Coxtown stands on the public coach road communicating
SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 479
between the towns of Ballyshannou and Donegal, four miles
from the latter, and six from the former, which is the post
town to it.
DONAGHMORE GLEBE.
The whole glebe attached to the parish of Donaghmore,
of which the Rev. Mr. Trvinge is the incumbent, contains,
according to our information, 1300 Conyngham acres, of
which about 200 are appended to the house in the character
of a demesne, being situated within the precincts of the
parish.
We believe these are College lands, and that this parish
is in the gift of the College of Dublin ; but, be this as it
may, it is somewhat singular that 1100 acres of glebe land
should be appended to a parish in which it is not situated
This however may be one of the old regulations that will
undergo a change, when the property of the church and of
the college come under the reforming finger of the law ; an
event which, according to the signs of the times, that, in all
probability, is not very far distant. But whatever may be
the nature of this reform, it ought not to affect the life
interest of any gentleman, who, under the protection of
existing law, has paid a large sum (as we hear this gentle-
man did) for the enjoyment of his parish. The reformers
however of this branch of our system, appear to agree, that
the present generation of incumbents should not be dis-
turbed in the possession of their livings, but that the new
system should commence with every succeeding incumbent ;
and supposing the legislature willing to adopt this plan, would
it not be the interest of the clergy to receive an equivalent
for their tithes, and to enter at once upon a system of peace
with their parishioners ?
The soil of Donaghmore is well adapted to the growth of
trees and plants. The various valuable trees with which
the glebe lawn is enriched and beautified, prove this. A
chalybeate spring is also said to exist here, but in an evi-
dently neglected state.
4SO COUNTY OF DONEGAL,
The house is a light and commodious edifice, and the
church which stands within the precincts of the demesne, is
no mean appendage to the beauty of the place. The River
Finn forms a boundary to this property on the south, and
on the east the demesne is protected by a wall of stone and
lime. In this direction stands the village of Castle Finn,
within about one and a half mile of the glebe house. It has
a post office, and is called the post town to this seat.
The lands of Donaghmore demesne, appear to rise with a
gradual ascent from the lawn and river to their highest ele-
Tation at the north; and from the summit of this lofty tract,
they command a prospect of the spire of the cathedral of
Deny, and a most interesting view along the vale. But
what is of still more consequence, white granite, evidently
capable of an exquisite polish, and that might be made to
vie with the finest Italian marble, exists in this elevated
land, of which we saw a striking specimen in that neigh-
bourhood ; and yet our gentry cannot be satisfied without
sending to foreign nations for a similar production at a ten-
fold price, while the valuable fossils that would compose the
most useful and interesting ornaments of their houses, are
lying dormant in their own country, and the tradesmen and
labourers that would derive a subsistence from their prepara-
tion, destitute of employment and in want of bread !
OAKPARK.
Oakpark, the seat and property of William Wray, Esq.,
embraces about 400 Conyngham acres on the western bank
of Lough Swilly, a part of which (an alluvial soil reclaimed
from the Lough) is perhaps the best land on the whole pro-
perty.*
As these lands on the banks of Lough Swilly are so well
circumstanced for trade ; a mountain tract on this property
(known by the name of Knockabrin) which contains strong
* It is highly probable that some thousands of acres of land might be
reclaimed from the sea at various points of Lough Swilly, by the adoption
of proper measures.
SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 481
indications of lead, may yet prove a valuable acquisition to
the Wray family.
This seat stands on a pleasing 1 elevation above the Lough,
and commands an open view of the neighbouring country.
It embraces a good mansion house and seventy-eight acres
of demesne ornamentally planted ; situated on a line of road
which opens a communication between Letterkenny and
Rathmelton, at the distance of two miles from the latter,
which is the post town to it.
RATHMELTON.
