Glorious Sunset

It was now about sun-setting, and the ride to Outerard was more than interesting. Such a sun-setting and such a twilight by sea or by land I never beheld. When the sun sank behind the mountain, he left a scalloped edge of gold, leaving the lofty peaks below tinted with the richest blue. The sky, the lakes, and the curling smoke from the cabins upon the sides of the mountains, where the poor peasants had built their evening fires to boil their potatoes,—the rustics returning from labor, or from the market at Outerard,—the crescent moon looking out as if modestly waiting to do what she could when the sun should retire, made a scene of the liveliest and loveliest interest.

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.