ppctenan&Kps

A

TOUR

I N

IRELAND:

WITH

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

O N T H E

PRESENT STATE of that KINGd5m.

MADE IN

The YEARS 1776, 1777, and 1778.

AND

Brought down to the End of 1779.

By ARTHUR YOUNG, -Efq; F.R. S.

Honorary Member of the Societies of Duelin, York and Man- chester; the Oeconomical Society of Berne 3 the Palatine Academy of Agriculture, at Manheim, and the Phyfical Society at Zurich.

DUBLIN:

Printed by George Bonham,

For Messrs. WHITESTONE, SLEATER, SHEPPARD,

WILLIAMS, BURNET, WILSON, JENKIN,

WOGAN, VALLANCE, WHITE, BEATTY,

BYRN, and BURTON.

tux oeoooxryxXKocaxon M.DCC.LXXX.

PREFACE.

NUMEROUS as the publications on hufbandry have become in almoft every part or Europe, few of them let us in o its aclual ftate in any- country. Authors feem to have dif- dained recording the practice, fo much have they been employed in prefcribing alterations. Several reafons may be af- figned for this omiffion : to defcribe the agriculture of a province, it is necef- fary to travel into it, and among the writers who have been moil volumi- nous upon this fubject, the greater number have been confined to their own farms, — perhaps to their fire fides. It was impoffible for them to have giv- en detailed defcriptions of what tney had never feen.

a % There

iv PREFACE.

There is alio a greater temptation to the production of fuch dida&ic works as are moft ufual in agriculture, than to the lefs entertaining minutiae of com- mon management. The man who compofes a piece for inftructing others how to conduct their lands, generally includes all forts of foils, fituations, and circumftances; his views are great, his work comprehensive, round, and com- plete, and every reader finds fomething that fuits him. The fuccefs which has attended the complete b dies, general treatifes, and d Bknaries of the fub- ject, though compiled by men as much acquainted with aftronomy, as with agriculture, muft have been owing to thefe circumftances: as the good recep- tion of well written, though erroneous theories is, to the agreeable bearing awry the palm due to the nfefid alone. But a reader who would wifh. to receive real information, fhould readily give up the pieafure of being amufed for the ufe of being inftructed ; the number of fuch, however, will always be com- paratively

PREFACE. v

paratively fmall, and the writer who aims limply at utility, muft expect his productions to give place to thofe of a more amufing turn. When a long courfe of years has proved the impor- tance of the facts he has collected, his labours will probably have their due ef- timation.

The details of common management are dry and unentertaining ; nor is it eafy to render them intereftlng by or- naments of ftyle. The tillage with which the peafant prepares the ground; the manure with which he fertilizes it; the quantities of the feed of the feve- ral fpecies of grain which he commits to it ; and the products that repay his induftry, neceflarily in the recital run into chains of repetition, which tire the ear, and fatigue the imagination. Great however is the ftructure raifed oil this foundation : it may be dry, but it is im- portant, for thefe are the circumftances upon which depend the wealth, prof- peri ty? and power of nations. The

minutiae

ti PREFACE,

minutiae of the farmer's management, low, and feemingly inconfiderable as he is, are fo many links of a chain which conned! him with the State. Kings ought not to forget that the fplendour of majefty is derived from the fweat of induftrious, and too often opprefTed peafants. The rapacious conqueror who deftroys, and the great ftatefman who protects humanity, are equally in- debted for their power to the care with which the farmer cultivates his fields. The monarch of thefe realms muft know, that when he is fitting on his throne at Weftminfter, furrounded by nothing but flate and magnificence, that the poorer!:, the moft opprefled, the mod unhappy peafant, in the remoteft corner of Ireland, contributes his fliare to the fupport of the gaiety that enli- vens, and the fplendour that adorns the fcene.

If fuch is the importance of thefe little movements in the great machine of the State, to know and to underftand

them,

PREFACE. vii

them, furely deferves the attention of men, who are willing to facrifice their amufement to their information. This is in other words faying, that the Hate of common husbandry, in all its varia- tions and connections ought to be well underftood. Of little confequence ir.uft precepts, maxims, and directions for a better conduct appear, unlefs we really know the evils that are to be remedied, and the practices that are to be con- demned. Without this necellary know- ledge, the recommendations of the mofl ingenious fpeculative author, muft be almoft ufelefs; and the labours of the experimentalift, want much of the ap- plication which is to render his fads important. The object of every writer in rural ceconomics is to make hufban- dry better. But before they attempt that, fhould they not know what it is ? This idea has often made me, in read- ing books of agriculture, lament that the firft chapter of every practical work, was not a plain detailed account of the common management in the pariiTi or

neigh-

viii PREFACE,

neighbourhood, where the author lived and wrote.

To render this fort of knowledge genera] and corrplete, it is necefTary that every gentleman refiding in the country, and practifing agriculture, fhould write and publifh an account of fo much as falls within the fphere of his obfervation : The experience of centuries has {hewn us how much this may be expected. Were it done, fuch journies as I have regiftered and pub- lifhed, would have been perfectly un- nt-cefTary. A man who has attended fome years to hufbandry in one place, would have it in his power to gain a far better and more particular account of every circumftance than it is pofli- ble a traveller fhould procure.

Thefe accounts however having no exigence, fuch as I have more than once offered to the public, may have their ule: what fhould chiefly induce the reader to think {o^ is their being

taken

PREFACE. ix

taken on the fpot, from the mouths of gentlemen or farmers who refuie in the diftri&s, they defcribe— that the ac- counts are however perfect, cannot be expected — they are proportionally fo to the fagacity, information, and expe- rience of the perfonwho fpeaks. When my intelligence was received from a company of gentlemen, I always wait- ed for their fettling among tVemfelves. any difference of opinion before I en- tered the minute; and if they did not agree, took the average of the fums or quantities in queftion.

The unbounded hofpltality of a kingdom in which every country gen- tleman is by neceffity a farmer, left me under very few difficulties, in gaining intelligence : but I did not trull entire- ly to this fource, having upon mod oe- cafions common farmers fummoned to afiift at the confutations, the defign of which was my information. Nor did I neglect opportunities of making en- quiries of the cottagers, and of exa- mining

x PREFACE.

mining into their fituation and way of livinp* — ihe information I procured in this line, I apprehend to be of confe- quence : in England we know pretty well the ftate of the poor, but their cir- cumftances in other countries ought to be one of the firft objects of a travel- ler's attention, iince fr m their eafe or oppreffion, a multitude of conclufions may be drawn relative to government, wealth, and national profp.-rity.

That the agriculture of both thefe iflands is of the higheft importance, no one will deny, and perhaps, when the prefent ftate of Europe is well conflder- ed, it will in a political light be deemed more fo than ever it was at any former period. It is true we are at prefent in a war with France, but I muft own, the period appears to me faft approaching, when all the weftern part of Europe will find an abfolute neceflity of unit- ing in the cl *feft bands. If the fcene which has annihilated Dantzick, was now acting at Hamburgh and Amster- dam,

PREFACE. xi

dam, I do net fee where the power is to be found, to prevent or revenge it. The confequence of France has been long declining, and the transfer of her exertions from the land to the fea fer- vice, may be fatal to the liberties of Europe. If ever the fatal day comes, when that exertion is to be made, all her neighbours would feel it their com- mon intereft to fecond and fupport her. Much would it then be regretted, that the ftrength and refources of thofe powers fhould have been fo exhaufted by wars among themfelves, as to be dis- abled in the moment when mod fig- nally wanted. Then it would appear, that France fhould have directed ail her attention to her army, and Britain to her navy, as the beft united means of refilling what Lord Chefterfield very juftly terms, " new devils," arifing in Europe. But from whatever quarter danger may arife to Great Britain, it much behoves her, while other powers are rifing fo incredibly in force, to t?.ke every means that providence permits,

to

xii PREFACE.

to fcrengthen herfelf ; and that the moft fecure and folid way of doing this, is by carrying all the arts of cultivation in both iflands, to the higheft pitch of perfection that is practical, no body will I apprehend deny.

That too much national attention cannot be given to agriculture, never appeared ib ftrong as it does in the pre- fent period. The legiflature of this kingdom has for a century bent all its endeavours to promote the commercial Jyjlem. The ilatute book is crowded with laws for the encouragement of ma- nufactures, commerce, and colonies, and in fome inftances at the expenfe of the improvement ol the national foil. Yet in that period only one great agricul- tural meafure was embraced, the boun- ty on the export of corn, frittered down to the prefent fyftem, which turns out with or without, but certainly by the connivance of law, to be a conftant im- port Jckemcy in order to reduce the prices of the earth's products, in favour of

thofe

PREFACE. xiii

thofe clafTes whofe monopolizing fpirit has had the direct t.ndency to beggar and ruin the kingdom. Whoever eon- fiders atentively t~e commercial con Audi of Great Britain, will not think there is any thing paradoxical in this aflertion.

The entire adminiftration of the co- 1 nies has been commercial. It has been made a trader's project, and the fpirit of monopoly pervaded every ftep of our progress in planting and rearing thofe fettlements. They were govern- ed by the narrow fpirit of a counting houfe, which in the plantation of coun- tries formed to be the relidence of great nations, neither faw nor permitted any thing better than a monopolized mar- ket. It was this fpirit that fhackled thofe countries in fuch commercial fet- ters as to render them incapable of con- tributing to the neceffities of the gene- ral government of the empire. Had a more liberal policy been embraced, (uch contributions would have been early in- troduced, with a capability (from a free

com-

xiv PREFACE.

commerce) of fupporting them. The commercial government gave up the advantage of all contribution for the greater profit of monopoly : it was evi- dent that loth could not be had, till thofe countries became too great and powerful to be icrced into new and un- juft habits. Nothing therefore can be more idle than to fay that this fet of men, or the other adminiftration, or that gveat miniftcr, occaiioned the American war. It was not the ftamp act, nor the repeal of the ftamp act ; it was neither Lord Rockingham nor Lord North, but it was that baleful monopo- lizing fpirit of commerce that wiilied to govern great nations, on the maxims of the counter. That did govern them fo ; and in the cafe of Ireland and the Indies does ft ill govern them fo. Had not the trader's lyfteni been embraced, A merica would, in confequence of tax- ation, have been long ago united with Britain ; but our traders knew very well that a free commerce would follow a union.

Nor

PREFACE. xv

Nor is it only in the lofs of vaft ter- ritories that we ieel the direful effects of the monopolizing fpirit, 1 he greater! part of the national d^bt is owing to the two laft wars, which coft us one hundred millions fterling, and arofe from mercantile caufes : that of 1740 was a war for the protection of Englilli fmugglers: and that of 1756, fprung from an apprehenfion that the French would divide the American market with our traders: the prefent, which may be as expenlive before it is finifhed as either of the former, was owing to a determination to fecure the market we had gained. But all the wars are for markets or fmnggling, or trade or manufacture.- That vaft debt which debilitates the kingdom, thole taxes we pay for having loft rhirteen provinces and the hazard we now run of loiing or ruining Ireland, are all owing to the former predilection of our government for the trad;ng fyftem.

I fhould go much beyond the line of truth to declare, that trade and manu-

iacture

*vi PREFACE.

facture are necefTariiy ruinous. The very contiary is my opinion ; extenfive manufactures, and a flourifliing com- merce, are the very beft friends of agri- culture, as I have endeavoured to fhew more at large in my Political Arithme- tic. What I would urge here is, that trade is an admirable thing; but a trading government a moft pernicious cne. Protect and encourage merchants and manufacturers in every exertion of their induftry; but lifiien not to them in the legiflature. They never yet were the fathers of a fcheme that had not monopoly for its principle. It has been the fatality of our government to attend to them on every occafion. We are, at this moment, in the full ma- turity of the evils which a legflature, influenced by traders, can bring upon a country. Nor can 1 without aflo- nifhment view the commercial jealoufy that has arfen in Europe in the iaft 50 years. Other nations have caught of u; the commercial fptit. They have attributed the effects of the nobleft and

moft

PREFACE. xvii

mofr, perfect fyflem of freedom the world has ever feen, to the trade of the country. Deluded mortals! Give your fubje&s the liberty which Engiifhmen enjoy, and trade will fpring up one among the many luxuriant branches of that wide extended tree. Liberty, not trade, has been the caufe of Eng- land's sreatnefs. Commerce and all its confequences have been the efjeEt^ not the caufe of our happinefs. France has, with the fame fort of folly, over- looked the fimple and obvious advan- tage of improving her noble territory for the more precarious profits of trade : and what are the confequences ? She too has hazarded thofe wars for com- merce, which have exhausted her re- fources, mortgaged her revenues, and debilitated every principle of her na- tional ftrength.

When the orefent monopoly (the true characterise of the commercial fyitem) has halt beggared Europe with the thirft of weal eh ; and that nations have grown wifer by experience, they

b will.

xviii PREFACE.

will, it is to be hoped, found their greatnefs in the full cultivation of their territories ; the wealth refulting from that exertion, will remain at home, and be fecure ; nothing in that progrefs will kindle the jealoufy of neighbours — no vile monopolies— no reftriclions —no regulating duties are wanting: perpetual wars, heavy debts, and ruin- ous taxes, will not be neceflary to ex- tend and promote agriculture, infepa- rable as they have been from commerce.

To a philofophical eye the prefent conduct of commercial Europe is an inexplicable enigma. The mercantile fyftem of England having grafpedatand pofTeiTed the monopoly of the North American market, France, in the trans- actions which preceded the war of 1 756, manifefted the plaineft jealoufy of our power in North America : the moll ill founded jealoufy, as experience has {hewn, that could actuate a nation. The two countries engaged in the war upon a fubjecl merely commercial; and it coftj between them, above an hun- dred

PREFACE. xix

dred millions fterRiig, the cne to be driven out of Canada, and the other to lofe America by rebellion. Is it pofii- ble that the rulers of ihefe two king- doms, if they had an inclination to a- mufe themfelves with expending iuch a fum. had fo poor a genius that they could not devife the means of doing it at home, in the encouragement of agri- culture and arts; in inclofures, naviga- tions, roads, harbours, the cultivation of waftes, draining marines, raifmg pa- laces? &c.

In the Duke de Choifeui's miniftry we were on the point of another com- mercial war, we had a greater trade to India than France, and in order to ba- lance it that kingdom was ready to ex- pend fifty millions more. Then Spain takes commercial umbrage, at our fet- tling with commercial views on a rock, the great produces ot which are feals and penguins ; the affair could not coil: lefs than five millions; but that is a tri- fle in the affairs of trade — For fee, we are now engaged in a frefh career of b 2 com-

xx PREFACE. commerce with America, and the whole houfe of Bour- on. Upon a moderate computation, France, Spain, and Bri- tain, will each of them fpend enough ia it to improve three or four provinces to the higheft pitch of cultivation ; which inftead of flaughtering three or four hundred thoufand men, and leaving thrice that number of widows and 01- phans, would render a greater number of families happy for life, and leave a rich and increafing legacy of eafe and plenty to their pofterity : and all the {laughter, ruin, poverty and deftrucrion, that is thus brought on the human fpe- cies, is for the lake of commerce.

It was the commercial iyftem that founded thofe colonies — commercial profits reared them — commercial avarice monopolized them — and commercial ignorance now wars to recover the pof- feffion of what isnotintrinfically worth the powder and ball that are fliot away in the quarrel. The fame baneful com- mercial genius influences France and Spain to exhauft their revenues,, ruin

their

PREFACE. xxi

their fubje&s, and ftagnate every branch of domeftic induftry, for diftant, ideal, and precarious commercial advantages.

But to return — The manufactures, commerce, and fifheries of Ireland, are objects of much importance to Great Britain, and as the information 1 pro- cured concerning them, was chiefly gain- ed on the fpot, and given me without thofe intentions of deceiving, which are too common, when fuch particulars are introduced politically to the world, I believe the reader will not be forry at my having given them a place.

The general view of the kingdom I have given from the whole of the m- telligence, will I flatter myfelf, throw Ireland into that juft light, in which fhe has not hitheito appeared. The many erroneous ideas concerning the rental, wealth, and confequence of that ifland, with which every book is filled that treats of it, will be here explained. The reader will find the progrds of na- tional profperity, its prefent ilate, and

the

xxii PREFACE. the vaft field of improvement which Ireland will continue, until it comes to be every thing to Britain which the warmeft patriot could wifh. For fo happy a ftate to arrive, nothing is want- ing but this country to change her po- licy, and cherifh that induftry fhe has hitherto feemed fo anxious to fhackle.

After having travelled through the greateft part of the kingdom, I found, upon fitting down to give an account ot thofe circumftances, not immediately ariilng from the hufbandry of the coun- try, that I was in want of many public accounts of trade, manufactures, taxes, &c. not to be procured upon a journey, I was for fome time in correfpondence with fome friends in Dublin to gam thefe, but after palling near a twelve- month in expectation I found it would be impoffible to procure the necelTary papers without going thither ; I accord- ingly went and refided nine weeks in that city, very buf-ly employed in exa- mining and tranfcribing public records and accounts, which enabled me to give

fuch

PREFACE. xxiii

fuch a detail of thofe fubjects, as has not hitherto been laid before the public. I may without exaggeration afTert, that all thefe objects for want of induftry in thofe who have written concerning Ire- land, have bven treated in the way of guefs, conjecture, and declamation, to anfwer particular purpofes, inftead of any detail of facts. Part of thefe en- quiries may be uninterefting to thofe who do not refide in the country, but I am neverthelefs fo much convinced of their importance to England, as well as to Ireland, that I have determined to ex- plain them as fully as I was able, tedious as they may appear to thofe, who read rather for amufement, than information. Perhaps there would be no impropriety in prefixing to all the productions I venture before the public, this caution : I have been reproached for being tedious, but I profefs, to treat that fubje£t which I think (vainly perhaps) I underftand, in fo detailed a manner, that if my pieces were not unentertaining, they would ve- ry indifferently anfwer the end, to ac- complifli which, i have travelled, prac- tifed and written. Hui-

xxiv PREFACE.

Hufbandry is an art that has hitherto owed lefs to reafoning than i believe any other. I know not of any difco- veries. or a fingle beneficial practice that lias clearly flowed f.omthis fource. But every one is well acquainted with many that have been the refult of experiment and regiilered oblervation. There is no people exifting fo backward but have ibme good practices to copy, as well as errors to avoid- To defcribe both is to give a chain of connected ta&s that mull:, in the end, prove ufeful to fuch as will read and digeft them with at- tention and reflection : but I am ready to admit that this is a ftudy very far from amufing*. The repfifters of fuch journies, as I have employed a great deal of time and expenfe in making, muft necefTarily be exceedingly dull to thofe who read for pleafure: fo disa- greeable, that they will certainly throw down the volume with as muft difguft as they would tables of arithmetic. The flattering circumftance of a fuc- eefsful publication is not thus to be ex- pected. The prefent age is much too * idle

PREFACE. xxv

idle to buy books th?.t will n6t banifh. Venuye from a {ingle hour. Succefs de- pends on amufement. The historical performances of this age and nation, which have proved fo honourable to their authors, would have met with a lefs brilliant fuccefs, had not the charms of flile rendered them as amufive as a romance. Their extreme popularity is perhaps built on rivalling, not only the authors that had before treated the lame iubjecls, but Sir Charles Grandiion and Julia. That this obiervatiom however, when applied to books of agriculture is juft, will appear from the very ill fucceis met with by authors of capital merit, and the great fales that have attended the moil miferable performances. The merit of Mr. Lille's huibandry has, in many years, carried it but into the ie- cond edition. Mr Hitt's treat fe on huibandry has not been re-printed, and is very little known, yet there are par- ticulars in it of more merit than half a fcore volumes that have been fuccefs ful. Even the elegant eflays on huibandry of my old and much regretted friend Mr.

Harte,

xxvi PREFACE.

Harte, have not been re-printed. Proofs to which many more might be added, that the public reception does not al- ways mark the merit of a book.

Any real utility that may refult from this work out of Ireland, can only be from thofe who determine fteadily to become acquainted with all the facts they can procure, in order to compare, combine, and draw conclufions from them. To men thus fcientific, too ma- ny facts can never be publifhed ; and with fuch, I flatter myfelf, I fh.aH be readily pardoned for having added fo many to the number. Indeed I fome- times fmile in reading performances, the authors of which think me of import- ance enough to do me the honour of abufing for whole pages together, at the very time that they make extremely free with information they never might have known, had my labours been wrought like their own, at a fire fide. But while I am happy in the good opi- nion, and inftruckd in the correipon- dence of fome of the fir ft characters in

Europe

PREFACE. xkvu

Europe — while my writings will ftand the teft with fuch men as a Harte, a Haller, and an Arbuthnot, I am per- fectly indifferent to the ideas ot the Moores, Shirleys, MSrfhals, and Wim- peys of the age.

