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diff --git a/22387.txt b/22387.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13e2ac5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22387.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4604 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Tour in Ireland, by Arthur Young, Edited by +Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Tour in Ireland + 1776-1779 + + +Author: Arthur Young + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: August 25, 2007 [eBook #22387] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TOUR IN IRELAND*** + + +This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler. + + + + + +A TOUR IN IRELAND. +1776-1779. + + + BY + ARTHUR YOUNG. + + CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: + _LONDON_, _PARIS_, _NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. + 1897. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Arthur Young was born in 1741, the son of a clergyman, at Bradfield, in +Suffolk. He was apprenticed to a merchant at Lynn, but his activity of +mind caused him to be busy over many questions of the day. He wrote when +he was seventeen a pamphlet on American politics, for which a publisher +paid him with ten pounds' worth of books. He started a periodical, which +ran to six numbers. He wrote novels. When he was twenty-eight years old +his father died, and, being free to take his own course in life, he would +have entered the army if his mother had not opposed. He settled down, +therefore, to farming, and applied to farming all his zealous energy for +reform, and all the labours of his busy pen. In 1768, a year before his +father's death, he had published "A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern +Counties of England and Wales," which found many readers. + +Between 1768 and 1771 Arthur Young produced also "The Farmer's Letters to +the People of England, containing the Sentiments of a Practical +Husbandman on the present State of Husbandry." In 1770 he published, in +two thick quartos, "A Course of Experimental Agriculture, containing an +exact Register of the Business transacted during Five Years on near 300 +Acres of various Soils;" also in the same year appeared "Rural Economy; +or, Essays on the Practical Part of Husbandry;" also in the same year +"The Farmer's Guide in Hiring and Stocking Farms," in two volumes, with +plans. Also in the same year appeared his "Farmer's Kalendar," of which +the 215th edition was published in 1862. There had been a second edition +of the "Six Weeks' Tour in the South of England," with enlargements, in +1769, and Arthur Young was encouraged to go on with increasing vigour to +the publication of "The Farmer's Tour through the East of England: being +a Register of a Journey through various Counties, to inquire into the +State of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population." This extended to +four volumes, and appeared in the years 1770 and 1771. In 1771 also +appeared, in four volumes, with plates, "A Six Months' Tour through the +North of England, containing an Account of the Present State of +Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population in several Counties of this +Kingdom." + +Thus Arthur Young took all his countrymen into counsel while he was +learning his art, as a farmer who brought to his calling a vigorous +spirit of inquiry with an activity in the diffusion of his thoughts that +is a part of God's gift to the men who have thoughts to diffuse; the +instinct for utterance being almost invariably joined to the power of +suggesting what may help the world. + +Whether he was essentially author turned farmer, or farmer turned author, +Arthur Young has the first place in English literature as a +farmer-author. Other practical men have written practical books of +permanent value, which have places of honour in the literature of the +farm; but Arthur Young's writings have won friends for themselves among +readers of every class, and belong more broadly to the literature of the +country. + +Between 1766 and 1775 he says that he made 3,000 pounds by his +agricultural writings. The pen brought him more profit than the plough. +He took a hundred acres in Hertfordshire, and said of them, "I know not +what epithet to give this soil; sterility falls short of the idea; a +hungry vitriolic gravel--I occupied for nine years the jaws of a wolf. A +nabob's fortune would sink in the attempt to raise good arable crops in +such a country. My experience and knowledge had increased from +travelling and practice, but all was lost when exerted on such a spot." +He tried at one time to balance his farm losses by reporting for the +_Morning Post_, taking a seventeen-mile walk home to his farm every +Saturday night. + +In 1780 Arthur Young published this "Tour in Ireland, with General +Observations on the Present State of that Kingdom in 1776-78." The +general observations, which give to all his books a wide general +interest, are, in this volume, of especial value to us now. It is here +reprinted as given by Pinkerton. + +In 1784 Arthur Young began to edit "Annals of Agriculture," which were +continued through forty-five volumes. All writers in it were to sign +their names, but when His Majesty King George III. contributed a +description of Mr. Duckett's Farm at Petersham, he was allowed to sign +himself "Ralph Robinson of Windsor." + +In 1792 Arthur Young published the first quarto volume, and in 1794 the +two volumes of his "Travels during the years 1787-8-9 and 1790, +undertaken more particularly with a view of ascertaining the Cultivation, +Wealth, Resources and National Prosperity of the Kingdom of France." +This led to the official issue in France in 1801, by order of the +Directory, of a translation of Young's agricultural works, under the +title of "Le Cultivateur Anglais." Arthur Young also corresponded with +Washington, and received recognition from the Empress Catherine of +Russia, who sent him a gold snuff-box, and ermine cloaks for his wife and +daughter. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. + +In 1793 his labours led to the formation of a Board of Agriculture, of +which he was appointed secretary. + +When he was set at ease by this appointment, with a house and 400 pounds +a year, Arthur Young had been about to experiment on the reclaiming of +four thousand acres of Yorkshire moorland. The Agricultural Board was +dissolved in 1816, four years before surveys of the agriculture of each +county were made for the Agricultural Board, Arthur Young himself +contributing surveys of Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, +Norfolk, Suffolk, and Sussex. + +Arthur Young's sight became dim in 1808, and blindness gradually +followed. He died in 1820 at his native village of Bradfield, in +Suffolk, at the age of seventy-nine years. + + H. M. + + + + +A TOUR IN IRELAND. + + +June 19, 1776. Arrived at Holyhead, after an instructive journey through +a part of England and Wales I had not seen before. Found the packet, the +_Claremont_, Captain Taylor, would sail very soon. After a tedious +passage of twenty-two hours, landed on the 20th in the morning, at +Dunlary, four miles from Dublin, a city which much exceeded my +expectation. The public buildings are magnificent, very many of the +streets regularly laid out, and exceedingly well built. The front of the +Parliament-house is grand, though not so light as a more open finishing +of the roof would have made it. The apartments are spacious, elegant, +and convenient, much beyond that heap of confusion at Westminster, so +inferior to the magnificence to be looked for in the seat of empire. I +was so fortunate as to arrive just in time to see Lord Harcourt, with the +usual ceremonies, prorogue the Parliament. Trinity College is a +beautiful building, and a numerous society; the library is a very fine +room, and well filled. The new Exchange will be another edifice to do +honour in Ireland; it is elegant, cost forty thousand pounds, but +deserves a better situation. From everything I saw, I was struck with +all those appearances of wealth which the capital of a thriving community +may be supposed to exhibit. Happy if I find through the country in +diffused prosperity the right source of this splendour! The common +computation of inhabitants 200,000, but I should suppose exaggerated. +Others guessed the number 140,000 or 150,000. + +June 21. Introduced by Colonel Burton to the Lord Lieutenant, who was +pleased to enter into conversation with me on my intended journey, made +many remarks on the agriculture of several Irish counties, and showed +himself to be an excellent farmer, particularly in draining. Viewed the +Duke of Leinster's house, which is a very large stone edifice, the front +simple but elegant, the pediment light; there are several good rooms; but +a circumstance unrivalled is the court, which is spacious and +magnificent, the opening behind the house is also beautiful. In the +evening to the Rotunda, a circular room, ninety feet diameter, an +imitation of Ranelagh, provided with a band of music. + +The barracks are a vast building, raised in a plain style, of many +divisions; the principal front is of an immense length. They contain +every convenience for ten regiments. + +June 23. Lord Charlemont's house in Dublin is equally elegant and +convenient, the apartments large, handsome, and well disposed, containing +some good pictures, particularly one by Rembrandt, of Judas throwing the +money on the floor, with a strong expression of guilt and remorse; the +whole group fine. In the same room is a portrait of Caesar Borgia, by +Titian. The library is a most elegant apartment of about forty by +thirty, and of such a height as to form a pleasing proportion; the light +is well managed, coming in from the cove of the ceiling, and has an +exceeding good effect; at one end is a pretty ante-room, with a fine copy +of the Venus de Medicis, and at the other two small rooms, one a cabinet +of pictures and antiquities, the other medals. In the collection also of +Robert Fitzgerald, Esq., in Merion Square, are several pieces which very +well deserve a traveller's attention; it was the best I saw in Dublin. +Before I quit that city I observe, on the houses in general, that what +they call their two-roomed ones are good and convenient. Mr. Latouche's, +in Stephen's Green, I was shown as a model of this sort, and I found it +well contrived, and finished elegantly. Drove to Lord Charlemont's villa +at Marino, near the city, where his lordship has formed a pleasing lawn, +margined in the higher part by a well-planted thriving shrubbery, and on +a rising ground a banqueting-room, which ranks very high among the most +beautiful edifices I have anywhere seen; it has much elegance, lightness, +and effect, and commands a fine prospect. The rising ground on which it +stands slopes off to an agreeable accompaniment of wood, beyond which on +one side is Dublin Harbour, which here has the appearance of a noble +river crowded with ships moving to and from the capital. On the other +side is a shore spotted with white buildings, and beyond it the hills of +Wicklow, presenting an outline extremely various. The other part of the +view (it would be more perfect if the city was planted out) is varied, in +some places nothing but wood, in others breaks of prospect. The lawn, +which is extensive, is new grass, and appears to be excellently laid +down, the herbage a fine crop of white clover (_trifolium repens_), +trefoil, rib-grass (_plantago lanceolata_), and other good plants. +Returned to Dublin, and made inquiries into other points, the prices of +provisions, etc. The expenses of a family in proportion to those of +London are, as five to eight. + +Having the year following lived more than two months in Dublin, I am able +to speak to a few points, which as a mere traveller I could not have +done. The information I before received of the prices of living is +correct. Fish and poultry are plentiful and very cheap. Good lodgings +almost as dear as they are in London; though we were well accommodated +(dirt excepted) for two guineas and a-half a week. All the lower ranks +in this city have no idea of English cleanliness, either in apartments, +persons, or cookery. There is a very good society in Dublin in a +Parliament winter: a great round of dinners and parties; and balls and +suppers every night in the week, some of which are very elegant; but you +almost everywhere meet a company much too numerous for the size of the +apartments. They have two assemblies on the plan of those of London, in +Fishamble Street, and at the Rotunda; and two gentlemen's clubs, Anthry's +and Daly's, very well regulated: I heard some anecdotes of deep play at +the latter, though never to the excess common at London. An ill-judged +and unsuccessful attempt was made to establish the Italian Opera, which +existed but with scarcely any life for this one winter; of course they +could rise no higher than a comic one. _La Buona Figliuola_, _La +Frascatana_, and _Il Geloso in Cimento_, were repeatedly performed, or +rather murdered, except the parts of Sestini. The house was generally +empty, and miserably cold. So much knowledge of the state of a country +is gained by hearing the debates of a Parliament, that I often frequented +the gallery of the House of Commons. Since Mr. Flood has been silenced +with the Vice-Treasurership of Ireland, Mr. Daly, Mr. Grattan, Sir +William Osborn, and the prime serjeant Burgh, are reckoned high among the +Irish orators. I heard many very eloquent speeches, but I cannot say +they struck me like the exertion of the abilities of Irishmen in the +English House of Commons, owing perhaps to the reflection both on the +speaker and auditor, that the Attorney-General of England, with a dash of +his pen, can reverse, alter, or entirely do away the matured result of +all the eloquence, and all the abilities of this whole assembly. Before +I conclude with Dublin I shall only remark, that walking in the streets +there, from the narrowness and populousness of the principal +thoroughfares, as well as from the dirt and wretchedness of the canaille, +is a most uneasy and disgusting exercise. + +June 24. Left Dublin, and passed through the Phoenix Park, a very +pleasing ground, at the bottom of which, to the left, the Liffey forms a +variety of landscapes: this is the most beautiful environ of Dublin. +Take the road to Luttrel's Town, through a various scenery on the banks +of the river. That domain is a considerable one in extent, being above +four hundred acres within the wall, Irish measure; in the front of the +house is a fine lawn bounded by rich woods, through which are many +ridings, four miles in extent. From the road towards the house they lead +through a very fine glen, by the side of a stream falling over a rocky +bed, through the dark woods, with great variety on the sides of steep +slopes, at the bottom of which the Liffey is either heard or seen +indistinctly. These woods are of great extent, and so near the capital, +form a retirement exceedingly beautiful. Lord Irnham and Colonel Luttrel +have brought in the assistance of agriculture to add to the beauties of +the place; they have kept a part of the lands in cultivation in order to +lay them down the better to grass; one hundred and fifty acres have been +done, and above two hundred acres most effectually drained in the covered +manner filled with stones. These works are well executed. The drains +are also made under the roads in all wet places, with lateral short ones +to take off the water instead of leaving it, as is common, to soak +against the causeway, which is an excellent method. Great use has been +made of limestone gravel in the improvements, the effect of which is so +considerable, that in several spots where it was laid on ten years ago, +the superiority of the grass is now similar to what one would expect from +a fresh dunging. + +Leaving Luttrel's Town I went to St. Wolstan's, which Lord Harcourt had +been so obliging as to desire I would make my quarters, from whence to +view to the right or left. + +June 25. To Mr. Clement's, at Killadoon, who has lately built an +excellent house, and planted much about it, with the satisfaction of +finding that all his trees thrive well. I remarked the beech and larch +seemed to get beyond the rest. He is also a good farmer. + +June 26. Breakfasted with Colonel Marlay, at Cellbridge, found he had +practised husbandry with much success, and given great attention to it +from the peace of 1763, which put a period to a gallant scene of service +in Germany. Walked through his grounds, which I found in general very +well cultivated; his fences excellent; his ditches five by six and seven +by six; the banks well made, and planted with quicks; the borders dug +away, covered with lime till perfectly slacked, them mixed with dung and +carried into the fields, a practice which Mr. Marlay has found of very +great benefit. + +Viewed Lucan, the seat of Agmondisham Vesey, Esq., on the banks of the +Liffey. The house is rebuilding, but the wood on the river, with walks +through it, is exceedingly beautiful. The character of the place is that +of a sequestered shade. Distant views are everywhere shut out, and the +objects all correspond perfectly with the impression they were designed +to raise. It is a walk on the banks of the river, chiefly under a +variety of fine wood, which rises on varied slopes, in some parts gentle, +in others steep, spreading here and there into cool meadows, on the +opposite shore, rich banks of wood or shrubby ground. The walk is +perfectly sequestered, and has that melancholy gloom which should ever +dwell in such a place. The river is of a character perfectly suited to +the rest of the scenery, in some places breaking over rocks, in other +silent, under the thick shade of spreading wood. Leaving Lucan, the next +place is Leixlip, a fine one, on the river, with a fall, which in a wet +season is considerable. Then St. Wolstan's, belonging to the Dean of +Derry, a beautiful villa, which is also on the river; the grounds gay and +open, though not without the advantage of much wood, disposed with +judgment. A winding shrubbery quits the river, and is made to lead +through some dressed ground that is pretty and cheerful. + +Mr. Conolly's, at Castle Town, to which all travellers resort, is the +finest house in Ireland, and not exceeded by many in England. It is a +large handsome edifice, situated in the middle of an extensive lawn, +which is quite surrounded with fine plantations disposed to the best +advantage. To the north these unite into very large woods, through which +many winding walks lead, with the convenience of several ornamented +seats, rooms, etc. On the other side of the house, upon the river, is a +cottage, with a shrubbery, prettily laid out; the house commands an +extensive view, bounded by the Wicklow mountains. It consists of several +noble apartments. On the first floor is a beautiful gallery, eighty feet +long, elegantly fitted up. + +June 27. Left Lord Harcourt's, and having received an invitation from +the Duke of Leinster, passed through Mr. Conolly's grounds to his Grace's +seat at Cartown. The park ranks among the finest in Ireland. It is a +vast lawn, which waves over gentle hills, surrounded by plantations of +great extent, and which break and divide in places so as to give much +variety. A large but gentle vale winds through the whole, in the bottom +of which a small stream has been enlarged into a fine river, which throws +a cheerfulness through most of the scenes: over it a handsome stone +bridge. There is a great variety on the banks of this vale; part of it +consists of mild and gentle slopes, part steep banks of thick wood. In +another place they are formed into a large shrubbery, very elegantly laid +out, and dressed in the highest order, with a cottage, the scenery about +which is uncommonly pleasing: and farther on this vale takes a stronger +character, having a rocky bank on one side, and steep slopes scattered +irregularly, with wood on the other. On one of the most rising grounds +in the park is a tower, from the top of which the whole scenery is +beheld; the park spreads on every side in fine sheets of lawn, kept in +the highest order by eleven hundred sheep, scattered over with rich +plantations, and bounded by a large margin of wood, through which is a +riding. + +From hence took the road to Summerhill, the seat of the Right Hon. H. L. +Rowley. The country is cheerful and rich; and if the Irish cabins +continue like what I have hitherto seen, I shall not hesitate to +pronounce their inhabitants as well off as most English cottagers. They +are built of mud walls eighteen inches or two feet thick, and well +thatched, which are far warmer than the thin clay walls in England. Here +are few cottars without a cow, and some of them two. A bellyful +invariably of potatoes, and generally turf for fuel from a bog. It is +true they have not always chimneys to their cabins, the door serving for +that and window too. If their eyes are not affected with the smoke, it +may be an advantage in warmth. Every cottage swarms with poultry, and +most of them have pigs. + +Went in the evening to Lord Mornington's at Dangan, who is making many +improvements, which he showed me. His plantations are extensive, and he +has formed a large water, having five or six islands much varied, and +promontories of high land shoot so far into it as to form almost distant +lakes; the effect pleasing. There are above a hundred acres under water, +and his lordship has planned a considerable addition to it. Returned to +Summerhill. + +June 29. Left it, taking the road to Slaine, the country very pleasant +all the way; much of it on the banks of the Boyne, variegated with some +woods, planted hedgerows, and gentle hills. The cabins continue much the +same, the same plenty of poultry, pigs, and cows. The cattle in the road +have their fore legs all tied together with straw to keep them from +breaking into the fields; even sheep, and pigs, are all in the same +bondage. + +Lord Conyngham's seat, Slaine Castle, on the Boyne, is one of the most +beautiful places I have seen; the grounds are very bold and various, +rising round the castle in noble hills or beautiful inequalities of +surface, with an outline of flourishing plantations. Under the castle +flows the Boyne, in a reach broken by islands, with a very fine shore of +rock on one side, and wood on the other. Through the lower plantations +are ridings, which look upon several beautiful scenes formed by the +river, and take in the distant country, exhibiting the noblest views of +waving Cultinald hills, with the castle finely situated in the midst of +the planted domain, through which the Boyne winds its beautiful course. + +Under Mr. Lambert's house on the same river is a most romantic and +beautiful spot; rocks on the side, rising in peculiar forms very boldly; +the other steep wood, the river bending short between them like a +land-locked basin. + +Lord Conyngham's keeping up Slaine Castle, and spending great sums, +though he rarely resides there, is an instance of magnificence not often +met with; while it is so common for absentees to drain the kingdom of +every shilling they can, so contrary a conduct ought to be held in the +estimation which it justly deserves. + +June 30. Rode out to view the country and some improvements in the +neighbourhood: the principal of which are those of Lord Chief Baron +Foster, which I saw from Glaston hill, in the road from Slaine to +Dundalk. + +In conversation with Lord Longford I made many inquiries concerning the +state of the lower classes, and found that in some respects they were in +good circumstances, in others indifferent; they have, generally speaking, +such plenty of potatoes as always to command a bellyful; they have flax +enough for all their linen, most of them have a cow, and some two, and +spin wool enough for their clothes; all a pig, and numbers of poultry, +and in general the complete family of cows, calves, hogs, poultry, and +children pig together in the cabin; fuel they have in the utmost plenty. +Great numbers of families are also supported by the neighbouring lakes, +which abound prodigiously with fish. A child with a packthread and a +crooked pin will catch perch enough in an hour for the family to live on +the whole day, and his lordship has seen five hundred children fishing at +the same time, there being no tenaciousness in the proprietors of the +lands about a right to the fish. Besides perch, there is pike upwards of +five feet long, bream, tench, trout of ten pounds, and as red as salmon, +and fine eels. All these are favourable circumstances, and are very +conspicuous in the numerous and healthy families among them. + +Reverse the medal: they are ill clothed, and make a wretched appearance, +and what is worse, are much oppressed by many who make them pay too dear +for keeping a cow, horse, etc. They have a practice also of keeping +accounts with the labourers, contriving by that means to let the poor +wretches have very little cash for their year's work. This is a great +oppression, farmers and gentlemen keeping accounts with the poor is a +cruel abuse: so many days' work for a cabin; so many for a potato garden; +so many for keeping a horse, and so many for a cow, are clear accounts +which a poor man can understand well, but farther it ought never to go; +and when he has worked out what he has of this sort, the rest of his work +ought punctually to be paid him every Saturday night. Another +circumstance mentioned was the excessive practice they have in general of +pilfering. They steal everything they can lay their hands on, and I +should remark, that this is an account which has been very generally +given me: all sorts of iron hinges, chains, locks, keys, etc.; gates will +be cut in pieces, and conveyed away in many places as fast as built; +trees as big as a man's body, and that would require ten men to move, +gone in a night. Lord Longford has had the new wheels of a car stolen as +soon as made. Good stones out of a wall will be taken for a fire-hearth, +etc., though a breach is made to get at them. In short, everything, and +even such as are apparently of no use to them; nor is it easy to catch +them, for they never carry their stolen goods home, but to some bog-hole. +Turnips are stolen by car-loads, and two acres of wheat plucked off in a +night. In short, their pilfering and stealing is a perfect nuisance. +How far it is owing to the oppression of laws aimed solely at the +religion of these people, how far to the conduct of the gentlemen and +farmers, and how far to the mischievous disposition of the people +themselves, it is impossible for a passing traveller to ascertain. I am +apt to believe that a better system of law and management would have good +effects. They are much worse treated than the poor in England, are +talked to in more opprobrious terms, and otherwise very much oppressed. + +Left Packenham Hall. + +Two or three miles from Lord Longford's in the way to Mullingar the road +leads up a mountain, and commands an exceeding fine view of Lock +Derrevaragh, a noble water eight miles long, and from two miles to half a +mile over; a vast reach of it, like a magnificent river, opens as you +rise the hill. Afterwards I passed under the principal mountain, which +rises abruptly from the lake into the boldest outline imaginable. The +water there is very beautiful, filling up the steep vale formed by this +and the opposite hills. + +Reached Mullingar. + +It was one of the fair days. I saw many cows and beasts, and more +horses, with some wool. The cattle were of the same breed that I had +generally seen in coming through the country. + +July 5. Left Mullingar, which is a dirty ugly town, and taking the road +to Tullamore, stopped at Lord Belvidere's, with which place I was as much +struck as with any I had ever seen. The house is perched on the crown of +a very beautiful little hill, half surrounded with others, variegated and +melting into one another. It is one of the most singular places that is +anywhere to be seen, and spreading to the eye a beautiful lawn of +undulating ground margined with wood. Single trees are scattered in some +places, and clumps in others; the general effect so pleasing, that were +there nothing further, the place would be beautiful, but the canvas is +admirably filled. Lake Ennel, many miles in length, and two or three +broad, flows beneath the windows. It is spotted with islets, a +promontory of rock fringed with trees shoots into it, and the whole is +bounded by distant hills. Greater and more magnificent scenes are often +met with, but nowhere a more beautiful or a more singular one. + +From Mullingar to Tullespace I found rents in general at twenty shillings +an acre, with much relet at thirty shillings, yet all the crops except +bere were very bad, and full of weeds. About the latter-named place the +farms are generally from one hundred to three hundred acres; and their +course: 1. fallow; 2. bere; 3. oats; 4. oats; 5. oats. Great quantities +of potatoes all the way, crops from forty to eighty barrels. + +The road before it comes to Tullamore leads through a part of the bog of +Allen, which seems here extensive, and would make a noble tract of +meadow. The way the road was made over it was simply to cut a drain on +each side, and then lay on the gravel, which, as fast as it was laid and +spread, bore the ears. Along the edges is fine white clover. + +In conversation upon the subject of a union with Great Britain, I was +informed that nothing was so unpopular in Ireland as such an idea; and +that the great objection to it was increasing the number of absentees. +When it was in agitation, twenty peers and sixty commoners were talked of +to sit in the British Parliament, which would be the resident of eighty +of the best estates in Ireland. Going every year to England would, by +degrees, make them residents; they would educate their children there, +and in time become mere absentees: becoming so they would be unpopular, +others would be elected, who, treading in the same steps, would yield the +place still to others; and thus by degrees, a vast portion of the kingdom +now resident would be made absentees, which would, they think, be so +great a drain to Ireland, that a free trade would not repay it. + +I think the idea is erroneous, were it only for one circumstance, the +kingdom would lose, according to this reasoning, an idle race of country +gentlemen, and in exchange their ports would fill with ships and +commerce, and all the consequences of commerce, an exchange that never +yet proved disadvantageous to any country. + +Viewed Mount Juliet, Lord Carrick's seat, which is beautifully situated +on a fine declivity on the banks of the Nore, commanding some extensive +plantations that spread over the hills, which rise in a various manner on +the other side of the river. A knoll of lawn rises among them with +artificial ruins upon it, but the situation is not in unison with the +idea of a ruin, very rarely placed to effect, unless in retired and +melancholy spots. + +The river is a very fine one, and has a good accompaniment of well grown +wood. From the cottage a more varied scene is viewed, cheering and +pleasing; and from the tent in the farther plantation a yet gayer one, +which looks down on several bends of the river. + +July 11. Left Kilsaine. Mr. Bushe accompanied me to Woodstock, the seat +of Sir W. Fownes. From Thomastown hither is the finest ride I have yet +had in Ireland. The road leaving Thomastown leads on the east side of +the river, through some beautiful copse woods, which before they were cut +must have had a most noble effect, with the river Nore winding at the +bottom. The country then opens somewhat, and you pass most of the way +for six or seven miles to Innisteague, on a declivity shelving down to +the river, which takes a varied winding course, sometimes lively, +breaking over a rocky bottom, at others still and deep under the gloom of +some fine woods, which hang down the sides of steep hills. Narrow slips +of meadow of a beautiful verdure in some places form the shore, and unite +with cultivated fields that spread over the adjoining hills, reaching +almost the mountain tops. These are large and bold, and give in general +to the scenes features of great magnificence. Passed Sir John Hasler's +on the opposite side of the river, finely situated, and Mr. Nicholson's +farm on this side, who has very extensive copses which line the river. +Coming in sight of Sir W. Fownes's, the scenery is striking; the road +mounts the side of the hill, and commands the river at the bottom of the +declivity, with groups of trees prettily scattered about, and the little +borough of Innisteague in a most picturesque situation, the whole bounded +by mountains. Cross the bridge, and going through the town, take a path +that leads to a small building in the woods, called Mount Sandford. It +is at the top of a rocky