SALMON ANGLING IN IRELAND. 169 



The man who cannot be satisfied with his quarters at Ballina 

 must be hard to please. The hotel, within a hundred yards of the 

 water, is large, airy, and comfortable, and is, during the summer 

 at least, well stocked with all that any sportsman need desire. It 

 was not any lack of comfort in the hospitium, therefore, that made 

 me hunt up a lodging before breakfast on the morning after our 

 arrival. 



Willie is certainly a treasure, for in an inconceivably short time 

 the affectionate, natty, indefatigable fellow has thrown a wonderful 

 home aspect over our new quarters. The rods are unpacked and 

 hung round the room, the landing-net leans with a jaunty, careless 

 air in one comer, and from another the gaff peeps slily out, as if 

 ready for mischief. Two wretched little tables in the recesses of 

 the windows are already covered with silks, feathers, and dubbing 

 of every hue ; the wheels ornament the mantel-piece, and on sundry 

 small brass-headed nails, hanamered into the walls with a shameful 

 disregard to the landlady's paper, are hanging casting-lines and 

 pattern-flies. Books and writing materials are disposed in con- 

 venient places. A couple of old shawls convert two trunks into 

 ottomans, and altogether there is such an air of snugness about the 

 place that we resolve, nem. con., to remain for a fortnight or three 

 weeks before plunging into the " far west." 



A good or bad servant is a heavy item in a man's account of 

 comfort, under an}'- circumstances ; but in L-eland, where the wanderer 

 is so frequently thrown on his o^vn resources, such a treasure is 

 invaluable. How different is the domestic of the two countries, even 

 when both are good. The characteristic of one is obedience, of the 

 other affection. The Englishman is civil and attentive, obe3ring his 

 master's orders to the letter, and nothing more ; whilst he receives 

 youi' wages you receive his attendance ; you have bought him, mind 

 and body ; but as to his feelings, these are quite another matter ; 

 they are not in the bond. But use an Irishman well, treat him with 

 kindness and courtesy, and he becomes a friend, a humble one it is 

 true, yet you have his love. His service has the peculiar charm of 

 seeming a pleasure; he identifies himself with his patron, whose 



