21st to 30th September 1776: Cork and Kerry
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SEPTEMBER 21st to Rostellan, the seat of Lord Inchiquin, commanding a beautiful view of Corke harbour, the ships at Cove, the great island; and the two others which guard the opening of the harbour. It appears here a noble bason of several miles extent, surrounded with high grounds, which want no addition but woods. This view is seen in great perfection from the windows of two very good rooms, 25 by 35, which his Lordship has built in addition to the old castle. FROM Rostellan to Lota, the seat of Frederick Rogers, Esq; I had before seen it in the highest perfection from the water going from Dunkettle to Cove, and from the grounds of Dunkettle. Mrs. Rogers was so obliging as to shew me the back grounds, which are admirably wooded, and of a fine varied surface. GOT to Corke in the evening, and waited on the Dean, who received me with the most flattering attention. Corke is one of the most populous places I have ever been in; it was market-day, and I could scarce drive through the streets, they were so amazingly thronged: the number is very great at all times. I should suppose it must resemble a Dutch town, for there are many canals in the streets, with quays before the houses. The best part is Morison's Island, which promises well; the old part of the town is very close and dirty. As to its commerce, the following particulars I owe to Robert Gordon, Esq; the surveyor-general. Average of nineteen years export, ending march
24, 1773. Average prices of the 19 years on the custom books. All exports on those books are rated at the value of the reign of Charles the Second; but the imports have always 10 per cent. on the sworn price added to them. Seventy to eighty sail of ships belong to Corke. Average of ships that entered that port in those 19 years, 872 per annum. The number of people at Corke, upon an average of three calculations, as mustered by the clergy, by the hearth-money, and by the number of houses, 67,000 souls, if taken before the 1st of September, after that 20,000 increased. There are 700 coopers in the town. The barrels are of oak or beech, all from America: the latter for herrings, now from Gottenburgh and Norway. The excise of Corke now no more than in Charles the Second's Reign. Ridiculous! Bullocks 16,000 head, 32,000 barrels; 41,000 hogs, 20,000 barrels. Butter 22,000 firkins of half a hundred weight each; all these are the increase this year, the whole being 240,000 firkins of butter Export of woollen yarn from Cork, 300,000l. a year in the Irish market. No wool smuggled, or at least very little. The wool comes to Corke, &c; and is delivered out to combers, who make it into balls. These balls are bought up by the French agents at a vast price, and exported; but even this does not amount to 40,000l. a year. PRICES. BEEF, 21s. per cwt. never so high by 2s. 6d. Pork, 30s. owing to the army demand, never higher than 18s. 6d. Slaughter dung 8d. for a horse-load. Country labourer 6d. about the town 10d. Milk 7 pints a penny. Coals 3s. 8d. to 5s. a barrel, 6 of which make a ton. Eggs 4 a penny. CORKE labourers. Cellar ones 20,000; have 1s. 1d. a day, and as much bread, beef, and beer, as they can eat and drink, and 7 lb. of offals a week for their families. Rent for their house, 40s. Mason and carpenters labourers 10d. a day. Sailors, now, 3l. a month and ship provisions: before the American war, 28s. Porters and coal-heavers paid by the great. State of the poor people in general incomparably better than they were 20 years ago. There are imported 18,000 barrels annually of Scotch herrings, at 18s. a barrel. The salt for the beef trade comes from Lisbon, St. Ube's, &c. The salt for the fish trade from Rochelle: for butter English and Irish. PARTICULARS of the woollen fabricks of the county of Corke received from a manufacturer. The woollen trade, serges and camblets, ratteens, frizes, druggets, and narrow cloths, the last they make to l0s. and 12s. a yard; if they might export to 8s. they are very clear that they could get a great trade for the woollen manufactures of Corke; the wool comes from Galway and Roscommon, combed here by combers, who earn 8s. to 10s. a week, into balls of 24 ounces, which is spun into worsteds, of twelve skains to the ball, and exported to Yarmouth for Norwich; the export price, 30l. to 33l. a pack, never before so high; average of them 26l. to 30l. Some they work up at home into serges, stuffs, and camblets; the serges at 12d. a yard, 34 inches wide; the stuffs sixteen inches, at 18d. the camblets at nine-pence halfpenny to thirteen pence. The spinners at nine-pence a ball, do one in a week; or a ball and half, which is twelve-pence a week, and attend the family besides; this is done most in Waterford and Kerry, particularly near Killarny; the weavers earn 1s. a day on an average. Full three-fourths of the wool is exported in yarn, and only one-fourth worth worked up. Half the wool of Ireland is combed in the county of Corke. THERE is a very great manufacture of ratteens at Carrick-on-sure; the bay worsted is for serges, shalloons, &c. Woollen yarn for coarse cloths, which latter have been lost for some years, owing to the high price of wool. The bay export has declined since 1770, which declension is owing to the high price of wool. No wool smuggled, not even from Kerry, not a sloop's cargo in twenty years, the price too high; the declension has been considerable. For every 86 packs of yarn that are exported, a licence from the Lord, Lieutenant must be had, for which 20l. is paid. ON account of the act of the last sessions of Great Britain for exporting woollen goods for the troops in the pay of Ireland, Mr. Abraham Lane, of Corke, established a new manufacture of army cloathing for that purpose, which is the first at Corke, and pays 40l. a week in labour only. Upon the whole there has been no increase of woollen manufacture within 20 years, He is clearly of opinion that many fabricks might be worked up here much cheaper than in France, cloths that the French have beat the English out of; these are, particularly, broad-cloths of one yard and half-yard wide, from 3s. to 6s. 6d. a yard for the Levant trade. Frizes which is now supplied from Carcassone in Languedoc. Frizes of 24 to 27 inches, at 10d. to 13d. a yard. Flannels, 27 to 36, from 7d. to 14d. Serges of 27 to 36 inches, at 7d. to 12d. a yard; these would work up the coarse wool. At Ballynasloe fair, in july, 200,000l. a year bought in wool. There is a manufactory of knit stockings by the common women about Corke, for eight or ten miles around; the yarn from 12d. to l8d, a pair, and the worsted, from 16d. to 20d. they earn from 12d. to 18d. a week. Besides ther own consumption, great quantities are sent to the north of Ireland. ALL the weavers in the country are confined to towns, have no land, but small gardens. Bandle or narrow linen, for home consumption, is made in the western part of the county. Generally speaking, the circumstances of all the manufacturing poor are better than they were twenty years ago. The manufactures have not declined, though the exportation has, owing to the increased home consumptions. Bandon was once the seat of the stuff, camblet, and shag manufacture, but has in seven years declined above three-fourths. Have changed it for the manufacture of coarse green linens, for the London market, from 6d. to 9d. a yard, 27 inches wide; but the number of manufacturers in general much lessened. SEPTEMBER 22d, left Corke, and proceeded to Coolmore, the seat of the Rev. Archdeacon Oliver, who is the capital farmer of all this neighbourhood; no person could be more desirous of procuring me the information I wished, nor any more able to give it me. Mr. Oliver began the culture of turnips four years ago, and found them so profitable, that he has every year had a field in the broad-cast method, and well hoed. This year they are exceedingly fine, clean, and well hoed, so that they would be no disgrace to a Norfolk farmer. This is the great object wanting in Irish tillage; a gentleman, therefore, who makes so considerable a progress in it, acts in a manner the most deserving praise that the whole circle of his husbandry will admit. Mr. Oliver has usually drawn his crops for sheep and black cattle; for the former he has spread them upon grass fields to their very great improvement; and the cattle have had them given in stalls. All sorts have done perfectly well, insomuch that he is fully convinced of their great importance: he has found that they support the cattle much better than any thing else, to such a degree of superiority, he is determined never to be without a crop. Has always dunged for them, except when he has ploughed up a grass lay, then not necessary. IN bringing in furzy waste land he has improved very extensively. One instance in particular I shall mention, because it is the best preparation for laying land to glass that I have met with in Ireland: he first dug it and put in potatoes, no manure: the crop middling; after that cleared it of stones, which were in great numbers, and sowed turnips, of which crop the following are the particulars. "IN november 1771, the Rev. Archdeacon John Oliver (at his residence in the county of Corke) began to cultivate a field for turnips and cabbages; the field contained about 40 English acres, but was so full of rocks that only about ten or eleven plantation acres could be tilled, the remainder being a lime-stone quarry; the surface in the part tilled, in general, not above four inches deep, and in the deepest part not above twelve inches over the lime-stone quarry; this ground was planted with potatoes the spring preceding, without any manure, and all done with the spade, and in many parts there was not sufficient covering for them. The ploughing for turnips and cabbages was finished the latter end of december; it remained in that state till the month of march following (1772), when a large quantity of stones were taken out with crows and spades; it was then ploughed a second time; then harrowed with very strong harrows made on purpose; about the latter end of may it was rolled with a wooden roller; on the 11th, 12th, and 13th of june, it was sowed with about one pound and a quarter of seeds to the English acre. When the turnips were in four leaves there appeared more fern and potatoes than turnips, which were weeded out by hand, at a great expence; and in about three weeks after, when the turnips began to bottom, they got a second weeding as before, after which they were again thinned by hand; these different operations were continued till the turnips were about a pound weight, and then they were thinned again, and weeded as often as there was occasion, and now it is imagined they are as great a crop as any in the kingdom, some thousands weighing fourteen pounds per turnip. Part of the same field is sowed in drills, thinned and weeded as the other, but they are not equal to the broad cast, but are a very good crop. Another part of the same field is planted with 20,300 cabbages of different kinds, namely, the flat Dutch, borecole, large late Dutch cabbage, turnip cabbage, and large Scotch cabbage, at three feet between each drill, and two feet in the rows, which is at least one foot too near in the drills, and half a foot in the rows, as they now touch one another this 13th of october. All the said cabbages and turnips were cultivated with the plough, and the cabbages hoed with the garden hoes, and manured mostly with rotten dung; part with horse-dung, not half rotten from the stable, part with cow-dung not rotten; part with sea-slob and lime mixed; all which manures answer very well. One small part of the field where the cabbages were planted, was broke from the lay last march, got six ploughings and five harrowings; another part four ploughings and three harrowings. THE turnip ground got no manure of any kind, nor was it burned. THE foregoing improvements were conducted under the immediate care and management of MAURICE MURRAY." AFTER these turnips he sowed barley, and with the barley, grass seeds; before this improvement the land was worth 10S. an acre, but after it would let for 25s. the grass having succeeded perfectly. Cabbages Mr. Oliver has also cultivated these four years, and with success, but does not find, upon the whole, they succeed so well as turnips, except Reynold's turnip-rooted cabbage, which is of very great use late in the spring, after other sorts are gone. Beans Mr. Oliver has also tried in small quantities, and seem to do pretty well; I saw his crop this year drilled and well managed, and a good produce, enough to give him the expectation of their being an advantageous article. Lucerne he has also tried, but found the trouble of keeping it clean too great to answer the cultivation. Upon manures he has tried an experiment, which promises to be of considerable consequence; upon some land he took in from a creek of Corke harbour, under the slob, or sea ooze he dug some very fine blue marle; this he tried for potatoes against dung; the crops to appearance very equal, but upon measuring a spade
