LIFE IN IRELAND 67 



didly confess myself unequal to the description upon 

 this occasion ; perhaps it shone with additional lustre. 

 The lofty Wicklow Mountains, alternately shaded with 

 the liveliest emerald green and russet brown, rising in 

 stupendous grandeur towards a sky unruffled by a single 

 cloud, the numerous magnificent seats and neat country 

 boxes sprinkled from their exalted summits to the 

 margin of a sea as smooth as glass and clear as crystal, 

 on which rode in naval pomp and national pride, the 

 royal squadron, and thousands of vessels of every 

 description, from the dashing yacht of Sir Shawn 

 O'DoGHERTY to the humble fishing-cobble of the 

 industrious nightly toiler upon the main, all filled from 

 the keel to the mast-head with holiday groups, eager to 

 give their King a loyal welcome to Paddy's Land. 



The Hill of Howth, covered with innumerable 

 spectators in their gayest attire, and flags and streamers 

 waving from every house and every steeple in country 

 and town, formed a coup de (xil never surpassed, and 

 worth all the coronation ceremonies ever witnessed in 

 London, where tinsel, foil, spangles, velvet, silk, sweat, 

 and dust are overpowering the hired and lazy adulators 

 who mingle in the homage due to a King, only because 

 it w^as an ancient custom to do so, and in which the 

 immediate sentiments of the heart have no share. 

 Here was a scene ; 



' The feast of Reason, and the flow of soul ' ; 



here was a sight which angels might exult to view, 

 a liberal and just King crowned by the approbation of 

 a grateful, loyal, and noble nation. Compared to this, 

 how poor every cut-and-dried ceremony, whether in the 



