434 COMMUNICATION WITH IRELAND. PART VIII. 



travelling, fortunately in time to prevent what would 

 have proved, for the most part, an unnecessary expendi- 

 ture, on works soon to be superseded by a totally different 

 order of things. 



The most important road-improvements actually car- 

 ried out under Mr. Telford's immediate superintendence 

 were those on the western side of the island, with the 

 object of shortening the distance and facilitating the 

 communication between London and Dublin by way of 

 Holyhead, as well as between London and Liverpool. 

 At the time of the Union the mode of transit between 

 the capital of Ireland and the metropolis of the United 

 Kingdom was tedious, difficult, and full of peril. In 

 crossing the Irish Sea to Liverpool, the packets were 

 frequently tossed about for days together. On the 

 Irish side there was scarcely the pretence of a port, 

 the landing-place being within the bar of the river 

 Liffey, inconvenient at all times, and in rough wea- 

 ther extremely dangerous. To avoid the long voyage 

 to Liverpool, the passage began to be made from Dublin 

 to Holyhead, the nearest point of the Welsh coast. 

 Arrived there, the passengers were landed upon rugged, 

 unprotected rocks, without a pier or landing conveni- 

 ences of any kind. 1 But the traveller's perils were 

 not at an end, comparatively speaking they were only 

 begun. From Holyhead, across the island of Anglesea, 

 there was no made road, but only a miserable track, 

 circuitous and craggy, full of terrible jolts, round bogs 

 and over rocks, for a distance of twenty-four miles. 

 Having reached the Menai Strait, the passengers had 



A diary is preserved of a journey | of the account is strikingly set forth 



to Dublin from Grosvenor Square, 

 London, 12th June, 1787, in a coach 

 and four, accompanied by a post- 

 chaise and pair, and five outriders. 

 The party reached Holyhead in four 

 days, at a cost of 75Z. lls. 3d. The 

 state of intercourse between this coun- 

 try and the sister island at this part 



in the following entries : " Ferry 'at 

 Bangor, 1Z. 10s. ; expenses of the yacht 

 hired to carry the party across the 

 channel, 281. 7s. 9d. ; duty on the 

 coach, 1L 13s. 4d. ; boats on shore, 

 II. Is.: total, 114?. 3s. 4d." Ro- 

 berts's ' Social History of the Southern 

 Counties,' p. 504. 



