April 7, 1SG3. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



261 



A FEW DAYS IN IRELAND. 



LYONS. 



Fig. 1. — Flower Garden at Lyons. 



MANSION | 



Fi b -. 2.— Plan of Panel. 



H 



MIXED BORDER 



BEEADTH 5G F T 



MIGM OIMETTE 



- Tases. 



Irish Yews at the comers of grass. 

 Ill Statuary. 



CRASS 



J 



This very elegant and classic residence of Lord Cloricurry is 

 twelve miles from Dublin and two miles from the station of 

 Hazelhatcb, on the Great Southern and Western Railway. The 

 mansion is very handsome, consisting of a centre and wings 

 connected together by colonnades, and is much celebrated for its 

 rich collection of paintings and its gallery of fine statuary. We 

 arrived at Lyons from Straffan by a beautiful approach, but too 

 late in the afternoon to be able to note and appreciate all its dis- 

 tinctive beauties, or to examine and be delighted with the great 

 improvements of superior cultivation and effective drainage 

 accomplished and being carried on in the various farms of more 

 than one thousand acres in all. The noble owner spares no 

 pains, labour, or expense in this direction, and gives a lesson 

 and an example of true patriotism by living almost constantly 

 among his own people, and assisting every effort that has a 

 tendency to elevate them in comfort and social respectability. 



The site of the mansion is an elevated platform, but the whole 

 surroundings with their rich plantations being somewhat level, 

 no views of consequence can be obtained from it, unless on the 

 flower-garden front, where after passing over an oblong flower 

 garden 650 feet in length by 198 feet in breadth, which slopes 

 down to a noble clear late of forty acres, the eye rests on the 

 beautiful hill of Lyons on the opposite side of the lake, which rises 

 to the height of 680 feet, and from the top of which fine views 

 must he obtained of the surrounding rich level country. Erom 

 the flower garden glimpses are obtained of massive ruins on the 

 side of the hill, the remains of an old castle or monastery, and 

 possessing an extra interest as being near to the burial place of 

 the family. We could not help thinking how imposing, nay, 

 almost how impregnable, a castle situated on the top of such a 

 hill would have been in the days of raids and forays, when 

 might was considered to be more than three parts out of the 



