"ROLLICKING IRELAND."
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:9 SIR,—Will you allow me, as an Irishwoman, to express my gratitude to the writer of the article called " Rollicking Ireland" P It is written in such a sympathetic spirit. The remark, " A Celt everywhere, and the Irishman by no means the least, desires a King, a visible emblem of power and
pageantry, whom he can look up to and obey," is absolutely true.
I lately met a. lady who had been an exhibitor in the first Irish Exhibition which was generally known as Dargon's Exhibition. The Queen and the Prince Consort honoured it with their presence on one of their very brief visits to " our distressful country." The first day her Majesty came to the Exhibition, she was tired; something had gone wrong ; she was not pleased, and, fatal mistake in Dublin, she was badly dressed. The second day, she was beaming with smiles, and was dressed in blue, which suited her. One of our big policemen, who was standing near my informant, whispered in her ear : " Faith, Ma'am ! we're proud, proud of her to-day." If the Queen, while a happy young wife and mother, had only occasionally resided in the country as she does in Scotland, I believe many of the present difficulties would never have arisen. No English person would believe the absurd stories which are told about the Queen, and taken as undoubted facts by the credulous people, and even by respectable and not wholly ignorant people.
I was speaking one day to a butler in a friend's house. " Oh ! the Queen," he remarked, in answer to some observation of mine. "Sure, she hates us all; divil a fat she iver puts in the country ; and if they [" they " meaning the Royal family as well] do, it's as if fire was tied to their tail till they're well out of it ; and didn't the Queen order a big shipload of wheat to be thrown into the river at Cork the time of the famine, rather than that the people should have it ? " Horrified at such a statement, I did my best to show him the absurdity of such a story ; but I felt all my efforts were of no avail ; he remained firmly convinced of the truth of it.
Another time I was speaking to an intelligent old man, a pedlar, who made annual rounds in the country selling various small articles. " I used to be doing better nor this," he remarked to me one day. " How ? " I inquired. " Oh ! years ago the girls all round did beautiful crochet-work that they learnt from the ladies, and I used to sell it for them. Some- times I went to Liverpool and Bristol, and I made a good profit, so I did. But the Queen couldn't bear anything in Ireland should prosper, so she had crochet things made to cover her horses, and that put it out of fashion, and the ladies would buy it no more. She hates Ireland, so she does." Vainly did I endeavour to clear the poor Queen from such an imputa- tion, and explained the white things on the ponies were to keep off the flies. I tried to tell him of the changes in fashion ; but, to use an Irish expression, I might as well " whistle jigs to a milestone ;" and remembering that- " He who complies against his will Is of his own opinion still," I left him in the firm belief of her Majesty having with malice prepense destroyed his trade.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Villa la Prairie, Yverdun, July 31st. E. D. GRIMSHAW.
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