1835.] First Astronomer- Royal. 329 



came, and we not unstrictly. At last, our master went 

 forth to fetch our tickets, or a licence rather, but returned 

 not; so that we paid the master's friend, and several slung 

 down the ropes : till at last a ladder was set, down which 

 I and the rest of our company descended, and framed our 

 course on the sands towards the King's End. And here I 

 have cause to remember the providence of God, who pre- 

 served me when I had like to have been led a wrong way 

 by my aged guide, had not those who came behind us 

 happily turned our course to the right place ; and so we 

 came to the King's End. 



It was night, the doors were shut : and we ran from door 

 to door to inquire for entertainment ; which at last we got 

 at a paltry inn, where was no meat I could eat, but brown 

 bread and ale ; of which I made a hearty meal, and lodged 

 that night in a straw bed, with a sheet and a half; and yet, 

 God be praised, I both fed and slept very w^ell. Next day 

 we got to Dublin, where we stayed at the Ship, in Dame 

 Street, till Thursday following, when (Sept. 6) we set [out] 

 on our journey towards the Assaune. We dined at the Naas, 

 a town accounted handsome amongst them, twelve miles 

 from Dublin ; and lodged that night at a small town called 

 Tomalins, paying for our meals sixpence a piece, and yet no 

 great accomodation. We thought to have lodged at Kill- 

 cullen, a town six miles from Naas ; but finding that we 

 had time, we came forward to this town, some four miles 

 farther. 



We travelled, with the mountains on our left hand, on a 

 fair champaign, free from all difficulties of passage or bogs : 

 the way being sometimes gravelly, sometimes pasture, or 

 beaten road, and one of the greatest in the kingdom, not 

 easy to be missed, except by a traveller that will mislead 

 himself. It leads from Dublin to Kilkeny, Clonmel, and 

 Cork. Few hedges to divide the lands or enclosures, but 

 only banks of about a yard high ; seldom with ditches to 

 supply their office, which are easily passable by a traveller 

 (or, indeed, almost anything) anywhere. And in this day's 

 journey I saw but one wood, besides the Park at Dublin, 

 which is not accounted any : a thing I thought observable 

 in a country reported to be so full of them. 



The house we lodged at, at our coming in, was strewed 

 over with gorse, (the usual fuel of the country in that part, 



