and the staff of
telegraphists, presided over by the skilful and courteous Mr. Graves,
that the ferry is the cause of half their troubles. The peasants, who
sell their stock at the thirteen fairs held yearly at Cahirciveen,
declare that the cost of the ferry-boat for themselves and their
beasts is a substantial reason for the reduction of the rent, inasmuch
as they are put at a disadvantage with the people on the mainland.
This is not the only grievance of that section transplanted to the
hill side by Bray Head. They complain that they are afar off--a droll
objection on an island six miles long--and have given their settlement
the nickname of "Paris," in allusion to its remoteness from
Knightstown and the ferry which leads to the grogshops and Fenian
centres of Cahirciveen. I am told that the duty on the spirits sold in
that cheerful townlet exceeds the whole annual value of the barony of
Iveragh, and can bear witness to the convergence of the surrounding
population on market day.

Beside the grievances already enumerated, and only felt in their full
poignancy since the establishment of a branch of the Land League at
Cahirciveen, the Valentians now complain that their land is "set" too
high.

Amid the mass of conflicting evidence and the diverse methods of
calculation, it is very difficult to arrive at any conclusion on this
point. That the land is let above Griffith's valuation is certain, but
so is much more of the cheapest land in the west and south. Moreover,
the improvements made by the late Sir Peter Fitzgerald were not only
considerable in the way of draining and fencing, but are visible to
the naked eye in the shape of some fifty new houses, well and solidly
built of stone with slate roofs, sleeping rooms up stairs, properly
separated after the most approved fashion, a cowhouse, and other
offices required by the Board of Works. These houses, which contrast
remarkably with the old structures not yet improved off the face of
the island, accommodate half of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald's agricultural
tenants, of whom there are about 100 on his part of the island, as
well as eighty-eight cottier or labourer tenants, who work for the
farmers or at the slate quarry, and have little patches of ground
attached to their cabins. Each new house built out-and-out has cost
80l., and those put on existing foundations about 60l. It seems to me
wonderful that anybody should dream of building anything on the site
of an Irish peasan