The 160
acres of its enclosure have been laid out with such skill as to
appear to the eye double or treble the extent they actually are.
The great attraction to my brother and me lay in a tract of some
ten acres of woodland which had been allowed to run entirely wild.
We soon peopled this very satisfactorily with two tribes of Red
Indians, two bands of peculiarly bloodthirsty robbers, a
sufficiency of bears, lions and tigers, and an appalling man-
eating dragon. I fear that in view of the size of the little wood,
these imported inhabitants must have had rather cramped quarters.
The enacting of the role of a Red Indian "brave" was necessarily a
little fatiguing, for according to Fenimore Cooper, our guide in
these matters, it was essential to keep up an uninterrupted series
of guttural grunts of "Ug! Ug!" the invariable manner in which his
"braves" prefaced their remarks.
There was perhaps little need for the imaginary menagerie, for the
Dublin Zoological Gardens adjoined the "Lodge" grounds, and were
accessible to us at any time with a private key.
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