itself has nothing to recommend it as regards picturesqueness,
but there is much beauty in the country surrounding it. From just below
the castle the River Shannon has some beautiful reaches, right away up to
Castle Connell; while Tervoe on the river, Adare Abbey, and many other
places are well known.

When I reported myself to my commanding officer at the castle I found
that our company, which then consisted of about eighty all told, was
doing duty from the very North to the South of Ireland. There was a
detachment of some twenty-five men at a place called Green Castle, which
was an old fort at the entrance of Lough Swilly, not far off the Giant's
Causeway. Another detachment of some thirty-five men was on duty at
Carlisle Fort, one of the forts guarding the entrance into Cork Harbour
at Queenstown. This left us about twenty men at our headquarters at
Limerick Castle. Our captain was not with the company. He was A.D.C. to a
Colonial Governor, and, of course, was seconded. The two senior
subalterns were in command of the detachments at Green Castle and
Carlisle Fort, so that the commanding officer, our good major and myself,
were left at our headquarters with the twenty men. By the time that we
found the guard for the day, the major's two orderlies, my own orderly,
the cook and cook's mate, the district gunner (who was busy keeping our
three very old guns, mounted in the tower, polished up), the office clerk
and the barrack sweeper, the morning parade consisted usually of the
sergeant-major.

At nine o'clock every morning, after first joining, I appeared on parade,
when the sergeant-major reported "All present, sir," and I said, "Carry
on, sergeant-major," and went inside to breakfast. After a time I'm
afraid I got into the bad habit of letting the sergeant-major come to
make his report at the window of my quarters, which faced the
barrack-square. At ten o'clock the major, whose quarters were above mine,
and who was the happy possessor of some eight children, appeared at the
company office, and I duly reported to him, "All correct, sir, this
morning." For it was only very occasionally that we had a prisoner. The
major would answer, "Very good." I would then ask him, "Do you want me
any more to-day, sir?" He would then answer, without a smile, for he was
a serious-minded major, "No, thanks." And then the joys of my day would
begin for me.

The way in which my major came to be quartered in Limerick was this. He
was th