On the 25th of August recte September I set off from Summervill179 (in company with my friend J. Beale180) to visit Adair and Asketon. The situation of the first mentioned place is very pleasant, the soil of the neighbourhood seems very good & it is well cultivated and well wooded. We first visited the Black abbey181 which is now undergoing some alterations to fit it for a market house. In one Circumstance it differs from all the others I have seen. The tower occupies the whole width of the nave instead of standing quite within it. Thence we walked to the abbey of St. Francis182 in Lord Adair's park, a beautiful ruin but almost overwhelmed with ivy. The south chapel is here open by three arches into the nave and consists [p. 149] in itself of a nave and aile with chapels on the opposite side. The Cloysters are small. The whole is embosomed in trees and makes a very picturesque Object but I cannot help wishing with Sir R. Hoare183 that there were less ivy, tho I am very far from agreeing with him in desiring it to be kept neat and trim — the picturesque is destroyed by this smoothness. At a little distance are the ruins of the residence of the once potent Earls of Desmond184. [p. 150] After St. Francis' we visited the White Abbey185 which is the most perfect of any in Adair but not equal in that respect to either Quin or Askeaton. It has however more tracery in the windows and more finish externally than either of those or indeed than any I have seen in Ireland. The same observations will apply to this as to that of St. Francis. There is no inequality of ground at Adair to make the situation of these abbeys dissimilar — they are all surrounded by wood & covered by ivy — added to which they are nearly of the same size.
From Adair we proceeded to Kildimo to see a school established by Samuel Jones.186 [p. 152] We did not leave Kildimo till about 6 o'clock and it was dark before we reached Askeaton.