Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort's Tour of Kerry, 1788 (Author: Daniel A. Beaufort)
Entry 8
[August] 20
Mr Caldwell & Mr Walsh agreed to accompany me to Dingle, etc. & so round to Cork {Ms 4030 page 14}. Mr Caldwell having obtained leave from Mrs Delany to see Mr Herbert's collection of drawings we called on her at her very neat English looking house46 near the lake, & went thence to Mucrus, where we were well entertained for
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two hours with some elegant works of Sandby,47 Rowlandson,48 Calendar,49 Tomkins50 & Dom. Serres51 & thro' some beautiful glades with the Gardener who laments that his present master has so different a taste from his father52 that to make the most of the grass he suffers cattle here to browse on the trees & shrubs that clothe these wonderful rocks. In a glade here, the Gardener assured us that abundance of Morilles53 grow every year. He shewed us Pears grafted on Quickbeam. There are here some very large Cypress, & great Arbutus. At 6 we got back to dinner {Ms 4030 page 15}. After dinner we amused ourselves correcting the numerous errors in Col. Vallancey's map of the Lake.54 At Mucrus & in Ross Island are mines of Copper & lead-worked till very lately.55 Much of the Ore lies on the Ground. In Mucrus there is a smelting furnace and fine Marble quarries. In Ross are also several quarries of Marble, some shaded & speckled red & white — some grey & white — with other varieties to be seen in chimney pieces all over this town.
There are great numbers of Red Deer always in Mucrus who eat up the corn etc. unless it be watched very close, as the Gardener told us. The country hereabouts is, in general, but poorly cultivated.56 Saturday is Market day in Killarney but there are a vast number of hawkers selling things in the street every day — particularly under the Market house — where also our Carriages stood, & we paid a man to watch them every night. Over this Market house is the Ballroom.
In Killarney are quartered, on the town, 2 troops {Ms 4030 page 16} of
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Dragoons, & 2 Companies of foot, besides 2 Companies more stationed in the Barrack at Ross Castle.57