vivifying herb, which the widow Gaffney assured her guests was "iligant tay from Cork," as they seated themselves at her breakfast table, after the refreshing repose of the night. of the night. Luckily they were just then in a temper of mind to take much upon faith, and to be pleased on very scanty premises. That, which under the influence of exhaustion and evening gloom, was deemed misadventure, to the renovated spirits of morning and sunshine was amusing incident merely, and stimulating variety. There was a novelty, a romantic singularity in their actual position, which lent it a peculiar charm (at least, to the younger traveller, to whom it was evident that whatever was new was good), while it was obvious to both, that even the wildest parts of Ireland afforded security to the stranger's wandering: for it is only the local, official oppressor who has any thing to fear from an ignorant and suffering population; a po

pulation, which, strangers to the protec tion of the laws, fly for redress to that force, by which alone they and their ancestors have been governed for centuries.

The travellers left the inn of Lis-nasleugh, followed by the blessings of its inhabitants, excited by their liberality. Had the younger of them been capable of observing any thing, in which he was not himself personally concerned, he might have noticed that, previous to their departure, his mysterious companion had been engaged in a conference with the lame hostler, which lasted for a considerable time: for while Owny was putting-to the horses, and arranging the portmanteaux, the Commodore, with arms folded, brows compressed, and eyes full of eager listening curiosity, remained silently attentive to some narration, which seemed circumstantially detailed by the baccah. As they both stood under the shadow of an impending cliff, the bold figure of the

Commodore in deep shade, and darkly defined, the bending form of the cripple supported by his crutch, and tinged with the light of a straggling sunbeam, they seemed appropriate figures for the wild scenery that surrounded them. In this point of view they were only considered by the tasteful observer, who stood looking at them through his half-closed eyes, and who simply noted the effect of their picturesque grouping, without one surmise as to its cause.-The mountains the travellers had crossed, and the glens in which they had passed the night, soon receded from their view: their journey lay along a comparatively good road, among a long chain of hills, which fenced within their undulating boundaries many a lovely glen and romantic valley, brightening in the morning sunshine. Acclivity rose, above acclivity, lifting their bleak bare heads to the clouds, in wild and savage magnificence-those to the west forming the boundaries of the

county of Kerry; those to the north and east, the Ballyhowry and Nagle mountains, inclosing the classical scenery of Spencer; his own Mole, rising conspicuously above all.

In the bosom of this wild and fantastic region, after a journey of twelve miles, the valley of Glenfionne, or the fair valley, was announced by the driver; and the old woods and towers of Court Fitzadelm were discovered in the distance, crowning a rocky summit, which seemed to hang perpendicularly over the winding waters of the Avon Fionne. The demesne of this fine old seat was accessible by many mountain ravines from the south; but the design of its late lord, who had cut a road across a branch of the Galties, to facilitate and to shorten the way from Dubin, though inadequately executed, was judiciously conceived. On that side its situation was inaccessible, remote, and romantic. The extensive stone wall, which ran round the north of the de

mesne, forming an opposite barrier to that made by the winding river, was in many places dismantled and broken down; and through its frequent breaches, it exhibited the result of that pernicious and exhausting system of farming resorted to in such places. The ci-devant agent, now the actual but absent master, had let out this beautiful demesne in what is called jobbing farms, whose tillage rarely extends beyond the growing of potatoes; for which purpose the ground is uncalculatingly burned, to produce one good crop to its temporary possessor. Here and there vestiges of wretched crops of grass and oats evinced the land utterly exhausted; and, in many places, it was abandoned to the wild growth of weeds and briars. Almost every where the old meadow and pasture grounds were covered with furze, broom, and rushes, which, though now yellow and rich to the eye, were still but " unprofitably gay."

The subdivisions of petty property