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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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