f Ireland to inspect them, to remark
their deficiencies, that they might be improved in the mills he intended
to erect. This knowledge being gained, the work was begun, and as water
was necessary, a great basin was formed by a dam across a valley, by
which means thirty-four acres were floated, to serve as a reservoir for
dry seasons, to secure plenty at all times."

August 30. Rode to Rosshill, four miles off, a headland that projects
into the Bay of Newport, from which there is a most beautiful view of the
bay on both sides; I counted thirty islands very distinctly, all of them
cultivated under corn and potatoes, or pastured by cattle. At a distance
Clare rises in a very bold and picturesque style; on the left Crow
Patrick, and to the right other mountains. It is a view that wants
nothing but wood.

September 5. To Drumoland, the seat of Sir Lucius O'Brien, in the county
of Clare, a gentleman who had been repeatedly assiduous to procure me
every sort of information. I should remark, as I have now left Galway,
that that county, from entering it in the road to Tuam till leaving it
to-day, has been, upon the whole, inferior to most of the parts I have
travelled in Ireland in point of beauty: there are not mountains of a
magnitude to make the view striking. It is perfectly free from woods,
and even trees, except about gentlemen's houses, nor has it a variety in
its face. I do not, however, speak without exception; I passed some
tracts which are cheerful. Drumoland has a pleasing variety of grounds
about the house; it stands on a hill gently rising from a lake of
twenty-four acres, in the middle of a noble wood of oak, ash, poplar,
etc.; three beautiful hills rise above, over which the plantations spread
in a varied manner; and these hills command very fine views of the great
rivers Fergus and Shannon at their junction, being each of them a league
wide.

There is a view of the Shannon from Limerick to Foynes Island, which is
thirty miles, with all its bays, bends, islands, and fertile shores. It
is from one to three miles broad, a most noble river, deserving regal
navies for its ornament, or, what are better, fleets of merchantmen, the
cheerful signs of far-extended commerce, instead of a few miserable
fishing-boats, the only canvas that swelled upon the scene; but the want
of commerce in her ports is the misfortune not the fault of
Ireland--thanks for the deficiency to that illiberal spirit of trading
jealousy