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
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.