178 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



house functionary — for all the servants on the estab- 

 lishment were '' four pound constables " — announced 

 that ** his honour would do no justice," and bundled 

 off the applicant to someone more approachable of his 

 Majesty's numerous and poor esquires. 



The oysters found in the bays and estuaries along 

 this coast are of a very superior quality ; and their 

 quantity may be inferred from the fact that on the shores 

 where they are bedded, a turf-basket large enough to 

 contain six or seven hundred can be filled for a six- 

 pence. A couple of men will easily, and in a few hours, 

 lift a horse-load 1 — and, notwithstanding the numbers 

 carried off by sailing-boats from Clare and Munster, 

 the stock appears to be little reduced by the constant 

 dredging. There are besides these, other shell-fishes 

 greatly prized by the peasantry, but which I had never 

 had the curiosity to eat, such as razor-fish, clams, and 

 various kinds of mussels. These occasionally make 

 a welcome change in the otherwise unvarying 

 potato diet ; and, better still, employ the idler members 

 of the family, whose youth or age unfits them for more 

 laborious exertions. 



We dallied so long among the fairer portion of the 

 sand-eel fishers, that the tide insensibly rose ; and when 

 we reached the place where our punt had been secured, 

 we discovered that the water had crept up the sands, 

 and floated the frail skiff away. To hail and get a boat 

 from the Lodge, from the calmness of the night, was 

 readily effected ; and while it was being launched down 

 the beach, my kinsman told me that it was not the first 

 time that the treacherous punt had played truant to 

 its crew. 



" On a stormy evening one of the boatmen was ordered 



