must exceed that of Omagh by some hundred souls.

But if Omagh has only the honour of standing in the
third rank of trade and population ; in the weight of men-
dicity with which it is burthened, (if we may judge from the
multitude of able bodied beggars and their families that we
saw there in two days only) it has no competitor among the
towns of this county.

We could not command leisure to count the numerous
trains of these poor people that infested Omagh on the days
to which we have adverted ; but we well remember that
the impression produced upon our mind by the imposing
array which we then witnessed, was this; that these visiters
of Omagh would have been found sufficient to colonise the
most considerable of our foreign settlements in a very short
period of time ; and that if the unemployed peasantry and
their families, thus thrown upon the farmers and shop-
keepers for support, shall continue to multiply, while these
latter, in their own defence, continue rapidly emigrating
from the scene of infection, leaving all that is wretched and



OMAGH. 323

miserable behind them unless we say, the British government
alight upon a better mode of managing Ireland, than this,
the final result of this system will prove deeply injurious to
England herself. Would it not therefore be vastly better to
allow Ireland to avail herself of her own deep and almost
exhaustless resources, for the employment of her people, by
permitting her to legislate upon her own soil for this special
purpose, than to make the slender measure of her capital,
and the physical energies of her people, tributary to the
wealth and power of foreign states, upon the one hand,
while a rapidly increasing population, almost totally unpro-
vided for, are made to eat like a canker worm into the few
remaining resources of the capital and industry of the
country, upon the other? It is true a large proportion of
Irish emigrants proceed from hence to Canada, a British
settlement ; but what an infinitely large proportion of Irish
capital and Irish artizans have been forced into foreign coun-
tries by British policy, exclusive of the numerous families
now settled in the United States of North America, and con-
tributing to enrich that new country by their capital and
labours ! This to be sure is very well for the people who
have succeeded in escaping from the all desolating plague
of poverty and infamy, with which their unhappy country
has been visited ; and doubly well for the states which have
profited by English policy ! But what of that policy,
sayest thou Lycurgus ; or what Solon ; or what William
Penn ; or what Fenelon, thou classic founder of Salentum ;
since in the range of your political philosophy, we cannot
trace this policy, with the sort of glass (we think not
jaundiced) that is now before us?

Omagh stands in the centre of a tolerably well cultivated
country, on a property of the Earl of Belmore, (the pre-
sent governor of Jamaica) and which, according to our
information, was part of a tract of country extending from
Omagh to Ermiskillen, formerly in possession of the Arch-
dale family, (who have a property still remaining in this
section of the country) and disposed of by an ancestor of



324 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

General Archdale to an ancestor of Lord Belmore, one
of whose sons, the Honourable Henry Com*, is now mem-
ber for this county.

MOUNT PLEASANT.

This new creation of the Rev. Mr. Crigan, stands on a
small estate which he possesses in the neighbourhood of
Omagh, and is a very interesting feature of beauty and
improvement in a topographic portrait of that town and
neighbourhood.

It is a purchase of the Rev. Resident, and has been con-
verted by him from a wild boggy moor into its present well-
merited character of a handsome Irish villa.

It comprehends a new and respectable edifice, on the
summit of a gentle elevation, which commands a noble
prospect of the neighbouring country ; and about 100 acres
of a well reclaimed demesne, very grassy, and apparently
well calculated for oats, flax, and every species of green
crop for cattle feeding ; and from the flourishing appearance
of the young plantations, it is evident that no soil can be
better adapted to the growth of trees of the light and orna-
mental classes.

The Struel river forms a boundary to this property on one
side, and a part of the estate of the late Earl of Blessington
(richly wooded) on the other.

The prospect from hence to the Tyrone mountains, over
the plantations of Lisanally, and the richly wooded demesne
of Mount Joy forest, is incomparably fine. In fact, as the
residence of a country gentleman, in the immediate vicinity
of a good market town, we know nothing on a limited scale
to exceed this seat ; and the beauty, order, and harmony,
which have been called into being from a wild and unculti-
vated moor, reflect a high distinction upon the taste and
understanding which produced them.