There is one part of thefe papers which particularly demand an apology. I have ventured to recommend to the gentlemen of Ireland feveral courfes of hufbandry, as improvements upon what I found them practifing, and have given directions how they fhould be perform- ed. This is going a little out of my way; for it is that fpecies of writing which I am apt to condemn. Inftruc- tions in this fubjecl: fhould, more than in any other,, be gathered limply from the regifter of experiments and repeat- ed obfervations : but having been re- queued by many gentlemen on the journey to do it, I have lubmitted to their opinion, rather in contradiction to mv own. I have reflected attentively on the circumftances or Ireland before I drew up thefe recommendations ; and

I believe,'

xxviii PREFACE

I believe, that thofe who are befl: ac- quainted with the kingdom, will not think what I have propofed entirely in- applicable.

Having given fuch explanations of the defign of this work as appeared neceiTary, there only remains to infcrt the names of tho'e who were pleafed to favour me with their afliftance in exe- cuting it.

To the following perfons only I was indebted for recommendations Co Ire- land :

The Earl of Shelburne. John Aibmhnor, Eq;

1 he Dowager Lady Mid- Governor Pownal.

cile^on. 1 .ord Kenmare.

Mrs. Vefey. John Baker Holroyd, Efq;

Edmund Bnrke, Efq^ Uavid Barclay, Efqj Samuel Whitbread, Efq;

Such were the fmall number of per- fons in England, who, before I went, took the trouble to intereft themfelves in the undertaking:. As to the o-reat body of abfentees, knowing that there was not one but could contribute to my being well informed, by cards to their

ents,

PREF AC E. xxlx agents, I took the moft effectual means of letting them know my intention; but except the few juft named, the defign was not happy enough to appear in fuch a light, as to induce them to con- tribute to it. Indeed there are too many poiTelTors of great eftates in Ire- land, who wifh to know nothing more of it than the remittance of their rents,

The circumftance was rather dis- couraging, and I began to apprehend that I might want information ; but the reception I met at Dublin immediately removed it; and the following lift of thofe who were fo obliging as to take every means of having me perfectly well informed, will fhew that I was not difappointed.

The Earl of Harcourt, DukeofLeinfter,G?/?/?/o»

Lord Lieutenant Jones, Elq- Doi-

Earlof Chailemont, Dub- lefton

Un Rt. Hon. H. L. Rowley,

Mr. Machpnarland, Lut- Summer Hill

trell*s Town Earl of Mornington

Rt. Hon.ThomasConolly Rt lion. William Burton, Clements, Efq; Slaine Caftle

ibbjl'jv.

Earl

Killado n Jcb, Erq'. Shiine

Colonel Marie] ridgt Mr.G&ud9Gib&/teton

PREFACE.

Earl of Bedttve, Hear df art Lord Longford, Packen-

ham Captain Johnfton Rev. Dean Coote, Sbaen

Caflle

Brown, Efq;

Mr. Butler, near Carlow . — Mercer, Efq*

Laughlin-bridcc Gervas Parker Bum, Eftfc

Kilfaine Colonel Nun Earl of Courtovvn Lieut. General Cunning-

hame, Mount Kennedy Baron Hamilton, Ball-

hriggen Lord Chief Baron Forfter,

Cullen Lord Gosfort, Marht-hiU His Grace the Lord Pri- mate, Armagh Mr. Writ Macgcough,

ditto Bifhop of Clonfcrt Maxwell Clofe, Efq;

• Richard fon, Efq;

Lzft\&>E(q+Gfoflotigb

Workman, Efq-,

Mabon Right Hon. Wm. Brown-

lovv, Lurgan — Warren, fVar-

rcnftown Mr. Clibborn, ditto The Bifhop of Down,

Lijlmrne John Alexander, Efq; Bel*

fafi

■ Portis, Efq; ditto

Arthur Buntin, Efq; ditto Mr. Holmes, ditto Dr. Hailiday, ditto Patrick Savage, Efq; Por- ta Ferry — Ainfworth, Efq;

Sir am ford John O'Neal, Efq; Shane

Cajile James Leflie, Efq; Lejlie

Hill Rev. Mr. Leflie Right Hon. Richard Jack-

fon, Coleraine Roberi Alexander, Efq;

Deny Rev. Mr. Bernard Rev. Mr. Golding, Clon-

kigb Alexander Montgomery,

Efq; Mount Charles Thomas Nefbit, Efq; Sir James Caldwell, Bart.

Cajile Caldwell TheEarlofRofs, Belkifle Lord Vifc. Innilkilling,

Florence Court Earl of Earnham,/w«/wtf W. G. Newcomen, Efq;

Ballyclougb Thomas Mahon, Efq;

Strokeflown The Bifhop of Elphin,

Elfhin Bifhop of Kilmore The Hon. Thomas Fitz-

maurice, Bally moat The Right Hon. Jofhua

Cooper, Me era

Lewis

PREFACE, xxxi

Lewis Irvine, Efq; Tan~ revo

Brown, Efq; Sort-

land Rt. Hon. Thomas King,

Bally n a Bifliop of Killala, #///*/*

Hutchinfon,Efq; do.

The Earl of Altamont,

IVeftport Mr. Lindfay, Hollymount His Grace the Arehbifhop

of Tuam, Tuam Robert French Efq; Mo- nro a Mr. Andrew Trench, Gal-

way Frederic Trench, Efq;

Woodlawn Robert Gregory, Efq;

Kiltartan Sir Lucius O'Brien, Bart.

Drummolavd Mr. Robert Fitzgerald Mr. Singleton Mr. Thomas Marks, Li- merick Richard Aid worth, Efq;

sinnfzrove Lord Donneraile, Donne-

Taiie Denham Jephfon, Efq;

Mallow Dunham Jephfon, jun.

F.fq-, ditto Robert Gordon, Efq;

Newgrove St. John JefFeryes, Efq;

Blarney Caftle

Dominick Trent, Efq; Dunkettle

The Earl of Shannon, Cajlle Martyr

Robert Longficld, Efq; Caftle Mary

Earl of Inchiquin, Eof- tcllan

Rev. the Dean of Corke, Corke

Rev. Archdeacon Oliver

Sir John Croulthurft, Bart,

■ Herbert, Efq; Mu-

crus

Arthur Blennerhaffet, Efq; Arbella

Earl of Glandore, Ardfert

Lord Crofbie, ditto

Robert Fitzgerald, Efq; Woodford

Edward Leflie, Efq; Tar- bat

Mrs. Quin, Adair

Right Hon. Silver Oliver, Caftle Oliver

Earl of Clanwilliarn

• Macarthy, jun.

Efq; Spring Hoiife

Mr. Allen

Lord de Montalt, Dun- drum

Right Hon. Sir Wm. Of- borne, Bart. Newtown

Moore, Efq; Mark- field

Earl of Tyrone, Curragb- moor

Cornelius Bolton, Efq; Ballycavern

Cornelius

xxxii PREFACE.

Cornel i us Bolton, jun. Efq* Peter Holmes, Etc\; John/*-

ditto town

Richard Nevill, Efq; Fur- Michael Head, Efq; Berry

nefs Rev. Mr. Uoyd, Cullen

John Lloyd, Efq; Chjicr Lord Vile. Kngfborough,

Mitcbelfiown

Such are the contributors to this work. It is with the umoft pleafure I reflect on the liberal, polite and friendly manner in which I was receiv- ed by iuch a number of perrons, among whom are many of the mod diftin- guifhed characters in Ireland— -Charac- ters that would reflect a luftre upon any nation.

The mod carelefs eye will difcern at once the great advantages, which the uncommon, but polite hofpitality of the nation, united with an eagernefs to do whatever had the mod: diftant ap- pearance of being ierviceable to their country, gave me in defcribing it. If, with all thefe advantages, Ireland is not in future much better known than ever fhe was before, the fault is entirely mine, and I have little to plead in ex- tenuation of it.

A TOUR,

A

TOUR, &c.

JUNE 19th, 1776, arrived at Holyhead, after an inftruttive journey through a part of England aid Wales I had not {cen. before. Found the packet, the Claremont, captain Taylor, would fail very foon. After a tedious paffage of twenty-two hours, land- ed on the 20th, in the morning, at Dunleary, four miles from Dublin, a city which much exceeded my expectation j the public build- ings are magnificent, very many of the ftreets regularly laid out, and exceedingly well built. The front of the parliament-houie is grand ; though not fo light as a more open finiih- ing of the roof would have made it. The apartments are fpacious, elegant, and con- venient, much beyond that heap of con- fufion at Weftminfter, fo inferior to the mag- nificence to be looked for in the feat of empire. I was fo fortunate as to arrive juft in time to fee Lord Harcourt, with the ufual Vol. I. B ceremonies,

ft DUBLIN.

ceremonies, prorogue the parliament. Tri- nity college is a beautiful building and a numerous fociety ; the library is a very fine room, and well filled. The new exchange will be another edifice to do honour to Ire- land ; it is elegant, cofl 40,000 1. but de- ferves a better fituation. From every thing I faw, I was ftruck with all thofe appear- ances of wealth which the capital of a thriv- ing community may be fuppofed to exhibit. Happy if I find through the country in dif- fufed profperity the right fource of this fplendor! The common computation of in- habitants 200,000, but I fliould fuppofe ex- aggerated. Others guefTed the number 140, or 150,000.

June 21ft, introduced by Colonel Burton to the Lord Lieutenant, who was pleafed to enter into converfation with me on my in- tended journey, made many remarks on the agriculture of feveral Irifh counties, and fhewed himfelf to be an excellent farmer, particularly in draining. Viewed the Duke of Leinfter's houfe, which is a very large ftone edifice, the front fimple but elegant, the pediment light, there are feveral good rooms ; but a circumflance unrivaled is the court, which is fpacious and magnificent, the opening behind the houfe is alfo beautiful. In the evening to the Rotunda, a circular room, 90 feet diameter, an imitation of Ra- nelagh, provided with a band of mufick.

The

D U B L I N.

The barracks are a vaft building, railed in a plain ftile, of many divifions, the prin- cipal front is of an immenfe length. They contain every convenience for ten regi- ments.

June 23d. Lord Charlemont's houfe in Dublin, is equally elegant and convenient, the apartments large, handfome, and well difpofed, containing fome good pictures, par- ticularly one by Rembrandt, of Judas throw- ing the money on the floor, with a ftrong expreflion of guilt and remcrfe ; the whole group fine. In the lame room is a portrait: of Caefar Borgia by Titian. The library is a moil elegant apartment, of about 40 by 30, and of fuch a height, as to form a pleating proportion, the light is well managed, com- ing in from the cove of the ceiling, and has an exceeding good efFecl ; at one end is a pretty anti-room, with a fine copy of the Venus de Medicis, and at the other, two fmall rooms, one a cabinet of pictures, and antiquities, the other medals. In the col- lection alfo of Robert Fitzgerald, Efq; in Merrion Square, are feveral pieces which very well deferve a traveller's attention. — It was the beft I law in Dublin. Before I quit that city, I obferve, on the houfes in general, that what they call their two-roomed ones, are good and convenient. Mr. Latouche's^ in Stephen's-Green, I was fhewh as a model of this fort, and I found it well contrived, and finilhed elegantly. Drove to Lord C.

B 2 lemont's

4 DUBLIN.

iemont's villa at Marino, near the city, where his Lordfhip has formed a pleafing lawn, margined in the higher part by a well-planted thriving fhrubbery, and on a riling ground a banqueting room, which ranks very high among the mod beautiful edifices I have any where feen; it has much elegance, lightnefs, and efTecl, and commands a fine profpecl ; the fifing ground on which it ftands Hopes off to an agreeable accompanyment of wood, beyond which, on one fide, is Dublin har- -bour, which here has the appearance of a noble river crowded with fhips moving to and from the capital. On the other fide is a fhore fpotted w7ith white buildings, and beyond it the hills of Wicklow, prefenting an outline extremely various. The other part of the view (it would be more perfect if the city was planted out) is varied, in fome places nothing but wood, in others, breaks of profpect. The lawn, which is extenfive, is new grafs, and appears to be excellently laid down, the herbage a fine crop of white clover, (trifolium repens), trefoile, rib-grafs, • (plantage lanceolata), and other good plants. Returned to Dublin and made inquiries into other points, the prices of provisions, &c. (for which fee the tables at the end of the book . The expenfes of a family in propor- tion to thofe of London are, as 5 to 8.

Having the vear following lived more than two months in Dublin, I am able to fpeak to a few points, which, as a mere traveller I

could

DUBLIN. 5

could not have done. The information I before received of the prices of living is cor- rect. Fifh and poultry are plentiful and very -cheap. Good lodgings almoft as dear as they are in London ; though we were well accommodated kdirt excepted i for two guineas and an half a week. All the lower ranks in this city have no idea of Englifh cleanlinefs, either in apartments, perfons, or cookery. There is a very good fociety in Dublin in a parliament winter — a great round of dinners, and parties -, and balls, and fuppers every night in the week, fome of which are very elegant, but you almolt every where meet a company much too numerous for the fize of the apartments. They have two afTem- blies on the plan of thofc of London, in Fifh.ambie-ft.reet, and at the Rotunda ; and two gentlemens clubs, Anthry's and Daly's, very well regulated; I heard fome anecdotes of deep play at the latter, though never to the excefs common at London. An ill- judged and unfuccefsful attempt was made to erlablifh the Italian Opera, which exifted but with fcarcely any life for this one winter; of courfe they could rife no higher than a comic one. La buona Figliuola, la Frafca- tana, and il Gelofo in Cimento, were re- peatedly performed, or rather murdered, ex- cept the parts of Seftini. The houfe was generally empty and miferably cold. So much knowledge of the ltate of a country is gamed by hearing the debates cf a parliament, that I often frequented the gallery of the houfe

of

6 DUBLIN.

of commons. Since Mr. Flood has been iilenced with the vice-treafurerfhip of Ire- land, Mr. Daly, Mr. Grattan, Sir William Ofborne, and the prime ferjeant Burgh, are reckoned high among the Irifh orators. I heard many very eloquent fpeeches, but I cannot fay they fbuck me like the exertion of the abilities of Irifhmen in the Englifh houfe of commons, owing perhaps to the reflection both on the fpeaker and auditor, that the attorney general of England, with a dafh of his pen, can reverfe, alter, or en- tirely do away the matured refult of all the eloquence, and all the abilities of this whole affembly. Before I conclude with Dublin I fhall only remark, that walking in the ftreets there, from the narrow nefs and populoufnefs of the principal thoroughfares, as well as from the dirt and wretchednefs of the ca- naille, is a moft uneafy and difgufting ex- ercife.

June 24th, left Dublin and paffed through the Phcenix-park, a very pleating ground, at the bottom of which, to the left, the LifTey forms a variety of landfcapes : this is the moft beautiful environ of Dublin. Take the road to Luttrell's town through a various fcenery on the banks of the river. That domain is a confiderable one in extent, be- ing above 400 acres within the wall, Irifh meafure; in the front of the houfe is a fine lawn bounded by rich woods, through which are many ridings, four miles in extent. From

the

DUBLIN. 7

the road towards the houfe, they lead through a very line glen, by the fide of a ftream fall- ing on a rocky bed, through the dark woods, with great variety on the fides of fteep Hopes, at the bottom of which the LifFey is either heard or feen indifiinctly ; thefe woods are of great extent, and fo near the capital, form a retirement exceedingly beautiful. Lord Irn- ham and Colonel Luttrel have brought in the aliiftance of agriculture to add to the beauties of the place, they have kept a part of the lands in cultivation in order to lay them down the better to grafs ; 1 50 acres have been done, and above 200 acres mofl effectually drained in the covered manner filled with Hones. Thefe works are well executed. The drains are alfo made under the roads in all wet places, with lateral fhort ones to take off the water inftead of leaving it, as is common, to foak againft the caufe- way, which is an excellent method. Great nfe has been made of lime-ftone gravel in the improvements, the efTecl of which is fo confiderable, that in feveral fpots where it was laid on 10 years ago, the fuperiority of the grafs is now fimilar to what one would expect from a frefn dunging.

Mr. Macfarian the Reward has at fome di fiance from the grounds a farm which he Is bringing into high order. Kis ditches are large, deep, and well cut, and he lias made many drains. Lime he has ufed much, and experimentally againft fpots unlimed, and

fou nd

8 DUBLIN.

found the benefit very great ; the foil, a flrong, wet, ftoney loam or lime flone. He lays 1 60 barrels an acre, at the expenfe of feven pence a barrel, and finds that it will laft as long as the gravel. For meadow lands, he prefers it mixed with earth, but on tillage gravel. Soot he buys at Dublin for fowing over the wheat in April to kill the red worm, for which it anfwers, and alfo improves the crop. Another circumftance in which he differs from the farmers, is cutting ftraw into chaff, and alfo in beginning to plough his fallows in autumn. He much prefers ploughing with oxen to horfes. The following particulars he gave me of the ge- neral flate of hufbandry in the county of Dublin: farms about 100 1. a year, more above than under, fome to 300 1. a year. The foil on the furface a ftoney yellow clay, 18 inches deep on lime-ftone gravel, with fome exceptions of flate-ilone, rents about 1 1. us, 6d: from 10s. 6d. td 3I. 3s. courfes moft general,

1. Fallow.

2. Wheat. Sow 1 barrel, and get on an

average 8 barrels.

3. Oats. Sow 2 barrels, get from 12 to

20. Sometimes 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats. 4. Clover. 5. Wheat. 6. Oats. They plough four times for wheat, on clover but once, feed their clover the year through. No fain- foine.

Many

DUBLIN. 0

Many potatoes in the ridgeway 7 feet broad, and the furrows 31. Cut generally 18 to 24 inches deep, in order to throw up fome lime- (tone eravel : always dung for them 320 one horfe loads to an acre at about 5 or 6 to a ton, are fpread over the 7 feet. Lay the fets upon the dung, dig. a fpit and fhovel it i then dig another fpit, and another {hovelling, the fetts 12 inches afunder ; from 4 to 5 barrels plant an acre. Weed, but no hoeing; take them up with the fpade, and the crop from 60 to 70 barrels : all are planted for home-ufe, but they give their pigs the fmall ones, boiled , and they will fatten them to be fine bacon, but give fome butter- milk, and a week or two before they are filled fome offal corn. For fowls, boil them to a maih, and mix with butter-milk, which fattens them exceedingly well. The price of potatoes on an average 20 d. per cwt. the moft productive forts are the white kidney, and the white Munfter. Lime-ftone gravel the general manure of the country 5 they lay 3 or 400, one horfe-cart loads per acre ; it will laft from 1 5 to 20 years, and is of the greater! benefit ; it appears immediately : the expenfe ufually 1 I. 1 1 s. 6 d. per acre. Spread it on the fallow, after the firft plow- ing. They go much to Dublin for fullage of the ftreets to lay on their hay grounds.

Good grafs-land letts at 40 s. an acre ; five miles round Dublin from 40 s. to 10 1. on an average about 3 1. 8 s. Mow moft of it for

hay;

io DUBLIN.

hay ; a good crop 20 load at 4cwt. an acre round Dublin; through the county 12 load an acre. Many dairies kept for letting from

5 1. 15s. to 61. c; s. per cow; the dairyman iinds labour, but has horfes enough kept him to draw the milk to Dublin.

On an average a cow will require, for her fummer and winter food, an acre and an half,

but not of the beft grafs. Of that an acre

would do. The breed the old Irifh ; the

Englifh cows do not give fo much milk, from 4 to 6 lb. of butter a cow the produce per week : the butter -milk fells from 4 s. to

6 s. per barrel. A good cow fhould give 8 quarts a day, if lefs the cowman rejects her. The winter food hay. .Very few fwine kept, except by cottagers. Sheep they buy in June or July, and fell them from September until March ; buy in wethers three years old, at 20 s. and fell them out at 1 1. 115. 6d. but give them hay. Plough with oxen four in a plough; but in goring, or crofs --plowing, fix, and do half an acre a day. To ieo acres arable there muft be fix bullocks and eight horfes.

Plough nine inches deep at goring j price of ploughing, fowing, and harrowing, 16 s. to 20 s. an acre. Lav their fields in 4 foot lands. Keeping horfes, 9 1. a year each. No cutting of ftraw into chaff among the common farmers: the plough oxen they work on ftraw. They have more horfes than oxen ;

put

DUBLIN. ii

put them to work at three years old, keep them at it till nine, then fatten them. They break their flubbles in May or June, In hireing and flocking firms, they will, with 80 1. take as many acres, dividing it as follow, on 80 acres.

	I '• '		£•	/.	J.
6 Horfes at	3 3	-	18	18	0
4 Oxen	3 0	-	12	0	0
4 Cows	2 10	-	10	0	0
2 Pigs	18	-	1	16	0
4 Irifh cars	1 7	-	t	8	0
2 Ploughs	-	+	1	1	0
2 Harrows	-	-	0	16	0
Harnefs	-	-	4	4	0
Sundries	'■	-	5	0	0
Furniture	.	-	s	0	0
Houfe-keeping	the firft year	T	6	0	0
1 Man 4 1. and 1 boy, 2 1. wages	6	0	0
1 Maid	-	-	1	10	0
Seed 13 acres, Oats 13 acres	wheat 20 s.-} - 16s.)	-	23	8	0
		£	IOI	1	0

For

12 DUBLIN.

For part of which he will run in debt. Land fells in general, through the county, at 22 years purchafe. Till within three years it rofe much, from 1762 to 1772 -, fince that it has rather fallen. Tythes none taken in kind, compounded by the acre. Wheat and barley 5s. 6d. Oats 2s. yd. near Dublin 5s. or 6s. Moll of the people drink tea, and confume plenty of whifky and tobacco. Leafes 41 or 61 years ; many on lives, and alfo renewable for ever.

