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Amid the fands between Portrufh and Dunluce, in the county 

 of Antrim, in the year 1 783, the ruins of a village might be feeh, 

 deferted by its inhabitants, who had been obliged to move further 

 into the country. 



In the year 1787 the peninfula of Hornhcad, in the county of 

 Donegal, contained veftiges of enclofures, fo fmall, and fo nu- 

 merous, as to mark the refidence of a confiderable number of 

 human families, in a fpot which then exhibited nothing, but 



" a defert, fait and bare, 



•' The haunt of feals and ores, and fea-mews clang." 



Milton. 



Somewhat about a century ago the peninfula of RofsguH, 

 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 Hainilton, titled Boyne, It is to be prefumed there was 

 then but little apprehenfion that the elegant edifice of that age 

 fliould, after the fliort interval of an hundred years, fland, like 

 Tadmor of the Eaft, the folitary wonder of a furrounding 

 defert. 



For the age wherein it was built, and the flyle of architedlure 



of that day, the manfion of Rofeapenna may be called elegant. 



The approach was from a level green on the fhore, through a 



fucceflion of embattled courts, and hanging terraces, rifing in order 



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



defign and workmanfliip. 



The 



