In 1849 Macaulay paid a visit to Ireland. What follows is an extract from his diary.
August 24. Killarney. —A busy day. I found that I must either forgo the finest part of the sight or mount a pony. Ponies are not much in my way. However, I was ashamed to flinch, and rode twelve miles, with a guide, to the head of the Upper Lake, where we met the boat which had been sent forward with four rowers. One of the boatmen gloried in having rowed Sir Walter Scott and Miss Edgeworth, twenty-four years ago. It was, he said, a compensation to him for having missed a hanging which took place that very day.
From Trevelyan, Macaulay, ii. 265-6.