EDITH ŒNONE SOMERVILLE.
life on the Continent, and worked, like a scene-painter, by artificial light, from memoranda. Miss Edgeworth had the privilege, which was also ours, of living in Ireland, in the country, and among the people of whom she wrote. Of the Irish novels of Miss Lawless the same may be said, though the angle at which she chose to regard that many-sided and deeply agreeable person, the Irish peasant, excluded the humour that permeates Miss Edgeworth’s books. (One recalls with gratitude the “quality toss” of Miss Judy McQuirk.) That Miss Edgeworth’s father was a landlord, and a resident one, deepened her insight and widened her opportunities. Panoramic views may, no doubt, be obtained from London; and what a County Meath lady spoke of as a “ventre à terre in Dublin” has its advantages; but I am glad that my lot and Martin’s were cast “in a fair ground, in a good ground, In Carbery:”—(with apologies to Mr. Kipling)—“by the sea.”
* * * * *
I will not inflict the undeservedly kind comments of the reviewers of “An Irish Cousin” upon these pages, though I may admit that nothing that I have ever read, before or since, has seemed to me as entirely delightful as the column and a half that The Spectator generously devoted to a very humble book, by two unknowns, who had themselves nearly lost belief in it.
August, 1889, was a lucky month for Martin and me. We had a “good Press”—we have often marvelled at its goodness—we were justified of our year of despised effort; the hunted Shockers emerged from their caves to take a place in the sun; we had indeed “Commenced Author.”
CHAPTER XII
THE YEARS OF THE LOCUST
Before I abandon these “Irish Cousin” years at Drishane, I should like to say something more of the old conditions there. I do not think I claim too much for my father and mother when I say that they represented for the poor people of the parish their Earthly Providence, their Court of Universal Appeal, and, in my mother’s case, their Medical Attendant, who, moreover, provided the remedies, as well as the nourishment, that she prescribed.