— § "wa % i I r*****,^«& V y MEMORANDUMS IRELAND. m MEMORANDUMS MADE IN IRELAND IX THE AUTUMN OF 1852. BY JOHN FORBES, M.D. F.R.S. HON. D.C.L. OXON. PHYSICIAN TO HES MAJESTY'S HOUSEHOLD, Author of 'A Physician's Holiday.' -77ITH A MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Return ipsaruui cognitio vura e rebus ipsis est. Jll. Sim.. VOL. I. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., CORNHILL. 1 853. C. imd J. Adlaid, 1'rinterB, Bartholomew Close. PBEEACE. This book is literally what its title gives it out to be — a series of Memorandums made in Ireland. Although in transcribing these, I have, of course, very considerably enlarged them, I do not think that I have added a single new topic to the col- lection in my memorandum book. Sundry remarks and reflections, not in the original notes, have, no doubt, been put into words for the first time, during the process of composition ; but even these can hardly be said to be additions, as most — if not all — of them, had already passed through the mind, although not formally registered. Such interpolations will not, therefore, I trust, be regarded as in any way impugning the literal truth of my title-page. I am anxious to have this matter clearly under- stood by my readers, for two reasons : first, because knowing how and out of what materials the work has been framed, they may be prepared for its scrap-like character, and the confined range of its subjects; and secondly, because if the book has any 2063363 vi PREFACE. \ahic at all, this must rest mainly on the implied authenticity derived from the fact — that all the statements were recorded at the moment, and on the spot. The only portions of the volumes that do not cmne clearly within this category of primary nota- tion, are some of the statistics relating to the popu- lation, to ecclesiastical matters, to schools, and to workhouses, — which have been derived from official documents ; and the few chapters which give, in greater detail, and in a more general and formal manner, an account of certain important subjects and questions which cannot be overlooked in any work professing to treat of Ireland. These chapters must be admitted to be rather supplementary to the .Memorandums, than an intrinsic portion of them; although, as far as regards the views and opinions propounded, they may be all said to have been formed in the country to which they relate. It is only in the elaboration of their details, that these articles can be regarded as in any way deviating from the promise of my title. J. F. London; \0th May, 1853. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER I. PAGE KINGSTOWN — DUBLIN — COUNTY OF WICKLOW 1 Kingstown . . . . . 2 Killmey Hill . . . . 3 Phoenix Park . 4 Dublin . . . . 5 Public Buildings . . . . 7 Dress . . . . . . 8 Irish Cars . 9 TheDargle .... 10 The Cascade 11 Bray ..... 12 Beggars .... 13 Valley of Bray .... 14 Glen of the Downs 15 The Devil's Glen 16 Newrath-bridge 18 Glendalough (with an Illustration) 19 The Seven Churches . 20 Saint Kevin .... 21 The Round Tower 22 Lead Mines of Luggainore . 23 A Family Story 24 Postage and Discount 25 Vale of Clara 26 The Vale of Ovoca ■r, Meetings of the Waters 28 Desecration .... . 29 Copper Mines , 30 Slirito ;i Abbey .... . 31 A I"irmliouse 32 Tenant-right .... 33 A Beauty .... 3 1 VIM CONTENTS. CHAPTER 11. \KM.n\\ — TTTLLOW — CAKI.OW — K1U1ARK — CASHEL Schools Emigration . A Turf-cutter English Labourers in Ireland Cottage-life Coolattin Scotch Fanning ( 'arlow An Orangeman KJldare (with an Illustration) Si . Bridget The Round Tower The Cottagers Opinions of the Cottagers Emigration Deficiency of Labour . Beggars Failure of the Potato Crop Sheep Ruins of Cashel Rock of Cashel (with an Illustration) The Round Tower Cashel Town A Disagreeable Traveller PAGE 35 30 37 38 39 -10 41 42 43 46 47 48 50 51 52 54 55 56 57 58 60 61 62 63 64 CHAPTER III. I OKK — QUEENSTOWN — SKIBBEKEEX Cork Steamboats Sunday Excursions Queenstown Cove Harbour Table d'Hote at Cork Public Institutions Queen's Colleges in Ireland Religious Objections 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 CONTENTS. IX PAGE Queen's College, (with an Illustration) 75 Religious Objections to 76 Cork to Bandon .... 77 Skibbereen .... . 78 Effects of the Famine 79 Indications of Poverty SO Mutual Assistance . 81 Beggars .... 82 Cottages of the Poor S3 Irish Poverty from want of Capital Si Skibbereen Workhouse . 85 Dietary Table 86 Roman Catholic Chapel . S7 The Catholic Priesthood 88 Failure of the Potato . 89 Teetotalism .... 90 Origin of the Name 91 From Skibbereen to Bautry 92 A Country Hamlet 94 A Country Schoolmaster 65 Turf-Harvest 96 Farmhouses .... 97 'the Police . . . . . 9S CHAPTER IV. KA.XTRY — GLENGARIKF — KENMARE 99 Bantrv .... 100 Schools . . . . . 101 Female Beauty 102 Female Virtue .... 103 Cottagers . 104 Bantry to Glcnganff 105 Glengariil' .... 106 Village of Glcngariff . . . . in? Pence and Beggars . ins A New Scene at Glengariff 109 Tom Donoghue . . . . L10 Carannei] Mountain . . . III CONTENTS. Tim Sullivan Wages Prices Signs of Improvement Glcngariff to Kenmare . The 1 toads Schools Traits of Character Opinions of a Parish Priest Fixed Tenures Kenmare Religious Instruction Female Industrial School Advantages of Teetotalism . CHAPTER V. KILJ.ARNEY Mountain Scenery Lake Scenery — The Tore Waterfall Muckross Hotel . Young Ireland The Outlaw Ireland Asthore Gap of Dunloe The Pass The Black Glen . The Upper Lake The Middle Lake The Lower Lake Ross Island The Echo Killarney Union Workhouse Workhouse Allowances Schools Sisters of Mercy . Muckross Temperance Halls CONTENTS. XI Temperance Societies . PAGE . 151 Teetotalisrn .... . 152 CHAPTER VI. TRALEE — TARBERT — THE SHANNON . 153 Large Farms .... . 154 Visit to a Farmhouse . . 155 Bad Farming . . . . 156 A Country School . 157 Tralee . . 158 Emigration and Emigrants . 100 Protestant Schools 161 Erasmus Smith's Schools . 163 The Lost Book .... . 165 Religious Prejudices . . 166 Listowell .... 167 Tarbert .... . 16S The Shannon .... . 169 CHAPTER VII. LIMERICK .... 171 Roman Catholic Worship . 173 Devotion ..... m Indulgences 175 Mission Crosses .... 177 Roman Catholicism 178 Chapel-door Collections 179 Holy Water 180 The Two Churches 1S3 Church Contrasts 184 Christian Schools IS6 The Christian Brothers 187 Other Schools .... 189 National Schools PJO Union Workhouse I'll Temperance Halls L92 Teetotalisrn .... 1 93 Tlic Sunday Promenade L94 Sabbath Relaxation (the Crystal Palace) L95 XI l CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. 1111. S11WMIN — ATHI.ONK — CM. WAY . Castle Conncl . Emigration . A Parting Scene . Emigrants . The Exiles Lough Dearg Killaloe to Athlone Irisli Tourists An Unolial Irishman Degenerate Irishmen . Athlone Advantages of Tectotalism Galway Government Works Queen's College, Galway, (with an Illustration) Fees and Number of Pupils The President's Report Religious Instruction . Mistaken Interference Model Schools Galway Workhouse TheCladdagh The Claddaghites Temperance Hall CHAPTER IX. OUGIITEKARD — MAAM — THE FISHE11Y Galway to Clifdeu Oughterard Maam Hotel View from the Mountain Mary Halloran The Land of Promise Conncmara Stockings . The Twelve Pins A Hermit .... CONTENTS. XU1 PAGE The Fishery .... 234 Franciscan Monks 235 A Private Mem. for the Forbeses (note) 236 Alleged Story-telling of the Irish 235 A Theoretical Explanation 238 CHAPTER X. CL1FDEN ..... 239 Proselytism . . . . 241 Protestant Societies . 242 Irish Church Mission Society 243 Converts to Protestantism 244 Alleged Extent of Conversion 245 Protestant Schools . . . . 246 Probationary School . . . . 247 Union Workhouse . . . . 249 Workhouse Schools . . . . 250 Conversions . 251 Irish Orphans . . . . 252 The Conversion Movement 253 Scripture Readers . . . 254 Religious Contention . . . . 255 Religion of the Yellow Stick 256 Impartiality . . . . . 258 CHAPTER XL CONXE1IAKA — WESTPORT . . . 259 Reclamation of Waste Land . . . 260 The Philanthropist . . . . 261 Social Economics .... 262 Mr. Ellis's School . . . . 263 Pass of Kylcmorc . 264 The Killeries . . . . 265 Lcenane . 266 Dancing — Police — Beggars . . . 267 The Constabulary Force of Ireland 268 Westport House . . . . 271 Westport ..... 272 The Clendenning Monument 272 Westport Statistics .... 273 \1\ CONTENTS. PAGE Union Workhouse 274 Food and Labour 275 Workhouse Schools, their Ultimate Benefit . 276 The National School 27S Musters of Union Workhouses . 279 Protestant Schools 280 Teetotalism .... 281 CHAPTER XII. CASTLEBAB, ..... , 283 Claims of Ireland to Beauty of Scenery . 284 Agriculture .... . 285 Toleration .... . 286 National Schools .... . 287 Castlebar . 288 National Schools .... . 289 Parochial Protestant Schools . 290 A Convert . 290 Teetotalism . . 291 Union Workhouse . 292 Diet — Numbers . . 293 Lord Lucan's Farming . 294 The Poor-Law . 296 Poor-Bates .... . 297 An Apology for the Landlords . 299 Large and Small Farms . 300 Harvest Wages . 301 Changes in Agricultural Holdings . 302 Number of Holdings . . 303 Number of Farms . 304 Arable Land . 305 Agricultural Produce . 306 Amount of Stock . 307 Past and Present Value of Stock . 307 Number of Holdings . . 308 ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. Glengariff Map of Ireland KlLLARNEY . Glendalough K LED ARE Rock of Cashel Queen's College, Cork Queen's College, Galway (Frontispiece) (to face page 1) (to face page 139) 21 49 61 75 215 VOL. II. The Giant's Causeway Pleaskix Cliffs (Frontispiece) (to face page 160) Diagrams of the Structure of the Causeway 162, 163, 164 Queen's College, Belfast . . . 195 Antrim Tower . . . . . 20S Moxasterboice . . . .281 n MEMORANDUMS MADE IN IEELAND. CHAPTER I. KINGSTOWN DUBLIN COUNTY OF WICKLOW. O.v Saturday, August the 7th, 1852, we landed at Kingstown-harbour, and, about 11 p.m., found ourselves on Irish ground for the first time. Kingstown is now a large and a fine town, though as recently, I believe, as thirty years since, it consisted of nothing but a cluster of fishermen's cabins, with a harbour, if it may be so called, only fit for fishing-craft. In 1817 the present magnifi- cent harbour was commenced, and although for years in a state of efficiency, it is scarcely yet com- pleted. It is said that 800,000/. have been ex- pended on this admirable work. Dimleary was the old name of this place, ill-exchanged, I think, for its present name in the year 1821, on the occasion of the visit of George IV to Dublin. Since the foundation of the harbour the town has increased wonderfully, and now contains a population of more than 10,000. The actual population, according to 1 2 KINGSTOWN. the census of 1831, is 30,453, being an increase of 3224 since 3843. Many of the streets and terraces are liandsome, and the vicinity is sprinkled over with many pretty villas ; the whole commanding a charm- ing view of Dublin Bay and its northern boundary, the Hill of Ilowih. We took up our abode at Rathbone's Hotel, a large and, on the whole, an excellent establishment, — yet constantly reminding us, by sundry little in- timations, that we had got into a less nice and more careless country than we had left on the eastern side of the Irish Channel. In a very good bed-room, for example, the bell-rope had been broken and was not yet repaired ; the Avindow-blind was crippled and would not work; the swing-mirror could not be steadied for want of a fitting screw; and the sole resource against being stifled in a hot night, was to keep the window up by the poker, there being no pullies to the large and handsome sashes. Water was occasionally found wanting where it was most wanted; and there seemed, every now and then, to be a lingering doubt among the servants, whose special duty it was to attend to the particular bell that happened to be ringing. Yet, for all this, the hotel was by no means a bad one, as to accommoda- tion, attendance, or living ; and it is but doing justice to it individually to say, that its defects as well as excellencies were more or less shared with it by all the hotels we visited in Ireland. And it certainly would be unjust not to add, that their KILLINEY HILL. 3 excellencies, speaking generally, greatly prepon- derated over their defects. When leaving this Kingstown hotel on the following day, a little incident occurred which was also somewhat characteristic of the new people we had come among. I was in a great hurry to get a parcel tied up, fearing that I might be too late for the inexorable rail. Some twine was needed to complete the job, and as none could be immediately found in the room, the maid who was the operator, after a moment's delay, coolly went to the sideboard drawer, and taking thence the cord of a window blind, complete with all its brass pullies, (perhaps the very one wanting in my bed-room,) cut off as much of it as was needed, and therewith did up my parcel in a trice. Being uncertain whether we should return to Kingstown, we thought it best, before proceeding to Dublin, to ascend some greater height, in order that we might have a still more complete view of the bay. Accordingly, we went to Dalkey by the atmospheric railway, and there took a car to the top of Killiney Hill. From this height Dublin Bay is conspicuous in all its extent and beauty; and a charming scene it is, well deserving this slight trouble to command it. This short railway (only one mile and three quarters in length) is remarkable for its great deviation from the level line, rising no less than one foot in 115 to within a few hundred yards of Dalkey, aud from thence to the terminus 4 PHCENIX TAEK. as mucli as one in 57. With so great a declination, it will readily be understood that the trains return to Kingstown without any aid from steam or other power but their own gravity. AVc reached Dublin (a distance of about five miles) by the railway, in time to visit the Phoenix Park, and see — exteriorly, at least, — its principal objects, the Military Hospital, the Constabulary Barracks, the Zoological Gardens, the Wellington Testimonial, the Phoenix Pillar, and the Yice-regal Lodge. None of these, except the Zoological Gar- dens, claim particular attention. The collection of animals is very good and of considerable extent. The space is, however, too much filled up by thick shrubberies. This being Sunday afternoon, we were admitted to view the collection for one penny, an arrangement made for the convenience of the poorer classes, and which we would recommend to the con- sideration of the directors of our own gardens in the Regent's Park. The Phoenix Park itself is a splendid expanse of ground, containing, it is said, between 1700 and 1800 statute acres, and being about seven miles in circumference. It is, however, greatly inferior in general beauty to our smaller London parks, and is not to be compared with our Richmond Park, and still less with the truly royal domain of "Windsor, in point of variety, extent, and beauty of the views. We took up our abode at the Imperial Hotel, Sackville Street, a capital establishment in every respect ; with excellent attendance, although the DUBLIN. O servants are paid by the house; and with moderate charges — everything supplied being of the best kind. — All that I have to say of Dublin I shall sny in this place, although we paid it a second visit, as will be seen in the sequel. I own myself to have been a good deal disap- pointed with Dublin as a city. To say nothing of its extent, it is greatly inferior, in many other respects, not only to London, but to several towns in England and some in Scotland. 1 Its site is flat and monoto- nous, and its streets and squares possess no architec- tural beauty. The former, to be sure, are often very wide, and some of the latter, as Merrion Square and Stephen's Green, are of immense extent ; but there is throughout a general want of elegance and grandeur. Most of the streets seem to want dignity, and the ma- jority of the houses are common-looking, and even mean and dingy. The very extent of the squares and the width of the streets — particularly Sackville Street — are the means of detracting from their architec- tural effect, the size and structure of the houses not being sufficiently imposing to harmonise with the spaces they surround or line. Were these squares half their present extent, and Sackville Street half its width, their very ordinary houses would not then be so destitute of effect as they now arc. The same remarks apply, though in a less degree, to the quays along the Liffcy, which, however, constitute a 1 The population of Dublin in 1841 wat 232,726; by the last census (1831) it was 217,11) ; or, including " Public Institutions,'' 258,361. DUBLIN. beautiful and redeeming feature in the city. If the buildings on either side of the fine and beautifully- embanked river, corresponded in size and archi- tecture to the space they bound, this would be one of the most striking promenades in Europe. Sackville Street is, however, a fine street even as it is, with its splendid Nelson column in its centre, and the magnificent Post Office facing it. While denying both beauty and grandeur to Dublin as a city, I must join in the universal judg- ment as to the splendour of many of its public buildings, as the Bank of Ireland — formerly the Parliament House, the Custom House, the Post Office, the Royal Exchange, &c. Trinity College also consists of a series of fine buildings, and, for an institution in the very centre of a great city, has sin- gularly open and extensive grounds. Unfortunately we could not see the museum or library on the day we visited the College. In the Theatre and Re- fectory are some fine portraits and monuments, but some of the best of the portraits are placed too high for effect. In the former room, there is an organ which was taken out of one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, wrecked on the Irish coast near the Giants' Causeway. There are a few fine churches, both Catholic and Protestant, in Dublin, as St. George's in Hardwicke Place, St. Michael's in High Street, the Catholic Chapel of St. Andrew in Westland Row, and the Metropolitan Chapel in Marlborough Street. The PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 7 two cathedrals, Christ Church and St. Patrick, are chiefly interesting from their antiquity: they also contain some fine architectural remains ; but both externally and internally they are inferior to almost all our English cathedrals. St. Patrick's is now undergoing repair ; and it is to be hoped that, when completed, greater pains will be taken to keep it decently clean than is the case at present. I never saw a church in so discreditable a state. One part of it may be literally said to be converted into a dove-cot, as its roof is rilled with pigeons, and its floor in a state not to be described. It contains some fine and some deeply-interesting monuments. Though far from striking in itself, the monument of Swift is terribly impressive, — perpetuating, as it were, beyond actual life, his savage indignation and lacerated heart. 1 Among the monuments I was also particularly struck with a bust of Curran, by C. Moore, which appeared to me to be the most ani- mated representation of a human face I ever saw in marble. Whether it may be too animated for its solemn station, or for the laws of strict artistic taste, I know not, but the effect is great. The Castle, the town residence of the Lord- Lieutenant, has, as a whole, no pretensions to cither grandeur or beauty, though it still retains, amid the 1 Hie depositum est corpus Jonathan Swift, S.T.U., hujus Ecclesix> Cathedralis Decani, ubi sxva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit Ai)i, Viator, et imitare, si poteris, strenuum pro virili Libertatis Vin- dicatorcm. — (The Epitaph, left in Swift's will.) 8 DRESS. mendings to which it has been subjected, some fine samples of its ancient splendour. I did not make any attempt to visit the abodes of the poor in the obscure recesses of Dublin, pre- ferring to see the condition of this class of persons in the smaller towns and in the country, where — the degrading influences that prevail in all large cities, in all countries, being absent — they might be seen under circumstances more characteristic of the indi- vidual nation. Such of the common people as we had yet seen and conversed with, impressed us favorably by their civility and shrewdness; but we were rather startled at the intensity of the brogue. Some of the speakers were actually unin- telligible to us. This novelty, however, soon ceased to be a novelty; and, after a week or two, the peculiarity of the intonation, as well as of the phraseology, was found to be rather agreeable than otherwise. As yet we had seen no signs of misery and hardly any beggars, though we could not fail to be struck by the general inferiority of the dress of the labour- ing classes, when compared with that of their English brethren. Ill-fitting coats, with dispropor- tionate length of tail, were common; and holes in the outer garment, showing the white within, were not rare. This struck us the more remarkably as the day was Sunday, and many of the clothes were obviously Sunday clothes. I shall, hereafter, have something more to say on this general unticli- IRISH CAltS. 9 ness of the Irish as to dress ; and will only further remark here, that it prevails, in a greater or less degree, even among those of whom better things might be expected. In one of the waiters at our excellent hotel, I observed a little of the white within, even when he was in attendance in the coffee-room ; and, in another part of the island, the landlord of a respectable country inn once presented himself in like dishabille. Having seen as mnch of Dublin as we thought necessary at present, we set about the first object of our country journey, — a visit to the county of Wicklow, of Avhose beauties we had heard much. We left the city early in the afternoon for Bray, taking advantage of the Kingstown and Dalkey railways as far as they went, and completing our journey in an Irish car. In this short distance we had an opportunity of witnessing one of the disad- vantages of this mode of conveyance, as we should have got thoroughly drenched by a sudden and very heavy shower, had it not fortunately overtaken us close to a roadside-blacksmith's forge, into whose open door Ave drove bodily, without license or cere- mony, yet evidently not unwelcome. Here we waited till the rain was over, the time being well beguiled by the conversation of two or three stal- wart forgemen, who seemed nothing loath to postpone their work for the sake of a traveller's gossip. Among other subjects of talk with these good men, an incidental remark brought up the subject 10 THE DARGLE. of fairs and drinking, witli the comment that the ancient glories of both had vanished since the advent of Father Matthew. While evidently half-regretting this, my informant readily admitted that the change was for the better. lie mentioned, however, a recent little anecdote of himself and a friend, which proved that there still lived in the embers some of the old fire. His friend, after a successful campaign in England as a railway labourer, returned home with 25/. in his pocket. A fair happening to fall in his way immediately after his return, he went to it, of course, taking my friend of the forge with him, and as many of his other friends as he could lay hands on. The result was, that my informant got kilt, as he said, at the end of the second day by the strength of the potheen, while his friend and treater held on for a day or two more, — that is to say, as long as his cash lasted. Finding on our arrival at Bray, at four o'clock, that there was still time to see some of the beauties of the immediate neighbourhood before dinner, I set off at once in a car to accomplish this object. The points of attraction were the glen of the Dargle and the waterfall in Lord Powerscourt's deer-park, both in the tract of the same small river, the Dargle. The glen of the Dargle is about three miles from Bray, and is a mile in length. It is a fine example of a wooded ravine, and is extremely beautiful. The banks on either side, particularly on the right bank of the river, rise in some places to the height of THE CASCADE. 11 three hundred feet, the slopes being completely covered with the liveliest and greenest woods. It is like some of the more wooded glens of our Scottish streams, but softer and richer. Perhaps it comes nearest the character of some portions of the valley of the Wye, but is on a smaller scale. The river that flows through it is inconsiderable, but large enough to yield the charms both of sight and sound to the traveller as he treads his shaded path on the brow of the steep above it. On rejoining the car at the further extremity of the glen, we proceeded on the main road for several miles, through some well-wooded and well- cultivated country, before descending into the valley where the Dargle escapes from Lord Powerscourt's park. While approaching this along the brow of the right bank of the rivulet, I think the landscape presented to us on the other side, for the distance of about a mile, could hardly be exceeded in point of simple and tranquil beauty, — as it lay stretched out before us, in one delightful perspective of well- cultivated fields, green hedges, trees, and cottages, one beyond the other, up the gentle slope from the brink of the small ravine at our feet to the base of the dark hills in the near horizon. The drive along the bank of the river to the water- fall, along the brow of the wooded ravine, is delight- ful, and the whole may be said to be a repetition of the glen of the Dargle, only on a larger scale. The steep and lofty barrier, on the other side of the 12 BRAY. river, is wooded to the very top, except where the brows of the hills thrust themselves into the land- scape more and more as we ascend. It is where these bordering hills unite at an angle, that they constitute the lofty and steep precipice over which the little river descends along its black surface of rock ; and it is thus that they half-surround the loveliest green nook that ever fairies or picknickers haunted. The cascade itself is rather a foamy de- scent of water along the face of the steep cliff than an actual fall. It is of small extent, gentle and very beautiful, but not grand. With all its adjuncts of rock and turf and trees, with all its rural sights and sounds, it would not be easy to match this scene elsewhere : it is surely well worth the traveller's visit, come he from where he may. Bray is a small scattered town, nearly a mile in length, and finely situated on both sides of the river Bray, which is the boundary between the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, the town con- sequently being in both counties. The population has remained stationary during the last ten years, being, according to the census, 3169 in 1841, and 3152 in 1851 : it is chiefly catholic. Bray is much frequented by the people of Dublin as a summer residence and bathing place. The hotel is a large establishment, and well conducted by its very intelligent landlord, Mr. Quin ; we had, how- ever, some difficulty in obtaining accommodation in it owing to the unusual number of strangers then BEGGARS. 13 in Ireland. This house has the most extensive pleasure-grounds I ever saw attached to an inn. The flower garden is a full quarter of a mile in length, extending, in the form of a narrow slip, down to the sea-shore. Both on our arrival and departure from this place, we had the first specimen of what we saw- much of afterwards, the active and most obtrusive beggary which disfigures most of the public haunts in the South of Ireland. Our carriage was fol- lowed — hunted I may say — by a crowd of children, some of whom were, in the most literal sense of the words, not half-clad. On leaving Bray in the morning, following the instructions of our landlord, we first visited the demesnes of Lord Meath, (Kilruddery,) and Sir George Hodson, (Hollybrook,) both in the vicinity of Bray. They are fine houses, and with very ornamental grounds, but too much shut in with trees. It is hardly worth the while of the English traveller to expend time in visiting such places, as they differ in nothing from the same class of country houses in his own land, unless, indeed, he may wish to be convinced from actual inspection, that the absenteeism of Ireland is not fostered by the deficiency of beautiful and splendid residences. I may here say, once for all, that the seats of the nobility and gentry of Ireland are, generally speaking, beautifully situated, replete with everj comfort and elegance, and, with some striking 14 VALLEY OF BRAY. exceptions, kept in excellent order. I must, how- ever, add that these beautiful residences are almost always too much shut in with dense and extensive woods, the demesnes, as they are called, being often more like a forest than a park, according to the idea we have of what constitutes a park in England. Shortly after leaving Hollybrook we passed through the glen of the Downs, a ravine that cuts across the southern portion of the chain of mountains that almost encircle the district of which Bray may be regarded as the capital. This chain of mountains, as seen from every point, constitutes a most beautiful and picturesque feature in the land- scape. It is deficient only on the side of the sea, and there its want is supplied by a boundary as beautiful in its kind. The charm of the whole scene is won- derfully enhanced by its mountain-screen, which is rendered singularly varied and picturesque by the succession of smaller and larger peaks by which its whole skiey outline is broken. The loftiest and most striking of these mountains are the Downs, Bray Head, the Scalp, and especially the Sugar Loaf, greater and lesser, the height of the former being no less than 1650 feet above the sea level. It would not be easy to select a finer site for a residence than might be supplied by many spots in the centre of this valley — if we may call it so — all sufficiently elevated to command at once the sea through the gap of Bray, as well as the circling mountains in all their extent. The presence of GLEN OF THE DOWNS. 15 these two grand features of nature around our dwellings, supplies a perpetual source of quiet in- terest and silent companionship, which the in- habitants of inland plains know nothing of. The glen of the Downs may be said to be, in character, of precisely the same kindred as the glens on the Dargle, only less varied and picturesque in its bounding walls, which are, however, equally wooded and still higher. It seems also deprived of some of its natural charms, by the formality of the high road which runs along its bottom, and by the less obvious path of its rivulet. It divides the two mountains of the greater Sugar Loaf and the Downs from each other; and what may be called its walls rise in some places to the height of 600 feet. The mountains themselves rise to the respective elevation of 1232 and 1561 feet above the sea- level. On escaping from this ravine we entered upon a somewhat wilder country than that we left on the other side of the mountains, but it was still well cultivated and wooded, and more resembling England than most of the other parts of Ireland. A short distance beyond the glen we left the carriage, and ascended a small hill, in order to im- prove our view. The view thus obtained was indeed very fine, comprehending the wide slope of a richly cultivated tract, terminated by the open sea and the bay of Wicklow, with its beautiful headland. In our ramble we came upon a secluded ham let, called 16 the devil's glen. the Downs, containing eight or ten cottages, and one gentleman's house uninhabited. These being the first abodes of the rural poor we had come in contact with, I was curious to visit their interior. I found them all very wretched. They consisted respectively of one small apartment without any partition, with rough mud floors, and with either no window or with an opening so small as hardly to deserve the name. There was no furniture but a broken chair and small wooden box, and a small filthy settle-bed in one corner. This bed, we were told in one cottage, was occupied by the poor woman's two sons, while she herself slept on the floor. For these wretched cabins they paid from '3d. to 6d. and even lOd. per week. A larger double cottage paid a rent of 3/. a year. This was divided into two apartments. In one end, besides two beds, there was a loom for weaving a strong composite cloth of wool and cotton yarn which was spun by the daughter. Some of the cottages were occupied by families whose fathers or brothers had recently emigrated, and from whom they were look- ing for means to enable them to follow. In the poorest of the cabins, occupied by a helpless old woman, I found a dog which belonged to one of these emigrants, with which the poor creature divided her scanty meals out of affection for his absent master. Proceeding onwards towards the chief object of the day's journey, the Devil's Glen, we drove through another extensive demesne belonging to a clergy- THE DEVIL S GLEN. 17 man, and distinguished by the foreign-sounding name of Altadore. It was only remarkable for its fine woods, and the fine views it afforded of the country below it, and of the sea. The house was common, and the grounds not in good order. The Devil's Glen is precisely of the same con- figuration and general character as the two glens of the Dargle and the glen of the Downs, only on a grander scale, and more picturesquely beautiful. The wall of the ravine on the right bank of the river rises to a height of full 400 feet, and is diver- sified by bold bare crags jutting out here and there from the green wall of trees, and by the dark sum- mits of heath surmounting it at intervals. The small river (the Vartney) that runs through the glen, is steep in its descent, and forms a succession of small rapids as it dashes over its rocky pathway. The glen is about a mile and a half in length, and terminates in an abrupt angle of rock, over which the river tumbles in a beautiful cascade, or rather in a succession of two or three rapids. This fall, though not so high as that on the Dargle, has the advantage of a fuller stream, and is, on the whole, a fine termination to this romantic glen. One side of the ravine (the right) belongs to Mr. Synge, of Glenmore, whose beautiful house, called Glenmore Castle, is seen among the trees at its entrance. The other side belongs to Mr. Tottenham, of Ballycarry, who has constructed an excellent footpath along the river side to within a short distance of the cascade. 2 18 NEWRATH-BRIDGE. On leaving the Devil's Glen we pursued our jour- ney to Newrath-bridge, a few miles from the town of Wicklow, and which our host of Bray had indi- cated as our resting-place for the night. We had no reason to he dissatisfied with our quarters, as the hotel is really a most charming resting-place ; but taking into consideration what was intended to be done on the following day, namely, to visit Lough Tay, Lough Dan, and the Seven Churches, we ought, on leaving the Devil's Glen, to have gone in quite another direction, to the north-west, to Roundwood, in place of south-west, to Newrath. No doubt we had much better quarters where we were ; but in visiting the places indicated, we had to return for many miles directly on our path. The hotel of Newrath-bridge, besides excellent accommodations and a most civil landlord, has the great additional charm of being a solitary house among beautiful scenery. Like the inn at Bray, it overlooks an extensive garden, and combines all the comforts of an inn with the quiet of a private house in the country. It adjoins the classic grounds of Rosanna, the residence of the celebrated authoress of ' Psyche ;' and it is said to be a favorite resort with those whom Psyche's lord has just delivered into the hands of Hymen. We saw some indications of this fact in the poetical effusions contained in the well-filled album of the hotel; and we could not deny that the selection of the locality seemed appropriate. GLENDALOUGH. 19 The morning being wet, and the look of the sky very unpropitious, we were forced to abandon our intention of visiting Lough Tay and Lough Dan, and the famous Luggala, and therefore shaped our course directly to Glendalough and the Seven Churches. In reaching there we passed through a very dreary and barren country, a sort of table-land of bog of the most wretched description. On leaving this, however, the aspect and condition of the coun- try sensibly improved as we approached the small town of Larach, about a mile and a half from the Seven Churches, and at the entrance of what is properly termed Glendalough. This glen is about three miles in length, and is bounded throughout by the lofty mountains of Derrybawn, Lugdaff, Brockagh, Glendassan, and Comaderry. These mountains at their western ex- tremity approach closely together and finally unite, so as to constitute a profound abyss or hollow, bounded on three sides by lofty and precipitous cliffs and steep rocky wastes. In the bottom of this hollow lies the Lough which gives its name to the whole glen : it is about a mile in length and a quarter of a mile in breadth. In winter and rainy seasons, the longitudinal extent is considerably pro- longed by a temporary accumulation of water at its eastern extremity, which is usually termed the lower lough, and which, when full, nearly washes the prin- cipal ruins of the Seven Churches. The mountains which enclose this narrow glen are, as already said, 20 THE SEVEN CHURCHES. entirely precipitous on the side of the lake, and are said to rise to the extreme height of 1800 feet. Feebly illumined as it thus is by so bounded a space of sky overhead, and excluded through the greater part of the day from the direct influence of the sun, this lough must present a gloomy aspect even in the brightest season, while the impression thence arising will be heightened by the dark, wild, and barren character of its mountain boundaries. Well, there- fore, might Moore, in his celebrated ballad of St. Kevin, term it a " gloomy shore." On the day of our visit, the gloom was painfully increased by the darkness of a clouded and rainy atmosphere. This lough of the glen reminded me forcibly, both in its configuration and general cha- racters, of the dark Loch Muick, in the highlands of Aberdeenshire. Glendalough is fed by one or more streams that fall into it at its western ex- tremity, and constitute foamy rapids or cascades, which, seen at a distance, somewhat relieve the neighbouring blackness. Two of these waterfalls are known by the euphonious names of Poolanas and Glaneola. The Seven Churches, which give their name to this wild locality, are all still traceable in their ruins, and are at a considerable distance from one another. They occupy both banks of the river Glendalough, which flows out of the lake. Strange as it may seem, that so wild a locality as this should have been chosen for the site of a town, there is no doubt that SAINT KEVIN. 21 such a town or city did once exist, and was famous in its day for its ecclesiastical establishments and its seminaries of learning. The founder of the churches, no doubt, the nucleus of the future city, Glendalough. was the famous St. Kevin, who is understood to have flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries, and whose memory is still preserved in innumerable local legends. The small cavern in which the saint is supposed to have lived, and which is still known by the name of St. Kevin's bed, is pointed out in a cliff on the borders of the upper lake, and is constantly visited by travellers. The highly ungallant way in which the anchorite treated the fair Kathleen, when paying him a friendly visit in this comfortless abode, is known to every one, through the medium of Moore's melody. Glcndalough was the see of a bishop for centuries, and seems to have continued 22 THE ROUND TOWER. so even to the time of our King John, when it was united to that of Dublin. The largest and most conspicuous remains of the ancient glories of the Seven Churches, are those already mentioned as adjoining the eastern margin of the lower lake. These consist of the ruinous outlines of a small church, dignified with the name of cathedral ; a small chapel, called our Lady's Chapel, adjoining ; and a building still retaining its roof, commonly known by the name of St. Kevin's Kitchen, though no doubt a religious edifice like the rest. This building is of small extent, being only about twenty-two feet in length by fifteen in breadth. There is a small enclosure termed the sacristy, no doubt an ancient burial-place, and still used as such by pious Catholics. It ought, indeed, to be a popular resting-place for the faithful, as the legend is still half-believed by the common people, that gives heaven as a heritage to all who have the good fortune to be here interred. In this cemetery there still remains an ancient granite cross, about ten or eleven feet in height, and formed of one solid stone. It is, however, much decayed, the sculptures upon it being now very imperfectly discoverable. But the most remarkable relic amidst these ruins is the Round Tower, which still exists in all its mysterious perfection, except that it has lost the conical top which seems to have originally be- longed to all these singular structures. The tower is said to be 110 feet high, and about 52 in cir- LEAD MINES OF LUGGAMORE. 23 cumference. The round-headed door is about ten feet from the ground ; and it has several small openings or windows in its shaft, besides three or four just below its top. As another opportunity may probably occur for noticing these towers, which constitute a feature so remarkable and unique in the landscape as well as in the archaeology of Ireland, I shall not here advert to any of the ideas or specu- lations that the present tower, the first we had seen, naturally awakened. At the upper end of the glen, about three miles from the Seven Churches, the lead mines of Lug- gamore are situated. We did not visit them. Our guide told us that the Cornishmen employed in these mines had tended to improve the cottages in the neighbourhood, by exhibiting in their own a better arrangement, greater cleanliness, and a more comfortable mode of living generally. There is assuredly much room for such improvement. I found the cabins in this place of the same wretched character as those visited the day before. In one occupied by a widow, there could hardly be said to be any furniture. She paid for it a rent of one pound per annum, which was chiefly obtained by the exer- tions of her son, a lad of some fourteen years of age. On the banks of the lake I visited a cottage of the better order, and found that it was intended as a lodging-house for such stray anglers as come to fish in the lough. The cottage contained a decent bedroom, with a wooden floor, and with two good 24 a FAMILY STORY. beds for visitors. The board and lodging together amounted to a pound a week. The mistress of thi cottage was still a very good-looking woman, al- though she was forty-six years of age, and had had fourteen children. In the course of a short con- versation with her and her husband, I became the depositary of a small piece of family history, which, as it was not confided to me as a secret, I cannot refrain from recording here, as a sample of that simplicity and candour, which have struck me as such conspicuous features in the Irish character. The good wife having told me that she was married at fifteen, I was curious to know what had led to so early an union. Without a moment's hesitation, and evidently without the consciousness of telling anything extraordinary, she gave me the following explanation in the presence of her husband. She said, being an only child, and the sole support of her mother, who was a widow, she felt that, as her mother's health was beginning to fail, she must do something more effectual for her future maintenance. Two ways were open for her, — one, service with a farmer, the other matrimony; the latter being in her option, through an offer made to her by her present husband, who, by the bye, was obviously much older than his partner. After much deliberation, she decided on marriage, " though (she added, pointing to her husband,) I did not then like him at all, at all \" I of course rallied her good man on a con- fession so little flattering to him ; but he confirmed POSTAGE AND DISCOUNT. 