of each, the part marled yielded 14lb. but that dunged only 7½lb. but the dunging was not a considerable one. It is an object of prodigious consequence to be able to get potatoes at all with marle. In the cultivation of this root Mr. Oliver has introduced the mode of planting them in drills, two feet and a half asunder, with the plough, and found that the saving of labour is exceedingly great, but that the difference of crop is rather in favour of the common method; an acre of which yielded 1005 weights, the drilled 822, but saving in the seed of the drilled 60 weights, each weight 21lb, MR. OLIVER has just taken a farm of 400 acres of land, waste or exhausted by the preceding tenant by incessant crops of corn; this land was rented at 1s. 6d. an acre, but Mr. Oliver has tried it at 15s. and is at present engaged in making very great improvements on it; draining the wet parts, grubbing furze, fallowing, liming, inclosing, and building offices, doing the whole in the most perfect manner, and will soon make the farm carry an appearance very different from what it ever did before. His fallows for wheat had been well and often ploughed, and of a countenance very different from any lands in the neighbourhood. A YEAR after the date of this journey, having the pleasure of being again with this excellent improver, I had a farther opportunity of becoming better acquainted with his management. I had also gone over an improvement of his at Duntreleague, near Mitchelstown, where he advanced 300 acres of mountain from 50l. or 60l. a year to 300l. a year, having hired it on a lease for ever; he divided the whole into fields of a proper size by well-made ditches, doubly planted with quick and rows of trees; the lands were improved with lime, laid down to grass, and let to tenants who pay their rents well; but Mr. Oliver residing at a distance, the trees were very much damaged and hurt by the tenants cattle. To all appearance this improvement was as completely finished as any in Ireland, and the great profit arising from the undertaking induced the archdeacon to attempt his new one I mentioned above. In that I found a very great progress made; besides an excellent barn of stone and slate, there was a steward's house, stables, &c. and a good farm-yard, walled in; and it was with particular pleasure I saw (it was in winter) a large number of cows and young cattle very well littered in it with straw, and feeding on turnips, a thick layer of sea-sand having been spread all over it. The improvement and cultivation of the farm went on apace, especially the liming; the kiln had been burning a twelvemonth, in which time the expence had been as follows: THE quantity of lime drawn from february 1777 to february 1778 was 5824 barrels, the expence therefore just 8d. a barrel, One Corke barrel of culm, at 4s. used every day, and half a barrel of ashes: the kiln draws 18 barrels a day, 16 for one of culm, and 10 for one including cinders. This barrel of culm is six bushels heaped. Mr, Oliver had an old memorandum, that the price of fuel was 3¼d. per barrel of lime. Twelve tons of lime-stone produce 50 barrels of roach lime. Nor does the archdeacon trust to lime alone; he buys great quantities of dung and soap ashes in Corke. At the same time I viewed his turnip crops on his home farm, and found them excellent, and many oxen tied in stalls fattening on them, a practice he finds exceedingly profitable; when other graziers sell their bullocks with difficulty, he puts his to turnips, and doubles and trebles their value. In 1777 he had 23 acres of turnips. Before I conclude this account of his spirited exertions, I must add, that very few improvers in Ireland have gone through more extensive operations, I have not found one more attentive or more practical, and, upon the whole, scarcely any that come near to him. LAND about Coolmore lets from 8s. to 20s. The soil limestone. Farms rise from 50l. to 300l. The courses are, 1. Potatoes, yield 50 barrels. 2. Wheat, 3 barrels: add sometimes, 3. Oats. 4. Lay out for grass. THE poor people have most of them land with their cabbins, from four to six acres, which they sow with potatoes and wheat. Not many of them keep cows, but a few sorry sheep for milk; they generally have milk, either of their own, or bought, in summer, and in winter they have herrings; but live, upon the whole, worse than in many other parts of the kingdom. The price of labour 6d. a day, in harvest 8d. Rent of a cabbin 20s. Many dairies here, which are generally let at four pounds a cow, some four guineas, and near Corke, five pounds. THE manures are lime, at 1s. 4d. a barrel roach; if burned by themselves, 8d. to 10d. lay 30 to 50 barrels per acre. Sea sand is used, 60 to 80 bags, each five pecks, to the acre. Corke dung costs 6d. to 1s. a car load; it is all bought up very carefully; 10l. a year is paid for the cleaning of one street; this argues a very spirited husbandry. RODE to the mouth of Corke harbour; the grounds about it are all fine, bold, and varied, but so bare of trees, that there is not a single view but what pains one in the want of wood. Rents of the tract, south of the river Caragoline, from 5s. to 30s. average 10s. Not one man in five has a cow, but generally from one to four acres, upon which they have potatoes, and five or six sheep, which they milk, and spin their wool. Labour 5d. in winter, 6d. in summer; many of them for three months in the year live on potatoes and water, the rest of it they have a good deal of fish. But it is remarked, at Kinsale, that when sprats are most plentiful, diseases are most common. Rent for a mere cabbin, 10s. Much paring and burning; paring 28 men a day, sow wheat on it, and then potatoes; get great crops. The soil a sharp stoney land; no lime-stone south of the above river. Manure for potatoes, with sea weed, for 26s. which gives good crops, but lasts only one year. Sea sand much used; but no shells in it. Farms rise to two or three hundred acres, but are hired in partnership. BEFORE I quit the environs of Corke, I must remark, that the country on the harbour, I think preferable, in many respects for a residence, to any thing I have seen in Ireland. First
, it is the most southerly part of the kingdom. Second
, there are very great beauties of prospect. Third
, by much the most animated, busy scene of shipping in all Ireland, and consequently, Fourth
, a ready price for every product. Fifth
, great plenty of excellent fish and wild fowl. Sixth
, the neighbourhood of a great city for objects of convenience. SEPTEMBER 24th, took my leave of Mr. Oliver; I purposed going from hence to Bandon, in the way to Carbury, and so to Killarney, by Bantry and Nedeen, and with this view had got letters of recommendation to several gentlemen in that country; but hearing that the Priests Leap between Bantry and Nedeen was utterly impassable, the road not being finished, which is making by subscription; I changed my route, and took the Macroom road. Dined with Col. Ayres, who informed me that the agriculture of that neighbourhood was very indifserent, and little worth noting, except the use of lime as a manure, which is practised with great success. From his house I took the Nedeen road. PASSED Brockham, the place where Cornelius Townshend, Esq; eight years ago fixed two Sussex farmers, to improve a stoney mountain. I saw the land, and some of the buildings, and having heard several accounts of the transaction from friends to the farmers, which accounts had been received from them, I wished to have Mr. Townshend's; and with that view called at his house, but unfortunately he was not at home; as I missed him, I shall only mention the affair in the light it appeared to me from the particulars I received from different hands. MR. TOWNSHEND wishing to improve his estate, a considerable part of which consisted of mountain, but surprisingly full of rocks and stones; he engaged two Sussex farmers, (Messrs. Crampe and Johnson) to come over to Ireland, to view the lands in question: they both came, examined the land, and hired a tract for some time at no rent, or a very small one, and after that at a rent named and agreed to. The men returned, settled their affairs in England, bought very fine horses, and embarking all their stock, implements, &c. came over, under circumstances of greats but useless expence. When they got to the land, houses and offices were built for them, in a most complete stile, and among others, a barn 100 feet long, and 37 broad; an exceedingly ill-judged expence, the result of bringing merely English (perhaps mistaken ideas) into the climate of Ireland. THESE buildings being executing at the landlord's expence, but the tenants drawing the materials, they began the improvement; and found the land so excessively stoney, that the expence of clearing was too great to be within a possibility of answering. One field of eight acres cost 100l. in clearing; walls were built 10 feet thick, with stones that arose in clearing the land; The undertaking went on for four years, but was then concluded in the way one might have expected. The men were ruined, and Mr. Townshend suffered considerably by the expences of the undertaking, rising infinitely beyond what he had ever thought they could amount to. HAD Mr. Townshend met with farmers of sufficient knowledge in their profession, they would not probably have fixed on this spot at all; certainly when they found to what excess it abounded with stones, they would have persuaded him either to give them other land; or have hired a more favourable soil of some other landlord: at all events to persist in improving a spot, the improvement of which could never be repaid, whether it was upon their own, or their landlord's account, was equally inexcusable in point of prudence, and the sure way to bring discredit on the undertaking, and ridicule on what falsely acquired the name of English husbandry.
