'Notes and dleanings ft RELATING TO TH) IN ITS y* AST AND j^F^ESENT CONDITIONS. p wtp ppm THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY From the collection of James Collins, Drumcondra, Ireland. Purchased, 1918. 31-1 8S H5Zn Botes mxtr (Sleamncis CENTRAL CIRCULATION AND BOOKSTACKS The person borrowing this material is re- sponsible for its renewal or return before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a minimum fee of $75.00 for each non-returned or lost item. Theft, mutilation, or defacement of library materials can be causes for student disciplinary action. All materials owned by the University of Illinois Library are the property of the State of Illinois and are protected by Article 16B of Illinois Criminal * Law and Procedure. TO RENEW, CALL (21 7) 333-8400. University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign j^AST COUN - B 0 onr dubt GEORG LONDON : h When renewing by phone, write new due date GLASGOV below previous due date. L162 1 868. THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY From the collection of James Collins, Drum c ondr a , I r e 1 and . Purchased, 1918. H5Zn RELATING TO THE COUNTY OF WEXFORD, IN ITS ^ AST AND j-^RESENT p ONDITIONS, By MARTIN DOYLE. ... Author of“ Hints to Small Farmers &c . , &c. 1 11 \ ^ gublm : GEORGE HERBERT, 117,' GRAFTON-STREET. LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO.; SIMPKIN & MARSHALL. EDINBURGH : JOHN MENZIES. GLASGOW : D. ROBERTSON. LIVERPOOL : W. GILLING. 868 . t o - > l> *= 1 cr i> James Charles, Printer, 61, Middle Abbey-street, Dublin, •^./7 . / $£ 4^1 /^/ ^y /%L- rfS.'S* '<** o. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/notesgleaningsreOOdoyl ( SHEWING tin' iumm\u*u'^ijf tlir Bctnrmes ^fA\\ E TOWN LAN DS,^=- — AND - THE RECLAIMED LANDS,&c.&c 587 254*449 3*779 307*340 - Monaghan 275 } 88 5 126,340 5 * 1 2 1 203,348 Cavan ... 375*473 I 53* 0 72 5*989 267,666 Fermanagh 289,228 I° 5*372 4,672 170,668 Leitrim . . . 249 * 35 ° 104,615 2,404 134,590 2nd Class - Queen’s Co. 342,422 90*750 3*558 257,325 Roscommon 440,522 i 5 6 * I 54 3*345 29 M 55 Sligo 290,696 105,079 2,806 207,460 Waterford 325*345 111,116 4,821 275 - 5 81 Wexford 510,702 143*594 6,902 372,107 The Baronies of Forth and Bargy considered as a Taxable Area in the year 1866 - 48 Notes and Gleanings that the county of Wexford possesses a larger number of arable acres, a larger parliamentary constituency, >> . C H „ ax rO i H ' “ o o ti ~ 'o q C rt i-s 0 s, 4 j*:g£ q" O S3? On ^ >>•= S S5 c >3 E'5 0 aj * O O to T3 -t3 111 s ^ tll'Sio « « « b e-j Barrels of Barley made into Malt. O O to CO O Barrels of Barley produced (at the average of £ 1 1 s. per Barrel). O O r^» iS O r^. 3 » *■» 5< §15 <35^ 3 ra to tH -!!» O to 2 r *j tS *-» u CO £ sy ^03 •< 00 *' t>. q. cl to *o .Sw ••alS-g £.0 > 5 Sox ^ e »TE-< « a § a Oj SJ H o « X o , o s? °~ to VO to 00 VO 00 (-1 5 S ^ s *V> r O ts ^ ■*1 5^ I. V 4 > iMJ W.’S 2 'o a°- ll'l On ^ N , , N ^ IT) S 3 *0 ^ CO tovcT |Q § < 0 C^. M CO V | § W.-g « rj-vO O . i - O 10 0 q)H n 3 ^ ^ n § 1 ™ pQ m" dv cT n tom < v*i .22 rt x S H S to c* v, 0 °;g E q S 3 ^^^ 0 >, to ^00 E g % ^ 00 N O fij 0 So V u M VO O M ^ ft S 3 0 0 0 T 3 000 0 u .a CO t"- 0 CO VO to J «W 3 o' cT rf rt.sx 0 VO OO °-a-| •-•mm 03 . . T- ? *-» es§! S. 2 2 2 0-3 S 3 O O O Q 4 P c 3 -d £ to to O 2‘?« M M M The Port of Wexford. — A Comparison betwern the Years 1856 and 18 66, as to Imports a?id Exports. relating to the County of Wexford. 49 and a greater amount of property valued under the Tenement Valuation Act, than any one of the twelve H O p-i Scotch Barley largely Imported in 1856. Home harvest very de- ficient that year. c 0 Cv cO *(/5 "C 3 rji Cl M £ r« t; ° ^ > Cu 0 ) Cfl P. vcT cC = i.« a M CJ 1 3 ^ Q s* s' 0 0 3 0 0 c 0. 0^ 10 cT H 1 CO ^ CO £ to . jy 0 -3 CTJ « \o& 0 u Cn O 2 N O 0 00 to cS £ 3 o* d M 00 0 CJ to O a Tt- 0 .2 0 0 •3 C N M li CO CO to 0 rt c t-H to c 0 o' o' H co r-» lx f >5 J 3 . ■ST? 00 c-> B O « rt HH CN 3 O £ O 0 !3 too V 00 00 > M ~ 1 a o +-» H 3 P P O B oj rP V CO O 00 bo -2 .a 6 ? H 6 EXPORTS. 50 Notes and Gleanings other counties mentioned in that return ; and a more numerous population than the county of the first class ^3 g 0 . 0 'S'o to ; N >. « O CO 0 ~6 0 O O C/5 0 : 0 c 0 ' N H Pn M ... On O 0 10 c n g R ^ •s PM ^ o' 0 M M O O O O IO O § CO IO 1/0 10 00 Tf O CO rt » ON O JJ co rt PQ hT rf M a M O 00 CO $ ON NO V \ > M CO ON O co 3 O M tM c On tJ- O 0 CO vo 10 1 6 M ci vo c^> 3 ON CO « vo rt 03 ^3 P CO CO CO rt - m >1? s 0 S x M NO NO r- On vo u rt o rp vo « r}- co M N N rt E ON vo 5 vo' vo" H 00 G- VJ . o^ls-s 00 M M C3 $ rf NO vO c3 vovo > 00 00 1— 1 M v TG G •S o G p. o rj U G PL, a a W C /5 P 53 <5 T3 g H nd G c/3 g S' •2 2 § "2 G 2 CT 1 PG o w 2 0 G c/3 0 > G PG c/3 H g u g H CO G a H co > o The Corn Market of Wexford. — A Table of the average prices for the years 1847 to 1866, and of the average of prices of these 20 years, as shown in the Notes* relating to the County of Wexford. 5 i and five counties of the second class possess ; and that if not entitled to rank in the first, Wexford ought, at £ o « OS5 S’ : On O Tj-00 OnnO N o ^ tO t^OO O o VO . OuntOfOTf'N'tfOirtroOsONH o w Cvvo r'- Gv to Ov ; t-i O ■vt’ roco t^.00 N N h On ^ M M . O On 00 O C\0\rO'tfOfOnN fOfOH w On O M to m W M HiMMMMMMMMM JHMMM Barley, per Barrel of 16 Stone. ►>4 O ^ 4-0 COM M M rJ-NOO O Ti-N tOtOMOO to Ov ON 00 '** M *H M . rf M M M rj- CO r^OO NCO IONO\NlC^fO»riH vO a ° c *.“13 0 •>4 O O OCnOOO O WO >00 On 00 00 On w r^. to VO On to N* M 8 . N rf O' Cn O to ^ O' w rf N h vo On On tr> to O in to f*. j*» 8 *'>e«Nl-li-iNMtOtO'»4*CONt MMMMMMMMMI-IMMtHMMMMMMlH < £ * Resume. — During the twenty years — 1847 to 1866 — prices ruled 52 Notes and Gleanings least, to be placed in the second class, and all her public officers, including the chairman of the county, paid ac- cording to the scale for the second class. Some of the other tabular returns, carefully compiled and arranged for us by Mr. J. F. Hogan, a gentleman to whom we are especially indebted for the time and labour he so kindly bestowed upon its many com- plications, show how considerable is the trade of Wexford. Mr. Frazer made a strange mistake in stating that there were “ 315,396 Irish, or 395,525 statute acres” in this county. He knew, it would seem, that Irish linear comparatively high for five years ; comparatively low for seven years, and for eight years at a barely paying figure. In 1847 the estimated loss of the potato crop was twelve or thirteen millions of money over Ireland. For several successive years this national loss repeated itself ; and even yet continues to do so to some extent. The high prices of 1853, 1854, 1855, and 1856 no more than sufficed to extricate farmers out of the pecuniary difficulties into which the low prices of five previous years had plunged them. In 1857, scarcely had farmers recovered when prices fell, and in 1858 the low level was again very nearly approached. In 1859 the ad- vance in prices was counterbalanced by deficient harvests consequent on drought. During fourteen weeks no rain fell, and there was barley sown, grown and harvested without receiving the benefit of even a single shower. A great deal of this grain did not come to full matu- rity, and the green crop, from drought also, was a general failure. In i860 and 1861 the harvests were, owing to exceptionally wet seasons, very deficient, and but very insufficiently compensated for, by the otherwise paying prices of the day. In 1862 we had also from the same cause as in i860 and 1861, a deficient harvest and with lower prices. In 1863 and 1864, prices were very low, and in 1865 only tending to a paying figure. In these years farmers sus- tained great loss by distemper in pigs. In 1866 prices condoned to some small extent the losses of previous years. Prices, then, show a barely paying average for the last twenty years, with the still great drawback of deficient harvests, which we find were frequent — and also severe losses in stock. relating to the Comity of Wexford. 5 3 measurement is to statute as 11 to 14, and he calcu- lated acres in the same ratio, not knowing that these are in the ratio of the squares of their numbers. Thus, 3 1 5,396 Irish = 485,000 statute acres. By the Ord- nance Survey the county of Wexford contains 576,616 acres, of which 510,702 are arable; to this we have to add a few thousand acres of mudlands, reclaimed from the sea since the Survey was made. The County of W exford holds conspicuously high rank in an agricultural aspect among the counties of Leinster. According to the official statistics of 1865', the estimated value of the cereal crops was ,£1,125,186 is. 6d. ; of the cattle, sheep, and pigs, ,£1,305,067. On an average of six years (from 1861 to 1866) there were 239,818 acres under crops. From want of reliable sources of information sixty years ago, Mr. Frazer had no certain grounds for as- suming that the surplus produce of the County of Wexford in 1807 was nearly equal to all the corn im- ported into Ireland for five years. In the absence of official statistics, he had recourse to the valuation books of any tithe-proctors who were willing to submit their estimates to his inspection.''' T o the vague calculation which he had made, was to be added the value of exports from the port of Ross, which must have been inaccurately estimated at the Custom-house with respect to the proportion of export from the county, inasmuch as large quantities of the * The first official collection of statistics was not commenced until 1847. The Census Commissioners in 1841 obtained but vague returns of the number of cattle, size of farms, and extent of arable land, and 54 Notes and Gleanings exported grain were, we may assume, supplied from the adjacent counties of Kilkenny and Carlow. When it is considered that a great part of even the most naturally fertile baronies was under the indigenous furze at the date referred to, and long subsequently, it cannot be doubted that the cereal and other agricultural productions of the County of Wexford were much less then than they are now. VALUE OF LAND NEAR WEXFORD IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE I 7TH CENTURY. From Egertons Diary , which is in the British Museum, we collect the following curious particulars. Mr. Egerton came to Wexford in 1634, with two friends, to invest money in the purchase of land either from individual owners, or from the Crown, and reported thus — There is a small farme called the Parke, which is now leased unto one Mr. Hardey, an Englishman, who lives upon it, and hath an estate in it of about thirteen yeares. The landlord is one Mr. Wm. Synode of the Lough, a man that needes money. This land is almost an island ; and the rente, which Mr. Hardey payes, is about ,£16 per annum. He said, it contains about 300 acres, other say 200 acres, without certain information as to the area under crops. There was no near approximation to realities before 1847, when the investigation which at first must have been difficult and imperfect, was so wisely undertaken. relating to the County of Wexford. 55 and that it will kepe 20 or 30 milch kine, and yield sufficient come for a small familie. There is the most convenient seate for a castle I ever saw ; but there is not more room whereupon to erect a castle betwixt the water and a high bank of the wood than four or five roods in breadth, but sufficient in length. Mr. Hardey demands for his interest, which is thirteen years, ,£55, and will abate nothing. Mr. Turner, father-in-law to Mr. Synode, demanded an ^100 fine for a lease of eighty yeares in reversion, after the thirteen yeares now in being . . . Mr. Turner desired to know what I would give; I would offer nothing, — but Mr. Main warring offered ^20 for a lease for eighty yeares. Mr. Turner replied that ,£40 would not be accepted ; upon this wee breake off.” The Townland of Park (249 acres) is now valued in the Ordnance Survey at ^326 a year. Judges, rebels, mayors, and mayoresses are quaintly described in Egertons Diary : — This day (July 18th, 1634) I went to the court, the assizes being now here held. The judges that ride this circuite are — Sir George Shirley, lord chief justice of Ireland, and Sir John Phillpott, one of the judges in the Common Pleas, a little, black tempered man. There I saw four justices of peace sitt upon the bench with Sir John Phillpott ; amongst which was my cousin, Mainwaring, a courteous, grave gentleman and civill, who came from the bench, and saluted me in the hall, and accompanied me to the taverne, and bestowed wine upon me. He is agent to Sir Henry Walloppe ; and is a justice of the peace of this countie ; and was a burgess of Parliament. He told me there were three rebels condemned, as alsoe he advised me rather to goe by Balliehacke, and by the way of the passage, than by Rosse, because of the rebells which frequent thereabouts. Thereof, he said, there were about six or eight, and these furnished with some pieces, pistols, darts, and skeves ; and some of them most desperate spirritts, and so cruell, that the inhabitants of the countrie dare scarce travel that way. These are proclaimed rebells ; and such are to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, soe soon as they are apprehended ; soe also are those to be dealt with, all who are now to be executed. This morning I went unto, and visited both the judges, and was respec- tively used by them. The maiyor, a well-bred gentleman, that hath 56 ' Notes and Gleanings an estate in the countyre, and was knight of the shire last parlia- ment, invited mee to dinner, as allsoe to supper with the judges. He is an Irishman ; and his wife is Irish, in a strange habitt, with a thread-bare short coate with sleeves, made like my green coate of stuffe, reaching to her middle. She knew not how to carve, looke, entertain, or demeane herself. There was a kind of beere (which I durst not taste) called charter beere, mighty thick muddie stuffe, the meate nothing well coaqued, nor ordered. Much discourse about the rebells. There was a letter sent, and reade this night att supper, advertising a gentleman in towne, that last night they came to his house with a purpose to take away his life, because hee prosecuted against them, and informed him that they had taken from him to the value of ^200. The judge here saide, if all the justices of the peace did not waite uppon them to Rosse to guard them from these rebells, he would fine them deeply. The Wexford harbour herring fishery was described by Egerton as having been a means of great prosperity to the town and fishermen, boats of ten tons sometimes taking from £ 20 to ^40 worth of herrings in one night. But herrings were then forsaking the coast, and the town was decaying in consequence. Assuming that £30 was obtained by a nights fishing, and considering how low was the money value of agricultural produce at that time, and the trifling price of herrings, the quantities of them taken must have been vast when equivalent to the large sums realized by the capture of them. The strange will of a farmer in the parish of Tacumshane at the same period — a document pre- served in the Registry Office of the diocese — will show how highly money must have then rated.*. * In the name of God, amen — I David Cod of Balledongan, in ye Parishe of Kilscoran the xiii day of October in anno 1624, do make this my last will and testament. Imprimis — I bequeath my soul to God, my body to the earth. relating to the County of Wexford. 57 If the former instance serve us to judge of the compa- rative difference in value of landed property, the items mentioned in this, will enable us to judge of that of chatties. The testator in this case held in fee, and his brother John Codd held also in fee the adjoining town- land still known as Codd’s Ballyell. Ballydungan at present is without a dwelling-house, and is thus set down in the Ordnance Survey — “ Land 106a 3r 32p — Ballyell, 128a 2r 35p — Annual Value of Land 4s. od.” The property under Cromwell passed into other hands, and the descendants of David Cod, or his brother John, once owners in fee, it would be a vain task for us to endeavour now to trace out, though the name is plentiful in the county. Sic. transit. Item — I leave my goodes to my wif, Ellen Cossen, and to my six children, John Cod, Philip Cod, Robert Cod, James Cod, Ellen Cod, and Jowan Cod : — that is, the third part to my wif, and the others to my children. Item — I leave my daughter Jowan Cod, to be my trewe and laffal executor, to dispose all my goodes moveable and unmoveable, to the best and godliest uses. THE INVENTORYE. Towe Kowes one Bullocke xxxs. Six Shepe - ixs. A Got xviiid. A Swin iiiis. ix Kokes and Henis iis. iid. Half a hif of Bees xiid. Korne in rick xxs. A Brassen pott and pan xs. Iron Pottes xviiid. A Quame xviiid. All Household lumber iiis. Cofferlettes, shettes, sacks and bagges - xs. Hempe and flaxe iiis. David Cod. 58 Notes and Gleanings Anderson, in his Annals of Commerce , stated that, about the end of the last century — On the Irish coast the fishermen generally load their boats in a single haul of a net. Each boat cleared ^54 in three months of the summer fishing, though herrings were sold at 10 d. a thousand, and at times as low as 4 d. for as many as a horse would carry. Millions of fish were boiled down for oil, and millions thrown away. Herrings do not frequent the Wexford coast now, as in former times, whatever be the cause ; but it is pro- bable that the state of the entrance to the harbour was much more favourable for fishermen and herrings than it now is ; and there is no reason to suppose that the nautical skill and daring of modern fishermen are inferior to the same qualities possessed by their forefathers. The foregoing matter leads naturally to a notice of modern Wexford. The situation of the town of Wexford is advan- tageous, and even picturesque ; and, from its compa- rative proximity and good commercial position with regard to the south-west of England, there is little doubt that it would long since have become a flourish- ing and important town had it not been for the shal- lowness of water at the mouth of the harbour. V essels of very large tonnage are, thereby, prevented from entering the harbour, and the trade (consisting chiefly inward of coal and timber) has been necessarily much restricted and crippled. While there is in the harbour itself a depth of water sufficient to float vessels of almost any size, and a fine expanse of tidal river stretching for miles inland, a bar or shoal .of shifting sand frequently threatens to block up the entrance almost entirely, and renders not only the navigation dangerous, but prevents relating to the County of Wexford. 59 that regularity of traffic which is so essential to en- larged trading. Under existing impediments, there is no inconsiderable export trade in cattle and poultry, corn and malt, and lately, in pit-wood and oysters. The quay is regular and well-proportioned, extend- ing about one thousand yards in length. There is a small dockyard, and also a patent slip. Hitherto a long wooden bridge spanned the river, from the western extremity of the quay, facing the court-house, to Ferry Bank, on the far side, near Ely House, the handsome residence of the late Mr. Hughes, J.P., to whose energy and enterprise Wexford is much indebted. He was one of the most influential residents, and an active promoter of civic improvements. This bridge is now being rapidly removed, and ships will soon have a largely extended area of safe and improved anchorage. An exceedingly handsome iron bridge has been built about three-quarters of a mile higher up the river, with a drawbridge to admit the passage of vessels. This bridge is a free one, and has a fine, imposing appear- ance. It is of great width and length, with two spa- cious causeways at each side, and affords an excellent promenade.'* The approach over this bridge from the * This bridge deserves special notice, and will be a lasting monu- ment of fame to Mr. Farrell, C.E., who is reported to have drawn up the plan and specification in three weeks; and to Mr. Pierce, the builder and contractor, for so ably carrying out the architectural de- signs of the engineer : and it gratifies our nationality to know that all this great work has been of home execution. Length 1320 feet. Width (embracing two footpaths, 5 ft. 6 in. each) 32 do. The longitudinal beams which support the roadway and footpaths are of wood, the covering of which is strong metal sheeting, on which 6o Notes and Gleanings Castlebridge side gives a very pleasing view of the town, gradually rising from the river side to elevated ground behind. About two miles up the river there is another and very picturesquely placed bridge at Ferrycarrig. This is a toll bridge, made of wood, and thrown across a sharp angle of the river, on the opposite side of which is a romantically placed old castle. On the Wexford side of the river, there has been erected a monument to the memory of Wexford men who fell during the Crimean war. It would be difficult to find a more picturesque pass than this at F errycarrig ; the river on each hand spreading out lake-like, and little boats, or, in the vernacular, salmon cots, every now and again dotting the expanse, and casting nets. The en- trance to Wexford over this bridge is very good, along a broad, well-kept road, lined to a considerable extent with substantial and nicely-kept villas, On the right is Belmont, a handsome edifice, the property of the Earl of Donoughmore, but now, like too many Irish man- sions, uninhabited, though let to Lt.-Coir Hatton, who resided there until recently, and who gave excellent example in the high cultivation of the demesne. On the left bank of the river a good view is obtained, as the concrete and road-metal are laid. The roadway is well elevated in the centre, and the curbing plates of the footpath are so made as to allow free escape for moisture, thereby preserving the roadway in a dry and clean state. The iron railing at each side is both neat and strong, every ten feet of its length being strengthened by cast iron brackets. The draw- bridge, forty feet span, is in the centre, where there is the greatest depth of water. This bridge was erected in 1862, at the cost of ;£i 8,000. The cost of the approaches, under separate contracts, amounted to ^11,000. relating to the County of Wexford. 6 1 we proceed along this approach, of Saunders Court, an extensive demesne, formerly belonging to the Earl of Arran, and now in the possession of Captain Giles ; and a little further on, Artramont, the seat of Mr. Le Hunte, J.P., forms an attractive feature in the sce- nery, which, particularly when the tide is in, is from this point very lovely. Through an excellent suburb of detached and semi-detached houses and terraces, em- bellished occasionally by well-kept gardens, the main road is cpntinued until it meets the streets of the town proper. On the right is the diocesan school, and,* branching off a little still to the right, is the infirmary, a plain but substantial building ; while further on is the gaol, an extensive and by no means repulsive-looking building, although the drop is conspicuous over the en- trance. Up to this point, and for a little further, the approach to the town is so excellent that strangers are favourably impressed, and prepared to see a much finer town than really exists. The town consists chiefly of one long main street, extending east and west, and running parallel with the river. This street is in some places very narrow, like those of most old Irish streets — so nar- row, that two vehicles can scarcely pass at some places. This great defect is, however, gradually being reme- died, and intervals of greater width are becoming ap- parent, where new houses have been built some feet backwards. It is to be hoped that, ere long, a more sweeping and rapid progress will be made in this re- spect. Taking into consideration the disadvantages as to street accommodation, the shops are, on the whole, wonderfully good and clean, and the houses well kept and extensive for business purposes. Strangers, indeed, 62 Notes and Gleanings quite surprised at the narrowness of the streets, are equally astonished by the comfortable accom- modation found in most of the houses. The lodgings are generally excellent as compared with those of other provincial towns of the same size even in England, while house-rent is very moderate ; a good-sized house, fit for a respectable family, being not difficult to be ob- tained for about thirty pounds a-year. The same de- scription of house in other towns would, probably, let for more than double this. There is a great deficiency in public buildings of any merit. The town hall has no pretensions to grandeur ; while, further on, the Pro- testant church presents externally no appearance what- ever of an ecclesiastical character, though recently the internal arrangements have been made very complete. There is a second Protestant church at Selskar, a little to the right of the main street, much more ecclesiastical in its general appearance. Two Roman Catholic cha- pels, built by subscriptions amounting to ,£50,000, have been recently erected. They are exceedingly handsome, of the Gothic style, with spires 230 ft. above the ground level, and have greatly improved the general appearance of the town. There is also an extensive Roman Catholic college, well situated, and of rather imposing effect ; and close to it, on still higher ground, is a convent, which, from its position, is a striking ob- ject in the locality. Wexford was a fortified town, and in many places portions of the old walls remain, particularly at Selskar and Westgate, where, until comparatively a recent date, an old gateway stood, and where still stands an old castle, now used as a coach-house by the enterprising relating to the County of Wexford. 63 landlord of an adjacent hotel. The little church at Selskar, before referred to, has been built so that its entrance is through a portion of the old monastery. On the hill, not far from the convent, a capitally-built new schoolhouse has lately been erected from funds left by a Mr. Tait. The assembly rooms, if cleaned up, and relieved of some of its surroundings, would be by no means an insignificant building ; and near this it is interesting to observe a house, in front of which a slab has been placed, to commemorate the fact that the poet Moore’s parents lived in it for many years, and that their highly-gifted son was for some time nurtured there. Continuing our way along the main street, we emerge at the east suburb, leaving the barracks, a plain, ordi- nary building, on the left, and we enter what is called the Faythe, a less imposing suburb than that of the side through which we entered, but not less interesting in its peculiar character. Unlike old Irish suburbs, it is of great width, and lined by rows of generally neat and respectable houses (chiefly inhabited by people of the humbler classes), and many of them coloured va- riously. At the eastern extremity of this long suburb there is the handsome house inhabited by Mr. T. E. Devereux, J.P., who for several years represented the borough in parliament, and whose nephew is the present representative. Few towns of the same population, about 12,000, are better, if so well, supplied with reading-rooms ; and this is a very suggestive fact, and speaks well for the tone and character of the inhabitants. There are, at least, four, we believe five, excellent reading-rooms, 6 4 Notes and Gleanings well supplied with papers and periodicals. To the Mechanics’ Institute the late Sir Francis Le Hunte left a valuable legacy of books and some antiquities ; and a useful library has already been formed by the Chris- tian Young Men’s Association, whose newly-erected building is a creditable enterprise, contributing to those widening improvements in the main street to which we have already alluded. The town is governed by a corporation, and returns a member to parliament. It has an extensive trade in malt, and there is a large distillery and a small brewery. The Bank of Ireland, the Provincial Bank, and the National Bank have each a branch in Wexford. The uncertainty as to the railway and other impor- tant undertakings has hitherto checked improvements in the town, but we are sanguine of rapid progress ere long. There is ample and yet easy scope for speedy development and material prosperity. The construction of a pier, and establishment of a packet station and safety harbour in the south bay of Wexford, has in late years occupied the earnest atten- tion of some gentlemen, among whom Mr. Le Hunte, of Artramont, has been distinguished for his unwearied exertions in bringing the subject prominently before statesmen and capitalists. The increasing obstructions at the Wexford bar cause frequent difficulties and delays, and even danger, to the steamers and other vessels of traffic. The in- convenience occasioned not unfrequently, in the general export trade of cattle, more especially, by the state of the bar, is of serious moment ; and the activity of the local fishermen, which, with assurance of harbour relating to the County of Wexford. 65 safety, might be profitably extended to the fishing ground, which is not many miles distant from the bay, is checked by their dread of not being able, in cases of storm, to make a safe return passage through the bar to their moorings, near the quay of Wexford, which is five miles from the bar ; therefore much of their sailing time, which, if they were moored at least occa- sionally outside the bar, would be spent in fishing, is spent in unprofitably sailing to and fro within the har- bour. The Irish public are deeply indebted to Mr. Blake,' M.P. for the city of Waterford, for his efforts, both in and out of the senate, in the important cause of our sea-coast fisheries. Whether the subject be considered in its philanthropical, financial, or utilitarian aspects, the adoption of this gentleman’s suggestions — as ex- plained in his pamphlet, for developing the great indus- trial resources which our fisheries present for utiliza- tion — should be strenuously urged. He gives some very pertinent extracts from writers on the present subject. Two or three of them we must quote : — Colonel Richards, in his History of Wexford , states that, prior to the rebellion of 1641, there were in one year entered in that port 100,000 barrels of fish for exportation, and nearly a similar quantity made up for home consumption. Against no branch of Irish industry and enterprise, Mr. Blake ob- serves, were more determined and, unfortunately, more successful efforts directed to crush, than the Irish sea fisheries ; e.g. one of the petitions to the Cromwellian parliament complained, “ That there were sometimes to be seen at Wexford 200 sail of vessels, English, French, and Dutch, taking in fish cargoes from the Irish ; and that if this be permitted, it will be folly to catch herrings in the English Channel 7 66 Notes and Gleanings in the hope of sending them to Spain, &c., for profit, as the cost of a barrel of such fish at Yarmouth was double that at Wexford.” Sir William Temple wrote to the Lord Lieutenant in 1673 : — “ The fisheries might prove a mine under water, as rich as any under ground.” The proposed harbour at Ballygeary would open the shortest, safest, and least expensive line to London. Being placed in correspondence with Welsh and Eng- lish railways, it would give easy access to the principal English markets, and having feeding lines on the Irish side of the Channel, more extended and more advantageous opportunities for the sale of the agricul- tural produce of a large area of Ireland. These com- binations of sea and land routes would afford great con- venience to shippers, increased accommodation to pas- sengers and general traders, and saving of time and money to all. The distance from Greenore Point to Fishguard is only forty-two miles, or about two and a-half hours’ steam passage ; and Fishguard is nearer to all the great Eng- lish centres than any other point on the opposite coast. Alderman John Greene, J.P., late Mayor of Wexford, in his evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, in 1865, “was of opinion not only that it was needful and desirable to have piers, packet stations, and harbours on the south-east coast of Ireland, in con- junction with a proposed network of Welsh and Eng- lish railways, but that Ballygeary had special and dis- tinct claims to be a selected place.” In corroboration of his statements, some clear and elaborate statistics, com- piled by Mr. John Francis Hogan, whose abilities for such labour are of a high order, were presented. relating to the County of Wexford. 6 7 With regard to the most important point in the whole matter — the practicability of the suggested scheme, of which the accomplishment is hoped for, through the medium of a loan if not a grant from Go- vernment, in furtherance of the work — it need only be said that a weight of evidence in favour of the harbour at Ballygeary has been collected from admiralty and other scientific engineers of the highest reputation, and from sailing masters of long experience and observation of the local peculiarities. A county meeting was convened, to consider the sub ject, of which an extract from the newspaper report is appended below.