THEIR HEIGHT, FORM, AND STRENGTH. 153 



estimate. The average, as to the Mayo men, was 

 about 5 feet 7f inches. Very few said 5 feet 9 

 inches, and one said 5 feet 6 inches. 



151. I now proceed to give some striking proofs 

 that the labourers, " harvesters," " reapers," and 

 " spailpins " of Mayo, Leitrim, and Sligo are well 

 over five feet two inches high. These men and 

 their brother Connachtmen of Galway and Ros- 

 common formed the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers and 

 the 88th Connaught Rangers. Wherever the 87th 

 or the 88th charged one or more of Napoleon's 

 " invincible " regiments, it made " smithereens " 

 of them, " twice saved the allied armies," and thus 

 proved itself to be at least equal in " form " and 

 physique to any regiment of any country what- 

 ever. 



The 87th, which got 571 Mayo recruits in 1805, 

 is nicknamed " The Fogs," from the Irish battle-cry, 

 Fay un Itealach (Leave the way !) with which it 

 charged the French at Barrosa, and is named " The 

 Eaglers," from its having been the first (and the 

 last?) to capture one of Napoleon's Eagles: "At 

 Barrosa, says Sir William Napier in his History 

 of the Peninsular War, the 87th Royal Irish 

 Fusiliers closed eagerly with the French, and by a 

 rapid, animated, fierce, and prolonged charge over- 

 threw the first line, dashed it violently against the 



