riety of charming views; and, if crossed on
a dark night, when their interminable lines of lamps are beheld
radiating, as it were, from one centre, and multiplied by reflection on
the surrounding waters, the effect is perfectly magical. The stars show
dimly in comparison: and casting your eyes downward, it appears as
though you beheld another and a brighter sky glittering beneath your
feet.

The great dam rises about five feet above the tide, is provided with
enormous flood-gates, and in length is something over a mile and a half.
The length of the other bridges varies from two thousand five hundred to
one thousand four hundred feet.

Crossing at any one of these points, you gain the open heights upon the
main. Here you are first struck by the aspect of the soil, everywhere
having huge masses of dark rock protruded above its surface. The
country is said to be poor: of this I cannot judge, but I know it to be
beautiful. It is everywhere undulating, and often broken in the wildest
and most tropical manner. Like the interior of Herefordshire, it is cut
up in all directions by rural lanes, bordered by stone walls and high
hedges, and dotted thickly with handsome houses, whose verandahs of
bright green, and whitened walls, show well amidst the luxuriant foliage
by which they are commonly surrounded.

About five miles from the city are a couple of delightful pieces of
water, called Jamaica and Fresh-ponds; each bordered by wood, lawn, and
meadow, naturally disposed in the most attractive manner. At the
last-named pond,--which sounds unworthily on my ear when applied to a
piece of water covering a surface of two hundred and fifty acres,--I
passed an afternoon during the period of my first visit here.

We sailed about, exploring every harbour of the little sea, caught our
fish for dinner, and by the hotel were furnished with a well-broiled
chicken and a good glass of champagne, with ice worthy of being
dissolved in such liquor. I fell premeditatedly in love with the place;
and D----, who was on the look-out for a location, and something hard
to please withal, had already selected a site for building: but, alas!
even Paradise, before the mission of St. Patrick, had serpents; and the
delightful copses and rich meadows of Fresh-pond are, it appears, the
haunts especially favoured by the incarnation of all Egyptian plagues,
musquitoes.

During the winter this is a great resort of the lovers of _bandy_ and
_skating_; and from