Introduction

In 1983 I wrote an article for the Annual entitled the Ordnance Survey Memoirs in which I tried to introduce these sources to those readers who had little idea of their origin and scope. In this article, having co-edited and published the texts of the Ordnance Survey Memoirs in 40 volumes during the intervening years, I hope to set before you the reasons for valuing these accounts and appreciating their unique reflection of life and society in Donegal during the decades of the 1820s and 1830s.'

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs are descriptions of parishes written as part of the mapping of Ireland during the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland authorised by the Duke of Wellington in 1824. The mapping was conducted under the direction of Colonel Thomas Colby of the Royal Engineers and he initiated the written reports. His intructions to compile statistical remarks for every parish date from his first annual report in 1826. His assistant from 1828, Lieutenant Thomas A. Larcom, was very largely responsible for the structured report which is known as a Memoir. This term was used in the eighteenth century for written descriptions accompanying maps but Larcom expected the reports to embrace a whole range of subjects other than purely "useful" information. In 1834, he issued a 33-page leaflet entitled Heads of Inquiry as a guide to those writing Memoirs. From the social and economic subjects listed it is clear that the primary purpose of the maps, as a preliminary to a new valuation of land and property in Ireland for raising local taxes, is very much in evidence. Some most interesting insights can be gained from looking at the valuation records created in tandem with the records of the Ordnance Survey, particularly in the field of architectural, social and economic history.

The Memoir scheme was halted soon after the first contemporary publication, entitled "The parish of Templemore or the City and Liberties of Derry" (1837), resulted in questions being raised about the government financing of written descriptions in addition to maps during the course of the Ordnance Survey? Thus, the maps cover the whole of Ireland but the Memoirs describe only the northern half in varying detail. The present publication scheme commenced in 1989 as a joint venture between the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, holders of the original manuscripts, and the Institute of Irish Studies at the Queen's University of Belfast who prepared the texts. In the published volumes extant Memoirs for different parishes were associated by area, county by county, and published with excerpts from maps and some of the drawings which illustrated the original descriptions. Index volumes to the placename and personal names in the published Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland series are being prepared at present in the Institute of Irish Studies by my colleague and co-editor, Patrick McWilliams, and should be published by the end of 2000.

The printed volumes display this variable and partial coverage of the north: there are 28 volumes for counties Antrim and Londonderry, 1 volume for Armagh, 4 volumes for Down, 2 for Fermanagh, 2 for Tyrone, 2 volumes for Donegal and 1 volume for Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo and Leitrim. Not every parish in the above counties has a Memoir extant. Out of 52 parishes in Donegal, only 36 have documentation from the Memoir scheme. These Memoirs were published in 1997.

However, those Memoirs surviving present an unrivalled portrait of those areas during those prefamine decades in early 19th century Ireland (1820 and 1830s). They are an unique source of information about those localities and communities, and\contribute a special perspective on these regions, both in terms of facts and style. Although, in common with other sources, there are omissions and inaccuracies in some details, there are observations on aspects of society and culture that are impossible to find elsewhere. It is also very instructive to look at some of the other records arising out of the Ordnance Survey which complement the Memoirs.

Related Records

Other records include the placename material particularly the placename books, popularly known as the O'Donovan namebooks. They exist for every county and most parishes and contain the names of most townlands within that and, together with orthographical notes, there are remarks about unusual features in the townland. In many cases the boundary surveyors, part of Richard Griffith's valuation team, record the spellings as well as the sappers and miners doing the basic mapping, and then additional notes are made by John O'Donovan and his colleagues in the Topographical department, like Eugene O'Curry (his brother-in-law), about the meaning and origin of the name either through archival or literary research or when they went out into the field to check pronounciations.

The reason the namebooks have such a strong association with the great scholar John O'Donovan is that he also wrote the most vivid and revealing series of letters while he was in the field. He addressed them to Larcom, the assistant director at Phoenix Park, the Ordnance Survey Headquarters, who took a deep and detailed interest in both the placenames and the writing of the Memoirs. Many of these letters complement the Memoirs in providing fascinating glimpses of what it was like to be walking the countryside in the employment of the Ordnance Survey and involved in the day to day tasks of recording names, overlapping with the surveyors and draftsmen levelling and calculating their way around the countryside in the course of their cartographic work. O'Donovan visited Donegal in 1834 when he called on the Catholic Bishop of Derry, who was holidaying in Moville, to get help with Derry placenames. He worked on the Donegal placenames in 1835 when both Lieutenants Lancey and Wilkinson were at work, surveying and writing Memoirs.

