bog and threw upon the slumbering 
 embers. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 THE SMALL STILLS 
 
 Rather puzzled at the apparent meaninglessness 
 of the proceeding, I asked for an explanation. 
 
 "Just a thrick, yer 'onner, in regard of the army, 
 the bastes ! " 
 
 The army, I was aware, meant the police, or 
 that section of them whose especial duty it was to 
 hunt for and to suppress illicit stills, which are 
 frequently discovered by the smoke emitted during 
 the process of making poteen. A few turfs lighted 
 in different parts of the bog, and occasionally re- 
 plenished by sympathizing passers-by, will keep 
 alight for weeks, nay, months ; and it not unfre- 
 quently happens that a file of men, after " spotting " 
 the thin curl of smoke, and struggling across two 
 or three miles of rotten bog to reach it, find, as a 
 recompense for their labours, as Larry expressed it, 
 "a little chap in a black jacket smoking his dudeen 
 all alone by himself, and mighty mad it made 'em." 
 
 " Were there any illicit stills at work now ? " I 
 inquired. 
 
 Larry could not say for certain, but he thought 
 the trade was entirely put an end to. 
 
 " They're mighty hard upon a poor boy, yer 
 'onner, who tries to make a penny out of his patch 
 of oats or barley ; sure it's a bad business, when a 
 boy's saved a few bushel of oats or barley from the 
 hares, that he mayn't make the most of 'em, instead
 
 " THE SMALL STILL." 21 
 
 of selling it for half nothing, and spending the price 
 in ' parliament,' * bad cess to it ! " 
 
 Here Larry spat contemptuously, thereby testi- 
 fying his abhorrence of that legalized decoction 
 mainly diluted vitriol known in the west as " par- 
 liament whisky," in his reprobation of which I cor- 
 dially concur. Not having any arguments at hand 
 to confute Larry's specious suggestions, that a man 
 ought not to be prevented from using the talent he 
 is gifted with to the best advantage ; that if nature 
 and experience had taught him the art of brewing, 
 and industry had placed the material within his 
 reach, he ought to be permitted to utilize it ; that 
 if the exigencies of the state (Larry did not use 
 these expressions exactly) required a duty to be 
 paid, and he was willing to pay it, he ought not to 
 be precluded from doing so in the interests of a 
 grasping monopoly ; that if a bushel of raw barley 
 was only worth three shillings, and, when malted 
 and made into whisky, was worth twenty, he ought 
 to be permitted to make it ; that good poteen was 
 a delicious and wholesome spirit, and bad " parlia- 
 ment" a nasty and pernicious one, I remained 
 silent, and devoted my attention to picking my 
 way across the dangerous ground. Gradually I 
 
 * That is, whisky which has paid duty and sold by " Act of Par- 
 liament ;" most abominable stuff it frequently is.
 
 22 " THE SMALL STILL." 
 
 edged a little away from the bog, and was follow- 
 ing what seemed to be a faint track, leading more 
 directly than the course hitherto pursued towards 
 what I had been told was our ultimate destina- 
 tion. 
 
 " This way, yer 'onner ! " shouted Larry ; " it's 
 bad ground you're coming on this way." Certainly 
 it did not appear so ; on the contrary, the path I 
 had chosen rather inclined up-hill, and the ground 
 became firmer as I advanced. Apparently chang- 
 ing his tactics, Larry suddenly joined me, and 
 assuming a mysterious air, inquired : 
 
 " Would yer 'onner like to see a still at work ?." 
 I answered eagerly in the affirmative ; and Larry, 
 taking me by the coat sleeve, guided me round a 
 small, unobtrusive pile of turf, and stooping down, 
 ushered me at once into a sort of hut, or cave, 
 filled with smoke, through which a turf fire, ap- 
 parently distant, but within a few feet of my nose, 
 glared red and angry, like the sun through a 
 November fog in London. As my smarting eyes 
 accommodated themselves to the unwonted atmo- 
 sphere, I discerned a shapeless cave, or cabin, the 
 roof supported by strips of bog pine, and formed of 
 freshly cut turfs from the adjoining bog ; so accu- 
 rately were they fitted that, had I pursued my 
 path another yard, I should have stepped uncon-
 
 " THE SMALL STILL." 23 
 
 sciously on to the roof, and without doubt been 
 introduced " sans ceremonie " to the owner pro tern. 
 of the property, to whom I was now more formally 
 presented as " the young gintleman from Bogleeze, 
 a rale gintleman, I'll go bail one would scorn 
 to take advantage of a poor man like Pheenie 
 yonder." 
 
 Pheenie, I am bound to say, was as ill-looking 
 a specimen of the human race as it had ever been 
 my lot to encounter ; broad shouldered almost to 
 deformity, with a small head, narrow, retreating 
 forehead, and eyes, bleared by the smoke, which 
 looked in any direction excepting that to which 
 their owner presumedly addressed himself. Ap- 
 parently he was more than half drunk ; in fact, the 
 fumes which rose from a sort of pot or caldron 
 beneath which the turf fire was lighted, were 
 sufficient of themselves to affect inconveniently any 
 ordinary brain. 
 
 His greeting, however, though rough, was, as is 
 always the case with the Irish peasant under any 
 circumstances, courteous ; a bottomless deal box 
 was handed to me as a seat, and an eggshell filled 
 from a jar, into which a sort of pipe, " the worm," I 
 believe it is called, was gradually emptying itself, 
 handed to me, with some expression in an un- 
 known tongue, which I assumed to be a token of
 
 24 " THE SMALL STILLS 
 
 hospitality. Shutting my eyes, perforce, for the 
 rising fumes were very potent, I swallowed the con- 
 tents, which tasted, to my unaccustomed palate, 
 like liquid fire ; I returned the primitive drinking 
 vessel to Pheenie, with a fervent, but most menda- 
 cious, expression of satisfaction, declining a second 
 dose ; the eggshell passed two or three times 
 between Larry and our host, and having presented 
 the latter with half-a-crown, I departed, bearing 
 with me a torrent of what I fondly hoped were 
 blessings, but might have been very much the 
 contrary. 
 
 " I didn't think there was a small still left in the 
 country," observed Larry ; " but when I happened 
 on it I just showed yer 'onner in, for I knew it was 
 yerself that was the rale gintleman that would 
 never harm a poor boy doing his best to earn an 
 honest shilling for his mother, and she a widdy." 
 
 Possibly my tacit acquiescence in this breach of 
 the excise laws, or the slight taste of the result, 
 had opened Larry's heart ; for, unmindful of his 
 previous assertion that the days of illicit distillation 
 were passed, he recounted several amusing stories 
 of the mode in which the machinations of the 
 " army " had been defeated on various occasions 
 by subtle stratagems, and how the manufacture 
 had been carried on under the very nose of the
 
 " THE SMALL STILL." 25 
 
 persecutors. In one case, the priest's chimney, 
 within a quarter of a mile of the barrack, had been 
 utilized, and in another that of the forcing-house of 
 an English gentleman, who had recently purchased 
 a large property in the neighbourhood, a magistrate, 
 and an active administrator, " bad luck to him," of 
 the laws of his country.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GROUSE SHOOTING. 
 
 WE had now reached the ground, considerably 
 elevated, where, from the state of the weather, 
 Larry expected to find the grouse we were in 
 search of. In wet and stormy weather, he said, they 
 went lower, and especially affected the roads, by 
 the sides of which they would sit, tame as chickens, 
 and utterly regardless of the passing cars. Many a 
 Saxon gentleman had been deluded into the notion 
 that the mountain abounded with grouse, from the 
 fact of his seeing every covey which existed for miles 
 around as he drove along. 
 
 The dogs which were now uncoupled and en- 
 couraged to hunt, were, as I have said, remarkable 
 neither for beauty nor condition, nor did they match 
 as a pair, nor in any respect ; Rap, an old heavy- 
 jowled, black-and-tan setter, one-eyed and lame. 
 Don, a half-starved, liver-and-white pointer, with 
 staring coat and hollow flanks. It was, however, 
 evident that they understood their business. While 
 Rap halted along straight ahead on the chance, as
 
 GROUSE SCOOTING. 27 
 
 it would seem, of running against a covey, Don 
 cantered backward and forward at a short distance 
 before us, in a very workmanlike style. Rap had 
 not gone far before he came to what he evidently 
 intended as a point. He sat upon his haunches 
 and looked inquiringly over his shoulder. I had 
 reason afterwards to marvel at this dog's extra- 
 ordinary faculty for finding game, seemingly with- 
 out looking for it ; he would go forth at a long 
 limping trot, in whatever direction seemed good 
 in his eyes, utterly regardless of rate or signal, 
 (indeed, he was almost blind,- and quite deaf) but 
 either from reflection, experience, or some inscrut- 
 able development of instinct, the line he took was 
 invariably the correct one, and generally terminated, 
 at a greater or less distance, in his dropping down, 
 not rigid, like a pointer, or stiff, like setters in 
 general, but very much at his ease, sitting or lying 
 on the heather, where he remained until my arrival. 
 The birds flushed, he would either rise and proceed 
 on his course, indifferent apparently to the result 
 of the shot, and undoubtedly so as to any wishes of 
 mine on the subject, or he would remain unmoved 
 in the same position ; in the latter case, the old hen, 
 or some over-bold young cock, was sure to be found 
 to have tarried behind, and paid the penalty for 
 having done so. On the present occasion Rap sat
 
 28 GROUSE SHOOTING. 
 
 on his haunches, evidently aware that grouse were 
 close before him, though he certainly could not 
 see them, light as was the surrounding cover. On 
 coming up I saw the birds plainly enough ; a brace 
 of old grouse, nearly as large as black game, neither 
 frightened nor flurried, and in no hurry to take 
 wing ; the cock, indeed, after scrutinizing my ap- 
 pearance deliberately, ran to the top of a small 
 tussock, and uttered a short semi-defiant chuckle, 
 as though to dispute my right to 
 
 " Molest his ancient, solitary reign." 
 
 These tactics considerably bothered me ; and when, 
 rejecting Larry's counsel that I should shoot him 
 as he stood, I persuaded him to throw a turf at the 
 defiant old bird, I ignominiously missed him and his 
 partner, to Larry's undisguised annoyance, although 
 he only muttered, with that determination to make 
 things pleasant which characterizes the Irish keeper, 
 
 " Faith, but yer 'onner shot quick ; you made 
 them get out of that, anyway ! " adding, " next 
 time, yer 'onner, shoot them on the ground, the 
 schamers ! " 
 
 I was, however, too good a sportsman to follow 
 his advice ; it was the novelty of the situation that 
 perplexed me ; 
 
 " Their tameness was shocking to me ; "
 
 GROUSE SHOOTING. 29 
 
 and when, immediately afterwards, Rap indicated 
 the presence of a small covey, I not only brought 
 down a right and left shot, but killed three more 
 birds before he rose from his recumbent position. 
 Irish grouse are not only larger and heavier, but 
 far less wild than their Scotch cousins, and in those 
 days and in that \vild district they were very little 
 shot at. I rose rapidly in Larry's estimation, and 
 speedily attained, by a series of successful shots, a 
 high place in it. By the time we had reached the 
 " Deadman's Pool," where Jemmy the under keeper 
 was waiting with a rod, the bag was a tolerably 
 heavy one. 
 
 As compared with Highland shooting, the Irish 
 must be considered as very tame work ; you may 
 travel for miles without finding a pack of grouse, 
 but when you do meet with one, you may, with 
 tolerable shooting and perseverance, kill every bird 
 in it. I have made a bag of twelve or fifteen brace 
 in a day ; but very few mountains with which I am 
 acquainted will furnish many days' sport to that 
 extent, and a greedy shot may destroy sport for 
 many successive seasons. There is not sufficient 
 heather to support a large stock, and, preserve as 
 you may, the number of grouse will always be 
 limited by the quantity of that, their almost ex- 
 clusive food. One has, however, an equivalent in
 
 30 GROUSE SHOOTING. 
 
 the variety of game ; snipe, woodcock, teal, golden 
 plover, wild ducks, hares, brown and grey, are 
 abundant, and quail are occasionally met with. 
 Personally I have never enjoyed shooting in even 
 the best preserved manors so much as on the wild 
 Irish bogs. 
 
 While the keepers were putting up my rod, I 
 tried a little patch of rushy ground, not unlikely, I 
 thought, to hold a snipe or a duck. Don came to 
 a point, almost the first that sagacious old Rap 
 had given him a chance of during the day ; it was 
 of far too confident a character, the tail too stiff, the 
 body too rigid, to admit the possibility of any 
 mistake ; game there must be, and close to him, 
 but oddly enough, though I walked backwards and 
 forwards to the utmost limits of the rushes, nothing 
 appeared ; no grouse cackled, no snipe squeaked, 
 no hare plashed out of her wet form. At last, going 
 up to the old dog and looking down almost beneath 
 his nose, I saw, carefully concealed in the rushes, a 
 fine newly-killed salmon, which I took up, and 
 much wondering at the cause of its transportation 
 to so unlikely a spot, conveyed to Larry. 
 
 That individual was by no means at a loss to 
 account for an occurrence which had so mystified 
 me : 
 . " The thunderin' blaggards ! " ejaculated he, " the
 
 GROUSE SHOOTING. 31 
 
 poachin' thieves ! Look now at the gaff-hole ! " 
 There was indeed a small ragged hole in the lower 
 part of the fish, and another a few inches above it, 
 which no doubt were caused by the entrance and 
 exit of that destructive instrument of poaching, the 
 barbed gaff.* 
 
 Jumping down the bank and narrowly scruti- 
 nizing the margin of the water, Larry exclaimed : 
 
 " Faith ! didn't I know it ? it's just hisself 
 thafs Jim Barrett's great toe, I'll be sworn on my 
 book oath ! Will I get out a summons against 
 him, yer 'onner ? " 
 
 While debating in my own mind the possibility 
 of convicting Jim Barrett of the crime of gaffing a 
 salmon on the evidence of his great toe, I looked 
 up and saw Miss O'Hara, mounted on a rough 
 
 * When will the legislature, which is always tinkering at the 
 salmon laws, making two holes in the kettle while it stops one, 
 prohibit once for all, under severe penalties, the use of this per- 
 nicious instrument ? No sportsman or fisherman uses one ; it is 
 essentially a poacher's weapon, and, deprived of it, half his occu- 
 pation would be gone. I have urged this point, obvious and un- 
 contradicted as it is, till I am tired of doing so. Of course, no 
 simple mode of prevention, no partially beneficial measure, finds 
 favour in the eyes of legislators ; a grand stroke is required, a com- 
 prehensive and much-fought scheme for the total abolition of poach- 
 ing, one that will shed lustre on the head of its projector ; yet no 
 one surely can or should object to so simple a measure as the dis- 
 arming the poacher, especially when it can be done without injury 
 or inconvenience to- anyone else.
 
 32 GROUSE SHOOTING. 
 
 mountain pony, approaching me ; Jim Barrett's 
 great toe the beautiful fish at my feet the pro- 
 jected prosecution passed at once from my mind, 
 and hastening forward, I warmly greeted the young 
 lady, and assisted her to dismount.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 SHE sprung lightly from the saddle, dropping as 
 she did so the plaid which had done duty for a 
 skirt, and there was displayed, suspended from the 
 pommel, a small plethoric hamper, containing, as 
 appeared on inspection, relics of our ample break- 
 fast, and in addition, a small bottle of whisky, with 
 a larger one of pure water, a very necessary adjunct, 
 for with " water, water everywhere," there was 
 " not a drop to drink," the much praised coffee- 
 colour, so good for fishing, imparting a decidedly 
 peaty flavour to the pure element Seated on a 
 pile of rushes, which Larry had hastily gathered, 
 under the shadow of a projecting rock, the river 
 rolling at our feet, the blue mountains in the 
 distance, with ample store of creature comforts, 
 and a youthful appetite to enjoy them, a 
 charming companion by my side, surely I had a 
 right to feel, and felt, exceedingly happy ! Those 
 were not days when a young man lighted his cigar 
 and puffed the smoke into a lady's face, so I lay 
 
 D
 
 34 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 at Miss O'Hara's feet, and gazing into her face, 
 talked, I fancy to the young lady's amusement, a 
 good deal of nonsense. It is possible she got a 
 little tired of it, for, turning to Larry, who, with the 
 gentlemanlike instinct of an Irishman of any class, 
 had stationed himself at just such a distance as, 
 without interfering with or manifestly overhearing 
 our conversation, removed any appearance of a 
 too-secluded tete-a-tete, she brought him, as it were, 
 forward, by the offer of a substantial ham-sandwich. 
 
 " I cannot ate it at all, Miss Honor ; sure it's 
 Friday." 
 
 " Oh, I forgot ; well, you can eat the bread and 
 butter, at any rate." 
 
 " I cannot taste it ; sure it's had mate upon it." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense ! his Reverence will never know it." 
 
 " He will know it, Miss Honor ; his Rivirince 
 knows everything" 
 
 It is very strange how a naturally clever race, 
 as the Irish peasantry without question is, persists 
 in giving the priesthood credit for supernatural 
 knowledge, when they must be aware that in- 
 dividually and collectively they confess in detail 
 every crime, peccadillo, or sin they commit or are 
 cognizant of. 
 
 Some hard-boiled eggs having been substituted 
 (whisky, of course, was out of the question), Larry,
 
 MY FIRST FISH. 35 
 
 still at a respectful distance, practically made a 
 third in the party. 
 
 " So the poachers have been troublesome again, 
 have they, Larry ? " 
 
 " Troth, your ladyship, Miss Honor, it's trouble- 
 some they are, and have been ; there was a power 
 of boys in Pwl-na-carrig, the last blessed Sunday 
 night that ever was." 
 
 " In Pwl-na-carrig ? My uncle's favourite pool ! 
 Who were they, Larry ? " 
 
 " Faith, thin, Miss Honor, I can hardly say for 
 sure ; there was a power of boys in it ; the Dalys 
 was in it, an' the Barretts, an' the Joyces, an' " 
 
 " Did you see them, then ? " 
 
 " I did not, Miss Honor, in regard of the black 
 night that was upon us ; but I heard them plain 
 enough. There was Jim Barrett, and " 
 
 " It was dark, then ? " 
 
 " You may say it was dark, Miss Honor ; it's 
 God's thruth dark ! if you'd put your finger in 
 your eye you couldn't see to take it out again." 
 
 " And you went in at them, did you ? " asked I. 
 
 " Troth, an' I did not at all ; I just stood on the 
 bridge down beyant, and fired two barrels right 
 among them ; * sure you might have heard them 
 skirling at Castlebar." 
 
 * A fact ! 
 
 D 2
 
 36 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 " Why, Larry, you must have half-killed some 
 of them ; the bridge isn't fifty yards from the 
 pool ! " 
 
 " That's thrue, yer 'onner ; and she's a grate 
 weapon, and spreads the shot mighty fine." 
 
 "But, Larry," said Miss O'Hara, "has nothing 
 happened since ? Has there been no complaint 
 made, or are they satisfied with what they got ? " 
 
 "They are all satisfied, Miss Honor, entirely 
 satisfied, 'cept big Jim Barrett ; he's 0#satisfied in 
 regard of a shot-corn he got in his eye ; would I 
 swear the peace agin Jim Barrett, do you think, 
 yer 'onner ? " 
 
 This was the second legal query Larry had 
 propounded, which I felt myself quite incompetent 
 to answer ; so, ignoring it, I quietly relapsed into 
 my recumbent position and pleasant task of 
 watching Miss O'Hara's pretty face. 
 
 The shadows, which meanwhile had been 
 gradually deepening, suddenly merged in the deep 
 shade cast by a mass of clouds, which, propelled by 
 the evening breeze, had spread over the face of the 
 declining sun. 
 
 " She'll fish fine now, Miss Honor ; and I saw a 
 salmon rise just now, under the rock beyant there, 
 in the ripple." 
 
 The long springy rod was speedily spliced, the
 
 MY FIRST FISH. 37 
 
 reel attached, and run through the rings, a casting 
 line of triple gut, with four feet of strongest single 
 as a finish, having been first duly tested, was 
 attached, and a deep and anxious consultation was 
 held on the important question of which among 
 the gorgeous and glittering flies that crowded 
 Larry's hook should be " put up." This was too 
 bright, that was too dark, one was too large, another 
 too small, the wing of one was too heavy or too 
 long, the body of another too full or too small, this 
 was worn at the head, that was frayed at the tail ! 
 
 " I'm doubting this loop, Miss Honor. Too red 
 entirely ; only good for an old fish. Shure the 
 tinsel's worn off. Faith, that's a grate little hook, 
 but over bright this day." 
 
 Such, and many similar, were the objections 
 raised, till I began to think that the palate of a 
 salmon must be as difficult to please as that of a 
 professed gourmand. At last an " inchyquin " was 
 selected, and having been duly tested, and the gut 
 at the same time straightened, by being passed 
 between Larry's horny thumb and finger, was 
 attached by a light loop to the casting line. The 
 rod, to my great delight, not unmixed with dread, 
 was placed in my hands, and under Larry's 
 guidance I essayed to make a cast. In my first 
 two attempts I was singularly unfortunate ; the
 
 38 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 first brought the fly, with a force which appeared to 
 me preternatural, in contact with my nose ; the 
 blow was like that of a cricket-ball, and nearly 
 knocked me down. Nervous and confused I made 
 a violent stroke, and found the hook deeply im- 
 bedded and firmly fixed in the lower portion of my 
 garments behind. 
 
 It was rather an awkward position for a young 
 gentleman in the presence of a lady, the immediate 
 object of his adoration, to be placed in ; and the 
 sense of the absurdity of my position was not 
 lessened by observing Miss O'Hara's well-meant 
 but utterly abortive efforts to restrain her laughter ; 
 while Larry, kneeling behind me, bade me " stand 
 aisy," while he cut out the hook from its awkward 
 position, remarking, he wished " it was stuck as 
 fast in the salmon beyant" 
 
 Compassionating my confusion, the young lady 
 now came forward, and placing her hands over 
 mine as I held the rod, regulated the movement, 
 and explaining at the same time the grand prin- 
 ciple of making the rod do its own work ; the fly, to 
 my great astonishment, and, so far as I could judge, 
 by an act of volition, was shot out some fifteen 
 yards from where I stood and fell light as thistle- 
 down a few feet above the spot where the fish had 
 been seen to rise. As it touched the surface a sort
 
 MY FIRST FISH. 39 
 
 of wave, self-formed apparently, advanced towards 
 it, and when, in obedience to the young lady's 
 pressure, I raised the top of the rod, thereby moving 
 the fly in the opposite direction, increased in volume 
 and in pace, terminating in one mighty swirl, and 
 a boil in the water as though a barge had swung 
 round. Pausing for a space in which with moderate 
 haste you might have counted three, the lady, with 
 perfect coolness and dexterity, gave a short, sharp, 
 and decisive upward stroke, intended, as I after- 
 wards learnt, to fix the barbed hook in the hard 
 palate of the struggling fish. 
 
 There was a pause an interval of time during 
 which the beguiled creature appeared stunned 
 taken aback utterly demoralized at the contem- 
 plation of the strange result of his attempted 
 capture of a harmless fly, or fry, or shrimp, or 
 whatever it was he had intended to appropriate ; 
 and then, rising to the occasion, he sought by 
 one wild plunge and a leap into the air, to rid 
 himself of the tenacious " tartar " he had so rashly 
 " catched." 
 
 My heart was in my mouth, to use a homely 
 phrase, my nerve was gone, my hands trembled ; 
 and but that Larry, snatching at the rod, gently 
 eased the strain, the good fish had been lost. As 
 it was, the force and sleight practised were alike
 
 40 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 unavailing, and accepting the situation, the strong 
 beast adopted more resolute, and to me less per- 
 plexing tactics. Turning down stream and swim- 
 ming deep, he dashed down the pool, through the 
 rapid gulley by which it was connected with the 
 stream below, and in doing so again exposed his 
 broad dark back to my eager gaze ; then gaining 
 the deep and comparatively still water below, his 
 course was less rapid, but the distance between us 
 and consequent length of line greatly increased ; 
 the reel spun round with a frantic " whir-r-r " that 
 almost frightened me, and the line ran out at a 
 pace that would have cut my finger to the bone 
 had it touched it. 
 
