INTRODUCTION.

cnts, which have been made for local convenience, and are limited to distinct counties, will be noticed in our description of those respective districts.

ROADS, AND FACILITIES OF Travelling. In no respect does Ireland evince so high a degree of internal cultivation, as in the construction of roads. The great improvement observable has chiefly taken place since the middle of the last century; and the first steps of permanent amendment are ascribed by Mr. Young to the late Arthur French, of Monivea, Esq. representative of the county of Galway, who procured several wholesome enactments of the legislature. The same writer confines his commendation of the Irish roads to such as were intended for local accommodation, and pronounces the " turnpikes to be as bad as the byroads are admirable." Since the year 1779, in which Mr. Young's Tour was completed, the same judicious care has been extended to the whole, and the roads of Ireland certainly now rank among the best in Europe.

The materials, indeed, are excellent and the traffic easy. We have already observed that the sub-stratum of the greater part of Ireland is lime-stone; and of that material, broken into small pieces, the roads are usually constructed. This deposit, pulverised by the wear of light carriages, binds into a fine substance, and gives to many lines of road the smoothness of a terrace. As an important circumstance in the preservation of Irish roads, it must be observed that there are no borders of hedge-row, or trees, as in many parts of England. The traveller may regret the want of umbrage; and a deficiency in the picturesque confessedly proceeds from this want; but the highways would receive particular injury in so moist a climate, from the obstruction of sun and wind, caused by the intervention of thickly-matted branches.

Connected with the above remarks on the highways of Ireland, is a subject of some consequence in explaining the degree of social refinement attained by the interior of the country; and on this head we are particularly desirous that the reader should not entertain erroneous ideas. The travelling establishment of Ireland has been described in terms of censure or derision by most writers; and

there has prevailed an idea, amongst many persons, that real perils, nearly equal to those which occur in the interior of Africa, encompass the traveller who ventures to penetrate the recesses of a country so little known, and reported to be so wild. These tales of personal danger from the manners of the inhabitants, are either the creation of a distempered fancy, or bear reference to periods of political convulsion which never, it is hoped, can return. The facilities of travelling, although still of a humble character, if compared with those of a commercial and wealthy country, like England, are greatly improved since any intelligence was conveyed, in a popular form, to the British public.

The establishment of mail coaches was first introduced to Ireland by the late Marquess of Buckingham, during his viceroyalty, commencing 1787; and we are told that " the state of the roads was then so bad, between Dublin and Cork, that there was no intercourse by coaches, except by hiring them for the entire journey, which was performed in five or six days, and commonly with the same set of horses." The first mail-coaches commenced running in the year 1790; and in 1804, an act was passed for making new roads for the accommodation of those public carriages. The mails of Ireland are commodious vehicles, provided with good horses, and are in every other respect extremely well regulated. These coaches are despatched from Dublin every evening, at eight o'clock, to the following among other principal towns, from which there is, also, a return with the same periodical regularity. Belfast and Londonderry in the north; Galway and Sligo in the west; and Kilkenny, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, and Wexford, in the south. There are, likewise, stage-coaches, which travel daily between Dublin and several large towns; and, lately, stage jaunting-cars have been established on many lines of road. These latter vehicles travel at a good pace, and are a considerable accommodation to travellers not too refined for so ordinary a mode of conveyance. The passengers are arranged, back to back, on two-seats, placed length-ways on the machine; and the driver occupies a small box on the front. In districts still too little frequented for the establishment of regular coaches, few travellers

will suffer an over-weening delicacy to debar them from profiting by these humble, but safe and well-conducted, carriages.

Post-horses may be obtained in most parts of Ireland; but we cannot vouch for their excellence; and the post-chaise of this country has long been the subject of humourous remark, under the name of rattle-trap. An improvement, however, is taking place; and, on the principal lines of thoroughfare, post-carriages may be obtained, more nearly approaching to the usual mode of construction than is indicated by the descriptive accounts contained in writings published not many years back.

