Lough Corrib is
calculated to cover 44,000 acres, and is well supplied with fish.
XLV.
THE EASTERN COAST - THE LAND QUESTION FROM A LANDLORD'S STANDPOINT.
Went through Galway to the station as fast as a jaunting car could take
me, and took the train for Dublin.
Crossing Ireland thus from Galway to Dublin, I noticed that the land got
to be more uniformly fertile as we neared the eastern coast. From Dublin
the road ran down the coast, in sight of the sea for most part. Through
counties Dublin, Meath and Louth, the land looked like the garden of
Eden. It was all like one demesne heavy with trees, interspersed with
large fields having rich crops and great meadows waving with grass; the
cultivation, so weedless, so regular, every ridge and furrow as straight
as a rule could make it, every corner cultivated most scrupulously. It
was a great pleasure to look at the farms. Truly this is a rich and
fertile land. And yet in no place which I have seen so far have I
noticed any laborers' cottages, fit to live in, except on a few places
in Antrim.
This east coast was beautiful exceedingly, and yet I saw on this good
land mud huts which were not fit to be kennels for dogs inhabited by
human beings. I heard a shilling a week spoken of as rent for these
abominable pigsties, collected every Saturday night. Twenty-five cents
looks small, but it is taken out of a small wage. The country railway
stations are very nice to look at.
Arrived at Castle Bellingham, received a very kindly welcome indeed.
Felt inclined to snuggle down into enjoyment here, to the neglect of my
work. The country is so fertile, so beautiful, the large fields waving
with luxuriant crops. The roses are in bloom climbing over the fronts of
the houses, clinging round the second-story windows and on to the roof.
It is a feast to look at them, hanging their heads heavy with beauty in
clusters of three, creamy-white or red of every shade, from the faintest
pink to the velvet leaf of deepest crimson. I suppose that they flourish
best amid frequent rains, for this has been a remarkably rainy season,
and the wealth of roses is wonderful to see, the air is sweet with their
breath.
South Gate House, Castle Bellingham, is one of the houses that tempts
one to the breach of the tenth commandment. I have stood in the front
garden and looked at it trying to learn it off by heart. It is draped
with a wonderful variety of roses climbing over it, wreathing round it,
heavy with bloom.
