Romantic Ireland; volume 2/2

r in importance as an inland waterway. The native on its banks tells you that it rivals the Mississippi; but in what respect, Americans, at l

with that on the Thames and the Clyde; but, were there a de

icturesque sort, or of the supremely grand, it has pre?min

NON AND

, something over a hundred miles, in steamboats of real

the traveller, in the season, is likely to find the comp

much that is beautiful a

ough he may go by car or coach,-such a trip is well wor

oru's palace of Kincora. The mound on which it was built is all that remains of a place

lace here, though, as a palace of great splendour and

f Brian Boru

NC

of the world's great rule

e not only unquestioned, but obeyed and respected in every corner of the land. So justly were the laws administered in his name, and so loyally obeyed throughout the kingdom, that the bards relate a rather fanciful story of a young and exquisitely beautiful lady, who made, without the slightest appreh

hat the following i

e them advice like that. M?lmurra, highly incensed by the allusion,-all the more severe for its bitter truth,-arose, ordered his horse, and rode away in haste. Brian, when he heard it, despatched a messenger after the indignant guest, begging him to return; but M?lmurra was not t

eupon he was seized with the most violent grief. Brian's favourite harp-always a legendary and t

ISH P

"His anger flashed out through his tears as he wi

ll burst with

venge this

feit life for

rish by a vi

has been at all times most strongly marked, and is still most widely appreciated, the harp being universally held as a nation

y devised arches. It is a venerable building, and nestles under the shadow of the present Protestant cathedral, built by O'Brien, King of Thomond, in the twelfth century. On a small island in the river Shannon are the ruins

e background all around is made up of swelling upland, dotted here and there with the white houses of the p

wide-spread superstition accounts for its popularity, but whether as a purely "tourist p

descending into the cavern and examining its wonders had to prepare himself by long vigils, fasts, and prayers, to strengthen him, as we are told, for his dangerous expedition; but, in reality, by reducing his bodily strength to make his imagination more ready to receive the impressions which it was thought desirable to leave upon his mind. He was then let down into the cavern, whence, after an i

self. This lake, which is twenty-five miles long and from two to six miles in breadth, has an average depth of about fifty feet

Slieve Aughty Mountains on the Connaught side and the Arra Mountains on the Munster side, whose lofty summits tower up high into the clouds. The shores, sloping g

no great antiquarian interest. The populatio

owers, which formerly mounted eight guns, and which, in more romantic times,

the Divisio

s situated on the river about six or seven miles from Shannon

ted sadly, a pretentious hotel establishment having b

ral hundred operators, both male and female; there are various other smaller manufacturing industries pursued by the town population. In the rural districts, cattle rearing, both in Westmeath and Roscommon, and the pursuit of general agricu

es and still more ancient fortifications, and the castle erected in 1215 by King John,-a counterpart in every respect of a similar establishment at Limerick. Queen Elizabeth made Athlone the capita

Auburn, more popularly known as "Sweet Auburn," whose old rui

e. It stands about a hundred yards from the public road at the end of a straight avenue bordered wit

NE CA

wine. The famous inn,-since rebuilt out of all resemblance to its former self,-immortalized by Goldsmith, and known as the Three Pigeons, where were drawn the "inspired nut-brown draughts," and "where village statesmen talked with looks profound," is but a little distance from the house. The country all around Lishoy-for that is the name of th

fancy of Oliver was, however, spent in Lishoy, and there is little doubt but that the scenes of his childhood became afterward the imaginative sources whence he drew th

loveliest villa

plenty cheer'd th

pring its earli

mer's lingering

owers of inno

h, when every sp

e I loitered

appiness endea

e I paused on

cot, the cul

ling brook, t

that topp'd the

h, with seats be

, and whisperin

n that it is a perfectly legitimate and artistic thing to have hung the old broken plates and cups of the erstwhile Three Pigeons on the walls of the new inn. Sir Walter

iling brook,

n

that topp'd the n

r a far greater likeness to the descript

s built, it is said, by Turgesius, a Dane, who made of it an impregnable

ity, and has on it the remains of six churches. On this island, Queen Meave is said to have been kill

at the time when St. Coman founded a monastery there, and to-day may still be seen elaborate remains of

ry,-an ancient foundation which, in the seventeenth century, was occupied by the nunnery of the Poor Clares, but was

monastery, the foundation of the religious house being attributed to St. Rioch,

its famous abbey, which is in rather a better state of preservation than many "chronicles in stone." The choir, nave, and transepts are all in existence, and show, in their construction, all the elements of the West Norman and Gothic work of their time. The nave, with its hundred and thirty-five semicircular arches, wh

ere for several years the skull that had 'once been the seat of so much verse and music,' was placed in the niche of the old church, decorated, not with laurel, but with a black r

uor was not more potent in those da