Robert E. Gross
Collection
A Memorial to the Founder
of the
Business Admnilstration Library
Los Angeles
BUSH,.D — ) Hibernia Curiosa. A Letter from a Ge
lis Friend at Dover in Kent. Giving a general View
'ispositions, etc, of the Inhabitants of Ireland,
.tions on the State of Trade and Agriculture in th
uriosities, such as Salmon-Leaps. . .Water-falls, . .
n the Year 176^. ..With Plans.. .from Drawings. Lo
1767) •
vo.., calf, folding frontispiece map of Dublin and
lates, one a little torn with no loss.
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HIBERNIA CURIOS A
LETTER
FROM A
Gentleman in DubLin,
T O H I S
Friend at Dover in Kent*
Giving a general View of the
Manners, Customs, Dispositions, &Ci
O F T H E
Inhabitants of IRELAND.
With occafional Obfervations on the State
of Trade and Agriculture in that
Kingdom.
And including an Account of fome of its moil
remarkable Natural Curiosities, fuch as
Salmon-Leaps, Water-falls, Cascades,
G LYNNS, Lakes, &c.
With a more particular Description of
the Gi A nt's-C A u s E WA Y in the North; and of
the celebrated LAKEofKiLARNY in tue South of
Ireland; taken from an attentive Survey and
Examination of the ORIGINALS.
Colle6ted in a Touft. through the Kingdom in the
Year 1764 : And ornamented with Plans of the principal
Originals, engraved from Drawings taken on thie
Spot.
LONDON:
Printed for W. Flexney, oppofite Gray's-Inn-Gate,
Holboum*
TO THE
Right Honourable the Lady
LOUISA CONOLLY,
The following
STRICTURES of a Civil and Natural
Hiftory of IRELAND,
Arc moft humbly infcribed.
By
Her Ladyfhip's
Moft refpedlful.
And moft obedient.
Humble fervant,
J. B U S Ht
^^c;f^*^«f?^*^«^"^c^*^c;^'^:^*^
^he Reader is dejired to cor re B the following Errata.
Page Line Of the Editor to the Reader,
6, I o, /or copy, rW copies.
21, 12, ysr alderman, rtW aldermen. ^
Of the Letter, &c.
5, I, /orButhign, reaiRuthign.
II, 29, /or adjoining, rf(3^ adjacent.
^3> ^^> /"'' ^^^" ^^'^^ ''^^^ '■^^" ^'^ '^^'^^
Ibid, 25-6, for channel, read kennel.
2c, 14, yor canicles, r^^^ curricles.
49> 5, /or curiofity, rea</ curiofides.
53, 2, /or pentagonal, rW pentagonal,
eg, 32, for long, re<si/ large.
60, J 7, /"' Druid temple, read monumental pile,
63, 3^j fi^ butment, read abutment.
66* 6, /or tails almoft, r^ai tails round almoft.
Ibid, 16, /or in, r^a^ of ,
n'y 21, /or the beauty, read the ideas of beauty.'
Ibid* 26, D^/e aftonilhing.
76, 24, /or five to fifteen or twenty, read from five to ten or fifteen*
V^j 13, for mouldered, read moulder'd.
Ibid, 32, read it is very apparent.
85, 14, /or verdent, r^ji verdant.
Ibid, 18, /or in, read oti.
Ibid, 24, for Neck, read Neagh,
88, 21, for fertile were, they, read fertile, were theya
qj;, y, /or perfpedlive, rfdii profpedl.
9^, 3, /"" vanity, rf^ri variety,
lo-i, IT, /or thofe, rfiZif thefe.
104, ^, /or canaons, read cannon.
Ibid, 6, for fituation, read fituation5»
J09, 15, for grow, read grows.
I JO, 6, /or one, r^^i out.
112, 28-9, for a gentle, rf^ian eafy.
513* 32, /or that, r^<?i what.
J c6, 18,/or mountains above the water, read mountains above, the waters.
117, 26, /or Mongarton, rfj</ Mangarton,
189* 18, for vegetable, read vegetative.
Ibid, 29, /or quadruped, r^a^ quadrupeds^
320, 3, fit- as, read that.
128, 28, /or thefe, rf^i thofe.
131, 22, /or truly, r^ai moft» • .
133, 28, /or laft, read late.
135, I o, /or thefe, ;w</ the.
*kfe«<^'^'^^^'kfe-^'^»^^<^'^'<^
T O T H E
READER.
F^^'^^^^'miE following JJjeels are
^^^^ i^i^ndedto give him a ge-
S^^^ ^sS^ natural and civil Jlate of
^^mt !tf' '"'"'''J'Ti^ fit
k.^^^%3 ^^^.y^ ^^ ^ condudt^ to the
^ curious traveller^ to feme of
the mofl remarkable natural curiojities of that
kingdom. The writer has not introduced
many of them^ indeed^ for the ijland he writer
on is fertile of voluminous natural hi/iory ;
but fuch as he has taken notice of are fome of
the principal in their kind, of thofe that
occurred to him in his journies through the
country \ and bis intentions ^ at prefenty
A 3 are
( vi )
are not fo much to write a natural hijlory of
the kingdom^ as to exhibit a 'view of what
may be expected from one.
Natural hiflory^ fo long as the defer tptive
is employed on fubjcEls worthy the notice of
the curious^ ajid carefully taken from na-
ture itfelf injiead of fpurious^ unnatural
pictures of it^_. c.olledied into a fifth ftory
for the fedentary\ domefic traveller to
draw his copy from^ is a fcience^ perhaps^
of all others^ the moft generally pleafing^ and
fertile of entertainment, ~ Nor is there
a country in the worlds perhaps^ of equal
extent^ where the curious naturalifl will
find a greater fcope, or variety of fubjeclsy
for his entertainment than in this fertile^
Hibernian ifle ; yet it feems to have been
almofi totally negleBcd by the natural hif
torians^ and tour-writers^ of our own
times and country^ from hence ^ as it fhould
feem^ that they had no materials to com-
pile from.
Excepting Mr. Smith" s hi (lory of one or
two counties in the fouth of Ireland^ wrote
within thefe twenty years^ and in which fome
of the natural hiflory of tbofe counties is in^
eluded^ there have been but one or two wri^^
ters^ and thofe of the laft century or the be^
ginning of this^ who have attempted to give
any
•any thing like a natural hijlory of Ireland^
and the great ejl part of thefe appear to have
been wrote implicitly from tradition or the
hear -fay of other people :^ for no perfon would
imagine^ on a comparifon of their accotmfs
with the originahy that they had ever feen
them : and the blunders of thefe have been re-
tailed out by the writers of our own times^
who have^ occafoiially^ dip'd their pens into
Irijh hifiory ; for to fee the originals^ either
of this or their own country ^ is quite out of
the way of our natural hifiorians^ tour- wri-
terSy and illuftrators ; which is the reafon, I
prefume^ why their produBions are now treat-
ed with fo much negligence and contempt.
And hoWy indeed^ can the writers^ or rather
their employer s^ exptB it fjould be otherwife^
when every gentleman that has ever bee?i
through his country kiiows that one half nearly
ofivhat they palm upon us for natural hift or y^
has no exifience but in their own^ or the i^na-
ginations of others ^ from whom they have col-
le9ed or compiled their accounts and defcrip-^
tions ; and which even oj fuch fubjetls as have
fome exijience in nature, are as much like the
originals, indeed, as a fixpenny piBure of
KING-GEORGE & ^EEN-SHARLOT,
Jiuck up with a cat's head in a pottage-pot
againji the walls of a cottage in Lancafhire.
T'hey are domeftic travellers, or rather^
if you pleafe^ garret-riders, employed^ and
A A '' their
( viii )
their expences borne ^ by our hijloriographlcal
dealers, And^ indeed^ whoever Jhall have
had opportunity of comparing the originals
with the reprejentations given of them by our
tour-writers aiid illuftrators, will have fuf-
ficient reafon to believe^ that from Homer 's-
Head to the 7ieareft chop-houfe was one of
the longefl journeys the traveller had taken, —
Toil gentlemen^ in the paper and calf-fkin
trade, have a little patience^ and you pall
have an original natural hijlory^ or tour, to
work upon, to pick out, flick in, curtail^
tranfpofe, digeft, methodize, or however you
pleafe, according to the art and myflery of
your profejfwn. We a [fare you. Sirs, by This
is not meant the follo%m?ig produBion, for
though 'tis perfeBly original, and therefore
fjould be one of the befl JubjeBs in your fiops to
work upon, yet is it beyond your profoundejl
art to methodize.
If it were allowable to judge of the opinion^
of others from 07ie's own, I fiould, without
any hefitation, take it for granted, that the
reafons why the generality of our tour- writers
and illuftrators are Jo dull and unentertaining,
are, in the firfi place, from their foolifh at-
tachment to what is called order and method
in the clajfing the fever al fubjeBs that are
taken into their account. But which metho-_
dical procefs, indeed, is far from being natu--
rally
(ix)
fally adapted to^ or by any means necejfarily
conneBed with the piirpojes of entertaining the
reader^ on the contrary is, for the mojl party
fubverfive of them, But the fecond, and
more general reafon is, from their ftitffing us
with a heavy, fckening load of dull infig7iifica7it
defcriptions, which whether true orfalfe are,
at beji infipid, and canferve only to naufeate
the appetite againji every thing that is taji-
ful and digejlible.
Suppofcy for once, we Jhould have a tour
hiforical, in order to realize it, in a manner ^
to the imaginations of the reader, wrote a lit-
tle more conformable to the general plan of a
tour itinerant. Why^ for infiajice, mufl a
gentleman whofe tafle and inclination for tra-
velling fhall carry him through the kingdoyn^
to gratify his curioftty with a view of the ge-
neral face of the country, and of what is real-
ly curious and deferving his notice, either in
the artificial or natural pro du5i ions of it, why
mufl he, againfl allfenfe and tafle, be confined
to the dull, flupid, and unnatural method of
circulating and zig-zagging through all the
infignificant towns of every county he gets in-
to, before he can leave it ; or why mufi he
wafle as much time and patience in -one coun-
ty, as would carry him with pleafure through
half a fcore, Tou, grave Sirs, that are
dealers in method and margin^ and imagine it
is
(X)
is mahng the moji of your tours and illuftratiom
' — may call this travelling methodically ',~but
the devil's iiit if it is travelling with pleafure^
or maki?ig the moft of the journey, — And 'tis
to be prefumed, indeed^ there are but few gen-
tlemen who would not foon be tired of their
journey^ were this to be the prefcribed plan of
their entertaijiment^ that by fuch tedious ad-
vances wears out their time and patience^
within the circuit of fifty miles ^ perhaps^
while they might be going on for five hwidred^
through a confiant diverfity ofprofpe^s^ and
variety of entertainment ,
One would imagine^ indeed^ that the wri^
ter of a natural hiftory^ or a tour through his
own or any other country^ would be apt to
confider his reader as a traveller through the
country^ and himfelfas his guide or condudi to
fuch objeBs or curiofity^ whether of art or
nature^ that fhould be fuppofed naturally to
engage his notice and attention^ and that the
moft promifing^ or the ?nofi natural method for
keeping up the entertainment of his reader^
fhould be the fa?72e with the moft eligible plan
of a journey^ that is to fay, That which
ajforded the greateft mixture and dive?fity of
entertainment ; and^ therefore^ that in the
execution of his office he fijould have no right ^
like mofi of our public undertakers^ and com-
mijjion gentlemen^ to protraB as long as pofii-
ble^
(xi )
He, the pojfejjiojt of his office^ in order to make
the mofi of it, by flopping him at every mar-
ket town hejimdd go thro\ to examine into
the antiquities of it, for the uf clefs acqiiifition
of knowing who built the fir ft houfe, or laid
the firfi fione of the parijh church,^ whe-
ther the markets were kept on Wednefdays or
Saturdays, if more fheep than bullocks
were brought to the fair, -or if?nore
Farnham than Canterbury hops were generally
fold there \ — • — and whether the town were
gover?ied by a Mayor and Aldeiman, or by a
fet of old women in long-riding-hoods.
Such pompous illuftrations as on this plan
may be compiled, whether copies of or the
errors and blunders of prccedmg illuftrators
methodized, may be calculated indeed, from
their figure and price to fupport the vanity
and felfimportajice of a fiarclfd pedantic
prig of a book feller, who may be fuppofcd, for
his own emolument, to fet the compiler to work,
but it muft be at the exfence of the time, pa-
tience and pocket of the reader.
Much a- kin to thefe are thofe other claffes
of hireling authors of various deportments,
who are employed for the emolument of thefe
dealers in paper and calve' s fkin, to ret ale ye
out^ nun^.erically, at a fmall and infenfibie
expence^ a hifiory^ a didlionary^ or a biblcy
(and
( xii )
(and to cheat the poor devils at Cambridge
and Oxford) with iiotes explanatory^ 6Cc. &cc.
But before their numeric produBiom are
Jinified, take care to extract a mojl exorbi-
tant expence of eveiitually^ three times the
mercantile value.
But Jim nearer a- kin is that clafs of hire--
ling pedagogal priggs^ the abridgers^ or ra^
iher mutilators of our civil hijlory^ who^ for
their own and their majier's intereji, engage
to furnijh you^ at a very eafy expence, with
the niedullani of your civil hijlory^ or any
thing elfey but injlead of entertaining
you with the marrow only^ will cram ye
with the very fkin^ hair and offal, and for
the pretended moderate expence of fourteen or
fifteen number Sy will, by an infamous fpecies
of extortion, put ye to the mojl immoderate
expence of fifty or threefcore^ before what you
have already taken, can become of any valuCy
and like true, ajid well-bred knights of
the poft, who while they beg your honor y<?r
two-pence, W//pick your honor's pocket of
forty fliillings. Damn the whole fra-
ternity of 'em. ' Sir, I mean of
knights of the poft, • from PalUmall to^
Pater'72ofter.
In the drawing up the following loofe and
curjbry hints^ for the writer himfelf thinks
them
( xiii )
th€?7i no better y he has been careful to intro-
duce 710 thing to the reader^ but what he fup^
pofes would naturally engage his notice as a
Jiranger^ were he travelling through the
country. They include the fubjlance of a cor-
refpondence during his travels through the
kingdom^ but are intended^ indeed^ to give
the reader no more than the gerieral out-lines
of the appearance of things^ fuch as they -u^ill
offer themfelves to the tranfient fpeBator^ in^
eluding a fketcb of fome^ among fl many^ of
the fpecies of natural entertainment he may
expett to find in the country.
He has this farther recommendatioti to
offer on the merits of the contents oj the follow-
ing fpecimen^ they are wrote with candour
and ingenuity^ untinBured with prejudice or
partiality ; fuch as the originals appeared to
him, with an hojiefi freedom^ und without
refpeB of perfons^ he has^ in every cafe ^ en*
deavoured to depicture them to his readers.
If any clafs of gentlemen of the kingdom he
writes from, whether civil or clerical, fmll
think themfelves too freely or too fever cly dealt
withy he takes this opportunity of declaring^
that to none, but thofe who deferve it, has he
the leaf defire, or ifitention, that any degree
of ceiifure jhould derive ; and, in perfeU con-
fidence of this^ likewife^ that none hut thoje^
whoje
( xiv )
ivhoje infuperahk confcioiifaefs floall point the
appUcatmt^ will fuggejl to themfelves any
offence.
Who claims the pidture knows his right.
Gay.
The federal plam exhibit a natural re-
prefentation of the originals as far as they
extend.
In the defcriptive, he has copied immediate-
ly from nature^ without the leaf implicit re^
liance on any accounts whatever : from this^
at leaft^ he hopes fome merit will be allowed to
the attempt^ that it is perfectly original^ and
for the truth of which ^ the reader has this
general fecurity^ that there were no materials
to be founds within the bills of mortality ,yrc/?z
which to pahn upon him the domeftic travels
cfthe writer,
The univerfal abfence^ indeedy in the ware-
houfes of literary commerce of any thing modern
of this kind^ relative to Irelarid, added to the ad-
vice of fome few gentlemen of both kingdoms ^ on
whofe judgment of the merits he could with
more fafety rely than his own^ was an encou-
ragement to offer this novel fketch of civil and
natural hifory to the publicL Such as it
is, the performance is fubmitted to the candid
cenfure
( XV )
cenfure of the reader, The curious vota-
riji oj nature^ he prefumes, will derive fo7?je
€ntertain7nent from it, T^he incurious^
from a ?2arrow and felfifi cojifinement of his
tafe and purfuits^ will think^ perhaps^ neither
the fubjeil 7ior the country worth his notice.
To the all-fufficient gefitlemen of this clafs he
makes no appeal^ nor expels from them any
encouragement.
Should the folhwiiig fpecimen of Hibernian
entertainment be foujid acceptable^ the writer
propofes in fome future opportunity ^ ?2ot very
far of\ perhaps^ to offer a more extenfive na--
tural hifiory of this ^ in the natural view of it^
particularly^ entertaining country^ on the
plan he has above hinted at, on one that will
be new, arid he hopes e?2tertai fling to the rea^
der, on a plan that JJjall^ at leajl^ have this
merit in it^ that if ever the reader goes
through the country, he may have the fat is^
faction of finding the natural appearances of
thi?igs correfpond to his hifiory and defcription
of them.
He has only to add, that to have contri^
buted, even by the prefent fijort a?id imperfeSi
out 'lines ^ towards the removal and obliteration
of any national and illiberal prcjudiceSy
and to the promoting a greater intercourfe of
our gentlemen of fortune aijd curiofity^
' with
( xvi )
<ivith a country that, in a natural vieis. of
if^ efpecially, deferves more attention than is
generally given to it, will be the fource of
the mojl agreeable rejieSliom to
The Editor.
H I B E R N I A
HIBERNIA CURIOSA.
eio=Joc^c$DoJo=j3oS=cg3c^c^c3iocJoc$3cJoc$:d5:<^cJjci!ictS!S3c«8j
To Mr. W. A—D— N.
Dear Sii;
^■^^^^"^G REE ABLE to promife in
m^^^^¥ our laft from Dublin, I will,
^^ A Z^ now, that I have finiflied my
^l^'^$)skh ^our through the greater part of
k-^^^-^"^ Ireland, give you fome account
of the country, its inhabitants, and, what
you more particularly deiired from me, a
defcription of fome of its greateft natural
curiofities. Indeed I never was fo happily
fituatcd for providing materials for the enter-
tainment of a tafte like yours, for the curious
and romantic fubjefts of nature, cultivated
by a life for many years converfant with
fcenes of this kind,* as I have been while
traverfing through Hibernia.
B Perhaps
* Tunbridge Wells.
(2 )
Perhaps it may not be altogether unenter-
taining to you, by way of introdudion, to
have a little feetch of our journey and palTage
thither. — From London our firft courfe was
to Weft Chefter, diftant from Ireland about
150 miles, and from London 190. From
Chefter there are tw^o paflages to Dublin,
either of which may be taken as fliall beft
fuit the convenience of the traveller.
The one from Park-Gate, a little fea-
port for packets and traders, about 12 miles
below Chefter. — The other over- land, for
80 or 90 miles, to Holy-Head, the moft
weftern point of North Wales, in the ifle of
Anglefey, and diftant from Lxland about
23 Leagues.
The paftage is likewife frequently made
from Briftol by thofe who are not apprehen-
iive ol danger from the fea. And this is
generally taken, 1 believe, by the quality
and gentry from Ireland that vifit Bath. — -
The diftance from Briftol to the neareft
port in Ireland is about 200 miles.
The fliorteft paftage that can be made
from Great- Britain to Ireland is from Port
Patrick in Galloway county, Scotland, from
whence to Donaghadee in the county of
Down, is about kven or eight leagues, or
nearly the fame diftance as from Dover to
Calais. But it is hardly worth while to go
at leaft 200 miles by land extraordinary
to fave 40 by fea from Holy Head, and
there-
• ( 3 )
therefore very few, except thofe whofe bii-
fmeis calls them to the north of Ireland, will
go to Port Patrick for a paffage.
There is, however, but little danger in
croffing the Irifli fea from any of thefe places,
except at the vernal and autumnal feafons of
the year, at which times, efpecially in the
autumnal, the winds are frequently very high
and tempefluous, and the channel confe-
quently extremely rough and dangerous.
Thofe who iliall take the Chefter road,
if they have much baggage to carry and are
not fearful of the fea, will find the pafllige
from Park-Gate much the ealieft and the
mod convenient, as it is very troublefome
and expenfive getting heavy luggage for 90
miles over the mountainous country, wide
and rapid ferry ways of North Wales. — ^
However, the paffage over land is, of late
years, made much fafer and more convenient,
by the making a turn-pike road through the
country, and by the running of a coach or
two from Chefter to the Head, which they
perform in two days very well; or otherwife
you may be accommodated with horfes
and a guide from Chefter quite on to the
Head ; the road to which lays through Flint,
Denbigh, and Carnarvon counties; and the va-
riety of land and fea profpeds in fine w^eather,
makes a ride over the mountainous country
of North Wales extremelv entertaining.
B z St.
(4)
St. Vinifred's well, at Holy-well in Flint-
111 ire, and the firft ftage from Cheder, is
well worthy the notice of the traveller, from
the fingularity of the place, and the venera-
tion that is paid to it by great numbers of
religious devotees, foreign as well as domef-
tic, that annually viiic the well ; many from
devotion to the fair faint that is fuppofed to
prefide here, but more loaded with faith and
infirmities, with expectations of a cure from
its pretended miraculous fanative virtues.
'Tis a very remarkable fpring of fine v^a-
ter, in fuch quantity that at the diilance of
20 yards it keeps a water-mill continually
going. The place where it rifes is inclofed
in the form of a bath, about 1 2 feet long
by fix or feven wide, over which has been
built, by the monks of former ages, a mod
curious and venerable Gothic firu6lure, in
honour to St. Vinifred, who firll beftowed
her benedidion on the fpring. 'Tis an ex-
cellent cold bath, and when it proves fervice-
able as fuch, the fi tuation it is in, under fuch
a venerable fuperftrudure, are circum fiances
fufficient to pofl^efs the minds of fuperfiicious
credulity with imaginations of a fupernatural
cure.
1 he vale of Cloid, a very extenfive and
beautiful vale, through which you pafs be-
tween Holy-well and Conway, which runs
through this north part of Wales for a great
many miles, from the borders of Shropfiiire
on
( s)
<5n to Wrexham, Bathign, Denbigh, and
St. Afeph, northward to the fea, is judged to
be ibme of the moft fertile land and produc-
tive of the richeft pafturage in Great-Britain.
The firfl day's journey is generally fini(h«
ed at Aberconway in Carnarvonfiiire, the
capital or refidence of the ancient princes of
Wales; into which you defcend from the
moll enormous mountains, fomeofthem, in
Great- Britain, properly enough called Snow-
down hills, for the fnow may be found on
them for eight or nine months of the year.
From the top of fome of thcfe mountains,
in clear weather, may be feen the hills about
Dublin, particularly the promontory of Hoath
at the extremity of the bay, to the feaward,
and diftant at leaft Bo or 90 miles. — And in
a very clear day, in tlie morning, I have ken
the tops of thefe Welch mountains from the
hill of Hoath and the mountains of Wick-
low, on the oppofite fide of the Irifli fea.
At Aberconway there is an old cadle, as
magnitScent in its ruins cis perhaps any in
Great-Britain, and that is well Wvorthy the
notice of the curious traveller.
1 was much pleafed with an old cnflom
that ftiil prevails in lome parts of this North
Welch country, that of enterrainini^ the
company at the feveral ilages with (he Welch
harp, during their ftay at their inns. From
the novelty of the cuflom, and fome of them
perform very well, I affure you we were
B 3 very
(6)
very much entertained. It has the appearance
of a chearfiil and hofpitable welcome, and
relieves the mind as well as body from the
lieavincfs and torpidity oft<^n acquired from
the noife and joftling in a long confinem.ent
to a flage coach ; efpecially when the part-
ners in the journey hi^ppen not to be the
niofl: fociablv humoured.
After jumbling up and down thefe North
Welch mountains for 80 or 90 miles, you
at length reach the Head, the Ne plus ult,
of T^erra firma, from whence to Dublin,
about 60 or 70 miles, you m,ufl:, if you pro-
ceed on your journey, trufl your life and
body to the chance of fea-room.
