to say, a garment which, with pretensions to smartness, exhibits exceeding liberality in the tailor as to the quantity of material made use of. His voice was such as might be given to a man for shouting on the mountains, and his cadences were cascades of Munster brogue, which rolled from his lips like potatoes out of a sack.

The other disputant was a smart dapper man of about fifty, whose slightly powdered head, coat of the finest blue, with shining buttons, and redundancy of elaborately plaited shirtruffle, shewed he belonged to the class of "gentlemen:" he affected the wag, and indeed had no small share of humour, for the sake of the display of which, he condescended to argue with the grazier. It came out by degrees that he was an attorney, and agent to an absentee lord; and it was amazing with what fluency he discoursed upon land, leases, and politics: upon the last, he was particularly eloquent and diffuse, and swore by the names of Sir John Newport, and Mr Spring Rice, whom he had lately seen in London. "These were the men," he said, "who listened to the representations of men of sense concerning Ireland ;" and then he added, in a significant under-tone, "that though it was not proper to brag in such a case, yet he could tell who it was they took their hints from, in the last speeches they made on the state of Ireland in the House of Commons."

But now the fog had cleared off; and as we were entering the town of Castledermot, which has a name in Irish history, I left my communicative lecturer on Irish politics, and transferred myself to the outside of the coach for better opportunity of observation. This little town, I knew, had once been a royal residence, and a parliament was held in it even two centuries after the coming of the English. It was fortified, and had regular gates, of which the names survive, while the things themselves, and all

other traces of fortification, have passed away. There still, however, remains a very beautiful monument of antiquity; it is the ruins of a magnificent abbey of Franciscans, said to have been founded by one of the first of the Geraldine family, who held the Earldom of Kildare.* The walls of the large aisle are still standing, and one large window remains in beauti ful preservation. It vexed me to the heart to see that the country-fellows had made a ball-alley of the place, and were busy at their game, laughing and swearing, on the very spot where for. merly

One would have supposed, that the priest might have interfered, and prevented this dishonour to the old hallowed walls, or that the superstition which is said to prevail so much among the people themselves, would have deterred them from pursuing their noisy sport in a place once devoted to the prayers of their own church; but I have remarked, that the superstitions of the common people in Ireland, seldom reach to any lofty or dignified feeling-they chiefly relate to absurd notions about mysterious influences on their own personal condition, or that of their cattle, and never arrive at that degree of poetical elevation which makes the vice even of superstition "lose half its evil, in losing all its grossness." I would beg leave to suggest to J. K. L., in whose assumed diocese the old abbey stands, that when the settlement of the Catholic Question gives him a little leisure from those political pursuits, in which he has displayed so much Christian mildness, truth, and consistency, he might worse employ a portion of that spiritual authority, which so active a man as he is will not suffer to lie idle, than in rescuing the remains of an ancient Roman Catholic church from daily dishonour.

From Castledermot, the approach to Carlow is pretty: the road passes through Colonel Bruen's demesne, in which some of the vistas of park scenery are fine, and it has a curious effect to drive along in a public coach, with a troop of deer grazing quietly on one side of you, and a score or two of hares frisking about on the other. The outskirts of the town itself are handsome; and there is an air of business and cheerfulness in the streets, though in the interior of the town they are crowded and inconvenient. Thence to Kilkenny, the road lies a good part of the way within a field or two of the river Barrow, which is navigable up to Carlow, and its banks are green, and planted. Kilkenny, like most other places of which one forms large expectations, is apt to create disappointment. The stranger who knows Ireland only from books, bethinks him, as he approaches Kilkenny, of the city which once was the centre point of the English pale, surrounded by fortifications, and filled with churches and monasteries, the most considerable that even this church-beridden island could boast. Here,also, were Parliaments held, and famous statutes enacted, forming a legislative scourge for the unhappy natives, which even English power was unable to wield; and here has been for long ages past the family seat of the house of Ormond, whose name alone is sufficient to call up a host of his torical recollections. Nevertheless, I could not say, as the song does,

"Och! of all towns in Ireland, Kilkenny

for me."

The view up and down the Nore, from the bridge at the entrance of the town, is certainly picturesque in some degree; it is generally called beautiful.