* * Rosslare Harbour, And the Wexford, Dublin, and Water- ford Railway. — At a Public Meeting, convened by requisition to the High Sheriff, held at the County Courthouse, on Saturday, the 15 th instant, the Right Hon. Lord Carew in the chair, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : — Proposed by A. W. G. Guinness, Esq., High Sheriff ; and seconded by George Le Hunte, Esq. : — That great advantages to the whole of the south of Ireland, as well as to the county of Wexford, would be opened by the establishment of the proposed short cross Channel passage from the South Bay of Wexford to Fishguard Bay. Proposed by Richard J. Devereux, Esq., M.P. ; and seconded by Edward Solly Flood, Esq. : — That the proposed harbour in the South Bay of Wexford is of the highest importance to the trade, fisheries, and general interests of the county of Wexford, and will also be valuable to shipping generally for shelter, as its site possesses all the requisites of a good harbour ; has a depth of twenty-one feet at low water, with peculiarly good holding ground and smooth water. Proposed by Charles A. Walker, Esq., V.L. ; and seconded by H. Talbot, Esq., D.L. : — That the circumstances detailed in the foregoing resolution render the construction of the harbour of such great public importance, that it is clearly within the object of the Harbour and Passing dolls Act, which authorizes loans to harbour authorities ; and that we, therefore, 68 Notes and Gleanings The great reclamations of mud-lands in the harbour of Wexford will have some notice in an ensuing num- ber relating to Shilmalier, in which the completed part of the reclaimed land is situated. Here we give a suc- count of the reclamations effected in the barony of Bargy. Mr. Rowe, D.L., was, we believe, the originator of the undertaking in the famine period, when public and forward a memorial, signed by the chairman, on behalf of this meet- ing, to the Public Works Loan Commissioners, who are entrusted with the carrying out of the above-named Act. Proposed by R. W. Hall-Dare, Esq., High Sheriff, Co. Carlow; and seconded byF. A. Leigh, Esq., J.P. : — That the completion of the railway connected with the proposed harbour, would be facilitated by the consent of the landowners, whose interests are largely involved in the success of the undertaking, to ac- cept shares or some deferred security in place of immediate payment for the land ; and that the following gentlemen be appointed to con- fer with them on the subject : — The Directors of the Waterford and Wexford Railway; Sir James Power, Bart.; Charles A. Walker, Esq.; J. H. Talbot, Esq. ; the Mayor of Wexford ; R. J. Devereux, Esq., M. P. ; with power to add to their number. Proposed by J. S. Waddy, Esq., Mayor of Wexford; and seconded by George C. Roberts, Esq. : — That should the invited inquiry by the Commissioners prove more expensive than is anticipated by the Directors — who have been already at considerable expense in getting the Act of Parliament in the last session, and in otherwise furthering the project — a subscrip- tion list ought to be opened for the purpose of providing the requi- site funds. Proposed by John Richards, Esq. ; and seconded by Jacob Powell, Esq. : — That copies of the resolutions of this meeting be fonvarded to the Earl of Derby (the Prime Minister) and the Chancellor of the Exche- quer. Signed, Carew, Chairman. Lord Carew being moved out of the chair, which was taken by the High Sheriff, Mr. Walker moved and Mr. Talbot seconded — That the thanks of the meeting be given to Lord Carew for his dignified conduct in the chair. Signed, A. W. Grattan Guinness. relating to the County of Wexford. 69 private works were of paramount necessity, in order to employ the distressed peasantry. This gentleman, who possesses very extensive property in the large district under notice, in conjunction with the late Sir Francis Loftus, Mr. F. Bruen, Mr. Swan, and Mr. Wm. Boxwell, whose properties surrounded the lake of Ballyteigue — an area of 1660 acres — submitted a memorial to the commissioners appointed under the provisions of the Drainage Act.* The report of Mr. Russell, C.E., de- monstrated the easy accomplishment of the proposed undertaking. The report showed details which amount to the following main points. The tidal water entered at a narrow passage, and ran through an estuary which, on the seaside, was protected by a range of sandhills, five miles in length. Floods periodically extended over 600 acres adjoining the river, which ran into the lough ; and 700 more were liable to injury either from high tides overflowing their banks, or from want of footfall from the waters. The drainage and improve- ment of these lands was impossible without the exclu- sion of the sea- water in the first instance. It was pro- posed then, to enclose 1,630 acres of mudlands. The whole space to be drained, reclaimed, and improved was 2,845 acres. Mr. Russel’s plan described the mode by which the three rivers at that time running into the lough and slob, might be discharged at the bar, partly by a canal or new river-course, taking up the waters at such elevation as would, by adopting a contour line, receive in the waters of two other small rivers, lower down, and conducting the united streams to a large area * Act 5 and 6 Viet. 76 Notes and Gleanings within the bar (where the fourth river would unite with them), would form a body of outgoing water suffi- cient to prevent an increased accumulation of sand at the bar. All these anticipations of the engineer have been fully realized. But there arose impediments to the undertaking. Meetings were held, and lawyers were employed to oppose it on various untenable pleas, which were overruled. The Board of Works consented to advance the necessary funds, and this great under- taking has prospered even beyond expectation. In May, 1879, the instalments payable to the Government for the loan will cease ; and even now the reclaimed land pays a fair profit. The portion belonging to Mr. Boxwell, as one of the five frontages, has been many years in cultivation, producing very fine cereals and green crops. About 500 acres (now the property of Mr. Murphy, heir of Sir Francis Loftus), has not been yet cultivated, but is good land. Excepting this portion, and some wet spots under pasture for stock during the summer season, the entire area is dry, and has been under re- gular and remunerative cultivation, and paying poor rates since 1861. The canal gives facility for conveying to the interior, sea-sand and seaweed from the lower termination, sends up fish to the different streams communicating with it, affords better falls to two water-mills, improves the na- vigation at the entrance where small vessels trade in coals, and acts as an arterial drain for relieving more than a thousand acres of land, which previously were subject to flooding. Mr. Rowe has thorough-drained on his demesne and relating to the County of Wexfoi d. 7 1 outlying farms, 300 acres, and will drain more. He commenced draining in 1830, according to what was called the French system, which was to sink twenty inches deep, and lay three stones on edge at the bottom, so as to leave an open channel in the middle, and superadd stones and tough sods. In deep ploughing, these drains were disturbed, and eventually choked. Mr. Smith, of Deanston, paid a visit to Mr. Rowe, and the immediate result was thorough-draining on that gentleman's system. Mr, Rowe used a plough formed for opening the drains and sinking them wedge-shape, at such distances between them as the nature of the subsoil required. In the operations of opening and filling the drains, the plough was constantly at work, except at the boutings, going up one line of drains and down another with unin- terrupted horse labour. The only part performed by men in cutting the drains was the pick work at the bottom, which was narrowed there to four inches from eighteen inches at the top. Mr. Rowe was the first introducer of Finlayson’s harrow, and the mowing ma- chine into the county of Wexford. The progress of agricultural improvement in this portion of the county within fifty years, may be best shown by the past and present circumstances of a sin- gle farm — that of Mr. Meadowes, near Killinick. This gentlemans father-in-law, the late Mr. Lloyd, though a man whose earlier life had been passed in the city of Dublin, possessed great tastes for agricultural pursuits, and was well versed in the best works on farming, of his day. He married, in 1810, a Wexford lady, and in the following year purchased from the Edwards 72 Notes and Gleanings family the townland of Ballycogley and four adjoining ones, containing about 550 acres. All these lands had been let to tenants, and were in a very backward con- dition, so much so, that one of them, to whom Mr. Lloyd had given an iron plough, returned it, saying that “ it would kill his horses!” In 1816, Mr. Lloyd bought the tenants good will in the townlands of Leachestown and part of Ballycogley, now called Thornville, con- taining 200 acres, at that time in a wretched state ; a great proportion of it, especially the lowlands leading from Killinick to the cross of Ballycogley, had never been brought into cultivation, was covered with water, rocks, and furze bushes, and was a great resort in the winter season of wild ducks, teal, and widgeon. The upland, when sown with corn, would produce nothing but weeds and couch-grass. Farming in the neigh- bourhood was in a wretched state. Some of the occu- piers kept dairies, and paid their rents by butter, cheese, and pork. In 1818, Mr. Lloyd commenced draining, fencing, and planting. His cattle, at that time, were the old Irish long-horned. In 1819, he bought two Dutch cows and a Dutch bull ; but finding that those cows gave poor milk, he sold them, and pur- chased a few Devons instead. In 1820, he was the first introducer into Wexford of the cradle scythe for mowing corn. In 1826, he commenced building the out-offices. Two years afterwards he imported from England two shorthorn cows, then usually called Dur- ham, one a beautiful cow named Ruby, and an equally handsome roan called Bess, which animals were the mothers of his herd of dairy cows, thirty in number, which would have stood comparison with any herd in Ireland relating to the County of Wexford. 73 of the same number at that time. In 1830, Mr. Lloyd commenced building the present house at Thornville ; and completed all his buildings in 1836, drained 130 acres, subsoiled the greater portion, planted nine acres with timber, and made 1 760 perches of thorn hedges. He was the first in the baronies to introduce green crops on a large scale.* Mr. Lloyd died in 1853, and was succeeded by his only son, who died unmarried in 1855. On his de- cease, Mr. Lloyd’s property descended to his only sur- viving daughter (now Mrs. Meadows), wife of the present clerk of the peace of the county. It is a singular fact that, on the same farm where corn was first cut in the county of Wexford with a scythe, it should have been first cut by a reaping-machine, thirty-eight years afterwards, Mr. Meadows having been the first pos- sessor of such an implement in his district. The farming has been carried on at Thornville as nearly as possible in the same manner, and on the same principle as pursued by Mr. Lloyd. Only two or three of the Thornville cattle trace their lineage to Mr. Lloyd’s stock. In 1850, Mr. Mea- dows commenced the formation of his shorthorn herd, which now ranks amongst the best in Ireland, and con- sists of about forty animals. They have never en- tered the show-fields of the Royal Irish, or Royal Dub- * Amongst the implements introduced was a cattle tube. A curious incident occurred with respect to it. A farmer in Mayglass, to whom it was lent, used it upon his cow ; but he applied it at the wrong end of the cow, expecting to drive out the turnip or potato which caused the obstruction by the same passage at which it had entered ! ! Of course the animal died, but the fact is significant as indicating the state of knowledge in the farming classes at that period. 74 Notes and Gleanings lin Society without distinction. Mr. Meadows is an admirer of the Booth breed, and his stock, though not pure Booths, have a strong infusion of that blood ; several of them are directly descended from the famous cow, Lady Maynard ; but the tribe to which he is most partial are the Fannies, which in his hands have been most fortunate and profitable. Mr. Meadows has lately purchased from Mr. Carr, a distinguished English breeder, at a very high price, the fine bull named Prince of the Realm ; and gained the first prize and Townley plate at the Royal Dublin Society’s Spring Show, for a magnificent yearling short- horn roan bull, out of 108 animals, some of which were of splendid breed and condition. The farm manager, William Hartwell, has lived be- tween forty and fifty years in the employment of the family, and many of the subordinate workmen have been there for nearly as long a period. The farm horses bear a pleasing testimony to the kind and good treatment they too have received in the same establish- ment. Out of the eight farm horses, six are remarkable for longevity, the youngest of these being twenty-four years old, and the eldest thirty -four. This oldest one is in wonderfully good condition, and has bright eyes and much spirit. “ A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.” These horses have always been kindly treated. We have observed with much interest the admirable management by a lady,* of a farm of sixty acres, held * Mrs. Waddy, widow of Dr Percy Waddy, whose untimely death has been an event of wide-spread regret. relating to the County of Wexford. 75 under lease from Lord Monck, near Killinick. This is to a very small extent in tillage, sufficient to supply the live stock with food in winter. The stock consists of two horses, five dairy cows, three two-years’ old, six yearlings, four calves, thirty sheep, forty-two hoggets, forty-two lambs, and two pigs, all well kept. As the tillage is on so small a scale, there is little cost of labour, although the garden and avenue are kept in the neatest style. The farm and household expenses are kept with the utmost accuracy, every item of outgoings and incomings being entered daily in a book with un- varying punctuality and order, even to the most trifling details. We have been permitted to examine it mi- nutely. It appears that her nett yearly profit, after deducting every charge on the farm, garden, and house repairs, has ranged from ^150 to ^175, including, how- ever, the estimated value of house, rent free, butter, milk, and vegetables, for this small but hospitable family. The actual gain in cash varied on three years from £50 to £88, and during a large portion of that period four horses were kept, two of them in the best style for riding and phaeton work only. This case shows what may be effected by good eco- nomy and close attention in farm management on a small scale. The cottage is very ornamental, and kept in the greatest elegance. Amongst others of the gentry who cultivate well and feedstock extensively, Mr. John Nunn, J.P., of Silver- spring, must not be passed over, as he is one of the most useful and respected of the gentry of his barony, and farms on a large scale and well. He is a very near relative of Mr. Nunn, of St. Margaret’s, one of the 76 A T otes and Gleanings principal proprietors of the barony of Forth, whose aristocratic and ancestral mansion on the sea-side is decaying rapidly, and now uninhabited : the demesne lands are let to Mr. Furney, who lives in the more modern mansion house of Hillcastle, which belongs to the same proprietor. Mr. Furney keeps grazing stock chiefly on the grounds which he holds. Mr. Archer, of Mount Pleasant, is another gentleman who holds a considerable extent of land. His dairy is remarkable for excellence. Five medals have been awarded to him by the South Wexford Farming Society for the best samples of butter. The deterioration of Irish butter in quality, and its consequent depreciation in the English market, from over-salting and imputed want of cleanliness, does not apply to the butter made at Mount pleasant, where the dairy and all its appur- tenances cannot be excelled in cleanliness and eood management in Holland or any other country. Mr. Boxwell, of Sarshill besides his original property of 1 15 acres at Innish, with 270 acres of reclaimed mud- lands now added to it, holds under lease for a long term of years from Mr. Rowe, 425 acres in two farms, on one of which is a good mansion-house, and on the other a very pretty cottage, with sufficient accommoda- tion for thirty dairy cows and several horses : he has also farm-offices at Innish, and at his other farm, Brides- well. At present his general stock consists of 30 dairy cows, 130 head of other cattle, 300 sheep, 100 pigs, and 24 horses. About one-half of his entire land is under tillage rotations ; the rest meadow and grazing ground. His rotations are — 1. Wheaton ley; 2, Green crop (43 acres in 1867) ; 3. Barley, with grasses ; 4. Mea- relating to the Comity of Wexford. 77 dow, and then pasture. Within the last two years he has applied 1,000 brls. of lime, and 8 tons of superphosphate of lime. Within the same time he has thorough-drained forty acres of his newly -acquired farm of stiff clay, at the cost of more than £y per Irish acre, the general depth being four feet, but that of some of the mains and submains nearly double this depth. Mr. Boxwell employs constantly fifty labourers, many of whom have earned from gs. to 1 2 s. a week in drain work ; the or- dinary rate for others is now ys. a week, and both men and women receive is. 6 d. in harvest time. The great* regularity of shape, and the high cultivation of his large fields, divided by well-preserved hedge-rows, especially on each side of the handsome road which leads from this gentleman’s home-farm at Sarshill to the boundary of Mr. Rowe’s demesne and onwards, has much simili- tude to some of the best specimens of Scotch agricul- tural landscape. To observe upon the farming of all those tenant far- mers, who are remarkable for excellent husbandry, and whose homesteads are not merely respectable, but ex- tremely neat and ornamental, is out of our power. We can but select a few who, from local circumstances, have come under our special observation. Mr. Sparrow, of Ballyconnick, tenant of Mr. Clifife, D.L., of Bellevue, holds 200 acres (besides a farm else- where), and is remarkable for the great extent and good construction of large ranges of farm-houses which he has nearly completed. This farmer has all the modern appliances of machi- nery for economizing labour, and preparing food for cattle and pigs. His present stock consists of 24 fat- 73 Notes and Gleanings tening cattle (the same number has been sold off), fed on palm-nut cake, locust meal, and turnips, of course ; several well-fed heifers and calves ; 80 pigs, in numerous well-flagged yards ; and a good flock of sheep. He pursues the system of mixed husbandry, and is one of the few who drill barley and oats. From the height of the rising ground which sepa- rates Ballyconnick from Clerystown, the property of Mr. James Howlin, jun., but rented by Mr. John Roche, one of the most extensive and finest views of the south and south-east parts of the county is obtained. This latter farm, which is nearly an entire townland, is, with the farm-house, adjoining chapel, and Roman Ca- tholic clergyman’s residence and large pasture fields, a very bright and conspicuous feature in a large tab- leau. This farmer, who has a large dairy stock, well- kept, several sheep, and much tillage, has received from his liberal landlord, as a testimony of regard and encouragement towards a very industrious and exem- plary tenant, the renewal of a lease of the farm, in- cluding an unexpired term, of 99 years, at 23s. per Irish acre. The parish of Kilcowan, containing 2,081 acres of excellent land, is occupied by a superior class of tenan- try, The habitations, gardens, fields, and hedgerows of Dr. Crane, the Messrs. Codd and Francis Rowe, in a close group, show what might be done also elsewhere, even with much inferior advantage of soil. The soil here is calcareous. Limestone is raised and calcined in the pa- rish. This has facilitated the improvements witnessed, but the industry, intelligence, and good taste of the prin- cipal tenants, with that honourable and liberal dealing on relating to the County of Wexford . 79 the part of Mr. Swan which is the prominent character of the Wexford landlords, have been the latent causes of the superiority exhibited in this and so many other localities. One of the Messrs. Codd, who has a snow- white water-mill adjoining his nice house and farm- offices, all of which are of extreme neatness, farms on a large scale, and remarkably well. But, instead of de- tailing particulars of his good management, which would be but a repetition of what is observable in nu- merous instances in which the system of mixed hus- bandry is pursued, we shall note a few particulars * of a small farm separated from the other by a high- way. This farm consists of sixty-two acres, and is held by Mr. Francis Rowe, whose father had also occupied it during a long period. On this we found the following stock : — five horses, fourteen cows fat- tening (seven others had been sold off), four milch cows, fourteen store heifers, fourteen calves several hand- some sheep and Berkshire pigs, young, and full-grown, in excellent order, and remarkably clean. Francis Rowe is one of the few who appreciate the advantages arising from keeping even the milch cows in their stalls during great part of the year, except during a few hours of the day for air and exercise. His farm is divided into seven rectangular fields neatly fenced — in one instance by, a young thorn hedge protected by a wire fence. During the winter and spring season, no hoof of horses and cows ever treads on his land — a remark- able contrast to the generality of small farmers whose horses and cows are turned out to crop the growing blades of grass, and trample down the headlands of fal- low land, or roam in bare pasture fields on the sabbaths 8o Notes and Gleanings and holydays even of the winter months — in order to refresh and strengthen them for the work of the ensuing day. He observes the following rotations : — i. Oats — from ley. 2. Green Crop. 3. Barley. 4. Clover and Meadow. 5. Pasture. He has machinery suited to every purpose. In the middle of his little farm-yard, there is a hollow space for receiving during a short time the manure from the cattle sheds and stables, but the solid portion is frequently carted off to an adjoining field, where the dunghill is formed ; and the liquid portion is conveyed away by a covered drain to a dyke, where it is for a time stagnant. This is the only deficient point in the economy of the liquid manure. There is wanting here the Belgian cistern, and a wheel-machine, for receiving and conveying to the land the liquid, to be used for stimulating cabbage or other plants. The per- fect cleanliness of the little farm-yard is uncommon. By the good feeding in house, of horses and cattle throughout the whole year, a much larger amount of ma- nure, and of crops, consequently, is obtained on this farm than on others -of the same extent elsewhere. Yet farmers, generally, will not perceive the extravagance and waste occasioned by their ordinary usual mis- management in this respect. They will not see the absurdity of turning animals out to crop off blades of grass, just as they are springing up ; and of leaving cows in summer to rush violently over pastures in pain and dismay from the tortures inflicted by the gad flies, from which they seek to escape. But it is in the perfect order and neatness of his household economy, that this practical farmer exhibits the most pleasing example, for instance, every room relating to the County of Wexford. 8 1 in his house is neat and tidy — everything in its place, and a place for everything. His own sleeping apart- ment and those of his two servant-women and three farm-labourers, are as clean, well ventilated, and tidily arranged, as any rooms can be — the kitchen equally so — answering the description given of Carne household tidiness in a former number. There is even a little anteroom between the kitchen and the dairy, with barely space for a snow white table and three chairs, for masons, carpenters, or any other craftsmen who might be employed, in order to have them at a* distinct table from that at which the servants sit. The benevolent and happy looking master of this model establishment could not improve the order and economy of it by the auxiliary attention of a wife ; and this con- tented bachelor is probably of the same notion. Yet we hope that some worthy woman, of tastes congenial with his own, may be so fortunate as to obtain him for her consort. In 1851, Mr. Brown became tenant to Mr. Cliffe, of 227 acres at Rathronan, near Bridgetown. This farm was then in a very bad condition ; the greater part being very wet, and productive only of bad herbage, rushes, and abundance of furze. Of this, 140 acres were drained by the landlord, under the provisions of the drainage act; and subsequently, sixty acres by the tenant, of which a great part was redraining, the first operation having partially failed. Mr. Brown, by constant atten- tion, outlay of capital, and the application of lime in the proportion of about sixty barrels to the acre, has rendered this land very productive, though much yet remains to be done in draining. His rotations are — 8 82 Notes and Gleanings i. Wheat, on lea limed. 2. Oats. 3. Green Crops. 4. Barley. 5. Meadow. 6. Pasture. His stock con- sists of nine horses, fourteen milch cows, fifteen two-year olds, twelve yearlings, sixty-eight sheep, twenty-six pigs. He employs thirteen male labourers constantly (most of them receiving diet in his farm-house), and five women ; and is considered a very kind and satisfactory employer, neither changing his labourers, nor captiously finding fault with them. The progressively improving state of his farm is very obvious. Mr. Browne has in addition a small farm of better quality, and more easily cultivated. Mr. Wilson, J.P., ofSledagh. — This gentleman, dur- ing several years of his fathers advanced period of life, took a lease from Mr. Richard Lett, of a new and ex- cellent house, with a farm of 418 acres, in the parish of Kilkevan, and has proved himself to be an earnest, spi- rited, and clever agriculturist. On his paternal pro- perty — now his own — he built kilns on the small portion of land where lime was discovered many years ago : the quarry has been extensively worked in late years by this gentleman. A large tract of very indif- ferent ’land, in a poor district, has been considerably improved by the lime obtained at this place. There is a powerful steam-engine for working the pump, which has great lifting power. A quarry at Duncormuck was opened and worked by Mr. John Shudall, but the Board of Works was obliged to stop the operations while stones were required for the embankments of the new canal. When that stop- page ceased, Mr. Meyler worked the quarry, which was sunk to the depth of sixty feet. The river, which relating to the County of Wexford. 83 used to cause great flooding and difficulties, had been diverted from its course, and banked out, in order to obtain a better vein of grey limestone ; but the embankment is imperfect. The tide, which rises daily against it, oozes into the foundation, wherever this is soft and porous. The re-opening of this quarry is desirable, as it would give much employment to the village labourers. At Seafleld a short distance from this, Mr. Meyler has another quarry (not now being worked), which is provided with a very powerful steam-engine, by means of which much labour of men and horses wid be saved in lifting and conveying, by tramway, to a convenient position, the quarried stones, when labour will have been recommenced. At Baldwinstown and Rathpark the quarries are in full work, but the want of steam-power there has occa- sioned, in wet seasons, great interruptions to labour. A portable steam-engine has been lately stationed there to work the pumping apparatus, which operation had been previously executed at great cost of manual and horse labour, and loss of time. The quantities of lime and limestone delivered from these kilns are large, and of wide-spread benefit to farmers, who will not hence- forth, it is expected, suffer the delays and disappoint- ments experienced when the supplies of stone and lime were stopped from inability to keep the quarries dry. The increase of earnings to the labourers in them is now thirty per cent, more than it was formerly, and will, probably, continue at this standard if a permanent steam-engine be placed there. But none of these quarries can compete in scale of operations and completeness with the establishments at 8 4 Notes and Gleanings Kerlogue, near Wexford. Fortunately for agricul- tural interests, Mr. Harvey Boxwell, J.P., has purchased valuable property there, under the Incumbered Estates’ Court, and has, in consequence, greatly enlarged the scale of the operations in which he had been for many previous years engaged. This gentleman has built a new and continuous range of lofty kilns, much on the plan and principle suggested and adopted by the late Sir Charles Menteith, at his lime quarries in Scotland. There is now no waste of area ; the comparatively superficial working of the beds of limestone no longer prevails. For the conveyance of limestone to the pier on the strand, where it is discharged into the barges and cots, which convey it up the Slaney to Enniscorthy and many intermediate stations where it may be re- quired,' 1 ' Mr. Boxwell is completing a small canal. The saving of time and horse labour in carting the stones to the strand, will be important. The tidal water in the canal will flow to the vicinity of the quarry and the limekilns ; a short tramway serves at present * Mr. Boxwell has adopted the prudent, fair, and rational principle of selling limestone, strictly by weight. The more usual practice is that of selling by bulk, the purchaser expecting to have at least 30 cwts. to the ton. The demand for calcareous manure, in one form or other, is in- creasingly great. Potatoes and turnips are now often grown without any dunghill or other ammoniacal manure. Messrs. Walker and Son, of Wexford, have sold as follows of superphosphate of lime ; and other agents, though not so extensively, have sold very large quanti- ties : — Year. Tons. Yeax. Tons. i860 ... 297 1864 497 l86l ... 343 1865 439 1862 ... 414 1866 473 1863 404 1867 455 relating to the County of Wexford. 85 for the local work required. All the old rough earth- works are being planted with trees in every available spot ; and the little vale where the now unsightly operations are going on, will be embellished with patches of plantation and short avenues of trees. Mr. Boxwell has built a very tasteful double cottage for workmen on one side of the high road which separates his quarries into two portions ; and a long range of handsome and permanently solid stone wall, as a boun- dary of his farm-land in the same highway direction ; and he will continue that line farther towards Wexford; planting elm trees all the length on the inside, where they will be protected by a wire rail. Between Kerlogue and Wexford there stretches a series of low hills of reddish grey, picturesque rocks, with little glades intervening, where in the spring months a gorgeous array of golden blossom intermixes with nature's livery, green, on the townward termina- tion. Some years ago a neat cottage, erected there by one of the merchants of the town, was enlarged and embellished by Captain Partridge, R.N. : several patches of ground have been cleared and turned into gardens ; the whole of the waste district, if brought into improved condition by means of money and taste, would form pleasing sites for villa residences, and suburban retreats. Between Kerlogue and Rathaspick, Mr. Allen, of Latimerstown, is at present expending much labour and money in reclaiming several acres of extremely wet and stony land, of which he has lately become the pro- prietor, and of which he was formerly the tenant. A few acres had been planted by him in 1829, principally 86 Notes and Gleanings with Scotch firs, which, from exposure of situation and wetness of soil, grew but slowly : these he cut down and sold for pitwood ; and he has drained and cleared of stones, the ground on which the trees grew, at a cost of ^15 per acre. The quantity of stones is so great, that Mr. Allen finds the most convenient way of getting rid of them, is by making some of his drains of unusual depth and width, for the purpose of burying the stones, however large. A great portion of these drained and cleared lands will be under green crop this season. SHELMALIERE EAST. Having described the baronies of Forth and Bargy, we shall next proceed to Shelmaliere, as lying next in order on the east and north of the town of Wexford, and reaching into that town. This barony, which nature has divided by the river Slaney, was, for fiscal convenience, separated some years ago into east and west divisions. They have, however, this in common, that they include the river at, perhaps, its most picturesque reach, and so embrace some of the richest and most lovely scenery of which our county can boast. The margins of the river are studded with the residences of the gentry, who are not ashamed of their native land, and take pride and pleasure in its improvement. As, however, the divisions of the barony may be considered to have given each a separate exis- tence, and as they have many natural distinctions, we shall view them apart from and independent of each other. relating to the County of Wexford. 