The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-14

I these, TO ones liking may be taken as
the patron saint of this particular town
land Locality. The castle. as the ruins
indicate. however. remote its date of con-
structiOn. must have been one of strength
and Importance. HistOricallNit is known
to have been originally one of the great
Earl of DssmOnds fortified castles. The
lower portion Of the great quadraugUlar
keep is in a good state of preservation for
about thirty feet from the ground one Of
its side walls showing a noble window,
/ rises solidly and firmly for perhaps
/ twenty-five feet above this; and a mas
| Siye square fiankinC 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 three things Of the gravest i'm
| portancG to poet, prince or peasant, came
/ to this man in his eleven years of prac-
! tical Punishment here, between 1887 and
/ 1899. The first Of these was the chasten-
| ing and eXaltiug influence of absolute self
! denial. The second was in his wOOing
| and marrying a woman "Of mean birth.
! who was so loyal, sweet and good that
] SpCnser never knew an unhappy hour on
4 her account during his life more power
! to women "of mean birth for it. The
/ other was i'm his visits TO and commun-
/ ions with his noble friend, Raleigh, at
| messy old Youghal. few miles distant
| uCon the scacoast. Raleigh, genius and
/ poet that he himself was. generously
! recognized the greater poets true great
! ness; warmed his heart with sunny hos
| FATALITIES: sustained his doubtful dream
/ ings with a strong and heartsome friend
! ship; and, in 1883 bodily took the timOr
/ Gus SpenSer to London: personally intro
| duced him to the queen. and that very
| year saw the publication Of the first three
| books of "Faerie Queen"
These three good fortunes, despite bit
| ter financial straits on the one hand, and,
on the other, Irish "rebellions" of such
startling frequency that every far line of
trees like trembling silhOuettes against
the horizon, undoubtedly took on the form
of Desmond and Tyrone avengers. made
him sing as no English poet before his
time had ever sung. And in these true
things of his life lay the compensation;
for the later days of poverty in London,
where, as the sequel proved, English in
difference was more fatal than Irish saw
agery, brought him nothing save
the loyalty of his companion
''of mean birth; :" and he was al
lowed TO die in want in the land he had
more infinitely hOnored than any other
who ever lived in it, save Shakespeare.
There is but little here to remind of
Spcnser now. So desolate is old kilCol-
man and devoid of suggestive association
abe region roundabout that the pilgrim
hither must perforce bring SpenSer along
in his heart, and build almost the entire
fabric of life, home and haunts from his
own loving fancy. Only one real and
sweet thing is here which will always re
main as if revealing the radiance of the
poets gentle presence That is the near
little river, Awbeg, the "Mulla" of his
Joyous verse; more joyous and melOdious
ever, as it sings of him who sung, on its
sunny, beautious way to the black water
and the sea.
There is nothing more beautiful in all
Ireland than Cork city, set in stone and
terrace against her leafy nights, and the
broadening river Lee, which, rising in
the mystic depths of weird, wild Gougane
Barra, at the edge of Kerry, wanders
through lovely glens and sunny wales to
where the city and tide meet, and then
blending with the salt water sweeps
through the most glorious and picturesque
estuary in the world down past Queens
town TO the sea. But this has been re-
peatedly told by word-painters galore.
My own secret longing led me first and
last to,
The groves of Blarney.
That look so charming
Down by the purlings
OF sweet silent brooks.
One hardly realizes that he Is in Ireland
while among these handsomely attired
throng the cars of the little railway lead
ing from Cork along the sweet SLOPES of a
murmuring stream; and for the short
four miles to Barney, one almost feels he
is again within the atmosphere of the
clear-eyed, active, breezy and prosperous
folk one always finds in American and
London suburban railway travel At the
end of this little railway, and at the head
of the valley through which it and the
stream have run, in tiny, pOckety vale
whose surface is almost level on either
side to the edges of noble wooded bluffs
is the trifiing hamlet of Barney; and,
not a stones throw from the station. the
gray old walls of its world-famous castle
rise high above the rich foliage OF the
sycamore groves, and the musical Barney
rivulet below. Altogether it is one of the
sweetest and most restful spots you ever
behold.
Blarney is the original Irish form of
Blarna, means "little field" from Blar,
a field, this name having been given the
place from its location almost in the cen
ter of the tin y wakefield, which was no
doubt source of rich harvests even under
the rude forms of cultivation in vogue in
most ancient times As nearly as can be
determined, the later popular signifca-
ton of the wOrd--palavering rhodomont-
AIDE, glib, specious pleading, or wheeling
elOqUencc-O1iginated in Lord Clancartys
often promising, when the prisoner of Sir
George Carew, to surrender his strong
castle of Barney" this very pile, "to the
soldiers of the queen, and as often invent
ing some smooth and palatable excuse for
generating himself from his promise"
But the place no doubt became world IA
nous through the celebrity of the verses
beginning with the four lines above
quoted, attributed by adopts in ballad lit
erature both to Father PrOut and Richard
Alfred Nlillikcn, the latter a former Cork
attorney.
The castle itself was built in the IF
teenth century by Cormac MacCarthy,
1.-THE strong" and the old c0ign. stone, the
kissing of which conveys the magic power
of " blarney," according to popular legend
at least is intact. II is said that at one
time it bore the inscription, "Cormac Nc
| Carthy fortis me feri fecit, A d. 1915
it is preserved and held in place by two
iron girders between huge merlons Of its
northern projecting parapet, nearly 100
feet from the ground. The ancient cas-
tellated pile now consists only of a lofty
quadrangular keep, with a half-ruined
tower, through which access is gained by
winding stone stairs to the battlemeuted
parapet above. Beneath tho tower and
keep are a number of wonderful dungeon
cells, the most truly impressive of these
l have found in any of the castle ruins of
Ireland; while a cave of remarkable
!