erected at Mr. Pery's expence. Here are docks, quays, and a custom-house, which is a good building, faces the river, and on the opposite banks is a large quadrangular one, the house of industry. This part of Limerick is very cheerful and agreeable, and carries all the marks of a flourishing place.

The exports of this port are beef, pork, butter, hides, and rape-seed. The imports are rum, sugar, timber, tobacco, wines, coals, bark, salt, &c. The customs and excise, about sixteen years ago, amounted to 16,000l. at present 32,0001. and rather more four or five years ago.

Land sells at twenty years' purchase. Rents were at the highest in 1765, fell since, but in four years have fallen 8s. to 10s. an acre about Limerick. They are at a stand at present, owing to the high price of provisions from pasture. The number of people in Limerick are computed at thirty-two thousand; it is exceedingly populous for the size, the chief street quite crowded; many sedan chairs in town, and some hackney chaises. Assemblies the year round, in a new assembly-house built for the purpose, and plays and concerts common.

Upon the whole, Limerick must be a very gay place, but when the usual number of troops are in town much more so. To shew the general expences of living, I was told of a person's keeping a carriage, four horses, three men, three maids, a good table, a wife, three children, and a nurse, and all for 5001. a year :

A barrel of beef or pork, 200lb. weight. Vessels of 400 tons can come up with spring tides, which rise fourteen feet.

September 9, to Castle Oliver; various country, not so rich to appearance as the corcasses, being fed bare: much hilly sheep-walk, and for a considerable way a full third of it potatoes and corn: no sign of depopulation. Just before I got to the hills a field of ragwort (senesio jacobæœa) buried the cows. The first hill of Castle Oliver interesting. After rising a mountain so high that no one could think of any house, you come in view of a vale, quite filled with fine woods, fields margined with trees, and hedge plantations climbing up the mountains. Having engaged myself to Mr. Oliver, to return from Killarney by his house, as he was confined to Limerick by the assizes, I shall omit saying any thing of it at present.

September 16, to Cove by water, from Mr. Trent's quay. The view of Lota is charming; a fine rising lawn from the water, with noble spreading woods reaching on each side; the house a very pleasing front, with lawn shooting into the woods. The river forms a creek between two hills, one Lota, the other opening to another hill of inclosures well wooded. As the boat leaves the shore nothing can be finer than the view behind us; the back woods of Lota, the house and lawn, and the high bold inclosures towards Cork, form the finest shore imaginable, leading to Cork, the city appearing in full view, Dunkettle wooded inclosures, a fine sweep of hill, joining Mr. Hoare's at Factory-hill, whose woods have a beautiful effect. Dunkettle-house almost lost in a wood. As we advance, the woods of Lota and Dunkettle unite in one fine mass, The sheet of water, the rising lawns, the house in the most beautiful situation imaginable, with more woods above it than lawns below it, the west shore of Loch-Mahon, a very fine rising hill cut into inclosures, but without wood, land-locked on every side with high lands, scattered with inclosures, woods, seats, &c. with every cheerful circumstance of lively commerce, has altogether a great effect. Advancing to Passage the shores are various, and the scenery enlivened by fourscore sail of large ships; the little port of Passage at the water's edge, with the hills rising boldly above it. The channel narrows between the great island and the hills of Passage. The shores bold, and the ships scattered about them, with the inclosures hanging behind the masts and yards, picturesque. Passing the streights a new basin of the harbour opens, surrounded with high lands. Monk's-town-castle on the hill to the right, and the grounds of Ballybricken, a beautiful intermixed scene of wood and lawn. The high shore of the harbour's mouth opens gradually. The whole scene is land-locked. The first view of Hawl-bowling-island and Spike-island, high rocky lands, with the channel opening to Cove, where are a fleet of ships at anchor, and Rostellan, lord Inchiquin's house, backed with hills, a scenery that wants nothing but the accompaniment of wood. The view of Ballybricken changes; it now appears to be unfortunately cut into right lines. Arrived at the ship at Cove, in the evening returned, leaving Mr. Jefferys and family on board for a voyage to Havre, in their way to Paris.

