DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 233 



On ordinary days, although happy and health- 

 giving, I must not dwell, as I need my pen for more 

 stirring times, accomits of men and women whom 

 we met, and incidents which I have notes of. Let it 

 be enough to say that those who would hke such 

 comfortable sport as this inland bay affords will be 

 at ease in the Dudley Arms Hotel at Clifden. 



From a hvery yard opposite our hotel I had seen 

 well-horsed cars come, and, as my love of horses is 

 on a par with my hate of whips, except to show the 

 animal or stroke his back, I went across to tell the 

 man in charge what I had seen, and ask if he would 

 let my son and me ride behind a good one to Round- 

 stone. Spectacles as a rule detract somewhat from 

 the expression of a face, and Irishmen are the last 

 I would wish to wear them; but the roguish look 

 that came over the top of the pair this man had on 

 was added to by the slow one-sided bending of his 

 head to get a peep at me. \\'hen he had satisfied 

 himself, his head resumed its ordinary position, and his 

 lips, that had quivered as if expecting a laugh to come 

 to them, moved to say, 'Been in Ireland long?' At 

 this we both laughed, and as this was what we had 

 tried not to do, it did us good. 



Whether we got the best horse from the stable I 

 cannot say, but I did not wish for a better one than 

 the handsome creature that trotted us over the road 

 that made its way by many a twist between lakes 

 that left margins only just Sufficient for our passage, 

 and on which we saw spreading rings in such numbers 

 as proved them well stocked with fish. After these 

 came a lengthy chain of httle lakes threaded together 

 by a sun-gilded stream; the whole a lovely, silver 

 pendant, dropped in a desolate bog that has been 

 made hideous by trenches from which peat has been 

 taken, leaving ugly blackened stumps of forest trees 

 exposed. 



It was pleasing after several miles of such desolatioB 