Planting is the only proper improvement for land abounding to such excess with rocks. FROM hence I reached Sir John Coulthurst's, at Knightsbridge, who has a very extensive estate here, 7000 acres of which are mountain and bog. I was unfortunate in not having seen Sir John's seat, near Corke, for there he is at work upon 1000 acres of mountain, and making very great improvements, in which, among other circumstances, he works his bullocks by the horns. SEPTEMBER 25th, took the road to Nedeen, through the wildest region of mountains that I remember to have seen; it is a dreary, but an interesting road. The various horrid, grotesque and unusual forms, in which the mountains rise, and the rocks bulge; the immense height of some distant heads, which rear above all the nearer scenes, the torrents roaring in the vales, and breaking down the mountain sides, with here and there a wretched cabbin, and a spot of culture yielding surprize to find human beings the inhabitants of such a scehe of wildness, altogether keep the traveller's mind in an agitation and suspence. These rocks and mountains are many of them no otherwise improvable than by planting, for which, however, they are exceedingly well adapted. SIR JOHN was so obliging as to send half a dozen labourers with me, to help my chaise up a mountain side, of which he gave a formidable account: in truth it deserved it. The road leads directly against a mountain ridge, and those who made it were so incredibly stupid, that they kept the strait line up the hill, instead of turning aside to the right, to wind around a projection of it. The path of the road is worn by torrents into a channel, which is blocked up in places by huge fragments, so that it would be a horrid road on a level; but on a hill so steep, that the best path would be difficult to ascend, it may be supposed terrible: the labourers, two passing strangers, and my servant, could with difficulty get the chaise up. It is much to be regretted that the direction of the road is not changed, as all the rest from Corke to Nedeen is good enough. For a few miles towards the latter place the country is flat on the river Kenmare, much of it good, and under grass or corn. Passed Mr. Orpine's at Ardtilly, and another of the same name at Killowen. NEDEEN is a little town, very well situated on the noble river Kenmare, where ships of 150 tons may come up; there are but three or four good houses. Lord Shelburne, to whom the place belongs, has built one for his agent. There is a vale of good land, which is here from a mile and a half to a mile broad; and to the north and south, great ridges of mountains said to be full of mines. AT Nedeen, Lord Shelburne had taken care to have me well informed by his people in that country, which belongs for the greatest part to himself, he has above 150,000 Irish acres in Kerry; the greatest part of the barony of Glanrought belongs to him, most of Dunkerron and Iveagh. The country is all a region of mountains, inclosed by a vale of flat land on the river; the mountains to the south come to the water's edge, with but few variations, the principal of which is Ardee, a farm of Lord Shelburne's: to the north of the river, the flat land is one-half to three quarters of a mile broad. The mountains to the south reach to Bear-haven, and those to the north to Dinglebay; the soil is extremely various; to the south of the river all are sand stones, and the hills loam, stone, gravel, and bog. To the north there is a slip of limestone land, from Kilgarvon to Cabbina-cush, that is six miles east of Nedeen, and three to the west, but is not more than a quarter of a mile broad, the rest, including the mountains, all sand stone. As to its rents, it is very difficult to tell what they are; for land is let by the plough land and gineve, 12 gineves to the plough land; but the latter denomination is not'of any particular quantity: for no 2 plough lands are the same. The size of farms is various, from 40 acres to 1000, less quantities go with cabbins, and some farms are taken by labourers in partnership. Their tillage consists of potatoes measured by the peck of 84lb. manure for them with sea weed, three boatloads to an acre, each at 16s. 3d. the poor people use nothing else: but those who can afford it, lay dung with it. These potatoes are the first crop. Thirty pecks plant an acre, and it takes from twenty to thirty men to set an acre in a day. 1. Potatoes. 2. Potatoes. 3. Oats or barley, good crops. 4. Lay it out for what comes, and in the first season the finest grasses appear. SOME wheat is sown, but not generally by the poor people. Oats are the common crop. This is the short history of their arable management. There are some dairies, from 12 to 24 cows in each, and are let at 50s. or one cwt. of butter, and 12s. horn money, the dairymen's privilege is two collops to 20 cows, a cabbin, and three acres of land. The butter is all carried to Corke on horses backs. Three years ago 40s. a cow was the highest. The common stock of the mountains are young cattle, bred by the poor people; but the large farmers go generally to Limerick for yearlings, turn them on the mountains, where they are kept till three years old, when they sell them at Nedeen or Killarney, engaging them to be with calf. Buy at 40s. this year, but used to be from 20s. to 30s. formerly sold at 50s. now at 3l. The poor people's heifers sell at three years old, at 30s. their breed is the little mountain, or Kerry cow, which upon good land gives a great deal of milk. I have remarked, as I travelled through the country, much of the Alderney breed in some of them. The winter food, which the farmers provide, is to keep bottom lands through the summer, which they call a nursery, to which they bring their cattle down from the mountains when the weather becomes severe. There are great numbers of swine, and many reared on the mountains by the Tormentil root, (tormentilla erecta)
which abounds there, and from which they will come down good pork. There are few sheep kept, not sufficient to cloath the poor people, who, however, work up what there is into frize. Lambs sell from 2s. 2d. to 3s. at four months old. Three year old wethers, fat, from 5s. to 8s. weight about 9 lb. a quarter, and are admirable mutton. A ewe's fleece, one pound and a half to two pound and a half. A lamb's, one pound. A three year old wether, two pound and a half. They have some cows, which are fattened in the vales; and also some on the mountains, weighing 2 cwt. and two and a quarter. Many goats are kept on the mountains, especially by the poor people, to whom they are a very great support; for upon the mountains the milk of a goat is equal to that of a cow; and some of the kids are killed for meat. UPON asking whether they ploughed with horses or oxen, I was told there was not a plough in the whole parish of Tooavista, which is 12 miles long by 7 broad. All the tillage is by the Irish loy; ten men dig an acre a day that has been stirred before. It will take forty men to put in an acre of potatoes in a day. Rents have fallen greatly in most parts of Kerry. Tythes in 1770 and in 1771 were taken in kind, owing to their having been pushed up to too great a height; since 1771 they have been lowered; the proctor every year values the tythe of the whole farm. Leases are, some for ever, others 31 years, and some 21. The rent of a cabbin, without land, 6s. with an acre of land, 1l. 2s. 9d. The grass for a cow is 40s. on the mountains from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. a quarter. They have generally about five acres. They all keep a cow or two. All on the mountains have goats. Swine also are universal among them. The labour of the farms is generally carried on by cottars, to whom the farmer assigns a cabbin, and a garden, and the running of two collops on the mountain, for which he pays a rent; he is bound to work with his master for 3d. a day and two meals. Their food in summer potatoes and milk; but in spring they have only potatoes and water. Sometimes they have herrings and sprats. They never eat salmon. The religion is in general Roman Catholic. LIME, 1s.. a barrel, but may be burnt for 8d. Fuel, all turf, 13d. a slane, each slane four feet long, by two feet broad. Price of building a cabbin, with stone and state in lime mortar, 20l. THERE has been a considerable fishery upon the coast of Kerry, particularly in the Kenmare, at Ballenskillings in Iveragh, in the river Valentia, in Bear-haven, in Castlemain-bay, in Dingle-bay, &c. Last year, that in the Kenmare river was the most considerable: it employed twelve boats. This year none at all; the chief in Ballenskirrings and the river Valentia. None in Kenmare for several years before: but great abundance of sprats for three years. Salmon is constant; they export about five tons, salted. The herrings chiefly for home consumption, salted and fresh. The herring boats are of two tons, 14 foot keel, cost building 3l. 3s. five men go in each: they are built here of bog deal. A string of three nets costs 3l. the poor go shares in the fishery; build or hire the boat, and join for the nets, which are made of hemp bought at Corke, and spun and made here ; they tan them with bark. There are many more men would go out if they had boats, but it is a very uncertain fishery. Many persons have put themselves to considerable expence about it, but without success, except thirty-three years ago, when the pilchards came in, and have never been here since. KILLARNEY is the principal market for wheat, which is twelve miles distant. A sloop constantly employed upon the river Kenmare, in bringing salt, and carrying lime-stone, or whatever was wanted, would be a great improvement. LORD SHELBURNE has a plan for improving Nedeen, to which he has given the name of Kenmare, from his friend the nobleman, with that title, which, when executed, must be of considerable importance. It is to build ten cabbins, and annex ten acres to each cabbin, rent free for twenty-one years; also to form twenty acred allotments for the parks to the town of Nedeen, with design to encourage settlements in it, for which 330 acres are kept in hand. The situation is advantageous, and ships of 150 tons can come up to it, with a very good landing-place. He has also fixed some English farmers here. RELATIVE to the improvement of the wild regions within sight of the house I was in, I asked, Suppose five acres of those mountains to be cleared of stones, a stone cabbin built, at 7l. expence, and a wall raised round the whole, and to be let at a reasonable rent, would a tenant be found? "That moment." Suppose six of them, or twelve? "You would have tenants for all, if there were an hundred."
