Under their escort,
their mother and sister accompanied them to the bonfire. The whole town
was literally alive with animation and delight. The news of the intended
bonfire had gone rapidly abroad, and the country people crowded into
the town in hundreds. Nothing can at any time exceed the enthusiasm with
which the Irish enter into and enjoy scenes like that to which they
now flocked with such exuberant spirits. Bells were ringing, drums were
beating, fifes were playing in the town, and horns sounding in every
direction, both in town and country. The people were apparelled in their
best costume, and many of them in that equivocal description of it
which could scarcely be termed costume at all. Bareheaded and barefooted
multitudes of both sexes were present, regardless of appearances, half
mad with delight, and exhibiting many a frolic and gambol considerably
at variance with the etiquette of fashionable life, although we question
whether the most fashionable fete, of them all ever produced half so
much happiness. Farmers had come from a distance in the country, mounted
upon lank horses ornamented with incrusted hips, and caparisoned with
long-straw back-suggauns that reached from the shoulders to the tail,
under which ran a crupper of the same material, designed, in addition to
a hay girth, to keep this primitive riding gear firm upon the animal's
back.
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