Cottiers more wretched than in the North. 367 



wretched. Nothing can be less excusable than 

 the neglected state of the grounds within four 

 miles of Limerick, notwithstanding the ex- 

 cessive price at which they are rented. The 

 potatoes are cultivated in lazy beds of an 

 undue proportional width, which must be 

 highly prejudicial to the crop, while the want 

 of thatching to the ricks of grain must sub- 

 ject the farmers to loss, against which the 

 enormous rents and small produce might be 

 supposed to be a sufficient guarantee. 



The hills which extend from Clonnelly to 

 Limerick were covered with coppice wood. 

 We found the peasantry busily employed in 

 threshing out their grain in the open fields: 

 their cabins seemed to be extremely poor and 

 wretched ; and, if I am correct in estimating 

 the general poverty of the inhabitants by the 

 appearance of the sex, whose hair was no lon- 

 ger the object of their attention, but hung in 

 disfiguring disorder and neglect, I should con- 

 clude the people of these southern districts 

 to suffer more priyations than those in the 

 north. 



Our entrance by the Irish town, for so apart 

 of the city of Limerick is denominated, dis- 

 closed to view all that, is mean, poor, and 

 1 



