Landscape gardening deals with the disposition of ground, water, trees, and other plants which go to the composition of verdant landscape. It is true that landscape gardening has been practised from the earliest dawn of civilization, but, at the same time, little of a reliable kind is known cf the style or features of the gardens of the Jews, the Phoenicians, Assyrians, or even those of the ancient Greeks. The Greek gardens afforded shade, coolness, repose, freshness, and fragrance. Landscape is the general aspect of a country."

"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking things may be, to see them as they are."—JOHNSON. "The traveller without observation is a bird without wings."--SAADI.

LANDSCAPE SCENERY; or,

THE LAKES OF

KILLARNEY.

"Wild tracks of forest ground and scattered groves, And mountains bare, or clothed with ancient woods, Surrounded us; and as we held our way

Along the level of the glassy flood,

They ceased not to surround us; change of place,
From kindred features diversely combined,
Producing change of beauty ever."

In the Pendleton Town Hall, on Thursday evening, March 5th, 1896, Mr. Thomas Costley delivered the twelfth and last of a series of lectures, the subject being, Landscape Scenery; or, the Lakes of Killarney." The chair was occupied by the Rev. B. J. Harker.

66

The

The CHAIRMAN said: It is a true pleasure to me to preside over this meeting. It is not my intention to stand between you and the sun, but to let him shed his full rays upon you as soon as possible. subject is one that ought to produce a very attractive lecture. I know something about landscape scenery, but I know nothing about the lakes of Killarney. Of these lakes I shall know more, before to-night's lecture is over, than I have ever read about them, as I shall hear a description of them from the lips of one who has not only seen them, but who has lived in the country which possesses them. (Hear, hear.) The love of scenery seems to be inherent in Englishmen, as love of country makes the patriot, and the love of nature makes the poet. Mr. Costley is both a patriot and a poet; and, I dare say, before he has finished his lecture, he will prove to us that he is also an artist. (Applause.) My reason for being here is, I suppose, because I am somewhat of a kindred spirit to Mr. Costley. "Fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind." I met Mr. Costley in Pendleton a few months ago. Our acquaintance has not been long, but I have had the pleasure of his company in my native dale in Yorkshire, and I know what inspiration he received from the scenery he there beheld. From what I have read of his writings, and from what I have heard him speak in our conversation, I believe that he has a genuine love of nature. Many people travel hundreds and thousands of miles in order to view mountain, valley, lake, and river scenery. They come back and tell their friends

We

If we

a great deal of what they have seen, but they know very little of the scenery of their own native land, and this, I think, reflects discredit upon them. should first feast our eyes upon the scenery within easy reach of us; should exhaust it all, so to speak, before going to other parts. (Applause.) Even then we should go elsewhere to judge of our own scenery by contrasting it with that to be found in other lands. I have met many people who have travelled in all parts of the civilized world, and they have told me that the scenery in our islands has a beauty peculiarly its own. They say that England may be looked upon as a garden in comparison with many other lands. would only reflect upon these statements, I think we should learn to love our country more than we probably do at present. I am glad to see the spirit which is growing upon us, and which induces people to get away, when they have holidays, into the byway retreats of their own native land, by which means they get to know more about the scenery which surrounds them, and get to know its various traditions and legends. In this way we educate ourselves; we gather inspiration, and when we reflect upon these things we feel all the better for it in ourselves, in our own character, and life becomes to us more worth living than what it has been hitherto. (Applause.)

Mr. COSTLEY, preparatory to his lecture, said: Tonight I shall deliver my last lecture of the series. I thank all who have attended them most heartily for the manner in which they have received the lectures. I know that you have thoroughly appreciated them, and I know there are persons present to-night who will have listened to the twelve lectures. It is not any words of mine that have been so attractive as the matter which I have gathered up from the thousand sources from which beauty is to be culled and collected. I also wish to offer my thanks for the liberal way in which the lectures have been supported by the purchase of tickets. My friends have responded handsomely and nobly to the appeal I made for funds in aid of the Salford Royal Hospital. My labour, I am glad to say, has not been in vain, for I shall have a sum of money to hand over to the governors of this deserving institution. (Cheers.) This is a result which I very much appreciate, and which I know you do. (Applause.) Landscape scenery is very difficult to define with any exactness. It has been defined by Virgil to this effect:-"To have a beautiful landscape there must be meadows, a river or brook running through them. There should be mountains on either side of the meadows, cattle grazing, plenty of different kinds of trees, and, to make the landscape perfect, a lady and gentleman strolling through the

