to return to the fresh water, and continue doing it till August, in which voyage they are taken; the nets are set in the middle of January, but by act of parliament no nets nor weirs can be kept down after the 12th of August. All the fisheries on the river Ban let at 60001. a year. From the sea to the rock above Coleraine, where the weirs are built, belongs to the London companies; the greatest part of the rest to lord Donnegal. The eel fisheries let at 1000l. a year, and the salmon fisheries at Coleraine 10001. The eels make periodical voyages, as the salmon, but instead of spawning in the fresh water, they go to the sea to spawn, and the young fry return against the stream; to enable them to do which with greater ease at the leap, straw ropes are hung in the water for them; when they return to sea they are taken: many of them weigh nine or ten pounds. The young salmon are called grawls, and grow at a rate which I should suppose scarce any fish commonly known equals; for within the year some of them will come to sixteen and eighteen pounds, but in general ten or twelve pounds: such as escape the first year's fishery are salmon; and at two years old will generally weigh twenty to twenty-five pounds. This year's fishery has proved the greatest that ever was known, and they had the largest hawl, taking 1452 salmon at one drag of one net. In the year 1758 they had 882, which was the next greatest hawl. I had the pleasure of seeing 370 drawn in at once. They have this year taken four hundred tons of fish; two hundred sold fresh at a penny and three-halfpence a pound, and two hundred salted, at 181. and 201. per ton, which are sent to London, Spain, and Italy. The fishery employs eighty men, and the expences in general calculated to equal the rent.

The linen manufacture is very general about Coleraine, coarse ten hundred linen. It is carried to Dublin in cars, one hundred and ten miles, at 5s. per cwt, in summer, and 7s. 6d. in winter.

From Limmavaddy to Derry there is very little uncultivated land. Within four miles of the latter, rents are from 12s. to 20s. mountains paid for but in the gross. Reached Derry at night, and waited two hours in the dark before the ferry-boat came over for

me.

August 7, in the morning, went to the bishop's palace to leave my letters of recommendation; for I was informed of my misfortune in his being out of the kingdom. He was upon a voyage to Staffa, and had sent home some of the stones of which it consists; they appeared perfectly to resemble in shape, colour, and smell, those of the Giant's Causeway.

August 8, left Derry, and took the road by Raphoe to the Rev. Mr. Golding's, at Clonleigh, who favoured me with much valuable information. The view of Derry, at the distance of a mile or two, is the most picturesque of any place I have seen; it seems to be built on an island of bold land rising from the river, which spreads into a fine basin at the foot of the town; the adjacent country hilly; the scene wants nothing but wood to make it a perfect landscape.

August 11, left Mount Charles, and passing through Donnegal, took the road to Ballyshannon; came presently to several beautiful landscapes, swelling hills, cultivated, with the bay flowing up among them: they want nothing but more wood, and are beautiful without it. Afterwards likewise to the left they rise in various outlines, and die away insensibly into one another. When the road leads to a full view of the bay of Donnegal, these smiling spots, above which the proud mountains rear their heads, are numerous, the hillocks of almost regular circular forms; they are very pleasing, from form, verdure, and the water breaking in their vales.

Before I got to Ballyshannon, remarked a bleach-green, which indicates weaving in the neighbourhood. Viewed the salmon-leap at Ballyshannon, which is let for 4001.

a year. The scenery of it is very beautiful; it is a fine fall, and the coast of the river very bold, consisting of perpendicular rocks, with grass of a beautiful verdure to the very edge: it projects in little promontories, which grow longer as they approach the sea, and open to give a fine view of the ocean. Before the fall in the middle of the river is a rocky island, on which is a curing house, instead of the turret of a ruined castle, for which it seems formed. The town prettily situated on the rising ground on each side of the river. To Sir James Caldwell's; crossing the bridge, stopped for a view of the river, which is a very fine one, and was delighted to see the salmon jump, to me an unusual sight: the water was perfectly alive with them. Rising the hill, look back on the town; the situation beautiful; the river presents a noble view. Come to Belleek, a little village, with one of the finest water-falls I remember any where to have seen; viewed it from the bridge. The river in a very broad sheet comes from behind some wood, and breaks over a bed of rocks, not perpendicular, but shelving in various directions, and foams away under the arches; after which it grows more silent, and gives a beautiful bend under a rock, crowned by a fine bank of wood. Reached Castle Caldwell at night, where Sir James Caldwell received me with a politeness and cordiality that will make me long remember it with pleasure.

