than please the mind. The Turk exhibits noble features, and Mangerton's
huge body rises above the whole. The cultivated tracts towards Killarney
form a shore in contrast to the terrific scenes I have just mentioned;
the distant boundary of the lake, a vast ridge of distant blue mountains
towards Dingle. From hence entered the garden, and viewed Mucruss Abbey,
one of the most interesting scenes I ever saw; it is the ruin of a
considerable abbey, built in Henry VI.'s time, and so entire, that if it
were more so, though the building would be more perfect, the ruin would
be less pleasing; it is half obscured in the shade of some venerable ash
trees; ivy has given the picturesque circumstance, which that plant alone
can confer, while the broken walls and ruined turrets throw over it

"The last mournful graces of decay;"

heaps of skulls and bones scattered about, with nettles, briars, and
weeds sprouting in tufts from the loose stones, all unite to raise those
melancholy impressions, which are the merit of such scenes, and which can
scarcely anywhere be felt more completely. The cloisters form a dismal
area, in the centre of which grows the most prodigious yew-tree I ever
beheld, in one great stem, two feet diameter, and fourteen feet high,
from whence a vast head of branches spreads on every side, so as to
perform a perfect canopy to the whole space. I looked for its fit
inhabitant; it is a spot where

"The moping owl doth to the moon complain."

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 sho