n-stacks,
the rich pastures are full of kine. There is every visible evidence of
material prosperity. It is true that when one has driven up the
private road, be the same a mere "boreen" or a "shplendid avenue," the
bell is found to be broken, the knocker wrenched off, the blinds
hauled up awry, and the servants hard to be got at; but the
householder is prosperous nevertheless. His larder is well supplied
with poultry and wild fowl, his cellar contains "lashings," not only
of "Parliament and pot," or "John Jamieson" and illicit "potheen," but
of port and sherry, claret and champagne. His daughters are at the
costly training schools of the Sacre Coeur, his lads are studying law
in Dublin. Yet this man is a subscriber to the Land League either by
sympathy or, as is quite as probable, by terror. Farmers of not quite
such large acreage live in almost equally luxurious style. Their
houses, that is the "show" rooms, are solidly if tastelessly
furnished. Their horses and jaunting cars carry them to chapel; they
live in the midst of rude plenty. If further demonstration be needed,
I will point to the groceries and wine stores of Ennis. There are at
least three of these almost on the scale of Fortnum and Mason's or
Hedges and Butler's. Now Ennis is what an American traveller might be
tempted to call a "one-horse" town of some six or seven thousand
inhabitants, yet its grocery and drapery stores would hardly be beaten
in York or Chester. Every imaginable eatable or drinkable can be
obtained always for ready money, and very often on credit, and I am
informed that all articles of feminine adornment, including cosmetics,
are also to be had. Passing still farther from the domain of things
seen to that of things heard of, I am assured on the best authority
that for years past the banks have not held so much money on deposit
as at the present moment. Yet nobody pays his rent. The form of
offering Griffith's valuation is gone through, albeit it is known that
that calculation is absolutely untrustworthy so far as a pasture
county like Clare is concerned.

My remarks concerning county Clare will apply, almost with greater
force, to county Limerick. The city is of course a very different
place from Ennis; but it is impossible to avoid noticing from the
window at which I sit writing the crowds of purchasers streaming in
and out of Cannock and Co.'s store, from late in the morning till
early in the evening. I use the last words advisedly, f