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Article ACCOUNT OF A TOUR TO KILLARNEY, &c. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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Account Of A Tour To Killarney, &C.
anniversary of her deliverance . To this proposal the poor woman g ladly acceded , and ( I have the pleasure to add ) made ^ the annual offering of gratitude many times . We arrived at Cork pretty early in the afternoon , and remarked ( what is common to many large towns in Ireland ) the entrance disgraced by a long street of wretched hovels called cabins . An Irish cabin has been so often described that almost every one knows it to be
a low mud fibrick , without window or chimney , in which human creatures are contented to live ; and when it is considered that many of them are built for about forty shillings each , it will be easily guessed that the conveniences of such an habitation are not abundant . - Cork , from its being the second largest city , is termed the Bristol of Ireland ; and in several respects I think they are not dissimilar .
Commerce pours forth her train of bustlers alike in both places , and the country about each is beautified with the villas of those who retire from dirt and noise to the enjoyment of quietude and cleanliness . — There are several streets with houses built in the modern taste , but also
a pretty many that bear evident record of the lowly spirit of architecture in the 16 th and succeeding century . There are two stone bridges over the Lee , which nearly surrounds . the city . The Exchange is a neat stone building . Of the churches and other public edifices I noticed nothing remarkable , The export of butter and provisions to England , the "West-Indies , & c . is prodig ious , and the import ^ are also considerable , yet the latter
bears no proportion to the former ; fo » the Royal Navy in time of war , the ships of the East-India Company ,, as well as those in merchants ' service , are mostly victualled from hence . Cork , is distant from Dublin 124 , from Waterford 60 , and Clonmell 40 miles . ' ' After having thus made ample trial of your patience , I intend . to conclude this long letter by a brief account of tbe White Boys , who , I am informed , made their first appearance , in this countv .
It will , no doubt , surprize you to hear that these people are by no means such terrible desperadoes as ( in England ) we generally under-, stand them to be ; and though violence and outrage ought seldom to be justified , yet much allowance should be made for resistance to oppression and tyranny .. I apprehend that more than three fourths of the poor people of
Munster province are Roman Catholics , and the day-labourers , who form a great proportion of the peasantry , work at the low rate of 5 d . per day , their master furnishing them with a cabin , and a small portion of land for potatoe-ground , both rent free , as a kind of compensation for the cheapness of labour . Of their little produce they pay tithes to their own parish priest with cheerfulnessand the clergyman of the
, established church claims his tenth also , which if not paid quietly , the tithe-proctor generally takes by coercive means : thus one fifth of a poor pittance is taken from the hand of penury , which often renders the provision of a poor cottage inadequate to its support . In this condition they must starve , unless relieved by casual bounty , as there is no 3 F 2
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of A Tour To Killarney, &C.
anniversary of her deliverance . To this proposal the poor woman g ladly acceded , and ( I have the pleasure to add ) made ^ the annual offering of gratitude many times . We arrived at Cork pretty early in the afternoon , and remarked ( what is common to many large towns in Ireland ) the entrance disgraced by a long street of wretched hovels called cabins . An Irish cabin has been so often described that almost every one knows it to be
a low mud fibrick , without window or chimney , in which human creatures are contented to live ; and when it is considered that many of them are built for about forty shillings each , it will be easily guessed that the conveniences of such an habitation are not abundant . - Cork , from its being the second largest city , is termed the Bristol of Ireland ; and in several respects I think they are not dissimilar .
Commerce pours forth her train of bustlers alike in both places , and the country about each is beautified with the villas of those who retire from dirt and noise to the enjoyment of quietude and cleanliness . — There are several streets with houses built in the modern taste , but also
a pretty many that bear evident record of the lowly spirit of architecture in the 16 th and succeeding century . There are two stone bridges over the Lee , which nearly surrounds . the city . The Exchange is a neat stone building . Of the churches and other public edifices I noticed nothing remarkable , The export of butter and provisions to England , the "West-Indies , & c . is prodig ious , and the import ^ are also considerable , yet the latter
bears no proportion to the former ; fo » the Royal Navy in time of war , the ships of the East-India Company ,, as well as those in merchants ' service , are mostly victualled from hence . Cork , is distant from Dublin 124 , from Waterford 60 , and Clonmell 40 miles . ' ' After having thus made ample trial of your patience , I intend . to conclude this long letter by a brief account of tbe White Boys , who , I am informed , made their first appearance , in this countv .
It will , no doubt , surprize you to hear that these people are by no means such terrible desperadoes as ( in England ) we generally under-, stand them to be ; and though violence and outrage ought seldom to be justified , yet much allowance should be made for resistance to oppression and tyranny .. I apprehend that more than three fourths of the poor people of
Munster province are Roman Catholics , and the day-labourers , who form a great proportion of the peasantry , work at the low rate of 5 d . per day , their master furnishing them with a cabin , and a small portion of land for potatoe-ground , both rent free , as a kind of compensation for the cheapness of labour . Of their little produce they pay tithes to their own parish priest with cheerfulnessand the clergyman of the
, established church claims his tenth also , which if not paid quietly , the tithe-proctor generally takes by coercive means : thus one fifth of a poor pittance is taken from the hand of penury , which often renders the provision of a poor cottage inadequate to its support . In this condition they must starve , unless relieved by casual bounty , as there is no 3 F 2