AN EVENING AT BELLEEK. 29 



Time was when the evening merriment of 

 the jolly fishermen had been heard from this 

 lodge, far above the plashing of the rapid 

 and the roar of the falls : but those times 

 had long gone by, and the green slimy walls 

 were cracked from the top to the bottom ; 

 the clay floors were in holes ; the roof, like 

 Ossian's apparitions, permitted the stars to 

 shine through ; and the picturesque little 

 building, having passed through the vicis- 

 situdes of a convent, a barrack, a fishing- 

 lodge, and a police-station, now bade fair to 

 become as picturesque a ruin. 



The scene of action had been removed to 

 what in England would have been called the 

 village public-house, but which, in virtue of 

 its being situated in Ireland, rejoiced in the 

 style and title of " hotel." 



And, in truth, the hotel was not without 

 its pretensions either : true, its floors were 

 but of mud, and its thatch not of the newest 

 nor the most water-tight, but it was the only 

 house in the whole village that could boast a 

 storey above the ground-floor : and looking, 

 as it did, full and confidently up the street, 

 it bore, after all, a somewhat grand and im- 

 posing appearance. 



