| The scenery round the bay is every way extremely beautiful. To the north is the Hill of Howth, with the little islands or rocks of Lambay and Ireland's Eye, the village of Clontarf, and a number of delightful villas scattered about. To the south are the villages of Blackrock, Dunleary, Dalkey, Monkstown, Bullock, and others, running in succession along the shore, with the Wicklow mountains in the back-ground, among which Bray-head and two conical summits called the Sugar-loaves are the most conspicuous; while in the centre, though seen at a distance, lies the city of Dublin itself. Yet when the extent of the bay is considered, it must appear obvious that the bolder features of the landscape alone can be very distinguishable, looking from the centre; that to obtain an accurate idea of the minuter, it would be necessary to coast round it. [Footnote: “The annexed view over the bay is taken from a house in the North Strand, one of the intended new streets in Dublin, of which only five or six houses are yet built. I am indebted for it to my good friend Mr. C… with whom I went to Ireland: living in one of these houses, he was struck with the view and sketched it. It presents a different view of the bay from any hitherto given to the public.”] This bay is often compared with the bay of Naples, and is generally considered as yielding in beauty to that alone. Never having been at Naples, I cannot judge of them by comparison: but beautiful as I think Dublin bay, I must prefer to it one which I had previously seen, the bay of Toulon, and another which I did not see till afterwards, the bay of Belfast, or, as it is more commonly called, Belfast lough. Toulon bay has always appeared to me one of the most enchanting scenes that the imagination can picture to itself, and, from being much less extensive than the bay of Dublin, every object around is distinctly seen from the centre, or even from shore to shore. The same may be said of Belfast lough; the scenery round is equally beautiful with that round Dublin bay, and the shores approaching so much nearer to each other, though it runs as far inland, every object is seen clearly and distinctly. But the bay of Toulon has one great and decided advantage over any thing in these northern climes, in the brilliancy which the delicious sun of Provence casts over // all its scenery: this gives landscapes of that country a superiority of which those who have been accustomed only to our atmosphere, loaded as it too commonly is with vapours, can scarcely form an idea. [pp. 12-13] |