87 Shelmaliere East contains 16,357 acres, commences in a point of land opposite the town of Wexford, and thence gradually widens, having for its boundaries the coast on the east, the river Slaney on the west, and the barony of Ballaghkeene on the north, spanned by the handsome metal bridge already described, at a part of the river where it opens in a wide basin, surrounded by banks partially wooded. On the sea side, as we advance from Wexford, we come upon the ruins of the church of Ardcavan, by an embankment running nearly straight across for the dis*- tance of about three miles, where it meets the coast of the Irish Channel. Behind this lies what was once a very large estuary, but now shows a somewhat Dutch prospect of rich flat land wrested from the sea and made productive. As this is, undoubtedly, one of the most distinguished features of this part of the barony, and as it throws some light on the interesting question whether the expense bestowed on the reclamation of such mudland be remu- nerative, we shall quote part of our own account of this experiment, as it appeared some years ago in the Gar- dener s Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette : — The idea of reclaiming these mudlands originated in an attempt made in 1814 by two brothers named Thomas, gentlemen of respect- ability, who expended ,£30,000 (unsuccessfully as it turned out) to reclaim an area of 800 acres on the south side of the harbour. In 1816 they had so far accomplished their design that the sea was banked out, but a high tide caused a breach in the embankment, and as it was not promptly repaired, the water regained its former limit and their enterprise failed. The great work of interest now to be detailed, originated in the zeal and talents of Mr. J. E. Redmond, who took up 88 Notes and Gleanings the idea, as practicable on the north side, aided by Sir Edward Grogan, late M.P., for Dublin, Mr. George, late M.P. for the county of Wex- ford, Mr. Maher, formerly M.P., Mr. Dargan, the enterprising and generous designer of the Dublin Crystal Palace, and other gentlemen possessing capital and enterprising spirit. They entered into com- munication in the year 1 846 with the Lords of the Admiralty, in order to obtain the right of enclosing the north and south sides of the Wex- ford harbour, computed to contain an area of about 10,000 acres, ex- clusively of the long, tortuous, and wide channel. Opposition, however, to the undertaking arose on the part of the Town Corporation on the plea that the navigation of the river would be obstructed by it. The company therefore undertook in their first bill submitted to Parliament, to improve the harbour by their opera- tions ; but it was subsequently settled that the company should pay to the Admiralty the sum of ^20,000, in consideration of being exone- rated from responsibility which might have involved expense and liti- gation. They have already paid ^10,000, and are to pay ^10,000 more in annual instalments. This was a heavy incumbrance on com- mencing an enterprise of questionable success and certain cost of great magnitude. All the preliminary difficulties being arranged, and the Act of Parliament obtained, the company began their operations in 1847, when employment of labourers was of pressing importance. Having a natural sand bank on the sea side, the artificial embank- ment in continuation of it was commenced near the bar of the har- bour, on its north point, and was traced in a curving line so as to enclose more than 2,400 statute acres. Clay from adjacent heights and a small island, was the material used ; its breadth is 8 feet at top, the slides inclining considerably outwards so as to present a strong base, and much of it is faced with stone ; a canal running parallel with the higher land on one side carries off the water of a river within the boundary, and the overflowings of the ditches. The entire of the enclosed area was ploughed into ridges in the year 1850 and 1851, and laid out in parallelograms from 50 to 100 acres in size by canals and drains from 9 to 1 2 feet wide, which conduct the surplus water to the principal outlet, where an apparatus of sluices and pumping engine periodically discharges it. The following is an analysis of the reclaimed soil : — relating to the County of Wexford. 89 Potash No. 1. 1. 041 No. 2. 0. hi No, 3. O.O98 No. 4. 0.082 Soda 1.187 0.485 0.221 0.240 Lime 1. 152 0.231 0.213 0.286 Magnesia ... I - I 77 0.223 O.604 0.243 Alumina 2.188 4.669 3-334 7.055 Peroxide of iron ... 1.364 3-055 1-525 2.832 Protoxide of iron ... 1.169 2.563 2, '02 I 0.371 Phosphoric acid 1.063 0.103 O.O98 0.055 Sulphuric acid 1.494 0.588 O.366 0.293 Hydrochloric 0.015 0.073 0.021 0.025 Silica existing in combina- tion decomposible by hy- drochloric acid ... 5*984 I3-958 9-547 6.738 Clay or silicates indecom- posible by do. ... 15-449 52.234 34-679 9.631' Silicious sand 66.649 8-354 37,957 65-815 Water, not driven off at 212 0 Fahr., and organic matter rich in nitrogen 5.607 12.137 8.707 4.806 Carbonic acid and loss . . . 99.369 0.631 98.915 1.086 99423 o-577 98-475 1-525 100.000 100.000 100.000 100.000 Results have proved that the opinion pronounced in 1851 by Pro- fessor Sullivan, chemist to the Museum of Irish Industry, after he had tested the different specimens of soil submitted to him for analysis (as above shown) was correct. He stated that the soil was rich in all ingredients necessary for the healthy vegetation of plants of every kind ; that the absence of chlorine showed that the drainage was effectual ; that the quantity of salt was not injuriously excessive ; that exposure to the atmosphere would free the soil from the superabund- ance of it ; and that lime, especially, would render protoxides and peroxides of iron innocuous, and act favourably on the sulphuric acid combined in very large quantity with iron. Lime, it will be seen, is in small quantity among the other components ; therefore the introduction of it is desirable, even independently of its efficacy as a corrective of the ferruginous substances. It might be supposed that some per centage of humus would ap- pear ; but neither in these mudlands nor in the analagous polders of Belgium, as far as we have had any opportunity of judging, has this 90 Notes and Gleanings important element in the nutrition of plants been distinctly noted in the analyses. It is, of course, included in the organic matter “ rich in nitrogen,” but in what ratio to the “ water not driven off” does not appear. Yet this nitrogenised substance is of pre-eminent value in the constituency of a soil. The debris of fish, insects, and acquatic birds, and of decomposed acquatic plants would in mudland soil, it might be presumed, contribute no very trivial per-centage of humus. The moist land was first dug into ridges, in order that the moisture should ooze away through the intervening furrows to the ditches. Frequent rains — excepting, of course, towards and during the harvest period — proved highly serviceable to the newly reclaimed soil, by washing off the superabundant salt which in a season or two is suffi- ciently discharged to allow the indigenous grasses to grow freely, so that the grazing by cattle quickly became profitable. Grass seeds, however, are usually sown when the land is prepared to receive them, among which Timothy and Cow Grasses hold pre-eminent rank. In the second, third, and fourth years, wheat and oats were cultivated with great success. The beneficial effects of lime applied fresh from the kiln, in neutralising the oxides and peroxides of iron, have been so fully experienced that a regular system of liming is now adopted. Fortunately there are limestone quarries on the south side of the har- bour, from which the stone is conveyed by lighters to a kiln built near the embankment just noticed, and put out when calcined on the ploughed land before the sowing of com. The average quantity of. lime applied weekly during the whole summer preparatory to wheat sowing was 400 bushels. The extent of crops that year was, wheat 280 acres, barley 156 acres, oats 150 acres, meadow 60 acres. The estuary thus reclaimed contains about 2,400 acres, which used to be the chief feeding ground of the innumerable swarms of barnacles and other sea fowl of which we read accounts in the old histories of the county, as the entire space was uncovered at the ebb tide, with the exception of a few small islands. One island, named the great Inish, unites with the artificial embankment, and much time and expense were saved in embanking ; the other-named Beg Erin, relating to the County of Wexford. 9 1 or Little Ireland, lies more within the bounds ; but it is far moie interesting from its historical associations, of which the remains of an exceedingly ancient church bear witness. It is highly probable that this church-yard at Beg Erin is the burial place of St. Iberius* (of the fifth century) ; a rude stone marked with a cross, and flanked by two other crosses of rather singular form, and facing due east, indicate, we are disposed to believe, the very spot where the saint was interred. Parishes, and a church in adjacent localities, bear the name of St* Iberius. A river, sixteen feet deep, or more in one part, passes along the margin of this little island, and it is conjectured that its channel here was the old entrance into Wexford. Timber has been found (in cutting drains) which appears to have been the piles of a causeway, or bridge, con- necting the two islands, the outer one of which is now part of the seaboard boundary. Colonel Richards describes the two islands as “ wade- able from one to the other, and accompted as one.” Barnacles, noticed at page 7, are more specially alluded to in the description given by the Colonel, of Beg Erin and its almost contiguous island : — It is most certain that from the 21st day of August, on which day the barnacles come into the poole or harbour of Wexford, to the 21st May every yeare, they are in numbers wonderfull; but on the 21st day of May they doe all leave it, going northwards by sea, and, in the opinion of many curious observers, they goe to the northern isles of Scotland to breede; for on the 21st August following, they doe cer- * Called Ivorus, in Patents, temp. Jas. I. 92 Notes and Gleanings tainly returne into the same poole or harbour of Wexford, bringing their young ones with them in numbers beyond expression. For above twenty yeares my relator habitually observes them, not failing the time of going or coming, as also of their swimming when the tide is with them, and then flying when the tide is against them, now and then resting themselves on the water. The present state of the new land, and the general re- sults, are most satisfactory. As regards the work of recla- mation, it appears to be a perfect success. All of the ordinary crops thrive and flourish on the now firm and sound soil ; fine herds of cattle are reared and fattened on the pasture ; and sheep are profitably kept upon it — great care being taken to procure the best and most suitable grass seeds from eminent seedsmen.* We saw on the 14th of May, 1868, a fine lot of fat cattle — fit for the shambles — which had been winter fed on the pas- ture — another lot had been stall-fed and sold off — with no other feeding. The season was unusually mild. When otherwise, the cattle had the advantage of ob- taining shelter in the wooden sheds that have been erected for such purpose. The ownership possessed by the original company, is now vested in Sir Edward Grogan, Bart., and the re- presentatives of the late Mr. Redmond and Mr. Dargan. It is hoped that the south side of the harbour, within the boundary of the barony of Forth, embanked as ex- plained in a former number, will become an object of reclaiming operations. A powerful steam-engine sleeps there, awaiting the call to active labour ; and the prospect of a steam- * Hay, lately sold by auction in this tract, is of superior excellence, and highly nutritious. The produce tons per Irish acre. relating to the County of Wexford. 93 plough, with its accessories, through the vista of our ardent imagination, raises the reasonable expectation that the work of reclaiming this richer portion of alluvial land, will be more rapid and much less expensive than the previous operations. Experience, too, has been acquired by the past labours, and the new work will start with greater advantages than those which at- tended the praiseworthy and successful undertaking which we have endeavoured to represent. It may be assumed that a system of mixed husbandry will be the best on all the reclaimed portions, the sub-* jacent elements of fertility being inexhaustible ; the steam-plough and cultivators will easily bring them into action when necessary. The subject of labourers' dwellings and wages, in the southern baronies, must not be omitted. Very few cottages have been built, or in any way expressly provided for workmen by landlords* or tenant farmers. Labourers are generally located in the vil- * A remarkable exception to the general rule is apparent in the ranges of slated cottages for labourers, built many years ago by the late Mr. Hamilton Knox Grogan Morgan, in two localities conti- guous to the extensive demesne of Johnstown Castle,. The newer of these are especially good, and to each of them is attached from one to two acres of land. During the first years of their establishment a superintendent occupied one of the cottages, in order to encourage and instruct the inmates in the management of their gardens and allotments for cottage husbandry. Some of the labourers kept a cow, and followed the system of minute husbandry recommended by the late Mr. William Blacker, of Armagh, and exemplified on the estates of which he was the active and much-valued agent. There are some mechanics intermingled among the occupiers of these labourers’ dwelling-houses. The advantage of possessing such dwel- ling-places, with at least gardens of good size, at low rents, belonging to them, is to the labouring poor a valuable acquisition. Major Harvey deserves honourable mention in this particular. 94 Notes and Gleanings lages, or by a road-side, where cabins are frequently a nuisance, from the injuries they occasion to the fences, and the encroachments they invariably make on the width of the road adjacent to them ; and the dykes which they excavate. Until recently the wages of a day labourer, undieted, has been generally a shilling per day ; it is now one or two shillings more, in the week, especially in the neighbourhood of towns. With this amount, a man with a family incapable of adding earnings, and paying rent of even but sixpence weekly, is almost starving, at the present price of any sort of meal or breadstuff : potatoes are altogether out of the reach of the poor. Within our own extensive range of observation, the ordinary labourer, with a helpless family, is in a pitiable condition comparatively with that of the well-to-do petty farmer. With labourers whose families are able to earn wages in aid, the case is very different. Some classes of la- bourers — quarry-men, for instance, and labourers at piece-work, such as draining — under liberal employers, can earn high wages ; much higher, in proportion, from the comparative scarcity of able-bodied and skilled workmen (so many of this description having left this country) than formerly. And single men, especially, who are dieted and lodged in farmers’ houses (and they are a numerous class), are far better paid than formerly, the rise being from fifty to eighty per cent, above the rate of wages so lately as six years ago, in that particu- lar class. The first enquiry interesting to the agriculturist is the quality and kind of soil. This in the southern extremity is much the same as that of its neighbour, relating to the County of Wexford. 95 the barony of Forth — strong clay land, and therefore well suited for beans : but as we approach the boun- dary hills of Skreen, the soil is light, and therefore easily worked, yet requiring a humid season to make it productive ; while the strong clay elsewhere, retaining the moisture under its hard surface, preserves its in- trinsic good condition in dry weather, so that it is not easy to describe the north and the south together. And sometimes these different soils are so intermixed even in the same field as to try the skill and ingenuity of the farmer to adapt his husbandry to please such* opposite tempers. There is no limestone in the dis- trict, and very little stone of any description ; and the rocky coast, which gives such abundance of seaweed to the Forth farmer, is wholly wanting on the Shelmaliere shore, which is mere sand. As we have taken Forth for our standard — our base of operations, as the engineers say — we shall connect our observations on Shelmaliere East by comparing it with the other barony. We cannot assert that the comfort and neatness so characteristic of F orth (and much of Bargy) are equally conspicuous in East Shelmaliere. The system of tillage, on the whole, is not much different ; but the cottages, especially of the humbler kind, remind one more of Ireland. Yet we should wrong this portion of the county, if we let it be supposed that such is its general feature. There is great appearance of comfort and thriving industry scattered, by no means thinly, over the district ; and for landscape beauty, the banks of the Slaney, studded with the handsome demesnes of the resident gentry round the northern estuary of the g6 Notes and Gleanings harbour, the lovely slopes of Saunderscourt and Artra- mont, present a variety of rich and cheerful landscape that is perhaps unequalled in the county. Edenvale need only be mentioned, to call up visions of veal pies and pleasant saunterings in the memories, and perhaps hearts, it may be, of many of our readers, fair and unfair. Undoubtedly the chief cultivation, as an object of admiration and interest, which this district affords, is the experimental and also successful husbandry pre- viously described, on the reclaimed mudland of Curra- cloe (the property of Mr. Toole, whose handsome villa was erected at the head of what was then a fine sheet of water, but is now converted into a beautiful land- scape. All this is within the parish of Ardcolme, which is not altogether rural, for it contains the thriving com- mercial village of Castlebridge, one of a class seldom met with in this county. It is situated on the margin of the harbour estuary, at its northern termination, and is within three miles of Wexford by road, and having ready communication by water with the quay of that town. It is no inconsiderable place for trade in grain and malt. The corn-mill and malt-houses of Mr. Breen have long been in high repute. Until the abolition of the Wexford toll-bridge, this gentleman, and his father previously, had great advantage in obtaining supplies of grain from a wide portion of the north-east part of the county. By disposing of their corn at Castle- bridge, instead of going to Wexford, some miles of journey to and fro were saved to the farmers, who were liberally dealt with by Mr. Breen. A short tidal canal affords convenient transit from Castlebridge stores to relating to the County of Wexford. 9 7 the quay of Wexford, and boats of from fifteen to twenty tons burthen convey thither malt and flour, and bring timber, slates, coals, limestone, and town manure to the village. There are other enterprising persons there besides Mr. Breen, though on a much smaller scale, who deal in corn and coal, and add to the pros- perity of the place. Monthly fairs are held there, and they are among the most important in the county. The inhabitants are very quiet and honest, and, even on fair days, drunkenness is very rare with them. This village, however, though improving in the style ' of its houses and cottages, has many unsightly habita- tions of the poorer population. But some extremely neat cottages and villas are near it. Within the village, Mr. Breen's house, with lawn, conservatory, and terraced garden, commanding a beautiful view of the harbour and town of Wexford, is conspicuous for neatness and order. He cultivates 275 acres in very good style. His stock of well-bred cattle and sheep is large. Within seventeen years he has drained exten- sively with pipes, manufactured in Wexford, which he uses in preference to stones, even where these are easily procurable. In the churchyard, which is enclosed by a high wall from the village street, there are several venerable elm trees, and the adjoining rectory is noteworthy for the fine elm trees and plantations which adorn the glebe. About a mile distant on elevated ground we viewed the farm of Mr. Culleton, which affords pleasing testimony of good practical management. Unlike the many ordinary farmers, who overcrop and poorly manure their land, this man is indulgent to his fields, 9 9 8 Notes and Gleanings which are bearing luxuriant crops, free from weeds. His pasture fields, which are large and of uniform shape, on which there is a handsome stock of young cattle, are also clean and indicative of care : his eco- nomy of manure is peculiar among this class of hus- bandmen. He employs his horses, on all convenient opportunities, in drawing town manure (especially of stable yards), from Wexford — a distance of more than four miles. This he leaves unused during two years, mixing and turning it if necessary, until it is perfectly decomposed and commingled, in which condition it is most favourably applied to green crops and as top-dress- ing of grass land. Such holdings, though not models as show farms, are in their class very valuable evi- dences of thrifty industry and prospering contentedness, conditions generally creditable, both to the owners and occupiers of the soil. A few miles nearer to the sea, and in the parish of Ardcolme, Mr. Edward Gainfort (Barony Cess Col- lector) farms in a superior manner. 'To judge rightly of his untiring industry, skill, and expenditure, the vi- sitor should have seen the state of the farm when he entered on it. He is fortunate in being tenant of two of the best of land proprietors, the Hon. Mrs. Deane Morgan, and Captain Hatton. He feeds his cattle and horses with vetches and clover in summer, and does not turn them out in winter to trample the land. This farmer employs sixteen male and female labourers con- stantly, and diets them all. Some of the men are lodged in the house ; the others have cottages and little gardens rent-free, and get milk besides 6d. a day, all the year round, with some addition in harvest. relating to the County of Wexford. 99 The want of water in summer is an inconvenience occasionally experienced in this neighbourhood. In the more northern part of the same barony (as in the contiguous Barony of Ballaghkeene) there are small loughs, locally termed Dhulochs,'* which have the pe- culiarity of being higher in summer than in winter. One of these, by far the largest, is really striking. It lies dark and solitary at the foot of hills so steep and unwatered, one wonders how it ever forced out such a recess ; and the wonder increases when we are told that its level is higher in summer than in winter. How this occurs, we leave to wiser heads to explain. On Mr. E. Gainfort’s farms, drain-pipes are used in conse-' quence of the great scarcity of stones. Moving westwards by Artramont, remarkable for the fine groupings of timber which adorn its beautifully- kept demesne, we reach the post-office at Kyle. The ornamental cottage, and lateral row of smaller dwelling- houses (with a tiny garden in front of each), built many years ago by the late Mr. C. G. Harvey, J.P., are the commencement of a drive through a parish in the most advanced degree of rural elegance, on a perfectly even road, with foot-paths, and double rows of thriving trees, carefully preserved from injury, leading first to the de- mesne of Kyle, which is entered by a curving avenue, through a young plantation of shrubs and evergreen trees, to whose flourishing growth the sandy loam with admixture of peat, in which they are planted, is very favourable. The family house of Kyle is at present uninhabited, as its proprietor, Captain Percy L. Har- * Signifying (in Irish) black loughs. IOO Notes and Gleanings vey, D.L., has built, on a site nearer to the Slaney, a handsome mansion, with garden, offices, farm-yard, and buildings on a suitable scale. For extent and beauty of prospect, Lonsdale, the name which the new build- ing bears, is unsurpassed by any other place in the county. It has a range of distant view, bounded on the west and south by the high barriers of mountains, and hills at either end, and the softer beauties of the ascending demesnes of Wilton and Bellevue in the im- mediate foreground, on the opposite side of the Slaney. It looks, in the downward course of the river, to the steep-wooded banks of Carrigmannon and Killurin, and the metal bridge, which crosses at one of the most lovely bendings of the river, and in prospect of the fine mansion house of Tikillin,* the property of Mr. Charles Arthur Walker, D.L., and formerly M.P., who has here nearly 300 acres of valuable and picturesque land. The labourers’ dwellings on it are of a superior description, consistently with this gentlemans long-established re- putation for generous and encouraging treatment of the tenants on his estate in the barony of Forth. The house in cottage style, called The Deepst (lately the re- sidence of Mr. Redmond, M.P., to whom we have referred), has the same range of view T . We are next to sketch the prominent features of SHELMALIERE WEST. Instead of commencing with the portion which unites * Called Percy Lodge, while occupied by Mr. Percy Freke, brother of the late, and father of the present, Lord Carberry. t The old Norman castle of this name (a corruption of Dieppe) is higher up the river. IOI relating to the County of Wexford. with Forth at Wexford, we shall begin with the part which adjoins Shelburne, in order to avail ourselves of the introductory description of it which we have in the MS. of Robert Leigh ; and in immediate connexion with that, to notice the very extensive and admirable culture exemplified now on the property which the chorographer himself formerly possessed. That MS. describes the outline of Shelmaliere (evi- dently the western part) in these words : — The barony of Shilmalier lyes to the N.E. of Shilburne, and is divided from it by the river called the Blackwater, and runs towards Wexford in the south of the Slaney. It is much the same sort of soyle with that of Shilburne, and yields the same graine, viz., wheat, barley, ^ oates, but little pease or beans. In some parts it affords rye. The soyle is generally shallow and dry, but there is good pasturage in many parts thereof, especially near the River Slaney, but not much meadow ground. The aforesaid barony is divided into peeces,* viz., ye peece of Rossegarlande, ye peece of Taghmon, ye peece of Cool- stuff, ye peece of Carrick, Sinnot’sland, and Roche’sland — whereof Sinnot’sland and Roche’sland lye beyond ye river Slaney : I can say but little. The peece of Rossegarland lyes on the south part, butting upon the river of Clonmines, is surrounded almost with two rivers, which fall into the river of Clonmines at ye place called Ballilannan, and the other is ye river of Rossegarland, which divides, for two or three miles length, ye barony of Shilmalier from that of Bargye, and is deep water in most places, but a narrow river, and has slimy banks. It affords summer store of salmon-peale, large troutes, eeles, and per- ches, and towards ye mouth of it very good bass and mullet and other kinds, and about Christmas, salmon in good season. The tide comes up ye same about a mile beyond Rossegarland house, which is three miles from ye mayne sea. It lyes near ye back of ye said river upon ye side of a rising ground where there is also an ancient castle * Peece is the old spelling of piece, and means an indefinite tract of land. 102 Notes and Gleanings and about thirty acres of wood, all oak, fitter for ornament than any benefit. Rossegarland, together with most parts of that peece, did anciently belong to David Neville, commonly called Baron of Rosegarland ; for in those days ye chief lord of this place, as well as others of ye same kind in England and Ireland, were summoned to parliament by the name of baron. The said Neville was executed in ye reign of Queene Elizabeth for treason, and those lands are, in greate part, the inheri- tance of Robert Leigh, of Rossegarlande, second son of John Leigh, of Rathbride, in ye county of Kildere, Esq., who, for his loyalty to his sovereign, King Charles 2nd, was banished into foreigne countries by the usurped powers, and there died, leaving the said Robert — being the only childe he had abroad with him — very young and a participant as well as many more, of his prince’s calamitys, till upon his majesty’s happy restoration he returned into England, and, in some yeares after, into this kingdome againe, with marks of his majestie’s favour and sense of his services. Rossegarland took its name from ye Lady Rosse before mentioned.* Mr. A. F. Leigh (high sheriff of the county in 1867) is one of the most distinguished of the many agricultu- rists among the resident proprietary of this large ba- rony. This gentleman farms about 1,000 acres of his own estate at Rosegarland. In 1850 he commenced the reclamations and improvements which he has been gradually, but energetically, working out from the com- mencement. By clearing away useless fences he has probably obtained one-tenth more of cultivable land than his predecessors had ; and by subsoiling all his * The chorographer was mistaken in this etymology. The present Mr. Leigh believes that the name was originally Roscarland, Ros signifying a promontory (or, it may be, elevated grass land) in the Irish language. The Lady Rosse alluded to will have some notice in another place. When Ross was converted into Rose, the transmu- tation of Carland into Garland was but natural, and almost necessary to give floral significance to the name. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 03 land, after an expenditure of ,£5,000 in draining, he has brought it to a degree of fertility which surprizes the old men who can compare its present with its former degree of productiveness. The cost of draining, Mr. Leigh has partly defrayed by loan from the Board of Works, and in part from his private resources. In all the work of thorough drain- ing he has used pipes in preference to stones. The parallel drains are 22 feet, apart and 4 feet deep ; and all the drained land was subsoiled before the cropping commenced; the rotations being — 1. Tawny oats. 2. Turnips, mangolds, &c. 3. Barley, with grasses. 4. Meadow. 5. Pasture. Mr. Leigh has generally 100 acres under green crops, and of these the turnips and potatoes are invariably raised from Mornington’s superphosphate, and Gold- ing’s “special manure,” at the rate of 10 cwts. to the Irish acre, without dung. The produce of potatoes on ten Irish acres, in 1867, is computed to have been 140 barrels (of 20 stone) to the acre. Goldings ^50 cup has been awarded, for the best crop of turnips, to Mr. Leigh, who has gained several medals from the Royal Dublin, and other societies. F or mangolds, dung is always used ; but generally, the farmyard manure (of which large quantities are accu- mulated) is applied as top-dressing for grass land. A great amount of artificial green fodder is consumed in the numerous well-arranged cow-houses, cattle sheds, and stables ; and Mr. Leigh has derived great advan- tage from laying down 10 acres under furze plants, the seed of which was sown in drills. This green food has promoted the good condition of cattle and horses in 104 Notes and Gleanings winter, and of course conduced to economy in the con- sumption of hay. By regularly and timely mowing the tender furze-shoots, there arises no growth of woody fibre to obstruct the scythe ; and the shoots are easily bruised by a machine. The cutting of rye as soiling for milch cows commences about the tenth of April ; vetches follow, and then clover. There are 500 breeding ewes, for which rape is cultivated in drills, and also sown broadcast, with grass seeds only. Ten horses and four bullocks are sufficient for the farm work, which is well executed. The barley is drilled (the soil is unsuited to wheat), and all the crops are clean, cereals never coming without an intervening green crop. The barns, and all the offices and build- ings are constructed on most approved principles, and nothing of machinery is wanting for performing work of various kinds, in the most economical, prompt, and perfect manner. Timber being abundant on the de- mesne, Mr. Leigh has thought it expedient to erect a steam sawmill, which enables him to prepare boards, planks, roofing timber, &c., and even wood for coopers purposes, for which ready sale is found. This mill has been useful for many purposes. It has induced the proprietor, for instance, to erect a hay barn, 150 feet long, 26 feet wide, with a wooden roof (on brick pillars) of slight scantling. This barn has on the weatherside a louvre frame, which protects from rain, or admits air at will. There is also a straw barn 120 x 65 feet, with a roofing of galvanized tin. For some of the cattle sheds, inexpensive rain-proof calico, manufactured at Portlaw, is used for covering. To preserve the cattle from the necessity of drinking relating to the County of Wexford ’ 105 foul and stagnant pond water, or treading their water- ing places into mortar, Mr. Leigh has made in all his fields, drinking troughs, built of brick, which are supplied with water from the drains. They are 8 feet in length, 2 feet in width, and two feet in depth ; the bottom and sides are cemented, and the overflow is carried off by pipes, into the nearest drain. Mr. Leigh has the talent which leads its possessor to mechanical inventiveness. He has constructed one ma- chine* for supplying cut hay to sheep ; another, for planting potatoes ; a third for sowing artificial manure in drills ; for all which he has obtained patents. Fortunately for Rosegarland and the large district ' around, limestone is brought from Hook to Bannow Harbour, and thence to Wellington-bridge (adjoining Rosegarland), on such reasonable terms, that the farmer there can have burnt lime at the cost of 1 3 d. per barrel. “ The peece of Taghmon (Robert Leigh writes) lyes eastward of the peece of Rossegarland and is the same kind of soyle, but there is limestone in some places, whereas in the former there is none.” In Lewis's To- pographical Dictionary , it is also stated that lime (of good quality) is found in this parish, at Portmarle. We have not ascertained that any limestone is now raised in that locality, or in White Church Glyn (in the R. C. * It has been described as follows : — The cut stuff is placed in the rack, and as the sheep eat from the centre trough, and .undermine the foundation, the cut hay falls down, always keeping a supply before the sheep. It is an excellent system to mix crushed oats, meal, or finely broken cake, with the hay, when fattening ; this induces the sheep to consume a larger amount of food, which is a considerable advantage when it is desired to fatten them. The rack, on account of the hay being chaffed, contains six- fold the quantity of the usual one. Price, £ 4 4 s. IO 106 Notes and Gleanings division of the parish), where it was formerly obtained. “ Taghmon had its name (as said by Leigh) from two godly men called — ye one ‘ Tagh/ and the other ‘ Mun/ who lived and died there long since — I suppose as eremites — for there are still the small chappelles that bear those names, and are said to be built by them, though the common vogue is, that the first was a bishop and the other his clerke.'