The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent

Reminiscences of an Irish Land
Agent, The

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Title: The Reminiscences of an Irish Land Agent
Author: S.M. Hussey
Editor: Home Gordon
Release Date: August 5, 2005 [EBook #16450]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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REMINISCENCES OF AN ***

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[Illustration: S.M. Hussey]
THE REMINISCENCES
OF AN

IRISH LAND AGENT
BEING THOSE OF
S.M. HUSSEY
Compiled by HOME GORDON
WITH TWO PORTRAITS
LONDON
DUCKWORTH AND COMPANY 3 HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.
1904
Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty

PREFACE
Probably the first criticism on this book will be that it is colloquial.
The reason for this lies in the fact that though Mr. Hussey has for two
generations been one of the most noted raconteurs in Ireland, he has
never been addicted to writing, and for that reason has always declined
to arrange his memoirs, though several times approached by publishers
and strongly urged to do so by his friends, notably Mr. Froude and Mr.
John Bright. If his reminiscences are to be at all characteristic they
must be conversational, and it is as a talker that he himself at length
consents to appear in print.
In this volume he endeavours to supply some view of his own country
as it has impressed itself on 'the most abused man in Ireland,' as Lord
James of Hereford characterised Mr. Hussey. How little practical effect
several attacks on his life and scores of threatening letters have had on
him is shown by the fact that he survives at the age of eighty to express
the wish that his recollections may open the eyes of many as well as

prove diverting.
Possessing a retentive memory, he has been further able to assist me
with seven large volumes of newspaper cuttings which he had collected
since 1853, while the publishers kindly permit the use of two articles he
contributed to _Murray's Magazine_ in May and July 1887. To me the
preparation of this book has been a delightful task, materially helped by
Mr. Hussey's family as well as by a few others on either side of the
Channel.
HOME GORDON.
13 OVINGTON SQUARE, S.W.

CONTENTS
PREFACE v
CHAP. I. ANCESTRY i
II. PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS 10
III. EDUCATION 20
IV. FARMING 30
V. LAND AGENT IN CORK 38
VI. FAMINE AND FEVER 50
VII. FENIANISM 60
VIII. MYSELF, SOME FACTS, AND MANY STORIES 71
IX. THE HARENC ESTATE 82
X. KERRY ELECTIONS 93

XI. DRINK 101
XII. PRIESTS 115
XIII. CONSTABULARY AND DISPENSARY DOCTORS 127
XIV. IRISH CHARACTERISTICS 140
XV. LORD-LIEUTENANTS AND CHIEF SECRETARIES 162
XVI. GLADSTONIAN LEGISLATION 179
XVII. THE STATE OF KERRY 194
XVIII. A GLANCE AT MY STEWARDSHIP 202
XIX. MURDER, OUTRAGE, AND CRIME 212
XX. THE EDENBURN OUTRAGE 235
XXI. MORE ATROCITIES AND LAND CRIMES 248
XXII. COMMISSIONS 268
XXIII. LATER DAYS 281
INDEX 305

ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF S.M. HUSSEY frontispiece PORTRAIT OF MRS.
HUSSEY _at p. 71_

REMINISCENCES OF AN IRISH LAND AGENT
CHAPTER I

ANCESTRY
'My father and mother were both Kerry men,' as the saying goes in my
native land, and better never stepped.
It was my misfortune, but not my fault, that I was born at Bath and not
in Kerry.
However, my earliest recollection is of Dingle, for I was only three
months old when I was taken back to Ireland, and up to that time I did
not study the English question very deeply, especially as I had an Irish
nurse.
There is a lot of Hussey history before I was born, and some is worth
preserving here.
It is a thousand pities that so many details of family history have been
lost, and to my mind it is incumbent on one member of every
reasonably old family in this generation to collect and set down what
should be remembered about their ancestors for the unborn to come.
My contribution does not profess to be very exhaustive, but it will
serve for want of a better.
When a man claims to be descended from Irish kings, it generally
means that his forbears were bigger scoundrels than he is, for they were
cattle-lifters and marauders, whilst his depredations are probably
disguised under some of the many insidious forms of finance. Just as
every Scotsman is not canny and every American is not cute, so every
Irishman is not what the Saxon believes him