August 15, to Belleisle, the charming seat of the earl of Ross. It is an island in Loch-Earne, of two hundred Irish acres, every part of it hill, dale, and gentle declivities: it has a great deal of wood, much of which is old, and forms both deep shades and open cheerful groves. The trees hang on the slopes, and consequently shew themselves to the best advantage. All this is exceedingly pretty, but it is rendered trebly so by the situation: a reach of the lake passes before the house, which is situated near the banks among some fine woods, which give both beauty and shelter. This sheet of water, which is three miles over, is bounded in front by an island of thick wood, and by a bold circular hill, which is his lordship's deer park; this hill is backed by a considerable mountain. To the right are four or five fine clumps of dark wood; so many islands which rise boldly from the lake, the water breaks in straits between them, and forms a scene extremely picturesque. On the other side the lake stretches behind wood, in a streight which forms Belleisle. Lord Ross has made walks round the island, from which there is a considerable variety of prospect. A temple is built on a gentle hill, commanding the view of the wooded islands above-mentioned; but the most pleasing prospect of them is coming out from the grotto: they appear in an uncommon beauty; two seem to join, and the water which flows between takes the appearance of a fine bay, projecting deep into a dark wood: nothing can be more beautiful. The park hill rises above them, and the whole is backed with mountains. The home scene at your feet also is pretty; a lawn scattered with trees that forms the margin of the lake, closing gradually in a thick wood of tall trees, above the tops of which is a distant view of Cultiegh mountain, which is there seen in its proudest solemnity.

They plough all with horses three or four in a plough, and all abreast. Here let it be remarked, that they very commonly plough and harrow with their horses drawing by the tail: it is done every season. Nothing can put them beside this; and they insist that take a horse tired in traces, and put him to work by the tail, he will draw better : quite fresh again. Indignant reader! this is no jest of mine, but cruel, stubborn, barbarous truth. It is so all over Cavan.

At Clonells, near Castle-rea, lives O'Conner, the direct descendant of Roderick O'Conner, who was king of Connaught six or seven hundred years ago; there is a monument of him in Roscommon church, with his sceptre, &c. I was told as a certainty, that this family were here long before the coming of the Milesians. The possessions, formerly so great, are reduced to three or four hundred pounds a year, the family having fared in the revolutions of so many ages, much worse than the O'Niel's and O'Brien's. The common people pay him the greatest respect, and send him presents of cattle, &c. upon various occasions. They consider him as the prince of a people involved in one common ruin.

Another great family in Connaught is Macdermot, who calls himself prince of Coolavin; he lives at Coolavin, in Sligo, and though he has not above one hundred pounds a year, will not admit his children to sit down in his presence. This was certainly the case with his father, and some assured me even with the present chief. Lord Kingsborough, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. O'Hara, Mr. Sandford, &c. came to see him, and his address was curious: "O'Hara! you are welcome; Sandford, I am glad to see your mother's son (his mother was an O'Brien :) as to the rest of ye, come in as ye can." Mr. O'Hara, of Nymphsfield, is in possession of a considerable estate in Sligo, which is the remains of great possessions they had in that country: he is one of the few descendants of the Milesian race.