The timorous traveller, unufed to the fea,
here flops, and, with apprehenfions not un-
mixed with fear, furveys the fluid intradable
road before him, furveys his floating carriage
that is to convey him over this yawning,
unfubftantial elemxnt, with but a few in-
ches between his life and death. Doubtful
and precarious tenure. Jf the wind blows
and the waves run high, his refolutions ftag-
ger. Bat intereft, curiofity or fliame at
length get the better of his timidity. The
gulph mull be paffed j and he refolves to ha-
zard it.
To quiet his anxiety, however, and for
his imiagined greater fecurity, he carefully
confults his pilot. Is there no danger,
captain, in this fame paffage to Dublin ? —
^ Why
. ^7>
Why, 'faith, Sir, I will not pofitively aflure
you there is none, for fear you (hould be dif-
appointed. The failor, to be fure, is never
out of danger on his element : however, I
never went a-crofs yet but I came fafe to the
other fide, and / hope I fliall do fo now. —
Aye, captain, but the ftory of the pitcher —
This fame hope is but a weak fecurity when
a man has but three inches between his cab-
bin and a bed of fait water. — Have you ne-
ver a fellow among your crew with d, gallows-
mark upon his face? 1 hope not, Sir.
But is there no infurance of a man's
life for 60 miles only? Oh, yes, the
beft in the world, my noble mafter, a bottle
of claret, to put the want of it out of your
head.
From a little town and harbour juft at the
Head, there are feveral veffels, or packets,
in the fervice of the government, that pafs
every week to and from Dublin ; in any one
of thefe, for half a guinea, you are accom-
modated with the ufe of the cabbin and bed ;
into which if you get yourfelf laid before
the (hip is under way, and there lay faft to
the end of your paffage, you may, if you
are fortunate, efcape being fea-fick, if you
are not fo, you mud take, and will proba-
bly have the chance of a good flomatic
fcowering:.
o
This is but a trivial remark, indeed, but
it is confirmed by common experience in
B 4 thefe
(8)
thefe lliort palTages, that the befi: chance you
can have for efcaping that moft fickly of all
fickneffes is to continue in the pofition yoa
are in when the (hip firft begins her motion,
and the rechned poiition is the heft, as the
body, in that podure, is put into the leaft
motion by the toffing of the veffel ; not to
mention that in the cabbin you are nearer the
bottom of the fliip, where the motion is not
fo great by one half as on the deck.
The extent of the kingdom of Ireland,
from the bed obfervations that I could make,
is about equal to that of England with an
exception of Wales and the four northern
counties of Durham, V/eftmoreland, Cum-
berland, and Northumberland. With thefe
redudions, I believe, that England will not
be found to exceed the limits of Ireland ;
though the difference is generally fuppofed
much greater than it really is.
The tirll: object in Ireland that naturally
engages the notice of a flranger {lom England,
by the way of Holy- Head, is the city of
Dublin, the capital of the kingdom, fituated
on the river LifFy, near two miles above the
bottom of a beautiful bay, into which it dif-
charges itfelf about fcvm or eight miles from
the fea.
After 40 hours rolling and traverfing the
boifterous Irifh fea, for 20 leagues only, with
the wind, as the failors fay, r/.g/jt in our
teeth, there was fomething peculiarly pleaf-
^9)
ing on entering the beautiful bay of Dublin,
which is about three or four miles wide at its
entrance, and feven or eight deep, with the
hills and promontories on either hand, that
promifed us a fmooth and fafe paiTage up to
the city, in profped: before us at the bottom
of the bay.
With a fair wind, however, the paflage
from the Head is frequently made in lo or
12 hours.
' Dublin is a large, populous, and, for the
greater part of it, well built' city; not much
ornamented, indeed, with grand or magni-
ficent buildings, a few, however, there are,
of which the college or univerfity, the only
one they have in the kingdom — the parlia-
ment houfes — the king's and the lying-in
hofpital, and Swift's for lunatics — with the
marquis of Kildare's houfe are the principal.
Their churches in general make but a very
indifferent figure as to their architedlure ;
and, what I was very much furprifed at, are
amazingly deftitute of monumental orna-
ments.
The two houfes of parliament are infinitely
fuperior, in point of grandeur and magnifi-
cence, to thofe of Weftminfler. The houfe
of lords is, perhaps, as elegant a room as
any in Great- Britain or Ireland.
The college library, from the number of
volumes it contains, the magnificence and
neatnefs of the room, and the convenient
difpo-
( lo ) .
difpofition of the books and defks for the ufe
of the ftudentSj is well deferving the notice
of the traveller.
The Caftle, as it is called from its having
been the lituation of one, I fuppofe, of
which at prefeht there are very few^ remains,
is the refidence of the lord lieutenant when
in Ireland, but has very little of grandeur in
its external appearance befides the large iquare
court-yard, which it enclofes. But the rooms,
fome of them, are large and elegant.
The whole extent of the city of Dublin
may be about one-third of London, includ-
ing Weftminfter and South wark, and one-
fourth, at leaft, of the whole, from the ac-
counts we received, has been built with-
in thefe 40 years, Thofe parts of the town
which have been added fince that time are
well built, and the ftreets in general well
laid out, efpecially on the north fide of the
river ; where the moft confiderable additions
have been made within the term above men-
tioned. There are on this fide many fpa-
cious and regular ftreets: one in particular in
the north- eaft part of the town. Sackville-
Jlreet, about 70 feet wide or nearly, with a
mall enclofed with a low wall, which, but
for the execrable ftupidity of the builder,
would have been one of the moft noble ftreets
in the three kingdoms, had it been carried,
as it might have been, and was propofed to
him at the time of laying it out, diredlly up
to
( II )
to the front of the lying-in hofpital, the
rnoft elegant and the beft finillied piece of
architedlure in Dablin, and I believe in Ire-
land : and if, bcfides this, the projedted ad-
dition of a (lixet from the bottom of it, on
the fame plan, diredly on to the LifFy, to
which the prefent ftreet direds, had been ex-
ecuted, and terminated, as was intended,
on the oppofite fide of the river by a view of
fome public building that was there to have
been ereded in front of the ftreer, it would
have been one of the grandefl and mod beau-
tiful ftreets perhaps in Europe. But as the
firft abfurdity of carrying up the prefent ftreet
juft by the end of the hofpital has taken
place, this projeded improvement will hard-
ly ever be carried into execution, and the
obftinate fool of a builder will defervedly be
damned by every flranger, of common fenfe
and tafte, that ihall ever walk up Sackville-
ftreet.
The view of Dublin from the top of any
of their towers is the moft beautiful, per-
haps, of any large city in the king's domi-
nions, in a fimilar point of view, from the
neatnefs of the blue flating with which the
houfes of this city are univerfally covered.
The bay below the city to the eaft, with
the country adjoining round, will afford a
very entertaining profped.
The river Liffy, which runs through al-
moft the center from weft to eaft, and con-
tributes.
( 12 )
tributes, as much as the Thames to that of
London, to the heahh of this city, is but a
fmall river, about one-fifth as wide in Dub-
lin as the Thames in London, confequently
can bring up no fliips of great burden. I
believe that ijo or 200 tons is quite as much
as can be navigated up to the city.
Over this river there are five bridges, one
only of which deferves any notice, Effex-
bridge, the lowed of all, which is really
a well built, fpacious and elegant bridge,
with raifed foot-paths, alcoves, and balluftra-
ding, on the plan of Weftminiler- bridge, and
about the fame widdi, but not above one-fifth
part fo long. The fouth-end of this bridge
fronts to a new ftreet called Parliament-ftreet,
about the length of Bridge-ftreet over Weft-
minfter- bridge, which, when the intended
improvements are made, by continuing it on
in a line up to the caflle with an area, in
which is to be built an exchange, much
wanted in this city, will be one of the mofi:
beautiful trading ftreets in the three kingdoms.
There are two elegant theatres opened in
this city, the old and the new, as they are
commonly diftinguiflied ; the former in
Smock-alley, the latter in Crow-flreet; be-
lides a third in Aungier-ftreet, more magni-
ficent they tell ye than either of the others,
which for feveral years has been fl:iut up.
But indeed the two that are opened are one
too many to be well fupported. If the t\yo
kings
( 13 )
kings of Brentford, that are the managers,
and are fighting, toth mafiibus, againfi: each
other, were to unite in the largeft houfe,
and the fame zeal and induftry that is em-
ployed for the deftrudlion of each other were
exerted for their united intereft and the en-
tertainment of the public, with a good com-
pany of comedians, which out of the two
houfes might be collected, they might un-
doubtedly make great advantages, and theatric
entertainments might be exhibited in Dublin
in as great perfection as in any town in the
king's dominions ; for o?2e houfe might be
able to ^?iy Jbme of the befl: adlors that could
be found, equal to their merit, which two
can neither procure a fufficient number of,
nor pay them if they had them.
The old houfe of Smock-alley, though
not fo large as the new, which is about equal
to that of Drury-lane, is one of the moft ele-
2:ant and bed: conftruded theatres for the ad-
vantage of both the audience and adors of
any that I ever went into.
They have their fummer entertainments
too, in imitation of thofe in London. Ad-
joining to the Lying-in hofpital above men-
tioned, and belonging to it, is a large fquare
piece of ground enclofed, and three fides out
of four very prettily laid out in walks and
plantations of groves, flirubs, trees, &c,
on the fourth ftands the hofpital. In the
middle, nearly, of this garden^ is a fpacious
and
( H )
and beautiful bowling green. On the fide of
the green oppofite the hofpital, the ground
being much higher, is formed into a fine
hanging bank of near 30 feet flope, on the
top of which is laid out a grand terrace waik,
commanding a fine view of the hofpital ; on
the upper fide of this terrace, and nearly
encompafl^ed with the groves and fhrubberies,
is built a very pretty orcheftra.
This, the moft agreeeble garden about
Dublin, is their Vaux-hall in the fummer
feafon, and is much frequented in the fine
fummer evenings by the genteel company of
the city. And though the whole garden is
not fo generally calculated for a mufical en-
tertainment as the garden of Vaux-hall near
London, yet there are fome walks in it where
the mufic has a finer eff^ed: than in any that I
ever found in the London Vaux-hall.
The inhabitants of this city, and indeed
throughout the kingdom, thofe of them that
are people of any fortune, are genteel,
fprightly, fenfible, and fociable, and, in ge-
neral, well affeded to the Englifh. Their
drefs, fafhions and diverfions are taken from
them ; and whoever fhall carry over any fpe-
cies of popular entertainment from London,,
will be fure to meet with encouragement,
if he has but the good fortune to be fingular
"in his profeflion.
They pique themfelves much on their
hofpitality from all parts of the kingdom. I
have
( li )
have no objedion at all to allowing them all
the merit and importance that is due to this
commendable virtue. But Ihould there be
any appearances of this Hibernian hofpitality,
that to a candid fpedator fliould feem to be
mifcalled, and rather to deferve the name of
oftentation, from all of this kind I muft beg
leave to objecSl to every degree of their pre-
fumed merit : and I am afraid, indeed, that
too much of their boafled hofpitality in every
province has a much greater right to be de-
nominated oftentation. — If, inflead oi killing
twenty [keep tofurniJJj out a dijlo of kidneys
to an epicurean vifiter^ a few of thofe hof-
pitable gentlemen, of the firft rank and for-
tune in the kingdom, would concur for the
fetting on foot fome generous and humane
eftablifhment for the relief of thoufands of
their miferable poor, whom oppreffion, po-
verty, and want of employment, drives al-
moft to defperation, their names would de-
ferve to be engraved in characflers indelible
in the temple of hofpitality. I will take
upon me to fay, that the fenglifliman that
can drink will find them as hofpitable as any
people in Europe; for if he will but drink
like an Irijhman^ he is welcome to eat like
an Englipjnan.
I remember to have heard a very hofpita-
ble gentleman of this clafs exprefs himfelf in
favour of a ftranger from England, that was
juft introduced into the company, after a
little
. ( J6 )
little converfation had removed the fllfFnefs
and referve of a liril interview Weli^
Sir, as you are come over quite a ft ranger to
the cou?itr)\ it behoves us to make it as agree-
able as we can, — ^here is a company of us
to meet at the Black Rock on a jolly party o?i
Sunday 7iext^ and, by Jefus^ there is to be
five or fix dozen of claret to be emptied, will
you give us the honour of your company ?
5/>, you'll exciife ?ne — I fiall be engaged. —
'Twas very hofpitable, though.
To be ferious, — for you may think, per-
haps, that I have too freely given into the fa-
tyric flrain, and at the expcnce of my hof-
pitable friends. I am very willing to believe,
that in their own acceptation of the term, as
taken from the too frequent exhibition of it
amongft them, they have as much hofpi-
tality as any people in the world. But as
in this view of them, as well as in every
other, I would write with an honed frank'
nefs; and without refpe<ft of perfons, or fal-
lacious colouring, reprefent things juft as I
found them, I am very free to fay, that
their hofpitality feems to partake fo much of
intemperance, is attended frequently with fo
much inconvenience to the party entertained,
as to have given me, from a few trials of it,
almofi: a difgufl: againft every of their preten-
lions to it. The fum and quintelTence of hofpi-
tality is exprefled in that lingle line of Pope,
«' Welcome
( 17 )
** Welcome the coming, fpeed the going
friend :'*
By which is implied, an abfence of every
fpecies of compulfion or reftraint, and, which
is the true fterhng hofpitality, the making
the choice of your gueft the meafure of your
friendfhip and entertainment. But to at-
tempt to fend him away drunk is furely felt-
ing him off with but very ill fpeed. If a
temperate man accepts of an invitation from
one of thefe hofpitable gentlemen, he caa
very feldom efcape, but by being abfolutely,
and even to a degree of ill manners, peremp-
tory, without having five times as much li-
quor poured down his throat as he would
chufe. To do juftice to their generofity,
however, he is free and right welcome to eat
juft as much as he pleafes ; and why he (hould
not have the fame liberty with refpedl to his
drink^ however hofpitable the reflriction,
or rather forced profufion, may be thought
by thefe gentlem-en, I own is to me a pa-
radox in urbanity. But, fo far as there is
any intention of trying the depth or found-
nefs of the conftitution, or the bottom,
as the expreffion is, of their unfufpeding
friend over the bottle, their hofpitality is
fuperlatively contemptible ; and to raife a
merit to themfelves from having made their
gued mod nobly drunk, is betraying, at befl:,
but a fottidi and groveling tade. You
C would
C i8 )
would hardly think that from the fimple
didates of hofpitality, a gentleman fliould
have his horfe and boots locked up for two
or three days, and himfelf, by that means,
in a manner forcibly detained for eight-and-
forty hours, when he only intended, and his
bufinefs, perhaps, would only admit of his
taking a dinner and a chearful bottle. Yet,
in (lances of this I have known, I allure you,
in this tiofpitable country ; to fuch ridiculous
extravagancies may the moil commendable
virtues of humanity be perverted by a falfe
notion of things fupported by the authority
of example. Among the fenfible part of
the natives, however, the abfurdity of deri-
ving fuch a practice or inclination from the
didates of hofpitality is too glaring to efcape
detection, or to meet with any countenance;
with thefe therefore, in every country it will
defervedly be exploded.
What I have wrote on this fubjecfl has
been with the utraofl impartiality, and on
w^hich I have been more particular becaufe it
is a favourite topic among them. It is a point
of view in which the natives of every province
appear to affume a diftinguifliing merit. In
any mixed company of different provincials,
you will feldom fail of having this for one of
the fubjedts of your entertainment. In fuch
a fituation the flranger has a natural right to
examine into the merits of it.
But
( 19 )
But after all, however doubtful he may
be from experience of the jailice of their
claim, yet, if a requilite degree of candour
enters into his examination, he rnuft allow
there is a native fprightlinefs and fociability,
a fpirit of generofity and franknefs in their
general manner, that is confpicuous and
engaging, and that cannot fail to recom-
mend them to llrangers. And whatever
apprehenfions he may have of the even-
tual inconvenience, can hardly refufe to
accept of an invitation given with fuch
appearances of friend (hip and urbanity.
It is very extraordinary that in this large
and populous city there fliould be fuch an al-
moPc total want of good inns for the ac-;-
commodation of Grangers and travellers.
There is abfolutely not one good inn in the
town, not one, upon my honour, in which
an Englidiman of any fenfe of decency would
be fatisfied with liis quarters, and not above
two or three in the whole city that he could
bear to be in ; and every body that is ac-
quainted with the place gets into private lodg-
ings as foon as they come to town. But this
is a circumfliance that the ftranger from
England, or elfewhere, is often unacquainted
with, and confequently frequently meets with
difficulties at his firfl landing that will make
it appear to him an inhofpitable country. It
C 2 may
( 20 )
may happen, indeed, that he may be in dif-
trefs even for a night's lodging, if the very
few tolerable inns fliould be full. Nor is
there above one bagnio that I could find in
the whole city, where a gentleman that had
any regard for his reputation orfafety, would
venture to lodge himfelf, this is in Eflex-
ftreet; and here it is more than an equal
chance that he is obliged to pay a fliilling for
a bed about two feet v/ide, in a room not
much above four, perhaps. This has been
mv own cafe. 'Tis true, you are generally
lodged clean and quiet: and a perfon not
more delicate than wife, will compound with
thefe inconveniencies for the want of room
and elegance. 1 do not know a town in the
three kingdoms where a large houfe well
fitted up with as many neat apartments as
poffible, could be more likely to anfwer the
wiihes or expectations of the owner than in
this city. Every ftranger, therefore, that
propofes making any ftay in Dublin, if it be
but for a fortnight, I would advife to have
immediate recourfe to the public coffee-
houfes, of which he will find feveral in Ef-
fex-ftr^et by the Cuflom-houfe, and there
get diredions to the private inhabitants of the
town who furnifli lodgings 5 and almoft every
one in the public-ftreets that can fpare an
apartment lets it for this ufe: and in an
hour's time, perhaps, he may meet with one
for
[ 21 ]
for any time that will be convenient for
his ufe; but, if his room is neat, will feldom
get it under half a guinea per week.
The chief magiftrate in Dublin, as well as
in London, has the dignity of lord mayor
annexed to his office for the time being.
The provifions of this city are generally
good and at a reafonable expence • — Their
liquors efpecially; — you have the beft of
fpirits at half the price they generally go at
in London : for three pence per quartern, or
naggin as it is called there, you have the befl
that can be drank.
Their wine is chiefly claret, the beft of
which, that the town produces, may be had
at 2S. 6d. the bottle — the common price is
two fliillings — and to thofe who are unac-
cuftomed to a claret of a greater body, it
will foon become very pleafant, and the
moft agreeably palated wine he will meet
with in Ireland. 'Tis light, wholefome,
and eafy of digeftion. You will think it
rather of the marvellous, but it is no lefs
true, that a middling drinker here will carry
off his four bottles without being in the leaft
apparently difordered. A man is looked up-
on, indeed, as nothing with his bottle here,
that can't take off his gallon coolly. 1 be-
lieve it .may be faid with a great deal of
truth, that the Irifli drink the moft of any of
his majefty's fubjeds with the leaft injury,
C 3 ''Tis
( 22)
'Tis hardly poflible, indeed, to make an
Irifhmaii, that can in any fenfe be called a
drinker, thoroughly drunk with his claret:
by that time he has difcharged his five or
fix bottles, he will get a little flafliy, per-
haps, and you may drink him to eternity
he'll not be much more. One vtvy favour-
able circumftance for the drinker, cuftom has
here eftabliflied, their glaffes are very fmall :
the largeft of thefe in common ufe will not
hold more, I believe, than about one- third
of a gill, or quartern.
This IS an excellent cuftom in favour of
the moderate drinker; for many a one of
this clafs, I make no doubt, would be more
intoxicated with three half pint glaffes, than
he would be by three times three half pints
drank in very fmall quantities at a time.
But let my countryman be cautious of mak-
ing compafifons relative to his wine; be
careful not to call your claret, at any private
gentleman's houfe, what yet it generally very
juftly deferves to be called, a pretty wine, or
even a very pretty wine. For though a very
common expreflion in England for good
wines, yet the terms are not fufficiently ex-
prefiive or emphatical for an Irifliman, who,
before you are aware of it, or apprehenfivc
of having given any offence, will, very pro-
bably defcant away and explain upon the
meaning of your expreflion, in a manner
that
(23 )
that will, perhaps, difconcert you, or, at
beft, give you but a very unfavourable opi-
nion of the temper and underflanding of
your hoft. For confcious of the inferiority
of his claret to that of London, if he has
ever known the difference, he will be jealous
of every expreffion that has but even a dif-
tant appearance of being comparative. .
The above caution is the refult of my own
experience in the country ; and as it may
eventually be a very ufeful one, I have intro-
duced it.
The rates of hackney-coaches, and fedans,
are eftabliflied here as in London, for the
dijfferent dijftances, or fet-'downs^ as they are
called. But they have an odd kind of hack-
nies here, that is called the Noddy, which is
nothing more than old caft off one horfe chaife
or chair, with a kind of flool fixed upon the
fhafts juft before the feat, on which the
driver fits, jufl over the rump of his horfe,
and drives you from one part of the town to
another at ftated rates for a fet-down ; and a
damned fet-dovvn it is fometimes^ for you
are well off if you are not fet down in a chan-
nel by the breaking of the wheels, or an
overfet-down, nor can you fee any thing be-
fore you but your nod — nod — -nodding cha-
rioteer, whofe fituation on the fliafts obliges
his motion to be conformed to that of the
horfe, from wltence, I fuppofed, they have
C A obtained
C 24 ) '
obtained the name of the Noddy. I afTure
you, the eafe of the fare is not much con-
fulted in the conftrudion of thefe nodding
vehicles. However, they are convenient for
iingle perfons, the fare being not more than
half that of a coach, and are taken to any
part of the kingdom on terms as you can
agree.
But the drollefl: and moft diverting kind
of conveyance for your genteel and nngen^
teel parties of pieafure is what they call here
the Cbaife-marine^ which is nothing lefs or
more than any common carr with one horfe.
A fimple kind of carriage, conftruded with
a pair of wheels, or thin round blocks, of
about 20 inches in diameter, an axle, and
two {hafts, Vv'hich, over the axle, are fpiead
out a little wider than by the iides of the
horfe, and fratned together with crofs pieces,
in fuch manner as to be nearly in a level po-
fition for three or four feet acrofs the ?xle.
Thefe fimple conftrudlons are almoft the
only kind of carts, in common ufe, for the
carrying ^or moving of goods, merchandize
of every kind, hay, ftraw, corn, dung,
turf, &c. throughout the kingdom.
A fketch of the figure and conftrudion of
one of thefe carrs I have here given.
and
(25)
and, when ufed for parties of pleafure, on
the level part L L is laid a mat, for the com-
monalty, and for the genteeler fort of people
a bed is put on this ; and half a dozen gets
on, two behind and two on each fide, and
away they drive, with their feet not above
fix inches from the ground as they fit, on
little pleafurable jaunts of three or four or
half a dozen miles out of town ; and are the
m.oft fociable carriages in ufe, for ten or a
dozen' will take one of thefe chaife-marines,
and ride it by turns, the rate being feldom,
in fuch cafes, more than foot-pace. I aflure
you they are the drolleft, merrieft carricles
you ever faw. We were infinitely diverted
at meeting many of thefe feather-bed chaife-
marine
( 26)
marine parties, on the Sunday that we land-
ed, coniing out of town, as we went up to
it from Dunlary.
Upon my word, Sir, the inhabitants, in
general, of this kingdom are very far from
being what they have too often and unjuflly
been reprefented by thofe of our country
who never faw them, a nation of wild Irifli :
iince 1 have been in Ireland, I have traverfed
from north to fouth and from weft to call the
three provinces of Ulfter, Leinfter and Mun-
fter, and generally found them civil and
obliging, even amongft the very lowell: clafs
of the natives. Miferable and oppreffed, as
by far too many of them are, an Englifhman
wiil find as much civility, in general, as
amongft the fame clafs in his own country ;
and, for a fmall pecuniary con fide rat ion, will
exert themfelves to pkafe you as much as any
people, perhaps, in the king's dominions.
Poverty and oppreflion will naturally make
mankind four, rude and unfociable, and era-
dicate, or, at leaft, fupprefs all the more
amiable principles and paflions of humanity.
But it fhould feem unfair and ungenerous to
judge of, or decide againfl the natural difpofi-
tion of a man reduced by indigence and op-
preflion almoft to defperation. For a peafant
of Ireland to be civil and obliging is a work
of fupererogation.