As well as related records, it is worth looking at adjacent Memoirs for information. Many of the Derry parishes, particularly those on the Foyle coastline have relevence to Inishowen parishes; for instance the Memoir for Magilligan in volume 11 is well worth reading for those who want to have a complete picture of life in Moville because it describes the movement of people across the Foyle as well as the economic links between the parishes, like the trade in yarn which went from Inishowen across the Foyle bound for the Coleraine and Limavady markets.

Large numbers of drawings were included among the Memoirs papers proper and others were prepared during the course of the Memoir scheme because that was the only way of illustrating some of the sites and buildings. There are over 55 drawings among the Donegal Memoirs, mostly made by the Royal Engineer officer, William Lancey, although there is one by a sapper and miner for Killygarvan old church. The Donegal drawings are particularly good and illustrate objects sometimes not described, for instance there is a drawing of the sheila-na-gig found in Lough Eske Castle yard but nothing written about it.

Styles of Writing

There is a great variation of information and a diversity of writing styles in the Memoirs. The most striking difference is between counties Antrim and Londonderry, and the rest of the north, those two counties having a huge amount of archival material surviving, particularly Derry. This relates to the history of the survey, the mapping work, and the choice of Memoir for publication at the time (parish of Templemore). The Londonderry maps were revised in 1830 and there was a concentration of men in that area. Both Antrim and Londonderry Memoirs were written by teams of men, both soldiers and civilians.

From 1829, the Ordnance Survey recruited civilians to help with sketching (mapping) and some of these were given tasks related to the writing of Memoirs. The Ordnance Survey had always been a hybrid military and civilian organisation and eventually in the Irish survey, up to 4 times the number of civilians to military personnel were involved. Many of the civilians were brought in and trained on the survey in sketching and writing. There are many records of this now in the National Archives, Dublin, showing just how much time a junior assistant such as John Stokes was trained in the Ordnance Survey conventions, how much he was paid and remarks on discipline. This John Stokes was possibly related to the Dublin surgeon Dr William Stokes and friend and biographer of the head of the Topographical department, George Petrie. However, the important point about the Antrim and Londonderry Memoirs is that they are joint compositions by civilian surveyors and sketchers, with Royal Engineers supervising, and in some parishes, with George Petrie and John O'Donovan correcting and editing some of the texts (Banagher, Clondermot and Cumber among those in Derry, Billy in Antrim).

There are many drafts and working papers including many unique and detailed Fair Sheets or notes from the field taken by junior civilian sketchers like the Irish speaking Thomas Fagan, previously an innkeeper from Limavady, and his colleague John Bleakly. These fascinating working papers do not exist for Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo and Tyrone. The Memoirs for these counties are written by individuals, military and civilian: they do not contain drafts or field notes (Fair Sheets). However, the Donegal Memoirs are interesting in that they contain accounts by civilians writing descriptions of parishes for an agricultural improvement society, the North West of Ireland Society.

The Donegal Memoirs are written by individuals. 23 Memoirs out of the material for 36 parishes are by Royal Engineer officers written between 1833 and 1836. There are also a group of accounts dating from 1821 to 1825 written in response to queries sent out by the North West of Ireland Society. These were intended as sources to assist the Royal Engineers in their task of writing the Memoirs for the many parishes (about 20 in Donegal) they never managed to find time to write. Although these accounts are framed to answer a different set of questions, they still relate to how the land and the maritime environment was used and how livelihoods were made in those localities.

The North West Society had been founded in Derry in 1821 with a strong representation of "nobility and gentry" as well as strong, improving farmers from Londonderry, Tyrone and Donegal. The main object, as the Templemore Memoir puts it, was to "investigate the condition of the district with a view to the development of its various resources and their attention was specially directed to the state of the fisheries, manufacture, agriculture and cattle breeding".

A set of queries were sent out to local clergymen and leading farmers which resulted in some very adequate parish descriptions for the 1820s, and this comparative time frame gives an additional value to the overall picture given of Donegal. These accounts also introduce some interesting stylistic and linguistic contributions. They are by clergymen, mainly Church of Ireland, but there is an account by Revd. Rogers, Presbyterian minister of Donagh near Malin, but also a few by farmers, some of whom may have been Presbyterians or nonconformist.

