Harris was moved to write his ‘History of Down’ by indignation at the misrepresentations of the English press of his day.  They had the audacity to say that ’the Irish people were uncivilised, rude, and barbarous; that they delighted in butter tempered with oatmeal, and sometimes flesh without bread, which they ate raw, having first pressed the blood out of it; and drank down large draughts of usquebaugh for digestion, reserving their little corn for the horses; that their dress and habits were no less barbarous; that cattle was their chief wealth; that they counted it no infamy to commit robberies, and that in their view violence and murder were in no way displeasing to God; that the country was overgrown with woods, which abounded in wolves and other voracious animals,’ &c.  It was, no doubt, very provoking that such stories should be repeated 130 years after the plantation of Ulster, and Harris undertook, with laudable patriotism, to show ’how far this description of Ireland was removed from the truth, from the present state of only one county in the kingdom.’  The information which the well-informed writer gives is most valuable, and very much to the purpose of our present inquiry.

More than half the arable ground was then (in 1745) under tillage, affording great quantities of oats, some rye and wheat, and ’plenty of barley,’ commonly called English or spring barley, making excellent malt liquor, which of late, by means of drying the grain with Kilkenny coals, was exceedingly improved.  The ale made in the county was distinguished for its fine colour and flavour.  The people found the benefit of ’a sufficient tillage, being not obliged to take up with the poor unwholesome diet which the commonalty of Munster and Connaught had been forced to in the late years of scarcity; and sickness and mortality were not near so great as in other provinces of the kingdom.’

Yet the county Down seemed very unfavourable for tillage.  The economists of our time, perhaps our viceroys too, would say it was only fit for bullocks and sheep.  It was ’naturally coarse, and full of hills; the air was sharp and cold in winter, with earlier frosts than in the south, the soil inclined to wood, unless constantly ploughed and kept open, and the low grounds degenerated into morass or bog where the drains were neglected.  Yet, by the constant labour and industry of the inhabitants, the morass grounds had of late, by burning and proper management, produced surprisingly large crops of rye and oats.  Coarse lands, manured with lime, had answered the farmers’ views in wheat, and yielded a great produce, and wherever marl was found there was great store of barley.  The staple commodity of the county was linen, due care of which manufacture brought great wealth among the people.  Consequently the county was observed to be ’populous and flourishing, though it did not become amenable to the laws till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, nor fully till the reign of James