Thursday, 27.--l went on to Londonderry. Friday, 28. I was invited to see the bishop's palace (a grand and beautiful structure) and his garden, newly laid and exceedingly pleasant. Here I innocently gave some offense to the gardener by mentioning the English of a Greek word. But he set us right, warmly assuring us that the English name of the flower is not Crane's bill, but Geranium!
Saturday, 29.--We walked out to one of the pleasantest spots which I have seen in the kingdom. It is a garden laid out on the steep side of a hill, one shady walk of which, in particular, commands all the vale and the hill beyond. The owner finished his walks and died.
Saturday, June 5. Armagh.--I walked over the fine improvements which the Primate has made near his lodge. The ground is hardly two miles round, but it is laid out to the best advantage. Part is garden, part meadow, part planted with shrubs or trees of various kinds. The house is built of fine white stone and is fit for a nobleman. He intends to carry away a bog which lies behind it and have a large piece of water in its place. He intends also to improve the town greatly and to execute many other grand designs; I doubt too many even for a Primate of Ireland who is above seventy years old!
Monday, 14.--After preaching at Lurgan, I inquired of Mr. Miller whether he had any thoughts of perfecting his speaking statue, which had so long lain by. He said he had altered his design; that he intended, if he had life and health, to make two which would not only speak, but sing hymns alternately with an articulate voice; that he had made a trial and it answered well. But he could not tell when he should finish it, as he had much business of other kinds and could give only his leisure hours to this. How amazing is it that no man of fortune enables him to give all his time to the work!
I preached in the evening at Lisburn. All the time I could spare here was taken up by poor patients. I generally asked, "What remedies have you used?" and was not a little surprised. What has fashion to do with physic? Why (in Ireland, at least), almost as much as with headdress. Blisters for anything or nothing were all the fashion when I was in Ireland last. Now the grand fashionable medicine for twenty diseases (who would imagine it?) is mercury sublimate! Why is it not a halter or a pistol? They would cure a little more speedily.
Tuesday, 15.--When I came to Belfast, I learned the real cause of the late insurrections in this neighborhood. Lord Donegal, the proprietor of almost the whole country, came hither to give his tenants new leases. But when they came, they found two merchants of the town had taken their farms over their heads; multitudes of them, with their wives and children, were turned out to the wide world. It is no wonder that, as their lives were now bitter to them, they should fly out as they did. It is rather a wonder that they did not go much farther. And if they had, who would have been most in fault? Those who were without home, without money, without food for themselves and families, or those who drove them to this extremity?