192 LIFE IN IRELAND 



CHAPTER XVII 



Brian Boru arrested, and thrown into the Sheriff's Prison— Tap- 

 room of ditto— The Prisoners' welcome to the Sheriffs Tub— 

 A Visit— A touch at description— Dinner at the Mess— A wet 

 evening amongst dry fellows. 



BRIAN now began to retrench, and as a first step, 

 sold his valuable stud of horses for a mere 

 trifle : he then gave up his country house and pleasure- 

 yacht: this was the signal for his creditors to commence 

 operations; and one night, when he had been to see 

 Folly as it Flies, at the theatre, he was tapped on the 

 shoulder stepping into a hackney-coach, and conveyed 

 to the Sheriff's Prison. The writ was for ^4000 

 at the suit of his wine and spirit merchant, and a 

 retainer was laid on his back by a milliner, for twelve 

 hundred pounds on Sally's account, and the latitat of a 

 jeweller for double that sum, swept every article of 

 furniture from his house, emptied his stables, and left 

 him really no more than what he stood upright in. 

 Brian felt himself dreadfully situated— the Sheriff's 

 Prison is very small, and always very full; it has stone 

 galleries tier over tier, like the Caravansaries in Asia, 

 which, with the iron railings, make the place cold, 

 dreary, and uncomfortable: beneath these are a sort 

 of cells or dungeons, under ground, where the poorer 

 prisoners pay a penny per night for leave to sleep upon 



