They
Bought And Others Came And Bought Until The Stock Began To Diminish
Sensibly.
A little man who had arrived with his load of besoms somewhat later sold
none.
I saw him glance from his load to the stock of mother and
daughter, fast selling off, and become aware that his stock as compared
with theirs was rather heathery, and he began to trim off roughnesses
with his knife. I hope he succeeded in selling.
Drove out to Drumlane, where are the ruins of a large church and abbey
and round tower. The driver, a Catholic, talked a little, guardedly, of
the high rents. A broken-down looking man, who opened the iron gates for
us into the ruins, complained heavily of the rents. He was only a
laborer himself, the farmer he worked for was paying fifty-five
shillings an acre for part of his farm and L3 for the rest. The land on
which I looked was rented at L3. My only wonder is that the lands thus
rented pay the rent alone without supporting in any manner the tillers
of the soil. It was all pasture at this particular place. The ruins here
of the church are very extensive, of the abbey only the fragment of a
wall is standing. My guides informed me that there was an underground
passage in old days between the abbey and the church, so that the bishop
was not seen from the time he left the abbey until he appeared on the
high altar.
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