tie Mtit'fton-houfi of the Boyne Family, ly drifted Sand, Ufc. 3S5 



Amid the fands between Portrufii and Dunluce, in the county of Antrim, in the year 

 1783, the ruins of a villag.e might be feen deferted by its inhabitants, who had been obli- 

 ged to move furtlier into the country. 



In the year 1787, the pcninfula of J-Iornhead, in the county of Donegal, contained vef- 

 tiges of enclofures fo fmall and fo numerous as to mark the refidence of a confiderabic 

 number of human families, in a fpot which exhibited nothing but 

 -^— — *' a defert, fait and bare, 

 " The haunt of I'eals and ores, and fea-mews clang." Milton. 



Somewhat about a century ago, the peninfula of RoITgull, lying between the harbours 

 of Sheep-haven and Mulroy, in the county of Donegal, was feleded as the refidence of 

 one of the noble families of Hamilton, titled Boyne. It is to be prefamed there was then 

 but little apprehenfion, that the elegant edifice of that age fhould, after the fhort interval 

 of an hundred years, (land, like Tadmor of the Eaft, the folitary wonder of a furround- 

 ing defert. 



For the age wherein it was built, and the ftyle of architetfture of that day, the man- 

 Con of Rofeapenna may be called elegant. The approach was from a level green on the: 

 fliore, through a fuccelTion of embattled courts and hanging terraces, rifing in order one 

 above the other, and adorned with marble piers of no mean defign and workmanfhip, 



The rear was ornamented with gardens laid out and planted in the fafhion of the laft 

 century ; and the parks and fields of the demefne feem to have been well divided and 

 enclofed. 



At prefent, every objeft in this place prefents to view peculiar charaflers of defolation. 

 The gardens are totally denuded of trees and (hrubs, by the fury of the weftern winds r 

 their walls, unable to fuffain the mafs of overbearing fands, have bent before the accumu- 

 lated preflure, and, overthrown in numberlefs places, have given free paflage to this reft- 

 lefs enemy to all fertility. The courts, the flights of fteps, the terraces, are all involved 

 in equal ruin, and their limits only difcoverable by tops of embattled walls vifible amid 

 hills of fand. 



The manfion itfelf, yielding to the unconquerable fury of the temped, approaches fad ta 

 deftruftion : the freighted whirlwind, howling through every avenue and crevice, bears 

 IncelTantly along its drifted burthen, which has already filled the lower apartments of the 

 building, and begins now to rife above the once elevated threlholds. Fields, fences, vil- 

 lages, involved in common defolation, are reduced to one undiftlnguilhable fcens of flerile- 

 uniformity ; and twelve hundred acres of land are faid thus to have been buried within a^ 

 fliort period in irrecoverable ruin *. 



Hence 



• It would be teafing to dwell on a repetition of fimilar examples. I (hall juft mention two others : — In a 

 fummer excurfion from College in the year 1787, pafling from Dunfanaghy to Rutland, along the weftern coaft 

 cf Donegal, I had great difficulty to difcover a houfe fituated between the river Guidore and the RoITes iflands, 

 whither I had been direfted to enquire for a guide ; and after much fearch at length perceived its roof juft emerg- 

 ing from the fands. The owner told me that his houfe was not long built, and had at lirft a confiderable traft of 

 pafture ground between it and the fea-ihore ; but that of late he was every year obliged with great labour to dig; 

 if out of the encroaching fands, and purpofed (hortly to remove it to the oppofite fliore of a lake, called Mal-- 

 lochdearg, which lay behind the houfe, iu defpair of being able to maintain his prefent fituation. 



Adifputed. 



