McGuire’s mensal lands, he tells us, were ‘free from all common charges and contributions of the country, because they yielded a large proportion of butter and meal and other provisions for McGuire’s table, ‘and that though lying in several baronies did not in quantity exceed four _Ballybetaghs_, the greatest thereof being in the possession of one M‘Manus and his sept.’ The certainties of the duties or provisions yielded unto McGuire out of these mensal lands were set forth in an old parchment roll in the hands of one O’Brislan, a chronicler and principal _Brehon_ of that country. It was not very large, but was written on both sides in a fair Irish character, and contained not only ‘the certainty of McGuire’s mensal duties, but also the particular rents and other services which were answered to McGuire out of every part of the country.’ ‘Besides these mensals,’ he adds, ‘McGuire had two hundred and forty beeves or thereabouts yearly paid unto him out of the seven baronies, and about his castle at Iniskillen he had almost a _Ballybetagh_ of land, which he manured with his own churles. And this was McGuire’s whole estate in certainty, for in right he had no more, and in time of peace did exact no more. In time of war he made himself owner of all, cutting what he listed, and imposing as many _bonachts_ or hired soldiers upon them as he had occasion to use. Concerning the free land of the third kind—viz., such land as is possessed by the Irish officers of this country, viz., chroniclers, galloglasses, and rimers—the entire quantities if it were laid down together, as it is scattered in sundry baronies, doth well-nigh make two _Ballybetaghs_ and no more.’[191]