Need
( 27)
Need and opprefftoji ftare withm their eyes.
Contempt and beggary hang upon their bach ;
^he world is not their friend^ nor the world's
law.
What refpedl for law or government,
what dread of jaftice or punifliment, can be
expedled from an Irifli peafant in a ftate of
wretched nefs and extreme penury ? in which,
if the firfl: man that (hould meet him were
to knock him at head and give him an ever-
lafting relief from his diftreffed, penurious
life, he might have reafon to think it a friend-
ly and meritorious action. And that fo ma-
ny of them bear their diftrefled, abjedl: ftate
with patience, is, to me, a fufficient proof
of the natural civility of their difpoiition.
The province of Connaught, the moft
weftern province of Ireland, and in form and
fituation, not much unlike Wales in England,
is the leaft inviting to a traveller of any part
of the kingdom. Our curiolity carried us
only through the eaftern counties of Rofcom-
mon, Sligoe, Gall way, and Clare, that bor-
der on the Shannon, which are the beft and
moft civilized parts, and as far on as to Gall-
way, the capital of the province.
The province of Connaught is the thinned
of inhabitants of any part of Ireland. Their
agriculture is chiefly grazing. There are im-
menfe numbers of fheep and bullocks bred in
this province 3 particularly in the counties of
Clare
( 28)
Clare and Gall way. We were at one of the
largefl: ftock fairs, at Ballynafloe, a fmall
town in the eaftern part of the province, that
perhaps is to befeen in the king's dominions,
which continues for a week. The toll of
the llock brought to this fair, which is kept
twice in the year, in the Spring and at Mi-
chaelmas, is worth, to the pofltffor, on an
average, 600/. per annum. — I think it is a
penny a head for bullocks, and fix- pence per
I'core for (lieep, for all that are brought. — •
The mod: difiant parts of the kingdom are
fuDplied in general from this fair.
The Shannon is the greateft river in the
kingdom, and confiderably larger than any
river in England, running from north to fouth
upwards of 300 Engliih miles; and, in its
courfe, fpreads out into many large and beau-
tiful lakes of different extent, from five to
ten and fifteen miles, ornamented, fome of
them, with fertile and beautiful iilands.
There are feveral confiderable towns fituated
upon this river, the principal of which are
Limerick and Athlone.
The river abounds, alfo, with falmon and
pike, &c. of a very large fize. But the na-
vigation is flopped at about 60 or 70 miles
up the river by a cataradl, or fall of the water
over a ridge of rocks that extends acrofs the
river about 20 m.iles above Limerick.——
If in any part of the kingdom there are any
wild Irifli to be found, it is in the weftern
parts
( 29)
parts of this province, for they have the leall
{^nk of law and government of any people
in Ireland, I believe, except that of their
haughty and tyrannic landlords, vi^ho, in a
literal fenfe, indeed, are abfolute fovereigns
over their refpedive towns and clans, which
the weftern part of this province may not
improperly be faid to be divided into. Their
imperious and oppreffive meafures, indeed,
have almofl: depopulated this province of Ire-
land. The will and pleafure (Sff thefe chiefs
is abfolute law to the p9or inhabitants that are
connected with them, and under whom the
miferable wretches live in the vileft and moft
abjcdl ftate of dependance.
This account, however unfavourable, is
not exaggerated, I affure you, for it is taken
from fome of the more fenfible people of the
very province. Too much, indeed, of this
is feen throughout the kingdom to be pleaf-
ing to an Englilh traveller. I never met with
fuch fcenes of mifery and opprefiion as this
country, in too many parts of it, really
exhibits. What with the fevere exadions
of rent, even before the corn is houfed, a
pradice that too much prevails here among
the petty and defpicable landlords, third,
fourth and fifth from the firft proprietor (of
which inferior and worft kind of landlords
this kingdom abounds infinitely too much for
the reputation of the real proprietors, or the
profperity of agriculture j) of the parifli prieft,
in
( 3o)
In the next place, for tythes, who not con-
tent with the tythe of grain, even the very
tenth of half a dozen or half a fcore perches
of potatoes, upon which a whole family,
perhaps, fubfifts for the year, is exaded by
the rapacious, infatiable prieft. I am forry,
to tell you the truth, that too many of them
are Enorlifh oarfons. For the love of God
and charity, fend no more of this fort over,
for here they become a fcandal to their coun-
try and to hutaanity. — — Add to thefe, the
exactions of, if pollible, the ftill more abfo-
lute catholic prieft, who, though he preaches
charity by the hour on Sunday, comes armed
with the terrors of damnation and demands
his full quota of unremitted offerings. For,
unhappily for them, the loweft clafs of inha-
bitants in the fouth and weft parts of the
kingdom are generally catholics, and by that
time they are all fatisfied, the poor, reduced
wretches have hardly the ilcin of a potatoe
left them to fubfift on. I make no doubt,
this has been the principal fource of the ma-
ny infurredions of the White- boys, as they
are called, in the fouth, from my own obfer-
vations and enquiries in the midft of them,
and likewife drives them, in fwarms, to the
high roads, which, throughout the fouthern
and weltern parts, are lined with beggars ;
who live in huts, or cabbins as they are called,
of fuch (hocking materials and conftrudion,
that through hundreds of them you may fee
' th^
(31)
the fmoak afcending from every inch of the
roof, for fcarce one in twenty of them have
any chimney, and through every inch of which
defencelefs coverings, the rain, of courfe,
will make its way to drip upon the half na-
ked, fliivering, and almoft half ftarved inha-
bitants within.
This is no exaggeration of the whole truth,
upon my honour, and it is the mod difagree-
able fcene that prefents itfelf to an Enghfli
travelkr in this kingdom. Happy would it
be for the lowefl clafs of people (whom op-
preffion and want of employment too often
and unjuftly fubjeds to the imputation of be-
ing idle) if the method of parochial provi-
fion in England were introduced into this
country, efpecially the fouthern parts of it,
where the poor really are infamoufly neglect-
ed. And the cafe of the lower clafs of far-
mers, indeed, which is the greateft number,
is little better than a flate of llavery, while
the pried and fubordinate landlords, in eafe
and affluence, live in haughty contempt of
their poverty and opprefiion, of which the
firft proprietors are but too feldom, indeed,
for the intereft of this kingdom, fpedlators.
The natural confeqiiences of this
fcene of things among the inhabitants, is vi-
fible even upon the lands in this country in
•general; which, though by nature, a very
coniiderable part of them, rich and fertile,
yet they almoft univerfally wear the face of
poverty.
( 32 )
poverty, for want of good cultivation, which
the miferable occupiers really are not able to
give it, and very few of them know how if
they were : and this, indeed, mufi: be the
cafe while the lands are canted (fet to the
higheft bidder, not openly, but by private
propofals, which throws every advantage in-
to the hands of the landlord) in fmali par-
cels of 20 or 30/, a year, at third, fourth,
and fifth hand from the firfl: proprietor.
From the mod attentive, and minute enqui-
ries at many places, I am confident, that the
produce of this kingdom, either of corn or
cattle, is not above two-thirds, at mioft, of
what, by good cultivation, it might yield.
Yet the gentlemen, I believe, make as much
or more of their eftates than any in the three
kingdoms, while the lands, for equal good-
nefs, produce the leait. The confequences
of this, with refped to the different claffes,
are obvious, — the landlords,, firft and fubor-
dinate, get ^// that is made of the land, and
the tenants, for their labour, get poverty and
potatoes.
With refpe6l to grazing, which is, at pre-
fent, the mod profitable kind of agriculture,
and which annually extends in this kingdom
(and is an inexhauftible fupply of Iriili chair-
men in London,) that infatiable avarice of
moft of the flock farmers, as they are called
here, after black cattle (bullocks,) Vv'ill, in
time, fpoil much of the beft paiiurage in
Ireland.
( 33 )
Ireland. The advantages of grazing, I {hould
imagine, would be much greater if iheep-
grazing, which is almoft confined to the
province of Connaught, and two or three
counties befide, were more extenfively intro-
duced and underdood.
Ireland would, indeed, be a rich country
if made the moil of, if its trade were not re-
duced by unnatural reflridions and an Egyp-
tian kind of policies from without, and its
agriculture vv^ere not depreffed by hard mafters
from within itfelf.
Indeed, how the encreafing wealth of this
kingdom, from whatever fource, (hould be
injurious to England, with which it is fo
clofely coneded, or that the putting ic into
the power of the former to derive fuch im-
menfe additional fums to the public wealth,
in which both kingdoms mud participate,
fliould be injurious to the general welfare of
either, I own is intirely beyond my compre-
henfion.
To prohibit the importation of fuch com-
modities as our own country (liall be already
fufficiently provided with, muft, even to an
Irilhman, appear juft and reafonable, but
that they fhould be excluded from, or re-
ftridled in their trade to almoft all the reft
of the world, is a fpecies of policy, the wif-
dom of which, with deference to our ad-
miniftrators of the Hibernian department, I
o//n, is to me, not eafily intelligible.
D How-
(34 )
However, this is a fubjedl I by no means pro-
fefs to be a competent judge of, and have
only thrown together a few obfervations on
the fubjedt, as they were fuggcRed to me
from a general view of the ftate of things in
the country.
And thus much for trade, agriculture, and
poverty, which, in this kingdom, appear to
have too great a connexion, either for its
own intereft or that of any country it is con-
neded with.
As to the cufloms, and dialed of the inha-
bitants in general of this kingdom, there is
fuch an univerfal famenefs ahnofl: from north
to fouth, that Ireland affords the lead enter-
tainment in this view of it, perhaps, of any
country, of like extent, in the king's domi-
nions. I have met with greater variety in
fome two or three counties in England, in
thefe refpeds, than in all the three eaftern
provinces of Ireland.
Englifh is the univerM language of the
country among people of any fortune, and
very few of the lowed clafs are met with that
cannot fpeak it. In regard to language, in-
deed, they exceed the higheft fort of people,
who, in general, are too genteely bred to
underftand any thing of the language of their
native country, which feems to be the near-
eft to the Welch of any language upon earth;
whereas you'll meet with thoufands *of the
loweft rank, who fpeak both Englifli and
Irifli
( 35 )
f rifli with equal eafe -, anc), what you will
hardly credit, perhaps, they really Ipcak bet-
ter Englifh than the lame clafs in England,
The reafon is obvious, here, the loweft clafs
have, many of them, learned it from fchools,
in which there may be fuppofcd a general
famcnefs throughout the kingdom.
But this fuperiority is, in my opinion, flu*
from being difcoverable among the people of
higher rank any where. Tho' the inhabitants
of Dublin, indeed, have the ridiculous vanity of
pretending to fpeak better Englidi than thofe
of London. From the mod attentive and
frequent obfervation, however, on the lan-
guage of the coffee- houfes, and places of
public bufincfs, in Dublin, compared to that of
fimilar places in London, I can fee not the
lead reafon for this vain prelumption : as lit-
tle does it appear from a comparifon of the
language of the pulpit or of the courts of
judicature in both cities. The language of
the theatres I exclude from the comparifon,
for that is all prefcription in both. And if
their Engliflh be even as good, their pronun-
ciation, I am fure, is much worfe, even
amongft the genteeleft of them. I fhould
not have taken fuch particular notice of this
circumilance, but from hence, that an En-
glifhman can hardly pafs a day in Dublin, if
he much frequents the coffee- houfes, with-
out finding this the topic of converfation
fomewbere, in one or other of them, the
D 2 fuperiority
(36)
fuperiority of the Dublin Englifh to that of
London.
Nor is this the only preheminence which
the citizens of Dublin, in particular, arro-
gate to ihemfelves to thofe of London. If
you will believe them, their gentility as
much exceeds that of London as their lan-
guage. F'or invariably, almofi:, w^henever
the fubjed is introduced, if the gentility of
Dublin is fpoken of, with any view to a
comparifon with that of London, it is with
an air and manner that plainly befpeaks a pre-
fumed fuperiority on the fide of Dublin.
Indeed, 1 have often thought there was fome-
thing charadteriftic in this Hibernian impor-
tance^ as I would chufe to call it, or, in the
language of orator Henley, this Dublin affu-
rance^ that, if any thing among them can be
thought fo, is really original. But how the
Devil the inhabitants of this metropohs,
whofe drefs, faflnons, language, and diver-
fions are all imported from London, fliould
come at a fuperiority in either, unlefs from a
natural genius or capacity to improve upon
their originals, is beyond my comprehenfion.
That Hibernian importance, which I have
taken notice of, I make no doubt includes
in it a prefumption of fuch a capacity. But
here, likewife, as well as in the matter of
fad:, that they really have made fuch im-
provements, they muft forgive me if I take the
liberty of diffenting ; nor will I pay fuch a
compli-
,( 37 )
compliment to their vanity at the expence of
my own country, as to fuppofe that their ta-
lents or genius for improvement upon any
originals v/hatever are in any degree fuperior
to thofe of the Englifli.
You will readily conceive that the obfer-
vations from which I have made the preced-
ing remarks, were taken of, and entirely re-
fer to the middling clafs of gentry, and the
people in trade. For it muft be between the
claflcs of thefe ranks that, in the prefent
queftion, any comparifon can be made.
The nobility, and people of quality, in, or
rather of this kingdom, are to all intents and
purpofes, almoft, very Londoners. — - This is
too well known in Ireland.
The part of the kingdom whofe inhabi-
tants, in their manners and dialed:, are the
moft like thofe of the English, is the province
of Ulfter; which including within itfelf al-
moft the whole, or by far the greater part,
of the linen manufadory, the bed branch of
trade in the kingdom, they haveconfequently
the greateft intercourfe with England: an
Englifhman in fome parts of it, indeed, will
imagine himfelf in his own country, frona
the fimilarity of their language and man-
ners.
The roads of this kingdom are generally
tolerably good for riding, but by no means
equal to the Englifli for a carriage. Turn-
pikes are eftablilhed on all the principal roads
D 3 in
( 38 )
in the kingdom; and at the inns, though
they are very far from making the appearance
of thcfe in England, yet the Englilh travel-
ler will univerfally, almoft, meet with civil
ufa2;e, good provifions in general, and, for
himfelf, clean decent lodging. But an En-
glifh horfe. could he fpeakas well as Balaam's
afs, would curfe the country, for moft of
thefe articles. ■ — — Their oats, indeed, are,
for the moft part, tokrably good ; but their
hay and litter are the worft I ever met with ;
for excepting two or three counties in the
eaft of Leinfter, and one or two in Ulfter,
almoft every handful of ftraw the earth pro-
duces, goes on upon their houfes and cab-
bins. - Their litter is generally the bot-
toms of their hay-ftacks, and the fpoiled hay
from the rack, which the greater part of it
often is before it comes there, from their in-
judicious method of harvefling it, the pro-
vifion of the rack is feldom much better than
what goes under their feet, and thither one
half of it, at laft, generally goes.
I abfolutely did not get above one bed of
clean dry flraw for my horfe in the three
eaftern provinces ; and that was at a farmer's
who kept an inn at Lurgan, near Lough
Neah in the county of Armagh, one of the
prettieft little market towns in the north,
and the moft like fome of our fpacious tho-
roughfare towns on the high roads near the
capital of apy that I met with in all the coun-
try.
( 39 )
try. His men happening to be thrafhing of
barley and throwing the ftraw out plentifully
juft by the ftable door, I was determined
that once in the kingdom my horfe fhould
have a clean and warm bed. I don't exas;-
gerate, laffureyou, nor depart in the leaft
from truth, when I tell you, that exxepting
at my landlord's, at, if I miftake not, the
Crown and Wheat-fheaf, at Lurgan, I did
not once get any thing like a good bed of
ftraw for my horfe in the kingdom. It may
feem a little remarkable this, but it is no lefs
true, nor do I intend by it a refledion upon
the reft. In general, they have not the re-
quifite provifions for a horfe upon the road.
They are very far from having a fuffi-
ciency of ftraw, and their hay is almoft uni-
verfally badly harvefted. But they might
have plenty of both very good ; and *tis an
infamy to the proprietors of this fertile coun^
try that they have not, who fuffer fome of
the beft land in the king's dominions to be
torn to pieces, and cultivated in the vileft
manner by a fet of abjedl, miferable occu-
piers, that are abfolutely no better than flaves
to the defpicably lazy fubordinate landlords.
We are generally apt to think every tiling
favourable of a place where we have been
agreeably entertained. Not only thofe of
our horfes, but our own accommodations
likewife, at the Wlfeat-ftieaf were fo remark-
ably decent, comfortable, and friendly, the
D 4 difpo-
(4o)
fjifpoiition to oblige us in our agricultural
hoft and hoftefs, was (o confpicuous, that I
cannot help williing to perpetuate the me-
mory of a place where we fpent two or three
days with as much pleafure as in any town in
the kingdom. They leemed indeed to exert
themfelves to fupport the reputation of their
town, which, fron\ the fimilarity of iis ge-
neral figure, of the lanp-'jaeie, manners, and
difpofitions oi its inhabitants to thofe of the
Englifli, had for many years acquired the
name of Liftk E77gJand'^ and an Englilhman
at Lurgan, indeed, will think him.felf in his
own country.
Its iituation is extremely pleafant, in a
fine fertile and populous country, and in the
midft of the linen manufactory. It flands on
a gentle eminence, about two miles from,
and commanding a fine profpedl of. Lough
Neah^ the largeft lake in the kingdom.
The inhabitants are genteel, fenfible, and
friendly; and though the town is not very
confiderable, yet, from a general concunence
in the fame fociable difpofition, they have
eftablifhed a very fociable and entertaining
affcmbly, to which, throwing afide all the
ridiculous difiindions and exclufions on the
circumftances of birth and fortune, the ofF-
fpring of pride, upon vanity and ignorance,
every perfon is welcome, who is qualified to
appear with decency and to behave with
good planners.
The
(41 )
The country, from hence to the eaftward,
by Lifburn, on to Belfaft and Antrim, is
rich, fertile, and as well cultivated and en-
ciofed, as any in the north part of Ireland.
But the greater part of the north of Ulfter,
as well as of th^mofl: fouthern parts of Mun-
fter, and almoft the whole of the province
of Connaught, are open and mountainous.
The province of Leinfter, and the middle
parts of the kingdom in general, are the beft
cultivated, and the mod generally enclofed.
Over fome of thefe open countries the turn-
pike roads are laid out, for lo or 15 miles
together, as flrait as a line. Woods you
meet with but very few of in this country,
though a foil, by nature, capable of produc-
ing very fine. 1 make no doubt there is
as much wood and timber growing in the
county of Kent as in the whole kingdom of
Ireland.
There are but few large, populous, or
well-built towns in this country. The
fecond city in Ireland is Corke, in the fouth-
weft part of the kingdom, in the county of
the fame name, which is by much the largeft
and moft populous, next to Dublin, in the
kingdom ; and, next to the capital, has by
far the greateft trade of any, and, indeed, is
in the beft fituation for commerce of any
town in Ireland. Its exports, which are the
principal parts of its trade, of beef and but-
ter, are greater, I believe, than thofe of any
town
( 42 )
town in the king's dominions. 'Tis amaz-
ing the quantity of beef that is killed here
from Michaelmas to Chriftmas. — For three
or four months at this time of the year a
ftranger would imagine it was the flaughter-
houfe of Ireland.
Corke is very nearly, or altogether, as
large as BriRol in the weft of England, but
infinitely better fituated as to its navigation,
at the bottom of a large, capacious and well
iheltered bay or cove. A very confiderable
part of the city, and the principal mercantile
part of it, is really fituated on a flat, that
was originally a moras or under water, which
by the induftry of the inhabitants has been
raifed feveral feet; many fpacious ftreers have
been built on this new made land, to which
they are annually making additions, and ex-
tending the town farther over the flat by the
fides of the navigation.
But what contributes greatly to the beauty,
as well as convenience, of this part of the
town and its trade, is the channels that are
carried through mod of the principal ftreets -,
fo that the merchandize of every kind can be
brought bv water to, or {hipped from the
very ware-houfes of the merchants, who re-
fide* chiefly in this lower, and modern part
of the city, in houfes really magnificent and
fuperb, that at the fame time exhibit the
w^ealth of their owners, and are an ornament
to the city.— A large and elegant threatre has
been
(43 )
been lately built here, for the entertainment
of the citizens, with dramatic performances,
which have hitherto been under the manage-
ment of Mr. Barry, from the theatre royal in
Crow-flreet, Dublin, who, with his com-
pany, exhibits here during the fummer va-
cation at the capital.
Cork, indeed, may very juftly be efteem-
ed the moft flourifliing city in Ireland, The
houfes, in general, are well built, but the
flreets are many of them too narrow. Its
churches are unexceptionably the neateft and
the mod elegantly finifhed, of any in the
kingdom, for the number it contains. But
excepting this city, and the metropolis, there
are few towns in Ireland that are larger than
the town you live in , though there are many
indeed, that are nearly of that extent ; amongft
which, the cities of Kilkenny, Waterford,
and Limerick, in the fouth, and Galloway,
Athlone, Siigoe, Innifkillen, Belfaft, and
Derry in the weft and north, are fome of
the principal.
The city of Kilkenny, in the fouth, is
very pleafantly iituated on the river Neor, a
navigable river, that difcharges itfelf into the
Haven of Waterford. 'Tis, indeed, one of the
moft confiderable and populous inland towns,
in Ireland. You have heard, I make no
doubt, of the four peculiarities, as they are
deemed, that are remarked of this city ; two
of which, are founded in truth, the other
two
. ( 44 ) ,
two in imagination. That its air is without
fog ; its water without mud ; its fire without
fmoke ; and its ftreets paved with marble.
The two latter, are, indeed, matter of
fad. They have in the neighbourhood a
kind of coal, that really burns from firft to
laft, without fmoke, and is not much unlike
our Welch coal. And their flreets are adtu-
ally paved wMth marble, almoffc throughout
the city, and with a very good fort of black
marble, of which ihey have large quarries
near the town, that takes a fine poliih, and
is beautifully intermixed with white granites.
But, the two former peculiarities, appeared to
me to be fuch only in imagination. The air,
indeed, is certainly good and healthy ; but
I fa w no reafon to think it very remarkably
clearer than in many other parts of the
kingdom. Here is the ancient feat of the
Ormond Family, and is an ornament to the
city. The country, in general, about it for
fome miles, appear very fertile, and their
agriculture fom^e of the beft, I met with, in
the kingdom.
The cilies of Waterford, and Limerick,
are large and populous, and well fituated for
trade and navigation. The former, on the
river &;t, about 15, and the latter, on the
Shannon^ about 60 miles, from the fea.
But what fpoils the figure and appearance
of the m.uch greater number of even their
largeft towns in Ireland, is the generality
dirty
( 45 )
dirty entrances into them, and the long
firings of defpicable huts, or cabbins, that
nioft of them are prefaced with. The in-
land towns efpecially, into which you are
generally introduced through a line of (^o or
loo of thefe habitations of poverty and op-
preffion, on either hand ; a whole ftreet of
which, might be built for 1 50I. for abfolute-
ly the materials and workmanfliip together,
of many of them, are not worth 20 fiiillings.
Even the metropolis itfelf, on feveral of its
moft publick entrances, is not without this
difgraceful deformity, that at one view exhi-
bits the poverty and wretchednefs of the
tenants, and the mean-fpiritednefs of the
landlord, who, too generally, for their own
or the reputation of their country, impofe the
building the houfes on their lands, upon a
fet of people, whofe abilities will not ena-
ble them to build with better materials, than
clay or ftraw, and to the infamy of the pro-
prietors may it be faid, that moft of the
farm Houfes in Ireland, are conftrucfted of
no better material?. The towns in the pro-
vince of Ulfter, have, in general, much the
leaft of this Ruftic deformity : there are ma-
ny, indeed, in this province, that have hard-
ly any, and that are neat and well built.
The city of Derry^ in particular, is per-
haps, unexceptionably the cleaned, beft
built, and moft beautifully fituated of any
town in Ireland^ and, excepting Cork, as
con-
(46 )
conveniently as any for commerce, foreign^
or domeftic; and, but for the reftridions
on the trade of Ireland, would, in a few
years, become a flourilliing and wealthy city.