Rent of cottages 26s. to 30s. with a pota- toe garden. No emigrations. The religion in general catholic. Labour through the year iod. a day, about Dublin is. A ditch of 6 feet wide 5 feet deep perpendicular , and 2 1 at bottom earth all on one fide 2s. 6d. a perch. Threfhing and cleaning wheat od. per barrel, barley 6di. Oats 4di.

Provisions.

Bread iolb. of 14 oz. for i2d.

Bacon 66.

Butter-milk id 1. a quart.

New milk 2d a quart. Potatoes is. 6d. per cwt.

Candles 5c! i. per lb. Soap 6d. Firing all ftolen.

Build-

DUBLIN. 13

BUILDIN G.

Iriili flate 15s. per 1000. Englifh 20s.

Oak timber rather fallen in price in 10 years.

Elm is. 4<i. Beech is. Soft wood 8d. jFirs at 60 years growth, 1 ton to i\ of tim- ber, and worth 2L 28. Walling is. a perch, for labour of 7 feet high and 18 inch thick. Building a cottage 3I. ditto a farm-houfe, and all offices for 80 acres, 20I.

Leaving Luttrel's town, I went to St. Wol- {tans, which Lord Harcourt had been fo ob- liging as to deiire I would make my quarters, from whence to view to the right or left.

June 25th, to Mr. Clements, at Killadoon, who has lately built an excellent houfe, and planted much about it, with the fatisfaction of finding that all his trees thrive well; I re- marked the beech and larch feemed to get be- yond the reft. He is alfo a good farmer. Cabbages he has repeatedly tried, and ufed them generally for fattening fheep, and finds them much better for the purpole than tur- nips.

Potatoes he cultivates largely, not only for family ufe, but alfo for fattening fwme ; boils them, and they fat exceedingly well, without any mixture of meal, both porkers and for bacon, giving them oats for three weeks at laft.

He

14 D U B L I N.

He has been very attentive to bring his farm into neat order refpecling fences, throw- ing down and levelling old banks, making new ditches, double ones fix feet wide and five deep, w7ith a laige bank between for planting, more effecluall- than ever I faw in England : alfo in hollow drains his wet lands.

Remarking in one of his fields under oats one part, about ar acre incomparably beyond the reft of the field, I enquired into the caufe of it, and found it fown with an Englifh oat, no other difference in the circumftances.

His fyftem of fheep is to buy ewes, in Sep- tember, at 14s. 6d. and to fatten both lamb and ewe, felling the firfl at 9s. and the latter at 1 8s. The wool is 4s. They lamb the be- ginning of March. Obferving the legs being long, his man affured me that the longer the legs, the better the fheep fold in Smithfield. A ridiculous prepoffeffion ! not peculiar to Ireland j Wiltlhire has it.

June 26th, breakfafted with Colonel Mar- lay, at Cellbridge, found he had practifed hufbandry with much fuccefs, and given great attention to it from the peace of 1763, which put a period to a gallant fcene of fervice in Germany ; walked through his grounds, which I found in general very well cultivat- ed ; his fences excellent, his ditches 5 by 6, and 7 by 6 ; the banks well made, and plant- ed with quicks ; the borders dug away covered

with

K I L D A R E. 15

with lime, till perfe&ly flacked, then mixed with dung, and carried into the fields : a prac- tice which Mr. Marlay has found of very great benefit. He has cultivated the large Scotch cabbage for two or three years, which came to 16 or 171b. on an average, applied them to fattening oxen that had been fed on grafs ; began to give them in November -, has had 2| acres : they fattened the beafxs very well, full as well as turnips, but did not think they anfwered the expenfe, as they require in order to have them of a great fizc an immenfe quantity of dung.

Turnips.

He has fown every year fince 1763, always had from 4 to 17 acres, has ufually drilled them in rows, the diflances various ; but thofe which anfwered beft, were double rows at 12 inches, with intervals of three feet, horfe hoed, hand hoed, and weeded them. Pre- pared for them by lime and dung ; the crops fine, up to 21 lb. a turnip, but on an average about Sib. Generally fed beafts with them that had the fummer's grafs, but with both gave fome hay, and were very fat in four months. Continued them in the fame ground for fix or feven years together, manuring for them every fecond year. It is rather to be regretted that he did not every year change the land.

Potatoes.

i6 K I L D A R E.

Potatoes.

Plants them with the plough, drawing fur- rows five feet afunder, .filled with dung, the fets on the dung, and then covered with the plough, and horfe-hoed them backwards and forwards, the crop 2$ barrels per acre of very large ones.

Clover.

Mr. Marlay has introduced this plant {o generally, that he fows no corn without it. The profit exceedingly great, more than that of any other improvement.

Lime.

Ufed much, mixed with earth, and found great fuccefs from it, even on lime-fione land. Burns at yd. a barrel; always leaves it on the ditch-earth to (lack, and then mixes it before dung is put to it.

Draining.

Has drained much in the hollow way, fill- ing with ftones, and found the benefit ex- ceedingly great, can cart on the wetteft lands at any time, two years have paid the expenfe.

Ploughing.

Inftead of the common draught of the coun- try, he ufes often only two oxen in a plough, for he has many forts of ploughs from Mr. Baker and from England.

Cows.

K I L D A R E. 17

Cows.

From three Kerry cows, from the middle of May to the middle of September, he had 241b. of butter a week.

The Colonel favoured me with the follow- ing particulars of the common hufbandry about Cellbridge. Farms generally 100 acres j the medium of the county from 20I. to iool. Soil various ; itoney loams, gravels and clays, and on lime-fione quarries. Rents about il. 1 os on an average. Their courfe,

1. Fallow.

2. Wheat, fow a barrel and get 7.

3. Oats, fow two barrels and get 14.

4. Oats.

A little barley is cultivated.

They plough three or four times for wheat. Turnips were fown in fields 30 years ago, but left off on account of the poor ftealing them. Great quantities of potatoes planted in the trenching way, the expenfe 3I. in la- bour only to put in if done by hire, and 40s. if for themfelves. The cottagers pay the far- mers 81. an acre for the land ready dunged, and they require three car loads to every fquare perch. — This great manuring fwallows up not only all the dung of the farm, but nine tenths of that of the kingdom. They begin to plant in March, and continue it to the end of May, moft of them weed, the crop upon an . Vol. 1. C average

i9 K I L D A R E.

average about ioo barrels, at 5s. each. They are obliged to clear the land by the firft of November, when the farmer ploughs and fows- wheat and gets fine crops. The apple po- tatoe is liked beft, becaufe they laft till the new ones come in.

In refpecl to manuring they ufe but little lime, but depend principally on lime-ftone gravel, 300 carloads to an acre; if taken out of the ditch as on the fpot, it cofts about 1 8 or 19s. an acre. It will laft about five or fix years good.

As to laying lands to grafs the tenants do it very often ; but their only way is to let it co- ver itfclf with fuch vegetables as may come, and upon fome land it forms very good grafs.

But few cows kept. They apply their grafs chiefly to fattening cows ; there is fome good meadow on the river, and in grazing, two acres will fatten three cows, befides fome fheep and winter food. Flocks rife to 3 or 400— buy in wethers half fat, which turn into af- ter-grafs till Chriitmas, then to hay, and fell in February and March; buy at 18 to 20, fell at 30 to 35. They plough with both horfes and oxen, the draft four oxen or two oxen and two horfes. To a farm of 117 acres, ten horfes and two oxen.

They plough five inches deep, and do one half, or three fourths of an acre a day. Lay

their

K I L D A R E. 19

their lands in three feet ridges — No cutting itraw into chaff. The draft oxen have hay when worked. Hire of a boy, a horfe and car, is. 6d. a day; two cars and one man is. 6d. In hiring and itocking farms — for 50 acres

4 Horfes, at 3I 35. - 12 12 o

3 Cows, at 3I. 3s. - - 990

2 Young cattle, at i6s. - 1 12 o

2 Pigs 5s. - - o 10 O

2 Cars 40s. - - 400

1 Plough - - o «6 o

Harrows - - 050 No harnefs

Sundries - - I o o

Furniture - - I O o Houfekeeping is. 40*. a day for half a

year - - 12 o o

Harveft, labouring, &c. - 10 O o Seed, 10 acres, lobars, wheat 1000

10 Acres oats, 20 ditto 600

5 Ditto bere, 5 ditto 3 o o 19 o o

Produce.

3 Cows 51b. butter a week, from ifl

May to end of Sept. ioolb. at 8(1. 368

1 Pigs - - - 140

50 Barrels of wheat - 50 o o

10 Acres wheat ftraw - 1000

IO oats, 100 barrels - 30 o O

$ bere, 13 ditto - 48 15 o

£ 143 5 8 Ca Ex-

*o K I L D A R E.

Expenses.

L a bo u r < £ . i c

Rent and cefs 80 90

A farmer that has a plough, a harrow three cars, four horfes and fix cows with 50I. in his pocket, will take a farm of 100 acres. Tythes for wheat 7s. for oats and bere 3s. for mowing ground 5s. Land fells at 22 years purchafe, has fallen fince 1 772 one or two years. Coun- ty cefs paid by tenant for roads is. an acre. Leafes ufual three lives or 31 years, fome re- newable for ever. People rather increafed. Rent of a cabbin and half an acre of land, 40s. All Catholics. Building a new cottage 1 ol. which with one half an acre lets at 40s. for a farm of 50 acres, 40 to 50I. Building a wall 10 feet high, 18 inches thick, and 21 foot long, 34s. with mortar dafhed 8s. lefs, Hating a guinea a fquare.

Walked through Laughlinftown, the farm of the late Mr. John Why n Baker, to whom the Dublin Society, with a liberality that does them great honour, gave for feveral years 300I. annually in order to make experiments.

I had had the pleafurc of correfponding with him feveral years, and melancholy it was to fee the land of a man of fo much in- genuity no longer his, and more fo, to hear with all his exertions he was not able to an- fvver the expectations raifed of him. I found

what

K I L D A -R E. 21

what I had fufpedtcd from reading his experi- ments, that he wanted capital; without a fufnxient one it is impoflible to farm well: — A man may have all the abilities in the wTorld, write like a genius, talk like an angel, and realy understand the buiinefs in all its depths, but unlefs he has a proper capital, his farm will never be fit for exhibition ; — and then, to condemn him for not being a good farmer in practice as well as theory, is juft like abufing the inhabitants oi the Irifh cabbins for not becoming excellent managers. No idea could be more ufeful, than that of encouraging fuch a man as Mr. Baker, but a capital fhould have been furnifhed him for bringing his farm into order, and when it was fo, he fhould have been directed not to try any ex- periments ; becaufe thofe trials were for the acquifition of knowledge in disputable points, and the fociety wanted no fuch difquili- tions, but the exhibition of a farm, cultivat- ed in a manner which experience has rendered jndifputable in England or eliewhere,

Viewed Lucan, the feat of Agmondiiham Vefey, Efq; on the banks of the LifFey ; the houfe is rebuilding, but the wood on the ri- ver, with walks through it, is exceeding beau- tiful. The character of the place is that of a fequeffered (hade. Diilnnt views are every w7here ihut out, and the objects all corres- pond perfectly with the impreiiion they were dehVned to raife : it is a walk on the banks

c3

12 K I L D A R E.

of the river, chiefly under a variety of fine wood, Which rifes on varied (lopes, in fome parts' gentle, in others fteep -, fpreading here and there into cool meadows, on the oppofite fhore, rich banks of wood or fhrubby ground. The walk is perfectly fequeftered, and has that melancholy gloom which fhould ever dwell in fuch a place. The river is of a character perfectly fuited to the reft of the fcenery, in fome places breaking over rocks ; in others filent, under the thick fhade of fpreading wood. Leaving Lucan, the next place is Leixlip, a fine one, on the river, with a fall, which, in a wet feafon, is con- siderable. Then St. Wolrtans, belonging to the dean of Derry, a beautiful villa, which is alfo on the river; the grounds gay and open, though not without the advantage of much wood, difpofed with judgment. A winding fhrobbery quits the river, and is made to lead through fome dreffed ground that is pretty and chearful.

Mr. Conclly's, aiCaftle-town, to which all travellers refbrt, is the fineft houfe in Ire- land, and not exceeded by many in England- it is a large handfome edifice, iituated in the middle of an extenfive lawn, which is quite furrounded with fine plantations difpofed lo the be ft advantage: to the north, the fe unite into very large woods, through which many winding walks lead, with the convenience of feveral ornamented feats, rooms, &c. On

the

K X L D A R E, 23

the other fide of the honfe, upon the river, is a cottage, with a fhrubbery, prettily laid ,out 4 the houfe commands an extenfive view, bounded by the Wicklow mountains. It confifts of feveral noble aoartments. On the firft floor is a beautiful gallery, 80 feet long, elegantly fitted up.

June 27th, left Lord Harcourt's, and hav- ing received an invitation from the Duke of Leinfter, paffed through Mr.Conolly's grounds to his Grace's feat at Cartown, the park ranks among the fineft in Ireland. It is a vaft lawn, which waves over gentle hills, fur- rounded by plantations of great extent, and which break and divide in places, fo as to give much variety. A large but gentle vale winds through the whole, in the bottom of which a fmall itream has been enlarged into a fine river, which throws a chearfulnefs through niaft of the fcenes : over it a handfome ftone- bridge. There is a great variety on the banks of this vale; part of it confifts of mild and gentle Hopes, part fteep banks of thick wood; in another place they are formed into a large fhrubbery, very elegantly laid out, and dreff- ed in the higheil; order, with a cottage, the fcenery about which is uncommonly pleaf- ing: and farther on, this vale takes a ftronger character, having a rocky ban!; on one fide, and fteep flopes fcattered irregularly, with wood on the other. On one of *he moil: rif- ing grounds in the park is a tower, from the

top.

21- KILCOCK.

top of which the whole fcenery is beheld; the park fpreads on every fide in fine fheets of lawn, kept in the higheft order by nco fheep, fcattered over with rich plantations, and bounded by a large margin of wood, through which is a riding.

From this building his Grace has another fort of view, not every where to be met with j he looks over a great part of 60,000 acres, which lie around him nearly contiguous ; and Ireland is obliged to him for fpending the revenue on the fpot that produces it. At a fmall diitance from the park is a new town. Manooth, which the duke has built ; it is regularly laid out, and confifts of good houfes. His Grace gives encouragement to fettling in it, confequently it increafes, and he meditates feveral improvements.

Reached Kilcock.

June 28th, brcakfafted with Mr. Jones of Dollefiown, who was fo obliging as to an- fwer my enquiries concerning the hufban- dry of his neighbourhood. He informed me, that the town of Kilcock contained fix great diftilleries for making whifky, and that all the wafh and grains were ufed in fattening either hogs or beafts, generally the latter, iibout November they put them to it, and though quite lean, they will be completely fat by Eafter : thofe who are more attentive

than

K I L C O C K. 25

than common, give them alfo fome bran or hay. Mr. Fofter of Branchale, at fome dif- tance from the town, has a more complete diftillery, and fats more beafis than any other perfcn.

Farms here rife from 20 to 100 acres, at 2 is. an acre, except about the town, where they are higher : but they have fallen 5s. an acre in live or fix years.

The courfe moil common is,

1. Potatoes, which yield 60 barrels an acre. 2 Bere fown in November, I of a barrel per acre, the crop 13 or 14.

3. Oats, H to two barrels fown, the pro- duce 13.

4. Oats.

5. Summer fallow.

6. Wheat, fowl, get 7,

7. Oats.

8. Oats.

They plant fome potatoes on lays without dung j but for this the land muft be very good, or the lay old : it is not efteemed fo good a way as on ftubble. The cottars give 5I. 5s. to 61. an acre dunged for planting po- tatoes, and their expenfes are as follow 5

Rent

a6 K I L C O C K.

Rent - - - £• 5 i'j -'*

Digging and putting in - 3100

10 barrels of feed, at 5 s. per barrel; 2 10 O

Flanting and fpreading the dung - o 10 o

Digging and gathering - - 3 10

o

£• 15

The cutting the fetts and weeding done in, Broken days.

Sixty barrels at 5 s. — 15 L Confequently the prime cofl to them is § s. a barrel, or 1 s. 3d. a bufhel, Bnglifh, which is an evident proof that this is the worft mode of planting in the world. They have not done taking them up till Chriitmas,

Lkneftone gravel is the general manure 06 the country -, it is found at twro feet depth, and the worfe the ground is the better the gravel does upon it. They ufe it only for ploughed land. A good dreffing of it colts 50 s. an acre, and it lafts feven years. But few cattle or (heep kept, for tillage has in- creafed within twenty years very much, owing to the culture of potatoes, not to the bounty on the inland carriage of corn.

They plough entirely with horfes, ufe four, in a plough, and do three-fourths of an acre a day. Inlaying their vvheat and bere lands, they are very attentive to do it well -, if the foil is dry on broad lands, if wet, on narrow ; • an<t

K 1 L C O C K. 2~

and after it is fowri and harrowed, they go ©nee with the plough in every furrow, and fhovel out all the loofe moulds : a practice which cannot be praifed too much. They are lo far from cutting frraw into chaff, that they throw away that of their crops. They are, upon the whole, in much better cir- cumitances than formerly, have fewer holi- days, and more induftry. Tythes are com- pounded. !V:cadow 3 s. Wheat 5 s. Bere 5 s. Oats 3 s. Leafes are from 21 to 31 years. Rent of a cabbin and fmall garden 40 s. Building one 5 1. A farm-houfe, and offices for 50 acres, 40 1. I remarked, all the way I came, great quantities of poultry in the cabbins and farms.

Mr. Jones, in an attentive practice of agri- culture, has tried fome experiments of con- fequence. Potatoes he has cultivated for cat- tle ; and had, at onetime, twelve fiore bullocks keeping uprn them — they liked them much, and eat thrct barrels a day. They weighed 5 cwt. each; aid had they been kept long enough on the potatoes, would have been fattened. For his hor'fes, he boils the pota- toes, gives them, mixed with bran, and finds that they do' very vycll on tjiem, without oats,

Mr. Armftrong, of Kiqg's-county, had 80 fheep in the fnovy Iaft winter, which got to his potatoes, and eat them freely, upon which he picked 40 of them, and put them to that food regularly ; they fattened very quick,

much

23 SUMMERHILL.

much fooner than 40 others at hay, and yielded him a great price at Smithfield.

Mr. Jones has improved fome poor rough land that produced nothing, firft by hollow- draining thoroughly, and then manuring it with limeltone gravel, which brought up a great crop of white and red clover, and tre- foile. He alio fprends this manure on lays he intends breaking up; and obferves. that the ufe of it is very great, for, when dug out of ditches, you gain at once manure, drains and fences. He has feen fome of it dropt on a bog in carting, and where-ever it falls, is furq to bring up the white clover.

From hence took the road to Summerhill, the feat of the Right Hon. H. L. Rowley, the country is chearfuj and rich ; and if tho Irifh cabbins continue like what I have hither- to feen, I (hall not heiitate to pronounce their inhabitants as well off as moil Englifh Cot- tagers. They are built of mud walls 18 inches or 2 feet thick, and well thatched, which are far warmer than the thin clay walls in England. Here are few cottars without a cow, and fome of them two. A belly full invariably of potatoes, and generally turf for fuel from a bog. It is true they have not" always chimneys to their cabbins, the door ferving for that and window too: if their eyes are not affecled with the fmoke, it may be an advantage in warmth. Every cottage fwarms with poultry, and mod of them have

pigs.

SUMMERHIL'L. 29

pigs. It is to the polite attention of Mr. Rowley, I owe the following information. About Summerhill the foil is moftly ftror.g ftony land, on clay, but naturally fertile. He lets it at about 20 s. an acre, which is the average rent of the whole county of iVltath to the occupier ; but if the tenures of middle men are included, it is not above 14s. This intermediate tenant, between landlord and occupier, is very common here. The farmers are very much improved in their circumflances fince about the year 1752. At a rack-rent, the land fells at 21 years purchafe; but according to circumiiances, to 26 and 27. Whenever a number of years purchafe of land is mentioned in Ireland, it implies a neat rent, without any deductions whatever. A conrfe of crops very common here is from the lay.

1. "Wheat, the crop 6 barrels.

2. Wheat.

3. Oats, the crop 10 barrels.

4. Oats.

5. Clover.

6. Clover.

Potatoes are much planted, the bell: land yields 100 to 120 barrels per acre, but a mid- dling produce 80, at 32 ftone the barrel. The poor pay 61. or 61. 6 s. an acre rent for grafs land to plant, and 3 1. or 4I. for a fe- cond crop. They are every where ufed for feeding hogs and poultry. Mr. Rowley has fattened worked oxen of five years old in eight weeks on them parboiled, with hay be-

fides.