 " Butt him, yer sowl ! " cried Larry, in an ecstacy 
 of excitement. " Give him the butt, yer 'onner, or 
 he'll break ye." 
 
 Scarcely understanding, I almost mechanically 
 obeyed, and pushing the butt of the rod forward, 
 found I had something more nearly approaching 
 control over the mad beast's movements ; at any 
 rate, he began to " come in fine," as Larry expressed 
 it, and acting on a hint from the young lady, I 
 reeled up with all my heart and strength. The 
 reel, furnished, as that implement should be, with 
 an ample cylinder, took up the line rapidly, and in
 
 MY FIRST FISH. 41 
 
 half a minute I had the fish where it is desirable, as 
 far as practicable, always to keep him, under the 
 point of my rod. 
 
 Breathless, and trembling with excitement, I 
 began to think I had conquered, and that the 
 coveted prize was within my grasp. Little knew I 
 the gameness of my quarry ; a rush that took out 
 thirty yards of line, and a jump out of the water 
 almost as high as the first, were but the prelude to 
 a run, up stream this time, through the gullet, 
 through the pool in which I had hooked him, and 
 into the heavy water above. Although checked 
 by the strain and weight of the line, and the 
 resistance of the rapidly-flowing water, the pace 
 was almost as fast as I could command, and it was 
 with no small pleasure that, after an abortive 
 attempt to ascend a rapid fall which had checked 
 his career, I felt the resolute pull abate, and heard 
 the comforting words, 
 
 " He's almost done, the baste, bad luck to him ! " 
 He was indeed well-nigh spent ; the plucky fish 
 had fought his best and bravest, his strength was 
 exhausted, his breath fishes breathe through their 
 gills, and a hook in their mouth interferes with the 
 operation was gone, and, floating on his side, he 
 presented a fair mark for the gaff, which Larry at
 
 42 MY FIRST FISH. 
 
 once stuck into the under part of the fish, landing 
 him with a whoop ! and hurray ! at my feet. He 
 was a clean run fish of sixteen pounds the -tide 
 louse on him. I never felt so proud or so happy 
 in my life.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AN IRISH BULL. 
 
 OUR homeward road if road it could be called, 
 that was in parts little else than the dry bed of the 
 winter torrent, encumbered with stones, and now 
 and then intersected by bogs of doubtful tenacity 
 lay for a considerable distance along the bank of 
 the river. 
 
 A wilder or more varied scene of beauty it would 
 be difficult to imagine : the green banks, with 
 scarlet rowan, black alders, and stunted hazels 
 reflected in the dark water, heaps of turf, piled for 
 winter use, chequering the wide expanse of bog, and 
 the distant mountains, now tinged by the setting 
 sun, sloping gracefully to the sea in the dim 
 distance, formed together a scene of rare beauty, 
 such as men spend much time and money to witness 
 in a foreign land, whilst they neglect the beauties 
 spread so lavishly within easy reach of their homes. 
 
 The walk was a very pleasant one, Honor's 
 bright face beaming down upon me, as I walked by 
 the side of her shaggy pony. After a time the
 
 44 AN IRISH BULL. 
 
 road divided, a new and more direct one having 
 been cut by Mr. Blake through some young planta- 
 tions of larch and fir he had lately made. This 
 was not, however, at present passable by a pony, 
 there being, as Larry expressed it, a "bad step 
 or two," so we agreed to walk, sending that dis- 
 creet attendant, with the pony, round by the river 
 bank. 
 
 We had not proceeded more than half a mile 
 when Honor stopped, and listening, said, 
 
 " I do believe that wicked bull is loose again." 
 
 A sharp note, which I should never have attributed 
 to its proper origin, at once struck my ear. It was 
 more like the early effort of a newly made " M. F. H." 
 to sound his horn than the deep bellowing roar I 
 had always attributed to the bull. 
 
 The next moment, from behind the fir-planted 
 bank a hundred yards or so ahead, issued two or 
 three cows ; the monarch of the herd, a tawny brute 
 of the West Highland breed, following in the rear, 
 evidently in an excited state. He walked, as it 
 were, on his toes, lashing his tail, and, as he looked 
 from side to side with a sort of "wha' daur meddle 
 wi' me" air, uttered at short intervals the sharp 
 menacing note that had alarmed my companion. 
 
 There was indeed cause for apprehension, in the 
 event of the animal proving mischievous. The road
 
 AN IRISH BVLL. 45 
 
 was narrow, and though open on one side, where 
 the land had been drained and planted, a broad 
 and deep ditch divided us from it ; on the other 
 was a wet bog, practically impassable, and more 
 than usually treacherous from the late rains. To 
 turn back would have been to provoke pursuit, so 
 we held on our way, Miss O'Hara perhaps affecting 
 a confidence she did not feel, assuring me there 
 was no danger, if we showed no fear. Showing it 
 or not, I for one could not but feel afraid, and, had 
 I been alone, should have fled incontinently. If I 
 had, this little tale would never have been written ; 
 but to do myself justice, the thought of deserting 
 my fair companion never entered into my head. 
 
 Meanwhile, the cows seemed more bellicose than 
 the bull, trotting towards us with lowering heads 
 and tails twisted high in air. They stopped when 
 within twenty yards, and then turning suddenly 
 galloped off, forming in good order in the rear of 
 the bull, and by their hoarse lowing apparently 
 encouraging him to go in and attack us. If such 
 was the meaning -of their hideous mutterings (to 
 my thinking there is no noise in nature so disagree- 
 able as that made by " the lowing herd "), the bull 
 at once acquiesced. Tossing fragments of the 
 rotten bank alternately to the right and left as he 
 advanced, he rapidly accelerated his pace, until, as
 
 46 AN IRISH BULL. 
 
 he came within ten yards, he was plunging along at 
 full gallop. 
 
 I have heard that a bull, when running at a 
 person, shuts his eyes ; this may be so in general, 
 but the vicious brute in question did not give us 
 even that poor chance ; I could plainly see his red 
 eyes as he advanced, wide open, and fixed on mine. 
 It was a moment of absolute horror, and I fully 
 believed it to be my last ; but for Honor, I think I 
 should have fallen down, and allowed myself to be 
 gored, or tossed, or trampled on, as fate and the 
 bull's idiosyncrasy might determine ; but that young 
 lady, bred in habits of self-confidence and self-pro- 
 tection, never for a moment lost her presence of 
 mind, otherwise we had been inevitably lost, for in 
 truth there was not a moment for aught but action. 
 Taking my hand firmly in her own, she turned me 
 towards the wet bog, and crying. 
 
 " Jump, Charlie ; jump for your life ; jump on to 
 the rushes now ! " 
 
 She sprang from the pathway, twelve feet at least 
 at a bound, and scarcely touching the patch of 
 rushes indicated, leaped from them on to a rough 
 balk of timber, which, black and scorched,* lay a 
 
 * Under the surface of the bog, at depths varying from three to 
 thirty feet, are found the remains of two distinct forests, fallen and 
 submerged at different and probably widely removed dates, but 
 both of great antiquity. The one which furnishes the bog oak, so 
 much used for ornament, is generally in the lowest stratum, and
 
 AN IRISH BULL. 47 
 
 few inches above the treacherous bog a yard or two 
 further on, and which afforded a firm though slippery 
 footing. Here she perched, like a bird on a bough ; 
 and as she steadied me with her hand, the bull with 
 a mighty splash that covered me all over with black 
 mud, in a vain attempt to follow, sank helplessly in 
 the bog, his tawny body quite covered, and only his 
 head and the ridge of his back visible. I never saw 
 such a change in the appearance of an animal in 
 my life ; the lurid fire in his eye was quenched as 
 completely as that in a red-hot cinder would have 
 been under similar circumstances ; he looked terri- 
 fied, cowed, almost pitiable ; but there was no time 
 for moralizing. Quick as light, Miss O'Hara placed 
 her foot on the burly broad back of the bull, and 
 springing from it, landed with me at her side safely 
 on terra fir ma. 
 
 " Thank heaven, Charlie, we are out of that ! " she 
 said ; "that's a bad bull, and if you had not jumped 
 so well " 
 
 " I jumped, dearest Honor ? " 
 
 " Well, never mind, Charlie, we both jumped, and 
 it will be long before our friend there will jump out, 
 unless some one help him. And look at those 
 
 appears, from its frequently charred appearance, and the absence of 
 trunks, to have been destroyed by fire ; the other, which furnishes 
 the pine torches that burn so brightly, is of pine and fir, and has 
 evidently succumbed before the wasting effects of water.
 
 48 AN IRISH BULL. 
 
 stupid old cows yonder; just now they were going 
 to eat us, and at present I really think they are 
 begging us to help their savage master out of the 
 fix he has got into." 
 
 The cows' demeanour, meanwhile, was as much 
 changed as that of the bull ; they stood on the brink 
 of the flood, lowing and muttering, and no doubt 
 comforting the monarch in his affliction, as, just 
 before, they had incited him to the mischief which 
 brought it on him. 
 
 We walked home slowly and pensively ; after 
 all, an escape from sudden death makes the most 
 giddy serious for a time, and I felt both grateful 
 and thankful, and more than ever in love with 
 Honor. 
 
 Mr. Blake, on hearing of our adventure, ordered 
 the bull to be assisted out of the bog, and killed 
 incontinently.* I think he deserved his fate, for I 
 heard afterwards that he had long been a terror to 
 the neighbourhood. It was not an unusual occur- 
 rence for him to take up a position opposite the 
 great iron gates that opened from the demesne, and 
 bar the road against all comers. There was one 
 
 * He was, no doubt, converted into " Navy beef." A noble 
 Lord, recently deceased, was in the habit of buying up all the old 
 bulls of the country, partially fattening, and selling them for the 
 above purpose. I have seen upwards of a hundred turned out 
 together.
 
 AN IRISH BULL. 49 
 
 particular pool in the river, by no means the worst, 
 the fishing of which, if he did not enjoy, he certainly 
 exclusively appropriated. When he stood on the 
 bank, he would have been a bold fisherman who 
 would have offered to throw a fly from it.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SEA FISHING. 
 
 VERY pleasantly the days passed at Bogleeze ; Pat, 
 either from fear of the threatened blunderbuss, or 
 because he was not summoned, did not appear ; and 
 long as my stay was, I never felt I am sure my 
 host did not that I was encroaching on his hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 Honor was my constant companion, Larry our 
 chaperon, a most excellent and discreet one ; he 
 was always in the way at the right moment, never 
 when he was not wanted ; never intrusive nor forward, 
 he was always ready, pleasant, and good humoured. 
 The lower orders of the Irish, at least, have plenty 
 of tact in their composition, and Larry might be a 
 pattern for chaperons, male or female. 
 
 We shot and we fished together ; I had by this 
 time learned to handle a rod passably well ; we took 
 long rambles through the mountains ; we sailed or 
 laid lines in the sea, and caught a prodigious quan- 
 tity of fish by setting spillets. 
 
 The spillet is a line some hundreds of yards in
 
 SEA FISHING. 5* 
 
 length, furnished with hooks at equal distances of 
 about six feet ; the hooks are baited with sand eels, 
 mussels, or pieces of fresh fish ; to one end is 
 attached a heavy stone, which is thrown overboard 
 in deep water a little before the turn of the tide. 
 The baits, which have been carefully coiled on the 
 gunwale, run rapidly off, and as soon as the stone 
 reaches the bottom the boat is rowed gently against 
 the tide until the whole is run out. A buoy, com- 
 monly the inflated skin of a dog, is attached to the 
 other end, and leaving perhaps two hundred hooks 
 to fish in your absence, you row to shore, eat your 
 lunch, smoke your pipe, amuse yourself how you 
 may for two or three hours, then return and haul 
 in the line. If in luck the take may be consider- 
 able in weight and number, though not often of 
 much value ; congers, dogfish, skate, and sea-bream 
 were the usual victims ; but sometimes a big turbot 
 would, after a strong fight, reluctantly flounder to 
 the surface, when he was received on the point of 
 a gaff and safely deposited at the bottom of the 
 boat. 
 
 There is some danger in handling the coarser 
 denizens of the deep, if unaccustomed to their 
 peculiarities. Congers bite viciously ; one of twelve 
 or fourteen pounds is worse than a bulldog; he 
 runs up and down the boat as if mad, snapping 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SEA FISHING. 
 
 right and left, and you have only to keep out of his 
 way as best you can. I have seen a sailor glad 
 to escape by voluntarily mast-heading himself. 
 Luckily the fish lacks discrimination, and is as 
 likely to take a bite out of the mast or the gunwale 
 of the boat as out of the calf of your leg, but then 
 the alternative is equally likely. Dogfish keep up 
 their implied character ; they delight, if not to bark, 
 at least to bite, and they have a considerable power 
 that way. I once caught a monster of fifty pounds 
 weight, and I am convinced, had the opportunity 
 been given him, he would have chopped my finger 
 off as easily as I would have bitten a radish. Some 
 species of this fish they are called rough-hounds, I 
 think are furnished with venomous spikes under 
 the pectoral fin, which, if incautiously handled, make 
 a bad wound and one difficult to cure. Two of us, 
 however, had experience, and although often in 
 danger I never suffered from the attempted revenge 
 of our victims ; a chop on the tail was the usual 
 panacea for their troubles, and incapacitated them 
 from mischief ; the difficulty was to give it. 
 
 Our return, especially when we brought home a 
 turbot, was always warmly welcomed by Mr. Blake, 
 and a capital dinner was a prelude to a cheerful 
 evening. Sometimes I read poetry ; Moore and 
 Byron were Honor's favourite authors. Sometimes
 
 SEA FISHING. 53 
 
 she sang ; sometimes, with our pipes and poteen 
 over the bright turf fire, Mr. Blake would discourse 
 on the state of Ireland and propound his views for 
 her amelioration. 
 
 One of these was the letting of the bog lands to 
 industrious tenants, not at a low rent, but for some 
 years at least at no rent at all ; he always declared 
 that the raw material was of so little value, and the 
 labour, as compared with it, of so great value, that 
 it was absolutely wicked to expect rent for at least 
 seven years, after which he suggested a shilling a 
 year per acre, increasing by a further shilling each 
 year up to seven or eight. I believe he had tried 
 the plan and found it answer. 
 
 In proof of his first proposition as to the value- 
 less nature of the land in its present condition, he 
 told me he had farms of from five hundred to a 
 thousand acres let from seven to ten pounds a year. 
 
 The mistakes people who are not accustomed to 
 the peculiarities of the Irish make in this matter 
 are extraordinary. 
 
 I had heard previously from one of the tenants 
 that Mr. Blake was " a foine gintleman," and a 
 " grate landlord," but that his, the tenant's, " heart 
 was broken by the rint." 
 
 I asked him what rent he paid, and he answered, 
 " A pound an acre," which certainly sounded ex-
 
 54 SEA FISHING. 
 
 orbitant ; on Mr. Blake's explanation I ascertained 
 that the tenant in question reckoned his rent on 
 the ten acres of cultivated land only, and took no 
 account of the nine hundred of bog, over which he 
 grazed such sheep and cattle as he possessed, pay- 
 ing ten pounds for the whole. 
 
 Another favourite scheme of his, which has since 
 been partially carried into effect, was the ameliora- 
 tion of the condition of the priests. The unfor- 
 tunate, as he held it, establishment at Maynooth 
 has, no doubt, sadly lowered the standard of 
 priestly intellect and priestly education ; but he 
 held that keeping aloof from them, ignoring them 
 and their form of religion, and treating them as 
 though they were of a different and lower grade, 
 unfit to associate with gentlemen, was not exactly 
 the way to spread a love for Protestantism. 
 
 We were on excellent terms with Father Pat, 
 who had permission to course over the mountain, 
 and not unfrequently dined with us ; a very jolly 
 fellow was Father Pat, and one who, though he 
 never exceeded, liked his glass of grog. He was, 
 in fact, Mr. Blake's head keeper, and a most effi- 
 cient one. Excepting Larry, Mr. Blake had no 
 one regularly appointed to look after shootings 
 extending over fifteen thousand acres ; but no 
 English manor could have been better preserved.
 
 SEA FISHING. 55 
 
 I rather think that his Reverence preached the 
 doctrine of condemnation to anyone who should 
 perpetrate the heinous sin of poaching over his 
 honour's preserves. 
 
 An instance both of the will and the power of 
 the priest to preserve his friend's property occurred 
 during my stay at Bogleeze, which I will relate. 
 
 One Sunday morning news came that a coil of 
 rope had been stolen from the boat a very serious 
 loss where you are forty miles from a shop and 
 Mr. Blake's ire was greatly roused. We proceeded 
 at once to Mick the boatman's cabin, and found 
 that worthy treating himself to his hebdomadal 
 ablution previously to attending chapel ; his wife, 
 who, with three or four children, was still in bed, 
 popped her head under the clothes as, with a " God 
 save all here," Mr. Blake entered the cabin. 
 
 " Mick," cried he, " some vagabonds have stolen 
 the rope out of my boat." 
 
 " Stolen yer 'onner's rope out of yer 'onner's 
 boat ? " was the indignant, almost incredulous, re- 
 petition of the statement. " The divil steal their 
 sowls out of their bodies ; stop till I tell his 
 Rivirince." 
 
 We departed, and Mick, repairing to the chapel, 
 informed the priest of the outrage committed. 
 Father Pat was greatly scandalised ; theft, I may
 
 56 SEA FISHING. 
 
 say, is almost unknown in these primitive parts, 
 and although murder may, under certain cir- 
 cumstances, be condoned, is held as a disgraceful 
 proceeding ; it is probable that the rope had been 
 really wanted by some fisherman who had no other 
 means of supplying himself, and thought that his 
 honour would not grudge it to a poor boy. Be 
 that as it may, Father Pat was indignant in the 
 highest degree ; he charged his flock, after ex- 
 patiating on the sin of stealing in general, and from 
 Mr. Blake in particular, to bring back the rope by 
 the next Sunday, and no one, least of all the 
 Reverend Father, doubted that the order would be 
 obeyed. 
 
 The week passed away, however, and Sunday 
 came, but no rope. Then Father Pat stood up, 
 and, shaking with wrath, issued his solemn com- 
 mand that the rope should be returned within a 
 week, OR ! " Riccolict boys, I've WARNED ye ! " 
 
 Strange to say, the implied threat, more potent 
 from its obscurity, was in vain ; the rope, the next 
 Sabbath, was still absent without leave. Then the 
 priest rose in his wrath, and, standing on the altar 
 steps, solemnly declared that on the next Sunday, 
 if the rope were not replaced in the meantime, he 
 would " curse the Barony : " he would hear no 
 confession, he would give no absolution, he would
 
 SEA FISHING. 57 
 
 administer no sacrament ; in fine, his flock should 
 be excommunicated ! On the following Saturday, 
 neatly coiled tip, the rope was found in the bows of 
 the boat ! 
 
 The tale needs no comment. This is real power, 
 and happily it is not often abused ; but the ignorant 
 peasantry are ready to accredit their priests with 
 something far beyond, and fully believe their as- 
 sumed ability to work miracles. 
 
 Burns tells us, 
 
 " On brandy, man fears nae evil ; 
 On usqebaugh he'll face the devil." 
 
 And on whisky, Paddy will face almost anything 
 mortal. Mick Sheehan, though a good Catholic 
 and a good boatman, was given to " the dhrink," 
 and one morning, shortly afterwards, being what a 
 Scotchman calls " fou," that is, very drunk indeed, 
 misbehaved in chapel. Father Pat ordered him 
 peremptorily to quit the sacred precincts, but the 
 potent spirit had made him insensible to mortal 
 fears, and he absolutely refused to budge. 
 
 " Bring me the vestments," roared the priest ; 
 " bring me the vestments, Father Tim ! till I turn 
 him into a stone" 
 
 The coadjutor, who perhaps in his heart doubted 
 the Father's petrifying powers, here interfered, and
 
 58 SEA FISHING. 
 
 forcibly ejected the rash recusant With the 
 morning cool reflection came ; the strong man, 
 grovelling at the curate's feet, poured out his bless- 
 ings and his gratitude. 
 
 " God bless your Rivirince ! long life to your 
 Rivirince ! shure but for you I'd have been turned 
 into a stone ! " 
 
 Omniscience, as well as omnipotence, is one of 
 the priest's attributes. I have already given an 
 instance in the case of Larry's sandwich, and the 
 grounds of the superstition are not far to seek. 
 
 Pat and Thady commit in company some 
 trifling peccadillo murder an exciseman, beat an 
 intrusive tenant, take a " pot shot " at a landlord, 
 or what not. Pat, in the course of the week, goes 
 to confession ; he details all the circumstances, 
 submits to the penance imposed, obtains absolution, 
 and forgets all about it. Thady, who does not 
 go to his " duty " for perhaps a month, when he 
 does, relates a somewhat garbled, perhaps modified, 
 account of the transaction, and finds himself taken 
 up and corrected at every turn. " Arrah now, it's 
 lies you're telling your priest ; it was yourself fired 
 the shot, and you stole the gun from Larry 
 O'Hagan's cabin when you and the boys paid him 
 a visit." 
 
 Thady cannot but admit the accuracy of his
 
 SEA FISHING. 59 
 
 Reverence's version, and regards it in the light of a 
 revelation. 
 
 It is quite clear that the remedy for this de- 
 plorable superstition is in education. Teach Pat 
 and Thady to read, and they will hardly believe 
 that their priest can work miracles, or is in posses- 
 sion of supernatural sources of knowledge. 
 
 Unfortunately, the attempts to establish schools 
 in the wilder parts of the country generally fail 
 from well-intentioned, but mistaken zeal on the 
 part of the promoters. As good Protestants, they 
 insist on the Bible being at least read in the 
 schools ; this the priests will not permit, and the 
 result is that the schools are empty. Surely, 
 education, eve'n without the Bible, is better than 
 no education at all ! if a child can read he may, 
 and most probably will one day, read the Bible, 
 but if unable to read, he can't !
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 
 
 SPORTING in the wild west is not precisely iden- 
 tical with sporting in more civilized parts of the 
 United Kingdom. There is no lack of zeal in its 
 followers ; keener votaries of the chase, whatever its 
 object, could hardly be found in any country, but 
 the means and appliances, the modus operandi, and 
 the unwritten laws of the chase, are altogether dif- 
 ferent. A fox-hunt, for instance, is got up for the 
 avowed purpose of killing, not hunting, the fox, and 
 Roderick Dhu's dogma is carried out in practice : 
 
 " Though space and law the stag we lend, 
 Ere hound we slip or bow we bend, 
 Whoever recked where, how, or when 
 The prowling fox was trapped or slain ? " 
 
 In coursing, Mrs. Glasse's maxim, " First catch 
 your hare," is the mainspring of the performance. 
 Little did we care for turns, or doubles, or cotes ; 
 we found our hare, generally in a bog hole, sitting 
 in a sort of burrow, for the animal partakes in Ireland 
 largely of the nature of the rabbit, and we slipped 
 our solitary greyhound on her back, if we had the
 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 61 
 
 opportunity. A quick, wiry little terrier took second 
 fiddle, and played admirably into his leader's hands, 
 twisting amongst the tussocks, checking the hunted 
 animal in her turns, and always ready to seize her 
 should she stop for a moment after baffling the 
 greyhound's more rapid pursuit. The priest had a 
 wonderful dog ; I have seen him, with the aid of the 
 terrier, kill half-a-dozen hares in a morning. 
 
 There were two or three mongrels, and an old 
 heavy-jowled otter-hound, that with the above con- 
 stituted our " pack of hounds." To find a litter of 
 cubs in the rocks, smoke or drive them out with 
 the terriers, shoot or course them down, was con- 
 sidered quite legitimate ; and when it is remembered 
 that there was no legitimate pack within a hundred 
 miles, and that the foxes, which there grow to a 
 prodigious size,* prey systematically on the lambs, 
 the disrespect for that sacred animal will be readily 
 understood, and my sins in the way of vulpicide I 
 hope condoned. 
 
 The badger again, though harmless enough, 
 was a not uncommon object of pursuit ; entirely 
 nocturnal in its habits, the beast was never seen, 
 
 * I have one stuffed, whose dimensions may be judged of by the 
 fact that, instead of the ordinary rabbit, he has a large lamb in his 
 mouth, which does not look at all too large. He is generally 
 taken, by those who see him, for a wolf.
 