It is fuuated on a gende eminence, of an
oval form, and almoft a pcninfuia at the
bottom, and in a narrow part of Lough, or
Lake Foyle, which furrounds, for a quarter
of a mile broad, two thirds or more of the
eminence, and might eafily be brought en-
tirely round the city. Through this Lough,
it comimunicates wiih the fea, on the very
north of Ireland.
The whole grounded plot of this city,
and its liberties, belongs to the twelve trades
of London -, from which circumftance, it
has obtained in our maps, the name oi Lon-
don-Derry^ but by the natives in, and about
it, it is commonly called by its original name
of Derry,
It is memorable, and for ever memorable
it ought to be, for the fevere fiege it nobly
fuftained for thirteen weeks, in the reign of
king William, in defence of the glorious
caufe of Liberty. Indeed, I make no doubt,
that from its natural fituation, it is capable of
being made one of the moft tenable and de-
fenfible cities in the kingdom.
In this fevere fiege was exhibited one of
the moft infamous fpecimens of French po-
licy and catholic humanity, that the hiftory
of their own, or any other the moft gothick
and
( 47 ) _
and favage nation can furnilh. — . Not
content with ftarving the natives and gallant
defenders of the city, the French general,
under James, colleded together the inhabi-
tants of half a dozen counties round, and
drove them, men, women, and children,
old and young, Hke flheep to the flaughter,
before the walls of the city, there to be
ftarved with the befieged.
Happily for the citizens, in this alarming
and defperate Situation, they had juft before
this event, taken, in a fally from the town,
feveral noblemen and gentlemen of the firft
diftindion belonging to the army of James,
For thefe a lofty triple gallows v/as conflru di-
ed, and, by order of the governor, erected
on an eminent part of the city, confpicuous
to the army in their camp, and a melTenger
was difpatched to the French general to cer-
tify the governor's determination, that if
thofe miferable wretches were not immedi-
ately fufFered to return, he would, the next
day, in fight of the army, hang up every
gendeman among the prifoners, of what rank
or diftindion foever. 'thh meflage had its
defired effedl. The army mutinied in favour
of their feveral friends and relations who were
among the captives, and the general was
obliged to permit that miferable multitude,
to pafs from whence they came to their re-
fpedlive homes. This enabled the befieged
to
(.4B )
to fubfift 'till relief arrived from England ;
immediately upon which the fiege was raifed.
From this general account of the country,
its inhabitants, &c. in which I have been as
comprehenfive and concife as I could, con-
fidently, with giving you a general view of
Ireland in thefe rcfpeds ; nor have I, in any
inftance knowingly, departed from truth ; I
will now proceed to the greateft fource of
entertainment to an Englilh traveller in this
kingdom, its natural curiolities, of wh'ch
this ifland has the greateft number, I believe,
of any country of equal extent in the king's
dominions, and fome, perhaps, fuperior, in
their kind, to any in the known world ; and
as it is from this part of my account of Ire-
land that I know your expedlations of enter-
tainment will be raifed the higheft, I will
give you a particular defcription of fome of
the greateft of every kind, as they have oc-
curred to me.
And having juft made a tranfition to the
north, before we leave the neighbourhood
of Derry, our firft defcription ftall be of a
natural curiofity on the moft northern point
of Ireland, in the county of Antrim, of which
it would be unpardonable in me not to give
you the moft particular account that 1 am
capable of, as we made it our bufinefs twice
to vific and examine it while we were, in the
neighbourhood, at a little town called Bufh^
fituated on a river of the fame name about
two
t norrnem exrremicy or ine luaiia, aiia
E clofe
m
^:
P
■.*'
\^
n
[ 49 1
two miles from it, I mean that mod fuper-
latively curious and aftoniflKiig work of na-
ture, the Gicmt\ Caiifcway ; which is per-
haps unexceptionably one oi the greatefl: and
mod Angular of natural curiofity in the
known world, for it is, indeed, the only
exhibition of the kind that was yet ever met
with in the known world.
A fketch of the out- lines and general fi-
gure of the component parts of the caufe-
way is given in the annexed plates.
The firft reprefents the two bays, &c.
between which the caufeway runs out to the
fea; GG the grand caufeway; A the point
of the cliff from whence the caufeway pro-
jedls ; G H the giant's chair ; W the way
leading down to the caufeway; O the or-
gans ; R a rock at the foot of the caufe-
way, vifible at low water ; P a promontory,
cut off at I from the cliff*; H a houfe built
by lord Antrim on the ftrand, and intended
for an inn, but never inhabited ; B the town
of Bt/Jh ; R a river of the fame name ; C
the road from Bally-caftle to Bufli, and
thence to Derry.
The other plate exhibits a view of the mix-
ture of concavities and convexities on the top
of the caufeway, as well as the general figure
and infertion of the pillars.
The fituation in which this mod extra-
ordinary phenomenon is difcovered, is in the
mofl northern extremity of the illand, and
E clofe
( 5° )
clofe by the fea, into which it runs out, for
200 yards, in a •dire6lion very nearly north
from the foot of a lofty cliff, that projeds to
an angular point between two fmall bays,
which are about half a mile wide, and about
half that diftance deep. The fituation of
the caufeway between thefe two bays or
rocky lofty amphitheatres, on either hand,
has fomething peculiarly flriking, and adds
greatly to the natural curiofity of the caufe-
way itfelf.
I have fent you a rude fketch of the gene-
ral form and fituation of this really mofl cu-
rious and Angular phenomenon, of which it
isimpoflible to give a jufl reprefentation by any
draught whatfoever, for fome of the mofl curi-
ous appearances will efcape the pencil. How-
ever, I will give you the mofl perfed idea that
I can by a defcription of the feveral parts.
The principal or grand caufeway, for there
are feveral lefs confiderableand fcattered frag-
ments of fimilar workmanfliip, confifls of a
mofl irregular arrangement of many hundred
thoufands of columns of a black kind of
rock, hard as marble, almofl all of them are
of a pentagonal figure, but fo clofely and
compadtly fituated on their fides, though per-
fectly diflind: from top to bottom, that fcarce
any thing can be introduced between them.
The columns are of an unequal height and
breadth, fome of the higheff, vifible above
the fiyrface of the ftrand, and at the foot of
the
(51)
the impending angular precipice, may be
about 2 feet, they do not exceed this height,
I believe, at lead none of the principal ar-
rangement. How deep they are fixed in
the (Irand was never yet difcovered. This
grand arrangement, I beheve, extends nearly
200 yards, vifible at low water, how far be-
yond is uncertain, from its declining appear-
ance, however, at low water, it is probable,
it does not extend under water to a diftance
any thing equal to v/hat is feen above.
The breadth of the principal caufeway,
which runs out in one continued range of co-
lumns, is, in general, from twenty to thirty
feet, at one place or two it may be nearly
forty for a few yards. 1 exclude^ in this ac-
count, the broken and fcattered pieces of the
fame kind of conftrudion, that are detached
from the fides of the grand caufeway, as they
did not appear to me to have ever been conti-
guous to the principal arrangement, though
they have frequently been taken into the
width ; which has been the caufe of fuch
wild and ditinnilar reprefentations of this
caufeway, which different drawings have ex-
hibited.
The highefl: part of this caufeway, is the
narroweft at the very foot of the impending
cliff, from whence the whole projedls, where
for four or five yards, it is not above 10 or
J 5 feet wide. The columns of this narrow
part, incline from a perpendicular a little to
E 2 the
( 52 )
the weftward, and form a flope on their
tops, by the very unequal height of the co-
lumns on the two fides, by which an afcent
is made at the foot of the cliff, from the head
of one column to the next above, gradatim,
to the top of the great caufeway, which, at
the dillance of half a dozen yards from the
cliff, obtains a perpendicular pofiiion, and
lowering in its general height, widens to
about 2 or between 20 and 30 feet, and
for 100 yards nearly is always above water.
The tops of the Columns for this length
being nearly of an equal height, they form a
grand and very fingular parade, that m/ay be
eafily walked on, rather inclining to the
Vv^ater's edge. But from high water mark,
as it is perpetually waflied by the beating
fur2;es on every return of the tide, the plat-
form lowers confiderably, and becomes more
and more uneven, fo as not to be walked
on, but with the greateft care. At the dif-
tance of j jo Yards from the cliff, it turns
a little to the eaft for 20 or 30 yards, and
then finks into the fea. Thus far we have
traced the general figure and outlines only of
this mofl: fingular phaenomenon, 1 will now
point out the circumftances that are particu-
larly curious and extraordinary in this caufe-
way, which are, the figure of the Columns,
their Conftrudion, and, clofe combination
with each other ; together with the general
difpofition of the feveral phoenomena of this
kind
Ci3 )
kind about the place. The figure of thefe
columns is almofl: unexceptionably pontagonal,
or conipofed of five fides, there are but ve-
ry few of any other figure introduced ; fome
few there are of three, four, and fix fides,
but the generality of them are five fidcd,
and the fpedtator muft look very nicely to
find any of a difil^ent confiruftion : yet what
is very extraordinary, and particularly curi-
ous, there are not two columns in ten thou-
fand to be found, that either have their fides
equal among themfelvcs, or whole figures
are alike. Nor is the compofition of thefe
columns or pillars lefs deferving the attention
of the curious fpeftator. They are not of
one folid fi:one in an upright pofition, but
compofed of fevcral fliort lengths, curioufly
joined, not with flat furfaces, but articulated
into each other, like ball and focket, or like
the joints in the vertebra of fome of the
larger kind of filL, the one end at the joint
having a cavity, into which the convex end
of the oppofite is exadly fitted. This is not
vifible, but by disjoining the two ftones.
The depth of the concavity, or convexity,
is generally about three or four inches. And
what is fliill farther remarkable of the joint,
the convexity, and the correfpondent conca-
vity, is not conformed to the external angular
figure of the column, but exadtly round, and
as large as the fize or diameter of the co-
lumn will admit 3 and, confequently, a? the
E 3 angles
( 54 ) _
singles of thefe columns are, in general, ex-
tremely unequal, the circular edge of the
joint is feldom coincident with more than
two or three fides of the pentagonal, and
from the edge of the circular part of the joint
to the exterior fides and angles they are quite
plain.
It is ftill farther very remarkable, likewife,
that the articulations of thefe joints are fre-
quently inverted ; in fome the concavity is
upwards, in others the reverfe. This occa-
lions that variety and mixture of concavities
and convexities on the tops of the columns^,
v/hich is obfervable throughout the platform
of this caufeway, yet without any difcover-
able defign or regularity vvith refped: to the
number of either.
The length, alfo, of thefe particular
ftones, from joint to joint, is various; in ge-
neral they are from i8 to 24 inches long,
and, for the mofi: part, longer toward the
bottom of the columns than nearer the top,
and the articulation of the joints fomething
deeper. — The fize, or diameter, likewife,
of the columns is as different as their length
and figure; in general, they are from i j to
20 inches in diameter.
There are really no traces of uniformity or
defign difcovered throughout the whole com-
bination, except in the form of the joint,
which is invariably by an articulation of the
convex into the concave of the piece next
above
(S3)
above or below it 5 nor are there any traces
of a finifliing in any part, either in height,
length, or breadth of this curious caufeway.
If there is here and there a fmooth top to
any of the columns above v^ater, there are
others juft by, of equal height, that are more
or lefs convex or concave, v^^hich fhew them
to have been joined to pieces that have been
wa(hed, or by other means taken off. And
undoubtedly thofe parts that are always above
water have, from time to time, been made
as even as might be ; and the remaining fur-
faces of the joints muft naturally have been
worn fmoother by the conftant fridion of
weather and walking, than where the fea,
at every tide, is beating upon it and conti-
nually removing fome of the upper ftones and
expofing fre(h joints. And, farther,
as thefe columns preferve their diameters,
from top to bottom, in all the exterior ones,
which have two or three fides expofed to
view, the fame may, with reafon, be inferred
of the interior columns, whofe tops only are
vifible.
Yet what is very extraordinary, and equal-
ly curious in this phenomenon, is, that not-
withftanding the univerfil diffimilitude of
the columns, both as to their figure and dia-
meter, and though perfectly diftindt from
top to bottom, yet is the whole arrangement
fo clofely combined at all points, that hardly
a knife can be introduced between them
E 4 either
( i6 )
cither on the fides or angles. And it is really
a moft curious piece of entertainment to exa-
mine the dole contexture and nice infertion
of fuch an infinite variety of angular figures
as are exhibited on the furface of this grand
parade. From the infinite diffimilarity of
the figure of thefe columns, this will appear
a moil furprizing circumllance to the curious
fpedator, and would incline him to believe
it a w^ork of human art, were it not, on the
other hand, inconceivable that the wit or in-
vention of man fliould conftiud and combine
fuch an infinite number of columns, which
(liould have a general apparent likenefs, and
yet be fo univerfally dilfimilar in their figure
as that, from the minuted examination, not
two in ten or twenty thoufand fhould be
found, v/hofe angles and fides are equal
among themfelves, or of the one column to
thofe of the other.
That it is the work of nature there can be
no doubt to an attentive fpedator, who care-
fully furveys the general form and fituation,
with the infinitely various figuration of the
feveral parts of this caufeway. There are no
traces of regularity or defign in the out- lines
of this curious phaenomenon ; which, includ-
ing the broken and detached pieces of the
fam.e kind of workmanfliip, are extremely
fcattered and confufed, and, whatever they
might originally, do not, at prefent, appear
to "have any connection with the grand or
prir>«
/.ipppar oil rii e Trjp o f die (Jaii^ejT).
( 57 )
principal caufeway, as to any fuppofeable de-
lign or ufe in its firft conflrudion, and as lit-
tle defign can be inferred from the figure or
lituation of the feveral conftituent parts.
The whole exhibition is, indeed, extremely
confufed, difuniform, and dellitute of everv
appearance of ufe or deiign in its original
conftiudion.
But what, beyond difpute, determines its
original to have been from nature, is, that
the very cliffs, at a great diftance from the
caufeway, efpecially in the bay to the eaft-
v/ard, exhibit, at many places, the fame
kind of columns, figured and jointed in all
refpeds like thofe of the grand caufeway ;
fome of them are feen near to the top of the
cliff, which in general, in thefe Bays to the
eaft and weft of the caufeway, is near 300
feet hight, others again are feen about mid-
way, and at different elevations from the
ftrand. A very confiderable expofure of
them is fctn in the very bottom of the bay
to the eartward, near a hundred rods from
the caufeway, where the earth has evidently
fallen away from them upon the firand,
and exhibits a mofl curious arrangement of
many of thefe pentagonal columns, in a per-
pendicular pofition, fupporting, in appear-
ance, a cliff of different flrata of earth, clay,
rock, &c. to the height of 1 50 feet or more,
above. Soine of thefe columns are between
30 and 40 feet high, from the top of the
Hoping
( 5B )
floping bank below them j and, being longeft
in the middle of the arrangement, fliortening
on either hand in view, they have obtained
the appellation of organs, from a rude like-
nefs, indeed, in this particular to the exte-
rior or frontal tubes of that inftrument ; and
as there are very few broken pieces on the
flrand near it, 'tis probable that the outfide
range of columns that nov/ appears, is really
the original exterior line, to the feaward, of
this colledion. But how far they extend
internally into the bovv^els of the encumbent
cliff, may be worthy the examination of any
curious gentleman in the neighbourhood, by
running an arch or cavern on one or both
fides, to trace the internal fcope of this par-
ticular arrangement, which may be about 50
feet wide, and is compofed of the loftieft
columns of any that are found in, or about,
the caufeway.
The very fubftance, indeed, of that part
of the cliff which projefts to a point, between
the two bays on the eaft and weft of the
caufeway, feems compofed of this kind of
materials, for befides the many pieces that
are fcen on the fides of the cliff that circu-
late to the bottom of the bays, particularly
the eaftern fide, there is, at the very point
of the cliff, and juft above the narrow and
higheft part of the caufeway, a long collec-
tion of them feen, whofe heads or tops juft
appearing without the floping bank, plainly
iTievr
(59)
fhew them to be in an oblique pofition, and
about halfway between the perpendicular,
?.nd the horizontal. The heads of thefe,
likewife, are of mixt furfaces, convex and
concave, and the columns evidently appear to
have been removed from their original upright,
to their prefent inclining or oblique pofition^
by the finking or falling of the cliff; nor do
I make any doubt, that the whole caufeway,
that runs out from thence to the fea, was,
originally, concealed in the very bowels of a
fuperencumbent cliff, that, by degrees, has
fallen off it ; and the loofer earth being wafh-
ed away, has left this more fixed and mofl:
curious columnal combination expofed to
view, and which will probably remain for
ages a monument of the fuperior and exqui-
fite workmanfhip of nature.
The circumftance of its being the only
phaenomenon of the kind that has yet been
difcovered is no difproof of its 72a f ztral onginy
or it is an equal prefumption againft its being
the work of human art. For neither art or
nature, perhaps, in any part of the known
world has exhibited a conftruftion like it. —
That there is nothing of the fame kind to be
met withj makes this, indeed, the more ex^
traordinary, and the more juftly deferving
the notice and admiration of the carious ;
but nothing can be inferred from thence alone
as to its origin.
The
( 6o )
The roinaiitic fuppofition of its having
been a caulevvay from Ireland to Scotland is
ridiculoiis and abfurd at firft view. The
neaieft coaft of Scotland to this place is at
leail 30 miles; if a^ny ufe or defign of this
kind can be imagined ever to have taken
place, it mutl: have been to fome ifland not
far from the fhore, which the fea has fwal-
lowed up. Bat the general form and con-
ilrudion of the feveral parts is at the utmoft
difiance from favouring fuch a fuppofirion.
Nor is the ridiculous opinion that is met
with in fome of the old natural hiftories of this
kingdom lefs abfurd, on a comparifon that is
made of this to Stonehenge on Salifbury-plain,
that this, as well as that, may have been
originally a Druid temple, or fome ancient
place of vvorfhip, for there is no more like-r
nefs in the comparifon than would be found
between two of the mofi: dilTimilar produc-r
tions of art or nature. Into fuch ridi-
culous fancies will men fuffer themfelves to
be led, who have never feen the originals,
of which they • retend to give a defcription ;
but implicitly write from the authority of
others, equally with themfelves, unacquaint-
ed with them.
The truth is, that from the mofl exadt
furvey, and the minuteft examination, of
this mofi; fingular and curious phenomenon,
the total abfence of every appearance of der
fign or ufe that can be difcovered, it may jufHy
bs
( 6i )
be looked upon as a lufus natiirce ; if there
are aiw exhibitions in nature that may be
called iuch, this is fupereminently one of
them. With refpedt to the manner of its
original production, it iliould feem to be a
rocky concreffence or vegetation, of a fimi-
lar natural procefs with many fparry or lapidar
produdtions that are found in fome parts of
both England and Ireland. This, however,
I fpeak with diffidence, and fubmit to the
judgment of more curious naturalilis. That
itones of many (and perhaps of all) kinds do
really grow from a lelTer to a larger fize, is,
at this time a well known truth. Whether
thefe have encreafed in their magnitude fince-
the memory of man, there have been no ob-
fervations made, that I could find, by any
gentleman in the country : though fuch eafily
might have been made, with refpect to any
particular pillar or column, a little detached
from the reft.
But, indeed, whether they grew to this
furprizing and mod lingular form and con-
nexion with each other, by any natural ve*
getative procefs, or were originally brought^
into it at once by the omnipotent hiat of na-
ture, is, at this time, and probably ever will
be, an abfolutely indifcoverable fecret. The
iingularity, however, as well as figure of the
phicnomenon, is very extraordinary, that
there Ihould never, in any part of the world,
be anv prcdudtion^of a fimilar kind to this
yet
(62)
yet difcovered, not even in Ireland itfelf, is :i
circumftance, indeed, amazing, and that
very juftly places this at the head of natural
curioiities.
Nor is this the only deviation of nature,
in this ifland, from her common methods of
working; it feems, indeed, to have been
her favourite fpot for exhibidng a fportive
and extravagant tancy in the finifliing her
operations of many kinds.
There is hardly a river in the kingdom but
vi^hat is ornamented, more or lefs, in its
courfe, with beautiful cafcades, water-falls,
or falmon-leaps, as they are ufually called,
from the infinite number of falmon that, at
the feafon of the year for Ipawning, are ken
leaping up the falls, many of them to the
height of 15 or 20 feet. There are many of
thefe falls in this kingdom, which are very
curious and entertaining to a firanger, and
the falmon fifhery of fome of them is worth
prodigious fums ; there are two or three in
the province of Ulfter, that rent for 15 or
\6ool. per a?2?i, and at which confequently
immenfe quantities of fifli are annually
caught; and yet they arefeldom fold at more
than the moderate prices of three half pence
or two pence per pound, prodigious quanti-
ties of which are falted and barrelled for
North America from Derry. There is one
of thefe fiflieries at Colerain, in the county
of Antrim, that belongs to the city of Lon-
don,
1
Mf */!&*'>
iKstete^Uwiti-' '
3
(63 )
don, and rents for 1500/. a year; and ano-
ther at Ballyfhannon, the property, I believe,
of lord Donnegal, that rents for 1600/. per
ann.
At fome of the deeper catarads of this
kind, in flood times, after heavy rains in the
country and mountains above, the noife and
impetuous fall of the water is aftonifljing,
and poffeiTes the mind of the curious fpe(fla-
tor, unufed to fcenes of this kind, with a
degree of terror mixt with admiration.
There is a very beautiful one at Leifilp,
about feven miles from Dublin, in the river
LifFy, juft by the feat of the archbifhop
of Armagh, the primate of Ireland, one of
the pleafanteft villages in Ireland. There are
feveral feats of the firft families in the king-
dom fituated in the neighbourhood of this
village; and, in the fummer feafon, it is
much reforted to. by genteel company from
Dublin, and many parts of Ireland, to drink
of a fulphurous fpaw that fprings clofe to
the edge of the LifFy, a httle below the vil-
lage.
A general plan of the village and view of
the foil is fketched out in the annexed plate,
in which, B is the billiop's houfe ; F the
grand fall, near 20 feet ; \., L feveral lefTcr
falls above it ; at A is an arch on the top of
the fill, one butment of which is on the
rocks over which the water falls, the other
2gainfl the bank in the bifhop's garden ; D is
a dara
(64)
a dam acrofs the river, to raife the water for
the mill at M ; C the church ; T the town
of Leillip ; J the joftice's houfe; R the road
to Athlone and Connaught ; S a fummer-
houfe on a delightful eminence above the
town; G R road to Caftletown, the feat of
the right hon. Mr. Conolly ; R D road to
Dublin ; R S a very pleafant road to Salbridge
and Caftletown, by the fall. The primate's
gardens here are extremely pleafing, on an
eminence along the fide of the river, very
fleep to the edge of the water, and fl^irted
from top to bottom with trees of various
kinds, through which the roaring of the fall
at the height of about 60 or 70 feet above it,
has a very pleafing eflfed:, wMth here and
there a break through the v/ood to get a peep
down upon the river and the fall.
To a traveller, unuled to fcenes of this
kind, it is really a moft diverting kind of en-
tertainment to fee the many un(uccefsful ef-
forts of thefe large and beautiful fifii to gain
the top of the fall before they fucceed. I
have often been highly diverted for an hour
or two, in the middle of the day, at this fal-
mon-leap at Leiflip. When they come
up to the foot of the fall, you will frequent-
ly obferve them to leap up juft above water,
as if to make an obfervation of the height
and diftance, for by fixing your eye on the
fpot, you willj generally, foon fee the fifli
leap up again, with an attempt to gain the
top.
- (^5)
t6p, and rife perhaps to near the fummit, but
the falling water drives them forcibly down
again ; you will prelently obferve the fame
iiih fpring up again, and rife even above the
fall ; — this is as unfuccefsful as the not riling
high enough, for dropping with their broad
fides on the rapid curvature of the waters,
they are thrown back again headlong before
they can enter ihe fluid. The only method
of fucceeding in their attempts is to dart their
heads into the water in its firft curvature
over the rocks, by this means they firft make
a lodgment on the top of the rock for a few
moments, and then feud up the flream and
are prefently out of fight. One would
imagine there was fomething inftindlive in
this inclination of the falmon to get up the
fall , for this is the point they are obferved,
by the diredlion of their motion j generally to
aim at ; and the force of the ftream, on the
top of the precipice, is undoubtedly lefs at
the bottom of the water, and clofe to the
rock, than it is on the /ur face of the rapid
curvature. *Tis almoH; incredible, to a
ftranger, the height to which thefe fifli will
leap: I affure you, I have often fecn them,
at this very fall, leap near 20 feet: you may
think, perhaps, that I fhall want more cre-
dit for this than the generality of my readers
will believe 1 have a right to ; but, upon my
honour, 'tis no lefs than matter of fadl ; and
if the opinion that prevails here in general is
F true.
