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Article ACCOUNT OF A TOUR TO KILLARNEY, &c. ← Page 3 of 7 →
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Account Of A Tour To Killarney, &C.
other causes of detention ; bad wine , and indifferent lodging , had made the whole company a little indisposed ; but , as I was worse than the rest , it was agreed , on my account , to breakfast there : —boiled eggs , which generally form part of an Irish travelling breakfast , were p lentifully served up , attended with a large plateful of honey to eat with our bread and butter . I did not yield to the temptation of these rarities , and therefore partook of neither ; but a few dishes of fine
hyson tea so far recruited me , that by ten o'clock I was able to join my companions in the prosecution of our journey . After riding a few miles , we had a view of the mountainous part of Kerry , which sometimes exhibited a picture of romantic wildness and sometimes of dreary solitude , and now and then got sight of the Lakes ; to see which we had now travelled near fifty Irish miles ,
which is equal to sixty-three and a half English ones , the proportion being as five one-half to seven . About noon we arrived at Killarney , which is one of the principal towns in the County of Kerry . There are four streets , in one of which is a new Court-house , of an unfinished appearance , having yet ha . I but little external decoration bestowed upon it .
Near the town is the seat of Lord Kenmare , which is a building in several respects inferior to what we had expected to see , as a palace to the ' sovereign of Lough Leane * . Killarney is about an English mile and a half from the Lower Lake , and from which it forms the
boundary , of a good prospect ; it is distant from Dublin 125 , Cork 38 , Limerick 50 , and Tralee 12 miles . We had scarcely ali ghted at our inn , before one of those good-natured fellows , who are ever ready to instruct the uninformed , stranger , brought us word , that the hounds were then in pursuit of a stag on the borders of the Lake : this information immediately set us in motionb . ut though we hastened to see the hunt with all the eagerness of
, impatient curiosity , we arrived at the scene of action a little too late , of which the report of a gun , usually fired at the conclusion of the chace , gave us notice . Unwilling , however , to return to our inn , without seeing some few of the many things which courted our attention , we hired a boat at Ross Castle , and from thence ( to use the nautic phrase ) took our departure on a voyage to the Lower Lake .
The Lower . Lake is in some places three , and in others four miles across ; a beautiful sheet of water , with so calm a surface as to reflect the contiguous beauties that adorn its iflands ; but notwithstanding this flattering surface , some fatal accidents have happened to the incautious adventurer . Sail-boats are frequently used here , and several have been overset ( by sudden squalls of wind ) on a part of the Lake
where no assistance could be timely afforded . Crossing from Ross Castle to the . opposite side , we were rowed about four miles along shore , where the mountains are very hi g h , and covered with variety of trees , as ash , oak , beach , and mountain ash , beautifully blended with holly , yew , and arbutus . The arbutus , or
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Account Of A Tour To Killarney, &C.
other causes of detention ; bad wine , and indifferent lodging , had made the whole company a little indisposed ; but , as I was worse than the rest , it was agreed , on my account , to breakfast there : —boiled eggs , which generally form part of an Irish travelling breakfast , were p lentifully served up , attended with a large plateful of honey to eat with our bread and butter . I did not yield to the temptation of these rarities , and therefore partook of neither ; but a few dishes of fine
hyson tea so far recruited me , that by ten o'clock I was able to join my companions in the prosecution of our journey . After riding a few miles , we had a view of the mountainous part of Kerry , which sometimes exhibited a picture of romantic wildness and sometimes of dreary solitude , and now and then got sight of the Lakes ; to see which we had now travelled near fifty Irish miles ,
which is equal to sixty-three and a half English ones , the proportion being as five one-half to seven . About noon we arrived at Killarney , which is one of the principal towns in the County of Kerry . There are four streets , in one of which is a new Court-house , of an unfinished appearance , having yet ha . I but little external decoration bestowed upon it .
Near the town is the seat of Lord Kenmare , which is a building in several respects inferior to what we had expected to see , as a palace to the ' sovereign of Lough Leane * . Killarney is about an English mile and a half from the Lower Lake , and from which it forms the
boundary , of a good prospect ; it is distant from Dublin 125 , Cork 38 , Limerick 50 , and Tralee 12 miles . We had scarcely ali ghted at our inn , before one of those good-natured fellows , who are ever ready to instruct the uninformed , stranger , brought us word , that the hounds were then in pursuit of a stag on the borders of the Lake : this information immediately set us in motionb . ut though we hastened to see the hunt with all the eagerness of
, impatient curiosity , we arrived at the scene of action a little too late , of which the report of a gun , usually fired at the conclusion of the chace , gave us notice . Unwilling , however , to return to our inn , without seeing some few of the many things which courted our attention , we hired a boat at Ross Castle , and from thence ( to use the nautic phrase ) took our departure on a voyage to the Lower Lake .
The Lower . Lake is in some places three , and in others four miles across ; a beautiful sheet of water , with so calm a surface as to reflect the contiguous beauties that adorn its iflands ; but notwithstanding this flattering surface , some fatal accidents have happened to the incautious adventurer . Sail-boats are frequently used here , and several have been overset ( by sudden squalls of wind ) on a part of the Lake
where no assistance could be timely afforded . Crossing from Ross Castle to the . opposite side , we were rowed about four miles along shore , where the mountains are very hi g h , and covered with variety of trees , as ash , oak , beach , and mountain ash , beautifully blended with holly , yew , and arbutus . The arbutus , or