latter had need to be stout men of stout heart; and most of them in truth were such, as well as men of birth. But the time of the natives was not yet. For, though there were some outbreaks in 1612-13, the real rising did not come till 1641. Lord Ernest Hamilton, the most recent and painstaking investigator of those sanguinary years, has computed the number of Protestant men, women, and children then killed to be certainly not less than 37,000. Those native gentry who had received fresh grants under the Plantation Act were further harassed by want of cattle, their only form of property being cows, which constituted the sole currency of the country. These, according to ancient custom, were let out to the lower sort of Irish at a share of their produce or increase. In the general unsettlement these cows had been frequently lost sight of by their owners, and as often, we are told, annexed by their hirers, whose sentiment was not proof against their cupidity.

A Crown inspection was made of the six planted counties, by Sir Josias Bodley, in 1615-16. His report was far from satisfactory; and the Undertakers seem to have been warned that greater activity in fulfilling their contracts was expected of them. So, two years later, in 1618-19, when Captain Pynnar was despatched on a similar, but more exhaustive survey, his report shows a great advance in development. He rode from place to place, through two seasons, and he describes with exactitude the condition of each settlement and estate

with their occupants. It will perhaps best serve our limitations of both space and purpose here not to analyse the whole report, but to give some examples of what this industrious official tells us of various districts.

In the Scottish barony or 'precinct' of Clonkee (Cavan), for instance, is one of the few Undertakers allowed 3000 acres. This is the Lord Angbignie (we conform to the spelling of the survey throughout), who has sold in the meantime-for sales were allowed after five years-to a man of energy, Sir James Hamilton. The owner has a good bawne of lime and stone, eighty feet square, and two flankers fifteen feet high, and within it a very large, strong castle of lime and stone, of five storeys, with four round towers for flankers. The roof is set up and ready to be slated. Planted on the estate are

eight freeholders of British birth, holding from 120 to 480 acres apiece; eight leaseholders for three lives, with an average of 100 acres, and 25 cottars with small parcels of land and common rights; total forty-one families, mustering eighty men-at-arms. Adjoining is another Hamilton, on a Lesser Proportion (1000 acres). He has a stone bawne, with flanking round towers, and is building a four-storeyed stone house. There is also a village of eight houses and a water-mill, with five houses by it. Here are fifteen British families, freeholders, leaseholders, and cottars, mustering forty armed men. Yet another Hamilton, close by, is on the same scale and showing the same satisfactory conditions; while William Bealie, the next owner, equally up to the mark, completes the Precinct, throughout which Pynnar finds ' good tillage after the English manner '—a by no means universal state of things.

The next two Precincts, being on the border, are occupied by servitors and natives, with less uniform holdings. Near by, Sir Thomas Ash has bought two 'Lesser Proportions' from the original patentees. He has repaired an old castle on one, and has a good bawne with flankers on the other. All his land, however, is inhabited by Irish, of which breach of agreement he will probably hear more when Pynnar reports. Captain Culme has purchased Lough Ranner (Ramor) from another servitor, Ridgeway, and has been busy building a stone bawne, sixty yards square and fifteen feet high, and a good house, just being roofed. He is going to build a town to be called Virginia, for which he has been granted 250 acres, and has already eight timber houses, occupied by English, with a school and a minister (his brother), afterwards Dean of St Patrick's. Adjoining is one of the dispossessed O'Reillies (Shane), with 900 acres, who though 'out with Tyrone' has found favour; he dwells in 'an Irish house,' within a small bawne. Another of the same sept, close by, has 3000 acres, on which, in a repaired castle within a bawne of sods, he lives with his family. Another native, Maurice McTelligh, holding 3000 acres, lives in a good Irish house inside a bawne of stone; and, between the two last, an English captain, Tirrell, holding 2000 acres. The tenantry of all the last four estates are Irish and 'plough by the tail, nor have any leases been granted.'

Next comes an English 'precinct,' beginning with Mr John Taylor, on a 'Middle Proportion' (1500 acres). An active pioneer, he has a castle and bawne completed, where he dwells with his family. He has seven freeholders, seven leaseholders, and ten cottars-twenty-four families, all English and able to furnish fifty-four armed men. There is also a village of fourteen houses and a water-mill. Thomas, son of Sir Thomas Waldron, marches with the above, on 2000 acres (Dromillan). A big stone house is just finished, where he lives with his mother, brother, and sisters. He has built a town of thirty-one houses, all inhabited by English. There are five freeholders, averaging 80 acres apiece, and seventeen leaseholders, on rather smaller holdings, with thirty-one cottars, on two-acre plots carrying common rights. John Fish, probably a son of our Bedford knight already mentioned, is close by, on Dromany (2000 acres), and is also most energetic. He has a strong bawne and castle for himself and family, two villages of ten stone houses each, and two inns (being on a main highway). There are here four freeholders, averaging 150 acres each, four lessees for their lives upon the same scale, fourteen lessees for terms of years, averaging 50 acres and fourteen cottars, providing in all sixty well-armed men. The adjoining estate (1500 acres) of Mr Adwick, taken up under a mortgage from Sir Hugh Wirral, is in a less satisfactory condition. A new two-storeyed house has been awaiting its roof for two years, and there are only eight freeholders and lessees planted, with no cottars and no stand of arms.

