3J0 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
improved country ; I fay, whether mired and acknowledged; who
ue take in at one view all this en- being afked what he thought of
chanting fcencry, or llop to admire this feat, immediately anlwered,
the particular beauties of the feat that the French monarch might
jtfelf, we Hiall Hnd fufficient mat- pofTibly be able to ereft another
ter for pleafure and admiration. Verfailles, but could not with all
The natural appearance of this his revenues lay out another Mu-
place, before it was adorned by crufs.
2ny improvement, was that of a ]uxurianl garden, whore a great variety of trees and flirubs, the pro- duce only of a more favourable clime, flourifhed rpontaneoully, as the arbutus, juniper, yew, buck- thorn, fervice, and others, found growing among the crevices of marble rocks; the feed?, and ori- ginal plantation of which I fufpeCl to have been laid here, many ccn-
The gardens of this feat extend to the ruins of an ancient friery called Irrelagh, /. e. on the lough, founded by Donald, fon of Thady Mac Carty, in the year 1440, for Minorites, or conventual Fran- cifcans, and repaired by him in 1468, the year of his death. It was again re-edified in the year 1602, but foon after fufFered to go to ruin. The walls are fur-
turies ago, by the monks of the rounded by a venerable grove of adjacent abbeys; where, meeting afh- trees, which are very tall, and with a foil and climate A^vourable in fome places grow fpontaneoufly.
to their prefervation and propaga- tion, they have wonderfully flou- liQied ever f;nce, without any aflift- ance from art.
Thefe natural gardens, there- fore, wanted little aiiillancc- to beau- tify them, except an enclofure to-
from the ruins of the abbey. The choir, nave, and fleeple, ftill re- main entire, in which are feveral decayed tombs. The cloylters are likcwife entire, in which are feve- ral Gothic arches of folid marble, which inclofe a fmall fquare, in
wards the land, and the lopping the center of which Hands one of away part of their luxuriance, to the talleft yew-trees I have ever form avenues and walks through feen ; its fpreading branches, like them, befides the addition of fuch a great umbrella, overfhadow the exotics as have been but of late nitties of the whole cloylter, form- years introduced into Ireland; ing a more folemn and aweful kind among which therehave been plant- of covering to it, than originally ed a confiderable number of vines, belonged to the place. The lleeple which are now fpreading their was fmall, and capable of con- branches, and crawling up feveral taining only a lingle bell ; and it iloping rocks of variegated marble, is fupported by a Gothic arch or
It was, indeed, an handfome compliment which was paid to this place, by a late Right Rev. Pre- late*, whofe high tafte in the beauties of art and nature, as well as goodnefs of heart, and folid
vault. The bell was, not many years ago, found in the adjacent lough, and by the infcription, was known to have belonged to this priory, which from the time ot its foundation, hach been the ce-
learning, all the world equally ad- metery of the Mac Carty-Mores,
- Dr. Berkley, the late BifHop of Cloyne.
and