* This Taghmon is an ancient corporation, and was governed by a burgo- master and burgesses. It is now quite waste in a manner — there being nothing there but a ruinous old castle, a small parish church, and about a dozen cabbins. The land yields good corn and grass. The said cor- poration and ye lands thereof for ye most part is ye inheritance of William Hore of Harperstown aforesaid, which lies within a mile of Taghmon and is a hand- some large castle where ye said William Hore resides.” About a century after Leigh’s report, Arthur Young made his celebrated tour through Ireland, and passed a night in Taghmon in a bed which did not tempt him to undress, at the inn ; the stable had neither rack nor manger; yet Taghmon, was a borough town, returning two members to parliament. It is a subject of regret that this acute and accurate observer made but a flying visit through the southern parts of the county. The landlord of the inn at Taghmon “which would have made a very passable castle of enchantment in the eyes * Lewis states that the name was originally Teagh Munno , or the house of Munno, from St. Munno, who, in the 6th century founded here an Augustinian monastery which was granted by Dermot Mac- Murrough, last king of Leinster, to his abbey at Ferns, as appears by his charter which is still extant. He was also called Munna and Fintan. relating to the County of Wexford. 107 of Don Quixote in search of adventures in the united baronies of Bargie and Forth,” advised him to call on Colonel Nunn at St. Margaret’s, as a gentleman who took special interest in husbandry. Colonel Nunn, with the assistance of a neighbouring farmer, gave Mr. Young many details of the agricultural and so- cial position of the people of “the baronies” which do not differ in the main from the statements we have given. It may be added, however, that the average rent of land, at that time, of the Bargy and Forth farms was one guinea per acre, and that land sold for from 22 to 25 years’ purchase; and that leases generally (as now) were for three lives or 31 ' years. He gives the particulars of a farm of 70 acres — by the sea-side — held by four partners whose joint live stock consisted of 16 cows, 80 sheep, 60 swine, and 20 horses. On this farm there had been, by old accounts, 90 crops of corn without a fallow or grass, in succession : sea-weed and sand being applied every year. About Taghmon, he remarked the vilest husbandry in one respect, viz.' 5 ' — exhaustion of the land by succes- sive corn crops, and then leaving it to cover itself with weeds and grass by degrees. Though the land was dry and favourable for turnips, he did not see, in a drive of 21 miles any preparation for them. He found that the land, about five or six miles from Taghmon, was let for 1 cw. to 20s. per acre ; and that the crops were * He makes this true remark — “ This soil, so excellent in the tur- nip culture, never lets at its real value in unimproved countries. It is the introduction of turnips alone that ascertains that value. Notes and Gleanings 108 barley and oats, with beans and pease which were called black corn ; occasionally introducing lime and marl, much used by the farmers who prided themselves on taking but four or five crops of corn in succession. The neighbourhood of Taghmon presents now a very fine aspect. Some of Mr. Howlins’ property is especially rich in soil, and clear of any deformities. Excellent cattle buildings have been built by him on a farm, in his immediate possession ; and if Arthur Young were to revisit this locality he would hardly recognise it as that which he had seen. Near Taghmon is Tottenham Green (a mansion with 580 acres, held by an excellent Scotch farmer), the ancient residence, and still the estate, of the Tottenham family. It was from this place that the celebrated senator, known subse- quently as “ Tottenham in his boots,” took his memor- able ride to the door of the House of Commons with “ fiery expedition,” to vote on some patriotic subject. He had barely time to enter the house, after a ride of 84 Irish miles, before the momentous division, and record the casting vote, as it proved to be. A clergy- man in the north of Ireland, related to this family, is in possession of a print of Mr. Tottenham descending the steps of the Parliament house, in boots and spurs ; and of the brass stirrups which supported the boots from which the sobriquet arose. There is a great deal of very fine land around Taghmon, with several demesnes of proprietors and county gentry. Harperstown, within a mile of the village, and with at least two miles of carefully pre- served hedge-rows along the public road which tra- verses the demesne lands, is the type of a well-ordered relating to the County of Wexford. 1 09 English manor residence : the approaches to the man- sion-house, and the drives through the demesne, which contains some noble timber and many plantations, and much oak-wood around, are quite in the English park style. Its venerable owner and occupier, Mr. Hore Ruthven, grandfather of Lord Ruthven, heir to the estate, is, excepting one other individual, the only survivor of the originators and committee of the first South Wexford Agricultural Association, embodied more than 50 years ago, and chiefly through the zeal and energy of Mr. Thomas Boyse, of Bannow. Mr. Hore was its first vice-president, and presented, on his own estate, some of the best illustrations of cottage neatness and economy. The late Lord Carew, then one of the county mem- bers of Parliament, gave an effective impulse to the movement by subscribing in the first instance ^50. Soon afterwards the North Wexford Agricultural Association arose, under the presidency of the late Earl of Courtown, and during many years those ancil- lary societies worked effectively in promoting improved husbandry among small farmers, and inducing habits of domestic tidiness, and suitable garden culture in the class of cottagers/'' * We regret that the Agricultural Societies now existing in this county have been obliged from insufficiency of funds, to limit their distribution of prizes almost entirely to the improvement of live stock, a system of arrangement, which, though it exercises correlative agency in promoting green crop cultivation, does nothing towards the worthier object of assisting the labouring cottager in his humble allotment. The Irish Peasantry Society of London generously granted in this, as in the past year, £ l 5 to be expended in the encouragement of neat cottage dwellings and cottage gardens in the Wexford Poor I IO Notes and Gleanings Before we take leave of this barony we must briefly notice the introduction of flax cultivation in a portion of it. Mr. W. E. Hallam, on his farm at Rockview, and Mr. Waldie, an intelligent and exemplary Scots- man, who holds a large farm in the same locality, have, each this year, about 1 8 acres under flax ; and we have heard that Mr. Cameron, the tenant and occupier of T ottenham Green, has also some acres under very pro- mising flax. The assistance afforded by government, who send instructors and inspectors to teach and direct all the operations attending flax culture, without charge to the cultivators, and the excellent quality of the crop this season, will prove a great inducement to an extended growth of flax, which is likely to be highly remunerative. The certainty of a good market for the produce, at the gigantic establishments of Mr. Malcolmson at Portlaw, will, of itself, stimulate the farmers of a wide surrounding district to cultivate flax to a considerable amount. Arthur Y oung estimated the clear profit, in his days, on flax in the North of Ireland, at per Cunningham acre. He took his averages from the products of fourteen districts ; the highest produce being 56 stones, and the lowest 16 stones per acre. He observes — Here is a notion, common in the north of Ireland, which, I should suppose, must be very prejudicial to the quality as to the quantity of flax produced ; it is, that rich land will not do for it, and that the soil should be pretty much exhausted by repeated crops of oats in Law Union. Is not this a gentle hint to us that, the English rule of taking the cottagers’ class into habitual consideration, and of giving prizes not only for the purposes just mentioned but for garden pro- ductions, and exemplary social habits, should be adopted in the kindred societies of Ireland ? relating to the County of Wexford. 1 1 1 order to reduce it to the proper state for flax. The consequence of this is, full crops of weeds, and of poor half-starved flax. The idea is absurd ; there is no land in the north of Ireland, that I saw, too rich for it. A very rich soil sown thin, produces branching harsh flax, but if very clear of weeds, and sown thick for the stems to draw each other up, the crop will be in goodness and quantity proportioned to the richness of the soil. A poor exhausted soil cannot produce flax of a strong good staple ; it is the nourishment it receives from the fertility of the soil which fills the plant with oil ; and bleachers very well know that the oil is the strength of the staple ; and, unfortunate it is that bleaching cannot be performed without an exhaustion of this oil, and consequent weakness. Flax, that never had but little oil from the poverty of the soil it grew in, is of little worth and will not bear the operation of bleaching like the other. We shall have some details to communicate respect-' ing this crop on a large scale in the Barony of Bantry, and shall only remark here that the increase in the area of flax culture in this county, within seven years, from 1 86 1 to 1867, inclusive, has increased from 23 acres (an average of the first three years) to 562 acres in 1867, an area nearly one seventh more than that under flax in Kilkenny the same year. Wheat may be more certainly profitable in the highly calcareous soils of Kilkenny, as barley is in the prime barley districts of Forth and Bargy ; but, generally, in the other portions of Wexford, it is desirable that flax should become one of the established rotation crops. On comparing the agricultural statistics of Meath with those of Wexford, which is nearly of the same extent, but not possessing such rich grass lands, we find that there has been more than 2000 acres on the average of the last seven years, (much more in the last than in any previous year), under flax in Meath. This extent is greater, with the single exception of Louth, I 12 Notes and Gleanings than in any other of the counties of Leinster. Mr. Young’s opinion that rich soil is the most favorable to flax, has some corroborating testimony in the foregoing fact. Wexford, besides some reclaimed peatland, in pasture* possesses a great deal of unbroken loam, which though of inferior quality for wheat and barley, is well suited to the production of flax. It is no trivial advan- tage to commence with fresh soil for the vegetation of this plant. The long continued and frequent recur- rences of this crop on the soil of Ulster, must have a deteriorating influence on it, whereas we have fresh ground to begin with. The following short extract, from the pen of a gentleman well acquainted with the subject in all its bearings, is worthy of attention : — • If we estimate the value of the flax crop by the profit it yields to the fanner, we start on a false basis, and are apt to lose sight, to a certain extent, of the advantages it confers on a country generally ; for when the material prosperity of certain classes is appreciably in- creased, substantial benefit, more or less, must accrue to the entire community. Though there is little doubt, especially at present prices [Jan. 1866], that the large farmer can make more profit from flax than from any other crop suitable to our soil and climate, yet, how much more adapted is it to the small farmer, who, with little land, and a goodly supply of “olive branches” can, to use his own words, do the work “ within himself,” and thus save or earn, as you may please to call it, the high wages which his more opulent neighbour must pay to hired labourers : the value of those earnings is vastly enhanced by the fact that nearly all the work connected with flax, prior to its reaching the hands of the manufacturer, is performed at seasons when without it, the population would be comparatively idle. Usually the crop is ready for the mill before the corn harvest becomes general. t * Flax will most successfully follow a preliminary crop of oats on drained moor-land — second ley, as it is termed. t From an article in the Irish Industrial Magazine , written by Wm. C. O’Brien Tenison, Esq., Armagh. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 1 3 He adds — where a regular rotation of crops is pursued, its culti- vation need not diminish the quantity of roots or cereals, as it does not occupy the place of either; but, on the contrary, it ought rather to stimulate their production in greater quantity and with a closer approach to perfection, in order to increase the supply of manure and fully develope the productive powers of the soil, the applicability of the saying being in this case fully verified — ‘ a good crop may pay, a bad one cannot.’ Mr. Tenison recommends the following rotations as most suited to the generality of soils — No. 1. 1st year ... Oats. 2nd year ... Flax. 3rd year . . . Green Crops. 4th year ... Wheat or Barley. 5th year ... Hay. 6 th year . . . Pasture. In the first, which is a six course shift, one sixth of the land is set down as under flax, and consequently that crop is grown but once in six years on the same ground. A more frequent recurrence is not desirable ; as, although it does not extract from the soil to any considerable extent those properties necessary to the production of cereal or root crops, it has nevertheless been found to exhaust it of those requisite for its own full maintenance and development. In the second, which is a four-course shift, flax appears in the same place but once in eight years, as one-half of the land in the fourth year is devoted to hay, the position of which is reversed in each rotation. However, in the selection of a system, the farmer must be mainly guided by his own judgment and experience. Advancing through this half barony towards Wex- ford, by an excellent line of road skirting the west side of Forth Mountain, which displays 1,769 acres of bleak, harsh, and bad land called Shelmaliere Common (valued at ^297 per annum), we again reach the beauties of the Slaney. But instead of pursuing its downward course to Ferry Carrig, we cross the road leading to Wexford by the left side of the river at Carrigmannon 2nd year 3rd year 4th year { Green Crops. Wheat or Barley. One half Hay. One half Flax. 1 1 4 Notes and Gleanings — which, until lately, was the estate of the Devereux family, who trace their descent from Robert Devereux, the unfortunate Earl of Essex, who, loved, or rather was loved, so unwisely — and pass northwards by the margin of the river at Penzance into the extensive demense of Bellevue, the portion of the estate of Mr. Cliffe, D.L., who purchased it many years ago from Mr. George Ogle Moore, formerly M.P. for Dublin, and heir of Mr. G. Ogle, who was remarkable among the public men of his day. The names of Penzance, and Cornwall — where there is a little village — are lite- rally intimations of a colony established in that locality* from the southern extremity of England. The smooth and level drive from the southern gate of Bellevue demense to the northern extremity, is at least two miles long ; and as the views of Bellevue and its adjuncts, from Kyle, Lonsdale, Moat Park and Bromley, on the opposite side of the river, are fine, so are the alternating prospects, so to speak, from the noble portico of Bellevue house, equally striking. Bromley, the seat of Mr. Solly Flood, J.P., is a new structure, conspicuous for magnitude, that is not yet relieved by the plantations, which, in a succeeding generation, will embellish it. Mowing machines were at work on the meadow land as we passed on to the farm establishments at the farther extremity of Bellevue, and most conveniently adjoining the river. * We recommend readers seeking a graphically correct and pic- turesque description of the numerous demenses, mansions, and villas, and real beauties on the three or four miles along the river side, to Ferry Carrig, to consult Mr. Lacy’s copious and well illustrated volume of Sights and Scenes of Fatherlafid. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 1 5 Here is the dwelling of the steward, who has a very- extensive charge in his department. The farm build- ings are quite complete — no deficiencies appear. There are 40 milch cows, and all the houses for them are kept in a state of unusual neatness. No one could have supposed, judging from sight and smell, that any cattle had been stalled there a few hours previously — ample means being provided for removing solid and liquid manure, and that without waste. The highbred and numerous swine are kept with the most perfect cleanliness, as regards food, lodging, and personal ap- pearance. The dairy, with its various appurtenances,' is remarkably clean, well ventilated, and well arranged. All the cereal and root crops and beans are cultiva- ted on the drill system, with evident advantage. Every sort of machinery for farming purposes is provided here ; and particularly noticeable is a machine for bruis- ing bones — which are purchased in Enniscorthy and elsewhere in large quantities — so finely pulverizing them that they can be used for crops without the ap- plication of acids to convert them into superphosphate. On a large scale of farming the power of producing this important element of fertility on the spot, at first cost, without risk of adulteration, is of great importance. Mr. Cliffe has long pursued the plan of cultivating furze for feeding cattle and horses. The seed is sown as at Rosegarland, in drills, which require weeding only in the first and second years. Being limited in our scale of space for letter-press, we must pass onwards to the important town of Ennis- corthy. Leaving the wooded rich land of Killgibbon, in the parish of Clongeen, for a future visit, when the 1 1 6 A T otes and Gleanings estate of Lieutenant Colonel Alcock, D.L., will be one of our chief subjects of notice among the peculiarities of Bantry — and with reluctance passing by the demense of Macmine, the most striking object in this almost ter- minating point of the barony of Shelmaliere, we judge now that Enniscorthy claims our attention. Besides, the transition to a civic subject, will be to ourselves refreshing, after so many monotone pages of purely rural notes. Probably Enniscorthy, more than any other ancient town in Ireland, affords noticeable evidence of the pro- gress so generally characteristic of the present century. Between forty and fifty years ago we resided within a few miles of that town, and from that to the present period, have had frequent opportunities of observing the circumstances of both town and neighbourhood. W e have neither special nor personal interest in ad- verting to its past or present state ; yet, somehow, we have taken more than ordinary pains to ascertain the causes, and obtain some knowledge of the details of the gradual, but in some particulars, very rapid transforma- tions which have occurred in this part of the county. Our retrospective, and preliminary glance at Robert Leigh’s MS., presents but a scrap of historical allusion — Inniscarthye, an ancient corporation lying on the river Slaney — where a large stone bridge is lately built — is governed by a sovereignne and burgesse, and sends two burgesses to Parliament There are now two considerable iron works belonging to this towne, which is the reason it is well inhabited. It appears from the information collected by some of the compilers of Lewis's Topographical Dictionary , that the castle and manor, after the dissolution of a relating to the Comity of Wexford. 1 1 7 Franciscan monastery in Enniscorthy, came by assign- ment from Spencer, the poet and statesman, in the reign of Elizabeth, to Sir Henry Wallop, ancestor of the Earl of Portsmouth, in whose family, however, it was not continuously vested, inasmuch as it became the pro- perty of an ancestor of the Carew family after the town and castle had been taken by Cromwell in 1649 : it was subsequently restored to the Wallop family by Robert Carew in exchange for other lands. This fine and improving town, with 29 rich townlands, be- longs to the Earl of Portsmouth. Fifty years ago, and even later in some cases, por-' tions of the lands of the estate were leased at low rents to middlemen, who, after the fashion of the day, under- let them at rack rents. The Hon. Newton Fellowes, father of the present Earl of Portsmouth, with the con- currence of the officials of the Court of Chancery in England, and through the practical agencies of Mr. Ellis, receiver, and of Mr. Joshua Roberts, resident agent, assiduously laboured to alter the system of mismanage- ment which had so long prevailed. Lord Devon (then Master Courtenay) received a statement of the rules proposed to be adopted in the management of the Enniscorthy estate. These rules the Master fully ap- proved of — 1. In selection of tenants, to have regard only to character, skill, and capital, and to make no difference on account of their religion or political party. 2. To set plots of ground for building in the town of Enniscorthy at very low rents, and on the longest leases, provided good buildings were erected on such plots. 3. On the expiration of leases of town lots on which buildings had been erected, to inquire carefully by whom such buildings had been 1 1 8 A T otes and Gleanings erected, and to grant new leases of such lots to the builders, or their representatives, at rents not much increased beyond the old rents. 4. On the expiration of farm leases to displace all middlemen, and to let the lands to the occupying tenants. 5. To let all lands at moderate rents, and in settling such rents, to have regard only to the situation and natural fertility of the soil. 6. Not to make the rent lower in consequence of the bad condition to which a tenant had reduced his land ; nor to make it higher in consequence of the good condition to which a tenant had brought his land by skilful cultivation or permanent improvements. 7. To regard all buildings or other permanent improvements on them as the property of the tenants who had made them, or of their representatives; and not to increase the rent on account of such improvements. These wise and liberal rules, originally framed by the late Mr. Ellis on his appointment to the agency by the trustees of the then Lord Portsmouth, have been strictly observed since 1822, the period of renaissance in Enniscorthy ; and undoubtedly the chief improve-* ments on this estate are attributable to the adoption of the principles on which they were based, and the literal observance of those principles in the elaboration of all details of management. In 1822 the town of Enniscorthy, at both sides of the river, contained clusters of cabins, some of which are now existing on the principal side of the town. The approaches to the town were very bad. The mail coach came down one hill, and ascended another, which was long and steep. There were no roads along the banks of the Slaney, which were then let as town parks on long leases, and were inaccessible to the public. A public road and quay were, however, soon afterwards made, by arrangement with occupiers, and by means of a subscription from the townsmen and a relating to the County of Wexford. 1 1 9 grant from the trustees of the estate. The quay on the south side of the Slaney was made in a similar manner. The St. John’s, and the present road from the bridge of Blackstoops, were made shortly aftewards by the county. The portions of those roads near the bridge of Enniscorthy are now streets added to the old town. The quays are also, as above-mentioned, new additions to Enniscorthy. The ground occupied by these streets and quays was taken from what were fields in 1822, and the stores and houses erected on these quays and new streets form a new town, lying between what was ' Enniscorthy and what was Templeshannon then. Since 1857 the Hurtsbourne road has been made at the expense of the present Lord Portsmouth, and has been extended by the county to the old Wexford road. Lymington road has also been made at Lord Portsmouth’s expense, and has been since extended by the county to the Ross road. In September, 1858, a public meeting was held in Enniscorthy for the purpose of forming a company for making a railway from Enniscorthy to Wicklow ; Mr. Ellis was appointed their secretary. This meeting was the commencement of a long struggle ; the diffi- culties were great ; the opposition was disheartening ; and the labour imposed upon the promoters was inces- sant. But those difficulties were at length overcome, principally by the efforts of the late William Dargan, and Enniscorthy is now joined to Dublin by a fine railroad, but not yet extended, as we hope it will be, to Wexford. The river, in its present condition, being quite inadequate to the requirements of the country, 120 Notes and Gleanings o and not now warranting the great expenditure of money required to render it fully navigable. With the exception of the market house and county court house, all the public buildings in Enniscorthy have been built since 1822 — several of them (the mag- nificent lunatic asylum, and the model school-house, being the last of the series) within the last ten years. A row of 24 slated cottages has been built by a com- pany of mercantile individuals, for labourers, some of whom, however, do not in all instances, present models of neatness and order in their respective habitations (which are provided with little gardens, and yards, and necessary offices), and might be both inwardly and outwardly more creditably kept. On the expiration of a lease of the abbey grounds about forty years ago, Mr. Ellis laid them out, by maps, as sites for store-houses. The malt and store-houses built by Mr. E. S. Lett,* of Malt-park-house, who has intro- duced the newest French machinery for dressing flour, are very extensive and commodious, and those of the Messrs. Davis, not much inferior to them. We counted twelve villa residences around the town — all of which, excepting a portion of one, have been built since 1822. * This enterprising gentleman, who combines in himself the se- veral occupations of miller, maltster, brewer, and general trader, farms Drumgooland, in tenancy under Lord Portsmouth, and also a portion of his own property near Templeshanbo. Mr. Lawrence Doyle, who conducts business in the town, holds a large farm under his lordship at Ballinabamagh, where he has built a first-class dwell- ing-house and farm offices on a handsome and convenient style. He is said to have expended more than double the fee simple of the farm on which the buildings are erected, without security of a lease — sure evidence of confidence in his landlord. He is distinguished among agricultural improvers in the barony of Bantry, where he pur- chased lands in perpetuity. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 2 1 Mr. Samuel Armstrong, an enterprising merchant in the town, and also the holder of a small farm from Lord Portsmouth, which he cultivates cleverly, was the introducer of first-class bulls and short-horns into his neighbourhood. The long extent of tide water between Enniscorthy and Wexford renders the preservation of salmon very difficult. It is indefatigably netted, and in summer the lowmess of water in the upper stream offers faci- lities for poaching which the utmost vigilance can hardly prevent. With much watchfulness, however, the fishing for salmon is considered good, even above N ewtownbarry. To this beautifully-situated and improved little town we proceed along the Slaney, which, with intervals of permanent meadow-lands on its margin, and fertile sheep-walks and cattle pasture on the plains, and gentle undulations, on the eastward side more especially, pre- sents a prospect of highly improved farms as far as the bridge of Scarawalsh. The traveller has the choice of two of the parallel roads conducting to N ewtown- barry. We did not diverge from the left to the right bank of the river, but continued our direct course about two miles farther on ; and then, turning at right angles off the road, crossed the river by Ballycarney Bridge, near to which are the remains of an old castle, not far from the modern church and village, with its con- stabulary station — which, like the generality of this class of small police buildings in the county, presents a model to the peasantry of perfectly clean habitations, with some embellishment of flowers, and the useful i 122 Notes and Gleanings and pretty appendage of a well-kept vegetable garden.* On the river bank in this locality is the fine old man- sion of Munfin, with its beautifully timbered demesne, and extensive woods in the rere, on rising ground. This place is the residence of the Rev. Richard Carey. Ad- joining this, but on the opposite side of the river is Clobemon Hall, formerly the estate and residence of the Derenzy family, and now the property of Mr. Dundas, J.P., by purchase from the former proprietor. Advancing towards it, and at the western side of the Slaney, on a considerable eminence above it, a large and flourishing wood on the estate of Lord Carew appears as if it belonged to the Clobemon demesne, which has also the advantage of being near the woods of Munfin. Mr. Dundas may possibly fancy, in some moments of enthusiastic admiration of the broad and silvery river flowing at the western termination of his plantations and meadows, that those opposite woods are his own — a pleasing and innocent delusion, if it should indeed arise in his moments of imagination, Clobemon Hall is in modern architectural style — very handsome — and the well timbered lawn, with two approaches to the house, one of which is long and devious ; and the farm fields at each side of the shady high road (which runs through this property and that of Mr. Devereux, J.P.,) are large, regular, well hedged, and well cultivated. There are two approaches also to Bally- * In these respects, the Waterguard Stations on the coast are also excellent models, in a superior degree ; yet, in many instances, the surrounding inhabitants do not imitate the exemplary neatness which they behold. relating to the County of Wexford. 123 rankin House (the seat of Mr. Devereux), which has been rebuilt, and with much taste. The farming on both properties is very good. The soil is principally calcare- ous, good for turnips and other green crops, and excel- lent in pasturage. F ormerly, pebble limestone used to be raised and burnt in this neighbourhood, but the supply of limestone for this purpose has been nearly ex- hausted. Calcined lime is now drawn by the farmers here, from Carlow and Milford. The high road all along this locality to Newtown- barry presents a succession of gentlemens’ residences. Next to Ballyrankin is Newlands, an especially pretty cottage orne , occupied by Captain Esmonde White, J.P. Two miles distant southward, conspicuously placed, are the extensive demesne and woods of Charles- fort, the residence of Mr. Westrop Dawson, D.L., near which is the noted fox-cover, Ballybay, on the estate of Mr. Dundas, a favourite ‘meet’ of the Carlow and Island hounds. The village of Clohamon (which is close to the hand- some house and demesne of Clohamon), exhibits now a melancholy aspect. Here is a fine waterfall and, alas ! disused factory. Formerly an old corn-mill stood on the site where Mr. William Lewis commenced cotton spinning several years ago. The water power proved capable of working 1 20 or more looms, and the little establishment prospered. In 1840, Mr. Lewis erected a new factory. During the cotton famine, as it was termed, the looms wove linen, the twist and weft being brought from Belfast and manufactured at Clohamon, and returned in linen to Belfast, the comparative cheapness of labour in this county rendering the work 124 Notes and Gleanings executed at Clohamon remunerative to the Belfast employers. Since the recent death of Mr. Lewis, the origi- nator and active conductor of the factory, the ma- chinery has stopped, and the operatives have been scattered to Portlaw, Cork, Limerick, Liverpool, and America. Prospects of the future working of this mill are unsettled. Newtownbarry “was formerly called Bunclody from its situation at the confluence of the rivers Clody and Slaney.” It received its present denomination from the name of its founder, Mr. Barry, who was sheriff of Dublin in 1577. A female descendant (and heiress) of that Mr. Barry married Mr. John Maxwell, after- wards created Lord Farnham. The estate remained in the highly respected family of Maxwell until pur- chased by Mr. Hall Dare, a representative of an old family of the County of Essex, and son of one of its former county members. By the death of Mr. Hall- Dare the estate devolved on his son, Mr. Robert Westley Hall- Dare.