252 A WELL-SPENT SUNDAY. 



to the best fishing as Belleek, nor, it must 

 be admitted, was the cookery anything at 

 all approaching to that of the incomparable 

 Anne : but it was a bond fide hotel ; it 

 boasted a coach-house, where the Squire's 

 carriage was reposing ; its rooms were of a 

 towny and hotellish character; its tables 

 were of mahogany, though dull ; and its 

 forks were of silver, though dirty ; its bed- 

 rooms had four-post beds, with testers and 

 curtains, and real live bugs, and everything 

 complete, like a Dublin hotel : it had a 

 male waiter, and a boots, and an hostler, 

 with a bell for each of them; — upon the 

 whole, it was a very grand affair, and, no 

 doubt, turned up its nose immensely at its 

 cosy, comfortable, unpretending, pot-house - 

 looking competitor at Belleek. 



It had long been the Squire's custom to 

 hold there a sort of weekly levy. There was 

 a standing invitation to every fisherman on 

 the Erne, or its vicinity, and that, equally 

 whether he was previously known to any of 

 the party or not, to dine at Cockburn's on 

 Sunday ; and thus it seldom happened that 

 on that day a smaller party than eight or 

 ten sat down to table. 



