THE GALWAY FAIR. 301 



LI. THE GALWAY FAIR. 



A very large fair is held at Galway, Ireland, in the county of 

 Galway, called the Fair of Rose Mount, at which I was present. 

 This was chiefly for the sale of ponies, or horses of a small breed, 

 with some few cattle. On this occasion, the collection of people 

 was surprisingly great ; and I could then well understand what 

 was intended by the public meetings in Ireland, called &quot;monster 

 meetings,&quot; in respect to which, until I saw this collection of 

 people, I had always supposed the account of the numbers 

 assembled had been much exaggerated. There were here, on 

 this occasion, some cattle and sheep ; but there were, also, four 

 thousand ponies, the catching of which, for examination or sale, 

 as they had, in general, neither bridle nor halter, was sufficiently 

 amusing, and I was about to add, sufficiently Irish. The fair 

 was held on the sea-shore, where the receding tide left a large 

 bed of mud. The ponies, when required to be caught, were 

 surrounded and driven into this mud ; and here, in a very ignoble 

 way, they were secured, though it was not always without some 

 difficulty they were extracted after being caught. 



1. TEMPERANCE IN IRELAND. There were two circum 

 stances connected with this fair at Rose Mount, a reference to 

 which, though not having an immediate connection with the 

 principal object of my Reports, yet having a direct bearing upon 

 rural manners and customs, may not be considered wholly out of 

 place. Here, as well as at the fair at Donnybrook, where im 

 mense numbers of people were congregated, I could observe most 

 distinctly the beneficent effects of that powerful reformatory 

 movement, which, under the ministry of a good man, worthy of 

 the name of an apostle, has effected a glorious moral triumph 

 throughout Ireland, such as the pages of history scarcely record. 

 I cannot say that at either place there was no drinking and no 

 quarrelling ; but there was comparatively little ; and knowing, 

 from report and from the natural excitableness of the Irish tem 

 per, what had been usual on such occasions, I could not but feel 

 how much had been accomplished, when a foreigner might truly 

 say, of such vast and mixed assemblages, they were quiet, orderly, 

 and kind ; and a well-behaved man, disposed to keep his elbows 

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