The wit of the drivers is not at all deteriorated, and the cattle they drive are first-rate. Upon a recent occasion I engaged a car at Inistioge, in the county of Kilkenny, from one Mr. Cassin, to take me to New Ross; the distance is nearly ten English miles, and the driver, who had an eye for the picturesque, insisted upon taking me one way and bringing me back another; and from the time I left until my return I was kept in a fit of laughter.
Upon dismissing "Paddy" I asked him what I had to pay.
"Five shillings, yer honour, for the car, and whatever you plaze for the driver."
"But if I plaze to give you nothing?"
"Well, then, yer honour, I'll be perfectly satisfied, as you are quite a credit to the car."
A good story is told of a car-driver who was conveying a tourist through a most picturesque part of Ireland, when all of a sudden the "baste" began to kick, and showed evident symptoms of going faster down a hill than the unfortunate occupier of the car approved of.
"Don't whip him, driver, or you'll make him run away."
"Bedad, yer honour, ye needn't be afeard of that. He's a raal sodjer, and 'ud sooner die than run away."
I must now take leave of Ireland and return to England.