Mount Pleasant stands within one mile of Omagh, (the



SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 325

post town to it) immediately on the coach road which opens
a communication between that town and Derry,

NEWGROVE.

Newgrove, the seat and fee simple estate of Samuel
Galbraith, Esq., comprehends a large and most respectable
family edifice (converted from an ancient farm house into its
present equally useful but more distinguished character)
and about 120 Conyngham acres, chiefly of a hay and grass
farm, bat with a certain proportion devoted to corn crops ;
to all of which we understand these lands are admirably
adapted.

As Newgrove in its present form has no just pretension to
the picturesque as the tame and level scene of which it is
a component part, does not present a very strong and pro-
minent ground work to the pencil or chisel of the artist
and as, until a very recent period, it was not the residence
of the present generation of the Galbraith family, but held
from the commencement of their reign, or during a long
interregnum, by tenants under them ; we must hence regard
it as a place, on which Art (in defiance of Nature) has only
drawn her first rude outline ; and which cannot become a
seat of as high respectability as the finger of Art can make
it, until the following constituents of her Newgrove picture,
have received the last touches of her skilful pencil ; every
stroke of which, from the lofty obelisk that is seen through a
close defile in the opening wood, and the wood fringed eye
of the crystal lake that brightly sparkles in the distant lawn,
to the porter's l6dge, the handsome sweeping avenue, the
lightly sporting skreen, and the circular out-post wisely
planted upon the distant hill ; are, one and all, conceived,
arranged, and executed on principles conformable to the
philosophy of TASTE ; and separate from which, no work
of art intended for embellishment, can mock the pure and
unsullied eye of nature, or even amuse the fancy of the
beholder, with a good resemblance of her spirit and her



326 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

works. This may be regarded as that science of the true
landscape gardener, separate from which the pretender to
his art (however he may work as a mechanic for his bread)
is no master.

Hence for the perfection of the Newgrove picture, time-
must be given for the young plantations to grow and
flourish. The new dwellinghouse and offices, with corres-
ponding gardens, must be finished. The opening of two
splendid approaches in the contemplation of the proprietor,
to be adapted to a new and splendid line of road, in the
contemplation of the county, must be completed. And these,
with handsome gate houses, good fences, and an elegant
subdivision of the lands, will no doubt do much towards
constituting Newgrove what it ought to be, a very respect-
able seat on the surface of this county.

We could obtain no information of minerals or mineral
springs upon those lands ; but they have the advantage of
being situated in the centre of an agricultural and manu-
facturing district, at once peaceful and industrious (benefits,
the full value of which can only be known and felt by
occupiers of land in the disturbed districts) on a line of road
communicating between Omagh and Irvinestown ; and the
former, from which we believe it is about six miles distant,
(but we find no reference to this in the notes before us) is
the post town to it.

SESKINORE LODGE, SESKIXORE, AND MULLAGHMORE.

Seskinore Lodge, the seat of Mrs. Perry, (relict of the
late George Perry, Esq.) is part and parcel of the Seskinore
estate, and comprehends a neat and fashionable lodge, a
tastefully planted lawn, and about sixty Irish acres of a
farm, well adapted to the growth of flax and corn crops, and
to that of garden vegetables and ornamental trees. The de-
mesne however lies low, and the prospect from the lodge is
exclusively confined to the little beauties of the home view ;
in which the rose, the sweet William, and the sweet brier,



SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 327

seem to vie, which shall diffuse the larger proportion of its
fragrance through the surrounding scene.

The ancient residence of this family, was at a place called
Mullaghmore, (most likely the Irish name of the townland
on which the old family house is situated) but denominated
Perrymount, during their occupation of the place ; and this
with the beautiful village of Seskinore, erected by the
Perry family, in the immediate neighbourhood of the lodge,
are parts and parcels of the same property; but of the
extent of this property, its natural history, or the names of
the townlands composing it, beyond what has been just
mentioned, we know nothing. Some who profess (what we
do not) to have a deep and extensive acquaintance with the
Irish language, maintain that Seskinore, or more properly
Sheskinore, is a combination of two Irish words which (by
a free translation) may be made to signify " the rich or
golden soil of thistles," the thistle weed, when shooting up
in large quantities being the sure indication of a rich and
marrowy soil. Whether this be admissible as a free trans-
lation, or whether it diverges too far from the literal mean-
ing of the parent root to come within the limits of a just
literary licence, we presume not to say ; but as the best that
we could make out we give it, and let the reader who finds
fault with our translation provide us with a better.

