ion are likewise much attended
to, every child of the poorest family learning to read, write, and cast
accounts.

There is a very ancient custom here, for a number of country neighbours
among the poor people to fix upon some young woman that ought, as they
think, to be married. They also agree upon a young fellow as a proper
husband for her. This determined, they send to the fair one's cabin to
inform her that on the Sunday following "she is to be horsed," that is,
carried on men's backs. She must then provide whisky and cider for a
treat, as all will pay her a visit after mass for a hurling match. As
soon as she is horsed, the hurling begins, in which the young fellow
appointed for her husband has the eyes of all the company fixed on him.
If he comes off conqueror, he is certainly married to the girl; but if
another is victorious, he as certainly loses her, for she is the prize of
the victor. These trials are not always finished in one Sunday; they
take sometimes two or three, and the common expression when they are over
is, that "such a girl was goaled." Sometimes one barony hurls against
another, but a marriageable girl is always the prize. Hurling is a sort
of cricket, but instead of throwing the ball in order to knock down a
wicket, the aim is to pass it through a bent stick, the end stuck in the
ground. In these matches they perform such feats of activity as ought to
evidence the food they live on to be far from deficient in nourishment.

In the hills above Derry are some very fine slate quarries, that employ
sixty men. The quarrymen are paid 3s. a thousand for the slates, and the
labourers 5d. a day. They are very fine, and sent by the Shannon to
distant parts of the kingdom; the price at the quarry 6s. a thousand, and
at the shore 6s. 8d. Four hundred thousand slates are raised to pay the
rent only, from which some estimate may be made of the quantity.

Mr. Head has a practice in his fences which deserves universal imitation;
it is planting trees for gate-posts. Stone piers are expensive, and
always tumbling down; trees are beautiful, and never want repairing.
Within fifteen years this gentleman has improved Derry so much, that
those who had only seen it before would find it almost a new creation.
He has built a handsome stone house, on the slope of a hill rising from
the Shannon, and backed by some fine woods, which unite with many old
hedges well planted to form a woodland scene beautiful in the c