interior. Adjoining the house is a fine conservatory, well filled with orange trees and other exotics; there are also in the demesne a variety of gardens, shrubberies, flower parterres, pheasantry, laundry-house, gamekeeper's lodge, fishing temple, boat-houses, farm-yard, with workshops, stables, &c. &c. Such are, however, but the ordinary acquisitions of a wealthy nobleman's abode. Rockingham affords gratifications more intellectual, more reflective; the enchanting scenery of the demesne, its extent of winding avenues, disclosing new beauties in every direction; lawns and groves, dales and uplands, magnificent trees, intersecting each other with their gigantic branches, and forming, in their over-archings, arcades and avenues of nature's grandest architecture; long reaches of canals, dividing the grounds and connecting the waters, over which ornamental bridges are thrown, in convenient and well-selected situations, as illustrated in one instance in the vignette title of this work; the lake, studded with wooded islands, consecrated by holy and historic ruins, while the enjoyment of these varied enchantments is throughout the more grateful as they are the willing source of permanent and extended employment to the poor and humbler classes of the vicinity, thus shedding back, with re-productive and impartial bounty, the comforts that had been from them derived.

This centre of attraction is always open to the public, with the most unreserved confidence; and even boats and men are by order attainable for those, who

may seek to navigate the lake. On its edge, near the house, is a neat structure, erected as a family chapel. It is seen at left of the castle, in the annexed engraving, but is now not used, as his Lordship prefers more exemplary attendance at the parochial church. The nearest island of Lough Ke, in this direction, is Castle Island, containing a rood and twenty-nine perches, which, with the exception of a small plot of ornamental ground near the landing, and a small inner court and garden, bounded by walls, is all covered with buildings. The castle upon it consists of one fine room, and some returns on the ground floor. This portion was of the original structure, erected in the commencement of the thirteenth century by the Mac Dermot of the Rock, Lord of Moylurg, and in the eight feet thickness of its walls testifies that it must have been raised as an impregnable military position for that once powerful tanist. The large room here now appears well lit by spacious windows at top, and an upper story, of similar sized apartments, but lighter materials, has been raised over the olden edifice, which, with various other alterations, directed by those who succeeded to the inheritance, have adapted it to the purposes of domestic life. Trinity Island, to the west of this, contains nearly two acres, tastefully laid out in shrubberies and walks. It takes its name from a monastery of White Canons of the order of St. Francis, there erected, and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The aisle of its ruin measures about forty-two yards by

nine, having handsome lancet windows, in good preservation, and a very remarkable piece of sculpture, called the shrine. This forms a pyramidal figure, the apex of which is composed of an oblong stone, about two feet and a half high, and eighteen inches broad, of moderate thickness. On it is carved, in strong relief, and wonderfully good preservation, a figure of the Blessed Virgin, representing her seated in a kind of chair, the side pillars being moulded in rings, and sustaining on her left arm the infant Jesus; a scroll is over her head, and she wears a crown of six points, while in her right hand she holds a sceptre. The infant has rays of glory round his head, and over it, in the corner of the stone, is pourtrayed a hand pointing with two fingers, as from the clouds, to the crown worn by the Virgin, to whom also the holy child seems to point, with a similar attitude of hand. The drapery of her robe is well displayed; the covering of the infant is a cassoc, bound round the waist with a cord, and tight round the neck and wrists; his legs are perfectly well formed, standing out with a considerable degree of roundness. On the head of the stone, opposite the corner where the hand points from the clouds, a figure, as of a dove, appears to complete the symbols of the Trinity. This stone stands in the centre of an open window, or circular arch, at one side of the aisle, and under it are two pointed niches perforating the wall, about two feet deep, and divided in the centre by a column, the capital of which is a human head of very rude