As well there is one very intriguing account of oral traditions from Tullaghobegley countersigned by W. Delves Broughton (the Lieutenant who wrote and filled in the fishery forms for Culdaff and Moville Upper and Lower). This piece conveys a sense of the supernatural world in that remote area of Cloghaneely, where beliefs in fairy folk handed on from time immemorial existed alongside conventional Catholic beliefs.' Being written in a more vernacular style and by an informant who does not doubt, it offers a strong contrast to the accounts of the Lough Derg pilgrimage given by Lieutenant Lancey, and the Glencolumbkille stations given by Revd. John Ewing.

Writers of the Memoirs

There are 3 Royal Engineers who wrote the Donegal Memoirs; Lieutenants William Lancey and Wilkinson whom we only know about from their writing, and Lieutenant Delves Broughton, who was a younger son of a landed Cheshire family and afterwards a general. We know that Lancey, despite the uniformly high standard of his Memoirs, was reluctant to write these Memoirs in addition to his other work of surveying. He writes about his "want of taste and time for such things, and feel my inefficiency to do common justice to the various subjects embraced in a Memoir" when he was in the middle of his work in 1835. It is well to remember this reluctance although some read arrogance and biased attitudes in the writing of the Memoirs. Mary Hamer in her article entitled "The English Look of an Irish Map" states "Apart from the assertion of power involved in the assumption of the authority to interrogate, the information gathered was ordered tendentiously".'

Most of the officers involved in the survey were young lieutenants, contemporaries of Larcom, who was aged 28 when he took up his position as Assistant Director of the Survey. Most of them had been trained at the Royal Military Academy Woolwich in academic and technical subjects, also in drawing. Most of them had also had some survey experience in Wales where Robert Dawson was in charge of the field school for Royal Engineer cadets and cadets for other services. His son, Robert Kearsley Dawson, worked on the Irish survey and many of his remarks survive on the Derry Memoirs and sketches. The Royal Engineer cadets recruited to make the Irish maps were well trained and prepared and because techniques changed and were introduced on the survey, it was no bad thing to have a homogeneous group in charge of the surveying. Many Irish surveyors were employed on the field boundary survey which preceded the actual mapping. Nevertheless, the Marquis of Wellesley's decision to advise his brother, the Duke of Wellington, then master of the Ordnance, to use the Royal Engineers on the Irish Ordnance Survey attracted strong criticism, both contemporary and present.'

Most of the officers were competent in their writing of Memoirs although not necessarily sympathetic. It is interesting to note that Lancey, though sometimes critical of landscape and customs, comments during the Mevagh Memoir: "Mevagh with the beautiful parish of Clondavaddock would amply repay a tourist or a painter the trouble of a visit to this part of Donegal"." He was himself a good, even artistic, draftsman and responsible for all but one of the Donegal drawings.

The Memoirs were written with information which was collected from informants in the locality. These included landlords, clergy, shopkeepers and many others, particularly farmers of land with antiquities. We are often given the names of informants in the Fair Sheets where they exist or in the papers, for instance the shopkeeper tobacconist of Dungiven, Mr Mitchell who supplied John Stokes with his fascinating descriptions of poteen distilling and wakes is named in a letter to Larcom.y In Donegal we do not have informants names listed with the officers' reports. Only in the unique account of Lough Swilly, part of the North West of Ireland set of descriptions, do we learn who the informants are. There is no doubt that just as we have to be aware of the background of the Royal Engineers, we also have to bear in mind that their informants must have had attitudes that influenced certain sorts of information.