* The quiet and sequestered little town at which we have arrived is especially distinguished from other Irish towns and villages, by a row of lime trees and * The principal circumstances affecting the transfer of this in- teresting property from the Hon. Somerset Maxwell are these : — Fourteen years ago the estate was put up for sale, and among the glowing descriptions given by agents, not inferior to the late Mr. Robins in power of laudatory language (really truthful, however, in the present case), there was this plain matter of fact — viz., the number of tenants was less than 300, including the population of the town of Newtownbarry, on the area of 6,576 acres, a great propor- tion of this being very hilly or mountainous. Therefore, one of the great obstacles to reclamations and improvements (that which arises relating to the County of Wexford. 125 a stream of clear water running through the length of the principal street. The energetic and encou- raging proprietor gives every reasonable facility to tenants building new and renewing old tenements, and he has erected numerous appropriate dwellings for labourers and mechanics. Mr. Hall Dare can supply, from his own woods and quarries and work- shops, the principal materials for building, at a much lower disbursement than if they were purchased through ordinary channels. Among the more important new buildings in the town, a corn mill, with great water-power, has been lately erected, under circumstances creditable to both owner and occupier. There are thirteen fairs held here in the year, and a good market weekly, which is celebrated for its supply of poultry. The hotel is neat and well kept, and tourists in the summer find in it every accommodation ; and for the hunting season it is remarkably well situated, with respect to the meeting of the Carlow and Island hounds. The slate quarries in an adjoining hill have been worked during a long period ; but, owing to the separation of the seams of slate by great intervals of useless flag-stone, they have never equalled the Welsh quarries, though producing a useful and durable slate, which is now in great demand, for covering farm-houses from over population and a multitude of small and poor cultivators) did not exist, to perplex a stranger coming into possession, and anxious to employ capital in promoting social and agricultural im- provements, and affording, on a large scale, in his own details of management, the practical examples which are so valuable to the com- munity. Notes and Gleanings 1 26 and offices : it has been used extensively on some of the largest houses of the neighbourhood, and is sent for from Carlow, Bagenalstown, Enniscorthy, and many other distant places. We entered a newly-built labourer’s cottage outside the town, as it seemed to us well designed for its pur- pose, combining the desirable requisites of durability and cheapness, with internal comfort and simplicity of appearance. It contains two rooms on the ground floor, 16 feet by 11 feet, and two upper rooms, 14 feet by 18 feet There is a porch of brick, 7 feet by 4 feet. The woodwork was prepared in the farm -yard work- shop, which contains a saw-mill ; the slates were sup- plied at first cost ; and by this economy the total expense did not exceed £ 2 5 to the proprietor, who wisely judges that with a given sum for expenditure on labourers’ dwellings, it is better to accommodate four families with cottages of this class, and built with pre- arranged economy, than one family in an ornamental and needlessly elaborated house, costing four times the sum expended in the present instance. Such a cottage, with a rood of ground, could be let at is. a week, with sufficient remuneration to the landlord, and much com- fort and advantage to the occupier. Double cottages would, of course, be proportionately less expensive in building, but single and somewhat detached cottages are generally more conducive to domestic and social peace. The very beautiful demesne, with the Slaney flowing through it, contains about 700 acres; the exclusively farm department occupying 300 acres, leaving 400 acres of relating to the County of Wexford. 127 wood-land/'' The commodious and handsome mansion lately built and completely finished, with pleasure ground, farm buildings, and stack-yard, occupies 16 acres. The house, which is built of granite, stands on an elevated platform, and is in the Italian style ; it commands in the foreground (westward) a beautiful view of part of the little town, and the high and graceful church spire, rising above luxuriant timber foliage. In the distance Mount Leinster presents a majestic object, whether glowing with the numberless hues of halcyon days, or wrapped in the storms of winter. — Pr ewer's Gazetteer. The immediate environs of the town consist of one of the most su- perb portions of the valley, or rather basin, of the Slaney, and possess a profusion of charms — both natural and artificial — such as make a strong and permanent impression on the mind of a tasteful tourist. The lodge and the artificially planted grounds of Lord Farn- ham’s demesne, the shoots and clumps, and rows of wood, which warmly feather nearly all the low grounds of the valley, the sprinkling and glistening of villas and villa gardens, the meandering of the Slaney, the diversified contour of its banks, the detached conical hills, the Wicklow mountains on the west, compose a landscape, both near and distant, of uncommon brilliancy and power . — Parliamentary Gazetteer , 1846.+ The old churchyard of Kilmyshall, near Newtown- barry, is reputed by the local Archaeologians to be the burial-place of Eliza Kavanagh, the heroine of the love tale sketched in the subjoined note.J * The timber was valued, previously to the sale, at ^11,407. + We give our high authorities for this poetic prose, not willing to obtain for ourselves the credit of such brilliant language, which, however truthful, is not quite in Martin Doyle’s style. + An old book of melodies informs us, that the beautiful Irish 128 Notes and Gleanings A few miles distant from N ewtownbarry, along a new and excellent road, with a range of high and bleak hills on the east side, the well timbered fields of Captain Croker, J.P., and Mr. Thomas Braddell, J.P., surprise the traveller. It was our good fortune to partake of the proverbial hospitality of the latter gentleman, whose demesne, shrubberies, and grounds, lowland and high- land, constitute a very interesting property, bearing the old and euphonious name of Coolmena. The house, song of Eileen Aroon had the following romantic origin : — A young and accomplished Connaught gentleman, named Carl O’Daly was in love with the daughter of a chieftain named Kavanagh, who disap- proved of his suit. O’Daly was compelled in consequence to leave Ireland for some time, and during his absence, Ellen Kavanagh being treacherously persuaded that he had forsaken her, consented to marry his rival. On the eve of the day fixed for the wedding the banished man returned, and in the eloquence of his love and grief, composed, in a sequestered spot by the sea shore, the song of Eileefi Aroon? Disguised as a harper, O’Daly gained admittance to the bridal party, and being invited by Ellen herself to play, he touched his harp with all the fire which the occasion inspired, and breathed his own impas- sioned feelings into every verse of the words which he had written. In the first stanza he intimates, according to the Irish idiom, that he would walk with her ; that is, that he would be her partner or lover during his life. In the second stanza that he would afford her every delight. After this he tenderly asked, in the simple but impressive language of the original, Wilt thou stay, or wilt thou come with me, Eileen Aroon % She replied as he wished : then he burst forth into his hundred thousand welcomes — Cead mille failthe. It is not gene- rally known that this popular expression of Irish hospitality, Cead mille failthe , owes its origin to this romantic tale. The stanza that contains the memorable fine has been thus translated — A hundred thousand welcomes, Eileen Aroon, A hundred thousand welcomes Eileen Aroon. Oh, welcome ever more ! With welcome e’er in store, Till love and strife are o’er, Eileen Aroon ! * For which English words and appropriate music have been composed by Mrs. Crawford and Dr. Crouch. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 29 whose entire front is covered with varieties of ivy, and some flowering climbers, has complete shelter from the east winds, by the near range of hills, which are becom- ing ornamental to it, as the owner has reclaimed and planted a large portion of it with oak, larch, and Scotch firs. Mr. Braddell has subsoiled (under the Board of Works) 60 acres, at the cost, of £\ per acre ; and by the application of lime, guano, and superphos- phate, he has extracted from what was previously but a fox cover and game preserve, good crops of turnips and oats, the land being afterwards laid down for pasture. The produce of the hill plantations is remunerative at' 20 years’ growth, and at 35 years the trees are felled alto- gether. This proprietor has drained some hundreds of acres, and built a few labourers’ cottages and one for his steward, at the average cost of about £4.5 each. His system of farming appears to be judicious with regard to the qualities and circumstances of the upper and lower lands. Having always a sufficiency of turnips and hay, he feeds 100 store cattle in winter, which he sells off (excepting 20 for stall feeding) in the spring. He then purchases 120 of grazing stock which are sold in August, when he buys a small and choice lot for stall-feeding in November; thus he obtains three returns from cattle in the year. Mr. Braddell’s pro- perty adjoins two extensive and well-timbered farms, with first class residences, held by two gentlemen bear- ing the same name, and probably of the same lineage, under Earl Fitzwilliam. These fine farms, designated as Lower and Upper Bullingate, are part of a small division of the County of Wicklow, intervening here between two portions of the County of Wexford, and 130 Notes and Gleanings therefore not properly within the range of our ‘Notes/ We moved onwards, partly in the direction of Carnew, to the large farm of Donishall, in the latter County, and on the verge of the former, held by Mr. Reade, under lease from the Earl of Courtown. This farm contains 508 Irish acres, of generally light but fertile soil. Mr. Reade has usually 100 acres under crops, and is in the frequent practice of sowing rape broad-cast on some of the stubble land, for sheep feeding in spring and summer. Mr. Reade keeps a large stock here, and has a grass farm in the County of Wicklow, besides a much larger farm in the County of Kildare. Part of Carnew is in the baronies of Scarawalsh and Gorey, but the much larger part, both of parish and town, is in the County of Wicklow. The farmers of all grades here are a prosperous class — most of whom are tenants of Lord Fitzwilliam, whose estate has long been admi- rably managed. One great feature of the management, being, as also in the instance of the Portsmouth estate, the gradual annihilation of the system of middlemen. Accordingly as their leases expired, the under-tenants were accepted, as direct tenants of the estates, at rents far under what they had been paying to the middlemen. The under-tenants are required to agree to some new division of the land where that course is necessary to bring their holdings into compact divisions. The results to the estate and the tenantry have been highly beneficial in every respect. The town of Carnew con- sists principally of one long street, containing nearly 150 houses, many of which are occupied by small shop- keepers and mechanics. The late Earl built several new houses. Carnew, being somewhat out of the line relating to the County of Wexford. 1 3 1 of railway travel, and having been formerly on the high road, the houses are larger than are required for a mere village ; and vigilance is now required to prevent their being used as lodging-houses for tramps. Being so near Shillelagh* and Coolattin Park, we drove thither to enjoy the picturesqueness of a scene which we had not until now revisited during the last forty years ; but though fettered to the County of Wexford by our prescribed course, we stray within the bounds of another county — we must, however, restrain expressions of the admiration which the view of this splendid diorama excited in us, to a brief' paragraph or two. To the old wood of Shillelagh have been added new and thriving woods, and plantations around many homesteads, in the foreground, occupied by wealthy and prosperous tenantry — the receding elevations beyond, and nearly reaching to the mount Leinster range, exhibiting foliage or cultivation wher- ever practicable. What vast improvements at Coolattin Park ! Many plantations and drives, all new to us ! An enlarged mansion, magnificent stables and farm-offices, f unsurpassed by any of the best we had ever seen in * This district takes its name from the wood of Shillelagh, once the most celebrated forest in Ireland, for the excellence of its oak, which was exported to different parts of Europe ; and it is also said that Turlogh, king of Leinster, sent the oak for the roof of Westmin- ster Hall, to William Rufus. — Lewis' Topographical Dictionary. “Sprigs of Shillelagh” were formerly symbolical of all varieties of the Irish peasant’s favorite cudgel, so often used in faction fights, dex- terously and vigorously, and yet harmlessly, compared with the mo- dern bowie knife and revolver. t There are in the principal farm-yard a gasometer and steam en- gines, one of which keeps a saw mill in motion. This, with the vast workshops connected with it, is said to have cost ^18,000. i3 2 Notes and Gleanings Great Britain — a highly-cultivated model farm, of large and uniform fields, ; without a weed ; many miles of hedges of perfect regularity; and both embellished and plain habitations for stewards and other numerous subordi- nates, have increased even the former excellences of Coolattin Park. This fine scene is now easily acces- sible from Dublin by railway, which is obviously advan- tageous to the parishes of Shillelagh and Carnew, for the transit to Dublin of fat cattle, sheep, and poultry, and the downward conveyance of coals, &c. Partly retracing our course, and traversing some bleak and unfertile townlands, we reached Ferns, where there is some' very fine land, but a poor village, without vestiges of its ancient importance, excepting the tottering walls of a once royal residence and fortress. Avoiding long references to old historical reminiscences of this ancient seat of Irish kings, we merely state our convic- tion, that it was never a large town. The remains of the wood in which King Dermod stationed his troops around the castle, are in one place still existing, but the bogs which then surrounded Ferns have totally dis- appeared. The following fragment of a MS. report now in the British Museum, from the chaplain of Lord Essex, the lord lieutenant of Ireland a.d. 1599, affords a glimpse of Ferns, and a curious specimen of the war- fare in its vicinity. His lordship viewed the castle of Ferns, which he conceyved to be a fitter place for a garryson than Inniscorthie, were it not that the want of a navegable river for the transportation of victuals and ammu- nition did not contravene the nearness of it to the rebells’ fastnesses. The same day, both at Ferns and at our quarters, his lordship was advertised that the rebells the day following meant to fight with us. The rayther because they had two or three places where they might relating to the County of Wexford. 133 with advantage attempt either our vaunt garde or foote, and where the horse could not serve upon them. Wherefore, next morning we marched in the best order we could to whet the rebells’ choller and courage. (We being to pass through a country called Kinsalla, which yieldeth maintenance to many of the rebells’ hired men.) His lord- ship all the day long burned every thing in his way. The first place where his lordship saw fair resistance was at a village at our right hand, seated in the skirte of a great woade, and flanked on two sydes with two groves of under woode ; so as we had but one way to come to it, and that of disadvantage. At this time his lordship being in the vaunte garde, and seeing the rebells put themselves between us and the village, and watch to drive back our footmen who went to bum it, as they had done the rest, expected their whole forces, and therefore drew up the armye over a forde, a little short of the village and then having placed all our baggage and catteil behind him, towards the encampment, and his horse hard by for their guarde, he sent a serjeante’with some light shotte to fire the village, commanding him to begin with the farthest houses, and in the same instante to possess either of the groves, and advanced our vaunte garde towards the grove on the one side, and the rere garde towards the other ; himself direct- ing the one, and giving charge of the other to the marshal. Soon after it appeared they were some base rogues sent to make a bravado, for the saving of the village, and that their main forces having waited along on our left hande were laide for us before, the village was burned without the loss of a man. The rebels, after they perceived our manner of going on, running away, having delivered only a poor volley of shotte. The locality, where this petty warfare occurred was probably Camolin, where a religious house had been founded in the 7th century by St. Molin, second bishop of Ferns. This large and improving village, an adjunct to the large demesne of Camolin Park con- taining nearly 1000 acres, has been purchased under the Incumbered Estates Court from the noble family of Annesley, by Mr. Forster, M.P., for South Stafford- shire, who has effected, through Dr. Owen, his resident 1 34 Notes and Gleanings agent, a great deal of drainage on the land, which is naturally indifferent, and was valued at little more than ioi*. an acre. A good deal of employment is afforded in reclaiming waste land, and otherwise improving this property. The well cultivated lands of Norrismount (and we may add, of Medophall) on the Courtown estate, and held by Mr. Henry Brownrigg, J.P., are estimated by the survey at double the value of the grand demesne of the neighbouring park. The parish of Monart which formerly constituted a part of the very extensive and generally bleak and barren parish of Templeshanbo, separated from the County of Carlow by Mount Leinster, and a portion of its appendant range, is the most southern portion of Scarawalsh, and reaches to within two miles of Ennis- corthy. The small river named the Urrin passes through it, and flows into the Slaney, at a very pretty spot below the town, where it is hoped that the con- templated railway to W exford will cross it. The village of Forge, on the Urrin, derives its name from an ancient forge established there some centuries ago, by Colonel Phayre, (whose family, until recently, had a large estate in the barony) for the manufacture of sword blades. Sixty years ago Mr. Jameson established there a distillery which has long since been discontinued. A forge for plough-shares and sickles, &c., is the degene- rate but useful and innoxious descendant of that which wrought sword-blades. At Cairn, in the same parish and vicinity, a lead mine was for some time worked, and there are here several neat labourers’ cottages, with gardens, built by Lord Carew. The fine gravel which was accumulated at the openings of the mine has not yet relating to the County of Wexford ’ 135 been altogether drawn away to the numerous avenues and garden walks of the gentry within a large district, who use it as the best material for gravelling, from its anti-vegetating quality. Monart House, with its hand- some and fine trees, and pretty lake, looks, in the expressive phrase “as if it had a grandfather.” Mr. Cookman, the proprietor of this and the surrounding estate is obviously an improver and planter. This gentleman’s young plantations extend to the lands occu- pied by his brother, who is contributing to the progres- sive improvements. This parish of Monart has, in the lowland parts, several resident proprietors or repre-' sentatives of them. M unfin and Daphne, in two opposite extremities of the parish, are the most orna- mental. In the much larger parish of Templeshanbo, containing nearly 20,000 acres, annual value (houses included) ^*7,570, there appear to be only two resi- dences of gentlemen, Ballycrystal (the property of Mr. James) on the confines of the county of Carlow, and the excellent glebe-house around which plantations have thriven, pleasingly contrasting with the bleakness of the surrounding hills. To an observer of progressive rural reclamations, the operations of the Messrs. Purdon, the well known proprietors of the Irish Farmers' Gazette , are the chief objects of admiration in this quarter of the county. Such extended publicity has been given to their im- provements that we shall but epitomize what has appeared in published records. A few years ago this property, which belonged to the Phayre family, was purchased, in Chancery, by Dr. Ireland, who leased it to those gentlemen for a term of 300 years. The 136 Notes and Gleanings whole of this tract, between five and six hundred acres had been copse (principally oak), which had been cut a short time previously; and there were no occu- piers to render complete possession and reclamation difficult. The soil, which is generally light, on clay slate, afforded indications of sufficient depth and fertility, to induce the two proprietors to carry into execution the theoretical, and it may be, practical knowledge which their long familiarity as publishers and reviewers of agricultural subjects had enabled them to acquire. Accordingly, with an open-handed liberality, they employed a large staff of labourers to free the land from roots of trees and stones, at the cost of £\o an acre, exclusively of a further cost of 30 s. per acre for clearing away the stumps and stones. Thus they cleared 300 acres in the course of a few years. The land was then divided into several fields of from 15 to 50 acres each, by walls 5 feet 6 inches in height, 2 feet 6 inches at the base, and tapering to 16 inches at top, laid in mortar, and Scotch coped, at the cost of 11 s. per Irish perch. The stones used for the purpose had been shifted and raised in the process of subsoiling, and laid in order on the ground for the masons, who provided lime and sand. The numerous gate piers, which are circular and plas- tered, are 7 feet high, with ornamental tops of white spar. The preparation of the cleared surface for cropping was greatly facilitated by means of a powerful steam- plough, with engine and all accessories, viz., cultivators, diggers, harrows, ridging ploughs, with 1 600 yards of steel wire ropes, apparatus of porters, anchors, and water carts, constituting the only complete set ever sent I 37 relating to the County of Wexford. to Ireland. This combination of machinery, which cost between fjoo and ^800, was the gift of noblemen and gentlemen, to one of the brothers, Mr. Edward Purdon, in public testimony of the important services which he had rendered to the agricultural interests of Ireland in warding off the late cattle plague from our shores. This potent machine has easily ploughed in four and a-half short days, the same quantity of land that would require the work of four horses for fifty days. There has been great return in crops of all sorts ; and lately, as we passed near a very handsome tract of pas- ture land on the first part of the reclamation, the con- trast presented between it and the neighbouring hills and hollows of bare, hungry aspect, was clearly indicative of what might be extensively done, with adequate capital and such machinery as is used at Killoughram. The day has come when similar improvements can be undertaken, with advantage, by the aid of hired steam- power. There are thousands of acres of dry ground inviting the operations of such a machine, and, doubtless, the present maximum of work executed by it in any given time may be increased considerably. During the eight years, before this wonderful plough, with its append- ages, made its appearance at Killoughram, and while employment was needed by labourers, manual occupa- tion was supplied to some 70 or 80 labourers, and during seasons, when little other work was available to them. We believe that this tract is the largest that has under- gone preliminary reclamation by spade, pick, and crow- bar. Labourers are now becoming so scarce that additional agricultural machinery will be a necessity. Moreover, every thinking man knows that the in- Notes and Glea?iings 138 creased power of machinery produces results ultimately beneficial to every community. So thoroughly convinced are the Messrs. Purdon of the wonderful advantages of steam cultivation that they have purchased a set of Fowlers steam tackle, with two io-horse power traction engines, at the cost of about £ 1 ,400 — which travels from farm to farm without the aid of horses. BALLAGHKEEN. One of the distinguishing features of this irregularly- shaped barony is the very undulating form of its surface, with many varieties of soil — most remarkably so, in the south-east division, where, within an area, six miles in length, and about three in breadth, sandy hills with moory valleys intervening, the richest and poorest soils are found. The fairest portion is bounded by the Slaney, and comprehended in the parish of Edermine. But, until the picturesque lands of Sir James Power, Bart., are reached, on the road from Wexford to Enniscorthy, there are some farms on a stretch of at least four miles, between Wexford and Edermine, which are noticeable for every sort of ne- glect. On remarking this, our surprise was increased by learning that the occupier of a large farm in that neighbourhood is also owner of it, or pays but a nominal rent. Being free from all necessity of rendering his land productive, he totally neglects it as to cultivation.'* * “ Whenever you find land held by a tenant farmer under a lease which has been in existence for sixty years or upwards, it is in the most neglected and unimproved state of any land in the same district. The lower the rent required by such a lease, the worse state the land 139 relating to the County of Wexford. How refreshing afterwards to view the clean pastures, handsome cattle, and rich root crops on the Eder- mine demesne of swelling land, and glades surrounded by well-grown plantations. Along the high road, too, a considerable length in the direction of Enniscorthy, Sir James Power has planted a screen of young trees, enclosed by a symmetrical hedge, and protected on the outside by triple and quadruple lines of wire fence resting on iron standards. The drive thence to Ennis- corthy is, indeed, lovely. In the course of a few years however, this now ornamental plantation will somewhat obstruct the view of the Slaney, which here is wide and copious, with its rich meadows at both sides, and oppo- site the woods and venerable mansion of St. John’s, the property of Mr. Hill, J.P., besides interrupting a very fine distant prospect. However, the young trees have yet to grow to an obstructive size, and vistas may be cut to give opening glimpses. One of our drives through Ballaghkeen commenced at its southern termination, two miles north of Castle- bridge, and at the good farm and pretty cottage of Coole, consisting of 133 acres, the property of Mr. Frederick Jones. This is separated from Shelmalier East by a winding hedge-row fence, and narrow ditch, which serves as the main drain of the lands at each side. From Mr. Jones, who is a skilful cultivator and intel- lectual gentleman, we derived much information, is in, and the poorer the tenant ; and whenever you find land let too cheap, both farmer and tenant are in a worse state than where the land is let at the fair letting value. On visiting an estate for the first time I can generally distinguish any portion held under an un- usually long or old lease, merely by the neglected state it is in .” — A Demurrer to Mr. Butt's Plea. 140 Notes and Gleanings especially on the subject of drainage under the Board of Works. Havinor mentioned that the late Mr. Maher o had deepened the river Sow, from near Artramont to the valley of the Ballagh (a distance of five miles), by which operation a large extent of land was converted from a morass into some of the best land of the district, he proceeded to state, that that proprietor who had so ex- tensively drained under the Board of Works, regreted that he had not, at least in some instances, effected drainage without accepting loans from the Board, from whose stringent regulations as to the mode of draining he dissented. The Board, said Mr. Jones, will not allow the work to be executed in any other way than their own, and their own way has sometimes failed ; and he shewed us an instance of this on one of his own fields. The failures, he did not, generally, attribute to incompetency in the inspectors, but to the arbitrary rules by which they are bound. Land varies in the quali- ties and conditions of soil and subsoil, abrupt devia- tions from high to low levels, &c. ; and it is surprizing that a Board of Works, consisting of scientific gentlemen, should feel under any necessity to fix and apply one rule to suit all cases of drainage. When I have asked, said he, why drains should be invariably cut up and down a declivity ? the answer has been, “ because by so doing you cut through the stratification that crops to the surface.” Now geologists may require to make use of the expression “ crop out of strata,” but it is mere bombast for farmers and drainers to use such a term, when speaking of what may be here called superficial matter only a few feet deep. Practically, little is under- stood of such theory, yet on this expression, “ crop out,” relating to the County of Wexford. 141 is founded an arbitrary rule, strict adherence to which has caused great waste of money and labour.* Mr. Jones, in the course of conversation, started another sub- ject of no trifling import. Believing that the foot rot in sheep proceeds from too moist pasturage, and observing that his sheep frequently repaired to a dry gravelly- ditch, which they scraped with their feet, he concluded that this was an instinct in sheep for the paring of their claws, such as the cat evinces when itscratches the hard rough bark of a tree, by which operation its claws are sharpened, and kept in order. Mr. Jones, therefore* now constantly keeps a bed of rough gravel on his sheep pastures, and attributes to this preventive, the unvaried freedom of his flocks from the foot rot.t Pursuing our route directly northwards through the * The rule of ‘ directly up and down’ drain cutting, we think mathe- matically correct on lands but slightly inclined ; and in cases of thorough-drainage in soils of close subsoil, we prefer the judgment of scientific and professional drainers of high repute to that of farmers, as a class. We venture to add this opinion, also, arising from another observa- tion of our friend — that, as the amount of loans from the State must necessarily be limited, it would be injudicious to leave the expen- diture of capital, designed for special objects of acknowledged utility, to the hazard of being frittered away by persons ignorant, it might prove to be, of house building, for instance, or of draining. Permanency and efficiency of all improvements should be a funda- mental consideration. t In the article “ Sheep ” published in the Library of Useful Know- ledge , this disease is said to exist in every situation that has a tend- ency to increase the growth of the hoofs without wearing them away. The soft pasturage on which sheep are occasionally put, possesses little of rough friction, to which their feet are naturally intended to be exposed. Sheep accustomed to ramble on poor mountain pastures in search of food, have their hoofs constantly pared down by friction on rough ground, and therefore do not suffer from “ obstruction in the secretory outlet between the claws,” which if examined on the first indications of the disease will be found hot and tender. 142 Notes and Gleanings central part of the barony — the country is very bleak and unimproved, excepting the timbered demesne of Newfort, the old and respectable property and resi- dence of Mr. Turner, J.P. ; and Movilla, the pretty and neighbouring cottage of Mr. Ridge, a gentleman who takes pleasure in cultivating a very small farm with great neatness and skill. The much larger resi- dence and well enclosed lands of Mr. Carthy are among the objects that impart an aspect of much civilization to an otherwise uninviting country. Of the number of farmers evincing energy and enterprise of management in this locality, Mr. Scallan of Ballyvaloo, and Mr. Joseph Gainford of Screen (who displays uncommon taste in the arrangement of his homestead), deserve praise and distinction. Until the vicinity of Oulart is reached, a dreary tract with few signs of improved husbandry, or notice- able changes within a half century, disheartens the traveller. 1 1 should, however, be considered somewhat as an excuse, that the main road is comparatively new, and that the lowest and therefore the least valuable lands were chiefly selected for the line of road. Yet even with this excuse, there must be faults in proprietors and tenants along the district, through which this good road passes, or a different aspect at each side would be presented. At the approach to the village of Oulart, a different scene is unfolded. On the hill over- hanging Oulart, Mr. Brien, a recent purchaser of pro- perty in the parish of Kilcormuck, has planted several acres, and meditates an extension of woodland there. Advancing farther north, the large and im- proved mansion, demesne, and extensive plantations relating to the County of Wexford. 