Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Lewis Dillwyn's Visit to Waterford, Cork and Tipperary in 1809 (Author: Lewis Weston Dillwyn)

entry 13

Thursday July 27th
{MS page 81} We rose & were ready to start at 6 O'Clock this morning but it was 7 before our Luggage was properly stowed in the car which we had hired for the purpose of conveying it. We then bid good by to Mr. Woods72 & our Landlord whose House we all agreed to recommend whenever an opportunity offers. After a sultry & fatiguing walk73 of 6 Irish Miles we reached a wretched Hovel called an Inn which is the only House of Entertainment between Killarney & Mill Street. We expected as it is a regularly licensed Inn that we should have found things tolerably comfortable, but there are only two Rooms one of which is used to cook Victuals, feed Pigs &c. & the other is a Bed Room. We were shown into the latter & there made a Breakfast on new Potatoes, Eggs & Milk which with Water from a neighbouring River are the only Eatables or Drinkables of any kind that the House affords. After Leach had bathed & I rested myself nearly an hour we again set out & reached Mill Street about 1/2 past 3, but tho' {MS page 82} the distance from Killarney is only 15 Irish or about 20 English Miles yet the Weather was so sultry & the Road so excessively dusty that we found ourselves greatly fatigued. The


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Road is new & so remarkably straight that it appeared in a Line before us all the way.74 but the most remarkable thing is that all the Bridges are whimsically built as crooked as possible.

The Country through which we passed except in the immediate neighbourhood of Killarney is very uninteresting & not a Tree was to be seen altho' it is said that the whole Country was so thickly wooded a Century ago that a Squirrel might pass from Killarney to Cork by leaping from Bough to Bough.75 I saw no rare Plants except Bartsia viscosa & Euphorbia hyberna which grow almost everywhere in the Counties of Cork & Kerry, & Utricularia minor76 which we found in a Bog by the Road side about 2 Miles from Killarney.

Mill Street is a small Town or rather Village which has nothing to boast of except the best Inn that we have met with in any of the small Irish Towns, & we were told that 50 years ago it was reckoned the best {MS page 83} in the whole Kingdom.77 Here as in every other Town & Village there is a Barrack for two or three Companies of Infantry it having been found that no Law can be at all enforced in Ireland without the assistance of a Bayonet. We were a good deal diverted with the pranks of a recruiting Party, one of whom dressed as a Zany78 chased the Crowd about with a small Cushion which was suspended by a long String from the end of a Stick, & the remainder of the Party were fitted out to Burlesque a Military Band. The Cymbal Man with a pair of Pewter Plates, & the time Drummer with an old Tin Kettle had their faces sooted & were ornamented to imitate the Duke of Yorks Blacks, & the appearance of the rest of the Band was equally ridiculous & absurd. They afterwards made a Dance in the Street but our Boots told me that they got no recruits & added ‘We a'nt gulled so aisy’. In the Evening we dispatched a Messenger to Mallow with orders to bring a Chaise tomorrow, & being a good deal fatigued retired to Bed soon after 8.