77 



vated with all the care and skill that money can command. 

 A most delightful country lane, the like of which I have 

 never seen before, but the music of the Shannon can be 

 heard in the valley below, and it is very vexing that this 

 fern-covered wall prevents our catching glim2:)ses of the 

 river between the trees. You can have too much of a good 

 thing, and I confess to a feeling akin to relief when we 

 eventually emerge from that long avenue, which has 

 occupied an hour's smart walking. 



Presently we come to a road bridge which spans the Mul- 

 caire Eiver, which empties itself into the Shannon close b}-. 

 This little river teems with mighty trout, which work up 

 fi'om the Shannon, and it is also a favourite stream with 

 the grilse, who tm-n into it on their run up from the sea. 

 Foregathering -with a local angler, who is " worming for 

 trouts,'' he tells me that the fishing in the Mulcaire is free. 

 So little is it preserved that poaching is carried on exten- 

 sively by the "boys." This description of the poachers 

 has no limit with regard to age, because a hoary-headed 

 old sinner, with one foot in the grave would be called a 

 "boy'" if he went poaching. I was very much impressed 

 with the beauty and fisliing possibilities of this turbulent 

 little river, and I promised myself the pleasure of some 

 day testing its angling merits. This promise I hope yet 

 to redeem. 



Away down the main road to Limerick — a road eighty 

 feet wide — we pass through the village of Newcastle, and 

 approach the city ; and nothing more squalid and filthy 

 than the cabins which flank this thoroughfare could ^)e 

 found in Ireland. Wretched hovels, with heaps of manure 

 and slush at their doors, ducks, goats, and pigs grubbing 

 in search of offal, liquid manure running across the paths 

 into the road, mud-begrimed, half-naked children, women 

 in rags and tatters — these are the sights which first greet 

 us as we approach the city of the broken treaty. jX^or does 

 a nearer approach dispel the first impression. AVe enter 

 by way of Clare-street, which consists of enormous houses, 

 four and five stories high, bearing evidences of a past 

 prosperity, but now reduced to abject poverty. Along 



