The roof is encrusted with pendent stalactites, and supported by stalactitic pillars, some of which are solid and massy, others so slender and delicate that they might have been the work of fairy hands. In the deepest recesses, a still pool of water, formed by the constant percolation through the rocky vault, vividly reflects the fantastic objects above and around it. “The perilousness of the access, the deep seclusion of the site, hung half-way up a precipice 1400 feet high, with the inaccessible rock above and the murmuring sea below, make this cavern as it were a temple, erected by the hand of Nature herself, for the lonely enthusiast who delights to worship her in her most hidden solitudes. We continued to wander about, fascinated by the strange beauty of the spot; and, loath to leave it, lingered until the declining beams of the sun warned us that we had to return by a path which it would be difficult, if not dangerous, to retrace in the obscurity of twilight. Almost dazzled as we emerged into open day, we stood a moment beneath the dark arched entry, to look out upon the expanse of sea, glowing in the sun, with a few white feluccas catching its declining beams; and then creeping cautiously down the narrow ledge by which we had ascended, began to wend our way towards home.”
To the Galleries the best route is by Willis’s Batteries, which were finished in 1732, and, from their commanding position, proved exceedingly annoying to the Spaniards in the Great Siege. The execution done was so serious, that it led them to form a plan for mining and blowing them up. They began their operations at the top of a slope, above the Moorish ruins of the Devil’s Tower, on the north side of the Rock; but while burrowing through the solid mass were overheard by a watchful sentinel. He gave the alarm, and the works were quickly destroyed by the besieged. Having reached a narrow terrace about half-way up the northern angle, the visitor, as he surveys its face, discerns a long series of cave-like openings, from which protrude the black muzzles of cannon, so pointed as to command the Neutral Ground below. Through an iron gate he now enters into the upper galleries, which were excavated during the Great Siege, and lead to the Windsor Galleries, likewise provided with port-holes, as it were, and thence proceeds by an irregular path to St. George’s Hall. This is excavated in a mass of rock, which externally resembles a projecting dome, and here at the eastern angle corresponds with the craggy platform of Willis’s Batteries at the western. Its dimensions are considerable, and on more than one occasion it has been used as a banqueting-chamber. Lord Nelson was entertained here prior to the battle of Trafalgar.
We now take leave of Gibraltar, its town, its fortifications, its Alameda, its rock-hewn batteries, repeating the fine sonnet of Archbishop Trench:—
GIBRALTAR.
“England! we love thee better than we know;
And this I learned when, after wanderings long
’Mid people of another stock and tongue,
I heard again thy martial music blow,
And saw thy gallant children to and fro
Pace, keeping ward at one of these huge gates
Which like twin giants watch the Herculean straits.
When first I came in sight of that brave shore,
It made my very heart within me dance
To think that thou thy proud foot shouldst advance
Forward so far into the mighty sea.
Joy was it and exultation to behold
Thine ancient standard’s rich emblazonry,
A glorious picture by the wind unrolled.”
It is, doubtless, with such feelings as these described by the poet that most Englishmen will gaze upon the famous Rock; though there are not
ST. GEORGE’S HALL.