Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)Hurlbert, William Henry
History
Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)
Hurlbert, William Henry
Ireland -- Description and travel; Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
There are 114 tenants, of whom 15 hold under judicial rents; 22 are
leaseholders, and 77 are non-judicial yearly tenants. There are 12
Protestants holding in all a little more than 1200 acres. All the rest
are Catholics, 14 of these being cottier tenants. The estate consists of
5165 acres. The average is about £24, and the average rental about £26,
10s. The gross rental is £2614, of which £1000 go to the jointure of Mr.
Brooke's mother, and £800 are absorbed by the tithe charges, half
poor-rates and other taxes. During the year 1886, in which this war was
declared against him, Mr. Brooke spent £714 in improvements upon the
property: so in that year his income from Coolgreany was practically
_nil_.
What in these circumstances would have been the position of this
landlord had he not possessed ample means not invested in this
particular estate? And what has been the result to the tenants of this
conflict into which it seems clear that they were led, less to protect
any direct interest of their own than to jeopardise their homes and
their livelihood for the promotion of a general agrarian agitation? It
is not clear that they are absolutely so far out of pocket, for I find
that the Post-Office Savings Bank deposits at Inch and Gorey rose from
£3699, 5s. 4d. in 1880 to £5308, 13s. in 1887, showing an increase of
£1609, 7s. 8d. But they are out of house and home and work, entered
pupils in that school of idleness and iniquity which has been kept by
one Preceptor from the beginning of time.
CHAPTER XV.[25]
* * * *--Mrs. Kavanagh was quite right when she told me at Borris in
March that this country should be seen in June! The drive to this lovely
place this morning was one long enchantment of verdure and hawthorn
blossoms and fragrance.
I came over from London to bring to a head some inquiries which have too
long delayed the publication of this diary. My intention had been to go
directly to Thurles, but a telegram which I received from the Archbishop
of Cashel just before I left telling me that he could not be at home for
the last three days of the week, I came directly here. Nothing can be
more utterly unlike the popular notions of Ireland and of Irish life
than the aspect of this most smiling and beautiful region: nothing more
thoroughly Irish than its people.
* * * who is one of the most active and energetic of Irish landlords,
lives part of the year abroad, but keeps up his Irish property with
care, at the expense, I suspect, of his estates elsewhere.
From a noble avenue of trees, making the highway like the main road of a
private park, we turned into a literal paradise of gardens. The air was
balmy with their wealth of odours. "Oh! yes, sir," said the coachman,
with an air of sympathetic pride, "our lady is just the greatest lady in
all this land for flowers!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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