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revolution there—except for the later developments in the Belfast area—a few innovative Irish big house owners made outstanding contributions to the application of technology in their estates and beyond. Some of these historically important achievements will be accorded an appropriate importance in this book.
Two additional resources have been consulted in the preparation of this work. The first of these is the considerable body of Anglo-Irish big house novels. Many of the authors writing in this genre were daughters or sons of the big house and provide a remarkable insight into that exclusive way of life in their writings.9 Their perception of the big house spirit of status and independence will be invoked to explain the enthusiasm of Irish landlords—or, in some cases, the lack of it—to engage with the latest technology. Second, fieldwork surveys were carried out at various big house sites that have extant technology. These sites are listed in appendix A, and surveys were carried out for the following reasons. It was considered important to obtain a photographic record of significant historical artefacts, which, although having remained in position for upwards of one and a half centuries, are succumbing to the ravages of nature and modernisation. These photographs often reveal detailed information unobtainable from other primary sources, and the present text makes frequent references to details recorded there. Another reason was to capture the ambience of the location and thus obtain some feeling for the way of life of the big house owners. Finally, the site visits led to discussions with descendants of the families, present owners, or managers, who were able, in many cases, to provide local information and suggest sources that led to further beneficial research.
To facilitate a better understanding of the relevance of some of the more important historical expenditures quoted in this work, consumer price inflation since 1750 has been applied–-using data from page 17 of the June 2004 issue of Horizons: The Quarterly Newsletter for ONS Customers–-to determine approximate current values. Accordingly, the calculated present-day value of a sum of money mentioned in the text follows immediately in parentheses; for example, £30 (about £2,300 today). I have prepared and provided drawings where they were