There is another charming glimpse of her childhood in the introduction to the "Sketches of Irish Character"—
"In the early morning, returning from my sea bath up the long walk, lingering amid the old trees, or reading beside the stream in the demesne, which encircled an ornamental cottage that was covered with ivy, and formed a very city of refuge for small birds, from the golden-crested wren to the over-bearing starling. That cottage, with its gable, its low dark windows, its mossy seats and grassy banks, and pure limpid stream creeping over the smooth pebbles after escaping from a cascade, which for years was my ideal of a waterfall; that cottage was my paradise! I could hear the ocean rolling in the distance; the refreshing sea breeze, passing over fields of clover and banks of roses, was freighted with perfume. The parent birds would fearlessly pick up crumbs at my feet."
She was fond of taking off her shoes and stockings and dabbling in the fairy pools which the receding waves left in the hollow clefts of the rocks, and fonder still of chasing the waves as they rolled along the sloping beach.
This free and happy country life came to an end when she was in her fifteenth year. The little party of three, her mother, herself, and Mr. Carr, who looked upon her as his adopted daughter and prospective heiress, left their Wexford home and