This is a little sea port town situated on the western shore
of Lough Swilly, and watered by the River Lennan, which
has its source in Lake Gartan (a Lake noticed in our recent
report of Rockfield) surrounded by mountain land. This
river, after having watered Rathmelton, and turned an
extensive flour mill, a linen bleach mill, and several corn
and flax mills, in its progress from Lake Gartan to this
place, pours its tributary waters into Lough Swilly in the
immediate neighbourhood of the town, which, though of
very limited dimensions, carries on a small trade with Ame-
rica and Norway, in timber, and exports corn to Liverpool
and Glasgow. Small vessels of a hundred tons burthen can
unlade here; and if the population of the neighbouring
country had a prosperous manufacture, the trade of this little
port would rapidly advance.
Rathmelton is situated on the principal estate of Sir
James Stewart, Bart, whose seat and lands have been
already noticed in the reports of our visit to this county ;
and from the liberal policy adopted by the lord of this town
towards his tenantry, it will not be his fault if the town
should not rapidly extend itself, as he grants leases in per-
petuity of all plots for building ; and as a necessary conse-
quence the town is improving ; it has many good buildings,
and the houses are generally slated and look comfortable.
2 l
482 COUNTY OF DONEGAL,
BALLYBOFEY AND STRANORLAR VILLAGE INNS.
Ballybofey and Stranorlar are two proximate villages,
separated from each other by the river Finn. They are situ-
ated on the public coach road between the towns of Donegal
and Letterkenny; and in a wild mountain country, not
thickly inhabited, and so generally destitute of wood as is
the county of Donegal, they are distinguished by certain
natural and artificial advantages, which enable the compa-
ratively animated landscape of these villages, to exercise the
despotism of beauty by the force of contrast.
The soil of this district of Donegal is by no means of the
first class ; nor does it exhibit, so far as our information
extends, any certain indications of mineral wealth. There
is one respectable establishment however, in the neighbour-
hood of those villages, that, in a commercial point of view,
deserves the particular notice of the patriot. This is the
linen bleach green of Mr. Johnson, of Naveny, within a
mile of Ballybofey, where about 12,000 pieces of 7-8ths wide
linens are annually bleached, and disposed of in the markets
of Dublin and England. In such a wild mountain district
as that of Donegal, and in such a period as the present,
when the linen trade is in the lowest state of depression,
we derived no small gratification from the observation of one
bleaching establishment (and we believe there are a few
more in the county, and a few only) maintaining a respect-
able position on the map of this wild district, in defiance of
all the calamities that have shaken the manufactures of our
country to their base ; and we need hardly remark, that the
clean and healthful employment afforded to some of our
honest and industrious countrymen by this respectable esta-
blishment, constituted no mean part of this just and plea-
surable feeling.
In reference to the comparatively animated beauties of
the landscape just noticed, they commence, in your progress
from Donegal to Letterkenny, with the plantations of Drum-
boe castle, the seat of Sir Edmund Hayes, Bart., which
, SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 483
extend about a mile along a verdant bank, beautifully ele-
vated above the river Finn, which forms a boundary to this
demesne ; and, in its wild and eccentric course through the
vale beneath, exhibits to the eye, one of the most chaste
and interesting objects in the scenery of the district through
which it passes to the sea.
To enjoy this prospect to advantage, a better site can
scarcely be selected than that of Summerhill, the prettily
elevated lodge of Mr. Charles Johnston (a cottage beauty,
constituting, like that of Naveny, a very interesting feature
of improvement on the Marquis of Conyngham's estate.)
From this favourable position, the plantations of Drumboe
castle are seen uniting with those of a Mr. Stewart, (on a
noble hill richly planted, and forming a conspicuous feature
of dignity and beauty in all the landscapes of this neigh-
bourhood,) as also with the river Finn (pursuing its meand-
ring course through the vale below) with the villages on
its banks ; and with a valley better wooded and more thickly
studded with cottages and farm houses, than is usual in this
country, to complete the tout en semble of a scene, which, in
such a county as that of Donegal, where combinations of
this kind are not numerous, derives a comparatively powerful
influence over the eye of observation from the force of
contrast.
