66 BLACK ROCK CASTLE, NEAR CORK. The beauties, the properties, and valuable qualities of the river Lee, the Illustrator has elsewhere and frequently attempted to delineate. The exquisite scene upon that river now presented, embraces a prospect of the richest kind: in the distance, the sloping wooded bank, studded with magnificent villas, the retreats of the wealthy citizens of Cork, and Black Rock Castle, " lymphis iratis extructa," with the animating accompaniments of shipping composing the foreground, produce a simple and a beautiful composition. A castle, or rather watch-tower, was raised on the Black Rock, early in the reign of James the First, by the Lord Mountjoy, for the protection of the river. The corporation expended the sum of £296 upon the then existing tower, in the year 1722, and constructed within it a handsome octagonal apartment, the windows of which command an exquisite prospect of the river from Passage to Cove. The mayors of Cork, as Admirals of the Harbour, hold their Courts of Admiralty in this Castle, which has lately been touched by the magic wand of Mr. Payne, who succeeded in converting one ruinous old tower into the present picturesque and chaste specimen of ornamental defensive architecture. COVE HARBOUR, COUNTY CORK. On the bold shore of the "great Island," under which is the roadstead for vessels of war, the town of Cove is erected. Before it lies, in almost continued tranquillity, the noblest natural harbour in Europe. The precaution of our ancestors to prevent the intrusion of the stranger, by the fortifications upon Hawlboline and Spike Islands, has made a due impression on the present generation. The Island of Hawlboline, to the left of the shipping, presents a most impregnable front; it was fortified in the year 1601, by the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, but vast accessions have since been made to its capabilities and powers of offence and defence. Hawlboline confers a second benefit, more valuable than the preceding, upon the harbour of Cove; it acts as a breakwater, to protect vessels, lying at anchor under Cove, from any the least damage resulting from the ebb and flow of tide. Such an effective position is happily described in the verses of the Mantuan bard. "Within a deep recess there lies a bay, An island shades it from the rolling sea, THOMOND-GATE BRIDGE, LIMERICK CITY. The ancient City of Limerick is seated upon the noble river Shannon, the Thames of Ireland, and is a flourishing commercial place; it consists of two distinct parts, called the Irish and English Towns, the latter occupying King's Island, formed by the separation of the waters of the Shannon, to which may be added Newtown Perry, built on the east bank of the river, after a design of the Right Hon. Edmund Sexton Perry, whose descendants now enjoy the title of Earls of Limerick. IRELAND. U |