Original hand coloured steel engraving from 1840. Artist : W H Bartlett and engraver: R Brandard. Image size: 7*4.75 ins. Since these antique prints are over 150 years old they may have minor imperfections
The original text:
SLAINES CASTLE, the feudal residence of the Hoys of Erroll, covers a peninsular rock, boldly projecting into the German Ocean and forming an abrupt and imposing landmark on this iron-bound coast. Its position is remarkable: the huge precipice over which It projects on one side, and of which it seems an integral part, descends perpendicularly to the sea, where the water is so deep that vessels of large burden may float within a yard of the rock. It is said, indeed, that a tankard of wine may be lowered down from the Castle window to the yard-arm of a man-of-war under sail. Whether this experiment has been tried we know not; but this we can readily admit, that much good wine has taken the opposite direction. The situation of this family fortress is rather bleak and cheerless, presenting no leafy towers, no clumps of trees, few masses of verdure or vegetation, to refresh the eye or flatter the imagination. The prospect, however, which is bounded only by the horizon seaward, ia grand and imposing, and fills the mind with corresponding ideas. For a Trappist convent, with Baron Geramb at its head, nothing finer could be Imagined; for their nearest neighbour in one direction is the " King of the Norse," and the hills, on the other hand, are wild and solitary enough to shut out the world and its vanities.
