110 A TEAR OF liberty; OR, 



reddening our noses and otherwise injuring the complexion, and are 

 conae to another set of lakes where we intend doing the same. There 

 does not seem to be much novelty in this, but for the life of me I 

 cannot get my rebellious members to agree with the dictum. The 

 feet will speed lightly towards Lough Gara, the hand will grasp the 

 rod more eagerly, and the eyes will grow brighter. Bah ! Family 

 quaiTels are intolerable. Peccavi ! peccavi ! There, rebels, will that 

 content you ? and if the plain truth must be spoken : ' Gentlemen 

 of the opposition, I most heartily agree with yoa." 



How joyously we stepped out of Boyle side by side with the 

 strapping sergeant. Names are not things to be lightly mentioned. 

 He might have been sergeant of militia, sergeant of marines, 

 sergeant-at-anns, or our honourable friend Serjeant Buzfuz ; at 

 any rate, he was Captain of the Guides, and ought to have been 

 Marshal of the Lakes. As we have recently seen a good deal of 

 fishing with the green drake, it will be more advisable in this 

 chapter to take a general survey of the waters of the district, and 

 say as little as may be on the more pleasant subject of practice, 

 remembering the proverb that " Too much, even of a good thing, is 

 good for nothing." 



Eoscommon is bounded on the north-east by Leitrim, and on the 

 east by King's County and Westmeath, from all which it is separated 

 by the river Shannon. The area is estimated at 609,405 English 

 acres, of which 131,063 are unimproved mountain and* bog, and 

 24,787 lakes. The interest of the sportsman may therefore be 

 considered as fairly represented by these freeholds of nature. The 

 general surface of Eoscommon is either flat or gently undulating ; 

 there are, however, some mountains, the principal groups of which 

 are the Braulieve and Slievh Curkagh, The county belongs to the 

 basin of the Shannon, except a very small portion at the western 

 extremity, which is drained by the Moy. The Shannon, about five 

 miles from its source, enters Lough Allen, flows through it, and 

 forms the north-eastern boundary of the county ; breaking from this 

 lake, it runs along the edge of Eoscommon to Carrick, where it 

 receives a stream from Lough Key ; from Carrick the great river 