( 66 )
true, that they fpring from the bottom of
the river, they muft rife often 30 or 40 feet.
But this is certainly erroneous, their fpring is
undoubtly from the furface. The manner
of giving themfelves this furprizing leap, is
by bending their tails almoft to their heads,
and by the lirong re-adlion of their tails againft
the water it is that they fpring fo much
above it; which, when the fifh are large,
muft be with very great force to carry them
to fuch prodigious heights as they are fome-
times feen to rife.
From this general defcription of the fal-
mon-leap at Leiflep, you may form an idea
of the reft of this kind, of which there are
many in the rivers in this kingdom, I will
now conduft you to one of the greateft
beauties, of its kind, perhaps, in the world,
the water- fall in the demefne of lord Powerf-
court, in the county of Wicklow, about 14
miles from Dublin ; which, from the pecu-
liarity of its (ituation, its prodigious height,
and Angular beauty, deferves the moft parti-
cular defcription.
It is found at the very bottom of a lofty
femi-circular hill, into which, after a moft
agreeable ride through a park well planted
with wood, you enter, by a fudden turn
round the extremity of one of the curvatures,
and at once, unexpeftedly get into the midft
of a moft entertaining fcenery of lofty flopes
on
( 67 5
on either hand, verdant from top to bottom^
tvith trees of every Kind.
The diftant view of this water-fall^ at firft
entering within the fcope of the furrounding
verdant hills, is inexpreffibly fine. A iketch
of this moft beautiful fcene, is given in the
annexed plate.
At the very bottom of this fylvan amphi-
theatre, and in view from your firft entrance
into it, is feen one of the moft beautiful
water- falls in Great-Britain, or Ireland, andj
perhaps, in the world. It is produced by a
fmall river that rifes on the plains or j[hal-
low vallies, on the top of an adjacent range
of mountains above, which have no other
out-let for the waters, that, from the fprings
and rains, are colleded in thefe little vallies^
but by a defcent to the edge of this precipice.
Where in the horizontal diftance of 50 or 60
feet, it falls at leaft, three hundred ; up-
wards of two hundred feet of it is vifible on
the plain below, and is nearly perpendicular,
or not above nine or ten feet from the direct.
The eflFedl of this fmall degree of obliquity
is extremely fine, for befides the greater
quantity of the water that from one fmall
break, or projedion, to another, is thrown
off the rock in beautiful curves, it produces
an infinite number of frothy ftreaks behind
the larger j[l:ieets of water, which, through
the divifions of thefe more confiderable and
F 2 impetuous
( 68 )
impetuous falls, are feen running down the
rock, in a thoufand different and broken
directions, at a flower rate, from their
adhefion to the rocks. The general form
and compofition of this precipice contri-
butes infinitely to the variety and beauty
of the fall ; for it is compofed, not of ho-
rizontal ftrata, but all in a pofition ob-
lique, and the degrees of this obliquity be-
ing various in the different ftrata, produce an
infinite variety of arching curvatures in the
fall, by the dafhing of the water againft thefe
little projedlions of the rocks, and occafions
thofe breaks or divifions of the more in>petu-
ous falling flieets of water, through which
are difcovered the flower trickling itreams
running in ten thoufand various and mingled
diredlions down the very fides of the preci-
pice. Thefe little frothy ftreams trickling
down the fides or front of the rocks, have a
moft pleafing and entertaining effect, and de-
lightfully diverfify the fcene.
The only time to fee this mofl: beautiful
and aftonifhing water-fall in its higheft per-
feftion, is immediately after heavy rains on
the mountains above, which add greatly to
the confluent fprings that rife on the plains or
fhallows on the top of thefe mountains : on
fuch increafe of the waters, nothing of
the kind can exceed the beauty, the al-
mofl: terri^c grandeur of the fall ^ add to this
account
( 69)
account the enormous pieces of rock that lay
at the bottom, juft under the fall, upon
which the torrent or cataract moft impetu-
oufly dafhes, and fly off in a thoufand diffe-
rent directions, exhibiting, likewife, in the
morning, with the fun in the eafi: fliining full
on it, moft curious and beautiful reprefenta-r
tions of the rainbow, on the fpray that rifes
in the air, from the dafhing of the water
againft the rocks at bottom, and the whole
together prefents fuch a fcene, as at once
poffcffes the mind of the curious fpcdator
with aftonifhment, mixt with the higheft
admiration. I affure you there is no height-
ening or exaggeration in this defcription ; for
the fubjedt will not admit of it. The higheft
defcription muft fall fliort of the beauty of
the original, and of the conceptions of the
delighted fpedtator on the fpot, if it is vifi-
ted under the advantages I have recommend-
ed from my own obferyation, viz. in a very
wet time, or juft after heavy rains on the
mountains abov.e, though there is a conti-
nual fall fupplied from the fprings.
The trees which grow frpm the bottom to
the top of the hill, on the fides of this pro-
digious ]water-fall, are an inexpreffible addi-
tion to the beauty of the fcene, efpecially at
the diftance of an hundred yards from the
fall, and whoever will undertake the moft
laborious talk, indeed, of climbing the hill,
F 3 from
f 70)
from tree to tree, to view the river at the
top, before it comes to the precipice, will
have their curiofity amply rewarded, by
viewing the many breaks and little falls of
feveral feet, that it makes from the place
where its defcent firft becomes fleep, to-
wards the edge of the precipice. Its wind-
ing, hollow, and intricate paflage througl^
the rocks, in fome places open, in others al-
moft concealed from the projed'ng ftrata of
the Rocks on either fide its broken channel.
The beautiful profpe6l likewife from the top
of the fall of the lawns below, and the fur-
rounding verdant flope of the hills, on either
hand ; (the reverfed profped; of this beauti-
ful fylvan amphitheatre as taken from be-
low) the contraded area of the bottom of
which, now feen as in perfpedive, will,
altogether, furnifli fuch entertainment for
their curiofity, as will amply reward them
for their no fmall toil and labour, I alTurq
you, in the acquifition.
The whole fcenery, indeed, above and
below, is the mod extraordinary, and enter-
taining, in its kind, I have ever met with,
infinitely fiiperior, indeed, to adequate de^
fcription, and juftly deferving the notice of
every admirer of natural curiofities.
I cannot omit the ipentioning an unexpec-
ted piece of entertainment in our way tp
this grand water-fall, as it aleviated an inci-
dental
( 70
dental inconvenience in our ride to it, and to
which inconvenience, indeed, we' were in-
debted for it. Though the weather was
tolerably good on our leaving Dublin, yet by
that time we had rode a mile or two, it be-
gan to rain, and continued till we came
within half an hour's ride to the fall, when
it cleared up, and prefented to our view,
one of the moft aftonifliing cafcades that na-
ture ever exhibited, from, nearly, the top
to the bottom, of one of the higheft range
of mountains in Ireland. From the height
of its defcent, it could not be lefs than fix
or feven hundred yards in view, occafioned
by a fudden torrent of rain on the mountains,
what in the country they call, and very pro-
perly, a mountain flood ; which, as it fud-
denly falls, it foon runs away, for the next
day we faw nothing but the channel down
which it had defcended.
There was fomething inexprefTibly grand
and ftriking in the profped: of this cafcade,
at the diftance of about a mile, which was
the neareft view we had of it, and we
thought ourfelves fufficiently recompenced for
the inconvenience of riding a few miles with
a wet coat. This is perfedlly agreeable
to the common courfe of events in human
life, in which the higheft enjoyments are
generally attended with more or lefs of diffi-
culty or inconvenience in the acquifition. To
F 4 apply
( 70
apply this remark, it js certain that thofe who
prefer a dry coat, to the gratifying their cu^
riofity, will have but Httle chance for feeing
one of the greatell beauties in the world of
its kind, in the higheft perfedion, the fall of
Powerfcourt,
The glyns, or dark vallies, another fpe-
cies of natural curiolities, of this country, are
many of then:i ren^arkably beautiful. There
is one particularly {q, not far from Powerf-
courf, which is much vifited in the fummer
time, by the gentry from Dublin, and moft
of the people of fortune that come to this
cMy, It is equal, if not fuperior, to any of
the kind in the kingdom, one of the deepeft,
and at the fame time the narroweft, and
moil irriguous vallies, I remember to have
feen. The fides of the hills which fkirt it,
are moft beautifully ornamented with trees
even to the very tops, and intermixed, as
they are, with rocky precipices, added to the
murmuring of a little river at the bottom,
that winds its way through this intricate val-
ley, over numberlefs little breaks and falls,
that greatly beautify the fcene j altogether it
affords a moft pleafing fummer recreation.
The clofenefs of the lofty fhading hills on
the fides, at the fame time thai it affords a
moft delightful cool retreat from the heat of
the fun, throws a kind of gloomy folemnity
pr| the bottom of this deep valley, and frorn
this
( 73 )
this circum (lance it is very properly called
the DarkGlyn, It is rather a deepchafm,
indeed, than a valley, through a lofty range
of hills, which, at this place, are contraded
to about an Englifh mile, the length nearly
of this glyn or chafm through the hills. 1
At the very bot':om of this glyn is a way cut
out by the fide of the ftream, in a tafte adapt-
ed to the gloomy retirement of the place,
where the lover, the poet, or philofopher,
may wander with every circumftance, every
fcene, about him calculated to warm his
imagination, or produce the moft ferious re-
.fleftions.
There is another of much greater extent
than this in the neighbourhood, called the
Glyn of the Mountains, which defei ves our
notice, and a mountainous glyn it is, indeed ;
the bottom of which is juft wide enough for
a road and a river that run through it.
It is impofiible to exprefs the beauty and
grandeur which the curious fpedlator is im-
prefTed with in a ride thro* this immenfly deep,
but more open and fpacious valley, which is
fkirted on either hand with the moft enor-
mous aftonifhing mountains, that flope im-
mediately down upon his road for about two
Englifh miles that it may be through it, and
for the moft part covered with trees f om
their bottoms to the very tops, or prefenting
a profpeft of the moft horrible impending
preci-
( 74 )
precipices, that from their terrifying height,
and broken ruins at the bottoni, appear to
threaten him with deftrudion. There is
fomething really inexprefiibly ftriking in this
fcene, even at firft entrance. I never rode
through a valley where there was fuch a
mixture of beauty, of grandeur, of fubli-
mity^ if you will allow me the ufe of the
expreffion here, and of fomething really aw-
ful, as is exhibited in this moft enormous
Glyn of the Mountains.
A river, like wife, as obferved above, runs
through this valley clofe to the road at the
foot of the mountains ; and from the num-
ber of breaks and falls in it, occafioned by
the ftones and rocks that are frequently roll-
ing from the mountains down into it, adds
extremely to the pleafure of a ride through
this moft ftriking and entertaining fcene.
From thefe lofty and fublime curiofities of
nature, you muft now make a defcent with
me into the dreggs of Ireland, down into
the very bogs, with which this ifland abounds,
and fome of them to an extent of many miles.
However unpromifing the profpedl, yet, per-
haps, it may not be altogether infertile of en-
tertainment : it may ferve, at leaft, as a con-
traft to, and give a higher relifti for, the
more pleafing fubjedls which will afterwards
occur. However, I will carry you over
them as fafe and with as much expedition as I
can i ftaying no longer on them than juft to
let
( 75)
let you know what ground you are upon, and
will condud: you again to profpefts more in-
viting and fertile of entertainment.
Though the bogs have generally been
clafled among the natural difadvantages of
this kingdom, I (hall, notwithftanding, take
them into the number of its natural curio-
fities, at leaft they will appear fuch to an
Englifh traveller, both as to their origin and
produce. But prepare yourfelf to travel as
lightly as poffible, throw off every unneceC-
fary weight, for the furface you have now to
tread on is very infirm and dangerous ; and
(liould you once break through, you have
but little chance for flopping, in your de-
scent, 'till you reach the ante-deluvian world,
for that will probably be the firft firm foot-
ing that your feet will find ; fuch, however,
feems to be the moft generally prevailing
opinion here concerning thefe bogs — that
the timber and trees of every kind, which are
frequently found at the bottom of them at
very different depths, were originally thrown
down by the univerfal deluge in the life of
Noah. There may be truth in this opinion,
but 'tis certain, at beft, that 'tis altogether
conjectural, though not altogether improba-
ble. -^ — —I juft now recoiled a par^^cu ar
circumftance in a fimilar view of this kind in
England. When the new harbour at Rye,
in Suffex, was firft opened, at the bottom,
they came upon a layer pf timber of various
kinds.
( 76 ) ^
kinds, at the depth of 15 or near 20 feet
under the ftrand ; on turning over one of
the bodies of thefe trees, there was found the
fkeleton of a man compleat, and of a gigan-
tic fize, in a poficion as if he had been at-
tempting to climb the tree, and it had fallen
on him. The conjedtures were various up-
on the phasnomenon ; but it was the more
prevailing opinion of the many gentlemen
who were prefent, that he was one of thofe
ill-fated inhabitants of the antedeluvian world
who was endeavouring to fave himfelf from
the approaching deluge, by climbing the
tree. Whatever truth there may be in
the conjedlure with refpe6t tc5 the original of
this fallen timber, of which there are many
inftances in both kingdoms, the bogs above
it, in Ireland, produce a fweet and very
wholefome kind of firing in great plenty. In
this refped: nature feems to have been favour-
able to the inhabitants, in raifing a very ufe-
ful kind of firing even upon the ruins of the
original fuel, in fome of them to a very con-
fiderable depth, from five to fifteen or twen-
ty feet. By the natives it is called turf,
which conftitutes the entire fubftance of thefe
bogs, and from thence they arc ufually called
turf bogs. That of the bog of Allen,
which extends almoft acrofs the province of
Leinfler, from eaft to weft, is univerfally
efteemed the beft in the kingdom for burn-
ing. It is dug out with inftrumentsmadeon
purpofe
(77)
purpofe for that ufe, in little Ipits, in fhape
and fize not much unlike our common bricks;
and, when thoroughly dried for burning, ap-
pears to be a very mafs of roots, fo fine and
matted together, that, in its natural and
moift fituation in the bog, it cuts clofe and
fmooth like drained mud. The clofeft and
mod combined in its natural ftate in the bog
is the beft and moft lading firing when dried,
as the turf of this kind has the leafl mixture
of earth, and confequently is of the moft lig-
nous compofition.
The account that is generally given by the
natives for the produdion of this vegetative
kind of foil is erroneous, I believe, viz. that
it is a mafs of ftuflf that has grown from the
fallen wood that originally grew here, thrown
down by Noah's flood, or the Lord knows
when ; and by others, that they derive from
fome peculiar boggy property of the waters
that lodge amongft them.
That fome of thefe boggy flats were once
covered with woods is highly probable, from
the vaft quantities of timber and roots of all
kinds and fizes, particularly of fir, oak, and
yew, that are found at the bottom of many
of them, where the turf is taken away. But
this is not univerfal, on the contrary, the
moft extenfive bogs have the leaft of this
timber at the bottom. It is univerfally ob-
fervable, that the furface of thefe bogs is
covered with a (hort, thick, and matted
kind
(78)
kind of heath, which undoubtedly as t(
grows and thickens at the top, vegetates al
the bottom into a clofe and extremely radicous
texture, and which, from its low fituation, in
general, being replete with moifture, naturally
throws out fucceflive annual grov¥ths of thisex-
ceedingly ramified heath, a great part of which
dies and il:iatters upon every return of the
winter, and moulders at the bottom, where
it clofes, and forms another ftrata of moul-
dered heath, from which, in the fpring, a
new and fucceffive fhoot of heath Is pro-
duced 3 and thus as thefe ftrata of mouldered
heath are annually repeated, the inferior
and internal vegetation of the roots increafes
and becomes extended higher, and at the
bottom more confolidated ; and this account
feems confirmed by the appearance of the turf
on the fides of the channel, where it has
been dug, which is ever found of a clofer
and firmer texture, as they defcend to the
bottom of the bog.
I am the more confirmed in this theory of
their derivation, from a circumftance uni-
verfally obfervable, that the channels which
are cut through thefe bogs, either for getting
the turf, or for draining them, will in a few
years, fill up again, and by a vegetative pro-
cefs, like what I have described above, for
their original Prodn(5tion. The turf itfelf,
is very apparent, from a clofe infpedion, is
nothing but a clofely concreted and extreme-
ly fibrous combination of the roots of this
heath, which univerfally grows on the fur-
face of thefe bogs ; and, fo far from being
the produce of the fallen woods, which are
frequently, indeed, but not always found at
the bottom, I do not at all fuppofe that even
the very iirfl and original growth of this
heath, at the bottom of the prefent bog, in
any fenfe fprang from the fallen wood, its
neighbouring fubftratum.
Wherever thefe woods were thrown down,
by an inundation, which probably was the
cafe, or otherwife, there was undoubtedly
fome quantity of earth wafhed down upon
them from the adjacent hills, and declivi-
ties, the uncultivated furface of which, every
where produces this kind of heath. This
firft covering of earth would naturally throw
out the fame kind of vegetable in the bottom,
as in its former fituation on the hills, and
having by this defcent into the flats, obtain-
ed a richer foundation, and, being fupplied
with conftant moifture, which before it of-
ten wanted, and, no doubt greatly fertilized
by the very trees and their mouldering leaves,
and fmaller branches, intermixed with this
adventitious covering of earth, it would na-
turally throw out an extraordinary and more
plentiful growth of this heath, and very
probably a thicker, and, of courfe, a finer,
mat of it than any of the fucceflive and fupe-
rior growths would run into, and this the
gene-
[ «o ]
generally clofer and finer texture of the turf
at the bottom feems to confirm ; not to men-
tion that the very roots, from the conftant
moifture of their fituation and their fibrous
texture muft be continually vegetating and
thickening into a clofer mafs under the fur-
face.
The fame caufes, in general, take place
for producing thefe turf bogs even upon the
tops, and on lome of the very declivities of
the hills, where they are frequently found :
But it is ever in very moift, land-fpringy
grounds, or in fiats on the hills where the
water fettles and fupplies them with moifl:ure.
There feems, indeed, to be, in fome degree,
a kind of fpongy quality in this heath, which
prevents the moifiure from finking away
from it, by an attradion of the fluids from
the infinite number of capillary fibres, which
are of the very component fubfl:ance of this
vegetative mafs. — In this fenfe, and only in
this fenfe, it is that the waters can be faid to
produce them, and not from any boggy qua-
lity in the water itfelf, as is pretended by
fome writers on this fubjed.
I can fee no reafon in the world for fup-
pofing any other natural tendency in them to
produce thefe bogs of turf, or any other con-
nedion v^'hatever with the efifed, but the
natural and univerfal property of fluids to
encourage and fupport vegetation of every
kind,
Tis
( 8i )
*Tis obfervable, that very little, if any,
timber, is ever found at the bottom of thefe
hills, or mountainous bogs; for they are
frequently found in moift flats, on the tops
of their very mountains ^ yet the turf is of
the fame kind ; and only differs in goodnefs
for fuel, from the different Degrees of moif-
ture with which it is fupplied in different
iituations, the beft turf being ever found
where it has the moft conflant fupply of
moifture. In the larger and more extenfive
bogs, as in the bog of Allen, which extends
almoft acrofs the province of Leinfter, there
is very little Timber found at the bottom,
unlefs it be on the outfides, under the neigh-
bouring hills.
It is very evident, therefore, that the tim-
ber, frequently found ajt the bottom of bogs
in narrow vallies, much furrounded with
hills and eminencies, is by no means the ori-
ginal of the fuperincumbent bog, or turf,
though, from the caufes above mentioned.
it might help at firfl to fertilize the foil, and
produce a more luxuriant growth of the
heath. The capillary, fibrous roots of vi^hich,
feem to conftitute the very body and fub-
ftance of the turf. From the preceding
obfervations, I prefume, it will be very na-
tural and rational to conclude, that the turf,
from top to bottom, is entirely the produce
of a vegetation from itfelf, in the manner,
and by a vegetative procefs above defcribed.
G And
( S2 )
And the reafon why this kingdom in particu-
lar, fhould exhibit fuch an extraordinary
quantity of thefe turf bogs, is very evidently
this, that the foil, by nature, is replete with
the feeds of this bog heath, and, indeed, it
is found almofl all over the kingdom, high
and low, where the lands are in their rude,
uncultivated flate, and it feems by nature,
a vegetable inclined to flourifli and increafe
where it has a conftant fupply of moifture,
and its roots being extremely thick and fi-
brous, naturally attract and retain the moif-
ture that by w^hatever caufes gets among
them.
'Tis well known that the bogs in many
places have rifen feveral feet within the me-
mory of man, and the filling or rather grow-
ing up again of the channels cut to drain the
water from fome of them, is a proof that
the whole is nothing but a vegetative produce
of the heath, which, by a confliant fuccef-
fion, or repletion of moifture, grows luxu-
rioufly, thickens into a mat above ground,
fliatters a very great part of it every winter,
and a returning fpring throws out a fre(h crop
from the mouldered fubftratum of the laft ,«
year's growth, and by fuch an annually re- I
peated procefs, together with the very confi- 1
derable, likewife, internal vegetation, and
thickening of the fine roots amongft one ano-
ther, the furface muft neceflarily become
more and more elevated.
From
I
C83)
From the whole, it appears very evident^
that notwithilanding all the pretences and
fanciful conjediires of the natives, of its de-
rivation from the trees at the bottom, of
from fome boggy property in the waters^
that the turf bogs which are found in fuch
uncommon quantity in this kingdom, are no-
thing but the natural produce of the heathy
with which the uncultivated parts of heland
almoft univerfally abound, by being con-
ftantly replete with moifture, fliattciing and
fpringing up again fucceflively for many years
from its mouldered ruins. And a turf bos:
of the fame kind, I make no doubr, might
be produced in any moift flat in England, by
fowing the feeds of this fpecies of bog heath.
The air of thefe bogs, which, by fome
writers, has been reprefented as extremely
unwholefome and unhealthy, I do not think
by any means fo bad, as what is found in
many of our marfh-lands. 1 have been riding
over the bog of Allen, the moft extenfive of
any in the kingdom, for many miles in the
weft of Leinfter, at nine and ten o'clock in
the evening, and in a perfed calm, and
though the air was cool and moift, yet I
perceived no unwholefome or ofFenfive va-
pours, nothing but the natural fmell of the
turf, in which there is nothing very difagree-
able, nor by any means equally noxious with
the {linking exhalations from many of our
moory and marlhy grounds.
G 2 This
( 84 )
This is the beft account I can give you of
thefe turf bogs of Ireland, and of their ori-
ginal derivation.
I do not remember to have feen any of the
fame kind in any part of England, though they
are found in great plenty, and really engrofs
no inconfiderable fliare of the furface of this
kingdom, and naturally engage the notice of
a ftranger to them, from the peculiarity of
their internal texture, and the excellent firing
they produce, a fpecimen of which I have
fent you, to give you a jufter idea than my
defcription might do, of the moil common
burning in Ireland.
We have, indeed, a kind of fpongy earth
in fome few counties in England, that has,
by fome, been compared to them, but it is
far from being of an equally radicous or lignous
compofition with the turf of Ireland, nor con-
fequently by any means fo good firing. In-
deed we have none of this particular fpecies
of heath that produces it in Ireland, fo far
as my obfervation has extended.
