Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752 (Author: Richard Pococke)
entry 72
On the 4th I left Fethard and walk'd a mile on the south side of the river to the Mole, in which a vessel of an hundred tun can lie safe, but in a storm a ship cannot be secure abroad, except it may be from a westerly wind. I crossed over in about about half a league to Bannoe and landed on the strand at that creek of land which joins what they call the Island of Cannoe to the land here they say was the old and safe entrance when Clamines was a town of trade; but now the entrance
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is to the west of it, and is choked up by several barrs of sand that would make it very difficult, for a ship to pass with safety when the tides are high: This Peninsula is a fine low round hill covered mostly with corn and appears very beautiful. There are only three or four houses at Bannoe and ruins of a good old church, in which there is an old Font, a tomb with a Latin inscription on it, in the old character and a stone coffin with a hole cut in it to receive the head. This is in the Barony of Bargy, which as well as that of Forth is a great corn country, insomuch that they say these two have sent some years from Wexford, as one told me 140,000 barrels of Barley, that is half that number of quarters. These countries are entirely different from any other part of Ireland exceedingly well inhabited, especially in and towards the Barony of Forth; a gentleman's house is seen almost every mile, and besides Villages and Hamlets one sees a house at every ½ quarter of a mile distance, the farms being from five to sixty acres and mostly above twenty, the people neat, well dress'd and very honest. The Barony of Forth are a Colony from England about the time of Henry 2d., and they are so wedded to their own country, that they have not gone much out of it till of late years, they are become so very populous that they now go to Newfoundland, to England, and also to harvest to many parts and take farms in Bargy and about Enniscorthy where they have manure of marle, for having been used to those improvements which are the gift of nature, they do not care to go where they have not either lime or marle, and this has raised the price of land very much in those parts: In Bargy which is not altogether so populous, there is a greater appearance of wealth; notwithstanding in Forth they live as neat as can be on such small farms and keep
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all clean about 'em, their food is Potatoes, barley bread, Bacon, cheese and milk; at the great festivals they have the old English way of making a feast; inviting their friends and their neighbours, the Landlord and the priest, and they have beef, mutton and pudding in great plenty: as they sow horse beans very much and grey peas, so they eat both the one and the other with bacon dry as well as green. Near the sea they manure with sea weed, sowing every year and manuring every year, and change the grain, Barley, oats, beans, peas, but no wheat; what they want is bought at Wexford. If they lime it holds nine years and marle I believe the same. As to their particular Customs, it has been said they go to bed in the middle of the day, which they might do formerly; and now, as the Irish, they lie down for an hour in hot weather: All contracts are transacted by exchanging money, and so the contract of marriage is made here; the young man goes with his friends, gives the woman a piece of money; and it having happened sometimes that among people not of good character consummation has ensued, this has been the ground for saying that it was commonly so, and that they married in form afterwards. We went on close to the sea side; in two miles came to Cullingtown and soon after to Bali Teague Island, as it is called, tho only a Peninsula it is a warren and is a long strip extending westward, and at the west end of it the sea enters and makes those bays to the north of it, which are called the Broadwater; in half a mile we came to Coolhill Castle, and in a mile more to a little town called Duncormuck, where there is a church and a bridge over a rivlet, I saw Kai Mr. Wilson's to the north, and to the east of Ballyhenny Mr. Vigor's; I then passed by Kilcooly Castle and rivlet, and observed a singular building on it, like a small
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house, this castle seems to have been destroyed on purpose to get the lime stone out of it, for from this rivlet, if I do not mistake to Bridgetown they get a reddish lime stone, for which they dig in pits, finding it in pieces mixed with the soil, and this has made this country very populous, probably by Colonies from Forth. In a mile we came to Baldwinstown where there is a Castle and rivlet, and all about it is great plenty of lime stone, which they carry to the distance of four or five miles, they make kilns of sods in the field they would manure and build up the lime stone in a Cone, and burn it with furze and the old kiln remains till they want to make use of it again; but when once a field is arable they keep it for a long time under corn by manuring it again; for in all the road to Ladies Island I saw only one piece of fallow, opposite to this part are the Saltee Islands, which abound in rabbits and sea birds, there are good springs in them but they are not inhabited. In a mile I came to Bridgetown, where there is a large bridge over the river; near it is the Church of Mulranchy in which parish it is: in the Church yard is this inscription on a tomb—
- Here lies a jolly merry blade
Who's gone;—but now he's but a shade
To teach the Ghosts a Masquerade:
But Pluto likes not such a Guest,
Bids him depart and go to RestWilliam Hoskins, Dancing Master, 1748.
