Morning journal and courier., 1889-04-13
AFOOT IN IRELAND.

AFoOT IN IRELAND.
 Sports of the Nobility Original Ex. pressIORs ofthe AristocratIc Fofbles- How Social Obligations are Cancelled Sports of the Ladies and Gepelemen The Castle Fife of Servants-Prece. dence ofServants-TheB BreadIns and Slaughter of Pheasants.
 LIMERICK, Ireland, April 1. Toth Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER: At Irish castles there is much entertain ment of the informal sort, as compared with stately parties and receptions of "season' in London; and this is what alone really renders life in the country endurable to the nobility. There is no estate here which has not either grouse, partridge, pheasant or rab- bit shooting, or the more exacting and bril- liant, because participated in by the ladies, riding after the hounds at stag, or fox hunt, to offer az entertainment, indeed the chief entertainment, in Great Britain, to invited guests. To nobility and gentry of genuine quality all these pleasures, while rigidly con- ventional in spots, are made delieiously in formal among themselves.
 To illustrate, if you or I should permit our republican simplicity to unbend and could not but admit the delightful common alty of bronzed and titled sportsmen who appear at "meet" with faded, spotted and even ragged, old pink jackets, while we would despise the frigidity with which our rich black coats or our new scarlet jackets would be received. So also if we should call ''the hounds" the ''dogs;" ''fox brush" ing;" 'fgun" hunter" or ''shootingn ''gunning;" or say that you ''track" instead of ''look" or s'pick up" the hare; or that you dined ''off" ham, or "off" anything; or that you wish some ''wine" at hunt, lunch or breakfast, unless asking for port, instead of Sherry or Madeira; or make whole speech of retiracy to your dog when you simply wish him to ''Heell"-or make a hundred other faux pas; as your compan- ions would gradually congeal, you would naturally feel atfronted by unnecessary eti- quette, and yearn for your native Calumet marshes. But the free and easy hospitality of hunt breakfast, with it's toothsome cold meats and salads, it's bitter ale, beer and li- quors, laid and partsken of in the dining room with no ceremony whatever-while tho ladies are being cared for by her 1adyship in the drawing room-show you that even men with titles yard long may reach, anywhere in the world, that genial human level which so distinguishes the great American free lunch.
 A great many social obligations are can celled in the pleasantest of ways by the hos pitality at Irish castles. Lord This, Duke That, or Earl The Other, has entertained mi- lord or lady, or both, in England or upon the continent. The visit is returned here, invariably for definitely understood periods of one, two or three weeks. Aside from the shooting for the gentlemen, and hunting for the ladies and gentlemen, there are many means of reasonable enjoyment. Even where there is little no riding after the hounds, the pleasant Irish roads and lanes often swarm with grand cavalcades of horse- women and men, who thus make pilgrimages to points from which the unsurpassed scene ry can be enjoyed; the drives are the finest in the world, and most brilliant intercourse Is had between castle and castle. Within and without the great establishment itself Is always provision for almost every imagina- ble sport. Billiards and ten pins are AS great favorites with ladies as with gentlemen. There is always a superb cricket field; the tennis courts are nowhere exeelled; nearly every castle demesne has it's we'll i-stocked streams of trout and it's reaches of natural or artificial lakes for sailing and rowing. Nor is this castle life lacking in sumptuous entertainment, for which no expense or eff fort is spared Though most of these places are situated remotely from Belfast, Dublin and Cork, and always miles from the lesser railway stations, it is not an uncommon thing for extraordinary dishes to be served at dinners of special occasions, which, telegraphic orders, are prepared in London and shipped by channel and rail a distance of from two to three hundred miles. There are other features which are interesting as studies but unpleasant in fact. The rela. tons between these idle, highly-fed and arl5- tocratic cavaliers and ladies are frequently such as to invite that sightlessness for which servants of the nobility are especially distin- guished; the liquor and wine drinking which often rounds out days abilities often continue in an ail-night debauch; while the "No. -" room of every one of these es- tablishments is a place where every night the most desperate and abominable gambling takes place.
 To return to the castle life of the servants, one discovers most grotesque mimicry, save in bad habits and character, of the aristoc- racy, of the arietocracy above stairs Among the servants there are what might be called an upper and lower house. Precedence is as severe master and soouTge here as with the nobility themselves. The hours for ser vants' meals are: Breakfast, eight; lunch, eleven; dinner, one; tea, five; and supper cludes the steward, butler, housekeeper, the head cook, the valets and the ladies' maids. These usually take all their meals by them selves, in either the stewards or housekeep- er's room, where they also occasionally lounge and do their necessary correspon- dence. The lower house comprises all other house servants, of whom the under butler or assistant cook takes precedence. In many houses all the servants dine together; the upper servants assembling in the house. keepers room, from which they solemnly march to the servants dining hall, the lower servants remaining standing until their bet terS are seated, the butler at the head of the table. No conversation whatever is permit ted while the joint is being partaken of The lugubrious silence and austerity of this gathering are inconceivably ludicrous. When the meat course is finished the upper servants rise. The lower servants follow with military alacrity. The former, in their proper order of precedence, then like auto matic puppets march back into the stewards room, where, in the greatest punctillio, pud- ding and dessert are served. Meanwhile the lower servants, relieved of the presence of these their severest masters, fall to small talk, cheese and small beer to their hearts content. Other grotesque forms among these folk are noticeable. Guests servants invari- ably take the rank of their visiting n.aster or mistress. The valet of @ lord is seated next the butler, and is often housed and 'sentertsined" by the steward. The maid of a countess or duchess 1s s'handed in to din- ner" below stairs with all the ceremony which her titled mistress may receive one story higher. But an ordinary servant or footman must accept rigorous "pot luck" with members of the lower house. Again, the upper servants must always be addressed by the lower as "Mr.," Mrs" or "Miss." But among footmen and housemsids in gen eral dignity often gives way to speed. which in turn impose the highest honors. For in- stance, above the clamor of morning bells will be heard such startling exclamations as: aDnnrayen. there's yer mans belll" ''Marl- borough, be lively nowl" or Manchester. yer op boys movingi"
 In a previous article have shown that from thirty to forty servants are employed at these castles about the household and sta- bles alone. The larger establishments re.