declivity almost perpendicular, but with brush +wood growing from the rocks. At the bottom is the river, which comes +from the right from behind a very bold hanging wood, that seems to unite +with the hill on the opposite shore. At this pass the river fills the +vale, but it widens by degrees, and presents various reaches, intermixed +with little tufts of trees. The bridge we passed over is half hid. +Innisteague is mixed with them, and its buildings backed by a larger +wood, give variety to the scene. Opposite to the point of view there are +some pretty enclosures, fringed with wood, and a line of cultivated +mountain sides, with their bare tops limit the whole. + +Taking my leave of Mr. Bushe, I followed the road to Ross. Passed +Woodstock, of which there is a very fine view from the top of one of the +hills, the house in the centre of a sloping wood of five hundred English +acres, and hanging in one noble shade to the river, which flows at the +bottom of a winding glen. From the same hill in front it is seen in a +winding course for many miles through a great extent of enclosures, +bounded by mountains. As I advanced the views of the river Nore were +very fine, till I came to Ross, where from the hill before you go down to +the ferry is a noble scene of the Barrow, a vast river flowing through +bold shores. In some places trees on the bank half obscure it, in others +it opens in large reaches, the effect equally grand and beautiful. Ships +sailing up to the town, which is built on the side of a hill to the +water's edge, enliven the scene not a little. The water is very deep and +the navigation secure, so that ships of seven hundred tons may come up to +the town; but these noble harbours on the coast of Ireland are only +melancholy capabilities of commerce: it is languid and trifling. There +are only four or five brigs and sloops that belong to the place. + +Having now passed through a considerable extent of country, in which the +Whiteboys were common, and committed many outrages, I shall here review +the intelligence I received concerning them throughout the county of +Kilkenny. I made many inquiries into the origin of those disturbances, +and found that no such thing as a leveller or Whiteboy was heard of till +1760, which was long after the landing of Thurot, or the intending +expedition of M. Conflans. That no foreign coin was ever seen among +them, though reports to the contrary were circulated; and in all the +evidence that was taken during ten or twelve years, in which time there +appeared a variety of informers, none was ever taken, whose testimony +could be relied on, that ever proved any foreign interposition. Those +very few who attempted to favour it, were of the most infamous and +perjured characters. All the rest, whose interest it was to make the +discovery, if they had known it, and who concealed nothing else, +pretended to no such knowledge. No foreign money appeared, no arms of +foreign construction, no presumptive proof whatever of such a connection. +They began in Tipperary, and were owing to some inclosures of commons, +which they threw down, levelling the ditches, and were first known by the +name of Levellers. After that, they began with the tithe-proctors (who +are men that hire tithes of the rectors), and these proctors either +screwed the cottars up to the utmost shilling, or relet the tithes to +such as did it. It was a common practice with them to go in parties +about the country, swearing many to be true to them, and forcing them to +join by menaces, which they very often carried into execution. At last +they set up to be general redressers of grievances, punished all +obnoxious persons who advanced the value of lands, or hired farms over +their heads; and, having taken the administration of justice into their +hands, were not very exact in the distribution of it. Forced masters to +release their apprentices, carried off the daughters of rich farmers, and +ravished them into marriages, of which four instances happened in a +fortnight. They levied sums of money on the middling and lower farmers +in order to support their cause, by paying attorneys, etc., in defending +prosecutions against them; and many of them subsisted for some years +without work, supported by these contributions. Sometimes they committed +several considerable robberies, breaking into houses, and taking the +money, under pretence of redressing grievances. In the course of these +outrages they burnt several houses, and destroyed the whole substance of +men obnoxious to them. The barbarities they committed were shocking. +One of their usual punishments (and by no means the most severe) was +taking people out of their beds, carrying them naked in winter on +horseback for some distance, and burying them up to their chin in a hole +filled with briars, not forgetting to cut off their ears. In this manner +the evil existed for eight or ten years, during which time the gentlemen +of the country took some measures to quell them. Many of the magistrates +were active in apprehending them; but the want of evidence prevented +punishments, for many of those who even suffered by them had no spirit to +prosecute. The gentlemen of the country had frequent expeditions to +discover them in arms; but their intelligence was so uncommonly good by +their influence over the common people, that not one party that ever went +out in quest of them was successful. Government offered large rewards +for informations, which brought a few every year to the gallows, without +any radical cure for the evil. The reason why it was not more effective +was the necessity of any person that gave evidence against them quitting +their houses and country, or remaining exposed to their resentment. At +last their violence arose to a height which brought on their suppression. +The popish inhabitants of Ballyragget, six miles from Kilkenny, were the +first of the lower people who dared openly to associate against them; +they threatened destruction to the town, gave notice that they would +attack it, were as good as their word, came two hundred strong, drew up +before a house in which were fifteen armed men, and fired in at the +windows; the fifteen men handled their arms so well, that in a few rounds +they killed forty or fifty. They fled immediately, and ever after left +Ballyragget in peace: indeed, they have never been resisted at all +without showing a great want of both spirit and discipline. It should, +however, be observed, that they had but very few arms, those in bad +order, and no cartridges. Soon after this they attacked the house of Mr. +Power in Tipperary, the history of which is well known. His murder +spirited up the gentlemen to exert themselves in suppressing the evil, +especially in raising subscriptions to give private rewards to whoever +would give evidence or information concerning them. The private +distribution had much more effect than larger sums which required a +public declaration; and Government giving rewards to those who resisted +them, without having previously promised it, had likewise some effect. +Laws were passed for punishing all who assembled, and (what may have a +great effect) for recompensing, at the expense of the county or barony, +all persons who suffered by their outrages. In consequence of this +general exertion, above twenty were capitally convicted, and most of them +executed; and the gaols of this and the three neighbouring counties, +Carlow, Tipperary, and Queen's County, have many in them whose trials are +put off till next assizes, and against whom sufficient evidence for +conviction, it is supposed, will appear. Since this all has been quiet, +and no outrages have been committed: but before I quit the subject, it is +proper to remark that what coincided very much to abate the evil was the +fall in the price of lands which has taken place lately. This is +considerable, and has much lessened the evil of hiring farms over the +heads of one another; perhaps, also, the tithe-proctors have not been +quite so severe in their extortions: but this observation is by no means +general; for in many places tithes yet continue to be levied with all +those circumstances which originally raised the evil. + +July 15. Leaving Courtown, took the Arklow road; passed a finely wooded +park of Mr. Ram's, and a various country with some good corn in it. Flat +lands by the coast let very high, and mountain at six or seven shillings +an acre, and some at eight shillings or ten shillings. Passed to +Wicklow, prettily situated on the sea, and from Newrybridge walked to see +Mr. Tye's, which is a neat farm, well wooded, with a river running +through the fields. + +Reached in the evening Mount Kennedy, the seat of General Cunninghame, +who fortunately proved to me an instructor as assiduous as he is able. +He is in the midst of a country almost his own, for he has 10,000 Irish +acres here. His domain, and the grounds about it, are very beautiful; +not a level can be seen; every spot is tossed about in a variety of hill +and dale. In the middle of the lawn is one of the greatest natural +curiosities in the kingdom: an immense arbutus tree, unfortunately blown +down, but yet vegetating. One branch, which parts from the body near the +ground, and afterwards into many large branches, is six feet two inches +in circumference. The General buried part of the stem as it laid, and it +is from several branches throwing out fine young shoots: it is a most +venerable remnant. Killarney, the region of the arbutus, boasts of no +such tree as this. + +July 16. Rode in the morning to Drum; a large extent of mountains and +wood on the General's estate. It is a very noble scenery; a vast rocky +glen; one side bare rocks to an immense height, hanging in a thousand +whimsical yet frightful forms, with vast fragments tumbled from them, and +lying in romantic confusion; the other a fine mountain side covered with +shrubby wood. This wild pass leads to the bottom of an amphitheatre of +mountain, which exhibits a very noble scenery. To the right is an +immense sweep of mountain completely wooded; taken as a single object it +is a most magnificent one, but its forms are picturesque in the highest +degree; great projections of hill, with glens behind all wooded, have a +noble effect. Every feature of the whole view is great, and unites to +form a scene of natural magnificence. From hence a riding is cut through +the hanging wood, which rises to a central spot, where the General has +cleared away the rubbish from under the wood, and made a beautiful waving +lawn with many oaks and hollies scattered about it: here he has built a +cottage, a pretty, whimsical oval room, from the windows of which are +three views, one of distant rich lands opening to the sea, one upon a +great mountain, and a third upon a part of the lawn. It is well placed, +and forms upon the whole a most agreeable retreat. + +July 17. Took my leave of General Cunninghame, and went through the glen +of the downs in my way to Powerscourt. The glen is a pass between two +vast ridges of mountains covered with wood, which have a very noble +effect. The vale is no wider than to admit the road, a small gurgling +river almost by its side, and narrow slips of rocky and shrubby ground +which part them. In the front all escape seems denied by an immense +conical mountain, which rises out of the glen and seems to fill it up. +The scenery is of a most magnificent character. On the top of the ridge +to the right Mr. La Touche has a banqueting-room. Passing from this +sublime scene, the road leads through cheerful grounds all under corn, +rising and falling to the eye, and then to a vale of charming verdure +broken into inclosures, and bounded by two rocky mountains, distant +darker mountains filling up the scene in front. This whole ride is +interesting, for within a mile and a half of "Tinnyhinch" (the inn to +which I was directed), you come to a delicious view on the right: a small +vale opening to the sea, bounded by mountains, whose dark shade forms a +perfect contrast to the extreme beauty and lively verdure of the lower +scene, consisting of gently swelling lawns rising from each other, with +groups of trees between, and the whole so prettily scattered with white +farms, as to add every idea of cheerfulness. Kept on towards +Powerscourt, which presently came in view from the edge of a declivity. +You look full upon the house, which appears to be in the most beautiful +situation in the world, on the side of a mountain, half-way between its +bare top and an irriguous vale at its foot. In front, and spreading +among woods on either side, is a lawn whose surface is beautifully varied +in gentle declivities, hanging to a winding river. + +Lowering the hill the scenery is yet more agreeable. The near inclosures +are margined with trees, through whose open branches are seen whole +fields of the most lively verdure. The trees gather into groups, and the +lawn swells into gentle inequalities, while the river winding beneath +renders the whole truly pleasing. + +Breakfasted at the inn at Tinnyhinch, and then drove to the park to see +the waterfall. The park itself is fine; you enter it between two vast +masses of mountain, covered with wood, forming a vale scattered with +trees, through which flows a river on a broken rocky channel. You follow +this vale till it is lost in a most uncommon manner; the ridges of +mountain, closing, form one great amphitheatre of wood, from the top of +which, at the height of many hundred feet, bursts the water from a rock, +and tumbling down the side of a very large one, forms a scene singularly +beautiful. At the bottom is a spot of velvet turf, from which rises a +clump of oaks, and through their stems, branches and leaves, the falling +water is seen as a background, with an effect more picturesque than can +be well imagined. These few trees, and this little lawn, give the +finishing to the scene. The water falls behind some large fragments of +rock, and turns to the left, down a stony channel, under the shade of a +wood. + +Returning to Tinnyhinch, I went to Inniskerry, and gained by this detour +in my return to go to the Dargle, a beautiful view which I should +otherwise have lost. The road runs on the edge of a declivity, from +whence there is a most pleasing prospect of the river's course through +the vale and the wood of Powerscourt, which here appear in large masses +of dark shade, the whole bounded by mountains. Turn to the left into the +private road that leads to the Dargle, and presently it gives a specimen +of what is to be expected by a romantic glen of wood, where the high +lands almost lock into each other, and leave scarce a passage for the +river at bottom, which rages as if with difficulty forcing its way. It +is topped by a high mountain, and in front you catch a beautiful plat of +inclosures bounded by the sea. Enter the Dargle, which is the name of a +glen near a mile long, come presently to one of the finest ranges of wood +I have anywhere seen. It is a narrow glen or vale formed by the sides of +two opposite mountains; the whole thickly spread with oak wood. At the +bottom (and the depth is immense), it is narrowed to the mere channel of +the river, which rather tumbles from rock to rock than runs. The extent +of wood that hangs to the eye in every direction is great, the depth of +the precipice on which you stand immense, which with the roar of the +water at bottom forms a scene truly interesting. In less than a quarter +of a mile, the road passing through the wood leads to another point of +view to the right. It is the crown of a vast projecting rock, from which +you look down a precipice absolutely perpendicular, and many hundred feet +deep, upon the torrent at the bottom, which finds its noisy way over +large fragments of rock. The point of view is a great projection of the +mountain on this side, answered by a concave of the opposite, so that you +command the glen both to the right and left. It exhibits on both immense +sheets of forest, which have a most magnificent appearance. Beyond the +wood to the right, are some inclosures hanging on the side of a hill, +crowned by a mountain. I knew not how to leave so interesting a spot; +the impressions raised by it are strong. The solemnity of such an extent +of wood unbroken by any intervening objects, and the whole hanging over +declivities, is alone great; but to this the addition of a constant roar +of falling water, either quite hid, or so far below as to be seen but +obscurely, united to make those impressions stronger. No contradictory +emotions are raised; no ill-judged temples appear to enliven a scene that +is gloomy rather than gay. Falling or moving water is a lively object; +but this being obscure the noise operates differently. Following the +road a little further, there is another bold rocky projection from which +also there is a double view to the right and left. In front so immense a +sweep of hanging wood, that a nobler scene can hardly be imagined; the +river as before, at the bottom of the precipice, which is so steep and +the depth so great as to be quite fearful to look down. This horrid +precipice, the pointed bleak mountains in view, with the roar of the +water, all conspire to raise one great emotion of the sublime. You +advance scarcely twenty yards before a pretty scene opens to the left--a +distant landscape of inclosures, with a river winding between the hills +to the sea. Passing to the right, fresh scenes of wood appear; half-way +to the bottom, one different from the preceding is seen; you are almost +inclosed in wood, and look to the right through some low oaks on the +opposite bank of wood, with an edging of trees through which the sky is +seen, which, added to an uncommon elegance in the outline of the hill, +has a most pleasing effect. Winding down to a thatched bench on a rocky +point, you look upon an uncommon scene. Immediately beneath is a vast +chasm in the rock, which seems torn asunder to let the torrent through +that comes tumbling over a rocky bed far sunk into a channel embosomed in +wood. Above is a range of gloomy obscure woods, which half overshadow +it, and rising to a vast height, exclude every object. To the left the +water rolls away over broken rocks--a scene duly romantic. Followed the +path: it led me to the water's edge, at the bottom of the glen, where is +a new scene, in which not a single circumstance hurts the principal +character. In a hollow formed of rock and wood (every object excluded +but those and water) the torrent breaks forth from fragments of rock, and +tumbles through the chasm, rocks bulging over it as if ready to fall into +the channel and stop the impetuous water. The shade is so thick as to +exclude the heavens; all is retired and gloomy, a brown horror breathing +over the whole. It is a spot for melancholy to muse in. + +Return to the carriage, and quit the Dargle, which upon the whole is a +very singular place, different from all I have seen in England, and I +think preferable to most. Cross a murmuring stream, clear as crystal, +and, rising a hill, look back on a pleasing landscape of inclosures, +which, waving over hills, end in mountains of a very noble character. +Reach Dublin. + +July 20. To Drogheda, a well-built town, active in trade, the Boyne +bringing ships to it. It was market-day, and I found the quantity of +corn, etc., and the number of people assembled, very great; few country +markets in England more thronged. The Rev. Mr. Nesbit, to whom +recommended, absent, which was a great loss to me, as I had several +inquiries which remained unsatisfied. + +To the field of battle on the Boyne. The view of the scene from a rising +ground which looks down upon it is exceedingly beautiful, being one of +the completest landscapes I have seen. It is a vale, losing itself in +front between bold declivities, above which are some thick woods and +distant country. Through the vale the river winds and forms an island, +the point of which is tufted with trees in the prettiest manner +imaginable; on the other side a rich scenery of wood, among which is Dr. +Norris's house. To the right, on a rising ground on the banks of the +river, is the obelisk, backed by a very bold declivity. Pursued the road +till near it, quitted my chaise, and walked to the foot of it. It is +founded on a rock which rises boldly from the river. It is a noble +pillar, and admirably placed. I seated myself on the opposite rock, and +indulged the emotions which, with a melancholy not unpleasing, filled my +bosom, while I reflected on the consequences that had sprung from the +victory here obtained. Liberty was then triumphant. May the virtues of +our posterity secure that prize which the bravery of their ancestors won! +Peace to the memory of the Prince to whom, whatever might be his +failings, we owed that day memorable in the annals of Europe! + +Returned part of the way, and took the road to Cullen, where the Lord +Chief Baron Forster received me in the most obliging manner, and gave me +a variety of information uncommonly valuable. He has made the greatest +improvements I have anywhere met with. The whole country twenty-two +years ago was a waste sheep-walk, covered chiefly with heath, with some +dwarf furze and fern. The cabins and people as miserable as can be +conceived; not a Protestant in the country, nor a road passable for a +carriage. In a word, perfectly resembling other mountainous tracts, and +the whole yielding a rent of not more than from three shillings to four +shillings an acre. Mr. Forster could not bear so barren a property, and +determined to attempt the improvement of an estate of five thousand acres +till then deemed irreclaimable. He encouraged the tenants by every +species of persuasion and expense, but they had so ill an opinion of the +land that he was forced to begin with two or three thousand acres in his +own hands; he did not, however, turn out the people, but kept them in to +see the effects of his operations. + +To Dundalk. The view down on this town also very beautiful: swelling +hills of a fine verdure, with many rich inclosures backed by a bold +outline of mountain that is remarkable. Laid at the Clanbrassil Arms, +and found it a very good inn. The place, like most of the Irish towns I +have been in, full of new buildings, with every mark of increasing wealth +and prosperity. A cambric manufacture was established here by +Parliament, but failed; it was, however, the origin of that more to the +north. + +July 22. Left Dundalk, took the road through Ravensdale to Mr. +Fortescue, to whom I had a letter, but unfortunately he was in the South +of Ireland. Here I saw many good stone and slate houses, and some bleach +greens; and I was much pleased to see the inclosures creeping high up the +sides of the mountains, stony as they are. Mr. Fortescue's situation is +very romantic--on the side of a mountain, with fine wood hanging on every +side, with the lawn beautifully scattered with trees spreading into them, +and a pretty river winding through the vale, beautiful in itself, but +trebly so on information that before he fixed there it was all a wild +waste. Rents in Ravensdale ten shillings; mountain land two shillings +and sixpence to five shillings. Also large tracts rented by villages, +the cottars dividing it among themselves, and making the mountain common +for their cattle. + +Breakfasted at Newry--the Globe, another good inn. This town appears +exceedingly flourishing, and is very well built; yet forty years ago, I +was told, there were nothing but mud cabins in it. This great rise has +been much owing to the canal to Loch Neagh. I crossed it twice; it is +indeed a noble work. I was amazed to see ships of one hundred and fifty +tons and more lying in it, like barges in an English canal. Here is a +considerable trade. + +Reached Armagh in the evening, and waited on the Primate. + +July 23. His Grace rode out with me to Armagh, and showed me some of the +noble and spirited works by which he has perfectly changed the face of +the neighbourhood. The buildings he has erected in seven years, one +would suppose, without previous information, to be the work of an active +life. A list of them will justify this observation. + +He has erected a very elegant palace, ninety feet by sixty, and forty +high, in which an unadorned simplicity reigns. It is light and pleasing, +without the addition of wings or lesser parts, which too frequently +wanting a sufficient uniformity with the body of the edifice, are +unconnected with it in effect, and divide the attention. Large and ample +offices are conveniently placed behind a plantation at a small distance. +Around the palace is a large lawn, which spreads on every side over the +hills, and is skirted by young plantations, in one of which is a terrace, +which commands a most beautiful view of cultivated hill and dale. The +view from the palace is much improved by the barracks, the school, and a +new church at a distance, all which are so placed as to be exceedingly +ornamental to the whole country. + +The barracks were erected under his Grace's directions, and form a large +and handsome edifice. The school is a building of considerable extent, +and admirably adapted for the purpose: a more convenient or a better +contrived one is nowhere to be seen. There are apartments for a master, +a school-room fifty-six feet by twenty-eight, a large dining-room, and +spacious, airy dormitories, with every other necessary, and a spacious +playground walled in; the whole forming a handsome front: and attention +being paid to the residence of the master (the salary is four hundred +pounds a year), the school flourishes, and must prove one of the greatest +advantages to the country of anything that could have been established. +This edifice entirely at the Primate's expense. The church is erected of +white stone, and having a tall spire makes a very agreeable object in a +country where churches and spires do not abound--at least, such as are +worth looking at. Three other churches the Primate has also built, and +done considerable reparations to the cathedral. + +He has been the means also of erecting a public infirmary, which was +built by subscription, contributing amply to it himself. + +A public library he has erected at his own expense, given a large +collection of books, and endowed it. The room is excellently adapted, +forty-five feet by twenty-five, and twenty high, with a gallery, and +apartments for a librarian. + +He has further ornamented the city with a market-house and shambles, and +been the direct means, by giving leases upon that condition, of almost +new-building the whole place. He found it a nest of mud cabins, and he +will leave it a well-built city of stone and slate. I heard it asserted +in common conversation that his Grace, in these noble undertakings, had +not expended less than thirty thousand pounds, besides what he had been +the means of doing, though not directly at his own expense. + +In the evening reached Mr. Brownlow's at Lurgan, to whom I am indebted +for some valuable information. This gentleman has made very great +improvements in his domain. He has a lake at the bottom of a slight +vale, and around are three walks, at a distance from each other; the +centre one is the principal, and extends two miles. It is well conducted +for leading to the most agreeable parts of the grounds, and for +commanding views of Loch Neagh, and the distant country. There are +several buildings, a temple, green-house, etc. The most beautiful scene +is from a bench on a gently swelling hill, which rises almost on every +side from the water. The wood, the water, and the green slopes, here +unite to form a very pleasing landscape. Let me observe one thing much +to his honour; he advances his tenants money for all the lime they +choose, and takes payment in eight years with rent. + +Upon inquiring concerning the emigrations, I found that in 1772 and 1773 +they were at the height; that some went from this neighbourhood with +property, but not many. They were in general poor and unemployed. They +find here that when provisions are very cheap, the poor spend much of +their time in whisky-houses. All the drapers wish that oatmeal was never +under one penny a pound. Though farms are exceedingly divided, yet few +of the people raise oatmeal enough to feed themselves; all go to market +for some. The weavers earn by coarse linens one shilling a day, by fine +one shilling and fourpence, and it is the same with the spinners--the +finer the yarn, the more they earn; but in common a woman earns about +threepence. For coarse linens they do not reckon the flax hurt by +standing for seed. Their own flax is much better than the imported. + +This country is in general beautiful, but particularly so about the +straits that lead into Strangford Loch. From Mr. Savage's door the view +has great variety. To the left are tracts of hilly grounds, between +which the sea appears, and the vast chain of mountains in the Isle of Man +distinctly seen. In front the hills rise in a beautiful outline, and a +round hill projects like a promontory into the strait, and under it the +town amidst groups of trees; the scene is cheerful of itself, but +rendered doubly so by the ships and herring-boats sailing in and out. To +the right the view is crowned by the mountains of Mourne, which, wherever +seen, are of a character peculiarly bold, and even terrific. The shores +of the loch behind Mr. Savage's are bold ground, abounding with numerous +pleasing landscapes; the opposite coast, consisting of the woods and +improvements of Castle Ward, is a fine scenery. + +Called at Lord Bangor's, at Castle Ward, to deliver a letter of +recommendations but unfortunately he was on a sailing party to England; +walked through the woods, etc. The house was built by the present lord. +It is a very handsome edifice, with two principal fronts, but not of the +same architecture, for the one is Gothic and the other Grecian. From the +temple is a fine wooded scene: you look down on a glen of wood, with a +winding hill quite covered with it, and which breaks the view of a large +bay. Over it appears the peninsula of Strangford, which consists of +enclosures and wood. To the right the bay is bounded by a fine grove, +which projects into it. A ship at anchor added much. The house well +situated above several rising woods; the whole scene a fine one. I +remarked in Lord Bangor's domains a fine field of turnips, but unhoed. +There were some cabbages also. + +Belfast is a very well built town of brick, they having no stone quarry +in the neighbourhood. The streets are broad and straight, and the +inhabitants, amounting to about fifteen thousand, make it appear lively +and busy. The public buildings are not numerous nor very striking, but +over the exchange Lord Donegal is building an assembly room, sixty feet +long by thirty broad, and twenty-four high; a very elegant room. A +card-room adjoining, thirty by twenty-two, and twenty-two high; a +tea-room of the same size. His lordship is also building a new church, +which is one of the lightest and most pleasing I have anywhere seen: it +is seventy-four by fifty-four, and thirty high to the cornice, the aisles +separated by a double row of columns; nothing can be lighter or more +pleasing. The town belongs entirely to his lordship. Rent of it 2,000 +pounds a year. His estate extends from Drumbridge, near Lisburn, to +Larne, twenty miles in a right line, and is ten broad. His royalties are +great, containing the whole of Loch Neagh, which is, I suppose, the +greatest of any subject in Europe. His eel fishery at Tome, and Port +New, on the river Ban, lets for 500 pounds a year; and all the fisheries +are his to the leap at Coleraine. The estate is supposed to be 31,000 +pounds a year, the greatest at present in Ireland. Inishowen, in +Donegal, is his, and is 11,000 pounds of it. In Antrim, Lord Antrim's is +the most extensive property, being four baronies, and one hundred and +seventy-three thousand acres. The rent 8,000 pounds a year, but re-let +for 64,000 pounds a year, by tenants that have perpetuities, perhaps the +cruellest instance in the world of carelessness for the interests of +posterity. The present lord's father granted those leases. + +I was informed that Mr. Isaac, near Belfast, had four acres, Irish +measure, of strong clay land not broken up for many years, which being +amply manured with lime rubbish and sea shells, and fallowed, was sown +with wheat, and yielded 87 pounds 9s. at 9s. to 12s. per cwt. Also that +Mr. Whitley, of Ballinderry, near Lisburn, a tenant of Lord Hertford's, +has rarely any wheat that does not yield him 18 pounds an acre. The +tillage of the neighbourhood for ten miles round is doubled in a few +years. Shall export one thousand tons of corn this year from Belfast, +most of it to the West Indies, particularly oats. + +August 1. To Arthur Buntin's, Esq., near Belfast; the soil a stiff clay; +lets at old rents 10s., new one 18s., the town parks of that place 30s. +to 70s., ten miles round it 10s. to 20s., average 