although to the cursory reader, there may appear a great difference between poetry and prose, yet the judicious and deep thinking will readily acknowledge that the difference is only apparent to the eye, not to the ear-the ear being that organ by which we judge of sounds, and sound is the very essence of both species of composition. In fact, there should be what painters call "a keep ing" in everything; that is, the whole should be made up of parts corresponding one to the other, and there was so little in unison between his lordship's mode of expressing his thoughts and mine, that I conceived it most advantageous to both our characters, as candidates for posthumous fame, to be placed in juxta position as seldom as possible. At one time I had almost made up my mind to head that chapter of my work, entitled "The Departure" with his "Good Night," but that intention was laid aside when I altered my plan to its present form, unshackled by chapters or divisions of any kind. Besides, as my projected tour was to be confined to terra firma, I conceived it might savour of affectation to introduce a sea voyage at the very outset, thereby giving an idea that I was partial to travelling by water, which, of all things, is most abhorrent to my feelings. I once took a trip, many years ago, from the Pigeon-house to Lambay, and my sufferings were of such a nature-needless here to be specified-that I resolved never again, unless under the most peculiar circumstances, to repeat the experiment.

Having thus prefaced my readers for what they are to expect, I shall at once have recourse to my notes, which were usually thrown together at random, after I retired to my sleeping apartment, and revised, corrected, and amplified, on my return to the humble roof, under which all my literary labours have been completed.

Tuesday-Stepped from my own door at Gomville, at seven o'clock in the morning, into the day-coach, bound for Dublin; no inside passenger but myself. There is something depressing to the spirits when first starting on a journey from the scene of our earliest recollections. A thousand conflicting thoughts rushed unbidden to the seat of memory, as I leaned back in the corner "the world forgetting, by the world forgot." They were, however, soon dispelled by the noise of the wheels and the other disturbances com

mon to that mode of travelling. Nothing worthy of note occurred during the whole of the journey, except the rapidity with which we changed horses at one stage. In fact, I could scarcely conceive that we had stopped till we were again in motion. Weather fine ; roads dusty; potato crop middling in some places, better in others; arrived in Dublin at half-past nine at night, more fatigued than if I rode the whole way, and glad, after ordering some refreshment, to get to bed in the Hibernian hotel, to which I was recommended by the friend hereafter to be mentioned, to whose hospitality, cheerfulness, and accommodating qualities I am indebted for many hours of delightful enjoyment. Wednesday-Breakfasted in the coffee-room at half-past nine; then proceeded to Gardiner-street to transact business with my solicitor, Mr. —, the gentleman alluded to in the preceding paragraph, whose kindness, together with the affability of his amiable sister and daughter, I cannot sufficiently appreciate.

After considering the subject in all its various lights, I have at length resolved to drop the journal-style during my residence in the metropolis, where I was detained for upwards of a week, and to record my observations in one unbroken series, which, I conceive, will be most agreeable to the taste of the generality of my readers; at the same time, assuring them, that I have curtailed nothing but dates and notes of mere personal expenses.

I had not visited Dublin for many years, and I was pleased at the many great improvements and alterations since I last saw it. It is a city of great antiquity, deriving its name, according to Ptolemy, from the untimely death of a king's daughter, who was drowned in the river Liffey. It is surrounded by the Circular road, and adorned with many splendid public buildings, such as the Bank, late Parliament House; Nelson's Pillar, &c. &c. The College, a venerable pile, built by Queen Elizabeth, fronts College-green, where stands a statue of King William the Third, son-in-law to James the Second, sitting on horseback, surrounded by a neat iron railing; as you advance up Dame-street, you arrive at the Castle, inhabited by the Lord Lieutenant it is situated exactly at the corner of Castle-street, next door to La Touche's Bank, and has two entrances, called the Upper and Lower Castle-yard, very convenient for carriages to go in at

one gate and out of the other, without danger of running foul of each other. South of the river Liffey lies Stephen's-green, the largest square, for its size, in Europe, very neatly laid out in gravel walks and grass plats, as a play ground for children, many of whom, attended by their respective nurserymaids or other family domestics, may be seen walking or running there during a considerable part of the day. The same accommodation is afforded by Merrion-square, Fitzwilliam-square, Mountjoy-square, and the New Gardens, forming altogether an extent of promenade quite sufficient for the health and amusement of the infantine population.

Leinster House, now turned into the Dublin Society-a collection of curiosities from all parts of the world-demands particular notice. Each visitor is obliged to write his name in a book, kept by a man in livery, at the right hand of the entrance hall, but no money is demanded, the exhibition being very properly open, free of expense, to the public at large. The principal object of attraction is a fossil, that is, the skeleton of a large rein-deer, so called from its being driven in reins, like a horse, by the Laplanders, and fed upon Icelaud moss, now generally ordered for pulmonary complaints. Mem-Fossil is a geological term for anything dug out of a ditch, Fosse being synonimous with ditch.