Onwards towards Clonmell the country is most discouragingly bare and bleak. As we ascended a long hill near "Nine-mile House," I got a near and accurate view of Sliebh-naMann, or the Woman's Mountain, a stupendous hill, the opposite side of which I had gazed upon before, with some respect and admiration, in driving along the verdant and fertile banks of the Suir, from Waterford to Carrick. In the former view, its foreshortened shape seemed like an enormous bluff bowed cone, or cloudcapped haycock; but seen distinctly on the Tipperary side, it more resembled the inverted hull of "some tall

Ammiral," with a gigantic mastiff couching before its bows. The country all about was wild and desolate.. A long tract of low-lying bogey land extends from the village of Callan to the foot of Sliebh-na-Mann, plentifully intersected with broad mearns, or boundary ditches, full of clear brown water up to the brim, but not a tree nor a shrub to be had for love or money. If your horse got rusty," or came to a stand-still, you might get off and pelt stones at him, for switch there is none. Perched here and there, like heaps of coal ashes on a stubble field, you desery a dreary cabin, with the roof thatch dingy and rotten, its crooked wicker chimney emitting a thin hungry-looking smoke, and all the live stock to be seen consists of a few straggling goats that bleat sorrowfully from cold and starvation. Sliebh-na-Mann frowns in sterile and gloomy majesty from above upon this comfortless region. A little rivulet toddling down the road side, with some marks of lively verdure on its brink, was the only fresh and hopeful thing to relieve either eye or

ear.

I observed with some surprise, as we drove slowly up the lengthy hill before referred to, the conversation of all upon the vehicular conveniency became most determinedly bloodthirsty and burglarious: story followed story of men that were shot dead in the open day, as they were walking home through their own fields, cattle by night, and frightful notices posted houghed, graves dug in men's land

of the dire intent of the excavators. Here and there a field was pointed out, covered with upturned sods, which, I was told, had been the work of midnight depredators, to compel the occupant to till the land, instead of holding it in pasture. Amid these terrific relations we came opposite the depression in the back of the prostrate mastiff, which I have fancied the Kilkenny end of the Woman's Mountain to resemble." There, sir," said the guard, stretching over from the back of the coach, and pointing to the middle of the valley, "is the place where the Sheas were murdered." This was a fearful climax to the stories I had just been listening to, and my flesh crept on my bones as the words of the guard brought all the detail of that horrible atrocity to my recollection. I believe the habits of the peasantry

in this part of the country far exceed those of any other part of Ireland in ferocious cruelty; but even here, the circumstance of burning a house, and compelling the whole family of, I believe, nine persons, to remain within and perish with the most torturing of all deaths, stands out, as something remarkable, in the catalogue of crimes which disgrace this part of Tipperary. That nothing might be wanting to complete the utmost climax that the wildest imagination could conceive of horror in such a transaction, one of the women of the house was thrown, by the torture of the flames, into premature labour, and a child was born amid the fire, and its body found half consumed amongst the ruins.

It would be a long story to tell all the circumstances of this dreadful affair, in which not two or three, but a whole troop of savage monsters took a part. For many a long day they all escaped punishment, but within a year or two some of them have been convicted, and paid the forfeit of their crimes. The rhetorical powers of Mr Shiel, of which the world in general, and he himself in particular, justly entertain a very considerable opinion, have been employed in a description of this atrocity, and a dreadful narrative he certainly gave of the circumstances; yet it was in exceedingly bad taste, and quite in the falsetto of rhetorical aggravation. It is surprising that Mr Shiel, who possesses unquestionably much poetical genius, and who has evidently studied the best poetry with no small diligence, should not have seen that a simple and energetic detail of circumstances, in themselves so terrible, would be much more impressive than he could make it by the elaborate rhetorical artifice which he used.

The place which the guard pointed out to me was indeed a black and withered-looking spot, well suited to a deed of horror. "How had they of fended the people that murdered them?" asked I.- "Oh, they didn't offind thim at all," replied my informant, "they come from far enough."

"And what was the motive then for putting them to so cruel a death ?" "In troth I know no raison, only they tuk land over another man's head, and so they wor condimned to

die."

"Then this is a very lawless part of the country?"

"No worse," was the man's laconic reply, and we drove on in silence for a considerable way, others doubtless, like myself, revolving the fate and the feelings of those wretched beings who could be instigated to the commission of the most diabolical crimes, merely in order to prevent their victims from engrossing the means of procuring a bare and laborious subsistence.

The dusk had now faded into darkmess, and a thick mizzling rain shut in the evening of a chill October day, when, as we drove along, moody and uncomfortable, wishing to be at ease in our Inn, a sudden cry of "Halt" from several voices at once on either side the road, roused us as by a shock of electricity, and we heard the rapid click-click-click of many pieces cocking at the same moment that we felt the coachman suddenly pull up.

I must confess I felt somewhat "in a moved sort" at all this dreadful note of preparation; however, I retained nerve enough to bid the guard "hand me a carabine, for here will be blood," as in the first instant of the cry he threw open the mail-box and handled his arms. The man glanced upward at me from his stooping posture, with an untroubled searching eye, for it shone distinctly visible in the palpable obscure of the darkness; and seeming satisfied with my fixed look, handed me a carabine without uttering a word. "Where should I fire? said I, in a low tone.

"Shoot the man that seizes the near leader, he'll be easiest for you-be sure you cover his breast before you fire, and leave the rest to me."

Not twenty seconds had elapsed since the first alarm, and I had already cocked and levelled my piece, when the guard himself struck up my arm just below the elbow, so as to point my muzzle at the welkin, exclaiming, in a tone of agonized earnestness, "for God's sake hould your hand, sir, it's the Pole-is" (police.)

