agreeable reflection was banished by mirth. "Now we have got Mr. Pendennis among us," this good-natured lady continued, "it will be a shame if we let him go away without seeing all the lions. In the first place, he should visit those beautiful falls on the Shannon, and the SalmonLeap: it is a pleasant morning's excursion, and I would undertake to be his cicerone, and name the gentlemen's seats as we went along."

This motion was received with unanimous consent, and the little circle broke up to take the repose requisite to enable them to prepare with alacrity for the projected party of pleasure.

The morrow brought an influx of visitors. The report that the celebrated Pendennis, the tourist, was at Meadowscourt, spread like wildfire, and every one was eager to hear and see the "foreign wonder." The morning was fine. Sir Charles Southwell's eight-oared barge, with its painted streamers, rested on the blue waves

of the Shannon. The company at Mea dowscourt, increased by the addition of several ladies and gentlemen of the country, and officers quartered in the neighbourhood, began, with the gaiety usual on such occasions, to make arrangements for their departure. All at once Penden nis found himself the centre of attraction to the fair, the witty, and the young. To be a stranger is, in itself, a powerful recommendation to the hospitable inhabitants of Erin; but when that stranger is possessed, or even is but supposed to be possessed, of talents, oh! how much warmer is the enthusiasm with which he is welcomed by those open hearts and elegant minds, which add the glow of native goodness to the graces of French vivacity, tempered by Athenian taste!

Such is the momentary power of fashion, that the ladies discovered Mr. Pendennis was not only an amazingly sensible, clever, pleasant creature, but that his features, though certainly plain, were by no

means

means ugly-that he had a tall, elegant figure, a remarkably-genteel English air, and something uncommonly agreeable both in his eyes and voice. His red roquelaure, too, which he had assumed as a boat-cloak, to guard against cold on the water, came in for its share of commendation, and, though an unusual article of dress, was pronounced, upon the whole, to be both a convenient and becoming one.

If the ladies were thus captivated by Pendennis, it is but justice to add, Pendennis was equally delighted with them. The easy vivacity and fascinating manners of the far-famed beauties of Limerick-the politeness, cheerfulness, and good sense of the gentlemen who were introduced to him, and who all seemed anxious to gratify the tourist with every information in their power-the general good-humour and hilarity which prevailed around, and the enchanting beauty of the scenery along which they passed-all conspired to fill him with the most exhilarating sensations.

He

He had a little note-book in his hand, in which he occasionally set down his remarks as they occurred. Montfort also took out his pencil and sketch-book, but his attention was often distracted by the glowing lustre of the living beauties that surrounded him.

Our tourist, ever anxious to collect va luable and authentic information, was eagerly listening to a description given by Mr. Preston, a reverend gentleman on his left hand, of a very curious species of trout, said to be found in the Shannon, when his attention was called off by Miss O'Reilly requesting him to take notice of the remains of an ancient castellated mansion that gave a picturesque interest to a bend of the river." That ruined fortalice," she said, "once formed a part of the vast possessions of an ancestor of the Southwell family-Glesnagh, surnamed the Munificent. In the days of queen Elizabeth, he lived in all the barbarous splendour of a chieftain in those rude times."

Glesnagh the Munificent! and why the Munificent,' Miss O'Reilly?" asked Pendennis, eager to set down an authentic anecdote of the Southwell family.

Miss O'Reilly was, for a moment, at a loss for a case in point, illustrative of the chieftain's generosity; but soon recollecting one, she said-" One of the English lord-deputies-lord Grey, or the earl of Sussex (I am not clear as to that point), lay dangerously ill at the Castle of Dublin, and was ordered by his physicians to taste nothing but mutton-broth made of sheep's heads. This reaching the ears of the liberal Glesnagh, he immediately ordered a whole flock of sheep to be slaughtered, and sent their heads up in cart-loads all the way to Dublin, that the viceregal kitchen might never want a supply."

This instance of Glesnagh's loyalty and liberality had nearly produced a laugh at Miss O'Reilly's expence, when a burst of fine voices, joining in that beautiful native melody, "The harp that once through

Tara's