LONDON, PRINTED FOR MESS" LONGMAN, HURST,REES & ORME, PATER NOSTER ROW,

AND JAMES CARPENTER,OLD BOND STREET,

MDCCCVII.

PREFACE.

ON adding one more to the numerous topographical works which are already before the public, some apology might be deemed necessary, were not the following pages descriptive of a part of the united kingdom, which, though confessedly interesting, has hitherto remained very imperfectly known. The lake of Killarney, however, has not wholly escaped notice: in every general account of Ireland its extraordinary beauty has been dwelt on; it has been the theme of the poet; and has afforded subjects for a great variety of engravings. But as language unaided by the pencil is insufficient to convey distinct ideas of visible objects; so the productions of art, unaccompanied by a detailed verbal explanation, can communicate little knowledge of a place, beyond what may be collected from the mere glance of the eye; and accurate even as the representations of particular views may be, they commonly leave the mind ignorant, both of the con

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