gentlemen of the country took some measures to quell them.  Many of the magistrates were active in apprehending them; but the want of evidence prevented punishments, for many of those who even suffered by them had no spirit to prosecute.  The gentlemen of the country had frequent expeditions to discover them in arms; but their intelligence was so uncommonly good by their influence over the

common people, that not one party that ever went out in quest of them was successful.  Government offered large rewards for informations, which brought a few every year to the gallows, without any radical cure for the evil.  The reason why it was not more effective was the necessity of any person that gave evidence against them quitting their houses and country, or remaining exposed to their resentment.  At last their violence arose to a height which brought on their suppression.  The popish inhabitants of Ballyragget, six miles from Kilkenny, were the first of the lower people who dared openly to associate against them; they threatened destruction to the town, gave notice that they would attack it, were as good as their word, came two hundred strong, drew up before a house in which were fifteen armed men, and fired in at the windows; the fifteen men handled their arms so well, that in a few rounds they killed forty or fifty.  They fled immediately, and ever after left Ballyragget in peace: indeed, they have never been resisted at all without showing a great want of both spirit and discipline.  It should, however, be observed, that they had but very few arms, those in bad order, and no cartridges.  Soon after this they attacked the house of Mr. Power in Tipperary, the history of which is well known.  His murder spirited up the gentlemen to exert themselves in suppressing the evil, especially in raising subscriptions to give private rewards to whoever would

give evidence or information concerning them.  The private distribution had much more effect than larger sums which required a public declaration; and Government giving rewards to those who resisted them, without having previously promised it, had likewise some effect.  Laws were passed for punishing all who assembled, and (what may have a great effect) for recompensing, at the expense of the county or barony, all persons who suffered by their outrages.  In consequence of this general exertion, above twenty were capitally convicted, and most of them executed; and the gaols of this and the three neighbouring counties, Carlow, Tipperary, and Queen’s County, have many in them whose trials are put off till next assizes, and against whom sufficient evidence for conviction, it is supposed, will appear.  Since this all has been quiet, and no outrages have been committed: but before I quit the subject, it is proper to remark that what coincided very much to abate the evil was the fall in the price of lands which has taken place lately.  This is considerable, and has much lessened the evil of hiring farms over the heads of one another; perhaps, also, the tithe-proctors have not been quite so severe in their extortions: but this observation is by no means general; for in many places tithes yet continue to be levied with all those circumstances which originally raised the evil.

July 15.  Leaving Courtown, took the Arklow road;

passed a finely wooded park of Mr. Ram’s, and a various country with some good corn in it.  Flat lands by the coast let very high, and mountain at six or seven shillings an acre, and some at eight shillings or ten shillings.  Passed to Wicklow, prettily situated on the sea, and from Newrybridge walked to see Mr. Tye’s, which is a neat farm, well wooded, with a river running through the fields.

Reached in the evening Mount Kennedy, the seat of General Cunninghame, who fortunately proved to me an instructor as assiduous as he is able.  He is in the midst of a country almost his own, for he has 10,000 Irish acres here.  His domain, and the grounds about it, are very beautiful; not a level can be seen; every spot is tossed about in a variety of hill and dale.  In the middle of the lawn is one of the greatest natural curiosities in the kingdom: an immense arbutus tree, unfortunately blown down, but yet vegetating.  One branch, which parts from the body near the ground, and afterwards into many large branches, is six feet two inches in circumference.  The General buried part of the stem as it laid, and it is from several branches throwing out fine young shoots: it is a most venerable remnant.  Killarney, the region of the arbutus, boasts of no such tree as this.

July 16.  Rode in the morning to Drum; a large extent of mountains and wood on the General’s estate.  It is a very noble scenery; a vast rocky glen; one side

bare rocks to an immense height, hanging in a thousand whimsical yet frightful forms, with vast fragments tumbled from them, and lying in romantic confusion; the other a fine mountain side covered with shrubby wood.  This wild pass leads to the bottom of an amphitheatre of mountain, which exhibits a very noble scenery.  To the right is an immense sweep of mountain completely wooded; taken as a single object it is a most magnificent one, but its forms are picturesque in the highest degree; great projections of hill, with glens behind all wooded, have a noble effect.  Every feature of the whole view is great, and unites to form a scene of natural magnificence.  From hence a riding is cut through the hanging wood, which rises to a central spot, where the General has cleared away the rubbish from under the wood, and made a beautiful waving lawn with many oaks and hollies scattered about it: here he has built a cottage, a pretty, whimsical oval room, from the windows of which are three views, one of distant rich lands opening to the sea, one upon a great mountain, and a third upon a part of the lawn.  It is well placed, and forms upon the whole a most agreeable retreat.

July 17.  Took my leave of General Cunninghame, and went through the glen of the downs in my way to Powerscourt.  The glen is a pass between two vast ridges of mountains covered with wood, which have a very noble effect.  The vale is no wider than to admit

the road, a small gurgling river almost by its side, and narrow slips of rocky and shrubby ground which part them.  In the front all escape seems denied by an immense conical mountain, which rises out of the glen and seems to fill it up.  The scenery is of a most magnificent character.  On the top of the ridge to the right Mr. La Touche has a banqueting-room.  Passing from this sublime scene, the road leads through cheerful grounds all under corn, rising and falling to the eye, and then to a vale of charming verdure broken into inclosures, and bounded by two rocky mountains, distant darker mountains filling up the scene in front.  This whole ride is interesting, for within a mile and a half of “Tinnyhinch” (the inn to which I was directed), you come to a delicious view on the right: a small vale opening to the sea, bounded by mountains, whose dark shade forms a perfect contrast to the extreme beauty and lively verdure of the lower scene, consisting of gently swelling lawns rising from each other, with groups of trees between, and the whole so prettily scattered with white farms, as to add every idea of cheerfulness.  Kept on towards Powerscourt, which presently came in view from the edge of a declivity.  You look full upon the house, which appears to be in the most beautiful situation in the world, on the side of a mountain, half-way between its bare top and an irriguous vale at its foot.  In front, and spreading