of the present age; the race of the Rackrents has long since been
extinct in Ireland; and the drunken Sir Patrick, the litigious
Sir Murtagh, the fighting Sir Kit, and the slovenly Sir Condy, are
characters which could no more be met with at present in Ireland, than
Squire Western or Parson Trulliber in England. There is a time
when individuals can bear to be rallied for their past follies
and absurdities, after they have acquired new habits and a new
consciousness. Nations, as well as individuals, gradually lose
attachment to their identity, and the present generation is amused,
rather than offended, by the ridicule that is thrown upon its ancestors.

Probably we shall soon have it in our power, in a hundred instances, to
verify the truth of these observations.

When Ireland loses her identity by an union with Great Britain, she will
look back, with a smile of good-humoured complacency, on the Sir Kits
and Sir Condys of her former existence.

1800.

CASTLE RACKRENT

MONDAY MORNING [See GLOSSARY 1].

Having, out of friendship for the family, upon whose estate, praised be
Heaven! I and mine have lived rent-free time out of mind, voluntarily
undertaken to publish the MEMOIRS OF THE RACKRENT FAMILY, I think it my
duty to say a few words, in the first place, concerning myself. My real
name is Thady Quirk, though in the family I have always been known by
no other than 'Honest Thady,' afterward, in the time of Sir Murtagh,
deceased, I remember to hear them calling me 'Old. Thady,' and now I've
come to 'Poor Thady'; for I wear a long greatcoat winter and summer,
which is very handy, as I never put my arms into the sleeves; they
are as good as new, though come Holantide next I've had it these seven
years: it holds on by a single button round my neck, cloak fashion.

[The cloak, or mantle, as described by Thady, is of high antiquity.
Spenser, in his VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND, proves that it is not,
as some have imagined, peculiarly derived from the Scythians, but that
'most nations of the world anciently used the mantle; for the Jews used
it, as you may read of Elias's mantle, etc.; the Chaldees also used it,
as you may read in Diodorus; the Egyptians likewise used it, as you may
read in Herodotus, and may be gathered by the description of Berenice
in the Greek Commentary upon Callimachus; the Greeks also used it
anciently, as appeared by Venus's mantle lined with stars, though
afterward they changed t