I regret that my numerous avocations did not allow of an excursion to the Zoological Gardens, in the Phoenix Park, a show of wild beasts very well worth seeing, as I am told, particularly a bear and some amusing monkeys, which last mentioned are considered by many philosophers to be the connecting link between the animal and human species, as the bat is between birds and beasts, and the sea anemone between plants and reptiles.

During my stay in this abode of the arts and sciences my time was spent most agreeably, being, by the unremitting kindness of the friend twice before mentioned, introduced to a select circle of acquaintances, many of them literary characters, some, indeed, ranking in the very first grade of talent, and all characterised by elegance of manner, propriety of deportment, and urbanity of demeanour. Under such a happy juncture of fortuitous events, I received much of that hospitality for which my countrymen are proverbial. Dinner followed dinner in

daily succession, while music and singing by the fair daughters of my hospitable entertainers, charmed away the tediousness of the evenings; and I can bear testimony, not only from my own experience, but from the account of others, that a more delightful residence than that afforded by Dublin and its environs, cannot be found on the surface of the habitable globe, whether we consider the beauty of its localities, the magnificence of its buildings, or the grace, taste, and talent of its fascinating inhabitants.

Having a good deal of unoccupied time on my hands in the mornings, I generally sauntered up and down Sackville-street, formerly called the Mall, for some hours, and in the midst of all the gaiety and bustle surrounding me, melancholy reflections would obtrude themselves on my mind, when I remembered what it was some forty years ago-the residence of our titled nobility and aristocratic commoners—now, alas! a heterogeneous mass of hotels, shops, and charitable institutions—the resort of hack jaunting cars, instead of the enamelled chariot and coroneted phaeton of my juvenile recollections. The same sad story may be told of all the other fashionable streets and squares. The splendid mansions of the peerage are either divided into small tenements or enlarged into spacious hotels, or left to moulder into premature decay; and birth, property, talent, and fashion, have winged their flight to the more fortunate shores of our sister island. The Union may truly be said, without any figure of speech, to have depopu lated this magnificent city of its unfading beauty; and, like the Goths and Vandals of a preceding century, to have left ruin and devastation wherever it trod.

Let it not be supposed for one instant, that I am a Repealer. By no means. I have never changed my opinions, which were those of Pitt, Castlereagh, and other meteors of our political atmosphere; and though I mourned over my country's dismemberment, when it was made part and parcel of the British empire, by leaving the harp shorn of the crown; and though I did, like a third Hannibal, mutter denunciations loud and terrible against the ruthless enactment, yet, when there was no help for it, I calmly acquiesced in the measure, and am prepared to defend it with my pen, whenever called upon to come forward by the proper authorities.

Wednesday-Having concluded all my arrangements, I was ready, soon after breakfast, to accompany my friend, with his amiable sister and accomplished daughter, who, much to my gratification, had offered to be the companions of my tour, to the Rail-road, which we destined to be the first stage of our journey, the jaunting-car, with our luggage, being sent on, some hours before, to take us up at Kingstown.

The Rail-road-a modern invention, for quick travelling-is a most astonishing instance of human ingenuity. It comes as near the perpetual motion as can be conceived; nor do I see why the principle, properly followed up, should not infallibly lead to that result. It is entered by a flight of steps in a house adjoining to a large Popish Chapel, frowning with ominous blackness upon the College Park. Payment for seats is received at a counter, where you get a ticket to insure your passage, and you are scarcely fixed in the carriage when off it goes, with a noise like thunder and the swiftness of the lightning's flash, over high and low ground, through the sea, and under subterraneous passages. The rapidity of motion is so great that the most striking parts of the scenery vanish before they are observed. I was able to catch but a transient glance of one of those fortifications, built some years ago, by his Majesty's government, for protecting our coast from a French invasion. They are admirably adapted for that purpose, both by strength and situation, but I have been greatly surprised that their name has been so generally misspelt, mispronounced, and misunderstood. There are few, even among the well-informed, who do not spell the name Martilla or Martella, and fewer still, who can tell its derivation. My fellow-traveller, who, for general information, cannot be excelled by any of his cotemporaries, when pressed by me upon the etymology of the name, as pronounced by him, suggested that it might be derived from the French word martel, signifying a hammer, as they were intended for giving hard blows by firing cannon balls. This was ingenious, and I gave him a great deal of credit for the liveliness of his imagination, but he was amazingly delighted, and took a memorandum of it in his note-book, when I set him right on this disputed point. The substance of what I said to him, may, for the sake of brevity, be shortly summed up as follows:-The buildings in ques

tion should be spelt and pronounced Myrtillo towers, so called from a tower at Myrtillo Point, in Corsica, taken in 1794 by the English, the model after which ours were built. It has been objected by some persons that, pronounce the name as you please, they are, and always were, very useless things. My talented fellow-traveller certainly leaned to this opinion, and, without absolutely taking up the gauntlet in their defence, I argued somewhat in their favour, particularly for the one more immediately under consideration, on, I conceive, tolerably strong grounds, viz. that in case of an invasion on the eastern coast, the most expeditious mode of reaching the capital would be employed by the invading army. The rail-road would, therefore, be their object, which, being commanded by such a fortification, might, instead of expediting their march, put a stop to it entirely.