To lord Kingston's, to whom I had a letter, but unfortunately for me he was at Spaw. Walked down to Longford Hill, to view the lake; it is one of the most delicious scenes I ever beheld, a lake of five miles by four, which fills the bottom of a gentle valley almost of a circular form, bounded very boldly by the mountains. Those to the left rise in a noble slope; they lower rather in front, and let in a view of Strand mountain, near Sligo, above twenty miles off. To the right, you look over a small part of a bog to a large extent of cultivated hill, with the blue mountains beyond. Were this little piece of bog planted, the view would be more complete; the hill on which you stand has a foliage of well-grown trees, which form the southern shore. You look down on six islands, all wooded, and on a fine promontory to the left, which shoots far into the lake. Nothing can be more pleasing than their uncommon variety; the first is small (Rock island) tufted with trees, under the shade of which is an ancient building, once the residence of Macdermot. The next a mixture of lawn and wood; the third, which appears to join this, is of a darker shade, yet not so thick but you can see the bright lawn under the trees. House island is one fine thick wood, which admits not a gleam of light, a contrast to the silver bosom of the lake. Church island is at a greater distance; this is also a clump, and rises boldly Rook island is of wood; it opens in the centre, and shews a lawn with a building on it. It is impossible to imagine a more pleasing and cheerful scene. Passed the chapel to Smithfield Hill, which is a fine rising ground, quite surrounded with plantations; from hence the view is changed; here the promontory appears very bold, and over its neck you see another wooded island, in a most picturesque situation. Nothing can be more picturesque than Rock island, its ruin overhung with ivy. The other islands assume fresh and varied outlines, and form upon the whole one of the most luxuriant scenes I have met with.

The views of the lake and environs are very fine as you go to Boyle; the woods unite into a large mass, and contrast the bright sheet of water with their dark shades.

The lands about Kingston are very fine, a rich, dry, yellow, sandy loam, the finest soil that I have seen in Ireland, all grass, and covered with very fine bullocks, cows, and sheep. The farms rise to five hundred acres, and are generally in divisions, parted by stone walls, for oxen, cows, young cattle, and sheep separate. Some of the lands will carry an ox and a wether per acre; rents 15s. to 20s.

Dined at Boyle, and took the road to Ballymoat; crossed an immense mountainy bog, where I stopped and made inquiries; found that it was ten miles long, and three and a half over, containing thirty-five square miles; that lime-stone quarries were around and in it, and lime-stone gravel in many places to be found, and used in the lands that join it: in addition to this I may add, that there is a great road crossing it; thirty-five miles are twenty-two thousand for hundred acres. What an immense field of improvement! nothing would be easier than to drain it, vast tracts of land have such a fall, that not a drop of water could remain. These hilly bogs are extremely different from any I have seen in England. In the moors in the north, the hills and mountains are all covered with heath, like the Irish bogs, but they are of various soils, gravel, shingle, moor, &c. and boggy only in spots; but the Irish bog hills are all pure bog to a great depth, without the least variation of soil; and the bog being of a hilly form, is a proof that it is a growing vegetable mass, and not owing merely to stagnant water. Sir Laurence Dundass is the principal proprietor of this.

Reached Ballymoat in the evening, the residence of the hon. Mr. Fitzmaurice, where I expected great pleasure in viewing a manufactory, of which I heard much since I came to Ireland. He was so kind as to give me the following account of it, in the most liberal manner:

"Twenty years ago the late lord Shelburne came to Ballymoat, a wild uncultivated region, without industry or civility, and the people all Roman Catholics, without an atom of manufacture, not even spinning. In order to change this state of things, his lordship contracted with people in the north to bring protestant weavers, and establish a manufactory, as the only means of making the change he wished; this was done, but falling into the hands of rascals, he lost 50001. by the business, with only seventeen protestant families, and twenty-six or twenty-seven looms established for it. Upon his death, lady Shelburne wished to carry his scheme into execution, and to do it, gave much encouragement to Mr. Wakefield, the great Irish factor in London, by granting advantageous leases, under the contract of building and colonizing, by weavers from the north, and carrying on the manufactory. He found about twenty looms, working upon their own account, and made a considerable progress in this for five years, raising several buildings, cottages for the weavers, and was going on as well as the variety of his business would admit, employing sixty looms. He then died, when a stand was made to all the works for a year, in which every thing went much to ruin. Lady Shelburne then employed a new manager to carry on the manufacture upon his own account, giving him very profitable grants of lands, to encourage him to do it with spirit. He continued for five years, employing sixty looms also; but his circumstances failing, a fresh stop was put to the work.