These various respectable features of the Perry property,
stand within a short walk (perhaps an English mile or more)
of the great coach road between Dublin and Deny, by
Omagh, which is the post town to them, and from which
they are about five Irish miles distant.

N.B. A school for the education of the Protestant children
of the neighbourhood, has been established in or near the
village of Seskinore, by Mrs. Perry, and when we passed
through that country in 1830, it was well attended, and very
satisfactorily conducted by Mr. Halcoo, a young man edu-
cated for this office by the Education Society, in Kildare-
street, Dublin.



328 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

THE VESEY ESTATE.

This property is situated on a county road communicating
between Fintona and Ballygawley, two market and post
towns in this county, at the distance of about two miles
from the former, which is the post town to the new family
seat called Vesey Hall ; and from Omagh, the capital of the
county, about six miles.

Some years ago this tract of land was in a very rude and
imperfect state ; but since it came into the possession of Dr.
Vesey, the present proprietor, a course of improvements in
building, planting, and agriculture, (which in a few years
will amount to a new creation of the place) have been
rapidly advancing this property towards the ne plus ultra
of its capable perfection.

The soil in this section of Tyrone is, generally speaking,
by no means of the best class. In many places it is soft and
spewy, but still when drained and properly improved, it will
produce very tolerable crops of oats, flax, grass, potatoes,
and other green crops ; and trees of the light and ornamental
kinds, nourish, both in the mountain lands and in the moors.
Nevertheless many parts of this neighbourhood have a wild
and implanted appearance ; the fences are frequently very
bad ; many of the ditches are bald, and totally destitute of
quickset hedges. In a word, the timber bears no proportion
to the farms ; and what is still worse, the temperature of
trade has sunk far below zero. The manufacturing farmer,
who once derived succour from this latter source, is now
driven by his necessities to look more for the means of pro-
curing an immediate return for his outlay from the sale of
his crop, than of advancing the future interests of his family
by the enrichment of his land. The soil, consequently,
suffers in its interests. The demand for labour remains
stationary, or perhaps retrogrades, while the candidates for
employment rapidly increase ; and the end of all is, that
mendicity follows, as a natural and inevitable consequence
of the causes which conduct to it. In this state of things,



SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 329

it is by no means surprising, that every movement of the
country gentleman in the march of building, planting, and
cultivation, is hailed with joy by the people of the country,
as an act of temporary salvation ; while the improver himself
is very naturally regarded by those people as a pilot sticking
to the ship in its worst circumstances, and giving indisput-
able evidence to all around him, of the skill and industry he
is exerting to weather the storm, and of his inflexible deter-
mination to sink or swim with the vessel of his property and
country.

This being a true picture of many parts of this once
flourishing province, it is by no means surprising that we
yield a page of this humble volume with great pleasure, to
notice the improvements that Dr. Vesey and his son are
now carrying on at Vesey Hall ; and, in the execution of
which, they have found a good deal of employment for a
proportion of the labouring poor in their immediate neigh-
bourhood.

The Vesey estate embraces about 1,200 acres of the soil
thus imperfectly described ; and of this a certain proportion
has been reclaimed from bog ; a large section of the residue
is undergoing a process of improved cultivation ; a noble
new edifice has been erected on the summit of a lovely ele-
vation in the centre of a semi-amphitheatre of hills ; these
hills are tastefully decorated with young plantations, and
the loftiest and most lordly of the little chain is surmounted
by a temple, which acts as a sentinel to the scene, disputing
with Boreas the passage of the northern hills. This temple,
in the progress of the improvements, is to receive a castel-
lated form ; but from the summit of such a noble hill,
standing over a deep and lovely valley, richly decorated by
the finger of the architect and planter, and enclosing half
that valley with its base, a lofty spire raising its spheric
cone above the wooded vale, and presenting its picturesque
point to the eye of the traveller on the distant roads, would
be an infinitely nobler appendage to Vesey Hall, than any
alteration of the building that would not (as a top-stone to



330 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

the whole,} be surmounted by this picturesque spire, in the
climax of its ascending beauties.