25 its truth, adding, however, that she came soon to like him well enough — " almost as well as he liked her;" and, what seemed to him still more remark- able, "that she made as good a manager as if she had been thirty instead of fifteen." The good couple's married life had evidently been a happy one ; and the smoothness of its current seemed to receive no ripple from the present candid recurrence to what must have been a grievance in its day. My guide was evidently a kind-hearted fellow, and spoke well of his neighbours. Every one had a good word from him, and he was evidently anxious that the poorer members of the hamlet should par- ticipate, with himself, in the traveller's bounty. He was forty-five years of age, and, for a wonder, was not yet married, owing, he says, to having to support his old mother. He pays 3/. for his cottage, but lets off part of it to a lodger, who pays half the rent. Among the people pointed out to me by the guide, was a nice, cleanly-dressed young woman, who, he said, worked hard to support herself and a baby, left in her charge by a sister gone to America. Her sister's husband had died almost immediately after his arrival, and his widow had not yet been able to send for her child, or to send much money for her support. The young nurse had, however, received from her sister one remittance of a pound, a sum which, she regrettingly said, had been di- minished by eighteen pence for postage, and eighteen pence as discount ! There was something deeply 26 VALE OF CLARA. pathetic in this regret. I fear we too often forget how great such " little things are to little men." The young woman spoke cheerfully and confidently of soon receiving a fresh supply from her sister. Leaving the hamlet of the Seven Churches, we returned on our path so far as the village of Larach, and then turned off, at a right angle, to the south, our destination being ArkloAV. Om' course now lay through the beautiful vale of Clara, on the right bank of the Avonmore, which river we touched at Larach, and accompanied all the way to Arklow. This valley of Clara is very beautiful — not narrow and confined like a glen, but open, and with culti- vation extending high on its gently-sloping sides, like a highland strath opening on the lowlands. It is well-wooded in many places, but is more charac- terised by cultivated than by wild beauty. The small town of Rathdrum, the property of Lord Fitzwilliam, is traversed by the Avonmore, and forms a pleasing feature in the landscape. . We only passed through one of its suburbs, as we still kept the Avonmore on our left hand. According to the census, Rathdrum had a population of 1232 in 1841, which had fallen to 947 in 1851. A short way beyond Rathdrum we left, somewhat on our left, the Avonmore and the Avondale watered by it ; but from the ridge that bounds its southern bank, we commanded, on our right, the equally beautiful valley of Glenmalure, watered by the Avonbeg, as it speeds on and joins its half-namesake THE VALE OF OVOCA. 27 in the vale of Ovoca. Descending to the bank of this river, and still keeping it on our right hand, we soon reached the celebrated spot where it unites with the Avonmore, and which all the world knows as Moore's " Meeting of the Waters." The united streams now take the name of the Ovoca, and pro- ceed to water the beautiful vale of that name, until they join the ocean at Arklow. We first crossed the Avonbeg immediately before its junction, and then crossed the united streams at Newbridge, a short way further down the valley, in order to reach our destination, which was the house of a friend, situated on the left bank of the river, nearly opposite the town of Arklow. We reached our night's quarters about six o'clock, purposing to spend one whole day there, in order that we might do full justice to the famous vale, at whose eastern extremity we were now planted. We devoted our day to visit the neighbour- hood of Arklow, especially the vale of Ovoca and its bordering beauties. Crossing the old bridge at Arklow, we drove up the valley along the right bank of the river, stopping to look at several gen- tlemen's seats on our route. The chief of these, on this side the river, is Glenart, the mansion of Lord Carysfort. The house commands some good views, but is itself not fine, and, as usual, is shut up by thick woods. After a considerable detour we returned to the river, and kept close to its banks all the way to the Meeting of the Waters. 28 MEETINGS OF THE WATERS. The Vale of Ovoca is certainly very beautiful, tra- versed as it is by its fine river, rapid yet meandering, and bounded by richly-wooded banks on both sides. It is properly called the vale, being much too open to take the name of glen, like several of the places already visited. In some places it is of considerable width, containing pasture meadows and cultivated fields and houses, and in one place a parish church (Castle M'Adam) ; but it everywhere retains the lofty and wooded barriers which give it the charm of seclusion and repose. As the road follows the windings of the stream, the upward view presents constantly -varying scenes, ever bounded in the dis- tance by some wooded summit ; while, looking back- wards, we here and there catch a glimpse of the sea through the fringed openings in the woods. There are two Meetings of the Waters, the upper, already mentioned, formed by the junction of the greater and lesser Avon (for this is the meaning of the terminations more and beg), and the lower, about four miles down, formed by the union of the Aughrim with this double stream now termed the Ovoca. It is close by this last meeting that the Wooden Bridge Inn is situated, the comfortable resort of all explorers of the beauties of the vale. Of the rival meetings of the waters there cannot be a question, in my mind, as to the great superiority of the upper in point of beauty. It is accordingly this that is usually regarded as the theme of Moore's charming ballad ; and it is here where the guides DESECRATION. 29 never fail to point out to the traveller the very tree beneath which he composed it. 1 But, alas, for the muse, the classical spot is now sadly desecrated by the progressive encroachments of the works of a most prosaic copper-mine in its immediate vicinity, which not only troubles but poisons the " waters," and mingles its squalid ruins and its gigantic me- chanism with the pure charms of nature. If the poet had lived to witness this degradation, we can easily imagine that he would have protested in some such indignant lament as that in which Wordsworth greeted the approach of the railway and steam en- gine to his beloved lakes and vallies : " In balance true, Weighing the mischief with the promised gain, Mountains, and vales, and floods, I call on you To share the passion of a just disdain. Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance Of nature ; and, if human hearts be dead, Speak, passing winds ; ye torrents, with your strong And constant voice, protest against the wrong." As we, however, were not poets, and had no ballads to defend, nothing loath we turned our steps to the mine itself, and are not ashamed to confess that we spent a pleasant half hour amid its huge wheels and heaps of ponderous ore. There are mines on both sides of the river. That which we visited lies on the right bank, and is 1 I see by a remark of Moore's, in his recently published memoirs bj Lord John Russell, that it is this upper " meeting" which he recognises. 30 COPPER MINES. called Bally murtagli. Those on the other side are called the Cronbane copper mines. The ore of the Ballymurtagh mine is a sulphuret of copper, but the sulphur is in places so predominant, that the pro- duce in sulphur is more productive than in metal. The ore is all exported to England for reduction, being conveyed to the pier at Arklow by a tram- road running down the valley. The ore, at the period of our visit, was yielding only about three per cent, of copper, while the less metalliferous portion was said to give a return of sulphur amount- ing to one third. There were about 200 men em- ployed on the mine, all Irish except the .manager who is a Cornish man. He told me that nothing could exceed the attention, industry, and soberness of the men. He said they were much more manageable than his own countrymen, and worked contentedly for much smaller wages. Many of them are strict " Teetotallers," though of late years a con- siderable proportion of them had broken their pledges, and again indulged in strong drinks, but not so as to interfere materially with their work, or seriously to affect the great general sobriety of the mass. On leaving the mine we proceeded to visit Castle Howard, conspicuous through the woods on the brow of the opposite bank. To reach it we had to cross both the Avons, and then ascend a long and winding path overhanging the river, through a perfect thicket of wood. The house is closely em- SHELTON ABBEY. 31 bosomed in wood, and though placed on so lofty an eminence, it is thus deprived of some fine views, which it might command if left more open. It can hardly be said to have any park, though its wooded demesne is of great extent. Descending from Castle Howard, and recrossing the river at Newbridge, we drove through the woods of Ballyarthur, a gentleman's seat on the same ridge as Castle Howard, commanding similar views, and in itself a much superior place of residence, though with an inferior house. It possesses some- thing like an open park, the woods being kept at a more convenient distance from the house. Beyond Ballyarthur we entered the domain of Lord Wicklow, and drove down to Shelton Abbey, his splended and delightful residence. Of all the places yet seen in Ireland, — I had almost said, or elsewhere, — this Abbey impressed me the most by its singular and placid beauty. Placed in a lofty plain or mountain valley, surrounded, yet not too closely, by woods and wooded hills rising gently above it, seeing nothing from its walls but these woods and hills, and yet, while con- veying the impression of profound seclusion and solitude, still breathing of airyness and openness and sylvan freedom, it seemed truly an abode set apart for the peaceful and holy life, which should harbour in a home so named. The character of the building, in the style of an ancient abbey, with its lofty windows, its jutting buttresses, and its wilderness 32 A FARMHOUSE. of turrets, belfries, and lofty and slender chimneys, harmonised admirably with the scenes amid which it was placed. Everything breathed tranquillity and peace, and the charmed beholder could scarce re- train from holding his breath, in momentary expectation of hearing the solemn bell summoning its inmates to vespers. The illusion was probably heightened by the perfect stillness of the evening, the immobility of the sheltering woods, and the growing dimness of the sky, which only here and there retained a feeble colouring from the sunken sun. Next morning I paid a visit to a small farm in the neighbourhood, tenanted by an old man of seventy-five, an orangeman or Protestant, who had been out in the '98. He paid 20/. for about nineteen acres of good land, and some wild pasturage along the shore. His house is not much better or cleaner than that of a mere cottier, only larger. He keeps a good many cows, and sends the produce, in the shape of butter slightly salted, to Dublin once a fortnight. His grandfather and father occupied the farm before him, and he has still a lease of it. for his own and his son's life. He has three sons and one daughter. One son is a gardener, and out in the world gaining his living; another has gone to America, where he obtains a good livelihood as a servant on a railway at New York. His eldest son and heir lives with him on the farm, as does also his daughter, who seemed to be the only woman on TENANT RIGHT. 33 the establishment. His land was not in good order, though he seemed to have had a tolerable crop, both of corn and hay. The potato crop had suffered, as indeed throughout the whole county — one third, at least, being destroyed. He spoke doubtfully of being able to pay his rent, and grumbled because, some time back, it had been raised. He said he and his predecessors had built all the houses on the farm at their own expense, and he thought it hard that they should now be charged in the rent. This was the first distinct intimation we had of Tenant-right. I was amused to find that, like many of his betters of the orange school, the farmer regarded the tempe- rance proceedings of Father Matthew as a political, that is, a rebellious movement, originating with the priests and repealers. He readily admitted, how- ever, that the system of teetotalism had been pro- ductive, while it lasted, of great social benefits, and had left behind it much more of general sobriety than existed before its introduction. Our sensibility to natural beauty, if not our gal- lantry, might, we feel, be justly called in question, if, after what we had seen of it in the places com- memorated in this chapter, we did not say one word of the most animated of all the forms of beauty we had seen — that, namely, of the women and children. We shall have another opportunity of referring to this matter; but we must allude here to the fact of our being struck, on the very threshold of Ireland, 3 34 A BEAUTY. with the unusual attractions presented to us by many of its women, and even by many of its children, though seen in all the disadvantages of dirt and rags. In one of our country hotels (I carefully withhold the name, mindful of the fate of Mary of Buttermere, betrayed through the printed enco- miums of a tourist,) we were waited on by a young damsel, who might, I think, be regarded as a perfect beauty, especially by the admirers of the Rubens' school. Her features and expression were faultless. CHAPTER II. ARKLOW TULLOW CARLOW KILDARE CASH EL. Arklow is a moderate-sized bustling country town, with a population, according to the last census, of 3300, making a difference of only 46 persons between this and the enumeration of 1841. The upper and better portion of it contains some good houses, with a fine church and chapel. The lower portion of it, on the flat shore, by the harbour, is chiefly inhabited by fishermen, and is very squalid and filthy. There is a pretty good trade here, the exports being principally mineral ores and fish ; but the entrance to the small harbour is very shallow and unsafe. According to the Parliamentary re- turns, the proportion of Catholics to Protestants, in 1834, was more than double, the number of Catholics, in the whole parish, being 4347, and of Protestants only 2037. I believe the same proportion (nearly) still holds good. There is a fine National School here. At the time of my visit there were 150 boys in attendance, and a considerably larger proportion of girls. There was one master and two mistresses, all Catholics. There were no Protestants in the school, the Protestant clergymen discountenancing 36 SCHOOLS. the attendance of the children of their flocks, although it would appear that no interference in regard to religious instruction takes place on the part of the teachers. It is part of the system of these schools, that all religious instruction (confined mostly to learning the Catechism) is prohibited during ordinary school-hours. According to the Report of the Commissioners of National Education, the number on the books of this school, in September, 1850, was 214 boys and 224 girls ; and in September, 1851, 210 boys and 247 girls. The boys at these schools are permitted to remain as long as they please, the education being such as to fit them for the office of clerk or tradesman. 1 found the head boys working in vulgar fractions, and their writing was good. There is also a Protestant school in connection with the Church Education Society. According to the last Report, there were in the preceding year (1851) 37 children on the roll, and an average attendance of 27. I visited a (so-called) Protestant school, a little distance from the town, supported by a benevolent lady in the neighbourhood. The number of children on the books was from 50 to 60, and of these about 30 were present. Only about one seventh or one eighth part of the children were Protestants. In this school the scriptures are read daily, and the liturgy of the Church of England used. In these all the children are expected to take a part ; but the mistress (a Protestant) told me that she believed some of the EMIGRATION. 37 Catholics said their own prayers mentally, while professing to join in the Protestant formula. I had not an opportunity of inquiring minutely into the state of temperance in Arklow ; but I learned that the number of the pledged children of Father Matthew had marvellously decreased, there being now perhaps hardly more than fifty in the town, where there had once been a thousand. We left Arklow in the forenoon, intending to sleep at Carlow, and proceeding thence by the railway to Kildare, to join the Dublin train on its way to Cork. Advancing for a short way along the banks of the Aughrim river, we turned to the left through a rather wild country, chiefly the property of Lord Fitzwilliam. This property extends for many miles over a series of long and low valleys, mostly boggy in the centre, but partially cultivated on the slopes. The district possesses no feature of beauty, but it is fairly peopled. In the hamlet of Killaveny, in the centre of this dis- trict, I passed some time in a peat-cutter's cabin, dis- coursing on various local matters. Lord Fitzwilliam was represented as a good landlord in his ordinary dealings with his tenantry. He had, also, at his own expense, sent out a large portion of the population to America, and more were preparing to follow. My informant indicated the extent of this emigration, by stating that the chapel of Killaveny, a large building, was not now one half so full on Sun- days as formerly. Many of the emigrants had already 38 A TURF-CUTTER. sent home a good deal of money to their relations. One girl, who had gone to Australia, and was there employed as a servant, had sent home no less than 20/. to her mother, though she had only heen from home four years ; and she expressed her intention of assisting all the members of her family to join her in her new country. This turf-cutter's cottage was superior, both in size and accommodation, to many I had seen inWicklow. It had two apartments — a but and a ben, as the Scottish cotter names them, — and could boast of both chairs and a table, besides beds in the inner room. As there was no ground attached to it, the rent was only 1/. per annum. The man had no pigs ; and I may here observe, that I had scarcely seen any pigs since my arrival in Ireland, — a blank which was proved to be almost general by my subsequent experience. Since the failure of the potato crop, and consequent famine in 1847, when the whole race was devoured, the cottagers have not been able to buy or to maintain pigs, there having been a considerable destruction of the potato crop every season since. It is customary here as elsewhere for the neigh- bouring farmers to grant the cotters ground for planting their potatoes, on their finding manure for the soil. But with their pigs went their manure, and if they obtained land for their potatoes, they had to pay for it ; and so they went on from bad to worse. There is a National School in the parish, and the ENGLISH LABOURERS. 39 turf-cutter lamented greatly that there was at that time no mistress, as he was anxious to send some of his children to it. In coming along the valley, we had been struck with one farm in a very superior order to the others, and saw several boggy fields under the process of deep draining. The farmer, we were told, was a rich enterprising miller, who was expending on his land the gains he had made by his mill. A curious fact connected with this draining, — if it is a fact, and I see no reason to doubt it, — was mentioned to me by my intelligent friend as he sat by my side on his wife's table, with his huge bare legs besmeared with dark peat-earth up to the knees. He said that the miller's draining operations had been going on for years, and that the men employed in them had been brought from England. Most of these men, he said, had domesticated themselves in the place ; several had married, and none of them intended to return to England again. My informant added that the chief cause of this settlement of the strangers was, that they preferred some of this country's cus- toms to their own. The Irish, the Englishmen said, were friendlier and kindlier to one another, went more to the houses of each other, and so had more pleasure than their countrymen in England. " I tell the tale as 'twas told to me;" and when I com- pare what I afterwards saw of the cordiality, jollity, and fun of the Irish peasantry, even under the pressure of extreme poverty, with the cold, dull, 40 COTTAGE-LITE. matter of fact and business habits of the English labourers, I felt no great surprise that, by a certain class of men, the Irish hovel should be preferred to the Saxon cottage. I can easily fancy that the charming picture of cottage life, of which Burns makes his dog Luath the delineator, would be realised with much fewer appliances in an Irish cot- tage than in either a Scotch or English one. 1 1 This picture is so beautifully true, and so delightful in all its details, that I can scarcely resist the temptation of reproducing the whole of it in this place. Alas for civilisation and social progress if it be indeed true, as some suppose, that such pictures are now- rarer in every country than they were in the last generation. I can only venture to give the few concluding lines of the poem descriptive of some of the winter festivities. It will be remembered that it is the dog Luath who is the narrator : " As bleak-fac'd Hallomas returns, They get the jovial, rantin kirns, When rural life, o' every station Unite in common recreation : Love blinks, wit slaps, an' social mirth Forgets there's Care upo' the earth. That merry day the year begins, They bar the door on frosty wins ; The nappy reeks wi' mantling ream, And sheds a heart-inspiring steam ; The luntin pipe an' sneeshin mill, Are handed i - ound wi' right guid will ; The cantie auld folks crackin crouse, The young anes rantin thro' the house, — My heart has been sae fain to see them, That I for joy hae barkit wi' them." n.b. — For fear that my worthy teetotal friends of the south should consider me an advocate of strong drink, I beg to inform them that the " nappy" of the foregoing picture is only fresh home-brewed small-beer. COOLATTIN. 41 We arrived at the village of Coolattin between two and three o'clock, and were not a little dis- appointed that, owing to a mistake of the Arklow job-master, we could obtain no fresh horses to take us on to Carlow. We were therefore obliged to wait till our horses rested. Fortunately there is a very tolerable inn at the place, and we were enabled both to dine comfortably and to see the neighbour- hood. Coolattin is one of those artificial villages that we see spring up at great men's gates, bran-new, stiff and staring, with no traces of the olden time, and with none of that softened and varied look that always characterises hamlets that have grown up and decayed and been renovated insensibly. It, in fact, contains few other houses than the inn, the schools, the blacksmith's shop, and the establishment of Paddy "the merchant," which designation in Ireland means a retail dealer in all things. The houses are all bright and fresh as a new pin, having been only recently erected or restored by the great lord of the land, Earl Fitzwilliam, whose Irish residence is close at hand. Coolattin Park is of small extent, but contains some timber, and is watered by a small river, the Derry, one of the feeders of the Slaney. The house is a plain building, but of considerable extent, and is at this moment receiving a large addition. Adjoining the park is Lord Fitzwilliam's own farm, which looks, amid the wild and half-cultivated region around it, like a garden in the wilderness. This 42 FARMING. farm is of great extent, the fields large and sym- metrical, well fenced, and covered with the finest crops, — the turnips and even the potato fields looking green and without a weed. The friend who travelled with me, and who is learned in matters agri- cultural, exclaimed as soon as he saw it, — " There's a farm at last, and I'll wager the farmer is a Scotch- man." We found on inquiry that this was the fact ; and we could not help lamenting that such a scene as this was so rare in Ireland. It is very probable that Lord Fitzwilliam may have been hitherto a loser, instead of a gainer, by this mag- nificent farm, as the outlay must have been great to bring it to its present condition. It must, however, eventually not only repay the cost, but bring a good return for the capital invested. In another and still more important point of view, it must even now repay its benevolent and spirited possessor a hundred- fold, by the pregnant and enduring example afforded by it, to all his tenantry and to the country gene- rally. As in matters of morality, one can hardly live with good men without insensibly profiting by their examples ; so it would seem hardly possible that the rude and slovenly and unproductive culture handed down unchanged from their fathers to the present generation of farmers in the barony of Shillelagh, should long resist the contagion of the bright example set them at Coolattin. I was informed that the estates of Lord Fitzwilliam, in the county of Wicklow, produced a rental of CARLOW. 43 about 40,000/. ; and that he derived about 2000/. more from some other property in the county of Kildare. There is nothing note-worthy on the road from Coolattin to Tullow. The country, however, is richer and better cultivated, and this improved state was observable over the whole of that part of the county of Carlow through which we passed. Tul- low is a tolerably neat country town, with a popu- lation of about 3000. It has remained nearly stationary since the previous census, having only decreased by 134; the population in 1841 being 3097, and in 1851, 2963. It is divided by the river Slaney, here a large stream, with a handsome bridge over it. The principal inn is built close to the bridge, the wall of its best sitting-room being washed by the stream. Tullow is conspicuous by its lofty church tower and spire, which are visible at a great distance. The country around is well cultivated and agree- ably varied in surface ; the mountains of Wicklow forming a conspicuous feature inthe distant landscape. We reached Carlow about seven o' clock, having travelled, according to our post-boy's reckoning, 35 Irish miles from Arklow. We put up at a very good inn, called the Club House. Though the country we had passed over is but little travelled, and nearly the whole tract may be regarded as a cross-country, the roads were by no means bad. Our post-chaises, to be sure, were iu a rather dilapidated 44 CARLOW. condition, but the horses were good, and the drivers active and obliging. Carlow, the capital of the county of the same name, is a very handsome country town, with more than the ordinary display of public buildings in good style. It contains the ruins of a fine old castle, said to have been built by the famous De Lacy in the eleventh century. One front wall and two of the corner towers still remain, the latter upwards of sixty feet high. A singular piece of barbarism — it may almost be called sacrilege — was committed on this beautiful ruin, within the last 40 years, by a man who, from his education, ought to have had some regard for such relics of antiquity. A physician wishing to adapt the building for the purposes of a lunatic asylum, set about blasting with gunpowder some portion of the walls, and brought down about his ears more than half the structure. One can- not help wishing that it had been brought down literally about his ears. How such an act could have been permitted under the cognisance of the authori- ties of the town is marvellous. Both the English and Catholic churches are remarkably fine buildings, the one surmounted by a handsome spire, the other by a still handsomer tower : the latter is the cathe- dral church of the Catholic dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin. There are also here a Catholic college, with a handsome chapel attached, and a convent ; a jail, lunatic asylum, infirmary, and a very handsome court-house, only recently erected. CARLOW. 45 Carlow lies on the banks and near the union of the two rivers, the Barrow and the Burren, the former of which divides the county of Carlow from Queen's County. A portion of the town is situated in the latter, and goes by the name of Graigue. It is connected with Carlow proper by a handsome stone bridge, called Wellington Bridge. The Barrow is navigable by barges down to Waterford ; and the town is now also connected by railway with Kilkenny on the one hand, and with Dublin on the other. The population of Carlow, by the last census, was, including the suburb of Graigue, 8687, being a decrease of 1722 since 1841. The great majority of the inhabitants are Catholics. According to the official returns of 1834, the proportion of the different religions in the parish were as follows : Catholics, 7813; Church of England, 1755 ; Presby- terians and other dissenters, 106. I had not time to visit any of the public insti- tutions of Carlow, nor to make any very special inquiries into other matters. I may state, however, that, according to the last two Reports of the National Schools, that of Carlow had on its books in September 1850, boys, 351; girls, 604; and in September 1851, boys, 288; girls, 15:2. Strong in its Catholic tendencies as Carlow is, it has its staunch Protestantism also ; the stauncher, no doubt, because of the strength of these very tendencies. I here met with a most intelligent 46 AN ORANGEMAN. gentleman of this persuasion, who was not a whit less prejudiced and jaundiced by his Orange princi- ples than was the small farmer and ex-soldier of Wicklow, formerly mentioned. He thought that no compromise should be made with the Catholics, and that every effort should be made to extirpate their religion at least, if not themselves. He, how- ever, admitted that the Protestant clergy had committed a great mistake in withdrawing the children of their flock from the National Schools, as they had thereby thrown all the educational advan- tages of this system into the hands of their op- ponents. While admitting with all the world, that the temperance movement of Father Matthew had done infinite good to the people in their social position, he could not refrain from deprecating it as a measure calculated to enhance the authority of the priests, and to strengthen the anti-Protestant spirit among the lower classes. From everything I have seen and heard in Ireland, I believe no imputation could be more groundless than this, and that there never was a reform undertaken with a more single eye to good than this temperance movement, incom- parably the greatest of the efforts of modern philan- thropy, after that of Education. I learned from the conversation of this gen- tleman, what was confirmed from various other sources subsequently, that many of the proprietors of the encumbered estates already sold, had been KILDARE. 47 enabled to repossess themselves of much of their property by certain arrangements made with the principal creditors, and by borrowing money to effect the re-purchase at a depreciated value. The country from Carlow to Kildare is flat and well cultivated, with some intervening bogs. Kildare itself is a miserable small place, hardly more than a village, though a market town, and giving its title to a county and a diocese. I am tempted to quote a description of this small town from a recent publi- cation on Ireland, not because of its truth (though it comes as near this as the grand exaggerating spirit of the writer would allow), but as a specimen of the magnificent grandiloquence of the ancient hedge-school style, which still lingers in odd corners in Ireland. " The town itself (says this great writer), as seen from the approaches to it, sends up such a tufting of trees, and such a seeming museum of architecture, as to appear a fascinating feature in the landscape, and afford promise of interesting disclosures to the painter and the anti- quary; but, on being entered, it dashes to the dust the hopes which it had excited, grins ghastly de- rision on the enthusiasm of the literary visiter, folds round him clouds of offensive odours, and huddles itself up in so squalid and tawdry a dress of cabin masonry, grotesquely patched and deformed with clumsy remains of pretending architecture, as in- stantly to convince him that it owes ;ill its interest to the tales and associations of history, and to the 48 ST. BRIDGET. mind's power of abstracting its architectural monu- ments from connection with rubbish, and juxta- position to the filth and conditions of a common- place Irish village." 1 The only things of any interest in Kildare are the fine ruins of the Abbey or Cathedral, and the Round Tower in their vicinity. The abbey was founded so late as the twelfth century, but had been preceded in the same locality by the famous Nunnery and Abbey of St. Bridget, erected, accord- ing to tradition, so early as the fourth. The sole remains of this original fabric is said to be that small portion of the ruins called St. Bridget's Chapel, or the Fire-house, from being the supposed site of that perennial fire instituted by this holy woman " for the benefit of poor strangers," and said to have been maintained by the nuns, day and night, for upwards of a thousand years. 2 The fire was extinguished for a time, in the twelfth century, by the Archbishop of Dublin; but being soon re- stored, was continued up till the period of the suppression of the monasteries. Looking on the wide open country around me, and fancying how wild it must have been in the days of St. Bridget, I could not help thinking how appropriate such an 1 Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland ; Art. Kildare. - " Apud Kildariam occurrit ignis Sanctae Brigidae, quera inextin- guilem vocant; nou quod extingui non possit, sed quod tarn solicite uioniales et sanctas mulieres ignem, suppetente materia, fovent et nutriunt, ut a tempore virginis [Brigidae] per tot annorum curricula semper mansit inextinctus." — Girald. Cambrensis. Hibern. KILDARE. 49 institution as this perpetual fire, must have been in ministering to one of the most imperious of the traveller's wants in the cold season of this cold district. I felt that the good lady has had but scant justice done to her by the popular legend which has transmuted this pure and simple act of hu- manity and mercy into a barren miracle of religious faith. And I rather owe a grudge to the poet Moore for having yet further perpetuated and even aggravated this injustice by having, in one of his popular melodies, travestied the genial hot turf-fire of the kind aud considerate institutrix, into a mere lamp of barren light, most disappointing to the shivering traveller who might be attracted by it. 1 Kilriare "Like the bright lamp that shorn in Kihlarc's holy fane, i thr-)' loir. ..'less and Btorm." 4 50 THE ROUND TOWER. The remains of the more recent Cathedral and Abbey are very interesting, containing some fine specimens of architecture, and several curious monu- ments. Some of these last have been removed into the adjoining Protestant church. The Round Tower is situated close to the church, amid the graves. It is in perfect repair except on the summit, where the original conical top has been removed, probably by accident, and a sort of parapet or battlement put in its place. This tower is one of the largest in Ireland : Grose says it is 132, Ledwich 110 feet in height, the last being, no doubt, the best authority. We found its external circumference, by our rude measurement, to be about 54 feet. It has a fine ornamented doorway about 14 feet from the ground. There is no good hotel at Kildare, but there is a small inn, where ordinary refreshment can be ob- tained, and a bed, if required. While waiting for the train, we had time to spy the barrenness of the land; and I will here set down, just as they were recorded on the spot, some of the results of my interviews with several of the cottagers. I do this advisedly, although fully con- scious of the humbleness of my theme, and of the small interest such apparently insignificant details are likely to possess for many readers. But my great object in making my memorandums, was to make a collection of Facts from which others as well as myself might draw conclusions : " for (as Bums THE COTTAGERS. oi says) facts are chiels that winna ding;" and whe- ther they be great or small is often of less import- ance than is their quality. At any rate, it will be admitted that the only sure means we possess of judging of the state of individual classes of men, must be derived from those classes themselves, according to the terms of my motto — Rerum ipsa- rum cognitio vera e rebus ipsis est; — and it will hardly be denied that it is the condition of the very lowest classes in Ireland, as elsewhere, that has the strongest claim on the attention of public men. I say this much here, not merely in excuse for the statements I am now about to make, but as a general explanation of and excuse for many details of a like humble kind that will be found in my sub- sequent chapters. In a small shop in the suburbs I found a middle- aged woman and her son making tin saucepans ; the department of the mother being to solder the seams. The cottage was tolerably clean and had furniture, and the mistress was both merry and wise. She made her living by selling her manu- factured wares about the country. She pays 3/. per annum rent for her own cottage and one adjoining, which she lets to a labouring man at, if I recollect right, sixpence per week. We went in to look at tins cottage, and found it literally without a single article of standing furniture, except a small settle- bed in one corner, on which sprawled an infant of about twelve or sixteen months old. There was 52 OPINIONS OF neither chair, nor stool, nor table, nor box on the earthen floor. The good tin-woman took up the baby and nursed it with the greatest kindness, cheering it up with her merry smile and laugh. In a short time the mother of the child came in. She was a remarkably good-looking and healthy- looking young woman, and, — what might have hardly been expected in such a place, — cleanly and even neatly dressed. I forgot to ask her, but, from her general appearance, I have little doubt that she had derived her tidiness, amid such poverty, from having been educated either in a National School or in an Union Workhouse. Her husband, a labouring man, she said, was at work in the fields, and could, at this harvest time, earn tenpence a day. In other seasons he could earn only six- pence, and often could get no work at all. She and her landlady were evidently on very good terms, and I doubt not that this true Irishwoman was as kind as she was cheerful. In the same row of cottages I had a long talk with a lame tailor, a man whose brain indicated none of the incapacity of his limbs. He was a staunch Catholic, but evidently possessed of too hard a head and too strong a will to be domineered over by his priest, if his priest ever sought to do so. I was told afterwards by a respectable person in the town, that my cripple-friend was strictly honest and much respected in his humble station. His plan of reform of the Irish Church was nearly that of THE COTTAGERS. 53 O'Connell's. He would not object to the Protestant clergy being paid by the state, but would leave the Catholic clergy to be supported as at present. He would, however, have the stipends of the former come direct from the Government, and the present tithe-system abolished, as being productive of jea- lousy and heart-burning. So strong were his pre- judices against the English government, that he could hardly be prevailed on to believe that the emigration movement was not a scheme of the ruling powers to extirpate the Irish race. In common, I may say with almost every person I conversed with in Ireland, high or low, Catholic or Protestant, my friend of the needle condemned the mode in which the government grants, at the period of the famine, were expended ; yet upon examination of this matter, I cannot help thinking there is more of prejudice than of reason in this general condem- nation. Many roads and other works that are of little use at present were, no doubt, undertaken and not always completed, and the superintendents of the works seem to have been frequently injudiciously chosen; still it is not easy to see how, under the circumstances, a better choice for the employment and subsistence of the people could have been made. Roads, bridges, and other works of general convenience, must, sooner or later, be of positive benefit to a district ; and these seem the only kind of works open to the Commissioners, unless they had chosen to expend the public labour for the benefit 51 EMIGRATION. of individuals and the improvement of private property. No doubt the feelings of my honest tailor were somewhat embittered, and his prejudices sharpened, by the deterioration of his own circumstances, although he complained but little, and thankfully acknowledged that he still contrived to make a living by his trade. It was true that he had now no pig, and must, consequently, not only forego the luxury of bacon, but must also be more rigid in his economy than formerly, to enable him to pay his rent. Before the failure of the potato crop, having no land of his own, he was one of those who availed himself of the privilege of planting his potatoes on his neighbour's land, under the usual condition of manuring the plot of ground. Ever since the failure he had continued the practice until the present year ; but he had now given it up, as the deteriorated crops of the last few years had not proved an equivalent for the expense of labour and of collecting manure without the aid of the pig. Every one I spoke with in Kildare agreed in the belief that the emigration from the parish had been immense, — one half or two thirds at least of the population. This, however, was a great, though 1 believe an unintentional exaggeration; and I may here remark that such exaggeration was common through nearly the whole of Ireland. Every one losing some friends and neighbours, and seeing so many tenements empty, and having no means of DEFICIENCY OF LABOUR. 