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 cori- 
gregation, high and low, and traversed therewith 
the church to the tinkling of half-pence, sixpences, 
and shillings, which the charitably disposed 
dropped m ; 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 m 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 bustness- 
Hke earnestness with which the ceremony was 
gone through. 1 he 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. 
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 
