people from huddling together at night. It is a
fact, impossible as it may appear, that when the pretty and tasteful
lodge at the gate of Derryquin was first built, the occupants, four in
number, all slept together in one room rather than be separated at
night, and were only induced to occupy the apartments built to prevent
this habit by the threat of eviction. I might have doubted this
amazing story had I not seen the condition of a cottage rebuilt
recently on an old foundation at a cost of 60l., for which a rent of
1l. is charged. The tenant fought hard against the innovation, and
yielded to the imposition of 1l. a year, and a clean new house, only
under fear of being turned off the estate. He and his have only been
in the new building for a few weeks, but they have made wild work of
it already. In the room to the left of the door a "bonneva," or
half-grown pig of the size called a "shote," in the State of Georgia,
was disporting himself by looking on at a girl spinning wool, a "boy"
doing nothing, and two dirty youngsters wallowing on the floor. In the
other brand new room, not long since left sweet and tidy by the
builders, were piled an immense heap of turf and a great store of
potatoes, over against which stood a bedstead and a pair of boots.
There was nothing else in the room, not the slightest fragment of
table or chair, not a sign of water or washing utensils; in the room
above were also bedsteads, without anything that could be called
bedding, and no other stick of furniture. Before the front door was a
rough stone causeway, already ankle-deep in filth. Close up to the
rear of the house was a dung-heap of portentous size and savour.
Evidently this was a case of taking the horse to the water and being
unable to make him drink, for the people thrust into a clean house
were obviously doing their best to bring it into harmony with their
own views. I heard also of a remarkable case of subdivision on the
part of some labourers on Mr. Bland's estate, higher up on the
mountain. A couple or three years ago two "boys" received permission
to occupy a cabin on a little patch of land. This spot has since grown
into a colony. The "boys" have both got married, and have children.
Their brothers-in-law also, with wives and children, as a matter of
course, have built their cabins against the original one given to the
two bachelors, and the holding has a population of forty-five souls.
These poor people are surely the most affec