Writing from Stranorlar he
says: "This county, like most others in Ireland, belongs to a few large
proprietors, some of them, unhappily, absentees, whose large domains
sometimes extend over whole parishes and baronies, and contain a
population of 8,000 to 12,000. Such, for instance, is the parish of
Templecrone, with a population of 10,000 inhabitants; in which the only
residents above small farmers are, the agent, the protestant clergyman,
the parish priest, a medical man, and perhaps a resident magistrate,
with the superintendent of police and a few small dealers.[233] Writing
from Dunfanaghy in the midst of snow, he says: "A portion of the
district through which we passed this day, as well as the adjoining one,
is, with one exception, the poorest and most destitute in Donegal.
Nothing, indeed, can describe too strongly the dreadful condition of the
people. Many families were living on a single meal of cabbage, and some
even, as we were assured, upon a little seaweed." A highly respectable
merchant of the town called upon this gentleman and assured him that the
small farmers and cottiers had parted with all their pigs and their
fowl; and even their bed clothes and fishing nets had gone for the same
object, the supply of food.
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