There were suspicions and fears which inhibited the population of the parishes from giving information: in John Stokes' account of the area round Limavady, parish of Drumachose, he describes how many parishioners thought the surveyors setting up the trigonometrical points for the survey were emissaries of some national enemy who were setting up firing stations, and this fear was probably projected onto the Memoir writers. In Kilcoo, county Down, civilian Memoir writer George Scott reported "Every person seems to have the most decided objection to giving information". We may be sure that these attitudes were to be found all over the country. There is a glimpse of how the Ordnance Survey impacted on the local countryside in the memory of Charles McGlinchey recorded in the "Last of the Name". "At the time of the Ordnance Survey in 1835, two of the sappers stopped in our house when they were mapping this part of the parish. My father went chaining with them whenever they would want him. They gave him some sketch of measuring land but he couldn't carry it out for he didn't know the rule of figures that was needed. The sappers were telling him that their pay came to half a crown a day, and that was thought to be a great pay entirely, for working men at that time were paid 6d. a day, or 10d for a day in the moss". He goes on to tell the tale of the theft of the sappers' kit by a young local lad, and how his father got it back from him for the sappers. "When my father came home with the kit, the sappers were delighted because they said the loss of the kit would likely cost them their jobs. They sent for a bottle of whiskey that cost a shilling at the time- and they had a big drink. It took my father all his time to keep them from getting the young man arrested".

In these recollections of a weaver cottier who was born about 1860 and who died in his ninetyfourth year (1954), it is interesting to see that the preoccupations of McGlinchey are not dissimilar to the main subjects of the Memoir writers. Brian Friel, in the introduction, notices that McGlinchey does not record his feelings about the momentous outside events that may have changed the whole social order of the day, the land war and other Irish political events, the world wars, the atomic bomb but focuses on past events, family and local events because these are the essential threads of his life, the cultural warp and weft of his existence.

The Memoirs convey this cultural and social dimension as well as the economic and material background of the parishes. The main object of the Memoirs was to describe a local unit, its land and distinctive features, how people lived in and used the landscape, what was known about the ancient monuments and buildings and the new buildings, all that was significant to the local population. The Memoirs do not describe the legislative achievements of the Liverpool, Wellington, and Peel administrations; there are very few references to public life and very few remarks about politics. There are often a few remarks about local famous men and sometimes these are disappointing or inaccurate, especially concerning titles and dates which are merely approximate.

Structure of the Memoirs

The "Heads of Inquiry" set out three main headings in a tripartite "progressive" structure: Geography or Natural State, Topography or Artificial State (subdivided into Modern and Ancient) and People or Present State, subdivided into Social or Productive Economy. These subdivisions correspond rather well with our modern divisions of natural heritage, cultural heritage, social and economic matters.

The first heading, Natural Features and History was easy to describe from observation and many of the Royal Engineers were very interested in flora and fauna. Lieutenant William Lancey who wrote 11 Memoirs (just more than half the Royal Engineer Memoirs) was particularly observant of fauna and flora (the latter subject being very infrequently mentioned in most of their accounts). Note the variety of flowers he notices: in Killygarvan "the lotus grows in perfection in Long Lough" (waterlilies?), in Tullyaughnish "wild camomile grows at Rughan and yellow geranium at Rathmelton ruin" and outside Donegal town he notices a profusion of primroses and violets. He also gives some interesting comments on uses of plants: in Clonmany "Stramomium called thornapple grows in the sands at Leenan and is used for smoking by asthmatic persons" as well as observing "Sampire is found on the rocks of Dunaff and is obtained by descending the rocks with ropes, it is used for pickles". This is not marsh samphire but that described in William Shakespeare's King Lear as "the dreadful trade" because it was so dangerous to gather."

There is a list of birds seen with their common and latin names.'°This is not ascribed to anyone but it can only be from a Royal Engineer or from one of the North West Society correspondents. The Engineers were also good on geology. Captain J. E. Portlock who wrote a pioneering account of the geology in the north west of Ireland published in 1843 was influential in developing that field of inquiry." Lancey gives us a geological table for Mevagh and Lieutenant Wilkinson gives us the geology of Clonleigh, courtesy of Captain T. Jones M.P. for Derry."

Comments on the placenames and their meanings are pretty brief and ' the Engineers must have erred on the side of simplicity knowing that there was a Topographical department at work on this subject. With the placename books and the O'Donovan letters we are well able to supply this deficiency. One of the interesting remarks that O'Donovan makes about this area is that parish names are not used so much as area names. He writes in September 1835: "It is curious to remark how the peasantry have names of their own for the parishes and seldom know the ecclesiastical names, thus Clondavaddog they call Fanad, Mevagh Rosguill, Clondehorky Doe and Raytulloghbegley Cloghaneely".' It is interesting to read a definition of one such area in east Donegal, the Lagan, being discussed among the Engineers. Larcom writes "Do you know a district near Letterkenny called the Lagan?" The reply is: "The Lagan is situated in the parishes of Leck and Raymoghy, in the barony of Raphoe. It commences at Letterkenny port bridge and reaches to Newtowncunningham. It's boundaries are indefinite. It is in Lieutenant Wilkinson's work". Wilkinson gives us a story, alas, very shorn of details about the eponymous giant Lagan who gave name to the area, and adds the information: "the inhabitants use it to designate themselves and sign their names, as for instance, "William Colhoun, Laganier"