The country around Vesey Hall, having 1 much that is
rude and offensive to exhibit to the eye, the selection of a
modest, but beautiful elevation in the valley, for the site of
the new building, surrounded by the hills just noticed, was
most judicious ; as from this position the prospect of that
rude country is completely excluded, and every spice of the
picturesque existing in the geography of the place (to which
the plantations have been admirably adapted) is presented to
the eye of the visiter in its most engaging aspect; while
from the noble variety of hill and dale which the home scene
presents, with the house reflecting its beauties upon the
vale beneath, the circumambient hills elegantly planted,
and the whole surmounted (as we trust it will) by the spire
of a temple on the loftiest of those hills which protect the
valley from the country's rude embrace ; we are assured that
in a few years hence, when the plantations are full grown,
the traveller who enters and beholds the lovely congregated
features of Vesey Hall, thus elegantly grouped, will pro-
nounce it to be the most perfectly finished feature of retired
beauty, of which this section of Tyrone can boast ; and on a
scale so compact and comprehensive, that the eye is uncon-
scious of exertion while revelling in the picturesque plea-
sures of this little panoramic scene, which pi-esses with
indescribable vigour and activity upon the organ of enjoy-
ment, even in a first embrace.

The demesne includes about 120 acres of the property
thus planted and improved. A small rivulet, called the
Blackwater, (upon which a noble flour-mill was being
erected by the proprietor in 1830,) forms a boundary to this
property on the south-east, and on the other sides it is
bounded by the estates of Mrs. Perry, the Earl of Belmore,
Robt. Waring Maxwell, Esq., Rev. Francis Jervis, and
Hugh Gore Edwards, Esq.



SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 331

ECCLESVILLE AND FINTONA.

When we visited Ecclesville in 1830, it was then the seat
of the late lamented John Dickson Eccles, Esq. proprietor
of the Fintona estate, and a country gentleman of sterling
worth, though of plain and unassuming manners.

The demesne embraces about 250 acres of this property,
lightly and ornamentally planted; but from its compara-
tively low position, it commands no prospect of the sur-
rounding country ; a fact in its topographic history, which
need not be much lamented, since that country exhibits but
little of the picturesque, and all that is necessary to a decent
domestic landscape, may be found within the confines of
Ecclesville demesne.

The house, which stands at a short distance from the
public road, at the bottom of a valley formed by gently
sloping hills, is a plain but noble edifice (the expressive
type of the founder's honest mind, where the rich streams
of benevolence, flowing through a retired valley to that
invisible ocean, where they are now centred for ever, felt
too deeply their own intrinsic worth, to court that sweet-
smelling cowslip of popular applause, " which to-day is,
and to-morrow is cast into the oven,") and to this has been
added all those plain and useful appendages of a family
residence, which are necessaiy to decent rank and to sub-
stantial comfort.

Fintona, a market and post town on this estate (which
has several shops, and does some business in the corn trade)
may be regarded as the capital of the property. It stands
on a public road a little elevated above the valley of Eccles-
ville, of which it commands an imperfect view ; and although
the appearance of this town is not remarkably attractive,
we understand a good deal of business is done there; to
which the policy of granting to improving tenants, leases in
perpetuity, of houses and plots for building, must largely
contribute ; while a similar indulgence to persons of neither
property nor talent, would mar the improvement of the



332 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

town, and inflict a needless wound upon the interests of the
landlord. To this admirable plan of giving the tenant a
perpetual interest in his town holding, we would recom-
mend (in every possible case) the addition of a few
acres of land for the accommodation of his town establish-
ment. This land, being held at a moderate rent on a lease
of lives or years, would have a favourable influence on the
interests of the whole estate, as the value of farms approx-
imating with it would advance in an exact ratio with the
wealth and population of the neighbouring town ; and we
hope this also is the policy of the Eccles family.

