no MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



The intelligent reader will colleft fome;hing more than 

 mere curiofity from this table; it will neceffarily ftr>ke him, 

 that a country reftdence in Ireland demands a much larger 

 quantity of land in hand than in England, from which might 

 be deduced, if not from any thing elfe, how much backward- 

 er the former is than the latter < where markets are wanting 

 every thing muft be had at home, a cafe ftronger frill in Ame- 

 rica. In England fuch extenfive demefnes would be parks 

 around the teats for beauty as much as ufe, but it is not fo in 

 Ireland ; the words deer-park and demesne are to be diftin- 

 guifhed ; there are great demefnes without any parks, but a 

 want of tafte, too common in Ireland, is having a deer-park at 

 adiftance from the houfe ; the refidence furrounded by walls, 

 or hedges, or cabbins ; and the lawn enclofure fcattered with 

 animals of various forts, perhaps three miles off. The final} 

 quantity of corn proportioned to the total acres, (hews how lit- 

 tle tillage is attended to even by thofe who are the beft 

 able to carry it on ; and the column of turneps proves in the 

 cleareft manner, what the progrefs of improvement is in that 

 kingdom. The number of horfes may almoft be efteemed a 

 fatire upon common fenfe ; were they well fed enough to be 

 ufeful, they would not be fo numerous, but I have found a 

 good hack for a common ride (jprce in a houfc. where there 

 were a hundred. Upon an average, the horfes in gentlemen's 

 ftables, throughout the kingdom, are not fed half fo \vell as 

 they are in England by men of equal fortune ; yet the num- 

 ber makes the expence of them very heavy. 



Another circumftance to be remarked in the country life is 

 the iniferablenefs of many of their hcufes ; there are men of 

 five thoufand a year in Ireland, who live in habitations that a 

 man of feven hundred a year in England would difdain ; an 

 air of neatnefs, order, drefs, and prtpretc, is wanting to a fur- 

 prizing degree around the manfion ; even new and excellent 

 hftufes have often nothing of this about them. But the bad- 

 nefs of the houfes is remedying every hour throughout the 

 whole kingdom, for the number of new ones juil bujlt, or 

 building, is prodigioufly great. I fliould fuppofe there were 

 not ten dwellings in the kingdom thirty years ago that wer- 

 fit for an Engliih pig to live in. Gardens were equally bad, 

 but now they are running into the contrary extreme, and v.-?.i 

 in five, fix, ten, and even twenty Iiifh acres for a garden, but 

 generally double or treble what is necefiary. 



The tables of people of fortune sre very plentifully fpread ; 

 many elegantly, differing in nothing from thofe of England. 

 I think I remarked that venifon wants the flavour it has with 

 us, probably for the fame reafon, that the produce ot ricli 

 parks is never equal to that of poor ones ; the rno-fture of the 

 climate, and the richnefs of the foil, give fat but not flavour. 

 Another reafon is -the fmalmefs of the parks, a ir.an who has 

 three cr four thoufand acres in his hands, has not, perhaps, 

 above three or four hundred in his deer park, and range 