55 arriving at the general statistical facts, naturally enough over-estimated the actual truth. Thus, in the present instance, the population of the whole parish of Kildare had only sustained a diminution of one sixth, or thereabout, during the last ten years ; the population in 1841 being 2654, and in 1851, 2229. While on this subject, I may observe that 1 here received statements, similar to those already noticed, of the large sums of money sent home from the emigrants to their friends, almost all for the purpose of enabling them to emigrate also. But, considerable as it was, even when tested by statistics, this decrease in the population had by no means proportioned the labourers to the demand for labour. The remaining hands were not half employed. The farmers here, as elsewhere, for want of capital, were converting their corn and potato land into pasture, and thus greatly narrowing the field of employment to the labourer. Another cause of deficient employment here complained of, was the immigration of labourers from Galway and the other still poorer districts of the west. Notwithstanding the poverty of this place, indi- cated, among other things, by the fearfully-ragged condition of many of the people in the streets, we saw no professional beggars, except the usual array of children soliciting pence under the excuse of acting as guides to show you things that were before your nose. Neither here nor elsewhere did the cottagers, however poor and miserable, ever ask for 56 BEGGARS. money in their cottages. If, however, a small coin was at any time placed in the hand of a child, or offered to the parent under some colorable pretext, it was always most thankfully received, and repaid by many a warm prayer for the traveller's welfare. I must also say that, amid all the privations of the poor, wheresoever observed, there was generally to be found an unrepining content, and rarely any bitterness of feeling mingled with their complaints. There was often even a mirthfulness and jollity contrasting strongly with the circumstances around. The clear ringing laugh of the good little woman above mentioned, while sitting on her stool soldering her tin pans, or the cordial chirrup with which she roused the cackle of her poor neighbour's dirty little baby, seemed to spring from a source which mere outward things had but small power over. Surely such a light-hearted race as this were intended to constitute a happy people. The great haunt of beggars, throughout Ireland, are the doors of the hotels ; and I was often struck with the marvellous tolerance of the innkeepers with this nuisance to their guests; no attempt, that I saw, being ever made to drive the beggars away, even when almost forcing themselves into the house. If this tolerance was an indication of less fastidious- ness and of an inferior sense of the exigencies of refined life, on the part of the innkeepers, it was surely no less a testimony of their unselfishness and kindness of heart. Only think of the landlord of an FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP. 57 English inn submitting to a nuisance so clearly detrimental to his interests, while there was a poor- house or a policeman in the land ! Before proceeding to the more southern districts of Ireland, it will not be inappropriate to say a few words respecting the agricultural condition of the counties we had yet passed through. Comparing generally the style of agriculture with that in Scotland and England, every one must admit that the latter is infinitely superior. Everywhere, except in rare instances, some of which have been already noticed, the land is inadequately cultivated and much less productive than it might be made. It is generally very foul, and the crops, in places, are literally overgrown with weeds. The pasture land is, in the highest degree, neglected ; and what might be the finest meadows are often mere plantations of rag-wort. This plant, indeed, seems to thrive here to an unexampled extent and with wonderful vigour. From the immunity it seems to claim and receive at the hand of the farmer, a stranger might be disposed to think that it and not the shamrock should be the emblem of the land. Though the corn crops are said to be above the average this season, the potatoes have suffered to a great extent, — a third, at least, of the roots have become diseased. I may here also add, to save future repetition, that we found a similar condition of the potato crop throughout Ireland j — in some places better, in some worse, but the 58 SHEEP. average loss certainly not less than that just stated. One thing had already been noticed by us, and it struck us much more forcibly afterwards, as we passed by whole districts of green hill and moorland, namely, the total absence of sheep. In England or Scotland such tracts would not have failed to exhibit their white flocks in great numbers. We found, on inquiry, that this branch of agriculture had never been carried to any extent in Ireland ; and we were told, in several places, that the small stock that existed at the time of the famine, and which had been all destroyed by the victims of starvation, had never since been restored. We found, however, in other districts that this and other species of stock were being gradually introduced, let it would appear that the increase of the few last years has done little more than compensate for the preceding losses. From the returns of the Census of 1851, it appears that the number of sheep in the whole of Ireland in that year only exceeded the number in 1841 by 15,939, the total stock in 1841 being 2,106,189, and in 1851 being 2,122,128. I have reason to believe, however, that there has been a much greater importation of live sheep into Ireland this year than during any preceding year, and this chiefly from Scotland. In subsequent parts of our journey, we passed on the road more than one flock proceeding to its destination under the command of their own northern shepherd. ROCK OF CASHEL. 59 No one who has the time, should pass on from Dublin or Kilclare to Cork, without paying a visit to the celebrated Rock of Cashel. The station nearest to it on the Great South "Western Railway is Goold's Cross, distant from Kildare about 60, and from Dublin 95 miles. Cars are in attendance from the town of Cashel to meet all the trains, the dis- tance from the railway being seven or eight miles. All this district is in the county of Tipperary : it is well cultivated and rich, but flat, treeless, and unpicturesque. The town of Cashel, like almost every place hitherto visited, has decreased greatly in population during the past ten years ; its popu- lation in 1841 being 7036, and in 1851 only 4659. It is not in any way distinguished as to its site or structural character; and, but for its famous rock and the ancient buildings upon it, would have few claims to the traveller's attention. It was solely on account of these buildings that I paid a visit to Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is especially remarkable, from the perfect abruptness and boldness with which it rises out of the extensive plain in which it is situated ; and this its bold and lofty isolation is enhanced a thousand fold by the grand mass of ruins which cover and crown its brow. These magnificent ruins, which though roofless and window- less, and greatly shattered, still stand up in almost their original height from their splendid platform, consist of a singular congeries of noble structures, 60 RUINS OF CASHEL. of vast extent and great variety, yet all united into one grand whole : a Cathedral, an Abbey, a Chapel, a Palace, a Round Tower. We were shown over, in succession, all that remains of these by the intelligent guide whom we found on the spot, and who, while possessing that enthusiasm for his theme which it is pleasing to witness in such a person, had little of that obtrusive impertinence and absurd talk which so often in- terfere with the enjoyment of sight-seeing. But here, to be sure, there was ample room and verge enough for any narrator ; and to antiquaries, whether baronial or ecclesiastical, whether archi- tectural or historical, I can fancy no greater treat than a summer's day amid the ruins of Cashel. Neither my time nor my tastes permitted so long a study; but the couple of hours I spent without and within this noble pile, well redeemed the time and trouble given to accomplish its visitation. The Castle seems to have been the very beau- ideal of a feudal hold, as well from its impregnable site as the multiplicity of its offensive and defensive arrangements. Its huge walls are everywhere burrowed by blind passages, now, literally, leading to nothing, while the smallness of its chambers and its cramped windows speak of times when rude life with security, not comfort or luxury, was the pre- dominant thought of the dwellers in castles. The Cathedral, and especially its subordinate Cormac's chapel, still retain copious indications of a fine and ROCK OF CASHEL. 61 richly ornamental architecture. The ruins of the Abbey of " Saint Mary of the Rock of Cashel *■' are much less considerable and interesting. The Rock of Cashel. The position and relations of the Round Tower in regard to the Cathedral, are curious. It is so closely connected with one corner of the church, that it may almost be said to be built into it ; and a communication between the two is effected by means of a door-like opening, quarried through the solid masonry of the tower, at the height of some 20 or 30 feet from the ground. It would be almost as curious a subject of inquiry, what was the object of the men of the church in making this communi- cation, and what uses the tower was put to by them, as is the great question of the primary use of all the.se wonderful Irish towers. This tower of Cashel 62 THE ROUND TOWER. is 90 feet high, and about 10 feet wide iu the interior at its base. It is curiously indicative of its distinct origin from that of the other buildings on the rock, that it is built of an entirely different stone ; the tower being sandstoue, while the castle and church are of limestone. Doubtless it stood solitarily here for generations, perhaps for ages, before the Rock of Cashel was made the abode of St. Mary's monks or the fortress of the kings of Munster. The interior of this tower is, like that of Monasterboice, quite smooth; but small breaks exist in it at different heights, as if for the purpose of attaching floors or scaffolding. The top is still entire, but the space below the coping or roof, looked at from the interior, seems much too small to have formed a fitting place for bells. There is a most extensive view from the top of the castle walls ; but as the country is for the most part flat, and without either wood or water, the prospect is only interesting on account of its vast- ness. The mountains in the horizon are too distant to be grouped with effect in the landscape. The town of Cashel, as already mentioned, possesses few objects of interest, except the remains of inferior churches, tributaries of the great Abbey of the Rock. It has no public buildings of much note, though the parish church or cathedral is a handsome structure with a lofty spire, and the bishop's palace has noble gardens attached to it. The Roman Catholic chapel is, as usual, of large CASHEL TOWN. 63 extent, but plain and clumsy, both without and within. As usual, I found its floor sprinkled over with devout worshippers on their knees, chiefly women. A large part of the town consists of poor dirty crooked streets, with long rows of wretched cot- tages, many of them thatched, and all of them, I am very sorry to say, with interiors answering to the exterior — filthy, dark, unfurnished, comfortless. The pressure of railway time did not allow me to extend my inquiries into any of the economical statistics of the place. 1 There seemed nothing very remarkable in the country through which we passed from Kildare to Cork ; and if there had, it could hardly be noticed by a railway traveller. It is deserving remark, however, that throughout the whole line the station- houses are exceedingly handsome, all built of stone and of very varied but elegant design. Many of them are surmounted in front by a pretty belfry, which serves at once for ornament and use. In a part of our transit on this railway I had the misfortune to encounter, as a fellow passenger, one of a class of unhappy men who ought never to travel. By his own report, he had met with nothing in Ireland but annoyances of one sort or other. The inns were dirty; the landlords extortionate; 1 J have placed my memorandums respecting Cashel here, in their proper topographical relation, though they wire made subsequently, after my returu to Dublin, whence I went purposely to visit the place. 64 A DISAGREEABLE TRAVELLER. the waiters negligent and saucy; the postboys im- pertinent ; the beggars utterly intolerable ; the cottages hardly so good as Indian wigwams, and their inmates idle rogues. The country fared little better than its inhabitants : it was for the most part a succession of bogs and rocks, and wonderfully overrated as to beauty. To be sure, he had seen some tolerably high mountains and pretty big lakes, but nothing to be compared to our lakes. Killarney was perhaps worth seeing ; but it was by no means the place he expected, after all he had heard about it. I was heartily glad when this man went his way. Most assuredly he shall never " digest the venom of his spleen" any more in my company, if I can help it. I had as lief have a porcupine or a polecat for a vis-a-vis. We reached Cork about five o'clock. CHAPTER III. CORK QUEEXSTOWN SKIBBEREEN. Cork, like Dublin and a few of the other chief towns of Ireland, is so well known and of such great extent, that it would be preposterous, in a work like this, to enter into any details respecting it. It is finely situated on the banks of the river Lee, where it begins to open out into the splendid inlet of the sea, called, at its further extremity, the Cove of Cork, and which is about fourteen or fifteen miles in length. The site of a large part of the present city was originally a series of small islands and marsh land, but a considerable portion of the town lies high on the base and along the slope of a lofty hill which bounds the river on the north. Like the Liffey at Dublin, the Lee is walled in by handsome quays and crossed by fine bridges, the shipping lining and filling up the more open portion of the river below these. The unevenness of much of the ground on which it is built, the irregularity of the streets, the variety of the style of building, the intersecting river, and the overhanging heights, give a very pleasing and a somewhat picturesque aspect to the city of Cork, There are only a few very good streets in it, and its public buildings will stand no comparison witli those 5 66 CORK. of Dublin. The Cathedral is a poor structure, and of the same stamp arc nearly all the other churches and chapels; and I think there are few towns of the same c \tent so destitute of spires and towers and other indications of ecclesiastical distinction as Cork. The only fine buildings in the town are the County and City Court-house, and the new Queen's College, the former an elegant Grecian structure, the latter a handsome quadrangular pile of solid stone in the Tudor Gothic style. Like all large towns, and more especially the large towns of Ireland, Cork contains extensive masses of hidden streets of the most squalid de- scription, inhabited by a ragged and seemingly wretched population. In passing through such streets, however, it is but just to the inhabitants to state that we saw wo riotous or indecorous beha- viour, and were but rarely solicited for charit}\ In going along the better streets, on Sunday, we ob- served many wretched-looking women, most of them with ragged children on their laps or b}^ their side, squatted in the recesses of the doors of the shut shops, obviously beggars, yet not begging, except with that speaking look of misery more emphatic than words. Even the children were as silent as their mothers. Some of this may have been for dramatic effect; but it was impossible to mistake the signs of destitution and distress pre- sented by their emaciated and pinched features, their sickly paleness, and hollow eve. The population of STEAMBOATS. 67 Cork, according to the census of 1851, was 85,745, being an increase of 5025 since 1841. On Sunday afternoon we went down to Cove, or, as it is now called, Queenstown, in one of the steamers which are perpetually plying between this place and Cork. The day was very fine, and our steamer, like many others we saw on the water, was crowded with passengers of the middle class. These were all neatly and well dressed, and con- ducted themselves in the most decorous manner possible. I know not whether there was any strong drink sold or permitted on board, but none was used ; the only luxuries that seemed to be available being apples and pears, and other green fruits, carried about by women. The fare for first class passengers was sixpence, for second class fourpence. Some of the passengers landed at two intermediate villages on the south side of the river or rather har- bour, but the majority proceeded to Queenstown, where the voyage of our steamer terminated. Other steamers, however, after landing some pas- sengers, proceeded onwards along the splendid har- bour out to the open sea, whence, after taking a round for an hour or more, they returned, and calling for their passengers at the different landing- places, retraced their course to Cork. It is hardly possible to imagine a more delightful means of recreation, or one more wholesome or more rational, tor the inmates of a crowded city, than this hebdomadal excursion on the Sunday 68 SUNDAY EXCURSIONS. afternoon, after a week of labour and confinement in their airless courts and shops. And happy are the Corkitcs that they can command so sweet and pure a luxury, — amid scenes which are in them- selves an exquisite luxury, — for so small a sum as half a day's wages of a working-man. I could not help wishing that our London had been so situated that her children of labour also might have been able to add the delight of an open sea to their river trips; but they are happy beyond many in having, what they have in their glorious river, not only an escape from the stagnant and impure air of their habitual abodes, but, in addition, the bracing coolness of a breeze in perpetual change, to their lungs and faces. T have no doubt that the Sunday excursions up and down the river constitute a very important element in the improved health and diminished mortality of Lon- don, that has taken place during the last twenty years. It would be difficult to over-praise the beauty of the river from Cork to Queenstown, or of the mag- nificent harbour or inland bay in which it termi- nates, more especially when these are seen as we saw them, under the influence of a bright sun and a brilliant sky. Indeed, every element of beauty that can mingle in such a scene, seemed to be here comprised: we had a stream ever varying in its course and outline, of ample breadth, yet not too broad to prevent distinct recognition of the objects on its banks ; water of a colour and purity like the sea ; lofty barriers on either side covered with rich QUEEN STOWN. 69 woods and intermingled with green parklike fields and shining villas ; here and there white villages on level patches of shore ; and the whole animated and as it were humanised by the peopled steamers sweeping up and down, the boats and yachts sailing or pulling about, and a ship or two at anchor (decked out in their national flags) in every bay that opened out upon us as we pursued our course. Queenstown itself, as seen from the water, pre- sents a most charming aspect, being built on the face of a high hill sloping down to the shore, and thus presenting the whole of its shining profile at once, house above house, street above street • not without the agreeable break of church and chapel, here and there shooting up their tower or spire, or humbler belfry, above the general outline. When, however, we come to closer quarters with it, it does not quite fulfil the promise of its distant attractions, though it contains some good houses in the streets, and some charming enclosed villas in its upper regions. From these, and indeed from almost every portion of the slope, the view of the subjacent harbour and bay, and of the open sea through the gap that unites it with the enclosed waters, is most beautiful and even magnificent. Queenstown is situated on an island called Great Island ; but it is only at some distance from the harbour that you can detect its insular character. It has wonderfully in- creased in population of late years; its numbers in 1841 being only 5142, while in 1851 they were 11,428. 70 COVE HARBOUR. The harbour is many miles in diameter, com- pletely land-locked, surrounded everywhere by high land of varied outline, and studded with numerous islands rising up abruptly and high above the water. On some of these, as, for instance, Ilawlbowline and Spike Island, there are great public works, which have an imposing appearance at a distance. On the first-named island there is a naval arsenal, with its range of store-houses ; and on the last a lofty and strong-looking battery, with barracks adjoining. The natural beauty of the harbour is, no doubt, not a little enhanced to the beholder by the considera- tion of utility which its mere aspect would suggest, even if this was not more clearly indicated by the numerous ships at anchor. I believe it is regarded as one of the finest natural harbours in the world, both as to size and security. It contained, at the time of our visit, only one man-of-war, a line-of- battle ship bearing an admiral's flag ; but there were numerous ships of commerce at anchor in various parts of it. It is much resorted to by wind- bound merchantmen, and also as a rendezvous for ships from abroad to wait for orders. There is a fine sea-wall, extending from the small piers of the town to a considerable distance along the water's edge towards Cork, constituting at once a splendid quay and a promenade, — or rather two promenades, one above the other, — of unequalled beauty. On the whole, it must strike every stranger that TABLE D'HOTE. 71 Queenstown is a most desirable place of residence, more especially for invalids, both in summer and winter. Its maritime position must render it mild, as to temperature, in both the hot and cold seasons ; while, being perfectly sheltered from the north and north-west winds, and catching the whole of the winter sun on its sloping breast, its excellence as a winter residence for invalids can hardly be sur- passed. Beside the water communication Avith Cork there is a beautiful tract of road along the northern bank of the river, and, on the southern, a railway to Passage, three miles above Queenstown. We re- turned by the steamer, — the river or harbour, or whatever it is properly called, appearing even finer than when we came down it, owing to the risen tide (which now covered every shoal and shallow) making the expanse of water considerably greater. We reached our hotel (the Imperial) in time for the table d'hote dinner, which we found daily set out at half-past five. This table d'hote was attended by nearly thirty persons, ladies as well as gentle- men, and was admirably conducted. Everything was good, and there was plenty of everything, — and all at the moderate charge of three shillings. All, or nearly all, the guests were strangers in Cork, and most of them travellers like ourselves; the staple of the conversation consisting of inquiries and responses as to routes and places, and descriptions of what had been visited and should be visited. The 72 PI BLIC INSTITUTIONS. scene and whole style of the proceedings reminded us forcibly of one of the salles a manger on the continent. If Cork is defective in the style of its public buildings, it is certainly remarkable for the great number and variety of its public institutions, whether religious, charitable, educational, literary, or scientific. It would take pages to give the mere list of their names and objects ; and this, as I made no personal examination of them, I shall not attempt to do. They will be found, in full detail, in the local histories and in the Guides to the city of Cork. I must, however, say a few words respecting one of the institutions of Cork ; as, from its recent establishment, it is probably but little known, and as, from its great importance, it deserves to be much known : I refer to the new Queen's College, situated a little way out of the town. By an, act of Parliament passed in 1845, three new Colleges, called Queen's Colleges, were insti- tuted in Ireland, at Belfast, Cork, and Galway respectively, " for students in Arts, Law, Physic, and other useful learning." The president, vice- president, and professors of each college, were constituted a body corporate, with power to hold land of the annual value of 5000/., and with all the privileges of other chartered corporations. By the original act the number of professors in each college was limited to twelve ; but this number was subse- quently enlarged, yet was not to exceed thirty. queen's colleges. 73 The general government of the college was vested in the Council, consisting of the president, the vice- president, and the four deans of the three faculties of arts, medicine, and law ; the faculty of arts being subdivided into the literary division and the scien- tific division, each with its dean. Provision was made for the nomination and support of numerous professors in all the departments ; and scholarships, on a very extensive and most liberal scale, were instituted for the junior and senior students of every faculty : the junior scholarships being thirty of 247. ; eleven of 20/. ; and four of 15/. The senior scholar- ships, ten in number, each of the value of 40/. These colleges were planned and built under the direction of the Irish Board of Works, and were all completed by the year 1849, in a style of solidity, beauty, and interior arrangement, that does infinite credit to all concerned. They are now as great ornaments to their respective neighbourhoods as they are surely destined to become blessings to the country at large. Notwithstanding the great pains taken by the enlightened government which founded the Queen's Colleges, to meet every difficulty in regard to religious differences among the people of Ireland, it is well known that the Catholic clergy have taken up a very hostile position against them, and have, in so doing, greatly retarded their progress hitherto. It cannot be doubted, however, that an opposition founded on such unjustifiable and untenable grounds, 71 RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS. so discreditable to the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and so utterly at variance with the enlightened spirit of the times, must gradually lessen and finally vanish. No religious or ecclesiastical authorit}', however potent or however strenuously exerted, can permanently maintain, in this epoch, what reason and the common sense of men in general declare to be wrong ; more especially if that which is believed to be wrong is also felt to be injurious to men's most personal and dearest interests. Queen's College, Cork, was built from the designs and under the supervision of Sir Thomas Deane, architect, and was opened for public instruction in October, 18i9. It has ever since been discharging its important functions in the completest manner, through the instrumentality of a body of professors who, from their knowledge and activity and zeal, would do credit to any institution, however ancient or celebrated : and all this I may say, with equal truth, of the other two colleges. The following is a return of the number of stu- dents who have been entered on its books since it first opened : Session 1819-50. Session 1850-51. Session 1851-52. Matriculated Students .... Non-matriculated Students . . Total .... 70 45 118 38 104 20 115 156 124 The following is the distribution of the matricu- QUEEN S COLLEGE. Queen s College, Cork. lated students, according to their religious denomi- nations : Session lSl'.l-.jll. Session 1850-51. Session 1851-52. Other Communions .... Total .... 26 38 1 4 1 42 65 2 8 1 37 54 2 6 5 70 118 104 No inquiry is made as to the religion of non- matriculated students, they not being subject to the supervision of the Deans of Residences. 7< ( RELIGIOUS OBJECTIONS. In considering the numbers that have hitherto attended this College, its very recent establishment must not be overlooked. This of itself, to say nothing of other difficulties, seems sufficient to ac- count for the comparatively small number of pupils. It is no easy matter to divert the courses of any of the old currents of human activity; and three years constitute a very small fraction in the life of a National Institution. One item in the preceding return is especially gratifying, and fraught with rich hope for the future ; I mean the greatly predominant number of students professing the Catholic religion. To fill up even this number, moderate as it is, there must have been many heads of Roman Catholic families, whose con- sciences told them that their duty to their children was an obligation more sacred and more potent than obedience to the mere arbitrary will of any man. We need no further proof than this, that the oppo- sition to these colleges, on religious grounds, must and will be abandoned. It is to be hoped, that the Roman Catholic Prelates will, by a spontaneous ca- pitulation, prefer the credit of a gracious concession to the derogation of an assured defeat. By so doing they will still further disabuse the public mind of the opinion so generally entertained, that the Catholic religion is, of necessity, hostile to the en- lightenment of the people. Persons cognisant of the principles of Catholicism know that the opposi- tion of the Irish prelacy to the Queen's colleges is CORK TO BANDON. 77 based purely on religious scruples, not ou auy objec- tion to the secular knowledge taught there. And as those scruples do not seem necessarily to involve auy fundamental principle of religion, it is to be hoped that they will not be allowed to usurp an authoritative influence to which they are really not entitled. We left Cork on the morning of the 16th, on our intended tour through the south and west of Ireland, purposing to keep as near the coast as the ordinary roads would permit, or only to leave it -when diverted by the attraction of places or scenery still more engaging. As we understood that there was nothing very interesting between Cork and Bandon, we took advantage of the railway to that town, and on the same authority proceeded onwards with the coach, without making any attempt to see the place. The country through which we passed in the rail- way seemed well cultivated and fertile, and as we approached Bandon we traversed a valley of so much beauty, watered, I believe, by the river Bandon, as made us doubt whether we were acting under a wise authority in traversing it so rapidly. As the day was rainy, however, we adhered the more readily to our original plan, and passed onwards. Our inten- tion was to reach Bantry that day, but we were sub- sequently induced to alter our course to Skibbereen. The road runs, on the whole, through a fine country, becoming more picturesque and wilder as we advance. About sixteen miles from Bandon it 78 SKIBBEREEN. passes through the town of Dunmanway, containing about 3000 inhabitants. 1 Here the country be- comes highly picturesque and bold, and a little further on, near the village of Drimoleaguc, it began to assume that wild, stony, and moorland aspect, which it preserved almost uninterruptedly until we reached Killarney. At the village of Drimolcague we left the main road to Bantry and turned south- wards to Skibbereen; the change of direction bringing no improvement in the aspect of the country immediately around us, but supplying some relief to the eye in the ridge of lofty mountains that here bounded our prospect on the south and east. Skibbereen is a mean and rather dirty town, with few good houses and no public buildings of conse- quence ; it has, however, a large chapel, a good- looking church, and an excellent National School. Tts population in 1841 was 4715 ; but this has been greatly reduced since by the famine and pestilence to which this unhappy town has heen subjected, as well as by emigration. By the census of 1851 the population (exclusive of persons in the workhouse) was only 3833, being a loss of 682 since the previous census. I was informed that the proportion of Catholics to Protestants in the town is about four to one. 1 The population by the census of 1851 was 2212, (or, including persons in the workhouse and bridewell, 3031 ;) the population of 18 11 was 308G, showing a diminution of 874. EFFECTS OF THE FAMINE. 79 It will be remembered that this town and its neighbourhood suffered in an extraordinary degree in the year of the famine, and it was the desire to see whether it still bore marks of this terrible visitation, or how far it had recovered from it, that chiefly influenced us in visiting it. It was frightful to hear, on the spot, even now, the horrid details of that fearful calamity. Beside the vast number of persons that died in the poorhouses of fever and other diseases generated by insufficient food — and they died so rapidly and in such numbers that the bodies could not be buried in the ordinary way, but were thrown in mass into pits — there were hun- dreds who never reached the poorhouses, but were found dead in their own cabins and in the roads and fields. A police sergeant at Drimoleague told me that it was no unusual thing, at that time, for his men to meet with such instances, day after day, while on their rounds. In many places, persons were buried in their own potato-gardens, owing to the want of hands to carry the bodies to the churchyard. The same intelligent man assured me that the population of the parish of Drimoleague had sunk from nearly 0000 to about 3000 in the course of two years, and this chiefly from death and not emigra- tion ; but he said, also, that a vast number of the survivors had since emigrated. In turning to the positive figures of the census, I find this statement pretty well borne out. Thus the population of the 80 INDICATIONS OF POVERTY. parish in IS 11 was 5501, while in 1851 it was only ol(').'2, showing a loss of 2339 in the ten years. The town of Skibbcrcen still seemed poverty- stricken, and every one complained of its low estate, its want of trade, and want of employment for labour. The country around is in the same predi- cament. A few miles from Skibbereen we passed near a small cattle fair, and met with many of the country people returning from it. It was painful to see the humble scale on which business appeared to be conducted. A single small sheep, or pig tied by the hind leg with a straw rope, and followed by the farmer or his wife ; a single lean cow or heifer, driven apparently by three or four men ; seemed to be the staple of the stock. In the small market-place of Skibbereen the same indications of the poverty of the people were painfully indicated by the humble dealings going on. The articles for sale were chiefly potatoes, turnips and carrots, salted fish, and butter milk, with such trifling articles as country people need, as coarse crockery, nails, &c. The buyers were all of the humblest class, and a halfpenny, or even a farthing, was not seldom the whole outlay of the purchaser. Nor was this the lowest depth. These humble buyers and sellers were attended — I had almost said surrounded — by a motley group in rags, who had not even farthings to give, and who were manifestly cal- culating on receiving from kind hands some portion of their humble receipts or of their unsold substance. MUTUAL ASSISTANCE. 81 These poor wretches, of course, turned towards me, obviously a stranger ; and it was very pleasant, and, I almost think, characteristic of this cordial people, to see the readiness, I may indeed say the eagerness, with which the poor stall-keepers urged the claims of their yet poorer neighbours, with such recommendations as " This is a poor widow, your Honour," " This is an ould sickly creature, your Honour," "The poor woman is a cripple," "Sure the poor girl has neither father nor mother," &c. Even the beggars themselves seemed to have for- gone all professional rivalry, and strove to help one another in the same manner. A poor woman to whom I had given a penny in passing along the street, soon came up to me holding a poor idiot girl by the hand, and begged something of my Hod our for her. It was also pleasant to see how, amid all these humble and, as we should think, very miserable and disheartening dealings, the cordial and mirthful spirit of the nation seemed still to triumph among these honest market-women. In the intervals of their dealings, the laugh and joke went round among themselves, and they talked and jested with the stranger with the most unaffected good humour and seeming content ; and as much at their ease as if the acquaintance of the moment had been one of old standing, and they had no cares to make them grave. I could not help thinking, as I went away, how different would have been my reception in an f> 82 BEGGARS. English market-place, stamped with such poverty as this ; and how unlike would have been the prevailing tone of the grave and thoughtful matrons presiding over our tubs and baskets. The beggars, not only in Skibberecn but in all the neighbouring district, were certainly more numerous than we had yet seen, though it was observable that the solicitations were usually but slight, until excited by the lure of something given. Then, indeed, they were apt to become both fast and furious, as if the sight and touch of the material equivalent of potatoes and stirabout, had dissi- pated in a moment every feeling of modesty and reserve. At the village of Drimoleague the crowd of these solicitors of halfpence and pence, around the coaches while changing horses, was unusually large, and it was obviously an ordinary part of the duty of the police, here and elsewhere, to prevent the passengers from being unnecessarily interfered with by them. These good-natured men, however, are by no means strict in their supervision, and rarely interfere unless the case becomes one of evident annoyance. The present case was thought to be so ; and the poor creatures, at the word of authority, not only ceased soliciting while the coaches were still there, but even re- frained from following them when they set off, as is the uniform practice. They, however, retired no further from the field than to take up a position on the other side of the small street, in and around the COTTAGES OF THE POOR. 83 open door of a small carrier who seemed their friend, and where they spontaneously fell into a grouping so picturesque, that I could not help wishing, at the time, that they might have been seen by their countryman O'Neil, or some other of our painters who delight in filling their canvass with masses of human beings arranged in harmonious order. Crowding into as small a space as possible, sitting, crouching, standing, the boys half-naked in their ragged caps, the girls with their profuse bushy hair and sparkling eyes, eveiy face bent earnestly in one direction, — there they remained, a heaped-up, motley-coloured mass, until the last coach had taken its departure. I paid visits to a good many of the cottages of the labouring people in the suburbs of Skibbereen. They were, for the most part, very destitute of furniture ; even those best supplied would be con- sidered in England as almost empty. For these cottages they paid, some 4d. a week, some 20s. by the year. In one of these I found an old soldier's widow, 78 years of age, a merry old dame, who had tried various trades in her time, and among the rest that of an applewoman in London. This, she said, after a four months' trial, proved a failure, and she abandoned it. As usual, I found all these people cheerful and even merry, but still lamenting the poverty of the country, the want of work, and the scantiness of wages. At present, during the harvest season, they get something more j but the ordinary 84. CAUSE OF IRISH POVERTY. daily wages were said to be only 3d. or 4d. for women and Gd. for men, without food. I had a good deal of talk with some of the shop- keepers also. They seemed all of the same mind as most of the people I had previously talked with, that the want of capital is the great cause of the poverty and distress in Ireland. The farmer, they say, has no capital to expend on his farm, and con- sequently he and the labourer suffer, — he in defective produce, they in loss of labour. This primary and fundamental evil, it is believed, would be greatly mitigated, if not removed, if the pro- prietors could be freed from their difficulties and would reside on their estates ; and it is hoped that the act for the sale of encumbered property may bring about this result, at least partially. The same want of capital, they said, prevented the establishment of manufactories, and deprived the labouring class of the vast source of labour thence derived in other countries. And certainly this want of factories must strike with surprise every one travelling in Ireland, seeing and hearing, as he does, in every valley, a superabundance of unemployed water-power. Here as elsewhere, I find, the emigration has been immense, and still continues ; and there is the same unanimity in the statements respecting the great amount of money sent home by the emigrants to their relations : in this operation I find, as usual, the tender heart of the women playing a conspicuous SKIBBEREEN WORKHOUSE. 85 part, being constantly told of large sums (large for them) being transmitted by quite young girls. The union workhouse at Skibbereen is of con- siderable extent, but not on so fine a scale of construction or so good a plan as many others subsequently visited. We found it very clean and in good order, and much work going on in the shape of spinning and weaving, shoemaking, hat-making, tailoring, &c. All the clothes used in the house are manufactured by the paupers; and hence the cost of clothing amounts only to one halfpenny per head per week. The dietary (the first we examined) appeared to us marvellously scanty, there being only two meals for the adults in the twenty-four hours, and these meals consisting exclusively of farinaceous food, — that is, of stirabout, bread, and a sort of gruel soup made of oatmeal and vegetables. We were told that the food was supplied by contract, and at the extremely low rate of nine pence farthing a head per week ! I thought the inmates bore marks of this scanty sustenance in their looks ; and a good many of the children were suffering from inflammation of the eyes. This disease has been for some years extremely prevalent in the union workhouses of Ireland; but there is no positive evidence that it has been induced or even aggravated by the system of diet in use in them. It seems, however, clear enough that privations of every kind, previously to reception in the workhouse, have often laid the foundation of this sad malady. 8G DIETARY TABLE. I may take this opportunity to state that in my subsequent notices of the union workhouses, as in the present, I shall restrict myself chiefly to sta- tistical matter, or, at all events, to matters of fact. Hereafter I may have occasion to consider them under a more general point of view. The following is a copy of the dietary of the healthy classes : Dietary Table of tfie Skibbereen Workhouse. Breakfast. Dinner. Supper. Classes. r * Indian meal.' Milk. Brown bread. Oat- mi al.s 1. Ablebodied Men . 9 oz. 2 pint 14 oz. l 3 oz. 2. Ablebodied Women 8 oz. \ pint 12 oz. 1 3 oz. — 3. Aged and Infirm . 