e most
religious!" they said; "he communes so often." I remember his appearance
well, but can recall nothing of his address. He was tall, blond, and
florid, with remarkable vivacity of speech and of expression. His
popularity was certainly very great. While he was speaking, a gentleman
entered and approached him. "How d'ye do, Tom Steele?" said O'Connell,
shaking hands with the new-comer. The audience applauded loudly, Steele
being an intimate friend and ally of O'Connell, and, like him, an
earnest partisan of Repeal.

Mr. George Ticknor, of Boston, had given us a letter to Miss Edgeworth,
who resided at some distance from the city of Dublin. From her we soon
received an invitation to luncheon, of which we gladly availed
ourselves. Our hostess met us with a warm welcome. She had had some
correspondence with Dr. Howe, and seemed much pleased to make his
acquaintance. I remember her as a little old lady, with an old-fashioned
cap and curls. She was very vivacious, and had much to say to Dr. Howe
about Laura Bridgman. He in turn asked what she thought of the Repeal
movement. She said in reply, "I don't understand what O'Connell really
means."

Some one present casually mentioned the new substitution of lard oil for
whale oil for use in lamps. Miss Edgeworth said, "I hear that, in
consequence of this new fashion, the whale cannot bear the sight of a
pig." We met on this occasion a half-brother and a half-sister of Miss
Edgeworth, much younger than herself. I think that they must have been
twins, so closely did they resemble each other in appearance. At parting
Miss Edgeworth gave each of us an etching of Irish peasants, the work of
a friend of hers. On the one which she gave to my husband she wrote,
"From a lover of truth to a lover of truth."

After leaving Dublin we traveled north as far as the Giant's Causeway.
The state of the country was very forlorn. The peasantry lived in
wretched hovels of one or two rooms, the floor of mud, the pig taking
his ease within doors, and the chickens roosting above the fireplace.
Beggars were seen everywhere, and of the most persistent sort. In most
places where we stopped for the night, accommodations were far from
satisfactory. The safest dishes to order were stirabout and potatoes.

My husband had received an urgent invitation from an Irish nobleman,
Lord Walcourt, to visit him at his estate, which was in the south of
Ireland. We found Lord Walcourt living very simply, with two yo