or the people
of the West seem to have accepted Charles Lamb's humorous quibble in
good faith. If they begin work later than any other civilized people,
they assuredly leave off earlier. But until evening sets in there is a
torrent of customers pouring in over the way, and wooing the eye from
the contemplation of the Shannon at the Thomond Bridge. Of the
groggeries of Limerick and of the poison vended in them, I will
forbear to discourse, for my business just now is with the country
rather than with the town.

Having heard much of the outrages at Pallas on the Tipperary border, I
determined to drive over and visit the scene of action. For this
country the journey was a short one; fifteen or sixteen miles out and
in on an outside car is thought a mere trifle in Limerick. The trip
occupied the entire day nevertheless. As we drove out of Limerick past
the great pig-slaughtering and curing houses, we soon became aware
that an immense convergence of the farming interest on Limerick was
taking place. Car-load after car-load of well-dressed people passed
us, and then came horsemen riding in couples or by half-dozens. For
the most part the cavaliers were very well mounted, and also well and
warmly dressed in the fashion of the day. Neither Connemara nor
Claddagh cloaks were seen in the cars, nor were the blue or grey
frieze swallow-tailed coats of Mayo and Galway seen on the powerful
horses pounding along townward through the heavy road. All was sleek,
prosperous, and quite modern, and was as refreshing to look upon after
the frieze and flannel aforesaid as the green hills of Limerick and
Clare after the brown mountains of Joyce's country. I naturally asked
the meaning of such an important meeting of well-to-do folk. It was a
funeral. An old lady was to be buried, and the whole country-side for
twenty miles around had turned out to do honour to the deceased, and
to enjoy a holiday on the principle that "a wake is better than a
wedding." Not one in a hundred of those who rode by had paid his rent,
nor was he prepared to pay more than Griffith's valuation, although he
might have a deposit note for one, two, or more thousands of pounds in
his cash-box.

Pushing along this lively road we entered a famous part of Ireland,
the Golden Vale, so called from its great fertility. Great part of the
land here is composed of alluvial bottoms, a large area of which was
drained by the Mullkear Cut, through the exertions of Mr. William
Bredi