13s. A great deal of +flax sown, every countryman having a little, always on potato land, and +one ploughing: they usually sow each family a bushel of seed. Those who +have no land pay the farmers 20s. rent for the land a bushel of seed +sows, and always on potato land. They plant many more potatoes than they +eat, to supply the market at Belfast; manure for them with all their +dung, and some of them mix dung, earth, and lime, and this is found to do +better. There is much alabaster near the town, which is used for stucco +plaster; sells from 1 pound 1s. to 25s. a ton. + +On my way to Antrim, viewed the bleach green of Mr. Thomas Sinclair; it +is the completest I have seen here. I understood that the bleaching +season lasted nine months, and that watering on the grass was quite left +off. Mr. Sinclair himself was not at home, or I should probably have +gained some intelligence that might have been useful. + +Crossed the mountains by the new road to Antrim, and found them to the +summits to consist of exceeding good loam, and such as would improve into +good meadow. It is all thrown to the little adjoining farms, with very +little or any rent paid for it. They make no other use of it than +turning their cows on. Pity they do not improve; a work more profitable +than any they could undertake. All the way to Antrim lands let, at an +average, at 8s. The linen manufacture spreads over the whole country, +consequently the farms are very small, being nothing but patches for the +convenience of weavers. + +From Antrim to Shanes Castle the road runs at the end of Loch Neagh, +commanding a noble view of it; of such an extent that the eye can see no +land over it. It appears like a perfect sea, and the shore is broken +sand-banks, which look so much like it, that one can hardly believe the +water to be fresh. Upon my arrival at the castle, I was most agreeably +saluted with four men hoeing a field of turnips round it, as a +preparation for grass. These were the first turnip-hoers I have seen in +Ireland, and I was more pleased than if I had seen four emperors. + +The castle is beautifully situated on the lake, the windows commanding a +very noble view of it; and this has the finer effect, as the woods are +considerable, and form a fine accompaniment to this noble inland sea. + +Rode from Mr. Lesly's to view the Giant's Causeway. It is certainly a +very great curiosity as an object for speculation upon the manner of its +formation; whether it owes its origin to fire, and is a species of lava, +or to crystallisation, or to whatever cause, is a point that has employed +the attention of men much more able to decide upon it than I am; and has +been so often treated, that nothing I could say could be new. When two +bits of these basalts are rubbed together quick, they emit a considerable +scent like burnt leather. The scenery of the Causeway, nor of the +adjacent mountains, is very magnificent, though the cliffs are bold; but +for a considerable distance there is a strong disposition in the rocks to +run into pentagonal cylinders, and even at a bridge by Mr. Lesly's is a +rock in which the same disposition is plainly visible. I believe the +Causeway would have struck me more if I had not seen the prints of +Staffa. + +Returned to Lesly Hill, and on August 5th departed for Coleraine. There +the Right Hon. Mr. Jackson assisted me with the greatest politeness in +procuring the intelligence I wished about the salmon fishery, which is +the greatest in the kingdom, and viewed both fisheries, above and below +the town, very pleasantly situated on the river Ban. The salmon spawn in +all the rivers that run into the Ban about the beginning of August, and +as soon as they have done, swim to the sea, where they stay till January, +when they begin to return to the fresh water, and continue doing it till +August, in which voyage they are taken. The nets are set in the middle +of January, but by Act of Parliament no nets nor weirs can be kept down +after the 12th of August. All the fisheries on the river Ban let at +6,000 pounds a year. From the sea to the rock above Coleraine, where the +weirs are built, belongs to the London companies; the greatest part of +the rest to Lord Donegal. The eel fisheries let at 1,000 pounds a year, +and the salmon fisheries at Coleraine at 1,000 pounds. The eels make +periodical voyages, as the salmon, but instead of spawning in the fresh +water, they go to the sea to spawn, and the young fry return against the +stream; to enable them to do which with greater ease at the leap straw +ropes are hung in the water for them. When they return to sea they are +taken. Many of them weigh nine or ten pounds. The young salmon are +called _grawls_, and grow at a rate which I should suppose scarce any +fish commonly known equals; for within the year some of them will come to +sixteen and eighteen pounds, but in general ten or twelve pounds. Such +as escape the first year's fishery are salmon; and at two years old will +generally weigh twenty to twenty-five pounds. This year's fishery has +proved the greatest that ever was known, and they had the largest haul, +taking 1,452 salmon at one drag of one net. In the year 1758 they had +882, which was the next greatest haul. I had the pleasure of seeing 370 +drawn in at once. They have this year taken 400 tons of fish; 200 sold +fresh at a penny and three-halfpence a pound, and two hundred salted, at +18 pounds and 20 pounds per ton, which are sent to London, Spain, and +Italy. The fishery employs eighty men, and the expenses in general are +calculated to equal the rent. + +The linen manufacture is very general about Coleraine, coarse ten-hundred +linen. It is carried to Dublin in cars, one hundred and ten miles, at +5s. per cwt. in summer, and 7s. 6d. in winter. + +From Limavady to Derry there is very little uncultivated land. Within +four miles of the latter, rents are from 12s. to 20s.; mountains paid for +but in the gross. Reached Derry at night, and waited two hours in the +dark before the ferry-boat came over for me. + +August 7. In the morning went to the bishop's palace to leave my letters +of recommendation; for I was informed of my misfortune in his being out +of the kingdom. He was upon a voyage to Staffa, and had sent home some +of the stones of which it consists. They appeared perfectly to resemble +in shape, colour, and smell, those of the Giant's Causeway. + +August 8. Left Derry, and took the road by Raphoe to the Rev. Mr. +Golding's at Clonleigh, who favoured me with much valuable information. +The view of Derry at the distance of a mile or two is the most +picturesque of any place I have seen. It seems to be built on an island +of bold land rising from the river, which spreads into a fine basin at +the foot of the town; the adjacent country hilly. The scene wants +nothing but wood to make it a perfect landscape. + +August 11. Left Mount Charles, and passing through Donegal took the road +to Ballyshannon; came presently to several beautiful landscapes, swelling +hills cultivated, with the bay flowing up among them. They want nothing +but more wood, and are beautiful without it. Afterwards likewise to the +left they rise in various outlines, and die away insensibly into one +another. When the road leads to a full view of the bay of Donegal, these +smiling spots, above which the proud mountains rear their heads, are +numerous, the hillocks of almost regular circular forms. They are very +pleasing from form, verdure, and the water breaking in their vales. + +Before I got to Ballyshannon, remarked a bleach green, which indicates +weaving in the neighbourhood. Viewed the salmon-leap at Ballyshannon, +which is let for 400 pounds a year. The scenery of it is very beautiful. +It is a fine fall, and the coast of the river very bold, consisting of +perpendicular rocks with grass of a beautiful verdure to the very edge. +It projects in little promontories, which grew longer as they approach +the sea, and open to give a fine view of the ocean. Before the fall in +the middle of the river, is a rocky island on which is a curing house, +instead of the turret of a ruined castle for which it seems formed. The +town prettily situated on the rising ground on each side of the river. +To Sir James Caldwell's. Crossing the bridge, stopped for a view of the +river, which is a very fine one, and was delighted to see the salmon +jump, to me an unusual sight; the water was perfectly alive with them. +Rising the hill, look back on the town; the situation beautiful, the +river presents a noble view. Come to Belleek, a little village with one +of the finest water-falls I remember anywhere to have seen; viewed it +from the bridge. The river in a very broad sheet comes from behind some +wood, and breaks over a bed of rocks, not perpendicular, but shelving in +various directions, and foams away under the arches, after which it grows +more silent and gives a beautiful bend under a rock crowned by a fine +bank of wood. Reached Castle Caldwell at night, where Sir James Caldwell +received me with a politeness and cordiality that will make me long +remember it with pleasure. + +August 15. To Belleisle, the charming seat of the Earl of Ross. It is +an island in Loch Earne, of two hundred Irish acres, every part of it +hill, dale, and gentle declivities; it has a great deal of wood, much of +which is old, and forms both deep shades and open, cheerful groves. The +trees hang on the slopes, and consequently show themselves to the best +advantage. All this is exceedingly pretty, but it is rendered trebly so +by the situation. A reach of the lake passes before the house, which is +situated near the banks among some fine woods, which give both beauty and +shelter. This sheet of water, which is three miles over, is bounded in +front by an island of thick wood, and by a bold circular hill which is +his lordship's deer park; this hill is backed by a considerable mountain. +To the right are four or five fine clumps of dark wood--so many islands +which rise boldly from the lake; the water breaks in straits between +them, and forms a scene extremely picturesque. On the other side the +lake stretches behind wood in a strait which forms Belleisle. Lord Ross +has made walks round the island, from which there is a considerable +variety of prospect. A temple is built on a gentle hill, commanding the +view of the wooded islands above-mentioned, but the most pleasing +prospect of them is coming out from the grotto. They appear in an +uncommon beauty; two seem to join, and the water which flows between +takes the appearance of a fine bay, projecting deep into a dark wood: +nothing can be more beautiful. The park hill rises above them, and the +whole is backed with mountains. The home scene at your feet also is +pretty; a lawn scattered with trees that forms the margin of the lake, +closing gradually in a thick wood of tall trees, above the tops of which +is a distant view of Cultiegh mountain, which is there seen in its +proudest solemnity. + +They plough all with horses three or four in a plough, and all abreast. +Here let it be remarked that they very commonly plough and harrow with +their horses drawing by the tail: it is done every season. Nothing can +put them beside this, and they insist that, take a horse tired in traces +and put him to work by the tail, he will draw better: quite fresh again. +Indignant reader, this is no jest of mine, but cruel, stubborn, barbarous +truth. It is so all over Cavan. + +At Clonells, near Castlerea, lives O'Connor, the direct descendant of +Roderick O'Connor, who was king of Connaught six or seven hundred years +ago; there is a monument of him in Roscommon Church, with his sceptre, +etc. I was told as a certainty that this family were here long before +the coming of the Milesians. Their possessions, formerly so great, are +reduced to three or four hundred pounds a year, the family having fared +in the revolutions of so many ages much worse than the O'Niels and +O'Briens. The common people pay him the greatest respect, and send him +presents of cattle, etc., upon various occasions. They consider him as +the prince of a people involved in one common ruin. + +Another great family in Connaught is Macdermot, who calls himself Prince +of Coolavin. He lives at Coolavin, in Sligo, and though he has not above +one hundred pounds a year, will not admit his children to sit down in his +presence. This was certainly the case with his father, and some assured +me even with the present chief. Lord Kingsborough, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. +O'Hara, Mr. Sandford, etc., came to see him, and his address was curious: +"O'Hara, you are welcome! Sandford, I am glad to see your mother's son" +(his mother was an O'Brien): "as to the rest of ye, come in as ye can." +Mr. O'Hara, of Nymphsfield, is in possession of a considerable estate in +Sligo, which is the remains of great possessions they had in that +country. He is one of the few descendants of the Milesian race. + +To Lord Kingston's, to whom I had a letter, but unfortunately for me he +was at Spa. Walked down to Longford Hill to view the lake. It is one of +the most delicious scenes I ever beheld; a lake of five miles by four, +which fills the bottom of a gentle valley almost of a circular form, +bounded very boldly by the mountains. Those to the left rise in a noble +slope; they lower rather in front, and let in a view of Strand mountain, +near Sligo, above twenty miles off. To the right you look over a small +part of a bog to a large extent of cultivated hill, with the blue +mountains beyond. Were this little piece of bog planted, the view would +be more complete; the hill on which you stand has a foliage of well-grown +trees, which form the southern shore. You look down on six islands, all +wooded, and on a fine promontory to the left, which shoots far into the +lake. Nothing can be more pleasing than their uncommon variety. The +first is small (Rock Island), tufted with trees, under the shade of which +is an ancient building, once the residence of Macdermot. The next a +mixture of lawn and wood. The third, which appears to join this, is of a +darker shade, yet not so thick but you can see the bright lawn under the +trees. House Island is one fine, thick wood, which admits not a gleam of +light, a contrast to the silver bosom of the lake. Church Island is at a +greater distance; this is also a clump, and rises boldly. Rock Island is +of wood; it opens in the centre and shows a lawn with a building on it. +It is impossible to imagine a more pleasing and cheerful scene. Passed +the chapel to Smithfield Hill, which is a fine rising ground, quite +surrounded with plantations. From hence the view is changed; here the +promontory appears very bold, and over its neck you see another wooded +island in a most picturesque situation. Nothing can be more picturesque +than Rock Island, its ruin overhung with ivy. The other islands assume +fresh and varied outlines, and form upon the whole one of the most +luxuriant scenes I have met with. + +The views of the lake and environs are very fine as you go to Boyle; the +woods unite into a large mass, and contrast the bright sheet of water +with their dark shades. + +The lands about Kingston are very fine, a rich, dry, yellow, sandy loam, +the finest soil that I have seen in Ireland; all grass, and covered with +very fine bullocks, cows, and sheep. The farms rise to five hundred +acres, and are generally in divisions, parted by stone walls, for oxen, +cows, young cattle, and sheep separate. Some of the lands will carry an +ox and a wether per acre; rents, 15s. to 20s. + +Dined at Boyle, and took the road to Ballymoat. Crossed an immense +mountainy bog, where I stopped and made inquiries; found that it was ten +miles long, and three and a half over, containing thirty-five square +miles; that limestone quarries were around and in it, and limestone +gravel in many places to be found, and used in the lands that join it. +In addition to this I may add that there is a great road crossing it. +Thirty-five miles are twenty-two thousand four hundred acres. What an +immense field of improvement! Nothing would be easier than to drain it +(vast tracts of land have such a fall), that not a drop of water could +remain. These hilly bogs are extremely different from any I have seen in +England. In the moors in the north the hills and mountains are all +covered with heath, like the Irish bogs, but they are of various soils, +gravel, shingle, moor, etc., and boggy only in spots, but the Irish bog +hills are all pure bog to a great depth without the least variation of +soil; and the bog being of a hilly form, is a proof that it is a growing +vegetable mass, and not owing merely to stagnant water. Sir Laurence +Dundass is the principal proprietor of this. + +Reached Ballymoat in the evening, the residence of the Hon. Mr. +Fitzmaurice, where I expected great pleasure in viewing a manufactory, of +which I heard much since I came to Ireland. He was so kind as to give me +the following account of it in the most liberal manner:-- + +"Twenty years ago the late Lord Shelburne came to Ballymoat, a wild +uncultivated region without industry or civility, and the people all +Roman Catholics, without an atom of a manufacture, not even spinning. In +order to change this state of things, his lordship contracted with people +in the north to bring Protestant weavers and establish a manufactory, as +the only means of making the change he wished. This was done, but +falling into the hands of rascals he lost 5,000 pounds by the business, +with only seventeen Protestant families and twenty-six or twenty-seven +looms established for it. Upon his death Lady Shelburne wished to carry +his scheme into execution, and to do it gave much encouragement to Mr. +Wakefield, the great Irish factor in London, by granting advantageous +leases under the contract of building and colonising by weavers from the +north, and carrying on the manufactory. He found about twenty looms +working upon their own account, and made a considerable progress in this +for five years, raising several buildings, cottages for the weavers, and +was going on as well as the variety of his business would admit, +employing sixty looms. He then died, when a stand was made to all the +works for a year, in which everything went much to ruin. Lady Shelburne +then employed a new manager to carry on the manufacture upon his own +account, giving him very profitable grants of lands to encourage him to +do it with spirit. He continued for five years, employing sixty looms +also, but his circumstances failing, a fresh stop was put to the work. + +"Then it was that Mr. Fitzmaurice, in the year 1774, determined to exert +himself in pushing on a manufactory which promised to be of such +essential service to the whole country. To do this with effect, he saw +that it was necessary to take it entirely into his own hands. He could +lend money to the manager to enable him to go on, but that would be at +best hazardous, and could never do it in the complete manner in which he +wished to establish it. In this period of consideration, Mr. Fitzmaurice +was advised by his friends never to engage in so complex a business as a +manufacture, in which he must of necessity become a merchant, also engage +in all the hazard, irksomeness, etc., of commerce, so totally different +from his birth, education, ideas, and pursuits; but tired with the +inactivity of common life, he determined not only to turn manufacturer, +but to carry on the business in the most spirited and vigorous manner +that was possible. In the first place he took every means of making +himself a complete master of the business; he went through various +manufactures, inquired into the minutiae, and took every measure to know +it to the bottom. This he did so repeatedly and with such attention in +the whole progress, from spinning to bleaching and selling, that he +became as thorough a master of it as an experienced manager; he has wove +linen, and done every part of the business with his own hands. As he +determined to have the works complete, he took Mr. Stansfield the +engineer, so well known for his improved saw-mills, into his pay. He +sent him over to Ballymoat in the winter of 1774, in order to erect the +machinery of a bleach mill upon the very best construction; he went to +all the great mills in the north of Ireland to inspect them, to remark +their deficiencies, that they might be improved in the mills he intended +to erect. This knowledge being gained, the work was begun, and as water +was necessary, a great basin was formed by a dam across a valley, by +which means thirty-four acres were floated, to serve as a reservoir for +dry seasons, to secure plenty at all times." + +August 30. Rode to Rosshill, four miles off, a headland that projects +into the Bay of Newport, from which there is a most beautiful view of the +bay on both sides; I counted thirty islands very distinctly, all of them +cultivated under corn and potatoes, or pastured by cattle. At a distance +Clare rises in a very bold and picturesque style; on the left Crow +Patrick, and to the right other mountains. It is a view that wants +nothing but wood. + +September 5. To Drumoland, the seat of Sir Lucius O'Brien, in the county +of Clare, a gentleman who had been repeatedly assiduous to procure me +every sort of information. I should remark, as I have now left Galway, +that that county, from entering it in the road to Tuam till leaving it +to-day, has been, upon the whole, inferior to most of the parts I have +travelled in Ireland in point of beauty: there are not mountains of a +magnitude to make the view striking. It is perfectly free from woods, +and even trees, except about gentlemen's houses, nor has it a variety in +its face. I do not, however, speak without exception; I passed some +tracts which are cheerful. Drumoland has a pleasing variety of grounds +about the house; it stands on a hill gently rising from a lake of +twenty-four acres, in the middle of a noble wood of oak, ash, poplar, +etc.; three beautiful hills rise above, over which the plantations spread +in a varied manner; and these hills command very fine views of the great +rivers Fergus and Shannon at their junction, being each of them a league +wide. + +There is a view of the Shannon from Limerick to Foynes Island, which is +thirty miles, with all its bays, bends, islands, and fertile shores. It +is from one to three miles broad, a most noble river, deserving regal +navies for its ornament, or, what are better, fleets of merchantmen, the +cheerful signs of far-extended commerce, instead of a few miserable +fishing-boats, the only canvas that swelled upon the scene; but the want +of commerce in her ports is the misfortune not the fault of +Ireland--thanks for the deficiency to that illiberal spirit of trading +jealousy, which has at times actuated and disgraced so many nations. The +prospect has a noble outline in the bold mountains of Tipperary, Cork, +Limerick, and Kerry. The whole view magnificent. + +At the foot of this hill is the castle of Bunratty, a very large edifice, +the seat of the O'Briens, princes of Thomond; it stands on the bank of a +river, which falls into the Shannon near it. About this castle and that +of Rosmanagher the land is the best in the county of Clare; it is worth 1 +pound 13s. an acre, and fats a bullock per acre in summer, besides winter +feed. + +To Limerick, through a cheerful country, on the banks of the river, in a +vale surrounded by distant mountains. That city is very finely situated, +partly on an island formed by the Shannon. The new part, called Newtown +Pery, from Mr. Pery the speaker, who owns a considerable part of the +city, and represents it in Parliament, is well built. The houses are new +ones, of brick, large, and in right lines. There is a communication with +the rest of the town by a handsome bridge of three large arches erected +at Mr. Pery's expense. Here are docks, quays, and a custom-house, which +is a good building, faces the river, and on the opposite banks is a large +quadrangular one, the house of industry. This part of Limerick is very +cheerful and agreeable, and carries all the marks of a flourishing place. + +The exports of this port are beef, pork, butter, hides, and rape-seed. +The imports are rum, sugar, timber, tobacco, wines, coals, bark, salt, +etc. The customs and excise, about sixteen years ago, amounted to 16,000 +pounds, at present 32,000 pounds, and rather more four or five years ago. + +Whole revenue 1751 16,000 pounds +" " 1775 51,000 pounds + + _Revenue of the Port of Limerick. Year ending_ + +March 25, 1759 20,494 pounds + " 1760 29,197 + " 1761 20,727 + " 1762 20,650 + " 1763 20,525 + " 1764 32,635 + " 1765 31,099 + _Com. Jour_., vol. xiv., p. 71. + + _Price of Provisions_. + +Wheat, 1s. 1d. a stone Wild ducks, 20d. to 2s. a couple. +Barley and oats, 5.75d. to 6d. Teal, 10d. a couple. +Scotch coals, 18s.; Whitehaven, Plover, 6d. a couple. +20s. +A boat-load of turf, 20 tons, Widgeon, 10d. ditto. +45s. +Salmon, three-halfpence. Hares, 1s. each, commonly sold all + year. +Trout, 2d., very fine, per lb. Woodcocks, 20d. to 2s. 2d. a brace. +Eels, 2d. a pound. Oysters, 4d. to 1s. a 100. +Rabbits, 8d. a couple. Lobsters, 1s. to 1s. 6d., if good. + +Land sells at twenty years' purchase. Rents were at the highest in 1765; +fell since, but in four years have fallen 8s. to 10s. an acre about +Limerick. They are at a stand at present, owing to the high price of +provisions from pasture. The number of people in Limerick is computed at +thirty-two thousand; it is exceedingly populous for the size, the chief +street quite crowded; many sedan chairs in town, and some hackney +chaises. Assemblies the year round, in a new assembly-house built for +the purpose, and plays and concerts common. + +Upon the whole, Limerick must be a very gay place, but when the usual +number of troops are in town much more so. To show the general expenses +of living, I was told of a person's keeping a carriage, four horses, +three men, three maids, a good table, a wife, three children, and a +nurse, and all for 500 pounds a year: + + l. s. d. l. s. d. +A footman 4 4 0 to 6 6 0 +A professed 6 6 0 +woman-cook +A house-maid 3 0 0 +A kitchen-maid 2 0 0 +A butler 10 0 0 to 12 0 0 + +A barrel of beef or pork, 200lb. weight. Vessels of 400 tons can come up +with spring tides, which rise fourteen feet. + +September 9. To Castle Oliver; various country, not so rich to +appearance as the Caucasus, being fed bare; much hilly sheep walk, and +for a considerable way a full third of it potatoes and corn: no sign of +depopulation. Just before I got to the hills a field of ragwort +(_senesio jacoboea_) buried the cows. The first hill of Castle Oliver +interesting. After rising a mountain so high that no one could think of +any house, you come in view of a vale, quite filled with fine woods, +fields margined with trees, and hedge plantations climbing up the +mountains. Having engaged myself to Mr. Oliver, to return from Killarney +by his house, as he was confined to Limerick by the assizes, I shall omit +saying anything of it at present. + +September 16. To Cove by water, from Mr. Trent's quay. The view of Lota +is charming; a fine rising lawn from the water, with noble spreading +woods reaching on each side; the house a very pleasing front, with lawn +shooting into the woods. The river forms a creek between two hills, one +Lota, the other opening to another hill of inclosures well wooded. As +the boat leaves the shore nothing can be finer than the view behind us; +the back woods of Lota, the house and lawn, and the high bold inclosures +towards Cork, form the finest shore imaginable, leading to Cork, the city +appearing in full view, Dunkettle wooded inclosures, a fine sweep of +hill, joining Mr. Hoare's at Factory Hill, whose woods have a beautiful +effect. Dunkettle House almost lost in a wood. As we advance, the woods +of Lota and Dunkettle unite in one fine mass. The sheet of water, the +rising lawns, the house in the most beautiful situation imaginable, with +more woods above it than lawns below it, the west shore of Loch Mahon, a +very fine rising hill cut into inclosures but without wood, land-locked +on every side with high lands, scattered with inclosures, woods, seats, +etc., with every cheerful circumstance of lively commerce, have +altogether a great effect. Advancing to Passage the shores are various, +and the scenery enlivened by fourscore sail of large ships; the little +port of Passage at the water's edge, with the hills rising boldly above +it. The channel narrows between the great island and the hills of +Passage. The shores bold, and the ships scattered about them, with the +inclosures hanging behind the masts and yards picturesque. Passing the +straits a new basin of the harbour opens, surrounded with high lands. +Monkstown Castle on the hill to the right, and the grounds of +Ballybricken, a beautiful intermixed scene of wood and lawn. The high +shore of the harbour's mouth opens gradually. The whole scene is +land-locked. The first view of Haulbowline Island and Spike Island, high +rocky lands, with the channel opening to Cove, where are a fleet of ships +at anchor, and Rostellan, Lord Inchiquin's house, backed with hills, a +scenery that wants nothing but the accompaniment of wood. The view of +Ballybricken changes; it now appears to be unfortunately cut into right +lines. Arrived at the ship at Cove; in the evening returned, leaving Mr. +Jefferys and family on board for a voyage to Havre, in their way to +Paris. + +Dunkettle is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Ireland. It +is a hill of some hundred acres broken into a great variety of ground by +gentle declivities, with everywhere an undulating outline and the whole +varied by a considerable quantity of wood, which in some places is thick +enough to take the appearance of close groves, in others spreads into +scattered thickets and a variety of single groups. This hill, or rather +cluster of hills, is surrounded on one side by a reach of Cork Harbour, +over which it looks in the most advantageous manner; and on the other by +an irriguous vale, through which flows the river Glanmire; the opposite +shore of that river has every variety that can unite to form pleasing +landscapes for the views from Dunkettle grounds; in some places narrow +glens, the bottoms of which are quite filled with water, and the steep +banks covered with thick woods that spread a deep shade; in others the +vale opens to form the site of a pretty cheerful village, overhung by +hill and wood: here the shore rises gradually into large inclosures, +which spread over the hills, stretching beyond each other; and there the +vale melts again into a milder variety of fields. A hill thus situated, +and consisting in itself of so much variety of surface, must necessarily +command many pleasing views. To enjoy these to the better advantage, Mr. +Trent (than whom no one has a better taste, both to discover and describe +the beauties of natural scenes) is making a walk around the whole, which +is to bend to the inequalities of the ground, so as to take the principal +points in view. The whole is so beautiful, that if I were to make the +regular detour, the description might be too minute; but there are some +points which gave me so much pleasure that I know not how to avoid +recommending to others that travel this way to taste the same +satisfaction. From the upper part of the orchard you look down a part of +the river, where it opens into a regular basin, one corner stretching up +to Cork, lost behind the hill of Lota, the lawn of which breaks on the +swelling hills among the woods; the house obscured, and therefore seeming +a part of your home scene; the losing the river behind the beautiful +projection of Lota is more pleasing than can be expressed. The other +reach, leading to the harbour's mouth, is half hidden by the trees, which +margin the foot of the hill on which you stand; in front a noble range of +cultivated hills, the inclosures broken by slight spots of wood, and +prettily varied with houses, without being so crowded as to take off the +rural effect. The scene is not only beautiful in those common +circumstances which form a landscape, but is alive with the cheerfulness +of ships and boats perpetually moving. Upon the whole, it is one of the +most luxuriant prospects I have anywhere seen. Leaving the orchard, pass +on the brow of a hill which forms the bank of the river of Glanmire, +commanding the opposite woods of Lota in all their beauty. Rise to the +top of the high hill which joins the deer park, and exhibits a scene +equally extensive and beautiful; you look down on a vale which winds +almost around at your feet, finishing to the left in Cork river, which +here takes the appearance of a lake, bounded by wood and hills, and sunk +in the bottom of a vale, in a style which painting cannot imitate; the +opposite hills of Lota, wood, and lawn, seem formed as objects for this +point of view: at your feet a hill rises out of the