At last, on 9 April 1806, we were summoned in all haste to the ship and set sail. However, as a calm soon set in we had to ride at anchor. The ship on which I found myself was not a transport-vessel suitably adapted to carry a large number of horses but a packet-boat that formerly had conveyed passengers, and some horses also, from Liverpool over to Dublin. For the rest, it was well laid out, and the cabin was situated in the middle where the motion was gentlest. But for 40 men and 21 horses on board it really was much too small. The weather remained fine and calm. Not until midnight did a favourable wind get up, so that we weighed anchor, yet without coming very far, for soon the surface of the sea appeared as smooth as a looking-glass. We kept constantly in sight of the coast of Wales, whose high mountain-tops were still covered with snow. Finally, on the third day, the wind became favourable, and whilst at 8 o'clock in the morning we could still see the British coast, at noon we caught sight of the Irish coast. The motion of the ship likewise was so violent that I had to betake myself to my berth. The next morning we were in Dublin harbour.

I disembarked at once and hastened to the nearest inn in order to acquaint myself with an Irish breakfast. It consisted of tea, bread and butter and half a dozen eggs. The others disembarked on the same day and the regiment was settled in a barracks, though the officers were quartered in citizens' houses that had been abandoned and stripped even of tables and chairs. We were forced to rent.

Dublin is more beautiful than London. It has broader streets, taller and more uniform houses, and finer squares. Only the splendour and wealth of England's capital are missing. Of very special note is the street in which the former parliament-house is situated; it displays a definite grandeur of the kind one fully expects in capital cities.

The stranger in Ireland soon notices the hospitality. I too was to enjoy it and was taken around by one inhabitant and entertained by him. He showed me amongst other things the local museum with a mineral and insect collection said to be from Germany and to have cost 11,200 sterling.ü.The Dublin Society in 1792 voted 11,200 for the purchase of the mineralogy collection formed by Nathaniel Gottfried Leske of Marburg University, and subsequently lodged it in its house in Hawkins Street, Dublin (H. F. Berry, A history of die Royal Dublin Society (London, 1915), pp 156-7). For the rest one sees in Ireland opulence beside the deepest poverty; and beside the finest carriages the carrier's car draws past with a thin, rough horse; and next to the palace stands the mean, wretched cabin, occupied by the neediest persons. Ragamuffins that are not found in England are not unusual in Ireland. So it is in the capital, but even more in the countryside.

On 7 May we marched in eager expectation to Dunamore,This spelling, as well as the modem spelling, 'Dunmore' , was used in contemporary documents. the place appointed for our stay; but the nearer we came the more our hopes sank of finding it a better place.

The people who emerged from the low mud cabins appeared silent and stupid,Ger. dumm und stumm. the bogs grew larger, and even the small cars disappeared completely here. On pitiable, rough horses or assesThis is probably the earliest allusion in a traveller's account to the presence of asses in Ireland. Virtually unknown before the nineteenth century, asses were brought into Ireland from Scotland during the Napoleonic wars in order to replace horses, which lately were in much greater demand for military purposes. They appeared first in Ulster, and then in Connacht, where they were easily fed on furze tops and proved especially suitable for carrying small loads on rough terrain. (J.P. Mahaffy, 'On the introduction of the ass as a beast of burden into Ireland' in R.I.A. Proc., xxxiii (1916-17), sect. C, pp 530-38.) led by straw-ropes hung a pair of baskets in which dung, turf and suchlike were being transported. On our arrival at our destination, after a tiring march of 18 Irish miles, we soon saw that under the fine name of the place were hidden only a score of small stone houses and mud-cabins.Cf. William Wilson, The postchaise companion (Dublin, [1806]), cols 173-4: 'Dunmore contains eighty-six houses, a parish church, built on the site of an old abbey, the great aisle and steeple of which are still entire; a large, new Romish chapel and very good market house...; it has four fairs yearly' . The church and church-tower seemed completely overrun with ivy. The barracks that were to accommodate us bid defiance to the entire place. We were stared at by a crowd of inquisitive ragamuffins who shyly looked us up and down and bit their nails. A big flock of crows had settled in the trees near the barracks and accompanied our entry with their croaking! Here then was not the land of the nightingales.

So the two-month march from Portsmouth to Dunamore ended with not quite the best prospects, and I believed it scarcely possible to endure a week here, but once I was used to the place I thought differently.

The climate is on the whole mild but damp. No day is cloudless. Potatoes, wheat, barley, etc., are in fact grown here, but only with toil are they wrung from the earth. There is very much poultry in this district.