I affure you, a good beef fteak broiled on
Irifli turf, and ferved up with a difli of roaft-
ed potatoes, is excellent food for an Englifh
ftomach, and were it poflible to tranfpofe
them, I fhould be very glad to exchange
one of my beft acres of corn land in Kent,
for two acres of the bog of Allen,
And, having thus got fafely over the bogs,
which, in general, are hardly firm enough to
carry
( 85 )
carry a man over without finking into the
furface, we will now enter upon a furvey of
another and much more pleafing fpecies of
natural curiofity in this kindom, which will
particularly engage the attention, and afford
fcope for the higheft entertainment to the
Englifh traveller, I mean the beautiful lakes
that are met with in great numbers in this
ifland, particularly in the north and weftern
provinces. Some of them in the north are
very exrenfive. Indeed you meet with them
of all lizes, from one mile, to twenty, and
many of them beautifully ornamented with
fertile and verdent iflands, amongft which,
in the fummer time, are made the mod
agreeable parties of rural pleafure, either for
vifiting the iflands, or fifhing, which is a
diverfion that in thefe lakes may be enjoyed
in the higheft perfedion, for moft of them
are plentifully ftocked with fifli of various
kinds, and almoft all of them with falmon,
in the greateft perfecflion. Some of thefe
fakes have their medicinal virtues, likewife,
particularly that of Lough Neck, the largeft
lake in the kingdom, and famous for curing
ulcerous diforders, and for its petrifying qua-
lity. There is only one ifland on this exten-
five lake, which is the largeft in Ireland,
near 30 Englifli miles long, by 10 or 15
wide, and entirely frefti water, as, indeed,
are all the inland lakes in the kingdom. Buc
on many of the lakes the iflands are extreme-
G3 ly
( 86 )
j>umerGi5S5 in Lough 'Earne^ particularly, in
the county of Farmanigh, of the province of
Ulftefj the natives tell yoa there are 365, or
as many iflands as there ?.re davs in the year.
But this, from fevera! profoedts I had of the
lake, I rather doubt tiie truth of. Indeed
they are fo thickly planted on. fome parts of
this lake, of fuch various magnitud<es, and
fo intermixed vs^ith each other, as to be al-
moft innumerable. They are an infinite
beauty to the lakes in profpeftive, and very
few of them are met wich that have not
more or lefs of thefe ornaments. There are
many gentlemen's feats moft delightfully
iituated in the neighbourhood, and on the
verge of thefe lakes. The whole town of
Inniitillen, famous for producing that brave
and gallant Regiment of its name, in the
wars of king William, againft James in Ire-
land, is the mofl rurally fituated of any in-
land town in the kingdom, and, perhaps, of
any inland tov^n in the king's dominions,
upon an ifland of Lough Earne, and at the
fame time extremely well fituated for trade,
by means of the lake, which extends \o the
fouth-eafl: and north-weft of the town for 20
xniles, nearly, either way, and communicates
with feveral counties, and with the fea on
the north-wefl by a river that might be made
navigable j but at many places the lake is but
narrow, and its greatefl width not more
than feven or eight mileSo This lake would
be;
.( 87 ) ^
be of infinite fervice to the inland trade of
this part of the kingdom, were there any
eftabliflied, at Innilkillen or elfewhere on
the borders of it, if a navigation were made
for about four or five miles, from a little
above Belleek, at the lower end of the lake,
to the fea, at Ballyfhannon, in the north-weft,
where the waters of Lough Earne difcharge
themfelves into the fea, through a river, that,
from Belleek to Ballyftiannon, is one continued
feries of cafcades and water-falls, many of
them extremely beautiful. The defcent of
the river in this diftance of about three or four
Englifh miles, from the lake to the fea be-
low the fall, has been found, by obfervation,
to be about 700 feet.
The falmon-leap or water-fall, juft at the
very mouth of the river, is one of the moft
confiderable in the kingdom. The height
of the fall, is about 20 feet, and from the
vaft quantity of water defcending from the
extenfive lake above, the noife and roaring
of the fall is prodigious.
Innifkillen is one of the moft confiderable
inland towns in the kingdom, and if a prof-
pedl is taken of it in the fummer feafon,
its fituation is delightful, on one of the
iflands in the narrow part between the up-
per and lower lake, and which you cannot
enter but by a bridge, at either end of the
town.
Q 4 L^^^gh
_( 8S ) .
Lough ^ which is the native Irifli for lake,
Earne is almoft every way furrounded by
mountains or lofty eminenceSj from many
of which a general profped of the lake, with
its verdant iflands, is extremely fine. — The
profned:, like wife, from the town, or from
the ifland on which it ftands, is inconceiva-
bly rural and beautiful : for the iflands are
planted fo thick, efpecially on the upper,
and fo intermixed on the furface of the lake,
that look which way you Vv^iil, the vifible
and broken parts of the furface appear like fo
many pieces of water irregularly laid out
among the rifing woodsy for every ifland,
unexceptionably almoft, is fertile of wood
of various kinds. The ihade of thefe woods,
and the coolnefs of -the water, the diveriion
of fifliing, and the infinite variety of figures
delineated by the iflands of this extenfive
lake, many of which are extremely rich and
fertile were, they well cultivated by the inha-
bitants who live on them, though you hardly
fee a houfe in paffing the length of the lake,
they are fuch low inconfiderable cabbins,
that are concealed by the furrounding woods.
' — 'Tis, indeed, a kind of rural Venice,
where the v/oods appear to be the habita-
tions, and the broken and winding furface
of the lake the ftreets that lead from one
part of this aqueo-fylvan commonwealth to
another. Such an infinitely variegatecj an4
niixed profpefl: of water, woods, iflands and
mountains.
(89 )
mountains, as almoft every where on the
lake prefents itfelf, makes a voyage on Lough
Earne, in the fummer feafon, inexpreffibly
pleafing and entertaining to a ftranger unac-
quainted with fcenes of this kind.
To give you a minute defcription of many
of thefe lakes would be an endlefs tafk. It
is in thefe that nature feems to have difplayed
her greatefi: wantonnefs of fancy, in the va-
riety of their figures, extent, product and
ornanien rs. And to the curious Englifliman,
who meets with hardly any thing of the
kind in his own country, they afford the
higheft entertainment.
But there is one of thefe lakes in the
louth-weft part of the kingdom, in the
county of Kerry, which, from the infinite
number of its beauties, deferves the minutefl
defcription. You will readily imagine that
I mean the lake of Kilarny ; the defcription
of which, though, I can now affure you,
extremely fliort and imperfedl in many ref-
peds, have given us much entertainment,
and which you particularly defired me to
vifit, and fend you the beft defcription that
I could; for indeed the higheft that can be
given muft be unequal to the original.
We made an excurfion from Cork on pur-
pofe to vifit it, through a moft dreary and
almoft uninhabited country, for 30 Englifh
miles, that we rode on the firft ftage, with-
out meeting with any thing better than a
little
(9°)
little bad rum and good water for ourfelves,
our horfes were forced to ftand it out. At
the end of our fecond ftage we reached Ki-
larny, and were amply recompenfed for our
uncomfortable ride over bogs, and through
clouds on the mountains over which we had
to pafs; the road, indeed, was good, but
through a country the moll infertile of en-
tertainment of any in the fouth of Ireland.
Indeed, if it is equally fo in every other di-
redtion to the lake, one would imagine that
Nature had negleded the country round
about it for many miles on purpofe to be
lavifh of beauty and fertility on this her fa-
vourite fpot, for in both it is really infinitely
fuperior to every defcription we have yet
feen.
I have fent you a fketch of the figure of
this inimitable lake, which is vifited by the
curiour votaries of nature from all parts of
Ireland, and many from Britain, But I
defpair, indeed, of giving you an adequate
defcription of this aqueo-infular paradife ; for
it is impoflible for any expreffions to convey
the conceptions of the delighted fpedator on
the fpot. However, 1 will attempt to draw
fome of the out-lines of the beauty, as well
as form, of this enchanting lake.
From the eaft end of the middle lake en-
tirely round the upper and lower lakes (for
they may not improperly, as you will fee by
the draught, be diftinguiflied into three
lakes)
s
J^J^kn oflI?eZd/c/' ofJ{iIa?myin 7/je bounty of
,-ih^y
A.An. OU A7,iu,v .
D. T7te,I>anli FuiuKSml.
TLZ^Kaaiurd SimM.
'L.T^ZiTTver Za^ .
'M.TTu-MiliU ZiJx. .
'S.ETt^xnux. mie i^ Sirmaftiif.
mLT7u ILai^-in
S ^hdiu. Z>iinu^
P
( 90
fakes) to the village at the weft end of the
lower lake, one narrow valley excepted, in
the fouth, through which runs a river into
the upper lake, is one continued range of
moft enormous mountains, the immenfe de-
clivities of which are covered v/ith woods
from, nearly, their tops down to the verge
of the lakes; and without making ufe of
my priviledge, as a traveller, which 1 have
an undoubted right to do, but, at prefent,
fhall fet afide, becaufe I would give you, in
every thing, the jufteft idea that I can of the
originals, we have none equal to them in
Kent, not even thofe lofty cliffs our friend
Shakefpear has celebrated, between Dover
and Folkftone.
The romantic intermixture of horrible im-
pending precipices with thefe lofty moun-
tains, that are moft beautifully covered down
their fides, to the very verge of the lake,
with arborage of every of the common forts
of wood, mixed with ever-greens of various
kinds, all which appear to be the fpontane-
ous produce of the foil, and with their diffe-
rent and diverfified fliades and tints prefent
fuch a grand and beautifully variegated fce-
nery on the immenfe flopes of ihefe furround-
ing hills as is beyond defcripiion : — add to
this the numberlefs rivulets cafcading in rocky
channels, fkirted with trees of every kind,
down the fides of thefe enormous mountains,
fome of them to the height of a hundred
yards
( 92 )
yards or more at one view 5 while in other
places are feen cataradts or water-falls, over
rocky precipices, near or more diftant from
fliore; and the whole together prefents fuch
a grand and ftriking profpedl as pleafes and
entertains beyond imagination.
Thefe are beauties exterior to the lake, to
be feen on the furrounding rocks and moun-
tains either in a boat or from the iflands, of
which there are many and of very different
extent, difperfed over the lake, and all of
them, ofanyfize, one only excepted, which
is inhabited by an innumerable fight of rab-
bets, beautifully ornamented with trees of
every kind, with a mofl delightful intermix-
ture of ever- greens, as box, holly, yew,
and, which is the greateft curiofity of this
kind, the Arbutus, or ftrawberry tree, the
whole of which, here likewife, appear to be
a fpontaneous produdion, and fome of them
grow to an immenfe fize on thefe iflands. — r
We faw, at lord Kenmare's, a table made
of one of thefe yews, the leaves of which
were above two feet a-crofs without any joint,
and holliesof a prodigious magnitude are found
here, I have feen many of them equal to, and
fome of above two feet in diameter in the
body of the tree. On fome of thefe iflands
there are found, likewife, (lirubs of various
kinds, fuch as I do not remember to have
feen, many of which, I make no doubt,
have their medicinal virtues, from the re-
femblance
(93 )
femblance they have in fmell to the contents
of a Galenic (hop.
The cooling and refre{l:iing fhade of the
woods with which thefe iflands are orna-
'•mented, with their divenlfied figures, ex-
tent, and different elevations from the furface
of the lakes, fome of them with flat ihores,
and rifing verdant eminences in their interior
receiTes from the water, others fo low and
generally flat, that yoa can form but little
idea of their extent, without landing or fur-
rounding them, while others again are raifed
on rocks, with furrounding precipices that
muft be clambered if you would make a
landing.
'Tis eafier for the rural and romantic ge-
nius to conceive than for me to exprefs the
pleafure that, in every profpe6t, derives to
the curious traveller from fuch a mixed and
diverfified fcene of entertainm.ent.
A general profpedl of the beautiful fcenery
of thefe lakes may be obtained, and will am-
ply reward thofe whofe curiofity is ftrong
enough to carry them up to the top of fome
of the furrounding mountains, particularly
from the top of the rough and lliaggy Turc^
a name given to a lofty, rocky mountain,
that ftands a little detached from the neigh-
bouring mangerton, on the eaft fide of the
entrance into the narrow flrait that leads to
the upper lake ; a fituation that commands
the moft extenfive profpedl of the feveral
lakes
(94)
lakes and country adjacent of any that can
be found on the furrounding eminencies.
I have given him his proper name, which
he derives from the likenefs of his white
chalky top to the Turkifh turban : you will
find him on the right of, and not far from
the Devil's Punch-bowl.
From the lofty (haggy top of this rocky
mountain is feen a profped the moft fertile
of aqueous, rural, and romantic beauties
within the extent of half a dozen miles on
either hand, that any hill, perhaps, in the
world affords, within the fame extent. The
extremities of your view, from this eminence,
prefent the out-lines of the feveral lakes,
with the furrounding verdant mountains,
rocks and precipices ; a general view, like-
wife, of the deep and moft irriguous valley
and ftraight that leads from the upper down
to the lower lake, and which, in any other
fituation is feen but very partially; including
alfo the country acrofs the lower lake to the
north and eaftward, which is, in general, a
very fertile foil, and not thinly inhabited ;
with a view of the town of Kilarny, and the
feveral feats and villas in the neighbourhood
of the lake j and below^ in a literal fenfe, in-
deed, from the lofty eminence it is taken
from, you have a profpeft of the lakes, with
the verdant, luxuriant iflands that beautifully
ornament them, intermixed with numbers of
fmaller ifles, that are chiefly bare rocks, ex-
preffed
( 95 )
prefled by fingle and angular lines in the
draught ; lor they are only narrow ridges of
rocks, or lingle ones fcattered up and down
amongft the large illands that lift up their
heads above water, as if to view and envy
their more exteniive and fertile neighbours.
Taken altogether, the perfpedtive from the
Turc is unequaird, in Great Britain or Ire-
land, and, perhaps, in the world.
The moft wandering eye, may here rc-ve
for hours, from variety to variety, without
difcovering all the beauties that lay within
bis view.
But, indeed, to afcend with exceffive toil and
labour this lofty, craggy mountain, tho* the
pleafure of the profpecS from it, perhaps, will
reward the curious and indefatigable travel-
ler, yet it is not the plan, in my opinion,
for deriving the mod fatlsfying entertain-
ment, that the lakes are calculated to af-
ford.
For as a Turk of the greatefl: fenfibility
would have his tafte and choice confounded
amidft a feraglio of furrounding beauties, and
till he had feparated them, could neither be
fo fenfible of their particular charms, nor
have that cxquifite joy and fatisfadlion that
each, in a more diftindt and lefs interrupted
Situation, would be capable of giving ; io
here, on the Lake of KilarnVy the be ft plan
for obtaining the higheft entertainment,
iliould feem to be the failing from one beau-
ty
( 96 )
ty to another, from variety to variety. And
for fuch a progrefs the general form and iitu-
ation of the lakes are by nature moft happily
adapted, from the extreme irregularity of the
out-lines, and the infinitely diverfified difpofi-
tion of the feveral parts v/hich its curvature
round the mountains from the v^eil: to the
fouth, and the ftreighcs and narrow pafles
from one lake to the other naturally pro-
duces.
For fail which way you will, there is
continually fome opening profpedt of iflands
unfeen, or different views of the mountains,
or of the rocks and horrid precipices, a new
cafcade or water-fall, before undifcovered,
from which mixture and diverfity the fpeda-
tor is perpetually getting a variety of enter-
tainment, either from new objeds, or from
different views of thofe before feen. Nature,
indeed, in this moft romantically beautiful
of her works, feems to have providently con-
fulted the imperfedion of humanity, which
is not capable of fuch high enjoyment of her
beauties, when confounded in its choice, in
one point of view, by too great a multiplici-
ty of inviting objeds.
Therefore, herefhe has been careful to make
fuch a diipofition of the feveral parts of her
exquifite workmanfhip, as that one beauty
fhall, in general, conceal another, and by
\,hh good-natured diftribution has given time
to her votaries to admire at leifure, and diC-
tindlvj
( 97 )
tinftly, as they facceflively come under theif
obfervation -, but, at the fame time, has gc-
neroufly put it into their power, if their re-
folutions are equal to the difficulty and la-
bour in the acquilition to obtain an extenfive
and more general furvey.
The paffage from the lower to the upper
lake, which is one among the principal
beauties of the place, affords an inconceiva-
ble variety of entertainment, that cannot be
had in any perfedion without navigating the
ftreight. There is, however, juil at t;he
entrance into this narrow pafs from the lower
lake, a length of about 30 or 40 yards, that
is innavigable. The upper lake ftanding
about nine or ten feet higher than the lower,
occafions a fhallow defcent of the waters, for
the diftance above mentioned, over which
the boat muft be drawn by the rowers, the
paflengers getting on (hore, and embarking
again above the fliallow. For the waters
that are colleded into the upper lake, from
the mountains, and the river that runs in at
the fouth, pafs from thence into the lower
and larger lake, and from that, with the
rivers that are coUeded into it from eaft and
north, with the waters that fall from the
mountains on the fouth, are difcharged at
the weft end of the lake, by a river, into
the fea, below Caftlemain in the weft of
Kerry, about 20 miles from the lake.
H The
( 98 )
The little check or difficulty this rapid
defcent of the waters throws in the way in
his infatiable purfuit of vanity, if properly
improved, is not without its ufes to the half
enraptured traveller at the place where he
meets with it, who, juft before he comes up
to it, has had his mind impreffed with the
higheft and moll: delightful conceptions of
grandeur and fublimity, perhaps, that can
poflefs the human underftanding, from an
aqueo-mountanous profpedl, for fuch will
be the effedt of the profpedt, from a boat
behind the long ifland, of the beautiful
bay, he paffes through up to the ftreight, and
the lofty mountains that delightfully encom-
pafs the greatefl: part of it. The immenfe
declivities and hollow bofoms of which,
over-fpread with woods of various kinds,
from the verge of the lake or bay almoft to
their very tops, prefents a profpecfl that af-
feds the mind of the fpedlator in a manner
unfpeakable, and poflefles the imagination
with the higheft conceptions of natural fub-
limity. You may laugh at my rhapfody, if
you pleafe, but to add to the effedt of fuch
a ibpereminent landfcape, what will carry
his imaginations to the higheft pitch of fran-
tic enthufiafm, the melodious echoing of the
horn, refounding with ineffable fweetnefs
from the lofty circulating bofom of the
mountains. If any fcene in the world can
elevate his conceptions to the fublime of na-
ture.
( 99 )
ture. It muft be a fnuation like this. But
ill prepared is he indeed, to meet with this
check in the career of his inflamed curiofity.
Yet nature, ever provident for her faithful
votaries, has happily thrown it in his way.
The debarkation at the fliallow, above men-
tioned, and the ruffing through the woods that
verge upon the ftreight, at this rapid defcent,
gives him time to cool, and by eracing, in
fome degree, the impreffions on his mind from
the enchanting fcene he has juft paffed
through, prepares him for the more perfefl:
injoyment of the new and opening variety
that prefents itfelf in his navigation above the
fliallow*
Th^Jir eights^ as they may be called be-
tween the upper and lower lakes, are three
or four miles in length, running through one
of the moft irriguous vallies that nature ever
formed, occafioned by the croffing and pro-
jecting of the rocks and mountains on either
hand, upon each other, through which the
navigation is continued, but by the moft
ferpentine and intricate paffage that can be
imagined, and at very unequal breadths. At
forne places, contraded for loo yards or
more, into a narrow, but generally very
deep pafs, of not much more than room
enough to work the oars ^ thence opening
into little lakes of jo or loo rods wide;
from whence it contra(fts again, and winds
round a projedling rpck or ifland, that at a
H2 dif-
( 100 )
diftant view feems to deny a paffage ; and
after turning round a mountain, through a
narrow infle(fled pafs, the navigation widens
again for a quarter of a mile, at the end of
which, the eye meets with the fame forbid-
ding appearances.
Through the whole of this intricate paffage
you are prefented with the mod diverfified
fcenery that imagination can conceive. In
the narrow parts, with rocky fliores in vari-
ous figures and fhapes, that are affimilated
by the boatmen to various fubjecls, one is a
horfe, another is a (hip, a church, 8Cc. and
in the wider parts, with little iflands, fome
of which are bare rocks, while others are
adorned with trees, and verdant pafturage.
In others, and more diftant profpeds from
the fhore, you are prefented with horrible
and frightful precipices, verdant declivities of
the mountains and glynns covered with trees
of every kind common, and ever-green,
with a moft delightful mixture of water- falls,
cafcades, nearer or more diflant, from the
rocks and mountains.
In ferious truth, the face of nature through
this enchanting maze, between the lower
and upper lakes, has fuch a mixture of the
fublime, of the romantic and rural, as is in-
finitely fuperior to adequate defcription, and
can be conceived only by an imagination
rural and romantic like thy own.
It
( lOI )
It IS in fome of thefe high, craggy, and
inacceflible rocks that furround the lakes,
that the eagles are fometimes known to
build, but their number is not very confi-
derable ; we faw but few of them while
we were on the water. There is a nioft
ftupendous and frightful rock that ftands on
a fudden narrow turning of this watery de-
file, which is called the eagles nefl-, from its
being feldom without a neft of them on its
top. Its front to the water is a moft horrible
precipice. Its fides are of a pyramidal figure,
•^nd lined with trees from bottom to top,
and with many of the ftrawberry kind in
particular. At a diftance it has a fine efFedl,
but as you approach nearer, and come under
the precipice that fronts the water, its fright-
ful impending height poflefles the mind of
the fpedtator, who is obliged to navigate
clofe under it, with equal terror and admira-
tion.
After winding through this ferpentine
maze, in which the ftranger will often think
himfelf (hut up without any outlet, but by
the known backward paffage, to enter at
laft through a narrow pafs, of not more than
20 feet, between two projecfling rocks, into
a fecond lake of two or three miles acrofs^
and three or four in length, beautifully or-
namented with fruitful iflands, fome of
which feem covered with lively ever-greens,
and one in particular, whofe beautiful pro-
H 3 duc^
( 102 )
duce is entirely of the arbutus or ftrawberry
tree, from one of which, the branch I have
fent you is taken. Orhers of them fertile of
(lately 6aks, a(h, &cc. mixed with yews,
hollies, &c. of an immenfe fize ; the whole
furrounded with lofty mountains, rocks,
precipices, interfperfed with numberlefs caf-
cades, water- falls, will altogether be an
opening fcene, that after his clofe and intri-
cate paffage through the fireights, for three
or four miles, will be exquifitely pleafing and
entertaining to the curious fpedator.
Human nature has a ftrong propenfity af-
ter variety in all its pleafures, profpecfls and
enjoyments, and, conduded by reafon, it is
indifputably a paffion that may be juflly and
laudably indulged. The beauties of nature
are certainly objeds that may rationally en-
gage our attention, and moft extenfive ac-
quaintance ; to admire here, is doing honour
to the God of nature, and as our friend Pope
pioft elegantly expreffes it,
'T'o enjoy is to obey.
The lakes I have attempted to defcrlbe,
affords an inexhauftible fund of entertain-
ment of this kind. To a mind fond of
rural and romantic profpeds, nothing can
give a greater pleafure, than the face of na-
ture, on, and about the lake of Kilarny.
*J'he variety, both high apd low, that every
where
( I03 )
where offers itfelf to our view, on failing
among the iflands, and between the rocks
and precipices ; the copious and delightful-
ly (haded bays found under the floping moun-
tains, on the verge of the lakes ; the num-
beik^fs bays and coves of lefs extent, but not
lefs beautiful, that are found among the
iflands, (haded on all fides with groves of
trees and ever-greens, growing on peninfulas,
which the fportive fancy of nature has deli-
neated on thofe fertile ifles; their different
extent ; their various and luxuriant, though
uicultivated produce; even the bare rocks
that peep up above the furface in various
fliapes and elevations, that are agreeably
interfperfed among the fertile, and are no
inconfiderable addition, will, altogether,
furnifh the higheft natural entertainment to
a tafle fuch as 1 have fuppofed our fpedlators
to be.
Nor is it the eye only that nature has laid
herfelf out to pleafe in this aque-infular para-
dile, the ear alfo comes in for its (hare of
entertainment from the aftonifhing and de-
lightful ec^>oes that are found among the hills
in the fouthern, and more enclofed parts of
the lake, but, more particularly in the wind-
ing, deep, and intricate valley leading from
the lower to the upper lake. There are ma-
ny of them that are inexpreiTibly fine, and
infinitely fuperior to any that I have ever be-
H 4 fore
C 104 )
fore met with, even in that land of echoes,
the peak of Derbyfliire.