7 oz. 2 pint 10 oz. \\ oz. — 4. From 15 to 9 years 6 oz. 2 pint 8 oz. \\ oz. 4 oz. brown bread 5. From 9 to 5 „ 5 oz. 3 pint 6 oz. W. bread 1 oz. 4 oz. ditto 4 oz. white bread 6. From 5 to 2 „ 4 oz. \ pint 4 oz. 1 oz. 7. Infants . . . . \ lb. of white bread and 1 pt. of new milk daily. There were on the books at the period of my visit 1056 persons, including children ; and the number of Protestants among them was only five. The children in the school were under the direction of the National Board. I forgot to take a note of their actual number, but I see by the last two pub- lished Reports, that in September, 1850, the numbers on the school books were as follows : boys, 280 ; girls, 341 ; total, 621 : and in 1851, boys, 241 (no girls noted). 1 Made into stirabout with water. 1 In soup, made in the proportion of 8 ounces to a gallon of water, seasoned with salt, pepper, turnips, and leeks. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL. 87 There is a very fine National Schoolhouse at Skibbereen, containing four departments, viz., male and female preparatory schools, and male and female schools for more advanced children. At the time of my visit there were in the preparatory schools from 70 to 80 boys and about 90 girls, and in the upper school from 50 to 60 of each sex. There were scarcely any Protestant children in these schools. I see, by the official returns to the National Board, that the total number of children on the books, during the half year ending 30th September, 1850, was as follows: — in the prepara- tory schools, 420 ; in the more advanced, 220. In the same returns for 1851, the numbers are given as follows: preparatory school — boys, 140; upper school — boys, 79; girls, 135. Skibbereen contains an English church, a metho- dist meeting-house, and a Roman Catholic chapel. This last is a large but unadorned building, and is regarded as a sort of cathedral, the bishop having his residence here. This prelate seems very popu- lar among the people. Some good women whom I spoke to on their way to mass said "he is a saint on earth, and Skibbereen is blest in him." The bishop's name is Kane. The chapel is very plain, but calculated to contain a vast number of persons, as there are scarcely any seats in it. It is, nevertheless, said to be too small for the congregation, especially during the ministrations of the bishop. 88 THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD. I copied the following; inscription to the memory of a young priest, from a tablet on the -wall of this chapel. It presents so excellent a specimen of the old hedge-schoolmaster style, that I here insert it ; but I suppress, for obvious reasons, the name of the good man whose simple history it so grand- iloquently records : — " This tribute of a people's love to a patriot's worth, commemorates a virtue pure as the vesture of holiness it adorned, and ardent as the youthful heart it once animated. More eloquent than the record of a protracted life, it preserves in the revered and honoured name of R. S. a memorial sacred to the affections of his flock, and brightened by the glory of a better world. Born," &c. I may here remark that all I have yet heard of the Roman Catholic priests in the districts through which I have passed, is extremely creditable to their character and conduct. They seem to be most zealous in the discharge of their sacred duties and most blameless in their lives. I was told by a man, who should be an unbiassed witness, as he was both a stranger and a Protestant, (an intelligent serjeant of police,) that during the fourteen years he had resided in the district, he never heard of any priests being accused of any personal immorality, and added that they were, to his own knowledge, a body of truly excellent men. Another Protestant, who declared himself very hostile to the Catholic religion, admitted in my presence, when questioned FAILURE OF THE POTATO. 89 on the point, that the priests in his part of the country paid even more attention to their flocks than the English clergy, though he did not deny that these last were zealous also. Through the whole of this district, and, indeed, I may say through every district in the south of Ireland, we found the same general failure of the potato, to the average of, at least, one third of the crop. All the fields, with very trifling exceptions, were blighted, and the stems of the plants were often scarcely visible amid the crop of luxuriant weeds which seemed to have taken their place. When pointing out this luxuriance of weeds, as at once a proof of bad husbandry and a probable pro- moter of the disease in the potato, we were generally answered by the averment that the weeds were the consequence of the disease, not its cause ; first, because the decay of the useful plants left more plentiful nourishment to the useless ones; and, secondly, because the first indication of the disease put an end to the process of weeding the fields, as being now of no avail. I leave the truth and validity of the alleged facts to the decision of better judges, with the remark, that I subsequently received from many other quarters, equally trust- worthy, opinions completely at variance with those just named. Whether the mode of culture and supervision had anything to do with the pre- vention of the disease in the potato, it assuredly must have an influence over the healthy root. In 90 TEETOTALISM. England, under such management as we found general in Ireland, we should not expect more than half the crops of potatoes which we actually have. From whatever cause arising, the loss of the potato has already made great changes both in agriculture and in the food of the people. The farmers now grow other green crops in place of the potato, such as turnips and carrots, and not merely for feeding their stock. Turnips dressed with Indian meal make a very wholesome and not unpalatable meal, which is well liked by the peasantry. In towns the use of flour and meal, particularly Indian meal, has increased greatly, and bread, as an article of diet, has become far more general. I was told that the number of bakers in Skibbereen has more than doubled since the famine. I was sorry to learn that in Skibbereen the total- abstinence system of Father Matthew had fallen sadly into decay. From a muster of many hundreds at one time, the professed teetotallers had sunk down, it was supposed, to two or three ! Yet, even now, there was very little intemperance in drink among the common people, partly, it was admitted, from the habits induced by the temperance system while in force, and partly from the general want of the means to purchase the indulgence. A poor man earning only sixpence a day, and sometimes nothing, has more imperious wants to satisfy than even the desire for strong drink ; and these being satisfied ORIGIN OF THE NAME. 91 first, nothing remains for the whisky-shop. One of my informants in this matter, a respectable young man, a postboy, told me that he himself had been a teetotaller for two years, but getting into bad com- pany one night, he broke his pledge, and had never since renewed it. He added that he never was so well as during the two years he totally abstained from strong drink, and this fact made him still almost a teetotaller. Among the faithful few who still kept the pledge in Skibbereen, another of my informants named one man, a nailer, who had once been a great drunkard, but who had been so thoroughly reformed that he had grown prosperous in his trade, and was " almost like a gentleman." Here let me inform my temperance friends in England, that I am now able to settle that mooted point among them — the origin of the now-generally acknowledged name of their profession, Teetotalism, and of their own favorite title — Teetotallers. The designation has manifestly originated from a mode of expression which I find to be common among the lower class in this country. This consists in the reduplication of the sound of the first syllable, or rather of the first letter in the word totally, as a means of intensifying the meaning usually conveyed by it ; just as we repeat whole words for the same purpose — as when we say " very very bad," " sad sad," "cruel cruel man." Often when conversing with the common people have I heard them, when wishing to be emphatic — as it is their nature to 92 FROM SKIBBEREEN be — use the word "t-totally" (" Teetotally") for the simple trisyllabic, and with manifest good effect too. " He was t-totally ruined, sir." " It is now t-totally gone." " The poor ould country is destroyed t-totally." No doubt, at some public meeting of the friends of temperance, and probably when discussing the relative merits of the tem- perate use of strong drinks with complete absti- nence from them, some zealous Irishman advocated "t-total abstinence" as the only means of success, and enforced his arguments so energetically, that his emphatic "T" was never forgotten, and came at last to be permanently incorporated with the adjective that expressed the quality of the sect, and with the new substantives derived from the same root, (" T-Totaller," " T-Totalism,") which the ne- cessities of language obliged them to form. And, truly, though a vulgar word, and of vulgar origin, this same substantive Teetotalism is destined to eternal consecration in our language, as embodying the idea of one of the greatest boons ever conferred by a man upon Ins fellow creatures. One of the reasons for deviating from the main road to visit Skibbereen was, that we might take the coast line of road from thence to Bantry, said to present a much finer tract of scenery than the more direct and more inland route. However, from some misunderstanding of our meaning by our landlord, and from our own ignorance of the route, we discovered, after we had left Skibbereen some TO BANTRY. 93 miles, that we were, after all, about to return into the ordinary coach road to Bantry. This was a disappointment ; but we had gone too far, before the discovery was made, to retrace our steps. In setting out from Skibbereen I could not help being struck with the wonderful effect that the state of the weather has in modifying the character of a landscape, and, still more, in modifying our appre- ciation of it. Yesterday was wet and gloomy, and the country all around seemed to present nothing but a scene of barren wildness, with scarcely a trace of beauty. When viewed now, however, under a cloudless sky, and lighted up by the morning sun, it was manifest that the natural beauties of the landscape were far from incon- siderable — with its yellow corn fields sprinkled in patches among the dark bogs and projecting rocks ; or creeping up adjoining slopes, dotted with white houses and patches of trees ; and, above all, with its fine sweep of blue hills beyond. When viewed, however, close at hand, and in detail, as when passing through it on our way to Bantry, the utmost commendation that could be bestowed on the country is, that its very wildness and rocky barrenness render it picturesque when contrasted with the tamer beauties of a rich and highly-cultivated region. In some places, indeed, especially when we arrived within a few miles of Bantry, where the road, after winding along an upland valley, at last attained to near the summit 94 A COUNTRY II AM LET. of the lofty lulls that overlook the bay of that name, the prospect became magnificent, but still preserving the character of picturesque wildness rather than of beauty. When, however, having crossed the hills, we came at length in view of the bay itself, studded with islands, and stretching out its river-like expanse to the horizon, between its lofty shores and jutting headlands, we felt that the element of beauty was combined, in no small proportion, with both the grand and the picturesque. In our journey through this wild and stony but well-peopled district, we took occasion to pay our usual visits to some of the cottages and villages near our route, though, in doing so, we met with no adventures, and with but little that was uncommon. The humble principle, formerly stated, on which my book is composed, leads me, and without any apology, to reproduce, in almost their original words, some of " the short and simple annals of the poor," which I there recorded in my note-book. In a little hamlet consisting only of a few houses, we found a small but neat English church and with a very respectable tower ; but the gravel path leading up to it was quite grass-grown, indicating forcibly the scantiness of its congregation. The parish was, indeed, mainly a Catholic one, and had a large chapel at another hamlet. There was a Protestant school adjoining the church, equally indicative of the state of Protestantism in the parish, being a mere cottage, very small, and rather A COUNTRY SCHOOLMASTER. 95 dilapidated, and the master and his wife occupying one end of it. Of scholars I was told there were, in all, only six or eight ; and there were none in attendance at the time of my visit. The master received a salary of 20/. per annum. In the village of Killenleagh, in the parish of Caharagh, (well named, as this word in Irish signifies 7'ock,) we found, as usual, a church and chapel, a Protestant and National School. I did not visit the Protestant school, as it was some distance off, but I was told that it had only, like that in the last parish, eight or ten scholars. The National School was attended both by boys and girls, who all assembled in the same room, and were taught by the same master. There were 124 on the roll, and the numbers in actual attendance were 58 boys and 42 girls ; among whom there was only one Protestant, a boy of fourteen. In this school two hours on Saturday (all the work-hours on that day) are set apart for religious instruction — that is, for catechising ; and the Protestant boy stays at home while this is going on. The boys bring their catechisms with them at the time, it being one of the rules of the National Schools, that no religious books of any kind are permitted to remain in them. The master has been no less than eighteen years here. lie seems au intelligent man, mild and gentle, but not over polished. His salary, when he first came here, was only 8/., and now it is only 17/. per annum. Out of this sum he finds himself a 96 TURF-HARVEST. house and living, paying for his wretched cottage an annual rent of 25s. The rule of the school is, that the children of farmers should pay one penny, and the children of labourers one halfpenny, per week. Of late years this humble levy is very badly paid. Before the year of the famine, he used to receive from 12/. to 14/. from this source, but since that time the sum has dwindled down to about 41. The children seemed strong and healthy, and the teaching good. I find, on referring to the last two Reports of the Commissioners, that the number of children on the roll of this school, in September 1850, was 70 boys and 36 girls; in September 1851, 60 boys and 36 girls. I called on the priest, but found him out at the bog, supervising the carting of his winter stock of turf. His kitchen was full of men seated round a large table at breakfast. These were the carters and others employed in the Father's turf-harvest. The farmers sent their carts, and those who had not carts sent milk and other good things to treat the drivers with. The priest's house consists of a small parlour at one end with a bedroom over, the other half being occupied by the ample kitchen in which the feast was now going on. We found in this village a good illustration of the amount of destruction sustained by the potato crop, and also of the seeming capriciousness of the cause of the destruction, whatever it may be. In the schoolmaster's garden, the stalks of the potatoes FARMHOUSES. 97 were all destroyed, but the only defect in the potatoes themselves, was their extremely small size : none were rotten. In the priest's field, on the other hand, only one fifth of the crop was sound, the remainder being unfit for use. In this latter case, the exact proportion was ascertained by separating the good from the bad on the spot, and placing them respectively in baskets : the con- tents of four out of every five baskets were unfit for use. I found it to be a very general opinion in several parts of the country, that by planting the potatoes very early in the season, they came to maturity before the period of blight arrived, and so escaped. This opinion is, however, contested by many, and among others by the schoolmaster of Killean- leagh, who had seen it confuted by many positive examples. I visited two small farmhouses in this same parish of the Stones, one in a hamlet near the main road, and one in a more solitary situation some distance from it. Both were in a most slovenly and filthy condition, the space around the houses covered with dung and mire up to the door, and the interior dirty and desolate in the highest degree. In one of these I found, almost for the first time, some pigs ; and at the door of the other, several cows brought home to be milked. The women and children seemed all engaged in the domestic services; and I learnt, on inquiry, that 7 98 THE POLICE. the latter could not be spared to go to school on this account. Not far from these houses we stopped at a police- station on the high road. It Avas a house of con- siderable size, and was throughout extremely neat and clean, forming a striking contrast with the private domiciles around it. These stations are commonly called barracks ; and though tliey usually contain only from five to fifteen men, they are conducted on the principle of soldiers' barrack- rooms. I shall hereafter have occasion to notice more particularly the admirable body of men by whom these barrack-houses are tenanted. I will only here observe that, ever since our landing at Kingstown, we had been everywhere struck with their fine figures, mild manners, great courtesy, and singular intelligence. They were evidently the masters of the people ; but they seemed to rule them more bv love than bv force or fear. CHAPTER IV. BANTRY GLENGARIFF KENMARE. Baxtry is a small, neat-looking town, finely situated at the upper end of the beautiful bay, or rather firth or arm of the sea, of the same name. This inlet is full twenty miles long, and varies from two or three to six or eight miles in breadth. It is navigable, even to large ships, through nearly its whole extent, and almost rivals Queenstown harbour in size, safety, and beauty. It runs nearly north- east and south-west, and forms only one of the many splendid sea-rivers that cleave this portion of the Irish coast into a series of narrow peninsulas. It is separated from Dunmanus Bay on the south- east and from Kenmare Bay or river on the north- east, by two long strips of land, the one being seven and a half miles in mean breadth, and the other two and a half. Dunmanus Bay is about three miles wide at its mouth, and eleven or twelve miles long ; Kenmare River, as it is commonlj- called, is full eighteen miles long, and from one to five miles broad. Well might old Gerard Boatc say of Ireland: " The havens of Ireland are so many in number, and for the most part so fair and large, that, in this 100 [5 AN TRY. particular, hardly any land in the world may be compared with this." ' The town of Bantry contained, in 1841, a popu- lation of 4082, but had Mien in 1851 to 2935; being a loss of 1147 in ten years. It has a good hotel and not a few good houses, with a fine church and large chapel. The great body of the people and nearly all the lower class are Catholics, but a considerable proportion of the middle class are Pro- testants. It was stated to me that probably as many as one third of the shopkeepers are Protestants. There is an excellent National School here, and also a good Protestant School. In the former there were in attendance, at the time of my visit, 112 boys and 120 girls, and among them there was not a single Protestant of either sex. In the official Reports of this school for the half-years ending in Septem- ber, 1850 and 1851, I find the number of children on the books as follows : 1850 — boys, 153 ; girls, 195- 1851 — boys, 175; girls, 196. The master and mistress are both Catholics. The master's present salary is 19/. per annum, besides about 12/. derived from the weekly penny payments. The mistress's salary is 13/. per annum, with about 3/. dditional from the weekly pence. Both master and mistress receive an addition to their salaries from some fund at the disposal of the priest, the patron of the school ; this addition amounting, in the one case, to about 10/., and, in the other, to 1 Nat. Hist, of Ireland. SCHOOLS. 101 about 71. 105. The children attend school from ten to four in summer, and from half-past ten to half- past three in winter. No religious instruction is given except on Saturdays, when three hours are devoted to this and to the repetition of the lessons of the week. I found the Protestant schools in Bantry, as might be expected, on a less extensive scale, and they seemed to me somewhat inferior in their arrange- ments. Both the girls and boys were rather younger than those at the National School, and they seemed hardly so tidy. At the time of my visit, there were 32 boys on the books, and 24 in attendance ; and 52 girls, of whom 42 were in attendance. Both these schools are in connection with the Church Education Society, in whose Report for 1851 1 find the numbers set down as follows : — Boys : on rolls, 26 ; average attendance, 20. Girls : on rolls, 55 ; average attendance, 33. The annual local subscriptions for both amount to 48/. The master and mistress, as in the National School, seemed very competent, and the children well advanced in their studies. The mistress told me that her salary amounted to about 19/. per annum, of which sum 71. was derived from some missionary fund (she thought in Scotland). As usual, the boys in both these schools were not so well dressed as the girls, but they were by no means ragged or dirty. The girls were not merely decently but even very neatly dressed, their skins 102 FEMALE BEAUTY. clean, their hair in good order; and among them many children of extraordinary beauty. This lust observation is equally applicable to all thr schools visited by me in the south of Ireland, as well as to the children seen in the cottages, and even to the beggars ; the beauty of the female children, in particular, being very striking. They uniformly wear their hair very thick, and in great profusion — black, golden, and flaxen ; and when this huge rounded mass is kept within due bounds and in proper trim, as is generally the case in the schools, it gives a romantic and poetical expression to the head and face, which greatly enhances the effect of their bright black eyes and elegant features. I may add that the beauty of the children is by no means evanescent, as it is found abundantly, though not in quite so great a degree, among the grown-up young women throughout the south and west of Ireland. I find that almost all travellers in Ireland have made the same remark ; but as I had not read their books previously to my visit, I was not prepared for either the frequency or style of the beauty that I encountered in my journey. I am not even sure that my thoughts were not rather turned from the expecta- tion of finding good looks general in Ireland, from my having seen so many indifferent ones among the work- ing people from that country who crowd our large towns ; the great beauty of some of the few Irish gentlewomen I have had the pleasure of knowing, being insufficient to counteract the impression left FEMALE VIRTUE. 103 by this greater moiety. It was, therefore, with some surprise, and not a little satisfaction, that I made the (to me) discovery of the remarkable come- liness of the young women of Ireland. This come- liness, if not general, was certainly frequent ; and, in individual specimens, attained the standard of almost faultless beauty — and this not merely in fea- tures, but in form and deportment also. It was no slight pleasure to meet one of those rustic maidens of a morning, tripping joyously along the turf in her bright-coloured shawl, with her small and well- shaped feet and ankles unfettered by shoes or stockings, with her lithe upright carriage, and her profuse glossy and well-arranged locks; and this pleasure was not a little enhanced when a salutation or a question brought out, a3 it did, at once, her modest smile and her pretty brogue. It is another tribute justly due to the young women of Ireland, to record their singular decorum and modesty of demeanour, and their general propriety of conduct. I do not hesitate, for a moment, in giving to them decidedly the palm, in these particulars, over the rustic damsels of both England and Scotland. Unmarried mothers are, I believe, quite a rarity in Ireland — a thing which, I fear, cannot be said of any other portion of the three kingdoms. In the town of Bantry, as elsewhere, I find that the glories of Father Matthew have shrunk to a little measure, though hardly so much so as in K'l COTTAGERS. Skibbcrcen. In its day of T T glory, it could boast of a band 500 strong ; now it numbered hardly 30 ! Lord Bantry lias a beautiful park and splendid house adjoining the town. The situation is very fine, the ground rising into a considerable elevation, which gives it a complete command of the bay. Owing to a mistake, we did not visit the interior of the demesne, but we walked round thewall which com- pletely surrounds it, and could sec that the grounds were nicely varied in surface, and full of fine timber. In making this round I visited some of the cottages on the country side of the park. They were not so destitute of furniture as some previously visited, and were a trifle cleaner. It being about meal-time, I found several of the men home from their work and at dinner, which consisted, as far as I could see, of nothing whatever but potatoes tumbled on the table in their skins. In a somewhat superior cottage, with a loft over one end, 1 found the proprietress herself, who had just arrived from the town to look at her property. The cottage, with about two acres of garden-ground, was to be let at a rent of 5/. per annum. On the floor of this cottage I found an old woman (allowed at present to live rent-free, in order to take care of it,) engaged in picking out the good potatoes aud good bits of bad potatoes, from a spoiled lot which she had just bought in Bantry for 3d., and which, if sound, Mould have cost Id. ! And this, probably, was to be the whole of her fare for the remainder BANTRY TO GLENGARIFF. 105 of the week ! No wonder that, in contemplating these and such-like shifts and straits to which the poor are reduced, a poet should exclaim — " Ah ! little think the gay, licentious Proud, Whom pleasure, power, and affluence surround," &c. &c. ; or that any prosaic traveller should give vent to the same humiliating and bitter feeling in the analogous but humbler expressions of the proverb — " Little knows one half the world how the other half lives!"- We left Bantry early in the afternoon for Glengariff, distant about eleven miles. The road leads round all the little arms and windings of the bay, which is scarcely ever out of sight. There is considerable variety of hill and dale, and numerous fresh aspects of the great bay; but there is little positively beautiful or picturesque until the small offshoot bay of Glengariff opens upon you. The country throughout preserves the same character of stony wildness and relative barrenness, which 1 have noticed in the former part of this day's journey. It is still, however, a peopled if not a populous country, the source of sustenance being everywhere conspicuous in small white patches of corn and potato land, scattered here and there amid the pctrean desert. But on reaching the heights thai overlook the bay and valley of Glengariff, and in descending the slope of the circular sweep which those take around the shore, the character of the landscape entirely changes, and you arc at once ushered into the midst of scenes which combine IOC. GLENGARIFF. the most exquisite beauty with not a little of gran- deur and picturesqueness. All that was barren and wild is either hidden from view or is, by distance and change of aspect, subdued and softened into perfect harmony with the prevailing tone of the new picture of which they form a part. The constituent parts of this charming landscape are, in the first place, the bay itself, here cir- cumscribed by its mountain barriers into a perfect lake, stretching out in one direction almost to the horizon, where it is bounded by the serrated ridge of blue mountains that divide it from Dunmanus Bay, and, less remotely, on the right, by the equally lofty range that overlooks Kcnmare River; secondly, the numerous islands that break its glittering ex- panse, one with its martello tower, another with its thicket of trees, another with its summit of bare rock ; thirdly, the circle of hills and mountains that surround all the inner or upper portion of the bay, the nearer hills covered to the top with wood, the higher and more remote mountains black in their coverings of heath and in the walls of bare rocks that cut it asunder, some of them sharpened into peaks, some massy and bluff, the whole suggesting the idea of guardianship to the valley and the water ; lastly, the inner and lower circle of sloping terraces and rugged cliffs immediately bordering the shore at its innermost round, all covered with trees and bushes, rising bank above bank, and so uniting, as it were, by a broad green garland, the gentle VILLAGE OF GLENGAKIFF. 107 waters with their majestic ramparts. I shall not attempt to combine these elements into a picture by a description which must prove a failure ; but I think I am not in any degree exaggerating the truth, when I say that the scene that presented itself to me between five and six o'clock the next morning, from my bedroom window in the Eccles hotel, seemed hardly surpassable as a specimen of the beautiful ; and, certainly, according to my judgment at the time, had never been exceeded by anything in my past experience. At that part of the head of the bay usually named Glengariff, there are two excellent hotels, a gentleman's house, a church, chapel, and National School, and one or two cottages, all scattered about, but nothing like a town or even village. The gentleman's house (Mr. White's) is beautifully situ- ated amid its rocky and wooded terraces, and commands the finest views of the bay and all the mountain scenery to the south and west; and it is itself an agreeable feature in the landscape, as viewed from other parts of the shore. A little way beyond the lower hotel, on the Ken- mare road, there is a police station, and a quarter of a mile further on there is a village of considerable extent, which is, I believe, the proper Glengariff. At this village a little incident occurred on the evening of my arrival, which, though trifling and even ludicrous, may deserve notice, as illustrating one of the phases of Irish life in its lowest scale. 108 PENCE AM) BEGGARS. A gentleman from Eccles's Hotel went out in the evening to take a walk and inspect the sceuery beyond the borders of the lake. In passing through the village above mentioned, he happened to give a few pence to some ragged children who were playing in the road. This bounty and the still visible presence of the giver, seemed to act like magic on the susceptibilities of all the other children in the village, as the stranger found himself instantly sur- rounded by a crowd of boys and girls of all sizes, and in every variety of rag, each soliciting from his Honour, in earnest but subdued tones, " a halfpenny for the honour of God." Finding that his whole stock of coppers was altogether inadequate, even in its lowest denomination, to spread over the wide circle of outstretched hands by which he was en- vironed, he went into a little huxter's shop close at hand for a further supply, and began distributing as before. When his stock was again exhausted, he proceeded on his way through the village, feeling, I suppose, that he had, by the number of his dona- tions, at least, if not by their magnitude, sufficiently allayed, for the present, the appetite of his organ of benevolence. He soon found, however, that his walk was not to be a solitary one ; as the same crowd, fortified by many new r adherents, followed his path with unabated, or rather with much augmented energy both of step and tongue. AVhether from the helplessness of escape without further bribery, or from benevolence, or from the A NEW SCENE AT GLENGARIFF. 109 love of sport, or from all or any of these motives, I cannot tell, but, after one or two ineffectual at- tempts to dismiss his followers, he despatched one of the longest-legged among them back to the village with a silver coin for more change. This gave a respite to solicitation for the time, and he walked on, but with no diminution of his cortege, except that a few stragglers would spread them- selves along the road behind, as if to hail the first appearance of the missionary on his return. So soon as this event took place, and the hand was once more extended with the penny, the clamours and crowding of the candidates around their victim were renewed with tenfold vigour. Some fifteen or sixteen boys and girls, big and little, rushed simultaneously upon him from all sides, clustering around him like a swarm of bees, hustling and jostling one another, and now screaming all at once and in the loudest key, their ordinary subdued tone of supplication being entirely forgotten. It was of no use to try to escape from the meshes he had woven for himself, his long legs and long paces being but ill mated with the nimble and shoeless feet of his pursuers ; and so he sent off another messenger, but still proceeded on his way, listening with comical gravity to the special claims that were shouted in his ears on all sides, and half wishing, I dare say, that the messenger should prove a raven messenger and be seen no more. But here he is again, breathless and shouting, his extended arm 110 TOM DONOGHUE. striving to reach the central figure through the dense mass of living rags that surrounded him. And so the scramble and the hubbub are renewed in all their wildness, and the rushing and crushing become so blind and furious at last, that the whole bundle of rags rolls bodily into the ditch by the roadside, dragging the Lord Bountiful of pence along with it ! A considerable distance from the village had by this time been reached, and when the last messen- ger was sent off, a general panic seemed suddenly to seize the assembly lest this time he should not return. " Oh sir, your Honour, Tom Donoghue is a rogue — he will not come back — he is the worst boy among us. — Plase your honour will we look for him ? He's a tief — he's a vagabone \" In due time, however, Tom Donoghue did come back, with flying rags and pence in hand ; but, alas, whether the character given to Tom in his absence was true or false, it is an historical fact that Tom could only produce five coppers for the silver sixpence he had taken to the village. It is, however, hut doing justice to Tom to state that he loudly asserted his own innocence, and as loudly accused his banker of foul play, who must herself have cribbed the missing penny which brought him to such dishonour. All this, doubtless, is farcical to read, and may possibly have been felt, in the transacting, to be mainly a piece of picturesque or grotesque fun. But it was surely much more than this. If picturesque, it was also deeply painful, nay CURANNEN MOUNTAIN. Ill shocking, to see the eagerness, the yearning, the Avolfish longing for those miserable pence that gleamed in the eyes and countenances of these wretched children, — a longing too earnest and too intense to spring from aught but the absolute want of the food these pence could buy. That it should ever be said that the whole childhood and infancy of a village, in a civilised and Christian land, could be reduced so low as to exhibit such a scene as that now described, or that it should be in the power of any man to call it forth by a lure so vile, is surely very melancholy and very humiliating. Alas for Ire- land, that she should be the theatre of such a scene ! Early in the morning I set off with a guide to ascend the highest hill in the neighbourhood, or mountain, as it is here called, according to the Irish style of designation. It is the highest of the ridge that immediately bounds Glengariff Bay, but one of the lowest of that lofty range that separates the waters of Bantry from Kenmare. After about a mile's walk through the woods that skirt the roads that lead to its base, we began to ascend the Curannen mountain. It is not very steep, but the ascent is rendered occasionally difficult by the inter- vention here and there of bare walls of rock, and is always disagreeable from the swampy nature of the soil which covers its slopes. From its summit a splendid view is obtained of the bays of Bantry and Glengariff, and of the magnificent ranges of Caha and Slievmisk on the south-west, culmi- 1 L2 TIM SULLIVAN. n;tting in the picturesque peaks of Hungry Hill, hi the opposite direction, the whole country, as spread out beneath the eye, presents the aspect of a stony wilderness, broken up into innumerable low jagged peaks of rock, here and there intermingled with small patches of corn. On all sides there was enough of wild grandeur, but nothing of the ex- quisite beauty which characterises Glengariff Bay, as seen from its own shores. My guide was an intelligent lad of twenty, who supported his widowed mother and sisters by his earnings. In the way up the mountain, we were joined by a sensible boy of sixteen years of age, but very small, who was guarding his master's cows on its green slopes, and kept us company so long as he could keep them in sight. While resting ourselves on a ledge of rock in the sunshine, I took down in my note-book Tim Sullivan's little history ; and here it is, in all its trite and humble details, as winnowed by not a little cross-questioning, and by the criticisms and corroborations of our guide. " These little things are great to little men." Poor Tim is an orphan. His mother has been dead thirteen years, and his father six. Both died young. His father had a little land and some cows, but all his substance disappeared with himself, Tim does not know how. Only about a pound remained over, and on this and the charity of the neighbours, Tim and his brother and two sisters lived in the old cottage for a year after his father's WAGES. 113 death. Then they all went to the Union Work- house, which Tim, after three months, was obliged to leave on account of sickness : he then, for a time, got relief out of doors, and eventually was taken into the service of a farmer, his present master. The boy attributes his illness in the workhouse, and no doubt justly, to the diet, which was so different to the potato-regimen that he had been accustomed to. He returned to his old regimen on going to the farm, and has remained quite well and very happy ever since. Tirn's master — who, he says, is a kind man — has about twenty acres of land, besides the mountain pasture, and keeps three men and two boys, who are all fed in the house. They have only two meals in the day, at ten and four, and both are precisely alike ; namely, potatoes ad libitum, and a couple of pints of butter-milk or sour- milk each. At some seasons they get fish twice a week, fresh or salt, particularly in winter, when there is no milk ; but they never taste bread from one year's end to the other. On this fare Tim says they are all strong and healthy and well contented with their lot. Besides their living the men get, respectively, ten shillings, fourteen shillings, and twenty shillings a quarter. Tim and his young comrade get, as their sole pay, a suit of clothes now and then. Out of their scanty means, the men lay by some money. The desire of all is to save enough to take them to 8 114 TRICES. America. Sometimes, however, their prudence is overcome by the temptations of the holiday of the week, Sunday, and a shilling is occasionally spent in strong drink at the public-house. None of the people of the farm are Teetotallers. In returning from the mountain I went into a small cottage among the woods at its foot. Here I found an old woman who could speak only Irish, and a handsome young woman of 21, her daughter, who was married at 15, and had now two children. Her husband was absent in England, gone thither for the harvest. He was in this following the steps of her own father, the old woman's husband, who used to go every year to England, for three or four months in the summer, and usually brought back with him about three pounds. To complete these "simple annals of the poor" of Glengariff, I will set down the prices of clothing, as I received them from my guide. The wearers have to go all the way to Bantry for them, as there are no clothes-shops in Glengariff. A suit of old clothes may be had for from 5s. to 7s. 6d., viz., a coat from 3s. to 4s., a waistcoat for Is., and a pair of trousers for from Is. to 2s. 6d. A suit of new clothes may be obtained for from 20s. to 30s. ; but there are few of the labouring class who can afford this luxury. My guide's jacket, which was now rather dilapidated, cost him 6s. (new cloth,) and had been worn a year. Good strong shoes (always bought new) cost about 6s. SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT. 115 There are two National Schools in the neighbour- hood of Glengariff. I was prevented from visiting them, but I learnt that there were between 30 and 40 children in one, and between 40 and 50 in the other; and in one there were said to be five Protestants. I learnt from the good authority of the coachman who drove our phaeton from Glengariff to Kentnare, that Teetotalism has fallen off greatly in the dis- trict, he being now one of 14 alone remaining out of a band of 250. The majority, however, had perse- vered for about five years. Most of them broke down in the year of the famine. He himself had kept his pledge for thirteen years, and doubted not, he said, with the blessing of God, to keep it all his life. He had proved its advantages to be too great ever to be foregone. Before he took the pledge, he said, he spent most of his substance in drink, and kept himself and wife in constant distress. Since he became a teetotaller, he has made a shift to make a fair living, and to keep his family decently. At this very time, four of his children are at the National School, for each of whom he pays one penny per week. I was glad to learn, from more than one source, that the means of the labouring class are improving in Glengariff. Pigs, which had been all devoured in the year of famine, were beginning to be scantily replaced in their old premises, especially since Indian meal became so plentiful and cheap. During the 11G GLENGARIFF TO KENMARE. scarcity, this meal sold for 3s. 6d. and even 4s. 6 CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. many cannot pay this, and a considerable number even receive a gratuitous meal at the schools. The Brotherhood have their own special educational books, some of which are of a very superior kind. The principal establishment of the Christian Brothers in Limerick — that which I visited — seems to be the model school of the district, and evidently possesses every requisite for a complete education in all ordinary points of knowledge. It is under the direction of Mr. J. P. Welsh, a gentleman and a scholar. The teachers are all men of learning as well as piety ; and by their singular zeal, and their devotion to the cause in which they are embarked, succeed wonderfully in carrying out all the objects of the Institution. In the model school they have ex- cellent accommodations, and possess a good collec- tion of maps, plans, models, and mechanical apparatus. The following statement shows the different branches of education taught at these schools, and gives, in round numbers, the proportion of scholars engaged in each kind of study at the time of my visit. Among the 2000 boys, 200 are learning geometry ; 300 architectural and perspective draw- ing ; 150 mensuration; 20 surveying; 50 algebra; 100 globes; 150 mechanics; 1500 arithmetic; 800 English grammar ; 900 geography ; 150 book- keeping ; all — reading, spelling, and writing. This admirable Institution of the " Christian Brothers," or " Brothers of the Christian Schools/' as they are properly called, and which is spreading THE CHRISTIAN BROTHERS. 