302 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



to his own sides, might feel an almost equal security as he would 

 feel in church. 



2. THE GALWAY WOMEN. There was another circumstance, 

 perfectly unique in its character, to which I shall be pardoned 

 for alluding. There was another species of live stock exhibited 

 at the fair, which I cannot say is never seen at such places, but 

 which does not always present itself under the same frank cir 

 cumstances. The kind nobleman who accompanied me, and 

 who, like many others, noble and simple, whom it has been my 

 good fortune to meet with on this side of the water, left no effort 

 unessayed for my gratification, after looking at the various 

 objects of the fair, asked me, at last, &quot;if I would like to see 

 the girls.&quot; I confess my natural diffidence at once took the 

 alarm ; and my imagination cast a few furtive glances over the 

 sea at some precious objects I had left behind. However, upon a 

 voyage of curiosity, why should I not see what was to be seen ? 

 and, confident that my good friend could have no sinister design, 

 I gave him an affirmative reply. Upon inquiring of one of the 

 trustees, or masters of the fair, &quot; if the girls had come,&quot; we 

 were informed they would be there at twelve o clock. At twelve 

 o clock we went, as directed, to a part of the ground higher than 

 the rest of the field, where we found from sixty to a hundred 

 young women, well dressed, with good looks and good manners, 

 and presenting a spectacle quite worth any civil man s looking 

 at, and in which, I can assure my readers, there was nothing to 

 offend any civil or modest man s feelings. These were the 

 marriageable girls of the country, who had come to show them 

 selves, on the occasion, to the young men and others who 

 wanted wives ; and this was the plain and simple custom of 

 the fair. I am free to say that I saw in the custom no very 

 great impropriety. It certainly did not imply that, though they 

 were ready to be had, any body could have them. It was not a 

 Circassian slave-market, where the richest purchaser could make 

 his selection. They were in no sense of the term on sale ; nor 

 did they abandon their own right of choice ; but that which is 

 done constantly in more refined society, under various covers 

 and pretences, at theatres, balls, and public exhibitions ; I will 

 say nothing about churches, was done by these humble and 

 unpretending people in this straightforward manner. Between 



