handsome custom-house and exchange, of modern date. Notwithstanding the numerous quays, the shipping load and discharge by means of lighters or barges, carrying in general thirty tons, which are loaded at the doors of the storehouses, and conveyed down the river to the stations at Cove and Passage.

We purpose making some excursions into the neighbourhood of the city, so you may expect to hear from me soon again.

:

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XIV.

Saturday, Sept. ga

FROM the distant view we had

of Blarney Castle, on the evening we arrived at Cork, we determined on taking the first opportunity of visiting it, which we did yesterday. It lies on the river Aubeg, about four 'miles from Cork, and was built by Cormac M'Carty, surnamed Laider, who came into the lordship in 1449, and was esteemed one of the strongest fortresses in Munster. In the Pacata Hibernia, it is described as being composed of four large piles joined in one. These piles, I suppose, meant great towers, one of

which remains, of an immense size; its foundation is laid in the solid rock, which secures it from mining, the walls are eighteen feet thick, and are flanked with bastions. In 1602, Cormac M'Dermot Carty, was accused of holding treasonable correspondence with the rebels, and obliged to deliver this castle into the possession of Captain Taafe, for her Majesty's use. This Cormac is represented as a man of great power, being able to raise a thousand men at a call; he also possessed the castles of Macroomp and Kilcrea*; the latter he gave up to the lord president Carew, being then his prisoner, but escaped out of his hands soon after. Great part of the original building is entirely down, but the additions which

*The M'Carties were summoned by parliament as Barons of Blarney. In the reign of Elizabeth they were created Viscounts of Muskery; and by Charles II. Earls of Clangarty. The two principal branches of this great family were, McCarty More, created by Elizabeth, Earl of Clancare, or Glencare, in Kerry; and the above family, called M'Carty Reagh, of Carbery, an immense territory.

have been added, were so judiciously designed and executed, that they become now a part, admirably blending with the whole, and do not offend the eye by incongruity. In the grounds are very curious masses of artificial rocks, the best managed I ever saw: age has covered them with moss and various kinds of herbage, giving them all the appearance of being natural. The majestic trees which surround the castle, and spread their dark shade over the grounds, diffuse a gloom that accords well with the building, and is by no means unpleasing. This manor, with a large estate in this county, were forfeited by M'Carty*, Earl of Clancarty, for his adherence

to

He was pardoned by king William, on condition of leaving the country within a given period, and allowed a pension of 3001. per annum for life, and never to take up arms against the Protestant succession. He retired to Hamburgh, and purchased a small island in the mouth of the Elbe, from the citizens of Altena, which went by his own name; on it he erected a convenient dwelling house, and a range of

storehouses,

to James II. It is now the property of Mr. Jeffries, being purchased from the crown. At present it is undergoing a thorough repair, and I must own I felt a sincere pleasure in contemplating its renovation, and resumption of its antient dignity.

Were gentlemen to consider the respectability which such residences attach to their name and family, we should not meet with so many noble piles mouldering away in ruined grandeur, the indisputable documents of our ancestors' power and magnificence. This castle annoyed Cork exceedingly in the war of 1641, but was taken by Lord Broghill, in 1646.

storehouses, and made considerable profit by shipwrecks; but continued to give the distressed all the relief in his power, and saved the lives of many; his profit arose from goods thrown on his island, which he placed in his storehouses; and if demanded by their owners within the space of a year, he returned them, requiring only two per cent. for the storeroom; if not, he made use of them as his own. He died here October 22, 1734, aged sixty-four; leaving behind him two sons; Robert, afterwards a commodore in the English navy, and Justin McCarty, Esq.

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