187 so widely over Ireland, deserves some further notice here. These schools were first projected and insti- tuted in France by a man of singular worth and piety, a priest, by name Jean Baptiste de la Salle, who was born in the year 1651, and died in the year 1719. The Institute of the Christian Brothers was raised by the Pope to the dignity of a religious order in 1725 ; and from this time the Brothers continued to spread their schools, with unabating zeal and singular success, not only throughout France, but throughout many other countries. Their Institute was completely over- thrown during the great French Revolution, and the remaining brothers had to commence their labours anew after its storms had subsided. In about forty years thereafter, viz. in 1842, their labours, in France alone, showed the following results: — Number of Establishments, 326; of Brothers, 2573; of Novices, 451; of Schools, 550; of Scholars, 148,746. An Institution on the same general plan, but unconnected with that in France, was set on foot, early in the present century, at Waterford, by a gentleman of the name of Bice. The schools were opened in 1804; and between that time and the year 1817, they had extended to several towns in Ireland. In the year named, the Irish Institution adopted the constitution and the name of the French Society, but without any other connection with it; itself being established as an independent Institution by a brief of the Pope, of date 1820. The Institute, as existing in these countries, is 188 CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. governed by a chapter, consisting of a Superior General, the Directors or Superiors of the Houses, and the Visitors for the time being. Mr. Riordan is the present Superior, and resides, with his two assistants, at the Model Schools in Waterford. The Visitors are Brothers nominated to visit the schools as Inspectors. Some of the Brothers are termed Servitor Brothers ; their special duty being to superintend the domestic affairs of the establishment. The Institute has at present in Ireland 92 different establishments, with 82 schools, containing upwards of 10,000 scholars. The Society has also five establishments in England, embracing twenty-five schools. The following extracts from a little work, pub- lished in 1843, gives, I believe, a faithful report of the devoted labours of the Brothers themselves, and an exact outline of the kind and quality of the instruction communicated at their schools. x " A brother of the Christian Schools voluntarily makes sacrifices ; he consecrates himself to God in a profession wherein he renounces all the goods of the earth, the most legitimate enjoyments, his own will, and himself. He makes these sacrifices not to procure himself any temporal advantage ; the most pure and perfect disinterestedness guides his conduct. He devotes himself, not for a moment, but for life, to laborious, humbling, and uninviting duties. His great object is to be useful to the poor children of whom he has the care ; to form them to Christian and social virtues, to render them happy by his in- struction, advice, and good example, without disgust at their rudeness, indocility, inaptitude, or the faults inseparable from their age ! He suggests to them the means of preserving themselves from the cor- ruptions of the world ; of lessening the evils of life by the solid conso- lations found in religion ; and he does all this every day of his life with the most affectionate charity. 1 Life of the Ven. J. B. de la Salle, &c. 8vo, Dublin, 1843. OTHER SCHOOLS. 189 " The knowledge communicated in the schools embraces not only reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, book-keeping, but also an acquaintance with such branches of mathematical science as are suited to the taste and talents of the pupils, and to the stations of life which they are destined to occupy. Geometry, mensuration, draw- ing, and mechanics, become special objects of attention. " The ordinary reading lessons are made the means of communicating much useful information on every subject within the sphere of youth- ful intellect, as the interrogatory system is brought into full practical operation. Grammar, geography, and lessons on objects, are to a certain extent given simultaneously. Regular lectures are given each day to the children, on the various subjects they are learning ; and some of the more advanced scholars are trained to the delivery of such lectures. Thus the three methods of instruction, simultaneous, mutual, and individual, are daily brought into operation in the Christian Schools. " But it is to the communication of religious knowledge that this Institute is chiefly devoted. To this great object, the members direct their best energies. They look upon it as their principal concern : the one for which chiefly, under God, they have been called into existence ; and though they are careful to impart a knowledge of everything that can tend to their pupils' temporal advancement, yet the knowledge of religion, and of the duties it inculcates, are the objects to which their minds and hearts are most particularly directed. For this purpose, prayer is said at the opening and close of the schools; the presence of God is recalled at the end of every hour ; the catechism is repeated, and regular catechetical instruction given every day." Besides the schools of the Brothers, there are, in Limerick, several other Catholic schools, attached to nunneries, some of which are in connection with the National Board. I regret that my time did not allow me to visit these schools ; but the following table, extracted from the last Report of the National Board (18th Report for 1851), shows the great extent of the educational system in Limerick, even exclusively of the numerous Protestant schools in connection with the Church Education Society, the Sunday School Society, &c. 190 NATIONAL SCHOOLS. National Schools in Limerick, with the number of Children, on the 29th of September, 1851. Schools. Boys. Girls. Total. Villiers 70 09 139 Percy Square — 451 451 Sexton Street — 452 452 Ditto Infant — 452 452 Ditto Preparatory — 363 363 St. John's . — 427 427 Ditto Infant . — 417 417 Ditto Industrial — 100 100 St. Mary's Industrial . — 120 120 Adult Evening 48 — 48 Saints Mary and Munchen — 344 344 Ditto Infant — 312 312 Saints Peter and Paul . 110 80 190 228 3587 3815 There is an anomaly here which will strike every reader, namely, the marked disproportion in numbers between the girls and boys in the schools ; there being only 228 boys to 3587 girls. But the fact is, that nearly all the school -going boys in Limerick are with the Christian Brothers, and consequently are not accounted for in these Reports ; the Brothers' schools, as already stated, not being in connection with that establishment. The union workhouse in Limerick, like all the others we have yet seen in the country, is a very handsome, large, and well-arranged building. It is built on an open, airy space, some distance out of UNION WORKHOUSE. 191 town. We found it throughout remarkably clean, and the people, particularly the children, healthy looking, and all decently dressed in the neat work- house uniform. This is a large union, and there were in the house at the time of our visit, 3856 inmates, among whom there were only twenty-five Protestants. The following table shows the total number and qualities of the inmates, on the same day of the month (August 23d), during the last three years : Year. Men. 794 Women. Boys. Girls. Total. 1850 2000 1062 1332 5188 1851 687 1655 913 1245 4500 1852 549 1309 895 1103 3856 This statement, supplied to me by the very intel- ligent master of the house,, together with the fol- lowing taken from the Commissioners' Report, shows the progressive decrease of pauperism in the district. I think, however, the decrease is still less con- spicuous here than I found it elsewhere : — Numbers Relieved. Years. In-door. Out-door. 1849 1850 1851 21,455 19,831 17,855 25,537 9,094 502 No out-door relief is now afforded. I found the diet sound and palatable, of the usual farinaceous kind (without potatoes), and in the or- dinary scanty proportion. The following is the 192 TEMPERANCE II ALLS. lietary for healthy mcu : — Breakfast, eight ounces of Indian meal, made into stirabout, with half a pint of new milk. Dinner, sixteen ounces of bread, made of Egyptian flour, and a quart of vegetable soup. The number of emigrants sent out by the Union during the three years above named, was only 107, and they all went to Quebec, except three. I neglected taking a note of the statistics of the schools in this workouse ; but the following authentic statements from the last two Reports of the Board of National Education, with which they are in con- nection, will supply what is wanting : Year. Boys. Girls. Total. 1850 (30th September) 1851 (29th September) 802 830 422 830 1221 1660 The cause of Temperance is still well supported in Limerick, although the organised system of Father Mathew has fallen off greatly — even here, the scene of- the Father's earliest labours. There are, how- ever, four Temperance Halls still in existence, but I could only ascertain the numbers belonging to one of them. This Hall I visited. It is a very large room, like an assembly-room in an English country town, — lighted with gas, and adorned with paintings and prints appropriate to its destination. Among others, it contained a large oil-painting of Father Mathew administering the pledge, as well as por- TEETOTALISM. 193 traits of himself and the presidents of the society. This particular Hall or society once numbered 1100 members, but its present number does not exceed 300. The members have a library, and take in newspapers, but do not admit any discussion or dis- putes on politics. There is a benefit society con- nected with the Hall, to the support of which one half of the weekly contribution of twopence is de- voted. In the winter the members give soirees occasionally to their male and female friends. All the members must take the pledge, which is admin- istered by the priests. Dismissal always follows a breach of the pledge ; but the rules admit the return of backsliders on proof of reform. I was taken to this Hall by the master of a small spirit-shop who lived next door. He was himself a strict Teetotaller ; but he could not be accepted as a member of the Hall on account of his vocation, which prevented him taking the pledge : this not only binds a man not to drink himself but to dis- courage drinking in others ; a prohibition rather stringent to be submitted to by a vendor of intoxi- cating drinks. It is, however, a curious fact that, in my inquiries, I always found a large proportion of Teetotallers among the classes most exposed to the temptations of strong drink, as innkeepers, spirit- dealers, hostlers, and car-drivers. I accounted for this fact on the principle that these persons having personally proved the evils of intemperance, aban- doned the practice from conviction of its sad 13 L94 THE SUNDAY PROMENADE. consequences to themselves ; and found it requisite to have some extraneous aid, such as the pledge, to keep them in the right path. I found that there was no restriction of members on the score of religion in these clubs ; but I did not learn the pro- portion of Protestants in any one. All Sunday evening, and as late as nine or ten o'clock, the main street of the city (George Street) was crowded with people promenading from one end of it to the other, just as we see in foreign countries. The evening was calm, soft, and beautiful ; every- body was well-dressed ; many of the women were good-looking, — some very handsome : and the scene altogether made one think of that fair southern land whence, in old times, these western shores of Ireland are said to have derived, at once, commercial wealth and civilisation, and the hereditary treasure of per- sonal beauty. At any rate, it was felt by the visitors from the sister isle (and there were many who mixed in this agreeable promenade), that they were no longer in a country where either Puritanism or an over-strained regard for Sabbath observance (as it is called), interfered with that rational and innocent relaxation which the Sabbath was surely intended to bring to week-day labourers of all degrees. In this and some other cases also, the spirit, or rather per- haps the traditions and traditional practice of th e Catholic Church, are more favorable to wholesome liberty and health than is even the Reformed Church. It is agreeable to be able to pay this compliment to a SABBATH RELAXATION. 195 Church which certainly has to answer to human reason for more than one institution of unnatural severity. In the more rural districts of Ireland, the relaxations of Sunday among the common people, often go much beyond this mere taking-the-air in a promenade ; but they are still only additions to — not substitutes for — a very rigid observance of the religious duties of the Sabbath in the earlier parts of the day. Every one in the village is expected to attend chapel, at least once, every Sunday, and this is a duty rarely neglected. For the enforcing this duty, as of so many others, the confessional supplies both know- ledge and means. Absenteeism from mass being a sin, must be confessed; being confessed, it is reproved or punished, and so amended. But the devotion of the entire day to religious purposes is not enforced. The afternoon may be given up, and is usually given up, to innocent amusement of any kind. When the amusement degenerates into impropriety or vice, it is reproved and checked by the priest. Thus, dancing to the sound of the fiddle or bagpipe, is common on Sunday afternoon, in any roomy apartment that may be obtainable ; but if any whisper of wrong- doing there, come to the ear of the priest, he denounces the whole thing, or, at least, the guilty individuals j and the indulgence is either withdrawn for a time, or the offending party bears the punishment for the whole. Without claiming for the labouring-classes in 196 SABBATH RELAXATION. England indulgences of this kind on the Sunday — which are, indeed, foreign to their habits and in- clinations — surely we may claim for those of them, at least, who reside in large towns, the privilege of seeking for relaxation in the open air of the country, whether carried thither by land or by water, by omnibus, boat, or rail. It is truly at once humi- liating and melancholy to observe — in these later years, when we might reasonably expect a more phi- losophical consideration of such subjects — that there is a growing disposition among the clergy and the upper classes generally in England, and still more, in Scotland, to curtail such simple and natural en- joyments of the poor on their only holiday, Sunday. To say nothing of the necessity of such relaxation on the score of mere bodily health, the advocates of this system seem entirely to overlook that principle of man's nature, which renders the occasional remission of activity necessary for the perfect exercise of all voluntary functions, and, most of all, the functions of the brain. Everybody who has had anything to do with the instruction of others, or avIio has ever attempted the acquisition of knowledge in his own person, is fully aware of the great benefit derived from occa- sional interruptions in the course of study, and knows that progress is positively retarded by over-long per- sistence in mental exertion. Religious exercises and study form no exception to this general rule ; over- done they are ill-done. The brain is just as apt to SABBATH RELAXATION. 197 be exhausted, and the thoughts to become weakened and confused, in religious pursuits, as in any other mode of mental occupation ; and the results will be just as inadequate and unsatisfactory in the special category referred to, as in any form of secular study. A jaded and muddled mind can no more do justice to religion than it can to any profane subject. The same parties also persist in ignoring the fact known to all others — that the great majority of the working classes of large towns will not attend church more than once, if so much, even if constrained to remain, during the whole Sunday, within the circle of their weekly labours ; so that the cause of religion would be no gainer under the restrictive law con- tended for; while the subjects for whom it is pro- posed to enact it, would be deprived of the most precious opportunities of improving their bodily and mental health, and so adding to their happiness, through the indispensable medium of air, exercise, and relaxation. On the contrary, both religion and morals, and, consequently, society at large, would be positively great losers thereby, inasmuch as both reason and experience assure us, that the temptations to sottish indulgence of every kind, leading to vice in all its forms, would be infinitely greater in the state of constrained idleness and listlessness into which the poor must necessarily be thrown, in the case supposed, than they can be amid the inspiring, active, and healthy excitements which, to a smoke- 198 SABBATH RELAXATION. dried citizen, are the spontaneous and necessary results of a rural excursion. Few schemes, I venture to affirm, have ever been broached more false in principle or calculated to be more injurious in practice — nay, I should think, less in harmony with the profoundly tender and merciful views of human nature, promulgated by the great author of Christianity himself — than that which would forge additional chains, over and above those necessarily incidental to their lot, to keep in per- petuity the children of labour within the walls of their great civic prisons. It is to be hoped that no British legistature will ever be found so indifferent to the claims of humanity, as to sanction any measure that could lead to so disastrous a result. CHAPTER VIII. THE SHANNON ATHLONE GALWAY. Having decided on reaching Galway through the round-about tract by Athlone, rather than by the more direct course through Ennis, chiefly on account of the attractions of the Shannon navigation which the former course yielded, we left Limerick early in the morning to join the steamer at Killaloe, about twelve miles distant. The intermediate portion of the Shannon is not navigable on account of the shallows and rapids with which its bed is here beset, the fall of the river within these twelve miles com- prising more than one half of the whole fall from its source to its termination. 1 The first portion of the country between these two towns is well cultivated and very beautiful, con- taining besides many gentlemen's houses and well- wooded desmesnes, (as Lord Clare's, Lord Massey's, &c.) some fine glimpses of the river. At the small town of Castle Connel, about midway between Limerick and Killaloe, or rather, I believe, at that outlying portion of it called the village of Montpelier, 1 The total fall of the river is 171 feet, and the fall between Limerick and Killaloe is 'J7. 200 CASTLE CONNEL. our car halted for a short time to give us an oppor- tunity of looking at the Shannon, which is seen here in all its majestic beauty rushing along its rocky bed with great force and rapidity. The situation of this village is extremely fine; and what we saw of its river, and what we did not see of it, made us regret that we had not made other arrangements to enable us to examine scenes so charming, more at leisure. The place derives its name from the old Castle of the Kings of Munster, the huge ruins of which are still conspicuous on the top of a lofty isolated rock adjoining the village. There is a fine chalybeate spring in this village, which all travellers are expected to taste. During the short stay we made, I was enabled to glean from an intelligent shopkeeper and her daugh- ter, a monitress at the National School, that the two National Schools in Castle Connel contained about 70 children each, and a Protestant school about 30. At the National Schools there were few or no Protestants. I see by the Commissioners' Reports that in September, 1850, there were 116 boys and 78 girls, and in September, 1851, 130 boys and 75 girls, on the books of these schools. A short way beyond Castle Connel we found our fine cultivated country exchanged, once more, for heath and bog, amid which we crossed the wide expanse of the Shannon by a very ancient-looking bridge, termed O'Brien's Bridge. On reaching Killaloe, a short distance further on, we regretted, EMIGRATION. 201 as we had done at Castle Connel, that the mode of conveyance we had adopted on this occasion, pre- vented us from seeing anything of this very ancient town, except what met the eye in passing rapidly through it. It is now but a small insignificant place. Its population in 1841 was 2009, and by the census of 1851, is nearly the same, viz. 2230. The river here exhibits another series of rapids, making a fall, it is said, of twenty-one feet in the course of a mile. There is a curious old bridge of a great many arches (nineteen, I think,) crossing the river at the town, and which forms a beautiful object in the landscape as we look down the river from the pier where the steamer stops, which is about a mile above it. Indeed, views in all directions from this spot, — of the town, the river, and the surrounding hills, are very fine, though the want of wood gives rather a character of coldness and sternness to the whole. We found the steamer waiting for us, and the little pier thickly crowded with people waiting to go on board or to see their friends on board. The deck was, indeed, so crowded, that it was not an easy matter to get from one part of it to another : and the crowding and confusion were still further increased by the whole of the fore part of the vessel being occupied by cattle. It was soon seen that a party of emigrants had come or were coming on board, and were now taking leave of their friends with every token of the most passionate distress. With that utter unconsciousness 202 A TART I NO SCENE. and disregard of being the observed of all observers, which characterises authentic sorrow, these warm- hearted and simple-minded people demeaned them- selves entirely as if they had been shrouded in all the privacy of home, clinging to and kissing and embracing each other with the utmost ardour, calling out aloud, in broken tones, the endeared names of brother, sister, mother, sobbing and crying as if the very heart would burst, while the unheeded tears ran down from the red and swollen eyes literally in streams. It was a sight that no human being could see unmoved ; and when the final orders were given to clear the ship and withdraw the gangway, the howl of agony that rose at once from the parting deck and the abandoned pier, was perfectly over- powering. " O Mary ! O Kitty ! O mother dear ! O brother ! O sister ! God bless you ! God preserve you ! The Lord in Heaven protect you \" and a thousand other wild and pious ejaculations, broken and intermixed by agonising cries and choking sobs, literally filled the air, and almost drowned the roar of the engine and the wheels that tore the loving hearts that uttered them asunder. Amid the crowds of people on the pier, swaying to and fro as they shouted aloud and waved their hats and handkerchiefs, several women were seen kneeling on the stones, kneeling and weeping, with their hands raised fixedly above them, and so con- tinuing as long as they could be distinguished from the receding vessel. EMIGRANTS. 203 The scene was altogether a most painful one to witness, and not soon to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. If it told, in language not to be misunderstood, of the warm and strong affections of a most cordial people, it brought home the truth to the fancies of all, and to the memories and hearts of many — that there is no greater pang in the store of life's ills than Separation. And, indeed, such a separation as this, is often a greater pang, to one of the sufferers at least, than death itself is ; for here, on both sides, nature still retains her full conscious- ness of loss and her full strength to suffer ; while Providence has most kindly so ordered it, in the great separation of all, that the woe, on one side at least, is more than half lost in the weakness. There were about twenty of these emigrants, all destined, in the first place, to Liverpool by way of Dublin. The majority of them were going to the United States, but several, particularly the young women, were bound for Australia. Every one was going out on funds supplied by their friends who had preceded them to the land of their exile. One woman, with two children, was going to Philadelphia to join her husband, having already received 15/. from him, although he had left Ireland less than a year. He had borrowed a good part of the money, the wife said, from his brother, who had been longer settled than himself. Several young unmarried women were going to Australia, expecting to be taken as domestic servants 204 THE EXILES. immediately on their arrival. They too had been invited, on the same irresistible terms, by their absent friends and relations, to share their exile. There were one or two complete families, father and mother and children ; but most of them were but links of a broken chain which had its ends in the opposite quarters of the earth. Among the most deeply affected of these poor exiles were two young girls, who, at the invitation of some friends in Australia, were leaving nearly all the links of their chain of affection behind them. I believe one of the kneelers on the pier was their mother, as when dragged forcibly from them, she had sunk on her knees as she had reached the shore. They had a brother also, a strong, rough, long-coated young fellow, who, notwithstanding all remonstrances and entreaties that he would leave his sisters and go on shore, had so many last words and fresh leave- takings, that when he at last broke loose from them, he found the gangway hauled up, and the ship's side some distance from the pier. I don't think he in- tended this, but his stay was an evident respite both to himself and his sisters. In his various subsequent attempts to cheer his sisters, he at length adopted one expedient, which I presume must be regarded as completely national : he set-to, with right good will and with all his might, to dance jigs before them ! Poor fellow, it was at once laughable and melancholy to see the mingled grotesque and sorrowful expression of his countenance, more LOUGH DEARG. 205 especially when, amid his formal mirth, he now and then caught a glance of his sisters rubbing their swollen eyes. He, however, held up wonderfully well until our arrival at the next stopping-place (Williams- town), when the final leave-taking was made, and he took his departure from the ship, setting up, as soon as he descended into the boat, such another portentous howl, as had signalised the parting at Killaloe. Almost immediately after leaving Killaloe pier, the steamer enters on Lough Dearg, the largest in the whole tract of the Shannon, and one of the finest in Ireland. It is twenty-three English miles long, and from two to six in breadth. It contains many islands ; but it presents also in many places a magnificent and unbroken sea-like expanse. At its lower ex- tremity, and indeed during a large part of its course, it is bordered by magnificent mountains ; and those in the vicinity of Killaloe, before the lake opens out into its greater width, constitute, with the waters they shelter and enclose, one of the grandest and most beautiful views in Ireland. There is nothing in the Lower Shannon in any way comparable to this scene, which of itself will well repay the traveller for any circuitousness in the journey he may make to see it, and compensate for any tameness which may greet him in his subsequent course. Among the islands in Lough Dearg we passed one with a ruin on it, called Dearg Castle, and one was pointed out to us at a distance called Inis Cealtra, 206 KILLALOE TO ATHLONE. or the Holy Island, on which there are the ruins of several churches, and also a round tower. We likewise passed on the shores of the lake several remains of castles, which served at ouce to give variety and dignity to the landscape, by recalling the old legendary days of Ireland, when those fortresses were the abode of kings and king-like chieftains. At Portumna the lake terminates, and so do the mountains ; and henceforward, all the way to Ath- lone, the Shannon retains the characteristics of a low- land river, flowing, with singular placidity, through a country that is sometimes tame, sometimes ugly, not seldom beautiful, but never either grand or picturesque. The river itself, however, may be said to be always grand in its display of tranquil power. We passed through the swing arch of several splendid new bridges, one at Banagher, one at Shannon Bridge, and also through one or two short canals, constructed alongside the river to eschew a too rapid fall. About two miles above Shannon Bridge and fourteen below Athlone, we passed the celebrated ruins of Clonmacnoise, with its two round- towers distinctly visible at a short distance from the shore, and which ought to claim the notice of every traveller who has time to visit them. We arrived at Athlone about four o'clock, having been steaming up this magnificent river for seven hours. Our speed was certainly not great, and probably less, as was noticed on our voyage in the Lower Shannon, on account of our fuel being only IRISH TOURISTS. 207 turf. An immense quantity of this must have been consumed, as, when we started, not only was the hold filled with it, but the deck was cumbered with it up to the top of the paddle-boxes ; and when we reached Athlone it was nearly all gone. Beside the emigrants and a few people of the country, going from one town to another, our list of passengers in the steamer consisted mainly of tourists, or visitors from England and Scotland. "We had some from most parts of the island — from Plymouth, from London, from the midland counties, from the south of Scotland, and from Edinburgh. We had bankers, merchants, doctors, country squires, farmers, fishers with their rods, sketchers with their tablets, and professors with their pupils. All, while bent on sight-seeing and the pleasures of travel, seemed to have their minds full of the actual condition of Ireland, and all puzzling themselves, more or less, with the knotty problems of how she got into her present straits, and how she is to be got out of them. All seemed to have a tender sympathy for her — at least all those who were strangers in the land. And here, as in England, I have often had occasion to remark, that the bitterest denouncers of Ireland and the Irish, are her own degenerate sons in the middle or genteel classes of society. Never, in England or in Ireland, did I hear from one of the humbler orders a reproach cast upon their country; or, if blame were laid, it waa with the tenderness of a filial tongue, and much more 208 AN UNF1LIAL IRISHMAN. in sorrow than in anger. But among Irishmen of another class, among orangemen of what is called the English party, among zealous Protestants seeking or holding place, among some even of the ministers of the Established Church,— who but has been shocked with the wholesale denunciations and charges made against a whole people, and that people their own people — their own flesh and blood ? On the present journey, for example, I heard a gentleman of one of these classes openly declare — striving, the while, by an artificial and pompous mode of speaking to hide the brogue which betrayed him — that it was absurd to think of treating the Irish like a civilised people ; that savages must be tamed and taught before they are made the subject of legislation ; that the only law-giver suited for them was another Cromwell ; that, in a word, they were only fit to be treated like wild-beasts or slaves. If such words could rouse the blood of a stranger to hear — God knows what might be their probable effect if uttered in another presence. Suppose such a man to be set down as a country squire or a landlord of an extensive but humble tenantry — suppose him to act up to his sentiments or to attempt to act up to them, amid a warm-hearted but hot- headed and impulsive people proud of their country and their race ; however much it might distress — would it much surprise the candid judge of frail human nature, if the end of that man were evil ? Well does Bacon call Revenge "a. sort of wild DEGENERATE IRISHMEN. 209 justice :" and easy, no doubt, it would be for the hearts even of Christian men, stung into madness by intolerable wrong, to colour over to their consciences, under this sacred name, any horror or savagery they might perpetrate under such circumstances. I speak, of course, hypothetically ; I repudiate all imputation of offering, or attempting to offer, even the faintest possible excuse for the murderous deeds here alluded to; but I do gravely denounce as im- pious in themselves and as a probable and potent cause of misery and wrong in others, such sentiments as I have recorded, spoken aloud as they were, in the open air of Ireland, aye, paraded about and boasted of ! It is, indeed, one of the saddest and truest and most portentous signs of the inveterate evils of Ireland, that she should nourish on her breast children who can so speak of a mother. Such deformity could not spring from a healthy source. One of the most powerful instincts of nature could never be so perverted except on a soil choked with the weeds of long neglect and mismanagement, and in an atmosphere rank with their pestiferous emanations. If the oppression of ages has been able to transform the men of old Athens, Sparta, and Thebes, into the despicable race that now crouches on the soil of Greece, need we wonder that the wrongs (comparatively small as they arc) which have so long pressed on Ireland, should be 14 210 ATI! LONE. manifested in sucli occasional degeneracy as we are now contemplating ? In the list of our travelling companions on board the steamer, I may mention a very intelligent farmer from Dumfriesshire, who had come over to explore the country with a view to an ultimate settlement in it, either through the medium of purchase or tenancy. He told me that many of his country- men, farmers like himself, had come to Ireland on the same errand, but he seemed doubtful if they would form a settlement. His professional eye was shocked, beyond measure, by the wretched state of the cultivation everywhere prevalent. Intending to proceed to Galway, the same night* by a late train, we had only the few hours of day- light still remaining, to see Athlone. Fortunately, it presented but few objects claiming attention. When we had seen its old castle, its two new and splendid bridges, its railway station, and its barracks, we had seen all. The town itself has no beauty nor any noticeable charm, except its fine site on both sides of its splendid river, and the view of the Shannon, which about a mile and half above the town spreads out into another lake, Lough Rec. In 1841 the population of Athlone was 6393 : in 1851 it was very nearly the same, viz. 6214, exclusive of the workhouse, which gave an addition of 1766. The only one of my usual inquiries I could follow up in Athlone was the state of the Temperance system. In this I was aided by an honest old tin- ADVANTAGES OF TEETOTALISM. 211 man, who had been ten years a Teetotaller, and still remained one of the faithful few who followed the standard of Father Mathew. Athlone seems never to have been very strong in this way, but once counted as belonging to its Temperance Hall 337 members. This band was dissipated and broken in the year of famine, and now can only boast of 14 members. They still, however, retain their hall and their small library, and also take in three weekly newspapers ; but the society is in debt. Aly informant was himself a good illustration of the value of the system. He confessed that if he had been a Teetotaller ten years sooner, he would have now been a rich man and worth 200/. ! Pre- viously to his taking the pledge, he had spent not only all his earnings on drink, but had, according to the testimony of his wife, admitted by himself, wasted all his humble substance, his furniture, and his clothes, on the same miserable object. He seemed now cheerful and happy, his little shop and room comfortably furnished, his wife and daughter neatly dressed, and more money made than was spent. He admitted that he had put by and pre- served 75/. since he had exorcised the evil spirit of his house. And here I cannot help remarking, that among all my light-hearted friends of the humbler classes in Ireland, none ever seemed happier or merrier — if so happy or so merry — as my Teetotal brethren. Ad- mitting that this really was a matter of fact as far 212 ADVANTAGES OF TEETOTALISM. as my observation went, no doubt, it might still be the result of mere accident; we can have no com- parative statistics to establish such a point. And yet, on reflecting on the matter, I think it would require no great casuistry to show the probability if not the certainty of the thing. Admitting that in all Irishmen " the blood runs tickling up and down the veins" Avith sufficient vivacity to make mirth natural to them, we must also admit that this run- ning and tickling may be augmented by stimuli of various kinds — bodily, as in the shape of potheen ; mentally, as in the form of good news, happy recol- lections, an easy conscience. Now, if we reflect that every Teetotaller has, at least, the happy conscious- ness of having made a sacrifice to principle in aban- doning a useless and costly habit, and thereby aug- mented his own real comforts and the comforts of his family, and probably his own stock of health, we see at once laid open in him a new source of cheer- fulness. But a considerable proportion of the men who have become Teetotallers have not merely aban- doned a useless and costly habit, but have cured themselves of an almost irresistible propensity, which had brought ruin and despair on themselves and all connected with them ; while by overcoming it they have restored themselves to health and peace and their families to happiness : and, surely, a conscious- ness like this, and the contrast of the Past with the Present, which must be constantly recurring in their thoughts, cannot fail to shed a perpetual gleam of GALWAY. 213 " that calm sunshine of the breast " which is the very basis of cheerfulness. We all know the truth of the saying, as well as the great man who said it, — " Conscientia bene actse vitae multorumque bene- factorum recordatio jucundissima ;" and so I end where I began in repeating that my Teetotal friends probably are, and certainly ought to be, the merriest of the merry men of merry Ireland. On reaching Galway, we put up at the new hotel just erected at the railway terminus, by the directors of the Dublin and Galway Railway. This is a splendid establishment, in point of size and accommodations calculated to cope with the finest hotels in Ireland ; but at the time of our visit, the house was not complete in its interior arrangements. Galway is an old-fashioned, crowded, and rather dirty town, without any good streets, and with very few good houses. Some of the streets are very narrow, and in these there are, here and there, curious specimens of old buildings. The population, according to the census of 1851, was 20,085, being an increase of 2810 since the former census in 1841, when the numbers were 17,275. Including the inmates of the workhouses, gaol, and hospitals (3610), the population of Galway would be raised to 23,095. The situation of the town is flat and unpic- turesque, but excellent in a commercial point of view, at the junction of the Corrib river with the grand estuary called the Bay of Galway. Immense 214 GOVERNMENT WORKS. works have been long in progress to connect the navigation of this bay with that of the great lakes above it, Lough Corrib and Lough Mask ; and they are so far completed that the Lord-Lieutenant, at his late visit to Galway, was able to pass along the connecting canal from the bay into Lough Corrib. Among these works are two very handsome bridges, crossing different portions of the Corrib river. Here, as on the Shannon, and in many other parts of Ireland, one cannot fail to be struck with the importance and magnitude of the undertakings set on foot by government for the improvement of Ireland, the government appearing to take the place which is filled by the public and the public com- panies in England. This fact is, at once, indicative of the paternal regard of the imperial government towards this portion of the empire, and of the singular want of intrinsic resources in the country so aided. We could only spend a night and half a day in Galway, and consequently my examinations and inquiries were more imperfect than usual. Our first visit was to the new College, the second of the Queen's Colleges we had seen. It is a very hand- some building, on a different plan and in a some- what different style of architecture from that of Cork, though, I believe, still a vai'iety of the Tudor Gothic ; and it is certainly no less indicative of the liberal views and good taste which seem to have presided in all the arrangements respecting these QUEEN S COLLEGE, GALWAY. 215 noble institutions. Galway College is constructed on the complete quadrangular plan, with four exterior and four interior fronts, the interior quadrangle being 280 by 200 feet in extent. It is built of the beautiful grey limestone which sets off to so much advantage many of the recent public works and buildings in Ireland. It has an elegant cupola in the centre of the main front, looking towards the town, and two smaller ones at each end of this portion of the quadrangle. The effect of the whole is very imposing, and the structure altogether does great credit to the architect, Mr. J. B. Keane. Queen's College, Galway. The interior of the building is scarcely equal to its exterior, though it contains many handsome apartments ; and the numerous classrooms are 216 FEES AND NUMBER OF PUFILS. commodious and well arranged. The Examination Hall is a handsome apartment, being 60 feet in length by 45 in breadth. The College was opened for the admission of students in October 1849, and the following are the numbers admitted during the last four years : Session. Matriculated. Iv on-matriculated. Total. 1849-50 64 4 68 1850-51 23 2 25 1851-52 32 5 37 1852-53 19 1 20 138 12 150 Of these 150 students, 76 are registered as Roman Catholics, 56 as of the Church of England, and 18 as Presbyterians. It would appear that, in this College, a note is made of the religion of the non-matriculated as well as of the matriculated. The number of pupils has been, from the begin- ning, considerably less in Galway College than in either that of Belfast or Cork, owing, in a great measure to the scantier population of the district, and also partly to the lesser means at the disposal of the parents. The fees are, perhaps, too high for this poor country, although they sound very moderate in English ears. For instance, for a full course of general literature, qualifying for the degree of B.A., the following are the whole of the fees demanded of the student: First year, 11/.; second year, 10/.; third year, 71. And these fees THE PRESIDENT'S REPORT. 