 62 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 
 
 and rarely found, in a position out of which he 
 could be bolted by dogs. 
 
 "Drawing" a badger is all very well in a prepared 
 pit, where the abominably cruel pursuit is practised 
 on a half-dead, persecuted beast, that has neither 
 strength nor spirit left in it. The badger is perhaps 
 the strongest wild quadruped we have ; its bite is 
 something terrible, and the looseness as well as the 
 impenetrability of its skin renders it almost im- 
 possible for a dog even to seize him without being 
 bitten. 
 
 The cre'ature has curious habits ; among others, it 
 is commonly believed in the country that he lays 
 up a heap of provender for the winter. I have 
 frequently found these heaps, as big as haycocks, at 
 the entrance of their holes ; they are formed of short 
 grass, mixed with the sand in which the animal 
 generally burrows, and, I have no doubt, constitute 
 his last season's bed ; for the badger is a cleanly 
 animal, and sleeping, as he does, much in the winter, 
 prefers clean sheets when he retires to winter 
 quarters. The track of the badger is invariably in 
 a straight line ; if you stand on an eminence you 
 may trace them for miles over the mountains in 
 one undeviating straight line, which might have 
 been laid down by an engineer, so perfect is its 
 accuracy.
 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 63 
 
 Otters were abundant, especially haunting the 
 little streams that fell into the sea, and were con- 
 stant objects of our pursuit. 
 
 Anyone who desires a short life, and by no 
 means a merry one, should take to otter hunting as 
 practised by the legitimate packs of hounds, whose 
 doings in Cumberland and Wales are so graphically 
 described week by week, during the summer and 
 autumn, in the columns of Land and Water. I 
 think the writers must be easily satisfied, and 
 thankful for very small mercies in the sporting line ; 
 at any rate, my own limited experience has been 
 the very reverse of favourable with regard to the so- 
 called sport. Rising at 4 A.M. or earlier, stumbling 
 along the banks of a river in the dim twilight, the 
 cold dews striking chillingly upwards, the tedious 
 drag, which, after half an hour or so, is generally 
 found to be " heel," that is, in the wrong direction, 
 are not to my taste. Then the splashing through 
 the muddy stream, the unsportsmanlike mobbing 
 of the quarry, and the cruel murder that crowns 
 the sport, when the writhing victim, impaled on a 
 spear,* is held on high, witnessing in his agony 
 a score or more of hounds yelling for his blood, 
 constitutes to my mind unmixed barbarity, and is 
 
 * The use of the spear is, I believe, forbidden in many packs ; 
 common humanity requires that it should be in all.
 
 64 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 
 
 by no means to be included in the category of 
 "sport." 
 
 But otter hunting, as it was carried out in the 
 wild west, was a different thing altogether ; the 
 beast is a sad poacher, and the quantity of salmon 
 destroyed by him formed a really serious item of 
 loss to the fishery, which was successfully carried 
 on a few miles from the Lodge. As with the fox, 
 our object was to kill the otter, not to torture him, 
 and we took the most efficacious means to that end. 
 I will recount one of our hunts. 
 
 I was accompanied by Larry and Jemmy, and we 
 had the whole pack out ; a very mixed lot they were, 
 half a dozen terriers, a pointer, with the otter-hound 
 and greyhound before mentioned. I carried my 
 gun, and the men were armed with a sort of rude 
 spear, Larry's being a fork with two prongs, 
 barbed, and used, I fancy, on occasions, for leistering 
 the salmon he so grudged to the otters. A lake, 
 communicating with the sea by a stream of about 
 a mile in length, was the favourite resort of these 
 fish poachers, and it was on a small island covered 
 with holly and arbutus that we hoped to find one 
 or a pair. Arrived at the lake, silence was enjoined 
 by the most emphatic gestures on the part of 
 Larry, who, having unlocked a ricketty old boat 
 which lay on the sedgy bank, stealthily punted us
 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 65 
 
 across, the dogs following behind silent as ourselves, 
 uttering not so much as a whimper or a whine. 
 The object was, if possible, to catch the otter asleep, 
 and either to worry or shoot or spear him before he 
 reached the water. 
 
 It is proverbially difficult to catch a weasel 
 asleep, and the otter, though not so alert as that 
 tiny marauder, is commonly pretty wide awake, or 
 at least sleeps lightly. On the present occasion, 
 whilst stumbling across the great rocks, half covered 
 with rank vegetation, the beast rushed down almost 
 between my legs, and took refuge in a sort of 
 natural drain, which, formed by two or three flat 
 stones casually resting on some others standing 
 upright, led directly to the water. 
 
 Larry was at the opening in a second, and stood, 
 spear in hand, directly above it ; the otter-hound 
 swam about questing for the scent, the greyhound 
 leaped frantically up and down over the bushes, 
 both my attendants yelling as only excited Irish- 
 men can yell. The little terriers meanwhile were 
 scratching, scrambling, snarling together at the 
 mouth of the drain, almost fighting for the honour 
 of "first run in" at their dangerous foe. Little 
 Dusty wins the place of honour, and as she pene- 
 trates to the otter's stronghold, the others follow in 
 single file. There is no room for two abreast, but 
 
 F
 
 66 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 
 
 we hear beneath our feet a continuous snapping and 
 snarling, occasionally diversified by a half sup- 
 pressed sharp yelp of pain on the part of the gallant 
 little bitch. 
 
 Larry is wild with excitement ; he actually dances 
 as he brandishes the spear, and with a wild hurroo, 
 as the otter, cowed by the vehemence of the attack, 
 dashes forth into the lake, strikes at random, and 
 transfixes poor Dusty, who had pressed on her 
 flying foe all too rapidly. 
 
 I was horrified at the catastrophe, and lost my 
 chance of a shot ; but, to my inexpressible relief, on 
 withdrawing the spear it appeared that the tines of 
 the fork had passed harmlessly on either side of her 
 neck, nailing the game little animal to the earth, 
 but in no way injuring her. The barbs of the 
 spear were rather in the way, and her impatient 
 struggles to join her friends impeded our efforts, 
 but she was soon free and unharmed, excepting 
 from the bites of the otter, which were numerous 
 and severe. 
 
 The dogs meanwhile were swimming about the 
 lake or questing up and down the shore, and in a 
 few minutes a challenge from our solitary hound 
 proclaimed the welcome tidings that he had hit on 
 the drag, which led directly up the brook I have 
 refer/ed to. It was in fact a mountain torrent,
 
 FOX AND OTTER HUNTING. 67 
 
 occasionally dry or nearly so, but now abounding 
 in short comparatively deep pools, in which the 
 water flowed more or less rapidly, and through 
 which the otter, leaving rings of bubbles on the 
 surface, now swam or dived rapidly. Old " String- 
 halt," as, from some peculiarity in his gait, we had 
 named our hound, was anxious to hunt up to his 
 quarry in a legitimate fashion, but the little terriers 
 and the impetuous Larry were in far too excited a 
 state. Running forward, they came up with the 
 otter just as he vented, and the dogs taking up the 
 scent pressed him through the shallow stream at 
 the head of the pool, where I shot him through the 
 head. 
 
 The pack was upon him in a second, growling, 
 worrying, floundering one over the other, and bent 
 apparently on tearing their foe to pieces. If such 
 were the object it was unsuccessful ; for at the 
 expiration of ten minutes, during which each dog 
 had done his best or his worst, there was not a hole, 
 excepting the shot holes, in his skin. The tough- 
 ness and strength of these animals is something 
 extraordinary. Excepting the greyhound, whose 
 grip across the loins would have killed a bear, I 
 don't think there was a dog in the pack that could 
 have seriously hurt, far less killed, the bold beast. 
 
 F 2
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SEAL SHOOTING. 
 
 SEAL shooting is a sport much pursued in this wild 
 district, but it is one I never could take kindly to ; 
 there is something so human in the expression of 
 the creature's soft eye and innocent oval face, so 
 confiding in the manner in which, until taught 
 wisdom by bitter experience, he will follow a boat 
 for miles together, especially if there be music on 
 board, now and again shading his eyes with one 
 fin, just as a man shades his with his hand, that 
 he may take a good look at the " monarchs of the 
 deep," that I never, after one experiment, could 
 bring myself to shoot a seal. Otherwise, as I 
 said, the sport would have been very good, and 
 the traffic, if only the seals were of the species 
 which provide jackets for ladies, and waistcoats for 
 gentlemen, a most profitable one. Lest, however, 
 anyone should shoot the poor beasts in the ex- 
 pectation of securing either of those luxuries, or 
 getting a good price for the skin, I may say that 
 the creatures which furnish those much coveted
 
 SEAL SHOOTING. 69 
 
 articles inhabit the southern hemisphere only, and 
 that the skin of Phoca vitulina, our common seal, is 
 comparatively worthless. 
 
 On every rock, in every bay or sheltered cove 
 that indents this storm-ridden coast, a few years 
 since, seals might at low tide be looked for with 
 almost a certainty of finding them, singly or in 
 small families, slumbering in the warm sunshine. 
 So soundly do they sleep, that, especially when 
 a single one is enjoying a siesta, there is little diffi- 
 culty in rowing a boat quietly within shot, and a 
 bullet aimed directly at the head just under the 
 ear will generally kill the poor beast outright. 
 
 This, however, is by no means invariably the 
 case ; the seal is gifted with an extraordinary 
 vitality, and if a spark of life be left, will utilize 
 it by walloping off the rock into the deep water, 
 where it sinks, whether dead or dying, like a deep- 
 sea lead. This uncertainty of securing the prey 
 renders the pursuit less captivating than it other- 
 wise would be : a porpoise, if killed in deep water, 
 I am assured will float, and although I have no 
 personal experience in the matter, I think it very 
 likely that a creature so furnished with blubber 
 would do so. 
 
 On the occasion referred to, I proceeded under 
 the guidance of Larry to the seashore one hot
 
 70 SEAL SHOOTING. 
 
 morning, and having taken up a position behind 
 a huge heap of seaweed collected for manure and 
 not yet removed,* I carefully conned, through a 
 telescope, the unruffled surface of the distant sea ; 
 the tide was fast ebbing, and my gaze soon fell 
 on two small black objects that ever and anon 
 appeared and disappeared in the offing. These 
 I knew to be seals, and Larry assured me in a 
 whisper though at the distance they were from 
 me there was no necessity for caution on that 
 head that they were coming in from the fishing 
 grounds, and would surely take their afternoon 
 nap on a rock about one hundred yards from 
 where we stood, and some forty yards from low- 
 water mark. 
 
 Long and anxiously, hidden by the mass of sea- 
 weed, we watched our approaching victims : very 
 slowly, and although so little interfered with, very 
 cautiously they approached frequently standing 
 up as it were in the water, and peering suspi- 
 ciously round under their fins for any sign of 
 danger. A low bleat occasionally interchanged 
 seemed reciprocally to assure them, and at last 
 
 * The collector, I may remark, does not remove the seaweed, but 
 the seaweed removes the collector. A large quantity is gathered and 
 deposited just below high-water mark. Being tightly bound round 
 with a cord, the latter takes his seat on the heap, and by the aid of 
 a pole and the tide navigates it to his farm.
 
 SEAL SHOOTING. 71 
 
 they were within a score yards or so of the rock, 
 to the base of which the next dive would bring 
 them. 
 
 Pressing my arm as a signal to be in readiness, 
 the instant their heads disappeared, Larry rushed 
 forward with myself at his heels, and we gained 
 the margin of foam and sea-wrack left by the last 
 retiring wave, just as the animals rose under the 
 rock fifty yards from us. Our guns were already 
 at our shoulders, and we fired at the same mo- 
 ment ; Larry's ball struck the rock a few inches 
 above their heads, but mine, more truly aimed, 
 crashed clean through one poor beast's skull, no 
 doubt killing him instantly. It was then that I 
 learnt the "marvellous alacrity in sinking" possessed 
 by the seal ; although so near the shore, the water 
 between it and the rock was at least thirty feet 
 deep, and down to the very bottom sank the body 
 of my vainly murdered victim. I could not but 
 feel something like remorse at having so uselessly 
 slain a very beautiful and interesting creature. 
 
 All sorts of strange birds, and many curious 
 varieties of fish frequent this coast ; among others 
 the sunfish, or basking shark, the liver of which is 
 said to furnish some hogsheads of oil, and when, as 
 occasionally happens, the fish is killed by harpoons, 
 or stranded by the retiring tide, realizes in money
 
 72 SEAL SHOOTING. 
 
 upwards of twenty pounds. I never saw one of 
 these animals, but I believe they were, at one time, 
 regular articles of commerce. 
 
 There were, however, far more useful, if less im- 
 posing inhabitants of the sea, which fell to our lot ; 
 these were lobsters and oysters, the first the very 
 best I ever ate. The oysters are gathered at 
 spring tides, out of holes in rocks, or from the 
 sandy bottoms of the pools, attached to any fixed 
 object that happens to be submerged. I have 
 heard discussions as to which shell is uppermost ; 
 the convex was uppermost when the oysters occu- 
 pied a horizontal position, but in general they hung 
 from the roof, as it were, head downwards. I 
 frequently found them attached to the short trunks 
 of trees, relics of some ancient forest that had been 
 covered by the ever encroaching waves at a time 
 to which the memory of man runneth not. 
 
 These wild oysters were generally thin and 
 starved, though good for scallops and sauce, of 
 little value for food ; it was strange, though, how 
 speedily they fattened, and acquired respectable 
 dimensions, under the influence of our disinterested 
 attentions. Torn from the parent beds, and placed 
 in pans supplied merely with salt water, the same 
 as that from which they had been taken, the thin 
 oyster in a week or so became a fat and well-
 
 SEAL SHOOTING. 73 
 
 favoured oyster, and well-flavoured too. I never 
 could understand this ; but I fancy the oyster has 
 the power, under certain conditions, of assimilating 
 and storing the sustenance contained in the water, 
 and so providing for future nutriment, in the event 
 of its regular sources failing. When it finds itself 
 in difficulty the oyster exerts this power, drawing 
 upon and re-assimilating its fund of nutriment. 
 
 The natives (not the oysters), who were sadly 
 deficient in fishing gear, would, at times, take whole 
 shoals of grey mullet by simply stretching a corked 
 line across the entrance of a narrow bay or river- 
 mouth, up which they had passed in search of food, 
 when the tide was falling. The fish were at first 
 shy and timid of approaching the suspected snare ; 
 and as the water ebbed away, they were occasionally, 
 by splashing, stoning, and shouting, detained, until, 
 high and dry on the strand, they were captured by 
 baskets full. 
 
 Beside these, and many other wild sports which 
 space, and consideration for my reader's patience, 
 prevent my describing, we had capital shooting on 
 the bogs and along the seashore. There were ducks, 
 golden plover, teal, widgeon, in millions, snipe, 
 woodcock, a few quail, curlews, and occasionally 
 wild swans and geese, these latter birds being by 
 far the wariest and most unapproachable of any
 
 74 SEAL SHOOTING. 
 
 known to me. No doubt the spread of draining 
 and general progress of civilization have greatly 
 diminished the quantity of wild birds on the west 
 coast of Ireland, but a sportsman who can stand 
 " roughing it " may still find capital sport on the 
 shores and amongst the mountains of Kerry, Gal- 
 way, Mayo, and Donegal.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 I HAVE often argued and written in favour of the 
 preservation of all wild birds, without exception, 
 and I still believe that the preponderance of ad- 
 vantage would be found in preserving "the balance 
 of nature," and that no link, however apparently 
 useless, or even harmful, can be destroyed without 
 injuring the continuity and consequent strength of 
 the chain. If I made an exception, it would be 
 in favour of the hoodie crow and the eagle. The 
 former is a truculent thief; he will remove, egg 
 by egg, every one from the nest ; he will slay the 
 young birds one by one, returning, time after time, 
 till not one chicken or poult is left of the brood ; 
 but I have spoken of this bird and its depredations 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The eagle, in common with the lion, and other 
 " Brummagem " heroes, owes all the sentimental 
 favour in which he is held to his noble appearance, 
 which sadly belies his real nature. The lion is, 
 in reality, a skulking cowardly feline brute, that
 
 76 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 never except stealthily attacks any animal able to 
 defend itself, springing upon it, as does his cousin 
 the domestic cat on a rat, when unsuspecting and 
 unprepared. The eagle, notwithstanding his grand 
 appearance, his lofty flight and the noble qualities 
 poetically attributed to him, is a lazy gluttonous 
 bird, whose most exalted aspirations tend no higher 
 than the pursuit and capture of a mountain hare, 
 or the seizure of a lamb, generally a sickly one, or 
 one accidentally apart from its dam. In the former 
 case the eagle's services are very valuable, for the 
 hares in the highlands of both Ireland and Scotland 
 abound to an objectionable extent ; but in the latter 
 the bird is most mischievous, and it is little to be 
 wondered at that its destruction is compassed by 
 every means within the shepherd's or farmer's 
 power. 
 
 A pair of these birds from time immemorial had 
 had their eyrie on a perpendicular rock, a portion of 
 the lofty mountain known as Bunmore ; and al- 
 though the young birds were annually destroyed and 
 their parents frequently slain, a fresh pair constantly 
 appeared, probably they still occupy the same 
 position, and might be seen soaring high in the air, 
 within sight of their resting place, wheeling in 
 great circles, apparently in the same lines, through
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 77 
 
 the trackless air, or seeking their prey in the ac- 
 customed valleys. 
 
 The present tenants of the rock had been un- 
 usually destructive during the spring and summer ; 
 and it having been ascertained that one at least of 
 the young birds was still in the nest, unable to fly, 
 it was determined, if possible, to capture him I 
 blush to say, with the intent of working upon the 
 parental feelings, and, having deposited him in a 
 favourable position, to allure the old ones by his 
 cries within reach of the concealed gunners. 
 
 With this view an expedition was planned ; and 
 furnished with stout sticks and a long coil of rope, 
 Larry and his lieutenant Jemmy, with myself, 
 started one morning on an expedition to the top of 
 the rock. It was a long and toilsome march, two 
 miles through the wet bog, and then two more 
 up the steep side of the mountain. It was past 
 midday when we found ourselves at the desired 
 elevation, and lying flat down, and peering over the 
 edge of the precipice, I could see the nest, a broad, 
 perfectly flat, circular structure of great size, com- 
 posed of thick sticks, heather, and similar material, 
 lined with moss, hair, and wool. It was white with 
 the birds' droppings, and fringed with the bones 
 and debris of grouse, hares, and lambs.
 
 78 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 I had fully intended personally to attempt the 
 perilous exploit of descending from the point of the 
 rock to the nest, which was built some fifty feet 
 below ; but, though a bold climber, the sheer 
 unbroken depth and frightful appearance of the 
 rugged cliff and ragged rock below, were too much 
 for my nerve, and I willingly surrendered the post 
 of danger to my friend Jemmy. Our arrangements 
 were soon made ; the rope was fastened carefully 
 under his arms, and, passed round a rock of a 
 peculiar shape which stood conveniently near, 
 Larry and I took firm hold of it, and Jenjmy, 
 slipping over the edge, launched himself into 
 space. Almost instantly, although we had previ- 
 ously neither seen nor heard the parent birds, they 
 appeared hovering at a short distance above our 
 heads, settling occasionally on the projecting rocks, 
 or pirouetting in circular flights around each other, 
 uttering meanwhile, from time to time, mournful 
 wailing cries, apparently more by way of remon- 
 strance at the unprovoked invasion of their nursery, 
 than of menace ; indeed, this behaviour was pre- 
 cisely what I had observed, and have, in another 
 place,* described on the occasion of taking a buz- 
 zard's nest. Jemmy's stick was of considerable use 
 in keeping him clear of the sharp angles of the rock, 
 
 * Flood, Field, and Forest.
 
 THE EAGLES NEST. 79 
 
 but it was not needed, as I supposed it would be, 
 for defence ; in fact, I do not believe that any 
 English bird, except a raven or carrion crow, will 
 attack the invader of its nest. It is however 
 possible that in this instance a more accurate 
 knowledge of the young bird's powers than we 
 possessed had something to do with the parents' 
 apathy, for no sooner had Jemmy's foot found a 
 resting place on the broad surface of the nest, than, 
 scuttling to its edge, its occupant flopped heavily 
 over and descended with clumsy and broken flight 
 to the plain below. Baffled and disappointed, with 
 many a muttered Gaelic imprecation, Jemmy was 
 with no slight effort hauled up, and we commenced 
 our descent, considerably crest-fallen, to join Mr. 
 Blake, whom I could discern through my pocket 
 glass, some two miles off, accompanied by another 
 person, proceeding to meet us. 
 
 At the foot of the mountain, before we had joined 
 Mr. Blake, a man met us with the young eagle, 
 dead, on his back. He had seen it alight, and as 
 it could not rise again, had easily killed it with 
 his stick. On examination it appeared that its 
 wing had been badly injured when young, probably 
 by a stone dropped from above, and, although 
 nearly healed, the wing had not attained sufficient 
 strength to do more than support the bird's weight
 
 So THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 in the air ; no doubt another week would have 
 effected a perfect cure, and one more of these 
 beautiful, if not noble, birds left to grace our 
 British Fauna. The patience of the old birds must 
 have been sorely tried by the continued claims of 
 this nearly adult youngster, who ought to have 
 been earning his own living months before. 
 
 When we joined Mr. Blake it was evident that 
 something had occurred to ruffle the ordinary pla- 
 cidity of his temper ; he was listening in an ex- 
 cited but dissatisfied mood to the explanation 
 apparently proffered by his attendant, one Mick 
 Costigan, the tithe-proctor and process-server of 
 the district, a gentleman more respected than 
 beloved by his neighbours. Mr. Blake neither 
 asked the particulars of our baffled expedition, 
 nor noticed the beautiful dead bird that lay at his 
 feet. 
 
 " The notice not served ?" he said. 
 
 " Shure, yer 'onner, I would not go alone, and 
 there is not a boy in the Barony would go along 
 with me to the Barretts ; they're bad boys, thim 
 Barretts, yer 'onner." 
 
 Mr. Blake looked puzzled, and was evidently 
 at a loss what course to pursue, when a bright 
 thought struck me. I was smarting under a sense 
 of failure and presumed loss of prestige, for I had
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 8 1 
 
 vaunted somewhat loudly of my intention to harry 
 the eagle's nest, and I felt a burning desire to 
 revive my reputation for pluck in the eyes of Larry 
 and his confreres. 
 
 " Is it the Barretts you wish to serve ? " I asked, 
 unconsciously imitating the mode of speaking of 
 my companions ; " faith, I'll serve them myself ; 
 Larry, you'll go with me ?" 
 
 "I'll do that same," said Larry, "with all the 
 veins ;" for the remembrance of the print of 
 the great toe and the slain salmon still rankled in 
 his memory. 
 
 " You, my dear boy ! they'd knock you on the 
 head, and bury you in the bog," said Mr. Blake. 
 
 "Never mind, sir! I'll go, and this afternoon, if 
 you'll let me." 
 
 " Well ! well ! " said he, his countenance relaxing 
 into a smile, "we'll see about it to-morrow morning; 
 it is too late now, and to-night they are catching 
 the sand eels." We then proceeded homewards, 
 recounting as we went the particulars of our abor- 
 tive raid on the eagle's nest. As, however, it had 
 resulted in the destruction of one bird at least, it 
 could not be considered altogether a failure, and 
 Mr. Blake was highly pleased. 
 
 There is, probably, no species of fish more 
 generally useful than the sand eel ; not directly 
 
 G
 
 82 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 perhaps, but indirectly, inasmuch as it constitutes 
 the favourite food, not only of birds, but of the 
 greater number of the most valuable species of fish. 
 It is always found in shallow water, close to the 
 shore, and in countless numbers ; as the tide 
 recedes the little fish wriggles itself a few inches 
 under the wet sand, where it remains till the 
 waters rise again. 
 
