6 Among Men and Horses. 



thinking that the subjects which fill their minds are interest- 

 ing to other people. When the terrible famine and pestilence 

 of 1847-8 afflicted Ireland, my parents had wooden sheds 

 constructed in the grounds near our house for the accom- 

 modation of the starving and fever-stricken poor, and aided 

 by our servants, tended and fed them with their own hands. 

 Our part of the country was very sorely stricken. Helpless 

 women and children and gaunt men would drag themselves, 

 cold and weary, to our door, and when quickly taken down 

 into the kitchen and given a bowl of soup or warm milk, 

 would, after saying a word or two of grateful thanks, often 

 stretch themselves in front of the comforting fire, and with 

 a smile of peace and relief on their wan faces would gently 

 pass away out of a world of pain and misery. I can just 

 remember those terrible scenes of uncomplaining suffering 

 on one hand, and unselfish devotion on the other. The 

 famine fever was so virulent, and help so feeble, that the 

 dead lay rotting by the sides of the roads, and the burials 

 in the churchyard had to be conducted so hastily, that many 

 of the corpses were only partially covered with earth. The 

 calamity was so widespread and sudden, that much of the 

 generous aid which came from England and elsewhere was 

 woefully misapplied. Immense quantities of Indian corn 

 meal were imported and distributed among the starving 

 Irish, who, being entirely unacquainted with its use, tried 

 to cook it in the way they had been accustomed to prepare 

 their familiar diet of oatmeal. As the amount of boiling suit- 

 able to the latter was altogether insufficient for the former ; 

 the new kind of porridge, instead of proving nutritious, acted 

 as a direct irritant to the poor, weakened stomachs of the 

 people, and killed more than it saved. After the distress had 

 passed away, we left Ovens and went to Bellgooley. 



Our new abode at Bellgooley was about four miles from 

 Kinsale, and about thirteen from Cork. Mr Tom Knolles 

 of Oaklands hunted the country, until he was nearly 

 ninety years of age ; and his brother, an old retired naval 



