PREFACE. 



might be depended on. The heroes of the " Gold Snuff- 

 'box" are alive and merry, and long may they continue so ! 

 for truer friends and " better company" never listened 

 to the " chimes at midnight." " Mr. Dawkins" is, I 

 believe, engaged in seeking, through Doctors' Commons, 

 to be relieved " e vinculo matrimonii," and " Mr. Burke" 

 duly announced among the last arrivals in the Sydney 

 Gazette. 



Respecting the legendary stories, I have no pledge to 

 offer for their authenticity, old Antony believed them to 

 the letter I have given them nearly in his own words, 

 and I may say with Sir Walter Scott, 



" I cannot tell how the truth may be, 

 I say the tale as 'twas said to me." 



" The Legend of Knock-a-thample" remains as the 

 Otter-killer related it ; but with "Rose Roche" I confess 

 to have taken liberties, in suppressing a portion of her 

 flirtation with the " black-eyed page," which, although, 

 upon the lady's part, I feel convinced, was perfectly pla- 

 tonic, yet by uncharitable constructions might be tortured 

 into something like indiscretion. 



If I have undervalued those rural recreations in which 

 many a worthy citizen sometimes dissipates, I hope my 

 contempt for his avocations will be ascribed to the true 

 cause, namely, that local advantages have spoiled my taste 

 and rendered me fastidious. He who can shoot grouse 

 upon the moor, will spend little time in killing pigeons 

 from the trap ; the angler who in a morning hooks some 

 half-score salmon, would reckon it but sorry amusement 

 to dabble in a pond. To a Galway rider, the Epping 



