PANORAMA OF DUBLIN.
THE beauties of " the Green Isle of Erin" have been sung by her poets, and expatiated upon by her orators; but to Engli.diaten and Scotchmen, who form their most intimate acquaintance with Ireland through her wrongs—to whom the statistics of famine and crime are more familiar than its picturesque and fertile landmapes—the hackneyed metaphor introduced into every patriotic appeal of Irish eloquence, " First flower ot the earth. first gem of the sea."
appears like a mere figment of the fancy. A sight of Mr. Benroan's beautiful panorama of the Bay of Dublin and the surrounding scenery, will serve to convince the stranger to Ireland of the existence of those grand and lovely features of which he has heard and read so much.
The view is taken from Killeeney Mount, an elevated spot about eight miles from Dublin; the city itself forming an inconsiderable ob-
ject in the scene. On one side is the expanse of the Irish Sea, and the magnificent Bay, with the buildings of Dublin in the distance,— showing the stupendous pier, Kingstown and its harbour, and the Hill of Howth and Dalkey Island—the two points of the bay ; and on the
other the fertile county of Dublin, its verdurous and undulating surface varied with cultivated fields, and wooded domains enclosing handsome mansions, with here and there it sandy knoll and a village or congrega- tion of cabins ; the whole backed by the bold and graceful outlines of the Wicklow and Dublin Mountains. The beauty of the prospect, apart from the interest which belongs to the scene when viewed as an epitome of the general aspect of Ireland, must charm the eye of every beholder.
The painting is perfect in its kind. It bears the impress of local truth in every part. The green freshness of the landscape, variegated
with the different hues of the soil, foliage, and verdure ; the calm blue surface of the sea, with its shifting shades, dotted with sails ; the dirt. taut mountains melting into the misty horizon ; the clear sky, diversi-
fied with light scudding clouds ; the obelisk, and the stone fences in the foreground, enlivened by cattle and figures,—are represented with the sober truth of reality. The appearance of space and distance and the sense of light and air are conveyed so vividly as almost to produce an effect of illusion.
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