A TOUR IN IRELAND; WITH GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THAT KINGDOM: MADE IN THE YEARS 1776, 1777, and 1778, AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE END OF 1779. BY ARTHUR YOUNG, Esq. F. R. S. Honorary Member of the Societies of Dublin, York, and Manchefter; the Ecomical Society of Berne;" the Palatine Academy of Agriculture at Manheim; and the Physical Society at Zurich *. JUNE UNE 19, 1776, arrived at Holyhead, after an instructive journey through a part of England and Wales I had not feen before. Found the packet, the Claremont, Captain Taylor, would fail very foon. After a tedious paffage of twenty-two hours, landed on the twentieth, in the morning, at Dunlary, four miles from Dublin, a city which much exceeded my expectation; the public buildings are magnificent, very many of the streets regularly laid out, and exceedingly well built. The front of the parlia ment-house is grand, though not fo light as a more open finishing of the roof would have made it. The apartments are fpacious, elegant, and convenient, much beyond that heap of confufion at Westminster, fo inferior to the magnificence to be looked for in the feat of empire. I was fo fortunate as to arrive just in time to fee Lord Harcourt, with the ufual ceremonies, prorogue the parliament. Trinity college is a beautiful building, and a numerous fociety; the fibrary is a very fine room, and well filled. The new exchange will be another edifice to do honour to Ireland; it is elegant, coft forty thousand pounds, but deferves a better fituation. From every thing I faw, I was ftruck with all thofe appearances of wealth which the capital of a thriving community may be fuppofed to exhibit. Happy if I find through the country in diffused prosperity the right fource of this fplendor! The common computation of inhabitants 200,000, but I fhould fuppofe exaggerated: others gueffed the number 140 or 150,000. June 21, introduced by Colonel Burton to the Lord Lieutenant, who was pleased to enter into conversation with me on my intended journey, made many remarks on the agriculture of feveral Irish counties, and fhewed himself to be an excellent farmer, particularly in draining. Viewed the Duke of Leinster's house, which is a very large stone edifice, the front fimple but elegant, the pediment light, there are several good rooms; but a circumstance unrivalled 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, ninety feet diameter, an imitation of Ranelagh, provided with a band of mufic. The barracks are a vaft building, raised in a plain ftile, of many divifions, the prin cipal front is of an immenfe length: they contain every convenience for ten regiments. June 23. Lord Charlemont's houfe in Dublin is equally elegant and convenient, the apartments large, handfome, and well difpofed, containing fome good pictures, parti cularly one by Rembrandt, of Judas throwing the money on the floor, with a strong expreflion of guilt and remorfe; the whole group fine. In the fame room is a portrait of Cælar Borgia, by Titian. The library is a moft elegant apartment of about forty by thirty, and of fuch a height as to form a pleafing proportion, the light is well managed, coming in from the cove of the ceiling, and has an exceeding good effect; at one end is a pretty 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 collection alfo of Robert Fitzgerald, Efq., in Merion-fquare, are feveral pieces which very well deferve a traveller's attention; it was the best I faw 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 fhewn as a model of this fort, and I found it well contrived, and finifhed elegantly. Drove to Lord Charlemont'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 rifing ground a banqueting-room, which ranks very high among the most beautiful edifices I have any where feen; it has much elegance, lightness, and effect, and commands a fine profpect; the rifing ground on which it ftands flopes off to an agreeable accompanyment of wood, beyond which on one fide is Dublin harbour, 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 spotted with 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 prospect. 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), trefoil, rib-grals (plantage lanceolata), and other good plants. Returned to Dublin, and made inquiries into other points, the prices of provifions, &c. (for which fee the tables at the end of the book). The expences of a family in proportion to thofe of London are, as five to eight. Having the year following lived more than two months in Dublin, I am able to speak to a few points, which as a mere traveller I could not have done. The information I before received of the prices of living is correct. Fish and poultry are plentiful and very cheap. Good lodgings almost as dear as they are in London; though we were well accommodated (dirt excepted) for two guineas and an half a week. All the lower ranks in this city have no idea of English 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 almost every where meet a company much too numerous for the fize of the apartments. They have two affemblies on the plan of those of London, in Fifhamble-ftreet, and at the Rotunda; and two gentlemen's 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 establish 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 Frafcatana, and il Gelofo in Cimento, were repeatedly performed, or rather murdered, except the parts of Seftini. The houfe was generally empty, and miferably cold. So much knowledge of the ftate of a country is gained by hearing the debates of a parliament, that I often frequented the gallery of the Houfe of Commons. Since Mr. Flood has been filenced with the vice-treafurerfhip of Ireland, Mr. Daly, Mr. Grattan, Sir William Osborn, and the prime ferjeant Burgh, are reckoned high among the Irish orators. I heard many very eloquent fpeeches, but I cannot fay they ftruck me like the exertion of the abilities of Irishmen in the English House of Commons, owing perhaps to the reflection both on the speaker and auditor, that the attorney-general of England, with a dash of his pen, can reverse, alter, or entirely do away the matured result of all the eloquence, and all the abilities of this whole affembly. Before I conclude with Dublin I fhall only remark, that walking in the streets there, from the narrowness and populoufnefs of the principal thoroughfares, as well as from the dirt and wretchednefs of the canaille, is a moft uneafy and difgufting exercise. June 24, left Dublin and paffed through the Phoenix park, a very pleasing ground, at the bottom of which, to the left, the Liffey forms a variety of landfcapes: this is the most 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, being above four hundred acres within the wall, Irifh measure; in the front of the house is a fine lawn bounded by rich woods, through which are many ridings, four miles in extent. From the road towards the house they lead through a very fine glen, by the fide of a ftream falling over a rocky bed, through the dark woods, with great variety on the fides of steep flopes, at the bottom of which the Liffey is either heard or feen indiftinctly; these woods are of great extent, and fo near the capital, form a retirement exceedingly beautiful. Lord Irnham and Colonel Luttrel have brought in the affiftance 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; one hundred and fifty acres have been done, and above two hundred acres most effectually drained in the covered manner filled with ftones. Thefe works are well executed. The drains are also made under the roads in all wet places, with lateral fhort ones to take off the water instead of leaving it, as is common, to foak against the caufeway, which is an excellent method. Great ufe has been made of lime-ftone gravel in the improvements, the effect of which is fo confiderable, that in feveral spots where it was laid on ten years ago, the fuperiority of the grafs is now fimilar to what one would expect from a fresh dunging. Leaving Luttrel's town I went to St. Wolftan's, which Lord Harcourt had been fo obliging as to defire I would make my quarters, from whence to view to the right or left. June 25, to Mr. Clement's, at Killadoon, who has lately built an excellent house, and planted much about it, with the fatisfaction of finding that all his trees thrive well; ‹ I remarked the beech and larch feemed to get beyond the reft. He is alfo a good farmer. June 26, breakfafted with Colonel Marlay, 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 cultivated; his fences excellent; his ditches five by fix, and feven by fix; the banks well made, and planted with quicks; the borders dug away, covered with lime till perfectly flacked, then mixed with dung and carried into the fields; a practice which Mr. Marlay has found of very great benefit. Viewed Lucan, the feat of Agmondifham Vesey, Efq. on the banks of the Liffey; the houfe is rebuilding, but the wood on the river, with walks through it, is exceedingly beautiful. The character of the place is that of a fequeitered fhade. Distant views are every where shut out, and the objects all correfpond perfectly with the impreffion they were defigned to raife: it is a walk on the banks of the river, chiefly under a variety of fine wood, which rifes on varied flopes, 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. |