258 Walks in Ireland : [|Sept. 



nothing 'ill do ye but ye must fight it out. Well, lave the road, and go 

 into the field, and fight fair with your sticks like men ; but, if ye take to 

 stones, and bj-ake the pace, by all the books that ever were shut and 

 opened, I'll ram every mother's son of ye into gaol, and persecute ye to 

 the end of the law." And, to tell God's truth, as they say in the coun- 

 try, you seldom heard of more serious mischief in his district than a 

 few broken heads ; whereas, had he followed the example of his bre- 

 thren of the bench, and called out the police, yoir would have been 

 edified on this side of the water, with half-a-dozen inquests on victims 

 of gun-shot wounds, to improve your good opinion of us of the Island of 

 Saints. Peace be with the Avorthy in question ! He has been gathered 

 to his fathers since I visited the part of the country of which he was the 

 Solon ; and an honest fellow and a fair sportsman he was. There was 

 not a better mounted foxhunter in fllunster ; and he would think as 

 little of a double ditch in the morning, or a half-dozen cooper of claret 

 " to his own cheek," in the evening, as any man from this to himself; 

 but he has paid the debt of nature, as I have said (though, indeed, he 

 had no great taste for paying debts). So — Reqniescal in pace ! as the 

 tombstones have it. 



A friend of mine, who has spent the best part of his life in the service 

 of king and country, in all parts of the globe, returned a short time 

 since to his native village, in the county of Tipperary, after an absence 

 of many years. It was on the fair-day that he arrived, and a melancholy 

 scene the well-remembered spot presented to my pugnacious and enthu- 

 siastic friend, who recollected with a sigh the happy times when 

 Peelers were not. In place of the accustomed crowd of jolly-looking 

 fellows, their hilarious faces beaming with joyous anticipation of the 

 coming fight, nothing was to be seen but lounging groups, with down- 

 cast visages, bent upon the ground ; some leaning in sullen listlessness 

 against the cabin-walls — others propped upon their useless shillelaghs, 

 and looking as sulkj% to use my narrator's words, " as if they had 

 tossed up for their breakfast, and lost." At length he asked a decent- 

 looking farmer, who seemed to partake of the general despondency, what 

 was the matter ? " The matther !" he replied, " matther enough to vex 

 a saint out ov heaven ! Look at the polis, bad fortin' to thim ! — there 

 they are, an' they've hindhered the fight ! Ogh ! Musha an' it's it that 

 would have been the purty one ! An' there's Misther Butler says, iv 

 we don't asperse ourselves, he'll read the Roiot Axe — jist as iv anybody 

 wanted to roiot — only fight fair. Bud what's worst ov all, there's 

 Father Wade, that ought to know betther, turnin' agin us, jist as bad as 

 the rest, an' says its a shame to be fightin' — as iv he forgot his own fathers- 

 may the heavens be his bed ! that wliin he was to be the fore, used to 

 bate the whole fair f.fore him. Ogh an' throth, betune thim all, the 

 counthry's fairly spoilt !" ]My friend could not help sympathizing in the 

 natural distress of the poor fellow ; so richng up to the officer of police, 

 he requested as a favour that he would no longer prevent the usual 

 diversions of the people, assuring him, at the same time, that he himself 

 would undertake that nothing serious should occur. " Why, Captain 

 ," said the officer, " there's a great deal in what you say : I can- 

 not give the men leave to fight ; but, now that I think of it, I may as 

 well take a walk to the other end of the fair, and see what is doing there. 

 — Right shoulders forward ! — IMai-ch !" Away went the goodnatured 

 policeman, and the purty fight instantly commenced. 