IN the parish of Tooavista, they have a way of taking land by the ounce
, in the arable part, which joins the sea. An ounce is the sixteenth of a gineve, and is sufficient for a potatoe garden, and they pay a guinea for it. THE climate in these parts of Kerry is so mild, that potatoes are left by the poor people in the ground the whole winter through; but last winter almost ruined them, their crop being destroyed. SEPTEMBER 26th, left Nedeen, and rising the mountainous region, towards Killarney, came to a tract of mountain-bog, one of the most improveable I have any where seen. It hangs to the south, and might be drained with the utmost ease. It yields a coarse grass, and has nothing in it to stop a plough. Lord Shelburne's agent, Mr, Wray, told me, that there are vast tracts of such in the barony of Iveragh. There is common gravel on the spot, and lime-stone in plenty, within half a mile of Nedeen. I soo»> entered the wildest and most romantic, country I had any where seen ; a region of steep rocks and mountains, which continued for nine or ten miles, till I came in view of Mucruss. There is something magnificently wild in this stupendous scenery, formed to impress the mind with a species of terror. All this tract has a rude and savage air, but parts of it are strikingly interesting; the mountains are bare and rocky, and of a great magnitude; the vales are rocky glens, where a mountain-stream tumbles along the roughest bed imaginable, and receives many torrents, pouring from clefts, half overhung with shrubby wood; some of these streams are seen, and the roar of others heard, but hid by vast masses of rock. Immense fragments, torn from the precipices, by storms and torrents, are tumbled about in the wildest confusion, and seemed to hang rather than rest upon projecting precipices. Upon some of these fragments of rock, perfectly detached from the soil, except by the side on which they lie, are beds of black turf, with luxuriant crops of heath, &c. which appeared very curious to me, having no where seen the like; and I observed very high in the mountains, much higher than any cultivation is at present, on the right hand, flat and cleared spaces of good grass among the ridges of rock, which had probably been cultivated, and proved that these mountains were not incapable from climate of being applied to useful purposes. FROM one of these heights, I looked forward to the lake of Killarney at a considerable distance, and backward to the river Kenmare; came in view of a small part of the upper lake, spotted with several islands, and surrounded by the most tremendous mountains that can be imagined, of an aspect savage and dreadful. From this scene of wild magnificence, I broke at once upon all the glories of Killarney; from an elevated point of view I looked down on a considerable part of the lake, which gave me a specimen of what I might expect. The water you command (which, however, is only a part of the lake) appears a bason of two or three miles round; to the left it is inclosed by the mountains you have passed particularly by the Turk, whose outline is uncommonly noble, and joins a range of others, that form the most magnificent shore in the world: on the other side is a rising scenery of cultivated hills, and Lord Kenmare's park and woods; the end of the lake at your feet is formed by the root of Mangerton, on whose side the road leads. From hence I looked down on a pretty range of inclosures joining the lake, and the woods and lawns of Mucruss, forming a large promontory of thick wood, shooting far into the lake. The most active fancy can sketch nothing in addition. Islands of wood beyond seem to join it, and reaches of the lake, breaking partly between, give the most lively intermixture of water: six or seven isles and islets form an accompanyment, some are rocky, but with a slight vegetation, others contain groups of trees, and the whole thrown into forms, which would furnish new ideas to a painter. Further is a chain of wooded islands, which also appear to join the main land, with an offspring of lesser ones scattered around. ARRIVED at Mr. Herbert's at Mucruss, to whose friendly attention I owed my succeeding pleasure. There have been so many descriptions of Killarney written by gentlemen who have resided some time there, and seen it at every season, that for a passing traveller to attempt the like, would be in vain; for this reason I shall give the mere journal of the remarks I made on the spot, in the order I viewed the lake. SEPTEMBER 27th, walked into Mr. Herbert's beautiful grounds, to Oroch's hill, in the lawn he has, cleared from that profusion of stones which lie under the wall; the scene which this point commands is delicious; the house is on the edge of the lawn, by a wood which covers the whole peninsula, fringes the slope at your feet, and forms a beautiful shore to the lake. Tomis and Glena are a vast mountainous mass of incredible magnificence, the outline soft and easy In its swells, whereas those above the Eagle's Nest are of so broken and abrupt an outline, that nothing can be imagined more savage, an aspect horrid and sublime, that gives all the impressions to be wished to astonish, rather than please the mind. The Turk exhibits noble features, and Mangerton's huge body rises above the whole. The cultivated tracts towards Killarney, form a shore in contrast to the terrific scenes I have just mentioned; the distant boundary of the lake, a vast ridge of distant blue mountains towards Dingle. From hence entered the garden, and viewed Mucruss abbey, one of the most interesting scenes I ever saw; it is the ruin of a considerable abbey, built in Henry the Vlth's time, and so entire, that if it were more so, though the building
would be more perfect, the ruin
would be less pleasing; it is half obscured in the shade of some venerable ash trees; ivy has given the picturesque circumstance, which that plant alone can confer, while the broken walls and ruined turrets throw over it The last mournful graces of decay.
Heaps of sculls and bones scattered about, with nettles, briars and weeds sprouting in tufts from the loose stones, all unite to raise those melancholy impressions, which are the merit of such scenes, and which can scarcely any where be felt more completely. The cloisters form a dismal area, in the center of which grows the most prodgious yew tree I ever beheld, in one great stem, two feet diameter, and fourteen high, from whence a vast head of branches spreads on every side, so as to form a perfect canopy to the whole space; I looked for its fit inhabitant—it is a spot where The moping owl doth to the moon complain.
