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CHAPTER VII. 



n^RAVELLING by road in Ireland was and is 

 -^ very different from what it was and is in 

 England. The mail and stage-coaches, almost 

 similar to the English ones, were well-horsed, 

 and kept their time very regularly. Occasionally 

 " a froHcsome baste," or " rale bit of blood who 

 won the plate at the Curragh," would start off 

 at a tremendous pace, upset the " drag," the 

 driver assuring the passengers that they were 

 the " quietest craythures in Ireland," adding, 

 " I'll give it ye, ye bastes, ye venomous sarpints, 

 when I get ye home," 



The harness, too, was not a little the worse 

 for wear, having so often been mended with 

 string and rope that in descending a hill it 

 would break into " smithereens," and now and 

 then, when whisky was in the ascendant, the 



