the butt, or leave a tall or ragged stump to disfigure the ground
afterwards.

Another labour in which he took much interest was the making of
paths through a little wood running up the hill-side behind the
house, and the engineering of a stream which descended through it,
and, being flooded two or three times every year, required a good
deal of management, the more so as the house was supplied by it
with water through an artificial streamlet made for the purpose. In
these pursuits my father was always assisted by the village
post-master, an old man named Morton, of picturesque appearance and
conversation, and the consultations between the two used to be full
of interest. Morton spoke with a strong brogue, and combined
several other pursuits with that of post-master, the universality
of his aptitudes making him an interesting companion, and my father
had a great regard for him. He died a few months ago, being then, I
believe, over eighty years of age.

Another out-door amusement that my father enjoyed was shooting at a
mark with a Snider rifle. The nature of the grounds made it easy to
get a safe hundred yards' range within three minutes' walk of the
front door, and three or four hundred yards by going a little
farther. We practised in this way pretty often, and I think the
judge was, on the whole, a better shot than any of his sons. In the
year 1883 the household was increased, a good deal to my father's
annoyance, by two policemen. At the Liverpool summer Assizes he had
tried a gang of dynamiters, I think for treason-felony. They, or
most of them, were convicted and sentenced to long terms of penal
servitude. Some of my father's friends, not understanding that if
anybody wanted to murder him it was quite as likely to be done, and
quite as easy to do, in England as in Ireland, and perhaps
entertaining the fantastic idea that the population of Louth had
more regard for dynamiters than the population of London, suggested
to the Irish Government that he was in some danger. The only thing
that could be done was to order police protection, and this Sir
George Trevelyan did. Accordingly two constables took up their
abode in a room which happened to be available in the stable-yard,
and mounted guard all day over the hall-door, following my father