s Valley. So far these poor
people imitated the method of their social superiors; but they were
not so fortunate as some of these in retaining their plunder. The new
road was decreed, and Mike, and Thady, and Tim were obliged to
withdraw within their ancient limits. Along the new road we went,
bumping and jolting, at the imminent risk of the guns and revolvers in
the car going off, until we reached the upper road by the glen. In
parts the wretched houses were separated by a perceptible distance;
but here and there they had been built side by side to accommodate the
increasing population on the holdings.

How minute the subdivision has been may be gathered from the fact that
335 English acres, whereof some 250 are good for anything in their
present condition, are divided among 40 tenant families, whose numbers
may be safely put down at 200 souls. The land is therefore divided at
the rate of one and a quarter English acres per head, and when it is
mentioned that the most important tenant pays a rent of 17l. 10s., it
will be seen that some of the holdings are ridiculously small. Many
range from 4l. to 5l. per annum and are absolutely incapable of
providing food for a family. It has been found impossible to reduce
the number of tenants to any sensible degree without incurring the
hatred of the country side, and the old and infirm whose children are
dead or have emigrated, still cling to the miserable cabins in which
their lives have been passed.

On the opposite side of Tralee I witnessed a spectacle of a widely
different character. A smart drive from Tralee northwards through a
blinding rain landed me at Ardfert, the village in the centre of Mr.
W. Crosbie's wonderfully improved estate. Going about his work quietly
and unostentatiously, the proprietor has, in the course of forty-two
years, completely altered the conditions of existence on his land.
When it came into his possession in 1838, it was, as many Irish
estates are now, suffering from local congestion of population. Mr.
Crosbie's father had inherited from the Earl of Glendore, who had
given leases under the old penal laws. At the time only Protestants
were allowed to hold leases, and in consequence of the small number of
Protestants compared with the demand for lessees, the leases were
obtained upon very advantageous terms--a long period, a low rent, and
few conditions. The result was that the penal law, like other clumsy
devices of the kind, defeated itself; for