not think
any of these liked the Pollexfens, who were well off and seemed to them
purse-proud, whereas they themselves had come down in the world. I
remember them as very well-bred and very religious in the Evangelical way
and thinking a good deal of Aunt Micky's old histories. There had been
among our ancestors a Kings County soldier, one of Marlborough's generals,
and when his nephew came to dine he gave him boiled pork, and when the
nephew said he disliked boiled pork he had asked him to dine again and
promised him something he would like better. However, he gave him boiled
pork again and the nephew took the hint in silence. The other day as I was
coming home from America, I met one of his descendants whose family has
not another discoverable link with ours, and he too knew the boiled pork
story and nothing else. We have the General's portrait, and he looks very
fine in his armour and his long curly wig, and underneath it, after his
name, are many honours that have left no tradition among us. Were we
country people, we could have summarised his life in a legend.

Another ancestor or great-uncle had chased the United Irishmen for a
fortnight, fallen into their hands and been hanged, and the notorious
Major Sirr who betrayed the brothers Shears, taking their children upon
his knees to question them, if the tale does not lie, had been god-father
to several of my great-great-grandfather's children; while to make a
balance, my great-grandfather had been Robert Emmett's friend and been
suspected and imprisoned though but for a few hours. A great-uncle had
been Governor of Penang, and led the forlorn hope at the taking of
Rangoon, and an uncle of a still older generation had fallen at New
Orleans in 1813, and even in the last generation there had been lives of
some power and pleasure. An old man who had entertained many famous
people, in his 18th century house, where battlement and tower showed the
influence of Horace Walpole, had but lately, after losing all his money,
drowned himself, first taking off his rings and chain and watch as became
a collector of many beautiful things; and once to remind us of more
passionate life, a gun-boat put into Rosses, commanded by the illegitimate
son of some great-uncle or other. Now that I can look at their miniatures,
turning them over to find the name of soldier, or lawyer, or Castle
official, and wondering if they cared for good books or good music, I am
delighted with all that joins