WILDE, Sir William R. Lough Corrib, Its Shores and Islands: with notices of Lough Mask. Illustrated with numerous wood engravings and folding map.

Dublin: MacGlashan & Gill, 1872. Second edition. Small quarto. pp. x, 306. Green blind-stamped cloth, title in gilt on spine. Previous owner’s signature on front free endpaper. A very good copy.
The famous opening sentence reads: “Westward, ho! Let us rise with the sun, and be off to the land of the West - to the lakes and streams - the grassy glens and fern-clad gorges - the bluff hills and rugged mountains - now cloud-capped, then revealed in azure, or bronzed by evening’s tints, as the light of day sinks into the bold swell of the Atlantic, and leaves his reflection in long level streaks of crimson, green and orange, among the greyish-purple robe of twilight, when the shadows of the headlands sink deep into the placid waters of the lake.” Treating the history and archaeology of the West of Ireland with a topographical index giving the Irish names of most of the places mentioned.

[Cat 161]