KILLARNEY. 95 



be felt more completely. The cloifters form a 

 difmal area, in the center of which grows the 

 moft prodigious yew tree I ever beheld, in one 

 great ftem, two feet diameter, and fourteen 

 feet high, from whence a vaft head of branches 

 fpreads on every fide, fo as to form a per feel: 

 canopy to the whole fpace ; I looked for its fit 

 inhabitant it is a fpot where 



'The moping owl doth to the moon complain. 



This ruin is in the true ftile in which all fuch 

 buildings fliould appear 5 there is not an in- 

 truding circumftance the hand of drefs has 

 not touched it melancholy is the impreflion 

 which fuch fcenes fhould kindle, and it is here 

 raifed moft powerfully. 



From the abbey we pafled to the ter- 

 rafs, a natural one of grafs, on the very 

 fhore of the lake -, it is irregular and wind- 

 ing ; a wall of rocks broken into fantaftic 

 forms by the waves : on the other fide, a wood, 

 confiding of all forts of plants, which the cli- 

 mate can protect,- and through which a variety 

 of walks are traced. The view from this ter- 

 rafs confifts of many parts of various charac- 

 ters, but in their different ftiles complete ; the 

 lake opens a fpreading iheet of water, fpotted 

 by rocks and iflands, all but one or two wood- 

 ed, the outlines of them are fharp anddiftinct; 

 nothing can be more milling than this fcene, 

 foft and mild, a perfect contraft of beauty to 

 the fublimity of the mountains which form the 



fhore : 