3o SUMMERHILL. fides. Much marie is ufed here on the lighter lands, but for the heavy foils lime-flone gra- vel is preferred. In hiring farms, the lower tenants will take them of $o acres, if they have a few cows and horfes, without a (hil- ling in their pockets. Mr. Rowley keeps a very considerable domain in his hands; ad- joining to it is a black turf bog of admirable ufe for firing. I viewed it attentively, and am clear, that all fuch bogs as this with a fall from them for draining, might very eafily be improved into excellent meadow. The furface is covered with heath about a foot high, and under that eight or nine feet deep of^ puffy fluff, which when burnt yields no afhes ; then the bog turf ten feet deep cuts like butter, and under that a marley lime- flone gravel. They have found at 14 feet deep evident marks of the plough in the foil at bottom, alfo remains of cabbins, cribs for cattle, moofes horns, oaks, yews, and fir, being good red deal. In working for fuel, they dig out the black bog and throw the upper ftratum in its place, , through which open drains being kept, the turfs, as they are du^ are fpread on it for drying. In many fpots I remarked the vernal grafs (aTithoxan- thum odoratum), the holcus (lanatiis), narrow leaved plantain (plantcgolanceolata), docks (ru- mex), white and red clover -, and on the banks of the mafter drains a full crop of fern (pteris aquilina). Upon cutting fmall furface drains on the bog the heath (erica) doubles its growth. The expenfe of cutting drains in the bog fix

feet

S L A I N E. 31

feet wide at top, fix deep, and one wide at bottom, is 8d. or 9 d. a perch of 21 foot. The plantations and ornamented grounds at Summerhill are exteniive, and form a very- fine environ, fpreading over the hills, and having a noble appearance from the high lands above the bog. The houfe is large and handfome, with an elegant hall, a cube of 30 feet, and many very good and convenient apartments.

Went in the evening to Lord Mornington's at" Dangan, who is making many improve- ments which he fhewed me ; his plantations are extenfive, and he has formed a large wa- ter, having five or fix iflands much varied, and promontories of high land fhoot fo far into it as to form almofl difiant lakes, the effect pleafing. There are above ioo acres under water, and his Lordfhip has planned a confi- derable addition to it. Returned to Summer- hill.

June 29th, left it. tnking the road to Slaine, the country very pleafant all the way; much of it on the banks of the Boyne, variegated with fome woods, planted hedge-rows, and gentle hills : the cabbins continue much the fame, the fame plenty of poultry, pi^s, and cows. The cattle in the road have their fore legs all tied together with ftraw to keep them from breaking into the fields ; even fheep, and pigs, and goats are all in the fame bon- dage, I had the pleafure of meeting Colonel

Burton

U S L A I -N E.

o

Burton at the caftle, in whom I was io for- tunate as to find, on repeated occaiions, the utmoft aii'duity to procure me every fpecies of information, entering into the fpirit of my deiign with the moit liberal ideas. His partner in Slaine Mills, Mr. Jebb, gave me the following particulars of the common huf- bandry, which, upon reading over to feveral intelligent farmers, they found very little oc- cafion to correct. Farms rife from ioo to 300 acres, the foil, a ftoney loam upon a rock, and lets on an average at 25 s. and the whole county throughout the fame. The courfes of crops,

1. Fallow with lime, 1 20 barrels an acre, at

7 d. befides carriage.

2. Wheat, fow a barrel, and get 6 to 7,

Tometimes 1 1.

3. Barley or oats, if barley, fow 1 1, and

get 13-

4. Oats, fow two barrels, the crop 16. Alfo,

1. Fallow, 2. wheat; 3. barley, 4. oats, 5. clover, for

Two Years 6. barley. Another, 1. fallow, 2 Wheat, 3. fpring corn, 4. fpring corn, 5. fallow, 6. wheat, 7. barley, and red or white clover or trefoile and hay feeds. Another, 1 fallow, 2. wheat, 3. clover, 2 years, 4. barley, 5. oats. A common prac- tice is, for the farmers to hire any kind of rough wafte land, at three guineas, or three pound an acre for three crops, engaging to lime it if the lime is found them; 120 barrels per acre, which comes to 3!. 10 s. from 9I.

9 s.

S L A I N E. 33

9 s. leaves fix for three years. They cultivate it in the common courfe of I. fallow, 2. wheat, 3. barley, and 4. oats. Turnips not generally come in, but farmer Macguire lias 20 acres to 40 every year, but does not hoe them, he feeds fheep on the land and then fows barley and clover Clover would be more general, was it not for the expenfe of picking the {tones for mowing, which coils 10s. or 12s. an acre. Sometimes mow it once, and feed afterwards ; the crops exceedingly great. A few tares fown for the horfes. On the banks of the Nanny water, many white peafe fown, iiiftead of a fallow, and good crops, wheat fown after them. They alio fow beans about Kilbrue. Every farmer has a little flax, from a rood to an acre, and all the cottagers a fpot, if they have any land, they go through the whole prccefs themfelves, and fpin and weave it. From hence to Drogheda, there is a con- fiderable manufacture of coarfe cloth, which is exported to Liverpool, about 1 s. a yard. At Navan there is a fabrick of facking for home confumptionj the weavers earn is. a day at thefe works.

Potatoes are a great article of culture ± the cottagers take land of the farmers, giving them 4I. 1 os. an acre, dunged. All in the trench- ing way, the ridge fix feet, the furrow two and a half j always weed them, the belt fea- fon for planting the middle of April, The crop 64 barrels on an average, and the price 3s. 6d. a barrel. They have got much inta the apple potatoe.

Vol, I. D Rent

34

S L A I	N	E
			£•	s.	£
Rent		-	4	II	0
Spreading dung			0	2	0
Seven barrels of feed 3s. 6d.			1	4	6
Cutting and laying		-	0	6-	6
Trenching and earthing up		-	4	0	0
Taking up picking id £. a b:	irrel,	64	0	8	0
	10	1 2	0

From whence it appears, that the prime coft of the potatoes is 4s. a barrel. Wheat is fown after them, and fometimes barley ; the wheat is generally a bad crop and bad grain, but the barley good. For fat hogs they boil them, and at laft mix fome bran or oats ; a hog of 2 cwt. will fatten in two months, on fix barrels and one barrel of oats. Much poultry is alfo reared and fed in all the cab- bins by means of potatoes.

Wafte lands have been brought in and cul- tivated at Grange Geath, the foil ftony and over-run with heath (erica vulgaris) and whins, (ukx enropceus) let before the improvement at 4s. but lets now at 20s. They ploughed up the furface and fpontaneous growth, fummer fallowed and lined at 150 barrels an acre, fowed wheat, and purfued the courfe above mentioned, the crops of oats exceedingly great, 20 barrels an acre j of this land there were 2500 acres. The great manure of the coun- try is- lime, which is always laid on fallow;

they

C U L L E N. 35

they find the advantage of it fo clearly as to be Teen in the effect to an inch : but when land is got much out of heart, then the lime will not do ; and they lay it down to clover for, feveral years till there is fomething of a turf, after which it will anfvver well. Hollow draining is generally ufed, even by the com- mon farmers, who have found by experience that their lime will do no good till the land is drained. The fences about new inclofed pieces, and thofe made in general by gentle- men, are ditches fix feet deep, feven feet wide, and 14 inches at bottom, with two rows of quick in the bank, furz fown on the top, or a dead hedge of bru(h. Good grafs land for meadow lets for 3 or 4I. an acre; mow it all and get three ton of hay an acre or fifteen Infh load. Many dairies of cows, up to 50 and 60, kept here for butter. Mr. Kelly, near the obeliik, Drogheda, has 200 cows let at 5I. The breed is half Englifhand half Irifh, worth 5 to 7I. each ; the farmers let theirs to dairy-men, who are common la- bourers, at 4I. a piece, but if they won't give five to feven quarts at a meal they may be re- jected; a good one will give ten quarts of milk per meal, the produce about 5I. confe- quently there is 20s. a head profit. As but- ter-milk is all the food of the people, the num- ber of fwme kept is very fmall : it is carried to Drogheda, and fold at fix quarts a penny. The cows are fed in winter on hay alon?, ; all are kept abroad in the day, but houfed at night. They rearalmoft all the calves., wean-

D 2 ing-

36 C II L L 6 N,

ing them at fix weeks or two months old : at a fortnight they fell at 3 or 4s. Some, but not dairy-men, give them in rearing hay-tea. They fatten many cows, having much grafs; an acre to a cow. Swine fatten from one to two cwt. Many are kept upon potatoes alone, and fattened intirely upon that root, which is thought to be a very profitable ufe ; the po- tatoe fed pork much firmer than that on pol- lard. There is a great demand this year, many {hip loads alive being bought up for England ; and the price good, encourages the breed incredibly. Many fheep are kept, bought in every year in autumn, moftly ewes, but fome wethers, at 12 to 15s. Sell the lambs fat in Mayor June at 10s. cut four or five pound of wool, worth 5s. and fat the ewe to 19 or 20s. profit il. is. a head. Buy we- thers at 20 to 25s. fell at 30 to 42s. with a fleece of feven pound ; in winter they have hay, and fome fheaf oats. No rot here. Plough all with horfes, fix to a plough, and do an acre a day, working often from fix in the morning to eight at night, and ftirring eight or nine inches deep. They keep 10 or 12 horfes to 100 acres in tillage, and breed them all themfelves. The price of plough- ing 8s. an acre. The whole preparation of a fallow worth 25s. an acre ; and for barley 1 2s. The form of lands narrow ridges three or four feet wide; the year's expenfe to a farmer 5I. each horfe ; very feldom give them any oats. They cut no flraw into chaff; and as all their corn is winnowed in the road, the chaff of it

is

S L A I N E. 37

is loft. They never break their ftubbles till about Chriftmas ; the plough generally ufed, is an imperfect fwing one. In hiring and flocking farms, they will take ioo acres or more with fcarce any money j but then they jnuft have to the value of

8 Horfes at 5I. 51.

10s.

I2S

103. a horfe

4 Cows

2 Sows

6 Cars 3I.

2 Plougls

2 Harrows

No rollers ufed

Harnefs

Sundries

Houfhold furniture

1 Sack of oat-meal Labour fupplied by letting land to others for potatoes; no feed, as he pays the preceding tenant the eighth (heaf or the winter corn, and the fourth of the fpring, in lieu or the feed and fowing.

£

40

20 1

18 1

P

3

JO

5 1

s. o o o o 4

*3

d. o o p o o o

o o o Q

ioo 17 o

A very intelligent labourer, ferit for byMi\ Burton, gave me the following account for 40 acres, 10 of them grafs

£ f. *

4 Horfes - - 18 4 o

4 Cows - - 20 o o

~S 4 o

Brought

38

S L A I N E
Brought over £.	3S	4	0
io Sheep - -	7	0	0
I Sow	0	15	0
I Plough and harnefs	2	5	6
2 Hi trows	i	2 _	9
io Sacks -	1	0	0
Winnowing fheet	0	10	0
Furniture	10	0	0
i 5 Acres oats feed, to barrels and a
half an acre,	18	10	0
6 Acres barley oneanda half, 9 bar-
rels 123.	5	8	0
Labourers	20	16	0
2 Boys and a maid fervant	3	8	3
Provifion 8 cwt. of oatmeal	3	4	0
4 Barrels meflin at 16s.	3	4	0
Wear and tear	2	5	6
4 Cars	9	2	0
Poultry	0	*3	3

127 8 3

With this expenditure they fare no better than common labourers, and do not improve in their circumftances. Land fells at rack rent 22 and 23 years purchafe, as well now as in 1768 ; the bankruptcies in 1772 did not af- fect the purchafe of land. Lounty c».fs S'd. to is. an acre-, tythes for wheat 7s. barley 5s. cats 3 to 45. mowing ground 3s. cd. nothing for land fed, and no (mall tythes ; no tea drank among; the cottagers. Leafes in general 31 years to catholics ; to proteftants three lives or

31 years.

5 L A I N E. 39

31 years. Rent of cabbins 40s. with a po- tatoe garden 5 if a cow is kept 40s. more. No emigrations. The catholic religion general among the lower piaffes.

Labour.

Ditching 6 feet by 5, 2od. a perch 4 by 5, is. 2d.

6 by 7, 2s. 6d. Threfhing wheat is. a barrel

Barley 8d. Oats 5d. No feryants hired at ail. Women a day in harvefl 8d, Rife in the price of labour in ten years, from §d. and 7d. to 8d. and lod. but they work harder and better.

Pro visions.

Bacon c;d. bread id. potatoes 2 id. a ftone, new milk id. a quart, ducks 3d. candles 6 id. foap 6 \ d. firing of the poor furz and coals to a trifling amount. The farmers burn their ftraw, for which they dcjerve to be hanged.

Building.

Slate 12s. per 1000.

Elm 2I. 1 os. to 3I. a ton.

Fir 3I.

Dry walls danhed 2s.

Building a cabin 5I.

Ditto a farm houfe and offices for 100 acres

,oi.

Hire

40 S L A I N E.

Hire of four cars, one man and a boy 4s. a. day: 23 miles from Dublin it takes the whole week to go twice. The price to go there 10s. a week, 4s. of it expenfes on the road. The load fix cwt. each car. But Mr. Jebb has fent i8cwt. to Dublin with one horfe, and not an extraordinary one, 15 or 16 cwt. often.

In the improvements making about the caf- tle, it was necefTary to move a large hill of lime ftone, and as the readieft way, Colonel Burton is burning it to lime. The kiln, like mod I have feen in Ireland, is a very good one. It is in the fhape of an egg, 19 feet deep, and 9 diameter in the fwell -} when new it burnt 400 barrels in a week, each three bufhels ; but as the lining is worn, it is now from 350 to 400. A ton of culm, which cofts at Drogheda 13s. and 2s. freight from thence, burns 50 barrels of lime. Quarrying and burning the ftone is 1 ^d. a barrel, expenfes in all 5 ^d. and it fells at the kiln for yd. The ftone is laid in layers eight or nine inches thick, and is always kept fupplving at top and emptying at bottom. The kiln coft 35I. building, and it employs three hands.

Lord Conyn gharri's feat, Slaine Cafilc, on the Eoyne, is one of the raoft beautiful places I have feen • the grounds are very bold and various, riling around the caftle in noble hills or beautiful inequalities of furface, with an outline of flouriihing plantations. Under the caftle flows the Boyne, in a reach broken

S L A I N E. 41

by iflands, with a very fine fhore of rock on one fide, and wood on the other. Through the lower plantations are ridings, which look upon feveral beautiful fcenes, formed by the river, and take in the diffant country, exhi- biting the nobleft views of waving Cultinald Hills, with the caftle finely fituated in the midft of the planted domain, through which the Boyne winds its beautiful courfe.

Under Mr Lambert's houfe, on the fame river, is a moil romantic and beautiful fpot j rocks on one fide, rifing in peculiar forms very boldly; the other ileep wood, the river bending fhort between them like a land-locked bafon.

Lord Conyngham's keeping up Slaine Caf- tle, and fpending great fums, though he rarely refides there, is an inftance of magnificence not often met with -, while it is io common for abfentees to drain the kingdom of every {hilling they can; fo contrary a conduct ought to be held in the efhmation which it juftly deferves.

June 30th, rode out to view the country and fome improvements in the neighbour- hood : the principal of which are thofe of lord chief baron Fofter, which I faw from Glaiton-IIill, in the road from Slaine to Dun- dalk. Adjoining to it is an extenfive im- provement of Mr. Fortefcue's; ten years ago the land was let at 3 s. 6d. now it is a guinea,

which

42 S L A I N E.

which great work was done by the tenants, and lime and fallon the means purfued. Thefe ana other improvements, with the general iiicreafe of profperity, has had fuch an effect in employing the people, that Colonel Bur- ton allured me, that 20 years ago, if he gave notce at the rhafs houfes, that he wanted labourers, in two days he could have 2 or 300 -, now it is not fo eafy to get 20, from the quantity of regular employment being fq much increafed. I obferved weavers looms in moil of the cabbins, went into one, ?nd the man informed me that he could weave a web 65 or 66 yards long, and 26 inches wide, at 8d. a yard price, in a week. 34 to 36 lb. of yarn makes it, which coils 1 5 d. per lb. he and his journeyman could earn 7 or 8 s. a week by it. He paid 4I. 4 s. for the grazing of a cow, a rood of potatoe garden, and the cibbin. They were burning itraw, which I forgot to remark I have found very common where there is no turf: a moll pernicious cuftora, it is in fad what 1 have often heard literally reported, that they burn their dung^ hills in Ireland.

PaiTed through feveral farms much im- proved, and found great attention given to fences, the ditches very large, and the banks well planted.

Lord Boyne's eflate appears to be very rich, and the tenants beyond the common run.

The

S L A I N E. 43

The country is well wooded, and has an appearance of fome of the befl parts of Eng- land.

Walked into Mr. Maurice's fields ; he is a confiderable farmer, buys his fattening cows in May from 3I. to 6 1. 6 s. fells fat from Au- guit to Chriftmas, with 30s. profit: he has laid down a meadow to grafs with fo much care that the expenfe was 10 1. an acre. In one of his fields he fowed red clover, with the third crop of corn, it failed, but an amazing fheet of white clover came, which 1 1 law, and was indeed furprifed at fuch a proof of tlie excellency of the foil, even under fuch exceeding bad management; but not a human being that I have met with has any notion of fowing clover with the fir ft crop.

Returning to Slaine, dined with Mr. Jebb, and viewed the mill, which is a very large edifice, excellently built ; it was begun in 1763, andfinifhed in 1766. The water from Boyne is conducted to it by a wear of 650 feet Ion?;, 24 feet bafe, and 8 feet high, of folid mafbnry : the water let into it by very complete flood gates.

The canal is 8co feci long, all faced with itone, and 64 feet wide; on one fide is a wharf completely formed and walled againft the river, whereon are offices of feveral kinds, and a dry dock for building lighters. The mill is 138 feet long, the breadth 54, and the

height

44 S L A I N E.

height to the cornice 42, being a very large and handfome edifice, fuch as no mill I have feen in England can be compared with. The corn upon being unloaded, is hoifted through doors in the floors to the upper ftory of the building, by a very fimple contrivance, being worked by the water-wheel, and difcharged into fpacious granaries which hold 5000 bar- rels. From thence it is conveyed, during feven months in the year, to the kiln for drying, the mill containing two, which will dry So barrels in 24 hours. From the kiln it is hoifted again to the upper ftory, from thence to a fanning machine for re-drefTing, to get out dirt, foil, &c. And from thence, by a fmall lifting machine, into the hoppers, to be ground, and is again hoifted into the bolting mills, to be drefled into flour, dif- ferent forts of pollard and bran. In all which progrefs, the machinery is contrived to do the bufinefs with the leaft labour pofiible: it will grind with great eafe 1 20 barrels, of 20 ftone each, every day. Beginning in 1763, for a few years, about 1 3000 barrels per ann. were ground, of late years up to 17000 barrels. It may be obferved, that this mill is very dif- ferent from the Engliih ones, they not being under the neceflity of kiln drying or drefling. The expenfe, per barrel, of the drying in coals and labour is 3d. and the wafte is i-20th in the weight ; but the contrivance reduces the expenfe of dreirlng to a trifle. The whole charge of manufacturing the wheat into flour in mere labour, is 9d. a barrel,

and

S L A I N E. 45

and the 3 d. drying makes I s. The barrel weighs 20 flone, 141b. to the ftone, of which

Flour - 14ft. 81b. Bran 1 a

Pollard J4"'

;e of rear

Dirt, wafte, grinding? ^ ,^ Con average and dreffing - 3 { the yea

20ft.

The wafte, in re-drelTing the corn, (which is what the farmers ought to do) is about 3 lb. a barrel.

The pollard Mr. Jebb tried, for fix years, in giving to pigs. Bought in Jlores in Sep- tember, at 7 s. to 20 s. each, and put them to pollard given wet, about the thicknefs of gruel ; it could have been fold for 2 s. a barrel of 6 ffcone, and in feeding, it did not produce more than 10 d. a barrel ; pork from 18 s. to 20s. per cwt. Thinks it would not more than pay the 2 s. a barrel if pok was 40 s. per cwt. Tried alfo breeding fows, bought Berkihire fows fed upon the pollard, but it did not anfwer better than the other method. The pork fed upon it was foft, and not near fo good as potatoe fed. Mr. Jebb thinks, however, that if he had had plenty of llraw litter, as the ftone-yard foundered them and clover for the fummer food, that it would have paid the 2 s. a barrel, but not more, the

dung

46 MONKNEWTON.

dung being then the profit. The fows did exceedingly well, and the pigs alfo in rear-

in;

The corn is brought to the mill from all the country round to the diftance of 10 miles. The farmers fend it in, and leave the price to be fixed. The raifmg the mill and offices, complete, cofl 20,000 1. and has eftabliihed, in a fine corn country, a conftant market; and has preferved the tillage of the neighbour- hood, which would have declined from the premium on diftant carriage.