The estate on this side of the river belongs to the Ivery family, who set leases of lives renewable for ever to Protestants, and then sold the estate: so that there are as they say more protestants in this Union, than in all the two
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Baronies of Bargy and Forth; that is I suppose Gentlemen's families excepted; however that may be, there are, as they say, about fifty families, and they have all sorts of trades and seem to be very happy and wealthy; and truely the face of these two Baronies appeared to me like an enchanted Country, so different from anything I had seen indeed anywhere. I took some refreshment here, and in about two miles came to the Bridge of Bargey, where there is a Castle; here I came into the Barony of Forth, the miles before were so long that three make about five, but in Forth they seem to have introduced the English mile, for here I found the miles very short: They call it six miles to Ladies Island; and here I saw the marle pits, for manuring the land: I saw Hia Castle about a mile from Lady's Island, and at the same distance passed through a village called Broadway, and passing over a bridge near an old Church, I observed just opposite to the Island the white sand which is famous here, it is a stratum a foot below the surface, and is carried to all parts for the use of sand boxes,—but they have the same sort on the sea side to the east. Lady's Island is about a mile round, it is now become a Peninsula: one sees where there was a fossee for the water to pass, and at that place there is a Tower called Maidentower which has settled on one side, the foundation appears to be laid on the green sod; here they say was a Draw bridge, there seems to have been a wall built on each side to this tower, and there is a Causeway of large stones to it, to pass over when the Lough was full; within this and about fifty yards is a Gateway and another wall built at about the same distance within; that is the old church, where there is a font of red Granite of which there is great plenty in these parts, there is also in a nich an alabaster
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statue of the Virgin and our Saviour and before it an old brass Cross, with one of the four Evangelists in each of the ends of it. This is a place of great devotion among the Roman Catholicks, probably set on foot by the English Colony, that they might have everything within themselves; and they come to do penance here by walking once round the Island barefooted, and three times round the Church and sometimes they perform this three times over, and some on their knees: The tracks of their feet is seen all round the Island; there is an enclosure by the church for the accommodation of pilgrims, who come mostly between the Festival of the Assumption in August, and that of the Nativity of the V. Mary in September: and all the roads are exceeding fine in these parts. But the Lake here is a natural curiosity, it rises so high in about seven years, that it would overflow the inland Country round it; and then three or four hundred people come in and mark out in the sand banks to the south west a fossee about an hundred feet wide and begin to open it in the middle, narrowing it as they go down, they then open it to the sea and at last work upon it towards the Lake if they find the water coming they must instantly leave it, for it gushes out as a great torrent and falls down in a Cascade into the sea, the bottom of the lake being about ten feet above the surface of the Ocean; sometimes it breaks away the bank at night, but if it happens by day they take great quantities of fish, mostly Plaice; but if it goes out by night as it did the last time they loose the fish: the first high wind fills up the opening, the lake fills slowly, as it leaks out for some time at the place they open, but when that is closed up with the slime and earth from within, it fills faster, and in about seven years begins to overflow the lands; the water with the spray of the sea is brackish;
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great quantities of wild fowl lie on it. I saw the black Gull and green plover, for this Country is famous for Wild fowl; the widgeons are excellent, but the best sort are call'd the Wynniards, so also is the Barnacle, the first go inland to the bogs and breed, the Barnacles go to the parts from which they came, to the north, and are seen by the Ships at sea northward with the tide; when they are attack'd by Eagles or Hawks by a wonderful instinct, they gather all together and keep beating with their wings and raise the water, so that the bird of prey cannot see to attack 'em, but if any one is disabled and cannot close with them, they are surely taken; they have bounds of furze bushes round this Island to lie unobserved and shoot at them.