This ruin is in the true stile in which all such buildings should appear; there is not an intruding circumstance—the hand of dress has not touched it—melancholy is the impression which such scenes should kindle, and it is here raised most powerfully. FROM the abbey we passed to the terrass, a natural one of grass, on the very shore of the lake; it is irregular and winding; a wall of rocks broken into fantastic forms by the waves: on the other side, a wood, consisting of all sorts of plants, which the climate can protect, and through which a variety of walks are traced. The view from this terrass consists of many parts of various characters, but in their different stiles complete; the lake opens a spreading sheet of water, spotted by rocks and islands, all but one or two wooded, the outlines of them are sharp and distinct; nothing can be more smiling than this scene, soft and mild, a perfect contrast of beauty to the sublimity of the mountains which form the shore: these rise in an outline so varied, and at the same time so magnificent, that nothing greater can be imagined; Tomys and Glena exhibit an immensity in point of magnitude, but from a large hanging wood on the slope, and from the smoothness of the general surface, it has nothing savage, whereas the mountains above and near the Eagle's Nest are of the most broken outlines; the declivities are bulging rocks, of immense size, which seem to impend in horrid forms over the lake, and where an opening among them is caught, others of the same rude character, rear their threatening heads. From different parts of the terrass these scenes are viewed in numberless varieties. RETURNED to breakfast, and pursued Mr. Herbert's new road, which he has traced through the peninsula to Dynis island, three miles in length; it is carried in so judicious a manner through a great variety of ground, rocky woods, lawns, &c. that nothing can be more pleasing; it passes through a remarkable scene of rocks, which are covered with woods; from thence to the marble quarry, which Mr. Herbert is working; and where he gains variety of marbles, green, red, white, and brown, prettily veined; the quarry is a shore of rocks, which surrounds a bay of the lake, and forms a scene, consisting of but few parts, but those strongly marked; the rocks are bold, and broken into slight caverns; they are fringed with scattered trees, and from many parts of them wood shoots in that romantic manner, so common at Killarney. Full in front Turk mountain rises with the proudest outline, in that abrupt magnificence which fills up the whole space, and closes the scene. THE road leads by a place where copper-mines were worked; many shafts appear; as much ore was raised as sold for twenty-five thousand pounds, but the works were laid aside, more from ignorance in the workmen, than any defects in the mine. CAME to an opening on the Great Lake, which appears to advantage here, the town of Killarney on the north-east shore. Look full on the mountain Glena, which rises in a very bold manner, the hanging woods spread half way, and are of great extent, and uncommonly beautiful. Two very pleasing scenes succeed, that to the left is a small bay, hemmed in by a neck of land in front; the immediate shore rocks, which are in a picturesque stile, and crowned entirely with arbutus, and other wood; a pretty retired scene, where a variety of objects give no fatigue to the eye. The other is an admirable mixture of the beautiful and sublime: a bare rock, of an almost regular figure, projects from a headland into the lake, which with much wood and high land, forms one side of the scene, the other is wood from a rising ground only; the lake opens between, in a sheet of no great extent, but in front is the hanging wood of Glena, which appears in full glory. MR. Herbert has built a handsome gothic bridge, to unite the peninsula to the island of Brickeen, through the arch of which the waters of the north and south lake flow. It is a span of twenty-seven feet, and seventeen high, and over it the road leads to that island. From thence to Brickeen nearly finished, and it is to be thrown across a bottom into Dyniss. RETURNED by the northern path through a thick wood for some distance, and caught a very agreeable view of Ash Island, seen through an opening, inclosed on both sides with wood. Pursued the way from these grounds to Keelbeg, and viewed the bay of the Devil's Island, which is a beautiful one, inclosed by a shore, to the right of very noble rocks, in various forms, crowned in a striking manner with wood; a little rocky islet in front; to the left the water opens, and Turk mountain rises with that proud superiority which attends him in all these scenes. THE view of the promontory of Dindog, near this place, closes this part of the lake, and is indeed singularly beautiful. It is a large rock, which shoots far into the water, of a height sufficient to be interesting, in full relief, edged with a scanty vegetation; the shore on which you stand bending to the right, as if to meet that rock, presents a circular shade of dark wood: Turk still the back ground, in a character of great sublimity, and Mangerton's loftier summit, but less interesting outline, a part of the scenery. These views, with others of less moment, are connected by a succession of lawns breaking among the wood, pleasing the eye with lively verdure, and relieving it from the fatigue of the stupendous mountain scenes. SEPTEMBER 28th, took boat on the lake, from the promontory of Dindog before mentioned. I had been under a million of apprehensions that I should see no more of Killarney; for it blew a furious storm all night, and in the morning the bosom of the lake heaved with agitation, exhibiting few marks but those of anger. After breakfast, it cleared up, the clouds dispersed by degrees, the waves subsided, the sun shone out in all its splendor; every scene was gay, and no ideas but pleasure possessed the breast. With these emotions sallied forth, nor did they disappoint us. ROWED under the rocky shore of Dindog, which is romantic to a great degree. The base, by the beating of the waves, is worn into caverns, so that the heads of the rocks project considerably beyond, and hang over in a manner which makes every part of it interesting. Following the coast, open marble quarry bay, the shore great fragments of rock tumbled about in the wildest manner. THE island of rocks against the copper-mine, a remarkable group. The shore near Casemilan is of a different nature; it is wood in some places, in unbroken masses down to the water's edge, in others divided from it by smaller tracts of rock. Come to a beautiful land-locked bay, surrounded by a woody shore, which opening in places, shews other woods more retired. Tomys is here viewed in a unity of form, which gives it an air of great magnificence. Turk was obscured by the sun shining immediately above him, and casting a stream of burning light on the water, displayed an effect, to describe which the pencil of a Claude alone would be equal. Turn out of the bay, and gain a full view of the Eagle's Nest, the mountains above it, and Glena, they form a perfect contrast, the first are rugged, but Glena mild, Here the shore is a continued wood. PASS the bridge, and cross to Dyniss, an island Mr. Herbert has improved in the most agreeable manner, by cutting walks through it, that command a variety of views. One of these paths on the banks of the channel to the upper lake, is sketched with great taste; it is on one side walled with natural rocks, from the clefts of which shoot a thousand fine arbutus's, that hang in a rich foliage of flowers and scarlet berries; a turf bench in a delicious spot; the scene close and sequestered, just enough to give every pleasing idea annexed to retirement. PASSING the bridge, by a rapid stream, came presently to the Eagle's Nest: having viewed this rock. from places where it appears only a part of an object much greater than itself, I had conceived an idea that it did not deserve the applause given it, but upon coming near, I was much surprized; the approach is wonderfully fine, the river leads directly to its foot, and does not give the turn till immediately under, by which means the view is much more grand than it could otherwise be; it is nearly perpendicular, and rises in such full majesty, with so bold an outline, and such projecting masses in its center, that the magnificence of the object is complete. The lower part is covered with wood, and scattered trees climb almost to the top, which (if trees can be amiss in Ireland) rather weaken the impression raised by this noble rock; this part is a hanging wood, or an object whose character is perfect beauty; but the upper scene, the broken outline, rugged sides; and bulging masses, all are sublime, and so powerful, that sublimity is the general impression of the whole, by overpowering the idea of beauty raised by the wood. The immense height of the mountains of Killarney may be estimated by this rock, from any distant place that commands it, it appears the lowest crag of a vast chain, and of no account; but on a close approach it is found to command a very different respect. PASS between the mountains called the Great Range, towards the upper lake. Here Turk, which has so long appeared, with a figure, perfectly interesting, is become, from a different position, an unmeaning lump. The rest of the mountains, as you pass, assume a varied appearance, and are of a prodigious magnitude. The scenery in this channel is great and wild in all its features; wood is very scarce; vast rocks seem tossed in confusion through the narrow vale, which is opened among the mountains for the river to pass. Its banks are rocks in an hundred forms; the mountain sides are every where scattered with them There is not a circumstance but is in unison with the wild grandeur of the scene. COLEMAN'S EYE, a narrow pass, opens a different scenery. Came to a region in which the beautiful and the great are mixed without offence. The islands are mostly thickly wooded; Oak isle in particular rises on a pretty base, and is a most beautiful object: Mac Gilly Cuddy's reeks, with their broken points; Baum, with his perfect cone; the Purple mountain, with his broad and more regular head; and Turk, having assumed a new and more interesting aspect, unite with the opposite hills, part of which have some wood left on them, to form a scene uncommonly striking. Here you look back on a very peculiar spot; it is a parcel of rocks which cross the lake, and form a gap that opens to distant water, the whole backed by Turk; in a stile of the highest grandeur. COME to Derry Currily, which is a great sweep of mountain, covered partly with wood, hanging in a very noble manner, but part cut down, much of it mangled, and the rest inhabited by coopers, boatbuilders, carpenters, and turners; a sacrilegious tribes who have turned the Dryades from their antient habitations. The cascade here is a fine one; but passed quickly from hence to scenes unmixed with pain. ROW to the cluster of the Seven Islands, a little archipelago; they rise very boldly from the water upon rocky bases, and are crowned in the most beautiful manner with wood, among which are a number of arbutus; the channels among them opening to new scenes, and the great amphitheatre of rock and mountain that surround them, unite to form a noble view. RETURNED from the river, at the very end of the lake, which winds towards Mac Gilly Cuddy's Reeks in fanciful meanders, by a course somewhat different, through the Seven Islands, and back to the Eagle's Nest, viewing the scenes already mentioned in new positions. At that noble rock fired three cannon for the echo, which indeed is prodigious; the report does not consist of direct reverberations from one rock to another with a pause between, but has an exact resemblance to a peal of thunder rattling behind the rock, as if travelling, the whole scenery we had viewed and lost in the immensity of Mac Gilly Cuddy's Reeks. PASS near to the wood of Glena, which here takes the appearance of one immense sweep hanging in the most beautiful manner imaginable, on the side of a vast mountain to a point, shooting into the great lake. A more glorious scene is not to be imagined. It is one deep mass of wood, composed of the richest shades perfectly dipping in the water, without rock or strand appearing, nor a break in the whole. The eye traversing the sheet of liquid silver, to meet so vast a mass of green, hanging to such all extent as to fill the imagination, admits it the most noble scene that is any where to be beheld. TURN under the North shore of Mucruss; the lake here is one great expanse of water, bounded by the woods described, the islands of Innisfallen, Ross, &c. and the peninsula. The shore of Mucruss has a great variety; it is in some places rocky, huge masses tumbled from their base lie beneath, as in a chaos of ruin. Great caverns worn under them in strange forms: or else covered with woods of a variety of shades. Meet the point of Ardnagluggen, (in English, where the water dashes on the rocks) and come under Ornescope, a rocky headland of a most bold projection hanging many yards over its base, with an old weather-beaten yew, growing from a little bracket of rock, from which the spot is called Ornescope, or Yew Broom.
