46 Trade and Opulence of Waterford. 



houses has recently been built on land, which 

 sold for this purpose after the rate of eight 

 hundred pounds an acre ; the ground rent for a 

 tolerably good house on the quay, amounts 

 yearly to forty pounds, and lands near the town 

 let for eight pounds an acre. The merchants 

 have lately erected a very handsome exchange 

 and coffee room, where strangers are admitted 

 and received in the most liberal manner. The 

 cathedral is a large building, but its exterior 

 has a mean appearance ; the palace, however, is 

 a handsome and commodious edifice. 



Waterford, as a commercial place, has an ap- 

 pearance of opulence, superior to any of the 

 sea-ports we have visited. The breweries and 

 distilleries are extensively employed ; the 

 slaughtering trade has greatly increased of late 

 years ; seventy-five thousand pigs have been 

 exported to England in one year, to be there 

 cured and dried. The agricultural produce 

 alone, exported from Waterford, yearly amounts 

 to three millions sterling; in 1776, Mr. A. 

 Young states that fifty thousand casks of butter, 

 containing a hundred weight each, were then 

 sent from this port; at present that number is 

 nearly doubled. The American and Newfound- 

 land trades have been also considerable, and, 

 in the event of peace, would probably revive. 