vale, with higher +ones around it, the margins scattered wood; to the right, towards +Riverstown, a vale; the whole backed by cultivated hills to Kallahan's +field. Milder scenes follow: a bird's-eye view of a small vale sunk at +your feet, through which the river flows; a bridge of several arches +unites two parts of a beautiful village, the meadow grounds of which rise +gently, a varied surface of wood and lawn, to the hills of Riverstown, +the whole surrounded by delicious sweeps of cultivated hills. To the +left a wooded glen rising from the vale to the horizon, the scenery +sequestered, but pleasing; the oak wood which hangs on the deer-park +hills, an addition. Down to the brow of the hill, where it hangs over +the river, a picturesque interesting spot. The inclosures of the +opposite bank hang beautifully to the eye, and the wooded glen winds up +the hill. Returning to the house I was conducted to the hill, where the +grounds slope off to the river of Cork, which opens to view in noble +reaches of a magnitude that fills the eye and the imagination; a whole +country of a character truly magnificent, and behind the winding vale +which leads between a series of hills to Glanmire. + + + +Pictures at Dunkettle. + + +A St. Michael, etc., the subject confused, by Michael Angelo. A St. +Francis on wood, a large original of Guido. A St. Cecilia, original of +Romanelli. An Assumption of the Virgin, by L. Carracci. A Quaker's +meeting, of above fifty figures, by Egbert Hemskerk. A sea view and rock +piece, by Vernet. A small flagellation, by Sebastian del Piombo. A +Madonna and Child, small, by Rubens. The Crucifixion, many figures in +miniature, excellent, though the master is unknown. An excellent copy of +the famous Danae of Titian, at Monte Cavallo, near Naples, by Cioffi of +Naples. Another of the Venus of Titian, at the Tribuna in Florence. +Another of Venus blinding Cupid, by Titian, at the Palazzo Borghese in +Rome. Another of great merit of the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael, at +the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, by Stirn, a German, lately at Rome. +Another of a Holy Family, from Raphael, of which there are said to be +three originals, one at the king's palace in Naples, one in the Palais +Royal in Paris, and the third in the collection of Lord Exeter, lately +purchased at Rome. A portrait of Sir Patrick Trent, by Sir P. Lely. An +excellent portrait of a person unknown, by Dahl. + +September 17. To Castlemartyr, the seat of the Earl of Shannon, one of +the most distinguished improvers in Ireland; in whom I found the most +earnest desire to give me every species of information, with a knowledge +and ability which enabled him to do it most effectually. Passed through +Middleton, a well-built place, which belongs to the noble lord to whom it +gives title. Castlemartyr is an old house, but much added to by the +present earl; he has built, besides other rooms, a dining one thirty-two +feet long by twenty-two broad, and a drawing one, the best rooms I have +seen in Ireland, a double cube of twenty-five feet, being fifty long, +twenty-five broad, and twenty-five high. The grounds about the house are +very well laid out; much wood well grown, considerable lawns, a river +made to wind through them in a beautiful manner, an old castle so +perfectly covered with ivy as to be a picturesque object. A winding walk +leads for a considerable distance along the banks of this river, and +presents several pleasing landscapes. + +From Rostellan to Lota, the seat of Frederick Rogers, Esq. I had before +seen it in the highest perfection from the water going from Dunkettle to +Cove, and from the grounds of Dunkettle. Mrs. Rogers was so obliging as +to show me the back grounds, which are admirably wooded, and of a fine +varied surface. + +Got to Cork in the evening, and waited on the Dean, who received me with +the most flattering attention. Cork is one of the most populous places I +have ever been in; it was market-day, and I could scarce drive through +the streets, they were so amazingly thronged: on the other days the +number is very great. I should suppose it must resemble a Dutch town, +for there are many canals in the streets, with quays before the houses. +The best built part is Morrison's Island, which promises well; the old +part of the town is very close and dirty. As to its commerce, the +following particulars I owe to Robert Gordon, Esq., the surveyor-general: + + _Average of Nineteen Years' Export, ending March_ 24, 1773. + +Hides, at 1 pounds each 64,000 pounds +Bay and woollen yarn 294,000 +Butter, at 30s. per cwt. from 56s. to 180,000 +72s. +Beef, at 20s. a barrel 291,970 +Camlets, serges, etc. 40,000 +Candles 34,220 +Soap 20,000 +Tallow 20,000 +Herrings, 18 to 35,000l. all their 21,000 +own +Glue 20 to 25,000 22,000 +Pork 64,000 +Wool to England 14,000 +Small exports, Gottenburg herrings, 35,000 +horns, hoofs, etc., feather-beds, +palliasses, feathers, etc. + 1,100,190 + +Average prices of the nineteen years on the custom books. All exports on +those books are rated at the value of the reign of Charles II.; but the +imports have always 10 per cent. on the sworn price added to them. +Seventy to eighty sail of ships belong to Cork. Average of ships that +entered that port in those nineteen years, eight hundred and seventy-two +per annum. The number of people at Cork mustered by the clergy by +hearth-money, and by the number of houses, payments to minister, average +of the three, sixty-seven thousand souls, if taken before the 1st of +September, after that twenty thousand increased. There are seven hundred +coopers in the town. Barrels all of oak or beech, all from America: the +latter for herrings, now from Gottenburg and Norway. The excise of Cork +now no more than in Charles the Second's reign. Ridiculous! + +Cork old duties, in 1751, 62,000 pounds +produced +Now the same 140,000 + +Bullocks, 16,000 head, 32,000 barrels; 41,000 hogs, 20,000 barrels. +Butter, 22,000 firkins of half a hundredweight each, both increase this +year, the whole being + +240,000 firkins of butter, + 120,000 barrels of beef. + +Export of woollen yarn from Cork, 300,000 pounds a year in the Irish +market. No wool smuggled, or at least very little. The wool comes to +Cork, etc., and is delivered out to combers, who make it into balls. +These balls are bought up by the French agents at a vast price, and +exported; but even this does not amount to 40,000 pounds a year. + + + +Prices. + + +Beef, 21s. per cwt., never so high by 2s. 6d.; pork, 30s., never higher +than 18s. 6d., owing to the army demand. Slaughter dung, 8d. for a horse +load. Country labourer, 6d.; about town, 10d. Milk, seven pints a +penny. Coals, 3s. 8d. to 5s. a barrel, six of which make a ton. Eggs, +four a penny. + +Cork labourers. Cellar ones, twenty thousand; have 1s. 1d. a day, and as +much bread, beef, and beer as they can eat and drink, and seven pounds of +offals a week for their families. Rent for their house, 40s. Masons' +and carpenters' labourers, 10d. a day. Sailors now 3 pounds a month and +provisions: before the American war, 28s. Porters and coal-heavers paid +by the great. State of the poor people in general incomparably better +off than they were twenty years ago. There are imported eighteen +thousand barrels annually of Scotch herrings, at 18s. a barrel. The salt +for the beef trade comes from Lisbon, St. Ube's, etc. The salt for the +fish trade from Rochelle. For butter English and Irish. + +Particulars of the woollen fabrics of the county of Cork received from a +manufacturer. The woollen trade, serges and camlets, ratteens, friezes, +druggets, and narrow cloths, the last they make to 10s. and 12s. a yard; +if they might export to 8s. they are very clear that they could get a +great trade for the woollen manufactures of Cork. The wool comes from +Galway and Roscommon, combed here by combers, who earn 8s. to 10s. a +week, into balls of twenty-four ounces, which is spun into worsteds of +twelve skeins to the ball, and exported to Yarmouth for Norwich; the +export price, 30 pounds a pack to 33 pounds, never before so high; +average of them, 26 pounds to 30 pounds. Some they work up at home into +serges, stuffs, and camlets; the serges at 12d. a yard, thirty-four +inches wide; the stuffs sixteen inches, at 18d., the camlets at 9.5d. to +13d.; the spinners at 9d. a ball, one in a week; or a ball and half 12d. +a week, and attend the family besides; this is done most in Waterford and +Kerry, particularly near Killarney; the weavers earn 1s. a day on an +average. Full three-fourths of the wool is exported in yarn, and only +one-fourth worth worked up. Half the wool of Ireland is combed in the +county of Cork. + +A very great manufacture of ratteens at Carrick-on-Suir; the bay worsted +is for serges, shalloons, etc. Woollen yarn for coarse cloths, which +latter have been lost for some years, owing to the high price of wool. +The bay export has declined since 1770, which declension is owing to the +high price of wool. + +No wool smuggled, not even from Kerry; not a sloop's cargo in twenty +years, the price too high; the declension has been considerable. For +every eighty-six packs that are exported, a licence from the Lord +Lieutenant, for which 20 pounds is paid. + +From the Act of the last sessions of Great Britain for exporting woollen +goods for the troops in the pay of Ireland, Mr. Abraham Lane, of Cork, +established a new manufacture of army clothing for that purpose, which is +the first at Cork, and pays 40 pounds a week in labour only. Upon the +whole there has been no increase of woollen manufacture within twenty +years. Is clearly of opinion that many fabrics might be worked up here +much cheaper than in France, of cloths that the French have beat the +English out of; these are, particularly, broadcloths of one yard and half +yard wide, from 3s. to 6s. 6d. a yard for the Levant trade. Friezes +which are now supplied from Carcassone in Languedoc. Friezes, of +twenty-four to twenty-seven inches, at 10d. to 13d. a yard. Flannels, +twenty-seven to thirty-six, from 7d. to 14d. Serges of twenty-seven to +thirty-six inches, at 7d. to 12d. a yard; these would work up the coarse +wool. At Ballynasloe Fair, in July, 200,000 pounds a year bought in +wool. There is a manufactory of knit-stocking by the common women about +Cork, for eight or ten miles around; the yarn from 12d. to 18d. a pair, +and the worsted from 16d. to 20d., and earn from 12d. to 18d. a week. +Besides their own consumption, great quantities are sent to the north of +Ireland. + +All the weavers in the country are confined to towns, have no land, but +small gardens. Bandle, or narrow linen, for home consumption, is made in +the western part of the county. Generally speaking, the circumstances of +all the manufacturing poor are better than they were twenty years ago. +The manufactures have not declined, though the exportation has, owing to +the increased home consumptions. Bandon was once the seat of the stuff, +camlet, and shag manufacture, but has in seven years declined above +three-fourths. Have changed it for the manufacture of coarse green +linens, for the London market, from 6d. to 9d. a yard, twenty-seven +inches wide; but the number of manufactures in general much lessened. + +Rode to the mouth of Cork Harbour; the grounds about it are all fine, +bold, and varied, but so bare of trees, that there is not a single view +but what pains one in the want of wood. Rents of the tract south of the +river Caragoline, from 5s. to 30s.; average, 10s. Not one man in five +has a cow, but generally from one to four acres, upon which they have +potatoes, and five or six sheep, which they milk, and spin their wool. +Labour 5d. in winter, 6d. in summer; many of them for three months in the +year live on potatoes and water, the rest of it they have a good deal of +fish. But it is remarked, at Kinsale, that when sprats are most +plentiful, diseases are most common. Rent for a mere cabin, 10s. Much +paring and burning; paring twenty-eight men a day, sow wheat on it and +then potatoes; get great crops. The soil a sharp, stony land; no +limestone south of the above river. Manure for potatoes, with sea-weed, +for 26s., which gives good crops, but lasts only one year. Sea-sand much +used; no shells in it. Farms rise to two or three hundred acres, but are +hired in partnership. + +Before I quit the environs of Cork, I must remark that the country on the +harbour I think preferable, in many respects, for a residence, to +anything I have seen in Ireland. First, it is the most southerly part of +the kingdom. Second, there are very great beauties of prospect. Third, +by much the most animated, busy scene of shipping in all Ireland, and +consequently, fourth, a ready price for every product. Fifth, great +plenty of excellent fish and wild fowl. Sixth, the neighbourhood of a +great city for objects of convenience. + +September 25. Took the road to Nedeen, through the wildest region of +mountains that I remember to have seen; it is a dreary but an interesting +road. The various horrid, grotesque, and unusual forms in which the +mountains rise and the rocks bulge; the immense height of some distant +heads, which rear above all the nearer scenes, the torrents roaring in +the vales, and breaking down the mountain sides, with here and there a +wretched cabin, and a spot of culture yielding surprise to find human +beings the inhabitants of such a scene of wildness, altogether keep the +traveller's mind in an agitation and suspense. These rocks and mountains +are many of them no otherwise improvable than by planting, for which, +however, they are exceedingly well adapted. + +Sir John Colthurst was so obliging as to send half a dozen labourers with +me, to help my chaise up a mountain side, of which he gave a formidable +account: in truth it deserved it. The road leads directly against a +mountain ridge, and those who made it were so incredibly stupid, that +they kept the straight line up the hill, instead of turning aside to the +right to wind around a projection of it. The path of the road is worn by +torrents into a channel, which is blocked up in places by huge fragments, +so that it would be a horrid road on a level; but on a hill so steep, +that the best path would be difficult to ascend--it may be supposed +terrible: the labourers, two passing strangers, and my servant, could +with difficulty get the chaise up. It is much to be regretted that the +direction of the road is not changed, as all the rest from Cork to Nedeen +is good enough. For a few miles towards the latter place the country is +flat on the river Kenmare, much of it good, and under grass or corn. +Passed Mr. Orpine's at Ardtilly, and another of the same name at +Killowen. + +Nedeen is a little town, very well situated, on the noble river Kenmare, +where ships of one hundred and fifty tons may come up; there are but +three or four good houses. Lord Shelburne, to whom the place belongs, +has built one for his agent. There is a vale of good land, which is here +from a mile and a half to a mile broad; and to the north and south, great +ridges of mountains said to be full of mines. + +At Nedeen, Lord Shelburne had taken care to have me well informed by his +people in that country, which belongs for the greatest part to himself, +he has above one hundred and fifty thousand Irish acres in Kerry; the +greatest part of the barony of Glanrought belongs to him, most of +Dunkerron and Ivragh. The country is all a region of mountains, inclosed +by a vale of flat land on the river; the mountains to the south come to +the water's edge, with but few variations, the principal of which is +Ardee, a farm of Lord Shelburne's to the north of the river, the flat +land is one-half to three-quarters of a mile broad. The mountains to the +south reach to Bear-haven, and those to the north to Dingle Bay; the soil +is extremely various; to the south of the river all are sandstones, and +the hills loam, stone, gravel, and bog. To the north there is a slip of +limestone land, from Kilgarvon to Cabbina-cush, that is six miles east of +Nedeen, and three to the west, but is not more than a quarter of a mile +broad, the rest, including the mountains, all sandstone. As to its +rents, it is very difficult to tell what they are; for land is let by the +plough-land and gineve, twelve gineves to the plough-land; but the latter +denomination is not of any particular quantity, for no two plough-lands +are the same. The size of farms is various, from forty acres to one +thousand; less quantities go with cabins, and some farms are taken by +labourers in partnership. + +Soon entered the wildest and most romantic country I had anywhere seen; a +region of steep rocks and mountains which continued for nine or ten +miles, till I came in view of Mucruss. There is something magnificently +wild in this stupendous scenery, formed to impress the mind with a +certain species of terror. All this tract has a rude and savage air, but +parts of it are strikingly interesting; the mountains are bare and rocky, +and of a great magnitude; the vales are rocky glens, where a mountain +stream tumbles along the roughest bed imaginable, and receives many +torrents, pouring from clefts, half overhung with shrubby wood; some of +these streams are seen, and the roar of others heard, but hid by vast +masses of rock. Immense fragments, torn from the precipices by storms +and torrents, are tumbled in the wildest confusion, and seem to hang +rather than rest upon projecting precipices. Upon some of these +fragments of rock, perfectly detached from the soil, except by the side +on which they lie, are beds of black turf, with luxuriant crops of heath, +etc., which appeared very curious to me, having nowhere seen the like; +and I observed very high in the mountains--much higher than any +cultivation is at present, on the right hand--flat and cleared spaces of +good grass among the ridges of rock, which had probably been cultivated, +and proved that these mountains were not incapable from climate of being +applied to useful purposes. + +From one of these heights I looked forward to the Lake of Killarney at a +considerable distance, and backward to the river Kenmare; came in view of +a small part of the upper lake, spotted with several islands, and +surrounded by the most tremendous mountains that can be imagined, of an +aspect savage and dreadful. From this scene of wild magnificence, I +broke at once upon all the glories of Killarney; from an elevated point +of view I looked down on a considerable part of the lake, which gave me a +specimen of what I might expect. The water you command (which, however, +is only a part of the lake) appears a basin of two or three miles round; +to the left it is inclosed by the mountains you have passed, particularly +by the Turk, whose outline is uncommonly noble, and joins a range of +others, that form the most magnificent shore in the world: on the other +side is a rising scenery of cultivated hills, and Lord Kenmare's park and +woods; the end of the lake at your feet is formed by the root of +Mangerton, on whose side the road leads. From hence I looked down on a +pretty range of inclosures on the lake, and the woods and lawns of +Mucruss, forming a large promontory of thick wood, shooting far into the +lake. The most active fancy can sketch nothing in addition. Islands of +wood beyond seem to join it, and reaches of the lake, breaking partly +between, give the most lively intermixture of water; six or seven isles +and islets form an accompaniment: some are rocky, but with a slight +vegetation, others contain groups of trees, and the whole thrown into +forms, which would furnish new ideas to a painter. Farther is a chain of +wooded islands, which also appear to join the mainland, with an offspring +of lesser ones scattered around. + +Arrived at Mr. Herbert's at Mucruss, to whose friendly attention I owed +my succeeding pleasure. There have been so many descriptions of +Killarney written by gentlemen who have resided some time there, and seen +it at every season, that for a passing traveller to attempt the like +would be in vain; for this reason I shall give the mere journal of the +remarks I made on the spot, in the order I viewed the lake. + +September 27. Walked into Mr. Herbert's beautiful grounds, to Oroch's +Hill, in the lawn that he has cleared from that profusion of stones which +lie under the wall; the scene which this point commands is truly +delicious; the house is on the edge of the lawn, by a wood which covers +the whole peninsula, fringes the slope at your feet, and forms a +beautiful shore to the lake. Tomys and Glena are vast mountainous masses +of incredible magnificence, the outline soft and easy in its swells, +whereas those above the eagle's nest are of so broken and abrupt an +outline, that nothing can be imagined more savage, an aspect horrid and +sublime, that gives all the impressions to be wished to astonish rather +than please the mind. The Turk exhibits noble features, and Mangerton's +huge body rises above the whole. The cultivated tracts towards Killarney +form a shore in contrast to the terrific scenes I have just mentioned; +the distant boundary of the lake, a vast ridge of distant blue mountains +towards Dingle. From hence entered the garden, and viewed Mucruss Abbey, +one of the most interesting scenes I ever saw; it is the ruin of a +considerable abbey, built in Henry VI.'s time, and so entire, that if it +were more so, though the building would be more perfect, the ruin would +be less pleasing; it is half obscured in the shade of some venerable ash +trees; ivy has given the picturesque circumstance, which that plant alone +can confer, while the broken walls and ruined turrets throw over it + + "The last mournful graces of decay;" + +heaps of skulls and bones scattered about, with nettles, briars, and +weeds sprouting in tufts from the loose stones, all unite to raise those +melancholy impressions, which are the merit of such scenes, and which can +scarcely anywhere be felt more completely. The cloisters form a dismal +area, in the centre of which grows the most prodigious yew-tree I ever +beheld, in one great stem, two feet diameter, and fourteen feet high, +from whence a vast head of branches spreads on every side, so as to +perform a perfect canopy to the whole space. I looked for its fit +inhabitant; it is a spot where + + "The moping owl doth to the moon complain." + +This ruin is in the true style in which all such buildings should appear; +there is not an intruding circumstance, the hand of dress has not touched +it, melancholy is the impression which such scenes should kindle, and it +is here raised most powerfully. + +From the abbey we passed to the terrace, a natural one of grass, on the +very shore of the lake; it is irregular and winding; a wall of rocks +broken into fantastic forms by the waves: on the other side a wood, +consisting of all sorts of plants, which the climate can protect, and +through which a variety of walks are traced. The view from this terrace +consists of many parts of various characters, but in their different +styles complete; the lake opens a spreading sheet of water, spotted by +rocks and islands, all but one or two wooded; the outlines of them are +sharp and distinct; nothing can be more smiling than this scene, soft and +mild, a perfect contrast of beauty to the sublimity of the mountains +which form the shore: these rise in an outline, so varied, and at the +same time so magnificent, that nothing greater can be imagined; Tomys and +Glena exhibit an immensity in point of magnitude, but from a large +hanging wood on the slope, and from the smoothness of the general +surface, it has nothing savage, whereas the mountains above and near the +eagle's nest are of the most broken outlines; the declivities are bulging +rocks, of immense size, which seem to impend in horrid forms over the +lake, and where an opening among them is caught, others of the same rude +character rear their threatening heads. From different parts of the +terrace these scenes are viewed in numberless varieties. + +Returned to breakfast, and pursued Mr. Herbert's new road, which he has +traced through the peninsula to Dynis Island, three miles in length; and +it is carried in so judicious a manner through a great variety of ground, +rocky woods, lawns, etc., that nothing can be more pleasing; it passes +through a remarkable scene of rocks, which are covered with woods. From +thence to the marble quarry, which Mr. Herbert is working, and where he +gains variety of marbles, green, red, white, and brown, prettily veined; +the quarry is a shore of rocks, which surround a bay of the lake, and +forms a scene consisting of but few parts, but those strongly marked; the +rocks are bold, and broken into slight caverns; they are fringed with +scattered trees, and from many parts of them wood shoots in that romantic +manner so common at Killarney. Full in front Turk Mountain rises with +the proudest outline, in that abrupt magnificence which fills up the +whole space before one, and closes the scene. + +The road leads by a place where copper-mines were worked; many shafts +appear; as much ore was raised as sold for twenty-five thousand pounds, +but the works were laid aside, more from ignorance in the workmen than +any defects in the mine. + +Came to the opening on the great lake, which appears to advantage here, +the town of Killarney on the north-east shore. Look full on the mountain +Glena, which rises in very bold manner, the hanging woods spread half +way, and are of great extent, and uncommonly beautiful. Two very +pleasing scenes succeed; that to the left is a small bay, hemmed in by a +neck of land in front; the immediate shore rocks, which are in a +picturesque style, and crowned entirely with arbutus, and other wood; a +pretty retired scene, where a variety of objects give no fatigue to the +eye. The other is an admirable mixture of the beautiful and sublime: a +bare rock of an almost regular figure projects from a headland into the +lake, which, with much wood and highland, forms one side of the scene; +the other is wood from a rising ground only; the lake open between, in a +sheet of no great extent, but in front is the hanging wood of Glena, +which appears in full glory. + +Mr. Herbert has built a handsome Gothic bridge, to unite the peninsula to +the island of Brickeen, through the arch of which the waters of the north +and south lake flow. It is a span of twenty-seven feet, and seventeen +high, and over it the road leads to that island. From thence to Brickeen +nearly finished, and it is to be thrown across a bottom into Dynis. + +Returned by the northern path through a thick wood for some distance, and +caught a very agreeable view of Ash Island, seen through an opening, +inclosed on both sides with wood. Pursued the way from these grounds to +Keelbeg, and viewed the bay of the Devil's Island, which is a beautiful +one, inclosed by a shore, to the right of very noble rocks in ledges and +other forms, crowned in a striking manner with wood; a little rocky islet +rises in front; to the left the water opens, and Turk Mountain rises with +that proud superiority which attends him in all these scenes. + +The view of the promontory of Dindog, near this place, closes this part +of the lake, and is indeed singularly beautiful. It is a large rock, +which shoots far into the water, of a height sufficient to be +interesting, in full relief, fringed with a scanty vegetation; the shore +on which you stand bending to the right, as if to meet that rock, +presents a circular shade of dark wood: Turk still the background, in a +character of great sublimity, and Mangerton's loftier summit, but less +interesting outline, a part of the scenery. These views, with others of +less moment, are connected by a succession of lawns breaking among the +wood, pleasing the eye with lively verdure, and relieving it from the +fatigue of the stupendous mountain scenes. + +September 28. Took boat on the lake, from the promontory of Dindog +before mentioned. I had been under a million of apprehensions that I +should see no more of Killarney; for it blew a furious storm all night, +and in the morning the bosom of the lake heaved with agitation, +exhibiting few marks but those of anger. After breakfast it cleared up, +the clouds dispersed by degrees, the waves subsided, the sun shone out in +all its splendour; every scene was gay, and no ideas but pleasure +possessed the breast. With these emotions sallied forth, nor did they +disappoint us. + +Rowed under the rocky shore of Dindog, which is romantic to a great +degree. The base, by the beating of the waves, is worn into caverns, so +that the heads of the rocks project considerably beyond the base, and +hang over in a manner which makes every part of it interesting. +Following the coast, open marble quarry bay, the shore great fragments of +rock tumbled about in the wildest manner. + +The island of rocks against the copper-mine shore a remarkable group. +The shore near Casemilan is of a different nature; it is wood in some +places, in unbroken masses down to the water's edge, in others divided +from it by smaller tracts of rock. Come to a beautiful land-locked bay, +surrounded by a woody shore, which, opening in places, shows other woods +more retired. Tomys is here viewed in a unity of form, which gives it an +air of great magnificence. Turk was obscured by the sun shining +immediately above him, and, casting a stream of burning light on the +water, displayed an effect to describe which the pencil of a Claude alone +would be equal. Turn out of the bay, and gain a full view of the Eagle's +Nest, the mountains above it, and Glena; they form a perfect contrast; +the first are rugged, but Glena mild. Here the shore is a continued +wood. + +Pass the bridge, and cross to Dynis, an island Mr. Herbert has improved +in the most agreeable manner, by cutting walks through it that command a +variety of views. One of these paths on the banks of the channel to the +upper lake is sketched with great taste; it is on one side walled with +natural rocks, from clefts of which shoot a thousand fine arbutuses, that +hang in a rich foliage of flowers and scarlet berries; a turf bench in a +delicious spot; the scene close and sequestered, just enough to give +every pleasing idea annexed to retirement. + +Passing the bridge, by a rapid stream, came presently to the Eagle's +Nest: having viewed this rock from places where it appears only a part of +an object much greater than itself, I had conceived an idea that it did +not deserve the applause given it, but upon coming near I was much +surprised; the approach is wonderfully fine, the river leads directly to +its foot, and does not give the turn till immediately under, by which +means the view is much more grand than it could otherwise be; it is +nearly perpendicular, and rises in such full majesty, with so bold an +outline, and such projecting masses in its centre, that the magnificence +of the object is complete. The lower part is covered with wood, and +scattered trees climb almost to the top, which (if trees can be amiss in +Ireland) rather weaken the impression raised by this noble rock. This +part is a hanging wood, or an object whose character is perfect beauty; +but the upper scene, the broken outline, rugged sides, and bulging +masses, all are sublime, and so powerful, that sublimity is the general +impression of the whole, by overpowering the idea of beauty raised by the +wood. This immense height of the mountains of Killarney may be estimated +by this rock; from any distant place that commands it, it appears the +lowest crag of a vast chain, and of no account; but on a close approach +it is found to command a very different respect. + +Pass between the mountains called the Great Range, towards the upper +lake. Here Turk, which has so long appeared with a figure perfectly +interesting, is become, from a different position, an unmeaning lump. +The rest of the mountains, as you pass, assume a varied appearance, and +are of a prodigious magnitude. The scenery in this channel is great and +wild in all its features; wood is very scarce; vast rocks seem tossed in +confusion through the narrow vale, which is opened among the mountains +for the river to pass. Its banks are rocks in a hundred forms; the +mountain-sides are everywhere scattered with them. There is not a +circumstance but is in unison with the wild grandeur of the scene. + +Coleman's Eye, a narrow pass, opens a different scenery. Came to a +region in which the beautiful and the great are mixed without offence. +The islands are most of them thickly wooded. Oak Isle in particular +rises on a pretty base, and is a most beautiful object: Macgillicuddy +Reeks, with their broken points; Baum, with his perfect cone; the Purple +Mountain, with his broad and more regular head; and Turk, having assumed +a new and more interesting aspect, unite with the opposite hills, part of +which have some wood left on them, to form a scene uncommonly