62 DEOMOLAND CASTLE. 



and the resources of the farmers in the upper country 

 failing with the potato failure, they were unable to take 

 meadow, while the labouring class, of course, for the 

 same cause, ceased to con-acre. The tenant, thrown on 

 his own resources, had neither capital nor skill to meet 

 this new order of things, and the distress and abandon- 

 ment of farms is accordingly as great on some of these 

 naturally rich lands as on the poorest. The land which 

 had been con-acred is reverting to grass ; but any farmer 

 who has ever been accustomed to strong alluvial land, 

 may guess to what a foul state it has been reduced by 

 this most negligent and injudicious management. One 

 acre of land so con-acred, and now reverting to grass, is 

 not one-fourth the value, at this moment, of the land 

 alongside of it, on which the rich old sward has remained 

 unbroken. I am not partial to stringent covenants be- 

 tween landlord and tenant as to tillage, but there is 

 not a point on which, in my opinion, landlords should 

 be more strict than in guarding against the spolia- 

 tion of their property, by the breaking up of these 

 rich alluvial meadow-lands for a few years' tempo- 

 rary gain. No skilful tenant would wish to see it 

 done. 



Dromoland Castle, the residence of Sir Lucius 

 O'Brien, lord-lieutenant of the county of Clare, is finely 

 situated in an extensive park, a few miles south of 

 Ennis, and about a mile to the east of the river Fergus. 

 It is a very extensive and imposing mansion in the 

 castellated form, built of dressed limestone in courses, 

 massive and substantial. To the left of the mansion is 

 a lake of considerable extent ; and on a lower level, in 