But with all these advantages of prospect and aspect, Bal-
lybofey and Stranorlar, are, with few exceptions, inhabited
by an apparently poor and distressed people. Each of these
villages has, nevertheless, an inn for the accommodation of
strangers; but we would recommend as many of those travel-
lers passing through Ireland, as can command the means of
establishing themselves in populous towns, never to lodge
at a village inn (unless in such very well frequented districts
as those of Wicklow, Armagh, and Downshire) or they
may perhaps, when too late, have occasion to repent of the
confidence which they had reposed in them.
The opulent public, who are not compelled by profes-
sional duty to take up their abode at houses that are not
484 COUNTY OF DONEGAL,
much frequented ; have but little idea of the evils that are
sometimes entailed upon the constitution, by the damp beds
and lodging rooms so frequently to be met with in these
village habitations; although generally in what is called
the best houses of this sort, great care is taken to conceal
these evils beneath the beauties of a white counterpane, and
the deceitful temporary blaze of a strong fire, introduced
into the chamber upon the arrival of a stranger. And if,
by a change of circumstances, the stranger happen to get
rid of these deeper dangers (and of the petty frauds and
impositions that sometimes accompany them, such as rotten
hay and a wet bed for his horse, and half a crown for a salt
herring, as a Dublin merchant once paid for this accommo-
dation.) If, by shifting the scene, he should happen to
escape from these deeper dangers, and alight upon a bed
where consumption is not secretly lingering in the sheets
and feathers ; and where no ungenerous imposition is prac-
tised by the honest people of the house upon the stranger
and his horse in a word, where the house is less pretend-
ing, but more just and righteous in its dealings than the
white counterpanes and blazing fires of higher rooms and
prouder rank ; then the traveller may have to prepare him-
self for the enjoyment of a new species of hixury, less fatal
and deceitful it is true ; but still not very flattering to his
feelings on a winter night, after having encountered the
inclemency of the weather during the whole of a cold and
stormy day such luxuries, for instance, as a plug of an old
blanket stuck into the sash of his room window, as a sub-
stitute for glass ; a total absence of all shutters and window
curtains to dispute the entrance of the keen blast and the
damp night air ; an eld tattered quilt that had perhaps done
duty in all its various relations for half a century, thrown
over the frame of his bed, as a substitute for a bed curtain ;
with various other little items of honest homely simplicity
of a nearly similar description, that it would be ridiculous to
mention, and entirely too tedious to detail.
We therefore recommend travellers of fortune to visit the
SEATS, TOWNS. ETC. 485
rural districts of Ireland in summer only ; to take up their
abode at the best frequented inns (at Newrath bridge in the
County of Wicklow, there was one of this description, when
we visited that county fourteen or fifteen years since) and
at the end of every day devoted to observation and research,
by no means to stop all night in houses which they do not
know, but rather return every evening (until their final
departure) to the house which they have PROVED, and
where they have had sufficient evidence of safety to enjoy the
innocent pleasures of their tour, without being goaded by
bad treatment, or suffering under a painful anticipation of
future ills.
WOODS AND FENCES.
The reader will observe in his passage through these notes,
a frequent advertence to the generally bleak appearance of
this county. This proceeds not only from the extremely
limited number of woods and forests existing in this wild
peninsular district (the naturally bold inequality of whose
surface, and whose intimate connection with the ocean,
would prove eminently favourable to the grandeur of these
objects) but also from the absence of quickset fences and
hedge rows, which give a country a wooded appearance ;
and for which dry stone walls and bald clay ditches are the
general substitutes.
This state of affairs accounts for the generally bleak
appearance of this peninsular (or semi-peninsular) district,
in which, nevertheless, there is much natural wealth, some
highly embellished seats, and even a few fine landscapes.
TOWN OF DONEGAL. CONCLUSION.
From the information of mariners we learn, that small
vessels only can approach this town ; but at the distance of
a mile from thence, there is said to be deep water, and
every other necessary natural advantage, for the accommo-
dation of ships of any burthen. This however, or any
similar advantage, cannot force the trade of Donegal beyond
486 COUNTY OF DONEGAL,
the level of its consumption and demand ; and this, in the
circumstances of the surrounding country, must be very
limited ; as, with the exception of some families of fortune,
(and of these we believe, two or three of the most eminent
are absentees) the majority of the inhabitants are poor, and
consequently are not in a capacity to consume imports;
while that wealthy and substantial class of the second rank,
who are the chief supports of trade in all the countries that
enjoy it, appear to be few in number in the country around
this town.
