We left Waterford early in the morning of the 9th of July and directed our course to the neighbourhood of the Monavoullagh mountains. There is a decent inn at Newton where we breakfasted, but proceeded immediately afterwards to Kilmacthomas whence we determined to ascend the mountains on foot as our driver informed us the road ‘was not properly navigable nearer to them’. We afterwards repented of this arrangement for except in one spot close by the Village where they are now building a bridge the road was not bad for full 2 English miles and the distance was far greater than we had been taught to expect.
[p. 9] Our botanical harvest was not very rich but unfortunately we were too late in the day to be able to reach the summit of the mountain. All the lower country is under the plough except where its operations are here and there interrupted by a bog. The divisions are formed by stone walls or banks of earth. Every part cultivated but not well cultivated an arrangement altogether devoid of interest to every species of traveller. Amongst the corn we picked up Spergula pentandra,14 in the bogs Pinguicula lusitanica15 and on the mountains abundance of Saxifraga umbrosa,16 at which we felt more pleasure than we probably should have done had we known how very common a plant it is thro great parts of the Country. Saxifraga stellaris,17 Rhodiola rosea18 and some other common mountain plants and mosses occurred, but the state of my health had rendered the ascent so fatiguing that I was not capable of a very accurate examination.
[p. 10] The mountains contain several deep hollows some of which are occupied by pools of water. It was in one of these that I botanized but in one without a lake. The views from the elevation we attained were very extensive over a broad featured country whose outline is almost everywhere pleasing but the scene is deplorably naked; it is not mere wood which gives its richness to English Landscape but the mixture of wood, cultivation and of habitation — the hedge rows, and the trees in them, the sheltered villages & farm houses with their orchards, and the Spire embosomed in Elms or Eughs. There is nothing of all this in the generality of Irish scenery. There may be trees in the view but if such as this should happen they are collected into a wood not scattered over the country. There are no hedges — the cottages are not collected into [p. 11] villages but scattered about; forlorn hovels, uniformly without shade. A sum of money was appropriated in the reign of Queen Anne for building churches,19 but what were erected are never anything better than little
At about 7 o'clock we got back to Kilmacthomas where our Postboy was very unwilling to let us get a dinner as he told us the unsettled state of the country made it unpleasant to be out after dark but I believe his fears magnified the danger and indeed this was the first and last apprehension [p. 12] of the sort that we experienced20. We were too late to see much of the country till we arrived at that town Dungarvon.
Dungarvon is a small town at the bottom of a deep bay of the same name. There are some remains of a large old church perhaps of the Abbey of Regular canons said by Carlisle to have been founded in the 7th century by a disciple of St. Finbar, but the same author informs us that of this there are no remains.21 The most remarkable circumstance in the remaining fragments is that the West end is pierced with 6 small circular windows instead of one large one22.
On the point opposite the town are ruins which appear to have constituted a castle & an abbey.23 We did not visit them but from several points of the town & Coneygar their union has a picturesque effect.
This town is whimsically celebrated for its fruit and timber24. [p. 13] A long sandy slip of ground called the Conegar25 (a rabbit warren), divides the harbour from the bay. On this according to Smith's History of Waterford26 grows the Gladiolus communis.27 It is not often that a botanist is entitled to say positively that a plant does not grow in the place pointed out for it but I think in this case as three of us were employed some hours in traversing a narrow strip of land for a plant which even out of flower would have been very conspicuous. I may safely assert that the plant does not grow there. We did not meet with any other rare plant to reward our labours unless it be a small viola which tho [it] very much resembles the tricolor28 is perhaps a distinct species.
The road from Dungarvon to Youghall is exceedingly bad. A single hill divides Dungarvon from the valley of the Blackwater so that one ascent and one descent brings the Traveller to Clashmore . The Hill is broad and the Valley narrow, a style of country which accompanied us with little interruption till we reached the mountains in the Western part of the County of Cork.
[p. 14] I have often wished for a boundary of distant mountains to the rich vales of Kent — here with ground equally well-disposed we have such a boundary but there is no wood and tho almost the whole is an enclosed country no [p. 15] hedges (let alone trees in them), the divisions are mere banks of earth or stone with a little furze at the top or in the language of the country Earth or stone ditches made of furze. No trees either for shelter or fruit about the Villages and farm Houses but all naked and dreary.
[p. 16] In Ireland the idea suggested by the word mountain seems to be mere cultivated land. In Connemara (a mountainous country) I was directed to cross a mountain. I engaged my director to accompany me and found the mountain to be a bog, not indeed flat, but of trifling elevation.
[p. 17] At Clashmore the Blackwater has no breadth of valley and no grandeur of shore — it winds between cultivated hills descending with a steep slope to the waters edge.
Youghall is seated on the south side of the Estuary of the Blackwater immediately under the bank. I several times have heard it spoken Of as a pretty situation, but I think the Irish are generally fond of these confined scenes. We had been directed to Campbell's Hotel at
[p. 19] The hill above Youghall resembles those on the other side of the River. Descending from it we overlook the valley in which Castle-Martyr is situated. The hills which bound this are comparatively low and the vale itself has less undulation than that of Dungarvon, but the outlines are still pleasing and still naked — as we advance however we find more finishing. The approach to Killeagh affords some scenes of great beauty — Killeagh itself is a very pretty town or village, well-mixed with trees & might be taken for a small English Town but for the advantage which it possesses of very wide streets.29 This neighbourhood is I think the finest part of the vale which continues very pleasant till we leave it. Castle Martyr is a seat of the Earl of Shannon.30 The house is not visible from the road but the grounds appear to be well wooded.
We got to Middleton, whose waters flow into the Sea, without crossing any marked elevation.
[p. 20] A little beyond Middleton is a gentlemans seat placed on a bleak hill31 while a beautiful little sheltered vale within the domain offers some excellent situations. I have in general seen little to admire in Ireland in the Gentlemans Seats either as to form or situation. The principle of the latter seems to be [to] see & be seen, the former is that of a high square box. I do not mean to give this as a rule without exception but the traveller in Ireland will meet with numerous examples. The first part of the road between Middleton and Cork is much inferior to that we had past. The latter is exquisitely beautiful — fine woods cover the side of a steep hill down to the water. On the opposite side is a highly embellished island32 and a great extent of cultivated plain bounded by distant hills is exhibited from various parts of the road, but there are no mountains which to me, who had taken my ideas in great [p. 21] measure from the Maps, was rather a disappointment.
The little valley of Glanmire particularly pleased us but by the time we reached it it was too dark to see much and as I afterwards visited it more at leisure I shall postpone any description of its scenery.