The peasant women of Cork and Kerry bear a name for good looks; but their style of dress certainly does not display their charms to advantage. The married women of the west of Ireland wear a long, coarse, black cloak, descending to their feet, and furnished with a commodious hood which partially envelops their features. A more ungraceful garment than this cloak it would be difficult to imagine; and in bright summer weather it strikes one as the most perversely unreasonable of all human adornings. The unmarried women, though disallowed the use of the cloak, yet contrive to disfigure themselves with equal success by means of a shawl, in which they invariably envelop their heads as well as their shoulders. But in native sweetness and gracefulness of speech, the Irish countrywoman leaves her English and Scottish sister far behind. It is worth the trouble of a hundred greetings to hear her ‘It is a fine day, thank God!’ By the way, these greetings sound very oddly at first in Scottish ears. ‘It is a fine day, sir, thank God;’ or, ‘It is a fine day, your honour, the Lord be praised!’ are the ordinary salutations of the Irish country-people in this district. Their pious ejaculations occasionally go beyond this. Speaking with us of the changeable weather, an old Irishman suddenly exclaimed: ‘May the blessed Son of the Holy Virgin have mercy on our sowls! but we’re never continted. When it is wit, we wish it dry; and when it is dry, we wish it wit.’ On entering their cabins, it is considered good ‘form’ to say: ‘God preserve all in this house;’ and the response is: ‘Thank ye kindly, sir (or lady); may God preserve ye long!’