Wonderful things Andy Barclay picks up in bookshops, antique shops and just about anywhere he goes. Here is a bit from a book which brings to our notice - surely for the first time - the wonders of an eel pit. It comes from an American writer, Beatrice Bill Talbot, who tells the story of a groom on her estate who followed his girl to America from Ireland, and is written by the author in his own words, solecisms, Irishisms and all. John Lenihan his name. This chapter concerns his time in the service of Captain Tuckett in County Kildare, most of his friends being Colonels, Majors, Captains, he tells us. In spring, when there was no hunting, a party for the eel-pit was organised. About 60 of the Captain's friends came to lunch, some with wives. Now this pit was fed from a small stream on the property, about 10 feet deep and the size of a small pond. The waters were controlled by sluices. A railing round the pit was for the onlookers. The bottom was stony and the pit was "full of eels". When action began the water had been lowered just enough to keep the eels wet. "Thousands of them," the author quotes John Lenihan as saying. Well, a lot, let us say. Then the gentlemen came down in their bathing suits which "came down to their knees and had sleeves that stopped at three inches." Grooms such as our storyteller were allowed to watch. They were divided into four or five teams. "A Colonel could start out walking "like he was late for parade", but the stones were slippery his feet would slide apart and there he stood for all the world like a wishbone."
The old men would fall while the young would swing their arms wildly when they got hold of an eel and try to peg it over the railing. According to Mr Lenihan, if you grab an eel near the head he will whip his tail tight around your wrist and "take himself clean out of your hand". If you catch him in the middle, he is getting thinner there and can slip through your fingers easily. Eels have a special grease of their own. "The ladies watch and men who were not in the pit drink whiskey and bet on the results. "I'm telling you, they used to have wonderful times. Why, the rich when they are alone by themselves have just as much fun as poor men. Certainly. "Towards the end Captain Tuckett put all the men into the pool together for ten minutes. "But it's the God's truth that I never see (stet) a guest get out of the pit "with an eel in his net. No, never, and that was the fun of it. "Who is codding? Is there something Freudian about it all? The book was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1948, entitled And That's No Lie.