210 Thickness, Cement and Materials of JValts. 



This ancient and respectable kingdom, in the route 

 of my hasty passage through several parts of it, was not 

 then so much desolated and distracted, as it has since 

 been. Fine improvements in the country, and magni- 

 ficent structures, now much encreased, in their cities^ 

 were not then rai'e. Hospitality to strangers, it behoves 

 me to say, was not confined to particular gi-ades in so- 

 ciety. The lowliest cottager or peasant, shared, if it 

 were accepted, his very humble fare. In the kindness 

 of the host, was forgot, the mud and straxv built cabbin; 

 which admitted of no dissertation upon masonry and 

 materials. It would be well for those of our country- 

 men, who are even the worst lodged, and the most dis- 

 contented, to compare their lot, with that of an Irish 

 peasant: who would, nevertheless, be contented, cheer- 

 ful, and happy, under all his burthens, and regardless 

 of all his privations ; if he were not too willingly rouzed 

 and stimulated by others, to ruinous measures of ferocity 

 and rage. Happiness, quietude and plenty, are, here^^ 

 witliin the reach of every industrious member of soci- 

 ety. And all might enjoy these blessings — '"''sua si bona 

 norint.^'' 



Richard Peters. 

 Belmont J January 20th, 1808. 



