34 WESTP0RT — LORD SLIGO'S FARMS. 



port House, the residence of the Marquis of Sligo, it is 

 quite a place in which the traveller will feel desirous to 

 spend a leisurely afternoon. The trees around West- 

 port House are of great size and varied beauty, and, 

 with the verdure of the park at this season, indicate a 

 mild soft climate. 



Lord Sligo kindly accompanied Mr Elwood and my- 

 self through part of his estate. The country soon be- 

 comes hilly after leaving Westport on the way to Con- 

 nemara. The lofty Reek, or Croagh Patrick, forms a 

 grand object, running up from the edge of the sea to a 

 conical peak 2500 feet high, perfectly shapely and 

 smooth. The greater part of this hill-country, till you 

 reach the Killeries, belongs to Lord Sligo, who is 

 anxious to let his lands to tenants of capital and enter- 

 prise. He would sell a portion in any part of his estate, 

 if he could thereby induce the purchaser to reside 

 in the country and assist in its improvement. In the 

 valley of the Errive, about five miles from the head of 

 Killery Bay, he would let a hill-farm of 5000 acres, on 

 a lease of three lives or thirty-one years, and give a 

 lease in perpetuity of the land on which the tenant 

 built his house. This farm is bounded by the river 

 Errive, along the bank of which there is a considerable 

 tract of alluvial land, and gradually rising from it an 

 extensive natural wood of great beauty, in which a resi- 

 dence, commanding a magnificent mountain landscape, 

 might be most picturesquely placed : behind this, the 

 land quickly runs up to a high mountain. The whole 

 forms a good sheep-walk, with feeding for cattle, and 

 some 40 or 50 acres of low ground of good quality for 



