R. BROWN.

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AN IDLER'S ALBUM; OR, SKETCHES OF MEN AND THINGS.


THE RADIANT BOY.


It is now more than twenty years since the late Lord Londonderry was,
for the first time, on a visit to a gentleman in the north of Ireland.
The mansion was such a one as spectres are fabled to inhabit. It was
associated with many recollections of historic times, and the sombre
character of its architecture, and the wildness of its surrounding
scenery, were calculated to impress the soul with that tone of
melancholy and elevation, which,--if it be not considered as a
predisposition to welcome the visitation of those unearthly substances
that are impalpable to our sight in moments of less hallowed
sentiment,--is indisputably the state of mind in which the imagination
is most readily excited, and the understanding most favourably inclined
to grant a credulous reception to its visions. The apartment also which
was appropriated to Lord Londonderry, was calculated to foster such a
tone of feeling. From its antique appointments; from the dark and
richly-carved panels of its wainscot; from its yawning width and height
of chimney--looking like the open entrance to a tomb, of which the
surrounding ornaments appeared to form the sculptures and the
entablature;--from the portraits of grim men and severe-eyed women,