Tours in Ulster: A Hand-book to the Antiquities and Scenery of the North of Ireland

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Hodges and Smith, 1854 - 396 pages

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Page 324 - But the lake — not a breath was abroad on its expanse ; it smiled as it reflected the gray mountain and the azure face of heaven ; it seemed as if on this day the spirit of the Atlantic had fallen asleep, and air, earth, and ocean were celebrating the festival of repose ; the waters of the lake, of the colour and clearness of the sky, were ' Blue — darkly, deeply, beautifully blue.
Page 374 - Among the 90 towers, which, in various states of decay, are still extant in Ireland, there are probably various specimens of the builder's art; the generality consist of that kind of careful masonry, called Spauled Rubble; in which small stones shaped by the hammer (in default of suitable stones at hand) are placed in every interstice of the larger stones, so that very little mortar is intermixed in the body of the wall, which is raised stage by stage of convenient height; the outside of spauled...
Page 324 - ... we at length reached the top of the mountain ridge ; and, suddenly turning the point of a cliff that jutted out and checked the road, we came abruptly into a hollow something like a crater of an extinct volcano, which was filled almost entirely by a lovely lake, on the right hand side of which rose the highest peak of the mountain, composed of compact...
Page 74 - In the descent southward, near the bottom, one is forced to slide down a sort of thatch, composed of furze, long grass, and juniper. St. Donard, a disciple of St. Patrick, is said to have spent the life of a hermit on this mountain, and built a cell, or oratory, on the top of it, towards the close of the fifth century.
Page 74 - ... and at the further end of it the light breaks in through natural crevices. To the left of this you climb up through a very narrow passage to the top of the rock, and arrive at one of the most beautiful, most magnificent, and romantic spots that can well be conceived. You there find that the rock mentioned is only the advanced part of a large shelf, which projects at about half the height of the mountain with a sweep, and leaves the space of about two acres on the top. Round the north-west...
Page 331 - ... fell, To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ; To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, With the wild flock that never needs a fold ; Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean ; This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.
Page 332 - Type of the Infinite ! I look away Over thy billows, and I cannot stay My thought upon a resting-place, or make A shore beyond my vision, where they break; But on my spirit stretches, till it's pain To think; then rests, and then puts forth again.
Page 84 - ... sounded to battle a second time De Courcy drew his sword, upon which the Frenchman clapped spurs to his horse, broke through the barrier, and fled into Spain, whereupon they sounded victory. The people threw up their caps and clapped their hands. King Philip desired King John that De Courcy might be called before him to show some proof of his strength. A stake was set in the ground, and a shirt of mail and a helmet...
Page 324 - ... all the storms of the Atlantic, that if mere matter could suffer, we might suppose that this lofty and precipitous peak presented the portrait of material endurance; and still though white was the prevailing colour, yet not one tint or shadowing that decks and paints a mountain's brow was wanting. Here...
Page 77 - was in repair, it often proved a good guard to this pass, and as often an offensive neighbour to the English planted in Lecale, according to the hands that possessed it.

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