150 NOTES OF AN 



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reclaimed within these few years, and converted into a well- 

 planted and handsome estate, — most profitable, unquestionably, 

 to the owner, — a source of employment to the tenantry, — and 

 an ornament to the face of the country. Moilogh and Kille- 

 reen complete the journey to Tuam. 



Now let me record our first impressions on being thus intro- 

 duced at once into the very heart of Ireland. The general 

 aspect of the centre of the island,— through which we had 

 travelled, — is one vast flat. So insignificant are the elevations 

 throughout the whole of this line of country, that chemical 

 lights, displayed for the purpose, on the Nephin-Bog Mountains, 

 in the extreme west of the county Mayo, were visible from the 

 high ground about Dublin, being a distance of one hundred 

 and ten Irish, or about one hundred and forty English miles, 

 in a straight line right across the island, — thus proving that no 

 eminence sufficient to obstruct the view existed between. The 

 road itself is as good as an avei'age of the same length on any 

 line in England, and is intersected by numerous cross-roads 

 running up into the country in every direction. Towns and 

 villages are larger and more numerous than with us in merely 

 country districts ; and the country itself is every where thickly 

 inhabited. The deficiency of timber, the absence of hedge- 

 rows, and the general poverty of the agriculture, leave a bare 

 and sometimes desolate appearance. There are no large sub- 

 stantial farm-houses, with their corn-fields and cattle, and few 

 plantations to decorate and enliven the landscape. The only 

 cultivation throughout large districts is just about the cabins, 

 in small patches, reclaimed by hand-labour from the edges of 

 the bog, stretching far and wide behind, and is of the very 

 commonest order, — a little patch of barley, a (ew straggling 

 oats, a little flax, or the potatoe patch. 



The cabins alongside or in sight of this road were not, 

 upon the whole, so very miserable, mostly better than mere 

 mud walls, and more or less glazed. Besides pigs, fowls, and 

 geese in abundance, goats, tied two and two, were very com- 

 mon at the doors. The inclosures were generally loose stone 

 walls, or earth ; but the common entrances were sound mortared 

 pillars, with iron gates. If I were asked to express, in a word, 

 one of the most characteristic differenceij of feature between 

 the country here and our own favourite districts, I should say 

 the English rural lane, which does not exist in Ireland. 