The flour is fent to Dublin, and the ma- nufacturing country to the North about New- ry, &c.

It employs conflantly from 10 to 12 hands; the common ones, 6s. 6d. a week.

They fow much earlier, and the corn is drier of late years than at firft.

The carriage of all the flour that is not fent by the navigation is by one horfe cars, which carry 6 cwt. of flour twice a week to Dublin.

The parifh of Monknewton, in the county of Meath, lying between Drogheda and Slaine, nearly midway, formerly belonging to the rich abbey of Melifont (whofe beautiful gothic ruins are in the neighbourhood', confifts of very fine corn land, and moftly belongs to

John

MONKNEWTON. 47

John Baker Holroyd, Efq* of Sheffield place, in the county of SufTex : a gentleman^ who having favoured me before with excellent in- telligence in that country, took pleafure in repeating it on occasion of my Irifli tour.

Towards Mattock bridge, the foil is a light rich loam, but the North Weilern part is a ftrona; fertile clay. The whole eftate had beenlet out to two or three coniiderable peo- ple for 61 years, and they under-let in the ufual ftyle of the country. The leafes ex- pired in' 1762, when Mr. H. vifited the eftate, and found it as ill ufed as it poiiibly could be. However, great rents were offered. He de- clined the propofals of feveral, confiderable men, to take the whole to under-let at rack rents as before, knowing that the fame wretch- ed hufbandry and poverty muft continue, if he did, although it would fecure his rents moft effe&ually. He was very well fatisfied with the rents offered by per ions who would ' reiide on the eftate, (dividing with them the profits of the middle man), and voluntarily engaged to pay for the mafonry and principal timber of farm-houfes, barns, ftables, &c. He made large ditches, planting them with quick, round each farm. He allowed half the ex- penfe of inner fences. He provided an excel- lent lime-ftone quarry in the neighbourhood, befides lime kilns on different farms. He built about the centre of the eftate a very large double kiln, calculated to burn 1000 barrels per week. He allows 30s. for every

acre

48 MONKNEWTON.

acre on which ioo barrels of unilacked iime fhall be hid, within a certain number of years, and on condition that the land hath a winter and fummer fallow at the fame time. In fome in fiances he allows 40s. per acre, which is nearly the whole expenfe of liming; and in fome instances, when iool. is laid out on an houfe, he allows 50 or 60I. but as yet, no great advantage is taken of his encourage- ment to build. He endeavoured to prevent the fcattered flyle of building; to have the barns, {tables, &c. built round a farm yard, and that the houfe fhould have a itory or floor above. Some objected, that a floor raifed an houfe too high, and expofed it too much : the eftate is rather low as to fituation, and fheltered by hills on every fide, but I under- ftand fome considerable houfes are to be built next year. The common farmers, however, prefer living on the ground, furrounded by- mud walls, have no idea of the chearfulnefs of large windows, but let in barely light enough to do their bufinefs through apertures not much better than loop holes , neither has the encouragement to lime been taken advan- tage of in the degree it might be expe&ed. Mr. H. is an hearty well-wifher to Ireland, and ready to embrace any fcheme of improve- ment for its advantage. He wifhed to make fome return to the country for fpending the income of the eftate out of it. He was rea- dy to allow almoft the whole of every expenfe that could be laid on the lands, knowing the

poverty

MONKNEWTON. 49

poverty of the common Irifh refiding tenan- try, and their characters to be fuch, that they could not improve them as they fhould bGj yet I underftand they are not much bet- ter fatisfied than other tenants: and the rent feems high. The farms were moflly let at a time when the fpirit of taking land W'as greater than at prefent, but it is far from an high rent for land fo circumftanced and fitu- ated, built and improved at the cxpenfe of the landlord. Th^re is much in the neigh- bourhood, efpecially towards Drogheda, let at two guineas, and three pounds and up- wards, per acre. He is a great friend to agri- culture, has coniidered the fubjecl: much, and was very anxious to introduce fomething like the bell: Englifh husbandry on his Irifh eftate, but that is ftill at a great diflance. He endeavoured to break through the barbarous cuftom of having the whole farm laid wafte at the end of a leafe, and every inch plough- ed up, but could not carry his point fur- ther, than by giving great prefent advantages to the tenants, to induce them to agree, that the third part of the farms ihould not be ploughed the laft four or five years of the leafe. The foil is fo good, that if ufed ever fo ill in that time, it will recover, and there will be a very good fward. According to the common method of leafing lands in many parts of Ireland, the country is nearly waiie and unprofitable, to the great prejudice of the public, during feven or eight years in Vol. I. E every

50 MONKNEWTON.

every 31 years, the ufual leafe. For the te- nant, not retrained by proper claufes, nor obliged to any particular management, or to manure, ploughs up every thing, and for fome time before the expiration of his term, purfues the molt ruinous fyftem for the land, difpofed even to lofe fome advantage himfelf, rather than his fuccelTor fhould have any be- nefit -, confequently, the three or four lall years the crops hardly pay expenfes, and three or four years more are loft before it can be brought into any condition. Good and ftraight roads are made through and acrofs the eftate, and bridges built where neceifa- ry. Such a difpoiltion in the landlord to im- prove, muft do much for the country.

Notwithftanding the attention that has been paid to the efhte, the young white thorn hedges, (of which a s;reat quantity had been planted, and which grew moft luxuri- antly) ferve as fpring food for fheep and other cattle. The eftate is now divided into farms, from 70 to 150 acres, and let in ge- neral for 31 years, at 40s. and 35s. per acre, fome part at 30s. and a fmall part at 26s. The lands are tythe-free, and there are no taxes of any kind paid by the tenants, except aiTeifments for making and repairing the roads of the barony, which fome years amounted to iod. per acre, and is laid on by the grand jury at the aiiizes.

July

MONKNEWTON. 51

July 1 ft, left Slaine, taking the road to- wards Kells. Galled at Gibbs town, where Mr. Gerard has one of the moil considerable farms in the country. He very kindly (hew- ed me it, and explained the management His bullocks he buys in October at iol. each, and fells them in fummer with 4I. piofit: the cows in May, at 5I. 10 s. and fells them before winter from 30s. to 40s. profit. He mows 100 acres of hay for the fheep and bul- locks, and keeps good after-grafs befides. The bullocks in winter have nothing but hay and grafs, and are always in the fields, there being no fuch thing in this country as fod- dering yards for winter feeding. Two bul- locks require three acres. The fields being generally large, a proportion of ftack is thrown to each, which are left to fat j but if any do not feem to thrive well, they are drawn from them and put into better food.

The fheep Mr. Gerard buys in October, three year old wethers, at 25s. he begins to fell in April, and by Auguft they are gene- rally gone at about 35s. on an average. Fat- ting, in this manner, he thinks more advan- tageous than ewes and lambs. The winter fheep have hay in bad weather.

The beft cattle come from Galway, Mayo,

and Rofcommon. Mr. Gerard thinks the crofs

of the Englim breeds in Ireland has done

good, except in the hides, which are much

E 2 thinner

52 MONKNEWTON.

thinner from them. A g;ood hide is worth 3I. or 4I. but in common from 30s. to 40s.

The foil of this neighbourhood is, much of it, a dry ftoney loam, which wants no drain- ing ; and whenever red clover is fown and left, the white comes in perfecl fheets, but the bottoms are ftrong land, wet' and had. All the dry lands would do perfectly well for turnips; Mr. Gerard tried them, and got fine crops : but the poor ftole them in car loads, which made him leave off the practice.

Under the boggy bottoms there is a very fine white marleT of a fort I have not feen in England; it is under four feet of black bog, and lies in a flratum, 14. feet thick, on blue gravel ; it is always found under the black, not the red bog; it cuts with turf fpades, quite like white butter, but in the air falls into a fandy powder to appearance : it is un- commonly light in the hand, and has a very great efTervefcence with acids, as I tried. Mr. G. has marled 109 acres, and found the bene- fit immenfe. Lays 2 or 300 barrels an acre, and always on tillage.

He has made many covered drains with ftones, the efFeit of which is great ; and he has his fields fenced in the molt perfecl man- ner by deep ditches, high banks, and well planted hedges.

One

GIBBSTOWN. 53

One third of the county of Meath, he thinks, islet to fub-tenants ; a farm of noo acrto near him is fo, and does not produce a tytheof what it ''ought to do. For flocking, &c a grazing farm of iooo acres, 2000L does; 3000I. would do it well.

Corn-acres are common here, which is to let the land for 3I. 1 5s. to 4I. an acre to the poor for three or four crops; who generally fow oats, but fometimes wheat.

Reached Lord Beclive's in the evening, through a very fine country, particularly that part of it from which is a profpeel of his ex* tenfive woods. No perfon could wTith more readinefs give me every fort of information than his iordihip.

The improvements at Headfort muft be af- tonifhing to ihofewho knew the place feven- teen years ago ; for then there w7ere neither building, walling, fcojr plantations: at prefent almoit every thing is created neceilary to form a corifiderable residence. The houfe and offi- ces are intirtly new built ; it is a large plain ftone edifice. The body of the houfe 145 feet long, and the wings each 180. The hall is 31 I by 24, and 17 high. The faloon is of the fame diraenfions, on the left of which is a dining room, 48 by 24, and 24 high: on the right, a drawing room 24 fquare by 17 high, and, within that, Lady Beclive's dreifing-room,

2$b

54 H E A D F O R T.

23 by 18. There are alfo, on this floor, a breakfaiWoom, 23 by 18, and a room for Lord B. of the Tame fize. The firft floor con- firms of fix apartments, one3H by 24, two 24 fquare ; a fourth 23 by 19? ; a fifth 20 by 18; a fixth 23 by ig, all 15 high, befides two drefTmg rooms. From the thicknefs of the walls, I fuppofe it is the cuftom to build very fubftantially here. The grounds fall agreea- bly in front of the houfe, to a winding nar- row vale, which is filled with wood, where alfo is a river, which Lord Be&ive intends to enlarge ; and, on the other fide, the lawn fpreads over a large extent, and is every where bounded by very fine plantations. To the right, the town of Kells is piclurefquely fituated, among groups of trees, with a fine waving country and diftant mountains j to the left, a rich trad of cultivation. The plantations are very numerous, more thriv- ing I have no where feen ; the larch, fpruce, and beech, in particular, running beyond the reft, but the bark of all is clear, and there cannot be a better fkn of a tree's health and vigour.

His Lordfhip tranfplants oaks 20 feet high without any danger, and they appear to thrive perfectly well, but he takes a large ball of earth up with the roots. He confirmed what had been mentioned to me before, that the way to make our own firs equal to foreign, was to cut them in June, and directly to lay them in water for three or four months. This

was

HEADFORT. 55

was done by his father 35 years ago, and the buildings raifed of them are now fully equal to thofe built of Norway fir.

Befides thefe numerous plantations, con- fiderable manfion, and an incredible quantity of walling, his lordfhip has walled in 26 acres for a garden and nurfery, and built fix or feven very large pineries, 90 feet long each. He has built alfo a farm-yard 280 feet fquare, totally furrounded with offices of various kinds.

His Lordfhip's idea is not that of farming, but improving the lands about the houfe for beauty ; for if let, they would be deftroyed and ploughed, and alfo for preferving the plantations. Other lands he keeps only to bring them into order for re-letting. He ap- plies his grafs befides horfes, to fattening cows, which he buys in in May, from 3I, 15s. to 4I. 1 os. and in five or fix months fells them, with 35s. to 40s. profit. His mules are 16 or 17 hands high, and he finds them of incomparable ufe: they are in their prime at 20 years old, and good even at 35 ; he has had them 16 years, and in that time, with the work they have done, would have worn out three fets of horfes, befides being kept upon lefs food. Of hay he gets 17 or 1 8 load an acre of 4 cwt.

In the breed of his cattle, Lord Beclive is very attentive; he fcnt into Craven for a

prime

S6 HEADFORT.

prime bull, and got one, which coll him 36 guineas at a year old, and he is indeed a very fine beaft. This is the breed, which from much experience he prefers, as well for milk- ing as for fattening. The Holdernefs he has tried, having a very fine bull, but is deter- mined to have nothing more to do with them: the flefh is black and coarfe ; and though they give more milk than the others, yet it will not make a quantity of butter proportioned. The common cow of the country is as good as any for mere milking.

All Lord Bective's gates are iron, which coft him 5I. 5s. and as wooden ones come to 3I. 3s. he finds them the greateft improvement, laving the expenfe verv foon. In his tillage he purfues the pra&ice of the country, which is, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats. 4. Oats, but does not take the laft crop of oats. He limes 160 barrels an acre on his fallow, but the common quantity only 80, by means of which, and better hufbandry, he has 10 bar- rels an acre of wheat, and 20 of oats ; while the common crops are 7 of the one, and 12 of the other. Marie he has found an excellent manure for dry foils.

The general rent of the neighbourhood 20s. Of the whole county 18 s. 6 d. Land fells at 21 years purchafe at rack rent.

The cottars plant great quantities of pota- toes, giving for rent 4I. 10s. the crop from 70 to 100 barrels. This culture has increafed 20

fold

DRUESTOWN. 57

fold within 20 years. All the hogs in the country are fattened on them half boiled.

In July, Auguft, and September, they have great numbers of Connaught labourers; they are called Jpalpeens : fpal, in Irifh, is a fcythe, and peen a penny; that is, a mower for a penny a day, but that is 80 years ago.

Lord Bedive's father was one of the greateft improvers I have heard of. He bought io,oco acres of bog and rough land in the county of Cavan, much at the rent of only 2od. an acre : he drained and improved the bog, though a red one, divided it, and brought it to be'fuch good land, that it is now 15s. an acre; part of it was dry rocky land, which he divided by- walls.

July 3d, took my leave of Lord Bedive, and went to Drueftown, the feat of Barry Barry, Efq; but as I was not fortunate enough to find him at home, I could only obferve in general, that he had a large lawn very well laid down to grafs, and had made a very pretty lake with a fhrubbery on the banks of it. About this neighbourhood all the good land is applied to grazing, and lets from 2$ to 35s. an acre, the reft 20s. But towards Fore I palled by much that was greatly inferior, for when laid down, (that is left to itfelf) no white clover, or very little came, and it feem- ed quite uninclofed ; yet this I found was at 14 or 15s. I obferved here that the cottars were not fo well cloathed as hitherto.

Reached

58 PA.CKENHAM.

Reached Packenham-hall, pleafantly fitu- ated, with much old wood about it, where Lord Longford received me with the moil: friendly attention, and gave me very valuable information. For the following particulars of the neighbouring hufbandry I am obliged to him. Farms rife from 20 to iool. a year, in general 60 or Sol. but few larger. The foil heavy, loam eight or nine inches deep upon from 12 to 18 inches of yellow til/, under which, lime-ftone gravel 10 feet deep on rock, alfo dry found gravel, lets from 1 5 to 20s. Average rent of the county of Weft- meath, exclufive of walie, 9s. including it *7S. The courfes of crops moll: common :

1. Potatoes	1. Potatoes
2. Bere	2. Flax
3. Oats	3. Oats
4. Oats	4. Oats
5. Oats	5. Oats

and oats longer if the land will bear it, even till they do not get three barrels an acre, and then leave it to cover itfelf. x\mong the bet- ter farmers ;

1. Fallow manured with lime-ftone gravel.

2. Wheat or bere. 9. Oats.

4. Oats.

They fow one barrel of wheat, and get feven per acre" ; fow one and a half of bere, and get. 15 or 16; of oats one and a half, the crop 10 or 11 at firft, and decreafes every

year

PACKENHAM. 59

year till nothing but weeds. The cotters all ibw flax on bits of land, and drefs and fpin it, and it is woven in the country for their own ufe, befides felling fome yarn. The little far- mers keep no Iheep.

The chief improvements of waftes are the bottoms adjoining to the bogs, which they drain and cover with gravel or earth, that produce good potatoes.

No other way of laying land to grafs, than fowing red clover, or oftener nothing, and leaving it.

Meadows for the year let from 3 to 4I. an acre, merely for the hay, upon which they get 10 load an acre. Grafs is mofily applied to fattening cows which they buy in in May at 4I. and fell in November at 61. one acre of good land will do for them, but if not good one and a half.

The cows give two to three gallons of milk a day, and yield 40s. produce per year by butter and calf. Feed them in winter with oat-ftraw, and hay. An ox hide, if it weighs 100 lb. three pence per lb. if not two-pence halfpenny. A ccw hide two-pence halfpenny if above 60 lb. if lefs two-pence. Dearer than they were.

The tillage is all done with horfes, ufe four in a plough, and do better than half an acre a day. The price with harrowing 10s. an

acre.

60 PACKENHAM.

acre. The depth fix inches for winter corn ; they lay the lands in round ridges four or five feet broad. Keeping a horfe the fummer at grafs il. i os. No. cutting chaff, but throw their own away in the winnowing. The hire of a car, and horfe, and driver, ten-pence a day. In hiring and flocking farms, they will take one of 50 acres, without any thing but four horfes and fix cows, depending for food upon what they bring; for labour upon themfelves and the cotters that come with them $ and make none or fcarce any profit.

Land fells at 21 years purchafe rack rent, rents have fallen 25 per cent fince 1770. In 1768, 1769, and 1770, they were much above their value. Tythes are compounded for, wheat, bere, and barley 7s. oats 5s. meadow 2s. fheep 3d. No tea drank.

Leafes common are, 31 years to catholicks, and three lives to proteftants. Great part of the country let to middle men, who re-let it to fub-tenants, generally with a profit greater than they pay the landlord. Carry their corn to the mill of Carrick five miles off. Rents of cabbins 20 to 25s. with a rood of ground, if land with it, which is generally the cafe, they pay 30s. an acre. For grazing a cow 2£s. and for a horfe 30s. No emigrations. Twen- ty to one of the lower people Roman Ca- tholics.

Expenfe of building a cabbin 40s. and for a farm of 50 acres 5I. They will hire farms and take all the buildings upon themfelves.

Both

PACKENHAM. 61 Both cotters and little farmers are in a worfe fituation that they were 20 years ago. All of them have turf for firing, and one week's la- bour in a year will fupply a cabbin.

Cutting turf 3d. a kifh or cubical yard

A ditch fix feet wide, and five deep 2od.

In burning lime, a kifh of turf burns 2 bar- rels of lime.

Sells at the kiln at 6d. a barrel.

Among Lord Longford's farms in this country are the following :

276 acres 75 rent 1736 worth now 250

410

240

600

140 100 270 100

334 40

300

700

410	112	ditto
242 I50DO	g}7°	ditto
600 400	|n8	ditto
150	49	ditto
122	4i	ditto
270	95	ditto
33°	100	ditto
377	334	*773
60	16	*739
383	150	1749
655 150000	§H	ditto
303	121	1750
325	236	ditto
457	186	1756

1928 4504

From which table may be feen the compara- tive value of lands in 40 years ; it has more than doubled in go. Grafs

62 PACKENHAM.

Grafs land, gravelled, will let to the poor at 5I. for potatoes. Very good old grafs, without any manure, 4I. 4s. and as much more for the fecond year for flax : after that, would give jl. for oats, and they will give 5I. for dunged ftubble for potatoes.

The expenfes per acre,	of	a crop	;
		£- '-	d.
Rent		5 0	0
4 Barrels of feed		1 0	0
Planting		3 °	0
Taking up		1 10	0
	10 10	0

The crop 80 barrels. Prime coft 2s. 6d.

Lord Longford has fome black bottom land, as it is called here; that is, black red bog par- tially drained ten or twelve years ago, fome of it tolerably dry : other parts fo wet, that a beaft can fcarcely venture on it with fafety. One pait is a reddifh bog, three feet deep, which 1 2 years ago, was burnt a foot deep ; and at the fame time open drains made 10 feet wide at top, and 7 deep, the bog being formed by the drains into beds 40 feet wide. The fpontaneous rubbifh, heath chiefly is now coming fafc again, but it never has been cultivated; where the fires were made are fpots of fine white clover. This land, at pre- fent, would let for nothing, but it is highly improveable.

His

PACKENHAM. 63

His Lordfhip has had two acres and an half of turnips on juft fuch, and the crop was ex- ceedingly good: he has always remarked in burning, that wherever there w7ere many afhes, there are furc to be good turnips. The two acres and an half kept feven bullocks, each 8 cwt. and fixty fheep, three months. On four acres of the fame fort, he has now a crop of turnips fown: it was drained 10 years ago. This fummer he dug it over, levelled it, and burnt the fpit in great heaps : this digging coft 3I. 10s. an acre. The burning il. It was harrowed with bullocks, which, with feed, &c. he reckons 10s. in all 5I. an acre, wrhich expenfe he knows by experience is re- paid by the crop of turnips. In harrowing, if a bullock in a foft place finks in, they flip the harnefs off him, and fet the others to drag him out by the horns, fixing the rope round the horns as in hoifting an ox into a fhip.

