Demesnes, &c. gg 



Speaking of Chief Baron ^Foster's works at Collen, 

 Mr. Young says: " With no peculiar advantages, but 

 many circumstances against him, amongst which con- 

 stant attendance at the Courts in Dublin, enabling 

 him to see Collen but by starts, was not the least, 

 the works were left to others at a time when he 

 could have wished to give them constant attention. 

 Twenty-two years before, the whole country was a 

 waste sheep-walk, covered chiefly with heath, dwarf 

 furze, and fern, the cabins miserable, and the whole 

 place yielding a rent of not more than from three to 

 four shillings per acre. His lordship was clearly of 

 opinion that his improvements were very profitable, 

 besides affording him uncommon recreation. His 

 son (the last Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, 

 and afterwards Lord Oriel) took much pleasure in 

 adding to them, and had introduced seventeen hun- 

 dred sorts of European and American plants." " This 

 great improver," adds our author "a title more 

 deserving estimation than that of a great general or 

 statesman has made a barren wilderness smile by 

 cultivation, planted it with people, and made those 

 people happy. Such are the men to whom 

 monarchs should decree honours and nations erect 

 statues. And as to the thieving disposition of the 

 common people, of which he heard much, the Chief 

 Baron, from personal experience, judged them to be 

 remarkably honest ; and he said he lived in his house 

 without shutter, bolt, or bar, and, with the place half 

 full of 4 spalpeens,' he never lost anything." 



H2 



