SALMON ANGLING IN IBELAND. 213 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



The Big House Head-quarters at Newport Advantages of our Position in 

 Wet and Dry Weather Newport River Burrishoole, Tyrena Pleasant 

 Dreams Michael O'Leary's Board Early Start An Inn amongst the 

 Mountains Breakfast A Day after my own Heart, the Dawn of which is 

 only shown in the present Chapter. 



September 8. 

 Could Dominie Sampson have been ushered into our new quarters, 

 doubtless his first exclamation would have been ''Prodigious ! " On 

 a table near the fire flickered a pair of wretched candles, making 

 darkness visible ; in the grate a smouldering pile of peat emitted a 

 cloud of smoke, together with a faint light, so faint indeed that the 

 whole of the great room, except the portion immediately round the 

 hearth, was as dark as the sky in a starless, moonless night. A 

 score of Fenians might have been Im'king in the shadowy corners. 

 I felt all the depressing influence of the mysterious and the unknown. 

 A vague sense of uneasiness was creeping over me ; I tried to shake 

 it off, and lit a pipe by my own fireside ; but the huge rusty bars 

 seemed never to have heard of the sweet charities of home, and the 

 rude but spirited carving below the mantel-piece looked so strange 

 and weird in the uncertain light that I began to feel in very uncanny 

 company. In fact, I was fast getting into a highly nervous state. 

 Anything was better than being hagridden in this fashion, so, seizing 

 one of the candles, I set off on a journey of exploration. Holding 

 the " dip " high above my head, I was able to see that a handsome 

 cornice ran round the walls, and that the centre of the ceiling was 

 ornamented with a rich and beautiful design, a portion of which had 

 fallen, perhaps in the midst of some wild revel. On the floor were 

 three or four tattered pieces of carpet, in strong contrast to each 

 other as regarded pattern and colour, whilst the furniture consisted 

 of a few chairs, and a table so diminutive that it showed like a 

 fragment of wreck floating on the wide sea. Altogether there was 