The people of rank and the well-to-do of the country stay mostly in Dublin and London, especially at the present out of fear of the agitators.Ger. Unruhstifter. This is an allusion to the Threshers. They come here, collect their rents and spend them abroad, which may contribute greatly to the poverty. Our barracks, a former country-house,Lord Ross sold it in the 1790s for use as a military barracks, which it remained until the 1920s (James Greaney, Dunmore (n.p., 1984), pp 37, 68). were tolerable. Only the tables and chairs were genuine Irish, that is to say as made by a carpenter. The cabins mentioned are only from six to eight feet high and 12 feet square, built of mud and straw, or of stone without any kind of cement, and covered with sods. The rafters are drawn from the bog. Light enters those cabins through gaps left unclosed and in bad weather stopped up with straw, or through a small pane that has been fixed in.

The interior of these dwellings is very edifying. In one corner a bed of straw for humans, in another a sow with young, an ass, goats and such like, and in the third a table, chair and spinning-wheel. The family are in the habit of sitting in the middle on the floor around the turf-fire, where the husband and wife smoke their little pipe. The fourth corner contains the opening for going in and out. I admit there are also exceptions but rarely.

There are two churches in the melancholy place, one English and one catholic; but no pealing of bells and no striking of a clock. The graves in the church-yard were marked only by rolling together stones in their natural state. Should it be something special, a large piece of rock is erected, but there is no thought of inscriptions.

It is the custom in England and Ireland when natives and strangers wish to become acquainted that first the native pays a visit to the stranger. I was therefore delighted that the English ministerPossibly John Orr (d. 1837), rector of Dunmore, 1796-1837 (J.B. Leslie, 'Biographical succession list of the diocese of Tuam, N.L.I., MS 2687, p. 177). and a captainNot identified. who had his property in the vicinity and who had just returned from France visited me and thereby provided me with the opportunity for distraction in this wilderness.

On my way to the captain I observed how laboriously people here work their land. No plough, no harrow, no horse and no ox were to be seen at work. Everything is done with a wooden spade that is iron-plated only in front. People let the land lie fallow for several years and put on the heather then growing to serve as manure. The lower class of the inhabitants speak only Irish, but the upper class speak English too. Yet I could never get to see a book in the country language. Whitsun was little different from other days. I even saw people working in the fields, and on WhitmondayOn 26 May 1806. a big yarn-marketGer. Garnmarkt, apparently a linen-fair in this case. was held. The stalls consisted either of cars on which they [sic] had brought in their produce, or of cask-hoops that were stuck into the ground and covered with linen.Stalls of this description can be seen in Joseph Peacock's painting, The patron, or the festival of St Kevin at the Seven Churches, Glendalough (1813), held by the Ulster Museum and reproduced and discussed in W.H. Crawford, 'The patron, or festival of St Kevin at the Seven Churches, Glendalough, County Wicklow, 1813' in Ulster Folklife, xxxii (1986), pp 37-47. One could not stand upright in these, but here every one lay with the beloved whiskey. In the afternoon the drunks were so numerous that the justice of the peace requested us to mount guard in order to contain threatening behaviour. Some days laterOn 29 May 1806 (Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack, 1806, p. 191). followed an even more wretched cattle-fair at which there was even greater trouble so that side-arms had to be used. On this occasion I saw how some disturbers of the peace who had been arrested so far degraded themselves as to fall on their knees before the justice and in tears beg for his indulgence. In England even the criminal facing death would not condescend to this. The Englishman steps proudly before his judge and awaits his decision with fortitude and calm. In the month of June there were in fact some fine and warm days and evenings, but nature remained desolate and silent. There was no fragrance of flowers and trees, no buzzing of insects, no nightingale's song.

Midsummer dayGer. Johannisfest. Lighting fires ... on the eve of St John was, according to T. Crofton Croker, who describes in vivid detail the celebration at Gougane Barra, County Cork, on 23 June 1813, a popular custom of remote antiquity and a remain of pagan rites in honour of the sun (Croker, (London, 1824), pp 277–82). was celebrated magnificently, that is to say in the middle of the place people made a fire of turf and bones that smoked and stank more than they gave out a cheerful flame. Around this fire the dear young folk danced like mad to a pitiful fiddle or bagpipe. Amidst all this wretchedness one still finds very old people, who not infrequently reach 100 years.

At the end of September the black clouds hanging heavily in the sky emptied themselves daily and made our stay in that place exceedingly boring. Therefore it was most agreeable to me at the beginning of October to be moved 18 Irish miles away to Ballinrobe where the greater part of the regiment was garrisoned. The place was somewhat better.Charles Etienne Coquebert de Montbret 15 years earlier had found Ballinrobe a small town at least as attractive as any other country capital and especially pleasing on account of the proximity of lakes; its cavalry barracks were in a charming park traversed by a river containing gillaroo trout and flowing into Lough Mask (Sile Ní Chinnéide, 'A Frenchman's tour of Connacht in 1791' in Galway Arch. Soc. Jn., xxxv (1976), p. 54). From here I also went on official business to Castlebar, a town situated a further 18 miles away. It is a very good place and is in fact the place where in his day the French general, Hoche,Recte Humbert. made die ill-fated landing.

