A GENERAL COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 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, JUNE nineteenth, 1776, arrived at Holyhead, after an instructive journey through a part of England and Wales I had not seen before. Found the packet, the Claremont, captain Taylor, would sail very soon. After a tedious passage 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 parliament-house is grand, though not so light as a more open finishing of the roof would have made it. The apartments are spacious, elegant, and convenient, much beyond that heap of confusion at Westminster, so inferior to the magnificence to be looked for in the seat of empire. I was so fortunate as to arrive just in time to see lord Harcourt, with the usual ceremonies, prorogue the parliament. Trinity college is a beautiful building, and a numerous society; the library is a very fine room, and well filled. The new exchange will be another edifice to do honour to Ireland; it is elegant, cost forty thousand pounds, but deserves a better situation. From every thing I saw, I was struck with all those appearances of wealth which the capital of a thriving community may be supposed to exhibit. Happy if I find through the country in diffused prosperity the right source of this splendour! The common computation of inhabitants 200,000, but I should suppose exaggerated: others guessed 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 several Irish counties, and showed 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 simple but elegant, the pediment light, there are several good rooms; VOL. IV. * The Agricultural details are omitted. A : but a circumstance unrivalled is the court, which is spacious and magnificent, the opening behind the house is also beautiful. In the evening to the Rotunda, a circular room, ninety feet diameter, an imitation of Ranelagh, provided with a band of music. The barracks are a vast building, raised in a plain stile, of many divisions, the principal front is of an immense length: they contain every convenience for ten regiments. June 23. Lord Charlemont's house in Dublin is equally elegant and convenient, the apartments large, handsome, and well disposed, containing some good pictures, particularly one by Rembrandt, of Judas throwing the money on the floor, with a strong expression of guilt and remorse; the whole groupe fine. In the same room is a portrait of Cæsar Borgia, by Titian. The library is a most elegant apartment of about forty by thirty, and of such a height as to form a pleasing 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 small rooms, one a cabinet of pictures and antiquities, the other medals. In the collection also of Robert Fitzgerald, esq. in Merion-square, are several pieces which very well deserve a traveller's attention; it was the best I saw in Dublin. Before I quit that city I observe, on the houses in general, that what they call their two-roomed ones are good and convenient. Mr. Latouche's, in Stephen's Green, I was shewn as a model of this sort, and I found it well contrived, and finished elegantly. Drove to lord Charlemont's villa at Marino, near the city, where his lordship has formed a pleasing lawn, margined in the higher part by a well-planted thriving shrubbery, and on a rising ground a banquetting-room, which ranks very high among the most beautiful edifices I have any where seen; it has much elegance, lightness, and effect, and commands a fine prospect; the rising ground on which it stands slopes off to an agreeable accompanyment of wood, beyond which on one side is Dublin harbour, which here has the appearance of a noble river crowded with ships moving to and from the capital. On the other side is a shore spotted with white buildings, and beyond it the hills of Wicklow, presenting an outline extremely various. The other part of the view (it would be more perfect if the city was planted out) is varied, in some places nothing but wood, in others breaks of prospect. The lawn, which is extensive, is new grass, and appears to be excellently laid down, the herbage a fine crop of white clover (trifolium repens) trefoil, rib-grass (plantage lanceolata) and other good plants. Returned to Dublin, and made inquiries into other points, the prices of provisions, &c. (for which see the tables at the end of the book.) The expences of a family in proportion to those 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 cleanliness, either in apartments, persons, or cookery. There is a very good society in Dublin in a parliament winter: a great round of dinners and parties; and balls and suppers every night in the week, some of which are very elegant; but you almost every where meet a company much too numerous for the size of the apartments. They have two assemblies on the plan of those of London, in Fishamble-street, and at the Rotunda; and two gentlemen's clubs, Anthry's and Daly's, very well regulated: I heard some anecdotes of deep play at the latter, though never to the excess common at London. An ill judged and unsuccessful attempt was made to establish the Italian opera, which existed but with scarcely any life for this one, winter; of course they could rise no higher than a comic one. La Buona Since Figliuola, la Frascatana, and il Geloso in Cimento, were repeatedly performed, or rather murdered, except the parts of Sestini. The house was generally empty, and miserably cold. So much knowledge of the state of a country is gained by hearing the debates of a parliament, that I often frequented the gallery of the house of commons. Mr. Flood has been silenced with the vice-treasurership of Ireland, Mr. Daly, Mr. Grattan, Sir William Osborn, and the prime serjeant Burgh, are reckoned high among the Irish orators. I heard many very eloquent speeches, but I cannot say they struck 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 assembly. Before I conclude with Dublin I shall only remark, that walking in the streets there, from the narrowness and populousness of the principal thoroughfares, as well as from the dirt and wretchedness of the canaille, is a most uneasy and disgusting exercise. June 24, left Dublin and passed through the Phœnix park, a very pleasing ground, at the bottom of which, to the left, the Liffey forms a variety of landscapes: this is the most beautiful environ of Dublin. Take the road to Luttrell's-town through a various scenery on the banks of the