A Tour in Ireland | Page 5

long, elegantly fitted up.
June 27. Left Lord Harcourt's, and having received an invitation from
the Duke of Leinster, passed through Mr. Conolly's grounds to his
Grace's seat at Cartown. The park ranks among the finest in Ireland. It
is a vast lawn, which waves over gentle hills, surrounded by plantations
of great extent, and which break and divide in places so as to give much
variety. A large but gentle vale winds through the whole, in the bottom
of which a small stream has been enlarged into a fine river, which
throws a cheerfulness through most of the scenes: over it a handsome
stone bridge. There is a great variety on the banks of this vale; part of it
consists of mild and gentle slopes, part steep banks of thick wood. In
another place they are formed into a large shrubbery, very elegantly
laid out, and dressed in the highest order, with a cottage, the scenery
about which is uncommonly pleasing: and farther on this vale takes a
stronger character, having a rocky bank on one side, and steep slopes
scattered irregularly, with wood on the other. On one of the most rising
grounds in the park is a tower, from the top of which the whole scenery
is beheld; the park spreads on every side in fine sheets of lawn, kept in
the highest order by eleven hundred sheep, scattered over with rich
plantations, and bounded by a large margin of wood, through which is a
riding.
From hence took the road to Summerhill, the seat of the Right Hon. H.
L. Rowley. The country is cheerful and rich; and if the Irish cabins
continue like what I have hitherto seen, I shall not hesitate to
pronounce their inhabitants as well off as most English cottagers. They
are built of mud walls eighteen inches or two feet thick, and well
thatched, which are far warmer than the thin clay walls in England.
Here are few cottars without a cow, and some of them two. A bellyful
invariably of potatoes, and generally turf for fuel from a bog. It is true
they have not always chimneys to their cabins, the door serving for that
and window too. If their eyes are not affected with the smoke, it may be
an advantage in warmth. Every cottage swarms with poultry, and most
of them have pigs.

Went in the evening to Lord Mornington's at Dangan, who is making
many improvements, which he showed me. His plantations are
extensive, and he has formed a large water, having five or six islands
much varied, and promontories of high land shoot so far into it as to
form almost distant lakes; the effect pleasing. There are above a
hundred acres under water, and his lordship has planned a considerable
addition to it. Returned to Summerhill.
June 29. Left it, taking the road to Slaine, the country very pleasant all
the way; much of it on the banks of the Boyne, variegated with some
woods, planted hedgerows, and gentle hills. The cabins continue much
the same, the same plenty of poultry, pigs, and cows. The cattle in the
road have their fore legs all tied together with straw to keep them from
breaking into the fields; even sheep, and pigs, are all in the same
bondage.
Lord Conyngham's seat, Slaine Castle, on the Boyne, is one of the most
beautiful places I have seen; the grounds are very bold and various,
rising round the castle in noble hills or beautiful inequalities of surface,
with an outline of flourishing plantations. Under the castle flows the
Boyne, in a reach broken by islands, with a very fine shore of rock on
one side, and wood on the other. Through the lower plantations are
ridings, which look upon several beautiful scenes formed by the river,
and take in the distant country, exhibiting the noblest views of waving
Cultinald hills, with the castle finely situated in the midst of the planted
domain, through which the Boyne winds its beautiful course.
Under Mr. Lambert's house on the same river is a most romantic and
beautiful spot; rocks on the side, rising in peculiar forms very boldly;
the other steep wood, the river bending short between them like a
land-locked basin.
Lord Conyngham's keeping up Slaine Castle, and spending great sums,
though he rarely resides there, is an instance of magnificence not often
met with; while it is so common for absentees to drain the kingdom of
every shilling they can, so contrary a conduct ought to be held in the
estimation which it justly deserves.

June 30. Rode out to view the country and some improvements in the
neighbourhood: the principal of which are those of Lord Chief Baron
Foster, which I saw from Glaston hill, in the road from Slaine to