Dunkettle is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Ireland. It is a hill of some hundred acres broken into a great variety of ground by gentle declivities, with every where an undulating outline, and the whole varied by a considerable quantity of wood, which in some places is thick enough to take the appearance of close groves, in others spreads into scattered thickets and a variety of single groups. This hili, or rather cluster of hills, is surrounded on one side by a reach of Cork harbour, over which it looks in the most advantageous manner; and on the other by an irriguous vale, through which flows the river Glanmire; the opposite shore of that river has every variety that can unite to form pleasing landscapes for the views from Dunkettle grounds; in some places narrow glens, the bottoms of which are quite filled with water, and the steep banks covered with thick woods that spread a deep shade; in others the vale opens to form the scite of a pretty cheerful village, overhung by hill and wood: here the shore rises gradually into large inclosures, which spread over the hills, stretching beyond each other; and there the vale melts again into a milder variety of fields. A hill thus situated, and consisting in itself of so much variety of surface, must necessarily command many pleasing views; to enjoy these to the better advantage, Mr. Trent (than whom no one has a better taste, both to discover and describe the beauties of natural scenes) is making a walk around the whole, which is to bend to the inequalities of the ground, so as to take the principal points in view. The whole is so beautiful, that if I was to make the regular detour, the description might be too minute; but there are some points which gave me so much pleasure that I know not how to avoid recommending to others that travel this way to taste the same satisfaction: from the upper part of the orchard you look down a part of the river, where it opens into a regular basin, one corner stretching up to Cork, lost behind the hill of Lota, the lawn of which breaks on the swelling hills among the woods; the house obscured, and therefore seeming a part of your home scene; the losing the river behind the beautiful projection of Lota, is more pleasing than can be expressed. The other reach, leading to the harbour's mouth, is half hidden by the trees, which margin the foot of the hill on which you stand; in front a noble range of cultivated hills, the inclosures broken by slight spots of wood, and prettily varied with houses, without being so crowded as to take off the rural effect. The scene is not only beautiful in those common circumstances which form a landscape, but is alive with the cheerfulness of ships and boats perpetually moving. Upon the whole, it is one of the most luxuriant prospects I have any where seen. Leaving the orchard, pass on the brow of a hill which forms the bank of the river of Glanmire, commanding the opposite woods of Lota in all their beauty. Rise to the top of the high hill which joins the deer-park, and exhibits a scene equally extensive and beautiful; you look down on a vale which winds almost around at your feet, finishing to the left in Cork river, which here takes the appearance of a lake, bounded by wood and hills, and sunk in the bottom of a vale, in a style which painting cannot imitate; the opposite hills of Lota, wood, and lawn, seem formed as objects for this point of view: at your feet a hill rises out of the vale, with higher ones around it, the margins scattered wood; to the right towards Riverstown, a vale; the whole backed by cultivated hills to Kallahan's field. Milder scenes follow: a bird's-eye view of a small vale sunk at your feet, through which the river flows; a bridge of several arches unites two parts of a beautiful village, the meadow grounds of which rise gently, a varied surface of wood and lawn, to the hills of Riverstown, the whole surrounded by delicious sweeps of cultivated hills. To the left a wooded glen rising from the vale to the horizon, the scenery sequestered, but pleasing; the oak wood which hangs on the deer-park hill, an addition. Down to the brow of the hill, where it hangs over the river, a picturesque interesting spot. The inclosures of the opposite bank hang beautifully to the eye, and the wooded glen winds up the hill. Returning to the house I was conducted to the hill, where the grounds slope off to the river of Cork, which opens to view in noble reaches of a magnitude that fills the eye and the imagination: a whole country of a character truly magnificent, and behind the winding vale which leads between a series of hills to Glanmire.

