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LETTER XXVIL 



Ballinrobe, Sept. 5, 1813. 



THE want of guide-posts is a serious incon- 

 venience to travellers : such we have found it 

 to be on various occasions. It was our intention 

 to have gone first to Newport, but by mistaking 

 the road we found ourselves at Westport. 



. . -c^fe^m -Ji 'Id teir ' ft f. 



The soil during the first eight miles from 

 Castlebar is almost entirely that of bog. 

 Croagh Patrick with its elevated summit, en- 

 grosses the principal attention, and forms the 

 most interesting part of the prospect. We 

 could not help remarking the extremity of 

 poverty surrounding the cabins. In various 

 instances we beheld children coming out of 

 their huts quite naked, and apparently scarcely 

 sensible of cold, though at an early hour in the 

 morning : one child, about eight years old, 

 stood for nearly ten minutes in our view, with- 

 out showing any indication of uneasiness from 

 its want of clothes. At the door of one of these 

 wretched habitations was a young woman clean- 



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