143 of Wells, with a contiguous church and parsonage, attract attention, as strikingly of English character. The proprietor, Mr. Doyne, D.L., fully sustains the reputation of his father for good farming, in all its bearings, and keeps pace with the progressing move- ment of modern husbandry. * Mr. Bolton, J.P., proprietor of Island, is considered to be the best stock breeder in this barony. The prize lists testify to this fact. He keeps the largest dairy- farm, and fattens cattle on the most extensive scale. Sheep farming is carried on by this gentleman largely,, and by others on a smaller scale. Old ewes (of com- mon breed) fatten lambs for the Liverpool market ; and many small farmers breed prime sheep for sale, and obtain high prices for rams. Some grazing land in South Ballaghkeen is let to cattle dealers from year to year, from £ 2 to £$ per (Irish) acre, and in some cases higher. The average rent, however, not includ- ing this grazing land, is about £ 1 per acre. The farms, generally, are small ; and the few large ones do not (with one or two exceptions) much exceed 200 Irish acres. Our own recollections of the parish of Kilcormuck (a little to the westward of Wells), of which the larger and more valuable portion is in the barony of Gorey, * In the 5 th edition of our Hints to the Small Farmers of the County of Wexford , 1832, the following note was introduced — “ Wells, the extensive demesne of Robert Doyne, Esq., exhibits the most perfect system of agriculture on a large scale ; the fields on his farm are laid out with mathematical precision ; all the fences are pre- served and trimmed with English exactness ; and the implements of husbandry, cattle, etc., etc. are of the best description.” At the same period Arthur Meadow Esq., had the neatest and best tilled farm, on a small scale in the county of Wexford. 144 Notes and Gleanings reach to years in which the general condition of the land, and of many of its inhabitants was far below the present standard. The road, leading to the market- town of Enniscorthy, was extremely bad and hilly. All the parish roads around were bad ; one townland, con- taining 568 acres of very poor soil, and much encum- bered with heath, was peopled by a great number of little farmers, most of whom, until special circumstances led to their employment in road making, or some partial reclamation of wild land by a few persons desirous of affording to them means of paying their rents, and buying food in seasons of corn blight and subsequent scarcity, were in great distress. Now, that townland is partly under woodland, which gives a new feature to the aspect of artificial wildness that formerly distin- guished it ; the remainder being sheep pasture in large fields. The poor, and generally unthriving ten- ants, no doubt, emigrated, in some cases, to the more inviting lands of North America. At that time the mode of reclaiming and manuring the poor heaths, or any of the shingly and shal- low soils in the district, was by the application of the clay marl which abounds there, at the rate of from five to six or eight hundred small car loads to the Irish acre ; or of shell marl where procurable, in a much lesser proportion. This was an admirable dressing on light shallow land ; for, besides its mechanical effect (when laid heavily on ley, and left on the surface for two years) in adding solid texture to the too porous soil, its calcareous quality fertilized exceedingly.* * Arthur Young was informed that it would last forty years with management. We speak of the use of clay marl in the past tense : relating to the County of Wexford. 145 The great extent of treeless tracts throughout this large barony, (and much of Scarawalsh) is the more surprising, when we read that this part of the country, in former times, was “ extremely covered with woods, and afforded abundance of good timber for shipping and building of all sorts.” Referring to reports in the Irish Farmers fournal of agricultural proceedings in the year 1816, we find that the earliest ploughing matches were held near Gorey, whence has radiated the exemplary skill which so many of our native ploughmen have subsequently evinced through all the agricultural districts. In 1815 a Farmers’ Society was organised, which comprised the baronies of Gorey, Ballaghkeen, and Scarawalsh, under the presidency of the Earl of Courtown, great grandfather of the present Earl, and the fostering patronage of the principal local gentry and proprietary. The ploughs and carts were very defective in construction at that period ; and even now, the cart (or car) wheels of the small farmers are much too small in diameter of wheel ; their owners do not rightly understand the mechanical power of the wheel. As to live stock, though some good types of cattle and sheep and swine had been introduced by a few gentlemen, the breeds generally were very defective : though the Farming Society of Ireland offered large premiums for the promotion of improvements in all the branches of husbandry, there was no emulous com- petition for prizes, no anxiety evinced, no trouble taken to attain them, especially in the isolated districts, among it is no longer employed ; its ponderosity, and the cost of labour in applying it have caused its disuse (not wisely in all cases), in favor of the ready-at-hand manures of artificial combinations. 146 Notes and Gleanings the mass of farmers, who were slow to adopt new methods, or appreciate their merits, and stupidly satisfied with their own systems however bad and defective. Though Arthur Young, when he visited Courtown in 1778 saw there, a field of turnips (the first he had seen in Ireland), Lord Courtown’s example was not followed. Y oung noticed also the very fine wheat crops produced on the sandy soils on the coast, after copious dressings of marl. The finest wheat he had yet seen in Ireland was on this sand. He described the soil about Courtown and around as “ a skirting of sand against the sea, the rest gravel and gravelly loam ; also a thin stratum of loam on a yellow clay, twelve inches thick, and under it uni- versally, a fine blue marl of great depth. The Macamore soil is of pecular constitution. This ex- tensive tract, extends from the neighbourhood of Kil- muckridge, with an average width of about three miles ; the sea being the boundary on the east, and the course of the Awen-o-varra river on the west side to the point where it meets the boundary of the parish of Kil- tennel, which it may be said to follow to the foot of Tara hill.* The soil generally designated of Macamore quality * This is a modem definition. The Mac-da-More (Mackamore) country was the possession of a sept or an individual, as appears in a grant from James I. The property which the Earl of Courtown holds (with the exception of the half townland of Ballinatray, purchased from the Robert’s family), is described as being in Kinshella’s country and Mac-da-More’s country. The Kinshellas are said to have lived near Tara hill; and probably Mac-da-more’s country was farther south, and in the heavy clay country ; but whether it included the whole of it or were confined to it, is uncertain — probably not, as some of the land included in the grant is not of the quality now known as Macamore land, some being of superior quality, some poor and rocky ; but all constituted the manor first called Fisherstown, later, Prospect. relating to the County of Wexford. 147 is very stiff and stubborn, but when subdued and fairly treated it is not infertile ; its average depth is seven or eight inches ; but the capital required to till it properly must be much greater than that possessed by the com- mon farmers. The best of them only till a little of it, and graze the principal part with young cattle and dairy cows. The profit on the dairy pastures is said by the most competent and truthful judges to be unusually great, and the quality of the butter excellent. Clay marl we should suppose would be altogether unfit for such strong and cohesive soil, though white or shell marl would be highly efficacious for good ; but we are in- formed that the ordinary marl does not tend to stiffen the land ; it disintegrates as lime does, unless too heavily applied. Such soil is, however, under almost any con- ceivable culture, ill suited to turnips. Mangolds, es- pecially the orange globe, grow very well. One of our most highly valued correspondents, who judges from long practical experience on his own estate, ascribes the agricultural improvement in the Macamore district to these causes — the retentive nature of the soil which renders tillage impracticable during winter and spring, and so necessitates the abandonment of much land to bad pasturage ;* and the scarcity of stone which makes building so expensive that farmers do not generally sup- ply the house accommodation necessary for winter house- feeding. The absence of trees occasions scarcity of fuel and encourages the growth of furze, too frequently giving a ragged and slovenly appearance to the country. Many fine stall-fed beasts are sold to dealers, or * Draining is but slightly remedial on this soil. 1 48 Notes a?id Gleanings shipped to Liverpool and Bristol.* There is much sheep farming too, on the dry soils and open pastures, though these at best are much inferior to the calcareous land of Carlow. In the parts of Ballaghkeen and Gorey, to which we have been referring, there is much good land for sheep farming, not only on the very large farms of Mr. Bolton, but also on the lands of Mr. Brien, the Rev. Mr. Armstrong, Mr. Walsh, near Kilmuckridge, and others. There is a large stock of prime sheep, both in Ballaghkeen and Gorey; any cattle, of a bad sort are in fact rarely seen there. The market towns are well supplied with excellent beef and mutton — the latter almost entirely grass fed, and generally of the Leicester crossed with the old Irish breed. The facility of conveying sheep to the Dublin and English markets, induces many large stock farmers to breed sheep in great numbers. In very few cases is dairy farming exclusively adopted ; but some of the most extensive farmers, among those who so generally pursue the system of what we term mixed husbandry, have from forty to sixty cows. All the large farmers have threshing machines, some mowing machines, horse rakes, horse hoes, scarifiers, and rollers. Where tenant-farmers are concerned and the land is let at its full value, the draining is usually executed by the united exertions of the landlord and tenant, the money being in many instances advanced by * Among the extensive stock breeders and stall feeders, the Messrs. Day, of Scollogh, ought to have been named in one of our earlier numbers. relating to the Comity of Wexford ’ 1 49 the landlord ; the tenant paying a portion of it by in- stalments, or, in some cases paying an increased rent in consideration of the permanent benefit obtained by the draining. In Ballaghkeen and other eastern districts, many horses are reared ; the offspring of sires, nearly if not altogether, thorough-bred ; they are reared with ex- pectation of being sold at high prices, to dealers for the Dublin and English markets ; if they turn out badly they are put to farm work. About thirty years ago some thorough-bred sires were imported into the County, and the propagation of a class of horses unfit for farm-work has been the result. A great number of the lower farmers kept a brood mare of inferior quality ; and the new progeny (the old Irish breed having became nearly extinct) has proved to be a race of what are termed “ weeds.” This will be apparent to any judge of horse-flesh who notices the numerous trains of slight, weakly formed animals drawing over-loaded cars of lime from the kilns of Carlow to Ballaghkeen and Gorey ; or who remarks the puny horses that totter with loads of pit timber to the places of delivery. The plough teams with most of the large farmers, are, however, becom- ing what they ought to be. With the very small farmers, the light and easily fed “ weed” is preferred. If a strong horse be occasionally in their possession, its strength will often be overtaxed, either in plough- ing light land, without a yoke fellow, or with one of disproportioned power/'' The effects of such horse * We happened to take shelter in the course of the last autumn from a thunder shower, which fell suddenly at the moment when we 150 Notes and Gleanings debility, are the mere scratching of the land, and conse- quent poor crops. Cahore, in the parish of Donaghmore, is the most easterly point of the barony of Ballaghkeen, and has become the site of a large mansion, built by Mr. Justice George, formerly M.P. for the county, who, under the discouragement of great bleakness of position, has created on his estate at Cahore a fine place ; his was a spirited, laudable undertaking, under local circum- stances. The sea view in clear weather commands a view of the whole bay as far as Wicklow Head to the north, with a much more extended view south- wards. The land and farm buildings are in a condition highly creditable to the taste and energy of the judge who has created so good a residence on such an uninviting site. A life-boat of the Royal Life-Boat Institution has been stationed at Poulduff (the fishing village at Cahore), and another at Courtown Harbour. These are among the improvements at which philanthropy rejoices. Peppard’s Castle, the property of the family of the late Mr. White, J.P., is a highly respectable modernized house (incorporated with the ancient castle), reached through a arrived at the door of a village public house. Two men were ap- parently in very warm discussion, and one of them (a hybrid in ap- pearance, between a jockey and a farmer) with an emphatic bang of the fist upon the counter, exclaimed — “ that is the ruination of Ireland.” Anxious to glean something fresh upon this well-threshed subject, we breathlessly awaited an elucidation — “breeding horses to carry seven stone weight ” — u that is the worst thing that ever happened to Ireland.” A newspaper relating the particulars of a recent horse race lay on the counter. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 5 1 long avenue of an apparently youthful plantation, though of several years’ growth, after constant strugglingwiththe sea breezes. A good deal of work has been employed through a long succession of years in clearing away the indigenous furze, and draining; calcareous gravel abound- ing upon the lands, has been an efficacious agent in the reclamation. An absurd tradition long prevailed that King Dermod MacMurrough, who landed here (at Glas- carrig), on his return from a political visit to England, went to Ferns by a subterranean passage ! A little northward of this is the parish of Ardamine, in which there is the agreeable sea side residence of Mr. S. A. Richards, J.P. Though plantations of con- siderable extent were formed by the father of the present proprietor when he built the house, the trees have not reached that degree of growth which in the interior of the country they would have attained long ago ; they have been planted for shelter and not for landscape effect, and they have only thriven when in masses. Yet they give a very civilized look to the neighbourhood, and a good deal of shelter to the land. The ordinary rotation Mr. Richards pursues on the Macamore soil, when it is necessary to break up old pasture land, is : — 1. Wheat and beans ; 2. beans and wheat in alternate plots ; 3. tawney (winter) oats ; 4. manured root crops ; 5. spring oats or spring wheat laid down with grass seeds. Mr. Richards, finds that beans though an uncertain crop, are, one year with another, the most remunerative, averaging over twelve barrels to the Irish acre, leav- ing the land, though not clean, in good heart for the succeeding crop. 252 Notes and Gleanings A limestone quarry has been opened on this estate with good promise of successful results to agricultural interests ; and a slated range of labourers' dwellings has been erected by Mr. Richards for workmen, whose cabins in the whole district around, have been with few exceptions, until lately, in a very discreditable state. This good resident landlord has built, at his own ex- pense, a very beautiful little church at Ardamine. The parish of Kiltennel adjoining Ardamine north- wards, and containing very nearly the same number of acres, is fortunate in having been during a long period the almost constant residence of the Earls of Courtown, distinguished among landlords for their kind bearing towards a numerous tenantry, their domestic virtues, and zealous co-operation in every movement tending to promote agricultural and social improvements. Arthur Y oung gave the following description of the great grand- father of the present nobleman, and of the estate sur- rounding Courtown House ninety years ago : — Courtown House is a very agreeable place, and in some respects a very singular one ; for the house is within 600 yards of the sea, and yet it is almost buried in fine woods, which from their growth and foliage, shew no aversion to their neighbour, who is so often per- nicious to all their brethren : the views of the sea are very fine, every where broken by wood or hilly raised ground. All the environs con- sist of undulating land which gives a pleasing variety to the scene ; a river enters the garden, and pursuing for some distance, a sequester- ed course, shaded on one side by a rocky bank well wooded, and on the other by lofty trees with a very agreeable walk under them, pours itself into the sea at a small distance from the house. Lord Courtown is a very good farmer. The first field of turnips I saw in Ireland was here, and he was thinning and weeding them with boys, in order to hoe them with the more effect. He generally has 7 or 9 acres of turnips, and sows barley after getting very fine crops. His sandy relating to the County of Wexford. 153 lands by the coast, he marls richly, and with such effect that his crops are very great. The finest wheat I have seen yet in Ireland was on this land. Some of his lordship’s fields are from a stratum of clay, these he throws into land gently arched, lays them down so, and finds them sound enough for winter feeding without poaching, whereas, when flat they are quite kneaded if any cattle go into them. At Courtown and around Gorey, farms in general small, but from 40 to 50 are two or 3000 acres; yet 200 acres is a large one, but very many smaller, of 30 to 50. The soil is a skirting of sand against the sea, the rest is gravel and generally loam, also a thin stratum of loam or a yellow very miserable clay, 12 inches thick, and under it immediately a fine blue marie of great depth. Rents are from 10 s. to 20 s., average 15^. to 20J*., and the whole county 155-. A good deal of mountain, which in wild state does not let for more than 3s. The little farmers improve it much by fallow and lime, which they bring from Carlow, 25 miles. When improved, it is worth i6j-, per acre* and they pay that for it at the expiration of the lease. Their courses are : 1. potatoes, 2. barley, 3. oats ; and then more crops of oats, or barley and oats, ’till the soil is exhausted, when they leave it to turf itself, which it will not do under 10 or 15 years. Also, summer fallow ; 2. wheat ; and then com crops spring, till the land is exhausted. No peas or beans sown or not a turnip in the country among common farmers, though the finest ground imagin- able for them. Nor clover. A little flax is. sown, generally after potatoes, and the culture of it increases gradually. Land at rack rent sells at 20 years’ purchase; but within these ten years at 22 or 23. Rents have been rising for 15 years; they have not fallen of late years, as in other parts of Ireland. At that time the barley was sent to Wexford, and wheat to Dublin, by means of bounty on inland carriage. The village and harbour of Courtown have come into existence long since the visit of Arthur Young. The harbour works were commenced before 1824, when * The Irish acre must have been meant. The prices of com at that time were — wheat, 10 s. ; barley, 8s. ; oats, 6 s. 154 Notes and Gleanings an Act of Parliament was obtained for completing them, and for creating a board of Commissioners (to whom the harbour belongs), who receive the tolls, and in whom the control and management of it rests. The funds for making the harbour were in the first instance raised by- subscription among the neighbouring proprietors, aided by a loan from Government, on the security of the har- bour dues, and on the properties of the Earls of Courtown, and Fitzwilliam. The dues being insufficient to repay the loans, these have been repaid by the noble lords, the principal cost of the construction of the har- bour falling on the Earl Courtown. When this work was first projected, it was reasonably anticipated that a large local trade would have sprung up ; but these ex- pectations have not been realized in consequence of the shifting of the sands, and accumulations of silt brought down by the river, which obstruct the admission of vessels above the size of fishing boats. However, a considerable import trade in coals, iron, guano, salt, &c. is carried on through schooners which lie outside the harbour, and discharge their cargoes by boats. But though this harbour is not of the commercial im- portance that was expected, it is of much benefit to the fishermen of the coast who avail themselves largely of it ; this, with the employment given by the lime and brick works at Seamount, and the expenditure caused by the influx of bathers in the summer season has in- duced the creation of the villages of Courtown and Seamount, which, with the neighbouring village of Redchapel are growing in importance, houses of good description being erected, and much money expended on improvements. 7 elating to the County of Wexford. 155 GOREY. The Town of Gorey, hitherto of semi-rural or large village character, is rising to much higher rank. It was made a Parliamentary borough in the reign of James I. when Bishop Ram resided in the Episcopal Palace, then located there ; but of which no vestiges remain. The long main street is of unusual width ; and old rows of thatched cabins which, within our memory ran at right angles to the lower end of the principal street, have given place to slated dwellings, by the joint exer- tions of the Earl of Courtown and Sir Thomas Esmonde. A gasometer in that quarter testifies to the progress of civic improvement in the important matter of street lighting; and the ecclesiastical structures, the poorhouse, the sessions house, and the schools impart a very im- proved appearance to the whole place. The principal country seats in the vicinity of Gorey are — Ramsfort, a handsome structure filled with fine paintings, and a collection of rare objects of art, besides a very valuable library. This mansion stands in a demesne embellished by taste in every portion of it, and conveying very much the idea of an aristocratic chateau ; the roof turrets, artificial temples and statues, having a continental aspect. Ballynastraw, the property of Sir Thomas Esmonde, Bart., about two miles beyond Ramsfort Park, is a good sized house ; the demesne is large, the plantations are good, and some fine old trees, occupy soil generally light and shingly. Hyde Parke, the residence of Mr. Beauman, J.P., is a grand place ; much ancient timber shows that it is 156 Notes and Gleanings not a modern demesne. There are large gardens and conservatories in the pleasure grounds ; but the soil par- takes very much of the qualities of the Macamore lands. Mr. Beauman does not farm beyond the re- quirements of his own establishment. As to antiquities in this neighbourhood — At Clonnatin (the residence of Mr. Glascott), where the old building suffered severe devastation in the Rebel- lion of ’98, there are now hardly any remains of what is called the cell or retreat of St. Aidan, who founded the monastery of Ferns. There remained of this relic of Norman architecture until a few years ago, nearly perfect, a small narrow window, and part of the west end and entrance. Mr. John Kelly, an architect of Gorey, united some of the fragments and made a draw- ing of what the door had been. The ruins are in a very crowded burial place, unprotected from cattle which have done much mischief. It is to be regretted that the proprietor, who is an absentee, has not done any- thing to protect this relic, which is not on the part of Clonnatin in the possession of Mr. Glascott. The south-eastern portion of Kilnahue parish, the property of Mr. Ram, is mostly held by substantial farmers, who cultivate its generally light soil very well, and in some instances have very respectable residences, well planted. The wood of Ballingarry, on the side of a hill, on the estate of Lord Powerscourt, has more of the Wicklow than of the Wexford features. A large proportion of the country around is in a very unproduc- tive state, calling loudly for reclamation. A large district extending from the eastern side of Connahill, declining from Monaseed to the Bann, is covered with wet sedgy relating to the County of Wexford ’ 1 5 7 grass, although the neglected land which produces this unprofitable herbage has a southern aspect, and a good fall, which would render draining and culture easy of ac- complishment. The roads here and in the entire north- western portion of the county were badly designed, and led the traveller miles out of his way, apparently for the purpose of toiling directly up and down every steep hill; the numerous intersecting levels having been treated by the engineer (if ever such official were employed there) with marked contempt. The hills of Slievebawn, Conna, and Larraheen occupy a large portion of this district. Marl, though found in many parts, is not used, and lime is a very costly manure; the cartage of a load of Carlow lime (costing Js. or Ss. at the kiln) to Kilnahue requires three days’ labour for man and horse. Lime purchased at the Courtown kilns is sold there at the same price as in Carlow ; but as it slakes into a much smaller bulk, there is not yet that decided preference for it which might be expected. Some farmers in this district have overcome all impediments to improvement, and afforded proofs of the good results that may be obtained by energy, judgment, and a moderate outlay of capital, even on very unpromising hill land. Mr. Whitmore, of Bannview, who holds a large part of Larraheen hill, has brought it into high cultivation ; and the large green fields of Mr. Morris, stretching up Rath- pierce hill, are in bright contrast with the adjoining heath and sedge from which they have been reclaimed. No other cereals are cultivated in this entire district than white or black oats, the white spring sorts being favourites, except in the cold and bleak land on Croaghan, where the black Tartary succeeds best. 158 Notes and Gleanings Owing to the higher elevation of the land here, the harvest is more backward than in the south of the county, the oatfields of Kilnahue and its neignbour- hood being quite green, while the farmers around F erns and Enniscorthy are putting their sheaves into stooks. Dairy farming is practised by all the farmers here, and excellent butter is sent up weekly to Dublin in cools containing from 2 olbs. to 5olbs. each ; which, entering Dublin through Wicklow, is styled in the market note “ Sweet Wicklow,” and fetches the top prices. A south Wexford farmer would be struck with surprise on seeing the fine breed of cattle here, even with the small holders — such as he would see only with weal thy farmers and gentry on his side of the county. We must notice, however, the great deficiency in respect of turnip culture in this district, small patches are sown by almost all the farmers, but chiefly for pig and poultry feeding. Stall feeding of cattle is very little practised here. The dairy cows are fed at night on hay, with occasionally a sheaf of oats ; and in the day time turned out to graze upon what they may chance to browze off bare fields and foul ditches. A smooth ridge of hill runs the whole length of Kilnicor parish, terminating on what is marked onGill’s map as “The White Heaps,” memorable for the final engagement between the royal troops and Holt’s rebel army. The latter retreated through Wicklow Gap and dispersed. Beautiful sea views are obtained from every part of the eastern side of this hill, embracing the entire sea line from Cahore to Wicklow head (the Welsh coast, with the Snowdon range of mountains, being plainly visible on clear mornings) with richly planted hills and dales in the foreground. Ballyfad, the relating to the County of Wexford. 159 ancient family seat of the Fordes, stands on the confines of the county, and reaches into Wicklow. The old mansion is in good preservation, and has lately been reroofed by Mr. H igginbotham, the present occupant. It is on a level plain, surrounded by knolls of upland, intersected by valleys all covered with natural oakwood. The property, which is extensive, has been lately pur- chased by Mr. G. A. Brooke, of Dublin. Indications of minerals appear all along the hill side on this and the adjoining estate of the late Mr. Henry Quin, but not sufficiently, we suppose, to induce speculative mining. Burleigh, the seat of the last mentioned gentleman, lies partly in Kilminor, but chiefly in the union of Gorey, from which town it is distant about four and a half miles. The house, formerly but a small lodge, has been converted into a spacious modern mansion in the Italian style; and, with its handsome elevation and surrounding terraces, is highly creditable to the taste of its architect. Viewed from the high ground, it lies low under the shelter of Kilminor and Limbrick hills; yet it is on a considerable elevation above the sea, of which it has fine views through intervening shrubs and trees. There are good fairs for cattle held in Coolgraney, a village on the old coach road between Inch* and Arklow. Pass- ing over Kilminor hill, between Rathpirree and Bally- fad, we look down upon the vale of the Bann — a large level plain lying between the hill of Kilminor and Croghan mountain. The stream takes its rise at the end of the vale of Glenongha, close by, and pursues its course on by Camolin and Ferns until it lapses into the This ought to be a railway station. 1 60 Notes and Gleanings Slaney, near Solsboro’. The peak of Croghan, the first point of land seen by mariners from the Bristol Channel, crowns the mountain which rises on the western side of the vale ; its sides, up to the top, afford pasturage for cattle, sheep, and horses. The natives around are hardy and very shrewd — all of them being in a small way dealers — industrious, and well conducted. The soil at the base of the hill is good — the land level and lying well to the sun. Kavanagh’s holding is conspicuous for its well laid out fields and well tilled land. Descending into the valley, and advancing towards Wicklow Gap, we passby Monalea, where the late Mr. Robert Whitmore by thrift and good management accumulated a large fortune. The greater part of his land was under grass, suited for the rearing of young stock purchased when yearlings, or a year and a half old, and sold off at three years. This was the system by which Mr. Whitmore made his large fortune. Passing by the comfortable dwellings and good farms of the Messrs. Thomas and Edward Whitmore, we arrive at the Gap, the whole of which, and miles at each side, are in the county of Wexford ; but being the entrance from this part into the county of Wicklow, it takes its name from that county. The high road passes between Croghan and Connahills. A thriving plantation, made by the late Viscount Powerscourt, covers the south-eastern end. Passing onward through the Gap, a vast and varied prospect presents itself; innumer- able hilltops with slopes and valleys, and the lofty mountains of Lugnaquilla, Cadsen, Croghan, and Moira, terminating the views. The Powerscourt property, including the demesnes of Wingfield, Croghan, and Barnadown, form here the boundary line of the county. relating to the County of Wexfotd. 1 6 1 The uplands are devoted to pasture ; and a remarkably fine breed of goats is permitted to associate with dairy cows and young cattle, which are of a smaller breed than those kept in the lowlands ; but no sweeter butter can be produced than that which is supplied from the dairy of Mr. Thomas Pierce, of Ballythomas. Fine herds of shorthorns are kept at the dairies of Mr. Symes, of Wingfield, Mr. Dowse, of Croghan, and Mr. Dowse, of Barnadown. Mr. Morris, of Rathpieres- house, and Mr. Moore, of Fort Chester, have introduced remarkably fine stock. The north-west angle of the county is but little known to the inhabitants of the other portions. There is no high road passing through it from one principal town to another — it must be .sought out for observation ; yet a summer tourist who would take a conveyance at the Wooden Bridge, and proceed round by the gold mines, on through Killahurler by Ballygad, through the Gap, past Kilpipe, and back to the Wooden Bridge, would be well repaidfor his journey. BANTRY. The report to Sir William Petty, relating not only to this part of Bantry, but to the barony in general, is very brief, but accurate as a general description. That part of the barony that lies next Rosse, as well as the rest of it, is but coarse, barren land, high and dry, overgrown naturally with furze, and hard, rocky gravel next the town ; yet yields wheat in most parts, and affordes alsoe some good pasture, and very rich marshes by the river syde, alsoe some pleasant seates. About a mile to the northward stands a small ould castle upon high ground, called Mountgarrett, from whence the Lord Mountgarrett takes his title, and to whom it did formerly belong, but was since set out pursuant to the act of settlement unto Captain William Ivory of Rosse. 