266 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



truth that he had been to Killarney, and could write 

 a few Imes on the subject. 



Thirty-five years later I was at the Eailway Hotel 

 at that town, when a party of American tourists 

 arrived, provided with alpenstocks. The next day, 

 which was Sunday, it rained, as in Von Eaumer's 

 experience. Similarly, the party, without having 

 stirred from the hotel, decided on a departure by the 

 five o'clock train for Dublin, being entitled to cut 

 * Killarney ' on their alpenstocks without having had 

 the trouble of visiting the lakes. 



Another party of tourists — not, indeed, on the 

 same occasion — whiled away the time at Killarney 

 by asking each other arithmetical questions, one of 

 which, whether soluble or not, occurs to me as at 

 least original: *If,' said the questioner, 'three times 

 five made eighteen, what would be four times seven ?' 



As to inland postage, the pendulum of change had 

 swung freely to and fro. When the century began, 

 the rate for a letter from Dublin to Kilkenny was 

 only fivepence, instead of eightpence, the charge just 

 before penny postage came in. Postages of eleven- 

 pence to Derry, fifteenpence to London, sixteenpence 

 to Southampton, seventeenpence to Aberdeen, and so 

 on, were supplanted by the pleasing change to the 

 penny rate, which franked a half-ounce letter within 

 the limits of the British Isles. 



Fine as were the roads and well horsed the mails, 

 travelling in 1836 between Cork, Limerick, and 

 Waterford was not without its drawbacks. The bold 