The section describing Modern Topography provides us with descriptions of towns and villages as well as significant buildings. Very often the buildings are very selective and descriptions lacking depth: we know that Lancey describing the original Presbyterian meeting house in Ramelton which has been excavated and shown to be datable to at least the early 18th century, just provides us with "This meeting house was erected in 1798 by the congregation at their own expense: it cost £1000". He does however, tell us how much it cost at this time (possibly a complete rebuilding) and that it could contain 1,400 people. By contrast the Killycreen chapel was built in 1833 at a cost of £230 and could accommodate 1,300 Persons." For comparison, take Lieutenant Wilkinson's account of the new chapel being built at Drimochill near Manorcunningham for £247 10s as being built so "cheap on account of no pews and carpenter's work required" .

There are some good descriptions of gentlemen's seats, but they are mostly very brief. Among the seats described in Killygarvan there is a good description of Fort Royal and its gardens and glasshouses, the Lodge owned by Colonel Knox (now Rathmullan House), Drumhalla House, now in ruins, the Glebe House, but Carolina, the Presbyterian minister's house and Hollymount, another small seat, though "comfortable residences" do not merit description.' There are a few descriptions of vernacular houses in Donegal: Lancey gives us a few lines on houses in Desertegney near Toneduff consisting of "1, 2, or 3 rooms with low roofs,thatched and bound down with straw ropes". As we might have expected, the descriptions of castles like Carrickbrackey castle on the Isle of Doagh in Inishowen, and the Martello tower as well as the McAmish fort in Killygarvan (Rathmullan) are more familiar ground and concisely, if technically described.'

Ancient Topography is covered conscientiously by the Royal Engineers. Lancey, along with most of the Royal Engineers, makes use of printed works: he quotes Dr Seaton Reid's "History of the Presbyterian Church in Tullyaughnish". As well, he must have been able to gather more information locally: he shows quite some knowledge of the ancient family of O'Donnells, he tells us that the Stewarts of Ramelton claim kinship with them through the female line, an interesting story of legitimisation (in Antrim, many landlords make this point in connection with marriages to O'Neill women)." When he describes Killymard, outside Donegal town, he points out one of the inaugural places of the O'Donnells and tells the story of the white ox soup, one of the rites de passage for the chiefs of Tyrconnell. Lancey also refers to the Dublin Penny Magazine for 1833 while writing the Donegal Memoir as a source for history. 16 As well as that, Lancey was clearly a man of broader horizons than most: he can comment on the connection between St Columba and Iona, writing in the Clonmany Memoir: "The people of Iona informed me that the greenstone slabs of which the tombs are made in that island were brought from Inishowen and from what I have seen I think their tradition is founded on truth".

Lieutenant Wilkinson developes his ability to write Memoirs as he goes on, and he records for the parish of Donaghmore, south of Raphoe, a particularly interesting story about an amphibious animal "large as a young heifer" known as "dorhagh" in a lough in the townland of Trusk, reporting that it howled wildly when the lough was frozen over. Mabel Colhoun in her survey of Inishowen refers to this account when she describes a group of sites, south east of Clonmany in the townland of Meendoran, near Lough Fad and a group of 3 standing stones, known as the Stackies or Dorans, making a connection between the name forms.' Miss Colhoun's use of the Memoirs illustrates how they provide comparative material which may help interpretative work.

Social Economy was the section of the Memoir which we would expect the Royal Engineers to be least competent in, demanding as it did such skills in eliciting information. However, it is interesting to notice the different observations made, that Lancey describes the characteristic red and blue striped drugget petticoats and waistcoats of the Clonmany inhabitants (probably similar to what Charles McGlinchey learned to weave in his youth about 40 years later) as well as commenting on the poet Shane Doherty, "called Mac'Avergy" whose name lived on in tradition. Charles McGlinchey gives us his full story." "Sean Mac an Meirge who lived about Malin.. two or three hundred years ago..his real name was Doherty": he was fond of drink and lost his land to a clever shebeen owner over it, but Charles could still recite his poetry. It is Lancey who gives us the only comment on the attitudes to rent and other taxes: "all complain" and they "appeared to be in a state of excitement ready to rebel not having any other method left".

