To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "] SIR,—An English tourist was
being driven on a jaunting-car through the Donegal Highlands, and after a time the results of his observation came to the surface in the following query : " Driver ! I notice that when you speak to your friends whom you meet on the road you invariably do so in Irish, but when you address your horse you do so in English. How is this ? " To which came the retort : "Muslin now thin. Isn't English good enough for him ?"—which doubtless gave the traveller "a new idea."—I am, Sir, &c.,
HENRY S. WOODS.
[Perhaps the horse "had no Irish," and so contempt for the Saxon was not " the real reason." Collies in some parts of the Highlands are supposed only to understand English. We have beard of a Gaelic-speaking shepherd gravely assuring an Englishman that it was impossible "to work a dog" in Gaelic, and adding: " There's 'Sandy,' now; he's hardly a word of the Gaelic," while 'Sandy' sat with a look on his face which seemed to say : " It's quite true ; I have never been able to acquire more than the barest smattering of .the vernacular." We wonder whether Welsh sheep-dogs are worked in Welsh. —ED. Spectator.]
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