after our horse, this interruption did not disconcert us ; the stable was comfortable, the hay and oats excellent, and what was equally essential, the people so honest, that it was unnecessary to stand guard over the manger. On our return, we were ushered, from the kitchen, through a narrow passage, serving, in case of necessity, for a bed-chamber, into an inner apartment, distinguished by the luxuries of a boarded floor, a close ceiling, papered walls, and grate in the fireplace, which was ornamented by a wooden chimneypiece; in the grate blazed a cheerful turf fire, and tea was prepared. If the tea furniture was neither of Dresden, Parisian, or Worcester manufacture, the tea, cream, bread and butter, were nearly, or altogether, as good as I had any where met with, since my landing in Ireland, and our female attendant was unremitting in her services and abbreviating conversation. 'Can you tell Ju,' said my companion, imitating her own dialect, who the gents were that dined here.' 'Why then, in truth, dear, and not to make you an ill answer, myself cannot tell you as to that; but I believe they were agreeable sprissans from college, going round the world for sport, and climbing the rocks of dif, (difficulty) to arrive at the centre of hap,' (happiness.) Well, and you made them comf,' (comfortable.) I do all in my poor power to please the gents, but the sprisses were sols, (solomons) quite reg, (regular) and took their consola in modera, (consolation in moderation.) God give us all a happy death, and prepare us for our end;' and here she muttered something

like a prayer, and appeared to cross herself by stealth. My friend, rather a pleasant man, and well qualified for this rustic intercourse, observed, that, instead of hearing her talk seriously, and of death, he expected to have found her with new attachments to life; in short, he expected to see her married.' 'Oh! bethehusta, (be silent)-bethehusta, you are bordering on indel, (indelicacy); but you're always full of spir, (spirits) and God keep you so: as for me, in barrows full, I have my anxieties; every thing here, all on my poor back; but the Gents are kind enough to say they are pleased, and I am happy. Are you going on the lake in the morning?' 'Yes, Judy, we shall be up by times, and will require breakfast early.' 'My jewels, your will's a law-will you want that reprobate Charley, because, if you do, we ought to send a gossoon across the bog to-night, to tell him to be here early in the morning?' By all means, Judy, we couldn't do without Charley.' Two press or turn-up beds, in the room in which we sat, were prepared for us, and after my friend took a tumbler of warm whiskey punch, an example I was induced to follow, we betook ourselves Our old father of the angle, Isaac Walton, whose exquisite work on deservedly admired by all

to rest.

6

Angling' is so much and readers of good taste and

pastoral feeling, praised the sheets furnished to his bed, by his hostess of Trout-hall, for that they were fresh and smelt of lavender.' If our sheets did not smell of lavender, they were perfectly clean and well aired, and had an odour as if the mountain breeze, in which they

F

were dried, had been loaded with the sweets of the heath-blossom and wild flowers, over which it had travelled; and if I had a fault to find with my bed, it was that of being too softly luxuriant. I fear you will think me too minute in my description of this auberge, and the peculiarities of its attendant; but I feel that, by a delineation of this kind, I convey to you a stronger idea of manners and character, and local peculiarities, than through the medium of rounded sentences, and abstract reflections. We slept soundly, and were awakened early in the morning by Carr, who had been sent for over-night. This important personage, Carr;-important to those who fish Luggela lake, is herdsman, or wood-ranger, to Mr. Peter La Touche, proprietor of the lake, a pretty lodge at the head of it, and a considerable tract of wood and mountain adjoining. This man had been a grenadier in the Antrim militia, and my companion said, that he recollected him, about twelve years since, one of the handsomest, stoutest, and most agile men he ever beheld; but the excessive use of whiskey, the slow poison by which the Irish peasant is destroyed, and the springs of his mental and bodily vigour dried up, had reduced him, though still a young man, comparatively to the shadow of what he was. He retains much of his military air, and, as we witnessed, almost to our inconvenience, during a walk across the mountain, his strength and activity very little impaired. At first view, and to strangers, his aspect is rendered savage and ferocious, by black whiskers of unusual magni

tude, of which he seems vain, and suffers to meet in a sort of a ruff that covers his throat and the under part of his chin; and in his hand he carried a large oaken club, of a weight not less than the musquet to which he had been accustomed, to assist him in springing over bog-holes, mountain streams, and ravines. Being very useful to, and made much of, by those who frequent the lakes, his port is easy and familiar, and as he led the way, after breakfast, across the mountain to Luggela, his conversation and anecdotes were not unamusing. This appears to me characteristic of the Irish peasant: when encouraged, he possesses a natural shrewdness, and quick perception of character, rarely to be met with in men of the same condition in other nations, and the most ignorant of that class readily perceive when they presume too much on encouragement, and have the tact to recover their ground."

CHAP. V.

"O! let not pride avert its eye
From lowly scenes of rural life-
These have what riches ne'er can buy,
The simple joys that banish strife;
The splendid dome, the vassal train,

The banquet rich, the rout, the ball,

Th' applauded scene, Italia's strain

CONTENT AND HEALTH OUTWEIGH THEM ALL !”

ANON.

OUR friend, Mr. GREENDRAKE, has got into a rude and sporting part of the county of Wicklow. His accommodations are homely, and so are the persons by whom they are ministered; but, if he be a genuine lover of the angle, he feels not the absence of luxuries and polished society, and all associations and circumstances connected with his favorite amusement become dear to him. He will be found to dwell minutely on that which, in appearance and manner, was so strange to him, as an Englishman, and we are much mistaken if those, who are acquainted with the little cabin inn at Round-wood, and the adjacent scenery, will not be well pleased with his faithful and circumstantial description of them.