Of Glenade on a pleasant day is delightful.
The hills swell into every shape, the houses - if they were only good
houses - nestle in such romantic nooks, and the eternal mountains rising
up to the clouds bound the glen on each side. I saw one house made of
sods, thatched with rushes, that was not much bigger or roomier than a
charcoal heap. I would have thought it was something of that kind only
for the hole that served for a chimney.
The people are very civil, and if they only knew what would please you,
would say it whether they thought it or not. If they do not know what
side you belong to, no people could be more reticent.
The Land League is very popular. Since the Land League spread and the
agitation forced public attention to the extreme need of the people many
landlords have reduced their rents. Lord Massey is a popular landlord;
anything unpopular done on his estate, Mr. LaTouche, his agent, has laid
to his door.
XXVI.
TENANTS VOLUNTARILY RAISING THE RENT TO ASSIST THEIR LANDLORDS -
BEAUTIFUL IRISH LANDSCAPES - CANADIAN EYES - RENTS IN LEITRIM - THE
POTATO.
Determined, if possible, to hear something of the landlord's view of
the land question, I wrote to Mr. Corscadden, the so unpopular landlord,
asking for an interview. This gentleman, some time ago, moved the
authorities to erect an iron hut for the police at Cleighragh, among the
mountains that garrison Glenade. There had been an encounter there, a
kind of local shindy, between him and his tenants, when they prevented
him from removing hay in August last. The police came in large numbers
to erect the hut, but it could not be got to the place, for no one would
draw it out to Glenade.
Mr. Corscadden bought this small parcel of land at Glenade from a Mr.
Tottenham; not the unpopular Tottenham, but another, much beloved by his
people. He lived above his income, and was embarrassed in consequence.
His tenants voluntarily raised the rents on themselves for fear he would
be obliged to sell the land, and they might pass into the hands of a bad
landlord. They raised the rent twice on themselves, and after all he was
obliged to sell, and the fate they dreaded came upon them; they passed
into Mr. Corscadden's hands.
During the famine this part of Leitrim got relief from the Mansion House
Fund. Mr. Corscadden never gave a penny; never answered a letter
addressed to him on the subject.
Having posted my letter I went out among the people who were, or were to
be, evicted in the country around Kiltyclogher, (church of the stone
house, or among the stones). We left the bright green fields that belt
around Manor Hamilton and the grand trees that overshade the same green
fields, and drove up among the hills, in a contrary direction from
Glenade.