 Although too oily to please a refined palate, the 
 sand eel is a great favourite with the lower orders, 
 and on dark nights, such as that which was ap- 
 proaching, and on the occasion of exceptionally 
 low tides, parties are formed for the purpose of 
 capturing it. This is done by raking with crooked 
 pieces of iron in the wet sand. The fish is highly 
 phosphorescent, and although the night be pitch 
 dark, its presence, when brought to the surface, is 
 betrayed by the glittering light that shines about 
 it. Men, women, and children go down in a body 
 to the sands, and great is the fun, and piercing the 
 yells of the captors, as the slippery, shining little 
 fishes are brought by dozens to the surface, and 
 seized, or attempted to be seized, by twenty hands 
 at once. 
 
 We had a capital hunt that night, but the pro- 
 cess has been so frequently and well described, 
 especially by Maxwell, in his Wild Sports of the
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 83 
 
 West, already alluded to, that I forbear from any 
 special description of it. The only incident worthy 
 of note that occurred that night was the sudden 
 rising of the tide, which sent us all splashing ashore 
 at our best pace. In ten minutes after we had 
 left the narrow neck of sand on which we had been 
 engaged, four feet of water was rolling over it, 
 and the firm surface was turned into a quicksand, 
 which would have engulfed a great ship. 
 
 I do not suppose that Mr. Blake would have 
 permitted me to go on what was really a dangerous 
 errand, for the poor evicted tenantry of the west 
 clung pertinaciously to the holdings they had per- 
 sisted in considering their own, although they had 
 no title save that of occupancy, and had perhaps 
 never paid a penny of rent within their own or any- 
 body's memory. The Barretts were not the men 
 to render up peaceable possession. News, however, 
 of the intended attack on their stronghold had 
 reached them, and a council of war, or peace, 
 having been held, it had been wisely decided to 
 surrender at discretion. In the morning, when Mr. 
 Corrigan arrived with Larry, who carried my gun, 
 they found at the gate four stalwart but ragged 
 men, who, having ranged themselves before the 
 hall door, incontinently fell down on their knees 
 in a row, and with voluble blessings, implored Mr. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 
 
 Blake's clemency. If only his 'onner would allow 
 them to remain one fortnight, they would all go to 
 America, and never see his face again ; which, 
 according to them, was the most grievous result of 
 their projected exodus. 
 
 " Look here now, you blaggards," said Mr. Blake, 
 " do you mean what you say ? " 
 
 " We do, yer 'onner ; we'll go, one and all, on 
 Sunday fortnight that ever comes." 
 
 " Well, you are not such bad boys, after all ; and 
 I'll tell you what I'll do for you, I will give you a 
 one pound note apiece to help you across the water." 
 
 The men sprang up, and vied with each other 
 in exclamations of devoted attachment, and the 
 pouring forth of benedictions on Mr. Blake's head ; 
 they would not stay a fortnight, they'd quit the 
 cabin at once (a wretched lean-to, as I afterwards 
 saw, roughly constructed against the ruined gable 
 of a miserable cabin, which had been unroofed 
 when that summary process of eviction had been 
 carried into effect). 
 
 They kept their word, and the following morning, 
 each, with a stick in his hand, and a small bundle 
 over his shoulder, presented himself at the hall 
 door to bid farewell to the master. Mr. Blake 
 presented each with one of those dirty bits of 
 paper which do duty in the west of Ireland as the
 
 THE EAGLE'S NEST. 85 
 
 circulating medium, and which are far more prized 
 by the peasantry than the bright sovereign they 
 are assumed to represent. Mrs. Maloney appeared 
 with a bottle of whisky, and as they drank a glass 
 each to his 'onner's health and happiness, Larry 
 came forward and cordially shook hands with his 
 recent enemy. 
 
 A second glass was about to be administered, 
 when Miss O'Hara appeared, and hurriedly told 
 Larry that the young bull had again got out, and 
 was running down the road. Larry rushed after 
 him, and in another minute the men were fairly 
 on their way to America. 
 
 The bull was, in reality, safe in the yard ; but 
 the young lady rightly surmised that an extra 
 glass of whisky might have the effect of bringing 
 the newly reconciled foes to a speedy fight, if only 
 to testify their mutual love so happily renewed.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 "THE LITTLE PILL." 
 
 MY friend Mr. Blake held a sort of patriarchal 
 position in the immediate neighbourhood of Bog- 
 leeze ; he was not only " guide, philosopher, and 
 friend, to his humbler neighbours, but was ready at 
 any moment, should his aid be invoked, to pre- 
 scribe for their bodily or mental ailments, and to 
 minister to either in the way of " medicine and 
 advice gratis." 
 
 His services, especially in the former particular, 
 were in constant requisition. There is nothing the 
 poorer classes delight in so much as in taking 
 physic, and Mr. Blake's resources were fully equal 
 to any demand that might be made upon them 
 in fact, unlimited. Like that of Doctor Sangrado, 
 his method of treatment was simple, though 
 altogether of a different character. Like that 
 learned doctor, however, he had but two prescrip- 
 tions in his pharmacopaeia, and which were made 
 up and " exhibited " I believe that is the proper 
 medical term "on the premises." These were
 
 " THE LITTLE PILL.'" 87 
 
 calomel, and mutton broth, the latter "to follow," 
 as they say in eating-houses. The precise dose 
 of the first was regulated by the most accurate, 
 though not quite scientific measurement; in fact, 
 like the drug itself, it was of a simple nature. As 
 much of it as would lie upon a sixpence was 
 considered a dose for an adult ; as much as would 
 lie on a threepenny piece, one for a woman or 
 child. The latter remedy, the broth, I am bound 
 to say, was given without stint or measure, in un- 
 limited quantity ; but strange to say, though the 
 patients were frequently in absolute want of food, 
 was partaken of sparingly, and treated by the 
 recipients simply as a remedial agent unpalat- 
 able, but of which the good effects had been 
 proved ! 
 
 Give Paddy a potato, and he is a happy man ; 
 he loves it with an absorbing and exchisive affec- 
 tion ; he cares, in fact, for nothing else in the way 
 of food ; and I do not know but that the sailor's 
 three wishes, recorded by the venerable Joe Miller,* 
 would be pronounced in a like spirit, culminating 
 in " more potatoes ! " 
 
 * The once venerated joker is no longer read by any class of 
 men, though formerly in constant use by such as wished to shine in 
 society. The sailor's first wish is therein recorded, "that all the 
 rivers and seas were rum;" bis second, "that all the ponds and 
 lakes were rum ;" his third for MORE RUM !
 
 88 " THE LITTLE PILL." 
 
 But I am digressing. Young as I was, and un- 
 versed in pharmacy, I could not but think that, 
 with respect to the calomel, as Hood's washer- 
 woman expressed it, "that quantum was unproper," 
 so I obtained from a medical friend in Dublin a 
 large box of potent but innocuous pills, which I 
 distributed liberally to such as applied for them. 
 These pills were in great request, and the cures I 
 effected through their agency raised me enormously 
 in the estimation of my confiding patients, and to 
 some extent in my own. I somehow began to 
 fancy I had mistaken my vocation, and was, with- 
 out exactly knowing why, a natural doctor, " to 
 the occasion born." I fancy many quacks have 
 been possessed with the same mistaken and equally 
 well founded belief. 
 
 One morning, when in the zenith of my medical 
 popularity, I was entreated by Biddy Houligan, 
 the wife of one of the small tenants, who, in con- 
 sideration of a small deduction from the rent, also 
 acted as a sort of under gamekeeper, for the gift 
 of a " little pill," to cure her husband of a " quinsey 
 he was kilt with." 
 
 " But, Biddy," said I, " I don't know that these 
 pills are good for the quinsey." 
 
 This was a modest disclaimer, a sort of fishing 
 for a compliment, on my part, for I had begun to
 
 " THE LITTLE PILL." 89 
 
 believe in the virtues of my pills almost as firmly 
 as did my patients. 
 
 " Never fear, yer 'onner," was Biddy's reply ; 
 "they're grate little pills intirely, and Pat bade 
 me make bold to ax for one for meself and the 
 childre." 
 
 Happy in the possession of the precious articles 
 Biddy departed, and I went on with my occupa- 
 tion, which, at the moment, was the manufacture of 
 a fishing net, working jointly with Miss Honor ; a 
 very pleasant occupation, and affording lots of fun, 
 as we raced one another to complete the meshes, 
 and then fighting for the last stitch, as our fingers 
 met in the middle. 
 
 Next morning I was preparing for the day's 
 sport, when I beheld Biddy, her long bare legs 
 glittering in the early sunshine, her unkempt hair 
 " whistling in the wind," racing across the bog. My 
 heart somehow misgave me, and it was with a 
 slight tremor in my voice that I asked after my 
 patient's health. 
 
 " Shure, yer 'onner, long life to you, Pat's 
 dead!" 
 
 " Dead ! " repeated I, aghast. 
 
 " He is dead, yer 'onner, by the now, anyhow ; 
 he was dying when I came away." 
 
 " Good heavens ! why did you leave him ? "
 
 90 " THE LITTLE PILL." 
 
 " Indeed, yer 'onner, he axed me to ; ' Biddy,' 
 he says, ' step down to his 'onner, God bless him ! 
 and tell him that Pat Houligan is dead, and he'll 
 send some one to look after the game at once. 
 Thim Barretts,' he says, 'they've got a gun hid 
 down in the bog,* and they'll be after the grouse, 
 let alone the hares,' he says. So I says, ' Pat, 
 darlin', go on dyin',' I says, ' and I'll step down 
 and spake to his 'onner." 
 
 " Well, Biddy, this is bad news ; here's a glass of 
 whisky, and now hurry back to your husband like 
 a good woman." 
 
 " God bless yer 'onner's 'onner !" and away went 
 Biddy, hot-foot, on her return journey. 
 
 I watched her as she crossed the bog ; the river 
 which bounded it was wider than ordinary at that 
 part, and in consequence not very deep. Like 
 Lord Ronald MacDonald's bride, she "kilted her 
 gown," not " of green satin," but of grey serge, not, 
 as the ballad tells us that young lady did, " up till 
 her knee," but a good bit above it, and, wading 
 safely over, disappeared behind the opposite bank. 
 
 I confess to a very uncomfortable feeling as I 
 watched the retreating figure of the newly made 
 
 * An ordinary place of concealment for the barrel at least of the 
 gun. The antiseptic qualities of the peat preserve it from rust ; it 
 is not always taken out for an object so comparatively harmless as 
 poaching.
 
 " THE LITTLE PILL." 91 
 
 widow ; the pride of art, the confidence in my 
 medical skill, deserted me, and I could not but 
 fancy that the "little pill" had been, to some 
 extent, accessory to the death of poor Pat. 
 
 It was with a sad heart that I started forth a few 
 hours after, with the faithful Larry, for a walk 
 across the mountain. I could not shoot, though 
 the birds lay well, and I had fired several shots in 
 vain, before I had reached the extreme end of the 
 mountain over which the victim to quinsey, gam- 
 boge, and aloes, had kept watch. "Oh," thought 
 I, as an old cock grouse fled, cackling and trium- 
 phant, unharmed, away from my gun, " if poor Pat 
 had been to the fore he'd have been down upon us 
 before this." 
 
 Could I believe my eyes ? what figure is this that 
 comes with rapid strides across the shaking bog, 
 where few would dare to tread, towards us ? It is ! 
 no, impossible ! yes, by heavens ! it is Pat himself, 
 pale and haggard, 
 
 " Like him of whom the story ran, 
 That spake the spectre hound in Man." 
 
 Pat himself was before us in the flesh, his eyes 
 beaming with gratitude. 
 
 " God bless yer 'onner ! " he exclaimed, as he 
 seized my hand and carried it to his lips ; " long
 
 92 " THE LITTLE PILL." 
 
 life to yer 'onner ! shure it was all along wid the 
 ' little pill,' that broke the quinsey, and put the life 
 into me again, when I was kilt intirely ! " 
 
 The relief to my mind was inexpressible ; I re- 
 turned to my sport with redoubled energy. My 
 nerve was strong, my eye clear ; Pat's life was cause 
 of death to many a grouse that morning ; but, from 
 that day to this, I have never administered, nor 
 even taken, one " little pill."
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 "LONG TONY." 
 
 OF course no one in this imperfect world can be 
 perfect. Neither Scotch nor Irish gamekeepers are 
 exempt from some traces of mortal fallibility ; but, 
 
 " If to their share some human errors fall," 
 
 they diverge in exactly opposite directions ; which 
 of them is to be considered the least objectionable 
 must depend upon the disposition of the sportsman, 
 whether it be sanguine or despondent. 
 
 I think on the whole I prefer the Irishman's 
 exaggerated anticipations of sport and flattering 
 view of things in general, to the Scotchman's over 
 cautious and disheartening utterances. 
 
 " Shall we have a fine day, Duncan, do you 
 think?" 
 
 " Weel ! I'll no say but it ma' be fine yet ; but 
 there was a unco' saft look in the sky the morning." 
 
 " Are there many fish up ? " 
 
 " Aye, there's mebbe a happening beast or twa 
 in her, but the fish are no that plenty ; she's no 
 preceesly a good colour neither a wee drumly ! "
 
 94 "LONG TONY." 
 
 " Had you a good breeding season for the 
 grouse ? " 
 
 " Weel, it was not altogether bad ; but the wat 
 was awfu' sair on the young broods " and so 
 forth. 
 
 It is impossible to get a word of encouragement 
 out of Duncan ; with Pat it is altogether different 
 
 " Shure a finer day never shone out of heaven 
 than that we'll have, please God ! " " Salmon ! faith, 
 there's hardly room for the fish to swim in the river 
 itself." 
 
 " Are there grouse in the mountain ? " 
 
 " Bedad ! the mountain's just lousy with them." 
 
 "Snipe?" 
 
 " Wheugh ! " an interjection indicative of innu- 
 merable wisps, and of slightly contemptuous sur- 
 prise at your asking such a question. 
 
 " Have you any thermometers or triangles in the 
 bog?" 
 
 Pat pauses a second, and then replies boldly and 
 decidedly, 
 
 " Shure, there are that same ! " 
 
 This habit, though not strictly defensible on 
 moral grounds, has its advantages in keeping the 
 sportsman in a state of continued hopeful anticipa- 
 tion. 
 
 I can hardly, though, think that my friend Tony 
 Bodkin (Long Tony) was justified in exercising
 
 "LONG TONY." 95 
 
 his powers of invention when the possible sale of 
 a considerable property was in question. The 
 proposed purchaser was a Saxon stranger, a land- 
 jobber, who had come over to acquire, as cheaply 
 as he might, some of the property which had lately 
 been brought under the provision of what was 
 then known as the " Incumbered Estates Act ; " 
 a measure of confiscation, by the way, which, harsh 
 as it proved in some cases, was without doubt the 
 salvation of Ireland. 
 
 The owner of one of these incumbered estates 
 was staying at the Lodge, and as Mr. Blake and 
 I walked forth together one morning, we met by 
 purest accident Mr. Bodkin, who, it may be said, 
 was a tenant on the property about to be sold. 
 
 "And what brings you out here, Tony, this fine 
 morning, and the oats not cut yet ?" asked my 
 friend. 
 
 " It's God's truth, it is a fine day." 
 
 " But what brings you here at all ?" 
 
 "Well, yer 'onner, I came out on the car with 
 the English gintleman beyant there, just to show 
 him the mearings of the Cotton-rush town-land ; " 
 then added in a stage whisper, " he's a moighty 
 foine gintleman is his 'onner, and a moighty clever 
 one ; sure he'll make up the loss of the day's work 
 and the oats to boot to a poor boy ! " 
 
 Tony's semi-introduction resulted in our joining
 
 96 "LONG TONY." 
 
 the intending purchaser in his tour of inspection. 
 He was an intelligent man, but manifestly of a 
 sanguine, perhaps credulous, turn of mind. He 
 had been reading up Maxwell's Wild Sports of the 
 West, at once the most amusing and most un- 
 reliable of Irish narratives. 
 
 " I suppose there are no wild deer in the country 
 now," he observed to Tony. 
 
 "'Deed then, there are wild deer, yer 'onner 
 plenty of them." 
 
 " Bless me ! have you seen any lately ? '-' 
 
 " Faith ! an' I see six or five it was on the 
 last blessed Sunday as ever was. I was going to 
 mass yer 'onner Father Thady, a moighty foine 
 preacher he is " 
 
 " But where did you see the deer?" 
 
 " Just in the bog down below, foreanent the butt 
 of Ben Mair ; there was the owld stag with the 
 biggest horns I ever see ; and the see here now," 
 cried he, suddenly stopping in his narrative, and 
 pointing to a very antiquated lump of what had 
 once been horse-dung, " what do you call that, 
 now ?" 
 
 The stranger confessed his ignorance. 
 
 "Then," said Tony, his eyes twinkling, and his 
 whole visage brightening up at the scarcely ex- 
 pected acknowledgment of greenness, and the sue-
 
 "LONG TONY." 97 
 
 cess of his bold stroke, "that's the deer's marks, 
 anyhow ! " 
 
 Our friend seemed much struck, and remarked 
 that the country was admirably adapted for a deer 
 forest, and that, if preserved, they would no doubt 
 speedily be as plentiful as in Maxwell's time. 
 
 " I'll go bail for that same," interposed Tony ; 
 "they'll be as plenty as thim chaps with the big 
 horns I see in the Phaynix Park at Dublin." 
 
 I think Tony had a tale to tell bearing on his 
 visit to Dublin ; but he was too intent on his 
 present object, whatever that might be, to yield 
 to the temptation at the present moment. 
 
 " May I make bould to ask yer 'onner what 
 you are doing with the little bottle at all ?" 
 
 " It's a phial of acid," was the reply ; " I am test- 
 ing the rocks to see if there is any limestone 
 about." Then turning to us he remarked, 
 
 "These Irish, high and low, are so lazy and 
 stupid ; they sit with their hands before them, and 
 never attempt to develop the resources of their 
 country." 
 
 " Faith, and that's true ! " remarked Tony, humbly ; 
 " it's you English gintlemen have the laming, and, 
 God be praised ! know how to use it. But," he 
 added, after a moment's consideration, " would that 
 be limestone, yer 'onner, that comes to Westport 
 
 H 

 
 98 "LONG TONY." 
 
 in the boats a dark sort of a stone, and they burn 
 it to powder ?" 
 
 "Just that!" 
 
 " Faith, thin, if yer 'onner will step along with 
 me to the big mound beyant there, I'll show you 
 lashings of that same." 
 
 This request, simple as it seemed, was not so 
 easily to be complied with, inasmuch as it involved 
 the wading through a considerable extent of splash, 
 and a quaking bog, concealed by a profuse growth 
 of fleecy cotton-rush beyond, and was consequently 
 declined, Tony being directed to bring a lump of the 
 stone he mentioned for examination and testing. 
 He splashed across accordingly, and after a vast 
 amount of clinking and hammering, returned with 
 a lump of rock weighing at least half-a-dozen 
 pounds ; it was marvellous how he had contrived 
 without tools to break it off. Be that as it might, 
 the specimen was without doubt pure limestone 
 of a very fine quality, and as the acid poured upon 
 it fizzed and hissed, the stranger's face lightened 
 and brightened exultingly . 
 
 " I always thought so," he said ; " I was certain 
 that limestone must exist in this formation ; what 
 fools these Irish landlords are ! Why, these bogs 
 only require draining and the application of lime
 
 "LONG TONY." 99 
 
 to make them worth three pounds an acre, instead 
 of three pence, which is about their rent now." 
 
 I don't know whether, on the strength of the 
 present discovery, and the vision of a deer forest in 
 the future, Tony's friend became the purchaser of 
 the bog we were on ; but I do know, on the best 
 authority, that of Tony himself, who, on a later 
 occasion, cdnfided the secret to me, that he had 
 walked, the night previously, nine Irish miles and 
 back again, in order to deposit the precious speci- 
 men in the place where he pretended to dis- 
 cover it. 
 
 After we had parted company and were returning 
 home, we discussed the much-vexed question of 
 salmon preservation. Mr. Blake was very severe 
 both on the laws themselves and their admi- 
 nistrators, who, he averred, favoured the netters 
 unduly, to the detriment of the rod-fishers, whose 
 occupation was in many rivers gone, there being 
 no fish for them to catch, excepting in the netters' 
 close time, and few enough then. In fact, ac- 
 cording to my friend, the Irish fisheries were getting 
 worse and worse every year. 
 
 "It was very strange, too," he observed, "that in 
 many cases the excessive care and trouble bestowed 
 on their preservation seemed to have had the 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo "LONG TONY." 
 
 opposite effect to that intended." At Ballyna- 
 hinch, for instance, he declared that thirty or forty 
 years since, when the mouth of the river was closed 
 by a solid wall, over which no salmon could pass, 
 excepting in a heavy flood, when there was neither 
 gap, nor slap, nor license, nor close time, when every 
 man, and woman too, not only fished, but netted 
 and speared and burnt the water, as seemed good 
 in their eyes, both lake and river swarmed with 
 fish ; there were twenty salmon and a hundred 
 white trout for every one in the present day. 
 
 " Do you think, then," asked I, " that we should 
 recur to those lawless times and abolish protection 
 altogether ? " 
 
 " I won't go so far as that," he replied ; "but there 
 are some things that don't bear cultivation ; you 
 may spud thistles for ever, and not get rid of them, 
 but I question whether you would get a crop if you 
 sowed the seed and manured it. Not only are the 
 laws sadly defective and unequally administered, 
 but great practical blunders are made, which 
 occasionally counterbalance the benefit of pre- 
 servation ; for instance, because the fish crowded 
 too thickly on certain spawning beds, a late keeper 
 determined to make the beds of the streams all 
 spawning ground the Irish principle, of making 
 an apple pie all quinces and employed his army of
 
 "LONG TONY." 101 
 
 watchers in clearing out the big stones and rocks 
 that encumbered their channels. The consequence 
 was that the fish found no resting places, no pro- 
 tection from the strength of the stream, no dark 
 holes in which, under shade of the rock, to rest, 
 no harbour of refuge when pursued by otter or 
 poacher ; the falling off of the first year's hatch 
 was enormous. Another plan tried to increase the 
 number of the fish was that of destroying the white 
 trout, which swarmed in the water ; this attempt 
 was entirely successful, so far as the extirpation 
 of the trout went, but not an additional salmon 
 was ever found to occupy their vacant lodgings. 
 
 Again, he considered the absolute preservation of 
 the kelts as more than questionable policy ; no 
 doubt, he said, the weight of the old fish is thereby 
 increased, but the number and aggregate weight of 
 the whole are diminished. No one, he argued, keeps 
 an old bull, or an old horse, or an old animal of any 
 kind for breeding purposes. Your keeper kills down, 
 when and where he can, the old pheasants and par- 
 tridges, and the best plea for " driving " the latter 
 birds and the grouse is, that you slay the old ones. 
 An old kipper is as strong as he is savage ; he has 
 teeth like a cat's, and he exercises despotic sway 
 over the spawning beds, driving away, mutilating, 
 or killing, his younger, more vigorous, but less
 
 102 "LONG TONY." 
 
 powerful rivals. Add to this that the fish them- 
 selves, when well mended as in most waters they 
 become, are good, wholesome, and palatable food, 
 most acceptable to the poorer orders at any rate, 
 and it is absolutely sinful to insist upon their being 
 all returned to the water, more especially as a very 
 large proportion of them subsequently perish from 
 exhaustion. After the middle of March, he said, 
 let every man do as he thinks fit with the kelts he 
 takes, kill them, or return them to the water, give 
 them away, or eat them, as seems good in his 
 eyes.* 
 
 I confess I think there is much to be said in 
 favour of my friend's views. 
 
 * Lest it should be supposed that I am cribbing this idea from 
 the writers in the Field, who have recently so ably and forcibly 
 advocated it, I beg to say that I used the same argument six or 
 seven years since in the Autobiography of Salmo Salar, which 
 forms the first portion of Flood, Field, and Forest, and that I have 
 frequently written to the same effect in Land and Water.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 FAREWELL. 
 