1 62 Notes and Gleanings The early history of the town of New Ross, which is principally in the barony of Bantry, is by no means clear. Its records are conflicting and in some respects unsatis- factory : Camden, relates that it was founded by Isabella, daughter of Strongbow, and wife of William Le Marechal, afterwards Earl of Pembroke. The report above referred to, in Sir William Petty’s time, ascribes its origin to a princess named Rosse, daughter of Crine, King of Denmark, to whom a large territory, in that? part of the county, belonged. It is called in Irish — Rosse Macrinne or Ross-mactreoin, and it is stated in that report that she was buried in the old church which then stood on the site of the present large parish church on the top of the hill, above the main street. The town obtained its first charter in the reign of Edward I. Subsequently the citizens of Waterford tried to deprive it of its privileges as a trading port ; but a chancery decree in the reign of Edward III. established them. In 1684, there were strong walls, about a mile in circumference, fortified on the river side by a citadel and fort, twelve strong towers or castles, and four gates to the land side : the quays were good, and many of the merchants traded with France and Spain for wine and fruits, and exported beef, hides and tallow. There were then, remains of two monasteries or abbeys which (after their dissolution) had been turned into dwelling houses. The corporation consisted of a sovereign, burgesses, recorder, and chief merchants. The inhabi- tants were for the most part antient natives of the town and neighbourhood; but they who had the control of the corporation and all government employments relating to the County of Wexford. 163 were English. At that time Ross gave the title of Vis- count Rosse, to Sir Richard Parsons, though it prin- cipally belonged to Arthur Annesley, Earl of Anglesea, to whom it had been given by [the then recent] acts of settlement. Ross returned two members to Parlia- ment from the year 1374 to the time of the Union, when the second member was discontinued. There are now few vestiges of the old walls and buildings, though there were, some forty years previous to the report of Colonel Richards, from which we have been taking information — the ruins of walls of great magnitude and age, as appears from good authorities. The walls, which enclosed a circuit of a mile, had been built in the 13th century, for defence against predatory chieftains ; and such was the ardour of the inhabitants to complete the fortification, that not only did the whole of the male population work at it by turns, but many of the young women also aided in it; to commemorate which, a"strong building, called the “maiden tower,” was erected eastward of the town, and designed as a pri- son, exclusively, for persons guilty of offences against females.*'* From the same source we learn that in the war of 1641, the town, which was then held for the Irish, was besieged by the Duke of Ormonde, who, having at- tempted to storm it through a practicable breach, was driven back with considerable loss, and obliged to raise the siege. Immediately afterwards the battle of Ballyanne was fought, in which the Duke obtained a signal vic- tory. The details of this battle are given with such * Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary. 1 64 Notes and Gleanings graphic minuteness and in style so peculiar, by the chaplain of the Marquis (who was subsequently created Duke of Ormonde), that we give some parts of it. This day the armie was brought to a poor village, between Old Rosse and New Rosse, called Lacken ; the next day we came to Rosse, where we saw flags set up on the walls, and the inhabitants making ready for a siege. We could see them sending away their goodes by boats over the Barrow, with many women and children, bringing men into the towne out of the county of Kilkenny. The Lord Marquis was advised to make a breache at the east gate, four or five yards wide, a little beneath the gate towards the river, and the tower over the gate was made unserviceable for the rebells. The culverine was placed at the north end of the towne, right opposite to the breach. By this piece, under cover of a ditch, manie of the armie stood, and saw the poor souldiers led by the commissioners to the slaughter : for what could muscateers do when the rain had drowned all their powder, and quenched their matches ] Neither had they any defence against the enemies’ shott, who stood within the walls of their towne, under their covert, out of sight of our English souldiers. By this time the Irish had gotten great help into the towne, and the culverine was taken from the north end of the towne and shott at the rebells to drive them from the breache ; but after that they preceived the bullets to fall short, and not to reach them, they stood to the defence of the breache without fear : here was much shott and powder lost, but above all, manie good men piked, to the great grieff of the armie, who could hear the rebells shout and laugh when any of the armie were destroyed. There was at that time two shippes lying at Duncannon ; the one, a pinnace for the service of the fort, being of 60 tunnes, with 1 2 pieces of ordnance; the other, of some score tunnes, and six pieces of ordnance. These shippes came to give their assistance. Uppon Thursday, at night, warning was sent to the shippes before men- tioned, that because the armie was to be removed, they might, if they thought they could, go down the river, to do so, and if not, they should burn or sink their shippes lest they should fall into the enemies’ hands, for the enemie had brought an iron culverine from Waterford, planted it on the shore, and shott at those shippes. The messenger that relating to the County of Wexford. 165 should have carried the warning to the seamen failed until Friday morning, at which time the master of the great shippe came to show the Lord Marquis what bullets were shott into their shippes ; and they had removed as far, with much ado, that the bullets only struck on the outside, and did not much harm. On Friday morning, the armie re- moved from Rosse, back the same way they came, and passed by old Rosse, half a mile to a heather hill : upon their left hand appeared some of the enemies’ horse which did soon retreat. The next day being the 18th day of March, Mr. Brian Kavanagh came to the Lord Marquis, and told him that, whereas his Lordship had found many difficulties, hard for the ordnance, on the way he came, he would guide the armie a better w r ay. This advice was accepted. * * They passed an old causeway and some bad fordes, and were about two miles from Rosse. The Lord Marquis commanded all to make redie, and turned to the right hand to meet the enemie. * * At the foot of the mountain there is a little forde, between two bogges ; a little above the forde, is a little towne called Ballinalies, to the left hand, as they came on to the battell. From that towne, a broad lane, ditched on both sides, comes up a long hill, and then hath a sudden deep descent into a bottom. Between this towne and the hill, there is a ditch on either hand : about more than pistoll shott the ground riseth againe. On the brow of the rising ground, the Lord Marquis appointed the six pieces of ordnance to be planted — two culverins and two field pieces, right against the lane, and a little from them a field piece, on either hand. The Lord Marquis’ regiment was on the right hand, and over the heads of the armie the ordnance was dis- charged full in the face of the enemie. The horse were placed on either hand of the foot. First, the Lord Marquis’ forlorne hope of horse began the fight, being not above 32 or thereabouts, led by a valiant gentleman, Captain Morrow : they encountered at least six score. They came within pike’s length before they gave fire, and having discharged, they retired softlie and in goode order, notwith- standing the ground was full of great stones and tufts of heath and furze. The enemie stood still, as if they had enough of that entertain- ment Their horse then came downe the lane filling it from ditch to ditch, and being verie throng and thrust together, thick, at the foot of the lane, the enemies’ forlorne hope of horse, with manie more troopers, made their approach, uppon whom, the Lord Marquis’ forlorne hope, 1 66 Notes and Gleanings with dragoons and firelocks began the battell. The foot, as the enemie came near them, gave fire plentifullie. The bottom, where the foot on both sides were in fight, was so low that they who stood by the waggons could see neither side, yet could perceive that the Lord Marquis’ foot gave far more plentifullie, and in quicker vollies than did the rebells’ foot. On the right hand of the enemies’ horse, there stood a bodie of pikes, to the number of 11,600 choice men, waiting where the English armie should be routed, that they might runn uppon them and do execution. Thus, the fight continued until the ordnance was discharged six times, every piece, and at no time failed in hitting the mark. After that the Lord Marquis’ horse had dis- charged on the rebells here, the word was, they should wheel about, which they did, when suddenly some of the enemies’ horse fell in among the English horse and fell to work with their swords — cut Sir Thomas Lucas on the head and struck him from his horse, as like- wise, Alexander Burrowes, the marshall. The Lord Marquis being verie near, and not knowing that these were rebells that had gotten in among the English troopes, called to the rebells — * why strike you him, he is one of our men ?’ — it was good for us that they did not know that the Lord Marquis was so near, for, of all men they de- sired most to destroy his life, who, by God’s providence was then preserved to be God’s instrument to save the whole armie — for uppon the breaking in of those rebells among the English troopes on the right hand, the Lord Lysle and Sir Richard Greenfield ran away from the battell, and carried all the horse away on that side of the armie, together with the Life Guards, and upp they came to the waggons. There the Lord Lysle called out, ( £io for a guide to Duncannon!’— ‘ £20 for a guide to Duncannon !’ Mr. Zacharia Sylyard, apothe- cary for the armie, came and railed on them, and cried bitterlie — ‘ fie, my Lord, what cause have you to run from the battell ? what safe tie can you find in running from the armie, which you see stand to their armes with courage ?’ and indeed, so they did, for they, see- ing the Lord Marquis and chief officers standing in their places, continued the fight ; but if the Lord Marquis had moved, it would have discouraged all the men, and ruin would have fallen on all the armie, and if not the ruin, yet great trouble on the whole kingdom. After that the old apothecarie had said his displeasure, Major Morris, who had received some wounds and was then in his horse litter, came forth and cried ‘ shame’ on them for running away, ‘ and my relating to the County of Wexford. 167 Lord,’ he said, 1 if you will not lead back the troopes, lend me one of your horses and I will lead them back.’ Then Sir Richard Green- field clapped my Lord Lysle on the shoulder — ‘ come my Lord,’ said he, ‘ we will yet recover it ;’ ‘never while you live,’ said Mr. Sylyard, ‘I mean his credit.’ No sooner were the troopes returned to the battell, but the rebell armie broke all to pieces. We received intel- ligence that some eight score, that would seem more valient and zealous than all the rest, had bound themselve with a curse, that when the English and they should join in battell, they would neither flie nor be taken, but either destroy the English or die on the field. Of these eight score there could no account be had but of eight alone, that had courage to break in with the English. Their marks were straw ropes about their hats and about their middles : they were discovered by throwing away their ropes. Of these, six were killed, one Nugent was taken, and Fitzgerald, of Balsennan, quit his horse and made a shift to go to New Rosse, all being troubled at this running away of the horse, no one followed after him. Here a man may observe the varieties of accidents that will fall out in battell. Before the troopes ran away, the Irish armie began to break and run ; uppon the running away of the troopes they began to gather to their armie ; but so soon as the troopes did return they broke all to pieces, and they might be seen through the smoke of the gunpowder to run, twinkling like motes in the sunbeams, and indeed, they were numerous, at least 3,000 or 4,000 horse, and 10,000 or 12,000 foot, who made haste to out run the horse. When they who had stood by the waggons came to go up the lane where the Irish horse stood, they did see what terrible work the ordnance had made. What goodlie men and horses lay there all torn, and their guttes lying on the ground, arms cast away and strewn over the fields ! On our side, beside Alexander Burrowes, the marshall, and one trooper, that one of those stout eight blades shott in the back hard by the waggons, and was slain, and the wounding of Sir Thomas Lucas and Mr. Gleggie, there were none to be found hurt or killed. * * The Lord Marquis lodged that night in the little village called Ballinafeeg, his regiment lodged in the midst of the slain .” — From a MS. in the British Museum. In 1649 Cromwell was victorious at Ross, after his success in Wexford, and entered the former town 1 68 Notes and Gleanings by a gate at the end, which has ever since been known by the name of three bullet gate, from the cir- cumstance that three cannon balls fired against it, was the signal for demanding a surrender ; the balls, which were found some years afterwards in the gate way, are in the possession of Mr. Deane, of Stokestown. The town of Ross, though containing a long main street of respectable width, with a handsome town-hall interrupting the continuity of line, does not corres- pond in elegance of artificial lineaments, with the beau- tiful river and woodland bordering, with which nature has adorned it. The river, from whose level the prin- cipal street rises considerably, is 600 feet in breadth, where the new bridge is now being built ; and the depth of water there is about 20 feet, both at low water and spring tides. The oldest bridge there of which we find any record was destroyed in 1643, and the inter- course between the Counties of Wexford and Kilkenny was maintained by a ferry-boat until a wooden bridge of American oak was constructed in 1793 by Mr. Cox, of Boston, the architect of the Londonderry, Water- ford, and Wexford Bridges. In pl^ce of that lately destroyed by the flood a very fine metal bridge is now in process of erection, at the estimated cost of ^40,000, to be defrayed by the Counties of Wexford and Kil- kenny : the engineering of which, in the application of machinery, and the working operations, is admirable. Vessels of 500 tons burthen can, at high water, come to the upper end of the quay, close to the bridge ; and vessels of 200 tons burthen at low water. Yet, the commercial prosperity of the town, considering its great advantage in river navigation and direct com- relating to the County of Wexford. 169 munication with the sea, has not been commensurate with those advantages ; chiefly from the subordinate rank of Ross in comparison with Waterford, and from the legal restrictions against its importation of foreign produce, from 1736 to 1832, when it was re-opened by a Treasury order. The annexed tabular returns, for which we are under obligations to the same gentleman, who arranged for us analogous information of the commercial rela- tions of the County town — shew the not unsatisfactory rank of Ross in corresponding particulars. The latter town would have prospered more if there had been railway communication with the districts north and north-east of it.* However, as this is now in course of accomplishment, the trade of Ross is likely to increase considerably. Port of New Ross. — A comparison between the years 1856 and 1866, as to Imports and Exports. IMPORTS 1 ! No. of Vessels Inwards from Foreign. Quarters of Tons of Amount of Year. Tonnage. Indian Corn. Wheat. Coal and Culm. Customs Duties on Imports. 1856 28 7,384 2I,56l 13.765 18,170 sC 20,070 1866 27 8,004 Cwts. 206,953 Cwts. 3M 48 20,689 18,993 British Spirits 7,037 * Mr. Motte, an English gentleman possessing capital and enter- prise, has purchased the line of railway which terminated at Bally- william (within four miles of Ross), and is now producing it from that station to the margin of the Slaney, at a point, where it may meet the Dublin line now about to be carried on to. Wexford from Enniscorthy : we infer from a recent advertisement that this will be soon accomplished. 1 70 Notes and Gleanings IMPORT DUTIES. Year ended $isf Dec., 1856. Year ended 31st Dec., 1 866. £ s. d. £ s. d. Tea 2,545 7 6 »Tea ... ... I,6l6 ... 13,926 15 6 Sugar . . . ... 224 0 3 2 Tobacco 0 2 Tobacco •• i5> IX 5 8 5 3 Com ... ... 2,968 0 7 Wine . . . 193 0 9 4 Timber ... O 0 8 Brandy . . . 37 11 7 Coffee ... 53 17 9 Com ... 1,776 2 5 ■ Wine ... 222 2 6 Timber 175 8 11 Brandy 176 l8 3 Miscellaneous 3 0 2 1 Geneva 14 12 9 Rum 14 l6 10 20,070 0 0 i g .99 3 O 0 EXPORTS. Year. No. of Vessels Outwards, Coastwise. Tonnage. Quarters of Cwts. of Flour. Indian Com. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Malt 1856 1866 3 ° 396. Including Steamer to Waterford. 2,039 32,496 9,68l Cwts. 9 ,° 7 2 4,745 Cwts. 3 L 542 15,082 l Cwts, 80,993 I Cwts. Nil. Nil. Cwts. ! i 3 . 7°4 Nil. Cwts. 2,225 Nil. Cwts. 2,000 Observations. Cows, Oxen, Lambs, Sheep, and Swine. — As these 'animals are sent per Steamer to Waterford, no account of the number ispcept. Pitwood. — No clearance required. 1. Reduction of Duty. 2. Tobacco is sent from Cork and Dublin into the County of Wexford, at lower rates. 3. The Harvest regulates the importation of Com, &c. 4. Now, Duty free. Vast quantities of lime, and limestone, are sold there, and about 15,000 tons of culm are imported and used for the kilns. The conveyance of lime, and lime- stone by railway to the northern districts of Wexford, and the south of the county of Wicklow, would give em- ployment to a railway, even if there were no other traffic. relating to the County of Wexford. 1 71 The middle classes in Ross, generally, are traders; and the lower orders find steady employment in a large brewery, several malt stores, and in some exten- sive leather and woollen works, and much occupation as porters, boatmen, &c. The salmon fishery is still extensively carried on. About 1000 men and boys are employed in it within the Ross fishery districts. There is no reason to think that the alteration in the fishery law has increased the quantity of fish so much as to have transferred the capture of the salmon from the rich to the poor man. The poor-rates of Ross have ranged from 4^. to 4 5*. 6 d. in the pound, notwithstanding the large amount of employment afforded to labourers, and of private charities, among which must be recorded a Magdalen Reformatory and an Asylum for Children under sixteen years of age, both established and mainly supported by the elder Mr. Devereux, the wealthiest of the Wexford merchants, and the most distinguished in that town for the munificence of his public charities. He hopes to render these asylums self-supporting. The views up and down the river from the bridge locality are very rich and beautiful — reaching to moun- tain ranges, and comprehending woodlands in all di- rections. The house, or castle more correctly, of Rosbercon, which was purchased by Mr. Graves, with its fields and tasteful lawn, is very attractive. We notice it, though it is on the Kilkenny side of the river (on gentle elevation), because of the excellent manage- ment of the farm, and more particularly from the evid- ence it affords of the importance of subsoiling arable land as the first step in culture. The finest swedes 172 Notes and Gleanings and mangolds have been raised this year (1868) on this model farm, notwithstanding the dryness of the sum- mer, in consequence of the deep subsoiling at the com- mencement of the field operations. We have never seen plainer proofs of the advantage of digging or ploughing very deeply, whether on porous or stiff soils — in dry or in wet seasons — than there. In the dry seasons, the root fibres are able to make their way in search of the stored up moisture, and in wet seasons the excessive moisture sinks deeply beneath, instead of stagnating around the root fibres. This cannot be too urgently pressed upon the attention of all far- mers. The writer of the very useful pamphlet, to which there is reference at page 29, had this year a crop of white Belgian carrots, which weighed at the rate of 45 tons to the Irish acre, and which were sold in the field at £2 per ton, realizing ^90 per acre, and this, on land of average quality, such as is let to an adjoining tenant at 30i\ per Irish acre. The same gentleman has usu- ally, more than 70 tons of yellow or orange globe man- golds to the Irish acre, after the cutting of an inter- calary crop of cabbages before the sowing of the man- golds. The main secret of such success, he correcty says, lies in thoroughly and deeply working and pulverizing the ground, which is the very part of farm- ing operations within the reach of the poorest and smallest holder who will use his spade. Mr. Graves keeps his farm-yard cattle manure under cover until it is applied to the land, either for green crops (in a very liberal degree) or to grass fields. The wooded lawns and goodly mansions within the radius of two or three miles from Ross are numerous. relating to the County oj Wexford. 1 73 Near the hall-door of Berkley, the venerable demesne of Mr. J. St. George Deane, D.L., there is a copper beech of gigantic yet symmetrical proportions, the greatest ornament among many patriarchal forest trees. From this place there is a fine view of the distant White Mountain, terminating a varied pastoral and cultivated landscape. Palace, the property of Mr. Harman, J.P. is inter- esting from historical circumstances. It bears its name from having been one of the principal residences of King Dermot MacMurrough. Sixty years ago part of the ruins of the old Palace was standing, and a part of the present garden-wall was built with the materials. A large portion of land takes its name from being di- vided into the two townlands — Palace East and Palace West. Much of the house was burned in ’98, and has been subsequently rebuilt, in partly castellated style. Mr. Harman holds some hundreds of acres in his own hands. The lawn is well furnished with trees, and com- mands a fine prospect. From the rere of the house a beautiful view is obtained of the River Barrow, with its extensive foliage on each side, and rich marginal mea- dows. A colony of Germans, who had been ship- wrecked, near Arklow, many years ago, was benevo- lently located on and around Old Ross, by a member of the Ram family, who let forty acres to each family. None of them are now there. The estate principally belongs to Lord Carew. Mr. R. Clayton Browne Clayton, D.L., has a villa and pleasure grounds kept in beautiful order, and a well-managed farm establishment, all surrounded by thriving plantations on the side of Carrigburn Hill, 1 74 Notes a?id Gleanings which rises abruptly from an extensive plain to the height of 2,000 feet above the sea-level. This gentle- man has several cottages with gardens for his labourers, and has lately built, close to the demesne, a double one, which is very ornamental ; on the adjacent high roads, neat finger posts, in the English style, direct the stranger on his course. Mr. Keating, one of Mr. Browne Clayton’s princi- pal tenants (whose farm includes the site of Scula- bogue barn, of tragical memory), has a due proportion of labourers’ dwellings of respectable description, and his farm in a very creditable state. On the rock of Carrickburn, 2000 feet above the sea-level — there stands a high column commemorative of British valour in Egypt, erected by the late General Browne (father of the present proprietor), one of the distinguished officers of Sir Ralph Abercrombie’s army. From this eminence there is in direct view to- wards Old Ross, an extensive plain of impoverished and neglected appearance, partly of peat soil, and evi- dently in need of reclamation. If the heptarchy of pro- prietors to whom it belongs, would co-operate in the necessary drainage, stimulate industry and promote improvement among the occupiers, this now dreary, unsightly, and comparatively unfertile tract, might be converted into luxuriant grass land, or arable farms. Mr. Moffat, J. P., has purchased the estate of Ballyhiland and much of the adjoining townland of Augnacloppa, from the representatives of the late Mr. Howlin, J.P., who built a handsome house, and planted extensively on this property about thirty-five years ago. Mr. Moffat has added to Mr. Howlin’s agricul- relating to the County of Wexford. 175 tural department a bone and threshing mill, and various combinations of modern machinery worked by water-power, which he has rendered subsidiary to all the requirements of the entire establishment. His cow houses can accommodate seventy-five inmates, and there are numerous buildings for his extraordinarily fine and valuable calves and yearlings. As a breeder of valuable stock, Mr. Moffat is the most eminent in the Barony of Bantry. Some cottages on his property, at the unworked lead mines at Cairn, have been re- novated by this gentleman, and adapted to labourers' dwellings. Woodbrook, the seat of Mr. J. W. Blacker, D.L., contains 235 acres. The large plantations made in 1752, by an ancestor on the maternal side are now handsome trees. This place is beautifully sit- uated, and the mansion-house is modern. Next to this is Grange, the fine old residence of Mr. E. Richards, containing 253 acres, beautifully planted, even upwards, on Blackstairs. Both these gentlemen are reputed to be good landlords, and they have a pros- perous and contented tenantry. The White Mountain is part of the Highland chain, whose ridge is the boundary line separating the Coun- ties of Wexford and Carlow; it is divided from Blackstairs by the Boro stream, which also separates the parishes of Killanne and Templeudigan. The commons within these two parishes are designated in the Ordnance Survey, “ Bantry Commons,” and “ Black- stairs Commons,” containing 3,689 acres. * * There are also of “ Bantry Commons ” in the Wexford portion of St. Mullins, 545 acres, making the total of Bantry Commons, 4,234 acres. 176 Notes and Gleanings The present freeholders, much diminished in num- ber, though still very numerous, have practised persis- tent industry in reclaiming this mountain region. Some have large holdings, the consolidations of small ones, whose former possessors have emigrated ; but the generality are occupiers on a small scale, and many of them work as rude masons and carpenters, &c., or as common labourers for neighbouring gentry and farmers. Having no rents, and little, (if any) rates to pay, they are in comparatively good circumstances. A peasantry capable of making such industrious struggles as they have made to reclaim bog and moor, are not to be despised : many such mountaineers, working for themselves, have evinced extraordinary vigour and activity in reclaiming land ; and their opera- tions on the White Mountain have contributed strong evidences, that, with sufficient motive to exertion, the peasantry of Ireland are not inferior to any other people in the application of it. As this mountain district is sheltered from the prevailing wind, and from its gra- dual declination invites thorough drainage, there is no physical impediment to a much greater degree of re- clamation, which will probably be carried out by some future generation, principally through the agency of lime (now drawn with much labour from Ballycarney), which might be cheaply conveyed by moveable tram- ways all over the mountain slopes. The glebe of Killanne, having much grand mountain landscape within its view, is one of the most picturesque in the county : the timber on it (being of many years’ growth), and luxuriant evergreens, giving to the principal side of the house the style of “ mansion ; ” and a little relating to the County of Wexford. 1 7 7 pond with marginal flower-beds, shrubs, neatly kept alleys, distinguishing it from the ordinary fashion of glebe* houses. There are several good farms and gentlemen’s resi- dences in and around the parish of Templescobin. Of these, Dunsinane, the property of the Rev. Mathew Croker, is the principal, and best timbered. The neat villa of Clohass, with its pretty garden and little farm, is held under lease, by Miss Walters, whose benevolence of disposition has a wider range of reputation than the extent of her farm boundary. Close to this, Mr. Sut- ton, a young gentleman of ample capital and of taste for agricultural pursuits, has recently taken a large farm on the estate of Mr. Phayre, on which he is about to build a house and farm-offices, and where he will afford much employment. Near this, but in the parish of Rossdroit, Mr. Whitney and the representative of the late Mr. Josh. Lett of Boulibawn, have long been highly estimated for neat and judicious husbandry on indifferent soil. Nearer to Enniscorthy, is the handsome demesne of Bloomfield, which is the property of Mr. Far- mar, J.P., who has built on it a large and hand- some house in the Tudor style, on an elevated platform, with a terrace bordered, in some parts by * For extensiveness of prospect, picturesqueness of site and neat- ness of arrangement of glebe land, without estimation of the form and size of buildings, the most pleasing glebes (in our judgment) are those of Enniscorthy, Killanne, Newtownbarry, Killurin, and Edermine. If superiority of size and adaptation of the glebe house, to the accommodation of a large household, and the extent of sur- rounding plantations be considered, Templeshanbo is foremost. i;8 Notes and Gleanings flower-beds and shrubs, and a stream artificially orna- mented. The subsoil of the lawn is chiefly clay marl, and the excavations which had been made for raising this once-prized manure, are now either ponds fringed with timber or totally planted with trees. Here we saw specimens of asbestos, which, with a rare sort of marble slab stone has been found in the subsoil here. Mr. Farmar has rendered this property very valuable, and as he has some excellent land in immediate proxi- mity to his lawn, he has inducements to farm in a good style, which he has not neglected. Two miles from this place is Borodale, the property and residence of Mr. Beatty, J.P., which is beautifully situated, in front of the Slaney, and flanked on one side by the Boro, where, after flowing through a wood, it plunges into the Slaney. There is a very beautiful walk here, in the wood, on the north bank of this river. Mr. Beatty has lately bought a portion of property, adjoining his demesne, which had been a short time previously thorough drained, and expen- sively fenced by Mr. James Andrews, a native of Scot- land, who has expended very large sums in purchasing and improving demesnes and farms, and on experi- mental husbandry, to the decided benefit of the localities in which he has obtained distinction. Borodale is one of the most beautiful places on the river side, having in view the fine old seat of St. John’s, with its large oak wood, and the remains of the old Abbey of St. John’s, close to that venerable mansion. Near Borodale, on the way to Enniscorthy, is Holly- mount, the neat and modern residence of Mr. James Davis, whose fields of pleasing appearance, flanked by 179 relating to the County of Wexford. one or two villas, and farms of minor extent, are orna- mental, and suitable introductions to a principal suburb of Enniscorthy. From this part we proceed to Wilton Castle, the estate and residence of Colonel Alcock, D.L., who has energetically continued the system of improve- ments commenced by his father in 1812, and pursued during his lifetime of unbroken residence on the estate. He planted about 150 acres of the demesne, and built the present very beautiful castle (in the early Tudor style), on the site of the old mansion which was in the dull style of the period of William and Mary. The modern edifice, (with a frontage of nearly 100 yards), in sections of different elevations, but in perfect harmony, is castellated, and stands upon an elevated plateau, which has nearly the same length and breadth on the west front. On the east side there is, in correct keep- ing with the style of the building, a tunnelled approach to the stable-yard below, and at judicious distance from the castle. The River Boro meanders through the lower part of the extensive demesne, (which con- tains many venerable trees), and forms some ornamental ponds in its course. There are on the property here, 425 acres of woodland, much of which was rocky hill, formerly barren and uncultivated. Colonel Alcock has greatly increased the extensive plantation around Bree Hill* and rendered every available waste spot, such as * Bree Hill, 596 feet in height, is a protruded porphyritic trap formation : being isolated, and in the centre of the county, singularly extensive views may be had from it in every direction. The planta- tion on this hill is now 180 acres in extent, and probably the largest wood in this county at present, the Messrs. Purdon having converted nearly all the formerly extensive Ballaghareen forest into pasture and arable land. 180 Notes and Gleayiings worked-out quarries and marl pits, profitable and orna- mental, under Scotch firs and larch, for which there is unlimited demand from consumers requiring sleepers for railways, props for collieries, poles for telegraph wires, &c. Colonel Alcock has been offered per acre for plantations of between forty and fifty years’ growth, on the rocky side of Bree Hill, which, at the time of planting, was valued only at 35. 6 d. per acre. During this period of time considerable sums have been rea- lized from periodical thinnings. The oak-wood, part of the demesne of Wilton, and containing eighty acres, has long been an object of great beauty and profit. The present proprietor, who has had full opportunities of forming correct judgment, is of opinion that all lands which are not worth more than 10s., per Irish acre, to a farmer, ought to be devoted to timber growing. This assumes that the present demand for the above-men- tioned purposes will continue. Besides planting extensively, there have been other considerable improvements on the estate : a vast amount of draining, fencing, road-makine, and building. At the period of the famine in 1847-1848, several hun- dred acres were deserted by the occupiers, who emi- grated to America. Colonel Alcock proceeded to in- vest large sums of money in the permanent improve- ment of the lands, thus thrown on his hands. Being ably assisted by his zealous and active agent, Mr. T. R. Hardy, and undismayed by the great agricultural depression, at the time, following the repeal of the Com Laws and the famine, he continued to give employment to the rural possessors all through the hard times ; some- times paying ^35 per week in wages to labourers en- 7 elating to the County of Wexford . 