1839-40 SPORT AT FLORENCE COURT 163 



or my Lord-Lieutenant. If, therefore, we are not 

 blown up or drowned in the passage home, you 

 may expect to see me on or about September 30. 

 This morning we went to church, and after the 

 second psalm my lord turned out of the pew, 

 and, striding to the altar, seized there an instru- 

 ment, in shape resembling a diminutive warming- 

 pan with half the lid wanting ; this he (being 

 churchwarden) presented to each of the con- 

 gregation, high and low, and traversed therewith 

 the church to the tinkling of half-pence, sixpences, 

 and shillings, which the charitably disposed 

 dropped in ; then, returning up the aisle, he fum- 

 bled half a crown out of his waistcoat pocket 

 with one hand, dropped it into the copper recep- 

 tacle in the other, and deposited the same, with 

 the gatherings of the perambulation, on the Com- 

 munion-table for the benefit of the poor. It 

 would not have been a bad picture — the green 

 coat, white breeches and long yellow leggings, 

 with the spectacles and good-humoured business- 

 like earnestness with which the ceremony was 

 gone through. The sermon was preached by an 

 old friend of the family, who told us this morning 

 he had visited the house in the grouse season for 

 five and thirty years. The Rev. Mr. French, a 

 hale and hearty old man, and a great favourite, 

 is rector of a neighbouring parish in Carlow. 

 He rides up the mountain on a mule, and his cos- 

 tume is far from being unpicturesque ; a Captain 