Since the settlement, however, of one or two spirited
mercantile men in Donegal, (we believe from the neigh-
bourhood of Belfast) the trade of this town is said to have
made a very considerable progress, as the shop-keepers can
now procure their goods at the best markets, and at the
least possible expense ; although previous to the settlement
of these merchants, and the establishment of some small
vessels at this port, they were obliged to purchase their
goods from a superior kind of shop-keepers at second hand,
subject also to the heavy expenses of package and land
carriage from distant towns in their own island.
Donegal, from the circumstances of its local district, can
never expect to have more than a limited trade, so long as
Ireland shall remain destitute of manufactures ; whereas if
the existing obstacles to the trade of Ballyshannon and
Enniskillen were removed, the period is not far distant
(considering the rich and populous counties around Lough
Erne that would consume their imports) until they would
rival Belfast in manufactures and commerce, and far outstrip
Derry in the march of trade and wealth. They would
indeed be the Greenock and Glasgow of the North of Ire-
land, (as Hamilton and M'Gowan have well observed) for
Nature, and other most favourable concurrent circumstances,
unite to prepare them for the enjoyment of a great trade.
All that is wanted to accomplish the purposes of Providence,
is a little assistance from the hand of Art. We do not expect
to live to see that assistance granted but we believe that
SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 487
it will be granted in a little time ; for the stake of the landed
interest of Donegal and Fermanagh in this question, is too
deep to be much longer trifled with. In the mean time we
have laboured, in our own humble department, to do our
duty ; and trusting that the landed interests of Donegal and
Fermanagh will do theirs, and that Ballyshannon and
Enniskillen will yet be the glory of the North-West district ;
we beg the reader's indulgent attention to the foregoing
specimens of that district, with which we now close our
Tour; and soliciting his favourable allowance for the nume-
rous errors and defects to which age, infirmity, and a variety
of acutely painful circumstances, have unavoidably exposed
us; we have the honour to remain, with best wishes, his
very faithful, and obedient, humble servant,
THE AUTHOR.
NATIONAL EDUCATION.
As this subject, so important in itself, and so fruitful oi
public disputation in a divided country, has been only
noticed incidentally in the progress of this work, we wish to
make a few remarks upon it, under a distinct and separate
head, before we close this volume.
We are, then, decidedly of opinion, that a deep and fatal
wound to the moral and literary interests of Ireland, was
inflicted upon that country by the LAW, when Parliament,
withdrawing its support from the system of education con-
fided to the Society at Kildare-street, Dublin, disturbed the
operations of that system, and gave birth to a rival scheme
in direct opposition to it.
Before we had deeply weighed and considered this ques-
tion, our anxiety to promote a kind and friendly intercourse
between the children of our country, had rendered us favour-
able to a system of education, from which the Scriptures (as
a book fruitful of controversy) should be excluded ; and a
reading book, furnished with moral precepts from the New
Testament (to which all Christians nominally subscribe)
substituted in its place, as a book of general instruction;
leaving the clergy of the contending churches to instruct
the children of their respective flocks in their chapels, and
at their own houses, in those dogmas of theology which
they feel to be essential to the maintenance of their respec-
tive systems, a mode, we were perfectly aware, that would
meet the views of the Catholic clergy ; as a school-book
(however furnished with moral precepts) would not maintain
that authority in the minds of Christian youth, that the
New Testament would be likely to do, being received and
acknowledged by the clergy of all Christian churches as the
Word of God.
This (from the anxiety which we felt for the adoption of
measures calculated to promote a moral amalgamation of
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 489
the people of a divided country) was our first impression
but when we had considered the subject more deeply, and
found cause to suspect that a wish was entertained by laics
and clergymen of the popular party to hoodwink the people,
and to obtain an ascendant in the government of education,
for purposes which we deemed to be corrupt and selfish, our
opinion of this great and important subject underwent a
change ; and that change was confirmed and rendered final,
by an attentive consideration of the impartial system adopted
by the Kildare-street Board, for the government and instruc-
tion of their schools ; the Catholic and English versions of
the New Testament, without note or comment, being dis-
tributed by them for the accommodation of the children of
the two churches ; and teachers properly qualified for the
instruction and management of the schools, sent down from
Dublin, without reference to their religious creeds.