After a drive of seventeen minutes, stoppages included, we were landed safely, in good health and spirits, at Dunleary, or Kingstown, as it is called since the reign of his late Majesty, George the Fourth. We stopped there but for a few minutes, to inspect the Pier, a kind of wall of very simple architecture, running a short way into the sea, and then ascended our vehicle, bound for the town of Bray, in the neighbourhood of which we had an invitation to spend the day and night. The road was magnificent, broad and smooth as a bowling-green in many places, while nothing could equal the surrounding scenery, for beauty, verdure, and sublimity. To our left rose the lofty summit of Killiney, crowned by an obelisk that seems to gaze with giddy rapture on the bay expanded before it, and to exclaim, with Childe Harold,

"Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll."

I had often heard that the bay of Dublin was equal, if not superior, to the bay of Naples, but never before did I fully believe it. It is impossible to form a conception of its bold and romantic features. The Hill of Howth and Ireland's Eye, resting on the placid bosom of the sea, burst splendidly upon the view, and relieve the vast horizon, by their picturesque outlines. The only difference that I can conceive worth mentioning between it and its foreign rival, is Mount Vesuvius, which, after all, is merely a phenomenon, more curious than useful, if one may

proximity. Before candles were introduced we had a splendid view from the drawing room windows of the azure vault, thickly studded with shining gems. This naturally led to a conversation on astronomy; I pointed out to my fair audience the Great Bear, and explained to them the difference between the twinkling of a fixed star and the steady light of the planets. I was sorry not to be able to find Orion, but 1 repeated for them that beautiful line,

"Orion's studded belt looks dim,”

with which they were exceedingly delighted. On the whole, I seldom remember to have spent so pleasant an evening, among such a number of ingenuous young persons, all anxious to improve their minds by useful and ornamental knowledge.

Thursday-Bid adieu, after partaking of a most comfortable breakfast, to our estimable host and hostess, and their no-less-estimable scions, with many good wishes and compliments on both sides, and proceeded at once to the celebrated Dargle.

This romantic spot is a road running alongside of a tolerably steep hill, planted with stunted oaks, from which a zigzag path leads to the bottom, where a limpid stream murmurs over jutting

rocks, and soothes the mind to contemplation-an exercise of the reasoning faculties very beneficial, when moderately enjoyed. We took our seat on a wooden bench in a kind of old summer-house, that seems once to have been ingeniously stuffed with moss, and after resting there for half-an-hour, enJoying the shade formed by the roof of our humble domicile, we braved the fervour of the noontide sun, and,

"with fainting steps, and slow,"

at length reached a rocky excrescence, called "the Lover's Leap."

This is, I should imagine, the highest point of the Dargle, and the leap would be considerable, but that the fall must be broken, at a few feet from the top, by the thick branches of the trees, growing immediately under. Sappho, an ancient Grecian lady, was the first to set the example of such desperate folly for folly I esteem it-if not absolute madness. Fair and gentle, and gentle-as-you-are-fair, readers, do not mistake me. I am no enemy to love; far from it; I esteem it the purest of all our feelings, but there is reason in every thing, and where there is not, nothing reasonable can be expected. In fact, the want of that most necessary ingre

"In peace, love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed." For the information of future travellers, I think it but fair to mention, that somewhere in this locality, the noblest view is to be obtained of Sugar-loaf, an appellation it well deserves, being exceedingly like its namesake, in everything but colour. As to its brothermountain, called Little Sugar-loaf, I must take the liberty of protesting against the assumption of that title-it might just as well call itself little teachest. However, I am not one of those carping critics who quarrel with names. I agree with the Avonic bard, who observes,

"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet,"

and why not a mountain too.

Our route was next directed to the Waterfall, where nature may be said to stand in her most independent attitude. Several deer were running through the park, and a young man, with a straw hat, drab trowsers, and a fishing rod, was briskly ascending a rocky eminence,while, slowly and leisurely,the tiny mountain-rill pursued its even way down the sloping declivity, as if regardless of the presence of any living creature, till, in frolic mood, it dashed itself into a thousand sprayed particles, some few feet before it joined its kindred element in the streamlet beneath.

Waterfalls are among the constituent portions of the sublime and beautiful, There are many of different sizes in Europe, but the greatest in the known world is that of Niagara, in Canada. As well as I remember, a whole lake goes over at one leap, without stop or impediment. This is not so wonderful, after all, as everything is on a large scale on that continent. The rivers are large; the mountains are large; the forests are large; and the alligators, a species of crocodile, worshipped by the Egyptians, are enormous.

I had almost forgotten to mention that there is an empty banquetting house,