14 A YEAR OF LIBERTY ; Ofl, 



eight and a half miles from each other. The inhabitants were poor 

 and ignorant, and the inaccessible nature of the country made it the 

 asylum of smugglers and outlaws." 



Thank Heaven ! none of these unpleasant gentry now haunt the 

 environs of Mallow, which is a quiet peaceable place, celebrated for 

 its tepid mineral waters. The walk to the springs is matter for a 

 May morning. Health-giving fountains, lovely climate, capital 

 fishing what could a valetudinarian, piscatorially inclined, desire 

 more ? 



The rail soon bore us to Killarne}- ; a brief conversation with Mr. 

 Callaghan McCarthy settled all necessary preliminaries, and in a 

 few minutes more we were off to Fort William, half farm, half 

 lodging house, with a very grand total of comfort. Do you think 

 that all this steaming and driving is dear at 17s. 6d, per head ? 



The Flesk is full; and how different from the shallow stream 

 which scarce fills half its bed in summer. The day is bitterly cold, 

 the east wind striving, not in vain, to dissipate the caloric that wraps 

 our bodies like a mantle. 



Eight hours in the stern-sheets of a boat, watching for a run, is 

 not to be thought of, with the thermometer three degrees above 

 frost, and the wind as sharp as a razor ; so this morning we will try 

 the Flesk, which, through the kindness of Colonel Herbert, is open 

 to all anglers who apply to him. Below our house is a beautiful 

 cast, but we made nothing of it. For five hours we worked manfully 

 over pool and rapid ; not a fish was to be seen, and had it not been 

 contrary to custom, we should have given it up in despair, and 

 returned by the road from the bridge. What a different animal is 

 man, with his stomach empty or full. At 2 p.m. we desponded ; 

 at 2.30 we lunched, and hope revived. 



Cheerfully we lit a pipe, and leaned over the parapet, to mark a 

 scene as stern and wild as ever Salvator painted. All parts of this 

 district bear traces of the O'Donoghue ; a hundred ruins record their 

 feudal power, and here before me, near the bridge, stood Killaha, 

 grey and savage, facing the wilderness of Glen Flesk, seeming still to 

 keep guard over the vale below. 



