| In another ride, Sir James gave me a view of that part of his domain which forms the promontory of Ross moor; coasted it, and crossed the hills: nothing can exhibit scenes of greater variety or more beauty. The islands on every side are of a different character; some are knots or tufts of wood, others shrubby. Here are single rocks, and there fine hills of lawn, which rise boldly from the water; the promontories form equal distinclions; some are of thick woods, which yield the darkest shade, others open groves, but every where the coast is high, and yields pleasing landscapes. From the east point of Ross moor, the scenery is truly delicious. The point of view is a high promontory of wood, lawn, &c. which projects so far into the lake as to give a double view of it of great extent. You look down a declivity on the lake which flows at your feet, and full in front is the wood of Ross a goul, at the extreme point of which is the temple: this wood is perfectly a deep shade, and has an admirable effect. At the other end it joins another woody promontory, in which the lawn opens beautifully among the scattered trees, and just admits a partial view of the house half obscured; carrying your eye a little more to the left, you fee three other necks of wood, which stretch into the lake, generally giving a deep shade, but here and there admitting the water behind the stems and through the branches of the trees; all this bounded by cultivated hills, and those backed by distant mountains. Here are no objects which you do not command distinctly: none that do not add to the beauty of the scene, and the whole forming a landscape rich in the assemblage of a variety of beauties. The other reach of the lake varying under Ross moor is a different scene, bounded by the mountains and rocks of Turaw: to the right these reaches join the lake, which opens a fine expanse of water spotted with islands. It is upon the whole a scene strikingly agreeable. Little of the sublime, but the very range of beauty, gaiety, and pleasure, are the characters of the spot; nature makes no efforts here but those to please; the parts are of extreme varieties, yet in perfect unison with each other. Even the rocks of Turaw have a mildness in their aspect, and do not break the general effect by abrupt or rugged projections. It was with regret I turned my back on this charming scene, the most beautiful at Caftle Caldwell, and the most pleasing I have any where seen. Rode round Ross a goul, the promontory in front of the house, from which the views are exceedingly beautiful, commanding a noble hanging wood on the banks of Ross moor, and the woody necks that stretch from the land beyond the house, with several islands, which give the greatest variety to the scene. On the point, Sir James has built an Octagon temple, which takes in several views that are exceedingly pleasing; this neck of land is a wood of 40 acres, and a more agreeable circumstance so near a mansion can scarcely be imagined. [p. 165] |