The valley of Ecclesville is separated from the town of
Fintona by a water called the Casheron river, which passes
through the Fintona estate. On this a corn mill has been
erected for the accommodation of the tenantry, and a site
for another mill with a fall of from seven to ten feet is said
to exist upon the same river, and of course presents to some
enterprising man of business, an inducement to form a
bleaching or manufacturing establishment at that place. If
the successors of the late Mr. Eccles follow his example, we
have no doubt they will be found ready to give all due
encouragement to this and every other instrument of employ-
ment to the poor that may be found to exist in their imme-
diate neighbourhood; for from all that we could learn of
the character of that lamented gentleman, as a landlord, a
magistrate, and a man, his sudden removal by death, while
we were travelling in his native county, was felt to be a
public loss ; and as such was very justly and generally
deplored, by the poor and by the public.

SPUR ROYAL CASTLE.

For the origin of this curious title we were referred (in
the absence of the proprietor, who was in France) to the
indented form of the castle ; but this not only falls far short
of a reason for the pomp of such a title, but is so weak and
whimsical an account of the cause producing it, that in jus-
tice to the individual (whoever he may have been) from whom



SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 333

this strange cognomen was derived, we must suppose that it
had its origin in a royal spur found upon these lands, (and
which might have been lost there in ancient days, in some
sanguinary conflict of the Irish kings with their Danish or
English invaders) as, upon any other principle, we are at a
loss to know how the sanity of the nomenclator, and the
consistent derivation of his title, can be defended and esta-
blished.

It is the seat of a branch of the respectable family of
Bunbury, which settled upon this property prior to the
English revolution, and at the period of our visit, a new and
magnificent castle (intended, we suppose, from its peculiar
form, to perpetuate the memory of the spur) was then being
erected by an ingenious architect of the name of Warren,
by whom the palace of Clogher, and other conspicuous
buildings, were also planned and conducted.

Of the extent and natural history of this property, or the
circumstances of its tenantry, we could procure but little
information ; but it forms such a splendid feature of beauty
and improvement in the view of the traveller on the public
road between the villages of Augher and Clogher in this
county, as to call forth his admiration, and direct his
enquiries to the place.

We found the castle standing on a spacious and richly
wooded demesne, with a lake at the foot of a lovely mount
in the front view, to which the family are said to be as
deeply indebted for a liberal supply of trout, pike, perch,
and eel, as the home view for one of the most vivid and
sparkling features of its domestic beauty. This lake is sup-
plied by a stream from the black water river, which turns a
corn mill in its progress ; and besides these waters, a rapid
mountain stream descends into those lands, and sometimes
overflowing its banks, visits the crops with an unwelcome
irrigation. This, however, we should suppose, might be
prevented by embankment, and the stream even rendered
useful for the watering of a stock farm, or for the establish-



334 COUNTY OF TYRONE,

ment of yarn bleach greens in that linen country, by a
proper direction of its current.

From an elevation on the road just noticed, which stands
over the castle and demesne, this seat with its neighbouring
landscape, and noble mountain outline, are seen in their
best aspect.

Spur royal castle is situated about two miles from Clogher,
and five from Aughnaclay, which is the post town to it.

THE RAVELLA ESTATE.

This is the property of Colonel Montgomery Moore, who
resides in France. It comprehends about 6000 Irish planta-
tion acres, besides 1000 acres of a mountain tract, now not let
for more than about two shillings per acre, though abound-
ing with lime for manure, turbary for fuel, and perhaps
pregnant with minerals of immense value.

The family seat called Garvey House, the present residence
of Mr. James Montgomery, (the agent) comprehends 160
acres of the Ravella estate, planted and improved; and
to his name might be added, those of a long list of respect-
able tenants and substantial freeholders, scattered over the
entire face of the Ravella property.

There is a valuable spa here, resorted to for scorbutic and
other diseases of the blood.

Garvey house is situated on the coach road communi-
cating between Enniskillen and Aughnaclay, by Clogher,
at the distance of about two English miles from the latter,