striking. +Here you look back on a very peculiar spot; it is a parcel of rocks which +cross the lake, and form a gap that opens to distant water, the whole +backed by Turk, in a style of the highest grandeur. + +Come to Derry Currily, which is a great sweep of mountain, covered partly +with wood, hanging in a very noble manner, but part cut down, much of it +mangled, and the rest inhabited by coopers, boat-builders, carpenters, +and turners, a sacrilegious tribe, who have turned the Dryads from their +ancient habitations. The cascade here is a fine one; but passed quickly +from hence to scenes unmixed with pain. + +Row to the cluster of the Seven Islands, a little archipelago; they rise +very boldly from the water upon rocky bases, and are crowned in the most +beautiful manner with wood, among which are a number of arbutuses; the +channels among them opening to new scenes, and the great amphitheatre of +rock and mountain that surround them unite to form a noble view. + +Into the river, at the very end of the lake, which winds towards +Macgillicuddy Reeks in fanciful meanders. + +Returned by a course somewhat different, through the Seven Islands, and +back to the Eagle's Nest, viewing the scenes already mentioned in new +positions. At that noble rock fired three cannon for the echo, which +indeed is prodigious; the report does not consist of direct +reverberations from one rock to another with a pause between, but has an +exact resemblance to a peal of thunder rattling behind the rock, as if +travelling the whole scenery we had viewed, and lost in the immensity of +Macgillicuddy Reeks. + +Returning through the bridge, turn to the left round Dynis Island, under +the woods of Glena; open on the cultivated country beyond the town of +Killarney, and come gradually in sight of Innisfallen and Ross Island. + +Pass near to the wood of Glena, which here takes the appearance of one +immense sweep hanging in the most beautiful manner imaginable, on the +side of a vast mountain to a point, shooting into the great lake. A more +glorious scene is not to be imagined. It is one deep mass of wood, +composed of the richest shades perfectly dipping in the water, without +rock or strand appearing, not a break in the whole. The eye passing upon +the sheet of liquid silver some distance, to meet so entire a sweep of +every tint that can compose one vast mass of green, hanging to such an +extent as to fill not only the eye but the imagination, unites in the +whole to form the most noble scene that is anywhere to be beheld. + +Turn under the north shore of Mucruss; the lake here is one great expanse +of water, bounded by the woods described, the islands of Innisfallen, +Ross, etc., and the peninsula. The shore of Mucruss has a great variety; +it is in some places rocky; huge masses tumbled from their base lie +beneath, as in a chaos of ruin. Great caverns worn under them in a +variety of strange forms; or else covered with woods of a variety of +shades. Meet the point of Ardnagluggen (in English where the water +dashes on the rocks) and come under Ornescope, a rocky headland of a most +bold projection hanging many yards over its base, with an old +weather-beaten yew growing from a little bracket of rock, from which the +spot is called Ornescope, or yew broom. + +Mucruss gardens presently open among the woods, and relieve the eye, +almost fatigued with the immense objects upon which it has so long gazed; +these softer scenes of lawn gently swelling among the shrubs and trees +finished the second day. + +September 29. Rode after breakfast to Mangerton Cascade and Drumarourk +Hill, from which the view of Mucruss is uncommonly pleasing. + +Pass the other hill, the view of which I described the 27th, and went to +Colonel Huffy's monument, from whence the scene is different from the +rest; the foreground is a gentle hill, intersected by hedges, forming +several small lawns. There are some scattered trees and houses, with +Mucruss Abbey half obscured by wood, the whole cheerful and backed by +Turk. The lake is of a triangular form, Ross Island and Innisfallen its +limits; the woods of Mucruss and the islands take a new position. + +Returning, took a boat again towards Ross Isle, and as Mucruss retires +from us, nothing can be more beautiful than the spots of lawn in the +terrace opening in the wood; above it the green hills with clumps, and +the whole finishing in the noble group of wood about the abbey, which +here appears a deep shade, and so fine a finishing one, that not a tree +should be touched. Rowed to the east point of Ross, which is well +wooded; turn to the south coast. Doubling the point, the most beautiful +shore of that island appears; it is the well-wooded environs of a bay, +except a small opening to the castle; the woods are in deep shades, and +rise on the regular slopes of a high range of rocky coast. The part in +front of Filekilly point rises in the middle, and sinks towards each end. +The woods of Tomys here appear uncommonly fine. Open Innisfallen, which +is composed at this distance of the most various shades, within a broken +outline, entirely different from the other islands, groups of different +masses rising in irregular tufts, and joined by lower trees. No pencil +could mix a happier assemblage. Land near a miserable room, where +travellers dine. Of the isle of Innisfallen, it is paying no great +compliment to say it is the most beautiful in the king's dominions, and +perhaps in Europe. It contains twenty acres of land, and has every +variety that the range of beauty, unmixed with the sublime, can give. +The general feature is that of wood; the surface undulates into swelling +hills, and sinks into little vales; the slopes are in every direction, +the declivities die gently away, forming those slight inequalities which +are the greatest beauty of dressed grounds. The little valleys let in +views of the surrounding lake between the hills, while the swells break +the regular outline of the water, and give to the whole an agreeable +confusion. The wood has all the variety into which nature has thrown the +surface; in some parts it is so thick as to appear impenetrable, and +secludes all farther view; in others, it breaks into tufts of tall +timber, under which cattle feed. Here they open, as if to offer to the +spectator the view of the naked lawn; in others close, as if purposely to +forbid a more prying examination. Trees of large size and commanding +figure form in some places natural arches; the ivy mixing with the +branches, and hanging across in festoons of foliage, while on one side +the lake glitters among the trees, and on the other a thick gloom dwells +in the recesses of the wood. The figure of the island renders one part a +beautiful object to another; for the coast being broken and indented, +forms bays surrounded either with rock or wood: slight promontories shoot +into the lake, whose rocky edges are crowned with wood. These are the +great features of Innisfallen; the slighter touches are full of beauties +easily imagined by the reader. Every circumstance of the wood, the +water, the rocks, and lawn, are characteristic, and have a beauty in the +assemblage from mere disposition. I must, however, observe that this +delicious retreat is not kept as one could wish. + +Scenes that are great and commanding, from magnitude or wildness, should +never be dressed; the rugged, and even the horrible, may add to the +effect upon the mind: but in such as Innisfallen, a degree of dress, that +is, cleanliness, is even necessary to beauty. I have spoken of lawn, but +I should observe that expression indicates what it ought to be rather +than what it is. It is very rich grass, poached by oxen and cows, the +only inhabitants of the island. No spectator of taste but will regret +the open grounds not being drained with hollow cuts; the ruggedness of +the surface levelled, and the grass kept close shaven by many sheep +instead of beasts. The bushes and briars, where they have encroached on +what ought to be lawn, cleared away; some parts of the isle more opened; +in a word no ornaments given, for the scene wants them not, but +obstructions cleared, ruggedness smoothed, and the whole cleaned. This +is what ought to be done; as to what might be made of the island, if its +noble proprietor (Lord Kenmare) had an inclination, it admits of being +converted into a terrestrial paradise; lawning with the intermixture of +other shrubs and wood, and a little dress, would make it an example of +what ornamented grounds might be, but which not one in a thousand is. +Take the island, however, as it is, with its few imperfections, and where +are we to find such another? What a delicious retreat! an emperor could +not bestow such a one as Innisfallen; with a cottage, a few cows, and a +swarm of poultry, is it possible that happiness should refuse to be a +guest here? + +Row to Ross Castle, in order to coast that island; there is nothing +peculiarly striking in it; return the same way around Innisfallen. In +this little voyage the shore of Ross is one of the most beautiful of the +wooded ones in the lake; it seems to unite with Innisfallen, and projects +into the water in thick woods one beyond another. In the middle of the +channel a large rock, and from the other shore a little promontory of a +few scattered trees; the whole scene pleasing. + +The shore of Innisfallen has much variety, but in general it is woody, +and of the beautiful character which predominates in that island. One +bay, at taking leave of it, is exceedingly pretty; it is a semicircular +one, and in the centre there is a projecting knoll of wood within a bay; +this is uncommon, and has an agreeable effect. + +The near approach to Tomys exhibits a sweep of wood, so great in extent, +and so rich in foliage, that no person can see without admiring it. The +mountainous part above is soon excluded by the approach; wood alone is +seen, and that in such a noble range as to be greatly striking; it just +hollows into a bay, and in the centre of it is a chasm in the wood; this +is a bed of a considerable stream, which forms O'Sullivan's cascade, to +which all strangers are conducted, as one of the principal beauties of +Killarney. Landed to the right of it, and walked under the thick shade +of the wood, over a rocky declivity, close to the torrent stream, which +breaks impetuously from rock to rock, with a roar that kindles +expectation. The picture in your fancy will not exceed the reality; a +great stream bursts from the deep bosom of a wooded glen, hollowed into a +retired recess of rocks and trees, itself a most pleasing and romantic +spot, were there not a drop of water: the first fall is many feet +perpendicularly over a rock; to the eye it immediately makes another, the +basin into which it pours being concealed; from this basin it forces +itself impetuously between two rocks. This second fall is also of a +considerable height; but the lower one, the third, is the most +considerable; it issues in the same manner from a basin hid from the +point of view. These basins being large, there appears a space of +several yards between each fall, which adds much to the picturesque +scenery; the whole is within an arch of wood, that hangs over it; the +quantity of water is so considerable, as to make an almost deafening +noise, and uniting with the torrent below, where the fragments of rock +are large and numerous, throw an air of grandeur over the whole. It is +about seventy feet high. Coast from hence the woody shores of Tomys and +Glena; they are upon the whole much the most beautiful ones I have +anywhere seen; Glena woods having more oak, and some arbutuses, are the +finer and deeper shades; Tomys has a great quantity of birch, whose +foliage is not so luxuriant. The reader may figure to himself what these +woods are, when he is informed that they fill an unbroken extent of six +miles in length, and from half a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, +all hanging on the sides of two vast mountains, and coming down with a +full robe of rich luxuriance to the very water's edge. The acclivity of +these hills is such, that every tree appears full to the eye. The +variety of the ground is great; in some places great swells in the +mountain-side, with corresponding hollows, present concave and convex +masses; in others, considerable ridges of land and rock rise from the +sweep, and offer to the astonished eye yet other varieties of shade. +Smaller mountains rise regularly from the immense bosom of the larger, +and hold forth their sylvan heads, backed by yet higher woods. To give +all the varieties of this immense scenery of forest is impossible. Above +the whole is a prodigious mass of mountain, of a gently swelling outline +and soft appearance, varying as the sun or clouds change their position, +but never becoming rugged or threatening to the eye. + +The variations are best seen by rowing near the shore, when every stroke +of the oar gives a new outline, and fresh tints to please the eye: but +for one great impression, row about two miles from the shore of Glena; at +that distance the inequalities in the surface are no longer seen, but the +eye is filled with so immense a range of wood, crowned with a mountain in +perfect unison with itself, that objects, whose character is that of +beauty, are here, from their magnitude, truly magnificent, and attended +with a most forcible expression.--Returned to Mucruss. + +September 30. This morning I had dedicated to the ascent of Mangerton, +but his head was so enshrouded in clouds, and the weather so bad, that I +was forced to give up the scheme: Mr. Herbert has measured him with very +accurate instruments, of which he has a great collection, and found his +height eight hundred and thirty-five yards above the level of the sea. +The Devil's Punch-bowl, from the description I had of it, must be the +crater of an exhausted volcano: there are many signs of them about +Killarney, particularly vast rocks on the sides of mountains, in streams, +as if they had rolled from the top in one direction. Brown stone rocks +are also sometimes found on lime-quarries, tossed thither perhaps in some +vast eruption. + +In my way from Killarney to Castle Island, rode into Lord Kenmare's park, +from whence there is another beautiful view of the lake, different from +many of the preceding; there is a broad margin of cultivated country at +your feet, to lead the eye gradually in the lake, which exhibits her +islands to this point more distinctly than to any other, and the +backgrounds of the mountains of Glena and Tomys give a bold relief. + +Upon the whole, Killarney, among the lakes that I have seen, can scarcely +be said to have a rival. The extent of water in Loch Earne is much +greater, the islands more numerous, and some scenes near Castle Caldwell +of perhaps as great magnificence. The rocks at Keswick are more sublime, +and other lakes may have circumstances in which they are superior; but +when we consider the prodigious woods of Killarney, the immensity of the +mountains, the uncommon beauty of the promontory of Mucruss and the Isle +of Innisfallen, the character of the islands, the singular circumstance +of the arbutus, and the uncommon echoes, it will appear, upon the whole, +to be in reality superior to all comparison. + +Before I quit it I have one other observation to make, which is relative +to the want of accommodations and extravagant expense of strangers +residing at Killarney. I speak it not at all feelingly, thanks to Mr. +Herbert's hospitality, but from the accounts given me: the inns are +miserable, and the lodgings little better. I am surprised somebody with +a good capital does not procure a large well-built inn, to be erected on +the immediate shore of the lake, in an agreeable situation, at a distance +from the town; there are very few places where such a one would answer +better; there ought to be numerous and good apartments. A large +rendezvous-room for billiards, cards, dancing, music, etc., to which the +company might resort when they chose it; an ordinary for those that like +dining in public; boats of all sorts, nets for fishing, and as great a +variety of amusements as could be collected, especially within doors; for +the climate being very rainy, travellers wait with great impatience in a +dirty common inn, which they would not do if they were in the midst of +such accommodations as they meet with at an English spa. But above all, +the prices of everything, from a room and a dinner to a barge and a band +of music, to be reasonable, and hung up in every part of the house. The +resort of strangers to Killarney would then be much increased, and their +stay would be greatly prolonged; they would not view it post-haste, and +fly away the first moment to avoid dirt and imposition. A man with a +good capital and some ingenuity would, I think, make a fortune by fixing +here upon such principles. + +The state of the poor in the whole county of Kerry represented as +exceedingly miserable, and owing to the conduct of men of property, who +are apt to lay the blame on what they call land pirates, or men who offer +the highest rent, and who, in order to pay this rent, must and do re-let +all the cabin lands at an extravagant rise, which is assigning over all +the cabins to be devoured by one farmer. The cottars on a farm cannot go +from one to another, in order to find a good master, as in England; for +all the country is in the same system, and no redress to be found. Such +being the case, the farmers are enabled to charge the price of labour as +low as they please, and rate the land as high as they like. This is an +evil which oppresses them cruelly, and certainly has its origin in its +landlords when they set their farms, setting all the cabins with them, +instead of keeping them tenants to themselves. The oppression is, the +farmer valuing the labour of the poor at fourpence or fivepence a day, +and paying that in land rated much above its value. Owing to this the +poor are depressed; they live upon potatoes and sour milk, and the +poorest of them only salt and water to them, with now and then a herring. +Their milk is bought; for very few keep cows, scarce any pigs, but a few +poultry. Their circumstances are incomparably worse than they were +twenty years ago; for they had all cows, but then they wore no linen: all +now have a little flax. To these evils have been owing emigrations, +which have been considerable. + +To the west of Tralee are the Mahagree Islands, famous for their corn +products; they are rock and sand, stocked with rabbits; near them a sandy +tract, twelve miles long, and one mile broad, to the north, with the +mountains to the south, famous for the best wheat in Kerry; all under the +plough. + +Arriving at Ardfert, Lord Crosby, whose politeness I have every reason to +remember, was so obliging as to carry me by one of the finest strands I +ever rode upon, to view the mouth of the Shannon at Ballengary, the site +of an old fort. It is a vast rock, separated from the country by a chasm +of prodigious depth, through which the waves drive. The rocks of the +coast here are in the boldest style, and hollowed by the furious Atlantic +waves into caverns in which they roar. It was a dead calm, yet the swell +was so heavy, that the great waves rolled in and broke upon the rocks +with such violence as to raise an immense foam, and give one an idea of +what a storm would be; but fancy rarely falls short in her pictures. The +view of the Shannon is exceedingly noble; it is eight miles over, the +mouth formed by two headlands of very high and bold cliffs, and the reach +of the river in view very extensive; it is an immense scenery: perhaps +the noblest mouth of a river in Europe. + +Ardfert is very near the sea, so near it that single trees or rows are +cut in pieces with the wind, yet about Lord Glendour's house there are +extensive plantations exceedingly flourishing, many fine ash and beech; +about a beautiful Cistercian abbey, and a silver fir of forty-eight +years' growth, of an immense height and size. + +October 3. Left Ardfert, accompanying Lord Crosby to Listowel. Called +in the way to view Lixnaw, the ancient seat of the Earls of Kerry, but +deserted for ten years past, and now presents so melancholy a scene of +desolation, that it shocked me to see it. Everything around lies in +ruin, and the house itself is going fast off by thieving depredations of +the neighbourhood. I was told a curious anecdote of this estate; which +shows wonderfully the improvement of Ireland. The present Earl of +Kerry's grandfather, Thomas, agreed to lease the whole estate for 1,500 +pounds a year to a Mr. Collis for ever, but the bargain went off upon a +dispute whether the money should be paid at Cork or Dublin. Those very +lands are now let at 20,000 pounds a year. There is yet a good deal of +wood, particularly a fine ash grove, planted by the present Earl of +Shelburne's father. + +Proceeded to Woodford, Robert Fitzgerald's, Esq., passing Listowel +Bridge; the vale leading to it is very fine, the river is broad, the +lands high, and one side a very extensive hanging wood, opening on those +of Woodford in a pleasing style. + +Woodford is an agreeable scene; close to the house is a fine winding +river under a bank of thick wood, with the view of an old castle hanging +over it. + +In 1765, Mr. Fitzgerald was travelling from Constantinople to Warsaw, and +a waggon with his baggage heavily laden overset; the country people +harnessed two buffaloes by the horns, in order to draw it over, which +they did with ease. In some very instructive conversation I had with +this gentleman on the subject of his travels, this circumstance +particularly struck me. + +October 4. From Woodford to Tarbat, the seat of Edward Leslie, Esq., +through a country rather dreary, till it came upon Tarbat, which is so +much the contrary that it appeared to the highest advantage; the house is +on the edge of a beautiful lawn, with a thick margin of full grown wood, +hanging on a steep bank to the Shannon, so that the river is seen from +the house over the tops of this wood, which being of a broken irregular +outline has an effect very striking and uncommon; the river is two or +three miles broad here, and the opposite coast forms a promontory which +has from Tarbat exactly the appearance of a large island. To the east, +the river swells into a triangular lake, with a reach opening at the +distant corner of it to Limerick. The union of wood, water, and lawn +forms upon the whole a very fine scene; the river is very magnificent. +From the hill on the coast above the island, the lawn and wood appear +also to great advantage. But the finest point of view is from the higher +hill on the other side of the house, which looking down on all these +scenes, they appear as a beautiful ornament to the Shannon, which spreads +forth its proud course from two to nine miles wide, surrounded by +highlands; a scenery truly magnificent. + +The state of the poor is something better than it was twenty years ago, +particularly their clothing, cattle, and cabins. They live upon potatoes +and milk; all have cows, and when they dry them, buy others. They also +have butter, and most of them keep pigs, killing them for their own use. +They have also herrings. They are in general in the cottar system, of +paying for labour by assigning some land to each cabin. The country is +greatly more populous than twenty years ago, and is now increasing; and +if ever so many cabins were built by a gradual increase, tenants would be +found for them. A cabin and five acres of land will let for 4 pounds a +year. The industrious cottar, with two, three, or four acres, would be +exceedingly glad to have his time to himself, and have such an annual +addition of land as he was able to manage, paying a fair rent for it; +none would decline it but the idle and worthless. + +Tithes are all annually valued by the proctors, and charged very high. +There are on the Shannon about one hundred boats employed in bringing +turf to Limerick from the coast of Kerry and Clare, and in fishing; the +former carry from twenty to twenty-five tons, the latter from five to +ten, and are navigated each by two men and a boy. + +October 5. Passed through a very unentertaining country (except for a +few miles on the bank of the Shannon) to Altavilla, but Mr. Bateman being +from home, I was disappointed in getting an account of the palatines +settled in his neighbourhood. Kept the road to Adair, where Mrs. Quin, +with a politeness equalled only by her understanding, procured me every +intelligence I wished for. + +Palatines were settled here by the late Lord Southwell about seventy +years ago. + +They preserve some of their German customs: sleep between two beds. They +appoint a burgomaster, to whom they appeal in case of all disputes; and +they yet preserve their language, but that is declining. They are very +industrious, and in consequence are much happier and better fed, clothed, +and lodged than the Irish peasants. We must not, however, conclude from +hence that all is owing to this; their being independent farmers, and +having leases, are circumstances which will create industry. Their crops +are much better than those of their neighbours. There are three villages +of them, about seventy families in all. For some time after they settled +they fed upon sour-crout, but by degrees left it off, and took to +potatoes; but now subsist upon them and butter and milk, but with a great +deal of oat bread, and some of wheat, some meat and fowls, of which they +raise many. They have all offices to their houses, that is, stables and +cow-houses, and a lodge for their ploughs, etc. They keep their cows in +the house in winter, feeding them upon hay and oat straw. They are +remarkable for the goodness and cleanliness of their houses. The women +are very industrious, reap the corn, plough the ground sometimes, and do +whatever work may be going on; they also spin, and make their children do +the same. Their wheat is much better than any in the country, insomuch +that they get a better price than anybody else. Their industry goes so +far, that jocular reports of its excess are spread. In a very pinching +season, one of them yoked his wife against a horse, and went in that +manner to work, and finished a journey at plough. The industry of the +women is a perfect contrast to the Irish ladies in the cabins, who cannot +be persuaded, on any consideration, even to make hay, it not being the +custom of the country, yet they bind corn, and do other works more +laborious. Mrs. Quin, who is ever attentive to introduce whatever can +contribute to their welfare and happiness, offered many premiums to +induce them to make hay, of hats, cloaks, stockings, etc. etc., but all +would not do. + +Few places have so much wood about them as Adair; Mr. Quin has above one +thousand acres in his hands, in which a large proportion is under wood. +The deer park of four hundred acres is almost full of old oak and very +fine thorns, of a great size; and about the house, the plantations are +very extensive, of elm and other wood, but that thrives better than any +other sort. I have nowhere seen finer than vast numbers here. There is +a fine river runs under the house, and within view are no less than three +ruins of Franciscan friaries, two of them remarkably beautiful, and one +has most of the parts perfect, except the roof. + +In Mr. Quin's house there are some very good pictures, particularly an +Annunciation by Domenichino, which is a beautiful piece. It was brought +lately from Italy by Mr. Quin, junior. The colours are rich and mellow, +and the hairs of the heads inimitably pleasing; the group of angels at +the top, to the left of the piece, is very natural. It is a piece of +great merit. The companion is a Magdalen; the expression of melancholy, +or rather misery, remarkably strong. There is a gloom in the whole in +full unison with the subject. There are, besides these, some others +inferior, yet of merit, and two very good portraits of Lord Dartry (Mrs. +Quin's brother), and of Mr. Quin, junior, by Pompeio Battoni. A piece in +an uncommon style, done on oak, of Esther and Ahasuerus; the colours +tawdry, but the grouping attitudes and effect pleasing. + +Castle Oliver is a place almost entirely of Mr. Oliver's creation; from a +house, surrounded with cabins and rubbish, he has fixed it in a fine +lawn, surrounded by good wood. The park he has very much improved on an +excellent plan; by means of seven feet hurdles, he fences off part of it +that wants to be cleaned or improved; these he cultivates, and leaves for +grass, and then takes another spot, which is by much the best way of +doing it. In the park is a glen, an English mile long, winding in a +pleasing manner, with much wood hanging on the banks. Mr. Oliver has +conducted a stream through this vale, and formed many little water-falls +in an exceedingly good taste, chiefly overhung with wood, but in some +places open with several little rills, trickling over stones down the +slopes. A path winds through a large wood and along the brow of the +glen; this path leads to a hermitage, a cave of rock, in a good taste, +and to some benches, from which the views of the water and wood are in +the sequestered style they ought to be. One of these little views, which +catches several falls under the arch of the bridge, is one of the +prettiest touches of the kind I have seen. The vale beneath the house, +when viewed from the higher grounds, is pleasing; it is very well wooded, +there being many inclosures, surrounded by pine trees, and a thick fine +mass of wood rises from them up the mountain-side, makes a very good +figure, and would be better, had not Mr. Oliver's father cut it into +vistas for shooting. Upon the whole, the place is highly improved, and +when the mountains are planted, in which Mr. Oliver is making a +considerable progress, it will be magnificent. + +In the house are several fine pictures, particularly five pieces by Seb. +Ricci, Venus and AEneas; Apollo and Pan; Venus and Achilles; and Pyrrhus +and Andromache, by Lazzerini; and the Rape of the Lapithi by the +Centaurs. The last is by much the finest, and is a very capital piece; +the expression is strong, the figures are in bold relief, and the +colouring good. Venus and Achilles is a pleasing picture; the continence +of Scipio is well grouped, but Scipio, as in every picture I ever saw of +him, has no expression. Indeed, chastity is in the countenance so +passive a virtue as not to be at all suited to the genius of painting; +the idea is rather that of insipidity, and accordingly Scipio's +expression is generally insipid enough. Two fine pieces, by Lucca +Jordano, Hercules and Anteus; Samson Killing the Lion: both dark and +horrid, but they are highly finished and striking. Six heads of old men, +by Nagori, excellent; and four young women, in the character of the +seasons. + +October 9. Left Castle Oliver. Had I followed my inclination, my stay +would have been much longer, for I found it equally the residence of +entertainment and instruction. Passed through Kilfennan and +Duntreleague, in my way to Tipperary. The road leads everywhere on the +sides of the hills, so as to give a very distinct view of the lower +grounds; the soil all the way is the same sort of sandy reddish loam I +have already described, incomparable land for tillage: as I advanced it +grew something lighter, and in many places free from gravel. Bullocks +the stock all the way. Towards Tipperary I saw vast numbers of sheep, +and many bullocks. All this line of country is part of the famous golden +vale. To Thomas Town, where I was so unfortunate as not to find Mr. +Matthew at home; the domain is one thousand five hundred English acres, +so well planted that I could hardly believe myself in Ireland. There is +a hill in the park from which the view of it, the country and the +Galties, are striking. + +October 12. To Lord de Montalt's, at Dundrum, a place which his lordship +has ornamented in the modern style of improvement: the house was situated +in the midst of all the regular exertions of the last age. Parterres, +parapets of earth, straight walks, knots and clipped hedges, all which he +has thrown down, with an infinite number of hedges and ditches, filled up +ponds, etc., and opened one very noble lawn around him, scattered +negligently over with trees, and cleared the course of a choked-up river, +so that it flows at present in a winding course through the grounds. + +October 13. Leaving Dundrum, passed through Cashel, where is a rock and +ruin on it, called the Rock of Cashel, supposed to be of the remotest +antiquity. Towards Clonmel, the whole way through the same rich vein of +red sandy loam I have so often mentioned: I examined it in several +fields, and found it to be of an extraordinary fertility, and as fine +turnip land as ever I saw. It is much under sheep; but towards Clonmel +there is a great deal of tillage. + +The first view of that town, backed by a high ridge of mountains, with a +beautiful space near it of inclosures, fringed with a scattering of +trees, was very pleasing. It is the best situated place in the county of +Tipperary, on the Suir, which brings up boats of ten tons burthen. It +appears to be a busy populous place, yet I was told that the manufacture +of woollens is not considerable. It is noted for being the birthplace of +the inimitable Sterne. + +To Sir William Osborne's, three miles the other side Clonmel. From a +character so remarkable for intelligence and precision, I could not fail +of meeting information of the most valuable kind. This gentleman has +made a mountain improvement which demands particular attention, being +upon a principle very different from common ones. + +Twelve years ago he met with a hearty-looking fellow of forty, followed +by a wife and six children in rags, who begged. Sir William questioned +him upon the scandal of a man in full health and vigour, supporting +himself in such a manner: the man said he could get no work: "Come along +with me, I will show you a spot of land upon which I will build a cabin +for you, and if you like it you shall fix there." The fellow followed +Sir William, who was as good as his word: he built him a cabin, gave him +five acres of a heathy mountain, lent him four pounds to stock with, and +gave him, when he had prepared his ground, as much lime as he would come +for. The fellow flourished; he went on gradually; repaid the four +pounds, and presently became a happy little cottar: he has at present +twelve acres under cultivation, and a stock in trade worth at least 80 +pounds; his name is John Conory. + +The success which attended this man in two or three years brought others +who applied for land, and Sir William gave them as they applied. The +mountain was under lease to a tenant, who valued it so little, that upon +being reproached with not cultivating, or doing something with it, he +assured Sir William that it was utterly impracticable to do anything with +it, and offered it to him without any deduction of rent. Upon this +mountain he fixed them; gave them terms as they came determinable with +the lease of the farm, so that every one that came in succession had +shorter and shorter tenures; yet are they so desirous of settling, that +they come at present, though only two years remain for a term. + +In this manner Sir William has fixed twenty-two families, who are all +upon the improving hand, the meanest growing richer; and find themselves +so well off, that no consideration will induce them to work for others, +not even in harvest: their industry has no bounds; nor is the day long +enough for the revolution of their incessant labour. Some of them bring +turf to Clonmel, and Sir William has seen Conory returning loaded with +soap ashes. + +He found it difficult to persuade them to make a road to their village, +but when they had once done it, he found none in getting cross roads to +it, they found such benefit in the first. Sir William has continued to +give whatever lime they come for: and they have desired one thousand +barrels among them for the year 1766, which their landlord has +accordingly contracted for with his lime-burner, at 11d. a barrel. Their +houses have all been built at his expense, and done by contract at 6 +pounds each, after which they raise what little offices they want for +themselves. + +October 15. Left New Town, and keeping on the banks of the Suir, passed +through Carrick to Curraghmore, the seat of the Earl of Tyrone. This +line of country, in point of soil, inferior to what I have of late gone +through: so that I consider the rich country to end at Clonmel. + +Emigrations from this part of Ireland principally to Newfoundland: for a +season they have 18 or 20 pounds for their pay, and are maintained, but +they do not bring home more than 7 to 11 pounds. Some of them stay and +settle; three years ago there was an emigration of indented servants to +North Carolina of three hundred, but they were stopped by contrary winds, +etc. There had been something of this constantly, but not to that +amount. The oppression which the poor people have most to complain of is +the not having any tenures in their lands, by which means they are +entirely subject to their employers. + +Manufactures here are only woollens. Carrick is one of the greatest +manufacturing towns in Ireland. Principally for ratteens, but of late +they have got into broadcloths, all for home consumption; the manufacture +increases, and is very flourishing. There are between three and four +hundred people employed by it in Carrick and its neighbourhood. + +Curraghmore is one of the finest places in Ireland, or indeed that I have +anywhere seen. The house, which is large, is situated upon a rising +ground, in a vale surrounded by very bold hills, which rise in a variety +of forms and offer to the eye, in rising through the grounds, very noble +and striking scenes. These hills are exceedingly varied, so that the +detour of the place is very pleasing. In order to see it to advantage, I +would advise a traveller to take the ride which Lord Tyrone carried me. +Passed through the deer-park wood of old oaks, spread over the side of a +bold hill, and of such an extent, that the scene is a truly forest one, +without any other boundary in view than what the stems of trees offer +from mere extent, retiring one behind another till they thicken so much +to the eye, under the shade of their spreading tops, as to form a distant +wall of wood. This is a sort of scene not common in Ireland; it is a +great extent alone that will give it. From this hill enter an evergreen +plantation, a scene which winds up the deer-park hill, and opens on to +the brow of it, which commands a most noble view indeed. The lawns round +the house appear at one's feet, at the bottom of a great declivity of +wood, almost everywhere surrounded by plantations. The hills on the +opposite side of the vale against the house consist of a large lawn in +the centre of the two woods, that to the right of an immense extent, +which waves over a mountain-side in the finest manner imaginable, and +lead the eye to the scenery on the left, which is a beautiful vale of +rich inclosures, of several miles extent, with the Suir making one great +reach through it, and a bold bend just before it enters a gap in the +hills towards Waterford, and winds behind them; to the right you look +over a large plain, backed by the great Cummeragh Mountains. For a +distinct extent of view, the parts of which are all of a commanding +magnitude, and a variety equal to the number, very few prospects are +finer than this. + +From hence the boundary plantation extends some miles to the west and +north-west of the domain, forming a margin to the whole of different +growths, having been planted, by degrees, from three to sixteen years. +It is in general well grown, and the trees thriven exceedingly, +particularly the oak, beech, larch, and firs. It is very well sketched, +with much variety given to it. + +Pass by the garden across the river which murmurs over a rocky bed, and +follow the riding up a steep hill, covered with wood from some breaks, in +which the house appears perfectly buried in a deep wood, and come out, +after a considerable extent of ride, into the higher lawn, which commands +a view of the scenery about the house; and from the brow of the hill the +water, which is made to imitate a river, has a good effect, and throws a +great air of cheerfulness over the scene, for from hence the declivity +below it is hid. But the view, which is the most pleasing from hence, +the finest at Curraghmore, and indeed one of the most striking that is +anywhere to be seen, is that of the hanging wood to the right of the +house, rising in so noble a sweep as perfectly to fill the eye, and leave +the fancy scarce anything to wish: at the bottom is a small semicircular +lawn, around which flows the river, under the immediate shade of very +noble oaks. The whole wood rises boldly from the bottom, tree above +tree, to a vast height, of large oak. The masses of shade are but tints +of one colour; it is not chequered with a variety. There is a majestic +simplicity, a unity in the whole, which is attended with an uncommon +impression, and such as none but the most magnificent scenes can raise. + +Descending from hence through the roads, the riding crosses the river, +and passes through the meadow which has such an effect in the preceding +scene, from which also the view is very fine, and leads home through a +continued and an extensive range of fine oak, partly on a declivity, at +the bottom of which the river murmurs its broken course. + +Besides this noble riding, there is a very agreeable walk runs +immediately on the banks of the river, which is perfect in its style; it +is a sequestered line of wood, so high on the declivities in some places, +and so thick on the very edge in others, overspreading the river, that +the character of the scene is gloom and melancholy, heightened by the +noise of the water falling from stone to stone. There is a considerable +variety in the banks of it, and in the figures and growth of the wood, +but none that hurts the impression, which is well preserved throughout. + +October 17. Accompanied Lord Tyrone to Waterford; made some inquiries +into the state of their trade, but found it difficult, from the method in +which the custom-house books are kept, to get the details I wished; but +in the year following, having the pleasure of a long visit at +Ballycanvan, the seat of Cornelius Bolton, Esq., his son, the member for +the city, procured me every information I could wish, and that in so +liberal and polite a manner, that it would not be easy to express the +obligations I am under to both. In general, I was informed that the +trade of the place had increased considerably in ten years, both the +exports and imports--the exports of the products of pasturage, full +one-third in twelve years. That the staple trade of the place is the +Newfoundland trade. This is very much increased; there is more of it +here than anywhere. The number of people who go as passengers in the +Newfoundland ships is amazing: from sixty to eighty ships, and from three +thousand to five thousand annually. They come from most parts of +Ireland, from Cork, Kerry, etc. Experienced men will get eighteen to +twenty-five pounds for the season, from March to November. A man who +never went will have five to seven pounds and his passage, and others +rise to twenty pounds; the passage out they get, but pay home two pounds. +An industrious man in a year will bring home twelve to sixteen pounds +with him, and some more. A great point for them is to be able to carry +out all their slops, for everything there is exceedingly dear, one or two +hundred per cent. dearer than they can get them at home. They are not +allowed to take out any woollen goods but for their own use. The ships +go loaded with pork, beef, butter, and some salt; and bring home +passengers, or get freights where they can; sometimes rum. The Waterford +pork comes principally from the barony of Iverk, in Kilkenny, where they +fatten great numbers of large hogs; for many weeks together they kill +here three to four thousand a week, the price fifty shillings to four +pounds each; goes chiefly to Newfoundland. One was killed in Mr. +Penrose's cellar that weighed five hundredweight and a quarter, and +measured from the nose to the end of the tail nine feet four inches. + +There is a foundry at Waterford for pots, kettles, weights, and all +common utensils; and a manufactory by Messrs. King and Tegent of anvils +to anchors, twenty hundredweight, etc., which employs forty hands. +Smiths earn from 6s. to 24s. a week. Nailers from 10s. to 12s. And +another less considerable. There are two sugar-houses, and many +salt-houses. The salt is boiled over lime-kilns. + +There is a fishery upon the coast of Waterford, for a great variety of +fish, herrings particularly, in the mouth of Waterford Harbour, and two +years ago in such quantities there, that the tides left the ditches full +of them. There are some premium boats both here and at Dungarvan, but +the quantity of herrings barrelled is not considerable. + +The butter trade of Waterford has increased greatly for seven years past; +it comes from Waterford principally, but much from Carlow; for it comes +from twenty miles beyond Carlow, for sixpence per hundred. From the 1st +of January, 1774, to the 1st of January, 1775, there were exported +fifty-nine thousand eight hundred and fifty-six casks of butter, each, on +an average, one hundredweight, at the mean price of 50s. Revenue of +Waterford, 1751, 17,000 pounds; 1776, 52,000 pounds. The slaughter trade +has increased, but not so much as the butter. Price of butter now at +Waterford, 58s.; twenty years' average, 42s. Beef now to 25s.; average, +twenty years, 10s. to 18s. Pork, now 30s.; average, twenty years, 16s. +to 22s. Eighty sail of ships now belonging to the port, twenty years ago +not thirty. They pay to the captains of ship of two hundred tons 5 +pounds a month; the mate 3 pounds 10s. Ten men at 40s., five years ago +only 27s. Building ships, 10 pounds a ton. Wear and tear of such a +ship, 20 pounds a month. Ship provisions, 20s. a month. + +The new church in this city is a very beautiful one; the body of it is in +the same style exactly as that of Belfast, already described: the total +length one hundred and seventy feet, the breadth fifty-eight. The length +of the body of the church ninety-two, the height forty; breadth between +the pillars, twenty-six. The aisle (which I do not remember at Belfast) +is fifty-eight by forty-five. A room on one side the steeple, space for +the bishop's court, twenty-four by eighteen; on the other side, a room of +the same size for the vestry; and twenty-eight feet square left for a +steeple when their funds will permit. The whole is light and beautiful. +It was built by subscription, and there is a fine organ bespoke at +London. But the finest object in this city is the quay, which is +unrivalled by any I have seen. It is an English mile long; the buildings +on it are only common houses, but the river is near a mile over, flows up +to the town in one noble reach, and the opposite shore a bold hill, which +rises immediately from the water to a height that renders the whole +magnificent. This is scattered with some wood, and divided into pastures +of a beautiful verdure by hedges. I crossed the water, in order to walk +up the rocks on the top of this hill. In one place, over against +Bilberry quarry, you look immediately down on the river, which flows in +noble reaches from Granny Castle on the right past Cromwell's rock, the +shores on both sides quite steep, especially the rock of Bilberry. You +look over the whole town, which here appears in a triangular form. +Besides the city the Cummeragh mountains, Slein-a-man, etc., come in +view. Kilmacow river falls into the Suir, after flowing through a large +extent of well-planted country. This is the finest view about the city. + +From Waterford to Passage, and got my chaise and horses on board the +_Countess of Tyrone_ packet, in full expectation of sailing immediately, +as the wind was fair, but I soon found the difference of these private +vessels and the Post-Office packets at Holyhead and Dublin. When the +wind was fair the tide was foul; and when the tide was with them the wind +would not do. In English, there was not a complement of passengers, and +so I had the agreeableness of waiting with my horses in the hold, by way +of rest, after a journey of above one thousand five hundred miles. + +October 18. After a beastly night passed on shipboard, and finding no +signs of departure, walked to Ballycanvan, the seat of Cornelius Bolton, +Esq.; rode with Mr. Bolton, jun., to Faithleghill, which commands one of +the finest views I have seen in Ireland. There is a rock on the top of a +hill which has a very bold view on every side down on a great extent of +country, much of which is grass inclosures of a good verdure. This hill +is the centre of a circle of about ten miles diameter, beyond which +higher lands rise, which, after spreading to a great extent, have on +every side a background of mountain: in a northerly direction Mount +Leinster, between Wexford and Wicklow, twenty-six miles off, rises in +several heads far above the clouds. A little to the right of this, +Sliakeiltha (_i.e._ "the woody mountain"), at a less distance, is a fine +object. To the left, Tory Hill, only five miles, in a regular form, +varies the outline. To the east, there is the Long Mountain, eighteen +miles distant, and several lesser Wexford hills. To the south-east, the +Saltees. To the south, the ocean, and the Colines about the bay of +Tramore. To the west, Monavollagh rises two thousand one hundred and +sixty feet above the level of the sea, eighteen miles off, being part of +the great range of the Cummeragh mountains: and to the north-west +Slein-a-man, at the distance of twenty-four miles; so that the outline is +everywhere bold and distinct, though distant. These circumstances would +alone form a great view, but the water part of it, which fills up the +canvas, is in a much superior style. The great river Suir takes a +winding course from the city of Waterford, through a rich country, +hanging on the sides of hills to its banks, and, dividing into a double +channel, forms the lesser island, both of which courses you command +distinctly. United, it makes a bold reach under the hill on which you +stand, and there receives the noble tribute of the united waters of the +Barrow and Nore in two great channels, which form the larger island. +Enlarged by such an accession of water, it winds round the hill in a +bending course, of the freest and most graceful outline, everywhere from +one to three miles across, with bold shores that give a sharp outline to +its course to the ocean. Twenty sail of ships at Passage gave animation +to the scene. Upon the whole, the boldness of the mountain outline, the +variety of the grounds, the vast extent of river, with the declivity to +it from the point of view, altogether form so unrivalled a scenery, every +object so commanding, that the general want of wood is almost forgotten. + +Two years after this account was written I again visited this enchanting +hill, and walked to it, day after day, from Ballycanvan, and with +increasing pleasure. Mr. Bolton, jun., has, since I was there before, +inclosed forty acres on the top and steep slope to the water, and begun +to plant them. This will be a prodigious addition; for the slope forming +the bold shore for a considerable space, and having projections from +which the wood will all be seen in the gentle hollows of the hill, the +effect will be amazingly fine. Walks and a riding are tracing out, which +will command fresh beauties at every step. The spots from which a +variety of beautiful views are seen are numerous. All the way from +Ballycanvan to Faithleg, the whole, to the amount of one thousand two +hundred acres, is the property of Mr. Bolton. + +Farms about Ballycanvan, Waterford, etc., are generally small, from +twenty and thirty to five hundred acres, generally about two hundred and +fifty. All above two hundred acres are in general dairies; some of the +dairy ones rise very high. The soil is a reddish stony or slaty gravel, +dry, except low lands, which are clay or turf. Rents vary much--about +the town very high, from 5 pounds 5s. to 9 pounds, but at the distance of +a few miles towards Passage, etc., they are from 20s. to 40s., and some +higher, but the country in general does not rise so high, usually 10s. to +20s. for dairying land. + +The poor people spin their own flax, but not more, and a few of them wool +for themselves. Their food is potatoes and milk; but they have a +considerable assistance from fish, particularly herrings; part of the +year they have also barley, oaten, and rye bread. They are incomparably +better off in every respect than twenty years ago. Their increase about +Ballycanvan is very great, and tillage all over this neighbourhood is +increased. The rent of a cabin 10s.; an acre with it 20s. The grass of +a cow a few years ago 20s., now 25s. or 30s. + +An exceeding good practice here in making their fences is, they plant the +quick on the side of the bank in the common manner, and then, instead of +the dead hedge we use in England on the top of the bank, they plant a row +of old thorns, two or three feet high, which readily grow, and form at +once a most excellent fence. Their way also of taking in sand-banks from +the river deserves notice. They stake down a row of furzes at low water, +laying stones on them to the height of one or two feet; these retain the +mud, which every tide brings in, so as to fill up all within the furze as +high as their tops. I remarked, on the strand, that a few boatloads of +stones laid carelessly had had this effect, for within them I measured +twelve inches deep of rich blue mud left behind them, the same as they +use in manuring, full of shells, and effervesced strongly with vinegar. + +Among the poor people the fishermen are in much the best circumstances. +The fishery is considerable; Waterford and its harbour have fifty boats +each, from eight to twelve tons, six men on an average to each, but to +one of six tons five men go. A boat of eight tons costs 40 pounds; one +of twelve, 60 pounds. To each boat there is a train of nets of six pair, +which costs from 4 pounds 4s. to 6 pounds 6s.; tan them with bark. Their +only net fishery is that of herrings, which is commonly carried on by +shares. The division of the fish is, first, one-fourth for the boat; and +then the men and nets divide the rest, the latter reckoned as three men. +They reckon ten maze of herrings an indifferent night's work; when there +is a good take, forty maze have been taken, twenty a good night; the +price per maze from 1s. to 7s., average 5s. Their take in 1775, the +greatest they have known, when they had more than they could dispose of, +and the whole town and country stunk of them, they retailed them +thirty-two for a penny; 1773 and 1774 good years. They barrelled many, +but in general there is an import of Swedish. Besides the common +articles I have registered, the following are: pigeons, 1s. a couple; a +hare, 1s.; partridges, 9d.; turbots, fine ones, 4s. to 10s.; soles a +pair, large, 1s. 6d to 1s.; lobsters, 3d. each; oysters, 6s. per hundred; +rabbits, 1s. to 1s. 4d. a couple; cod, 1s. each, large; salmon, 1.25d. to +2d. + +A very extraordinary circumstance I was told--that within five or six +years there has been much hay carried from Waterford to Norway, in the +Norway ships that bring deals. As hay is dear here, it proves a most +backward state of husbandry in that northerly region, since the +neighbourhood of sea-ports to which this hay can alone go is generally +the best improved in all countries. + +October 19, the wind being fair, took my leave of Mr. Bolton, and went +back to the ship. Met with a fresh scene of provoking delays, so that it +was the next morning, October 20, at eight o'clock, before we sailed, and +then it was not wind, but a cargo of passengers that spread our sails. +Twelve or fourteen hours are not an uncommon passage, but such was our +luck that, after being in sight of the lights on the Smalls, we were by +contrary winds blown opposite to Arklow sands. A violent gale arose, +which presently blew a storm that lasted thirty-six hours, in which, +under a reefed mainsail, the ship drifted up and down wearing in order to +keep clear of the coasts. + +No wonder this appeared to me, a fresh-water sailor, as a storm, when the +oldest men on board reckoned it a violent one. The wind blew in furious +gusts; the waves ran very high; the cabin windows burst open, and the sea +pouring in set everything afloat, and among the rest a poor lady, who had +spread her bed on the floor. We had, however, the satisfaction to find, +by trying the pumps every watch, that the ship made little water. I had +more time to attend these circumstances than the rest of the passengers, +being the only one in seven who escaped without being sick. It pleased +God to preserve us, but we did not cast anchor in Milford Haven till +Tuesday morning, the 22nd, at one o'clock. + +It is much to be wished that there were some means of being secure of +packets sailing regularly, instead of waiting till there is such a number +of passengers as satisfies the owner and captain. With the Post-Office +packets there is this satisfaction, and a great one it is. The contrary +conduct is so perfectly detestable that I should suppose the scheme of +Waterford ones can never succeed. + +Two years after, having been assured this conveyance was put on a new +footing, I ventured to try it again, but was mortified to find that the +_Tyrone_, the only one that could take a chaise or horses (the _Countess_ +being laid up), was repairing, but would sail in five days. I waited, +and received assurance after assurance that she would be ready on such a +day, and then on another. In a word, I waited twenty-four days before I +sailed. Moderately speaking, I could by Dublin have reached Turin or +Milan as soon as I did Milford in this conveyance. All this time the +papers had constant advertisements of the _Tyrone_ sailing regularly, +instead of letting the public know that she was under a repair. Her +owner seems to be a fair and worthy man; he will therefore probably give +up the scheme entirely, unless assisted by the corporation with at least +four ships more, to sail regularly with or without passengers. At +present it is a general disappointment. I was fortunate in Mr. Bolton's +acquaintance, passing my time very agreeably at his hospitable mansion; +but those who, in such a case, should find a Waterford inn their +resource, would curse the _Tyrone_, and set off for Dublin. The expenses +of this passage are higher than those from Dublin to Holyhead: I paid-- + + l. s. d. +A four-wheel chaise 3 3 0 +Three horses 3 3 0 +Self 1 1 0 +Two servants 1 1 0 +Custom-house at Waterford, hay, oats, etc. 2 1 7 +Ditto at Pembroke and Hubberston 3 0 0 +Sailors, boats, and sundry small charges 1 15 5 + 15 5 0 + + * * * * * + +1777. Upon a second journey to Ireland this year, I took the opportunity +of going from Dublin to Mitchelstown, by a route through the central part +of the kingdom, which I had not before sufficiently viewed. + +Left Dublin the 24th of September, and taking the road to Naas, I was +again struck with the great population of the country, the cabins being +so much poorer in the vicinity of the capital than in the more distant +parts of the kingdom. + +To Kildare, crossing the Curragh, so famous for its turf. It is a +sheep-walk of above four thousand English acres, forming a more beautiful +lawn than the hand of art ever made. Nothing can exceed the extreme +softness of the turf, which is of a verdure that charms the eye, and +highly set off by the gentle inequality of surface. The soil is a fine +dry loam on a stony bottom; it is fed by many large flocks, turned on it +by the occupiers of the adjacent farms, who alone have the right, and pay +very great rents on that account. It is the only considerable common in +the kingdom. The sheep yield very little wool, not more than 3lb. per +fleece, but of a very fine quality. + +From Furness to Shaen Castle, in the Queen's County, Dean Coote's; but as +the husbandry, etc., of this neighbourhood is already registered, I have +only to observe that Mr. Coote was so kind as to show me the improved +grounds of Dawson's Court, the seat of Lord Carlow, which I had not seen +before. The principal beauties of the place are the well-grown and +extensive plantations, which form a shade not often met with in Ireland. +There is in the backgrounds a lake well accompanied with wood, broken by +several islands that are covered with underwood, and an ornamented walk +passing on the banks which leads from the house. This lake is in the +season perfectly alive with wild-fowl. Near it is a very beautiful spot, +which commands a view of both woods and water; a situation either for a +house or a temple. Mr. Dawson is adding to the plantations, an +employment of all others the most meritorious in Ireland. Another work, +scarcely less so, was the erecting a large handsome inn, wherein the same +gentleman intends establishing a person who shall be able to supply +travellers post with either chaises or horses. + +From Shaen Castle to Gloster, in the King's County, the seat of John +Lloyd, Esq., member for that county, to whose attention I owe the +following particulars, in which he took every means to have me well and +accurately informed. But first let me observe that I was much pleased to +remark, all the way from Naas quite to Rosscrea, that the country was +amongst the finest I had seen in Ireland, and consequently that I was +fortunate in having an opportunity of seeing it after the involuntary +omission of last year. The cabins, though many of them are very bad, yet +are better than in some other counties, and chimneys generally a part of +them. The people, too, have no very miserable appearance; the breed of +cattle and sheep good, and the hogs much the best I have anywhere seen in +Ireland. Turf is everywhere at hand, and in plenty; yet are the bogs not +so general as to affect the beauty of the country, which is very great in +many tracts, with a scattering of wood, which makes it pleasing. Shaen +Castle stands in the midst of a very fine tract. From Mountrath to +Gloster, Mr. Lloyd's, I could have imagined myself in a very pleasing +part of England. The country breaks into a variety of inequalities of +hill and dale; it is all well inclosed with fine hedges; there is a +plenty of wood, not so monopolised as in many parts of the kingdom by +here and there a solitary seat, but spread over the whole face of the +prospect: look which way you will, it is cultivated and cheerful. + +The Shannon adds not a little to the convenience and agreeableness of a +residence so near it. Besides affording these sorts of wild-fowl, the +quantity and size of its fish are amazing: pikes swarm in it, and rise in +weight to fifty pounds. In the little flat spaces on its banks are small +but deep lochs, which are covered in winter and in floods. When the +river withdraws, it leaves plenty of fish in them, which are caught to +put into stews. Mr. Holmes has a small one before his door at Johnstown, +with a little stream which feeds it. A trowling-rod here gets you a bite +in a moment, of a pike from twenty to forty pounds. I ate of one of +twenty-seven pounds so taken. I had also the pleasure of seeing a +fisherman bring three trout, weighing fourteen pounds, and sell them for +sixpence-halfpenny a piece. A couple of boats lying at anchor, with +lines extended from one to the other, and hooks in plenty from them, have +been known to catch an incredible quantity of trout. Colonel Prittie, in +one morning, caught four stone odd pounds, thirty-two trout. In general +they rise from three to nine pounds. Perch swarm; they appeared in the +Shannon for the first time about ten years ago, in such plenty that the +poor lived on them. Bream of six pounds; eels very plentiful. There are +many gillaroos in the river; one of twelve pounds weight was sent to Mr. +Jenkinson. Upon the whole, these circumstances, with the pleasure of +shooting and boating on the river, added to the glorious view it yields, +and which is enough at any time to cheer the mind, render this +neighbourhood one of the most enviable situations to live in that I have +seen in Ireland. The face of the country gives every circumstance of +beauty. From Killodeernan Hill, behind the new house building by Mr. +Holmes, the whole is seen to great advantage. The spreading part of the +Shannon, called Loch Derg, is commanded distinctly for many miles. It is +in two grand divisions of great variety: that to the north is a reach of +five miles leading to Portumna. The whole hither shore a scenery of +hills, checkered by enclosures and little woods, and retiring from the +eye into a rich distant prospect. The woods of Doras, belonging to Lord +Clanricarde, form a part of the opposite shore, and the river itself +presents an island of one hundred and twenty acres. Inclining to the +left, a vale of rough ground, with an old castle in it, is backed by a +bold hill, which intercepts the river there, and then the great reach of +fifteen miles, the bay of Sheriff, spreads to the eye, with a +magnificence not a little added to by the boundary, a sharp outline of +the county of Clare mountains, between which and the Duharrow hills the +Shannon finds its way. These hills lead the eye still more to the left, +till the Keeper meets it, presenting a very beautiful outline that sinks +into other ranges of hill, uniting with the Devil's Bit. The home +scenery of the grounds, woods, hills, and lake of Johnstown, is +beautiful. + +Dancing is very general among the poor people, almost universal in