12 



A YEAR OF liberty; OR, 



CHAPTER III. 



Between Lismore and Fermoy On to Killarney Cost of Journey The 

 Flesk Flies of the Neighbourhood Trolling on Lough Guttane Remarks 

 What might be done, and how to do it. 



The morning, on the 27tli of February, was bright and breezy as 

 we drove over the bridge of Lismore, on our way towards Fermoy. 

 Here poor Ned was waiting to bid us adieu, and give Willie parting 

 instructions. Far away, the Knockmel-dawn Mountains formed a 

 background to the romantic glen, through which the Oun-na-Sheadh 

 (a fair trout stream) brawls its way to join the main river at the 

 bridge. It is a quarrelsome little water as it ought to be, being 

 bom in Tipperary and, on the smallest provocation, howls and 

 shrieks and knocks the boulders about, in a way quite creditable to 

 the county. 



Between this point and Fermoy the Blackwater is a glorious 

 stream, rolling on from broad pool to broader shallow, through 

 English-looking meadows, and past English-looking houses, belong- 

 ing to the resident gentry. Happy would it be for poor old Ireland 

 if she had more of exactly the same pattern and quality. From the 

 kindness of some of these gentlemen I obtained full angling powers, 

 and shall stay two or three days at Fermoy to avail myself of their 

 courtesy. 



Few things are more agi-eeable than the first visit to a new river. 

 Hope is our companion, and there is no end to the pictures imagina- 

 tion paints. The opening day on promising water is positively 

 delightful comparatively, doubly delightful to an obstinate pig, 

 who for three weeks had been savagely working himself to death, in 

 order to prove that he was right and everybody else wrong. 



** Shall we begin here, Willie ?'* 



My companion's mind, never very hopeful, was now quite out of 



