The Reminiscences of an Irish Land AgentHussey, Samuel Murray
History
The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
Hussey, Samuel Murray
Country life -- Ireland; Hussey, Samuel Murray, 1824-; Ireland -- History -- 1837-1901
A lady on a Queenstown steamer had put her foot down the bunker's hole,
and broke her ankle through the accident. She brought an action against
the company, duly proved negligence on the part of the employes, and
obtained substantial damages. These considerably assisted her in
erecting a rather attractive mansion, which she decidedly resented being
called Bunker's Hill.
Some people have their own ideas about the definition of a gentleman, as
a certain rather diminutive racing man found to his cost.
It was at a meeting close to Cork, and he was standing next a burly
farmer close to the rails when the horses were nearly ready to start.
Pointing to one disreputable-looking ruffian about to mount, he
observed:--
'That fellow has no pretensions to be a gentleman-rider.'
The farmer caught him by the collar of his coat and the seat of his
breeches, and shook him as a mastiff would a rat.
'Mind yourself, small man,' said he, 'that's a recognised gentleman in
these parts.'
There was a mighty shindy, and when the farmer was told his victim was a
prominent English peer, he retorted:--
'Well, that won't make him a judge of an Irish gentleman.'
In the last chapter I mentioned that the preacher I most admired was
Archbishop Magee. I had the privilege of frequently hearing him in Cork,
where he drew crowded congregations to a temporary church--the cathedral
being under repair.
I never heard any one who so magnetised me from the pulpit, and I am by
no means prone to admire sermons. There was a sort of mesmerism in the
very eloquence of Magee which kept my eyes riveted on his lips--rather
big, bulgy lips in an expressive, sensitive face. An hour beneath him
sped marvellously fast, and more than once in Cork I have heard him
preach for that length. The impression he made on me has never been
effaced, and it was with no surprise I learnt in due course that he
became Archbishop of York.
The late Lord Derby said that the most eloquent speech he ever heard in
or out of the House of Lords was Magee's speech on the Church Act, the
peroration of which--quoting from memory after many years--ran:--'My
Lords, I will not, I cannot, and I dare not vote for that most
unhallowed bill which lies on your Lordships' table.'
Have all Magee stories been told?
I am afraid so. Yet in the hope that a few may be new to some, though
old to others--who are invited to skip them--here are just a small
batch.
When he was a dean, he one day attended a debate on tithes in the House
of Commons, and was subsequently putting on his overcoat, when a Radical
Member courteously assisted him, whereupon he remarked:--
'I am very much obliged to you, sir, for reversing the policy of your
friends inside, who are taking the coats off our backs.'
This was equalled by the wife of an Irish landlord who lost her purse in
the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Commons.
Mrs. Gladstone, who had been sitting next her, after kindly assisting in
the ineffectual search, observed:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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