217 are reduced by one third to scholars ; that is, to students who, on examination, have shown sufficient competency to obtain scholarships, which are the same in kind and amount as at Cork College, formerly noticed, (p. 73.) The following additional explanation of the in- ferior attendance at the Galway College, given in its President's Official Report for the Session of 1850-51, is so satisfactory, that I think it due to the College to insert it here: " In estimating the progress of such institutions as the Queen's Colleges, attention must be paid to the district in which they are placed, and the population and wealth of the towns with which they are connected. Colleges placed in populous and thriving localities are at once frequented by nume- rous students, who live in their own homes, and who are not obliged to incur the expense of tra- velling to, or residing in a distant neighbourhood. The students of the Queen's Colleges, unlike those of other institutions, must attend its lectures for at least two terms of each session — a period varying from five to six months. It will thus be seen how essential it is to look to the condition of the town near which a College is situated to judge with fairness of its real progress. In the great majority of cases the young men frequenting the Galway College come from a distance, the town of Galway not as yet possessing such a population us would furnish a large number of students. Taking these 218 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. circumstances into account, I do not hesitate to say that the Queen's College, Galway, has fully kept pace with her sister institutions of Belfast and Cork — institutions which, by the confession of all, have equalled the most sanguine expectations of their Avarmest supporters." The same gratifying fact, noticed in regard to Cork College, viz., the numerical superiority of Catholics among the pupils will be observed here also; and I may take this opportunity of noticing how provident the Institutors of these Colleges have been in having due regard for the religious instruc- tion of the pupils according to their respective religions. I cannot do this better than by giving another extract from Mr. Berwick's Report : " With regard to the religious instruction of the Roman Catholic students, and their attendance upon their religious duties, I think it right to state the following circumstances : — By the Statutes of the Queen's Colleges, the Crown has been em- powered to appoint Deans of Residences for the different persuasions, to whom complete control is given over every student of their respective creeds not residing with his parent or guardian, and who can also call for College penalties upon any student, no matter where resident, who may not be regular in attendance upon his place of worship. Imme- diately on the opening of the College, in October, 1849, a Roman Catholic Dean of Residences was appointed, who continued to discharge, during the MISTAKEN INTERFERENCE. 219 entire of the first session, the high and salutary- duties of his office with the most exemplary atten- tion. It Avas my grateful duty to lay before your Majesty, in my first Report, the statement sub- mitted to me by this excellent gentleman, of the extreme satisfaction he had derived from the conduct of the students submitted to his care. This state- ment was, indeed, a gratifying proof that the Statutes had provided abundant securities for the faith and morals of the students, and that any danger which might arise could only result from the Churches not availing themselves of the oppor- tunities afforded them by the Statutes, and from not co-operating with the College authorities in providing for the spiritual welfare of the students." It is painful to have to transcribe the concluding sentence of this paragraph of the President's Report: " I lament to say that this gentleman [the Roman Catholic Dean] has intermitted, during the last session, the performance of those sacred duties which he had discharged with so much honour to himself, and so much advantage to the College ;" the intermission, no doubt, being the consequence of orders received from his spiritual superiors. From such conduct as this, on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, one is almost tempted to doubt whether the convictions of its directors as to its superiority in doctrine, and its consequent security, are really so strong as they are said to be. At a short distance from the College there is a 220 MODEL SCHOOLS. fine National (model) School recently built, and recently opened. It contains both a boys' and a girls' school ; and both have the necessary arrange- ments for instructing teachers. We found eight of these at the boys' school, and five at the girls'. The teachers reside one year at the school. At the time of my visit there were in the boys' school 117 on the books, and 104 in attendance ; and out of this number there were 11 Protestants. An hour is set apart every Friday for religious instruction, on which occasion the minister of the Established Church and the Roman Catholic priest frequently both attend, each supervising the instruction of the children of their respective flocks. One of the masters in training is a Protestant, and to him the religious instruction of the Protestant children is confided. The masters in these model schools are much better paid than in the ordinary schools. The master of this school, besides accommodation in the house and coals and candles, has a salary of 60/. per annum, and 20/. for the maintenance of a servant. He also receives one-half of the weekly pence, the payment of which seems to be here rigidly exacted: this adds something more to his income, which is, no doubt, still further increased by the allowance made to him for boarding the young men who are under instruction for teachers. In the girls' school there were 53 on the books, and 46 in attendance, 9 of the number being Protestants. The plan of religious instruction is GALWAY WORKHOUSE. 221 here the same as in the boys' school. The mistress has a salary of 55/., and half the school fees. The system of instruction in both these schools seemed excellent, and the children showed great pro- ficiency in their respective studies. All the children were tolerably neatly dressed, especially the girls, who were also — many of them at least — very good looking. We paid a very hurried visit to the Union Work- house, which is also in the vicinity of Queen's Col- lege. It contained, with its auxiliary houses, 2142 persons. In the principal house there were 1477 inmates — and of this number only 11 were said to be Protestants. The inmates consisted almost entirely of old and infirm people and children. Of these last (children) there is a large proportion; and they are all brought under the National School system of educa- tion. According to the Reports of the Commissioners, the children in the workhouse school, in September, 1850, were : boys 828, girls 688 ; and in September, 1851, boys 452, girls 720 The number of persons relieved in this Union was, in the year 1850, 9198 in the house, and 4640 out of the house ; and in the year 1851, 9123 in the house, and only 120 out of doors. At present, none are relieved out of the house. The dietary is of the usual kind : Indian meal stirabout, with new milk for breakfast, and oatmeal and vegetable soup and bread for dinner. After leaving the schools and poorhouse we paid a visit to the fishing village called The Claddagh, which is one of the maritime suburbs of Gal way. It 222 THE CLADDAGH. is a large place, but consists almost entirely of low cottages of the humblest description, — filthy, dark, and smoky, and with a mere apology for furniture. The inhabitants are mostly fishermen, and almost exclusively Catholics : we were told that there was only one Protestant family among them. Like the inhabitants of some of the fishing villages in Scotland, these Claddaghites seem to have ac- quired and retained some special usages and habits of their own. Even their Irish is said to differ from the Irish in common use. They have a nominal local government of their own, with a so-called mayor. They always intermarry among themselves, and conse- quently " are all cousins, uncles, and aunts," as one of my informants said. The same person told me that they had very rigid, yet rather peculiar notions respect- ing hospitality to strangers,within their own precincts. Let a stranger insult a Claddaghite ever so much in Claddagh, all must be borne with calmness and equa- nimity, and no retaliation thought of there. The stranger is, however, carefully guarded out of the sa- cred limits, and then the Claddaghites are said to take their revenge,with full interest for delay of repayment! They do not seem so chary of hostility to strangers within the limit of their fishing bounds. A short time since a Scotch fishing vessel, with some mode of fishing new to the coast, made her appearance in Galway Bay, and excited the fury of the Claddagh fishermen to such a degree, that it became necessary to obtain a small government steamer to protect the THE CLADDAGHTTES. 223 stranger from destruction. This vessel was still in Galway Bay at the time of our visit. There is a fine large National School in Claddagh village, designated the Piscatory School. One por- tion of it is devoted to instruction in industrial pur- suits, such as making nets and other piscatory gear. In the boys' school there were 271 on the books, and the average attendance was said to be from 160 to 200. There was not one Protestant in the school at the time of our visit, though there had, at one time, been five. In the girls' school the present attendance was said to vary from 140 to 180. It was pleasing to see how neatly dressed and how clean these children were, although their parents were so very poor and their houses so wretched. Some of them were very handsome ; and the fine cast of their features certainly gives some colour to the tradition that derives their blood from Spain. Only a small proportion of the pupils could or did pay the weekly pence. According to the official re- turns, there were in September, 1850, 287 boys and 220 girls on the books, and in September, 1851, 266 boys and 219 girls. I had some conversation with the parish priest who had the superintendence of this school. He seemed most zealous for the success of the industrial department, and evinced much anxiety for the advancement of the pupils in general knowledge. In our way back to the town we passed by the new docks which are very extensive and complete, but they contained few vessels. "We also passed 224 TEMPERANCE HALL. through the fish and potato markets, both held in the open streets. The supply of fish was miserably small for a fishing station : indeed the stands con- tained, for the most part, salted fish. A considerable proportion of the potatoes were unsound. In some of the adjoining streets, chiefly inhabited by the poor, I found the usual signs of poverty and destitution in their houses ; and the complaint of want of work was very common. Several able-bodied men were unemployed, and lamented their inability to emigrate, for want of funds. In Galway, as in every other place visited by me in Ireland, I did not meet with a single person in a state of intoxication, nor could I discover any signs of this vice being prevalent, or even at all in exis- tence. The organised system of pledged Temperance, after having sunk very low, seemed to be again on the rise in Galway. About two years since a new Temperance Hall, called St. Patrick's, was esta- blished, and could now boast of 200 members. The members pay sixpence for entrance and a penny weekly, to pay for newspapers, books, &c. There is no benefit society connected with the Hall. The members have a band of music consisting of fifteen, all of whom perform gratuitously, except the master, who receives six shillings weekly. They give two or three soirees in the course of the year, to which they invite their friends. For these they pay something extra. After three successive breaches of the pledge, a member cannot be again received into the society. CHAPTER IX. OUGHTERARD MAAM THE FISHERY. Having made an arrangement with the innkeeper to supply us with a carriage and pair of horses to take us on as far as "Westport, a journey of three days, we left Galway early in the afternoon, pur- posing to sleep at Maarn, a solitary hotel among the mountains of Conneruara, about thirty miles from Galway. The road, after crossing the river Corrib, passes along its right bank, and then skirts, at some distance, the shores of the Lough of the same name. For some miles the road is bordered at intervals by several gentlemen's seats, surrounded by their wooded desmesnes ; but the intermediate tracts are rough, stony, and bleak, like much that we had seen in Kerry, and without anything either grand or pic- turesque to compensate for the wilduess and barren- ness — if we except a glimpse now and then of the great Lough on our right. We had now entered on the Eallanahinch pro- perty of the late Air. Martin, which is said to Stretch full forty English miles along the wild dis- trict between this and Clifden. This estate is now in possession of an Assurance Society of London, and 10 226 GALWAY TO CLIFDEN. the sad aspect it presented to us immediately sug- gested the old saying of public bodies having no heart : but it is probably unfair to apply this in the present instance. The truth, however, certainly is, that throughout the whole extent of this district, the marks of eviction and depopulation are much more extensive and more conspicuous than we had yet seen or afterwards saw in any part of Ireland. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the whole road from Galway to Clifden was bordered by ruins of cottages half pulled down, or, more melan- choly still, with the walls and gables all standing, solid and firm, but roofless, doorlcss, and window- less. On the estates of Lord Kenmare and Mr. Herbert, formerly mentioned, as well as on those of some other landlords who had adopted the system of consolidation, most of the cottages had been razed to their foundations, and no trace left of them, the materials of their walls having been employed in building the fences of the new fields. But here all the horrors of the recent evictions were brought im- mediately before the imagination, if not actually before the eye, and completely overthrew, for the moment, in the spectator's mind, all theoretical con- siderations of agricultural improvement, and all abstract principles of political economy, which, at other times arid in other places, might have pleaded in excuse, or even in justification of such a system. But while the smoke-stains above the humble hearths were yet so fresh; the paths to the humble doorways OUGHTERARD. 227 were yet so clean; and the wounds to humanity were yet so raw and open, — it was impossible for any process of calm ratiocination to find place among the crowd of emotions that were busy in the mind. We stopped about an hour at Oughterard, a small town situated on the little river Feagh, which runs into Lough Corrib a short distance below, passing, in its way, through a natural tunnel of limestone. The population of this place, by the last census (1851), is 982, being an increase of 264 since the year 1841. It contains a large Catholic chapel, and also a neat English church, with a dispensary, &c. It was here where we first met with any open signs of the energetic rivalry that has of late grown up between the professors of the two religions in Connaught ; and we were told that the rivalry had, on a very recent occasion, assumed a most unseemly form in this very village. There are several Protestant missionary schools in the town and neighbourhood. I visited one of these, situated near the chapel. It contained about CO children, who seemed to be well instructed by a very zealous Protestant master and mistress. Though so small a place, Oughterard could once boast of a Temperance Hall with full 200 members. The society was broken up four years ago ; but there are said to be still about twenty pledged men remaining in the town. At the end of the town near the bridge, the river 228 MAAM HOTEL. shows a pretty little waterfall, or rather rapid, in the grounds of a gentleman, who lias a cottage by the roadside. The country beyond Oughterard becomes much more dreary than before, degenerating into almost pure moorland and bog. These are, to be sure, diversified by several lakes ; but none of them are either beautiful or picturesque. No doubt, the natural dreariness of the scene was heightened by the weather, which was wet and gloomy ; and the disagreeable impression was not likely to be lessened by the twilight darkness which fell prematurely on us at the foot of the dark mountains we had now reached. At about eight miles from Oughterard we turned off to the north, at right angles with our former western course, taking the road to Maam, Leenane, and Westport. We reached the first-named place at about half-an-hour after leaving the Clifden road, it being about three and a half or four miles from it. By the time we reached Maam Hotel, it was quite dark ; and we were glad to accept of such hospitality as could be afforded by a house already full to overflowing with guests. We gave the preference to a back kitchen with a good fire, to an over-crowded parlour without : and we had much reason to congratulate ourselves on having made this choice, as well as on having met with so kind and good-tempered a host as we found in our land- lord Mr. O'Rourke. We made a capital dinner in VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAIN. 229 our humble chamber; and slept soundly, although our bed was on the floor. Maani Hotel is a solitary house, situated at the foot of the extreme north-western point of Lough Corrib, where it is entered by the small river of Bealnabrack, and close at the foot of the first range of mountains that constitute the Joyce country high- lands. This hotel was built by Ninimo, the en- gineer, for his own occupation; and it is now worthily tenanted by one who lived long with this man of genius, .and still venerates his memory. I got up at six o'clock, and climbed to the top of the mountain immediately behind the hotel. It is steep ; and the ascent is rendered more difficult and disagreeable by the wet, boggy nature of the super- ficial coating of turf spread over the rock which constitutes the mountain. Near the top we put up a pack of grouse. The morning was delightful, and the view from the summit was wildly picturesque, at least, if not highly beautiful. The whole landscape spread out before us consisted of a cluster of mountain tops, black and barren, rising up on every side in a hundred different shapes, without a tree, corn-field, or house, to soften its austerity. So far the view was dreary enough ; and in a dark day and under a clouded sky it might well convey some of its dreari- ness to the spectator's mind. But as I saw it under a cloudless sky, and bright in the sunshine, with a glimpse of a distant lake here and there in the 230 FEMALE GUIDE. valleys, and the full gleam of Lough Corrib at our feet, the effect was anything but gloomy ; on the contrary, it was both inspiring and inspiriting. In this ascent I had for my guide a little girl of fourteen, whom I met at a cabin door at the foot of the mountain. She was active, cheerful, and intel- ligent, and sprung up the rocks and over the bogs, with her bare feet, as nimbly and securely as a goat. I had a good deal of talk with her; and, child as she was, I could not help thinking that, in her little history and feelings, she afforded no bad illustration of the condition and mental wants of a large class of her countryfolk. She had lost both her father and mother several years ago, and had since been employed as a helper in several houses, — one a school, where she got her living and some education for her ser- vices. During the last year she had come to keep house for her two brothers in the cabin above men- tioned, they being both employed in the neigh- bourhood, one as an occasional servant, the other as a cowherd. Her housekeping consisted, almost exclusively of boiling potatoes and making stir- about, there being scarcely anything in the way of furniture to be kept in order. As her brothers were from home all day, her life was solitary enough ; and as she had no hopes here to cheer her, it was no wonder that she had longings to try her fortune elsewhere. It was, indeed, painfully obvious that the poor girl's whole mind was absorbed in dreams about THE LAND OF PROMISE. 231 England ; hoping, where there seemed no hope, of being able, somehow or other, to get there. Once there, she seemed to have no doubts or fears of suc- cess, although, poor thing, she had scarcely a notion as to how this success was to be obtained. Work- ing in the house or in the field seemed to Mary Halloran a matter of perfect indifference, so long as there was work, and work could bring her food and clothes, and the chance, if not the prospect, of better things. It was touching to see the keen, eager, yet sub- dued look of the poor girl, as she asked and spoke about England, clearly revealing the unexpressed half-hope within her, that she might possibly, even now, have found in her companion, a guide to her land of promise. Poor child, I wish it could have been so ! Few things are, at any time, more pain- ful than to reject the appeal of the poor man — " Who begs liis brother of the earth To give him leave to toil;" and the painfulness of rejection was enhanced, in the present case, by the youth and orphanage of the client, and by the very humility and diffidence which smothered in silence the longings of the heart. After breakfast we set out for Clifden, returning three or four miles on our path of last night, until we reached the main Clifden road. The day was beautiful throughout, and the journey a very pleasant one. We passed by the side of many pleasant lakes, the chief of which are Shindilla, Derry Clare, and -32 CONNEMARA STOCKINGS. Ballinaliincli. But for the lakes and the chain of mountains that bounded our path on the right hand, the whole way, the immediate district through which we travelled would have been dreary enough, as it consisted, for the most part, of wild moorland only. Houses and cottages were also rare ; and we saw a much smaller proportion of ruins than had bor- dered our path yesterday. Notwithstanding, however, the rarity of habitable houses on our immediate route, we had sufficient evidence that the land was not tenantless, in the number of young girls and children that beset our path at every spot where the horses relaxed their speed, offering for sale their beautiful Connemara stockings of every variety of hue — and more especially red. This seems the favorite colour in Connemara, as, from the time we left Galway until we reached Westport, we scarcely met with a woman who did not wear a bright red petticoat as her outer gar- ment. This costume, surmounted by a short tight jacket, with or without a bright-coloured shawl, looked remarkably well, and set off to great advantage the upright figures of the young women, who were at once the makers and the vendors of the stockings. This little traffic seemed, in Connemara, to have, in some measure, superseded direct begging ; although it was still customary for the running vendors to be attended by a train of youthful followers, who appeared to have no special hand in the commercial part of the transactions. THE TWELVE PINS. 233 A short time after we bad entered on the Clifden road vre came in sight of that singular and most beautiful group of mountains called the Twelve Pins (no doubt a corruption of Bins or Bens) of Binabola, which are said to occupy a space of twenty-five square miles. Nothing can exceed the picturesque beauty of these mountains, varying in their relative position to one another at every half-mile of road, yet never losing the peculiar charm which rivets the eye upon them. In one part of our journey we came close under the base of the southern slope of one of them, which presented to us a face of per- fectly bare rock, glittering in the sunshine. Although the range showed many more than twelve peaks, it was easy to reckon the twelve of superior dignity which give name to it. Being desirous of coming nearer to the coast, in order that we might visit the salmon fishery at the mouth of the Ballinahinch river, we again left the direct road to Clifden, passing to the south between the lakes of Derry Clare and Ballinahinch, and pro- ceeding onwards to the top of one of the many arms of Bctrachtboy or Birterbuy Bay, where the Balli- nahinch river joins the salt water. In making this detour we kept the lake and desmesne of Ballinahinch on our right hand, and on reaching the river skirted its banks closely till we reached the fishery. A little way from the point where we left the main road, we passed a very humble chapel by the road side, in which mass is occasionally said by a 234 THE FISHERY. neighbouring though distant priest. Adjoining this chapel, and concealed by a clump of trees, there is a small hut, like a hermit's cell, and tenanted by a man like a hermit. We paid this person a visit, and were not a little surprised to find in him a native of the south of Spain, who, through some odd accidents, had come to end his days in this wilder- ness. He called himself a monk, though he was not in holy orders ; and told us that he obtained his living solely from the gifts of the poor country people, while travelling about like a pilgrim among them. Though hermit-like in his abode and calling, he professed no austerity, and seemed to have acquired the light-heartedness of the people of his adopted land. There is a small hotel at the fishery, and a neat village, evidently of recent origin, whose situation, overlooking the river and the bay, is very pleasant. The salmon fishery is not very extensive, the export for the season being, at present, only about seven or eight tons : a few years since it was double this amount. The fish is exported in a boiled or cured state, in air-tight boxes of tin. The fish failing, the proprietor has taken to cure and preserve beef in the same manner ; and for this purpose they have killed about 200 bullocks during the season. The space occupied by the fishery ground is very small, scarcely half a mile in extent. They have known 150 salmon to be caught at one haul, the largest only weighing about 25 or 30 lbs. FRANCISCAN MONKS. 235 The road from the fishery, until we reached the southern arm of Ardbear bay, is almost a continuous moor, with very few habitations of any kind. From this point to Clifden, the country is more cultivated, and we have some pleasant views of the bay. About a mile before reaching Clifden we paid a visit to a small monastery of Franciscan monks — lay monks, I think they are, not priests. Their professed occupation, like that of the Christian Brothers, is education. They have a school for boys near their establishment, which is managed by one of the Brothers. The establishment is small and on a humble scale. One of the brothers very civilly showed us everything about it. It would appear that the Catholic Bishop of Tuam, Dr. M'Hale, had been making efforts to get the whole education of the people into the hands of priests or monks, and hence his hostility to the National Schools, and the encouragement in his diocese of such institutions as the present. There are nine other monasteries besides this in the diocese. We reached Clifden about five o'clock ; our post- boy and his spirited horses giving us much reason for being content with the engagement we had en- tered into at Galway : and I may add that the ex- perience of the subsequent day's long journey only strengthened our satisfaction. Our driver (a name- sake, by the way, though he did spell the ancient 23G ALLEGED TRAIT OF IRISH CHARACTER patronymic with an u, 1 ) was a good honest Milesian, a sound Catholic, and a sharp, clever, and light- hearted fellow, as, indeed, all his predecessors in our service had been. He was, moreover, as far as I could discover, a true and truth-speaking man, as they had proved also. The writing of these words brings to my mind an alleged trait of the Irish people which, if it be true, must be allowed to cast no slight stain on the national character. The alleged trait is no less than this : — the want of truthfulness in speech ; in plain language, story-telling ; in yet plainer language, lying- It is certainly a subject of common belief in England, that the Irish are more addicted to this vice than either of their half-brothers, the English or Scotch. I must declare that ray own limited experience, previously to visiting Ireland, gave no [' Private Memorandum for the benefit of The For-bes-es of England : To consider whether the driver's mode of spelling his name (Forbus) might not be advantageously introduced, with the view of banishing that monosyllabic horror (Forbs, usually pronounced Phoabs) now inflicted, by way of name, on the members of the clan in England. As evidence to the Suthron of the right way of pro- nouncing the name (Forbes — F6r-bes), I quote the following high authorities : " For loyal Forbes' chartered boast Is ta'en awa'." — Burns. " Scarce had lamented Forbes paid His tribute to the Minstrel's shade." Walter Scott.] NOT FOUNDED ON FACT. 237 sanction to my belief in the truth of this charge ; and I am happy in being able to say, now that I have visited Ireland, that the charge appears to me founded, in a great measure, on a mis- conception. I am ready to admit that I have often heard Irishmen say the thing that was not ; oftener, certainly, than I have heard Englishmen or Scotsmen say it ; but I cannot, on my own authority, accuse them of telling a downright inten- tional lie more frequently than other people. An Irishman's slips are more the sudden expression of emotional feeling than lies — bounces, white-lies, at most : they spring from the same intellectual source as his wit, his bulls, and his fun, and have a close alliance with the quick geniality and kindness of his heart. His impulsive nature makes him speak before he has had time to think, and hence he often speaks wrong ; his eager desire to oblige, to assent, to favour, overpowers for the moment the perception or recollec- tion of all opposing facts ; and hence he often says yes when he should say no, or no when he should say yes. But give Paddy time to think, and to be- come calm, and to bridle his fancy, and he will speak as truly and wisely as another man ; when the froth has had time to subside, the genuine liquor will be found below. I can, at least, say that 1 have prac- tically found this to be the case; and I propound my theory with confidence, as one capable of wash- ing out this blot, at hast, from poor Paddy's e8cutchi o . • an ' 1 sometimes 238 A THEORETICAL EXPLANATION. does tell downright, intentional, motived lies, which no theory but that of cowardice or wickedness can explain, is, no doubt, too true ; that he does so more frequently than other men I can neither of my own knowledge assert or deny ; but I honestly believe that the chief' part of his alleged misdoings in this way — that part which has attached to him the evil reputation he bears — may be easily and justly ex- plained, and explained away, on the simple psyco- logical hypothesis given above. CHAPTER X. CLIFDEN. Clifden is a comparatively new town, having been entirely planned and built within these forty years : it still preserves many of the characters of its recent origin, in the want of those marks of dilapidation or decay, which are, more or less, observable in all old towns. It was created by Mr. D'Arcy, the former proprietor of Clifden Castle, and a large part of the neighbouring district, whose property has recently passed from the hands of his descendants through the operation of the Encum- bered Estates' Act. Clifden Castle is now the property of another; but Mr. D'Arcy's name and the memory of his enterprising and public spirit will surely long survive in Counemara. The singular rapidity of the early growth of Clifden is shown by the fact that in 1831 (less than twenty years from its foundation) it had already attained a population of 1257. Since then, its increase has been much slower, though it has still been progressive ; the census of 1811 giving a popu- ~iO CLIFDEN. lation of 1509, and that of 1851 a population of 1602. Clifden is beautifully situated on a ridge over- looking the bay of Ardbear on the one hand, and overlooked, on the other, by the majestic summits of the ever-charming Biuabola Pins. From the high grounds in its vicinity there is a full view of the Atlantic, as well as of the innumerable sea-inlets that break through and enclasp the land on all sides with their glittering arms. There is, indeed, some- thing singularly pleasing in the landscape all around, particularly in that hilly ridge which looks along the bay of Ardbear, and commands the view of the wide Atlantic beyond it. Although I hardly know in what the charm consists, I have certainly seen no spot in Ireland wdiich, from the attractive- ness of mere locality, would claim my suffrage, as a place of residence, so entirely as Clifden. Over and above its scenic beauties, its position is such as to ensure for it every terrestrial and climatorial condi- tion that is found most conducive to health. Oughterard and Clifden being distinguished stations of that active agency, recently established in Ireland, with the view of converting the Roman Catholics to Protestantism, we were naturally led, on coming into the district, to pay particular atten- tion to this matter of proselytism, its actual state and its extant results. Here, as on so many other occasions, I had much cause for regretting that the rapid nature of my journey did not allow me to in- PROSELYTISM. 241 vestigate, in any formal manner, this very important movement. In respect to it I shall, therefore, be obliged, in a great measure, to content myself with a simple detail of the few particulars that came to my own knowledge, and with some of the statements and opinions I obtained from my intercourse with different persons in the district. But to make even this little intelligible, it will be necessary to say a few words respecting the nature and progress of the agencies by which the present state of things, what- ever it may be, has been brought about. In every point of view, whether regarded from the side of Protestantism or Catholicism, or whether its final result be success or failure, this movement is one that cannot fail greatly to influence, in one way or other, the future moral and social condition of the Irish people. Although there has always been an anxious desire on the part of the Protestants, both of Ireland and England, to convert the Irish Catholics to Pro- testantism, it is only within a comparatively short period that this desire has assumed a fixed shape, and an energetic action. In any formal attempt to trace the history of the agencies employed with a view to such conversion, it would be necessary to include all the Societies instituted by Pro- testants for the more ostensible purpose of Edu- cation. As, however, I have merely in view, at present, the more active proceedings in this way, that have taken place recently in the west of Ireland, If, 242 PROTESTANT SOCIETIES. I shall content myself with giving in this place the mere titles of most of those societies. Another opportunity may probably be found for taking notice of them in their educational relations. I place them in the order of their foundation : — 1. The Sunday School Society for Ireland ; Dublin, 1810. 2. Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in Ireland, commonly known by the name of the Kildare- Street Society; Dublin, 1812. 3. The Irish Society for promoting the Scriptural Education and Religious Instruction of the Native Irish, through the medium of their own language; Dublin, 1818. 4. The Irish Society of London ; with precisely the same objects as the Dublin Society ; London, 1822. 5. The Church Education Society for Ireland; Dublin, 1839. 6. The Society for Irish Church Missions to the lloman Catholics; London, 1846 — re-constituted, 1849. Although, as already stated, I wish to confine my observations chiefly to Galway and the west of Ireland, and to the operations of the last-mentioned society, it would be unjust to the " Irish Society" not to state that it had taken a most active part in the conversion-movement long before the Church Mission Society was in existence. This will be obvious from the following extract from one of its recent publications ; which extract, moreover, dis- closes a very singular and, as it would seem, a very effective mode of carrying out its objects : — " A proper person was, in the first instance, employed to IRISH CHURCH MISSION SOCIETY. 213 seek for individuals, in a particular district, who were competent to teach the primer of the Irish language. In order to avoid exciting the notice of the priests, there were no schoolroom, no tables, no benches, no apparatus, no regular collection of scholars. The teachers were engaged to instruct their neighbours when and how they could, by day or by night, at home or abroad, sitting under the haystack, or upon the wild mountain side ; and they were furnished with elementary books and portions of Scripture for the purpose. At the end. of three or four months an inspection by the person who engaged them took place; and the teachers were paid a sum, usually one shilling per head, for each pupil passing this inspection." It is added — "Within two years this system so far succeeded that many thousands had learned to read the Scriptures in their own lan- guage." The great object of the " Society for Irish Church Missions" was declared to be — "to promote Church Missions to the Roman Catholics of Ireland; the chief attention being directed to the English-speaking population, except in the Missions to Galway, and except in such districts as may not be occupied by the Irish Society." Since its establishment it has shown wonderful activity, and may be said to have already outstripped all its predecessors and contem- poraries. It appears from its last report, that in the year 1851 it expended upwards of 11,700/. in carry- ing out its objects : and the following is given as the 244 CONVERTS TO PROTESTANTISM. state of its operative means in June, 1852 : — Missions, 23 ; stations, 70 ; schools, 69 ; ordained missionaries, 30; lay agents, 18; Scripture readers, 147; schoolmasters, 60; schoolmistresses, 32. I cannot obtain from the publications of the Society any positive statistics as to the amount of conversion from Catholicism effected by it, beyond what is supplied by the following statements, taken from one of the publications, of date November, 1852:— " The Bishop of Tuam, in October, 1849, con- firmed 401 converts; in September, 1851, he con- firmed 712 converts ; in July and August, 1852, he confirmed 535 converts, making a total of 1648 In the district of West Galway, there are now between 5000 and 6000 converts in connection with this Society . . . Nearly 5000 children of converts or Romanists daily attend the Scriptural schools of the Society." Although well aware, as already remarked, of the great conversion-movement in this part of Ireland, and consequently not disposed to overlook a matter so interesting and important, it is nevertheless true, that its existence would have been hardly revealed to me by anything that fell under my own imme- diate observation as I passed through the country. Everything that I saw and heard indicated the presence of the same Catholic people and the same Catholic institutions which I had seen hitherto in every district, town, and village, visited by me in ALLEGED EXTENT OF CONVERSION. 2 15 Ireland. I saw and heard very little more of Protestants or Protestantism than elsewhere, except I made special inquiries of those specially interested in the question. This struck me the more forcibly, from the fact of my being previously acquainted with the statistical statements given above, and because I had read, in one of the publications of the So- ciety, the following announcement : — " The Society's missions in West Galway have been the means of rendering a district, extending fifty miles in breadth, characteristically Protestant, which, but a few years ago, ivas characteristically Romish." Without attempting to call in question the accuracy of the statistics given by the Society, as quoted above, — though all statisticians know the danger of dealing with round numbers — I must take the liberty of saying, that the statement just quoted in italics must be regarded rather as the expression of an amiable and sanguine enthusiasm, commingling the hopes of the future with the over-appreciation of the present, than as the sober definition of a reality. Even if the statistics were rigidly accurate, and we were to take for granted that the number of actual converts was 5000 or 6000, how could we distribute such a small number as this over a space of fifty miles, so as to give the district the character attributed to it in our italics ? or how could we reconcile this statement with the actual population of the district? I do not know how large a portion of the county of Galway may be comprehended in 246 PROTESTANT SCHOOLS. the fifty miles mentioned, but it must be a con- siderable portion ; as I see by the Gazetteer that its greatest length is only eighty miles; its greatest breadth forty-two and a half; and its smallest breadth thirteen and a half; while by the last census it shows a population of no less than 298,564. The statement seems equally at variance with what I have just noticed as the general aspect hitherto presented to us by the people of the country, and seems in no way borne out by our subsequent experience. There is a very good National school-house at Clifden ; but it is now shut up. It was, indeed, never properly opened, although a mistress taught a girl's school in it for a short time. The cause of its being abandoned was said to be the former hostility of the Catholic Bishop of Tuam (the celebrated Dr. M'Hale), to the National school system. I found the effect of this hostility elsewhere; though it is now said that the Bishop is again partially reconciled to lay schools, as well as to the system of Father Mathew, to which also this narrow-minded prelate was at one time much opposed. I visited two of the Protestant Mission schools at Clifden, one in the town, and the other about a mile and a half beyond the town, on the road leading to the mouth of the bay. In the former, at the time of my visit, there were about 120 boys and 100 girls on the books, the average attendance being about 80. Out of the 80 girls there were no less than 56 orphaus, PROBATIONARY SCHOOLS. 247 all of whom are fed and clothed out of the school- funds, and a large proportion provided with lodgings also. Only two of these girls were children of Pro- testant parents j and in the boys' school there was only one born of parents originally Protestant. In the girls' school there were, I think, about 25 who are the children of converts, the great majority being either the children of Catholic parents still living, or orphans of parents of the same religion. I forget the precise relations of the boys in these respects, but I think there were about 25 whose parents are Catholics. Of this school, the master and mistress are Scotch, having only been at Clifden about nine months. The master's salary is only 40/. At the probationary girls' school there were 76 on the books, at the time of my visit, their ages varying from eight to eighteen years. They are all Catholics, or children of Catholic parents ■ and out of the number no fewer than 40 are orphans. All the children at this school receive daily rations of Indian meal ; 45 of them lib., and the remainder, half that quantity. Whether this is exclusive of the stirabout breakfast I saw preparing for them in the school, I forgot to ask. All the children of these schools read the Scriptures and go to the Protestant church, Catholic and Protestant alike. I was told at the school that, out of 10 converted children between the ages of 1 1 and 18, confirmed by the Protestant bishop some time since, only one has "jumped" back to Catholicism. 