 " HONOR, darlin', here's a letter for ye," was Mr. 
 Blake's greeting one morning, when my stay at 
 Bogleeze had been prolonged over three weeks ; 
 " and here's one for you too, Charlie ; who would 
 be at the trouble of writin' to either of ye beats 
 me intirely ! " 
 
 I should say that the post at Bogleeze was a 
 somewhat uncertain and desultory institution ; the 
 nearest post-office was more than twenty miles off, 
 and the delivery of the letters that accumulated 
 there was altogether a matter of chance. Some- 
 times a boy, sometimes a girl, in the hopes of a 
 shilling and a meal, would take their shoes off, 
 sling them on one side of their neck to balance the 
 post-bag on the other, and jog over the mountain, 
 appearing at breakfast, to return in the course of 
 the same day. Some excitement was of course 
 caused by the arrival of the letter-carrier, and our 
 host always went through the process of opening 
 the bag, and sorting and delivering the letters 
 personally*
 
 104 FAREWELL. 
 
 Honor blushed, I fancied, as she opened, and, 
 after looking into hers, left the room, informing her 
 uncle that " Cousin Phelim " Phalim, she pro- 
 nounced it might be expected to dinner that day. 
 My own epistle contained a peremptory order to 
 return at once to Alma Mater, and prosecute those 
 studies I had lately relinquished in favour of more 
 congenial ones. This was indeed a heavy blow, 
 and I felt like a whipt schoolboy, as, with Larry 
 for my companion, I started forth on what must be 
 for many a long day my last shooting expedition. 
 
 Our sport was, as usual, good, and the bag, 
 besides snipes, wild fowl, and grouse, contained six 
 or seven woodcocks, which were just arriving, and, 
 tired with their flight, lay well amid the thick 
 heather, and under the rare hollies. One singular 
 circumstance happened to-day ; I had shot a grouse, 
 which lay fluttering on the ground within twenty 
 yards of me. Don was looking idly on, Rap, as 
 usual, had started off in search of the survivors of 
 the family, I was reloading, when, with a mighty 
 rush and whistling of wing, an eagle swooped down, 
 passing within a yard of my head, and carried off 
 the grouse from under my nose, as it were. 
 
 The boldness of birds of the hawk kind when in 
 pursuit of their prey, especially of wounded birds, 
 is very great. I hardly ever wounded a snipe but
 
 FAREWELL. 105 
 
 it was at once chased by a pair of merlins, or other 
 small hawks, that appeared to have been "waiting" 
 on me for the chance ; but such cool impudence as 
 that of the eagle in question I never witnessed. 
 To destroy and devour wounded or unhealthy birds 
 is the mission of these " free lances " of the air, and 
 I long since came to the conclusion, whether I 
 was the first to do so I know not,* that the origin 
 of the grouse disease is that undue interference 
 with the laws of nature, which is involved in the 
 extirpation of what gamekeepers are pleased to 
 call " vermin," the hawks and kites, buzzards and 
 harriers, which formerly abounded on the bogs and 
 moors, and pounced down upon every sickly or 
 maimed bird, now left to perpetuate a diseased 
 and weakly progeny. 
 
 The same disposition to attack the weak, 
 wounded, and helpless is shown in fishes. A pike 
 will lie "hushed in grim repose," half hidden by 
 the weeds, for days together, whilst tender dace 
 and glittering bleak play about his very nose, and 
 no attempt is made to capture them ; but the 
 moment your bait, an impaled specimen of one of 
 
 * Mr. Jenes, author of the well-known and most amusing sporting 
 brochure, The Tomie-beg Shootings, assures me that he arrived at the 
 same conclusion many years since, indeed, on the first appearance 
 of the disease.
 
 106 FAREWELL. 
 
 these innocents, is brought under his notice, he 
 dashes at it in the mistaken idea that it is a. fish 
 in difficulties, which he is about to appropriate. 
 Hence, as I have said elsewhere,* it is a mistake to 
 make a spinning bait revolve too truly ; a slight 
 " wabble," indicative of weakness, is more capti- 
 vating. 
 
 We talked I mean Larry and I of the priest, 
 and his mode of dealing with his flock. Larry, as 
 I have said, held his Reverence in the highest 
 respect and dread ; but there was something comic 
 too in the poor fellow's account of his dealings with 
 his flock. 
 
 " It's little, yer 'onner, some of the poor creatures 
 have to live on, and no wonder there is more than 
 one ' dead man's pool ' j on the river. There's 
 Widow Macree now, she keeps Corney Bodkin's 
 Lodge, and there's a slip of a child left with her by 
 a son that's gone to 'Merikee ; she has just two 
 shillings a week to live on, divil a penny more, it's 
 God's truth." 
 
 " Does no one help her ? " 
 
 "And who is there to help her, barrin' the 
 
 * Vide Thames and Tweed, article " Pike." 
 
 t So called from the fact of a poor starved peasant having 
 crawled to the bank to die ; a flat stone would mark the spot 
 where he was found.
 
 FAREWELL. 107 
 
 masther here, and he's plenty as bad off nearer 
 home." 
 
 " But the priest, does he not visit her ? " 
 
 " Oh shure, his Rivirince visits her once a month." 
 
 " To help her, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Not at all ; he just calls for his dues, once a fort- 
 night* thim's a shilling." 
 
 " Marriage fees ? Faith, thin, they come mighty 
 hard on a poor boy. When I was married on 
 Biddy yonder you know I had a wife before 
 Biddy, and I thought his Rivirince would take less 
 the second time so I offered three half-crowns in 
 place of the fifteen shillings ; and if I did, I had 
 better have left it alone, for when he was just 
 comin' to the blessin' itself, he shuts up his book, 
 and turns away from the altar quite unconcerned 
 like. ' Shure,' says I, ' your Rivirince hasn't done 
 with us intirely, and you not put the blessin' on ? ' 
 ' Get up thin out of that, Larry,' he says ; ' get up 
 out of that, ye half-married vagabone you, ye 
 world's divarsion,' he says ; ' get up, and larn what 
 it is to chate your priest,' he says. Shure, I was 
 bound to pay the three half-crowns and another 
 along wi(;h them, and it's a joke his Rivirince has 
 agen me to this day." 
 
 With these and such like anecdotes Larry be- 
 
 * A fact !
 
 io8 FARE WELL. 
 
 guiled our walk, and it was nearly dinner-time 
 when we returned to the Lodge. Pat was there 
 with the car and the little bay mare, and Honor 
 stood on the steps joyfully greeting a tall man with 
 sandy whiskers, who was introduced to me as 
 " Cousin Phelim." A pang of jealousy crossed my 
 mind as I passed in, and perhaps something in my 
 manner towards Honor gave umbrage to the sen- 
 sitive Irishman, for I heard something like an 
 altercation between the pair as I stopped at the 
 thin deal door. 
 
 " Shure, Phalim," I heard the lady say, " he's 
 only a boy, and his mother's " 
 
 I did not catch the rest of the sentence, nor his 
 reply ; but Honor concluded sharply, 
 
 " I tell ye, Phalim, I'll do as I like ; and if you 
 make a fuss, I'll kiss him when he goes away to- 
 morrow." Will kiss him ! well, never mind ! 
 ****** 
 
 " Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest," 
 was my kind friend's motto, and at an early hour 
 next morning I found him at the door ; he was 
 engaged in lecturing my friend Tim, the carman. 
 
 "You'll take care of the fine young English 
 gentleman, now, Tim ! do you hear me ? and not 
 upset him. Are ye drunk now at all ? " 
 
 " Shure, Mr. Blake, and it's jokin' ye are ; I'm
 
 FAREWELL. 109 
 
 fastin' from all but sin this blessed mornin' and 
 for the young gintleman." 
 
 " Get along with ye, ye blaggard now ; and here's 
 a hunch of bread and meat, and Mrs. Maloney 
 shall bring ye a dhrop of the craythur; be careful 
 now, or I'll murder ye ! " 
 
 " God bless you, my dear boy ; come again and 
 see the old man." And so wringing my hand he 
 dismissed me. 
 
 Was Honor there ? she was ! and as she too 
 warmly squeezed my hand, I thought I saw a tear 
 in the corner of her eye, lighted up as it was by a 
 half smile. 
 
 " Good-bye, dear Charlie," she said, " good-bye ! 
 and " she stooped her head so closely to mine as 
 I sat in the car that they nearly touched "re- 
 member what I said at the planting road 
 
 " ' A man may not marry his grandmotlier ! / / " 
 ****** 
 
 Light and buoyant is the spirit of youth, fresh 
 and elastic the morning air, the road was soft and 
 springy, the little mare fresh as a kitten, the car- 
 driver elate and happy. 
 
 " Ar-r-r-r ! now, get out of that, ye schamer ! 
 get along wid ye" striking with his whip as 
 though he would cut the willing little beast in 
 half, but carefully abstaining from touching her ;
 
 no FAREWELL. 
 
 11 whoop, ye Tory ! get along out of that, I bid 
 ye ! " then, turning to me, as the little mare, with a 
 cock of her eye over the ragged blinkers and a 
 whisk of her hairless tail, evidently appreciated 
 the joke, he said, "A grate little mare that, yer 
 'onner. I've driv' her forty English miles every 
 day this blessed week, barrin' Sunday ! " and then, 
 suddenly changing the subject; "A foine gintle- 
 man, Mr. Blake, God bless him ! yer 'onner was 
 in good quarters at Bogleeze, I go bail ; and the 
 young lady, shure she's like a waxy potato 
 good all through." 
 
 I cordially acquiesced in the praises of my late 
 host, and more guardedly in those of Miss Honor ; 
 but I can't help thinking the rascal had a notion 
 of my feelings (though I confess their warmth had 
 considerably abated within the last twelve hours), 
 and proceeded : 
 
 " Mr. Phalim, too, is a likely boy ; but it's a pity 
 Miss Honor had not a better bargain a young 
 English gintleman, now." 
 
 " And who is Mr. Phelim ? " asked I. 
 
 " He's just an agent, yer 'onner." 
 
 " Is he a good one, a popular one, I mean ? " 
 
 " Faith, thin. I'll say no harm of him ; there's 
 many worse the Corrigans now." 
 
 " Are they bad ? " 
 
 " Sift hell, yer 'onner, you'll not find two worse.
 
 FAREWELL. in 
 
 Faith, Mr. Phalim had a mighty narrow escape 
 in regard of being taken for Mick Corrigan. A 
 strange boy came up to him down beyant there, 
 with a note in his hand ' Here's a letter for yer 
 'onner, Mr. Corrigan ! ' he says. ' It's not for 
 me at all/ says Mr. Phalim. ' Thin,' says the 
 man, ' you ain't Mr. Mick Corrigan.' ' I am not,' 
 says he. 'And faith,' says the man, laughing^ 
 * it's lucky for yer 'onner ! ' I did not quite see 
 the joke, which Tim explained. 
 
 " You see, he had a pistol in his other hand, and 
 he'd have shot him dead if he'd owned to the 
 name. It was mighty cute and thoughtful of the 
 boy." 
 
 A short silence ensued ; but my friend, who ab- 
 horred silence as nature abhors a vacuum, speedily 
 resumed the conversation. 
 
 " Do you see yonder goat ? " he asked, pointing 
 to a venerable patriarch, which, perched on the 
 apex of a small hill, the summit of the mountain 
 pass we had long been ascending, showed boldly 
 in profile against the sky-line. " He's like our 
 Irish gintlemen : mighty small means, but grate 
 prospects ! " 
 
 Turning from the figurative present to the well- 
 remembered past, I asked, apropos to nothing, 
 what sort of woman was Mistress Maloney ? 
 
 " She's a foine lady is Misthress Maloney, and
 
 112 FAREWELL. 
 
 straight and stiff for all the world like the kitchen 
 poker" after a pause " barriri it's occasional 
 warmth; but Miss Honor, yer 'onner, she's like a 
 barrel of buttermilk. 
 
 " Hurroo ! hoop ! hoop ! ! " 
 
 And away, at the rate of good twelve miles an 
 hour my eccentric friend commenced the descent 
 of the mountain, the top of which we had gained 
 by two hours' toilsome travelling. Facilis descensus, 
 this' side was far steeper than that we had as- 
 cended, and as we clattered along I was fain to 
 hold on to the car rail to prevent my flying off at 
 a tangent, in which case I should have been as 
 inevitably killed as if I had been thrown from an 
 Alpine precipice. 
 
 Whir-r-r ! Whir-r-r ! Grind ! Grind ! 
 "What's that? Holdhard!" I cried; "the wheel's 
 coming off. Hold hard! stop!!" I roared once 
 more, as Tim, looking calmly over his shoulder, 
 quietly asked, 
 
 "Is the wheel coming off?" 
 Almost by force I compelled a halt, just as the 
 grinding wheel had ceased to whirl, and the foot- 
 board rested on the ground. Tim descended from 
 his perch, and, whip in hand, after administering 
 a soothing " pur-r-r " to the mare (an English 
 driver would have given his horse a job on the
 
 FAREWELL. 113 
 
 curb, a curse, and perhaps a kick in the ribs) pro- 
 ceeded to inspect the seat of the disaster ; looking 
 narrowly at the axle-tree, he exclaimed, with an 
 approving chuckle : 
 
 " Thim boys ! the jokers ! they've been and took 
 the linch-pin out ! " 
 
 I remembered now that when we had stopped 
 half way up the mountain, two or three friends of 
 Tim had held a good deal of chaffing conversation 
 with him, mostly in Irish, and had bid him farewell 
 in a rather tumultuous and joking manner. 
 
 " Sit aisy, yer 'onner, till I fix it ; " and dis- 
 appearing in the direction of a snug cabin, that 
 stood a little way off the road, Tim left me with the 
 mare and the broken car. In a short time he 
 returned, and taking up a flint, hammered some- 
 thing into the vacant hole in the axle. 
 
 " What have you got ? " asked I. 
 
 " A linch-pin, shure ! " 
 
 " A linch-pin ! where did you get it ? " 
 
 " Faith, thin, I tuk it out of the car up tteyant 
 there ! " 
 
 And away we went at the same break-neck pace 
 as before. 
 
 " God bless yer 'onner ! long life to yer 'onner ! " 
 was Tim's parting, as, applied to another person, 
 
 I
 
 "4 FAREWELL. 
 
 it had been his introductory blessing. Very kindly 
 he meant it, and very kindly I took it. 
 
 I love the Irish, and I love their country ; 
 neither is perfection ; but, heaven mend us ! 
 neither are we ; their faults are mostly those of 
 the head, not of the heart ; and when faults crop 
 up into crimes, it is more from ignorance and bad 
 teaching than natural depravity. Few Irishmen 
 have the gift of ruling well ; but, if ruled well, there 
 are no better labourers, no brave-r soldiers, no more 
 fervent preachers, no more eloquent lawyers, no 
 warmer friends. 
 
 It is not without regret that I bring to a close 
 these trifling sketches of sports and incidents, some 
 of which did, and all of which might have hap- 
 pened might happen now in the wilder districts 
 of that hospitable country. I have drawn both 
 upon my memory and my invention, and doubtless 
 the astute reader will readily distinguish between 
 the two bearing in mind, however, that the vrai 
 is not always the vraisemblable. 
 
 ****** 
 
 And what, my reader will ask, was the result of 
 my flirtation with Miss O'Hara ? Did I pine away, 
 lose my exam., or my appetite, or waste a portion 
 of my life in unavailing regret ?
 
 FAREWELL. 115 
 
 Certainly not ! men, young men especially, get 
 over these little maladies with singular ease. 
 
 "Love flows like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide." 
 
 And when, after a lapse of years, I met my fair 
 friend, it was with sincerest pleasure, but with un- 
 quickened pulse, I beheld a buxom dame, " fat, fair, 
 and forty," who presented to me, with conscious 
 pride, six or seven chubby-faced youngsters, 
 bearing a striking resemblance to my old acquaint- 
 ance " Phalim." 
 
 We parted, months and years rolled by, 
 
 We met again some summers after ; 
 Our parting was all sob and sigh, 
 
 Our meeting was all mirth and laughter. 
 For in my heart's most secret cell 
 
 There had been many other lodgers ; 
 She was not now the ball-room belle, 
 
 But only Mrs. Phalim Rogers. 
 
 I 2
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
 
 A WALK THROUGH THE "PHCENIX 
 PARK," DUBLIN. 
 
 DUBLIN was described long since as the " say- 
 bathinest, tay-drinkinest, car - drivinest, place in 
 Christendom, flogged the world for divarsion." 
 The description may be trustworthy, but to a 
 stranger, a Sunday spent within its precincts is apt 
 to prove rather triste, and when, on my return 
 from the west, thanks to the slowness and un- 
 punctuality of the railway, I found myself con- 
 strained to spend that day within them, I felt 
 considerable anxiety on the subject either of 
 amusement or employment : the Protestant portion 
 of Ireland is indeed quite on a par with England in 
 respect of the sad, if not bitter, observance of the 
 day of rest. 
 
 Breakfast and church were over by twelve 
 o'clock, for they keep early hours in Dublin, and
 
 120 THE PHCENIX PARK. 
 
 it was with a feeling of gratitude, akin to that 
 which Lord Tom Noddy felt towards Tiger Tim 
 when 
 
 " He said, as the door behind him swung, 
 An't please you, my lord, there's a man to be hung ! " 
 
 that I accepted the hint of my friend Pat, the 
 " Boots " of the Hibernian Hotel : 
 
 " Shure, yer 'onner should see the Phaynix 
 Park!" 
 
 I had often heard of the beauty and extent of the 
 park, and determined at once to visit it ; accord- 
 ingly, I took my seat on one of those tramway- 
 cars which are found both a convenience and a 
 luxury in Dublin, and are patronized by every 
 class, although in our more crowded thoroughfares 
 they seem to be looked upon with an unfavour- 
 able eye. 
 
 My course lay along the banks of the Liffey a 
 turbid stream, swelled by the recent rains, and 
 hardly contained within its stone-supported banks. 
 Flecks of white foam, like snowballs, dot the surface, 
 a few boats struggle against the surging water, nets 
 hang in festoons from the walls, and foaming 
 torrents roll in from flooded sewers, hundreds ol 
 gulls flit, like swallows, above and about, ever 
 dipping down, making a feint, but never, or but
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 121 
 
 rarely, settling on its surface, ever, like Dickens's 
 Nadgett, apparently expecting to meet with some- 
 thing, or somebody, which or who never comes. 
 Gulls somehow seem out of place in the midst of a 
 busy and great city, but everything in Ireland is out 
 of place, or appears so to our unaccustomed eye. 
 
 Leaving the car, I enter the park, and before I 
 have got well past the ugly monument, which, a 
 friendly potboy tells me, was erected to com- 
 memorate Wellington and his victories, I am 
 strikingly impressed with its magnitude and supe- 
 riority in every respect to our own comparatively 
 small and stupidly subdivided enclosures, Hyde 
 Park and Kensington Gardens. The extent of the 
 Phoenix I do not know, but it must be very con- 
 siderable, and is, with good taste, left as far as 
 possible in a state of nature ; iron railings are rare ? 
 iron hurdles unknown. 
 
 Turning to the left, I find myself in a thicket of 
 ancient thorn-trees, standing singly, many covered 
 with a luxuriant growth of ivy, and opening here 
 and there to beautiful views of the Wicklow 
 mountains and the rapid river looking bright in 
 the distance. Some thrushes and blackbirds are 
 hard at work with the berries, a colony of long- 
 tailed tits flits before me, and a redbreast dribbles 
 out its cheery wintry note from the branch above ;
 
 122 THE PHCENIX PARK. 
 
 a magpie's nest on a lofty tree, and another in an 
 ancient thorn, speak ever more openly of the 
 country, and I could fancy myself in some wild 
 part of the New Forest ; only a magpie's nest would 
 there be a real novelty. A bright rapid stream, 
 probably swelled like the Liffey into abnormal 
 dimensions, tumbles along beside my path, and the 
 scenery gets wilder and more beautiful every 
 moment. Presently I come in view of the Vice- 
 regal Lodge, a spacious white edifice, ugly, but 
 comfortable-looking enough. 
 
 Close at hand lay two fine bucks, and I marvel 
 at their apparent good-fellowship, knowing the 
 habits of the animal in October. While mentally 
 attributing their strange quietude to the fact that 
 they are Irish, and of course different from any 
 other bucks, they both rise together, and I then see 
 that the two have been combatants, fighting until, 
 like the warriors of old, they have lain down to 
 rest, mutually exhausted. The victor, a black 
 buck, with superb horns, is, as frequently happens, 
 in sad case ; besides the punishment received from 
 his adversary, he has been gored in the side, 
 probably by some jealous youngster, " a felon 
 knight" who has caught him at a disadvantage 
 when engaged with his adversary ; he is, besides,
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 123 
 
 so lame behind he can hardly hobble. If the white 
 beast who, in far better condition, flees before him 
 did but know his crippled condition, he would find 
 courage to reply to his fierce defiant bellow, and 
 speedily turn the tables. But the white buck does 
 not know this, and, terrified by the other's fierce 
 threats, and mindful of his recent defeat, trots 
 limpingly away towards the distant herd, the black 
 avenger still, pede clatido, pursuing. A fresh episode 
 in deer life here presents itself. Another fine buck, 
 fresh and stalwart, heading a small detachment of 
 does, fawns, and young males, appears on the 
 scene. Why does he stamp and bound from one 
 side to the other, bellowing, threatening with his 
 horns, now rushing at one, now at another of his 
 followers ? Even the does are menaced : the cause 
 is soon apparent. They are minded to go towards 
 the herd, and thither, in spite of his efforts, they 
 wend. As they approach an answering bellow is 
 heard, and a grand old buck dashing forward, puts 
 to flight, after a few passes, the would-be leader of 
 the clan. To quote Bombastes 
 
 " So have I heard another lion roar, 
 And the first lion thought the last a bore." 
 
 Approaching under cover of the trees, I now enjoy
 
 124 THE PHCENIX PARK. 
 
 a very interesting sight in watching the manoeuvres 
 of the herd. Although jealousy is rampant, there 
 does not appear such malignity of hatred among the 
 bucks in general as that which inflamed the in- 
 dividuals I had just seen. Perhaps they were 
 political as well as personal enemies. As a rule 
 there was more talk than fight, each buck "belling" 
 out his pugnacious or amorous feeling at the top, or 
 rather the bottom, of his voice, and occasionally 
 engaging in what really appeared a mock combat, 
 just to pass the time and amuse the ladies. 
 
 The conduct of the does, too of some among 
 them at least was both curious and amusing. 
 Couching down on the grass, her graceful neck 
 stretched flat upon it, a mottled young doe would 
 repose in the most natural and unaffected manner. 
 A broad-antlered old buck, threatening all others 
 with his horns, trots " corkily " up, and putting his 
 nose down to hers, whispers, or grunts, some soft 
 nonsense in her ear, to which she, lifting up her 
 innocent eyes, replies in soft and peculiar accents, 
 something between the anxious whine of a spaniel 
 and the cooing of a dove. The old beau is more 
 than satisfied by his reception, and bellows forth 
 his triumph. Next moment she is on her legs, 
 careering away with the fleetness of the wind, 
 "fugit in salices" the gallant old gentleman, who
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 125 
 
 is somewhat scant of breath, following in her wake, 
 at the best pace he can muster. 
 
 Such bare- faced flirting would never be allowed 
 in a London drawing-room at any period of the 
 season, or in any society. 
 
 So far as my observations went, the theory of 
 " selection of the fittest " was utterly ignored. 
 The moment the " antlered monarch " for the time 
 being was absent, engaged perhaps in mortal 
 combat with an equally worthy rival, some hitherto 
 retiring swain would bound forward and proffer his 
 attentions, which would be received with the same 
 graceful compliant gesture, the same murmur of 
 acquiescence, as she had bestowed on her previous 
 admirers. The truth is that selection is all moon- 
 shine. That good-looking, retiring, modest young 
 fellow is worth a dozen of the hoary, strong- 
 antlered monarchs of the herd who keep him and 
 his fellows at bay. " None but the brave deserve 
 the fair " ; brute strength and offensive weapons 
 among brutes carry the day, as rank and wealth do 
 among mortals. The theory is a piece of scientific 
 humbug, utterly unsupported by proof, and abso- 
 lutely contradicted by fact, as every observer of 
 nature well knows. 
 
