forced to slide down a sort of thatch, composed of furze, long grass, and juniper. St. Donard, a disciple of St. Patrick, is said to have spent the life of a hermit on this mountain, and built a cell or oratory on the top of it towards the close of the fifth century." Near the summit are the remains of two rude edifices, where in "old times," on the Saint's patron day, the peasantry used to assemble in throngs to do penance and pay their devotions. "A deep, narrow vale divides Sliev Donard from Sliev Snaven, or the Creeping Mountain, so called because it must be climbed in a creeping posture; and through this vale winds a pretty serpentine stream, which discharges itself into the sea to the eastward of the mountains. The Creeping Mountain stands to the south-west of this stream, and presents to the view a huge rock, resembling at a distance an old fortification, very high, overhanging, and detached, as it were, from the eastern side of the mountain. After rain a stream rushes from the west side of the rock, which shooting from the top, falls in a large cascade; to the east of which is a vast natural cave, affording an entrance as wide as the cave itself. This frightful chamber is lined with fern, grass, and several other mountain plants, and inhabited by a vast number of hawks, jackdaws, owls, &c., and at the further end of it the light breaks in through natural crevices. To the left of this you climb up through a very narrow passage to the top of the rock, and arrive at one of the most beautiful, most magnificent, and romantic spots that can well be conceived. You there find that the rock mentioned is only the ad vanced part of a large shelf, which projects at about half the height of the mountain with a sweep, and leaves the space of about two acres on the top. Round the north-west, the west, and south of this area, the mountain rises to a great height, and stands like a vast wall; the area itself is almost round, and slopes gently from all sides towards the middle, where is formed a beautiful circular lake, as clear as crystal. To the west you see the rocky top of Sliev Beingan, to the east Sliev Donard's stately cone, and in front the ocean and the Isle of Man. There are several verdant vales to be met with in the deserts among the mountains, which, by the help of due culture, would be exceedingly fruitful. There is a remarkable flat rock on the top of a mountain here, called by the natives Sephin, through which springs up transparent water, without any perceptible fissure, which never fails, even in the warmest seasons."

QUAY OF ROSSTREVOR.

AVING once more reached the road at Woodhouse, you enter a deeply-shaded way, where the road is completely overshadowed by the closely interwoven branches of the trees, and thus you proceed, under a waving canopy of spreading oak, to the little Quay of Rosstrevor, of which M'Kewen gives a very characteristic sketch, which Gilks has no less faithfully rendered in his engraving at page 30. It is a

pier, jutting out into the Bay, almost from the base of the mountain, to which vessels of 100 tons could come; but as Rosstrevor carries on no trade, only an

occasional fishing smack, pleasure yacht, or schooner with coals, enters. It is surrounded by about a dozen of well-built houses. Extending from the Quay to the Town, is the Park, well-filled with venerable oaks, gigantic sycamores, and mighty elms, in which stands the Lodge, the summer residence of David Robert Ross, Esq., M.P., for Belfast, and owner of Rosstrevor. This is a plain but spacious building, with quite a pastoral and sylvan air, unornamented, save with eglantine, honeysuckle, wild roses, and creeping ivy, which almost cover the front, and give it a rustic and pleasing appearance. David Robert Ross, Esq., M.P., is the son of the late Rev. Thomas Ross. He was born in

1797, and in 1819, married Harriet Knox, daughter of Bishop Knox (of Limerick), and grand daughter of the first Earl of

Ranfurly. He was formerly in the Dragoons, and is a Deputy-Lieutenant of the County Down. Stood for Belfast on the liberal interest in 1841; returned in 1842, after voidance of that election. Holds liberal opinions on most subjects, and has always been favourable to those free trade principles adopted by Sir R. Peel's late administration. He is a member of the Reform Club, and has filled the office of chairman with the greatest credit to himself, and satisfaction to that numerous and influential body.