The sudden check upon the muscles of my arm contracted my fingers so violently, that my piece went off, but the slugs were driven " diverse innumerable leagues," and, as the grazier afterwards remarked, "hot" (i. e. hit) the parish, he supposed. We now called a parley; and speedily learned, what the coachman had guessed from the beginning, and which had induced him to pull up his horses so readily, that it was a party of "Peel

ers" returning from a neighbouring fair, where, after squabbling all day long with various "factions" of the people, they had got comfortably drunk towards evening, of which the country fellows had taken advantage to way-lay them on their return home, and bestow condign punishment on them, in the shape of what Paddy gave the drum, videlicit, "a d-d good beating."

"And what the devil did you stop the coach for this-a-way?" asked the guard, a shrewd old campaigner, with a brilliant Cork brogue, but who had evidently served to some purpose. "Is that the thanks you've for us?" was the reply; "troth an' its just to tell yiz not to drive on this night any how, or every mother's sowl of ye'll be murthered cliver and clane to-night, before to-morrow, by thim ruffins. It was God's will that we escaped.”

"And so you couldn't say that without calling a halt, and cocking your muskets first," resumed the guard.

This was a home thrust; and the men seemed for a moment, by their abashed silence, to confess that they had been insensible to the probable consequences of their absurd conduct. "Why, thin, what ailded you (ailed you,) or what was it come over you at all at all?" said the guard," or what ruffians are you talking about?" This seemed the signal for cleaving the general ear with horrid speech, and they recounted, in a confused manner, each interrupting the other, what infinite brawls they had suppressed, and various important services they had performed at the fair; and how they were surrounded by an immense multitude of villains on their way home, hustled, knocked down, kicked, and trampled upon, and wellnigh murdered. "And what did you drink?"

interposed the guard. "Divel a thing but porther through the day." "Come, tell God's truth," he added, in a tone of disbelief and authority. "Why, then, all we tuk was a naggin a-piece, when we wor comin away, at Widdy Gleason's, below at the crass," sighed the corporal.

Ay! I thought as much," said the shrewd old cross-examiner; "and when you wor pot-valiant, you wint swaggerin' along the road, makin' big fools of yersels, an' the boys gave ye a good lickin' for your thrubble; divel's cure to ye, God forgive me-Go home to your barracks, you dirty drunken bastes, and sleep off the fumes of the licker, before you face your officer in the mornin' wid this fine cock-in-abull story; 'tis well for yiz it was'nt your arms you lost, an' be bruk into the bargain, as ye desarved.-Carry on, Tim, honey," he continued, changing his tone, and addressing the coachman, " to make up for this stop,"

and the coachman rattled rapidly along again as the astounded culprits slunk away like chidden hounds.*

The guard proceeded quietly to reload the carabine I had discharged: "You'll give it me again," I said;

we may as well stand prepared for action, in case any of these marauding gentry should think fit to attack us.' "Not a bit of it," answered he coolly, as he laid it into the arms-box, and fastened down the lid firmly." Are you then so sure they won't pay us a visit?” "Not sure of that at all, sir; but I'm sure they've no real mischief in hand this night, whin they left thim spalpeens of Pole-is their arms, that they could have tuk as asy as I could shoot you this minute. An' if they did come up, an' was braggin, an' aggravatin' us, an' goin' on, there's no sayin' what a strange gentleman like you, that does'nt know the craturs, mightn't

be tempted by the divel to do in a passion, wid a loaded gun in your hand, an' be sorry enough for doin' it all your life afther."

There was a plain good sense about the man, with all his brogue, that I have often admired in soldiers and sailors who have been advanced for good conduct to some office of trust and confidence after they have retired from the service. We did not, however, meet with any of the anticipated interruption; but drove on merrily, talking and joking over our adventure till we arrived, without let or hinderance, at Clonmell, where my new acquaintances, the attorney, and the grazier, and myself, were to stop for the night. There was a certain assumption of dignity about the man of law while in the coach, which rapidly thawed away as a blazing fire and a hot supper set our blood into a livelier motion: he even condescended to boast of his skill in the combination of the

"materials" of whisky punch; and a practical proof being demanded, he composed a jug which might have warmed the soul of a marble statue, or a whig philosopher, if either of them possess any such thing. The grazier shewed himself to be what is called in Ireland "a damned fair fellow," that is to say, a man whose glass is always punctually and perfectly empty when the jug comes round; he talked loud as "rude Boreas" of his potent hunter, Paddy Whack; and shewed how fields were won; at last, recollecting that "we wor all to be up early in the mornin'," he seized a candle, and led the way to the bed-chamhers, striding with a step not so perfectly steady as that with which he entered the room, and singing, with a tone and manner indescribably Irish, the old song,

"Oh! the groves of Blarney,
They are so charmin',”
&c. &c. &c.