The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-12

l0ree gables are on each SIDE, ana one
forms queer old peak in front. Immense
chimneys rise between the side gables, and
one in front, above and behind the bay
window of Raleigh's study, pushes up to
a great hight, the ivy winding about it
in swirls of foliage, until in bears
startling resemblance to a diminutive,
iron-clad round-tower set up on the
peak of some gray old crag. There is
no doubt that below this fairy tower
Raleigh composed a number OF those
works which would have given his name
the greatest luster with pOsteritv as a
writer, had not his close association with
the material activities of his time remorse-
lessly linked his name with those of the
great soldiers, discoveries and court diplo-
mats of the Elizabethan era. For here
Spenser knew and loved his priceless
friend" and brother poet, whom he named
"the summer nightingale" and set the
seal of his own fine judgment upon
Raleigh's poetical power, in the line ad-
hitting no doubt of his genius
Himself as skillfui in that art as any"
Below each gable at the sides, is lesser
bay-window OF the quaintest design, which
the ivy has almost hidden from sight. The
walls of the structure are fully five feet
thick, and its twenty to thirty apartments,
all of which retain their original ar
rangement, are Wainscotted with Irish
oak Some vandal ''restorer" has
covered this with hidious paint, in all
save one apartment, where the oak shows
as black and fawless as ebony. The
drawing-roOm chimney-piece is a rare and
now almost undiscoverable specimen Of
oak-carving. 1t is also of Irish oak and is
and exquisite example of 400 years ago in
elaborate, and often grotesque, wood
carving of emblems and figures. The roof
itself is worth long journey to see: L
doubt if there be elsewhere in England or
Ireland such a perfect illustration of the
power of Irish oak to withstand the effects
OF time. / was enabled to examine every
one of its huge timbers, hewn as smooth
by the artiicers of that time as they could
be dressed and polished in piano factory
of to-day. Not one showed check or flaw,
and the ravages of 400 years had brought
no change. save to color them the rich,
dark brown of old rosewood one will some
times find among the delicious nuts of the
American hazel.
Ones heart irresistibly warns to the old
place for itself alone. Its age, serenity,
Quaintness and beauty are very ike the
ten thousand old manor-houses that have
pcturesquely come down to us through
English literature until, when a real pro-
totvpe like this is found, ii is like uneX-
pectedly coming upon ones own. But to
all this is added the picturings a loving
fancy weaves within and without the
place, around it, and those two who gave
it ali the grace it possesses to the world at
large. In this quaint study, Raleigh
paced the oaken floor and evolved
new schemes for conquest and power.
BY this noble bay-window, over
looking the sleepy old town and the
broad expanse OF the BiackwateTr, he
traced nobler thoughts that should
live when petty affairs OF state should
be forgotten. Here, in priceless commun-
ion of sentiment and intellectual converse,
he lived in a myrtle-perfumed heaven
with his poet-friend. In this great dining
hall, lofty and dark, wierd with grotesque
carvings, suggestive with secret PANEL
ings, and toned with softened hali-lights
from the shade of the fragrant foliage
without, the two Toasted, and dreamed as
such NAV dream over the cloudy perfume
of that strange and mystic leaf from the
virgin land of dusky men across the sea.
Well might Spenser name the lovely spot
Myrtle grove; for in our own beauteOus
South never grew the myrtle in greater
luxuriance. Here beneath these four huge
yews, whose gnarled trunks and stout
branches form a wondrous Gothic grotto,
the two sat through unreckoned hours.
and the Fderie Queene was read by the
poet to the poet, long before the world
knew aught of Sponsors marvellous phan-
tasy. And, stepping from food divine to
TODD cOrporeal, just Overthe myrtle masses,
in the little patch of soil lying against
the sunny hillside behind, here Sir Wal
ter planted the first potatoes ever grown
in Ireland. There seems TO be little in
his life TO make his memory dear to Irish
men. But the two acts, his friendship
for SDenser, and his planting Of the little
patch of Virginia potatoes, have been of
more service to literature and value to
Ireland than have been equaled by any
other who has since come to Erin's shores
l feel sure that any one-after lettering
about the lovely, leafy, silent old city Of
YOughal, and then enjoying the glories Of
the Blackwater with those OF its sweet and
mumurous tributary, the Awbeg and after
a tramp from old Doneraile town set like a
squalid gypsy encampment amid gorgeous
natural environs, to the level tract where
stand the ruins of kilcolman castle-would
agree with me in pronouncing the place
one of the lonliest spots in all Ire
land. A vast vale surrounds it; but as
far as the eye can reach there is scarcely
sign of human habitation. The
once noble forests have disappeared !;
only one little lake to the south can
be seen; and searching in vain for sight
or sound of human activity or neaTness,
only the gray of a far horizon-edge settles
leadenly down upon the Waterford mount
aims to the east, the nights of Kerry to
the west, the Nagle mountains to the
south, and the Ballyhowra hills to the
north. 1t is said that from the top of the
castle view of above half the breadth of
Ireland was once commanded. If there
was compensation in that in Spenser' s
time, it could hardly be found now. Kill
colman, or CW COlln0n in Irish, means
Colman S church. There were above sixty
saints Colman, and any of these, to ones
liking, may be taken as the patron saint
of this particular townland locality. The
castle, as the ruins indicate, however re-
mote its date of construction, must have
been one OF strength and importance. The
lower portion OF the great quadrangular
keep is in a good state of preservation for
about thirty feet from the ground zone OF its
side walls. showing a noble window, rises
solidly and firmly for perhaps twenty-five
feet above this; and massive square
thanking tower still lifts its rough old walls
to probable hight of seventy feet 1t
must have been a weird and dreary
place for one of Sponsors fine
nature. But two things of the
gravest importance to poet, prince or
49,,