"Then it was that Mr. Fitzmaurice, in the year 1774, determined to exert himself in pushing on a manufactory, which promised to be of such essential service to the whole country. To do this with effect, he saw that it was necessary to take it entirely into his own hands. He could lend money to the manager to enable him to go on, but that would be at best hazardous, and could never do it in the complete manner in which he wished to establish it. In this period of consideration, Mr. Fitzmaurice was advised by his friends never to engage in so complex a business as a manufacture, in which he must of necessity become a merchant; also engage in all the hazard, irksomeness, &c. of commerce, so totally different from his birth, education, ideas, and pursuits; but tired with the inactivity of common life, he determined not only to turn manufacturer, but to carry on the business in the most spirited and vigorous manner that was possible. In the first place, he took every means of making himself a complete master of the business; he went through various manufactures, inquired into the minutiæ, and took every measure to know it to the bottom. This he did so repeatedly, and with such attention in the whole progress, from spinning to bleaching, and selling, that he become as thorough a master of it as an experienced manager; he has wove linen, and done every part of the business with his own hands. As he determined to have the works complete, he took Mr. Stansfield the engineer, so well known for his improved sawmills, into his pay: he sent him over to Ballymoat, in the winter of 1774, in order to erect the machinery of a bleach-mill, upon the very best construction; he went to all the great mills in the north of Ireland to inspect them, to remark their deficiencies, that they might be improved in the mills he intended to erect. This knowledge being gained, the work was begun, and as water was necessary, a great basin was formed by a dam across a valley, by which means thirty-four acres were floated, to serve as a reservoir for dry seasons to secure plenty at all times."

August 30, rode to Rosshill, four miles off, a headland that projects into the bay of Newport, from which there is a most beautiful view of the bay on both sides; I counted thirty islands very distinctly, all of them cultivated under corn and potatoes, or pastured by cattle. At a distance Clara rises in a very bold and picturesque style; on the left Crow Patrick, and to the right other mountains. It is a view that wants nothing but wood.

September 5, to Drumoland, the seat of Sir Lucius O'Brien, in the county of Clare, a gentleman who had been repeatedly assiduous to procure me every sort of information. I should remark, as I have now left Galway, that that county, from entering it in the road to Tuam till leaving it to-day, has been, upon the whole, inferior to most of the parts I have travelled in Ireland in point of beauty: there are not mountains of a magnitude to make the view striking. It is perfectly free from woods, and even trees. except about gentlemen's houses, nor has it a variety in its face. I do not, however, speak without exception; I passed some tracts which are cheerful. Drumoland has a pleasing variety of grounds about the house; it stands on a hill gently rising from a lake of twenty-four acres, in the middle of a noble wood of oak, ash, poplar, &c. three beautiful hills rise above, over which the plantations spread in a varied manner; and these hills command very fine views of the great rivers Fergus and Shannon at their junction, being each of them a league wide.

There is a view of the Shannon from Limerick to Foynes Island, which is thirty miles, with all its bays, bends, islands, and fertile shores. It is from one to three miles broad, a most noble river, deserving regal navies for its ornament, or, what are better, fleets of merchantmen, the cheerful signs of far extended commerce, instead of a few miserable fishing-boats, the only canvas that swelled upon the scene: but the want of commerce in her ports is the misfortune not the fault of Ireland. Thanks for the deficiency to that illiberal spirit of trading jealousy, which has at times actuated and disgraced so many nations. The prospect has a noble outline in the bold mountains of Tipperary, Cork, Limerick, and Kerry. The whole view magnificent.

At the foot of this hill is the castle of Bunratty, a very large edifice, the seat of the O'Briens, princes of Thomond; it stands on the bank of a river, which falls into the Shannon near it. About this castle and that of Rosmanagher, the land is the best in the county of Clare; it is worth 11. 13s. an acre, and fats a bullock per acre in summer, besides winter, feed.

To Limerick, through a cheerful country, on the banks of the river, in a vale surrounded by distant mountains. That city is very finely situated, partly on an island formed by the Shannon. The new part, called Newtown Pery, from Mr. Pery the speaker, who owns a considerable part of the city, and represents it in parliament, is well bufit. The houses are new ones, of brick, large and in right lines. There is a communication with the rest of the town by a handsome bridge of three large arches,