"Mr. Ross is a gentleman of extensive and multifarious attainments in belles lettres; and on all questions affecting the mercantile and commercial policy of the empire he also possesses a solidity of information, and a readiness in turning it to account, which fit him, with peculiar propriety, to represent a great trading community like Belfast. He does not often address the house; but when he does so, he is always listened to with attention and respect, because he makes it a point never to speak on any subject with which he is not well acquainted, and to the understanding of which, either in its general or particular bearings, he is not able to contribute something worth listening to. It is, however, in select committees of the House of Commons, that his business habits and promptitude are most apparent; and hence his assistance is sought with avidity by all conversant with the nature of the details before these tribunals, and who alone can rightly estimate the value of a member qualified as Mr. Ross is. His services in connexion with the railroads belonging to the County Down have been most valuable; and it is not a little owing to his active participation in the directorship of the Ulster Railway, that that line has become so remarkable for the excellence of its management, and has thereby so much contributed to the conviction in England, that capital embarked in well chosen undertakings of this nature in Ireland, must ultimately yield large returns."

It would be exceedingly easy to elaborate the slight allusion to Mr. Ross, made, in the foregoing extract from Mrs. S. C. Hall, into a lengthened panegyric on that gentleman's worth as a landlord, without at all exceeding the bounds of literal and simple truth. But it will best suit our purposes, as guides to strangers

rather than as historians for residents, if we express our complete acquiescence in the annexed passage from the record of a desultory trip made a couple of years ago, viz. :-" It would be inexcusable, in this brief notice of Rosstrevor, to omit to mention, that the attractions of the resident society of the neighbourhood are very considerable, and such only as good society in Ireland can offer. The principal landowner is Mr. Ross, M.P., a relative of General Ross, who fell at Baltimore, in 1814, and to whose memory a handsome monument is here erected. The family bear a most estimable character with rich and poor, gentle and simple; and Mr. Ross's zeal in the advancement of the welfare of the locality in which his property is situate, constitutes him an undoubtedly popular good landlord. We heartily congratulate him on the vast augmentation in value his land must experience from the rapid and certain improvement of Newry. No man in his station deserves it better, and none will enjoy his increased blessings less selfishly, or with a warmer desire that those around him should participate in them."

Since the foregoing passage was written, an Act was obtained (July 8th, 1846) for the construction of a railway from Newry, through Warrenpoint, to Rosstrevor; a project whose excellence was proverbial through all the late vicissitudes in this description of investment, and one notoriously recognised as the most promising of any in Ireland, next to the Dublin and Kingston, to which it bears a great resemblance in distance, character of construction, and extraordinary and almost incredible amount of passenger traffic.

ROSSTREVOR.

E now enter famed Rosstrevor, containing about 200 well-built houses, cottages, and villas, many fitted out for bathers who flock to it in the season. Here merchants, lawyers, and others of the wealthy classes, who tread on the heels of the aristocracy, retire to spend the evening of their days, in the calm seclusion of this romantic retreat. It is

highly fashionable in summer and autumn for the gentry of Ulster, and even of Leinster, and ere long will be so to many

ROSSTREVOR.

from far greater distances. It is bounded on the one side by the thickly wooded Sliev Bân and other mountains, and on the other by the softer captivation of cultivated slopes and rich meadow holms, covered with plaintains, and studded with elegant villas.

A late graphic writer says of Rosstrevor, "The landscape is bounded in like a beautiful picture, and the variations of the scenery heighten and relieve each other. The rugged and heathy tops of the mountains are finely contrasted with the rich meadow-lands that skirt their sides and bases-the dark wood with the blue waters-and the massive ruins of other days with the lighter architecture of modern times."

There is no trade and no bustle here. Many of the houses on the seaward side turn their backs upon the street, and front the delicious sea

breeze. It has,

altogether,

an

aristocratic and exclusive appearance; still it is a

spot of surpassing attraction. Near the centre of the town, between the main

street and the shore, stood formerly the massive Castle of

Rory M'Gennis, a kinsman of one of the Lords of Iveagh, who formerly owned this region, and to whom Rosstrevor owes its origin. In his day, Rosstrevor was called Castle Roe, or Rory, after its founder; but in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it passed into the hands of Sir Marmaduke Whitchurch, who changed its name to Rose Trevor. The cause of that change will be found detailed in the following legendary fragment, the possession of which we do not feel ourselves called upon to account for. We have taken no liberties with the MS., save to modernize the orthography. The hypercritic will object to the grandiloquence