[1] Robert has told me how, hearing from Willie Wills that “the money-market was tight,” he went to proffer assistance. In Willie’s studio he was about to light a cigarette with a half-burned “spill” of paper, when he became aware that the “spill” was a five-pound note, an unsuspected relic of more prosperous times, that had already been used for a like purpose. E. Œ. S.

[2] This sentence was subsequently introduced in the article “At the River’s Edge,” by Martin Ross, The Englishwoman’s Review.

[3] In these, and all the following letters, I have left the spelling, punctuation, etc., unchanged.

[4] Solicitor-General.

[5] Daniel O’Connell.

[6] Among the letters in the old letter-box of which I have spoken was a paper, the contents of which may be offered to the professional genealogist. They are as follows:

“By the marriage of Charles Bushe to Emmeline Coghill, (daughter of Sir J. Coghill Bt. by his first wife,) the lady becomes neice (sic) to her husband, sister to her mother, and daughter to her grandmother, aunt to her sisters and cousins, and grandaunt to her own children, stepmother to her cousins, and sister-in-law to her father, while her mother will be at the same time aunt and grandmother to her nephews and neices.” I recommend no one to try to understand these statements.—E. Œ. S.

[7] Throughout these recollections I have, as far as has been possible, refrained from mentioning those who are still trying to make the best of a moderate kind of world. (Far be it from me to add to their trials!) I wish to say, however, in connection with the subject of this chapter, that in the struggle for life which so many of the Irish gentry had at this period to face, Martin’s brothers and sisters were no less ardently engaged than were their mother and their youngest sister. In London, in India, in Ceylon, the Martins were doing “their country’s work,” as Mr. Kipling has sung, and although the fates at first prevented their taking a hand in person in the restoration of Ross, it is well known that “The Irish over the seas” are not in the habit of forgetting “their own people and their Father’s House.”

[8] Mrs. Hewson died July, 1917.

[9] I think it best to spell all the Irish phrases phonetically.

[10] December 26th.

[11] Scapular and Agnus Dei.

[12] “Et in Arcadia Ego,” E. L. in the Spectator. August 25, 1917.

[13] This article was subsequently incorporated in Martin Ross’s sketch “Children of the Captivity” and is reprinted in “Some Irish Yesterdays.”

[14] Of this same American a tale is told which might, I think, had she known it, have mitigated Martin’s disapproval. One of the more futile of his pupils showed him a landscape that she had painted. He regarded it for some time in silence, then he said:

“Did you see it like that?”

“Oh yes, Mr. L——!” twittered the pupil.

“And did you feel it like that?”

“Oh yes, Mr. L——, indeed I did!”

“Wal,” said Mr. L——, smoothly, “the next time you see and feel like that, don’t paint!”

[15] Professor Kettle was killed, fighting in France, in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers at Ginchy, in September, 1916.

[16] To this may be added a companion phrase. “A Gentleman’s bargain; no huxthering!”

[17] See Appendix II.

[18] “Evidence of the widespread fame of St. Patrick’s Purgatory, Lough Derg, Co. Donegal, in mediaeval days is furnished by a document recently copied from the Chancery treaty roll of Richard II. This is a safe conduct issued on the 6th September, 1397, to Raymond Viscount of Perilleux, Knight of Rhodes, a subject of the King of France, who desired to make the pilgrimage. It was addressed to all constables, marshals, admirals, senechals, governors, bailiffs, prefects, captains, castellans, majors, magistrates, counsellors of cities and towns, guardians of camps, ports, bridges and passways, and their subordinates—in a word, to all those who under one title or another exercised some authority in those days—and recited that Raymond ‘intends and purposes to come into our Kingdom of England and to cross over and travel through the said Kingdom to our land of Ireland, there to see and visit the Purgatory of St. Patrick, with twenty men and thirty horses in his company.’ The conduct went on to enjoin that any of the little army of officials mentioned above should not molest the said Raymond during his journey to Lough Derg, nor during his return therefrom, nor as far as in them lay should they permit injury to him, his men, horses or property; provided always that the Viscount and his men on entering any camp, castle or fortified town, should present the letter of safe conduct to the guardians of the place, and in purchasing make fair and ready payment for food or other necessaries. The safe conduct was valid until the Easter of the following year. Besides showing that over five hundred years ago foreigners were anxious to make the pilgrimage which so many make in the present age, the document is interesting inasmuch as it gives an indication of the difficulties under which a pilgrim or tourist travelled in the fourteenth century.” (Cork Examiner, August 8, 1917.)