meadows, the lady whispering something into the ear of the gentleman, or vice versa." In that they had a perfect landscape-as perfect as it was possible to depict it. Another great writer says that mountain scenery is the finest of all. Emerson says, "In every landscape the point of astonishment is the meeting of the sky and the earth, and that is seen from the first hillock as well as from the top of the Alleghanies." (Applause.) This is a beautiful thought when one roams about the country. Landscape is immortal to everyone who has eyes to see, and ears to hear the singing of the birds. Landscape scenery or gardening is inherent in the Briton, and I believe it is not carried out in any part of the world on the same scale as it is in England. John Dyer says:—

66

"Ever charming, ever new,

When will the landscape tire the view?"

We might get tired and weary of looking at works
of art, but not so with scenery. Beattie says:-
Oh, how canst thou renounce the boundless store
Of charms, which nature to her vot'ry yields:
The warbling woodland, the resounding shore,
The pomp of groves, and garniture of fields;
All that the genial ray of morning gilds,
And all that echoes to the song of even;

All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields,
And all the dread magnificence of heaven;

Oh, how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven?"

The Earl of Zetland once said: "I have travelled

a great deal in the world. I have travelled in Italy and Switzerland, and I can conscientiously say I have never looked upon more beautiful scenery than I have done during my extensive tour in the south-west of Ireland."

Killarney is a small town in the county of Kerry, in Munster, and is situated a mile and a half from the lower lake of the same name, 17 miles east of Tralee, and 46 miles west-north-west of Cork. It is said to be exceedingly dull in winter, but wakes up into animation in spring and summer. It is 180 miles south-west of Dublin, and in 1891 its inhabitants numbered 4,372. The town consists of two rather good streets, from which other thoroughfares branch off.

The Killarney Lakes, a series of three connected waters, are situated nearly in the centre of the county of Kerry. The Roman Catholic Cathedral, designed by Pugin, is, both internally and externally, a building of magnificent proportions. It is cruciform in shape, with a massive square central tower. St. Mary's

Church is a handsome stone structure of Gothic architecture. It was erected in 1812, and has a fine tower supporting a slated spire, the vane of which is 120 feet from the ground. Its painted east window represents the supper in the house at Emmaus. The town is worthy in all respects of the honour of adding the title Baron of Killarney to the many titles appertaining to the heir of the British and Irish throne.

Here, in Killarney, the highest mountains in Ireland rear their crests over 3,000 feet above the sea level, now standing peak above peak in the wildest disorder, and now advancing in well-defined ranges far out into the Atlantic. Beneath their shadows are the loveliest of lakes, embosomed in richest verdure, and gloomy tarns reposing in the lonely recesses of sterile and untrodden valleys.

The flora of the county of Kerry is more diversified than that of any other part of Ireland; it abounds in those plants which luxuriate in the moist climate. The arbutus, the holly, the yew, the myrtle, and the juniper unite in imparting an aspect of perpetual verdure to the woods of the district.

I left the Manchester Exchange Station at 3 p.m. one day in 1895, to spend a merry week-end in the south-west of dear old Ireland, going by the immortal Cook's first cheap conducted tour through the lakes of Killarney, visiting all the chief points of interest, including Dublin, Killarney, and Muckross Abbey.

We left the Prince's Landing Stage in the new screw steamer "Wicklow" about six o'clock in the evening, three hours before the setting of the sun. Never was there a more glorious sunset on the wide ocean than we had on this occasion after crossing the bar. The evening was calm, but the night became stormy towards twelve o'clock.

We arrived in Dublin at seven o'clock the next morning, and cars were waiting to convey us to the Royal Exchange Hotel in Parliament-street. This hotel is situated in one of the most central positions in the historic metropolis of Ireland. The great city of Dublin stands on the banks of the Liffey, which, running from west to east, divides it into two nearly equal parts.

After a delicious breakfast and a short walk, the cars were again in readiness to carry us to the Kingsbridge Station to catch a train at 9 30 for the far-famed town of Killarney. Light luncheon was served out to us about midway at one of the railway stations. The journey on the railway was not so tedious as we expected it to be, seeing that we had to travel 183 miles. The cars met us at the station, and took us to the Park Palace Hotel, in the main street of Killarney.