Twenty-four years have since elapsed, and during all that time the marquis has never indulged himself in a repetition of the exquisite pleasure he then enjoyed.  At a banquet given in his honour on that occasion, he used the following language, which was, no doubt, published in the Times, and read with great interest in London and Paris:—­’This is one of the most delightful days I ever spent.  Trust me, I have your happiness and welfare at heart, and it shall ever be my endeavour to promote the one and contribute to the other.’  The parting scene on this occasion must have been very touching; for, in tearing himself away, his lordship said:  ’I have now come to the concluding toast.  It is, “Merry have we met, and merry may we soon meet again!"’

The tenants could scarcely doubt the genuineness of their landlord’s feelings, for on the same occasion Dean Stannus said:  ’I feel myself perfectly justified in using the term “a good landlord;” because his lordship’s express wish to me often was, “I hope you will always keep me in such a position that I may be considered the friend of my tenants."’ But as he did not return to them, a most respectable deputation waited upon him in London in the year 1850, to present a memorial praying for a reduction of rent on account of the potato blight and other local calamities which had befallen the tenantry.  The memorialists respectfully showed ’that under the encouraging auspices of the Hertfort family, and on the faith of that just and equitable understanding which has always existed on this estate—­that no advantage would be taken of the tenant’s improvements in adjusting the letting value of land, they had invested large sums of money in buildings and other improvements on their farms, and that this, under the name of tenant-right, was a species of sunk capital that was formerly considered a safe repository for accumulated savings, which could be turned to account at any time of difficulty by its sale, or as a security for temporary advances.’  In his reply, Lord Hertfort said, ’I seek not to disturb any interest, much less do I wish to interfere by any plan or arrangement of mine with the tenant-right which my tenants have hitherto enjoyed, and which it is my anxious wish to preserve to them.’

The faith and hope inspired by these assurances of the landlord were repeatedly encouraged and strengthened by the public declarations of his very reverend agent, Dean Stannus.  At a meeting of the Killultagh and Derryvolgie Farming Society, in 1849, he stated that he had great pleasure in subscribing to almost everything said by Mr. M’Call.  He had taken great pains to convince the late Lord Hertfort that tenant-right was one of the greatest possible boons, as well to the landlords themselves as to the tenants.  So advantageous did he regard it to the interest of Lord Hertfort and the tenants, that if it were not preserved he would not continue agent to the estate.  Tenant-right was his security for the Marquis of Hertfort’s rent, and he would not ask a tenant to relinquish a single rood of land without paying him at the rate of 10 l. to 12 l. an acre for it.