So long then as the Kildare-street Board of Education
acted upon these impartial principles, we think it ought not
to have been disturbed; more particularly as the Lancas-
terian system of education, which it administered, always
embraced the New Testament, without note or comment, as
a part and parcel of the system of instruction adopted by
Joseph Lancaster in the management of his schools. And
to this system, when first introduced into Ireland, the Irish
public of all parties, actively or passively subscribed, as the
best which could be introduced into that country, for the
instruction of the poor, under existing circumstances. To
disturb it, therefore, when firmly established, and doing
much actual good, was, in our deliberate opinion, an act of
great moral injustice to the poor of Ireland; for if the
Scriptures of the New Testament be indeed a record of the
will of God, a Christian Government should cause them to
be read and supported ; and if they are not that record, they
should be rejected as an imposture; for between these
extremes we can see no medium ; and as to the commen-
taries of men, their object may be seen through at a single
glance, since the duties which we owe to each other are
2 K
490 NATIONAL EDUCATION.
made so plain in the New Testament, that he who runs
may read them ; and in reference to religious theories, about
which the sects differ (and by which the priests of all parties
live plump and happy) experience has proved that human
commentaries cannot reconcile them and since God has
not thought proper to append a comment of his own to the
book which he has given (reserving to himself, who is alone
equal to the task, the office of enlightening the human mind
upon its mysterious doctrines) the overweening solicitude of
the Catholic clergy for the establishment of their own expla-
nations of the text, may be easily accounted for ; and this
alone, if there were no other reason, would convince us, that
the British government acted extremely wrong when they
displaced the Lancasterian system of education, that had
been long established, and was doing well, in order to make
room for that milk and water system of moral and literary
instruction, into which the persevering clamours of the
Catholic leaders of the poor of Ireland did at length cajole
them.
As to the infallibility of those commentaries to which the
Catholic clergy generally attach so much importance, this
indeed may do very well for the poor of Ireland who are
ignorant of the question ; but to those persons of common
observation, who know that the notes and commentaries of
Catholic divines upon the Sacred Volume have been so
various, that the late Roman Catholic Archbishop Troy, of
the diocese of Dublin, having given an incautious appro-
bation to one of those commentaries upon an authorized
version of the Catholic Bible, afterwards felt himself bound,
upon a closer inspection of the notes, to recant this appro-
bation ; a recantation for which he is said to have been
menaced with a law-suit by Gumming, the Dublin book-
seller, who had undertaken to print and publish the work
upon the strength of the Doctor's name ; the cunning
Scotch bookseller well knowing that under the protection
of this name, with the odour of those black and demoniac
descriptions of the Protestant Reformers, which the notes
NATIONAL EDUCATION. 491
contained, the book would have sold well in the Irish
market; (for Ireland is the market for such books as this;)
and no doubt had Gumming proceeded in his prosecution of
the suit, he would have recovered large damages from
Doctor Troy for this serious disappointment. So much,
then, for the infallibility of those corrupt explanations of the
Word of God, which the Catholic clergy insist on as essen-
tial to a knowledge of its true meaning ; and so much for
the wisdom of a Protestant government in up-rooting a
useful and well-established system of liberal Christian edu-
cation, in deference to the clamours of an injured body of
men, who, by a wise government, would, long since, by a
state provision, have been rendered independent of a nefa-
rious traffic in human credulity, and in ignorance, its inse-
parable attendant.
Those who have heard of the famous notes just noticed,
have also, in all probability, received some account of the
luminous biblical commentaries of a Catholic bishop, whose
demoniac descriptions of the Protestant heretics and heresy,
and his confident predictions of their approaching ruin (a
work generally known in Ireland by the name of Pastorini's
Prophecies) led numerous Irishmen to believe that a total