286 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



shore of Lough Derg, and Killaloe. Tradition seems to have forgotten 

 such works ; but they account for the destruction of the trees between Scariff 

 and Lough O'Grady. In 1727 Thomas Baker had a tanyard at Eossroe, 

 which probably was equally destructive to the surviving oak trees of the 

 district. That same year Sir Edward O'Brien of Dromoland granted the 

 timber and underwood of Crattelaghkeale for six years to John Scott. This 

 possibly levelled the last old timber of the last remnant of this great forest.^ 

 On the other face of Slieve Bernagh, a bad custom prevailed (it is a striking 

 fact that it falls almost exactly in the same decade of the eighteenth century) 

 which cleared away the woods of the beautiful valley at the southern end of 

 Lough Derg, where that great lake narrows into the outiiow of the Shannon.'^ 

 When a son of the Purdon family was about to marry, his father settled the 

 timber of certain townlands on the prospective wife and children. The 

 woods were then cut, sold, and the money invested. I have met with two 

 such deeds, of which unfortunately I seem to have kept no note. Another — 

 perhaps one of those named — is cited by Simon Purdon of Tinneranna in his 

 will in 1721. The settlement of his son G-eorge, by which Simon gave him 

 £3,000 worth of timber on certain lands, reserving that on Island Coskora, 

 is first named. Then the testator, by a codicil of the same date as his will,^ 

 28th February, 1720 (1721), charges the lands and w^oods of Aghnish and 

 Carhugare, giving them in mortgage for £500 to Pdchard Harrison, to whom 

 Purdon had given also those of Ballyorly for £500, for the uses of the will ; 

 but if his son George pays off both charges, the grants shall have no effect. 



iDuUin Registry, Book bA, p. 413, Book 81, No, 37049. 



^ DeLatocnaye, in his "Promenade dans I'lrlande," 1797, names no ■woods on these hills, only 

 stating that they were covered with turf at Glenomera. 

 ^PrerogativeTVills, P.E.O.I. 