I remarked, uponthisl)oggy bottom, a fmall plantation of Scotch firs, which did very well, and larch flill better. Willows will not thrive. A gentleman inclofed and drained 4 acres, which he planted with them, and they fhot away for four years, but then all died. They do, however, very well in the turf it- felf, if the upper furface of fpunge is cleared away. In improving any bogs, Lord Long- ford thinks the tillage fhould be renewed alter- nately with grafs every fix or feven years, or it will cover again with heath (erica) burning it the beft way.

Hi*

64 PACKENHAM.

His lordfhip has tried cabbages feveral times, and he finds that while they laft they are bet- ter than turnips, but prefers the latter on ac- count of the fhort duration of the former.

Limeftone gravel he has tried on a large ^fcale, lays 1000 loads an acre, at il. ios. ex- penfe, if it is in the field. The efFed prodi- gious wherever it is laid, On a bare rocky fpot in the front of the houfe, where the earth had been cleared away, and there was no vegetation but of weeds, fome gravel was fpead, and it brought up an exceeding thick coat of white and red clover. It is alfo infal- lible in deftroying mofs.

July 4th, Lord Longford carried me to a Mr. Marly's, an improver in the neighbour- hood, who has done great things, and with- out the benefit of fuch leafes as proteftants in Ireland commonly have. He rents ioooacres* at firft it was at 2od. an acre, in the next term 5s. or 250I. a year, and he now pays 850L a year for it.t Alrnoft the whole farm is mountain-land ; the fpontaneous growth heath, &c. he has improved 500 acres. His method has been to grub up the rubbifh, and then to fummer fallow it, and to manure it with lime- ftone gravel 1400 load an acre, at the expenfe of 2I. 2s. Upon this he fows wheat or bere, gets 9 barrels an acre of wheat, and 19 of bere, then oats 12 to ^barrels. After which he fallows again, and finifhes the fecond or

third

PACKENHAM. 65

third courfe with red clover, fown with bar- ley or oats after wheat. If this takes very well, he leaves it to turf itfelf. White clo- ver comes as faft as the red wears out ^ for the firft four or five years it fupports only fheep, but as it improves, which it does very faft, he grazes it with black cattle.

Lime he has tried inftead of gravel, 160 barrels an acre at is. but it did not better than gravel at one-fourth the expenfe. In gravel- ling, the beginning of the pit he has found good for nothing ; and the deeper it is dug, it is fo much the better. It will not do twice, but will laft 8 crops, with 2 fallows.

Juft fuch an account would be given of marie in Norfolk, if they pra&ifed fo bad a courfe of crops. Any manuring with fo pow- erful an alcaly as marie leaves the ground, af- ter an exhaufting courfe of crops, in much worfe order than it found it. Would but the Irifh farmers purfue the Norfolk fyftem, of never letting two crops of white corn come together, they would not then find their gra- vel exhaufted in 8 crops : it would probably laft 20, and in that management they might gravel again and again.

He has the white light marie under boggy bottoms, and has ufed much of it, but does not find it anfwer fo well as gravel.

Vol. I. F He

66 PACKENHAM.

He applies his grafs to fattening cows, &c. in the fyftem I have mentioned more than once ; fheep he both buys in to fat, and keeps his own breeding ftock.

He is very attentive in fattening his we- thers ; he buys in October at 30s. or 32s. each, begins at Chriftmas to feed them with bran and oats, one quart of each per diem, and con- tinues it for three months: has fold at 3I. 5s. but on an average at 40s. This he thinks better and cheaper than turnips, which he has tried, but finds too dear in the expenfe of drawing, and if fed in the field, thinks half of them loft -, the oats at 5s. 6d. a barrel, the bran at is.

£• * *

90 Days oats il. fay 3 bufhels, at 5s. 6d. a

barrel -

90 Ditto bran -

0	4	1
0	0	9
0	4	10

It was with regret I heard that the rent of a man who had been fo ipirited an improver, fhould be raifed fo exceedingly. He merited for his life the returns of his induftry. But the cruel laws againft the Roman Catholics of this country, remain the marks of illiberal barbarifm. Why fhould not the induftrious man have a fpur to his induflry whatever be his religion ; and what induftry is to be ex- pected from them in a country where leafes for lives are univerfal, if they are fecluded from terms common to every one elfe? What mifchief could flow from letting them have

ieafes

PACKENHAM. 67

leafes for life ? None ; but much good in ani- mating their induftry. It is impoffible thai the profperity of a nation fbould have its na- tural progrefs, where four fifths of the people are cut off from thofe advantages which are heaped upon the domineering ariftocracy of the fmall remainder.

In converfation with Lord Longford Tmade many enquiries concerning the ftate of the lower claffes, and found that in fome refpe&s they were in good circumftances, in others in- different ; they have, generally fpeaking, fuch plenty of potatoes, as always to command a bellyful; they have flax enough for ail their linen, moft of them have a cow and fome two, and fpin wool enough for their cloaths ; all a pig, and numbers of poultry, and in ge- neral the complete family of cows, calves, hogs, poultry, and children, pig together in the cabbin ; fuel they have in the utmoft plen- ty; great numbers of families are alfo fup- ported by the neighbouring lakes which abound prodigioufly with fifh ; a child with a pack- thread and a crooked pin, will catch perch enough in an hour for the family to live on the whole day, and his Lordfhip has feen 500 children fifhing at the fame time, there being no tenacioufnefs in the proprietors of the lands about a right to the fifh ; befides perch, there is pike upwards of five feet long, bream, tench, trout of iolb. and as red as a falmon, and fine eels ; all thefe are favourable circum- ftances, and are very confpicuous in the nu- merous and healthy families among them.

F 2 Reverfe

68 PACKENHAM.

Revcrfe the medal : they are ill cloathed, and make a wretched appearance, and what is worfe, are much oppfeffed by many who make them pay too dear for keeping a cow, horfe, &c. They have a practice alio of keeping accounts with the labourers, contriv- ing by that means, to let. the poor wretches have very little cafh for their year's work. This is a great oppreffion, farmers and gen- tlemen keeping accounts with the poor is a cruel abufe: fo many days work for a cabbin — fo many for a potatoe garden — fo many for keeping a horfe — and fo many for a cow, are clear accounts whieh a poor man can under- ftand well, but farther it ought never to go ; and when he has worked out what he has of this fort, the reft of his work ought punctu- ally to be paid him every Saturday nighu An- other circumftance mentioned was the excef- five practice they have in general of pilfer- ing. They fteal every thing they can lay their hands on— and I fhould remark, that this is an account which has been very generally ^iven mc: all forts of iron hinges, chains, locks, keys, &c— gates will be cut in pieces, and conveyed away in many places as faft as built; trees as big as a man's body, and that would require ten men to move, gone in a night. Lord Longford has had the new wheels of a car ftolen as foon as made. Good ftones out of a wall will be taken for a fire- hearth, &c. though a breach is made to get at them. In fhort, every thing, and even fuch as are apparently of no ufe to them — nor is it cafy to catch them, for they never carry their

ftolen

BELVIDERE. 69

ftolen goods home, but to fome bog-hole. Turnips are ftolen by car loads j and two acres of wheat pluckt off in anight. In fhort, their pilfering and ftealing is a perfect nui- fance ! How far it is owing to the opprefiion of laws aimed folely at the religion of thefe people, how far to the conduct of the gentle- men and farmers, and how far to the mifchie- vous difpofition of the people themfelves, it is impoflible for a palling traveller to afcertain. I am apt to believe that a better fyftem of law and management would have good effects. They are much worfe treated than the poor in England, are talked to in more opprobrious terms, and otherwife very much oppreffed.

Left Packenham-haU.

Two or three miles from Lord Longford's, in the way to Mullingar, the road leads up a mountain, and commands an exceeding fine view of Loch Derrevaragh, a noble water eight miles long, and from two miles to half a mile over; a vait. reach of it, like a magnifi- cent river, opens as you rife the hill. After- wards I paffed under the principal mountain, which rifes abruptly from the lake into the bolder! outline imaginable ; the water there is very beautiful, filling up the fleep valts formed by this and the oppofite hills.

Reached Mullingar.

It was one of the fair days. I faw many cows and beafts, and more horfes, with fome wool : the cattle were of the fame breed that I had ge- nerally feen in coming through the country.

July

7o BELVIDERE.

July 5th, left Mullingar, which is a dirty ugly town, and taking the road to Tulla- more, Hopped at Lord Belvidere's, with which place I was as much flruck as with any I had ever feen. The houfe is perched on the crown of a very beautiful little hill, half fur- rounded with others, variegated and melting into one another. It is one of the molt lin- gular places that is any where to be feen, and Spreading to the eye a beautiful lawn of un- dulating ground margined with wood. Single trees are Scattered in fome places, and clumps in others ; the general effecT: fo pleafing, that were there nothing further, the place would be beautiful, but the canvafs is admirably filled. Lake Ennel, many miles in length, and two or three broad, flows beneath the windows. It is fpotted with iflets, a pro- montory of rock fringed with trees fhoots into it, and the whole is bounded by diftant hills. Greater and more magnificent fcenes are often met with, but no where a more beautiful or a more lingular one.

From Mullingar to Tullefpace, I found rents in general at 20s. an acre, with much re-let at 30s. yet all the crops, except bere, were very bad, and full of w7eeds. About the latter named placea the farms are generally from 100 to 300 acres, and their courfe, 1. Fallow. 2. Bere. 3. Oats. 4. Oats. 5. Oats. Great quantities of potatoes all the way, crops from 40 to 80 barrels.

The

CHARLEVILLE. 71

The road before it comes to Tullamore leads through a part of the bog of Allen, which feems here extenfive, and would make a noble trad of meadow. The way the road was made over it was fimply to cut a drain on each fide, and then lay on gravel, which, as fail as it was laid and fpread, bore the cars: along the edges is fine white clover.

Part of Tullamore is well built. I paifed through it to Captain Johnfton's at Charleville, to whom I am indebted for the following ac- count of the hufbandry of the neighbourhood.

Farms around Tullamore, are commonly 100 to 300 acres, but fome fmaller, and fome of 5 or 600. The foil is generally a dry found gravelly loam, lets from 12s. to 18s. average 16s. five miles every way around. Average of land let in the whole county 15s. exclufive of bog. He thinks that one-feventh of the county is bog or mountain; but the latter pays from is. 6d. to 3s. The courfe of crops :

1. Oats on lay, fow one barrel and an half,

get 1 o to 15.

2. Fallow.

3. Wheat, fow three-fourths to 1 barrel,

get 4 to 7 barrels.

4. Oats.

1. Oats.

2. Fallow.

3. Wheat.

4. Oats.

5. Peafe.

1. Potatoes

?2 CHARLEVILLE. i. Potatoes on grafs with dung, or burn- bating.

2. Bere, fow three-fourths of a barrel, get

1 2 to 20 barrels.

3. Wheat.

4. Oats,

5. Fallow.

Some 1. Pare, and burn for turnips.

2. Potatoes at 61. an acre rent.

3. Bere.

4. Wheat. > 5. Oats.

6. Fallow.

They are exceedingly late in fowing, not fmifhing their wheat and bere till after Chrift- mas. They fow rape on low grounds by the edge of bogs, upon paring and burning for feed ; they get 1 2 to 1 5 barrels an acre, worth from 12s. to 20s. a barrel. They fow it on the ground without covering after ploughing, and the rougher the land the better. Sow rye after it, and then oats, getting good crops; and lay it down with grafs feeds from lofts, or ray grafs, or clover and trefoile. For turnips on fallow, plough fometimes thrice, oftener twice, lay on no manure for them, nor hoe them, get very bad crops. If pare and burn they plough twice; but a penalty is laid of 5I. an acre for doing it. They eat them with fheep both drawn and on the land. Very little clover fown. Flax is fown very gene- rally, from patches up to three or four acres, they do the whole of it themfelves, fpinning

and

CHARLEVILLE. 73

and weaving. About Good Friday is the time of fowing; but later fown is bad. The fky farmers, (and often the better fort) that is the petty ones, let potatoe ground for it, at 61. an acre to cotters.

Great quantities of potatoes in the trench- ing way, and all the dung is ufed for them. A common way is, for the farmers to let them have land for nothing, upon condition of their dunging it, which all do that have not land of their own: if not, they pay from 4I. to 61. dunged, or turnip land fed with fheep, which they prefer, the potatoes being drier and better. The apple potatoe is moft ef- teemed, becaufe they are great bearers, laft through the fummer, and have been kept two years. Not much lime ufed, having been tried, but has not anfwered ; limeftone gravel on lay to be broken up, has a very great effect. The expenfe 10s. or 1 5s. The grafs is chiefly applied to heifers, or ftore bullocks 5 the firft fold in fmall parcels at home, the latter at Bal- Iynafloe or Bannagher. They buy them in at a year or two years old; the firft 30s. to 50s. the latter from 55s. to 57s. Keep them a year and four or five months, or only a year: in a year they will make, by the firft, 25s. to 30s. and from 30s. to 40s. by the others.

Wherever the land is good enough, a few cows bought in for fattening, in May, at il. 15s. to 5I. and fold with 40s. a head profit. The poor people all rear calves.

f Many

74 CHARLEVILLE.

Many fheep bred; the beft farmers breed and fell them fat at three years old, wethers at Michaelmas, from 18s. to 24s. if in fpring, from 24s. to 44s. Clip from 5 to 7 lb. of wool.

The tillage is done by oxen, four in a plough, not half an acre a day, the fky far- mers fometimes will put one horfe and a cow in. Oxen are reckoned beft. They cut no chaff, but winnow in the field.

Hire of a boy, horfe and ear is. id.

The fky farmer will take 40 or 50 acres, with three or four cows and a horfe or two, and 5I. 5s. in their pockets. Tythes are com- pounded, 5s. for winter corn, 3s. for fpring corn, 25s. 1000 fneep. Mowing ground, 5s.

Land fells for 20 years purchafe, rack rent has fallen two years purchafe in feven years, and the rent has fallen from 5s. to 3s. in the fame time. No tea. County cefs 6d. Very few middle men left. Cottages with half an acre, let for 20s. with two acres, which is common, 40s. No emigrations. Religion, lower claries all Roman. Not one cotter in fix has a cow about towns ; but in the coun- try, about half of them have. Molt of them have a pig, and much poultry. They are not more thieving than for a few turnips and cab- bages for their own ufe, nor that to any ex- cels. Many of the poor have reclaimed much

CHARLEVILLE. 75

bog, the premiums of the Dublin Society have induced them to do it : which are now 50s, an acre : by gradual draining, either from cutting turf, or making bounds, or from drainings purpofely done, they get to peat, and burn it 4 to 6 inches deep, at 20s. an acre, and fow bere, rye, or potatoes; the bere does beft, and next year another crop of corn • and then another burning, and two more crops, the potatoes are wet, but will do for feed, and they will efcape the froft in a bog, when they are killed in the high lands. They pay nothing for the bog, having land adjoining.

They lay the bits down to grafs, fowing feeds, but the crop is generally very thin and poor, and after a year or two, burn it again ; fometimes put out a little dung or gravel on the grafs, and plant it with potatoes. Some have put potatoes in upon a red bog, with no other preparation, than laying a poor, fharp, fandy gravel on it, and got tolerable crops.

Mr. Johnfton has cultivated cabbages for feveral years. In 1772 he had one acre, in 1 773 21, and ilnce that, between 1 and 2 acres every year. The great Scotch fort which he fows in February, and plants out in 4 feet rows, and 18 inches, from plant to plant, the beginning of June. If the plants are not in the ground then, the crop will not be good. Ploughs for them twice, and dungs richly in the furrows. Horfe hoes twice or thrice, and hand weeds them ; they come from 5- to 1 £ lb.

but

76 R A T H A N.

but have always began to burft in September. Has ufed them for fattening fheep, that would not fatten on giafs; alfo for bullocks, which throve perfectly well, like wife the leaves with great care in picking) to milch cows, but the butter tafted. Finds that the principal ufe of them is for bringing on cattle that will not finifh at grafs, and to be ufed all before Chriftmas. Barley that has been fown upon cabbage land which fucceeded potatoes, a vaft crop, 24 barrels an acre. Turnips Mr. John- lion has had for thefe ten years, from 1 to 4 acres, and, has always applied them to fatten- ing fheep, for which purpose he finds them excellent- and beft to feed in the field, be- caufe faft in the ground for the fheep to bite at, provided there is fome grafs for them to lie on.

Has deviated from the common late fowing of wheat, putting his inthe beginning of Sep- tember, and finds his harveft fo much earlier, than his is in the haggard (reek yard) when others are cutting.

His tillage he performs with only 2 horfes. Mr. Johnfton is a great friend to the Irifh cars: He carries 10 to I2cwt. of turf, 3 ffa- tute kifhes of hard ftone turf, each horfe 10 turns a day, or 20 miles, and all done on grafs alone.

July 6th went to Rathan, where Lord Shel- burne has placed a Norfolk bailiff, Mr. Van- cover,

R A T H A N. 77

cover, for the management of a farm he took into his own hands, who brought with him a ploughman, plough, harrow and tackle. The defiVn does honour to the nobleman who formed it; and Mr. Vancover is not likely to difappoint him; he is a fenfible, intelligent active man, who wTent through all the manual part of farming in a feven years apprenticefhip to a great farmer in Norfolk. I found him juft what I could wifh, difgufted neither with the country nor the people, pleafed and ani- mated with the profpect of improvement be- fore him, and had no doubt of fuccefs. He was going on perfectly well ; ploughing off the turf of a boggy bottom, adjoining to a great bog ; burning it into fmall heaps, and intending immediately to plough and fow turnips, of which, he will have 1 2 acres this year, and purpofes having many more the year after ; he has cut fome very long drains into the bog, defigns attacking it, and expects to make it excellent land, though initead of ploughing it firft for burning, he muft dig it ; I am clear he will not be difappointed : he has a fine field to work upon, for Lord Shelburne has 4000 acres of bog here. The high parts of the farm, are a rough lime ftone land, but very dry and found, he defigns in winter, grubbing the rubbiih, burning all the ftone into lime, and ploughing it for turnips the following year. Let me obferve, that this is the right conduct of rough land, which fhould always be brought into turnips firft, and not fallowed for wheat, as all the Irifh improvers

do,

78 SHAEN CASTLE.

do, who follow their wheat with fo many crops of fpnngcorr , that their foil is prefent- ly exhausted. If turnips are had, dung is gained, and the land in order, which paves the way to every thing elfe. Too much cannot be faid in praife of this undertaking of Lord Shelbnrne's. An opening is made by it, to a new field in hufbandry, which 1 forefee may prove of infinite confequence to the kingdom in general. Mr. Vancover being acquainted with feveral modes of improvement in Eng- land, and perfectly verfed in the Norfolk huf- bandry, is placed with great judgment where he can exert both. Perhaps I was the better pleafed with this improvement from being in- ftrumental hi procuring his lordfhip the perfon who is executing it. Near this place is a farm of 1 50 acres, and 1 500 bog, to be let on a leafe for ever, at 130I. a yeatv

Went from Rathan to the Glebe, a lodge belonging to Dean Coote, and from thence to Shaen cattle, near Mount-mellick, his refi- dence ; patted near large tracts of mountain, wafte and bog j and not far from a great range of the bog of Allen, Saw but little good corn j they were burning fome boggy bottoms in order to fallow for bere ; but it fhould be for turnips.

For the following particulars I am indebted to the o! Hging attention of the dean. About Shaen eaftle farr^.s of 40 or 50 acres are very common, fome few rife to 3 or 400. The foil

is

I

SHAEN CASTLE. 79

is either lime-ftone, lime-ftone gravel, or moor j lets at 1 3s. an acre on a medium.

The Course.

1. Fallow. 2. Wheat, low 1 barrel, pro- duce i;i. 3 Peas, fow I barrel, and get 5 to ioi

1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats, fow 2 bar- rels, get 8 to 15.

Alfo, 1. They burn moors for turnips : no hoeing, draw them for fheep. 2. Barley or bere, fow 1 barrel of bere, get 8 to 18. Sow of barley 1 barrel, get as much barley as bere. 3. Oats. 4. Oats ; after which they leave it to graze itfelf. Alfo on moory lands, rape or rye inftead of, or after turnips.

Flax is fown by all poor people and little farmers for their own ufe.

Potatoes are fo much planted that all the dung of the country is applied to them ; fome few plant them with the plough, but it does not well, unlefs the land is fummer fallowed : the chief culture is in the gardens of the cab- bins, for they hire no land of the farmers for potatoes. No fheep folding. Lime-Hone gra- vel is much ufed for tillage land, and the be- nefit found great for fix or feven crops.

The grafs is applied to fattening, dairying, and fheep. Dairies from 33 to 40 cows are common here ; they keep them in their own hands. An acre and a half of middling grafs for a cow. Some make butter, but none, if

the

8o SHAEN CASTLE.

the cheefe is good, ii cwt. of cheefe is a good produce per cow, price from 25 to 30s. per cwt. with il. is. for the calf, at 5 or 6 weeks old : rear very few.

