The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through IrelandNorah
History
The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour Through Ireland
Norah
Ireland -- Description and travel
In the famine time people getting relief had to travel for the ticket,
travel to get the meal, and then go to gather whins or heather on the
hills to cook it, and the hungry children waiting all the time. A
respectable person said to me the famine was worst on respectable
people, for looking for the red ticket and carrying it to get meal by it
was like the pains of death.
Wherever I went through Leitrim I saw people, scattered here and there,
gathering twigs for fuel or coming toward home with their burden of
twigs on their backs. I declare I thought often of the Israelites
scattered through the fields of Egypt gathering stubble instead of
straw. A tenant who objects to anything, who is not properly obedient
and respectful, can have the screw turned upon him about the turf as
well as about the rent.
XXVIII.
THE MANOR HAMILTON WORKHOUSE--TO THE SOUTH AND WESTWARD--A CHANGE OF
SCENERY--LORD PALMERSTON.
Before leaving Manor Hamilton, I determined to see the poor-house, the
last shelter for the evicted people. I was informed that it was
conducted in a very economical manner. It is on the outskirts of the
town. On my way there I went up a little hill to look at a picturesque
Episcopalian church perched up there amid the trees, surrounded by a
pretty, well-kept burying-ground. The church walls were ornamented with
memorial slabs set in the wall commemorating people whose remains were
not buried there. A pretty cottage stood by the gate, at the door of
which a decent-looking woman sat sewing. I addressed a few questions to
her as to the name of the pastor, the size of his flock, &c. Her answers
were guarded--very.
I made my way down the hill, and over to the workhouse. The grounds
before the entrance were not laid out with the taste observable at
Enniskillen. Perhaps they had not a professional gardener among their
inmates. At the entrance a person was leaning against the door in an
easy attitude. I enquired if I might be allowed to see through the
workhouse. He answered by asking what my business was. I informed him
that I was correspondent for a Canadian newspaper. He then enquired if
the paper I wrote for was a Conservative paper. I replied that I would
not describe it as a Conservative paper, but as a religious paper. He
then said the matron was not at home, and I prepared to leave. I
enquired first if he was the master. He replied in the affirmative, and
then said he would get the porter to show me round. "You will show her
through," he said, to a stout, heavy person sitting in the entry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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