wngal was said, in those
days, to be as well kept up as any mansion in County Galway. But the
saying came probably from those who were not intimate in the more
gloriously maintained mansions. Sir Nicholas had L5000 a year, and
though he did manage to pay his bills annually, spent every shilling
of it. He preserved his foxes loyally, and was quite as keen about
the fishing of a little river that he owned, and which ran down from
his demesne into Lough Corrib. He was particular also about his
snipe, and would boast that in a little spinney at Ballytowngal were
to be met the earliest woodcock found in the West of Ireland. He was
a thorough sportsman;--but a Roman Catholic--and as a Roman Catholic
he was hardly equal in standing to some of his Protestant neighbours.
He voted for Major Stackpoole, when Major Stackpoole stood for the
county on the Liberal interest, and was once requested to come
forward himself, and stand for the City as a Roman Catholic. This
he did not do, being a prudent man; but at that period, from twenty
to thirty years ago, he was certainly regarded as inferior to a
Protestant by many of the Protestant gentlemen of the country.

But things are changed now. Sir Nicholas's neighbours, such of them
at least that are Protestants, regard Sir Nicholas as equal to
themselves. They do not care much for his religion, but they know
that he is not a Home-Ruler, or latterly, since the Land League
sprang into existence, a Land Leaguer. He is, in fact, one of
themselves as a county gentleman, and the question of religion has
gone altogether into abeyance. Had you known the county thirty years
ago, and had now heard Sir Nicholas talking of county matters, you
would think that he was one of the old Protestants. It was so that
the rich people regarded him,--and so also the poor. But Sir Nicholas
had not varied at all. He liked to get his rents paid, and as long as
his tenants would pay them, he was at one with them. They had begun
now to have opinions of their own upon the subject, and he was at one
with them no longer.

Frank Jones had heard in Galway, that there was to be a difficulty
about drawing the Ballytowngal coverts. The hounds were to be
allowed to draw the demesne coverts, but beyond that they were to
be interrupted. Foxes seldom broke from Ballytowngal, or if they
did they ran to Moytubber. At Moytubber the hounds would probably
change,--or would do so if allowed to continue their sport in peace.
But at