quarries at some distance, appear to be only abortive attempts towards the production of a phenomenon like the great Causeway.

Some of the pillars are enriched with mosses; and are alternately illuminated by the sun's rays, and darkened by the clinging masses of foliage: the prospect is so fairy-like, that it appears beyond the jurisdiction of the pencil. The marks of volcanoes in this part of the country afford exercise to the wild theories of geologists.

One supposes the Causeway to be a current of lava, which had been suddenly cooled by the sea, and thus was made to assume regular forms! Dr. Hutton supposes that the lava was first fused in the bowels of the earth, where it remained consolidated, till the expansive force of subterranean fire, sent it to the surface. Dr. Kirwan, who is always dreaming of aqueous solution, says that the material of which the Causeway is formed, was "split into columns by desiccation," Really this is the rankest nonsense that was ever put in print; but I have not patience to notice any other of these wild and visionary hypotheses--Credat Judæus Apella!

Among the vast perpendicular precipices, there is a fountain called the Giants' Well, which contains iron in abundance. The Giants' Organ consists of a certain number of pillars, which, like the front of an organ, become gradually smaller at the top, and stand in single file with astonishing regularity. The

people in the neighbourhood have got it in their heads, that the giants of old built the Causeway, and they show strangers a fragment of rock, where they imagine the king of the giants sat very majestically observing his men at work!

LETTER XXVII.

The chariest maid is prodigal enough,
If she unmask her beauty to the moon. Hamlet.

Dublin, June 1st, 1819.

I arrived here in one day in the coach from Belfast. Near Lisburn, (where I am told Mr. Oliver, of Baltimore, 's parents reside,) I took a birds' eye view of the Marquis of Hertford's estate, which consists of 75,000 acres of land. His lordship is, like Cassio,

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"A fellow almost damned in a fair wife."

You will recollect that the Marchioness is the reputed bonne amie of the Prince Regent, to whom she is resigned by her very complaisant husband! Near Newry, I saw the famous canal which connects Lough Neagh with the Carlingford bay and sea. We passed through the county of Down, in which the Marquis of Londonderry possesses a considerable estate. His son, Lord Castlereagh, is a member of Parliament from this county. This political

miscreant is the object of execration to every man who dares to think for himself. Oh! if such a reptile is allowed to annoy his country with impunity, if such a bad man shall have it in his power to do deeds of oppression which make humanity shudder, what avails the parade of laws, where is the Constitution so often vaunted, the freedom of the subject, the boasted liberty of the British nation? "It is when basking in the sun-shine of unmerited fortune, (says Burke,) that low, sordid, ungenerous and reptile souls swell with their hoarded poisons; it is then that they display their odious splendour, and shine out in the full lustre of their native villainy and baseness!"

In Louth, we stopped at Dundalk, a considerable market town, consisting of one long street. The crowd was as great as if there had been the execution of some great criminal. The whole appeared more like a fair than a market; but had no resemblance to that rural sport which the French call fete. The last town of any consequence we traversed was Drogheda, situated on the river Boyne. This is an antiquated town, exhibiting many interesting objects, which I had not time to visit in detail. Drogheda was taken and re-taken several times, and particularly by Oliver Cromwell, who put all the inhabitants to the sword. Near the Boyne was fought the celebrated battle so fatal to James II. We arrived at Dublin early in the evening, and I put up at the Moira in Sackville street.

Dr. M'Cabe, a young Irishman with whom I travelled from Belfast, having requested me to accompany him to a public masquerade, I went in the humble dress in which I had walked through the Highlands. In fact, I had sent my trunk from Edinburgh to my banker at Liverpool, and I did not think it worth while to imitate Briggs in Cecilia, that is, change clothes with some fellow even shabbier than myself! The novelty of the scene, and the bounding vivacity of the motley throng, were very amusing. Lord and Countess Talbot were pointed out to me; the latter was glittering in a harness of diamonds. The rapid succession of figures, the variety of masks and dresses, the ludicrous mixture of groups, and the incongruity of manner and language, afforded the successive pleasures of novelty. Soon the rooms were crowded with the motley throng, and the masqueraders appeared in constant employment. After squeezing myself incog. through a phalanx of conjurers, shepherdesses, fauns, oyster-wenches and Circassians, I hurried into a corner, where I hoped to look on in quiet. I found myself near a Spaniard, elegantly attired and resplendent with jewels; but he exhaled so powerful an odour of musk, and smelt so rankly sweet, that I was nearly suffoIcated. Indeed I have always had a particular aversion to a perfumed fop:

"His odoriferous attempts to please,
Perhaps might prosper with a swarm of bees!"

Having walked off from Don Musk, who recalled to mind the pastillos olens Rufillus of Horace, I got a seat in a snug recess, where I enjoyed the animated prospect, which every moment gave me additional subjects of amusement. As I gazed on the throng, busy in trifles, the fancy dresses of no meaning and the total want of consistency, I exclaimed to my friend who joined me in my corner," this is the progress and issue of human wishes! nursed by the merest trifles, they are kindled by a spark from fancy, and are fed upon the vapour of fashion-till they consume the substance which they inflame, and poor mistaken man, with his hopes, his guilty passions and desires, sinks into a worthless heap of embers and ashes." This is really a fine time to moralize, observed M'Cabe; "cur in theatrum, Cato severe, venisti?" We were interrupted by the appearance of an elegant Niobe, who did not, however, appear to be "all tears." We were

both struck with the beautiful form, the graceful demeanour and splendid dress of this airy figure. She walked into the next room, where I pursued her as she made her way through a long vista of dominos. At length, she sate down on a sofa, where I followed her, and gazed at her unperceived. Thinking that she was no longer the object of attention, she removed her mask, and displayed one of the loveliest faces I ever beheld: at length, said I, there is