The old man who has charge of it is a typical Galway retainer of the old school.  The “boys,” he says, once tried to “boycott” him because he was the pound-master; but he showed fight, and they let him alone.  He pointed out to me from the top of the house, in the distance, the residences of Colonel Hickie, and of the young Lord Avonmore, who lately succeeded on the death of his brother in the recent Egyptian expedition.  The place is now shut up, and the owners live in France.

We visited too the Portumna Union before driving home.  The buildings of this Union are extensive for the place, and well built, and it seems to be well-ordered and neatly kept—­thanks, in no small degree, I suspect, to the influence of the Sisters who have charge of the hospital, but whose benign spirit shows itself not only in the flower-garden which they have called into being, but in many details of the administration beyond their special control.

The contrast was very striking between the atmosphere of this unpretending refuge of the helpless and that of certain of the “laicised” hospitals of France, which I not long ago visited, from which the devoted nuns have been expelled to make way for hired nurses.  I made a remark to this effect to the clerk of the Union, Mr. Lavan, whom we found in his office.

“Oh, yes,” he said, “I have no doubt of that.  We owe more than I can say to the Sisters, but I don’t know how long we should have them here if the local guardians could have their way.”

In explanation of this, he went on to tell me that these local guardians, who are elected, are hostile to the whole administration, because of its relations with the Local Government Board at Dublin, which controls their generous tendency to expend the money of the ratepayers.  By way of expressing their feelings, therefore, they have been trying to cut down, not only the salary of the clerk, but that of the Catholic chaplain of the Union; and as there is a good deal of irreligious feeling among the agitators here, it is his impression that they would make things disagreeable for the Sisters also were they in any way to get the management into their own hands.  That there cannot be much real distress in this neighbourhood appears from two facts.  There are now but 130 inmates of this Union, out of a population of 12,900, and the outlay for out-of-door relief averages between eight and ten pounds a week.

In the quiet, neat chapel two or three of the inmates were kneeling at prayers; and others whom we saw in the kitchen and about the offices had nothing of the “workhouse” look which is so painful in the ordinary inmates of an English or American almshouse.

“The trouble with the place,” said Mr. Lavan, “is that they like it too well.  It takes an eviction almost to get them out of it.”

We sat down with Mr. Lavan in his office, and had an interesting talk with him.