"BULLS."
[TO THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The so-called Irish " bulls " exhibited by your recent contributors are mostly spurious, or at best of a mixed breed. The genuine Hibernian animal is not merely and stupidly absurd, a thing to provoke that kind of laughter which cynics trace to a sudden sense of our own superiority. It possesses on the contrary, a certain inner or (so to speak) sub-cutaneous good sense under its outward and ostensible folly. Grattez the real Irish "bull," and you will find not seldom a delicate hint of something scarcely to be put into ordinary straight- forward language, but true and acutely noted, nevertheless.
The first example which occurs to me, and which will serve as a sample of the whole genus, is the reply which an Irish lady once made to me when I asked, "Whether she had enjoyed her morning dip?" the first of the season. "Not much," she answered ; "the sea was damp from not having been bathed in all the winter." Who that loves his swim in "the briny" does not recognise the sensation of a " damp " sea P
Nobody seems to have recalled for your readers' benefit the supreme practical " bull " of Irish story. When the rebels in 1798 wished to testify their abhorrence of the Hon. John Beredord, they diligently collected a vast number of the notes issued by his bank, and, with much shouting and glorification, burnt them publicly in a bonfire. I forget how many thousands of pounds these true sons of the Green Isle thus presented to their enemy,—as a token of their hatred !—I am, Sir, &c.,
F. P. C.
Previous page