Mucruss gardens presently open among the woods, and relieve the eye, almost fatigued with the immense objects upon which it has so long gazed. SEPTEMBER 29th, rode, after breakfast, to Mangerton Cascade and Drumarourk Hill, from which the view of Mucruss is uncommonly pleasing. PASS the other hill, the view of which I described the 27th, and went to Colonel Hussy's monument, from whence the scene is different from the rest; the fore ground is a gentle hill, intersected by hedges, forming several small lawns. There are some scattered trees and houses, with Mucruss Abbey, half obscured by wood, the whole chearful, and backed by Turk. The lake is of a triangular form, Ross island and Innisfallen its limits, the woods of Mucruss and the islands take a new position. RETURNING, took boat again towards Ross isle, and as Mucruss retires from us, nothing can be more beautiful than the spots of lawn in the terrace opening in the wood; above it, the green hills with clumps, and the whole finishing in the noble group of wood about the abbey, which here appears a deep shade, and so fine a finishing one, that not a tree should be touched. Rowed to the east point of Ross, which is well wooded, turn to the south coast. Doubling the point, the most beautiful shore of that island appears; it is the well wooded environs of a bay, except a small opening to the castle; the woods are in deep shades, and rise on the regular slopes of a high range of rocky coast. The part in front of Filekilly point rises in the middle, and sinks towards each end. The woods of Tomys here appear uncommonly fine. Open Innisfallen, which is composed at this distance of various shades, within a broken outline, entirely different from the other islands. No pencil could mix a happier assemblage. Land near a miserable room, where travellers dine— Of the isle of Innisfallen, it is paying no great compliment to say, it is the most beautiful in the King's dominions, and perhaps in Europe. It contains 20 acres of land, and has every variety that the range of beauty, unmixed with the sublime, can give. The general feature is that of wood; the surface undulates into swelling hills, and sinks into little vales; the slopes are in every direction, the declivities die gently away, forming those slight inequalities which are the greatest beauty of dressed grounds. The little vallies let in views of the surrounding lake between the hills, while the swells break the regular outline of the water, and give to the whole an agreeable confusion. The wood has all the variety into which nature has thrown the surface; in some parts it is so thick as to appear impenetrable, and secludes all farther view; in others, it breaks into tufts of tall timber, under which cattle feed. Here they open, as if to offer to the spectator the view of the naked lawn; in others close, as if purposely to forbid a more prying examination. Trees of large size, and commanding figure, form in some places natural arches; the ivy mixing with the branches, and hanging across in festoons of foliage, while on one side the lake glitters among the trees, and on the other a thick gloom dwells in the recesses of the wood. The figure of the island renders one part a beautiful object to another; for the coast being broken and indented, forms bays surrounded either by rock or wood: slight promontories shoot into the lake, whose rocky edges are crowned with wood. These are the great features of Innisfallen; the slighter touches are full of beauties easily imagined by the reader. Every circumstance of the wood, the water, the rocks, and lawn, are characteristic, and have a beauty in the assemblage from mere disposition. I must, however, observe, that this delicious retreat is not kept as one could wish. SCENES, that are great and commanding from magnitude or wildness, should never be dressed; the rugged
, and even the horrible
, may add to the effect upon the mind: but in such as Innisfallen, a degree of dress, that is, cleanliness, is even necessary to beauty. I have spoken of lawn, but I should observe, that expression indicates what it ought to be, rather than what it is. It is very rich grass, poached by oxen and cows, the only inhabitants of the island. No spectator of taste but will regret the open grounds not being drained with hollow cuts; the ruggedness of the surface levelled, and the grass kept close shaven by many sheep instead of beasts. The bushes and briars where they have encroached on what ought to be lawn, cleared away; some parts of the isle more opened: in a word, no ornaments given, for the scene wants them not, but obstructions cleared, ruggedness smoothed, and the whole cleaned. This is what ought to be done; as to what might be made of the island, if its noble proprietor (Lord Kenmare) had an inclination, it admits of being converted into a terrestrial paradise, lawning with the intermixture of other shrubs and wood, and a little
dress, would make it an example of what ornamented grounds might be, but which not one in a thousand is. Take the island, however, as it is, with its few imperfections, and where are we to find such another? What a delicious retreat! An emperor could not bestow such an one as Innisfallen; with a cottage, a few cows, and a swarm of poultry, is it possible that happiness should refuse to be a guest here? ROW to Ross Castle, in order to coast that island; there is nothing peculiarly striking in it; return the same way around Innisfallen; in this little voyage the shore of Ross is one of the most beautiful of the wooded ones in the lake; it seems to unite with Innisfallen, and projects into the water in thick woods one beyond another. In the middle of the channel a large rock, and from the other shore a little promontory of a few scattered trees; the whole scene pleasing. THE shore of Innisfallen has much variety, but in general it is woody, and of the beautiful character which predominates in that island; one bay, at taking leave of it, is exceedingly pretty, it is a semicircular one, and in the center there is a projecting knole of wood within a bay; this is uncommon, and has an agreeable effect. THE near approach to Tomys exhibits a sweep of wood, so great in extent, and so rich in foliage, that no person can see without admiring it. The mountainous part above is soon excluded by the approach; wood alone is seen, and that in such a noble range, as to be greatly striking; it just hollows into a bay, and in the center of it is a chasm in the wood; this is the bed of a considerable stream, which forms O'Sullivan's Cascade, to which all strangers are conducted, as one of the principal beauties of Killarney. Landed to the right of it, and walked under the thick shade of the wood, over a rocky declivity; close to the torrent, which breaks impetuously from rock to rock, with a roar that kindles expectation. The picture in your fancy will not exceed the reality; a great stream bursts from the deep bosom of a wooded glen, hollowed into a recess of rocks and trees, the first fall is many feet perpendicularly over a rock, to the eye it immediately makes another, the bason into which it pours being concealed; from this bason it forces itself impetuously between two rocks; this second fall is also of a considerable height, but the lower one, the third, is the most considerable, it issues in the same manner from a bason hid from the point of view. These basons being large, there appears a space of several yards between each fall, which adds much to the picturesque scenery; the whole is within an arch of wood, that hangs over it; the quantity of water is so considerable as to make an almost deafening noise, and uniting with the torrent below, where the fragments of rock are large and numerous, throw an air of grandeur over the whole. It is about 70 feet high. Coast from hence the woody shores of Tomys and Glena, they are upon the whole much the most beautiful ones I have any where seen; Glena woods have more oak, and some arbutuses, are the finer and deeper shades; Tomys has a great quantity of birch, whose foliage is not so luxuriant. The reader may figure to himself what these woods are, when he is informed that they fill an unbroken extent of six miles in length, and from half a mile to a mile and a half in breadth, all hanging on the sides of two vast mountains, and coming down with a full robe of rich luxuriance to the very water's edge. The acclivity of these hills is such, that every tree appears full to the eye. The variety of the ground is great; in some places great swells in the mountain side, with corresponding hollows, present concave and convex masses; in others, considerable ridges of land and rock rise from the sweep, and offer to the astonished eye yet other varieties of shade. Smaller mountains rise regularly from the immense bosom of the larger, and hold forth their sylvan heads, backed by yet higher woods. To give all the varieties of this immense scenery of forest is impossible. Above the whole is a prodigious mass of mountain, of a gently swelling outline and soft appearance, varying as the sun or clouds change their position, but never becoming rugged, or threatening to the eye. THE variations are best seen by rowing near the shore, when every stroke of the oar gives a new outline: but for one great impression, row about two miles from the shore of Glena; at that distance the inequalities in the surface are no longer seen, but the eye is filled with so immense a range of wood, crowned with a mountain in perfect unison with itself, that objects, whose character is that of beauty, fire here, from their magnitude, truly magnificent, and attended with a most forceable impression.