 Passing on, I come to a broad, level course, half 
 a mile wide ; four, weedy racehorses have just
 
 126 THE PHCENIX PARK. 
 
 taken their gallop, or perhaps had a trial spin. 
 They are smoking after their exertion, and their 
 attendants are diligently mopping their reeking 
 sides, their saddles, bridles, and paraphernalia 
 lying in separate heaps. It seems strange, some- 
 how, on a Sunday morning ; but I have heard that 
 such things sometimes occur in parts of England, 
 and, at any rate, like little Alice in Wonderland, 
 one soon ceases to be surprised at anything in 
 Ireland. Hard by, some fifteen or twenty lads 
 are busily engaged in athletic sports, running, 
 jumping, leap-frog, what not ? A desecration of 
 the Sabbath, no doubt, but, gentle reader, every 
 one of these lads heard mass before you were out 
 of bed in the morning. Yonder saturnine man, 
 dressed in tight-fitting, not over-new, clothes, with 
 close-shaved crown, seedy low-crowned hat, and 
 small outward vestige of linen, regarding their 
 gambols with no unkindly eye, would, at the first 
 sign of riot or excess, be down upon them with 
 upbraiding voice and gesture ; if necessary, with 
 heavy blows, which, albeit he is personally un- 
 known to them, would be borne not only uncom- 
 plainingly, but reverentially. Great is the power of 
 the priests in Ireland. 
 
 I am now at the rear of the Viceregal Lodge, 
 and I see that this side of the park is bounded by
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 127 
 
 a massive wall, with holes cut into it here and 
 there for ingress and egress. Ugly as is the front 
 of the Lodge, the rear is still uglier, but the 
 grounds appear to be tastefully laid out, and on 
 the other side of the deep ha-ha which bounds it is 
 a pleasant wood, stretching down to a lake, with a 
 broad gravel-walk here and there open to view. 
 A tall handsome man, with a long red beard, is 
 pointed out by one of a gazing crowd as the 
 Viceroy himself. He might have been the Vice- 
 regal gardener for anything I knew to the contrary, 
 but I think my informer was right as to the 
 identity. We worship rank in England, but in 
 Ireland it is idolized, and the veriest cad knows 
 every man of title by sight. 
 
 A sullen roar proclaims my vicinity to the 
 Zoological Gardens, and feeling a wish to inspect 
 them, I approach the gate in the subdued hope 
 that some good Samaritan may give me a ticket 
 of admission. To my surprise and delight, I find 
 that in Dublin, so far from Sunday being an ex- 
 clusive day set apart for the visits of the Upper 
 Ten, or the very bad imitation of the Upper Ten 
 which on Sundays infest our own Zoological 
 Gardens, the populace are invited to them on 
 payment of the small entrance fee of one penny. 
 I cannot conceive a greater improvement on the
 
 128 THE PH(EN1X PARK. 
 
 system than would be effected by the adoption of 
 this admirable arrangement in our own favoured 
 institution. 
 
 The gardens themselves excel our own in point 
 of beauty, as much as do the parks their rivals 
 here. Prettily wooded, tastefully laid out, stretch- 
 ing down to a beautiful lake, they possess every 
 natural advantage; and were it not that an air 
 of poverty pervades the place, they would beat us 
 at every point. I do not hesitate to say that, as a 
 rule, the beasts in their wretched ramshackle dens, 
 which do not seem even tolerably safe, are far 
 better in health, and consequently in appearance, 
 than our own. It is notorious that where one 
 young lion or tiger is produced in England, ten 
 are born and bred in Ireland. Perhaps the de- 
 sultory and intermittent mode of feeding con- 
 sequent upon a limited exchequer has something 
 to do with this. Lions and tigers in a state of 
 nature gorge themselves one day in the week, and 
 of necessity fast the greater part of the remainder. 
 The daily rations of shinbone and neck of mutton 
 are all very well for soldiers and sailors, but are 
 apt to produce apoplectic symptoms in a caged 
 wild beast. 
 
 There were several points of difference in 
 the conduct of the gardens, I observed, some of
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 129 
 
 which merely struck me as novelties, and some I 
 think might be worthy of Mr. Bartlett's considera- 
 tion. The bears, for instance, present a striking 
 contrast in appearance to the mangy brutes that 
 occupy the damp well in our own gardens. 
 Instead of wet pavement and damp walls, they are 
 provided with ample tanks of water, in which they 
 constantly disport themselves ; their fur is in con- 
 sequence as black and clean and glossy as that 
 which constitutes a lady's muff. Even the sun- 
 bears, the black, lazy, naked-snouted beasts which 
 may be seen in our gardens lolling on their backs, 
 sucking oranges, in the summer, have a great cold 
 bath at their disposal, and with the trunk of a tree 
 stretched across it, indulge themselves, as I was 
 assured, in taking headers during the summer 
 months. Cold as the day was, one of the three 
 was more than half immersed when I saw them, 
 and all were in the highest state of health and 
 condition. The great birds the ostriches, the 
 emus, etc. were in magnificent plumage ; so were 
 the hawks, far better than our own, though worse 
 lodged ; their cages were quite unworthy of them. 
 There is a pair of condors that would make a 
 morning meal of those in our gardens, fine as they 
 are, and think nothing of it. In the aquarium, 
 which, though poorly furnished, presents the same 
 
 K
 
 130 THE PHOENIX PARK. 
 
 appearance of a thorough acquaintance with the 
 habits and requirements of the fish, I saw nothing 
 very remarkable, but I learned that many fresh- 
 water fish the common eel, for instance, minnows, 
 sticklebacks, and gudgeons would live just as 
 well in salt water as in fresh. There is but one 
 elephant, a fine beast, which takes his station 
 opposite the bun shop, not for buns, but for 
 pennies to buy them with, expending such as are 
 given to him with great discrimination. 
 
 The lake itself, though, is the great feature of 
 the place ; cranes and storks wander along the 
 margin, ducks of various kinds dot the surface, 
 coots and moorhens nestle in the weeds, dabchicks, 
 and divers perpetually turn up their comical little 
 tails and seek their food in the depths below, 
 whilst gulls of all sorts, geese of varied breed and 
 strange plumage, dark, uncanny cormorants, and 
 splendid pelicans, float at their ease on the still 
 surface of the water. The garden is a pleasant 
 place, and great credit is due to its managers. I 
 wish that our Council would from their superfluity 
 grant some much-wanted aid to their poorer 
 brethren. Our Zoo has too much money at its 
 disposal. 
 
 "Did I ever tell you," asks Jack Brag, "what
 
 THE PHCENIX PARK. 131 
 
 my father did when he lost a hundred -pound 
 note ? " 
 
 " No," says Lord Tom, not much caring. 
 
 " Went home and got another" 
 
 When we lose a valuable bird or beast, we just 
 go to Jamrach, or somebody else, and "get 
 another" 
 
 K 2
 
 A FEW PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 EXCEPTING to sell, there are few more difficult 
 things than to buy a horse. A few hints derived 
 from the practical experience of some forty years, 
 during which I have always been owner of from 
 two to five horses of all sorts, and adapted at 
 least, used for all purposes, may not be out of 
 place, or entirely useless to my readers. 
 
 " A buyer," some one somewhere says, " has need 
 of a hundred eyes ; the seller, but of one." It is 
 to the former, therefore, that I address myself; 
 and without any expectation of adding the extra 
 ninety-and-eight, I may hope, to some extent, to 
 open the two he now possesses. 
 
 " Never buy a horse of a friend," is a maxim I 
 have insisted on elsewhere ; a fortiori, " never buy 
 of a stranger." The markets for the intended 
 horse keeper are, therefore, restricted to three 
 sources horse dealers, commission agents, or 
 public auction. The first two are in many respects 
 similar at least, the same knowledge is required 
 for both ; the principal dogma I would enforce is, 
 to be quite sure you know what it is you want ; it
 
 HORSE DEALING. 133 
 
 is astonishing how much trouble would be saved, 
 and how much disappointment avoided, if gentle- 
 men would really ascertain that point for them- 
 selves before they enter a dealer's or commission 
 agent's yards. There is a story told by Old 
 Jorrocks in Handley Cross, of a dealer who, after 
 showing an undecided customer all sorts of horses, 
 adapted for all sorts of work, which had been, one 
 after the other, declined, insisted upon running 
 down a cow for inspection. Many men go into 
 a yard without any definite idea whether it is a 
 horse or a cow they want. 
 
 Assuming you know what you are really looking 
 for, assuming you have plenty of money, and 
 assuming you to be acquainted with an honest 
 dealer by no means so rare a being as people 
 are in the habit of supposing no teaching is 
 necessary ; in fact, the less you know the better. 
 Do not be ashamed of confessing the ignorance 
 you enjoy in common with at least ninety-nine out 
 of a hundred of your fellow creatures; on the 
 contrary, acknowledge it, state your want, be it 
 hack, hunter, or harness horse, and confide in the 
 dealer as you would in any other tradesman. I do 
 not say refuse a warranty, though I would, person- 
 ally, neither ask for nor give one ; but, warranted 
 or not, if you are prepared to pay a good price, it is
 
 134 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 to the dealer's interest to supply you with a good 
 horse, if he have one ; and should the animal not 
 turn out what you expected, whether warranted or 
 not, the seller will take him back, change and 
 exchange again, until you are suited. This, as I 
 have said, is the simplest, the least troublesome, 
 and many think, in the end, the cheapest plan. I 
 know of no more unfair or unmerited stigma than 
 that which, in the minds of many, attaches to the 
 trade of horse dealing. There are, of course, low 
 and dishonest dealers in horses, as there are in all 
 commodities, but the body is not to be judged by 
 them. There are probably as good an average of 
 honest, high-minded men in that trade as in any 
 other, but they labour under great disadvantages. 
 Their traffic is in the most uncertain, varying, and 
 hard-to-judge-of article in existence. A gold- 
 smith can assay his gold, or test his silver ; very 
 moderate experience will enable the merchant to 
 judge the quality of wine, or silk, or wool; a 
 timber dealer knows a sound log when he sees it ; 
 but the most astute and long-practised of horse 
 dealers may fail to discover hidden defects in a 
 colt, and young horses he must have, for his 
 customers insist upon having them young, though, 
 in, by far the greater number of instances, a 
 seasoned old one, if sound, would suit them ten
 
 HORSE DEALING. 13$ 
 
 times better. Then there are the infantile diseases 
 to which horseflesh is heir, more numerous possibly 
 than those which afflict our own babies ; there are 
 the results of change of diet, change of treatment, 
 change of water, to be guarded against ; and 
 finally the dealer has to contend with the igno- 
 rance of the purchaser, more commonly still of his 
 groom, and with the whims and fancies of both. 
 A horse dealer is after all a man, liable, as all men 
 are, to err in judgment, and, as I have said, may 
 have overlooked a latent defect in his purchase. 
 If it be so, he pays the penalty, whether unsound- 
 ness or vice appear in course of nature or brought 
 on by injudicious treatment; the warranty is at 
 once resorted to, the animal, which has suffered not 
 only in quality but in character, is returned, and 
 the loss is pocketed if the seller be wise ; for when 
 did a horse dealer ever get justice at the hands of a 
 British jury ? A cab-driver might as well expect it 
 at those of a police magistrate. 
 
 I have touched on this the first part of my 
 subject at greater length than I intended, but I 
 will treat the second more briefly. The commis- 
 sion agent acts the part of a broker, or go-between 
 only. His business is much more simple than that 
 of the dealer, and there are many advantages in 
 purchasing from a yard of established reputation.
 
 136 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 One great one is that you get no warranty, and in 
 consequence, if you make a bad purchase, the 
 mischief ends there ; you don't buy a lawsuit into 
 the bargain. In lieu of a warranty, you will gene- 
 rally be shown the owner's description, and should 
 he be unknown to you, it may be well worth in- 
 quiring his character before you accept, implicitly, 
 that he gives to his horse. A veterinary examina- 
 tion is also allowed, and if, as stated before, you 
 really know what you want, it is more than pro- 
 bable you may be suited equally well from a 
 commission stable as from a horse-dealer's yard, 
 and at less than half the cost. 
 
 The third, and, to my mind, the best mode of 
 purchasing a horse remains that is, " at auction " ; 
 and here some practical suggestions cannot but be 
 of use to such purchasers as may have had little 
 experience in the art for art it is, of horse dealing. 
 Of course, it is open to the buyer to employ a 
 " vet." to examine the animal he proposes to buy, 
 but that begs the whole question ; I am speaking 
 to those who buy on their own judgment. Besides, 
 so long as you pay a man ten-and-sixpence to pick 
 holes in a horse, it will probably be a good while 
 before you buy one at all. Incipient spavins, 
 curby hocks, light bone, flat feet, splints, thrushes, 
 blemishes, will be pointed out or suggested, until
 
 HORSE DEALING. 137 
 
 you wonder where and how any mortal has ever 
 succeeded in buying a sound horse. Yet sound 
 horses are to be bought, and good horses ; and at 
 Tattersall's, amongst unsound and bad ones, many 
 are sold every Monday in the year. If you reflect 
 how many of your friends have sold really valuable 
 horses at comparatively low prices, it must be 
 obvious that bargains are to be had occasionally, 
 at least at the Albert Gate establishment. 
 
 As a rule, unless you are personally acquainted 
 with the animals and their owner, avoid " studs." 
 It is a too common practice to send up ten or 
 twelve horses at the end of the season especially 
 without the least intention, on the owner's part, 
 of selling a single good one out of the lot. The 
 large reserved prices up to which those reserves 
 are run spreads a halo of fictitious value over 
 their stable companions, and many a horse is 
 knocked down at one or two hundred guineas, 
 which, had he come out early as " a bay, or brown 
 gelding," would not have realized thirty. Besides, 
 there is always the danger, when you purchase 
 from the stable of a well-known rider across 
 country, that you may " buy the fiddle, but not 
 tht fiddle-stick" 
 
 Horses are rarely intentionally, at least " war- 
 ranted " at Tattersall's ; but sometimes a seller does
 
 138 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 this through ignorance of the effect of the words 
 he uses in his description, and more frequently a 
 purchaser thinks he has a warranty when none 
 is really given. " A good hunter " implies a good 
 deal ; sound in wind, reasonably quiet to ride, 
 sound in eyes ; but he may be as lame as you 
 please. Of course he ought to gallop and jump ; 
 but the first is a relative quality, and the last 
 depends a good deal on the hand and nerve of 
 the rider. " A good hack " is about as dangerous 
 a description as can be given. It implies the 
 absence of every fault and the presence of every 
 virtue in horse nature. " A good hack " is sound 
 all over ; he neither shies, nor kicks, nor rears, 
 nor stumbles ; he is quiet, temperate, and light 
 in hand. I trust readers will think twice before 
 they enter a horse for sale as " a good hack." 
 " Quiet in harness, or to ride," speaks for itself. 
 The danger in such a warranty is in the chance 
 of some unprincipled scoundrel purchasing the 
 horse and designedly causing him to jib or kick 
 when tried in harness or the saddle. Nothing is 
 easier than to cause such a result in the quietest 
 horse, and the animal, being returned, is bought, 
 at half-price, by a confederate the next week. As 
 a rule, the less said the better : " a bay gelding," 
 " a brown mare," are descriptions which can hardly
 
 HORSE DEALING. 139 
 
 be controverted, and save a deal of trouble. To 
 warrant a horse " sound " at Tattersall's is folly. 
 Every man, the moment he has purchased a 
 horse, repents of having done so, and looks out 
 for the chance of returning him. A skilful and 
 unscrupulous vet. will assuredly furnish him with 
 a sufficient reason, or a sufficient ground ; and 
 then there is always the " cough " to fall back on 
 that " cough " so invariably attendant on a three 
 days' sojourn at Tattersall's. How can it be 
 otherwise ? A horse is a hardy animal, and can 
 stand change of temperature as well as any ; but 
 besides the unavoidable draughts when doors are 
 constantly opened and shut, a good-looking horse 
 is in and out every ten minutes, and is exposed, 
 besides, to the brutal throat-pinchings which every 
 lounger about the yard seems to consider he is 
 entitled, with or without reason or object, to inflict 
 on the poor beast, which is, not uncommonly, 
 seriously injured by the process. A horse de- 
 scribed as " a hunter," as we have said, is war- 
 ranted as to his wind, and he at least ought not 
 to be subjected to this process. 
 
 Why do not Messrs. Tattersall and Paine, both 
 humane as well as clever men, stop it ? they could 
 do so, if they pleased, at once, and by the exercise 
 of their own undoubted and recognized authority
 
 I 4 o HORSE DEALING. 
 
 in their own yard. I venture to suggest the follow- 
 ing course: let a competent veterinary be em- 
 ployed, let him examine at the vendor's expense, 
 for a moderate fee, say five shillings, any horse 
 whose wind is intended to be warranted, and permit 
 no " pinching " to be inflicted on horses that have 
 passed the ordeal. 
 
 To pass from generals to particulars, we will 
 assume that some confiding reader, unblest with a 
 groom whose sanction he is bound to obtain, or 
 critical friend, of whose opinion, to be given after 
 the result, he stands in awe, has determined 
 to purchase, on his own judgment, a horse at 
 Tattersall's. 
 
 He will walk, say on Saturday afternoon, quietly 
 through the earlier numbered stables ; the later 
 ones are mostly occupied by studs, with the 
 individual members of which, unless he has some 
 personal knowledge, he had, as we have before 
 said, better not meddle. Having selected a horse 
 apparently suitable to his purpose, he refers to his 
 catalogue ; he finds him described as " a good 
 hunter," more probably as "well known with the 
 Blankshire hounds." In the first case, as I have 
 stated, the animal is " warranted " as to the eyes and 
 wind, two main points which greatly simplify the 
 matter, but excepting that more caution is neces-
 
 HORSE DEALING. 141 
 
 sary, it need not be assumed that the other animal 
 is unsound in either respect. 
 
 Many persons have such a horror of anything 
 approaching a "warranty," they would hardly 
 venture to describe an animal as " a bay mare." 
 It is as well to watch the horse's movements 
 carefully, though unobtrusively, for some minutes 
 before you examine him. If he be a wind-sucker 
 or a cribber detestable vices he will assuredly 
 show it, the more so that you are observing him, 
 for they are both nervous tricks. If he have a 
 " favourite " leg, he will probably rest it ; and re- 
 member that the smallest indication of "pointing" 
 is proof, positive and absolute, of unsoundness. 
 
 If no such signs appear, walk boldly but quietly 
 up, speaking to him as you go ; your catalogue has 
 been thrust into your pocket, and you have neither 
 stick, whip, nor umbrella in your hand wherewith 
 to terrify him. 
 
 The first point to ascertain is his height, a most 
 difficult one to "judge of without actual measure- 
 ment in large, lofty stables, like those of Tatter- 
 sail's. Indeed, there are few things more deceptive 
 than the apparent height of a horse, under any 
 circumstances. Standing close to his shoulder, 
 bring your nose down till it touch the skin below 
 the withers. This, assuming your height to be
 
 142 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 about five feet nine inches, will show as nearly 
 fifteen hands as possible : the excess, three, four, 
 or five inches, is readily calculated. I consider a 
 trifle under sixteen hands about the best height for 
 a hunter. You will then look into his eye, which 
 should be clear, reflecting, as in a mirror, the image 
 of your own sweet self. It is impossible to judge 
 accurately of the moral qualities of a horse under 
 such circumstances ; but if, when you " gentle " him, 
 he answers to the caress by arching his neck, and 
 poking his nose into your hand, you may be as- 
 sured that he is quiet, at least in the stable, and 
 has kept good company. A white mark on the 
 upper part of the throat betokens a, cribber ; it 
 has been caused by the strap used to check that 
 objectionable and readily communicated habit. A 
 like mark above the hock indicates a kicker in the 
 stable, swelled hocks a kicker out of it as well. A 
 mark on the knee speaks for itself ; " let no such 
 horse be trusted." 
 
 The next point to ascertain is the horse's age ; it 
 is not probable you can do this accurately ; but by 
 placing your left hand gently on his nose, and 
 passing your finger behind the tusk, you will 
 ascertain its shape and dimensions ; if long and 
 round, the horse is old, if short and sharp, young ; 
 if short and ragged, the tusk has been broken, to 
 give a fictitious appearance of youth ; but the
 
 HORSE DEALING. 143 
 
 sunken eye and hanging lip will, to a practised eye 
 at least, afford an unerring proof of age. A young 
 horse will probably not object to your examining 
 the rest of his teeth, and although you may not 
 know his age within a year or two, the black bean- 
 like marks, if apparent, will at least show that the 
 horse is young. 
 
 The fore legs are the next to be examined a 
 mqst important point. Pass your hand down the 
 front of each, clasping the bone with finger and 
 thumb. If clean and smooth, and flat and cool, it 
 is all right. A slight bony excrescence, known as a 
 splint, if not touching or very near to the sinews, is 
 not of much account, but a horse should have what 
 are called " clean " legs. The sinews themselves 
 should stand out firm, hard, and prominent. 
 Broken knees you will, of course, be on the look 
 out for. 
 
 A more important matter still is the shape or 
 conformation of the hoof; on it, in fact, depends 
 the whole practical utility of the horse, and on no 
 portion of his anatomy is the meddlesome stupidity 
 of man, who thinks he knows better what is for the 
 benefit of the animal than his Maker, more mis- 
 chievously employed. Externally, the hoof should 
 slope at an angle of forty-five ; if less, the hoof is 
 too upright ; if more, too flat. Internally, it will 
 too frequently be found on examination that the
 
 144 HORSE DEALING. 
 
 beautiful mechanism of nature has been cruelly 
 and wickedly destroyed. The frog has been pared 
 away, the bars removed, the heels lowered, the 
 whole anatomy of the foot destroyed. Unless in 
 very young horses, the mischief is irremediable, and 
 sooner or later, now or shortly, the horse is ruined. 
 " No foot, no horse," has been a maxim time out 
 of mind ; " No 'ock, no 'unter," was Mr. Jorrocks's 
 amendment. We heartily endorse both axioms. 
 Look well at the hocks ; but we must admit that 
 you may look very carefully and still be no whit 
 the wiser, for the hock is the most difficult point 
 to judge of, and requires considerable experience to 
 do so effectually. 
 
 Better now have the animal " pulled out," " run 
 down," "walked down," and "trotted down," on 
 the stones. Regard him with a jealous eye, and if 
 no sign of lameness appear, make up your mind to 
 what extent, within his apparent value, you mean 
 to bid, and don't be tempted to bid beyond it. 
 Unless well known, a horse sells at auction, as a 
 rule, at less than two-thirds his apparent value, on 
 account of the manifold risks the purchaser runs. 
 You have the third in hand, by way of insurance, 
 and it is generally sufficient at least I have so 
 found it.
 
 THE BLIND FISHERMAN. 
 
 ST. BOSWELL'S can hardly be called a gay town, 
 far less a fashionable one, but it is a pleasant place 
 to abide at ; there is a thriving, well-to-do aspect 
 about it, and the children, who, in proportion to 
 the population, far exceed any statistical calcula- 
 tion, are the healthiest, bonniest, and apparently 
 happiest little mortals I have ever come across. 
 The town comprises one long straggling street, the 
 houses are generally comfortable, many of a 
 superior class, the appearance of the worst ex- 
 cluding any idea of poverty. The " Green," which 
 faces the inn, is a pleasant rustic memory of such 
 as commonly existed fifty years since, but now, 
 alas ! too rare. It is large and comfortable, the 
 excellent and indefatigable landlady, although 
 at times making invidious comparisons between 
 Scotch customs and those of her own country, 
 caters equally for the wants of all, and makes 
 her permanent lodgers exceptionally comfortable. 
 " Fair Tweed " embraces, as it were, in' one grand 
 curve the whole town, approaching it closely on 
 either side, and there is no more beautiful portion 
 of that beautiful river. 
 