every +cabin. Dancing-masters of their own rank travel through the country from +cabin to cabin, with a piper or blind fiddler, and the pay is sixpence a +quarter. It is an absolute system of education. Weddings are always +celebrated with much dancing, and a Sunday rarely passes without a dance. +There are very few among them who will not, after a hard day's work, +gladly walk seven miles to have a dance. John is not so lively, but then +a hard day's work with him is certainly a different affair from what it +is with Paddy. Other branches of education are likewise much attended +to, every child of the poorest family learning to read, write, and cast +accounts. + +There is a very ancient custom here, for a number of country neighbours +among the poor people to fix upon some young woman that ought, as they +think, to be married. They also agree upon a young fellow as a proper +husband for her. This determined, they send to the fair one's cabin to +inform her that on the Sunday following "she is to be horsed," that is, +carried on men's backs. She must then provide whisky and cider for a +treat, as all will pay her a visit after mass for a hurling match. As +soon as she is horsed, the hurling begins, in which the young fellow +appointed for her husband has the eyes of all the company fixed on him. +If he comes off conqueror, he is certainly married to the girl; but if +another is victorious, he as certainly loses her, for she is the prize of +the victor. These trials are not always finished in one Sunday; they +take sometimes two or three, and the common expression when they are over +is, that "such a girl was goaled." Sometimes one barony hurls against +another, but a marriageable girl is always the prize. Hurling is a sort +of cricket, but instead of throwing the ball in order to knock down a +wicket, the aim is to pass it through a bent stick, the end stuck in the +ground. In these matches they perform such feats of activity as ought to +evidence the food they live on to be far from deficient in nourishment. + +In the hills above Derry are some very fine slate quarries, that employ +sixty men. The quarrymen are paid 3s. a thousand for the slates, and the +labourers 5d. a day. They are very fine, and sent by the Shannon to +distant parts of the kingdom; the price at the quarry 6s. a thousand, and +at the shore 6s. 8d. Four hundred thousand slates are raised to pay the +rent only, from which some estimate may be made of the quantity. + +Mr. Head has a practice in his fences which deserves universal imitation; +it is planting trees for gate-posts. Stone piers are expensive, and +always tumbling down; trees are beautiful, and never want repairing. +Within fifteen years this gentleman has improved Derry so much, that +those who had only seen it before would find it almost a new creation. +He has built a handsome stone house, on the slope of a hill rising from +the Shannon, and backed by some fine woods, which unite with many old +hedges well planted to form a woodland scene beautiful in the contrast to +the bright expanse of the noble river below. The declivity on which +these woods are finishes in a mountain, which rises above the whole. The +Shannon gives a bend around the adjoining lands, so as to be seen from +the house both to the west and north, the lawn falling gradually to a +margin of wood on the shore, which varies the outline. The river is two +miles broad, and on the opposite shore cultivated inclosures rise in some +places almost to the mountain top, which is very bold. + +It is a very singular demesne; a stripe of very beautiful ground, +reaching two miles along the banks of the river, which forms his fence on +one side, with a wall on the other. There is so much wood as to render +it very pleasing; adding to every day by planting all the fences made or +repaired. From several little hills, which rise in different parts of +it, extensive views of the river are commanded quite to Portumna; but +these are much eclipsed by that from the top of the hill above the slate +quarry. From thence you see the river for at least forty miles, from +Portumna to twenty miles beyond Limerick. It has the appearance of a +fine basin, two miles over, into which three great rivers lead, being the +north and south course and the Bay of Sheriff. The reaches of it one +beyond another to Portumna are fine. At the foot of the mountain Mr. +Head's demesne extends in a shore of rich woodland. + +October 7. Took my leave of Mr. Head, after passing four days very +agreeably. Through Killaloe, over the Shannon, a very long bridge of +many arches; went out of the road to see a fall of that river at Castle +Connel, where there is such an accompaniment of wood as to form a very +pleasing scenery. The river takes a very rapid rocky course around a +projecting rock, on which a gentleman has built a summer-house, and +formed a terrace: it is a striking spot. To Limerick. Laid at Bennis's, +the first inn we had slept in from Dublin. God preserve us this journey +from another! + +It is not uncommon, especially in mountainous countries, to find objects +that much deserve the attention of travellers entirely neglected by them. +There are a few instances of this upon Lord Kingsborough's estate, in the +neighbourhood of Mitchelstown. The first I shall mention is a cave at +Skeheenrinky, on the road between Cahir and that place. The opening to +it is a cleft of rock in a limestone hill, so narrow as to be difficult +to get into it. I descended by a ladder of about twenty steps, and then +found myself in a vault of a hundred feet long, and fifty or sixty high. +A small hole on the left leads from this a winding course of I believe +not less than half an Irish mile, exhibiting a variety that struck me +much. In some places the cavity in the rock is so large that when well +lighted up by candles (not flambeaux; Lord Kingsborough once showed it me +with them, and we found their smoke troublesome) it takes the appearance +of a vaulted cathedral, supported by massy columns. The walls, ceiling, +floor, and pillars, are by turns composed of every fantastic form; and +often of very beautiful incrustations of spar, some of which glitters so +much that it seems powdered with diamonds; and in others the ceiling is +formed of that sort which has so near a resemblance to a cauliflower. +The spar formed into columns by the dropping of water has taken some very +regular forms; but others are different, folded in plaits of light +drapery, which hang from their support in a very pleasing manner. The +angles of the walls seem fringed with icicles. One very long branch of +the cave, which turns to the north, is in some places so narrow and low, +that one crawls into it, when it suddenly breaks into large vaulted +spaces, in a thousand forms. The spar in all this cave is very +brilliant, and almost equal to Bristol stone. For several hundred yards +in the larger branch there is a deep water at the bottom of the declivity +to the right, which the common people call the river. A part of the way +is over a sort of potter's clay, which moulds into any form, and is of a +brown colour; a very different soil from any in the neighbouring country. +I have seen the famous cave in the Peak, but think it very much inferior +to this; and Lord Kingsborough, who has viewed the Grot d'Aucel in +Burgundy, says that it is not to be compared with it. + +But the commanding region of the Galtees deserves more attention. Those +who are fond of scenes in which Nature reigns in all her wild +magnificence should visit this stupendous chain. It consists of many +vast mountains, thrown together in an assemblage of the most interesting +features, from the boldness and height of the declivities, freedom of +outline, and variety of parts, filling a space of about six miles by +three or four. Galtymore is the highest point, and rises like the lord +and father of the surrounding progeny. From the top you look down upon a +great extent of mountain, which shelves away from him to the south, east, +and west; but to the north the ridge is almost a perpendicular declivity. +On that side the famous golden vale of Limerick and Tipperary spreads a +rich level to the eye, bounded by the mountains of Clare, King's and +Queen's Counties, with the course of the Shannon, for many miles below +Limerick. To the south you look over alternate ridges of mountains, +which rise one beyond another, till in a clear day the eye meets the +ocean near Dungarvan. The mountains of Waterford and Knockmealdown fill +up the space to the south-east. The western is the most extensive view; +for nothing stops the eye till Mangerton and Macgillicuddy Reeks point +out the spot where Killarney's lake calls for a farther excursion. The +prospect extends into eight counties--Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, +Clare, Queen's, Tipperary, King's. + +A little to the west of this proud summit, below it in a very +extraordinary hollow, is a circular lake of two acres, reported to be +unfathomable. The descriptions which I have read of the craters of +exhausted volcanoes leave very little doubt of this being one; and the +conical regularity of the summit of Galtymore speaks the same language. +East of this respectable hill, to use Sir William Hamilton's language, is +a declivity of about one-quarter of a mile, and there Galtybeg rises in a +yet more regular cone; and between the two hills is another lake, which +from its position seems to have been once the crater which threw up +Galtybeg, as the first mentioned was the origin of Galtymore. Beyond the +former hill is a third lake, and east of that another hill; I was told of +a fourth, with another corresponding mountain. It is only the mere +summits of these mountains which rise above the lakes. Speaking of them +below, they may be said to be on the tops of the hills. They are all of +them at the bottom of an almost regularly circular hollow. On the side +next the mountain-top are walls of perpendicular rocks, in regular +strata, and some of them piled on each other, with an appearance of art +rather than nature. In these rocks the eagles, which are seen in numbers +on the Galtees, have their nests. Supposing the mountains to be of +volcanic origin, and these lakes the craters, of which I have not a +doubt, they are objects of the greatest curiosity, for there is an +unusual regularity in every considerable summit having its corresponding +crater. But without this circumstance, the scenery is interesting in a +very great degree. The mountain summits, which are often wrapped in the +clouds, at other times exhibit the freest outline; the immense scooped +hollows which sink at your feet, declivities of so vast a depth as to +give one terror to look down; with the unusual forms of the lower region +of hills, particularly Bull Hill, and Round Hill, each a mile over, yet +rising out of circular vales, with the regularity of semi-globes, unite +upon the whole to exhibit a scenery to the eye in which the parts are of +a magnitude so commanding, a character so interesting, and a variety so +striking, that they well deserve to be examined by every curious +traveller. + +Nor are these immense outlines the whole of what is to be seen in this +great range of mountains. Every glen has its beauties: there is a +considerable mountain river, or rather torrent, in every one of them; but +the greatest are the Funcheon, between Sefang and Galtymore; the +Limestone river, between Galtymore and Round Hill, and the Grouse river, +between Coolegarranroe and Mr. O'Callaghan's mountain; these present to +the eye, for a tract of about three miles, every variety that rock, +water, and mountain can give, thrown into all the fantastic forms which +art may attempt in ornamented grounds, but always fails in. Nothing can +exceed the beauty of the water, when not discoloured by rain; its lucid +transparency shows, at considerable depths, every pebble no bigger than a +pin, every rocky basin alive with trout and eels, that play and dash +among the rocks as if endowed with that native vigour which animates, in +a superior degree, every inhabitant of the mountains, from the bounding +red deer and the soaring eagle down even to the fishes of the brook. +Every five minutes you have a water-fall in these glens, which in any +other region would stop every traveller to admire it. Sometimes the vale +takes a gentle declivity, and presents to the eye at one stroke twenty or +thirty falls, which render the scenery all alive with motion; the rocks +are tossed about in the wildest confusion, and the torrent bursts by +turns from above, beneath, and under them; while the background is always +filled up with the mountains which stretch around. + +In the western glen is the finest cascade in all the Galtees. There are +two falls, with a basin in the rock between, but from some points of view +they appear one: the rock over which the water tumbles is about sixty +feet high. A good line in which to view these objects is either to take +the Killarney and Mallow road to Mitchelstown and from thence by Lord +Kingsborough's new one to Skeheenrinky, there to take one of the glens to +Galtybeg and Galtymore, and return to Mitchelstown by the Wolf's Track, +Temple Hill, and the Waterfall; or, if the Cork road is travelling, to +make Dobbin's inn, at Ballyporeen, the head-quarters, and view them from +thence. + + * * * * * + +Having heard much of the beauties of a part of the Queen's County I had +not before seen, I took that line of country in my way on a journey to +Dublin. + +From Mitchelstown to Cashel, the road leads as far as Galbally in the +route already travelled from Cullen. Towards Cashel the country is +various. The only objects deserving attention are the plantations of +Thomastown, the seat of Francis Mathew, Esq.; they consist chiefly of +hedgerow trees in double and treble rows, are well grown, and of such +extent as to form an uncommon woodland scene in Ireland. Found the widow +Holland's inn, at Cashel, clean and very civil. Take the road to +Urlingford. The rich sheep pastures, part of the famous golden vale, +reach between three and four miles from Cashel to the great bog by Botany +Hill, noted for producing a greater variety of plants than common. That +bog is separated by only small tracts of land from the string of bogs +which extend through the Queen's County, from the great bog of Allen; it +is here of considerable extent, and exceedingly improvable. Then enter a +low marshy bad country, which grows worse after passing the sixty-sixth +milestone, and successive bogs in it. Breakfast at Johnstown, a regular +village on a slight eminence, built by Mr. Hayley. It is near the spa of +Ballyspellin. + +Rows of trees are planted, but their heads all cut off, I suppose from +their not thriving, being planted too old. Immediately on leaving these +planted avenues, enter a row of eight or ten new cabins, at a distance +from each other, which appear to be a new undertaking, the land about +them all pared and burnt, and the ashes in heaps. + +Enter a fine planted country, with much corn and good thriving quick +hedges for many miles. The road leads through a large wood, which joins +Lord Ashbrook's plantations, whose house is situated in the midst of more +wood than almost any one I have seen in Ireland. Pass Durrow; the +country for two or three miles continues all inclosed with fine quick +hedges, is beautiful, and has some resemblance to the best parts of +Essex. Sir Robert Staple's improvements join this fine tract. They are +completed in a most perfect manner, the hedges well grown, cut, and in +such excellent order that I can scarcely believe myself to be in Ireland. +His gates are all of iron. These sylvan scenes continue through other +seats, beautifully situated amidst gentle declivities of the finest +verdure, full-grown woods, excellent hedges, and a pretty river winding +by the house. The whole environs of several would be admired in the best +parts of England. + +Cross a great bog, within sight of Lord de Vesci's plantations. The road +leads over it, being drained for that purpose by deep cuts on either +side. I should apprehend this bog to be among the most improvable in the +country. Slept at Ballyroan, at an inn kept by three animals who call +themselves women; met with more impertinence than at any other in +Ireland. It is an execrable hole. In three or four miles pass Sir John +Parnel's, prettily situated in a neatly dressed lawn, with much wood +about it, and a lake quite alive with wild fowl. + +Pass Monstereven, and cross directly a large bog, drained and partly +improved; but all of it bearing grass, and seems in a state that might +easily be reduced to rich meadow, with only a dressing of lime. Here I +got again into the road I had travelled before. + +I must in general remark, that from near Urlingford to Dawson Court, near +Monstereven, which is completely across the Queen's County, is a line of +above thirty English miles, and is for that extent by much the most +improved of any I have seen in Ireland. It is generally well planted, +has many woods, and not consisting of patches of plantation just by +gentlemen's houses, but spreading over the whole face of the country, so +as to give it the richness of an English woodland scene. What a country +would Ireland be had the inhabitants of the rest of it improved the whole +like this! + + + + +PART II. + + +SECTION I.--Soil, Face of the Country, and Climate. + + +To judge of Ireland by the conversation one sometimes hears in England, +it would be supposed that one-half of it was covered with bogs, and the +other with mountains filled with Irish ready to fly at the sight of a +civilised being. There are people who will smile when they hear that, in +proportion to the size of the two countries, Ireland is more cultivated +than England, having much less waste land of all sorts. Of uncultivated +mountains there are no such tracts as are found in our four northern +counties, and the North Riding of Yorkshire, with the eastern line of +Lancaster, nearly down to the Peak of Derby, which form an extent of +above a hundred miles of waste. The most considerable of this sort in +Ireland are in Kerry, Galway, and Mayo, and some in Sligo and Donegal. +But all these together will not make the quantity we have in the four +northern counties; the valleys in the Irish mountains are also more +inhabited, I think, than those of England, except where there are mines, +and consequently some sort of cultivation creeping up the sides. Natural +fertility, acre for acre over the two kingdoms, is certainly in favour of +Ireland; of this I believe there can scarcely be a doubt entertained, +when it is considered that some of the more beautiful, and even best +cultivated counties in England, owe almost everything to the capital, +art, and industry of the inhabitants. + +The circumstance which strikes me as the greatest singularity of Ireland +is the rockiness of the soil, which should seem at first sight against +that degree of fertility; but the contrary is the fact. Stone is so +general, that I have great reason to believe the whole island is one vast +rock of different strata and kinds rising out of the sea. I have rarely +heard of any great depths being sunk without meeting with it. In general +it appears on the surface in every part of the kingdom; the flattest and +most fertile parts, as Limerick, Tipperary, and Meath, have it at no +great depth, almost as much as the more barren ones. May we not +recognise in this the hand of bounteous Providence, which has given +perhaps the most stony soil in Europe to the moistest climate in it? If +as much rain fell upon the clays of England (a soil very rarely met with +in Ireland, and never without much stone) as falls upon the rocks of her +sister island, those lands could not be cultivated. But the rocks are +here clothed with verdure; those of limestone, with only a thin covering +of mould, have the softest and most beautiful turf imaginable. + +Of the great advantages resulting from the general plenty of limestone +and limestone gravel, and the nature of the bogs, I shall have occasion +to speak more particularly hereafter. + +The rockiness of the soil in Ireland is so universal that it predominates +in every sort. One cannot use with propriety the terms clay, loam, sand, +etc.; it must be a stony clay, a stony loam, a gravelly sand. Clay, +especially the yellow, is much talked of in Ireland, but it is for want +of proper discrimination. I have once or twice seen almost a pure clay +upon the surface, but it is extremely rare. The true yellow clay is +usually found in a thin stratum under the surface mould, and over a rock; +harsh, tenacious, stony, strong loams, difficult to work, are not +uncommon: but they are quite different from English clays. + +Friable, sandy loams, dry but fertile, are very common, and they form the +best soils in the kingdom for tillage and sheep. Tipperary and Roscommon +abound particularly in them. The most fertile of all are the bullock +pastures of Limerick, and the banks of the Shannon in Clare, called the +Corcasses. These are a mellow, putrid, friable loam. + +Sand which is so common in England, and yet more common through Spain, +France, Germany, and Poland, quite from Gibraltar to Petersburg, is +nowhere met with in Ireland, except for narrow slips of hillocks, upon +the sea coast. Nor did I ever meet with or hear of a chalky soil. + +The bogs, of which foreigners have heard so much, are very extensive in +Ireland; that of Allen extends eighty miles, and is computed to contain +three hundred thousand acres. There are others also, very extensive, and +smaller ones scattered over the whole kingdom; but these are not in +general more than are wanted for fuel. When I come to speak of the +improvement of waste lands, I shall describe them particularly. + +Besides the great fertility of the soil, there are other circumstances +which come within my sphere to mention. Few countries can be better +watered by large and beautiful rivers; and it is remarkable that by much +the finest parts of the kingdom are on the banks of these rivers. +Witness the Suir, Blackwater, the Liffey, the Boyne, the Nore, the +Barrow, and part of the Shannon, they wash a scenery that can hardly be +exceeded. From the rockiness of the country, however, there are few of +them that have not obstructions, which are great impediments to inland +navigation. + +The mountains of Ireland give to travelling that interesting variety +which a flat country can never abound with. And, at the same time, they +are not in such number as to confer the usual character of poverty which +attends them. I was either upon or very near the most considerable in +the kingdom. Mangerton, and the Reeks, in Kerry; the Galties in Cork; +those of Mourne in Down; Crow Patrick, and Nephin in Mayo, these are the +principal in Ireland, and they are of a character, in height and +sublimity, which should render them the objects of every traveller's +attention. + +Relative to the climate of Ireland, a short residence cannot enable a man +to speak much from his own experience; the observations I have made +myself confirm the idea of its being vastly wetter than England; from the +20th of June to the 20th of October I kept a register, and there were, in +one hundred and twenty-two days, seventy-five of rain, and very many of +them incessant and heavy. I have examined similar registers I kept in +England, and can find no year that even approaches to such a moisture as +this. But there is a register of an accurate diary published which +compares London and Cork. The result is, that the quantity at the latter +place was double to that at London. See Smith's "History of Cork." + +From the information I received, I have reason to believe that the rainy +season sets in usually about the first of July and continues very wet +till September or October, when there is usually a dry fine season of a +month or six weeks. I resided in the county of Cork, etc., from October +till March, and found the winter much more soft and mild than ever I +experienced one in England. I was also a whole summer there (1778), and +it is fair to mention that it was as fine a one as ever I knew in +England, though by no means so hot. I think hardly so wet as very many I +have known in England. The tops of the Galty mountains exhibited the +only snow we saw; and as to frosts, they were so slight and rare that I +believe myrtles, and yet tenderer plants, would have survived without any +covering. But when I say that the winter was not remarkable for being +wet, I do not mean that we had a dry atmosphere. The inches of rain +which fell in the winter I speak of would not mark the moisture of the +climate. As many inches will fall in a single tropical shower as in a +whole year in England. See Mitchel's "Present State of Great Britain and +North America." But if the clouds presently disperse, and a bright sun +shines, the air may soon be dry. The worst circumstance of the climate +of Ireland is the constant moisture without rain. Wet a piece of +leather, and lay it in a room where there is neither sun nor fire, and it +will not in summer even be dry in a month. I have known gentlemen in +Ireland deny their climate being moister than England, but if they have +eyes let them open them, and see the verdure that clothes their rocks, +and compare it with ours in England--where rocky soils are of a russet +brown however sweet the food for sheep. Does not their island lie more +exposed to the great Atlantic; and does not the west wind blow +three-fourths of a year? If there was another island yet more westward, +would not the climate of Ireland be improved? Such persons speak equally +against fact, reason, and philosophy. That the moisture of a climate +does not depend on the quantity of rain that falls, but on the powers of +aerial evaporation, Dr. Dobson has clearly proved. "Phil. Trans." vol. +lxvii., part i., p. 244. + + +Oppression. + + +Before I conclude this article of the common labouring poor in Ireland, I +must observe, that their happiness depends not merely upon the payment of +their labour, their clothes, or their food; the subordination of the +lower classes, degenerating into oppression, is not to be overlooked. +The poor in all countries, and under all governments, are both paid and +fed, yet there is an infinite difference between them in different ones. +This inquiry will by no means turn out so favourable as the preceding +articles. It must be very apparent to every traveller through that +country, that the labouring poor are treated with harshness, and are in +all respects so little considered that their want of importance seems a +perfect contrast to their situation in England, of which country, +comparatively speaking, they reign the sovereigns. The age has improved +so much in humanity, that even the poor Irish have experienced its +influence, and are every day treated better and better; but still the +remnant of the old manners, the abominable distinction of religion, +united with the oppressive conduct of the little country gentlemen, or +rather vermin of the kingdom, who never were out of it, altogether bear +still very heavy on the poor people, and subject them to situations more +mortifying than we ever behold in England. The landlord of an Irish +estate, inhabited by Roman Catholics, is a sort of despot who yields +obedience, in whatever concerns the poor, to no law but that of his will. +To discover what the liberty of the people is, we must live among them, +and not look for it in the statutes of the realm: the language of written +law may be that of liberty, but the situation of the poor may speak no +language but that of slavery. There is too much of this contradiction in +Ireland; a long series of oppressions, aided by many very ill-judged +laws, have brought landlords into a habit of exerting a very lofty +superiority, and their vassals into that of an almost unlimited +submission: speaking a language that is despised, professing a religion +that is abhorred and being disarmed, the poor find themselves in many +cases slaves even in the bosom of written liberty. Landlords that have +resided much abroad are usually humane in their ideas, but the habit of +tyranny naturally contracts the mind, so that even in this polished age +there are instances of a severe carriage towards the poor, which is quite +unknown in England. + +A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an order which a servant, +labourer, or cottar dares to refuse to execute. Nothing satisfies him +but an unlimited submission. Disrespect, or anything tending towards +sauciness, he may punish with his cane or his horsewhip with the most +perfect security; a poor man would have his bones broke if he offered to +lift his hands in his own defence. Knocking-down is spoken of in the +country in a manner that makes an Englishman stare. Landlords of +consequence have assured me that many of their cottars would think +themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters sent for to the +bed of their master; a mark of slavery that proves the oppression under +which such people must live. Nay, I have heard anecdotes of the lives of +people being made free with without any apprehension of the justice of a +jury. But let it not be imagined that this is common; formerly it +happened every day, but law gains ground. It must strike the most +careless traveller to see whole strings of cars whipped into a ditch by a +gentleman's footman to make way for his carriage; if they are overturned +or broken in pieces, no matter, it is taken in patience; were they to +complain they would perhaps be horsewhipped. The execution of the laws +lies very much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are +drawn from the most illiberal class in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges +a complaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chooses to call +itself a gentleman, and the justice issues out a summons for his +appearance, it is a fixed affront, and he will infallibly be called out. +Where manners are in conspiracy against law, to whom are the oppressed +people to have recourse? It is a fact, that a poor man having a contest +with a gentleman, must--but I am talking nonsense, they know their +situation too well to think of it; they can have no defence, but by means +of protection from one gentleman against another, who probably protects +his vassal as he would the sheep he intends to eat. + +The colours of this picture are not charged. To assert that all these +cases are common would be an exaggeration, but to say that an unfeeling +landlord will do all this with impunity, is to keep strictly to truth: +and what is liberty but a farce and a jest, if its blessings are received +as the favour of kindness and humanity, instead of being the inheritance +of right? + +Consequences have flowed from these oppressions which ought long ago to +have put a stop to them. In England we have heard much of White-boys, +Steel-boys, Oak-boys, Peep-of-day-boys, etc. But these various +insurgents are not to be confounded, for they are very different. The +proper distinction in the discontents of the people is into Protestant +and Catholic. All but the White-boys were among the manufacturing +Protestants in the north: the White-boys Catholic labourers in the south. +From the best intelligence I could gain, the riots of the manufacturers +had no other foundation but such variations in the manufacture as all +fabrics experience, and which they had themselves known and submitted to +before. The case, however, was different with the White-boys, who being +labouring Catholics met with all those oppressions I have described, and +would probably have continued in full submission had not very severe +treatment in respect of tithes, united with a great speculative rise of +rent about the same time, blown up the flame of resistance; the atrocious +acts they were guilty of made them the object of general indignation; +acts were passed for their punishment, which seemed calculated for the +meridian of Barbary. This arose to such a height that by one they were +to be hanged under circumstances without the common formalities of a +trial, which, though repealed the following session, marks the spirit of +punishment; while others remain yet the law of the land, that would if +executed tend more to raise than quell an insurrection. From all which +it is manifest that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical +cure from overlooking the real cause of the disease, which in fact lay in +themselves, and not in the wretches they doomed to the gallows. Let them +change their own conduct entirely, and the poor will not long riot. +Treat them like men who ought to be as free as yourselves. Put an end to +that system of religious persecution which for seventy years has divided +the kingdom against itself; in these two circumstances lies the cure of +insurrection; perform them completely, and you will have an affectionate +poor, instead of oppressed and discontented vassals. + +A better treatment of the poor in Ireland is a very material point of the +welfare of the whole British Empire. Events may happen which may +convince us fatally of this truth; if not, oppression must have broken +all the spirit and resentment of men. By what policy the Government of +England can for so many years have permitted such an absurd system to be +matured in Ireland is beyond the power of plain sense to discover. + + +Emigrations. + + +Before the American war broke out, the Irish and Scotch emigrations were +a constant subject of conversation in England, and occasioned much +discourse even in parliament. The common observation was, that if they +were not stopped, those countries would be ruined, and they were +generally attributed to a great rise of rents. Upon going over to +Ireland I determined to omit no opportunities of discovering the cause +and extent of this emigration, and my information, as may be seen in the +minutes of the journey, was very regular. I have only a few general +remarks to make on it here. + +The spirit of emigration in Ireland appeared to be confined to two +circumstances, the Presbyterian religion, and the linen manufacture. I +heard of very few emigrants except among manufacturers of that +persuasion. The Catholics never went; they seem not only tied to the +country, but almost to the parish in which their ancestors lived. As to +the emigration in the north it was an error in England to suppose it a +novelty which arose with the increase in rents. The contrary was the +fact; it had subsisted perhaps forty years, insomuch that at the ports of +Belfast, Derry, etc., the passenger trade, as they called it, had long +been a regular branch of commerce, which employed several ships, and +consisted in carrying people to America. The increasing population of +the country made it an increasing trade, but when the linen trade was +low, the passenger trade was always high. At the time of Lord Donegan +letting his estate in the north, the linen business suffered a temporary +decline, which sent great numbers to America, and gave rise to the error +that it was occasioned by the increase of his rents. The fact, however, +was otherwise, for great numbers of those who went from his lands +actually sold those leases for considerable sums, the hardship of which +was supposed to have driven them to America. Some emigration, therefore, +always existed, and its increase depended on the fluctuations of linen; +but as to the effect there was as much error in the conclusions drawn in +England as before in the cause. + +It is the misfortune of all manufactures worked for a foreign market to +be upon an insecure footing; periods of declension will come, and when in +consequence of them great numbers of people are out of employment, the +best circumstance is their enlisting in the army or navy, and it is the +common result; but unfortunately the manufacture in Ireland (of which I +shall have occasion to speak more hereafter) is not confined as it ought +to be to towns, but spreads into all cabins of the country. Being half +farmers, half manufacturers, they have too much property in cattle, etc., +to enlist when idle; if they convert it into cash it will enable them to +pay their passage to America, an alternative always chosen in preference +to the military life. The consequence is, that they must live without +work till their substance is quite consumed before they will enlist. Men +who are in such a situation that from various causes they cannot work, +and won't enlist, should emigrate; if they stay at home they must remain +a burthen upon the community. Emigration should not, therefore, be +condemned in states so ill-governed as to possess many people willing to +work, but without employment. + + + +SECTION II.