On 9 November we received in this remote spot the sad tidings of the battle of Jena, which robbed us of the hope of soon seeing our homeland once again. It happened that there was almost continuous rain and wind here, with the result that our houses shook and even partly fell in, and many of our people came down with dysentery, of which one officer died. None of this exactly contributed to putting us in good humour.

The election of new members of parliament occurring at that time made Ballinrobe very busy owing to the many electors and voters flocking in. It also gave rise to much revelry and brawling. Every space was covered with handbills, and crowds of people carried them about the streets. On them were printed, in large letters, advertisements favouring the candidates. Each day the polling-house was full of voters, whose votes were written down and who expressed their opinions publicly. The curious were not wanting either, and this colourful exchange gave us foreigners some entertainment.

On 3 December the two newly-elected membersDenis Browne and Henry Augustus Dillon, both of whom received 3768 votes to become members of parliament for County Mayo; the unsuccessful candidate was Sir John Browne, who received 1240 (B. M. Walker, Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801–1922 (Dublin, 1978), pp 13, 231). were carried all around the streets on big arm-chairs among the milling and incessantly cheering crowd, into which gold and silver coins were thrown by the successful pair.

About seven Irish miles from this place are the remarkable underground lakes that are said to be connected with the Atlantic OceanThese were in the Aillie cave, about 1 kilometre in length, through which the Aillie river flows on its way from its source in the Partry Mountains to its outlet at Lough Mask, which drains into Lough Comb and so ultimately into Galway Bay; they are no longer accessible (J. C. Coleman, The Aillie river and cave, Co. Mayo' in , ii, no. 2 (1950), pp 58-60). At two different places they become visible. With some local inhabitants I went down about 25 feet underground on a sloping path in order to see them and found the width of these streams to be between 12 and 18 feet. They flowed with many bends and, as little light came through the entrance, one could not follow them far with the eye. On their sources and outlet I could get no information.

In February 1807, in connexion with certain business, I was invited to the house of a rich landowner; but here too I found everything in the same style as had been the case hitherto in Ireland. The big country-house was dilapidated, the front steps had fallen in, the interior was rich but neglected, for example the large silk window and bed curtains were in tatters and had certainly not been dusted for many years.

As for the rest, the household furniture was of English make and the dinner table was overflowing.

At the end of the month of March the high-court judge made his ceremonial entry into Ballinrobe with various counsel.The judge was Charles Osborne (c. 1759-1817), who on the morning of 26 March 1807 arrived at Ballinrobe from Sligo to open the Lent assizes next day. Two men were found guilty of robbery. Osborne became unwell and was unable to go on to Galway. (Hibernian Journal, 1, 8 Apr. 1807; F. E. Ball, , 1221-1921 (2 vols, London, 1926), ii, 335). No further information about this assizes has been found in newspaper sources. A trumpeter and six outriders carrying huge antique halberds rode in front of his four-horse carriage. Behind it followed likewise six halberdiers and the household servants. In front of the house intended for his reception he was received by a division of the local militia regiment which gave him a military salute. Two sentries remained behind afterwards in front of the door, and in order to avoid trouble the garrison had been strengthened. The court, which, as in England, was held in public, lasted eight days; with the difference that here the town, the judge's lodgings and even the court-house were occupied by soldiers, whilst in England everything military is removed several miles away from the place of the assizes, and even single officers were not allowed to appear there in uniform at the time. In Ireland the disturbances that had occurred seemed to make other precautions necessary. This court was the occasion for the appearance of many landowers, from whom die jurors for the criminals are chosen. The judge or the counsel proposes for each accused 24 persons, from whom he has to decide on 12 who are to give judgement on him. The judge had an elevated seat and wore a scarlet coat and a majestic white wig. On both sides stood his counsel; in front of him, on a low bench at a table, sat the clerks and finally, in front of them, on a raised position, stood the crier. In a loud voice the crier summoned the accused persons, some of whom were in confinement. According to how such a person had now made known his presence by words or by standing up, the crier touched him with a staff to identify him. Then the judge put his questions to the person, and if he found that his imprisonment so far was in proportion to the offence the person was immediately set at liberty. But if the crime was of the sort that could bring death or transportation, the jury had to pronounce the person guilty or not guilty. A juror who fails to appear without having a valid reason must pay a fine of £12 sterling. At this sitting a young man was sentenced to death and the punishment was carried out during the next few days. The proceedings were conducted partly in the Irish language.

In April of the same year we had to be ready to go to the Continent; but the truce of Tilsit prevented this likewise. Therefore I had further opportunity to get know the Irish people better.