176 AN IRISH SALMON-RIVER 



' Well,' I observed sagely, ' that 's a ready way of getting 

 rid of property.' 



' Thrue for you, sir ; but there was far more than that 

 to it. Misther Conolly was great for the horse- racing. 

 He was an aisy man with his tenants, and some of them 

 would be as slow in paying the rent as they would be fast 

 to pay their respects, but divil a disthress he would ever 

 lay upon them. Every year before the Derby race came 

 on, he would ride round a fourth of the estate, and says 

 he to each one, " It 's five years' arrear ye 're owing me. 

 Pay me one year's rent, and 1 11 wipe off the lave." Quick 

 they were to pay on that balancing, so he 'd get one year's 

 rent off a fourth of his tenantry, and away he goes to 

 London and loses it all in the betting. And next year 

 he 'd be afther doing the same on the next fourth of his 

 estate, till the throuble came over him entirely, more's 

 the shame, for he was the mighty, grand gintleman. 

 Then they put the property up for sale, and didn't they 

 cut five great estates out of the one that had been ? Not 

 a dhry eye could ye behold in the counthry on that 

 blessed day, for a good friend to the poor man was Tom 

 Conolly. But we'll have no more excursions of that 

 manner undher the new law a black end to thim that 

 had the making of it ! ' 



It occurred to me that Paddy's censure of the Land 

 Act may have been embittered by reason of his being no 

 farmer, and therefore not entitled to advantage from it. 

 Perchance, also, it was coloured by anxiety to say what 

 might be agreeable to one of the land-owning class. 



Paddy Rogan was rich in reminiscence of various 

 anglers whom it had been his lot to attend upon the Erne. 



'Lord was the keen fisher, him that was Lord- 



