ABSTRACT
Samuel Reynolds Hole (1819-1904) was an English-born author, horticulturist, avid rose-grower, noted horseman, and Anglican priest. He was educated at Brasenose College in Oxford, hence the reference to Oxonian, under which pseudonym the book was originally published. Hole had been ordained in 1844 and, at the time of his tour of Ireland, he was serving as vicar of the parish of St. Andrew's Church in Caunton. He was subsequently appointed Dean of Rochester. A Little Tour of Ireland is based on a two week visit to the country in the summer of 1858. Like many travelogue authors. Samuel Hole was charmed by the beauty of the countryside. Less typically, he was also entranced by the people who inhabited it. He was particularly full of praise for the women of Ireland, especially the women of the Claddagh, describing them as 'a tableau not to be forgotten'. Unlike many visitors, he saw beyond their poverty:
Though their garments are torn, and patched, and discoloured, there is a graceful simple dignity about them which might teach a lesson to Parisian milliners; and to my fancy the most becoming dress in all the world is that of a peasant girl of Connamara [sic]. 1
