130 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



warm. Lads and girls of eighteen years lie together, 

 but the latter at the head, and the lads at the foot of the 

 bed. 



So likewise when the family sleep on the ground, having 

 no bedstead, they lie always all clustered together ; and 

 the clergymen declare that this custom causes them the 

 greatest pain, but that they never make any observation on 

 it at confession, in order not to call in question the inno- 

 cence of their children. The want of clothes, of fire to 

 dry them, and of covering during the night, cause many 

 more diseases than bad food. 



Very few families have a palliasse for the straw upon 

 which they lie. A man must have at least twenty acres to 

 possess a blanket ; commonly the people have only half 

 a blanket. 



A magistrate deposed that, in his rounds, he had taken 

 the trouble to inspect the cabins ; that out of six dwellings, 

 he found only in one a woollen blanket ; and that the great- 

 est misery which the Irish have to suffer especially the 

 children is from the cold. 



The Commissioners, in the visits they made, found the 

 sexes intermingled; and they express the greater surprise at 

 this, as the Irish, who are very hospitable, receive with 

 open door all who pass by. All the inhabitants of a cabin 

 are huddled together under one part of the roof, upon 

 which they heap potatoe-stalks, to prevent the rain from 

 falling where they sleep. 



The Commissioners seldom found any chairs ; generally 

 three-legged stools are used. All the utensils consist of 

 an iron pot, a wooden box, a pitcher to hold water, a knife, 

 an iron fork, and two or three wooden platters. 



They describe the condition of 200 cabins which they 



