92 AN IRISH MANSION. 



house, situated in the mountains, and at a considerable distance 

 from the mail-coach road. 



"This gentleman was many years older than I. He had 

 an only sister, a girl of sixteen, beautiful and accomplished ; 

 at the period of my visit she was still at school, but was to 

 finally leave it, as my host informed me, at Midsummer. 



"Never was there a more perfect specimen of primitive 

 Milesian life, than that which the domicile of rny worthy 

 relative exhibited. The house was enormously large half 

 ruinous and all, within and without, wild, rackety, and 

 irregular. There was a troop of idle and slatternly servants 

 of both sexes, distracting every part of the establishment : 

 and a pack of useless dogs infesting the premises, and cross- 

 ing you at every turn. Between the biped and quadruped 

 nuisances an eternal war was carried on, and not an hour of 

 the day elapsed, but a canine outcry announced that some 

 of those unhappy curs were being ejected by the butler, or 

 pelted by the cook. 



" So common-place was this everlasting uproar, that after a 

 few days I almost ceased to notice it. I was dressing for 

 dinner, when the noise of dogs quarrelling in the yard, 

 brought me to the window ; a terrier was being worried by 

 a rough, savage-looking fox-hound, whom I had before this 

 noticed and avoided. At the moment, my host was crossing 

 from the stable ; he struck the hound with his whip, but, 

 regardless of the blow, he continued his attack upon the 

 smaller dog. The old butler in coming from the garden, 

 observed the dogs fighting, and stopped to assist in separating 

 them. Just then, the brute quitted the terrier, seized the 

 master by the leg, and cut the servant in the hand. A groom 

 rushed out on hearing the uproar, struck the prongs of a 

 pitchfork through the dog's bodj^, and killed him on the spot. 

 This scene occurred in less time than I have taken in relating 

 it. 



" I hastened from my dressing-room ; my host had bared 

 his leg, and was washing the wound, which was a jagged tear 

 from the hound's tooth. Part of the skin was loose, and a 

 sudden thought appeared to strike him. He desired an iron 

 to be heated ; took a sharp penknife from his pocket, coolly 

 and effectually removed the ragged flesh, and, regardless of 

 the agony it occasioned, with amazing determination, cauterized 

 the wound severely. 



