318 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST 



Lanty,' crooked up the bottom of her dress with his 

 hunting whip, exclaiming, ' Bone and sinew, by the holy ! 

 what a leg for a boot ! ' I could have knocked the 

 ruffian down, had I been able, although for the exploit 

 I should be taxed with my false delicacy, and the usual 

 wind-up, ' It will never do for Galway \ ' 



" Shy from my cradle, and accustomed to city 

 formality, I was not likely to become at once inhabited 

 to Irish manners. But in Connaught there was a laxity 

 of form a free-and-easy system of society, that exceeded 

 all belief, and to a distant person like me, was intolerable. 

 People on a half-hour's acquaintance called you by 

 your Christian name ; and men, whom you had never 

 even heard of, rode to your door, and told you coolly 

 they ' would stay a fortnight.' Introductions in 

 Connemara, I believe are reckoned among the works 

 of supererogation. If I took a quiet ride, expecting 

 upon my return to meet none at dinner but my wife 

 and the eternal Marc Antony, I probably found half 

 a score already seated at the table, and might learn the 

 appellatives of perhaps a couple of the gang, by the 

 announcement of 'Mr. Dawkins, Tom the Devil,' 

 ' Mr. Dawkins, Smashall Sweeney.' 



" I remember upon the day on which I was so fortunate 

 as to make the acquaintance of the above gentlemen, 

 in the course of the evening they differed about the 

 colour of a race-horse, and, after bandying mutual 

 civilities, concluded by interchanging the lie direct and 

 a full decanter. The latter having grazed my head, 

 induced me to abscond immediately ; and when I 

 recorded to my loving helpmate the narrow escape 

 from demolition I had just experienced, instead of 

 tender alarm and connubial sympathy, her countenance 



