Note 51 — EXCURSION III.

This ancient monument is faithfully depicted in the frontispiece of the present work; but we are in candour bound to acknowledge that, in the introduction of Saint Michael's Mount, the artist has availed himself of the "quidlibet audendi" so universally conceded to Painters and Poets; in reality, an intervening eminence obstructs the view of the Mount from this spot, and he has therefore, upon the present occasion, just taken the liberty to remove this barrier to our vision. If the Geological tourist condemn this harmless deviation from truth, we shall recriminate by reminding him that even Geologists have sometimes appropriated to themselves an indulgence which Horace extended only to the votaries of the Muses, and have not hesitated to overlook the existence of a mountain where it stood in the way of a favourite theory.