The fattening fyftem is to buy in at 3I. to 61. in April, May, and June, and fell out with 30s. or 42s. profit, quite to Chriftmas. Flocks of fheep rife to 5 or 600 -7 the profit lamb at 5s. to 9s. and the ewe's wool 41b. In the winter they are on the walks, unlefs irr froft and fnow, when they get fome hay or turnips. Wool 1 5s. to 17s. a ltone, but with- in 15 years was 10s. 6d. It is bought up by- combers, who keep fpmners in the country to fpin it into yarn, which is fold fo factors for foreign markets. They are much trou- bled with the rot upon the moors, and a wet feafon will rot them even on lime-ftone land. Plough moilly with horfes, uiing 4, often for the fecond time of fallowing 6 : they do I of an acre; 4 bullocks, which gentlemen and good farmers ufe, will do f , price 7s. an acre. For winter corn they throw the lands narrow, and arched up: no (hovelling furrows, but ftrikethem with the plough. Keeping a horfe 3I. 3s. a year, and a working bullock 40s. Break their fallows from November to Fe- bruary. Hire of a horfe, boy, and car from is. id. to is. 4d.

In hiring and Hocking farms 3I. an acre they reckon necelTary.

Land

S H A EN CASTLE. 81 Land fells at 20 years purchafe; has fallen in 5 or 6 years 2s. to 6s. an acre, in general 5s. Tythes are compounded for, wheat 7s. bere 6s. barley 5s. oats 3s. 6d. mowing ground 3s. peafe 2s. 6d. No tea in the cabbins, nor yet a bellyfull of potatoes. They have an acre of land and a cottage for il. is. to il. ios. and about ~ of that in potatoes, they buy w\ they have not of their own, both oats, m or potatoes : a barrel of potatoes will laft a man, his wife, and four children a weekj one barrel of oats will yield 1 cwt. of oatmeal, which fells at 8s. 6d. to ios. and will in Jlir- about laft them a week, that is the fame time as a barrel of potatoes. They in general keep a cow at il. is. to il. ios. but they mull buy 12s. to 14s. of hay for her. They alfo keep a pig on offal.

Stealing is very common, they take every thing they can lay their hands on, yet are not fo poor here as in Clare and Tipperary. Corn all carried to Dublin for the premium, that on the malt and flour pays all the expenfes, but not the wheat. Population evidently increafes. No emigrations. Religion of the lower claiTes all catholick. A poor man's firing 14s. or 1 5s.

Expenfe of building a cabbin 3I. 3s. of fione and flate 20L all to a farm of 50 acres, of ftone and flate 300I.

In converfation upon the fubjed: of a union

with Great Britain, 1 was informed that no-

Vol. I. G thing

82 SHAEN CASTLE, thing was fo unpopular in Ireland as fuch an idea; and that the great objection to it was \ increafmg the number of abfentees. When it was in agitation, 20 peers and 60 commoners were talked of to fit in the Britifh parliament, which would be the refident of 80 of the bell eftates in Ireland. Going every year to Eng- land would, by degrees, make them reh'dents; they would educate their children there, and in time become mere abfentees. becoming fo they would be unpopular, others would be ele&ed, who, treading in the fame fteps, would yield the place (till to others; and thus, by degrees, a vafc portion of the kingdom now reiident would be made abfentees; which would, they think, be fo great a drain to Ireland, that a free trade would not repay it.

I think the idea is erroneous, were it only for one circumftance, the kingdom would lofe, according to this reafoning, an idle race of country gentlemen, and in exchange their ports would fill with fhips and commerce, and all the confequences of commerce; an ex- change that never yet proved difadvantageous to any country.

The Dean's improvements of bog ground are cxtenfive; lie drained very completely, and then ploughed or dug it for burning, upon which fowed meilin, which fucceeded very well, yielding. 13 barrels an acre. Then oats ploughed for, and got 10 barrels; and fowed hay feeds, ray grafs (colium peremie) and

clover

SHAEN'CASTLE. 83 clover (trifolium prate rife : ) before the improve- ment began, it was not worth is. 6d. an acre, but made it 14s.

Another part of the bog was leveled and burnt, the afhes fpread, and turnip feed har- rowed in, did very well, fed fheep with them ; after which, rubbifh, clay, and lime-ftone gra- vel fpread on it, 1000 load an acre, or 40s. an acre, and grafs feeds fovvn, which made it worth il. is. an acre. Turnips, Dean Coote has had thefe 20 years, both in the drill and broad-caft, and found the drill method much the beft, but owing, I apprehend, to the hoe- ing of the broad-caft not being well perform- ed. Had them always for feeding fheep, and found the eating equal to a coat of dung.

He folded his flieep for two years, but could not bring his people to continue it without too much trouble.

Lime he has tried much on the lime-ftone ground, but did not find it anfwer at all.

Would recommend in the improvement of bogs, to begin with one great drain round the intended improvement, 12 feet wide at top, cut to the gravel, and 4 feet wide at bottom ; then to cut crofs drains into that, which alfo ought to go down to the gravel : leave it for a year, if it is bad • then turn it up with the fpade or plough, burn it, and fow turnips or rape, and do it again the fame next year, G 2 with

84 A T H Y.

with a fecond burning, after which oats may be had, and laid down to grafs, which will be good, but much better if gravelled. Dean Coote has received from the Dublin fociety feveral gold medals for the improvement of bog, culture of turnips, &c.

July 8th, left Shaen Caftle, and took the road towards Athy; breakfafted with Dean Wallh, at General Walfh's, in that gentle- man's abfence.

The General is a confiderable farmer, and a yet greater improver; he has built 12 new farm houfes, alio 30 cabbins that have 90 cows, and each 2 to 4 acres, at 20s. an acre.

He has tried potatoes with the plough, in- ftead of the trenching way, he manured 2 acres of Hong land with 400 load of dung, which he ploughed in, and then dibbled the fets in, 15 inches fquare, he hand-hoed them twice, and got 176 barrels per acre. The common crops do not exceed 90 barrels.

He has generally 7 or 8 acres of turnips, and 2 or 3 of cabbages, with which he feeds both cattle and llieep, and with great fuccefs. He practices tillage principally to bring his land into order, and throws it into the fol- lowing courfe.

1 . Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Clover or tre- foile, 2 years.

When

A T H Y. 85

When he fows barley on potatoe land, he gets 20 barrels an acre. One article in the management of his eftate cannot be too much praifed : wherever he lets a farm that has only a common ordinary cabbin on it, he obliges the new tenant to build a good houfe of flone and flate, allowing him confiderably towards the expenfe. The common courfe of crops here is,

1. Fallow. 2. Wheat, yielding from 7 to 9 barrels. 3. Barley, 1 5 barrels. 4. Oats, 1 5 to 20. 5. Left for Grafs.

The poor here have all of them potatoes, as far as their dung will go: when they hire g'rafs land to plant them on, the account of an acre is as follows :

10 barrels of feed, at 3s. 41I.

Planting, cutting, &c.

Second trenching

Weeding -

Taking up, 40 men a day at 7d.

Rent -

L	/.	d.
1	13	4
1	10	0
0	1$	0
0	2	6
1	3	4
3	10	0

I- 8 14 2

The average crop 80 barrels, which is 2s. 2d. a barrel prime coft.

They have them the year round in plenty ; they are cheaper than oatmeal, and they like them better. They fow very little flax, and

fomc

$6 A T H Y.

fome none at ali. Many of them are matter of a car and horfe, with which they work for hire ; alfo one or two pigs, and much poultry by means of their potatoes.

Leaving; General Walfh's, palled a fine wood on the right, within a wall. See much good wheat and bere to Athy. Going through that town the road leads on the banks of the river Barrow, which winds through the vale to the right ; the verdure beautiful, and the country pleafant. Pafs over much light dry fandy gravelly loam, as line turnip land as I ever faw, but not one cultivated in the coun- try. It is this foil all the way from Athy to Carlow ; lets from 16s, to 20s. an acre. The courfes are:

i. Fallow. 2. Wheat, yielding 5 or 6 bar- rels.

Alfo, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats, and grafs feeds, or left to turf itfelf, thev ufe lime with fuccefs : they have gravel, but that does beftfor ftrong lands, and this upon land form- ed for 20 barrels a,n acre of barley after tur- nips. Thefe people by the Norfolk husban- dry would make a crown where they now re- ceive fix-pence.

Called on Mr. Vicars at Ballynakill, a con- fiderable grazier, who farms near 2000 acres in different counties. His hufbindry confifls chiefly of feeding fheep and bullocks: one fheep fyftem is to keep ewes for breeding, the fale being 3 year old wethers, fome of

the

BROWNSHILL. 87

the oldeft ewes and the wool. The wethers fell from 20 to 28s. each, and the quantity of wool 21 to a ftone, (the ftone of wool in Ire- land 1 61b.) Another fyftem is to buy in ewes in autumn, and to fell the lambs fat, and then the ewes. Grazing, in this country, confifts in buying bullocks in Q&ober, at 5I. or 6l. each ; give them fome hay in bad wea- ther, and fell them fat, with 40s. or 50s. pro- fit. Cows are bought in in May, and fold fat from harveft to autumn. Many dairies, not let to labourers, but kept for making but- ter; a cow will make 1 cwt. at 2I. 10s. and the calf 4s. The cabbins let here at 20s. each, and 30s. they pay for the pafturage of a cow, which they all keep. The account of pota- toes is:

Rent	_	5	s. 0	d. 0
8 Barrels of feed, 4s. 6d.	-	1	16	0
Putting in -		2	10	0
Taking up - ,	-	1	10	0

10 16 o

The average crop 60 barrels, prime coil there- fore 3s. 6d. Average rent of the whole coun- ty of Carlow, i 5s.

Palled on to Mr. Browne at Brownfhill, who has built a very g;ood and convenient houfe, in an open fituation, commanding an extenlive profpect ; gained here feveral arti- cles of information relative to the fame neigh- bourhood as Mr. Vicar is in. They plough chiefly with oxen, four in a plough, but do

not

88 BROWNSHILL.

not half an acre a day, which is a quantity four horfes will do eafily.

Tillage is very much increafed here, and almoft intirely owing to the inland premiums; the people alfo increafe much. Tythes are, "Wheat 5s. Bere 4s. Barley 3s. Oats 2s 6d. Mowing ground 3s. and of fheep in kind.

Throughout the county of Carlow the hiring tenant is in general the occupier, except in fmall pieces.

In front of Mr. Browne's houfe is a moun- tain, which I remarked was cultivated very high up the fides; and upon enquiry found that it was done by cotters, who pay the high rent of 10s. an acre in order to improve: they pare it with a plough, and burn the furrow, lime and fallow it for wheat, of which they get fix barrels per acre ; after which they fow oats, and get ten barrels, laying down with grafs feeds. Some they reclaim with potatoes. Much of the mountain is wet, fo that they are forced to drain it with open cuts.

Mr. Browne keeps 800 fheep, which confift of 200 ewes ; 100 ditto, 2 years old; 100 ditto, 3 years old, wethers ; 200 ditto 1 year old, ditto hoggits ; 200 lambs. And he fells

ev. y year

120 three year old wethers, at 25s. £. 150 o o

80 culled ewes, at 16s. - 64 o o

220 flone of wool, at i<5s. - 17600

390 o

In the winter they eat, of hay, 25 ton.

Heard

BALLYBA'R. 89

Heard of a very fpirited farmer at Carlow, a Mr. Hamilton, on whom I fhould have call- ed, but was told that he was abfent. He has gone fo much into the turnip hufbandry as to have 100 acres in a year, and 8 or 10 acres of cabbages ; fows them much on pared and burnt land} keeps by their means a vaft flock of cattle ; flail feeds many bullocks, buying ilraw for litter in order to make dung ; befides which he buys all the dung he can, and burns much lime, taking in fhort every means to keep his lands clean and in good heart. Such an example ought to be powerful in creating imitators, but I could not find it had any fuch effect among the common farmers.

July 9th, left Brownfhill, and taking the road to Laughlin-bridge, called on Mr. James Butler at Ballybar, a very adive and intelli- gent farmer upon a confiderahle fcale. H® has generally 4 or 5 acres of cabbages, which he ufes for his fat wethers of four years old; the produce of them he finds greater, and the fheep too like them better than turnips. He has fometimes 20 acres of turnips, and hoes them all. This year none. — It is a fign the cultivation is not well understood in a coun- try, when a man has one year 20 acres, and another none. A principal part of the ad- vantage of the confumption is loft, if the cat- tle fyftem is not regularly arranged with an eye to the turnip crop.

Mr. Butler buys every year 40 year old beafts, at from 30s. to 40s. Keeps them till

three

9o LAUGHLIM-BRIDGE.

three years and an half old, and then fells them fat. Alfo 20 bullocks, at 5I. which he fells fat at 81. His cows he buys in May, from 3I. to 3I. 1 os. each. The profit 40s. a head. The beft grafs he has will carry a bul- lock an acre. His fheep fyftem is to buy three year old wethers in Oclober, at 25s. each, which he begins to fell in the fpnng, and through the fummer, at 34s. In the winter they have hay.

His improved courfe of crops is: 1. Turnips, or cabbages. 2. Barley, yield- ing 20 barrels an acre. 3. Clover, and upon that gralTes afterwards to lay down. The courfes general are :

1. Fallow. 1. Fotatoes.

2. Wheat 7$ barrels an acre. 2. Wheat.

3. Barley. 3. Barley, 14 barrels an acre.

4. Oats. 4. Oats, 12 ditto.

5. Fallow, and then as above.

Their lands let at 30s. an acre, being a very goodftony loam. Moft in this neighbourhood were grazing ones, carrying bullocks and fheep; but ilnce the premiums on land-carriage corn, they have been broken up, and are now as 1 to 20. The number of fheep particularly is fo much lefTened., that only four perfons, Mr. Bun bury, the two Mr. Bernards', and Mr. Keef, had, 20 years ago, more fheep among them than there are now in the whole county.

Having taken a fhort walk with Mr. Butler, paiTed on to Captain Mercer's mill at Laugh- lin-bridge. I had been told that this was one of the moll confiderable mills in Ireland; and

had

LAUGHLIN -BRIDGE. 91

had a letter of recommendation to Mr. Mer- cer, which through carelefTnefs I had loll. I did not care, however, to pafs without feein? the mill, drove down to it, and was in the aukward fituation of explaining myfelf to be a traveller — what I wanted — fro .11 whence I came — and fo forth : but the good-nature and politenefs of Mr. Mercer prefently diflipated the difagreeablenefs of thole firit explanatory- moments. He {hewed me the mill, and ex- plained every thing with the utmofl: civility. It is a very large and convenient one; grinds 1 5,000 barrels a year, and if there was a briiker demand could do yet more.

I found the fame neceffity of kiln drying here as at Slaine mill, and made the fame ob- fervation that the wheat was none of it of a fine bright colour, like what is common in England.

The farmers alfo drefs their corn in fo ilo- veniy a manner, that there is the fame necef- fity of dreffing it over again, for which very powerful machines are contrived. The whole is very well calculated for fiving labour in every operation, and only eight hands are employed. After the mill was built, Mr. Mercer made many alterations of his own, to render it more fimple and effective, which have fully anfwered his expectations. The barrel of bran here is 4 ftgne, and fells for 3d. Mr. Mercer has tried feeding cattle with it, but could never make more than 6d. by it :

has

92 K I L F A I N E.

has alfo fattened hogs with it, but in no ufe will it pay more than 6d.

Nothing interefting from hence to Kilftine. I faw fome very good crops of wheat, but the country is bleak, and v*ants w:»od much. Reached Gervas Parker Bufhe's, Efq; at that place in the evening, who received me with a politenefs equalled only by the value of his intelligence.

July ioth, accompanied Mr. Bufhe, in a ride through the neighbourhood, to view the country, which is a great corn one. Called at feveral farms, and made enquiries into the culture, &c.

Viewed Mount Juliet, Lord Carrick's feat, which is beautifully fituated on a fine declivity on the banks of the Nore, commanding fome extenfive plantations that fpread over the hills, which rife in a various manner on the other fide the river : a knole of lawn rifes among them, with artificial ruins upon it, but the fituation is not in unifon with the idea of a ruin, very rarely placed to effect, unlefs in retired and melancholy fpots.

The river is a very fine one, and has a good accompanyment of well grown wood. From the cottage a more varied fcene is viewed, chearful and pleafing ^ and from the tent, in the farther plantation, a yet gayer one, which looks down on feveral bends of the riven

It

KILFAINE. 93

It was impoffible for any one to take more pains, that I fhould be well informed of every particular concerning hufbandry, than Mr. Bufhe; the following particulars I owe to his moft amole intelligence.

About Kilfaine, farms rife generally from ioo to 200 acres, among many very fmall ones, but fcarcely any fo high as 400 ; the foil a dry found gravelly loam, with many ftones, much inclinable to land. As fine turnip-land as any in the world ; as to rent, there are three-fifths of it good land, at 20s. an acre -7 one-fifth worfe, and fit for pafture 15s. and another mountain and land of little value: the firft, nothing j the other 5s. average 3s. and ge- neral average 16s.

The courfes of crops are,

1. Fallow. 2. Wheat, fow 1 barrel, and get on an average 6. 3. Barley, the crop 10 barrels. 4. Oats, the crop 8 ditto, or

1. Fallow. 1. Fallow.

2. Wheat. 2. Wheat, which furprized me

3. Oats. much, for it is very co

trary to the fpirit of f- ceffive crops.

1. Potatoes. 1. Potatoes.

2. Wheat 2. Bere crop, 10 barrels.

3. Barley. 3. Barley.

4. Oats. 4. Oats.

They plough three or four times for wheat, fow from the end of September to the middle of November. The firft ploughing is not till

May

94 K I L F A I N E.

May or June, and fometimes, as I have feen, not till July. They never fow Barley till April, and often May. Peafe they only fow on land which they think is not in heart for oats, and the crops miferable, as may be fup- pofed. They fometimes burn low rufhy bot- toms, and fow rape on them, but not often.

No fuch thins as turnips among the com- mon farmers, though they have an excellent turnip-foil. Mr. Bufhe has tome every year, with which he feeds his fheep.

No clover. Mr. Bufhe has had it for fome time, and found the greateit advantage from it. A little flax for their own ufe. Potatoes very generally cultivated, and take all the dung of the farm; and the poor, who raife what dung they can, have land of the farmers gratis, if they manure it well, in order to plant potatoes, which here is the moft general culture of that root. The account,

Dunging 2,10 lead	- £•	1	0	0
12 barrels of f<jed, at 3s.	-	1	16	0
Planting with a plough	-	0	16	0
Weeding	-	0	4	0
Taking up		1	8	0
	5	4	0

Plough them in, and then trench the furrows. Crop 40 barrels. The befl fort are the yellow potatoe, alfo the wife for produce. The Turk, which is the Engliih Howard, they plant on poor land, and never beflow any dung on it,

yet

K I L F A I N E. 95

yet get great crops; but it is a very bad fort. They are beginning to cultivate the moun- tains ; the inclofures creep up the fides gra- dually ; they pay 2s. to 4s. an acre, but im- prove to be worth 8 or 10s. They do it with lime-ftone gravel, or begin with pota- toes, and dung; the gravel they carry 2 miles to 3. Lime is a common manure j they lay 80 barrels an acre y it does bed on light land, and gravel on ftony. They burn it themfelves. One barrel of culm, at 2s. burns 5 barrels of lime; 16 miles from the coal-pits. Quarrying and burning 3d. a barrel. Drawing ftone to the kiln id. or i±d. ditto. Lime-ftone gravel is a very general manure, and the benefit prodigious. They have fome they call lime- ftone find, which is a fort of fand-ftone that breaks very eafily. They lay 200 to 300 loads, 6 or 7 cwt. each, an acre. Four horfes will draw 120 load a day, each load if barrel, and the diftanee 40 perch: this is 180 barrels, or 72obuihels, which is 24 loads, at 30 bufheis each ; which, I believe, is more than four horfes ufually perform in England, and is a proof, that giving every horfe his own work expedites it. Raifing and fcieening the fand from large ftones, 1 id. a car load. It will Lift in ftrong heart feveral years, and be per- ceived 15. As to laying land to grafs, they in general do it only by leaving the foil to cover itfelf \\ ith the rubbiih that happens to come.

