possess the material means that are nowadays found necessary for the successful progress of states.

I made two excursions from Belfast, one to visit the ancient druidical monument, called the Giant's Ring, the other to see Lough Neagh and Antrim.

The Giant's Ring is about four Irish miles from Belfast, and lies in the course of the river Logan. It consists simply of a huge green circular mound, with a broken cromlech within it. It is of great size, the circle being 200 paces, or nearly 600 feet in diameter, and the mound probably 30 or 40 feet high, and double that extent in thickness at its base. It is richly verdant, and has altogether a beautiful and romantic aspect, being situated on a gentle sloping hill of no great height. The upper or flat stone of the cromlech is thrown from off its level, but it is still supported by ten upright stones.

The town of Antrim lies about 13 Irish miles to the north-east of Belfast, but by the railway it is nearly one third more, as a large circuit is made towards Carrickfergus. The country traversed by the railway is all fertile and well cultivated, with much of that look of England noticed between Larne and Carrickfergus. I went on as far as the small town of Randalstown, about four miles beyond Antrim, in order to have a better view of Lough Neagh, the principal object of my journey. Randalstown is a small country town, with a population in 1841 of 588; and in 1851 of 749. It

is one of the old Irish boroughs, but looks as if it had been built the other day. And, indeed, this is nearly true, since it has been almost renovated of late years by its patron and proprietor, Lord O'Neill, whose beautiful demesne of Shane's Castle borders the town.

By walking about a couple of miles to the high grounds beyond the town, I obtained a full view of the lake; and different views were afterwards obtained from its own shores at Shane's Castle, and nearer the town of Antrim: but I must confess that all I saw of Lough Neagh disappointed me. It has the fatal demerit of being surrounded by shores almost as flat and level as itself, so that whencesoever you look upon it, you have little else presented to you but a sea-like expanse of water, bounded, near you, by dull featureless banks, and closed in at a short distance by a mere linear horizon. Had it bold shores to overlook it, or neighbouring mountains to relieve its tameness, its vast extent would give it all the grandeur which can attach to an inland sea; it being no less than fifteen or sixteen Irish miles long, and nearly half as broad, and covering an area, it is said, of nearly 100,000 acres.

Lough Neagh is said to be nearly as large as the lake of Geneva, and is only exceeded in Europe, by that lake, and by the lakes of Lodoga in Russia and Vener in Sweden. Unluckily for the legend made so charming a use of by Moore, in one of

his melodies, it is almost the only lake in Ireland from whose "banks" the fishermen could not see "the round towers of other days in the wave beneath him shining," even if they were there. But I presume, for "banks" we ought to read "boat," in prose.

The demesne or Park of Lord O'Neill, is beautifully situated on both sides of the river Main, and extends full two miles from north to south, that is, from Randalstown to the northern shore of the Lough; and the same distance from east to west, along the shore towards Antrim. It is, however, obnoxious to the charge, so often made in these pages, against the demesnes of the aristocracy of Ireland, of being rather a forest than a park: you literally cannot see the park for trees.

Shane's Castle, a splendid old building situated on the very edge of the Lough, was destroyed by fire in 1816, and is now a mere fragmentary mass, the proprietor having since resided in a small lodge near the old stables. The imposing character of the old castle must have wonderfully improved the views on this part of the shore; and I dare say from its lofty battlements the lake itself must have assumed a grandeur which it never can present without some such artificial aid.

Adjoining the grounds of Shane's Castle, is the demesne of Lord Massarene, with its spacious mansion, called Antrim Castle, lying close to the town of the same name. This castle has the misfortune

to be built on a perfect flat, and though so near it, has no view of Lough Neagh, owing to the intervention of trees-these false idols of Irish lords and lairds. The house has a very plain exterior, but can boast of splendid rooms beautifully furnished, and of grounds charmingly laid out in the artificial or French style.

The town of Antrim is a neat-enough small place, consisting principally of two straggling streets stretching along the roads that intersect it. Including its suburb, Massarene, it had a population of 2645 in 1841, and of 2323 in 1851.

There are four churches in the town, one for each of the four denominations into which the county is chiefly divided-English, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Wesleyan. In 1834, the inhabitants of the whole parish were divided as follows, and probably the same proportional division would still hold good English Churchmen, 750; Presbyterians, 3421; other Protestant Dissenters, 120; Roman Catholics, 1252.

Teetotalism, though much fallen off, still holds fair ground here, there being about one hundred professors still remaining in the town.

The country around Antrim is richly cultivated. About a mile out of town, at a place called Steeple, there is a Round Tower in the grounds belonging to the house of a private country gentleman, in a state of perfect preservation. It is 95 feet high, and

Its

about 53 feet in circumference near its base. door is about 12 or 14 feet from the ground, and has an imperfect figure of a cross sculptured above it. The top of this tower, like that at Monasterboice, was shattered by lightning, and like that at Devenish, has been since restored to its original form. One of its sides is covered, nearly to the top, by ivy.

It is the only tower seen by us in Ireland, that is not attached to ruins of some kind, commonly the ruins of ecclesiastical buildings. This stands in the midst of Mr. Clarke's shrubbery, and there are no indications of any ancient buildings near it. The former presence of a church, or at least of a burial-ground, on the spot is, however, conjectured from the fact told us by Mr. Clarke's gardener, that human bones in considerable quantity are often dug up close to it.

There is a fine workhouse here, beautifully situated on high ground a little way out of the town.