river. That domain is a considerable one in extent, being above four hundred acres within the wall, Irish 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 side of a stream falling over a rocky bed, through the dark woods, with great variety on the sides of steep slopes, at the bottom of which the Liffey is either heard or seen indistinctly; these woods are of great extent, and so near the capital, form a retirement exceedingly beautiful. Lord Irnham and colonel Luttrel have brought in the assistance 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 grass; one hundred and fifty acres have been done, and above two hundred acres most effectually drained in the covered manner filled with stones. These works are well executed. The drains are also made under the roads in all wet places, with lateral short ones to take off the water instead of leaving it, as is common, to soak against the causeway, which is an excellent method. Great use has been made of lime-stone gravel in the improvements, the effect of which is so considerable, that in several spots where it was laid on ten years ago, the superiority of the grass is now similar to what one would expect from a fresh dunging. Leaving Luttrell's-town I went to St. Wolstan's, which lord Harcourt had been so obliging as to desire 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 satisfaction of finding that all his trees thrive well; I remarked the beech and larch seemed to get beyond the rest. He is also a good farmer. June 26, breakfasted with colonel Marlay, at Cellbridge, found he had practised husbandry with much success, and given great attention to it from the peace of 1763, which put a period to a gallant scene of service in Germany; walked through his grounds, which I found in general very well cultivated; his fences excellent; his ditches five by six, and seven by six; the banks well made, and planted with quicks; the borders dug away, covered with lime till perfectly slacked, then mixed with dung and car. ried into the fields; a practice which Mr. Marlay has found of very great benefit. Viewed Lucan, the seat of Agmondisham Vesey, esq. on the banks of the Liffey; the house is rebuilding, but the wood on the river, with walks through it, is exceedingly beautiful. The character of the place is that of a sequestered shade. Distant views are every where shut out, and the objects all correspond perfectly with the impression they were designed to raise: it is a walk on the banks of the river, chiefly under a variety of fine wood, which rises on varied slopes, in some parts gentle, in others steep; spreading here and there into cool meadows, on the opposite shore, rich banks of wood or shrubby ground. The walk is perfectly sequestered, and has that melancholy gloom which should ever dwell in such a place. The river is of a character perfectly suited to the rest of the scenery, in some places breaking over rocks, in other silent, under the thick shade of spreading wood. Leaving Lucan, the next place is Leixlip, a fine one, on the river, with a fall, which in a wet season is considerable. Then St. Wolstan's, belonging to the Dean of Derry, a beautiful villa, which is also on the river; the grounds gay and open, though not without the advantage of much wood, disposed with judgment. A winding shrubbery quits the river, and is made to lead through some dressed ground that is pretty and cheerful. Mr. Conolly's, at Castle-town, to which all travellers resort, is the finest house in Ireland, and not exceeded by many in England; it is a large handsome edifice, situated in the middle of an extensive lawn, which is quite surrounded with fine plantations disposed to the best advantage: to the north these unite into very large woods, through which many winding walks lead, with the convenience of several ornamented seats, rooms, &c. On the other side of the house, upon the river, is a cottage, with a shrubbery, prettily laid out; the house commands an extensive view, bounded by the Wicklow mountains. It consists of several noble apartinents. On the first floor is a beautiful gallery, eighty feet long, elegantly fitted up. June 27, left lord Harcourt's, and having received an invitation from the duke of Leinster, passed through Mr. Conolly's grounds to his grace's seat at Cartown; the park ranks among the finest in Ireland. It is a vast lawn, which waves over gentle hills, surrounded by plantations of great extent, and which break and divide in places so as to give much variety. A large but gentle vale winds through the whole, in the bottom of which a small stream has been enlarged into a fine river, which throws a cheerfulness through most of the scenes: over it a handsome stone-bridge. There is a great variety on the banks of this vale; part of it consists of mild and gentle slopes, part steep banks of thick wood; in another place they are formed into a large shrubbery, very elegantly laid out, and dressed in the highest order, with a cottage, the scenery about which is uncommonly pleasing: and farther on this vale takes a stronger character, having a rocky bank on one side, and steep slopes scattered irregularly, with wood on the other. On one of the most rising grounds in the park is a tower, from the top of which the whole scenery is beheld; the park spreads on every side in fine sheets of lawn, kept in the highest order by eleven hundred sheep, scattered over with rich plantations, and bounded by a large margin of wood, through which is a riding. From hence took the road to Summerhill, the seat of the right hon. H. L. Rowley : the country is cheerful and rich; and if the Irish cabins continue like what I have hitherto seen, I shall not hesitate to pronounce their inhabitants as well off as most English cottagers. They are built of mud walls eighteen inches or two feet thick, and well thatched, which are far warmer than the thin clay walls in England. Here are few cottars without a cow, and some of them two. A belly full invariably of potatoes, and generally turf for fuel from a bog. It is true they have not always chimneys to their cabins, the door serving for that and window too: if their eyes are not affected with the smoke, it may be an advantage in warmth. Every cottage swarms with poultry, and most of them have pigs. Went in the evening to lord Mornington's at Dangan, who is making many improvements, which he shewed me: his plantations are extensive, and he has formed a large |