Tales and Novels, vol 4 | Page 7

were quite out of my
way; I had nobody to talk to, and if it had not been for my pipe and
tobacco, should, I verily believe, have broke my heart for poor Sir
Murtagh.
But one morning my new master caught a glimpse of me as I was
looking at his horse's heels, in hopes of a word from him. "And is that
old Thady?" says he, as he got into his gig: I loved him from that day to
this, his voice was so like the family; and he threw me a guinea out of
his waistcoat pocket, as he drew up the reins with the other hand, his
horse rearing too; I thought I never set my eyes on a finer figure of a
man, quite another sort from Sir Murtagh, though withal, to me, a
family likeness. A fine life we should have led, had he stayed amongst

us, God bless him! He valued a guinea as little as any man: money to
him was no more than dirt, and his gentleman and groom, and all
belonging to him, the same; but the sporting season over, he grew tired
of the place, and having got down a great architect for the house, and
an improver for the grounds, and seen their plans and elevations, he
fixed a day for settling with the tenants, but went off in a whirlwind to
town, just as some of them came into the yard in the morning. A
circular letter came next post from the new agent, with news that the
master was sailed for England, and he must remit 500l. to Bath for his
use before a fortnight was at an end; bad news still for the poor tenants,
no change still for the better with them. Sir Kit Rackrent, my young
master, left all to the agent; and though he had the spirit of a prince,
and lived away to the honour of his country abroad, which I was proud
to hear of, what were we the better for that at home? The agent was one
of your middle men,[5] who grind the face of the poor, and can never
bear a man with a hat upon his head: he ferreted the tenants out of their
lives; not a week without a call for money, drafts upon drafts from Sir
Kit; but I laid it all to the fault of the agent; for, says I, what can Sir Kit
do with so much cash, and he a single man? but still it went. Rents
must be all paid up to the day, and afore; no allowance for improving
tenants, no consideration for those who had built upon their farms: no
sooner was a lease out, but the land was advertised to the highest bidder,
all the old tenants turned out, when they spent their substance in the
hope and trust of a renewal from the landlord. All was now let at the
highest penny to a parcel of poor wretches, who meant to run away, and
did so, after taking two crops out of the ground. Then fining down the
year's rent came into fashion,[P] any thing for the ready penny; and
with all this, and presents to the agent and the driver,[Q] there was no
such thing as standing it. I said nothing, for I had a regard for the
family; but I walked about thinking if his honour Sir Kit knew all this,
it would go hard with him, but he'd see us righted; not that I had any
thing for my own share to complain of, for the agent was always very
civil to me, when he came down into the country, and took a great deal
of notice of my son Jason. Jason Quirk, though he be my son, I must
say, was a good scholar from his birth, and a very 'cute lad: I thought to
make him a priest,[R] but he did better for himself: seeing how he was
as good a clerk as any in the county, the agent gave him his rent

accounts to copy, which he did first of all for the pleasure of obliging
the gentleman, and would take nothing at all for his trouble, but was
always proud to serve the family. By-and-by a good farm bounding us
to the east fell into his honour's hands, and my son put in a proposal for
it: why shouldn't he, as well as another? The proposals all went over to
the master at the Bath, who knowing no more of the land than the child
unborn, only having once been out a grousing on it before he went to
England; and the value of lands, as the agent informed him, falling
every year in Ireland, his honour wrote over in all