Grafs land for meadow is very valuable. About the town of Kilkenny, 3I. to 5I. an

acre :

96 K I L F A I N E.

acre ; and at a diftance there is a cuftom of the little tillage- farmers hiring the crop of hay of a gentleman or farmer, and giving him, mere- ly" for the hay, 3I. to 51. an acre, they taking all the expenses upon themfelves, and not having the after-grafs. Dairies common on the hills on coarfe grafs, at 10s. or 12s. an acre. A good cow will give three gallons and an half of milk a day. As they fell all the butter-milk, they have little notion of keep- ing hogs, on account of dairies. In winter, the cows that give milk have hay; the others ftraw : all run abroad. Few grazing farms, but in the barony of Cranagh there are fome. Value of a cow's hide 15s. to 1 8s. per cwt. Sheep are keptinfmall parcels; they fellftore wethers two and three years old, at 16s. to 20s. in June or July. Wool about 3 to a Hone. The price of wool 16s. but 20 years ago, 12s. No fuch thing as folding. They plough ge- nerally with 4 horfes, and do above \ an acre a day, laying their lands on 6 foot ridges. They give their horfes oats. No cutting ftraw into chaff, and lofe all that of the crops. Hire of a car, a horfe, and a driver, is. 4d. In hiring and flocking a farm, they reckon a year's rent necefTary; if they have lefs, they never know whether they are to fink or fwim.

Land fells at 21 years purchafe ; not quite fo well as it did 5 or 6 years ago, the rents fal- len fince March 177$, a feventh. County cefs not a fhilling an acre. Tythes compounded generally, wheat 8s. bere 7s. barley 7s. oats 4s. mowing ground 4s. peafe 4s. No manufac- tory

K I L F A I N E. 97

tory of confequence, but blankets are made at Kilkenny. The leafcs are all for 21 or 31 years, as the whole country is Roman Catho- lic. Much land is in the occupation of un- der tenants, who hire of middle men. but generally under old leafes ; when land was at its heighth, many hired alfo on fpeculation, but the fall of lands has put a great Hop to it. A cabbin and an acre lets at 3I. 3s. and if more land 40s. or 42s. an acre, the cotters have many of them a cow, and fome two, and a pig and fome poultry. In refped to their condition, they have their belly full of pota- toes, and their children eat them all day long i all cattle lay with them in the cabbins* Scarcity of fuel is the worft circumftance. All the lower clalTes are Roman Catholics, No emigrations. The general (late of the poor will appear from the following account of Mr. Bufhe's hay-makers -? he was obliging enough to make them all appear in array, and anfw7er to the queftions I put to them. The follow- ing are the particulars they gave me.

Vol. I. H N©:

,8

K I L F A I N E.

"	0 6	u eg w . c .S3	Si? <J ri	c	0 U	1— 0	b£S O K
			W-v-J
\o. I.		4	2	1	18 0	0	O
2.		7	O	I	1 0	t	O
3-		5.	2	1	10 0	0	O
4-		5	12	5	0 0	J	O
5-		6	O	1	1 0	I	O
6.		6	O	0	0 0	O	o-	0
7-		8	8	8	0 0	I	0	0
8.		8	8	8	0 0	I	I	2
9-		10	16	16	0 0	2	2-	3
10.		8	8	8	0 0	I	I	2
ii.		5	6	10	10 0	2	I	©
12.		8	1	1	15 0	I	O	2
13-		2	4	6	0 0	I	I	2
14.		6	6	10	10 0	I	I	3
*5-		4	5	6	0 0	2	I	2
16.		6	2	1	8 0	O	O	9
17.		5	0	1	10 0	O	O	2
18.		12	it	17	8 0	2	2	2
19		7	12	12	0 0	2	I	1
20.		6	0	0	0 0	O	O	0
21.		10	4	6	0 0	I	I	0
22		6	8	8	0 0	I	I	2

144 114

23

37

Average 6*

<s

61 fouls

K I L F A I N E. 99

6l fouls percabbin, are a population one would not imagine could be refident in fuch mean habitations, but they fwarm with children to the eye of the raoft inattentive obferver. They have a practice here which much de- fervcs attention : three, four, five, feven, &c. little farmers will take a large farm in partner- fhip. They muft be equal in horfes, cows, and fheep, and tolerably fo in other circum- ftances; they divide every field among them- felves equally, and do all the labour of it up- on their feparate accounts 5 affifting each other mutually: they never throw the whole into one ftock and divide the profit, from fufpici- ons, I fuppofe, they have of one another.

Implements. A car il. 10s. a boarded one zi 2s. A plough il. 5s. A pair of harrows 15s. Building a labourer's cabbin in the common manner 5I. Ditto, of ftane and llate, 30I. For a farm complete of 50 acres, of ftone and flate iool. to add 50 acres more 30I. more. Poors firing il. 10s. but hedges much broken.

Mr. Bufhe is very attentive in the culture of his domain; he puts his potatoes in with the plough, and finds they anfwer much bet- ter than the common manner, making them and turnips the preparation for barley, with which he fows clover, and upon that wheat : this is the Norfolk hufbandry, and there can- not be better. It fhould be extended over all the arable land wherever it is practiced. He H 2 has

ioo WOODSTOCK.

has this year a very fine crop of wheat fbwn upon one earth on an old lay, and no damage from the red-worm. In the fpring he con- fines his cattle to the farm yard for making dung, and mixes it in comports with fand and lime. He has an ceconomical praclice which deferves attention. It is the ftew hole in his kitchen being a perpetual lime-kiln. It is a fire kept night and day at lefsthan no expenfe, for the lime more than pays the culm. It is not at all unwholefome, and the fire for cu- linary purpofes is excellent.

July ii, left Kilfaine: Mr. Bufhe accom- panied me to Woodftock, the feat of Sir W. Fownes. From Thomaftown hither is the fined ride I have yet had in Ireland. The road leaving Thomaftown leads on the eaft fide of the river, through fome beautiful copfe woods, which before they were cut muft have, had a moft noble effect, with the river Nore, winding at the bottom, the country then opens fomewhat, and you pafs moil: of the way for 6 or 7 miles to Innifteague, on a declivity (helving down to the river, which takes a va- ried winding courfe, fometimes lively, break- ing over a rocky bottom, at others frill and deep under the gloom of fome fine woods, which hang down the fides of fteep hills. Narrow flips of meadow of a beautiful ver- dure in fome places form the fhore, and unite with cultivated fields that fpread over the ad- joining hills, reaching almoft the mountain tops: thefe are large and bold, and give in

general

R O S S. ioi

general to the fcenes features of great magni- ficence. PafTed Sir John Hafler's, on the op- pofite fide of the river, finely fituated, and Mr. Nicholfon's farm on this fide, who has very extenfive copfes, which line the river. Coming in fight of Sir W. Fownes's, the fce- nery is ftriking, the road mounts the fide of the hill, and commands the river at the bot- tom of the declivity, with groups of trees prettily fcattered about, and the little borough of Innifteague in a moil picturefque fituati- on, the whole bounded by mountains. Crofs the bridge, and going through the town, take a path that leads to a fmall building in the woods, called Mount Sandford ; it is at the top of a rocky declivity almoft perpendicular, but with brufh wood growing from the rocks. At the bottom is the river, which comes from the right from behind a very bold hanging wood, that feems to unite with the hill on the oppofite fhore: at this pafs the river fills the vale, but it widens by degrees, and pre- fents various reaches, intermixed with little tufts of trees, the bridge we paffed over is half hid. Innifteague is mixed with them, and its buildings backed by a larger wood, give variety to the fcene. Oppofite to the point of view there are fome pretty inclofures, fringed with wood, and a line of cultivated mountain fides, with their bare tops limit the whole.

Taking my leave of Mr. Bufhe, I followed the road to Rofs. PafTed Woodilock, of

which

to2 W H I T E B O Y S.

which there is a very fine view from the top of one of the hills, the houfe in the centre of a (loping wood of sooEnglifh acres, and hang- ing in one noble fhade to the river, which flows at the bottom of a winding glen. From the fame hill in front it is feen in a winding courfe for many miles through a great extent of inclofures, bounded by mountains. As I advanced, the views of the river Nore were very fine, till I came to Rofs, where from the hill, before you go down to the ferry, is a no- ble fcene of the Barrow, a vail river flowing thro' bold fhores, in fomc places trees on the bank half obfeure it, in others it opens in large reaches, the effect equally grand and beautiful. Ships failing up to the town, which is built on the fide of a hill to the water's edge, enliven the fcene not a little. The water is very deep and the navigation fecure, fo that fhips of 700 tons may come up to the town; but thefe noble harbours, on the coail of Ireland, are only melancholy ca- pabilities of commerce : it is languid and tri- lling. There are only four or five brigs and sfloops that belong to the place.

Having now pafTed through a considerable extent of county, in which the white boys were very common, and committed many out- rages, I rhall here review the intelligence I received concerning them throughout the county of Kilkenny. I made many enquiries into the origin of thofe difiurbances, and found that no fuch thing as a leveller, or white boy,

was

WHITE BOYS. 103

was heard of till 1760, which was long after the landing of Thurot, or the intended ex- pedition of M. Conflans. That no foreign coin was ever feen among them, though re- ports to the contrary were circulated ; and in all the evidence that was taken during ten or twelve years, in which time there appeared a variety of informers, none was ever taken, whofe tefhmony could be relied on, that ever proved any foreign interpofition. Thofe very few, who attempted to favour it, were of the inofl: infamous and perjured characters. All the reft, whofe intereft it was to make the difcovery, if they had known it, and who concealed nothing elfe, pretended to no fuch knowledge. No foreign money appeared ; no arms of foreign conftruclion ; no preemp- tive proof whatever of fuch a connection. They began in Tipperary, and were owing to fome inclofures of commons, which they threw down, levelling the ditches ; and were firft known by the name of levellers. After that, they be^un with the tythe-proctors, (who are men that hire tythes of the rectors) and thefe pro&ors either fcrewed the cotters up to the utmoft milling, or re-let the tythe-: to fuch as did it. It was a common practice with them to go in parties about the country, fwearing many to be true to them, and for- cing them to join, by menaces, which they very often carried into execution. At laii they fet up to be general redrelTcrs of grievan- ces— punifhcd all obnoxious perfons who ad vanced the value of lands, or hind farms pi 1 1

their

104 WHITE BOYS.

their heads, and having taken the adminiftra- tion of juftice into their own hands, were not very exa& in the diflribution of it. Forced mailers to releafe their apprentices, carried off the daughters of rich farmers, ravifhed them into marriages, of which four inftances happened in a fortnight. They levied fums of money on the middling and lower farmers, in o der to fupport their caufe, by paying at- tornies, &c. in defending profecutions againft them; and many of them fubfifted for fome years without work, fupported by thefe con- tributions. Sometimes they committed feve- ral considerable robberies, breaking into houfes and taking the money, under pretence of re- dn. fling grievances. In the courfe of thefe outrages, they burnt feveral houfes, and de- fircyed the w hole fubfiance of men obnoxious to them. The barbarities they committed were (hocking. One of their ufual punifh- ments (and by no means the moil fevere) wras taking people out of their beds, carrying them naked in winter, on horfe-back, for fome diftancc, and burying them up to their ohm in a holt- filled with briars, not forget- ting to cut off cue of their ears. In this- manner the evil exiiied for eight or ten years, during which time the gentlemen of the coun- try took fome meafures to quell them. Many pf the magiftrates were aclive in apprehending them; but the want of evidence prevented punifhoients For many of thofe who even fuf- fered by them, had not fpirit to profecute. The gentlemen of the country had frequent

expedition^

W H I T E B O Y S. 105

expeditions to difcover them in arms.; but their intelligence was fo uncommonly good by their influence over the common people, that not one party that ever went in queft of them was fuccefsful. 'Government offered large rewards for informations, which brought a few every year to the gallows, without any radical cure for the evil. The reafon why it was not more effe&ive was, the neceflky of any perfon that gave evidence againft them, quitting their houfes and country, or remain- ing expofed to their refentment. At laft their violence arofe to a heighth which brought on their fuppreflion. The popifh inhabitants of Ballyragget, fix miles from Kilkenny, were the firft of the lower people who dared openly to affociate againft them •, theythreatened de- finition to the town, gave notice that they would attack it, were as good as their word, came 200 ftrong, drew up before a houfe in which were 15 armed men, and fired in at the windows : the 1 5 men handled their arms fo well, that in a few rounds they killed 40 or qo. They fled immediately, and ever after left Ballyragget in peace — indeed they have never been refifted at all, without (hewing a great want of both fpirit and difcipline. It fhould, however, be obferved, that they had but very few arms, thofe in bad order, and no cartridges. Soon after this they attacked the houfe" of Mr. Power, in Tipperary, the hiftory of which is well known. His murder fpirited up the gentlemen to exert themfelves in fuppreffing the evil, efpecially in raifing

fubferiptions

io6 WHITE BOYS.

fubfcriptions to give private rewards to who- ever would give evidence or information con- cerning them. The private diftribution had much more effect than larger fums which re- quired a public declaration j and government giving rewards to thofe who reiiited them, without having previoufly 'promife^L it, had likewife fome effect. Laws were paffed for punifhing all who affembled, and (what may- have a great effect) for recompensing, at the expenfe of the county or barony, all perfons who fuffered by their outrages. In confe- quence of thvs general exertion, above twenty were capitally convicted, and moft of them executed^ and the gaols of this and the three neighbouring counties, Carlow, Tipperary, and Oueen's-county, have many in them, whofe trials are put off till next affizes, and againft whom fufficient evidence for convicti- on, it is fuppofed, will appear. Since this all has been quiet, and no outrages have been committed : but before I quit the fubject, it is proper to remark that what coincided very much to abate the evil, was the fall in the price of lands, which has taken place lately. This is confiderable, and has much leffened the evil of hiring farms over the heads of one another ; perhaps alfo the tythe-proctors have not been quite fo fevere in their extortions : but this obfervation is by no means general ; for in many places tythes yet continue to be levied, with all thofe circumfiances which ori- ginally raifed the evil.

From

WEXFORD. 107 From Rofs took the road towards Wexford, and found upon enquiry that I was got into quite a different country from what I had left, the foil not near fo high let, for feveral miles it is from 5s. to 1 5s. and is in general dry found land. This foil, fo excellent in the turnip- culture, never lets at its real value in unim- proved countries: it is the introduction of turnips alone that afcertains that value. In 8 or 9 miles I found fome rifing to 20s. The courfe: 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Oats. 4. Bailey, 5. Oats. 6- Barley. 7. Oats. With fuch management, no wonder the foil is low rented. There is a great quantity of rough land overrun with furze (uleoc europoeas.) They burn them here, and I remarked un- common quantities of bog-wood at the doors of the cabbins : yet their turf-grounds are ra- ther boggy bottoms than bogs.

Laid at Taghmon, at as good an inn as the appearance of the place could allow of, though I was told it was very good. There was a bed on which I refted in my cloaths, but the liable had neither rack nor manger- I fhould have gone on to Wexford, but found that Mr. Neville, member for that town, to whom I had a letter of recommendation in order to procure intelligence concerning the baronies of Bargie and Forth, was in England; I there- fore determined to turn off here, and make a circuit through them to get to Wexford. The landlord feemed to know fomething of the country. I afked him what gentlemen were

in

108 BARGIE AND FORTH.

in it that took any plsafure in hufbandry: he named feveral, and from his accounts I deter- mined a call on Mr. Nun, at St. Margaret's.

July 1 2th, fallied from my inn, which would have made a very paiTable caffle of enchant- ment in the eyes of Don Quixote, in fearch of adventures in thefe noted baronies, of which I had heard Co much. They were completely peopled by Strongbow ; and from having re- tained a fort of Saxon language peculiar to themfe Ives, without any of them undemand- ing the Irifh, in all probability the country was at that time uninhabited or defolated. I had been told that they were infinitely more induftrious and better farmers than in any other part of Ireland, and this account was confirmed to me by feveral common Irifh far- mers I met with upon the road. — It was not long before I was in the barony of Bargie, and I was much furprifed to fee no great ap- pearance of any thing better than common. In one refpect, I remarked the vileft hufbandry, wThich was exhaufting the land by fuccefTive corn crops, and then leaving it to cover itfelf with weeds, and grafs by degrees : for it is to be obferved, that I have not feen, in Wex- ford, anv of that fine land I have mentioned fo often, which, if thrown by in this manner, is almof! immediately covered with white clover. Land, I found, let five or fix miles from Tagh- mon, from ios. to 20s. an acre; they have no fallow, but fow oats and barley, and beans and peafe, (which they call black corn] in fuc-

cefTioa

BARGIE AND FORTH. 109

ceffion for many years, and without any fuch practice as hoeing. And though the land is light, dry and found, not a turnip is fown; fo that, in 21 miles, I faw not a fingle fallow for them. Sowing beans and peafe is, howe- ver, common, and they have farther a notion that doing fo refrefhes the land. I faw no beans in Ireland till I came here. They told me their crops were : Barley and oats 6 to 12 barrels. Beans 8 to 10 barrels. They ufe both marie and lime; of the former they lay 400 car loads per acre, and it lails 1 2 crops. Much of their wheat is fown on lays, marled and dunged, and the crops were very good. Potatoes not the food of the people the year through, as in other parts of Ireland ; they live on them only in the winter, and have oat- meal the reft of the year. Barley is the crop that fucceeds them.

Advancing farther I had frefh accounts.— Wheat they fow on lays, with only one plough- ing, and get from 7 to 10 barrels an acre ; and of oats and barley on good land fometimes fo high as 15 to 17 barrels. They lime much, and ufually take but four or five crops of corn running, upon which they feemed to pride themfelves much, as being good farmers. Farms in Bargie generally from 40 to 100 acres. Here I underftood there was a part of the barony of Shclmal inhabited by quakers, rich men and good farmers. A farmer I talked to faid of them : — the quakers be very cunning, and the devil a bad acre of land will they hire.

From

no BARG1E AND FORTH.

From this account I wifhed for a recommenda- tion to one of thefe fagacious friends. I ob- ferved all the way I went, that the cabbins were generally much better than any I had feen in Ireland : lar^e ones, with two or three rooms, in good order and repair, all with win- dows and chimnics and little fries, for their pigs and cattle. As well built as common in England.

Entering Forth I did not perceive any differ- ence, but the foil is a reddifh good loam with- out (tones. I went to St. Margaret's, and in- troduced myfelf to Colonel Nun, who gave me the following particulars, with the alfiftarce of a neighbouring farmer. Barony of Forth and Bargie farms generally 20 to 80 acres ; but many of them hired in partnerfhip, and when the children marry are fubdivided into fmaller portions. Rent of the two baronies on an average a guinea. The courfes :

1. Potatoes. p. Summer fallow. -, 1 . Beans on lay.

2. Flax or barley. \2. Barley. / 2. Barley.

3. Leave it for a ^3. Beans. k. 3. Oats. ibd, but mod fow 1 4. Oats. I 4. Barley, clover and graffes. ^5. Graffes. J 5. Clover or tre-

foile, for 2, 3, or 4 years,

i. Fallow and marie. 2. Wheat. 3. Bar- ley. 4. Oats. 5. Barley. 6, Clover, &c.

For wheat they plough but once on the lay, harrow in the feed and fhovel the furrows ; fow in October one-half to three-fourths of a barrel : fome ufe fpring wheat fown in March. The crop generally is 10 to 20 barrels. For

barley,

BARGIE AND FORTH. in

barley, which is their principal crop, they plough twice ; fow one barrel and an half, get 10 to 15 barrels an acre. For oats they plough but once, fow one barrel and an half, and get 10 or 12 barrels an acre. For peafe or beans they plough but once, fow many beans on a lay on one ploughing, one barrel and an half per acre-, chopping anddreffing the clods fine, get 5 to 20 barrels an acre, and fow barley af- ter it. No turnips among the common far- mers, though much of their land is fine dry and found, but fome is very wet.

Flax enough for their own ufe. Potatoes they have of late began to put in with the plough, but in common they are in the trench- ing way. Their crops are very good. Marie is very much ufed : it is a blue fort. They lay large quantities on the fod, let it lie a year or two before they plough it up, which they find better than ploughing it directly. They marie the fame land often : they drain only with open cuts, no hollow ones done.

Cattle very little attended to : only a cow or two for the ufe of their families, and a few fheep ; but they keep a great many pigs. All that live near the fea, turn their pigs to the fhore for fifh, fea- weed, &c. Manure with fea- weed, which they lay on for barley; fome frefh from the fea, others lay it in heaps to rot, and many reckon it belt frefh. Plough- ing all with horfes, four in a plough -, lay their lands round to (hoot off the water. In

ploughing

its BARGIE AND FORTH.

ploughing grafs for corn, they leave one-third of every ridge unploughed in the middle, but covered up with the furrows, in order for til- ling the year following, and think they get the beft crops there. Execrable !

Land fells from 22 to 25 years purchafe ; nor have rents fallen at all, rather the con- trary. County cefs 8d. an acre. Tythes ei- ther gathered or appraifed every year. Leafes generally three lives, or 31 years. Carry their corn to Wexford. The people increafe prodigioufly. Rent of a cabbin and an acre 3I. generally have a cow and pigs, and plenty of poultry. Religion generally Catholic. Many lads go to Newfoundland in May, and come home in October, and bring from 15I. to 24I. pay 3I. paffage out, and il. 10s. home. Poors' firing fod, furze, and fern, coals very fcarce. Building a cottage 5I. to 7I. to a farm of 50 acres 150I.

The people are uncommonly induftrious, and a moit. quiet race — in 15 or 20 years there is no