140 LIFE IN IRELAND 



strange fellow may achieve the honour, provided he 

 can pay the fees; but here it is widely different; the 



Lord Luff must have been cured of a Pox take 



you, I forget the disease, or his wife's ckildre?i must 

 have been inoculated for the S??iall Fox, and it is one 

 and the same thing — only one is young, and the other 

 — of age. I will tell a story of Knights : 



A Captain of a Custom-house Cruizer was knighted, 

 merely because he had the power to drink one bottle 

 more than the Duke of Rutland. Twelve bottles 

 were ranged upon the board, the Duke sank at the 

 eleventh, and his friends triii77iphed into K?iighthood ; it 

 was the custom of this ' Odd Fellow ' to bestow the 

 honour of a 'Knighthood' to all who had the luck to 

 please him. At the village of Dram-a-damgo, an 

 excellent dinner and wines were provided for the 

 Viceroy \ he eat, he drank, he got in good humour, and 

 eventually knighted the landlord ; 'tis fair to say that 

 this man served the office oi High Sheriff, and was a 

 respectable useful member of society. For this no 

 thanks to the drunken V y. But still some dis- 

 crimination should be us'd, and at the discrimination 

 of a Lord Luff, comes from England ; he has no 

 opinion of his own, he is only an echo, to make the 

 responses of government ; but he is often a true one, 

 and the man who could say that Earl Talbot is- any 

 other than a friend to his King and Country, must be 

 a villain. 



Sir Shawn returned thanks with that grace which 

 ever embellished his name. Brian Boru made his 

 congratulations free from affectation, and in the real 

 style of a true British La?idholder, who never op- 