—Returned to Mucruss. SEPTEMBER 30th, this morning I had dedicated to the ascent of Mangerton, but his head was so enshrouded in clouds, and the weather so bad, that I was forced to give up the scheme: Mr. Herbert has measured him with very accurate instruments, of which he has a great collection, and found his height 835 yards above the level pf the sea. The Devil's Punch-bowl, from the description I had of it, must be the crater of an exhausted volcano: there are many signs of them about Killarney, particularly vast rocks on the sides of mountains, in streams, as if they had rolled from the top in one direction. Brown stone rocks are also sometimes found on lime quarries, tossed thither, perhaps in some vast eruption. IN my way from Killarney to Castle Island, rode into Lord Kenmare's park, from whence there is another beautiful view of the lake, different from many of the preceding; there is a broad margin of cultivated country at your feet, to lead the eye gradually to the lake, which exhibits her islands to this point more distinctly than to any other, and the back grounds of the mountains of Glena and Tomys give a bold relief. UPON the whole, Killarney, among the lakes that I have seen, can scarcely be said to have a rival. The extent of water in Loch Earne is much greater; the islands more numerous, and some scenes near Castle Caldwell, of as great magnificence. The rocks at Keswick are more sublime, and other lakes may have circumstances in which they are superior; but when we consider the prodigious woods of Killarney; the immensity of the mountains; the uncommon beauty of the promontory of Mucruss, and the Isle of Innisfallen; the character of the islands; the single circumstance of the arbutus, and the uncommon echoes, it will appear, upon the whole, to be in reality superior to all comparison. BEFORE I quit it, I have one other observation to make, which is relative to the want of accommodations and extravagant expence of strangers residing at Killarney. I speak it not at all seelingly, thanks to Mr. Herbert's hospitality, but from the accounts given me: the inns are miserable, and the lodgings little better. I am surprized somebody with a good capital does not procure a large well-built inn, to be erected on the immediate shore of the lake, in an agreeable situation, at a distance from the town; there are very few places where such an one would answer better; there ought to be numerous and good apartments; a large rendezvous-room for billiards, cards, dancing, musick, &c. to which the company might resort when they chose it; an ordinary for those that liked dining in public; boats of all sorts, nets for fishing, and as great a variety of amusements as could be collected, especially within doors: for the climate being very rainy, travellers wait with great impatience in a dirty common inn, which they would not do if they were in the midst of such accommodations as they meet with at an English spaw. But above all, the prices of every thing, from a room and a dinner, to a barge and a band of music, to be reasonable, and hung up in every part of the house: the resort of strangers to Killarney would then be much increased, and their stay would be greatly prolonged; they would not view it post-haste, and fly away the first moment to avoid dirt and imposition. A man, with a good capital and some ingenuity, would, I think, make a fortune by fixing here upon such principles. IN the line of agriculture, Mr. Herbert has carried on some important experiments, which deserve attention. Of 360 acres he has reclaimed 140, which, before he began, were covered with great rocks, stones, brambles, (rubus fruticosus)
and furze (eulex europœus.)
His first operation was to cut down and grub up the spontaneous growth that was the strongest: but the rest he set fire to, in order to plough them up with bullocks. Then he attacked the stones, some of which were five or six feet square; the large ones were burst in pieces by kindling fires upon them, being the brown fandstone. But this operation will have no effect on lime-stone: others not so large were drawn off the land by bullocks, to some of which 30 were harnessed: but all stones that could be got at were by some means or other carried off. THIS work of breaking the stones by fire is very curious, and exceedingly useful: Mr. Herbert appeared to have attended very closely to the operation. He informed me that they first light a good fire, which in about a quarter of an hour enables them to beat off the outward skin off the stone with a sledge hammer, and they then immediately light a second fire, which soon makes the stone crack. The men observe to keep it a lively brisk fire, free from ashes; when the stone cracks, they assist it with a strong blow of the hammer, which then bursts it asunder, and is at once broken in pieces without difficulty. IN ploughing the land, as soon as this work was done, the remaining roots of furze, &c. were so large, that he was forced to fasten two ploughs together with chains, and then with a great force of bullocks, tore up the roots, the ploughs and tackle being remarkably strong. The ashes of the wood, &c. being spread with those of the rubbish, numerous ploughings were given. The soil a thin gravel, of a whitish hungry appearance, but lime changed it at once to a rich brown colour. The last ploughing turned in the lime: upon which Mr. Herbert, fresh from Tull and Randal, determining to become a driller, drilled it with wheat, the clearest proof in the world how completely the ground had been reclaimed. This crop he horse hoed, following the directions of Tull and Duhamel; the produce was trifling, the practice found very expensive, and the crops unprofitable : but they were beautiful and elegant to look at. He tried it for wheats lucerne, sainfoine, red clover, beans, pease, and, in a word, every plant recommended by the drill writers, and continued it for four years. Having ascertained this thorough experience, that the drill husbandry was exceedingly disadvantageous, he gave it up, and laid down with white clover and hay seeds; and could let it at 20s. an acre. Mr. Herbert, however, going to England, they were not taken such care of as they ought, never being manuredk Some were laid down with burnet, which took very well in the land, but was soon overcome and choaked with natural grass. Bird grass he tried, got the seed from Rocque, but finds it a very coarse poor plant of no value. Lucerne he had upon a very extensive scale; having six acres, found it a very good grass, fed all sorts of cattle with success, particularly in fattening bullocks, the fat of them being marbled in the finest manner imaginable. He had it in broad cast, and used Rocque's harrow; but upon his soil the harrow tore up the lucerne as well as the weeds, yet the natural grass got much a-head. The drill method is the best, but such is the luxuriant growth of the common grasses in Ireland, that there was the greatest difficulty in keeping it clean. Sainfoine also did very well, but the grass had with that the same effect as the lucerne. MR. HERBERT has cultivated potatoes in the common lazy-bed method, in large spaces, and he is convinced, from repeated experience, that there is no way in the world of managing that root that equals it, especially for bringing in waste lands. It has been with the greatest surprise that he has read this mode condemned by several English writers; when properly executed it mixes the land and the manure,and by taking two crops successively, and digging them out, if all the land is stirred, it leaves it in admirable order for a successive crop of any kind. FOLDING sheep Mr. Herbert practises by means of a contrivance of his own; instead of hurdles, a pole 12 feet long, and 5 inches diameter, stuck through with perpendiculars, and having at each end two longer pieces to rest on, in form of a cross: these are moveable, and easily set in rows. He pens the sheep on his grass lands; and finds the effect wonderful, nothing equalling them for manuring the land, and at a very small expence. Is clearly of opinion, there could be no greater improvement to Ireland than introducing the practice generally. AN observation which Mr. Herbert has made on mowing land is highly deserving attention; it is, that land ought always to be mowed, though the value of the hay will not pay the expence. It is common in Ireland to mow parts of fields that are good, and leave the rest; but he always cuts the whole, and finds the practice very advantageous to the land. SOME bog this gentleman has improved merely by draining, and then spreading mold upon it, without tilling or burning, brings it to a meadow as soon as possible: and this is the method he would, in all cases, recommend for their improvement, as there is never any necessity of tillage in order to bring them to grass. RELATIVE to the common husbandry of this neighbourhood, I found that the soil is divided, between lime-stone and brown-stone. The peninsula of Mucruss is half the one and half the other, the one ending suddenly where the other begins: the vale also to Killarney and beyond is lime-stone for the extent of many miles, and in general the mountains are all brown-stone, and the vales lime-stone. Rents here are about 8s. an acre, on an average, including much indifferent land, but not the mountains. About three-fifths of the county of Kerry is waste land, not rising to above 3d. an acre, and the other fifths on an average at 7s. an acre. Farms are from 20l. a year to 130l. the large ones include considerable mountain tracts. The tillage of the country is trifling. The course is, I. Potatoes, sow eight pecks, at 70 lb. and get 80 lb. at 7l. an acre. 2. Wheat, 6l. 3. Oats. 4. Oats. (Poor crops not above 3l. 10s. an acre) 5. Lay it out to weeds, &c. LIME the manure, from 60 to 80 barrels an acre, which costs 6d. to 8d. a barrel burning. Mr. Herbert can burn it for 4d. five miles ofl. Pasturage is applied chiefly to dairies; the common ones about 40 or 50 cows. They are all let at 40s. to 50s. a cow. Three acres allowed to a cow; some paid in butter. The