MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 323
that mountain ; but hills which are conical, and terminated in points, sppear higher at a diftance, than thofe mountains which have a large furface on their tops: as fteeples, which are terminated by fpires, feem to be higher than thofe covers ed with domes, the points of the former being, as it were, more hid, and loft in the atmcfphere, than the other. They are fteeper than Mangerton, and have more terrible precipices, and declivities'; fo that it was in a manner impoflible to determine the height by the baro- meter. On the v/eft fide of that mountain, is a large and deep hole, filled with water, which they call the Devil's puach bowl: it over- flow?, and makes an agreeable cafcade, down the fide of the moun- tain, in view of Mucrufs-houfe, the feat of Edward Herbert, Efq; by opening a large cut on the fide of this bafon, there would be a broader, more conflant and nobler fiipplyof water, which might afford a beautiful cataraft for thegreatefi part of the year. This water fupplies the mills for the iron v.'orks, and then fails into Lough- lane, which beautiful lake I am now about to defcribe. One of the beft profpefts which it affords, is on a rifmg ground near the ruined cathedral of Aghadoe: not but there are many other fine views of it from every other fide, but few of them take in fo many par- ticulars as may be obferved from that Ration. For from hence is to he feen, one of the moft delicious landfcapes in Ireland : and perhaps, few countries in Eurcpe afford better. But this is fuch a mal^er- piece, that even the Pouffms, Sal- vator Rofa, or the mofl eminent painter in that way, might here furnifhhimfelfwithfufiicient matter, y 2 aot
having their principal and fubfer- vient maffes.
This is the fubftance of what I learnt during my flay in China, partly from my own obfervation,but chiefly from the leffons ofLepqua. And from what has been faidit may be inferred, that the art of laying out grounds after the Chinefe man- ner is exceedingly difHcult, and not to be attained by perfons of narrow intellefts: for though the precepts are fimple and obvious, yet the putting them in execution re- quires genius, judgment, and ex- perience, flrong imagination, and a thorough knowledgeof thehuman mind ; this method being fixed to no certain rule, but liable to as many variations as there are diffe- rent arrangements in the works of the creation.
Defcription cf Lough -lane, or the lake of Killarney, in the harony of MaguTiihy, in the county f Kerry, in Ireland, From Mr. Smith's ingenious account of th::.t county, lately printed at Dub- lin.
THE mountain of Mangerton, which f^ands fouth-eall of Lough-lane, is efteemed one of the higheft in this kingdom: by the experiment cf the barometer, its altitude was found to be one thoufand and twenty yards, perpen- dicular, above the lake of Killar- ney, which is confiderably higher than thefea; for that lake in dif- charging itfelf, runs a courfe of feme miles, and forms what is called the river Lane, before it joins the ocean. The mountains called the Reeks, which lie to the v/efiward of Mangerton, feem, by tha eye, to be rather higher than
