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who are generally under-tenants not holding of the landlords."—p. 407, headed Drummoland, of Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland (1776-1778), pub. 1780. Cf. also the various Surveys.
18. "The cottages of the labouring classes are almost universally built of stone without any cement; some few in the mountains and bogs are constructed very badly with sods; the couples are about two feet asunder, and support what are called ribberies or stretchers: across these the small branches of trees are laid, and on these thin tough sods, which support the thatch, and into which the straw, after being wound up in handfuls, is thrust by an iron instrument like a dibble. Frequently heath, fern, rushes, sedge and sometimes potatoe stalks, are used instead of straw; the potatoe stalks last only one winter, and are a wretched covering. Thev have generally a step down into them, which causes them to be always damp. . . . On this damp floor the straw or hay, on which they sleep, is generally spread.—pp. 173-4, Statistical Survey of the County of Clare, by Hely Button, Dublin, 1808.
19. Letter of Rev. Thomas Maclnerny, P.P., dated 3rd July, 1818, from Cahir (Feakle parish), also his letters of 28 Dec, 1819, and 21st May, 1821, from Feakle, all embodied in First Report of the Commissioners of Enquiry on Education in Ireland, pp. 604-5. Printed 30 May, 1825.
20. Feakle Parish, Townland of Corabehagh, subd. of Fahey: Michael Cullen, wife, son, and daughter dwelt in "a building formed by nature in a mountainy clift, like a hermit's cave or cell."—Enumerator's note in 1821 Census, Public Record Office. Dublin.
The same enumerator gives James Cullinan, labourer, his wife, son, and daughter, as dwelling in the Island of Loch Graney in the townland of Flagmount, subd. of Knockbehagh, adding: "This is a beautiful lake, surrounded with high mountains and also with natural and artificial woods on the brows of it."—Ibid.
21. According to Lewis' Topog. Dictionary, 1837, a large school was then in course of erection in Feakle village.
