ain Conservative lady
well known in London, and not a little addicted to lion-hunting,
peremptorily refused, saying, "no, nor any of the likes of her!" And
another of Father Nolan, a well-known priest, who died at the age of
ninety-seven. When someone remonstrated with him on his association with
an avowed unbeliever in Christianity, like Mr. Morley, Father Nolan
replied, "Oh, faith will come with time!" The same excellent priest,
when he came to call on Mr. Gladstone, here at Abbeyleix, on his arrival
from the Earl of Meath's, pathetically and patriarchally adjured him, on
his next visit to Ireland, "not to go from one lord's house to another,
but to stay with the people." This was better than the Irish journal
which, finding itself obliged to chronicle the fact that Mr. Gladstone,
with his wife and daughter, was visiting Abbeyleix, gracefully observed
that he "had been entrapped into going there!" Some one lamenting the
lack of Irish humour and spirit in the present Nationalist movement, as
compared with the earlier movements, Lord de Vesci cited as a solitary
but refreshing instance of it, the incident which occurred the other day
at an eviction in Kerry,[18] of a patriotic priest who chained himself
to a door, and put it across the entrance of the cabin to keep out the
bailiffs!

It is discouraging to know that this delightful act was bitterly
denounced by some worthy and well-meaning Tory in Parliament as an
"outrage"!

Despite the snow the air this morning, in this beautiful region, is soft
and almost warm, and all the birds are singing again. The park borders
upon and opens into the pretty town of Abbeyleix, the broad and
picturesque main thoroughfare of which, rather a rural road than a
street, is adorned with a fountain and cross, erected in memory of the
late Lord de Vesci. There is a good Catholic chapel here (the ancient
abbey which gave the place its name stood in the grounds of the present
mansion), and a very handsome Protestant Church.

It is a curious fact that two of the men implicated in the Phoenix Park
murders had been employed, one, I believe, as a mason, and one as a
carver, in the construction of this church. Both the chapel and the
church to-day were well attended. I am told there has been little real
trouble here, nor has the Plan of Campaign been adopted here. Sometimes
Lord de Vesci finds threatening images of coffins and guns scratched in
the soil, with portraits indicating his agent or h