LABOURING POOR. ,3? 



were not at all better, or better furnifhed than thofe of the poor- 

 eft labourer : before, therefore, we can attribute it to abfolute 

 poverty, we muft take into the account the cuftoms and inclina- 

 tions of the people. In England a man's cottage will be filled 

 with fuperfluities before he pofleffes a cow. I think the compa- 

 nion much in favour of the Irifhman ; a hog is a muck more 

 valuable piece of goods than a fet of tea things ; and though 

 his fnout in a crock* of potatoes is an idea not fo poetical as 



Broken tea cups, nvifely kept fur fkevj t 



Rang defer the chimney , glifien^d in a row. 



Yet will the cotter and his family, at Chriftmas, find the foli- 

 dity of it an ample recoinpence for the ornament of the 

 other. 



LIVE STOCK. 



In every part of the kingdom the cominort Iri/K have all forts 

 of live ftock : the tables already inferted fliew this in refpeft of 

 cows. I fhould add here that pigs are yet more general, and 

 poultry in many parts of the kingdom, efpecially Leinfter, are 

 in fuch quantities as amazed me, not only cocks and hens, 

 but alfo geefe and turkies ; this is owing probably to three 

 circumftances ; firft, to the plenty of potatoes with which 

 they are fed ; fecondly, to the warmth of the cabbins; and 

 thirdly, to the great quantity of fpontaneous white clover 

 (trifolium repens) in almoft all the fields, which 'much exceeds 

 any thing we know in England ; upon the feeds of this plant 

 the young poultry rear themfelves ; much is fold, but a confi- 

 derable portion eaten by the family, probably becaufe they 

 cannot find a market for the whole. Many of the cocks, hens, 

 turkies and geefe, have their legs tied together to prevent 

 them, from trefpafling on the farmers grounds. Indeed all the 

 Jive ftock of the poor mari in Ireland is in this fort of thraldom ; 

 the horfes are all hopping about, the pigs have a rope of lira w 

 fro.m around their necks to their hind i*gs. In the county of 

 down they have an ingenious contrivance for afheepjuft to 

 feed dowa the grafs of a ditch, a rope with a ftake at each 

 end, and the fheep tied to a ring, through which it pafles, fo 

 that the animal can move from one end of the rope, to the 

 other, and eat whatever grows within two or three feet 

 of it. 



* The iron pot of an Irijh cabbin. 



PRICE 



