sure and sarten, it grieves me sore to be away from the rail prayties, and the jaynooine puttheen, on which the unholy blinkers of a gager never glanced, and the darlint Irish girls, with their butyfool dark eyes :— "O blandos oculos et inquietos, Et quâdam propriâ notâ loquaces, Atque ipsa in medio sedet voluptas," ALETHIUS. as the charming lattin poet, in the Anthology, so purtilly sings. Och, many's the flurtayshun I had with them when I was a young raik; and many a sthroal I tuck in sweet" Lover's Walk" with my darlint Kathleen O'Kelly now no more. Then I thought of nothin but rompin' with the fair sex, playin and sportin, kissin and courtin, in the green fields, and undher the ould broad-spreadin oak-threes; and oftin have I tould my father confessor over a jolly fine bowl of the best Innishown whiskey that nothin would do-all his lectures, and lessons, and skouldins was of no use; for I sez, I have made the same vow as Mimnermus :: Τεθναίην οτε μοι μηκετι ταύτα μελοι Κρυπταδιη φιλοτης και μειλιχα δωρα και ευνη. Och, may life forsake me, and the Divil take me, So vain's yer praching, likewise yer taching, DR. WATTS. All this is changed now, and though I sumtimes sees one of thim dancers at the Garrick Playhouse-but by the piper of Moses here's Misthriss Brallaghan jist commin in, and so I'll skip over that part for the present, or else tis'nt kisses or complimints she'd give me, the purty darlint. Ochone and wirrasthrue who but a spooney would be tide to a tay-dhrinkin wife and 9 small hungry childher, like an ould tin-kettle on a dog's tail ?——— "Al molino ed al sposa, Sempre mancha qualche cosa.”—Ital. Prov. Well, as I was sayin I'm a different man now from what I was whin poor Misther Richard lived, and laft, and sang the air of "The Groves of Blarney," and was boon companion with that glorious soale Docther Maginn, and Jak Boyle, and Frank Mahony the preesht, and the little man with the Goold-Spickticles who gave the farthing fee to Docther Bulldog, and the rest of the roaring blades of Cork's fair city. I had then, the Lord be praised, neither chick nor child, nor wife, nor any other encumbrance, baggige, or botheration, so that I thravelled about the counthry with my masther like a rovin' tinker as happy as the days is long and it was at this pariod, undher the tuishun of the Dockther, and sometimes of his Ravarinse, that I pickt up the little Grake and Latin and Frinch that I knows. My masther was so fond of me, that no step could he take without consultin me upon and Father Mahony and the other noble gintlemen it; thrated me more like one of thimselvs, than a poor boy from Mallow. Poor Misther Millikin (may the angels make his bed in Heavn!) was a fine speciment of the Irish gentleman, before Cockneyism invaded the land of the Green. As gallant a fella as ever stept, he was 6 feet high, and his limbs were proporshund to his stature; but his appearence was far from bein' the best of him, for within his brest beat as noble and as manly a heart as ever throbb'd. Sthrange enuff it is that, afther this commendashun, I should hav to add, that he was an attorney in Cork; but his honesty may be accounted for by statin' that he never praktist at his purfession, or paid much regard to aither Coak or Littleton, or Sir Willym Blaxton-all his time bein' spint over his tumbler of punch with the larned Dockthor, and the pious Preesht, and that rogue Boyle, and that dear joke of a creature Misther Tom Croughton Croaker the fairyman; and among thimselves they compozed pomes and songs, and essays dhramatical and critical, that exsited the wondher of the whole town and counthry for miles and miles round. Cork was about the time of which I a now writin as dull a place as ever Eye saw. The Whiteboys (my poor father was one the Lord be merciful to his sowl!) did but occasionally kill a parson, and justasses of the pace was only now and then roastid alive for amusemint. Praching bulks and saints was skatthered up and down as thick as daisies thro' the country; and the few sinners that remained seemed to have got though am rolly tired of brakin the tin commandments. The manly sports and rational recreashuns of our aunts-sisthers whin Vinegar Hill and the Volunteers shed so much glory on our iland, was like Misther Moore's last rose of summer, departed and gone. Pike manufacturees and potheen-stills was quite blown, and their owners gone to the dogs. Oaken Shilalees was purchast at any price as curiosities, and regarded as the prensepal ornamints of Mewsayums (one of thim was sint to the late king, and 'tis said his madjesty often thried it on Jonny Althorp's wooden pate, to the great damage of the oak, it must be added): and the word Irishman, once the spritely sinonyme of Rake and Roistherer, had almost begun to signify Methodist and Dullard. Our Pipers (little noshun I had then of endin my days as one) was, like our Irish wolf dogs, a race exstinct; our butther-brogued Preeshts who taulkt nothin but good Irish and Kerry Grake, and who had always a soft word and a sweet glance for the girls, was gone the way of all flesh; and many of our choicest joakers gave up their sperrits, began to grow religious, and—Judy, asthore, reach me the gin, I declare it makes me sick-absolutely wore prair-books in their pockets, lookt demurely, and wint at times to church. Fun and fitin, frollik and potheen, wit and house-burnin!-by Jakurs, they were little better than the meer shadows of their former selves; and whinever they was indulged in, was altogether destitute of that glorious slashin, dashin, whackin, thwackin, dare-divil humour, which our hearty 24-tumbler aunts-sisthers and granfathers infewsed into them. Even Jeweling-that dear, darlint rimnant of our ould Irish fistivitees, as Misther Croker used affectionately to call it -was fadin away by degrees. Mantons was only rarely required by the gintlemin-limbs was more rarely shot off-and the fatal consiquince was that the gun-makers and payshintmakers (by which class I means the meddikel dockthers,) wint upon their stools of melankully, like Masther Steevn in Bin Jonson's play, and wore crape upon their hats for grief. The undhertakers felt half inclined to berry thimsilves in their own coughins; and the grave-diggers, poor fellas! tuk to whisky dhrinkin' and died dhrunk, as Irishmen always should. Faix it would be hard to find a site more melankolly than to look upon a county sich as ours, with its broad noble acres as flat as a pancake, which seemed as if by Providince itself designed to be the Palæsthra of Pistolling, thus by degrees loosin' its high caracther for braverie and pluck, and purducin no new thriumfs in the coroner's inquist line, in ordher to keep alive and immortal its fire-atin fame 66 Exigua ingentis retinet vestigia famæ, Et magnum, infelix, nil nisi nomen habet." But melankolly as it was we were obliged to endure it— weepin and wailin and gnashin our teeth, we found to be of no use on earth-although many and many a curse loud and deep have I heerd my masther and the preesht |