248 SCHOOLS. The chief agent in the work of conversion going on in Clifdcn is the Rev. Hyacinth D'Arcy, the English clergyman of the place, the son of the former proprietor of Clifdcn Castle and the sur- rounding district. He bears a most excellent character in the place ; and seems to direct the same amount of energy towards what he considers the moral and religious regeneration of the people, as his father directed towards their economical welfare and the physical improvement of the soil. His paternal mansion is now evidently in the hands of one of the other faith, as one sees, in passing by it, an im- mense cross displayed in the centre of the grounds, as a sort of manifesto against the new doctrines so rife around it. On the summit of a hill, between Clifden Castle and the town, there is a portion of an obelisk erected to the memory of the late proprietor, the creator of Clifden. It never was completed ; surely, to the great discredit of a community so vastly indebted to this noble-spirited man. I also visited a private Catholic school in Clifden, containing about GO pupils, in which number there were two Protestants. It is not a Charity, the master being remunerated by the quarterly fees of the pupils. No religious instruction is given during school hours ; but the catechism is taught every morning. The quality of the instruction given seemed good, and the results creditable to both the master and pupils. UNION WORKHOUSE. 249 There is a fine Union "Workhouse near Clifden, which I visited. At the time of my visit there were 840 inmates, the great majority being women and children. Out of the whole number there were only ten Protestants. The master, like all the masters of Unions I have seen in Ireland, was a very active and intelligent man. He had been in the situation four or five years, and never had so few in the house on any previous occasion. In June, 1851, they had 3600 persons on their books, and he is sure that among these there were not more than 30 or 40 Protestants. I see by the official reports that the total number of persons relieved in this Union was : Years. In-door. Outdoor. In 1850 6753 In 1851 0744 13,590 446 At the time of my visit there were 57 persons in the Infirmary and 12 in the Fever Hospital. The dietary was here nearly the same as already mentioned in other workhouses : viz. for breakfast, 8 oz. of Indian meal made into stirabout with water and half-a-pint of new milk ; for dinner, 16 oz. of rye bread and two pints of vegetable soup made with oatmeal. The rye bread, though sound enough, was very heavy and by no means palatable. All persons in the house capable of work, are constantly so em- ployed. Here, as in all the other Unions I have yet 250 WORKHOUSE SCHOOLS. visited, there is a Catholic and Protestant chaplain, who attend regularly their respective flocks. In the schools I found GO boys and 240 girls, all neatly dressed and all carefully disciplined and taught. Among the 210 girls there was only one Protestant, and not one among the boys. Here, as in all the other Unions, the children have an extra allowance for supper : the extras, in the present case, consisting of 4 oz. of rye bread. The schools in this workhouse are in connection with and under the direction of the National Board; an arrangement which ensures good teaching and good discipline. In the official return for the first half-year of 1850, the number of children in the schools of this workhouse was 496, viz. 230 boys and 260 girls; and in the return for September 1851, the number was 766, viz. 337 boys and 429 girls. I do not know how it happens that the present number of boys is so small in proportion to that of the girls. In visiting the Clifden schools, and still more in visiting the workhouse, I was necessarily struck with the very small proportion of Protestants in them, considering that this town is justly regarded as one of the chief centres of the proselytising movement. Surely if the general population of the district was so characteristically Protestant, as the good mission- aries believe, we ought to find a larger proportion of the workhouse inmates belonging to the new religion. As we have seen that there is a Protestant as well CONVERSIONS. 251 as a Catholic chaplain belonging to the establish- ment, there would appear no sufficient grounds for supposing that the converts, if they existed, might be concealing their religion. Of course, no one will imagine that, in the admission of claimants for relief, any preference of the professors of one religion, could have been shown by the Guardians. Being thus brought back to the matter of Conversion, I will here put down, almost at random, some additional memorandums on the subject, chiefly derived from persons with whom I conversed in Clifden or its neighbourhood. It is but fair to state that my conversation on these matters was chiefly, though by no means exclusively, with Catho- lics, — and for the simple and obvious reason that, in a district essentially Catholic (as I still think it), persons of this class must be the individuals with whom a stranger must come mainly into contact. 1 The fact of conversions having taken place, to a greater or less extent, throughout this part of the country, was admitted by all; but the evidence varied extremely as to the probable number of converts — or "Jumpers," as they are invariably called by the Catholics. All admitted, also, that the conversion- movement originated in the year of famine ; and the Catholics attributed its entire success to the relief ' Perhaps it may lie well to state, tliat 1 did Dot bring a single introduction with me into Ireland, my intention and desire being chiefly to communicate with those who required no such passport to their presence — the lower and the middle class of persons — cotters, labourers, artisans, farmers, shopkeepers, pri( 252 IRISH ORPHANS. then and subsequently afforded to the physical wants of the population by Protestants and Pro- testant institutions. They also asserted that many of their poor brethren who had been seduced (as they expressed it) by the temptation of food and clothing to join the ranks of the Protestants, had again seceded from them, since the return of better times : and the belief seemed general among the Catholics that if the country were to become prosper- ous, so that the labouring class could feel themselves independent of charity, the greater portion of the so- called converts would return to the mother Church. An intelligent Catholic schoolmaster, however, thought it most probable that a considerable number of the children would adhere to the Protestant religion. Indeed, I should think this adherence might be fairly predicated of almost all the children who are orphans : and this unfortunate class con- stitutes a larger proportion among the children of the poor in Ireland, at this time, than probably can be found in any other country. A respectable man in Clifden, connected with one of the principal agents in the Reformation- movement, and evidently having a leaning towards it, though still a Catholic himself, gave it as his opinion, that from 300 to 400 adults had been con- verted in the town and throughout the two large adjoining parishes of Omay and Ballindoon (contain- ing together, according to the last census, a popula- tion of 1 0,933,) during the last five years. The same THE CONVERSION MOVEMENT. 253 person expressed himself as confident that out of the numerous children admitted into the Protestant schools in Clifden alone, fifty, at least, would have died of actual starvation but for the relief afforded to them in these schools. In the same missionary document quoted from above, it is stated that in addition to the five or six thousand converts, " nearly 5000 children of converts or Romanists daily attend the Scriptural schools of the society." It would be interesting to know what was the relative proportion of the two classes of children. Judging from the few positive statistics I was myself able to obtain (manifestly too few), it might be inferred that the great majority of these children are not only the children of Catholic parents, but are in no other way Protestants except as attend- ing such schools, and a certain portion of them going to the Protestant Church. I learnt from various quarters, and from the Catholic parents of some of the children themselves, that they permitted their children to join these schools chiefly for the sake of the food and clothing supplied to them. They also regarded it as an additional advantage that their children were receiving education : both advantages together they seemed to regard as sufficiently great to justify them in exposing their children to the risks of proselytism. I was told by one of the teachers in a Mission school of some instances where the children of Catholics, after being trained for some time in the 254 SCRIPTURE READERS. schools, had been the means of converting their parents ; but I suppose such instances must be rare, as I was not able to ascertain the fact personally, and as it was denied by others in the same place, of whom I made inquiry. As far as I could learn, the heat and bitterness produced by the active labours of the Reformers, had of late rather subsided than increased, notwithstand- ing the unabated zeal of the Missions. This result was attributed to the fact of the people getting habituated to the agitation. I heard more than one Catholic, however, com- plain a good deal of the annoyance of the domiciliary visits of the Scripture readers ; and one Protestant inhabitant in a country-district near Clifden, accused these young men of being often deficient both in courtesy and good sense, in their dealings with the poor people in their own houses. Their zeal, he said, greatly exceeded their knowledge and far out- ran their discretion. This account seems probable enough, when we consider that many of these readers are young lads, the children of the poor, educated in these very schools. I was informed that they receive from seven to ten shillings weekly for their labours ; but I had this from no sufficient authority to justify me in stating it as a fact. I had a short conversation in Clifden with a youth of fourteen, who was then attending the head Mission School, and expected soon to be promoted to the office of Header. He seemed elated at his RELIGIOUS CONTENTION. 255 prospects, and was evidently very zealous in the cause he was about to advocate. One of this boy's parents was a Catholic, the other a Protestant. By way of testing his knowledge, in a small way, I asked him what was the difference between the old and the new systems ; when he replied instantly, " The one teaches religion by the Scriptures, the other by the Priests," — certainly a very clever and characteristic answer. As might be supposed, the priests, and the Catholics generally, spoke very slightingly of the Reformation-movement, calling the creed of the converts " the Stirabout creed," and themselves " Jumpers ;" and denouncing the system altogether as one of seduction and bribery, not of legitimate conversion on rational grounds. They seemed to think the contest altogether unfair and unmanly, conducted, as it was, under such unequal odds on the part of their opponents. I give no opinion on the subject ; but I presume that in this as in other wars, the belligerents are not expected to be over-nice in the choice of their weapons. The fight, as the Catholics say, is certainly not a fair one according to pugilistic law, or the law of the Duello ; but it is in perfect accordance with military law, which authorises the contending parties to bring into the field whatever amount and kind of force they choose. There is only one disadvantage attendant on the use of the "stirabout" weapons em- ployed by the missionaries — viz. the handle it gives 256 RELIGION OF THE YELLOW STICK. the enemy to maintain, even if conquered, that they are defeated by carnal, not by spiritual weapons. And so they say now ; loudly asseverating that, on equal terms, they would assuredly be the victorious party. It is, however, a great thing for the missionaries to be able to reply, that if they employ weapons of flesh, these very weapons are hallowed by the fact of their being authorised and even enjoined by humanity and benevolence. It is the bounden duty of Christian men to feed the hungry and to clothe the naked ; and if, in fulfilling this duty, they have an ulterior object, also good, surely they merit a double com- mendation instead of blame. It must, however, be admitted that there is some force in the arguments of the Catholics ; and that the triumph of the Protestants, if they are to triumph, would be purer, grander, and more decisive, if they could boast that their victory was the exclu- sive result of the goodness of their cause and their own personal prowess. At present they certainly give nearly as good grounds to their enemies for bestowing on Protestantism the nickname of " The Stirabout Creed," as the honest Laird of Rum, in olden times, gave to his Catholic subjects for bestowing on it the nickname of the " Religion of the Yellow Stick." I give the history of this tran- saction in Dr. Johnson's own words : — " The Rent of Rum is not great. Mr. Maclean declared that he should be very rich if he could set his land at twopence-halfpenny an acre. The inhabitants are RELIGION OF THE YELLOW STICK. 257 fifty-eight families, who continued Papists for some time after the laird became a Protestant. Their adherence to their old religion was strengthened by the countenance of the laird's sister, a zealous Romanist, till one Sunday as they were going to mass under the conduct of their patroness, M aclean met them on the way, gave one of them a blow on the head with a yellow stick, I suppose a cane, for which the Erse had no name, and drove them to the kirk, from which they have never since departed. Since the use of this method of conversion, the in- habitants of Egg and Canna, who continued Papists, call the Protestantism of Rum, the religion of the Yellow Stick." 1 It will probably appear to both the parties con- cerned in this religious crusade, that, in the pre- ceding statements, I have shown myself honest overmuch. If I had taken up the part of a zealous partisan instead of that of a calm observer, I would, no doubt, have given a certain degree of satisfaction to the side on which I had marshalled my forces, however -weak and insignificant they might be. As it is, I shall probably displease both. I shall, however, have the comfort of knowing that I have not, even here, deviated from that rule of rigid impartiality which 1 had laid down, from the beginning, as my guide and director in observing and judging of Ireland, of Irish men, and of Irish tilings. 1 Johnson's Tour to the Wi L775.) 17 258 IMPARTIALITY. Iii the position in which I purposely placed myself during this journey, even religion itself — or, rather, its two dominant forms, Catholicism and Protestantism — were to be viewed, not in reference to their essential and relative truth or value, but in regard to their relations to men's opinions and feelings, to the conditions of social life, to human liberty and progress, and to rational government : that is to say, in those relations in which alone it is the duty of a government to regard them. It may be admitted, that in some of these rela- tions, Protestantism has an advantage over its rival : but the amount and value of this advantage will be very differently appreciated by different parties ; and to those who do not consider it as immense, it will appear unjustifiable to seek to attain it at the risk of the comfort or peace of a nation which is pro- foundly devoted to Catholicism, proud of its peculiar doctrines, and happy in the practices they enjoin. Therefore it is, that while doing full justice to the motives which animate the missionaries in their exertions to convert the Catholics ; and while ac- knowledging their object to be, according to their views, most praiseworthy j I have not been able to regard their proceedings with any more favorable bias, than the proceedings of the Catholics in re- sisting them. CHAPTER XL COX XE MAR A WESTPORT. We left Clifden in the forenoon to pursue our journey through the northern districts of Connemara to "Westport. The weather still continued fine, and enabled us to see, now at a distance, now nearer, during the first half of our journey, our old and dear friends the twelve peaks of Binabola. The whole tract through which we passed, a distance of at least thirty Irish miles, may be generally characterised as moorland, bog, and mountain, the general wildness and barrenness being only broken here and there by isolated patches of cultivation j and yet it is here, strange to say, that so many of the English colonists have chosen to settle, as if they were ambitious of showing that resolution, when aided by money, can triumph over every disadvantage both of soil and climate. Perhaps I ought to except from this general charg< of barrenness a portion, at least, of the first six or seven miles out of Clifden, which were not only better cultivated, but were pleasingly diversified with views of the inlets or bays, along whose heads we travelled. This locality may be now regarded as partly "planted " by Englishmen. First we passed 260 RECLAMATION 01' WASTE LAND. close on the left-hand side of the road, the new- house and new farm of Mr. Butler, with its neat new r church opposite, and where fencing and draining and bog-paring were seen going on all around with much activity. Immediately beyond Mr. Butler's are two or three more settlements, on one of which a new house is still under the builder's hands. Then, after an interval of bog, w'e came to a sort of strag- gling village, containing a grand new shop, built and endowed by Mr. Ellis, and which is the wonder and the comfort of all the country round. It is a perfect storehouse of all kinds of necessaries, — all I believe, of the best sort, and all transferable to the uses of the community at the lowest possible scale of prices. Further on we came to Mr. Ellis's own demesne ; and as his house and school are only a very short distance off the road, we paid them both a visit, the schoolmaster informing us that Mr. Ellis is kind enough to see any passing stranger that may call upon him. The little farm of Mr. Ellis is sur- rounded by moors and barren hills, and was, indeed, only four years since, nothing but a barren moor itself. By indefatigable and continuous exertions, and a great expenditure of money, Mr. Ellis has converted this wild spot, if not to a paradise, cer- tainly to a cultivated, fertile-seeming, English- looking homestead, — a green smiling island amid the dark desert of moors and bogs around it. In accomplishing this great work, this benevolent and noble-minded man, a worthy member of the Society THE PHILANTHROPIST. 201 of Friends,) achieved a triumph of another kind, and yet greater : he saved a whole population from utter ruin, nay, from death itself. I was told by a gentleman on the spot, that but for the constant employment, and its accompaniment, constant and liberal pay, scores of the poor people in these secluded valleys must of necessity have sunk from mere starvation. Even now, Mr. Ellis's works supply the staple support of the labouring class in the district, as, at this very time he constantly employs about sixty persons on his farm, and in breaking up fresh moors to add to it. Mr. Ellis's own abode, a neat house in the English cottage style, is prettily situated on a gentle elevation at the mountain's base, and commands, what cannot fail to be a delightful view to himself, the whole of the conquests achieved by him over his wild and stubborn enemy, the primeval bog. To complete his bounties to the poor of this valley, Mr. Ellis has built a school at his own ex- pense, and pays the whole outlay for keeping it up in full efficiency, including the salaries of an English master and mistress. It is a neat building of two stories, the one floor being set apart for the boys' and the other for the girls' school. At the time of my visit there were nearly 60 boys in the school and 32 girls, the whole number of girls on the books being about 40. There was not one Protestant in either school. The boys' s (: i 1( ,(,i is conducted precisely on the 26.2 SOCIAL ECONOMICS. principle of the British and Foreign schools in the Borough Road, London. The girls, in addition to book-learning and writing, are carefully taught sewing and the other mysteries of the needle ; and for this purpose remain at school from half-past nine in the morning to half-past five in the afternoon, an interval being, of course, allowed for play and food. I remarked that the boys were more ragged, and altogether less neatly dressed than in most of the National Schools I had visited, and was told that this was the result of principle on the part of Mr. Ellis, he deeming it unsuitable to hold out any mere physical lure to attract children to the school, and wishing to encourage the parents to make an effort to clothe their families out of their own earnings. Ragged as they were, however, they were fully a match, in point of learning, for the boys of any school I had yet seen in Ireland. Their feats in mental arithmetic were really alarming to men accustomed to do their little rec- konings in pen and ink; and were enough to frighten from their ancient haunts, if any still lingered there, all the elves and fairies and brownies of the Malloge Mountain, at whose base they were performed. The aspect of the girls' school was very different, and seemed to whisper the secret that the womanly care that presided here was not so rigid, at least, in the matter of political economy, as was the masculine authority ; the girls being all extremely neat and well dressed, with a great array of charming white pina- fores. However, it appeared, that even Mrs. Ellis MR. ELLIS'S SCHOOL. 263 was not altogether regardless of social economics, as she made the children buy the main parts of their dress out of their own earnings with the needle, she only supplying, from her own private stores, the pina- fores aforesaid. On the whole, looking on this scene in all its varied relations, I doubt if I found anything in Ireland more delightful — more especially as there was added to its intrinsic attractions the enhancing charm of unexpectedness. If I might be forgiven for touching, however slightly, on what ought always to be sacred in a traveller's eyes, the Lares of the kind hosts who receive and succour him, I would add that I was almost as much surprised and gratified at what met my eye and ear in the interior of Mr. Ellis's cottage, as I was by the metamorphosis which his enterprising philanthropy had worked on the scenes around it. In the crowded haunts of civilisation, whether in town or country, we are prepared for and expect all the high conditions of social and intellectual refinement ; but " in deserts where no men abide," as may almost be said of this locality, such things strike us with a sort of wonder : unreasonably, no doubt ; for men and women of cultivated minds, and long accustomed to the elegancies of civilised life, cannot leave be- hind them, with change of scene, what has in fact become a portion of themselves. Before taking leave of Mr. ESllifl and liis school, I must relate a little anecdote connected with it, as, besides the fact it displays, 1 think it illustrates very 264 PASS OF KYLKMORE. well Low careful travellers, as well as all other in- quirers ought to be, not to give positive statements on second-hand evidence only. At the hotel at Clifden, on the preceding evening, a gentleman mentioned it as a curious fact, related to him by an eye-witness, that the children brought up in Mr. Ellis's school, though carefully kept from receiving any religious instruction or even from reading the Bible, should still present even more of religious partisan feeling, than children educated in all the exclusiveness of one sect only. As evidencing this sectarian feeling, it was stated that the children of the two creeds had been seen respectively to hoot and hiss clergymen of the opposite creed that happened to be passing through their village. It will be seen from the account given above of Mr. Ellis's schools, that both the alleged facts are false, there being only one creed among the children of the school, and the Scriptures being read there ! Shortly after leaving Mr. Ellis's farm, we en- tered more completely into the region of mountains, and soon came into the Vale or Pass of Kylemore, with its river and its lakes. In the entrance to this valley we saw another English settlement, that of Mr. Eastman, who has, like Mr. Ellis, reclaimed a large tract of land of the most unpromising kind. He has also built a large house on his property, but the site seemed to us bad ; the house looking, from the road, as if it were crammed into a corner at the very base of the mountain. THE KILLERIES. 265 The -valley contracting as we advanced, we first came upon the banks of a river constituting the outlet of Kylemore Lough, and then upon the banks of the lough itself. This lake, filling up, as it does, the whole space between two parallel ranges of lofty and almost perpendicular mountains, not more than half a mile apart, and extending nearly three miles in length, is one of the most romantic and beautiful pieces of water in all Ireland ; and taken with all its accompaniments, is not excelled, in point of grandeur and picturesqueness, even by Killamey itself. The mountains on either side rise to an im- mense height, Gurraun on the north to 1973 and Bencullagh and Benbawn on the south to more than 2000 feet ; and the slopes of these mountains are covered with the most luxuriant woods and coppices. The flanks of the Gurraun mountain on the north side, at whose base the road runs, are exceedingly steep and rocky, and the trees and shrubs which line them are disposed in the most beautiful and romantic manner. Beyond the Pass of Kylemore the road still con- tinues through a most wild and barren tract, but redeemed from tameness by the noble mountains rising up and filling the horizon in all directions. Iloundiug the base of one of these, we suddenly came in sight of Killcry harbour, or The Killeries, as the place is usually named, a scene which in grandeur and beauty may almost compete with Kylemore. It is an arm of the sea running up full ten miles into 266 LEENANE. the centre of a mountainous region, almost as narrow as Kylemore Lough, and like it completely surrounded and overhung by lofty mountains. Among these is the grand Muilrea, seen towering up right in our front to the height of near 3000 feet. The moun- tains more immediately bordering the lake are devoid of wood, and have slopes much less pre- cipitous than those of Kylemore, at least on its northern side ; and in this respect they want some of the traits of beauty which are so charming in that glen. The road on reaching the Killery lake turns directly eastward along its banks, but at a sufficient elevation to command a splendid view of its great longitudinal range, and its singular environment by its mountainous girdle. Proceeding in this direction three or four miles, we reached the extremity of the lake, and then turning abruptly round, soon arrived at the half-way house or halting place of Leenane, situated at the junction between the road we had come and the direct road from Maam. We found several carriages and cars at the small inn, their occupants, like ourselves, waiting for the feeding of their horses. There was, consequently, a considerable number of persons congregated ; and among the rest, of course, the omnipresent police, always in order themselves, and with gentleness keeping order in others. They have a station here. At the inn-door, among the rest was a blind old Irish piper, seated on a stool, doing his best to DANCING — POLICE BEGGARS. 267 amuse the company, with some of the melodies of his country, of which he was certainly no mean exponent. After a time the piper began playing jigs ; and a dance was immediately got up, first by a young woman and an old woman, and then by the young woman and our Galway driver, an active young fellow. He danced zealously and well ; but the young woman acquitted herself incomparably. It is but speaking the simple truth in regard to the performance of this young woman, to say, that it possessed every charm that an elegant and graceful carriage and the most thorough command over all the varied movements of the dance could give it. If she has not been long and strictly drilled in her vocation, she must have been born Avith all the apti- tudes of original genius in this harmonious art. It was really wonderful to see how perfect her execu- tion was, on her rough platform, and with her naked feet; though I cannot but think that the naked- ness of the feet added not a little to the charm of the whole. There were a good many beggars here, as might be expected from the aptitude of the locality for the exercise of their functions, and from the existence of the numerous poor cottages scattered around. As usual, the police were vigilant to prevent annoyance, but tender in the exercise of their authority and not over-rigid in enforcing obedience. They presented to us here the same fine soldier-like aspect which 208 TIIK CONSTABULARY FORCE. had struck us everywhere, as avcII as the courtcous- uess, gentleness, and propriety of demeanour which appear to be the invariable characteristics of this invaluable body of men. All travellers have been struck with the fine qualities of the constabulary force in Ireland. For my own part, looking at them in their mere physical aspect, I cannot help regarding them as the finest body of men, of equal numbers, ever brought together. They are, I believe, the picked men of Ireland ; and being so, I verily believe it scarcely an exaggeration to say that they are also the picked men of mankind. They are not merely all tall, well-grown, and muscular, but they are almost all (I really think, judging from my own observation, I might say all,) well-knit, of fine car- riage, and of handsome countenances. 1 Most of them, to be sure, have the bloom of unsullied youth and health in their favour, which no ordinary regi- ment can be expected to possess ; but still, making all due allowance for this, their claims to superiority in the physical conditions mentioned, must still, I 1 Sir Francis Head, who had accession to official documents, gives (Fortnight in Ireland, p. 44,) the following as the actual heights of the whole force : Height. Ft. Id. 6 3 and upwards No. of Men. 23 Height. Ft. In. 5 11 and upwards No. of Men. 1794 6 2 ,, 1G1 5 10 „ 2921 6 1 ,, 506 5 9 „ 4623 6 j> 1104 5 8 „ 1518 ITS NUMBERS AND PAY. 269 think, be conceded. And all that we have heard of the general conduct of this body of men, would seem to entitle them to an almost equal praise for their moral qualities : at least, they have ever borne, and continue still to bear, the highest character for general good behaviour and efficiency in the per- formance of their important duties. The following was the state of this Force on the 1st of July, 1851, according to the return made to the House of Commons : 1 inspector-general ; 2 deputy inspectors-general ; 2 assistant inspectors- general ; 1 receiver ; 1 surgeon ; 1 veterinary sur- geon; 17 paymasters; 71 magistrates; 35 county inspectors; 246 sub-inspectors; 334 head constables; 171G constables; 355 acting constables; 9674 sub- constables. Total of all ranks, 12,38s. 1 There are 352 horses belonging to the corps. The total ex- penditure of this body during the year 1850, was 562,183/. 14s. Q\d. — an enormous sum, certainly, but no doubt well exchanged for the benefits pro- cured by it. The following are the annual allow- ances of some of the officers and of the men : — inspector-general, 1500/.; deputy inspectors-general, (each) 800/.; assistant inspectors-general, (each) 500/.; county inspectors, according to their rate, (each) from 220/. to 298/.; sub-inspectors, according to their rate, (each) from 100/. to 180/.; head con- 1 Sir Francis Head informs us (Loc. cit.), that of the total force lies, and 1703 Protestants. This makes the total greater than that given in the text by 216, no doubt owing to the in- crease since the Parliamentary Return from which 1 copied tnj numbers. 270 WESTPORT. stables, from 50/. to 80/.; mounted constables, 38/.; infantry, 36/.; sub-constables, first rate, 27/. 14*., second rate, 21/. The duties performed by these men are very multifarious, but may be easily understood. Besides exercising the more ordinary functions of constables, they assist all public bodies in town and country, and perform themselves the functions of others. For instance, they took the late census, not merely as to the population, but as to houses, farms, farm produce, &c. &c. In short, I believe it is almost as easy to say what they do not do as what they do : they are the servants of public order and public convenience in all things — always wanted, always found. In my frequent personal intercourse with these men, I was always struck with the readiness of their replies and the suavity of manner with which they were given. They seemed to deport themselves as if it were at once their duty and their pleasure to be agreeable. On several occasions I obtained the most valuable information from them, not merely by word of mouth but by correspondence ; and the letters with which I have been favoured, would do credit to any professed clerk. On leaving Leenane, we turned, first, for a short way, round the inner end of the Great Killery Lough, and then made our escape abruptly through a gap in its boundaries into the county of Mayo. After this we soon left all our noble mountains behind us, and with the exception of the valley of WESTPORT. 271 the Errive, with its fine woods and river, all the rest of our journey was tame and uninteresting. We reached Westport between five and six o'clock. We had sufficient daylight remaining after our arrival at Westport, to visit the adjoining park and demesne of Lord Sligo, and to take a peep at Westport Quay, the marine portion and port of the town. The wall of Lord Sligo's park bounds the whole of the western side of the town ; and the main entrance fronts one of the principal streets. This is a great advantage to the inhabitants, access to the park being liberally granted to all persons at all times. The grounds of Westport House consist mainly of a small valley at the foot of a gentle hill, and of the flat alluvial plain by the side of the small river, which, after passing through the town, traverses the park. This is of considerable extent ; but, like all Irish parks, too full of trees. The clamming up of the rivulet by an embankment at the lower extremity of the grounds, near the Quay, has created a small lake, which occupies the centre of the valley, and almost washes the walls of the house, — a large square unornamented building, with no pretensions to architectural elegance. The walks through the woods are pleasant ; but the thickness of the cop- pices and the over- crowding of the trees give to the whole an impression of closeness. The Quay, which adjoins the lower end of Lord 272 THE CLENDENNING MONUMENT. Sligo's park, can boast of some pretty large store- houses ; but I fear the sea-traffic from it is far from considerable. The town of Westport is situated principally on the brow of a small hill, and in the valley at its foot. This lower portion of it is traversed by the small river already mentioned, which is embanked, and the ground on both sides converted into a Mall, with a range of good houses overlooking it. Our hotel, which is excellent, is the principal building in the North Mall. Besides the Mall, there is another tolerably wide street on the brow of the hill, and a third, very steep, crossing these at right angles along Lord Sligo's park-wall. In the centre of this steep street there stands on the top of a ridiculously slender and ungraceful pillar, the statue of a late citizen of the place, but whose claims to such an honour are by no means allowed by the majority of his surviving townsmen. George Clendenniug, we were told, was a Protestant banker, the active agent of a former Lord Sligo, the friend and helper of the aristocracy in the neighbour- hood, and the great patron of the orange party. Like most men of the class, he seems to have been cordially disliked by the party opposed to him, the Catholic and liberal portion of the population, some of whom, even now, prognosticate the precipitation of his effigy, one of these days, from its present lofty position. This statue, and the present feelings of the public WESTPORT. 273 respecting it, afford a good illustration of the folly of raising monuments on mere party grounds, a fact which towns, of more importance than Westport, would do well to keep in view. A fine statue was erected very recently in London to the memory of a man, who, in twenty years, will have no memory. Parts of the upper portion of the town, and the higher grounds on both sides of it, command splendid views of the neighbouring mountains, as well as of the sea-like bay of Clew, with its numerous inlets and islands. At the mouth of this bay, Clare Island rises boldly up from the water directly to the west ; to the south-west, Croagh Patrick fills the horizon with its magnificent peak ; on the south and south- east, the grand range of the Morisk and Partree mountains loom nobly in the distance ; and to- wards the north, the numerous peaks of the Bur- rishoole group give additional picturesqueness to the scene. In the immediate vicinity of the town, the soil is sufficiently flat to be cultivable, and is, for Ireland, tolerably well cultivated. The parish church of "Westport is situated within Lord Sligo's park. The Roman Catholic Church is a large building, situated in the South Mall, with a somewhat imposing front, apparently of recent erection. There is also, in the town, a Presbyterian and a Methodist Meeting House. The population of Westport was, in 1811, including the Quay, 1912, and in 1851, 4815. This makes a decrease of only 97, a much smaller proportion than 18 274 UNION WORKHOUSE. was supposed by the inhabitants themselves to have resulted from the two great causes of decrease, famine and emigration. In 1850, the number of emigrants that sailed from Westport harbour was only 690; but I believe a considerable portion of the emigrants from this district sailed from other ports. Westport seems essentially a Catholic town, although it is one of the places in the West of Ireland in which zealous endeavours have been made, of late years, to extend the Protestant faith. I do not know what success has attended these attempts; nor do I know whether the estimate of the two religions, given to me by several of the inhabitants, is to be depended on. This estimate made the number of Protestants, of all denomina- tions, to be only about two or three hundred. I see by the Parliamentary Returns in 1834, that the whole district in which Westport is situated, comprising a space twenty-four miles in length and twelve in breadth, contained the following relative proportions of the different sects : — Churchmen, 1222 ; Presby- terians and other dissenters, 111 ; Roman Catholics, 30,335. It will require no slight power to bring these proportions into anything like that equality which some zealous Protestants seem to think almost already reached. Several of the respectable Catholics with whom I conversed, complained a good deal of the mis- chievous efforts of the religious reform movement in FOOD AND LABOUR. 275 the town, as productive of heart-burnings and strife, and as tending, generally, to destroy the harmony that previously existed among the different sects. There is a very fine Union Workhouse at Westport, kept in great neatness and cleanliness, and ob- viously under a rigid though humane discipline. It contained, at the time of my visit, only 792 inmates, the smallest number that was ever in the house. Of this number 131 were in the infirmary. The season of harvest is always found to diminish the number of persons in the workhouses, as many can then find work who are deprived of it at other times of the year. Thus, so recently as May last, there were nearly double the number of persons in the house. In June, 1850, the master told me that he had as many as 5000 persons in this and the auxiliary houses. During that year, I found by the Commissioners' Reports that 11,441 were admitted into the house, and 8282 received relief out-of-doors ; while in the subsequent year, 1851, only 6896 received in-door relief, and 116 out-door relief. Among the 792 persons now in the house, there are only three Protestants ; and the master says that the number never exceeded 20 when the houses were at the fullest. The diet was, as usual, according to the regulations; but the bread was greatly superior to the rye-bread of Clifden, being made of a mixture of Indian meal and what is termed whole wheaten flour. It was well-baked and very palatable. The bread of the 270 WORKHOUSE SCHOOLS, children is made of whole whcaten flour alone, and that of the infants of the ordinary white flour. The adults have buttermilk ; the children sweet milk. The decrease of numbers mentioned above has not been solely owing to the harvest. No fewer than 300 children have gone out of the house, in conse- quence of money received from their fathers in England and Scotland ; and 21 have gone to America, through funds sent home to them by their relations. Except the children in the schools, every person capable of work does work, either in the house or out-of-doors. Forty men are now at work on the grounds attached to the workhouse. I found the schools in this house, as indeed everything else, in capital order, and the children all actively engaged in learning. There were in the boys' school 122, and in the girls' 240, all dressed in the uniform of the house, and all singu- larly neat and clean. Cleanliness is, indeed, most carefully enforced. Beside the usual ablution of the hands and face in the morning, the children wash their feet before going to bed in the evening. I saw a most convenient and compendious apparatus for this purpose in one of the rooms — viz., a sort of small wooden trough or canal running round the room, close by the wall, which can be filled with water at will, and into which some hundreds of little feet may be inserted at once. With such care it is no wonder that the children in the workhouses in this country are in general so healthy, and look so well. THEIR ULTIMATE BENEFIT. 