Note 10 — Index.
Reading edition
Footnote 10:
(return)
In a barren record of facts, such as this chapter is meant to be, I avoid as far as possible deductions and reflections apart from my immediate subject; but it is impossible to pursue an investigation of this character without being deeply interested both in the past history and present life of the people. I cannot help saying that in one day's walk from Malahide to Balbriggan I learnt far more of the Irish peasantry, the Irish character, and the Irish "problem" than I had been able to acquire in all my reading, supported by not a little experience in the capital and great towns of Ireland. The village streets, the cabins, the schools, the agriculture and the land, the farmer and the landlord, the poverty and the hospitality of the people, were all to be studied at first hand; and there were churches by the way at Swords and Rush which the archaeologist will seek in vain to match in any other country. The Bound Tower (Celtic no doubt) at the former place, and the battlemented fortalice, which is more like a castle than a church, at Rush, are both worth a special visit.