Lieutenant Wilkinson does give us abstracts of figures for trades and callings (occupations) and sets of census figures for the 9 Memoirs he writes, all taken from the 1831 census. He also gives us some school statistics which are very frequent in the Memoirs for other counties. Delves Broughton also favours this statistical approach and we have his school statistics for Donagh, and other forms relating to fisheries for Culdaff and Moville filled in by the same. Delves Broughton did write a short account of Moville, showing how vulnerable the whole community was to its maritime employment and describing the effect on the parish of a particularly shocking disaster at sea when 30 fishermen lost their lives (1831).

Throughout the Social Economy sections, the Engineers' attitude does colour their observations: but it was inevitable that their bias should be expressed, because this was an early Victorian survey. Lancey describes the famous Lough Derg pilgrimage in the Memoir for Templecarn (November 1835) and we have also John O'Donovan's description of the place at very nearly the same time (October 1835) so we have two perspectives: that of the outsider sceptic and that of the more sympathetic observer but both of them give interesting accounts. Lancey tells us "The best way to see this place to advantage is first to row round it, as the Prior stops everything directly a Protestant lands on its shores". His view of Station Island must have been rather distant (in both senses). He tells us that the ferry to the island is kept by a Protestant and we learn from O'Donovan that his name is Muldoon and that he pays £150 a year to his landlord, Mr Leslie of Glaslough in Monaghan. Lancey's view is expressed thus "This superstition so directly opposed to the principles of Christian religion".. And from O'Donovan we learn that 7,000 pilgrims from England, Ireland and Scotland come every year to make the rounds of St Patrick's beds."

The Royal Engineers tried to be thorough in their accounts of Productive Economy. Lancey describes the poteen industry and its importance in Inishowen by telling stories of encounters between the illegal distillers and the revenue officers. He tells how they often attacked the soldiers on duty with the revenue in the gap of Mamore and on one occasion shot one of them. Similarly in Mevagh he recounts the prevalence of this illicit industry and describes the lengths locals were prepared to go to protect their produce.' In fact, Lancey is more forthcoming about the poteen industry than some of the writers responding to the North West Society. As well as this illegal economy which had dominated Inishowen in particular, all the Engineers depict the importance of the domestic linen industry, although in the 1830s that manufacturing was in decline. However, Ramelton still had a good linen market." Wilkinson describes the long established fairs in Raphoe and he gives a good deal of information about the mills in Urney, so close to Strabane, even describing Sion mill and its building in 1828, a flour mill first, and then (1836) a flax mill. He shows how these eastern parishes marketed the produce of the westerly parishes with the Clady fair selling the stockings produced in the Rosses, as well as being a hiring fair.

Most striking of all are the descriptions of the fisheries and the marine products that played so great a part in the economy of Donegal because of its huge coastline and its fine sea loughs. Both Lancey and Wilkinson give some fascinating details on this subject. Lancey tells us about the significant fishing industry in Killymard outside Donegal town where over 500 boats were employed. He also gives numbers of boats for the parish of Tullyaughnish all along the coastline from Ray Bridge to Ramelton, from Ramelton to Whale Head, and includes Aughnish Island (6 boats), right down past Ballgreen and the Ferry House to Castle Grove (117 boats in all besides a decked pleasure boat belonging to Sir James Stewart). There were social aspects to boating as well. He also describes the Rathmullan regatta and the prizes given to the victorious sailors."'

Wilkinson tells of the valuable manures, sea wrack and shells from Lough Swilly, sent up to Letterkenny and used by all adjacent parishes. "A boatload of shells from Fort Stewart costs 6s per 4 and half tons, and it takes 5 loads to manure an acre".' The cultivation of seaweed around anchor stones on the intertidal zone is recorded as well as observations on the different fish caught and in particular the coming and going of the herring shoals. There was a small seal hunting industry in Clonmany, Inishowen: they were hunted for their oil and skin (which was used for hats made in Derry).' There are also observations on change in the maritime landscape. Lancey, in his account of Mevagh gives some very interesting insights into the shifting of sands on the north west coast. He describes the build up of dunes and the destructive capacity of the north west winds. These remarks on coastal developments must have great value for environmentalists as also the observations on the marine economy."

