CHAPTER XIX. 



BALLI N A. 



BALLINA, in the days I am speaking of, now some 

 forty or more years since, was not the same Ballina 

 that it is at present, I fancy. It was not so much 

 frequented by fishermen and tourists as it now is, for 

 the simple reason that railroads were unknown in 

 those parts, and the Sligo mail and a coach from 

 Dublin were the only modes of conveyance by which 

 one could get nearer to the aforesaid town than 

 Ballysidare, which was some thirty miles distant, and 

 which distance must be performed on an outside car, 

 or what was called a bianchoni, to me a most 

 abominable one-sided crab-like affair, and upon which, 

 from my hip being stiff from the accident before de- 

 scribed, I sat most uncomfortably, and had as it were 

 to hang on much in the form of a fly on the side 

 of a treacle pot. 



