I had the pleasure of meeting Sir Redvers Buller in Killarney, and after he had been there a couple of days he proceeded to describe Kerry to me, who had been managing one fifth of it for several years.  His agricultural reforms would have been as drastic as they were ludicrous had any one attempted to carry them out, but when expatiating on them to me, he was not even aware that there was any difference between an English and an Irish acre.  When I heard that he was taking charge of the whole army in South Africa, I mentioned that as he had been unable to command three hundred constabulary in Kerry, I was sceptical of his ability to manage the British army.  He was without exception the most self-sufficient soldier I ever met, and his subsequent career has not made me change my view.

Here is a soldier story which is mighty illustrative of Irish traits.

A peasant’s son in Limerick enlisted in the militia for a month’s training, for which he received a bounty of three pounds.  With part of this money he bought a pig and gave it to his father to feed up.  When the pig was fattened, the father sold it and declined to give him the price.  So the son was seen by the police to take his father by the throat, saying:—­

’Bad luck to you, old reprobate, do you want to deprive me of my pig that I risked my life for in the British Army?’

Everywhere I like to slip into this book instances of the injuries suffered by Irish landlords, so here is another case a propos des bottes, if you will forgive it.

The Knight of Kerry let nine acres of land to a tenant for a rent of forty-five pounds.  Having expended a large sum of money in roadmaking and fences, at the tenant’s request, he also borrowed thirty-five pounds to build a small house for which he has to pay thirty-five shillings per annum.  The commissioners cut down the rent so heavily, that it has resulted in the landlord having to pay five shillings a year for the pleasure of looking at the man in occupation of his land.

Reverting to my reminiscences—­or rather to what are for myself less interesting portions, for I am a land agent by profession and an anecdotist only by habit—­I remember that an Englishman subsequently a Pasha commanded the coastguard at Dingle in 1856, and then had an encounter with a local Justice of the Peace in which he came off second best.

Captain ——­ occupied the Grove demesne.  The J.P., who had been a Scotch militia officer, had been in the habit of shooting crows over the demesne, and continued to enjoy the sport, to which the Captain strongly objected.  After an angry correspondence the J.P. sent a challenge, which the other did not seem to stomach, for he sent an apology by a subordinate with full permission to continue the immolation of the birds.  If a cruiser had to capitulate to this bold blockade runner, the Captain himself had to endure a similar humiliation at the hands of an indignant Kerry man, though he was very popular in Dingle.