Pictures at Dunkettle.

A St. Michael, &c. the subject confused, by Michael Angelo. A St. Francis on wood, a large original of Guido. A St. Cecilia, original of Romanelli. An assumption of the Virgin, by L. Caracci. A quaker's meeting, of above fifty figures, by Egbert Hemskirk. A sea view and rock piece, by Vernet. A small flaggellation, by Sebastian del Piombo. A Madonna and Child, small, by Rubens. The crucifixion, many figures in miniature, excellent, though the master is unknown. An excellent copy of the famous Danae of Titian, at Monte Cavallo, near Naples, by Cioffi of Naples. Another of the Venus of Titian, at the Tribuna in Florence. Another of Venus blinding Cupid, by Titian, at the Palazzo Borghese in Rome. Another of great merit of the Madonna Della Sedia of Raphael, at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, by Stirn, a German, lately at Rome. Another of an holy family, from Raphael, of which there are said to be three originals, one at the king's palace in Naples, one in the palais royal in Paris, and the third in the collection of lord Exeter, lately purchased at Rome. A portrait of Sir Patrick Trent, by Sir P. Lely. An excellent portrait of a person unknown, by Dahl.

September 17, to Castlemartyr, the seat of the earl of Shannon, one of the most distinguished improvers in Ireland; in whom I found the most earnest desire to give me every species of information, with a knowledge and ability which enabled him to do it most effectually. Passed through Middleton, a well built place, which belongs to the noble lord to whom it gives title. Castlemartyr is an old house, but much added to by the present earl; he has built, besides other rooms, a dining one thirty-two feet long by twenty-two broad, and a drawing one, the best rooms I have seen in Ireland, a double cube of twenty-five feet, being fifty long, twenty-five broad, and twenty-five high. The grounds about the house are very well laid out; much wood well grown, considerable lawns, a river made to wind through them in a beautiful manner, an old castle so perfectly covered with ivy as to be a picturesque object. A winding walk leads for a considerable distance along the banks of this river, and presents several pleasing landscapes.

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: on the other days the number is very great. I should suppose it must resemble a Dutch town, for there are many canals in the streets, with quays before the houses. The best built part is Morrison'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.

Hides, at 11. each
Bay and woollen yarn

£ 64,000 294,000

VOL. IV.

Carry forward

£ 358,000 Butter, at 30s. per cwt. from 56s. to 72s.

Beef, at 20s. a barrel

Camblets, serges, &c.

Candles

Soap

Tallow

Herrings, 18 to 35,0001. all their own

Glue, 20 to 25,000

Pork

Wool to England

35,000

£1,100,190

Small exports, Gottenburgh herrings, horns, hoofs, &c. feather-beds,

palliasses, feathers, &c.

Average prices of the nineteen years on the custom books. All exports on those books are rated at the value of the reign of Charles II; 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 nineteen years, eight hundred and seventy-two per annum. The number of people at Corke mustered by the clergy by hearth-money, and by the number of houses, payments to minister, average of the three, sixty-seven thousand souls, if taken before the first of September, after that twenty thousand increased. There are seven hundred coopers in the town. Barrels all 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!

Cork old duties, in 1751, produced
Now the same

:

140,000 Bullocks, 16,000 head, 32,000 barrels; 41,000 hogs; 20,000 barrels. Butter, 22,000 firkins of half a hundred weight each, both increase this year, the whole

being

240,000 firkins of butter,
120,000 barrels beef.

Export of woollen yarn from Corke, 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. never higher than 18s. 6d. owing to the army demand. Slaughter dung, 8d. for a horse load. Country labourer, 6d. about town 10d. Milk, seven pints a penny. Coals, 3s. 8d. to 5s. a barrel, six of which make a ton. Eggs, four a penny.

Corke labourers. Cellar ones, twenty thousand; have 1s. 1d. a day, and as much bread, beef, and beer as they can eat and drink, and seven pounds of offals a week