277 According to the reports of the Commissioners of National Education, with whose Board this workhouse school is in connection, the number of children on the rolls, in the year 1850, was no less than 1686, and in 1851, 1496. Among the 240 girls in the school there was only one Protestant. I omitted to inquire the proportion of Catholics among the boys, if there were any. The Roman Catholic chaplain was in the school at the time of my visit, but rather, it would seem, for simple supervision than for purposes of religious instruction. This is given at other and stated times. There are two chaplains here, as in all the other workhouses visited by me. The salaries seem to bear some relation to the pro- portion of clients, though, of course, not a very precise relation ; the Catholic chaplain receiving for his flock of 789, 52/., while the Protestant chaplain receives 25/. for his 3 scholars. Many of the children are complete orphans, their parents being either both dead, or one of them (the father) having left the country before or after the other's death. A considerable number have, also, come into the house along with their mothers, the family having been left by the father without the means of support. No one can visit these Union schools without feeling strongly impressed with the conviction that they are working a change in the manners and » habits of the rising generation that must tell 278 THE NATIONAL SCHOOL. immensely on the manners and habits of the future men and women of Ireland. It would be contrary to all our experience if young girls, taught to work, taught to read and write, taught religion, and forced into the observance of the most tidy habits, for a continuous period of twelve, six, or even a less number of years, should feel comfortable or satisfied with the slovenly and lazy habits, or with the per- sonal and household dirt and squalor of every kind to which their parents had been accustomed. When themselves domiciled in their parents' cottage, or occupying the place of mistress in their own, it is impossible that they should forget all the lessons they learned in their younger days ; or that they should not feel anxious that others should learn the advantages derivable from the same source. I feel assured, that young Avomen so instructed and scat- tered throughout the land, will prove so many well- springs of the economic virtues, and thus raise, both by example and precept, the standard of social and domestic life to a point much higher than it now is. In proof that such habits are not unpalatable to the young in Ireland, I may mention the well- known fact, that when the mother is enabled to leave the Union, on the return of her husband, or by any other means, her daughters are often found most anxious to remain in the house. This, how- ever, is not permitted by the rules of the Unions. The orphans, however, are permitted to remain UNION WORKHOUSES. 279 until they have attained the age of 15 or 16, unless they have been able previously to obtain some domestic employment. I have said that I found everything in this work- house in excellent order ; a remark already made in regard to others, and which may be justly applied to all those visited by me. Except the police barracks, nothing domestic in all Ireland struck me more than the neatness and cleanliness of these houses. They looked as if they had been purposely set up as patterns for imitation by the cottagers ; and there seems little doubt that, among the other lessons learned in them by the more juvenile part of their inmates, that of domestic as well as of personal tidiness will be one. It here occurs to me to make another general remark on a circumstance which forced itself on my notice in almost every visit I paid to these houses, and which will account for much of the excellent discipline and arrangements found in them all : I mean the remarkable intelligence of the masters. I do not know from what class of society these men have been taken, or what may have been their previous preparation for the office, but they all appeared to be singularly well suited for the situations they filled. Their civility to us strangers was marked, and they evinced the utmost readiness to show and explain everything in the establishments under their charge. Many of them were evidently men of fair education, a fact which I 280 PROTESTANT SCHOOLS. had an opportunity of putting to the test, on more than one occasion, in the course of a correspondence with them. I found the National School at Wcstport not in a very prosperous condition. This is an old school, established many years since ; it was sus- pended in the year 1839, and did not open as a National School until last year. The cause alleged for this tardy opening is the hostility of Dr. M'Hale, the Catholic bishop of the diocese, to all such schools. In the year 1851 the average attendance at the boys' school was 119; the attendance last month was 130, though on the day preceding my visit there were only present 105; the decrease being caused by the claims of harvest. The whole number at present on the rolls is 308. There is only one Protestant at present in attendance, but there have been as many as three or four. In the Westport Parochial Protestant Schools I found the statistics as follows : — Boys. On the books, 42 ; average attendance, 25 ; present to-day, 22 ; of whom 6 were Roman Catholics. Girls. On the books, 40 ; average attendance, 30 to 36 ; present to-day, 22; of whom 7 were Roman Catholics. I learnt from the zealous curate of the parish, whom I met with in the school, that there were three other Protestant schools in the country districts, which might have an average attendance of from 15 to 25 each. No food or clothing is supplied to the children at any of these schools. They are TEETOTALISM. 281 supported chiefly by private subscription, though they also derive support from the Church Educa- tion Society, with which they are associated. In the Report of this Society for the present year it is stated, that the number on the rolls of the Westport School, in 1851, was 40 boys and 40 girls, with an average attendance of 22 and 27 respectively. In the same document the amount of local subscriptions is stated to be 44/. for both the schools. The same gentleman also kindly informed me that the proportion of Protestants in this town and neighbourhood had certainly increased, although not fewer than 350 had emigrated during the last four years. At the last Confirmation held in Westport he said that no less than 24 converts were confirmed, of which number 18 were adults. The accounts I received of the past and present condition of Temperance in Westport was rather inte- resting, though its formal aspect at present was some- what disheartening. An active and very respectable Catholic tradesman established a Total Abstinence Society so early as the year 1835, long before Father Mathew came into the field, starting with about 40 or 50 members. After the visit of Father Mathew the numbers greatly increased, so that as many as 2000 pledged men walked in the proces- sion of 1840. In the following year there occurred some disputes, involving some of the relationships of the members with the clergy, which brought upon them the hostility of their redoubtable Bishop, 282 TEETOTALISM. Dr. M'Hale, and this led to the downfall of the Society. My informant, himself a Catholic, and a well-informed and highly-reppectable man, reluc- tantly confessed his belief that the Bishop was jealous of the popularity and power of the Father, and hence in reality his hostility, though it had other ostensible grounds for it, bearing more di- rectly on the ecclesiastical functions of the Bishop. I believe some of the over-zealous Teetotallers made a proposition that they should not counte- nance any priest who was not himself a Tee- totaller. There never was a Tempei'ance Hall in this town, which is always a valuable medium for keeping people together. It is thought that there are not now more than 40 or 50 pledged practical Teetotallers in the town. The community, however, have here as elsewhere, greatly profited by the system of Total Abstinence. Although its reign was so short, it has left most valuable fruits behind it, the inha- bitants being, upon the whole, very temperate. CHAPTER XII. CASTLEBAR. We left Westport in the forenoon for Castlebar, purposing, after paying a short visit to it, to proceed to Ballina for the night. There is nothing very remarkable in the district between Westport and Castlebar. We had left the region of mountains and picturesque beauty behind us, and once more entered upon a tract of that tame, rugged, and homely scenery, which charac- terises so large a portion of the lowland districts of Ireland. Beauty — simple beauty — can hardly be said to characterise any of the large landscapes in Ireland. Combined with the grand or picturesque, indeed, or with both these, we often meet with fragments and glimpses of scenery super- eminently beautiful ; but we rarely or never meet with any of that continuous garden-like and half-sylvan landscape, presented to us by the rounded knolls and rich plains of England, and which goes to the heart by its charm of loveli- ness alone. It may even be doubted whether Ireland can be ever made to rival, in the quality 284 REFLECTIONS ON THE COUNTRY. of uniform richness and charm of landscape, its sister island. The inherent barrenness of much of its rocky uplands, the tameness of its wide and dismal plains, the coarse lifelessness of its moors and boggy valleys — together constituting a large portion of the soil of Ireland — seem almost to deny to it the possibility of attaining to that general aspect of delightfulness, which the com- bined powers of nature and art have bestowed upon England. When, indeed, the time arrives, as it is to be hoped it will, and at no very remote epoch, that shall see all the soil of Ireland that is cultivable, cultivated as it ought to be ; all her fields fenced with living hedges and lined with trees ; and, above all, when the sloping shores that border and surround her thousand bays and lakes and rivers, have risen in all the glory of cultivation from the hands of an industrious, prosperous, and tasteful people ; then may there be more room to question of her rank in the scale of beauty : then may she measure herself with England with less timidity. Even in her present state, it Avill not be denied that she is mistress of many scenes that England can scarcely pretend to rival. The country beyond Westport was a good deal more cultivated than any we had yet traversed since entering Galway ; but it presented to us many moorish and boggy spots not cultivated at all, per- haps not cultivable ; and only a comparatively small AGRICULTURE, 285 extent of occupied land that did credit to modern agriculture. The new system of consolidation, also, was here strongly indicated by the comparatively small amount of corn land and the great extent of pasture ground; and, still more unpleasantly, by the li ruined walls and roofless homes" that marked our tract on either hand as we proceeded through the territories of Lord Sligo and Lord Lucan, the great proprietors of the district. We stopped at a small village on the roadside near a fine farm of 300 acres, belonging to Lord Sligo, but occupied by an English gentleman of the name of Stafford. Everything seemed here in good and wholesome trim, the whole aspect of the farm betraying the country of its cultivator. Mr. Stafford is a Protestant, but like Mr. Ellis and other kind and just men of that religion, is as popular among the people as if he was of their own creed. Indeed, I found it invariably the case in all parts of Ireland, that the popularity of the landlord, or the farmer, depended in no degree upon his religious views, but upon his practical conduct towards his neighbours and dependants : and this fully as much in the case of the Catholic population as of the Protestant, if not more so. Men of this persuasion among the labouring class over and over again assured me, and collateral cir- cumstances corroborated the assurance — that in their intercourse with people of their own humble station, or in their relations with their superiors, 286 TOLERATION. they never allowed the matter of religion to influence their proceedings. They said the question with them was not whether a man was a Catholic or Protestant, but whether lie was a good or bad man ; and I do not think I met with a single example among lay Catholics of the lower class, of those narrow and ex- clusive views in religion, which unhappily distinguish so large a proportion of their superiors of both creeds. The common expression of these humble persons was, that every man had a right to follow his own religion, and that it would be much better for the people generally if they were all let alone to follow their own convictions. In making this statement I must, to prevent all misconception, add, that this liberality of views, on the part of my humble Catholic friends, originates in no laxity of principle nor in any sceptical mis- givings in their own minds as to the superior truth ^)f their own creed. On the contrary, I never met with one among them who was not a sincere believer, and with very few, indeed, who might not fairly claim to be both religious and pious. In speaking of their individual misfortunes and dis- tresses, they almost invariably comforted themselves with the expression that such was God's will, and with the prayer that they might, by His grace, be enabled to bear what had befallen them. Even in the ordinary and everyday proceedings of life, along with a remarkable freedom from swearing and all other sorts of bad language, they generally exhibited NATIONAL SCHOOLS. 287 — at least, elderly persons did — a degree of reverence towards the name of God which is rarely witnessed in Protestant countries, — the women curtsying, and the men raising their hats from their heads, when- ever they had occasion to name that name. I would, therefore, think myself justified in believing, from such facts alone, that these people were telling me nothing but truth as to their feelings towards their neighbours and their neighbours' religion, even if I had no other authority; but I had the same statements confirmed to me over and over again by Protestants. From this, I think, the inference is fair, that whatever disorders and disturbances, or whatever violent proceedings take place in Ireland under the name or pretence of religious difference, they do not originate with the humbler classes, but with their superiors on one side or the other, most commonly on both. In Mr. Stafford's village (I omitted to note its name) we found the National School shut up — another victim of Dr. M'Hale's prejudices. It was, however, said by the people of the village that the school was about to be opened once more, it being understood by them that the hostility of the Bishop and his priests, from what cause they knew not, had abated. AYhatever it was, they were rejoiced at the prospect held out to them, as they complained much of being unable to give their children any education at present. The village, in other respects, was said to be comparatively prosperous, owing mainly to the 288 CASTLEBAR. great number of hands employed by Mr. Stafford, and to the liberal wages given by him. Castlcbar, situated about eight and a half Irish miles from Westport, appears to the traveller passing through it, a neat and even a handsome town j but a closer inspection hardly bears out the first im- pression. Its population in 1811 was 5137; and in 1851, 4027, showing a decrease of no less than 1110 in the ten years. Taking the whole parish, exclusive of the town, the decrease was still greater — viz. from 5327 to 3115, a decrease of 2212, or considerably more than one third. Even this was below the estimate of some of the inhabitants, who assured me that, what with famine, fever, emigration, and evictions combined, the loss had been one half. I have already remarked that I generally found the estimate of the inhabitants themselves, as to the decrease of population in any place, above the truth. Castlebar seems to be essentially a Catholic town; at least the official returns of 1834 gave only 1133 Protestants out of a total population of 12,111 in the parish; and one of the Protestant tradesmen only gave the present number of Pro- testants in the town as about 700. Some of the Catholics with whom I spoke rated the number below this. The Catholic Chapel is large, but, as usual, ugly. The Parish Church is a neat building with a hand- some spire. The Court-house in the square is also neat ; and the County Prison, at the western NATIONAL SCHOOLS. 289 entrance of the town, is massy and imposing. In saying the town was neat, I ought to have confined the remark to the main street and the parts adjacent, the great body of the place con- sisting of poor streets with low cottage-like houses. What is called the National School in Castlebar, was opened so long ago as 1820. On the estab- lishment of the National School system it Avas adopted by the Board, and continued so associated until the year 1842, when, from some cause or other, it ceased to be connected with the National system. It has, however, remained open as a school ever since, being supported by private sub- scription. Negociations are again on foot to place the school under the National Board. At this time it contains about 100 children of each sex, and there is not one Protestant among them. The children ought to pay one penny per week, but the master says that not more than twenty of the boys really do so. He is, consequently, kept very poor, not having more than 20/. salary. He pays out of this a rent of 1/. per annum for his house. I visited also the Parochial Protestant Schools, which are in connection with the Church Education Society. At the time of my visit there were 38 boys on the roll, and about 20 present, the average attendance being from 19 to 24. Some of the boys were Catholics. There were 32 girls on the rolls, with an average attendance of 18; 16 were then present, of whom two were Catholics. Among the 19 290 PAROCHIAL mOTKSTANT SCHOOLS. children of both sexes there are 26 who are orphans or otherwise destitute, and who consequently receive support from the school-fund, I think to the amount of a quarter of a stone of Indian meal per week. The Catholic children participate in this bounty as well as the Protestants; their attendance at school being found to be most regular when the meal is scarcest at home. In the last Report of the Church Education Society I find the number on the roll and the average attendance in these schools to be as follows, in 1851 : — Boys, on the roll, 49; average at- tendance, 32. Girls, on the roll, 31 ; average attend- ance, 2(5. Both the master and the mistress accounted for their present small attendance, partly from the claims of the harvest season, but still more from the ill-blood and prejudices generated by the late con- tested election ; the poor children suffering from the faults of their betters : the old story of the delirant reges plectuntur Achivi. The master of the school was formerly a Catholic, and a teacher in the National Schools until the year 1848. He was converted by following up his own reflections excited by the enunciation of a physical fact in one of the lay books supplied to the school. This was the doctrine of the impene- trability of matter. How, he argued, could the actual physical presence of the body and blood of Christ exist in the bread and wine, without exhi- biting physical gravity and bulk, Or without dis- placing something ? He considers himself as an TEETOTALISM. 291 example of the danger to Catholicism of the Na- tional Schools, and thinks Dr. M'Hale's hostility to them is founded on this danger. The honest schoolmaster is certainly now a zealous Protestant, whatever the philosophers or the Catholics may think of the fulcrum that moved him into his present position. I am told that the doctrine his philosophy seemed to him to impugn, is not, after all, the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation but that of Consub- stantiation, which is disavowed by orthodox Catholics. But I feel more concerned in wishing, poor fellow, that he had a better salary, for I believe he is, at any rate, a worthy pedagogue ; he told me his whole income was 20/. On further inquiry in the town I learnt that all the conversions to Protestantism were among chil- dren. No one seemed to be aware of the conver- sion of any adults. My inquiries respecting Temperance were so far satisfactory as to justify me in placing Castlebar in the same temperate category as the other towns yet examined by me. Although greatly fallen from the palmy state of pledged Teetotalism, which once distinguished it, it has preserved the best fruits of this system in its habits of practical temperance. At one time it would appear that one half, if not two thirds of the population were pledged and prac- tical Teetotallers. It is now doubted if there are more than twenty or thirty that can lay claim to this distinction. 292 UNION WORKHOUSE. Various causes have contributed here as else- where to the downfall of the Temperance system. The hostility of Dr. M'Hale is regarded as one of the principal in this town as well as in Westport. It is no enviable distinction to this prelate that he should be opposed to the two greatest measures ever devised for the moral and physical good of his countrymen — I mean the National School system and the Abstinence movement of Father Mathew ; and still more that he alone, of all the Roman Catholic Bishops of Ireland — and the clergy whom he immediately rules, of all the priests in Ireland — should be entitled to this bad eminence. The Union Workhouse is, like all its fellows, a well-built and roomy establishment ; and all its interior arrangements are characterised by the same order and discipline, and by a degree of cleanliness that is really surprising. The total number in the house at the time of my visit was only 579, viz., 84 men, ]25 women, 319 children, and 61 in the hos- pital. The number of Protestants 16. The present is, I believe, the smallest number that ever was in this house. The master has known it to contain (in 1848) 2500 persons at one time. In the year 1850 there were in this Union, according to the official reports, 8600 who received in-door relief, and 11,204 who re- ceived out-door relief; last year (1851) there were 5377 received into the house, and none who received relief out of doors. No doubt the returns for the present vcar will show a still more remarkable diminution. DIET — NUMBERS. 293 The dietary in this house is according to the pre- scribed formula, as to amount and kind, with only such slight variations as local circumstances suggest. The bread in common use, called here compound bread, is made of equal parts of whole flour (un- bolted wheaten flour) and rye meal. I found it very palatable and good. The Indian meal (8 oz.) allowed for breakfast is made into a mess of stirabout, weighing no less than 38 oz., so that the break- fast of a healthy man consists of 38 oz. of Indian meal porridge, and half a pint of milk. The chil- dren under fifteen have a third meal, consisting of 4 oz. of brown or white bread made of wheaten flour. The meal hours are as follows : — Breakfast, from eight to ten; dinner, from two to four; supper (for the children) from five to six. Women nursing have, in addition to their ordinary diet, one pint of gruel or vegetable soup, and one glass of milk daily. The average number of children in the workhouse schools at present is from 60 to 70 boys, and from 180 to 200 girls, over and above the infants. In the Reports of the National Board, under which these schools are enrolled, the number of children in September 1850 was stated to be 226 boys and 226 girls; and in the same month of 1851, 108 boys and 226 girls. In the house at present there are a great many orphans and deserted children. Of these, the girls are kept in the children's department until they are fifteen, when they are transferred to the women's department, if they still remaiu in the house. 291 FARMING. Castlebar being the capital of Mayo lias, of course, its newspapers ; and of course one, at least, for each of the two great parties in Ireland, — the Liberal for the Catholics, the Conservative for the Orangemen and Protestants. They are called ' The Mayo Constitutional/ and the ' Mayo Telegraph/ and they are each recorded in Thorn's Almanac as using 15,000 stamps in the course of the year. Lord Lucan's Lodge, it hardly deserves the name of a mansion, adjoins the town of Castlebar, and his farm-buildings are at no great distance. This farm- homestead is a complete model establishment, with steam-engine-power, aud everything in the most perfect order. His Lordship is said to be the most extensive farmer in the three kingdoms, having, it is stated, not fewer than 15,000 acres in his own hands. This extraordinary circumstance is explained by the fact that Lord Lucan has been for years devoting all his energies to convert his estates into large farms, on the English or rather Scotch system. His bailiff is a Scotsman, and all his farming ope- rations are conducted on the Scottish model. The only part of his improvements that we saw was this home-farm, conspicuous by its large and regular fields, and presenting the due proportion of turnips, grain, and grass, which this system requires. It reminded me of Lord Fitzwilliam's farm at Coolattin, and, like it, exhibited a striking contrast with the wild country around it. Lord Lucan retains such a vast quantity of land in his own hands simply REFLECTIONS ON FARMING. 295 because part of it is in the process of consolidation, and because he has not been able to get tenants for much that is consolidated. The outlay of money in these gigantic improve- ments has been enormous, — amounting, it is said, to some hundred thousand pounds. "We were told that, in some of his improvements he has expended as much as 15/. per acre. Whether or not he himself, even if he lives to be an old man, will ever receive any adequate return for his expenditure, most people seem to doubt ; but that the property will eventually be an immense gainer by his labours is clear enough. Lord Lucan seems to have set about his great work with such determination, that he has been as little daunted by the moral and social difficulties involved in it, as by the physical obstacles presented to him. The number of cottages that have been pulled down, and the number of people evicted from them, and compelled to go into towns and into workhouses, or to emigrate from the countiy alto- gether, have been literally enormous. Although a very soft nature could scarcely be brought to front at all such a trial as this must have been to the heart and mind of its institutor, and although the name of Lord Lucan is certainly very unpopular among the people of the district, yet I nowhere heard that he had betrayed, in the operations which were necessary to the completion of his plans, any undue severity, much less any cruelty that could be avoided. 296 THE POOR-LAW. Neither must we suppose that all the persons deprived of their potato-gardens were disposed of as above mentioned. Some, no doubt, have re- mained in their old haunts, working at his improve- ments, and will probably be fixed there eventually as labourers on the new farms. Still it cannot be doubted, that hardship and distress, in the highest degree, must have often been the necessary consequence of Lord Lucan's proceed- ings ; but whether he was w r rong in doing what he has done, or whether he may not, in reality, rather claim from the large-thoughted and far-seeing patriot and philanthropist, the merit of conferring on his country the greatest of boons, is a question which will be answered very differently by different individuals, according to the strength and extent of their mental grasp, their economical and political views, and their personal temperament. I will venture to say this much — that though there are many good and wise men who would have shrunk from doing, or even from witnessing, such things, there is no patriotic Irishman who must not rejoice that they have been done. The thunder-storm and the hurricane are felt and deplored as terrible inflictions, but we are told by philosophers that they are wise and benevo- lent provisions in the economy of nature. In reference to the system of eviction generally in Ireland, it is but just to the landlords to remark that the establishment of Union "Workhouses and of Poor Law relief generally, during the last ten POOR-RATES. 297 or twelve years, has deprived it of much of the horror that would have otherwise accompanied it, and which must have gone along with it in times when no such asylums existed. The Poor Law system came into operation in 1839, and workhouses began to be erected in the following year. Four houses were completed in 1840, and the erection went on so rapidly, that in the year 1845, no fewer than 123 had been opened. The number was increased every successive year until 1850, when they had reached their present number of 163. The following table shows the number and extent of accommodation and assistance afforded by these houses, and at what cost to the country, during the last four years : — No. of Unions. Years. Numbers Relieved. Total Expenditure. In-door. Out-door. £ 131 1848 G10,463 1,433,042 1,835,634 131 1849 932,284 1,210,482 2,177,651 1G3 1850 805,702 3G8,GG5 1,430,108 163 1851 708,450 G0.120 1,110,892 Two things are evident from this statement — first, that there was a sure asylum to which the evicted families could resort, and had a legal right to resort, so that the evictors could not be justly charged with the crime of knowingly exposing them to actual want of either food or shelter : secondly, that this food and shelter were provided, in a very 298 POOR-RATES. considerable degree, by the landlords themselves, and at an enormous cost to them ; the very act of eviction that placed their property within their own control making them liable to the whole amount of poor rates levyable on it. The amount of this rate has for a good many years been very great — some years in certain places almost equal to the whole rental ; in many places, during a few years, equal to one half the rental. The amount of the rate during the present year I found to vary from 3s. to 5s. in the pound ; an immense decrease for many places, but not much in others. As illustrating the burthen of the poor-rates on the landlords, I will here give the actual rates of one particular place (Killarney) for the last seven years ; always rather preferring, according to the title of my book, to state individual facts, than to make general propositions. Pooit Rates levied on Property in the Killarney Electoral Division, from 1846 to 1851. Rate. Per Annum February, 1846 . . 1 6 . .=16 February, October, 1847 . 1847 . . 2 . 3 0J .=58 April, October, 1848 . 1848 . . 4 . 3 6 1- 3 J .=79 July, September, 1849 . 1849 . . 2 . 3 4 i- oJ .=54 July, 1850 . . 2 6 . .=26 June, October, 1851 . 1851 . . 1 . 4 3 |- 6J .=59 AN APOLOGY FOR THE LANDLORDS. 299 The following are the different ways in which the rates are proportioned between the landlord and tenant : — 1. Where the rent per annum is equal to the valuation of the property under the Poor Law, the landlord pays half the rates, by allowance to the tenant when paying his rent. 2. Where the valuation of the property exceeds the annual rent, the landlord pays half the rate per pound on every pound of the year's rent. 3. Where the valuation of the property is less than the annual rent, the landlord pays half the rates levied. In all cases the occupier must pay the collector in the first instance, and deduct from the landlord, when paying his rent, the amount legally chargeable against the latter. In making these statements I am the apologist of the landlords to this extent — of those landlords, at least, who have only adopted the practice of con- solidation since the complete establishment of the Poor Law system — viz. that if they had the con- viction that this consolidation was not merely for their own interest as proprietors, but was also for the good of the country at large, and for the happiness of the future people of Ireland, they were not merely legally but morally justified in carrying it into effect. The existence of the Poor Law system, with its Union Workhouses in every district, was an essential preliminary, not merely to render such an 300 LARGE AND SMALL FARMS. act justifiable, but to render it possible without in- curring the responsibility of a most positive outrage on humanity, which no mere legal authority could either warrant or palliate. And the apology, more- over, proceeds on the assumption that the evictions were had recourse to after due warning to the parties concerned ; and that they were conducted with every practicable accompaniment that could mitigate the physical and mental distress which must, under all circumstances, be too severe not to reach the heart of any one in any way concerned in the proceedings, much more the hearts of those who were the direct cause of it. I believe this was often the case ; I would fain hope that it was generally so : I have learned, however, that the reverse was also true — nor rarely, I fear ; more especially where the task of dispossession was left in the hands of a mercenary agent. If this be true, the landlord, whether a resident or an absentee, has incurred a fearful responsibility, which, far from being limited to the immediate case, must take its share in answering for those terrible deeds of mistaken vengeance which have of late years so darkened and saddened the social history of Ireland. Although Lord Lucan's plans of consolidation comprise, as a general rule, the establishment of large farms, yet the rule seems to be wisely modified by him in practice. And, indeed, I cannot but believe that a country or a district with nothing but large farms, would only be a shade better than that HARVEST WAGES. 301 of the wretched cottier system. The mixture of large and small holdings in the same district seems to be capable of producing infinitely greater good than can be achieved by the exclusive adoption of either. This would appear to be Lord Lucan's opinion also. At least, I found such holdings in one of his villages near Castlebar. One tenant, under a recent lease, rented a house with 15 acres of land adjoining for 17/. per year; and another had only 7 acres and a house, for which he paid a rental of 9/. 14s. annually. The people we saw employed on Lord Lucan's harvest field, were chiefly paid by the piece, at the rate of 7s. 6d. per acre, which amounted to abont Is. per day. Those employed by the day were paid as follows : the men 10c?., the women-reapers 6c?., and the women-binders 4c?., — all without victuals. The locality of Castlebar has naturally led me to refer more particularly to Lord Lucan in relation to the great change as to the consolidation of agricultural property now taking place in Ireland ; but it will be seen by many previous statements in these pages, that he is far from being the exclusive promoter of it. Indeed, we have seen that the practice has almost become general through- out Ireland. And now, in writing out my memo- randums on this head, I am enabled to avail myself of information of the most important and most authentic kind, showing the actual advances made in this direction. This information is derived from 302 CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS. an admirable Report recently published by the Commissioners of the late census in Ireland. The whole of this Report I recommend to those who wish for a complete knowledge of the subject : I can here only make a few extracts from it. It will, I think, be impossible, after reading these brief but pregnant statements, any longer to retain a doubt that the great revolution as to the holding of property in Ireland has already made great ad- vances; while it seems equally certain, from what is at present going on, that these advances will pro- ceed to an early consummation. What may be the precise effect of this remarkable change on the future fortunes of the people of Ireland, remains to be seen. In all probability, it will be one of great though not unmixed good ; but for good or for evil, the die is now cast — the thing is now done. i. Changes in the several Classes of Agricultural Holdings, exceeding one acre in extent, which have taken place during the last ten years. Classes of Holdings. No of Holdings in 1841. No. of Holdings in 1851. Decrease. Increase. Number above 1 and not exceeding 5 acres 310,375 88,083 222,292 — Number above 5 and not exceeding 15 acres . 252,778 191,854 60,924 — Number above 15 and not exceeding 30 acres 79,338 141,311 — 61,973 Number above 30 acres Total . 48,C23 149,090 — 100,467 091,114 570,338 283,216 162.410 NUMBER OF HOLDINGS. 303 ii. Changes in each of the last three years. t Years. Total Holdings. Holdings not exceeding One Acre. Holdings exceeding One Acre. No. Ann. Dec. No. Ann. Inc. No. Ann. Dec. 1849 1850 1851 651,145 628,222 608,066 22,923 20,156 31,989 , — 35,326 j 3,337 37,728 '[ 2,402 616,156 592,826 570,338 26,260 22,558 From these Tables it will appear that the total number of holdings has continued to decrease. The entire reduction between the years 1850 and 1851 is 20,156 — which is, however, 2767 less than that which took place between 1849 and 1850, although at the same time the returns for 1851 exhibit an increase of 3402 in the holdings under one acre. This increase of the very small holdings is satisfac- tory as showing that the remark made in a pre- ceding page, respecting the retention of a portion of the evicted tenantry, in or near the consolidated estates, must be correct. It is presumed that among the vast number of " holdings not exceeding one acre," many must be occupied by former cot- tiers, now engaged as labourers on the property of others. The following Table shows the interesting fact of the actual results of the consolidation system so far as yet developed. 304 NUMBER OP FARMS, ETC. in. Actual number of Farms in Ireland, exceediny 30 acres, in the year 1851. Above 30 and not exceeding 50 acres Above 50 and not exceeding 100 acres Above 100 and not exceeding 200 acres Above 200 and not exceeding 500 acres Above 500 acres .... 70,093 49,940 19,753 7847 1457 The following two extracts from the Commissioners' Reports have also very important bearings on the same general subject of the influence of the changed system on the tillage and produce of the land. The first (iv) shows that there has been a consider- able increase in the amount of cultivated land during the last ten years ; while the next (v) seems to prove that the recent practice of throwing corn- land into pasture, has already told on the amount of the cereal produce. iv. Relative quantity of arable land in Ireland now and formerly. " The quantity of arable land in Ireland in 1841, was 13,464,300 acres ; the amount according to these returns is now 14,802,581, showing that the extent of the cultivated land has been increased by 1,338,281 acres during the last ten years; and from 1847 (the first year the extent of tillage was re- corded), to 1851 the quantity of land under crops has been also extended from 5,238,575 to 5,858,951, thus showing an increase of G20,37G acres. LAND AND PRODUCE. 305 v. Estimate of the quantity of corn, beans, and peas grown in Ireland during the last four years. Crops. 1847. 183d. Wheat (barrels of 20 stones) . . 4,916,599 . . 2,508,963 Oats ( ditto of 14 stones) . 18,433,390 . . 17,232,871 Barley ( ditto of 16 stones) . 2,489,330 . . 2,482,992 Bere ( ditto of 16 stories) . 423,978 . 442,752 Rye ( ditto of 20 stones) . 102,273 . 157,537 Beans and Peas (bushels of 8 gallons) . 675,649 . . 1,283,610 vi. Total produce of the above crops reduced to tons of 2240 lbs. each : Years. Tons of Produce. Years. Tons of Produce. 1847 1849 2,548,503 2,182,514 1850 1851 2,113,327 2,165,864" VII. Total produce of edible roots (in tons) during the last four years. \ Years. Potatoes. Tons. Turnips. Tons. Carrots, &c. Tons. 1848 1849 1850 1851 2,048,195 4,014,122 3,945,990 4,441,022 5,760,616 5,805,848 5,439,005 6,081,326 (Not known.) 101,727 83,622 87,627 In the year 1847 the proportion of cereal to green crops was, in acres — four six-tenths to one ; whilst in 1851 the proportion was two three-tenths to one. VIII. Amount of flax [also showing its great increase) cultivated in each province in Ireland. 1850. Acres. L851. Acres. 1801 4889 2094 5991 Ulster . . . , . . 85,065 125,407 Connaught . . . . 2080 . 91,040 4249 Total of Flax 140,436 20 306 PRODUCTION. The two following Tables, showing the total amount of stock in Ireland in 1841 and 1851, complete the view I have been desirous of giving of the present state of the agricultural interest in Ireland. It will be seen how well these details confirm the observations I have had occasion to make in various places respecting the deficiency of pigs and sheep in Ireland. I may add, that they point out to the speculator in Irish stock a fine field for his exertions : ix. Total and relative amount of each kind of Stock in Ireland in 1841 and 1851. 1811. 1851. Horses and Mules 576,115 . 543,312 Asses 92,365 . 136,981 Cattle . 1,863,116 . 2,967,461 Sheep . 2,106,189 . 2,122,128 Pigs . . 1,412,813 . 1,084,857 Goats . — 235,313 Poultry . 8,458,517 . 7,470,694 " This Table shows a gradual diminution in the number of horses and mules ; the decrease within the ten years being 32,803. Pigs, though greatly increased since 1847, have not yet reached the numbers shown in 1841, the deficiency as between that year and 1851 being 327,956. Goats were not enumerated in 1841, but their numbers have considerably increased since 1847. Poultry have also increased since 1817; but they are yet under the number in 1841 by 987,823. The number AMOUNT OF STOCK. 307 of horned cattle in each period shows a considerable augmentation; the increase within the ten years being 1,104,345. "The Census Commissioners of 1841 not only made an enumeration of the stock at that time in Ireland, but also, after inquiry, assumed an average rate per head for each description, viz.: — horses and mules were valued at 8/. each, asses at 11., horned cattle at 6/. 10s., sheep at 1/. 2s. , pigs at 1/. 5s., poultry at 6d. By this means they arrived at an approximation to the value of the entire stock in Ireland in 1841. There is every reason to think that were the inquiries on this subject now repeated, horses and mules, cattle, sheep, and pigs would be estimated at higher rates; but as any alteration in these rates would disturb the comparison with pre- vious years, it has been thought judicious to adhere to the prices adopted in 1841. A general view is thus afforded of the extent of the changes which have taken place since that year in this important branch of farming." x. Past and present value of farm stock in Ireland: Years. Value. 1841 ..... £21,105,808 1851 ..... 27,737,393 " In contrasting the number of holdings with the value of stock in the years 1811 and 1851, it appears, that although the number of holdings has diminished by 120,770, and the gross value of stock 308 M MBER OF HOLDINGS. in the possession of landholders has increased by 7,9~6,307/., the landholders in each class have on an average a less amount of stock on their farms respectively than they had in 1811, thus showing that stock on the two smaller classes of holdings (i. e. from 1 to 5 and from 5 to 15 acres) has dimi- nished more rapidly than the number of holdings, and that, although the stock on the two larger classes (i. e. from 15 to SO, and above 30 acres) is increased, the increase is not in proportion to the greater number of large holdings; and that a further augmentation of the stock to an extent of 5,700,000/. in value is required to make the average amount of stock on each class of holdings in 1851 equal to what it was on the same classes in 1811. 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