The echoed report of a cannon in fome
fituations among thefe mountains is really
aftonifhing -, for there are cannons placed
at the moft advantageous fituation by the
lord Kenmare, on purpofe for the entertain-
ment of travellers, who generally provide
themfelves with ammunition for loading
them. The reports, on the difcharge of
thefe cannon, are re-echoed from the moun-
tains and lofty precipices in the nearefl refem-
blance to thunder, of any thing that can be
imagined in nature. So near is the refem-
blance, that but for the known difcharge of
the cannon, you could have no doubt of its
being a moft violent peal of thunder rolling
among the mountains, decreafing in ftrength
with the encreafing diftance of the hills which
take the found in fucceffion ; and when, to
imagination, it is dying away into filence,
you will find it reviving again, and attaching
your ears from a different quarter, in a de-
gree of ftrength that at once furprizes and
aftoniflies. Indeed nothing but the thunder
of Heaven itfelf, can equal the echoed report
of exploded cannon, in fome fituations in
this hollow intricate valley.
But the moft delightful effedl of thefe
echoes is the iniijical^ particularly of the
horn and trumpet, which our cockfwain, tQ
qblige us, carried with him, and blew for
( 105 )
©ur entertainment in the moft advantageous
fituations, at one in particular, where we
fet him on fliore behind a rock, near the
Eagles Nell, and crofling over ourfelves to
the oppofite fide, we had only the returned
founds. Bat here the higheft exprefiioii
muft fall infinitely fhort of the efFedl :
the re-echoing, fweet and meliorated founds
from the bofoms of thefe lofty, winding hills
and precipices, adapted to give mufic, which
naturally afcends, its moft melodious eifedl,
attaching the ears from all fides in fucceffion,
as if twenty inftruments were blowing in
concert at different diftances and elevations.
•^ I enter no farther into this defcription,
for it is as much above me as the hills from
whence the harmony defcended. But like
the enraptured countryman, on his return
from Vauxhall, I may fay with truth,
The founds Fin ft ill enjoying ;
They'll always foot h my ears.
The hunting of the echoes, with the horn,
through this valley, will afford, to a mufical
ear, the moft delightful entertainment that
imagination can conceive.
There is one fpecies of diverfion which,
on thefe lakes, is enjoyed in the higheft per-
fection the nature of the thing will admit ;
nothing, to a fportfman, can equal the fpi-
rit and elevating joy of a ftag-hunt on the
lake
( io6 )
lake of Kilarny. Yoa may think this a little
Irifhifm, and laugh at me, if you pleafe ;
but, in truth, it is plain, good Englifli ; for
it is politively a hunt on the water ; the gen-
tlemen who attend are generally in boats on
the lake during the diverfion.
The flag is roufed from the woods that
fkirt the lake, and generally from thofe that
grow along the flraight between the lakes,
in which there are many of them that run
wild by nature, like deers in an eaftern foreft,
and are properly enough called wild fiags.
They are often feen feeding among the
woods on the declivities of the mountains,
that flope on this ferpentine valley. Horfes
are here made no ufe of, for they would be
ufelefs* The bottoms and fides of the
mountains are almoft univerfally covered
with woods, and the declivities are fo long
and fleep that no horfe could either make
his way in the bottom, or rife thefe imprac-
ticable hills. And the flag will very rarely
attempt to afcend the mountains. It is im-
practicable, indeed, to follow the hunt by
land, either on foot or on horfeback ; the
chace is along the valley in the woods, and
over the few fmall, and, from their foftnefs,
for the moft part, impaffable lawns that verge
upon the lake. The only place, therefore,
for the fpedator to enjoy the diverfion, with-
out infupportable fatigue, is on the lake,
where the cry of the hounds, the harmony
of
( IC7 )
of the horns, refounding from the hills on
every fide, the univerfal fhoats of joy along
the valleys and from the fides of the moan-
tains, which are often lined with foot peo-
ple, who get out in great numbers, and go
through almoll infinite labour to partake and
affift at the diverfion, re-echoing from hill to
hili, from rock to rock, gives the higheft
joy and fatisfadlion that imagination fliould
conceive can arife from the chace, and, per-
haps, can no where be enjoyed with that
fpirit and fablime elevation of foul that
a thorough- bred fportfman feels at a flag-
hunt on the lake of Kilaniy, There is, how-
ever, one eminent danger that awaits him,
which is, that he may forget where he is
and jump out of the boat.
When hotly purfued, and wearied with the
conftant difficulty of making way with his
lofty ramified antlets through the woods,
that every way oppofe his flight, the terrify-
ing cry of his open-mouth purfuers, that
thirfi; for his blood, at his heels, and almoft
within fight, no wonder, if in the few criti-
cal moments he now has to conllilt for his
fafety, that he ihould look towards the lake
as his only aflTylum, or, if defperate the
choice, that he fhould prefer drowning to
being torn in pieces by his mercilefs purfuers.
^ — ■ — Once more he looko upwards — but
the hills are infurmountable, and the
woods, but lately his favourite friends, now
refufe
( io8 )
refufe him flielter, and, as if in league with
his inveterate enemies, every u^ay oppofe his
paffage. A moment longer he flops —
looks back fees his deftruftion inevita-
ble the blood-hounds are at his heels,
their roaring attacks his ears with redoubled
fury at the fight of their deftined vidim. —
The choice muft be immediately made ■ ■
with tears of defperation he plunges into the
lake. But alas ! his fate is fixed— his thread
is cut afunder — he efcapes but for a few mi-
nutes from one mercilefs enemy to fall into
the hands of another equally uncompafl^ionate
and relentlefs. — His antlets are his ruin — the
fhouting boatmen furround the unhappy
fwimmer in his way to the neareft ifland —
they halter him dragg him into their
boat, and to the land with him in tri-
umph. He dies — an widejerved death.
His fpirit flies into the Devil's Piinch-bowl^
and his flefh goes into a party. And thus
ends the ftag-hunt.
On our return from the upper lake, through
this moft enchanting maze, we were moft
agreeably entertained, by our pilot, with an
unexpeded introdu6lion (at P) into a third,
and not inconfiderable, lake, which we had
yet not feen, and which may not improperly
be called the middle lake, extending about
two miles eail and wefl:, and about one north
and fouth, lying clofe under the Mangerton
mountains and behind the peninfula on which
ftands
( 109 )
ftands counfellor H—t's houfe, as you will
fee in the draught, communicating with
the ftreight, juft below the (hallow, by a
narrow pafs of not more than 20 feet, over-
arched with trees, and with the lower lake,
by juft fuch another pafs between the long
ifland and the peninfula, and though not fo
much ornamented with verdant and fertile
iflands as the more excenfive neighbouring
lakes, yet, from its fituation it has its pecu-
liar beauties. For beiides the affording a
moil entertaining and unexpected excurfioa
to the eaftward of a mile or two, it is en-
tirely furrounded with beautiful arborage that
grow on every fide moH: luxuriantly : on the
fouth and eaftward it has the Mongerton,
the higheft mountains in Ireland, and, by an
experiment with the Barometer, found to be
1020 yards perpendicular above the lake,
floping down immediately upon the (hore,
and, for a great way up their declivities, are
ornamented with trees of different kinds;
and, at the bottom, delineated into the mofl:
delightfully fhaded bays. On the oppofite
lide is the fertile peninfula above mentioned,
and on the weft the long ifland, as 1 have
diftinguiflied it, covered with wood of va-
rious kinds, over which is feen the lofty
mountains that verdantly flope on the fpaci-
ous and mod beautiful bay behind the long
ifland, through which we paffed, in our na-
vigation to the upper lake. Befides which
you
( 1^0 )
you have in profpedt, from many parts of
this lake, one of the fined: cafcades in the
world, perhaps, vifible to above ijo yards
running down into this lake, and formed by
the difcharge of the fuperfluous waters from
the Devil's Pwtch-bowl, from one of the
Mangerton. This lafi: is a piece of nature's
workmanfhip, not lefs deferving the atten-
tion of the curious traveller than many I
have attempted to defcribe. You will find
an imperfedl reprefentation of it in the
draught.
It is a fmall round lake, in a mod amaz-
ing concavity, found on the very top of the
Mangerton, of about a quarter of a mile in
diameter a-crofs the top, and, though im-
menfe, is not unlike, in its form, to a punch-
bowl, from whence it has taken its name of
the DeviVs Pimcb-bowL From the furface
of the water, to the top of the fides of this
vaft concavity or bowl may be about 300
yards ; and, when viewed from the circular
top, it really has a moft aftonifhing appear-
ance.
The fides are nearly perpendicular, and of
an equal degree of declivity, and, indeed,
much conformed to the fiiflMon of a bowl ;
on the part, however, next to the middle
lake there is a chafm, or gap, of equal depth
to the height of the circular fides above the
lake, through which the fuperfluous increafe
of the waters from rains above, and the
fprings
( in )
fprings which are fuppofed conflantly to fup-
ply it at its bottom, are difcharged in a moft
beautiful cafcade down into the middle lake;
for from its continually running there can be
no doubt of its being conftantly fupplied with
fprings. You have heard of the bowl of
punch that was ingenioufly contrived with a
fpring at the bottom, that invifibly recruited
the continued decreafe of the liquor within :
I make no doubt this of the Devil has one.
The depth of this lake, or punch- bowl, is
exceffive, though 1 have not faith enough
to believe, with the natives about it, that it
is unfathomable. However, as I had no
materials with me for founding it, I left them
in the quiet enjoyment of their credulity in
that, as well as in many other cafes, in
which I found them poffefTed of no fmall
meafure.
The depth, indeed, of the upper and
lower lakes is, in many places, furprizing,
from the accounts our pilot gave us, equal to
three or fourfcore fathom, and in fome places,
clofe under the rocky (liores, fifteen and
twenty fathom deep. Even the depth of
the middle and leaft extenfive lake, clofe
under the Mangerton, he affared us was, in
fome places, equal to 70 fathom, though not
above two miles in its greateft extent. And
whatever may be the depth of the Devil's
punch- bowl^ as it is called in our maps, but
by the natives in the neighbourhood Fouler
infrin^
(112)
infrin^ or the Hole of Hell, it is certainly in
a fupeificial view of it from the top of the
mountain, a moft aftonifhing produdion.
The horrible depth, but, at the fame time,
regular form of this immenfe concavity, the
narrow chafm found on one fide for the dif-
charge of its vv'aters, the exceilive depth,
like wife, of the vv^ater Vv'ithin, altogether
confidered by the fpeclator, it will be thought
one of the mod furprizing produdions of the
kind, perhaps, in the world, and well wor-
thy the notice of every curious naturalift that
fhall vifit the lake of Kilarny.
The northern and weftern fides, likewife,
of thefe lakes, add very confiderably to the
variety of entertainment of a voyage on the
lower lake. From the valley at the
weft end, through which the whole collec-
tion of waters difcharge into the fea, is one
continued range of hills, not equal, indeed,
to the mountains on the fouthern fide, yet
affording much beauty in profpedt from the
lake -, and as they are ornamented, from the
very fhore, with woods and cultivated en-
clofures, with fome few houfes interfper(ed,
they make a mofl agreeable addition and di-
verfity, to the more immediate beauties of
the lake. The ground alfo rifing with a
gentle afcent, affords a more ample and par-
ticular view from the lake of thefe rural or-
naments even to the top of the hills, on the
Very fummit of which, and terminating the
profpeft.
("3)
J>rofp£(5i:, ftand the inconfiderable remains of
the ancient city of Ahadoe^ very little of
which, befides the ruins of the cathedral, is
now remaining.
On the eaftern fide is a rich and fertile
plain for two or three miles, through which
defcends a river into the lower lake. On
the north-eafl: fide (lands the town of Kilar-
ny, in a delightful fituation, as every place in
the vicinitude of this beautiful lake mud be,
and in the fummer time, from the number
of vifiters to the lake, is a very chearful,
lively town. So great is the refort here in-
deed, that the fafhionable cant, at our pub-
lick fpaws, of good and bad feafov.s^ of
providing for the feafon^ — of expectations
from the enfuing fecifon, with other expref-
fions of the like kind, are here very impor-
tantly introduced. We v/ere not a little at
a lols at iirft hearing the vjovdfeafon men^
tioned, *till, upon enquiry, we found it was
the feajm for vifiting the lake, which is a ve-
ry long feafon, indeed, for it may be ken
with great pleafure, from May to Novem-
ber, in which month, as the fruit of the
ftrawberry tree begins more generally to
ripen, that beautiful ever-green, which is
one of the peculiar beauties of the lake, ap-
pears in its greateft perfedion. This cir-
cumftance is true, indeed, but that the peo-
ple of the place aflirm that the month of
I No-
(114)
November is the beft time to fee the lake In
its utmoft perfedlion, I do not think fo.
'Tis true, indeed, the variegated profpedt
of fading greens among thofe that are ever
living, is peculiarly beautiful in the autumnal
profped: ; but I believe in general it would
be feen with greater pleafure in the warmer
months of fummer. The coolnefs of the
water, the delightful fhades found in almoft
every bay, delineated by nature on thefe
illands, and at the bottom of the mountains,
the richnefs of the verdure throughout, not
to mention the generally clearer ftate of the
air in fummer, that will be in favour of one
of the moft delightful entertainments of the
place, the echoes, which muft be heard con-
fequently in greater perfedion in the midfl:
of fummer, than in November; on every of
thefe confiderations it fhould feem, that a
voyage over thefe lakes in one of the warmer
days of fummer, muft afford much higher
degrees of rural pleafure and entertainment.
The extent of the lower lake, from eaft
to weft, may be about feven or eight miles,
and a-crofs it from north to fouth, about
half that diftance. But from the north of
the lower lake, near Kilarny, to the fouth
of the upper lake, including the winding
ftreight between them through the vallies,
muft be at leaft ten or twelve, fufficiently
extenfive and copious of variety, to furnifti
a continued fucceflion of pleafure and pro-
fpedive
( "5)
fpedive entertainment, for the longeft fum^
mer's day, and llores are generally carried on
board for regaling on fome of the iilands
with which thefe inimitable lakes are orna-
mented in great numbers, and variety of ex-*
tent and figures, the vifiting of which, from
one to another, and examining their various
and luxuriant produce, with the almoft infi-
nite number of fubjeds of entertainment that
may be found on thefe lakes, will be a pro-
grefs fo fertile of novelty and diveriion,
that the longeft fummer's day will be too
fhort for the curious, the feacher of natu-
ral beauties. To examine minutely, indeed,
the infinite variety of fubjeds of entertain-
ment that may be found in and about this
lake, would employ the curious traveller for
a month.
The ifland of Ennisfallen is generally the
dining place, where there is a kind of hall
fitted up by the lord Kenmare, out of one of
the ifles belonging to an ancient abbey, the
ruins of which are ftill feen on this ifland,
fituate on an eminence commanding an ex-
tenfive profpecfl of the lower lake. This
ifland includes about twenty acres of the
moft fertile ground I ever faw, to judge of
it by the luxuriant and fpontaneous produce.
The trees are intermixed with little plots of
fuch rich and lufcious pafturage, that the
fat of a beaft in a few weeks feeding on ir,
will be converted into a fpecies of very mar-
1 2 row
( "6 )
row, even too rich for the chandlers ufe^
without a mixture of a grofler kind.
Diredly oppofite to this ifland, to the
fouth-weft, in a beautiful bay of the lake
under the mountains on the fouth, the tra-
veller is fliewn a cafcade, which well deferves
his notice ^ the lower part of it is viiible to
the ifland, but to fee it in its greatefl per-
fedion, you muft land at the bottom of the
bay. It defcends from the mountains fome
hundred yards down a fhallow Glyn that is
covered with trees, and conceals the greatefl:
part of it. But a fituation may be obtained
near the bottom, at which you may fee it
cafcading with infinite beauty and grandeur
under the arching trees, from an aftonifliing
height, and after heavy rains on the nK)un-
tains above the water, come roaring down
in a torrent, that forms one of the grandefl:
and mofl: beautiful cafcades I ever beheld.
That celebrated artificial one of Chatf-
worth in Derbyfhire, the manfion, or pa-
lace rather, of the late noble duke of De-
von, is not, I affure you, comparable to it.
Uniformity in an artificial cafcade, is the
greatefl: abfurdity that can be introduced,
becaufe really the farthefl: from a juft imita-
tion of nature. We had the good fortune to
fee this with the advantage of an extraordi-
nary fall, for it rained one whole night, al-
moft, during our flay at Kilarny, and the
next day morning we puflied off our boat
again
( n? ) .
again, on purpofe to fee this cafcade in its
greateft perfedlion.
At K is a feat of the lord Kenmare, and
though it has not the moft of elegance or
magnificence of any houfe 1 have ken, yet
is it a fituation that is really noble.
At CH is a houfe belonging to counfellor
H — b— t, in a fituation by nature the moft
rurally elegant, romantic, and entertaining^
that 1 ever yet found a houfe in either En-
gland or Ireland. It lies in a peninfula be-
tween two lakes, fo that on the one hand
it commands a profpe<ft of the larger lake
and its many Iflands covered with, and an ex-
teniive country beyond it, and on the other a
no lefs beautiful profped of another lake with
the long chain of mountains beyond it of fuch
ftupendous height and forms, as at once to
poflefs the foul with the fublime and beauti-
ful. It is not above 30 or 40 miles from
one of the beft cities in Ireland, viz, Cork,
to which there is a good turnpike road all
the way, by which an eafy accefs might be
always had to this moft delightful rural and
paradifiac recefs, for fuch you will be con-
vinced it muft be when you confider its fitua-
tion towards the weft end of the peninfula,
with the middle lake, and the lofty Mongar-
ton on the fouth behind it, the lower Lkc
with its infular ornaments before it, with the
town of Kilarny and the country acrofs the
lake up to the ruins of the ancient city or ca-
thedral, for that is almoft all the remains of
Ahadoe.
(ii8)
Ahadoe. A narrow pafs at P over whipb
might be turned an elegant arch into the
long ifland that is coviered with a thick growth
of trees of every kind, aniongft which might
be laid out the moft beautiful ferpentine walks,
as well as noble and entertaining yiftas opening
inimitable profpefts to the ]a}^es and circum-
jacent mountains, whofe high uplifted verdant
heads and fertile declivities, would add an in-
expieflible grandeur to the profpe^s below;
the whole fcenery aboutjt, indeed, is inimit-
able but by nature, for the truth of this re-
prefentation, I can give you alfo the teftimo-
ny of the celebrated bifliop of Clpyne, who^
in a kind of rapture with the natural beauties
and grandeur of the Place, expreffed himfelf,
that Lewis of France might build another
palace of VerfailleSy but Nature only could
produce a lake of Kilarny, There is, in
truth, the moft delightful and entertaining
fcenery on this peninfula, and in profpetff
from it, that imagination can paint, or the
moft romantic fancy conceive. Jt is in the
very centre of lakes, mountains, woods,
lawns, and fertile rocks, for even the rocks
appear to vegetate into trees and flirubs. Thi^
laft is a natural curiofity of the place, I have
not yet taken any notice of 5 there is really
fomething extremely curious and entertaining
in the appearances of this rocky vegetation.
^Tis really furprizing to fee the flouri(hin§
growth of trees among fome of thefe rocks
where there is hardly an inch of earth vi-
vifible
(i'9)
fible to fupport them 5 and the wild extra-
vagant manner in which many of them grow,
twilling and curling about the rocks, is very
diverting.
The bodies of fome of them are really
feated on the folid undivided rocks, with
their ramified roots curling like ivy over the
furface of the rocks, till they reach the earth
down the fides. Even the trunks of many
of them are fertile of feveral kinds of woods.
You will frequently find old trunks that
(hall have three or four trees growing out
of their bodies. I have feen an oak, an afli,
an hazel, a birch, and a bufli, fo incorpora-
ted into the trunk of an old lively holl)',
that they appeared to grow out of its very
body, and to exift by feeding on its vitals.
The account that is given for thefe vege-
table extra vagations of nature, is not only ve-
ry probable, but undoubtedly the truth, that
the feeds of the different kinds of woods are
carried by birds, and dropped, and fome by
the winds are blown into their hollow moul-
dering trunks, and there ftrike root. And
in a place like this, that, till within a few
ages paft, has been unnoticed, and almofl
uninhabited, fince the expulfion or difper-
fion of the monks, about 6 or 700 years
fince, but by the birds and quadruped, 'tis
natural to exped prodigies in vegetation, and,
indeed, many fuch have been found here.
But however eafily accounted for, fuch wild
I 4 extra-
( I2Q )
extravagant phaenomena in vegetation are
very entertaining. The uncommon mix-
ture of trees, likewife, as is found among thefe
rocks, is very extraordinary and furprizing.
In the compafs of fifty or, fixty yards I
have found above twenty different kinds of
trees growing in a flourifliing manner. The
arbutus in particular feems furprifingly
luxuriant in fituations of this kind, and,
upon my honour, it would cofi: you, or
any man, more labour than you would
chufe to beflow for one day, to be able to
get a cart load of earth together from within
the whole compafs.
Even the very bowels of this peninfula,
are fraught wath mines of copper, and filver
v/e were told had been extrafted from them.
I have fent you fome pieces of the oar that I
picked up near the Ihaft (the well where
they raife the ore from the mine) that appeared
to be the moft like the kind of ore that
fliould produce it, from its likenefs to filver
ore which I have before feen.
The mines are prodigiouily deep, and have
been worked a great v/ay under the lake. I
have marked the fpot on the peninfula, juft
by the edge of the middle lake, where is the
place of defcent into the mines. Almoft
every kind of natural curiofities or beauties
that is to be found on thefe lakes, either of
vegetables, iflands, rocks, mountains, echoes,
and cafcades, in fome degree come within
yie\Y
( 121 )
view of this delightful peninfula. The beaur
tiful cafcade from the devirs punch- bowl, ^ is
vifible on almoft every little eminence of it 5
Jts fituation, indeed, is in the centre of the
whole Icene of entertainnrient that is found in
jthe lake of Kilarny.
The place deferves the higheft^ cultiva-
tion, and 1 am informed that fince my
excurfion to thefe parts, no expence has
been fpared by the owner to do juftce
to its merit, in which 1 flatter myfelf that
my country-woman has fome fhare, this
gentleman being married to an Englini lady,
and there is another Englifli lady, the duke
pf Richmond's filler, lady Louifa, married
to the right hpnourable Thomas Conolly,
Eft]; at Caftlc-town, about ten miles out of
Publin, who, to her own, and the honour
pf her country, has, by the ftrength of her
pwn native elegance of tafte and genius for
rural defign, improved a fpot, by nature in-
fertile of beauty or elegance, into a feat,
that, whei) the defigned improvements are
compleated, will be one of the moft delight-
ful rural fituations about Dublin. But what
an inimitably rural and romantic paradife
would the peninfula I have been defcribing
be made, if to the infinite beauties it has
from nature, a little art was introduced by
that moft elegantly defigning lady*
On
( 122 )
On the north fide of the entrance upon
this peninfula, are the remains of an old ab-
bey, fpacious even in its ruins, and well de*
ferving the notice of the traveller. The
cloyfters are yet entire, in the centre of the
fquare, enclofed by thefe cloyfters grows a
yew-tree, as curious almoft as the ruins by
which it is encompaffed. The body of it
is fix or feven feet in circumference, and of
that magnitude runs up a ftrait clean trunk,
to the height of between twenty and thirty
feet, 'till it rifes above the battlements of the
cloifters, and then fpread over them in large
and regular branches, like a (lately oak, and
really is the mod beautiful yew-tree I ever
faw.
The yew has always been facred to fu*
perftition, and none ever was more fo than
this, numberlefs are the relations of fu-
perftitious credulity here, of deaths, and
dire calamities that have, from time to time
befel the facrilegious attempts upon this fa-
cred tree.
In a kind of ftone room above in the cloifters,
lives at this time, an Englifti pilgrim, much
revered by the religious neighbourhood,
who fubfifts by the contributions of his be-
nevolent chriftian vifiters, and indeed lives
himfelf like an honeft good chriftian, that is
to fay, though his lodgings, indeed, are not
the
( 123 )
the mod eligible, yet he eats and drinks the
beft the country affords.
On Rofs iiland ftands an old caftle that makes
a very agreeable contrail to the verdant beau-
ties in profpedt, at many places, on the lake.
■ A rich vein of copper is likewife found
here in a mine that has been, but now is not
v^^orked.
This is one of the largeft iflands on the
lake, and contains about 80 or 100 acres,
well v^^oodcd and fertile of rich pafturage. — •
We v^ere credibly informed, that pearls of
very great value had been found about this
lake, and in the channels formed by the caf-
cades falling into it, and particularly in the
river at the weft end, that difcharges its wa-
ters into the fea,
Salmon are caught in great plenty and per-
fedion in thefe lakes, and fold at the mode-
rate and ftated price of one penny per pound.