--Roads, Cars. + + +For a country, so very far behind us as Ireland, to have got suddenly so +much the start of us in the article of roads, is a spectacle that cannot +fail to strike the English traveller exceedingly. But from this +commendation the turnpikes in general must be excluded; they are as bad +as the bye-roads are admirable. It is a common complaint that the tolls +of the turnpikes are so many jobs, and the roads left in a state that +disgrace the kingdom. + +The following is the system on which the cross-roads are made. Any +person wishing to make or mend a road has it measured by two persons, who +swear to the measurement before a justice of the peace. It is described +as leading from one market-town to another (it matters not in what +direction), that it will be a public good, and that it will require such +a sum per perch of twenty-one feet, to make or repair the same. A +certificate to this purpose (of which printed forms are sold), with the +blanks filled up, is signed by the measurers, and also by two persons +called overseers, one of whom is usually the person applying for the +road, the other the labourer he intends to employ as an overseer of the +work, which overseer swears also before the justice the truth of the +valuation. The certificate thus prepared is given by any person to some +one of the grand jury, at either of the assizes, but usually in the +spring. When all the common business of trials is over, the jury meets +on that of roads; the chairman reads the certificates, and they are all +put to the vote, whether to be granted or not. If rejected, they are +torn in pieces and no further notice taken; if granted, they are put on +the file. + +This vote of approbation, without any further form, enables the person +who applied for the presentment immediately to construct or repair the +road in question, which he must do at his own expense; he must finish it +by the following assizes, when he is to send a certificate of his having +expended the money pursuant to the application; this certificate is +signed by the foreman, who also signs an order on the treasurer of the +county to pay him, which is done immediately. In like manner are +bridges, houses of correction, gaols, etc. etc., built and repaired. If +a bridge over a river which parts two counties, half is done by one and +the other half by the other county. + +The expense of these works is raised by a tax on the lands, paid by the +tenant; in some counties it is acreable, but in others it is on the +plough land, and as no two plough lands are of the same size, is a very +unequal tax. In the county of Meath it is acreable, and amounts to one +shilling per acre, being the highest in Ireland; but in general it is +from threepence to sixpence per acre, and amounts of late years through +the whole kingdom to one hundred and forty thousand pounds a year. + +The juries will very rarely grant a presentment for a road which amounts +to above fifty pounds, or for more than six or seven shillings a perch, +so that if a person wants more to be made than such a sum will do, he +divides it into two or three different measurements or presentments. By +the Act of Parliament, all presentment-roads must be twenty-one feet wide +at least from fence to fence, and fourteen feet of it formed with stone +or gravel. + +As the power of the grand jury extends in this manner to the cutting new +roads where none ever were before, as well as to the repairing and +widening old ones, exclusive, however, of parks, gardens, etc., it was +necessary to put a restriction against the wanton expense of it. Any +presentment may be traversed that is opposed, by denying the allegations +of the certificate; this is sure of delaying it until another assizes, +and in the meantime persons are appointed to view the line of road +demanded, and report on the necessity or hardship of the case. The +payment of the money may also be traversed after the certificate of its +being laid out; for if any person views and finds it a manifest +imposition and job, he has that power to delay payment until the cause is +cleared up and proved. But this traverse is not common. Any persons are +eligible for asking presentments; but it is usually done only by resident +gentlemen, agents, clergy, or respectable tenantry. It follows +necessarily, that every person is desirous of making the roads leading to +his own house, and that private interest alone is considered in it, which +I have heard objected to the measure; but this I must own appears to me +the great merit of it. Whenever individuals act for the public alone, +the public is very badly served; but when the pursuit of their own +interest is the way to benefit the public, then is the public good sure +to be promoted; such is the case of presentment of roads: for a few years +the good roads were all found leading from houses like rays from a +centre, with a surrounding space, without any communication; but every +year brought the remedy, until in a short time, those rays pointing from +so many centres met, and then the communication was complete. The +original Act passed but seventeen years ago, and the effect of it in all +parts of the kingdom is so great, that I found it perfectly practicable +to travel upon wheels by a map; I will go here; I will go there; I could +trace a route upon paper as wild as fancy could dictate, and everywhere I +found beautiful roads without break or hindrance, to enable me to realise +my design. What a figure would a person make in England, who should +attempt to move in that manner, where the roads, as Dr. Burn has well +observed, are almost in as bad a state as in the time of Philip and Mary. +In a few years there will not be a piece of bad road except turnpikes in +all Ireland. The money raised for this first and most important of all +national purposes, is expended among the people who pay it, employs +themselves and their teams, encourages their agriculture, and facilitates +so greatly the improvement of waste lands, that it ought always to be +considered as the first step to any undertaking of that sort. + +At first, roads, in common with bridges, were paid out of the general +treasure of the county, but by a subsequent act the road tax is now on +baronies; each barony pays for its own roads. By another act juries were +enabled to grant presentments of narrow mountain roads, at two shillings +and sixpence a perch. By another, they were empowered to grant +presentments of footpaths, by the side of roads, at one shilling a perch. +By a very late act, they are also enabled to contract at three-halfpence +per perch per annum from the first making of a road, for keeping it in +repair, which before could not be done without a fresh presentment. +Arthur King, Esq. of Moniva, whose agriculture is described in the +preceding minutes, and who at that time represented the county of Galway, +was the worthy citizen who first brought this excellent measure into +parliament: Ireland, and every traveller that ever visits it ought, to +the latest time, to revere the memory of such a distinguished benefactor +to the public. Before that time the roads, like those of England, +remained impassable, under the miserable police of the six days' labour. +Similar good effects would here flow from adopting the measure, which +would ease the kingdom of a great burthen in its public effects +absolutely contemptible; and the tax here, as in Ireland, ought to be so +laid, as to be borne by the tenant whose business it is at present to +repair. + +Upon the imperfections of the Irish system I have only to remark, that +juries should, in some cases, be more ready than they are to grant these +presentments. In general, they are extremely liberal, but sometimes they +take silly freaks of giving none, or very few. Experience having proved, +from the general goodness of the roads, that abuses cannot be very great, +they should go on with spirit to perfect the great work throughout the +kingdom; and as a check upon those who lay out the money, it might +perhaps be advisable to print county maps of the presentment roads, with +corresponding lists and tables of the names of all persons who have +obtained presentments, the sums they received, and for what roads. These +should be given freely by the jurymen, to all their acquaintance, that +every man might know, to whose carelessness or jobbing the public was +indebted for bad roads, when they had paid for good ones. Such a +practice would certainly deter many. + +At 11,042,642 acres in the kingdom, 140,000 pounds a year amounts to just +threepence an acre for the whole territory: a very trifling tax for such +an improvement, and which almost ranks in public ease and benefit with +that of the post-office. + + + +SECTION III.--Manners and Customs. + + + Quid leges sine moribus, + Vana proficiunt! + +It is but an illiberal business for a traveller, who designs to publish +remarks upon a country to sit down coolly in his closet and write a +satire on the inhabitants. Severity of that sort must be enlivened with +an uncommon share of wit and ridicule, to please. Where very gross +absurdities are found, it is fair and manly to note them; but to enter +into character and disposition is generally uncandid, since there are no +people but might be better than they are found, and none but have virtues +which deserve attention, at least as much as their failings; for these +reasons this section would not have found a place in my observations, had +not some persons, of much more flippancy than wisdom, given very gross +misrepresentations of the Irish nation. It is with pleasure, therefore, +that I take up the pen on the present occasion; as a much longer +residence there enables me to exhibit a very different picture; in doing +this, I shall be free to remark, wherein I think the conduct of certain +classes may have given rise to general and consequently injurious +condemnation. + +There are three races of people in Ireland, so distinct as to strike the +least attentive traveller: these are the Spanish which are found in +Kerry, and a part of Limerick and Cork, tall and thin, but well made, a +long visage, dark eyes, and long black lank hair. The time is not remote +when the Spaniards had a kind of settlement on the coast of Kerry, which +seemed to be overlooked by government. There were many of them in Queen +Elizabeth's reign, nor were they entirely driven out till the time of +Cromwell. There is an island of Valentia on that coast, with various +other names, certainly Spanish. The Scotch race is in the north, where +are to be found the feature which are supposed to mark that people, their +accent and many of their customs. In a district near Dublin, but more +particularly in the baronies of Bargie and Forth in the county of +Wexford, the Saxon tongue is spoken without any mixture of the Irish, and +the people have a variety of customs mentioned in the minutes, which +distinguish them from their neighbours. The rest of the kingdom is made +up of mongrels. The Milesian race of Irish, which may be called native, +are scattered over the kingdom, but chiefly found in Connaught and +Munster; a few considerable families, whose genealogy is undoubted, +remain, but none of them with considerable possessions except the +O'Briens and Mr. O'Neil; the former have near twenty thousand pounds a +year in the family, the latter half as much, the remnant of a property +once his ancestors, which now forms six or seven of the greatest estates +in the kingdom. O'Hara and M'Dermot are great names in Connaught, and +O'Donnohue a considerable one in Kerry; but I heard of a family of +O'Drischal's in Cork, who claim an origin prior in Ireland to any of the +Milesian race. + +The only divisions which a traveller, who passed through the kingdom +without making any residence could make, would be into people of +considerable fortune and mob. The intermediate division of the scale, so +numerous and respectable in England, would hardly attract the least +notice in Ireland. A residence in the kingdom convinces one, however, +that there is another class in general of small fortune--country +gentlemen and renters of land. The manners, habits, and customs of +people of considerable fortune are much the same everywhere, at least +there is very little difference between England and Ireland, it is among +the common people one must look for those traits by which we discriminate +a national character. The circumstances which struck me most in the +common Irish were, vivacity and a great and eloquent volubility of +speech; one would think they could take snuff and talk without tiring +till doomsday. They are infinitely more cheerful and lively than +anything we commonly see in England, having nothing of that incivility of +sullen silence with which so many Englishmen seem to wrap themselves up, +as if retiring within their own importance. Lazy to an excess at work, +but so spiritedly active at play, that at hurling, which is the cricket +of savages, they shew the greatest feats of agility. Their love of +society is as remarkable as their curiosity is insatiable; and their +hospitality to all comers, be their own poverty ever so pinching, has too +much merit to be forgotten. Pleased to enjoyment with a joke, or witty +repartee, they will repeat it with such expression, that the laugh will +be universal. Warm friends and revengeful enemies; they are inviolable +in their secrecy, and inevitable in their resentment; with such a notion +of honour, that neither threat nor reward would induce them to betray the +secret or person of a man, though an oppressor, whose property they would +plunder without ceremony. Hard drinkers and quarrelsome; great liars, +but civil, submissive, and obedient. Dancing is so universal among them, +that there are everywhere itinerant dancing-masters, to whom the cottars +pay sixpence a quarter for teaching their families. Besides the Irish +jig, which they can dance with a most luxuriant expression, minuets and +country-dances are taught; and I even heard some talk of cotillions +coming in. + +Some degree of education is also general, hedge schools, as they are +called, (they might as well be termed ditch ones, for I have seen many a +ditch full of scholars,) are everywhere to be met with where reading and +writing are taught; schools are also common for men; I have seen a dozen +great fellows at school, and was told they were educating with an +intention of being priests. Many strokes in their character are +evidently to be ascribed to the extreme oppression under which they live. +If they are as great thieves and liars as they are reported, it is +certainly owing to this cause. + +If from the lowest class we rise to the highest, all there is gaiety, +pleasure, luxury, and extravagance; the town life at Dublin is formed on +the model of that of London. Every night in the winter there is a ball +or a party, where the polite circle meet, not to enjoy but to sweat each +other; a great crowd crammed into twenty feet square gives a zest to the +_agrements_ of small talk and whist. There are four or five houses large +enough to receive a company commodiously, but the rest are so small as to +make parties detestable. There is however an agreeable society in +Dublin, in which a man of large fortune will not find his time heavy. +The style of living may be guessed from the fortunes of the resident +nobility and great commoners; there are about thirty that possess incomes +from seven to twenty thousand pounds a year. The court has nothing +remarkable or splendid in it, but varies very much, according to the +private fortune or liberality of disposition in the lord lieutenant. + +In the country their life has some circumstances which are not commonly +seen in England. Large tracts of land are kept in hand by everybody to +supply the deficiencies of markets; this gives such a plenty, that, +united with the lowness of taxes and prices, one would suppose it +difficult for them to spend their incomes, if Dublin in the winter did +not lend assistance. Let it be considered that the prices of meat are +much lower than in England; poultry only a fourth of the price; wild fowl +and fish in vastly greater plenty; rum and brandy not half the price; +coffee, tea, and wines far cheaper; labour not above a third; servants' +wages upon an average thirty per cent. cheaper. That taxes are +inconsiderable, for there is no land-tax, no poor-rates, no window tax, +no candle or soap tax, only half a wheel-tax, no servants' tax, and a +variety of other articles heavily burdened in England, but not in +Ireland. Considering all this, one would think they could not spend +their incomes; they do contrive it, however. In this business they are +assisted by two customs that have an admirable tendency to it, great +numbers of horses and servants. + +In England such extensive demesnes would be parks around the seats for +beauty as much as use, but it is not so in Ireland; the words deer-park +and demesne are to be distinguished; there are great demesnes without any +parks, but a want of taste, too common in Ireland, is having a deer-park +at a distance from the house; the residence surrounded by walls, or +hedges, or cabins; and the lawn inclosure scattered with animals of +various sorts, perhaps three miles off. The small quantity of corn +proportioned to the total acres, shows how little tillage is attended to +even by those who are the best able to carry it on; and the column of +turnips proves in the clearest manner what the progress of improvement is +in that kingdom. The number of horses may almost be esteemed a satire +upon common sense; were they well fed enough to be useful, they would not +be so numerous, but I have found a good hack for a common ride scarce in +a house where there were a hundred. Upon an average, the horses in +gentlemen's stables throughout the kingdom are not fed half so well as +they are in England by men of equal fortune; yet the number makes the +expense of them very heavy. + +Another circumstance to be remarked in the country life is the +miserableness of many of their houses; there are men of five thousand a +year in Ireland, who live in habitations that a man of seven hundred a +year in England would disdain; an air of neatness, order, dress, and +_proprete_, is wanting to a surprising degree around the mansion; even +new and excellent houses have often nothing of this about them. But the +badness of the houses is remedying every hour throughout the whole +kingdom, for the number of new ones just built, or building, is +prodigiously great. I should suppose there were not ten dwellings in the +kingdom thirty years ago that were fit for an English pig to live in. +Gardens were equally bad, but now they are running into the contrary +extreme, and wall in five, six, ten, and even twenty Irish acres for a +garden, but generally double or treble what is necessary. + +The tables of people of fortune are very plentifully spread; many +elegantly, differing in nothing from those of England. I think I +remarked that venison wants the flavour it has with us, probably for the +same reason, that the produce of rich parks is never equal to that of +poor ones; the moisture of the climate, and the richness of the soil, +give fat but not flavour. Another reason is the smallness of the parks, +a man who has three or four thousand acres in his hands, has not perhaps +above three or four hundred in his deer-park, and range is a great point +for good venison. Nor do I think that garden vegetables have the flavour +found in those of England, certainly owing to the climate; green peas I +found everywhere perfectly insipid, and lettuce, etc., not good. Claret +is the common wine of all tables, and so much inferior to what is drunk +in England, that it does not appear to be the same wine; but their port +is incomparable, so much better than the English, as to prove, if proof +was wanting, the abominable adulterations it must undergo with us. +Drinking and duelling are two charges which have long been alleged +against the gentlemen of Ireland, but the change of manners which has +taken place in that kingdom is not generally known in England. +Drunkenness ought no longer to be a reproach, for at every table I was at +in Ireland I saw a perfect freedom reign, every person drank just as +little as they pleased, nor have I ever been asked to drink a single +glass more than I had an inclination for; I may go farther and assert +that hard drinking is very rare among people of fortune; yet it is +certain that they sit much longer at table than in England. I was much +surprised at first going over to find no summons to coffee, the company +often sitting till eight, nine, or ten o'clock before they went to the +ladies. If a gentleman likes tea or coffee, he retires without saying +anything; a stranger of rank may propose it to the master of the house, +who from custom contrary to that of England, will not stir till he +receives such a hint, as they think it would imply a desire to save their +wine. If the gentlemen were generally desirous of tea, I take it for +granted they would have it, but their slighting is one inconvenience to +such as desire it, not knowing when it is provided, conversation may +carry them beyond the time, and then if they do trifle over the coffee it +will certainly be cold. There is a want of attention in this, which the +ladies should remedy, if they will not break the old custom and send to +the gentlemen, which is what they ought to do, they certainly should have +a salver fresh. I must, however, remark, that at the politest tables, +which are those of people who have resided much out of Ireland, this +point is conducted exactly as it is in England. + +Duelling was once carried to an excess, which was a real reproach and +scandal to the kingdom; it of course proceeded from excessive drinking; +as the cause has disappeared, the effect has nearly followed; not +however, entirely, for it is yet far more common among people of fashion +than in England. Of all practices, a man who felt for the honour of his +country would wish soonest to banish this, for there is not one +favourable conclusion to be drawn from it: as to courage, nobody can +question that of a polite and enlightened nation, entitled to a share of +the reputation of the age; but it implies uncivilised manners, an +ignorance of those forms which govern polite societies, or else a brutal +drunkenness; the latter is no longer the cause or the pretence. As to +the former, they would place the national character so backward, would +take from it so much of its pretence to civilisation, elegance and +politeness of manners, that no true Irishman would be pleased with the +imputation. Certain it is, that none are so captious as those who think +themselves neglected or despised; and none are so ready to believe +themselves either one or the other as persons unused to good company. +Captious people, therefore, who are ready to take an affront, must +inevitably have been accustomed to ill company, unless there should be +something uncommonly crooked in their natural dispositions, which is not +to be supposed. Let every man that fights his one, two, three, or +half-a-dozen duels, receive it as a maxim, that every one he adds to the +number is but an additional proof of his being ill-educated, and having +vitiated his manners by the contagion of bad company; who is it that can +reckon the most numerous rencontres? who but the bucks, bloods, +landjobbers, and little drunken country gentlemen? Ought not people of +fashion to blush at a practice which will very soon be the distinction +only of the most contemptible of the people? the point of honour will and +must remain for the decision of certain affronts, but it will rarely be +had recourse to in polite, sensible, and well-bred company. The practice +among real gentlemen in Ireland every day declining is a strong proof +that a knowledge of the world corrects the old manners, and consequently +its having ever been prevalent was owing to the causes to which I have +attributed it. + +There is another point of manners somewhat connected with the present +subject, which partly induced me to place a motto at the head of this +section. It is the conduct of juries; the criminal law of Ireland is the +same as that of England, but in the execution it is so different as +scarcely to be known. I believe it is a fact, at least I have been +assured so, that no man was ever hanged in Ireland for killing another in +a duel: the security is such that nobody ever thought of removing out of +the way of justice, yet there have been deaths of that sort, which had no +more to do with honour than stabbing in the dark. I believe Ireland is +the only country in Europe, I am sure it is the only part of the British +dominions, where associations among men of fortune are necessary for +apprehending ravishers. It is scarcely credible how many young women +have even of late years been ravished, and carried off in order (as they +generally have fortunes) to gain to appearance a voluntary marriage. +These actions, it is true, are not committed by the class I am +considering at present; but they are tried by them, and acquitted. I +think there has been only one man executed for that crime, which is so +common as to occasion the associations I mentioned; it is to this supine +execution of the law that such enormities are owing. Another +circumstance which has the effect of screening all sorts of offenders, is +men of fortune protecting them, and making interest for their acquittal, +which is attended with a variety of evil consequences. I heard it +boasted in the county of Fermanagh, that there had not been a man hanged +in it for two-and-twenty years; all I concluded from this was, that there +had been many a jury who deserved it richly. + +Let me, however, conclude what I have to observe on the conduct of the +principal people residing in Ireland, that there are great numbers among +them who are as liberal in all their ideas as any people in Europe; that +they have seen the errors which have given an ill character to the +manners of their country, and done everything that example could effect +to produce a change: that that happy change has been partly effected, and +is effecting every hour, insomuch that a man may go into a vast variety +of families which he will find actuated by no other principles than those +of the most cultivated politeness, and the most liberal urbanity. + +But I must now come to another class of people, to whose conduct it is +almost entirely owing that the character of the nation has not that +lustre abroad, which I dare assert it will soon very generally merit: +this is the class of little country gentlemen; tenants, who drink their +claret by means of profit rents; jobbers in farms; bucks; your fellows +with round hats, edged with gold, who hunt in the day, get drunk in the +evening, and fight the next morning. I shall not dwell on a subject so +perfectly disagreeable, but remark that these are the men among whom +drinking, wrangling, quarrelling, fighting, ravishing, etc. etc. are +found as in their native soil; once to a degree that made them a pest of +society; they are growing better, but even now, one or two of them got by +accident (where they have no business) into better company are sufficient +very much to derange the pleasures that result from a liberal +conversation. A new spirit; new fashions; new modes of politeness +exhibited by the higher ranks are imitated by the lower, which will, it +is to be hoped, put an end to this race of beings; and either drive their +sons and cousins into the army or navy, or sink them into plain farmers +like those we have in England, where it is common to see men with much +greater property without pretending to be gentlemen. I repeat it from +the intelligence I received, that even this class are very different from +what they were twenty years ago, and improve so fast that the time will +soon come when the national character will not be degraded by any set. + +That character is upon the whole respectable: it would be unfair to +attribute to the nation at large the vices and follies of only one class +of individuals. Those persons from whom it is candid to take a general +estimate do credit to their country. That they are a people learned, +lively, and ingenious, the admirable authors they have produced will be +an eternal monument; witness their Swift, Sterne, Congreve, Boyle, +Berkeley, Steele, Farquhar, Southerne, and Goldsmith. Their talent for +eloquence is felt, and acknowledged in the parliaments of both the +kingdoms. Our own service both by sea and land, as well as that +(unfortunately for us) of the principal monarchies of Europe, speak their +steady and determined courage. Every unprejudiced traveller who visits +them will be as much pleased with their cheerfulness, as obliged by their +hospitality; and will find them a brave, polite, and liberal people. + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TOUR IN IRELAND*** + + +******* This file should be named 22387.txt or 22387.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/3/8/22387 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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