Mr & Mrs Samuel Carter Hall undertook several tours throughout Ireland in the first half of nineteenth century. Their tour of 1840 led to the writing of Hall's Ireland, which was first published in 1841-3 in three volumes. Their county by county account of this journey provides us with a valuable record of pre-famine Ireland and an idiosyncratic, highly personal account of the country in the last century, their aim being "to direct public attention to Ireland, and to induce visitors to examine it for themselves".