n, of Castlegard, a charming old fortress overgrown with
creepers, and standing like a sentry over the more modern part of the
dwelling. As we neared Pallas I was reminded that I was on classic
ground, and that Old and New Pallas and Pallas Green formed the scene
of the never-to-be-forgotten feud of the "Three and Four Year Olds,"
the tradition whereof hath a rich and racy savour. Readers of the
_Daily News_ will hardly need to be reminded that this historic
vendetta commenced with a dispute concerning the age of a bull, one
disputant maintaining that the animal was four, while the other
insisted he was but three years old. The matter was settled, or was
rather put on the footing of a "mighty pretty quarrel," by a desperate
fight, wherein one of the combatants was either slain or grievously
maimed, whereupon his cause was taken up by his family and friends,
and a feud inaugurated which lasted many years, and led to the death
of a considerable number of persons, besides continual "diversion" in
the way of faction fights. Pallas is in the midst of the Golden Vale,
a deliciously pastoral country, admirably fitted on such a glorious
spring-like morning as that of yesterday for the sports of shepherds
and shepherdesses as Watteau and Lancret loved to limn. But the first
object which catches the eye in Pallas is not a bower of ribbons and
roses, but a stiff-looking police barrack. Close at hand is the
railway station, another unlovely edifice, and lounging about in
groups are seventy or eighty of the gloomiest and most sullen-looking
people I have seen in this country. The very little cheerfulness there
is in Connaught is quite absent from Munster, or at least the
Tipperary border of county Limerick. I learn that the occasion of this
general loafing is a "rent-gathering," or rather an attempt to gather
rent, and that Mr. Sanders, the agent for the Erasmus Smith School
Trusts, is sitting, but not in receipt of custom. There has been the
usual talk of Griffith's valuation and the usual result of not a
shilling being paid; the present fear on the part of landlords of
fixity of tenure being established being so great that nobody will
accept payment according to Griffith lest his receipt should be taken
as permanently settling the value of his land for ever. No money
passes, as a matter of course, and the tenants mutter among
themselves, "nor ever will." One neck-or-nothing friend of the people
assures me that Griffith and rent and