1 8 1 gaged in draining, clearing land of rocks and stones, levelling old crooked ditches and fences, making new roads, building bridges, and a new landing pier on the banks of the Slaney ; and also building a farm home- stead on the townland of Ballinavary, for which he ob- tained the ^50 Challenge Cup, patriotically given by Lord Talbot de Malahide. The reports* given in the proceedings of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ire- land, are very stimulative to undertakings of a kindred description. The cost of the farm-offices, amounted to upwards of ^700, and that of the house to ^472. The result of the outlay which was considered, by many old farmers, when first commenced, to be rash, if not reckless, has turned out highly satisfactory, the lands being all let now to solvent tenants at rents far exceeding the old ones. In one instance the present rent is 300 per cent, above the old rent ; in another instance 200 per cent, of rise has been obtained, while all the other improved farms have been re-let, equally well. Two farms — and this is an uncommon and interesting fact — have been let to returned emigrants, who made their fortunes by a few years’ residence in America, and who are models of enterprise and activity to the neighbourhood. A flax mill was erected several years ago on the extremely pretty farm of Craane, by Messrs. C. S. Pownall and Co., for the manufacture of flax fibre, in such a way that it might be spun on cotton machinery. * The report respecting the Challenge Cup appeared in pp. 26 and 27, of the Transactions from December, 1863 to May, 1866, and the description in minute detail of the labourers’ cottages erected by Colonel Alcock, was also inserted, as beneficial model work. 182 Notes and Gleanings The process consisted in steaming the fibre in tanks until the gluten was dissolved ; it was then washed repeatedly in cold water, the fibre passing through rollers, which freed it from the gluten. But the ex- pense was found to be too great — the manufacture did not pay, and much flax-straw which had been delivered by the farmers in the neighbourhood of the mills was returned to them. Colonel Alcock then purchased the mills from the mortgagee into whose possession they had fallen, and made many efforts to establish a woollen or other factory instead of the other, but without any success. He has converted this fine building, which is eighty feet square, with excellent upper storey, into a barn and feeding house. The question suggests itself to us — why have we not such manufactures there ? There is a never failing water power ; a wheel equal to sixty horse power, with shafting, &c., all complete ; labour cheap and abundant ; the population as peaceable and orderly as any in the world. It is strange that from Ireland we export our wool, and bring it back in cloth ! The magnitude and completeness of the various reclamations and improvements on this property deserve laudatory record, in more worthy “ notes ” than these. Very near Breehill is Galbally, the property of the late Mr. J. H. Talbot, until his recent much lamented death, when it devolved by marriage settlement to his daughter, Lady Power. Mr. Talbot improved that property greatly, and gave much employment, during the famine period, in drainage on the estate. This popular and very amiable proprietor, was one of the relating to the County of Wexford. 183 first to take money under “ Labouchere’s letter ” in 1848, to keep the people employed. He planted several acres of the lightest of his lands, and from the thinnings of the plantation he received large sums during the last ten years. The Roman Catholic church, the priest’s house, the school-house, and a neat little inn, owe their strikingly creditable appearances, and in some respect their origin, to him. It is believed that his sincerely lamented death, was attributable to illness induced by his attendance last Spring at a meeting of influential county proprietors, to consider a plan for the formation of a new harbour, with extended railway accommodation from it to the west and north. SHELBURNE. This barony is separated on the west side from the Counties of Kilkenny and Waterford, by the rivers Barrow and Nore. At its northern extremity is the Hill of Sleive Coiltha, or the Hill of Woods, though there is not now a tree upon it. On its summit is a common of 200 acres, on which surrounding tenants have the right of pasturage ; on the south side the late Rev. William Gifford, planted some acres with firs^ which are growing very well. Our often quoted standard MS. authority, describes the barony thus : — “ It lyes towards the South sea, along the river of Rosseand Waterford, and is divided into quarters or peeres (as they are termed in that countrye, the same as hundreds in England), viz. : the Peere of Dunbrody, the Peere of Hooke, the Peere of Sleive Culter, and the Peere of Tinterne. It belongs 184 A T otes and Gleanings to several proprietors of a new acquisition, except the lordship of Teneragh, which belongs to Mathew Forde, Esq., of .... in the same county. There is a parish church now in repayre, called White Church, and there is aother alsoe in this peere, called Carnagh,* that is ruinated. ” Mr. W. M. Madden Glascott, J.P., the principal land proprietor in the parish of White Church, holds about 200 acres of pasture land included, 100 acres reclaimed entirely at his own cost, and 100 acres of plantations. The soil is variable — some of it good, deep loam, the rest light, sharp soil. Limestone, sea • sand, and town-manure, are cheaply conveyed by water from Ross, and sea-sand is abundant in the immediate neighbourhood of Alderstown. The value of Scotch fir and larch of thirty years’ growth, and oak poles from twenty-five to thirty years growth, is here considerable, from the facility of sending timber away by water car- riage. Mr. Glascott, pursuing the customary rotations, but never breaking up good grass land, has a large live stock, in proportion to the extent of his land — thirty dairy cows ; twenty two year olds ; twenty-four year- lings ; twenty-four calve ; twenty-eight sheep, and many pleasure and working horses and mules. The labourers on the estate have good slated cottages, with gardens, and is. a-day, all the year round, and generally some firewood. Extra labourers are put to contract work. Satisfactory tenants, where the farms are in proper con- * Mr. Lambert, D.L., proprietor of Camagh, has greatly improved the appearance and condition of the estate and mansion house, and drained extensively. Camagh is properly in Bantry. relating to the County of Wexford. 185 dition, as to size, compactness, See., have leases of thirty years and the landlord’s life ; and every reasonable encouragement is given to well-conducted and industri- ous tenants. On some other estates the tenure is from year to year. Small holders and young labouring men in this district are still diminishing — so that when a press of work comes it is difficult to find labourers. Improved machines and implements are in use by Mr. Glascott and other gentlemen. Grubb and Wood’s reaping machine, and portable horse-threshing machines are employed ; and generally the large holders are im- proving very much. At the north extremity of the barony, Killowen the property of Mr. John H. Glas- cott, J.P., has many acres of good timber, about fifty years’ growth ; the house, situated on the banks of the Barrow, has pleasing views of the Counties of Water- ford and Kilkenny. An unmarried lady of the Glas- cott family (which came from Essex in 1644), occu- pies the small, but well timbered demesne of Fruit Hills : some fine old timber surrounds the house, which is of Cromwellian type. The woods in this neighbourhood were formerly so dense and extensive, that an old saying was — “ a man might walk from Al- dertown to Pill town on the tops of the trees.” The original house of Aldertown was attached to an old quadrangular castle, which belonged to a branch of the richly land-endowed family of Sinnots. The de- mesne is now cut up into farms, and what remains of the house is let to a farmer. Kilmannock, formerly the family seat of the Hough- ton family, was purchased in 1862, by Mr. M. W. Knox, J.P. The modern house is very fine and sur- i86 Notes a?id Gleanings rounded by good timber. One patriarchal oak tree, near the house, is more than 200 years old, and is registered as a boundary mark — where three town- lands meet — in a lease made in 1661. The demesne, consists of 500 acres, a great portion of which was re- claimed from the shore and the tideway of the river, within the last twenty-five years, by means of money borrowed from the Board of Works. Ballysop, the residence and property of Mr. Gifford, J.P., on a side of Slieve Coiltha, formerly belonged to Mr. Annesley, of Bletchington Park, Oxfordshire. It was sold in the Landed Estates’ Court in 1866, to Mr. Gifford, whose family had held it by lease during more than 150 years. The house is new — in the Elizabethan style — and surrounded by timber of rather recent growth. Mr. Glascott and Mr. Gifford are the best stock breeders in this part of the barony. Dunmain, antiently the residence of the Lords Altham, now belongs to Mr. J. Stafford, J.P. The house is old, but good, and in a few years will look better, when the new plantations attain more height; the old timber has gone. Taking a line of “ notes ” from the most easterly point of Shelburne, where it nearly meets the baronies of Bargy and Shelmaliere West, to the most southerly point, we commence with CLONMINES. This townland, too, was part of the large Annesley estates, and lately purchased by Mr. D’Arcy, M.P. It contains 1378 acres. The town, which occupied twenty acres, was formerly large ; its site is marked by extensive ruins, improperly called the Seven Castles of relating to the County of Wexford. 187 Clonmines, although, at least, three of them were ecclesiastical buildings. Being picturesquely grouped, they form a point of interest to tourists, as well as to antiquarians. Clonmines was one of the parliamentary boroughs disfranchised at the Union. Mr. Frazer, in his Survey, says that — “ the Danes had a mint for coin- ing silver on the opposite side of the river, at Barris- town,” now the property of the Rev. Richard King, of Woodville, and occupied by his eldest son. Excava- tions have been made in search of lead, which has been found, but not in sufficient quantity to induce the prosecution of the labours which had been commenced, Mr. Richard Codd, the present tenant, is one of the best stock breeders in the barony. Limestone from Slade can be unloaded here on the very land, and the bed of the river affords sand and marine deposits ; the advantages derivable from such location are obvious. “ The Peere of Tintern (says the often quoted report), has indifferent good, but shallow soil ; it has eight or nine castles and small farm houses ; it belonged, ex- cept some few small parcels, before the dissolution of monasteries, to the Abbey of Tintern, which was en- joyed by the monks of the order of St. Bernard, and is now the inheritance of Sir Caesar Colclough,* of Tinterne, Baronet.” The statement given in Lewis' Dictionaty, is, that the Earl of Pembroke having escaped shipwreck on the coast of Wexford in 1200, endowed, in consequence of a vow made during his peril, and * Of whom Sir Anthony Colclough, Knt., Captain of the Guard of Gentlemen Pensioners, in the reign of Henry VIII., was the grandfather. There is a monumental slab to his memory in the old chapel of the abbey. 1 88 Notes and Gleanings dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, the Cistertian Abbey at Tintern, to which he brought monks from the Abbey of Tintern in Monmouthshire. The dwelling-house, (which never was of style and extent suitable to the demesne), and other particulars represented are almost applicable to present conditions. “ Tinterne Castle is situated upon a rising grounde or rock, but sheltered on all sydes, at some small distance, by higher groundes, and several groves of oaks and ash trees ; under the house, at a pistoll’s shot distance, in a valley running through a small grove, is a pleasant cleare river or streame, (whereon stands a corne mill), flowing along the valley to a place called the Saltmills, where it falls into the river of Bannow. On Tintern side there is an oyster bedd, which is extraordinary large, and ac- counted the best oysters in the countye, if not in all Ireland. They were brought thither, about seventy years ago, in a bark from Milford Haven, by order of Sir Theobald Colclough, and sunk there where the soyle proved soe natural to them, that they should grow much bigger, and better tasted than those now had at Milford Haven.” The estate of the Colclough family is one of the oldest and most extensive in the county; it is principally in the barony of Shelburne and the parish of Tintern, which contains nearly 7000 acres. The demesne of Tintern Abbey, which has much fine timber and extensive gardens, comprises about 600 acres. The tenantry have good and neat homesteads, and seem to be pros- perous. The village of Tintern, which wasTormerly too near the abbey and demesne, was cleared away, and rebuilt with great improvements, on the adjoining relating to the County of Wexford . 189 townland of Saltmills, by which name it is now called. It has a very pleasing appearance from the opposite side of the river Scar. The estate devolved, after expensive and prolonged litigation some years ago to the grand-daughter of Caesar Colclough,* Chief Justice of Prince Edward’s Island, who was married to Mr. Rossborough — now Rossborough Colclough. It was one of the causes celebres of the age. FETHARD. In the map annexed to the Annals of the Four Mas- ters, which gives the names of remarkable places and ter- ritories possessed by each of the Irish princes, lords, and chiefs from the eleventh to the seventeenth cen- tury ; also the possessions of the Danes in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, and those of the great Anglo-Norman and other English families, from the reign of Henry II. to that of Elizabeth — the name of Fethard does not appear. It is certain that it is not derived from fighthard, and that there is no founda- * The Judge in early life having, on a journey from Tintern to Waterford, crossed the ferry of Ballinlaw on a windy day, furnished subject to Mr. Bushe (afterwards Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and one of the brightest and most honoured ornaments of the ele- vated station to which he attained), for the following jeu cT esprit. While meaner souls the tempest keeps in awe, Intrepid Colclough crosses Balinlaw, And tells the boatman, shiv’ring in his rags, “You carry Caesar — and his saddle bags.”* * Ceesarem portas et fortunas. This was happily quoted on the trial referred to, by Mr. White- side, then an eloquent advocate of Mr. and Mrs. Rossborough Col- clough, and now, occupying the same high position which Mr. Bushe attained. 1 90 Notes and Gleanings tion for the tradition that Strongbow fought a battle there : the battle-cry would have been in the Norman language or a mixture of Norman and French. The probable definition of Fethard is the Celtic word Feodh, meaning trees, or a wood, and Ard, high, a common termination to Irish names. Tradition holds that there was formerly a high wood near Fethard, and, that place, though now treeless, is still called a wood. The tradition that Strongbow landed at Bag and Bunn, between Fethard and Hook is also a foolish myth; two of his ships, it is said, were the “ Bag ” and “Bunn.” Strongbow landed in Waterford in 1177, with 200 knights and 1,200 infantry; the next day he stormed Waterford,* with Raymond Le Gros, who had preceded him. Such a military force, composed of infantry and cavalry, could not have landed at the place indicated as Strongbow’s landing place and camp ; the shore is rocky and precipitous, and the country around could not have supplied forage, or even a sufficiency of fresh water ; a gale of wind would have shivered their encampment to shreds, and the slightest repulse from defenders of the soil, to Norman horse and rider, would have precipitated them into the sea. Nor is there more ground for supposing that the townland called Battlestown, comprising 1,300 acres of the estate of Lord Templemore, was the scene of a battle with the Normans. It was probably named from a Norman, De Bataille. From the Annals of the Four Masters, it appears that Robert Fitzstephen landed at the Bay of Bannow, or Bag-na-bun. Fethard boasted formerly * Leland, p. 43, vol. 1. relating to the County of Wexfo * d. 1 9 1 of a considerable castle, part of which remains incor- porated with a dwelling-house : it was the episcopal residence of the bishops of Ferns. “ Here Alexander Devereux, the last abbot of Dunbrody, and the first bishop of Ferns, after the Reformation, died in 1556, and was buried in the church, in the aisle of which his tombstone still remains.”* The town was incorporated in the reign of James I., and returned two members until the period of the Union. Robert Leigh described it as a small straggling town, containing a few small castles and a stone house, and a brick house built by Mr. Nicholas Loftus — a large parish church, and se- veral thatched cabins. It consists now, principally, of a wide street, and about fifty houses. It is not an im- proving town, having neither manufactures nor com- merce, except a trifling coasting trade in coals ^ and the fishing trade has greatly declined. Bathers find good accommodation in the neighbourhood around, during the summer season. Hook “ Peere,” near Fethard, at the southern ex- tremity of the county is a very narrow neck of land, bounded on the West by the harbour of Waterford, and on the East by Slade Bay, where there is a small quay, and to which coal is brought in boats of small tonnage. It is chiefly distinguishable by an ancient tower, 100 feet high, used as a light-house. Ledwich attributes its erection to the Danes. Loftus Hall (formerly Redmond’s Hill) in this parish, belongs to the Marquis of Ely, one of whose ances- tors obtained it by purchase, and rendered it a very * Lewis. 192 Notes and Gleanings large and commodious mansion. It is a pleasant marine residence in summer. The soil in the united parishes of Hook and Templetown (containing 5,216 acres), is good in some parts and bad in others : all from Porters gate to Hook Tower is excellent, having a limestone bottom. There is also some very good land about T empletown ; the soil is partly red sandstone and partly “Bala beds,” in the parish of Fethard, generally ; the remainder, on the whole, is of inferior quality. Mr. W. Breen, J.P., who is the largest farmer in this district has an excellent breed of cattle, and is a spirited agriculturist. The limestone quarries at Slade,* where there is a village of fishermen and quarrymen, supply an extensive area of this barony with that most efficaci- ous mineral, and it is also sent to Waterford. The entire of the large district involving the parishes of St. James, Templetown, and Dunbrody, historically, is very interesting, and pictorially, in several parts, of most pleasing appearance. A description of the noble and beautiful ruins of the Abbey of Dunbrody is only suited to the pen of a poet or antiquarian. They are truly magnificent. The ruins of this Abbey are unquestionably the finest in the county. In the reign of Henry VIII., all the properties belongingto the monas- tery of Dunbrody were granted on their dissolution to several persons. Subsequently, in the reign of James I., by an inquisition, dated at W exford, the townlands of Dunbrody were granted to Sir Osborne Itchingham. The same king, in the sixteenth year of his reign, * There are the remains of one of several castles included in a grant of James I. to Sir Adam Loftus. relating to the County of Wexford. 193 granted by letters patent, to Sir Adam Loftus, his heirs, &c., for ever, the preceptory of Kilteegan,* with the castle or fort . . . and also several manors or castles . . . within the said preceptory. Itching- ham built, but did not complete his work there before the rebellion. Templetown Castle and Slade Castle, and others, were probably included in this grant, of which the Loftus family have since, uninterruptedly, held the rights. Captain Allen has a neat villa, and a farm of 177 acres, in this parish, which is otherwise very destitute of respectable residences. Duncannon Fort, has been a royal fort since tfie days of Queen Elizabeth : in 1575 it mounted thirty pieces of cannon. The Queen granted, for keeping the fortifications in repair, a portion of lands, the rent of which amounted in one year, 1800, to ^735. Crom- well besieged it, but retired precipitately, from a mili- tary ruse exercised by the ingenuity of Colonel Wogan, the governor, who secretly introduced at night some horses, and early the next morning, having mounted some of his infantry on them, he pretended to make a sortie. The cautious Cromwell was deceived ; he be- lieved that reinforcements had been thrown in from Waterford, and hastily departed. But the fort capi- tulated afterwards on the surrender of Waterford. It was from this place that James II. finally fled, and the fort soon afterwards surrendered to King William. The fort (separated from the village by a fosse and * The place probably derived its name from a preceptory of Knights Templars, founded by one of the O’More family, in the reign of King John. — Lewis. *94 Notes and Gleanings drawbridge) contains a district governors house and permanent barracks. Ballyhack, where there is a ferry to the Waterford side, is a poor and cheerless place, even though em- bellished with a new quay. In Leigh’s time “ it was a sad place to look upon, and had only half-a-dozen houses, and an old castle. There were two annual fairs held there in the year, for black cattle and pigs. In the summer good mill-stones are wrought here, and rolled downe a very high precipice to the key, and soe carried away by water.” Now, there are four fairs held there, one of which has long been famous for the sale of turkeys, which we ourselves have purchased there for $s. and 3^. 6 d. a couple. Since the removal of the Scotch, or fixed salmon weirs, several boats have been built for salmon fishing, with drift nets, which have not proved remunerative. Herrings, hake, &c., which, some years ago were plentiful on the shores are now very scarce, and every year decreasing* No progres- sive improvement is perceptible here. Arthurstown, however, very near it, is a new and increasing village. (Arthur) Lord Templemore is its proprietor, and a great deal has been done here by this nobleman and his lordship’s predecessor to render it a prosperous place. A pier, 100 yards in length, was built here about thirty years ago, to which vessels of 100 tons burden can come up, but heavy gales and consequent accumu- lations of sand are physical obstacles to its becoming an emporium of much importance. Limestone brought from Granny, in the County of Kilkenny, is one of the most useful of the imports here ; and though less valu- able in a pecuniary sense, greater in extent than the relating to the County of Wexford. 195 imports of coal and slates. Dunbrody Park is the principle object in this district. The demesne is well timbered, extensive, and well cultivated, and the mansion-house has been rendered within a few years more commodious, and more architecturally pleasing than formerly. The remains of an old building, bearing the neither classical nor euphonious name, of Buttermilk Castle, standing on a promontory in the Waterford river, forming a small bay, is stated by “ Lewis ” to have derived its name from the exaction of a toll on buttermilk by the monks of Dunbrody. Whatever may have been the origin of the name, the building was probably erected for protecting the fishery and curing the fish belonging to the abbey. % !Cht of tbc Casfbs OF THE COUNTY OF WEXFOED, WITH THE NAMES OF THE STRONGBOWNIANS WHO ERECTED THEM. | No. Name of Castle. By whom erected. I Ballyteigue Castle . Sir Walter Whitty. 2 Ballyhealy Castle . Sir Richard Whitty. 3 Carrig Castle Robert Fitzstephens. : 4 Bartown Castle do. !; 5 Selsker Castle and Ab- The Roches in the 12th! bey (Wexford) Century. 6 New Castle . do. i 7 Ballytramont Castle do. 8 Castle Sow . do. 9 Artramont Castle . The Sinnots. 10 Ballyfmogue Castle do. (demolished) 1 1 Garrylough Castle . do. do. 12 Johnstown Castle . The Esmondes. 13 Haystown Castle The Hayeses. i 14 Killiane Castle . The Cheevers. 15 Rathmackoree Castle . The Rossiters. 16 Ballycogly Castle . The Waddings. 17 Ballybrennan Castle Sir Richard Sinnott. 1 18 Ballyrane Castle The Waddings. j 19 Bargy Castle .... The Rossiters. | 20 Butlerstown Castle . The Butlers. 16. Luke Wadding, Lord Bishop of Ferns, 1684, was son to Wadding of Ballycogly. A List of Castles of the County of Wexford. 197 I No. Name of Castle . “ By whom erected. ! 21 Ballymackane Castle * The Staffords. 22 Ballytory Castle . The Frenches. 2 3 Tacumshane Castle The Hayeses. 24 Sigginstown Castle The Hearns. 25 Lingstown Castle . Lady’s Island and St- The Lamberts. 26 Margaret’s do. 27 Ballycorrigar Castle The Staffords. 28 Castletown Castle . The Codds. 29 Clogheast Castle . . do. 30 Baldwinstown Castle . The Esmondes. 3 1 Ballyharty Castle . Sir Patrick Fitznitril: 3 2 Mulrankin Castle . The Browms. 33 Bridgetown Castle . The Keatings. 34 Rathronan Castle . The Browns. 35 Ballymagir Castle . The Devereuxes. 3 6 Sallystown Castle . do. : 37 Dunbrody Castle do. i 38 Duncormick Castle . Meyler Fitzhenry. 39 Kilcavin Castle . The Fitzhenries. : 40 Tullacanna Castle . . do. ;! 41 Coolhul Castle . . . do. : 42 Bannow Castle and Church do. 43 Ballinaboola Castle . The Nevilles. ; 44 Clonmines Castles . . Fitzhenris, Suttons, and Purceels. 45 Taghmon Castle . . The Hores. 46 Sigginishaggard Castle do. : 47 Ballyhurogue Castle The Suttons. 48 Rathtimney Castle . The Prendergasts. 49 Enniscorthy Castle . . do 21. John Stafford, Governor of Wexford Castle, was son to Stafford of Ballymackane, and sold the town to Cromwell for .£500 at a little river that runs across the road between the Black Cow and the Folly. 198 A List of Castles of the County Wexford. No. Name of Castle . By whom erected. 50 Clough Castle . . . The Butlers. 51 Mountgarret Castle do. | 52 Loftus Hall or Red- mond Hall . The Redmonds. 53 Clohamon Castle do. \ 54 Adamstown Castle . The Daltons. 55 Courtail Castle . The Walshes. 56 Rathgory Castle . The Sweetmans. 57 Slevoy Castle The Rossiters. 58 Ballygarvin Castle . . do. 59 Horetown Castle The Furlongs. 60 Bulgan Castle . . . do. 61 Blackhall Castle The Cheevers. 62 Deeps Castle . . The Devereuxes. 1 63 Poulhore Castle . The Hores. 62. Sir William Devereux was governor of Wexford, and joined the Roches in building Selsker Abbey. Janus Charles, Printer , 61, Middle Abbey-street, Dublin. ERRATA. P. 1 1 8, line io from bottom, for “some,” read “none.” P. 120, line 1 8 from bottom, for “ Malt,” read “ Mill ” ; and in note of same page, for “ Drumgooland,” read “ Drumgoole.” P. 128, for “ Coolmena,” read “ Coolmelagh.” P. 145, line 15 from top, omit “great.” P. 147, 11 lines from bottom, insert “ slowness of,” before ‘‘ agricultural.” Just Published \ by the same Author , Jnew ^ditions of Pints to Small Jfarmers, Price One Shilling ; AND radical CSarfrening, Price One Shilling . DUBLIN: GEORGE HERBERT, 1 1 7, GRAFTON-STREET ; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. Cubic of % |)rojxes IN THE COUNTY OF WEXFORD, WITH THEIR AREAS IN STATUTE ACRES. ( Taken from the Index Map of the Ordnance Survey .) $ allagfjlimr. » Parishes including Areas. A. R. P. Templeshannon, ( River Slaney Part of l 11 3 16 } 3601 .0 36 Parishes. including Areas. Ardamine 4214 R. 3 p. 32 Tideway of River Slaney 139 0 8 Ballyhuskard 7947 2 22 Ballynaslaney, Part of 1765 2 29 ; Bally valdon 3911 0 37 ; Ballyvaloo 1891 2 13 1 %mixys. Castle-ellis 5603 1 35; Donaglnnore, t Learfs Lotigh \ 7490 Part of 1 8 1 15 > 2 28] | Adarastown ; Bally anne 8133 4577 3 25 2 17 Edermine . 4130 2 23 j Ballyhoge, Part of 2779 1 32 Kilcavan, Part of 641 3 24 ! Carnagh .... 2106 0 39 Kilconnick, Part of 5810 3 1 ! Chapel .... 3588 0 36 Killenagh . 3232 1 12 1 Clonleigh .... 2716 3 17 Killila . 1810 3 34 1 ; Clonmore, Part of 4821 3 30 Killincooly&Detached Portions 4430 2 29 ; Doonooney 1081 0 39 Killisk . 4037 2 5 ; Kilcowaumore 2760 1 4 Kilraakilloge, Part of . 2009 2 25 ; Killann .... 11424 1 14 Kilmallock 4093 3 28 Killegney 6685 3 6 Kilmuckridge C North Portion \ 3898 1 3 111 ! Kilscanlan , Newbawn, Part of 1154 2657 0 32 0 8 Kitoamanagh v. 1379 3 i5 J > 2678 2 21 1 Oldross .... 10653 0 22 l ; Rossdroit .... 8166 1 18 Kiltcnnell 4125 3 19 ; St. John’s 2206 2 13 Kiltrisk, Part of . 41 0 13 ; St. Mary’s 4922 1 27 Meelnagh . 4189 0 27 St. Mullin’s, Part of . 3347 1 38 Monamolin, Part of 2716 0 1 Tcmpleludigan 8177 1 30 St, Margaret’s, Part of 142 3 29 Templescoby 1707' 1 12 St. Nicholas 1213 2 18 Whitechurch, Part of . 765 0 15 Skreen, Part of 836 1 x ! Whitechurchglynn, Part of . 7165 2 13 Table of the Parishes in the County of Wexford. Parishes. including Areas. \ A. R. P. / ( River Barrow Tideway] R P* [ 389 0 15 35 3 i5 J Ambrosetown . 2197 0 31 Ballyconnick . 1610 2 31 Bannow . 6551 0 23 ' Duncormick . 5710 3 18 Kilcavan . . 3204 2 10 Kilcowan . . 2082 1 34 Killag . 1953 0 1 Kilmannan . 4251 0 36 | ( Detached Portion , '] Kilmore < 220 O 17 ( Saltee Islands, j !■ 4233 3 9; L 309 0 32 j 1 Kilturk {DetM Portion,} 22 0 6 3 20 ! Mulrankin • . . 2433 1 19 | Taghmon, Part of . 1386 3 0; Tomhaggard • . 2180 0 16 Ballybren- c Detached Portions , } 1041 0 34 nan l 97 0 21 Ballymore . . . 2525 1 21 Carn . . 1963 1 22 Drinagh . . 1170 2 36 Ishai’t- r Detached Portions, ' } 965 3 0 mon l 338 3 0 Kerloge . . 268 3 32 Kildavin . . . . 3411 1 17 Killiane . , . 1074 0 10 (North Portion,' Killinick J 696 1 26 1 "1 South Portion, 1 [ 1283 3 18 b 587 1 32 j 1 Kilmacree . . 1112 1 8 Kilrane . 2047 3 17 Kilscoran . . 2151 3 5 Ladysisland . 597 1 7 Maudliutown . 841 0 5 Parishes. including Areas. R. Mayglass . . . . 3528 1 3 Ratkaspick . . 2804 1 31 Ratkmacknee . . 1861 0 4 Rosslare . 2532 0 8 St. Brigid’s . 9 1 13 St. Doologe’s 3 3 17 St. Helen’s . . . 670 3 8 St. Iberius . . 891 0 12 St.Iberius (in town of Wexford) 15 2 10 St. John’s . . . 525 0 10 St. Margaret’s . . 467 2 7 St. Mary’s . . 11 2 1 St. Michael’s . . . 387 0 24 St. Michael’s of Fes igh 99 2 25 St. Patrick’s . . 7 0 8 St. Peter’s } 1405 0 11 St. Selskar’s . . 21 0 18 Tacumskin { Water, > 11 2 4 ) 3153 3 34 (5-orw. Ballycanew Carnew, j Detached Portion , 1 Part of t 234 2 2 j Crosspatrick, Part of . Donaghmore, Part of . Ferns, Part of Inch, Part of Kilcavan, Part of Kilcormick, Part of Kilgorman Kilmakilloge, Part of . Kilnahue . Kilnenor Kilpipe, Part of Kiltrisk, Part of Li skin fere . Monamolin, Part of 3627 560 1793 54 609 5943 8887 4244 5164 3305 15360 6435 3477 3243 .5380 5792 2 26 1 14 2 26 8 0 2 32 3 5 0 39 3 18 2 38 2 8 Table of the Parishes in the County of Wexford ’ Parishes. ittcluding Areas. Rossminoge 4549 R. 1 p. 10 Toome, Part of . 3500 1 34 jBkaxafoalsIj Ballycamey 8233 2 11 Carnew, Part of . 7555 1 16 Clone . 6266 2 28 Ferns, Part of . 9802 3 25 Kilbride .... 4473 2 33 Kilcomb .... 5441 0 6 Kilrush . { R % r S J a " ey ’} 11385 3 15 Monart . 13029 1 39 Moyacomb) t River Sidney , > Part of l 24 3 6 I 5810 0 32 St. Mary S, r River Slaney, 1 Enniscorthy 1 34 2 z 8 j 2990 2 21 St. Mary’s, f _ . _ Newtown- barry Templeshanbo 8284 1 10 19516 1 8 Templeshan- r River Slaney , \ non, Part of t 1 3 20 f 1381 2 24 Toome, Part of . 2479 0 28 Tideway of River Slaney 8 1 0 SljtUntnrc. u Ballybrazil . 2370 1 38 Clonmincs . 1379 3 20 Fethard . 3929 2 32 Hook . 1065 0 28 Killesk . 2820 0 29 Kilmokea . . 3420 1 23 Owenduff . . 7980 1 7 Rathroe . 2396 2 33 St. James and Dunbrody . 8489 1 20 Tellarought . 1653 3 38 Tcmpletown . 4156 3 11 Parishes. including Areas. Tintern . 6863 R. P. 0 39 Whitechurcb, Part of . . 4577 0 32 Tideway of River Barrow . 1998 3 36 Sfrdmalim (Bast. Ardcavan . 2457 2 14 Ardcolm 2232 0 3 Artramon . • 2376 3 16 Ballynaslaney, Part of • 879 3 6 Kilpatrick . • 2?39 1 2 St. Margaret’s, Part of 2281 2 6 Skreen, Part of . 530 0 26 rpe .11. ( Detached Portion. Tikillin { 799 2 6 } 2866 2 37 Tideway of River Slaney . 382 3 34 jijjflmslim Mcsi Ardcandrisk . 1226 3 2 Ballingly . . 765 0 39 Ballyhoge, Part of . 1489 1 26 Ballylannan . 2493 1 5 Ballymitty . 1364 3 38 Garrick . 3009 0 37 Clongeen ’} 5379 1 38 Clonmore, Part of ; 1945 0 35 Coolstuff . . 3347 0 2 Horetown . . 3991 0 27 Inch . 1388 3 n O Kilbrideglynn . 4109 3 25 Kilgarvan . . 4275 0 8 Killurin . 1873 2 32 Newbawn, Part of . 4880 0 4 Taglimon, 1 Detached Portion, \ 3733 Part of l 1812 20 j 0 37 Whitechurchglynn, Part of 22 0 24 Tideway of River Slaney . 469 3 31 Total Acreage of Baronies , &c. Cota! gl-cmge jof Baronies . Areas. Baronies. utmmarg. Land Water Total 572919 3 39 3668 0 23 576588 0 22 Mub-Lmbs Reclaimed and in Process of Reclamation. North side of Wexford Harbour, Barony of Shelmalier South side (enclosed, but not reclaimed), Barony of Forth . Bally teige Lough, Barony of Bargy Areas. Ballaghkeen . 86539 0 32 Scarawalsh . 106659 0 16 Do., Water 180 0 39 Do., Water 229 2 16 Bautry . 101987 2 22 i j Shelburne . 53102 1 26 Do. Water . 389 0 15 Do., Water . 1998 3 36 Bargy . 40002 0 8 Shelmaliere East . 16746 3 24 Forth . 38849 1 36 Do., Water 382 3 34 Do., Water 11 2 4 Shelmaliere West . 50769 2 13 Gorey . 81931 3 5 Do., Water 469 3 31 Do., Water , 5 3 8, 2400 0 6 2500 0 0 1630 0 0 The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN L161— 0-1096