Accounts from the North West Society

These were intended to help the Royal Engineers write their accounts, but in some cases, these descriptions are all we have. They provide a useful comparison to Memoirs where they are extant and an interesting account in their own right. As noted before they were solicited by the North West Society and one of the correspondents, Revd John Graham of Clonleigh, himself a contributor to the Memoir for Magilligan in 1833, gives a list of prominent farmers and landowners who would be good contacts for the society. His own account of Clonleigh is written in a lively informed style and as well, his pastoral responsibilities lead him to compassionate observations on the diet and general health of the poor in the parish." This concern for parishioners is detectable in other writers, John Barrett, rector of Inishkeel, voices his concern about the King's Evil or scrofula (probably tuberculosis) among the people which he seeks to alleviate through seaweed poultices and sea bathing." Others of the writers are expert farmers. Andrew Hammond writing about Donegal tells us of his modest start, he began in the world with 8 acres without much stock, and from his detailed observations of potato cultivation and comments on slurry use appears to be a well experienced and innovative farmer.

The rector of Drumhome, William Ewing who hailed from Derry, gives much interesting information about warrening and the raising of rabbits for meat and fur (coney fur was destined for hat manufacture): he himself "harvested" 300 dozen rabbits annually and he managed the warren at Rossnowlagh on the Pakenham property which yielded 200 dozen annually. Another farming rector is John Ewing who wrote the account of Raymoghy and may have been the same John Ewing who wrote the account of Glencolumbkille. The account of Raymoghy is almost evangelical in its enthusiasm for improving techniques in farming. He argues for enclosure of lands, he advocates the clearing of weeds off land and making of vegetable composts with green weeds. He recommends the saving of flax seed and the use of gooseberry bush cuttings instead of the whitethorn for quick growing prickly hedges.

As well as these rectors and curates we have the Presbyterian minister for Donagh, the Revd Rogers who gives us an insight into the lives of his parishioners, telling us about christenings with lavish entertainments of "fish, flesh and bruised potatoes", somewhat quieter weddings, and wakes. He appears to have been Irish speaking, for the game cnman is written in Irish letters. In common with many of the other writers he expresses a great concern for educational facilities as being the only way to improve life for his parishioners.

There is an account for 5 parishes of All Saints, Clonleigh, Killea, Taughboyne and Raymoghy similar' to one written by John McCloskey for Dungiven and 2 adjacent parishes which gives us a weather journal for August 1821, and 1821 census figures and provides an interesting comparison to the other accounts .

However, of all the accounts written for the North West Society by far the longest and most fascinating is the account of Lough Swilly written in 1823/24 by a Mr. Montgomery in order to argue for better harbours to develope the fishing industry. The account actually describes parts of Lough Foyle, Lough Swilly, Inishowen, Mulroy and the north west coast including the islands like Tory and going as far as Gola Island. Attached to it, is an account of Burt and Inch by a G. Montgomery, a perfect example of an area influenced by its proximity to the shore line of Lough Swilly. It is very likely that the author of the Lough Swilly account was a surveyor from Lifford, named Gabriel Montgomery. He is listed by Revd John Graham of Clonleigh as a proprietor worth questioning, as is a Mr George Knox, another surveyor.

Gabriel Montgomery, who was born in 1762, had Fermanagh connections and married an Anne Knox of Lifford. They had a family of surveyors with a son, William Conyngham Montgomery, who may have helped with this large and ambitious description of the maritime features of Donegal and beyond. Gabrieí was a pupil of Samuel McCrea, another surveyor from Lifford; interestingly enough, McCrea too had sons named William and Conyngham. Montgomery seems to have had some experience in hydrographic surveying because we know he executed a plan of Lough Erne in 1818, a copy of which is in the Hydrographic office in London. It is very likely, given his experience and his position, that Gabriel Montgomery would have been asked to write such a report on Lough Swilly as he would have been an ideal candidate for writing such a description of the coastline.

