SECTION V.

THE first town which we came to on the coast was Kinsale, situated at the distance of fourteen miles from Cork; a place of great antiquity, and celebrated in the annals of Irish history for having withstood various sieges. William the Third, indignant at its resistance to his forces, ordered its strong walls and fortifications, on the land side, to be destroyed; those towards the sea, however, were not only suffered to remain entire, but even strengthened. The town is built on an elevated bank at the head of an inlet of the sea, which affords one of the most safe and commodious harbours on the coast; it has consequently been selected as a fit place for a king's dock-yard, which is the only one in Ireland. From the water, the houses have an agreeable appearance rising over each other stage above stage; but the ground, owing to its great steepness, is not well adapted to a town. The streets are very narrow, and are rendered still more inconvenient by the precipitous ascents and descents. Many ancient houses still remain inhabited, which exhibit specimens of architecture totally different from what is observable in any of the towns on the eastern coast of the kingdom; amongst these, bowed windows on each side of the hall doors,

connected in the upper stories by balconies, are very common. There are several ruined castles and religious buiklings in different parts of the town, but none are remarkable for their former strength or beauty. The town and liberties contain near seven thousand acres, and are governed by a sovereign and a recorder.

From Kinsale to Clonikelty the road runs through a country agreeably diversified with hill and valley, and affords several pleasing prospects of the sea. Clonikelty was once a place of considerable trade, and returned two members to the Irish parliament; but the entrance to the harbour having been obstructed by the accumulation of sand, its trade declined: the houses, though numerous, are in general of a poor description.

At the distance of a few miles from Clonikelty stands Castle Freke, the seat of Sir John Freke, bart. beautifully situated on the sea shore, which is here indented by bold promontories formed of craggy rocks, whose dark colour affords a striking contrast to that of the green and transparent waves of the Atlantic, which roll against them. These rocks are rendered still more romantic, by the vast caverns worn in them by the attrition of the water. At the base of the cliffs lies a sandy beach, where immense numbers of people are employed, during low water, in collecting sea weed for manure; which is drifted in as well by eddies and currents as by the regular influx of the tide.

That the accumulation of the weed is not entirely dependent on the flood-tide, is obvious from the circumstance of trees of foreign growth having been in several instances washed in along with it. Soon after the building of Castle Freke was commenced, one of these trees, of enormous size, was drifted into the bay: the smaller branches had been all beaten off by the waves; and

the stem was thickly covered with barnacles, a proof of its having been long at sea: its interior part, however, was perfectly sound, and a beautiful floor in the castle was formed of the boards which it produced: it was of the pine tribe, and of the growth, as was conjectured, of South America *.

Besides the sea-weed, another valuable species of manure is procured upon this shore, which is very generally used in the adjoining district, and occasionally is carried to a distance exceeding twelve miles. It consists of a sand formed of shells of various descriptions, finely comminuted, and slightly intermixed with small grains of quartz, which is found on one bank alone. Sometimes this bank is quite exhausted; but the first storm never fails to replenish it with a fresh supply of the same valuable material. The sand is sprinkled on the ground with the hand; and if plentifully disseminated, its beneficial effects will be observed for seven or eight years. Its value has been long known to individuals in the neighbourhood; but we were informed it had not been in general use for more than three or four years preceding our visit at Castle-Freke in the year 1800. It would be impossible to have a manure better adapted to the stiff argillaceous soil of this country.

A ruinous practice prevailed here, of abandoning the land for some years to the care of nature, after it had been totally exhausted by repeated crops of corn. Nothing could be more

* At the town of Beerhaven, in Bantry-bay, we saw part of a vast tree which had been drifted on the shore there in a similar manner. After two long pieces had been cut off at the butt-end, the stem was still nearly six feet in diameter. The wood was a pale yellow colour, and so hard, that, although timber is remarkably scarce in that part of the country, no person would be at the pains, owing to the great labour it required, to saw off another piece; and it had lain for some time neglected on the beach.

wretched, in consequence, than the appearance of many of the fields the stiff clay, dried by the heat of the sun, and split into deep fissures, seemed in some instances to have lost the power of vegetation, and in others yielded merely a few tufts of noxious weeds and unprofitable grass: yet in these fields the miserable ewes, whose milk forms a principal part of the food of the people during summer, were left to pick a scanty sustenance; fettered, too, in order to prevent them from wandering in search of more palatable and nourishing food.

Sir John Freke was at great pains to point out to the people the impolicy of this system; and strongly urged them to sow clover, instead of neglecting the ground. No seed, it was answered, could be procured in the country. He himself took the pains of importing it, and distributed it in small quantities amongst the petty farmers. It was carefully sown. Each individual was delighted with the result, and expressed the greatest obligation to the baronet for his valuable communication and friendly assistance: but, strange to tell, notwithstanding the most decided advantage had been gained from this new system of husbandry, notwithstanding also a quantity of seed had been imported for sale into a neighbouring town, not one of these people would repeat the experiment. To find a solution for the motives of this conduct, so militant against the common principles that regulate the feelings of mankind, may appear an arduous task; but the truth is, that the lower classes of the Irish cannot at once banish from their recollection the traditions of ancient oppression, and are with difficulty persuaded that any measure decidedly beneficial to them, can be adopted or recommended solely for their advantage. They are prone to suspect some sinister purpose in every effort to improve their condition, by which, ultimately, they may be compelled to pay a higher rent, and toil more labo

riously. Influenced by this prevailing principle, they appear unwilling to deviate from the beaten track in which their forefathers trod; and often assume an appearance of misery and poverty, to enjoy, as they imagine, a proportionable degree of security. The generous landholder, therefore, who commiserates their abject state, should not be deterred, by the ill success which attends his first benevolent efforts, from persevering in his plan; or attribute to brutal incapacity that reluctance to receive advice, which may be accounted for without impeaching either the hearts or understanding of the people. In numerous instances, the condition of the Irish peasants has certainly been materially meliorated of late years by the influence and example of men of liberal minds; and it is ardently to be hoped, that a system at once calculated to afford benefit to the landlord, comfort to the tenant, and prosperity and peace to the country, may be more freely adopted and widely diffused.

From Castle-Freke we proceeded to Ross, a small town situ ated at the head of a bay of the same name, more remarkable for ancient celebrity than present importance; for it is said to have been once the seat of an university, which was resorted to by all the youth of distinguished families in the south of Ireland: it still continues to be a bishop's see, united to that of Cork: a cathedral was founded here as early as the sixth century.

From Ross we proceeded to Baltimore, by the way of CastleTownsend and Skibbereen.

The prevailing stone of this district is a dark argillaceous schistus, somewhat similar to that at Clonikelty: siliceous schistus intersected by veins of quartz, and quartz coated with chlorite are also common; but there is no calcareous stone whatsoever. Inquiring, as we advanced, if any minerals of peculiar