Viscount Lorton, and these display throughout that husbandman-like and tasteful cultivation, which it is his Lordship's zealous study to extend and encourage, and which his constant residence in the centre of this territory enables him to nurture and mature. The roads are margined, and the farms, to a great extent, belted, with plantations; the tenant, where this improvement is sought over previously demised lands, willingly conceding such boundaries for the shelter and shade, the proportionate abatement of rent, and the exclusive benefit of the grove grass (a). There is no common in the whole parish, and the several occupiers, where they are tenants by direct demise from his Lordship, hold at an average rent of about 15s. per acre, in the ordinary class of ground; £1 5s. on the "plains of Boyle," and £2 10s. for town parks. The rents are necessarily higher where the occupier's title is derivative, and conacres prevail very much, bringing from £5 to £9 Cabins without land, in such cases, are per acre. let for £2 per annum, and with a rood of land annexed, for three guineas. The term which Lord Lorton gives, in agricultural leases, is usually for the tenant's life, or twenty-one years; but, where the lessee covenants to build (which his Lordship prefers), that interest is extended to three lives, or thirty

(a) It may be noticed, that, in ancient Irish topographical poems, Boyle is most frequently designated with an epithet expressive of its wooded appearance, "Bileagaid."

one years, with a reversion of one life, to be thereafter named, or twenty-one, and in some cases thirty-one years, from the expiration of the first term; while he also abates the rent in the proportion of three per cent. on the amount of the tenant's actual expenditure. The population of this parish was returned in 1821 as (exclusive of the town) 7,774 persons, increased in the census of 1831 to 9,164; and on the recent occasion, to 9,356; while that of the town (calculated as 2,000 in 1784), was stated in 1821 as 3,407, inhabiting 467 houses; in 1831, 3,433, in 495; and in 1841, 3,235, the houses being numbered as 536: the proportion of Roman Catholics to the members of the Established Church, has been laid down, on a review of the census of 1831, as ten to one; while the classification of the last states 552, of the total population, as engaged in manufactures or trade.

The town of Boyle is situated eighty-five Irish miles from Dublin, at each side of the river before mentioned. Its moieties, thus apportioned, slope down precipitate descents to the water, and are connected by two bridges hereafter mentioned. The oldest and principal part of the town stands on the north side of the river, the main street of which, from the older bridge to the church, was originally the steep line of the Sligo road. This section contains several very good houses, together with the church, the chapel, the barracks, &c.; that on the south side of the river comprises the greater number

of the new built dwellings, and especially on its summit a crescent of two-storied private houses, the rent of which varies from £15 to £20 per annum. Ill selected as was the site of the town, and inconvenient and unpleasing as is the arrangement of its streets, it is subject to yet another greater objection, but one of too general occurrence in Irish towns,— the mixture of mean houses with those of a better description: an unsightliness, that would have long since ceased, and the town been fashioned into better order and fairer architectural disposition, were it not that a great part is held under old leases, over which Lord Lorton, the proprietor, has no control, and where, without re-purchasing the lessees' interests at their own estimate, the practical benefits, so visibly dispensed around, cannot here be exercised. The expenses of cleansing the town are defrayed by his Lordship, but as yet it is neither paved, lighted, nor watched. Its present trade consists chiefly in the retail of hard and soft wares, groceries, drugs, corn, butter, and other provisions, as well as articles of clothing, and household utensils for the vicinity. The linen market was formerly very considerable, as was its manufacture in the neighbourhood; but its sale, as well as that of frieze and flannel, has of late, as in other places, much diminished. A good and well-supplied weekly market is held on Saturdays, for the sale of meat, potatoes, meal, and butter, within an enclosure at the north-western side of the bridge, erected by Lord Lorton. The town is also

generally well supplied with river, and sometimes with sea fish; vegetables and turf are hawked through the streets, and ass-loads of coal, bought at the Aughabehy pit at 3d. each, are sold here for 1s. The inhabitants have also excellent river and spring water. Nine fairs are held annually, viz., on 6th March, 3rd April, 9th and 30th May, 9th and 25th July, 16th August, 1st October, and 25th November, with tolls and customs; but all right to tolls on market days was relinquished by the proprietor, for the ease and encouragement of his Lordship's tenantry. The commercial relations of the people are aided by the establishment of a branch of the Na- . tional Bank in the town, with the accession of the Sligo and Athlone branches of the Provincial Bank. There are also a Savings' Bank and a Charitable Loan Fund Society held at the Post Office, while, for the literary and political gratification of the neighbourhood, a weekly Gazette is published here; mail and day coaches, public caravans and cars, pass daily from or through the town, and inns and places of entertainment are opened to suit the various grades of travellers, while public-houses, though now less numerous than heretofore, still exist to an extent injurious to the health, morals, and interests of the lower classes.

At a considerable height, on the ascent, but below the crest of the northern hill, stands the church of Boyle, a sufficiently spacious building, with a square steeple, battlemented at top. It was erected originally

in 1770, and since repaired and enlarged by aid of a loan of £1,000 from the late Board of First Fruits in 1818, with other local contributions, and yet further by a recent grant of £182 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It is resorted to by, and was originally designed for extending its accommodation to the parishioners of Aghanagh, in the County Sligo, and is accordingly attended, on days of service, by a congregation of respectable persons, averaging in number about 400; but the building could contain many more. Within it are several mural monuments, and funereal slabs; one at right of the communion-table, to the memory of the justly-revered Edward, Earl of Kingston (grandfather of Lord Lorton), who died in 1797, and his lady, Jane, Countess of Kingston, who died in 1784. This monument was erected, as is stated thereon, by their daughters, Jane, Viscountess of Oxmantown, and Lady Elinor King. Opposite is a small flag, to the memory of Lieutenant Arnold, of the 34th regiment (who died in 1833), erected by his brother officers. At left of the communion-table, a mural slab of white marble commemorates the Reverend John Henry Gouldsbury, a resident of Boyle for sixty-one years, and who died there on the 13th August, 1831, in the 85th year of his age. This monument, it is stated, was erected by the widow of his nephew, John Henry North, Esq., M.P., and in compliance with his intention. Near this is a similar marble slab to Thomasine, daughter of John Meares, and wife of the said Rev. J. H. Gouldsbury,