IRELAND, THEN -AND NOW 199 



been gatliered from the cheerful pages of Sir Jonah. 

 Among its minor features is included a jig, danced 

 on the dinner-table among wine-glasses, fruit, and 

 flowers, but the incident that can claim most direct 

 descent from Barrington's time was the fox-hunt 

 that followed the feast. The name; — ^let us say — of 

 O'Sliaughnessy, was one shared in that city by men 

 of all degrees. Two of its most splendid exponents 

 held, at the close of the dinner, converse together, and 

 while, splendidly, erect upon the hearth-rug, they 

 discoursed of the dinner, the weather, and Home 

 Rule, a third O'Sliaughnessy, very small and abject, 

 but temporarily glorious with unusual champagne, 

 advanced upon them. Encircling, as far as he could, 

 the white waistcoats of his namesakes with a sudden 

 embrace, he cried in a passion of tribal pride, " Here 

 we are ! Three O'Shaughnessies ! And in the Globe 

 of Ireland there doesn't stand our aiquals ! " 



With this he was immediately struck to the ground 

 by his clansmen, and before he could rise to his feet, 

 a playful gentleman in a pink evening coat uttered 

 the scream that is usually dedicated to the last 

 moments of a fox, and flung himself, as it were a 

 hound, upon the repudiated one. Freeing himself by 

 force of panic-frenzy from his attacker, the humble 

 O'Sliaughnessy took to his heels, the City Fathers, 

 headed by the gentleman in the hunt-coat, following, 

 with such cries as conformed best with their various 

 ideals of the sounds proper to the hunting-field. The 

 pursuit burst from the banqueting-chamber, and went 

 at large through the surrounding passages. The 

 quarry may, or may not, have been " broken up " 

 according to the rules of the chase; the story, for 

 our purpose, ends here. But it may be conceded 

 that the Ireland of Barringtoh and Lever has still its 

 standard-bearers. 



