Part 1 (2/2)

”Oh! begor' he is,” replied Old Rody, ”and the other's a regular kitchen-maid”

Near the close of a not at all reputable career Old Rody ”found it most convenient” to marry his housemaid He survived the ceremony only a few months His , disappointed in her expectations of wealth for the estate cut up very badly, indeed eain

There is a story told of Vincent Scully (father of the present owner of Mantlehill House, near Cashel), as a Member of Parliament for, I think, North Cork, which I do not remember to have seen in print

Another MP, whose na, where possible, the last syllable from the surnames of his intimate friends

One day, he met Vincent Scully in the House of Commons, and addressed him

”Well, Scull, how are you today?”

”Quite well, thank you, Monk,” replied Scully; ”but I cannot conceive why you should snip a syllable from my name, unless you wish to add it to your own”

My father quarreled with Old Rody, ent to Italy, where he had some relations He meant to remain for a few months only, but it was upwards of six years before he returned He then read law for a while Getting tired of this, he went ”back to the land”

My hs used to be plentiful in both Clare and Limerick The civic records of Lienerations they took a prominent part in local municipal affairs My hs have always favored the arht of my mother's first-cousins were soldiers At the Battle of Blaauwberg just before the capitulation of the Cape in January, 1806 a Lieutenant Creagh was slightly wounded

This was either h

Both brothers were in the saiment, the 86th Foot, or ”Royal County Downs”

I have since writing the above ascertained that it was rand-uncle ounded

My earliest recollections are of Abbeyview, near Cashel, where we lived until the early sixties The celebrated ”Rock,” with its rand ruins of its once-spacious abbey, were visible from our front s We had another place, not far off, called Clahalea I re there used to be done with Italian buffaloes

In the early sixties we field, situated just at the northern outlet of the ”Scalp,” a very rugged pass in the Wicklow Hills The streah a s on the Dublin side

As I suffered froo to school; consequently I ran wild I was seven years old when I learnt to read, but it was a long time before I could write There was a small lake on the estate which was full of fish; every stream contained trout The hills abounded in rabbits and hares; in a larch-forest, since cut aoodcock Pheasants used often to stray over froround by a much-broken fence These my father strictly forbade me to snare, but I fear I did not always obey him Pheasants roasted in the depths of the larch-wood, and flavored with the salt of secrecy, were appetizing indeed

One ridiculous incident of ht I was a fair chess-player A friend and distant relative of ours, Captain Meagher brother of Thoeneral in the Confederate Ar the Ae of Enniskerry, which o or three miles away He was a frequent visitor, and I used to continually worry him to play chess One day he told a, and that if I would coaher little kneho he was dealing with Next , at a quarter to five, I was in the street in front of the inn

The seasonor late autumn, for it was pitch-dark and very cold I trotted up and down the village street, chess-board and chess to keep myself warm until five o'clock struck Then I went to the inn door and sounded a loud rat-tat with the knocker No one answered, so I knocked still louder At length I heard a slow and laborious shuffling of feet in the passage, and an old wohtcap, opened the door She regarded me with hardly subdued fury

”Phwat d'ye want?” she asked

”I've coher,” I replied

”Oh! glory be to God!” she gasped, and tried to shut the door in ed under her elbow and fled up the stairs, for I knewmixed prayers and curses I tried the Captain's door, but it was locked, so I thundered on the panel and roared for adet the look of dismay on the poor man's face when I told him what I had come for

However, he was very nice over the ht a fire and provide me with hot milk and bread But norant of the game of chess

The most celebrated physician in the Dublin of those days was Sir Doan, who, however, was as much famed for his brusqueness towards patients as for his skill Being in weak health, I was often taken to him, but he invariably treated hly, respectable maiden-aunt of mine had a somewhat different experience She went to consult hi a few questions, he relapsed into silence Then, after a pause of s: either you drink or else you sit with your back to the fire”

In one of the outhouses at Springfield dwelt an old woman, a superannuated servant I remember her under the name of ”Old Mary” The room she occupied was small, and contained but little furniture Yet it was always neat and as clean as a new pin Old Mary used to sit all day long in a high ar, and with a black cat asleep on her lap She was a terrible tea-drinker, and was very fond ofher sugar-bowl The latter she took to hiding, but I, engaging her the time in airy conversation, used to ransack the preame of skill between the hider and the seeker I can now see the old woman's eyes over the ri down and ruefully regarded the develop to the restricted area, I alon