 L
 
 146 THE BLIND FISHERMAN. 
 
 It was here that, a few years since, having, 
 through the kindness of an old and valued friend, 
 permission to fish, I first made the acquaintance of 
 William Ranken, to my mind one of the most 
 extraordinary characters I have ever met. De- 
 prived of sight for more than twenty years, he has 
 by the force of intellect and strong will almost 
 supplied the terrible defect. Knowledge, as in the 
 case of the great blind poet, " from one entrance 
 quite shut out," has been admitted from other and 
 extraneous ones ; memory and the gift of touch 
 have, to a great extent, taken the place and done 
 the duty of sight. William Ranken, unattended, 
 or accompanied only by his dog, will find his way 
 to any portion of the river within the distance of a 
 mile and upwards, and, fishing with either fly or 
 minnow, catch during the day more trout very 
 many more than any stranger to the water, how- 
 ever gifted, and at least as many as the most 
 skilful of the local fishermen blessed with eyesight. 
 It is strange to see him feeling his way, step by 
 step, along the steep bank of the river, casting his 
 line before him as he goes, sensitive to the slightest 
 touch, hooking fish after fish, playing them in the 
 most artistic manner, and in due time transferring 
 them to his creel. It is even more strange to see 
 him wading, mid-leg deep, in the rapid stream
 
 THE BLIND FISHERMAN. 147 
 
 where a step or two in the wrong direction would 
 inevitably result in his being carried away by it. 
 
 The danger, however, is, I believe, more apparent 
 than real ; he treads not " in doubt and dread," but 
 with a thorough knowledge of his whereabouts, and 
 the relative position of -bank and pool and eddy. 
 I firmly believe he knows not only every rock, but 
 every stone in the bed of the river of sufficient size 
 to create a ripple on the surface. His sense of 
 hearing is as acute and discriminating as that of 
 touch. I meet him at intervals of perhaps a year 
 or two, but he never fails to distinguish my tread, 
 despite the noise of the water, and at the first sound 
 of my voice climbs up the bank, as though every 
 bush and rush and weed upon it were apparent, to 
 greet me with a welcome grasp of his hand, and 
 talk over the news of the day, with- which he is 
 always well acquainted. 
 
 Having basketed a fish, he tests the condition 
 and efficiency of his tackle with the greatest ac- 
 curacy, repairs any defect, and refixes the minnow 
 or the fly with an artistic accuracy which many a 
 disciple of the gentle art might in vain hope to 
 emulate. 
 
 During the winter months, or when the water is 
 not in order an occurrence which, thanks to the 
 accursed pollutions allowed to foul the stream, is 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THE BLIND FISHERMAN. 
 
 but too common he employs his time in making 
 fly-rods, and one of the best in my possession is 
 the work of the blind man ; the whipping, which I 
 have frequently seen him do, is of the most accu- 
 rate and finished description. 
 
 Like most, blind men, William Ranken has a 
 cheerful, though slightly subdued, expression of 
 countenance ; his conversation is that of an in- 
 telligent, if not of a highly-educated man, and his 
 observations are always to the point and worthy of 
 notice. It is curious, when they relate to subjects 
 connected with the weather, the water, and the 
 chances of sport topics sure to arise between fisher- 
 men at the water-side he expresses himself as 
 though in full possession of his eyesight. 
 
 "They'll no rise the noo to the flee;" "She's 
 just a wee bit ower dirty;" or, "'Deed she is 
 clearing fine, I'd change the minnow for the flee ; " 
 or, " They're gaen off the rise this hour or more, 
 but I'm thinking they'll come on again when the 
 sun gets behind yon cloud ; " " The fash are no 
 taking weel, they just come up and look at the 
 flee, and wunna lay hold," and so on. It is hardly 
 possible, whilst talking to him, to bear in mind 
 that he is dark, but when you look at his eyes you 
 see at once that there is " no speculation in them," 
 it is the light of intellect alone that guides him.
 
 THE BLIND FISHERMAN. 149 
 
 On returning home he calls his dog, a wise- 
 looking black retriever, and fastening a string to 
 his collar, commits himself in some sort to his 
 guidance. I observed, however, that, although the 
 dog preceded and led the way homeward, he was 
 constantly checked or reminded that he was too 
 much on this side or on that, and sometimes his 
 proposed course was entirely changed. To my 
 suggestion that he would do as well without a dog, 
 he replied that no doubt such was the case, but that 
 the carters and others who travelled the road, and 
 who were sometimes I fancy frequently, " gey 
 foo," recognized him by his dog, and abstained 
 from running him down. William Ranken keeps 
 a general, shop in the main street of St. Boswell's, 
 where not only fishing tackle of the best quality 
 can be obtained, but haberdashery, bags, baskets, 
 and other matters useful to the tourist. I earnestly 
 recommend any of my readers who may pass a few 
 hours or days in the town to visit the shop and 
 make the acquaintance of " the blind fisherman of 
 St. Boswell's."
 
 CROSSING SWEEPERS. 
 
 " IF that sweeper touch his hat to me this morning, 
 I'll give him sixpence ! " The sweeper did touch 
 his hat, and received, with undisguised surprise, the 
 proffered gratuity. "It is twelve years to-day," 
 explained my friend, " since first I passed over this 
 crossing, on my way to the City, and that man has 
 never failed to salute me, though I never gave him 
 a farthing before." 
 
 My first impression was that the sweeper had 
 earned his sixpence rather hardly ; but, on con- 
 sideration, that gave way to one of mitigated 
 admiration at the generosity of the giver. The 
 streets are open, I argued (excepting those in the 
 aristocratic neighbourhood of Russell Square), why 
 should man, woman, or cripple the boys and girls 
 have somehow of late disappeared be permitted 
 to levy blackmail upon lawful travellers under any 
 pretence ? As for the touch of the hat, Beau 
 Brummell, the real arbiter elegantiarum his august 
 master desired to be, who, though a coxcomb, was 
 no fool, settled the question long ago. To touch 
 your hat, he declared, in return for a sweeper's 
 salutation, if you give him aught is superfluous, if
 
 CROSSING SWEEPERS. 151 
 
 not, a mockery ! The filthy state of the roadway, 
 however, suggested an answer to the previous 
 question, and I sighed for the coming day when 
 public streets, like private pathways, will be perio- 
 dically swept and cleansed. Meanwhile we are, to 
 some extent, dependent upon these volunteers for 
 our comfort ; and whether daily, weekly, yearly, or 
 once in twelve years, are morally bound to pay 
 them. 
 
 It becomes, therefore, a matter of importance 
 that they should be regulated and placed under 
 control. I doubt the legal right of "Jack Rag " to 
 " shut up shop " when he retires from business for 
 the night ; that is, " to sweep the dirt over again." 
 I protest against a protruded grimy hand, or a 
 hoarse ginnified voice, distracting my attention as 
 I step " in doubt and dread " across the crowded 
 street, and would have the public paths made 
 clean by a humble class of public servants. I 
 have no wish to interfere with vested interests. 
 There are crossing-sweepers who have acquired, 
 from long occupancy, a good " holding title " to 
 their property. The sturdy, pimple-faced sailor, 
 for instance, who, having lost both his "blessed 
 pins " in some long-forgotten naval engagement, 
 stumps along on two wooden substitutes, and 
 sweeps the crossing from Clarendon Place to
 
 152 CROSSING SWEEPERS. 
 
 the opposite park entrance. I have known that 
 worthy, personally, for forty years, and respect him 
 as a man of property. I have reason to believe 
 he has an interest in the British funds, and contri- 
 butes to the income-tax. The black man, who was 
 so particular about his rumpsteaks, in Bond Street, 
 is gone, as is that poor hectic personification of 
 famine and decayed gentility in the Edgeware 
 Road'; but there is the cripple at one corner of 
 Portman Square. . I knew him also many, many 
 years since, when, as a boy, he crept up and down 
 Southampton Row, twisting his head from side 
 to side in a grotesque manner, making hideous 
 faces, and affecting to sell lucifer matches. There 
 is a ruffianly-looking fellow, better, we trust, than 
 his appearance would lead a physiognomist to 
 suppose, near Portland Place, and two Irish ladies 
 by Montagu Square, whose wondrous repertory of 
 blessings, poured out on the smallest provocation, 
 suggests the capability of producing a very different 
 vocabulary on requirement. I repeat, I would not 
 meddle with these, or such as these ; they are old 
 abuses, and should be tolerated, so long as they 
 individually last : but why should not a " Sweeper 
 Brigade " be founded on the principle of the Shoe- 
 black Brigade ? I throw out the hint for the con- 
 sideration of the benevolent. Hundreds, perhaps
 
 CROSSING SWEEPERS. 153 
 
 thousands, of lads now earn a fair amount as shoe- 
 blacks, or in the still more humble capacity of 
 minor street scavengers, who, a few years since, 
 would have earned their living as thieves and pick- 
 pockets ; but there are hundreds and thousands 
 still ready and willing to work for the smallest 
 wage. It would be a work of public utility, as 
 welt as Christian charity, to organize such a gang, 
 clothe them in a livery of coloured flannel, endow 
 them with a broom each, instal them in such un- 
 occupied crossings as are sufficiently frequented 
 to give a fair chance of remunerative wages, and 
 place a well-secured iron box handy, into which 
 the coppers might be dropped by such liberal and 
 thoughtful persons, and there are many such, as 
 believe that, however humble the employment, " it 
 is better to work than to live idle ; better to sweep 
 than thieve"
 
 THE FIRST OF OCTOBER. 
 
 IT is the first day's pheasant shooting of the 
 season, and it is only intended to kill some of the 
 most forward of the outlying birds. The high 
 wood is of course out of the question, for there is 
 scarcely the sign of approaching decay on the still 
 green and massive foliage of the oak ; the nuts 
 alone of the underwood, and the beech of forest 
 trees, show signs of falling into the "sere and 
 yellow leaf." 
 
 Ranging ourselves, therefore, under the direction 
 of our intelligent keeper, whose powers of combi- 
 nation and prudent arrangement would, in another 
 sphere, have made him a general at least, with our 
 backs to the high wood, which has been hastily 
 brushed through by the beaters, we commence our 
 advance in a line, a beater, with a long stick in his 
 hand, between each gun. The " beaters," by the 
 way, are admirably drilled ; they neither shout nor 
 chatter ; each seems bent on his work, and fully 
 alive to the truth of Mr. Belt the keeper's warning, 
 that noise only makes the game " head back," and 
 that quiet poking beneath is far more effectual to 
 dislodge the objects of our pursuit, than noisy
 
 THE FIRST OF OCTOBER. 155 
 
 thrashing above. As we struggle out of the 
 embraces of a too loving brier, a whirr is heard, 
 and with the hoarse cry of " Mark !" comes a 
 warning voice, 
 
 " Let 'em rise ! let 'em rise ! " 
 
 Our friend is not unmindful of the small boys 
 at the end of the " young cut," who call him father, 
 and whose somewhat monotonous business is to 
 keep up a constant " click ! click ! " by striking one 
 stick upon another, and so to " stop " the pheasants 
 from running ingloriously away instead of standing 
 fire as a bold " pheasantry " ought. As is often 
 the case with men, to avoid an imaginary danger 
 they incur a real one. Bang ! bang! in rapid 
 succession, but the bird, at least, has taken Belt's 
 warning to heart, and has risen so rapidly that, 
 save for the loss of a feather or two, he has sailed 
 triumphantly away, and now chuckles out his 
 satisfaction in the safe refuge of the distant high 
 wood. 
 
 " If, Master Harry," our friend quietly remarks, 
 " you will shoot at them long tails of theirs, they 
 will fly away." 
 
 Master Harry reloads, and mutters something 
 about " nearly out of shot," and " couldn't get the 
 gun up for the brambles." 
 
 Indifferent shots, by the way, always consider it
 
 156 THE FIRSJ OF OCTOBER. 
 
 necessary to furnish a reason we must not say an 
 excuse for every miss they make ; good shots, 
 never. Again, " Mark ! " is heard, and this time, 
 even with greater energy than when the boy's 
 safety was assumed to be at stake, " 'Ware hen ! " 
 is shouted, bringing down two guns at least that 
 had been hastily raised from the "present" to their 
 original position of " make ready." 
 
 The plot thickens ; birds rise and fall, birds rise 
 and escape. One or two " runners " are admirably 
 retrieved by a sagacious old dog, of the red Irish 
 spaniel breed, who walks unrestrained at the 
 keeper's heels, and appears to criticise the pro- 
 ceedings in a somewhat fastidious spirit. The 
 result of two hours' shooting, besides rabbits, is 
 some nine brace of birds, mostly cocks, the few 
 hens which chequer the line, as they lie on the 
 grass, consisting of obstinate and rather ungrateful 
 birds who would persist in flying " the wrong way," 
 on to open land, where they would inevitably have 
 been ignominiously shot by unauthorized persons. 
 They were, in fact, killed to save their credit. 
 
 We now adjourn to luncheon, which we find set 
 out in the ample kitchen of the farmhouse close at 
 hand, and to which we are most hospitably invited 
 by the ill-used individuals whose crops have been 
 devoured by the " vermin " stretched before us,
 
 THE FIRST OF OCTOBER. 157 
 
 whose feelings have been outraged, whose fences 
 have been broken down by tyrannical landlord and 
 tyrannical landlord's friends. If Mr. Smith be an 
 injured and dissatisfied man, he has the happiest 
 knack of dissembling his feelings. His welcome, 
 as we have said, is most cordial, his luncheon most 
 excellent. On the table there is a ham, a fat pork 
 pie, home-made bread, capital cheese and butter, 
 and jugs of ale that cream over the sides, on the 
 sideboard sundry long-necked bottles. His prin- 
 cipal subject of discourse, next to pressing us to 
 eat and drink, is the expression of satisfaction at 
 the promise of good sport this little prelude to the 
 shooting promises. 
 
 And now, Mr. Odger (I address you personally, 
 because you are the self-appointed redresser of the 
 farmer's wrongs in this matter of game ; because 
 you write, and speak, and parade statistics about 
 the injury inflicted on the country at large by 
 game ; because I consider you a really well-inten- 
 tioned and a talented man, only labouring under 
 the disadvantage a not uncommon one of teach- 
 ing what you have not learnt, of talking about what 
 you do not understand) what harm have we done ? 
 wherein are we to blame ? We have passed a 
 pleasant day in the enjoyment of a healthful occu- 
 pation, in fine air and in fine scenery ; we have
 
 i $8 THE FIRST OF OCTOBER. 
 
 disbursed certain moneys in railway and other 
 fares ; we have added some stones of good food to 
 the general stock ; we have paid half a dozen 
 honest labourers half-a-crown each, and given them 
 a capital dinner ; and we have exercised a highly- 
 skilled art which you would not exercise, you tell 
 us, if you could which you could not exercise, I 
 tell you, if you would.
 
 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 THE four months that have passed since our 
 opening day on the first of October, have wrought 
 as great a change in the aspect of nature, as forty 
 years might have done in that of the youth who 
 is recorded elsewhere as having vexed Mr. Belt's 
 spirit by " shooting at their long tails." 
 
 " The oak that in summer was sweet to hear, 
 And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year, " 
 
 is now leafless, gaunt, and bare ; the rampant 
 bramble that took toll of our garments, and 
 lacerated our flesh, has been " sat upon," pressed 
 flat, by the superincumbent snow, and lies grovel- 
 ling on the earth. The old man's beard, that, 
 " hanging so light, and hanging so high," flaunted 
 airily above, has a ragged, hungry, and wasted 
 look ; the pine branches, snapped short off by the 
 weight of the same snow that flattened the bram- 
 bles, bristle above our heads 
 
 ' ' There is nothing green upon the oak, 
 But moss ." 
 
 " Rarest misletoe " is so rare, we have never either 
 seen it, or know anyone who has seen it, growing 
 on the oak.
 
 160 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 There is a complete change too in the descrip- 
 tion of birds that come under our notice : the 
 swallows, with the latest of our summer visitants, 
 have long since sought warmer climes ; and besides 
 the familiar redbreast, few are seen in the woods 
 but the dapper brown-coated wren, the parti- 
 coloured nuthatch, or happy family parties of the 
 ubiquitous tribe of tits. I love to watch these 
 pretty useful little birds as they flit from tree to 
 tree, fearless and confiding, creeping, climbing, 
 twisting, twining in and out, clinging head down- 
 wards, topsy-turvy, and peeping into every crevice 
 and cranny wherein the egg or cocoon of some 
 noxious insect may be concealed but I am wan- 
 dering from my subject. 
 
 Great as was the strategy displayed by Mr. Belt 
 in October, it is far greater now there is more 
 need of it. There is scant cover, the woods are 
 hollow, the game is wild, and has not failed to 
 profit by experience ; not a hare but knows the 
 meaning of the once mysterious " tap ! tap ! click ! 
 click ! " of the sticks of the small boys, so judge- 
 metically posted at every point from whence they 
 were wont to wander forth to "fresh woods and 
 pastures new " ; not a pheasant but has rued the 
 day that he trusted so confidingly to Mr. Belt's 
 disinterested protection, and learned to fly from it.
 
 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 161 
 
 " Run forward, sir, run forward ! " whispers that 
 astute individual ; " the hares are on the move 
 already. Run forward ; you'll see a cross ride, a 
 goodish bit on get into the middle, and when 
 the beaters come up, get on to the next." 
 
 Equally clear directions are given to the other 
 " guns," and before the first quiet but excited cries, 
 " Hare to the right ! " " Rabbit back ! " are heard, 
 we are at our post. 
 
 It is nervous work, waiting for the approach of 
 the game, but the excitement is pleasurable in the 
 extreme. Very slowly the beaters approach ; they 
 are not indeed within earshot, and so still do I 
 stand that a little red mouse runs fearlessly across 
 my foot. 
 
 As we wait thus silent and solitary, we may 
 perhaps moralize within ourselves on the nature of 
 our occupation, and the questions raised as to its 
 strict legitimacy, on the score of humanity and 
 political economy. Mr. Freeman, in the Christian 
 charity of his heart, has branded all sportsmen as 
 bloodthirsty, cruel butchers, delighting in the pain 
 they inflict, and revelling in the slaughter of their 
 victims. Mr. Odger has declared them to be selfish 
 destroyers of the people's food ; " nati " not only 
 " consumere fruges," but to protect and increase 
 the birds and beasts created, as he considers, 
 
 M
 
 1 62 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 only to devour the substance of his much-loved 
 people. 
 
 Surely both are wrong. Man, the lord of the 
 fowl and the brute, has been from the beginning 
 endued with the love of sporting, and whether he 
 has had the opportunity of cultivating it or not, I 
 have never known one worthy of the name that did 
 not possess it ; I firmly believe that the noblest 
 acts of war and chivalry have had their origin in 
 that instinctive love. Cruelty ! nonsense ! Ten 
 times the fear and dread of death, which in the 
 lower animals at least is the only real pain of death, 
 are experienced by the doomed fowl hunted round 
 the yard that its neck may be wrung, than by the 
 shot pheasant ; and the latter has had ten times 
 more pleasure in life. 
 
 But hush ! they come at last ; a noisy blackbird 
 dashes across the ride, exulting shrilly in what he 
 believes to be an escape from an attack especially 
 directed against his worthless self. A couple of 
 screaming jays keep up a discordant but intelligible 
 dialogue as they flit along above the tops of the 
 trees, occasionally making a feint of settling, and 
 ever approaching, but still keeping jealously out of 
 shot ; wisely so, for the jay's wing is much desired 
 for the breast of some of our best Tweed flies. 
 
 And now, with a rapid but desultory movement,
 
 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 163 
 
 in a series of short jumps, an old hare approaches, 
 plainly heard before she is seen, for her feet fall by 
 no means noiselessly on the rustling leaves. She 
 is running straight towards us, but in mid-career she 
 stops short, sitting up on her haunches, and listen- 
 ing with absorbing anxiety to the supposed danger 
 approaching from behind. Now is she a fair mark, 
 and now " could we do it pat ! " but we disdain such 
 inglorious work. Whistling slightly we stamp, and 
 as the hare rushes wildly to the right, roll her over and 
 over till she rests against an old nut stump, " what 
 was once a hare." A medical examination would 
 disclose the cause of death to be " a shot wound on 
 the left side of the cranium, immediately behind the 
 left ear." A couple of rabbits that have crept up 
 silently and unseen, and have skulked behind a 
 stump, make a bold rush for safety and dash across 
 together ; we allow them to pass, and as they do 
 so slay the foremost in the ride, and his companion 
 in the cover behind us, for the beaters are now 
 approaching, and we shun firing forward ; their 
 lives and limbs are sacred in our eyes. "Mark 
 cock ! " " Woodcock, forward ! " bang, bang, bang ! 
 a dozen barrels are emptied ; everyone fires who 
 sees him, some who do not. The stupid blundering 
 bird has run the gauntlet, and well nigh made good 
 his escape, for the practice is bad when the exctte- 
 
 M 2
 
 164 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 
 
 ment is great ; he sinks at last, perhaps out of 
 compliment, for it is difficult to find a wound when 
 picked up. 
 
 "Whose bird?" 
 
 "Mine, I think!" 
 
 " No, he dropped to my ! " 
 
 "Whose bird, Belt?" 
 
 "Your lordship's, /should say," replies Mr. Belt, 
 who is something of a courtier. 
 
 And now the end is nigh. We have "gone 
 forward " many times since the commencement 
 of the day's shooting, and have occupied com- 
 manding positions in many cross rides ; we have 
 stopped sundry rocketers, slain many hares, and 
 a hecatomb of rabbits, and now the guns are 
 stationed in rather close proximity to each other, 
 in a semicircle at the corner of the cover up to 
 which the pheasants have been gradually driven. 
 
 The small boys who have 'stood so patiently 
 for hours tapping sticks are withdrawn, and the 
 birds must face their real enemies standing before 
 them, instead of the harmless lads that have scared 
 them, and prevented them from seeking their places 
 of refuge. 
 
 " Spare hens ! " is now roared out by Mr. Belt, 
 " spare hens ! " " Let 'em rise," vociferates our
 
 THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY. 165 
 
 host ; and half a dozen hen birds at once test 
 the validity of the ukase in their favour. 
 
 One miscalculating young cock, forgetful of his 
 recent change in plumage, of which but yesterday 
 he was so proud, rises with them, and falls at once, 
 with at least three charges in his body. 
 
 " Hen ! hen ! " and a fresh lot rises, this time 
 accompanied by several cocks, the majority of 
 which die in the air, and more than one hen, shot 
 either intentionally or by accident, falls with them. 
 The fun waxes fast and furious ; many birds die 
 in the air at once, and a dozen fall together. 
 
 " Go slowly, beaters ! " shouts Belt ; " draw up on 
 the right stand still on the left be steady ! " 
 Another and still another " rise " ensues, until the 
 beaters, hot, tired, and thirsty, emerge, grinning, 
 and pick up the birds which strew the field around, 
 and then to luncheon !
 
 CUB HUNTING. 
 
 WHERE is the meet to-day ? Five miles off, at 
 6.30 A.M., and the clock has told six ere we issue 
 from the stable-yard, the old horse snorting and 
 pawing, the young one plunging and lashing out 
 in a style that makes us thankful that we have five 
 miles to go before he is introduced to the pack. 
 
 What a blessed time the early morning is ! I 
 don't mean to fall into sentimentalities, but the 
 early morning is a blessed time, and I pity the 
 man who cannot appreciate it. 
 
 The sun has not yet risen, 
 
 But the morn lies red on the dew ! 
 
 The soppy ground reeks as the temperature rises ; 
 the early birds are busily seeking the still earlier 
 worms ; the cocks crow ; the lazy sparrows chirp ; 
 the teams are driving afield ; the water-carts for 
 water this season is scarce, despite the recent rains 
 are at work, and the tollman representative 
 of a mischievous anachronism winks and blinks 
 while he pockets the pence : we canter along 
 towards the meet. 
 
 Five miles, and thirty minutes to do it in ! but
 
 CUB HUNTING. 167 
 
 the persistent rain has softened the ground, and 
 the grass of the roadside is thick with scrapings, 
 and carpeted with rushes ; we travel at a merry 
 pace, and arrive at one side of the old windmill 
 just as the hounds trot up to the other. 
 