The Lough Swilly account (so titled in the original despite it's scope) makes constant reference to an earlier hydrographic survey by Murdoch McKenzie, senior. Gabriel Montgomery had a copy of McKenzie's 1775 chart of Lough Swilly with all its indications of safe anchorages and diagrams of hazards in the channels. Many of the observations on tides covering and uncovering rocks are in correction of McKenzie, as are some remarks on sandbanks and fishing banks. However, much information for the description was supplied by others besides the two Montgomerys. Captain Smyth of Rathmullan, James Meenan and 2 other men from Tory Island, Charles Williams of Drumbear in Mulroy, Sam Craig, a pilot who lived on Aughnish island, are named contributors. Also Montgomery names Thomas Anderson of Cloghglass near Binalt on Inch Island as an informant for the account of Burt and Inch.

Although the purpose of the account was to convince those in power of the need for more harbours and help in mitigating some of the worst navigational hazards, through the removal of rocks etc., the chief impression of the description is of the great opportunity the coast presented to the peoples of the parishes fortunate enough to be situated near the coast. The sea loughs held great wealth in the form of sea mud (glaar), sea sand, sea weed and sea shells which could fertilise the land and provide lime for building purposes. The rich shell beds of Lough Swilly were known as the gold mines of Lough Swilly, and were used instead of lime on the fields, although the rich warm crofts of Burt were not manuréd from this source. In Burt sea shells were burned for lime in the building trade. Sea mud was used as a manure after preparation: the desalination of the sea sand and mud is described. It was dug out at low tide, left for 6 to 8 weeks before being put on the land. As well as the products of the seabed, we are told about the rich variety of creatures of the lough, the skates and flukes that could be speared among the sweet grass beds of the mud banks, the cod, turbot, lythe, pollock, whiting, herring and other fish caught in the waters. We are told "the poor eat cockles, mussels, barnaghs or limpets, wilks, periwinkles, summer sand eels and dillisk" on Inch Island.'

There are many references to seaweed which was harvested from planted beds as well as the wild. Many varieties are given their vernacular names: fiamnach which was cut regularly to maintain supplies, to slat mara, a thick rod of sea weed, to leathach, the broad leaf of the seaweed attached to the rod or stem. The spelling of seaweeds is very diverse: leathach is lagh, laagh in the account, fiamnach is femnagh. Many of these variant spellings were retained in order to preserve the linguistic evidence that such spellings suggest. Placenames also showed a variety which reflected pronounciations and so were retained. The style of writing suggested a sympathy to spoken Irish, if not an understanding, and certainly, the language displays interesting phrases and dialect words. Montgomery tells of flaxgrowing so as to provide the women of the household with employment in spinning: "the custom is to prepare and spin both the lint and tow together (or as it is termed) "throughother". Surely this must be a another use of the term still used today, defined as untidy or out of place.

As well as that, there are remarks on the living conditions of some of the fishing and local communities: the demographic pressures leading to the subdivision of land, the ancient run and dale or strip farming practises (universally condemned by all the improvers however). There are also references to the curraghs in common use by the fishing community, the use of ferries by the shore dwelling communities for getting to fairs and in some cases to worship (some Presbyterians crossed from the Fanad side of Mulroy to get to the meeting house on the other side). O'Donovan's later descriptions of catching ferries across Mulroy in 1835 are a vivid corroboration of this regular use of the sea loughs as a highway of communication. And there is the story of fishing fleets from outside Fanad, coming from Howth, Skerries and elsewhere to take the fish that locals could not catch in their small boats, a story that has its parallels today.

The account shows the different features of marine life and the contemporary use of the sea and shore, all very interesting as a point of reference in our own day, now that mariculture and exploitation of the sea's resources seems to be pressing ahead judging from local developments on Lough Swilly and in other areas like Gweebarra Bay. This sort of information is very hard to glean from other sources and provides a good background against which to evaluate procedures now, using balanced judgments with the longer perspective that history allows, rather than being led into hasty decisions which might jeopardise the riches of these wonderful sea loughs for our successors.

To summarise briefly, I hope I have shown how the different accounts, Memoirs and descriptions written in answer to the North West Society, complement each other. The Memoirs are stronger on buildings and monuments and many traditional stories.

The North West Society accounts are very rooted in local agricultural practises and the livelihoods earned in the localities. Together they provide a very detailed and revealing picture of life lived in these rural communities and small towns, which has great value for all who are interested in the development of society and culture in the north west today.