272 M I T C H E L S T O W N. 



long, from one to four miles acrofs 5 and more 

 improvable upon the whole than any land I 

 have feen, turf and lime-ftone being on the 

 fpot, and a gentle expofure hanging to the 

 fouth. In every inacceflible cliff there are 

 mountain am, (fraxinus exceljior) oak, (quercus 

 robur) holly, (ilex aquifolium) birch, (betula 

 alba) willow, (falix) hazel, (corylus avel/ana) 

 and white thorn, (cratagus oxyacantha) and 

 even to a confiderable height up the mountain, 

 which, with the many old ilumps fcattered 

 about them, prove that the whole was once a 

 foreft, an obfervation applicable to every part 

 of the eftate. 



The tillage here extends no farther than 

 what depends on potatoes, on which root they 

 fubfift as elfewhere. They fometimes manure 

 the grafs for them, and take a fecond crop ; 

 after which they follow them with oats, till the 

 foil is fo exhaufted as to bear no longer, when 

 they leave it to weeds and trumpery, which 

 vile fyftem has fpread itfelf fo generally over all 

 the old meadow and pafture of the eftate, that 

 it has given it a face of defolation furze, 

 (eulex europ<za) broom, (fpartium fcoparium) 

 fern, (pteris aquilina) and rufhes, owing to 

 this and to negle6l, occupy feven-eighths of it. 

 The melancholy appearance of the lands arif- 

 ing from this, which, with miferable and un- 

 planted mounds for fences, with no gate but a 

 furze bum ftuck in a gap, or fome ftones piled 

 on each other, altogether form a fcene the 

 more dreary, as an oak, an afh, or an elm, are 

 3 almoft 



