NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 177 



being in the centre of the town, and reminding one of Pal- 

 myra and the cities of the East, as seen by us through the 

 optics of Silk Buckingham, whom, if my memory serve me 

 aright, I have heard eulogizing the mode of confining the 

 palaces, &c., to the centre of bustle, dust, and smoke. The 

 castle in the middle of the town, now occupied by the Pro- 

 testant curate, is a striking building. I mounted the cele- 

 brated Vinegar Hill, an eminence close to the town, whence 

 an agreeable view of the surrounding country is obtained : 

 the hills on every side rise with gentle slopes, and are prettily 

 wooded. Vinegar Hill appears to be composed of granite ; 

 the summit is bare, with the exception of large patches of 

 Sedum Anglicum. The country around Enniscorthy is ge- 

 nerally hilly, the land apparently poor, but invariably culti- 

 vated, although the crops were very indifferent. Stone walls 

 are comparatively rare, and are replaced by furze-hedges ; 

 and I not unfrequently observed fiirze had been sown in the 

 interstices of stone walls. These furze-hedges are in many 

 places allowed to become wild and straggling ; and not only 

 is their appearance in this state very untidy, but their utility, 

 as fences, very questionable. Throughout the South of Ire- 

 land furze is grown in some abundance, as food for cattle : 

 it is cut very firequently, and always while the shoots are young 

 and tender ; and is bruised previously to being given them. 

 The river Slaney, which runs through the town, is a noble 

 and navigable stream. 



Leaving Enniscorthy I passed through Ferns, Gorey, Ark- 

 low, and Rathdrum, to Wicklow : there was little for the 

 naturalist to observe, except the superabundance of furze 

 hedges ; and now, travelling by coach, I was compelled to 

 take such roads as coaches could travel, and thus I missed 

 the vale of Ovoca, and must trust to hearsay, that 



" There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet, 

 As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet :" 



for the wooden bridge at Ovoca, and divers minor bridges, 

 had been swept away by the flood of the 30th of July, and 

 there was no longer any coach-road through " the sweet vale 

 of Ovoca." The road from Wicklow to Newtown-Mount- 

 Kennedy is pretty ; from Newtown-Mount-Kennedy to Bray 

 it is fine. This latter passes through the glen of the Downs ; 

 steep and beautiful hills are piled up almost perpendicularly 

 on each side of you ; and the glen, which pretty much con- 

 sists of the demesne of Mrs. Latouche, is completely wooded 

 with majestic evergreens ; such Arhutiis, Quercus sempervi- 

 VoL. IV.— No. 40. N. s. X 