 A pretty sight on a grey morning is the meet 
 for cubbing ; there is little show, indeed ; it is all 
 work that is meant. The servants of the hunt 
 wear their old liveries ; rough animals carry them, 
 and there is an entire absence of that " pomp and 
 circumstance," that faultless " get up " which char- 
 acterises the legitimate fixtures in the season. 
 But there are the hounds, thirty couples out, 
 mostly puppies, but with them are wise old 
 hounds, the Nestors of the pack, whose business 
 it is to " teach the young idea how to shoot," that is, 
 how to hunt exclusively the wily animal. We have 
 hardly time to look over the speckled beauties ; 
 " they are of all tongues and creeds," for a horrible 
 mishap occurred at the entry. A mad puppy had 
 been admitted ; he had bitten some of his brethren ; 
 he might have bitten all. The risk was too fearful 
 to endure, and all bitten or not bitten like 
 Herod's babies, had been doomed. Poor puppies ! 
 poor puppies! With ^Eneas of old, scarcely can 
 I refrain from weeping, " talia fando" as I tell the 
 tale. They were led forth, one by one, each wag-
 
 168 CUB HUNTING. 
 
 ging his tail, and fondling the trusted hand that 
 led him. Each was blindfolded in turn, and each 
 was slain by a single blow from a heavy bludgeon. 
 
 Poor puppies ! poor puppies ! but it was a stern 
 necessity. Hydrophobia is too horrible a disease 
 to be trifled with it must be " stamped out," and 
 it was. 
 
 Our entry, therefore, is like the old Roman's 
 library, undique coempti, and as good oftentimes 
 comes out of evil, perhaps ultimately this may be 
 for the better. The young hounds, gathered from 
 half the kennels in England, comprise scions of the 
 purest blood from the best packs amongst them a 
 lashing, and, on the whole, a level lot they look. 
 
 Our first draw is a thick wood, bristling with 
 briers, waving with bracken, and at intervals glo- 
 rious with lofty pines, broad beeches, and stately 
 oaks. We canter forward, and, turning up a ride 
 at an angle, wait, silent and expectant. The good 
 old horse that has carried us so truly for many a 
 season, with arched crest, open nostrils, and pro- 
 jected ears, though trembling in every limb, stands 
 still as 'his rider, and scarcely, save by a shiver, 
 shows that he is conscious of the light whimper 
 that falls upon our ear. A whimper ! a howl ! a cry ! 
 a crash ! Sixty hounds are throwing their tongues 
 at once, and the glorious melody draws nearer and
 
 CUB HUNTING. 169 
 
 nearer. The sound of the horn and the huntsman's 
 cheery voice is heard, and our heart beats wildly 
 as, with straining eyes, we watch for the fox to 
 cross. 
 
 In a second, with a rush and a bound, he is over 
 the fox ? no ! an outlying buck, which has got 
 up before the pack, and is flying for his life. It 
 is a beautiful sight 
 
 " To see the wild stag how he stretches 
 The natural buckskin of his breeches," 
 
 and it is almost equally so to see a buck dashing 
 through the thick undergrowth of a wood. 
 
 He appears to be possessed of strength and 
 vigour far beyond his size ; with nose protruded, 
 and horns laid flat on his back, he dashes through 
 the dense underwood as a rabbit would through the 
 rushes. The pace is terrific ; and as the scent is 
 burning, the hounds run like hawks after their 
 quarry. They are close to his haunches. The 
 sight is so beautiful we could hardly have found it 
 in our hearts to interfere ; but our huntsman, though 
 he has not seen the deer, knows by intuition what 
 is going on, and horn and holloa, rate and whip, 
 soon stop the glorious but unlicensed chase. 
 
 It is useless drawing farther ; the cover harbours 
 more deer, lately escaped from a neighbouring
 
 i?o CUB HUNTING. 
 
 park ; and we trot off three miles farther to 
 another wood ; low-lying, full of hazels and furze 
 and bracken, and abounding in the dense thickets 
 that foxes affect. Scarcely are the hounds in than 
 a challenge is heard, which is speedily responded 
 to ; the puppies, shyly at first, then boldly, like 
 indifferent singers tempted to take part in a chorus, 
 join in the cry. The land outside is all arable, 
 lately ploughed, and affords splendid galloping. 
 No fear in cub-hunting of heading the fox, so 
 quitting the hard rides, we gallop along outside, 
 and reach the end of the ride just in time to see 
 the fox cross. The hounds are close at his brush, 
 and as we yell out, " Tally ho ! over ! " we feel we 
 are twenty-five again. They drive him through 
 the wood, and race him in view to a copse a short 
 distance ahead. The hounds are through it like 
 magic, and dashing out at the other end, stand for 
 a moment staring foolishly at each other. 
 
 " Tally ho ! back !" " Tally ho ! back ! " they turn 
 like pigeons. Again the joyous burst ; again the 
 chorus of canine voices ; and then a lull. " Too ! 
 too ! too ! who-oop ! Gone to ground ! " The 
 lithe cub has sought shelter in a rabbit-hole ; there 
 let him rest. He will run another day, and we 
 have not too many foxes. 
 
 "Blood" for hounds is, I firmly believe, unne-
 
 CUB HUNTING. 171 
 
 cessary ; they run a scent from the instinctive love 
 of exercising the wondrous powers given them by 
 nature ; they run the scent of a fox neither more or 
 less keenly than they would any other equally 
 strong ; they have no wish to eat the brute ; no 
 animal feeds on either fox or rat, save the rat or 
 fox ; and, apart from the excitement of the chase, 
 they have no more natural wish to kill the fox than 
 the soldier has to kill his enemy after he has van- 
 quished him. Masters of hounds ! huntsmen ! kill 
 a fox when you can fairly kill a fox, but, I beseech 
 you, spare him when once he has gone to ground. 
 Let him live and run another day.
 
 FOX HUNTERS AND GAME 
 PRESERVERS. 
 
 THAT fox hunting is the noblest science that ever 
 was invented, and that fox hunters approach per- 
 fection as nearly as it is possible for fallible human 
 nature to do, no one will be bold enough to deny ; 
 but, near as the approach is, we venture to hint 
 that the acme has not been reached. There is a 
 weak point in the fox hunter's character, and we 
 trust we may be excused for referring to it ; there 
 is, deny it as we may, a soupqon of selfishness in- 
 herent in his nature, and a lack of appreciation of 
 the sacrifices made by others for his benefit, which 
 detracts from his otherwise perfect character. 
 
 Far distant be the time when men gorgeous in 
 scarlet coats, and rejoicing in miraculously fitting 
 boots, bent on enjoyment, exulting in health, wild 
 with excitement, shall be prevented from galloping 
 over the well-kept lawns and carefully cultivated 
 fields, the property of strangers, utterly unknown 
 to and uncared for by them ! Far distant be the 
 time when country gentlemen, unhappily deficient 
 in the bump of foxuntativeness, as Mr. Jorrocks 
 calls it, but; delighting in shooting, shall cease to
 
 FOX HUNTERS AND GAME PRESERVERS. 173 
 
 preserve the noble animal that affords pleasure to 
 so many of their fellow creatures ! But, that the 
 coming of such a sad time may be retarded as far 
 as possible, we earnestly entreat our friends and 
 fellow fox-hunters to alter, and to some extent 
 amend, their usual course of action. 
 
 From the days when ^Esop wrote his fable of 
 " The Wind and the Sun," illustrating the relative 
 powers of force and persuasion, kind actions and 
 soft words have been acknowledged by thinking 
 men as more efficacious than hard knocks and 
 vituperative appellations. We wish to see fox 
 hunters more tolerant of those who are not fox 
 hunters, and more grateful to them for ministering 
 to their sport. We wish to see that ugly word 
 vulpicide less frequently used, and less general abuse 
 levelled at those who are, frequently without reason, 
 suspected of the crime? Let us not be mis- 
 understood ; we are sportsmen to the backbone ; we 
 have hunted from the day we could sit upon a 
 pony until now that we have grown grey-haired, 
 and have ceased to go to scale We perhaps love 
 the sport better than even in the heyday of our 
 youth, for we understand it better ; but we are, 
 and we feel no shame in confessing it, beyond 
 measure grateful to those by whose sufferance, 
 frequently at the cost of considerable self-sacrifice,
 
 174 FOX HUNTERS AND GAME PRESERVERS. 
 
 we enjoy it. We say " sufferance," for we are 
 absolutely dependent on their forbearance. 
 
 The fox is by no means the crafty beast he is 
 generally represented. Wily he is, and wonderfully 
 clever in achieving his ends, generally felonious 
 ones ; he is cool in danger, fertile in resources, and 
 capable beyond any other animal of applying them 
 for the purpose of escaping from it ; but he is 
 essentially greedy, and his boldness makes him 
 dangerously careless of the mode in which he 
 satisfies his appetite. No animal, except the cat, 
 is more easily trapped, or more readily poisoned. 
 His habits too are uniform, and anyone acquainted 
 with his haunts, who is so disposed, can shoot him 
 on any moonlight night. The sport of a country 
 side is, in fact, in the power of every owner of every 
 cover within a certain limit far more so in that of 
 his keeper. Cold looks, abusive epithets, and 
 sneering speeches, are not the weapons with which 
 men having this power in their hands are to be 
 met. We venture to suggest a totally different 
 course one which we know to be successfully 
 adopted by many masters and many fox hunters 
 in many counties, but not, as it should be, uni- 
 versally. It is the expression of confidence and 
 gratitude and goodwill towards the owners of 
 covers, and especially liberal treatment towards
 
 FOX HUNTERS AND GAME PRESERVERS. 175 
 
 their keepers ; the latter cannot be supposed to 
 love their greatest enemy, and, honest though they 
 may be, some sensible pecuniary benefit will 
 greatly encourage their disposition to carry into 
 effect their master's, possibly too mild, exhortation 
 to preserve foxes. 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
 AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Now Ready ; price 3^. 6d. 
 
 TALES AND SKETCHES, 
 
 NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " In the papers called ' The Fox at Home,' ' Buck Shoot- 
 ing,' ' Three Days at Ballynahinch,' and ' The Decoy,' Mr. 
 Rooper writes with all his accustomed spirit, describing a 
 splendid run after the fox, the hero of his earlier story, and 
 other scenes of shooting and fishing, with bits of Irish land- 
 scape and of the fen country." Athenceum. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper is well known as a lively and accurate writer 
 on field sports and natural history, and the little volume 
 before us will sustain his reputation." Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " A collection of light, but amusing, breezy, and character- 
 istic articles, creditably free from that peculiar sort of Eng- 
 lish, supposed to the detriment of sport in public estimation 
 to confer a timbre upon the literature of the turf and the 
 hunting field. There is an excellent variety, too, in Mr. 
 Rooper's sketches, which do ample justice to the special 
 open air pursuits of all our three kingdoms." Daily Tele- 
 graph. 
 
 " ' Tales and Sketches ' treat of sporting matters in a 
 familiar and instructive style, well calculated to render them 
 popular with sportsmen." Standard. 
 
 " A spirited description of sport, by a sportsman observant 
 and experienced." Globe. 
 
 " The two opening pieces, ' The Fox at Home,' and ' Buck 
 Shooting/ are as good as anything that Mr. Rooper has done, 
 and the rest of the volume is capital light reading. . . ^ 
 Mr Rooper possesses an inexhaustible fund of humour." 
 
 The Echo. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper knows what he is writing about. Let us 
 hope he will extend the scene of his operations, and give 
 us a few more of these charming sketches, drawn a little 
 farther from home. . . . ' The Decoy ' is perhaps the best 
 sketch in a volume that will interest all lovers of moorland, 
 stream, and forest." Court Circular. 
 
 " The production of a man who knows what he is writing 
 about, and enjoys the sports he describes." Scotsman. 
 
 LONDON : ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY, W.
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THAMES AND TWEED. 
 
 Crown &vo. Price is. 6d. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS, 
 
 " A sensible and useful little book. . . . The young 
 angler may find some useful hints in this book, and the ex- 
 perienced angler will be reminded of delightful places he has 
 visited in bygone years." Athenceum. 
 
 " We can sincerely recommend ' Thames and Tweed ' to 
 anglers who are desirous of getting many wise hints and 
 suggestions of a practical kind. It deserves the success of a 
 second edition." Observer. 
 
 " Under the title of ' Thames and Tweed,' Mr. Rooper has 
 given us another of his interesting, amusing, and highly use- 
 ful books on sporting subjects. . . . The book is essentially 
 an angler's book, full of useful hints given in the pleasantest 
 and most popular style. ... As a contribution to angling 
 literature, we look upon it as among the best, and certainly 
 one of the pleasantest we have ever read." Sporting Gazette. 
 
 " A really practical book, fit to be put by an angler into 
 his bag. In it he will find valuable hints about tackle, fish, 
 their habitats, their inclinations, and even the mode of 
 cooking them. It is an eminently pleasant volume." 
 
 The Echo. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper is a salmon fisherman of some experience ; 
 he has a strong sportsmanlike feeling, and a very pleasant 
 way of rendering a sketch of salmon fishing exploits, or 
 describing a run with a salmon." Field. 
 
 " This little book is the most satisfactory practical guide 
 to the art of angling we have come upon in these modern
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS Continued. 
 
 times. . . . We recommend all young anglers and many 
 old ones as well to provide themselves with it before they 
 start, on their next fishing expedition." Lloyd's News. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper's book is full of interesting items of intelli- 
 gence respecting the taking of salmon, and other inhabitants 
 of the water, with whose habits he seems to be on terms of 
 the utmost familiarity." City Press. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper's practical observations in all matters re- 
 lating to the capture of fish of all kinds, of which he treats, 
 are very good, and as the writing is agreeable, and the jokes 
 racy, both profit and pleasure are derivable from it. The 
 book is neatly got up, and well printed." Sportsman. 
 
 " This is a book that fishermen will devour with as much 
 avidity as the trout swallows a fly, and with a great deal 
 more satisfaction. ... A more delightful and a more in- 
 structive work, to incipient fishermen, than ' Thames and 
 Tweed,' never fell to our reading." Brighton Herald. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper's writings are always welcomed by the 
 genuine sportsman, and this little half-crown treatise will be 
 a valuable addition to Piscator's library." Northampton 
 Herald. 
 
 " The best expedients to be pursued for all fish in Thames 
 and Tweed, and such-like rivers, are fully explained. The 
 work is thoroughly practical, and useful to the adept as well 
 as to the beginner." Bookseller. 
 
 " Unpretending as the little book is, it contains admirable 
 directions for the principal methods of angling, and will no 
 doubt be of the greatest service to those who aspire to excel 
 in the art which has been aptly termed ' the contemplative 
 man's recreation.'" Northampton Gazette. 
 
 LONDON : ROBERT HARDWICKE, IQ2, PICCADILLY, W.
 
 " A Book for the Naturalist and Sportsman." 
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 New Edition, price $s. 
 
 FLOOD, FIELD, AND FOREST. . 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " A small volume is here recommended, not only to the 
 sportsman, but to the general reader, which, while it deals 
 with all field sports even with the rat and the badger and 
 deals with them all lovingly as things of beauty and joy. for 
 ever, while it delights by the freshness of its story-telling, and 
 ascends to high pathos in its incidents, is replete with a 
 knowledge which nothing short of a life study can have 
 given." Fortnightly Review, 
 
 "Mr. Rooper is one of those who has always steadily 
 practised what he knows : and when we say that no method 
 of capturing the birds, beasts, and fishes of his native land is 
 unknown to him, and that he is willing to divulge all his 
 secrets, we have probably said enough to recommend his book 
 to all whom it may concern." Contemporary Review. 
 
 " The real object of Mr. Rooper's book is laudable. He 
 wishes to make natural history more palatable than it is in 
 general, and to avoid the didactic, stiff, statistical quasi- 
 scientific style of most writers. Not only does he succeed in 
 this, but he has many other merits. He writes on sporting 
 without exaggeration or vulgarity. Confining himself almost 
 exclusively to what he has seen himself, he is at once 
 original and accurate." Spectator. 
 
 " We are all of us ready to be pleased with a good descrip- 
 tion of flood, field, and forest, and that the author has given 
 us. Perhaps, with the exception of Whyte Melville, Mr. 
 Rooper is the best historian of a run with the foxhounds that
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS Continued. 
 
 we have had. ... It has no doubt been a recreation to him 
 to write the book ; certainly it has been a recreation to us to 
 read it." Examiner and London Review. 
 
 "'The Autobiography of Salmo Salar, Esq.,' 'A Fox's 
 Tale,' ' Bolsover Forest,' and ' The Bagman,' are the head- 
 ings of the four chapters which compose this volume, and in 
 each the writer has striven with marked success to blend the 
 description of facts in natural history with incidents such as 
 fire the soul and spur the imagination of the sportsman. 
 .... All sportsmen will enjoy reading it." Daily Tele- 
 graph. 
 
 " Mr. Rooper may be credited with having accomplished 
 his purpose in a manner that will render acceptable to young 
 sportsmen, and highly popular with those who have a taste 
 for natural history." Athcnceuin. 
 
 " This handsome, though not costly, volume is, in our 
 judgment, a book of mark. . . . ' Flood, Field, and Forest ' 
 comprises several very clever and amusing tales, replete 
 with interesting facts and incidents in natural history. . . . 
 We must confess that (of course recognizing a few well- 
 known exceptions) we have almost despaired of, seeing any 
 one writing popularly upon hunting without vulgarity, or 
 upon fishing without insipidity ; but these tales are written 
 by a man who is at once a keen sportsman, a quick-eyed 
 diligent naturalist, and a gentleman ; last, but not least, a 
 practical master of good, simple, animated style, in whose 
 compositions we detect no bad English, scarcely one slip- 
 shod sentence or awkward expression. . . . We repeat, we 
 feel a personal obligation to Mr. Rooper for the pleasure his 
 writings have afforded us." Land and Water. 
 
 " The contents of this volume are formed in part of ma- 
 gazine papers which have already received the approbation 
 of the sporting public, in part of original matter, which 
 equally deserves to receive it. The two autobiographies of 
 the salmon and the fox were much admired at the time for
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS Continued. 
 
 the freshness and vigour of the narrative, as well as for the 
 knowledge they displayed both of natural history and field 
 sports. In our judgment, however, the third portion of the 
 work, now published for the first time, with the title of 
 ' Bolsoyer Forest,' is the most interesting of the three, 
 dealing as it does more particularly with that delightful 
 border -land on which the sportsman and the naturalist 
 meet. . . . ' Bolsover Forest ' is a history of bird's-nesting, 
 rat-catching, badger-hunting, snake-taming, and such other 
 sports, partly juvenile, partly common to all ages, as he who 
 has once tasted will always look back upon with pleasure." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " The volume contains four stories. . . . They are charm- 
 ing from their fresh and healthy tone. ' The Bagman ' . . . . 
 is as good as anything of its kind by Whyte Melville, and 
 this is the highest praise that can be bestowed on any 
 ' Foxiana.' " Northampton Mercury. 
 
 "The object Mr. Rooper appears to have in view is, to 
 impart the knowledge which he has gained from his own 
 experience to the unskilled tyro in handling the rod, the 
 whip, or the gun ; and whether he is giving his lessons in 
 the guise of the salmon, the fox, or ' Master B.,' he equally 
 contrives to render them both useful and entertaining." 
 
 Morning Post. 
 
 " ' Flood, Field, and Forest ' is precisely the book it was 
 meant to be, and may therefore be said to have attained 
 perfection after its kind. . . . Even those who care little 
 or nothing for field sports will find the book very amusing, 
 and by no means unprofitable reading. . . . Mr. Rooper is 
 evidently a master of his subject, from fox-hunting and 
 salmon-fishing down to rat-catching and bird's-nesting, and 
 his pages teem with information and useful hints for the 
 benefit of novices." The Echo. 
 
 LONDON: ROBERT HARDWICKE, IQ2, PICCADILLY, W.
 
 ROBERT HARDWICKE'S 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Geological Stories. 
 
 Being the Autobiography of: A Piece of Granite A Piece of 
 Quartz A Piece of Slate A Piece of Limestone A Piece of 
 Sandstone A Piece of Coal A Piece of Rock-Salt A Piece 
 of Jet A Piece of Purbeck Marble A Piece of Chalk A 
 Lump of Clay A Piece of Lignite The Crags A Boulder 
 A Story of a Gravel Pit. 
 
 By J. E. TAYLOR, F.G.S., Author of ' Half-hours at the Sea- 
 side,' &c. Fcap. 8vo, price 4?. 
 
 Half-Hours in the Green Lanes. 
 
 A Book for a Country Stroll. By J. E. TAYLOR, F.L.S., 
 F.G.S. Fcap. 8vo, price 4^. 
 
 CONTENTS. By a Tarn-side Fishes, Mollusca, and other 
 objects in the Green Lanes Reptiles in the Green Lanes Birds in 
 the Green Lanes Mammals in the Green Lanes Butterflies and 
 Moths in the Green Lanes Shells and slugs in the Green Lanes 
 Beetles and other Insects in the Green Lanes Flowering Plants in 
 the Green Lanes Grasses in the Green Lanes Ferns in the 
 Green Lanes Mosses in the Green Lanes Fungi in the Green 
 Lanes Lichens in the Green Lanes. 
 
 "There is summer enough yet remaining to enable anyone to 
 go with this book in his hand into any of our green lanes, and make 
 the half-hours spent there something to be remembered till ' summer 
 doth come again.' " Athetuzum. 
 
 Half-Hours at the Seaside. 
 
 By J. E. TAYLOR, F.G.S. Fcap. 8vo, fully illustrated, price 
 4^. plain, 6s. coloured. 
 
 CONTENTS. Half an Hour with the Waves Half an Hour 
 with Preparations Half an Hour with Seaweeds Half an 
 Hour with Sponges Half an Hour with the Seaworms Half 
 an Hour with the Corallines Half an Hour with the Jellyfish 
 Half an Hour with the Sea-Anemones Half an Hour with the Sea 
 Mats and Squirts Half an Hour with Sea Urchins and Starfish 
 Half an Hour with Shell-fish Half an Hour with Crustacese. 
 
 " Such books may do valuable work by giving the first impulse 
 towards a closer examination of natural objects." Athenccum. 
 
 " A most delightful and interesting book for all sensible and inquir- 
 ing visitors to the seaside, the young especially." Literary World.
 
 ROBERT HARDWICKE'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Half-Hours with the Microscope. 
 
 By Dr. LANCASTER. Illustrated by 250 Drawings from Na- 
 ture by TUFFEN WEST. New edition, much enlarged, with full 
 Description of the various parts of the Instrument, a Chapter 
 on the Polariscope, and Coloured Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo, 
 2s. 6d. plain ; 43. coloured. 
 
 CONTENTS. Half an Hour on Structure Half an Hour in the 
 Garden Half an Hour in the Country Half an Hour with Polar- 
 ized Light Half an Hour at the Pond-side Half an Hour at the 
 Seaside Half an Hour Indoors. Appendix. The Preparation 
 and Mounting of Objects. 
 
 " The beautiful little volume before us cannot be otherwise than 
 welcome. It is, in fact, a very complete manual for the amateur 
 microscopist. . . . The ' Half-Hours ' are filled with clear and 
 agreeable descriptions, whilst eight plates, executed with the most 
 beautiful minuteness and sharpness, exhibit no less than 250 objects 
 with the utmost attainable distinctness." Critic. 
 
 Half-Hours with the Telescope. 
 
 Being a Popular Guide to theUse of the Telescope as a means 
 of Amusement and Instruction. Adapted to inexpensive In- 
 struments. By R. A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S. Fcap. 8vo, 
 cloth, with Illustrations on Stone and Wood, price 2s. 6d. 
 
 Half-Hours with the Stars. 
 
 A Plain and Easy Guide to the Knowledge of the Constella- 
 tions. Showing in Twelve Maps the Position of the principal 
 Star-Groups night after night throughout the year, with Intro- 
 duction, and a separate Explanation of each Map. True for 
 every year. By R. A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S., Author of 
 ' Half-Hours with the Telescope.' Demy 4to, cloth, price $s. 
 
 The Preparation and Mounting of Microscopic 
 Objects. 
 
 By THOMAS DA VIES. New Edition; greatly Enlarged, and 
 brought up to the present time 1 by JOHN MATTHEWS, M.D., 
 F.R.M.S., Vice-President of the Quekett Microscopical Society. 
 Fcap. cloth, price 2s. 6d. 
 
 This manual comprises all the most approved methods of 
 mounting, together with the result of the Author's experience 
 and that of many of his friends in every department of Micro- 
 scopic Manipulation ; and as it is intended to assist the be- 
 ginner as well as the advanced student, the very rudiments of 
 the art have not been omitted. 
 
 LONDON : ROBERT HARDWICKE, 1 92, PICCADILLY.
 
 A 000 038 646 6
 
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