TENANT-RIGHT AND THE THREE F'S. 195 



stout nephew, with wife and children, to work for 

 her, who hoped to siicceed her in the farm. They 

 held on at the rent fixed in 1796, till they had 

 not one four-footed beast left — neither horse, cow, 

 sheep, nor pig. They used to let the grass to 

 neighbours who had stock, and cultivate without 

 manuring any fields that gave the chance of a crop. 

 My Scotchman passing their house one day in spring 

 during an ordinary year found the whole family 

 actually starving. The wife just confined, and 

 without a morsel for herself or baby, and all the 

 picture of hunger ; so that he gave them money out 

 of his own pocket for present relief. 



They then gave up the land. The man was 

 taken as a labourer ; he is an honest worker, and 

 they were allowed to live in a tenant's house near 

 their former farm, till it tumbled down, when a good 

 cottage was built for them. Through the rest of the 

 summer we could see the man, his wife and children, 

 all visibly swelling out in face — they were naturally 

 ruddy hearty folk — till their fatness became a joke 

 among us. They are with us still, twelve years after, 

 except that the old widow is dead. We take no 

 excuse for labourers not working. A more prosperous 

 set, leading more comfortable lives, does not exist. 



My next offence, stated at the land-meeting, was 

 that my garden wall bristled with broken glass, wliich 

 I suppose was taken as showing an unworthy dis- 

 trust of the Irish people. The main public road 



