78 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



to Johanna Bailie : " In spite of all the disad- 

 vantages which have hitherto retarded her progress, 

 Ireland yet will be the queen of the trefoil of king- 

 doms. I never saw a finer country, or, to speak my 

 mind, a finer people." 



75. In 1834, Sir H. Inglis, a Scot, stated in his 

 Tour in Ireland : " There is a difference between 

 English and Irish physiognomy seen at a very cur- 

 sory glance, and certainly not to the disadvantage of 

 Irish females, whose generally high foreheads and 

 intellectual expression were not thrown away upon 

 me." P. 12, Ed. 1836. 



76. In December, 1836, a writer of the Dublin 

 University Magazine says : " It is well known that 

 the Irish race furnishes the most perfect specimens 

 of human beauty and vigour, both mental and 

 bodily. 



" In Meath, famine has never laid her lean fingers 

 over the well-chiselled and handsome features of 

 these light-limbed, large-bodied sons of the soil, 

 whose courteous salutes it almost fatigues the hand 

 of the traveller to return as he bends his steps from 

 Navan towards the Liffey. These are emphatically 

 the Irish peasantry ; and as we look at their shrewd 

 and daring countenance, their light, energetic tread, 

 and frames so well fitted for endurance and exertion, 

 we feel a mingled pride and apprehension a pleasing 



