DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20917#0186
*0 THE SKYEEiD,
Shakspeare's lines,
" By Heav'ns methinks it were an easy leap"--
occurred forcibly to my recollection, and I felt
as if it were possible to spring at one bound to the
exquisite picture in miniature at my feet.
The Skyrrid is unquestionably an exhausted
volcano, with its crater fallen in. To look up-
ward from the gulph Westward is tremendous: a
perpendicular cliff", atleast 6 or 800 feet in height,
appals the eye, the front of which is one frightful
ruin, hanging suspended in the air, and formed
by enormous loose stones, piled in the rudest
resemblance of order. Horrible beyond concep-
tion was the crash that ensued when this rent
occurred, which hurled the huge blocks to
their present lituation in the centre, where they
lie in the utmost confusion. The lesfer oortion
of the mountain to the East has not the least
appearance os having ever joined the greater.
Indeed, the vast difference in the altitude os the
rocks renders it impossible. The difference is as
one to twenty. The former side, a perpendicular
crag covered by projecting branches, stripped
of their foliage by the wind, which rushes with
inconceivable fury through the chasm ; is inter-
spersed with the rugged itumps of oaks. But
such are the perlevering efforts of vegetation,
that new scions are continually arising from the
trunk,
Shakspeare's lines,
" By Heav'ns methinks it were an easy leap"--
occurred forcibly to my recollection, and I felt
as if it were possible to spring at one bound to the
exquisite picture in miniature at my feet.
The Skyrrid is unquestionably an exhausted
volcano, with its crater fallen in. To look up-
ward from the gulph Westward is tremendous: a
perpendicular cliff", atleast 6 or 800 feet in height,
appals the eye, the front of which is one frightful
ruin, hanging suspended in the air, and formed
by enormous loose stones, piled in the rudest
resemblance of order. Horrible beyond concep-
tion was the crash that ensued when this rent
occurred, which hurled the huge blocks to
their present lituation in the centre, where they
lie in the utmost confusion. The lesfer oortion
of the mountain to the East has not the least
appearance os having ever joined the greater.
Indeed, the vast difference in the altitude os the
rocks renders it impossible. The difference is as
one to twenty. The former side, a perpendicular
crag covered by projecting branches, stripped
of their foliage by the wind, which rushes with
inconceivable fury through the chasm ; is inter-
spersed with the rugged itumps of oaks. But
such are the perlevering efforts of vegetation,
that new scions are continually arising from the
trunk,