WOODCOCK SIIOOTIXG IX IRELAXD. 145 



ford. He was descended from one of the kings of Ire- 

 land. He showed me in . his hall the iron crown used 

 at the coronation of his ancestors, and he told me he 

 had sent a small gold crown, used for the same purpose, 

 to a museum in Dublin. He had become a proselyte 

 to the Protestant faith, and had consequently become a 

 marked man amongst his Roman Catholic neighbours, 

 and even at that time, seven years after the rebellion of 

 '98, he had all the lower windows of his large mansion 

 blocked up with deal boards, two or three inches thick, 

 as a defence against a night attack, and he always dined 

 in a room on the first floor. He was an extremely well 

 informed man, and possessed the usual Irish charac- 

 teristic — great hospitality. His corps, which I went to 

 inspect monthl}^, consisted of 100 light infantry, all 

 Protestants, mostly mountaineers, and he generally had 

 three or four of his men in his house to defend the 

 place. His corps was particularly well disciplined by 

 Mr. Kavanagh, who had Dundas's movements at his 

 fingers' ends. 



In 1806 I was removed to the county of Waterford, 

 and had the monthly inspection of all the corps in the 

 county for a twelvemonth, to the south as far as Lismore 

 and Capoquin. In the latter place I used to remain for 

 a few days in the -winter for cock shooting in the woods 

 of Sir John Keane, which had all the charms of ro- 

 mantic scenery and -wildness, and in. these covers I shot 

 several couple of the small woodcock mentioned by 

 Latham. They have the plumage* about the head dif- 



* On tlie 2nd Noremlier 18o8, a fine -svoodeoek, in full plnmage, flew 

 into a room in the hoiise of ]Mi\ Sturmey where a portion of the family 

 were at dinner. He was taken alive, and is now in the posse.¥sion of 

 Mr. Sturmey, Bath. 



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