10 SPORTING AND 



little finger, are as vividly impressed on my 

 heart as if it had all occurred yesterday. 

 I can even recollect the conversations I 

 had with the peasantry as I rode along, and 

 can fancy I see the girls now, plodding into 

 the neighbouring market with their poultry 

 and eggs ; some of them, in addition to 

 their well-filled baskets, having to carry 

 their shoes and stockings, ready to be 

 replaced on their feet as they approached 

 the town, whither their steps were bent. 



I have been so long from my dear home 

 that great changes have taken place, but 

 not so many in the remote parts of Ireland 

 as in other places. In the neighbourhood 

 of which I am speaking, there is not even 

 now a railroad within seventeen miles of 

 our house, and there was then only a 

 mountain road leading to it, which was so 

 hilly and rough, that it half killed our poor 



