30 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



out to meet him, and dragged the carriage up this rock 

 by main force, while the horses had enough to do to 

 get up themselves. 



Tills place was called " The Leap." The king's 

 writ was considered useless beyond that place, and to 

 this day a saying remains in the country, " Beyond 

 the Leap beyond the law." Great tracts were in- 

 accessible to wheels, and all horse-work was done by 

 panniers on the horses' backs. Illicit stills flourished 

 everywhere, because kegs of whisky were carried so 

 much easier than corn in bulk. A friend who under- 

 took the improvement of an estate of 11,000 acres, in 

 1822, told me no wheeled vehicle had then ever 

 entered it ; and once, at first, having lost himseK on 

 the estate snipe-shooting, they had to send two miles 

 for the man who could speak English to tell him the 

 way home. 



In a previous chapter I have spoken of the carts 

 with discs of wood instead of wheels, and the wret- 

 ched apologies for ploughs that alone were used in 

 the country. In 1788 Arthur Young saw horses 

 drawing such ploughs by their tails. At that time 

 turnips or clover w^ere nearly unknown in the dis- 

 trict. Turnips were never grown except by gentlemen, 

 and clover or grass seeds of any kind were only sown 

 in small patches. Corn crops were taken year after 

 year, as long as the land would grow any, and then it 

 was left to rest, as it was called — i.e. to grow weeds 

 and nothing else, till a skin formed that could be 



