which they tell me is the size of a church, at least in circumference. I never succeeded in mounting even an ordinary-sized eminence without difficulty, through giddiness of head. Vinegar Hill, which would be a microscopic object beside these Mourne mountains, almost baffled me; but my heart is set on this exploit, and I fully expect to achieve it. There is a prospect of unequalled magnificence, I am told, from the summit of Donard, embracing, besides, an immense tract of Irish scenery, the mountains of Scotland, Cumberland, and Wales: and as the weather is brilliant we expect a noble view. At all events, there will be more to brag of in having attempted Slieve Donard, than in walking over the crown of any height I have elsewhere beheld.

LETTER IX.

COUNTY DOWN.

Tollymore Park. THE period of my happy sojourn here is now well nigh expired; and I must give you the particulars of our excursion while yet I may raise my eye from the paper to the lofty subject of the tale. There he rises, with his head just unveiled from a dense cloud, the sunshine striking brilliantly upon its nicely-rounded point, and imparting a smile that seems to add another to the many joyous looks which have brightened the whole district for the last two or three days. I might, to be sure, have told you all this in four words-Lord Roden is here. But though you have witnessed, aye, and ardently joined in the burst of welcoming plaudits that greet him in Exeter Hall, you can form no idea of the quiet yet brilliant sunniness that is shed on his own family, his own household,

his own tenants and poor neighbours, by the presence of one whom the Lord has given to be a blessing wherever he goes. Oh that every mountain in dear Ireland had a Tollymore Park at its foot; and every cabin a Roden to care for its poor inmates! I have long appreciated his character, nay, venerated it: but one must see his very face reflected in the sparkling eyes of his own people to know how they prize him. And whose testimony shall be taken before that of the poor creatures who are taught by their spiritual guides that to love such a heretic is a sin: to hate and to injure him, a step heavenwards: yet who would give their lives for him any day or hour.

This digression was occasioned by a glimpse of my noble host, passing down to his favourite sawmill. And now for Sleive Donard in earnest. Our party, as I told you, was very youthful: my own particular beau, Mr. Hill, being somewhat under twelve years, his sisters not much older, and only one besides myself come to years of grave discretion-an English lady, who had before accomplished the ascent, as had Lady Maria, and all but W. and myself. We started most merrily, some on a car and the rest in a phaeton, and dashed quickly through the pretty little town of Newcastle. Here we found ourselves with the sea spreading broadly on our right, and on the left the

beginning of an ascent that it really seemed chimerical to attempt atchieving. We had wound along the foot of the Black Mountain, and arrived where nothing but Slieve Donard appeared, heaving a broad shoulder towards the sea, and raising his tonsured head above it at a most forbidding altitude. Nothing daunted, however, we made our arrangements, burdened the guide with an enormous basket of provisions, and wheedled a little bare-headed, bare-footed goosoon to carry our cloaks and shawls. The first stage was very unpleasant an iron rail-road formed to conduct heavy loads of stone from a quarry above, tried both patience and shoe-leather in no ordinary degree. I quite longed to reach the heathery region above; and was not a little encouraged by a very common deception occasioned by the disappearance of the actual crown of the hill behind that which rose so steeply before us. Laborious it certainly must be, but not so unattainable as at first it had seemed; and after protracted efforts, with frequent applications to the reviving waters of a most lovely rill that fell, rather than ran down the mountain side, we seemed to near the object of our anticipations. The prevailing impression on my mind was that I had at length discovered the full meaning of two words-fatigue and hunger for the freshening air, which by

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means of our drapery impeded our progress not a little, gave such an edge to the appetite, that I think the prospect of Mike's basket as he trudged in the van, that is, over our heads, drew me onward with attractive force. Certainly I would not then have bartered my expected share of its contents for the fee-simple of all the hills of Mourne. When next you are troubled with a failure of appetite, do not apply to the doctor until you have tried the effect of an altitude of fifteen hundred feet, attained by your own exertions on a blowing day, just over the sea.

But the top was so near! Mike shortly disappeared over it, and after a rest of a few minutes we followed. It was one of the most startling discoveries that ever poor worn-out traveller made. We had indeed gained the highest point, not of Slieve Donard's head, but of his shoulder; and there rose the formidable dome, for such it exactly appeared and probably is in shape, its sides presenting seemingly a surface of rude rock, a little interspersed with vegetation. You had better remain here while we go forward,' was the kind suggestion; and one at least offered to stay with me; but the downward view convinced me that we had reached an immense height; and as the clouds gathered quickly over us, I thought it better to bide a mountain storm under the shelter of the