comparatively recent erection.

It contains upwards of thirty beds, besides the coffee-room and other sitting-rooms. At the period of our visit every bed was occupied; a circumstance which shows how much the grand scenes amid which it is placed, are appreciated; as no other parties but visitors to the Causeway are likely to seek its hospitality; it being entirely out of the ordinary thoroughfares of travelling. The hotel is situated most conveniently for visitors, on the top of the cliff at the bottom of which the boats lie which are used in exploring the coast; and within a furlong of the Causeway itself.

Although there is no village on the spot, there are a sufficient number of scattered tenements in the neighbourhood to authorise the establishment of a school, which is situate almost at the door of the hotel. This school owes its origin and principal support, I believe, to Sir Edward M'Naghten, the largest resident proprietor in the neighbourhood. At the time of my visit there were about 50 children (boys and girls), on the books, with an average attendance of 30. Of the whole number, 7 were Catholics. The master has a salary of 401.

THE road from the Giant's Causeway to Ballycastle lies through a well-cultivated country, of variegated surface, but destitute of trees. Some of the farms near Bushmills, on the property of Sir Edward M'Naghten, are large, and in excellent order; sufficiently indicative of a foreign administration. Where the road comes within a near distance of the coast, or where it ascends sufficiently high to command a view of it, the sea and shore views are magnificent all along from Bengore to Fairhead, including the beautiful island of Rathlin, about three miles distant from the main shore.

Ballycastle is a neat little town, finely situated on the shore of a small bay of its own name, and near the foot of that beautiful symmetrical green mountain, Knocklade. The population in 1841 was 1697, and in 1851, 1669; showing a decrease of 28 in the ten years. But this is by no means a fair example of the decrease of population in the district generally; the whole barony (Cary) showing the

According to the testimony of the parish priest, there are still full 200 Temperance men in Ballycastle, although some years since the number had been much greater.

The carriage-road from Ballycastle on the northern shore to Cushendall on the eastern shore, takes a more direct and shorter course than that which follows the coast. It thus cuts off, as it were, the north-eastern corner of the island, and, with it, a considerable slice of its picturesque and romantic shore. The distance by the shorter road (the only one, by the way, passable for carriages,) from Ballycastle to Cushendall is about twelve miles. The first half of it leads through a wild moorland tract, here and there relieved by small patches of cultivation, but possessing nothing interesting until you reach its highest point, called Carey Mountain, from whence you have a fine view of the most northern part of Ireland (Tor Point), and, in clear weather, of the mountains of Scotland also.

After crossing this mountainous and barren tract, and descending about a mile or more on its eastern brow, we came suddenly upon a scene of a very different kind, the bright and beautiful valley of Glendun, lying deep below us between its two ranges of lofty hills. As we wound our crooked way downwards along the face of its north-western boundary, the glen gradually opened itself out more and more to us, stretching from the sea-village of Cushendun at its outer extremity, till it was lost

far upwards among the mountain ranges more inland. A conspicuous feature in the landscape before us, as we descended, was the magnificent viaduct which spans the glen with three arches at the height of 80 feet above the river. To cross this, the road runs a long way up the valley, and returns as far on the other side, before it strikes off towards Cushendall.

Whencesoever viewed, whether from the heights overlooking it, from the top of the viaduct, or from the mid-hill road on either side, this valley of Glendun cannot fail to strike the traveller as a scene of no common attraction; more especially if, like us, he comes suddenly and unexpectedly upon it, on a fine sunny day, from the barren and dreary wastes of the Cary Mountain. I know not whether it was from this enhancing cause or from its own intrinsic charms that Glendun struck me so forcibly; but certainly I felt interested by it beyond the measure of either its beauty or its grandeur. While looking on its secluding barriers, its quiet green pastures, its white cottages scattered about among the fields, its wooded depths by the river, now hiding, now disclosing the shining water, and, lastly, the partial gleam of the distant sea through the narrow vista of its hills,-I could not help feeling that I saw before me one of those pregnant scenes which so readily inspire the minds of the young with some of the dearest of their waking dreams, making them think and say with the youthful poet :

"If there's peace to be found in the world,

The heart that is humble might hope for it here.”

Turning off at right angles from the line of the glen, through a winding gap in its south-eastern boundary, we once more entered on a wild and barren tract; but this gradually softened down into cultivation as we approached the small town of Cushendall, which lies on the river Dall about a quarter of a mile or less from the sea. Cushendall is beautifully situated amid rocks and hills of the most romantic kind. The river forms a small creek as it opens into the bay, but there is no sufficient inlet to claim the name or perform the office of a harbour.

The population of the town, at the last census, was only 527, being 17 less than at the previous enumeration of 1841. And here, the decrease of population of the whole parish was nearly in the same proportion as that of the town; the falling off in the former in the same ten years being only 361, viz. from 4218 to 3857.

I was somewhat surprised to find this small town, in the midst of Antrim, so very Catholic. I was told that out of the whole population there were not more than 20 or 30 Protestant families. This statement seemed corroborated by the fact that the only National School of the place had a Catholic patron, and a Catholic master and mistress, and contained at the time of my visit only one Protestant. There is, however, a Protestant school in the village, but it was attended only by about 15

"