The last place mentioned in this unfinished production was chosen; and after viewing the tomb of James the Second of England, the church, to the vaults of which the mortal remains of many French monarchs had been consigned, the old palace, and the exquisitely beautiful scenery of its vicinity, I prevailed on my estimable friend to become my only guest at the Prince of Wales' (Le Prince de Galles) Hotel and Tavern, where we had what he designated "a sumptuous dinner," the entire charge for which was defrayed by seven francs (5s. 10d.). How sumptuous!
During another stroll I happened to express very great admiration of the poetic productions of Gray; and in reference to his "Elegy written in a country churchyard," ventured to term it the finest composition of the elegiac class in the English language. Father Mahony praised it highly, but disagreed as to its merits being superior to every other production of the kind. He then stated that about the middle of the last century, a native of Dublin, named John Cunningham, who was a comic actor, published a volume of poems, and dedicated them to David Garrick. They were chiefly pastoral, but amongst them was "An Elegy on a pile of Ruins," composed, he believed, on Rosslyn Abbey and Rosslyn Castle; and he then repeated several verses which he considered very beautiful, and which he declared to be equal, in his estimation, to the poetic merits of Gray's Elegy. I asked if he could lend me the work, and he replied that he had never seen it except at a public library in Cork. Soon after my return to Dublin I saw on a bookstand at Aston's Quay, a copy, which I purchased for a shilling, and thus became enabled to quote the verses to which my very learned friend ascribed such excellence. They are extremely alliterative—
In the full prospect yonder hill commands,
O'er barren heaths and cultivated plains;
The vestige of an ancient abbey stands,
Close by a ruin'd castle's rude remains.
Half buried, there, lie many a broken bust,
And obelisk, and urn, o'erthrown by Time;
And many a cherub, there, descends in dust