dairyman has his privilege, which is a cabbin, potatoe garden, liberty to cut turf, and a quantity of land proportioned to the number of cows. The butter is all sent to Corke on horses backs in truckles, and in that way the poor horses of the country will carry 8 cwt. the distance 37 miles. They go in two days, and generally home in a week. Bring back rum, groceries, &c. they are paid 9d. for carrying a firkin of butter of 56 lb. and for the back carriage 1s. 8d. a cwt. Very few sheep kept; no flocks, except Mr. Herbert's. It is remarkable, that no sheep in the country are better fattened than many upon Mac Gilly Cuddy's Reeks, which are the wildest and most desolate region of all Kerry. Great herds of goats are kept on all the mountains of this country, and prove of infinite use to the poor people. The inhabitants are not in general well off; some of them have neither cows nor goats, living entirely upon potatoes, yet are they better than twenty years ago, particularly in cloathing. Price of provision, the same as at Nedeen, but pork not common. Turkies, at 9d. Salmon, at 1d. Trout and perch plentiful. No pike in Kerry. Lampreys and eels, but nobody eats the former. All the poor people, both men and women, learn to dance, and are exceedingly fond of the amusement. A ragged lad, without shoes or stockings, has been seen in a mud barn, leading up a gjrl in the same trim for a minuet: the love of dancing and music are almost universal amongst them. THE Rev. Mr. Bland, of Wood Park, near Killarney, at whose house I had the pleasure to dine with Mr. Herbert, has improved a great deal of boggy land; the turf six inches deep, was burnt, but would not give ashes; under it a brown gravel; he reclaimed it by trenching in May, and liming eighty barrels per acre; dunged the following spring, and planted with potatoes; the crop equal to the best; then a second crop, a greater produce, but the roots not so large; care was taken in the digging them, to bring up the sod and manure; in the spring dug again for turnips or oats, the turnips very good, but has generally sown oats; the crop tolerable, great straw, but must be sown very thin, or they will lodge; leave the oat stubble, and it becomes in one year grass to mow. Has tried turnips, and found them to answer perfectly, in fattening sheep infinitely better than any winter or spring grass. SEPTEMBER 30th, took my leave of Mucruss, and passing through Killarney, went to Castle Island. In my way to Arbella, crossed a hilly bog of vast extent, from one to six or seven feet deep, as improveable as ever I saw, covered with bog myrtle (myrica gale)
and coarse grass: it might be drained at very little expence, being almost dry at present. It amazed me to see such vast tracts in a state of nature, with a fine road passing through them. To Mr. Blennerhasset, member for the county, I am indebted for every attention towards my information. About Castle Island the land is very good, ranking among the best in Kerry. From that place to Arbella, the land is as good as the management bad, every field over-run with all kinds of rubbish, the fences in ruins, and no appearance but of desolation: they were mowing some fine crops of hay, which I suppose will be made in the snow. The following is the state of husbandry about Arbella. THE soil, from Castle Island to Tralee, is from a guinea to a guinea and a half; it is all a rich lime-stone land: some about Tralee at 3l. 10s. to 4l. 4s. About Arbella I went over some exceeding fine reddish sandy and gravelly loam, a prodigiously fine soil: fern {pteris aquilina)
the spontaneous growth, which I remarked in Ireland to be a sure sign of excellent land. Two-thirds of the county is mountain, which runs at no great rent, being thrown into the bargain. Six parts in seven of the whole mountain and bog. The remainder at 10S. an acre. 1. Potatoes. 2. Potatoes. 3. Wheat, or barley. 4. Oats. 5. Ditto. 6. Ditto. 7. Ditto. 8. Lay it out, and not a blade of grass comes for three or four years. THE best part of the country is under dairies. Great farmers hire vast quantities of land, in order to stock with cows, and let them to dairymen; one farmer, who died lately, paid 1400l. a year for this purpose; but 300l, or 400l. common. THE number of cows to one man, generally from twenty to forty. Let at one cwt. and 16s. per cow, or 1½ cwt. of butter, and 16s. each, some one cwt. 12s. and a hog, besides one fourth part of all the calves a year old. In the mountains, half cwt. and 5s. Others with all the calves to the dairymen. The dairymen's privilege, from two to four collops kept for them, and one or two acres, with a cabbin; these dairymen live very indifferently, their privilege being all their profit, and sometimes not that. The farmer who lets the cows, must keep the number to such as give two pottles of milk. All the dairies in this county, as in others, in the bonny clobber method, that is, letting the milk stand several days, till the cream comes off, by taking hold of it between the fingers, like a skin of leather, and some till it is moldy, the remainder bonny clobber. Forty acres will carry twenty cows through the year. The cows are in general of the small breed, but not the true Kerry, for many have been brought from other countries. A cow sells at a guinea a pottle for the milk, above two or three pottles, that is 4l. 4s. four pottles, 5l. 5s. for five pottles, given at one meal. A little fattening of cows and small bullocks, but the number not great. No sheep kept. As to manure none is used in the vale, except their dung for potatoes, but upon the mountains they lime a little. THERE is a colony of palatines, that have been fixed here above thirty years; there are now fifteen or sixteen families; Colonel Haslet brought them from the county of Limerick, and fixed them here as little farmers, and these few people cost him above 500l. settling. He gave each a cow, a horse, and every thing they wanted for a year, and let the land to them for half its value. Their improvements have been first, by ploughing with a wheel plough, which with two horses works easily without a driver. They brought in cars with wheels, there were only sliding ones before. They also sow all their potatoes in drills with the plough, and also plough them out, and this with great success, but nobody follows them. YEARS purchase of land sixteen to eighteen. Rents three years ago fallen exceedingly, from having been too high let, but of late they have risen again. The rise in the price of labour from three-pence and four-pence in twenty years, to five-pence and six-pence. Oysters, two-pence to three-pence per hundred; near Tradee there is a strand six miles long, which is on a bed of oysters, and is a curious object. Lobsters, twelve years ago, one penny each, now two-pence to four-pence. Salmon, three halfpence. woodcocks, ten-pence a couple. Partridges, ten-pence a couple. A grouse, one shilling. Whitings, one penny each. Herrings, three a penny. Plaice, turbots, mullets, and some soles. Potatoes, 1s. 6d. per cwt. the cheapest, medium, 2s. 6d. Cabbins of stone, mortar and slate, 25l. Many orchards in this county, give, upon an average, ten hogsheads of cyder per acre, some fifteen; they reckon young trees the best, from 12 to 20 years old. THE state of the poor in the whole county of Kerry represented as exceedingly miserable, and, owing to the conduct of men of property, who are apt to lay the blame on what they call land pirates, or men who offer the highest rent, and who, in order to pay this rent, must, and do re-let all the cabbin lands at an extravagant rise, which is assigning over all the cabbins to be devoured by one farmer. The cottars on a farm cannot go from one to another, in order to find a good master as in England: for all the country is in the same system, and no redress to be found. Such being the case, the farmers are enabled to charge the price of labour as low
as they please, and rate the land as high
as they like. This is an evil which oppresses them cruelly, and certainly has its origin in its landlords, when they let their farms, letting all the cabbins with them instead of keeping them tenants to themselves. The oppression is, the farmer valuing the labour of the poor at 4d. or 5d. a day, and paying that in land rated much above its value. Owing to this, the poor are depressed; they live upon potatoes and sour milk, and the poorest of them only salt and water to them, with now and then a herring. Their milk is bought; for very few keep cows, scarce any pigs, but a few poultry. Their circumstances are incomparably worse than they were twenty years ago; for they had all cows, but then they wore no linen: all now have a little flax. To these evils have been owing emigrations, which have been considerable.
£.
Hides, at 1l. each
64,000
Bay and woollen yarn
294,000
Butter, at 30s. per cwt. from 56s. to 72s.
180,000
Beef, at 20s. a barrel
291,970
Camblets, serges, &c.
40,000
Candles
34,220
Soap
20,000
Tallow
20,000
Herrings, 18 to 35,000l. all their own
21,000
Glue, 20 to 25,000
22,000
Pork
64,000
Wool to England
14,000
Small exports, Gottenburgh herrings, horns,
35,000
hoofs, &c. feather-beds, palliasses, feathers, &c.
1,100,190
£.
Corke old duties, in 1751, produced
62,000
Now the sam
140,000
120,000 barrels beef.
A.
R.
P.
The quantity of ground under turnips is
8
1
10
————— ————— under cabbages
2
1
10
£.
s.
d.
364 barrels of culm, at 4s.
73
0
0
The quarry is 1¼ mile English from the kiln; two horses and two men drawing stone, at 18s. a week
46
16
0
Two men quarrying, 5s. a week to one, and 3s. a week to the other
20
16
0
Breaking and burning, 8s. a week
20
16
0
Gunpowder, 1s. a month
0
12
0
24 waggon-load of coal cinders, bought at Corke, at 10s.
12
0
0
One horse and man carries out 24 barrels a day, at 1s. 6d. 242 days
18
1
0
Total
192
1
0
Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780)