Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Lewis Dillwyn's Visit to Kerry, 1809 (Author: Lewis Weston Dillwyn)

entry 5

Saturday, July 22nd
My friends set off for the Reeks at about 4 this morning & I for the sake of my Cold indulged myself with a Book in Bed till a later hour than usual. I employed myself with writing my Journal of yesterday's excursion & a Letter home which together occupied me till after three, when I took a walk for half an hour about the Town. It is the neatest & best paved of the small Irish Towns that we have yet seen & is said to contain about 4,000 Inhabitants. Among some other very good Houses may be reckoned that of the titular Bishop which adjoins the Catholick Cathedral.46 At the end of the same street is a spacious and rather handsome Building which on enquiry I found is a Nunnery where several unfortunate Females who have taken the black veil are for ever immured.47 There are two Catholick & one Protestant Churches, but the Inhabitants are so very generally attached to the former that the latter is very little frequented. It is said that this religion is more rigidly observed here than in any other Town in Ireland, which may, I apprehend, be attributed to Lord Kenmare who with an immense Property & great influence continues firm in his attachment to the Catholick Faith, & the same may be said of nearly all the neighbouring Gentry. I am informed that Buonaparte48 by his infamous conduct towards the Pope and the Spanish Monarchy is now abhored as he ought to be by Numbers who before regarded him as their future Deliverer from the oppression under which they at present groan. Much discontent arises from their being obliged to pay

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Tithes for the support of what all Catholics are taught to regard as Heresy, but still more from the manner in which these Tithes are collected. The Protestant Clergymen too often let their small Tithes by auction to the highest bidder, and the Purchasers who are called Tythe Farmers are said to make it answer by extorting the utmost Farthing from the very lowest Classes of the Peasantry. One of these Farmers was a few days ago collecting in this manner at Castle Island which is only 12 miles from Killarney when a few outraged wretches dragged him from the Inn & murdered him in the Street without any Person making the least effort to save him or interfering to prevent the Murderers from effecting their escape. I spoke to several about it but they all considered it as a white Murder in which there was no great harm.

After having dined I was preparing for a walk about 6 O'Clock when my Companions returned much sooner than I had expected. They had been on the highest summit of Macgillycuddy's Reeks, the ascent to which Mr Woods says is not so difficult as Weld has represented. The highest point is called Gheran-tuel,49 and according to Kirwan's50 measurement is nearly as high as the Wyddfa of Snowden. From this my friends describe the view as magnificently extensive, but from their account the Mountain seems to offer nothing worth the trouble and fatigue of climbing it. They gathered Saxifraga Geum or rather Saxifraga hirsuta51 for I believe that the two Plants so called by Mackay are not specifically distinct, & also another Species which Mackay calls adscendens.52 The Mountain seems to afford unusually little sport for a Botanist & they gathered no other Plants which can be considered at all rare except Rhodiola rosea53, Rumex digynus54 & Asplenium viride.55