LABOURINGPOOR. 35 



of the year, much oatmeal and fome meat being confumed. I 

 need not dwell on this, as there is nothing particular to attend 

 to in it, whereas potatoes, as the ftaple dependance, is a pecu- 

 liarity met with in no country but the other parts of Ireland. 



CLOATHING. 



The common Irifli are in general cloathed fo very indiffe- 

 rently, that it impreffes every ftranger with a ftrong idea of 

 univerfal poverty. Shoes and ftockings are fcarcely ever found 

 on the feet of children of either fex ; and great numbers of 

 men and women are without them : a change however, in this 

 refpeft as in moft others, is coming in, for there are many 

 more of them with thofe articles of cloathing new than ten 

 years ago. 



An Irimman and his wife are much more folicitous to feed 

 than to cloath their children : whereas in England it is fur- 

 prizing to fee the expence they put themfelves to, to deck out 

 children whofe principal fubfiftence is tea. Very many of them, 

 in Ireland are fo ragged that their nakednefs is fcarcely cover- 

 ed j yet are they in health and active. As to the want of fhoes 

 and ftockings I confider it as no evil, but a much more cleanly 

 cuftom than the beaftiality of ftockings and feet that are wafh- 

 ed no oftener than thofe of our own poor. Women are oftener 

 without moes than men ; and by wafhing their cloaths no 

 where but in rivers and ftreams, the cold, efpecially as they 

 roaft their legs in their cabbins ti 1 they are fire fpotted, mult 

 fwcll them to a wondertul fize and horrid black and blue co- 

 lour always met with both in young and old. They ftand in 

 rivers and beat the linen againft the great ftones found there 

 with a beetle. 



I remarked generally, that they were not ill drefTed of fun- 

 days and holidays, and that bla*ck or dark blue was almoft the 

 univerfal hue. 



HABITATIONS. 



The 'cottages of the Irifh, which are all called cabbins, are 

 the moft miferable looking hovels that can well be conceived : 

 they generally confift of only one room : mud kneaded with 

 ftraw is the common material of the walls ; thefe are rarely 

 above feven feet high, and not always above five or fix ; they 

 are about two feet thick, and have only a door, which lets in 

 light inftead of a window, and fliould let the fmoak out inftead 

 ot a chimney, but they had rather keep it in : thefe two con- 

 veniencies they hold fo cheap, that I have feen them both (lop- 

 ped up in ftone cottages, built by improving landlords ; the 

 fmoak warms them, but certainly is as injurious to thair eyes 

 as it is to the complexions of the women, v.hich in general 

 C 3 ia 



