sed. There were living opposite us two very interesting and elegant looking girls, with whom, of course, we carried on a sentimental flirtation of looks. The guager laughed at the delicacy of our approaches; immediately saluted them with the most familiar gestures, and, before five minutes of this dumb acquaintance, wagered, and won his wager, that in five minutes more he would be seated beside them. When he first rapped at the door we thought he would have contented himself with asking some idle question; but he walked boldly in, and, in less time than the telling, was really placed in the enviable situation. "Twas too provoking-a rude, vulgar fellow, with nothing but his animal spirits to support him, and who said whatever he thought, regardless of the mode, to attain in a moment what we would have deemed a conquest if achieved in a week or a fortnight. This gave me a great dislike to the sex, and almost induced me to hold it as a maxim, that women were only to be won by impudence; but a longer experience convinced me that I did injustice to the most charming of nature's workmanship.

We had been scarcely a fortnight in when we found that there were greater evils in the profession than disagreeable casts and severe studies. Our salaries were not paid up, and we were consequently dunned at our lodgings. To me, who had never been in any pecuniary difficulties, who, indeed, had never owed or paid on my own account, this was extremely distressing and painful; but

what was to be done? Mr. S. had no money, and we could not, as he elegantly expressed it, "expect blood out of a turnip." We could try a benefit, he said, and have the house; but how were we strangers, to pass off our tickets or make a house? We mentioned the matter to our friend the guager, who kindly promised to assist us; and, to do him justice, he did not spare his labour. Through his exertions we put from fifteen to twenty pounds into the house, with part of which we paid our bill. The remainder, which was the greater portion, our manager contrived to borrow; but could never, by any contrivance, be prevailed upon to return it. I, however, was perfectly satisfied. In taking a benefitwhich, by the way, proves both a misnomer and a misfortune to many poor fellows who attempt ityou are privileged to choose your own play and your own character, provided always that the strength of the company allows of its being cast. I chose Venice Preserved, and was highly delighted with my success in Jaffier. What were pounds shillings and pence to me? Let the manager have the money, I had the applause.

ar

To our deep regret the time for leaving rived. Through the introduction of my old acquaintance, Tully, by whom we were joined after our arrival, and who proved to be, like Hamlet, "native_here,” we were introduced to as wild,

but

gay and generous a set of fellows as ever swore or swiped. They called themselves the Fuans; and never yet did any society exhibit so motley a

mixture of ranks, classes, and characters. Every night they watched us at the theatre-had supper served out in a neighbouring tavern, and, whether we would or not, compelled us to be their guests. On the night but one before our departure, the Fuans had resolved to entertain us in all their glory, and with a full "let out." Their place of meeting was in the part of the city called the old town. Why should I deny to name it? It was Limerick— the city of old and hallowed recollections—the one bright spot in the history of Anglo-Ireland.

About half-past seven, a deputation from the Fuans waited upon us to conduct us to their sanctum; an honor, as we understood, never before conferred upon strangers. It was a wild gusty evening early in November, and, as we passed from the brilliantly-illuminated and elegant streets of the New town, through the dark, dingy, and narrow passes which led to the old, and in which I had not been before after night-fall, I thought I never felt any place, pretending to population, so cheerless and desolate. No light illuminated the Cimmerrian gloom save some solitary twinklings, which, few and far between-feebly emitted from a rushlight in some miserable huckster's shop-with difficulty insinuated their sickly rays through the sombre interstices that opened between turf, pipe-clay, salt herrings, brown buns, and all the other heterogeneous substances that form the stock-in-trade of these humble dealers.

Though affecting jocularity, I felt not very easy in this gloomy and forbidding-looking place; which my Fuan conductors observing, affected an air and tone of mystery that added not a little to the unpleasantness of my feelings. We at length arrived at our place of destination. It was in a once respectable but now totally deserted street, over which total darkness and desolation brooded—not even broken by the faint rays which only served to make the darkness visible in the earlier part of our route. We were

ushered in through a long, and, as it seemed to me, an interminable passage. At length sounds of wild jollity broke on our ears; and after a few forms of affected ceremony, we were introduced into the sanctum of the Fuans.

Such a motley set! Our previous acquaintance with the play-going portion had in some measure prepared us for some disregard of the ranks and forms of society, but not for the total abandonment of them which was here exhibited. The chief personage in the entire assembly appeared to be a blind piper, of some musical taste, whom they designated the bard of the Fuans; and who was arrayed in a tasteful and highly onamented collar, to which was appended a harp, richly wrought in gold and green, and rounded with wreaths of shamrock. The next in

authority was our theatrical tailor—a rolicking good humoured fellow, in comfortable circumstances. Indeed the men in office seemed to be generally selected from the humbler classes, and their sway, exact though not severe, was submitted to by the

broad-cloth gentry, with a promptitude of obedience which I never saw equalled. I remarked on it to one of the friends by whom I was introduced, and he assured me that notwithstanding the familiarity of address and the freedom of intercourse in which they indulged on these occasions-the title Mr. being "tabood"-they returned, when all was over,to the most exact punctilio of general usage. The room into which we were ushered was an apartment of immense size, wainscoted, and I believe even ceiled, with old black oak as dark as ebony. In one corner was an immense bedstead, emulating that of Ware in its gigantic dimensions, which served as the receptacle of the slain in these social combats. immense supper-table occupied the centre of the apartment. At the other end black bottles containing various beverages-wine, whiskey, beer and porter were piled up in one corner, whilst heaps of wellproportioned oysters crowded the other.

An

Our arrival was the signal for the onset, and the oysters, which they seemed only to use as appetisers, vanished with amazing rapidity. A substantial supper followed, which the company fell upon with unabated vigour. Notwithstanding the hiliarity which prevailed around, my spirits for a while refused to partake in the general enjoyment. The gloomy appearance of the apartment, which no light, however strong could dissipate; the mysterious manner of our entrance, affected though it evidently was; and the wild, hoarse rushing of the swollen Shannon (for the apartment overlooked that noble