The fifhery is the property of the Earl of
Kenmare, a catholic nobleman ; to whom
alfo belongs the greater part, if not the
whole, of the lake, with its beautiful iflands,
who very generoufly difpofes of the profits,
after defraying the expences of the fifhery,
to charitable ufes, paying, himfelf, alfo, as
they told us, for all that is confumed in his
own family at the ftated price of a penny the
pound. An example truly noble and worthy
of imitation.
The
( 124 )
The arbutus or ftrawberry tree, which
grows in great plenty and perfedion on many
of thefe iflands, mayjuftlybe efteemedoneof
the greateft natural curiofities of the vegeta-
ble kind, as they have the appearance of be-
ing a fpontaneous production. But, indeed,
were very probably planted here by the
monks that formerly inhabited thefe iflands,
and the environs about the lake. There are
even fruit trees on fome of them, that have
out-lived the defolation that has feized the
cells of thofe monkifli reclufants, and that
fometimes bear a rich and fine flavoured fruit.
When in its perfedion, about November,
the ftrawberry tree is one of the moft beau-
tiful ever-greens, perhaps, that our climate
produces, having, at the fame time, bloom,
green and ripe fruit on its branches. But it
has not thefe ornaments throughout the year,
as, without fufficient foundation, has been
aflTerted of it.
The fruit, by the natives in the neigh-
bourhood, is called the Cane-apple; when
ripe it is in ftiape much like the wood-ftraw-
berry, but nearly as large as the garden-
ftrawberry, of a fine fcarlet colour, and hangs
in beautiful clufters among the branches.
From the tempting beauty of its form and
colour, 'tis not a little mortifying to find its
tafte fo infipid. However, I know of no
danger of eating more than one or two at a
time, as is aflferted by Mr. Salmon, in his
account
( 125 )
account of this tree. 'Tis certain, they are
eat in great numbers by the people who live
about the lake, without any ienfible ill efFedt.
The fame gentleman has given us mon-
ftrous accounts of the fize of this tree, that
it is equal to 20 inches, or two feet in diame-
ter, and high in proportion. But he certain-
ly, in this account, as well as in many others,
wrote moft implicitly. The largcft to be
found on thefe iflands, were they grow in as
great perfedion, perhaps, as any where in
the king's dominions, does not exceed fix or
fiven inches in diameter, and from ten to
fifteen feet high in general ; when it (hoots
up amongft other trees on the iflands it will
fometimes run up to near 20 ie^t.
It is, really, a mod beautiful ever- green,
and mixed with others, as box, yew, holly,
and the common kinds of wood, moft agree-
ably variegates the profped:. And what adds
to the profpedive beauty of the iflands, in
general, is, that the ever-greens, and parti-
cularly the arbutus, grow in the greateft
plenty near the outfides, and in profped from
the lake. But unlefs a rocky foil is neccflary,
or the moft natural, for on the more rocky
iflands it grows in the greateft plenty and
perfedion, I cannot fee why the foil of D.
ftould not produce it in as great perfedion as
the ifles on the lake of Kilarny.
There are feveral plantations of it in Ire-
land. 1 have feen a large grove of them
at
( 126 )
at Lord Powerfcourt's, but they are not in
fuch perfedlion as on thefe iilands. And
'tis very probable, that moft of the planta-
tions in Ireland, of this beautiful tree, are
tranfplantations from this fertile feminary -,
'tis certain that plants of them have been
carried from the lake of Kilarny to many
parts of Ireland, and probably of England
to.
It is produced from plants or flips, or from
the feed that is formed in the fruit when
ripe. The former it v/as impoflible for me
to fend you, as I was unprovided with pro-
per conveyances ; but I broke off a branch,
with the ripeft fruit I could find, at the be-
ginning of Odober that I was there, in
which you will difcover the feed diftindl, and
eafily feperable from the pulp.
If it be poffible for you to produce fomc
plants from the fruit I have fent, 1 beg that,
to oblige yourfelf as well as me, you will
take fome pains for it. ■ — It will certainly be
one of the greateft curiofities, of the kind, in
the county of Kent, as being produced im-
mediately from fruit growing on the lake of
Kilarny; from whence, I affure you, they
were taken, as well as the few acorns and
ailien-keys that I have fent with them, which
1 hope you v/ill plant in fome odd corner of
your garden, as curiofities from the place and
diftance they were fent to you. From
the appearance of the few feeds which I took
out
( 127 )
out of one or two of the cane-apples that
were dried, by carrying in my packet, I have
hopes, that by your keeping the reft in a
warm dry iituation, as little as poffible expof-
ed to a damp air during the winter, you will
find the feed fufficiently maturated, by the
return of fpring, to grow. It will not be
fafe to attempt to plant till April, or the
warm weather returns. Let your mould
be warm, and perfedly fine, that the feed
may have every chance in its favour. Drop
the feeds about a foot afunder, and about z
inches under thefurface. — If they (hould grow,
and I doubt not but fome of them will, it
will be eafy to remove the plants with fafety.
It will give me no fmall pleafure, if I live to
revifit my native country, to fee living plants
from feeds that I took fo much pains to pro-
cure. — A tranfplantation, indeed, from the
moft weftern land of Ireland to the eaftern-
moft point of England.
I know you are fond as myfelf of rural
and natural curiofities, and therefore I have
been the more copious in my defcription of
the inimitable beauties of the lake of Kilar-
ny, of which we have yet i^tvi no accounts
that have not been extremely fhort of the
original.
It is impoffible, in defcriptions of this
kind, where the fubjefts of entertainment
are fo mixed and various, to obferve any re-
gularity in the accounts of them. I have
paid
( 128 )
paid no attention to this, but only to Intro-*
duce, fomewhere or other in the defcription,
the principal articles, as near as I could, that
were curious and entertaining. The feveral fub-
jefts, however, follow in, nearly, the fame or-
der that the originals occurred to me, in the fe-
veral trips I made over this mofh enchanting
lake ; throughout the whole of which 1 have
endeavoured to give you the be ft idea that I
could, without exaggeration, of the general
fcenery, and of the principal and moft re-
markable curiofities and entertainments of
this inimitable lake. The fubjedl will not
admit of any heightening, fo far as the beau-
ty and grandeur of the place, indeed, is con-
cerned. The higheft defcription will be un-
equal to the original, and muft fall, at the
fame time, far below the conceptions and
impreffions of the curious fpedator on the
fpot. There is fuch a natural and artlefs dif-
pofition of the feveral beauties, fuch an en-
tertaining variety, fuch a grandeur and fub-
limity throughout, as will be fuperior to the
higheft and moft laboured defcription. The
iineft copies in the world for painting and
drawing in the rural or romantic tafte, are
here exhibited in the higheft perfection from
nature, the fovereign miftrefs of thefe inge-
nious arts.
I am charmed with the place, and muft
finifti at laft where I firft began ; I hardly
think that nature, in any part of this habi-
table
( 129 )
table globe has thrown together a finer col^
ledion of materials for improvement, by a
little introduction of art, into a fcene the
tnoft enchantingly rural and the mod fertile
of entertainment to her curious votaries.
If the enclofed branch, with its withered
bloom and half ripened fruit, fhould come
fafe to hand, I beg that you will cherifli it as
a bloflbm from the garden of Eden, as a
fprig from the bower of my beloved, from
the ftrawberry ifland in the upper lake of
Kilarny, from whence I have began this
epiftle defcriptlve, and through the whole of
which, I aflure you, I have taken nothing of
importance on truft, but the whole is the
refult of my own obfervations on the origi-
nals, in every cafe in which it was poffible
for me to get at them, and to which I have
kept as nearly as poflible in the defcriptive.
And thus, having furnifhed you with a
defcription of fome of the principal natural
curiofities of the feveral kinds taken into the
Account, of which this Hibernian ifle is re-
markably fertile, though, in truth, vi^ith but
very few of art, I will now give you a little
refpite. What 1 have already wrote will be
fufficient to give you a general idea of the
country, both in a civil and natural view of
it. — If the prefent fketch fhould afford you
entertainment enough to excite a curiofity
for a farther acquaintance with it, I may,
perhaps, in fome future packet, enter more
K exten-
(no)
cxteniively into the natural hiftory of Ireland.
Indeed, the infinite variety of fubjeds of na-
tural hiftory, that are found in this kingdom,
very juftly recommends it to the attention of
the curious. - ■ 'Tis a country in which
nature feems to have exerted herfelf for the
entertainment of her curious votaries, and in
which, confequently, the gentleman of lei-
fure and curiofity, will find the moft ample
fcope for the gratifying his tafte for the Am-
ple, artlefs, beauties of nature, for here
Ihe prefides an uncontrouled fovereign. The
greateft: efforts of art, a very few inftances
excepted, have, as yet, extended themfelves
very little farther than to deface the fimpli-
city of nature.
'Tis a country through which a gentleman
may travel at an eafy, or moderate expence,
and well deferving of much more notice and
attention than has been generally paid to it
by the curious, on the eafl:ern fide of St.
George's channel. — The inhabitants, even
of the loweft clafs^ are generally civil. Need
and oppreflion, indeed, have introduced
among them a degree of ferocity and unto-
wardnefs that is rather againft them at firft
view. By nature too, perhaps, they are too
fanguine and irafcible , and, when intoxica-
ted with liquor, thefe unhappy natural pro-
penfities, if indeed they are from nature,
will too frequently break out into mifchievous
efFefls. Nor is this obfervation to be re-
ftriaed
ftrifted to any particular clafs of the natives |
— duels are more frequent here, I believe,
than in any part of the king's dominions. — .
If there is any honour in running a man
through the body, or perforating his fkuU
with a brace of balls, for an accidental, inad-
vertent offence, which the aggreffor is often
obliged to defend at the hazard of his life,
to efcape the imputation of timidity, the
gentlemen of this country, of every clafs,
from the barber's apprentice up to the colo-
riel, whofe hair is dreffed by him, have as
great a right to be called gentlemen of ho-
nour as any in the king's dominions, or out
of them. -I have heard, at a coffee-
houfe, a couple of journeymen, or ihopmen,
talk as coolly and familiarly of the conveni-
ence df a room in a certain tavern, for thd
exercife of a brace of points or piftols, as of
an alley for a match of nine- pins. And
the gentlemen of the higher clafs in this
country will excufe me, if, in this truly gen-
tleman-like point of honour, of deciding
every little trivial difpute by the point of the
fword, I have given them but an equal fliare
with the inferior clafs of Gentlemen at the
blocks or behind the counters. — 'Tis a favage
point of honour this, that cannot be too
much ridiculed, or too feverely treated.
If a gentleman that wears a fword is attacked
by an affaffin, he has a right from honour
and humanity, which fliould ever be perfedl-
K z ly
( 132 )
ly confiftent, to defend himfelf. — But hk
honour, if it really has any mixture of hu-
manity, does not, i fhould fuppofe, require
him to have recourfe to his fword, for the
decifion of every trivial difpute, or breach
of friendfliip, or good manners, at even the
equal hazard of his own, and the life of the
aggrefTor, and it is eafy to make it appear,
that not one duel in ten, if in fifty, is fought
on equals and therefore not on fair terms. —
To fpeak frankly and ingenuoufly, I am for-
ry to have been fo naturally and juftly lead
into this feeming digreffion, or that a coun-
try, fo famous for its hofpitality, fliould be fo
remarkably tenacious of this gothic, fangui-
nous point of honour. But, while fober,
and free from the maddening Simulations of
whifky, even the loweft clafs are civil and
frank ; give them but importance, and to
refufe them this is an offence unpardonable
with every clafs, and a little of your cafh,
' and you may do any thing with them: and
the Englifliman of temper and difcretion
will meet with as few difficulties in travelling
through this kingdom, as his own 5 efpecial-
ly if he has but good nature enough to ride
into the dirt himfelf rather than drive a foot
pafTenger into it.
To this general or curfory view of the natural,
I will fubjoin another piece of the civil hiftory
of this country. You have frequently met
with accounts, in the public papers, of the
infur-
( 133 )
infurreftions of the White- boys, as they are
called in this country. From the people of
fortune who have been fufferers by them,
and who, too generally in this kingdom,
look on the miferable and oppreffed poor of
their country in the moft contemptible lights
the accounts of thefe infurgents have, for the
moft part, been too much exaggerated to be
depended on. 1 have juft hinted in
the former part of this letter, that the fevere
treatment and oppreffion the loweft clafs of
the inhabitants, in fome parts of this king-
dom, have met with from their priefts and
fubordinate landlords, was the principal caufe
of thofe difturbances they have met with
from them, I have but too much reafon to
believe this remark was well grounded, from
the obfervations I had an opportunity of
making in the midft of the country where
thefe infurgents have given the greateft dif-
turbance.
The original of their denomination of
White-boys was from the pradice of wear-
ing their fhirts withoutfide of their cloaths,
the better to diftinguifli each other in the
night-time. It happened that we were
at Kilkenny, in our road to Waterford, at
the very time of the laft confiderable infur-
reftion of thefe unhappy wretches, in the
fouth of Kilkenny county, not far from Wa-
terford. I was naturally led to enquire into
the caufs of thefe infurrecSions, and the pre-
K 3 tenfions
f 134)
tenfions of the infurgerits themfelves for
creating thefe difturbances. From the peo-
ple of eafy and affluent circumftances it is na-
tural to fuppofe the accounts would be very
different from fuch as were given by thofb
of the fame clafs \A^ith the delinquents. By
comparing thefe^ however, with the obvibiis
appearance of things in the country, I foori
had fufficient reafon to believe their difquiet
arofe, in general, from the fevere treatment
they met with from their landlords, and the
lords of the manors, and principally from
their clergy, ' Our road to Waterford lay
through the very midfl cf ihefe unhappy in-
furgencs, and we were, confequently, ad-
vifed to take a different rout. Why,
whence (hould be the fear ? — we have nei-
ther deprived them of their common- rights
nor their potatoes They have no quar-
rel with us, who have never injured them.
Perfuade your infatiable priefts, of every de-
nomination, to a<fl themfelves the precepts
of charity and humanity they preach, and
they will be as fafe in their houfes by night
ks we (hall probably be, in the midfl of
them, by day. ' ^^
^ We rode through the country, in which
they were affembled in great numbers, but
the very day before the lafl confiderable
engagerrient they had with the troops quar-
tered at the towns in the neighbourhood;
|)ut met with no moleftation from any of
• then^i
( 135 )
them. ■ The very next day after wc
came to Waterford, the news was brought
of this engagement, about four or five miles
from the town. The opinions and reprefen-
tations of the inhabitants of the town were
various on the merits of the affair ; but it
was eafy to diftinguifli the fentiments of the
humane from the aggravated reprefen tations
of thofe whofe inveterate prejudices againft
thefe unhappy fufferers, inftigated them to
fet thefe difturbers of the peace of their
country in the word point of view; and,
without any apparent candour in their re-
prefentations, to place the rife of them in an
idle, turbulent, and rebellious difpofition of
the infurgents. —The very officers of the
troops wiflied they would drive the whole
fraternity of parfons out of the country; and
with good reafon ; for if the parfon cannot
}ive here on the great tythes of the corn, and
about which they have feldom anydifputes
with their parifliioners, how is the unhappy
peafant to fubfift on the produce of i o or
15 perches of potatoes, the whole provilion,
perhaps, for a twelvemonth, for himfelf and
family ; yet even the very tenth of thefe is
demanded by the infatiable, unrelenting prieft
as his due by the law — of v/hat ? — not of
charity or humanity, I think.
On the day after the engagement we left
Waterford for Cai^rick on Sure, and, in our
vvay, met with fome of the troops that had
K 4 been
( 136 )
been engaged with the White-boys, and
were afked if we had feen any of them lurk-
ing about in companies. But their enquiries
were ill direded ; for we would fooner have
headed them, and attacked the firft parfon's
houfe we had met with, than difcovered
their retreat.
I made it my bufinels to enquire, in the
mod friendly manner, of fome of thefe un-
happy fufFerers of the loweft clals, as they
fell in my way, the reafon of their expofing
themlelves to fo much danger, by raifing
fuch difturbances in their country : To
which their anfwers were invariably to this
effect— That their lives were of little va-
lue to them — - that the fevere and hard deal-
ing they had met with from their prieils and
lords of the manors had made them defpe-
rate — that the former wanted to reduce the
fmall fubfiftence they had to live on, and the
latter deprived them of the very few pri-
vileges and common rights they had, for
time immemorial, enjoyed -— -^- that againft
thefe only were their refentments pointed,
and to recover their long ftanding priviledges
was the fole caufe of their expofing them-
felves, or other people, to any danger, and
not from any difpofition to rebel againft their
king or the peace of their country,
1 cannot but acknowledge, in favour of
them, that the general civility of the people,
with the apparent honefty and candour of
( ^57)
their accounts, gave the greateft credit to
their reprefentations.
There are many little commons, or vacant
fpots of ground, adjacent to the road, upon
which the inhabitants of the cabbins by the
highway fide have been ufed, from time im-
memorial, to rare^ as they exprefs it, a pig
or a goofe, which they have bought very
young, the fale of which has help'd to fur-
nidi them with a few neceflaries. Many of
thefe have been taken into the fields or en-
clofures on the road fide, by the landlords,
who have farmed, or purchafed, them of the
lords of the manor.
From an impartial view of their fituation,
I could not, from my foul, blame thefe un-
happy delinquents. They are attacked and
reduced, on all fides, fo hardly, as to have
barely their potatoes left them to fubfift on.
The tything of potatoes has been a conteft
of long ftanding between the priefl: and inha-
bitants of this country. — 'Tis greatly to be
wiflied that the parliament of Ireland would
take this fubjedl into their confideration, and
decide, at lead the difpute about the right — -
was it only fo far as to exempt the penurious
cottager from the hard terms of having his
fcanty fubfiftence reduced a tenth by unfeel-
ing, unrelenting affluence.
With refpeft to their complaints about
lofing their common rights, the merits of the
cafe is more queflionable.
You
( 138 )
You have daily difputes in England, at
this time, on the fame fubjedl : On an im-
partial and altogether difinterefted view of the
.cafe, and favourable as I have appeared to the
poor of this, and as I would ever appear to the
fame clafs in both kingdoms, were I to decide
on the cafe, I (hould give it againft them.
'Tis certain, on a general reafoning on
the fubjed:, that the better the lands of
any country are cultivated, the greater
plenty will be produced for the inhabitants.
'Tis equally certain, that by enclofing of
commons, either by the highway-fide or in
large and extenfive common fields, they may
be much better cultivated than it is pofllble
for them to be in their natural or common
Hate, where every occupier has a right
throughout the whole, and where, confe-
quently, no one can make any improvement
without finking the advantages of it among
the whole ; and a concurrence in any plan of
improvement of a great number of occupiers
of a common, can never be expeded.
If the improvements in any country do not
encreafe in proportion to the encreafing po-
pularity of it, *tis very certain that an increaf-
^d diftrefs of the inhabitants, from want of
employment, mull be the natural confe-
quence. This obfervation is true, with re-
fpeft to agriculture efpecially, and is particu-
larly applicable to the country I am writing
about 5 which, from want of good cultiva-
tion.
< ^39 )
gon, univerfally wears the face of poverty,
^ut little work is done upon it, and the pro-
duce is in proportion.
The difficulty that is frequently objeded
againft a much greater produce, from the
want of a market, muft appear ridiculous to
every perfon of fenfe that conliders the con-
nedions, and prefent ftate of this country. ^ —
If corn, in Ireland, fold even at one half the
price it generally goes at, and as much more
was produced, and I have fcarce a doubt that
as much more might be produced, if but all
the lands now in tillage were properly culti-
yatedj there requires no great penetration to
fee that in this, or in any maritime country
Jike this, a double produce, to the prefent,
"Would be for the advantage of the inhabitants
in general, from the greater quantity of em-
ployment in the firfl: place, and of corn,
draw, manure, &c. that are all ufeful and
heceffary.- Befidesthat, if a greater quan-
tity was really produced, than the confump-
tion required, and there was no call for it
among the neighbouring inhabitants of En-
gland, there could arife no objedlion, I (hould
fuppofe, to its being exported from Ireland
to any foreign market that could be found,
which would neceffarily call for a great num-
ber of hands that are now unemployed. And
'tis the real want of employment, in this
country, that is the general fource of the
diftrefs
( 140 )
diftrefs and poverty among the loweft dafies
of the inhabitants.
In England, the farms, at prefent, are,
many of them too large. This is a growing
evil, introduced by and for the fecurity of the
landlord; but, I make no doubt, will be
found by experience to be in its natural con-
fequence extremely injurious to the public.
i I am not at leifure now to give you my
reafons at large for this obfervation — when
.1 am, I will. In Ireland, the farms
are as much too fmall. In the former
the lands are monopolized — in the latter,
too much divided. Though in both coun-
tries the difadvantages arifing to the public,
and to the loweft claffes of the inhabitants in
particular, are not, perhaps, diredly from
either of thefe extremes taking place, but
from incidental circumftances attending them
— ' in England, from the too frequent mo-
nopolies of grain, and the confequent partial
and temporary Scarcities that will, in many
places, be introduced. I fay partial and tem-
porary only, for with a plentiful crop, a uni-
verfal or lafting fcarcity of grain can never
take place, while the confumption is con-
fined at home, which, in my humble opinion,
it ought to be, as foon, at leaft, as it gets to
five fliillings a bufliel Winchefter meafure.
In Ireland, the public fufFers from the po^
'verfy of the occupiers, by their being fo much
reduced and fo far removed from the firft
proprietors.
( HI )
proprietors. — A farmer, in Ireland, of 20 or
30/. a year, at a 3(3, 4th or 5th remove from the
firft proprietor, and by far too many of them
are as far removed as this, is little better than
a flave to the loweft clafs of landlords, and
cannot poffibly cultivate his land in the beft
manner ; and the publick fuffers for want of
the produce the land might yield.
The following obfervation will be tliought
very juft by every perfon who is extenfively
acquainted with either England or Ireland,
— That where the lands are beft cultiva-
ted there is the greateft number of people
employed, that is to fay, in the arable way ;
and confequently, in general, thofe parts, in
either kingdom, will be found the moft popu-
lous, where agriculture is in the greateft per-
fection. The particular cafes of manufafturing
counties are, without doubt, excepted here.
If any one of thefe fubaltern landlords in
Ireland, of fome property, were to take half
a dozen of thefe portions of llavery into his
own hands, inftead of fetting down fupinely
in the midft of a village of flaves, upon 30 or
40/. a year, the whole income, perhaps,
that he makes by firming them out under
his next fuperior, — ► if he underftood his bu-
finefs, he might make double the prefent
produce, and employ to advantage three
times the hands that now work upon the
lands, which would naturally call in many of
the diftrefled mendicants by the high roads,
whofe
\
( 142 )
whofe employment would produce them' 3
much better fubfiftence than the fortuitous
benevolence of travellers, or than the profits
of bringing up either pigs or geefe upon the
commons.
The fame conteft, about the tything of
potatoes, gave rile to a much more confide-
rable infurredion a few years fince, in the
province of tJlfter, in the north of Ireland;
under the denomination of Oak- boys, from
a pradice of diftinguilbing themfelves by
wearing a branch of oak in their hats.
But in this cafe, from the much greater po-
pularity and fpirit of liberty in this province^
the vaft numbers of the inhabitants engaged
in the conteft, carried the point in favour of
the planter ; for in this northern conteft there
were many thoufands afiembled in defence of
their potatoes -, and though they were fup-
preffed, and many of them taken prifoners,*
yet the vaft numbers of the defendants made
it unfafe to punifti them. And the tything
of potatoes, in the north, has been relin-
quifhed ever fince.
From my heart I wifli they could as eafily
carry their point in the fouth ; for the prieft,
if he has any of that charity he preaches,
may very well be contented with the tythe o^
what grows above ground.
And with this unclerical, though, 1 hope,
not uncharitable obfervation, I will clofe my
Hibernian packet.
If
( 143 )
If the contents fhould furnifh you with a
little agreeable amufement for a leifure hour,
I have my wi(h, and (hall think myfelf
amply compenfated, by that circumftance,
for the trouble I have been at in coUedling
the materials for your entertainment.
I am, dear Sir,
With great efteem.
Your affeftionate.
Humble fervant,
J. B.
Lucas's Coffee-houfe, Dublin,
30th Novemb, 1764,