This ruin is in the true style in which all such buildings should appear;
there is not an intruding circumstance, the hand of dress has not touched
it, melancholy is the impression which such scenes should kindle, and it
is here raised most powerfully.
From the abbey we passed to the terrace, a natural one of grass, on the
very shore of the lake; it is irregular and winding; a wall of rocks
broken into fantastic forms by the waves: on the other side a wood,
consisting of all sorts of plants, which the climate can protect, and
through which a variety of walks are traced. The view from this terrace
consists of many parts of various characters, but in their different
styles complete; the lake opens a spreading sheet of water, spotted by
rocks and islands, all but one or two wooded; the outlines of them are
sharp and distinct; nothing can be more smiling than this scene, soft and
mild, a perfect contrast of beauty to the sublimity of the mountains
which form the shore: these rise in an outline, so varied, and at the
same time so magnificent, that nothing greater can be imagined; Tomys and
Glena exhibit an immensity in point of magnitude, but from a large
hanging wood on the slope, and from the smoothness of the general
surface, it has nothing savage, whereas the mountains above and near the
eagle's nest are of the most broken outlines; the declivities are bulging
rocks, of immense size, which seem to impend in horrid forms over the
lake, and where an opening among them is caught, others of the same rude
character rear their threatening heads. From different parts of the
terrace these scenes are viewed in numberless varieties.
Returned to breakfast, and pursued Mr. Herbert's new road, which he has
traced through the peninsula to Dynis Island, three miles in length; and
it is carried in so judicious a manner through a great variety of ground,
rocky woods, lawns, etc., that nothing can be more pleasing; it passes
through a remarkable scene of rocks, which are covered with woods. From
thence to the marble quarry, which Mr. Herbert is working, and where he
gains variety of marbles, green, red, white, and brown, prettily veined;
the quarry is a shore of rocks, which surround a bay of the lake, and
forms a scene consisting of but few parts, but those strongly marked; the
rocks are bold, and broken into slight caverns; they are fringed with
scattered trees, and from many parts of them wood shoots in that romantic
manner so common at Killarney. Full in front Turk Mountain rises with
the proudest outline, in that abrupt magnificence which fills up the
whole space before one, and closes the scene.
The road leads by a place where copper-mines were worked; many shafts
appear; as much ore was raised as sold for twenty-five thousand pounds,
but the works were laid aside, more from ignorance in the workmen than
any defects in the mine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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