THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 18. | SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1840. | Volume I. |
WOODLANDS, COUNTY OF DUBLIN
Woodlands, the seat of one of our good resident landlords,Colonel White, considered in connection with its beautiful demesne,may justly rank as the finest aristocratic residence inthe immediate vicinity of our metropolis. As an architecturalcomposition, indeed, the house, or castle, as it is called,will not bear a comparison, either for its classical correctnessof details, or its general picturesqueness of outline, with theCastle of Clontarf—the architectural gem of our vicinity; butits proportions are on a grander scale, and its general effectaccordingly more imposing, while its demesne scenery, in itsnatural beauties, the richness of its plantations, and other artificialimprovements, is without a rival in our metropolitancounty, and indeed is characterised by some features of suchexquisite beauty as are very rarely found in park scenery anywhere, and which are nowhere to be surpassed. Well mightthe Prince Pückler Muskau, who despite of his strange namehas undoubtedly a true taste for the beautiful and picturesque,describe the entrance to this demesne as “indeed the mostdelightful in its kind that can be imagined.” “Scenery,” hecontinues, “by nature most beautiful, is improved by art tothe highest degree of its capability, and, without destroyingits free and wild character, a variety and richness of vegetationis produced which enchants the eye. Gay shrubs andwild flowers, the softest turf and giant trees, festooned withcreeping plants, fill the narrow glen through which the pathwinds, by the side of the clear dancing brook, which, fallingin little cataracts, flows on, sometimes hidden in the thicket,sometimes resting like liquid silver in an emerald cup, orrushing under overhanging arches of rock, which nature seemsto have hung there as triumphal gates for the beneficent Naïadof the valley to pass through.”
This description may appear somewhat enthusiastic, but wecan truly state as our own opinion, formed on a recent visitto Woodlands, that it is by no means overdrawn, but, on thecontrary, that it would be equally difficult, if not impossible,either for the pencil or the pen to convey an adequate idea ofthe peculiar beauties of this little tract of fairy land.
Singularly beautiful, however, as this sylvan glen unquestionablyis, it is only one of the many features for whichWoodlands is pre-eminently distinguished. Its finely undulatingsurface—its sheets of water, though artificially formed—itsnoble forest timber—but above all, its woodland walks,commanding vistas of the exquisite valley of the Liffey, withthe more remote scenery bounded by the Dublin and Wicklowmountains—all are equally striking, and present a combinationof varied and impressive features but rarely found withinthe bounds of even a princely demesne.
Though Woodlands derives very many of its attractionsfrom modern improvements, its chief artificial features are ofno recent creation, and are such as it would require a centuryor two to bring to their present perfection. Woodlands isemphatically an old place, and is said to have been grantedby King John to Sir Geoffry Lutterel, an Anglo-Normanknight who accompanied him into Ireland, and in possessionof whose descendants it remained, and was their residencefrom the close of the fifteenth till the commencement of th