The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-12-07
THE BEAUTIFUL lOUGH Inc.
-
9-93.,-
It Lies as if Bound Hand and Foot
Among the Tender, Wayward i
y Woods. A
PLEASANT TRIP 10 BALTIMORE,
No More Beautiful Scene Gould be
Imagined for Romantic Tale or
Legand.

Imagined for Romantic Tale or
Legand.
The following is a brief and romanJ1c
pen picture of lovely Lough Inc, Ireland,
by Miss Rosa Mulholland: Is
The drive from Sklbberdeen to old.
Baltimore, Ireland, takes one through
some picturesquely beautiful scenery, i
and runs all the way between great
dykes which are great treasures of wild
flowers and delicate fern, The taperingss
lusmore plant swings its crimson tas-H
sells in cleft of the gray rock, the lus.36
more glanced at in Denis Florence
McCarthy's "Alice and Una":
'Her lips like lusmore blossoms which the
fairies intertwine.'' 8
And the heath Is full-howered and rich
in all its varying tints OF ruby, AMETHYST
and SAPPHIRE. The mountains, gray and
swart-crowned or purple yelled, look
now stern and commanding. now gra-
cious and inviting confidence. One
thinks of that line of Goethe, of which
Walter Scott declared lit is said) that he
would rather have written it than all
his own books. Here, at the feet of
these noble giants, with the strange
expressive brows, one substitutes the
word mountains" in ones thought fol-
the ''statues" of Mignon's pathetic
song:
"And marble statues stand and gaze at me;
And say Poor child what have they done to
thee?'"
Heaven is brighter than earth all the
way along, as reflected in lake, stream
aud tarn, and the deep glens that drop
away from ones feet and lose them
selves in the mystery Of enfolding trees
draw ones eyes to follow them as if>
with promised revelation of the secret
IF everlasting peace. Over there, they
seem to say, where the bit of blue lies.
far within the holloWs of the foliage.
flying home and yet prolonging and
completing tue chord of greys and
green's that reach into the distance,
over there, il you could only rise to it,
you would fad waiting for you your
JOY that no man could take from you.
In Lough Inc the beauty of the scenery
attains sort of climax. The lovely
sea-inler has wandered long way out
of the ocean, tracks inland, and, like
beautiful mortal captured by fairies, it
lies, as if bound and foot among the
tender, MaYWard woods and the capri
cious hills that lock it about and
wreathe their arms around it.. No filter
scene could be imagined for romantic
tale or legend; and it would b8 hard to
find a more safe retreat for smugglers'
craft. a, hundred vivid imaginations
flash through the mind as one llrgers
on the path above this silver, SHIN
mering lands With all it's ocean
possibilities stilled in it's breast. forget
full of power and the desolati0n of
storms as it kisses the feet of the green
shore that has captured it. AS you
drive on, dropping vet another dream
of life behind you, you come to the con-
cluslon that if we had an Irish Scott he
would celebrate l4ough Inc. As you
leave the spot and look back you see a
curious accidental gro With of trees. /
think they are oaks, but l am not sure.
They run in row aslant across tie
sloping base of an Overhanging hill,
and have woven themselves into the
form of a. succession of broken arches,
of which the light tracerv above re
mains, forming a wonderfully rich
frieze, while some of the shafts are
twisted and mutilated. The whole has
a scorched, charred aspect, aud looks
like "a rood screen of a mighty cathedral,
the production Of magic working car
vers, which had been scathed by fire.
AS to how it got away from. say n urem
berg. where it must have been one of
the treasures of some rare Old World
Sanctuary, knowing the daylight onlv
dlmlY Through windows darK with
jewels. and how it planted itself here in
the open air under the altar of an Irish
mountain. that is one of the Questions,
which. among many that occur to US in
the course Of our eight miles drive. we
are obliged to give up. a last glance,
as YOU turn an angle Of the road shows
it in q sacred attitude, and as il il,
motion, suggesting that it ise not at
home in It's present situation, where it
never meant to remain, having been
caught bg the feet in the treacnerous
bu0-aarth which only out travelling on q
leave Of absence which even med
rood screens may obtain once in q cen
turY or 50. From this point Of view it
seems running away, the shafts look
like light limbs slanting in swift strides,
yet hope this IS only 81 Illusion, s. q