Laurence Bloomfield - Or, Rich And Poor In Ireland - By William Allingham - 1863 - This is a picture in verse of Irish rural life in the third quarter of one century, written with a truth of detail naturally flowing from intinlate knowledge, not of one part of Irelancl merely, nor of one class or set of its inhabitants. It is too impartial for most readers, whether Irish or English, for few are not party-men on Irish questions but take the statement, dear readers, for what it is worth, of one who honestly summarizes many observations and thoughts. A man who was neither English nor Irish, Ivan Tourganief, after reading the book, said to a friend of the author who may be forgiven for recalling the words, I never understood Ireland before Young Laurence Bloomfield, inheritor of an Irish estate, and looking in his day into Irish Difficulties, thought the immediately tangible and remecliable part of them to be connected with The Land Qzestion, and for his own small part applied himself to this............ --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.