NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 175 



Carrick is Pilltown, a most delightful village : nearly all the 

 cottages are of the neatest possible description, and half 

 hidden by wreaths of clematis, roses, myrtles, and fuchsias. 

 The timber is also very fine, the gardens brilliant with flow- 

 ers, and the crops of corn in the neighbourhood clean, even, 

 and most abundant. I have seen no village in England 

 superior in neatness or beauty to Pilltown. I saw a field 

 of oats cut, and in sheaves, not a usual mode of husbandry 

 in England : the wheat was apparently ready for the sickle. 



From Pilltown to Waterford the country is highly cultivat- 

 ed, very English looking, and very beautiful ; the hills are 

 wooded, and the approach to the city of Waterford, over the 

 wooden bridge, is very picturesque. Between Clonmel and 

 Waterford I observed the following fems : — Lomaria spi- 

 cant, Pteris aquilina, Polypodium vulgare, Polystichum 

 aculeatum, LastrcBa Filicc-maSy Las. dilatata^ Athyrium Fi- 

 lix'fcemina, Asplenium Adiantum-mgrum,Asp. Trichomanes, 

 Asp. Ruta-muraria, Scolopendrium vulgar e^Ceterach officina- 

 rum, and Osmunda regalis : the last-named species had been 

 gradually getting more rare after leaving the boggy districts, 

 and was now but seldom seen. 



Waterford is a one-sided place, having its principal street 

 (called the quay) situated at the very outside of the town ; 

 this quay is fine, nearly a mile in length, and crowded with 

 shipping ; the river Suir is here really noble, and capable, 

 at high water, of floating ships of any burthen. Almost 

 immediately below the town, the Suir is joined by the Bar- 

 row, a still more noble and beautiful stream, and in my estima- 

 tion, one of the finest rivers in the kingdom. From Wa- 

 terford I re-crossed the long wooden bridge, and proceeding 

 towards Ross found the country poor, and although generally 

 cultivated, producing but meagre crops, and those principally 

 potatoes. There was nothing in Ireland struck me as more 

 requiring reform than the mode of cultivating potatoes. In 

 London, every one expects to see a good potato on his table, 

 as a matter of course. I never recollect seeing at a London- 

 er's table, a dish either of half-boiled potatoes, or watery po- 

 tatoes, or waxy potatoes, or potatoes full of bruises and sore 

 places : such things can be obtained in London, of a certainty, 

 but never at the table of a Londoner. (I will just observe, 

 par parenthese, that every vegetable is better in London than 

 in any part of the United Kingdom.) Now, in Ireland, there 

 appears to be no care taken, when setting a crop, that all the 

 seed be of one variety. The earliest and latest sorts very 

 commonly occur in the same row ; and I have often seen on 

 the same dish, some potatoes green and watery, some waxy. 