Sir Stephen Butler, next door, is exceptionally well ostablished, with a strong castle and bawne, two corn mills, a fulling mill, 41 families and 139 armed men. There are two hundred stand of arms in the castle, besides those distributed among the tenants for their individual defence. He and the other Undertakers of the Precinct are building the town of Belturbet, where many cage houses' are already erected and occupied by British, mostly tradesmen. Peter Ameas appears to be almost the only Devon man among the hundred and odd English undertakers and servitors. But he is a good specimen, for he has built a stone house, sixty feet long and three storeys high, and a village of seven houses,

and has sufficient English tenants to provide thirty armed men. Thus the methodical Pynnar plods along from estate to estate through the whole six counties. There is no occasion, even were it possible, to follow him further through the first five. The examples quoted may fairly stand for what he found and reported on generally, though there were a good many laggards.

Only one unmistakable Border name appears, that of John Heron, with 2000 acres in Tyrone, though the King intended to, and did in fact, ship over a number of troublesome Border rievers, Armstrongs and others. A Scottish lady, Mrs Lindsay, who lived in a timbered house in the same county, within a bawne of sods, had planted the latter with a quick-set hedge. She could muster thirty armed men. Mr Obyns, who was very active on 2000 acres in Co. Armagh, and founded the colony of Portadown, was sued successfully in court by an English creditor. His property was resumed by the King, a part of it sold, and the balance returned to him. There appear a great number of knights, with an occasional nobleman, both Scottish and English, in actual residence. Mr Hill, an indefatigable antiquary and genealogist, has traced the after-career of many of these families, and by his industry immensely amplified the personal details given by Pynnar. In many cases the names of the imported tenantry are thus supplied, and sometimes even those of the Irish tenants. For a certain number of these last seems to have been permitted even to the Undertakers, or at any rate winked at; and Pynnar found far more of them than the law prescribed. In the six counties, however, he reckons there are at least 8000 men of British birth, fit to bear arms, though not a fourth part of the land is fully inhabited.'

Pynnar's account of the condition of agriculture is discouraging. The Scots alone as yet do much ploughing; and, if it were not for them, Pynnar thinks the Plantation might be in danger of scarcity. A sense of danger and insecurity seems still in the air, and no wonder ! For numbers of Irish, other than those fortunate in getting estates or farms on the good lands, inhabited the woods and wastes and not unnaturally annoyed the intruders to the fullest extent of their opportunities, which must have been abundant. These wood-kernes'

seem to have been largely recruited from the hitherto favoured and idle class, unused to work, who by tribal custom had exacted personal maintenance from the peasants. The English tenants, Pynnar reports, with the larger holdings, and not well stocked either with draught or other cattle, frequently sub-let their farms to such Irishmen as possessed both at increased rents, living on the margin. Thus early the small middleman, later on the curse of the country, came into being, though not in this case of his own volition.

The County and City of Derry was settled by the London companies on different lines, and apparently Iwith much less exactitude and circumspection. To each of the City companies-the Goldsmiths, Grocers, Ironmongers, Mercers, Merchant Taylors, Haberdashers, Clothworkers, Vintners, Drapers, and Salters-were allocated 3200 acres, which, as shown by a contemporary map, appears a patchwork of continuous blocks on the east side of Lough Foyle. Pynnar found some of these properties in the hands of the Companies' agents, others let to private individuals. Valentine Hartopp, for instance, had taken that of the Merchant Taylors for sixty-one years and was well established in a battlemented castle, with a fair church, many stone houses, and twenty-nine English families. The Mercers' lands, in the hands of an agent, save for a strong castle and bawne, was in a quite undeveloped condition, and wholly occupied by Irish tenants. The Haberdashers' and Clothworkers' lands were let to Sir Robert McLellan for sixty-one years. He had two strong castles, but on one of the estates nothing but Irish tenants. Lady Doddington held the Skinners' land on similar terms. She had two castles, with a village and church adjoining each, and a good school, also a complete stand of arms and a personal household of twenty-four servants. These London agents and chief leaseholders had built well and substantially, but seemed shy of giving such English tenants as they had brought over the usual security in leases.

Pynnar found the City of Londonderry surrounded by a 'noble wall' twenty-four feet high, and four battlemented gates with portcullis and drawbridge. But there were only ninety-two small houses within it, and far too few inhabitants to man a quarter of the walls.