HOUSTOUN, Mrs. Twenty Years in The Wild West.

Twenty Years in The Wild West; or, Life in Connaught. London: John Murray, 1879. pp. xii, 288, 32 (publisher's list). Pictorial cloth. Signature of Isaac Latimer, dated Feb. 1880 on half title. A fine copy. Rare.

An Englishwoman's recollections of her twenty-two years of residence at Delphi, near Westport, County Mayo. An interesting work, instructive and exciting. She denounces absenteeism, the priests, and the over-population as the causes of the wretchedness, disaffection and discontent of the peasantry. In her preface the author states: "The writer of the following chapters is induced to think that the experiences of an English woman living for twenty years in one of the wildest parts of the West of Ireland, isolated and apart from any society, and surrounded solely by the peasantry, may not be without value and interest. The determination to settle on a large un-reclaimed estate, amidst bogs and moors scarcely reached by roads, was associated with a wish, too romantic and sanguine as it turned out, to benefit the inhabitants of a district where resident landlords are scarce. How these intentions were frustrated by the calamities of Spiritual tyranny and a Reign of terror is explained in the following pages, the perusal of which may possibly also be found to throw light on the relations between Landlord and Tenant, Priest and People".

[L3 11B]