There are few subjects on which the public has usually more copious information, from literary travellers, than the Inns of a country. These houses of general reception are, indeed, objects worthy of attentive remark, not only on account of their importance to the stranger, but from the materials they afford for an estimate of the degree of internal traffic that prevails. They also, in some measure, assist in explaining the manners of society, by exhibiting the proportion of domestic comforts that is habitually held in request. The inns of Ireland were, until recent years, defective

The following satirical delineation, by the keen and admirable pen of Miss Edgeworth, will be read with a smile, long after a national improvement in the particulars held forth to ridicule: "From the innyard came a hackney chaise, in a most deplorable crazy state; the body mounted up to a prodigious height, on unbending springs, nodding forwards, one door swinging open, three blinds up, because they could not be let down, the perch tied in two places, the iron of the wheels half off half loose, wooden pegs for linch-pins, and ropes for harness. The horses were worthy of the harness; wretched little dog-tired creatures, that looked as if they had been driven to the last gasp, and as if they had never been rubbed down in their lives; their bones starting through their skin; one lame, the other blind; one with a raw back, the other with a galled breast; one with his neck poking down over his collar, and the other with his head dragged forward by a bit of a broken bridle, held at arm's length by a man dressed like a mad beggar, in half a hat and half a wig, both awry in opposite directions; a long tattered great-coat, tied round his waist by a hay-rope; the jagged rents in the skirts of his coat shewing his bare legs marbled of many colours: while something like stockings hung loose about his ankles."-Tale entitled ENNUI, by Miss Edgeworth.

*

even in the ordinary points of accommodation, and are still, on a general scale, greatly inferior to those of England. But the large trading towns, in every part of the country, now contain spacious hotels, in which all but fastidious, travellers may find a solace after the fatigue of the day's journey. Except in very recluse districts, the intermediate stages are also often provided with decent places of entertainment; and an increasing spirit of refinement is evinced in many tracts where few would seek it with a sanguine hope of success. In nearly all the country inns a want of skilful organization, however, is apparent. The waiters are often caricatures of servingmen; the ample refreshments are injured by the cook, or placed on table in a crowded and tumultuous manner: the absence of a well-practised and directing mind is evident in every particular. But such petty evils are unworthy of consideration, when we find that a want of adroitness is recompensed by alacrity and winning kindness. With the principal articles which the experienced traveller holds in request, the Inns of Ireland are now fairly provided on all the chief lines of road; and it may not be unnecessary to remark that the charges are, in general, perfectly equitable.

We are aware that this favourable representation of the "hotels" of Ireland is opposed by the very different opinions of several who have written largely on the state of the country; but it is the result of deliberate conviction; and the faithful commendation here bestowed may be considered as a trifling proof of the real improvement in the habits of life which has taken place within the very few last years, and would appear to be rapidly proceeding towards a still higher degree.

* The deplorable state of Ireland, in regard to houses of public entertainment, in the time of Queen Elizabeth, is memorably depictured by Spenser, who observes that, in every town newly formed, there should be "convenient innes, erected for the lodging and harbouring of travellers, which are now oftentimes spoyled by lodging abroad in weake thatched houses, for want of such safe places to shroude them in." Spenser's "View of the State of Ireland," &c. p. 260.

REMARKABLE CUSTOMS AND HABITS, CHIEFLY DEDUCIBLE FROM ANTIENT USAGE.

A topographical work, like the journal of a tour, affords continual opportunities for remarks on the state and character of society. Such observations are, perhaps, most acceptable when called forth by circumstances of local description; but, in regard to this country, there are some peculiarities in habits and manners which demand attention in a collective point of view. It has been asserted that "the Irish are still in possession of certain customs, utterly relinquished by the other nations of Europe;" and if such be not strictly the fact, it will be found that many practices retained in this insulated district are not only subjects of curiosity with the general reader, but are entitled to the extended inquiries of the philosophical antiquary.

We present a brief notice of those peculiarities which are of a prominent character. Such as evince antiquity of origin form the chief object of this article; but several particulars are interspersed which are deemed likely to convey, without the formality of regular disquisition, useful suggestions respecting the existing manners of the country.

In noticing such customs as are evidently derived from very antient usage, we adduce those only which are believed to apply, in different degrees of acceptation, to the whole of the provinces. When we reflect on the several accessions of population which have taken place, and the consequent introduction of manners and habits which speedily assume, in the view of the cursory observer, the aspect of native growth, it will be evident that great care must be used in discriminating between those customs of the inhabitants which really act as national characteristics of the antient Irish, and such as are derived from the English of Leinster, the Scotch of Ulster, or other comparatively recent settlers.

The very antient custom of lighting fires on the summit of the highest hills, on the night of the 23rd of June, being Midsummer Eve, prevails throughout the whole of Ireland. In many