The Irish landowner, partly from laziness but also from an indifferent delicacy, does not interfere in the lives of the people round. Sport and death are the two great socializing factors in Ireland, but these cannot operate the whole time: on the whole, the landowner leaves his tenants and work-people to make their own mistakes, while he makes his.
Elizabeth Bowenin my experience one thing you don't learn from is anything anyone set up to be a lesson; what you are to know you pick up as you go along.
Elizabeth Bowen