heered by the risk of hearing at his house
that he had gone to England. Telegraphing to him appeared useless, as
communications were said to be cut off on the five Irish miles between
Ballinrobe, the telegraph station, and Lough Mask House. As time wore
on, I learned that he had had cattle at Tuam Fair, but that he had not
come home that way for certain. In despair I came on to this place,
where information reached me yesterday morning that, contrary to all
expectations, he had gone on the other line of railway to Galway, and
taken the steamboat on Lough Corrib to Cong, after having telegraphed
to his escort to meet him there.

From Westport to Lough Mask is a long but picturesque drive. I was
lucky enough to secure an intelligent driver and an excellent horse
and car. Thirty Irish miles is not in this part of the country
considered an extravagant distance to drive a horse. I believe,
indeed, that under other circumstances the unfortunate animal would
have been compelled to carry me the entire distance; but I remarked
that when I suggested a change of horses at Ballinrobe I was not only
accommodated with a fresh horse, but with a fresh car and a fresh
driver, who declared that the road to Lough Mask was about the safest
and best that he had ever heard of. Now from Westport to Ballinrobe we
had met nobody but a very few people going into town either riding on
an ass or driving one laden with a pair of panniers or "cleaves" of
turf, for which some fourpence or fivepence would be paid. All seemed
thinly clad, despite the fearfully cold wind sweeping down from the
Nephin, the Hest, and other snow-clad mountains. Crossing the long
dreary peat-moss known as Mun-a-lun, we found the cold intense; but on
approaching Lough Carra came into bright broad sunshine. At Ballinrobe
the sun was still hotter, and as I approached Lough Mask the heat was
almost oppressive. I was not, however, allowed to inspect Lough Mask
House and the ruins of the adjacent castle in the first place. I had
but just passed a magnificent field of mangolds, many of which weighed
from a stone to a stone and a half, when I came upon a sight which
could not be paralleled in any other civilised country at the present
moment.

Beyond a turn in the road was a flock of sheep, in front of which
stood a shepherdess heading them back, while a shepherd, clad in a
leather shooting-jacket and aided by a bull terrier, was driving them
through a gate into an adjacent field