The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1911-09-16


gentry or nobility,-of far better blood
than some in possession of the great
she supposed they were aware of the
fact she replied, Yes. indeed, but they
would never let anyone know it. 1t
would have been too great a slur upon
them to let anyone know how they had
come down. The Irish are too re-
sponsive, too impulsive, too sympa-
good"
Killarney comes at once to mind
in reviewing the points Of interest;
but a spot more beautiful and fascin-
ating to many is Glcndalough, or as
it is more often called, The Seven
Churches. Here where the long con-
tinuous shadow of the slender and
lofty Round Tower moves slowly from
morn to eve over wasted churches,
scattered yew trees, and the shrubs
now indistinguishable Of bishops and
abbots and anchorites, walking it's
round as time sentinel and telling to
the Ancient of Days how many suns
have run their diurnal and annual
course since these holy men have de-
scended into their graves" one is
transported to a day and age not his
own. In this little hamlet among the
lakes and hills are to be seen, in adj
dition to the Round Tower, the re-
mains of seven churches dating back
to the sixth and seventh centuries;
or to be more exact, the ruins of d
monastery and five churches, together
with small stone-roofed church call
ed "St Kevin's Kitchen" which sing
ularly enough is intact.
The monastery will be found across
wide ripping brow which must be
crossed on stepping stones. 1t con-
tains the fragment Of great arch
still showing graceful carving, and a
stone stairway leading up to what
used to be the dormitories. OF the
other churches, st. Reafert's is per-
haps most interesting, surrounded as
it is by Gaelic-inscribed tombstones,
under one of which an Irish king
sleeps.
But 1t is the Round Tower, after all,
attention Of the visitor. AS 1 gazed
up at it's towering height and noted
its Egyptian-like door, far above the
ground, wondered why it stood there
perfect as the day it was erected,
while the churches-with the excep-
ton of the Kitchen" which is thought
by some to be pagan in origin-were
crumbling away; unless, as has been
asserted, the Round Towers were
built with different kind Of mortar;
a mortar. by the by, identical with the
rock-like East Indian Chinar. And as
I looked and unused, the belief forced
itself upon me that the man who had
pronounced the enigmatical structures
pre- Christian was right.
And there is the Rock of Cashel
on It's summit a Round Tower and an
ancient chapel and cathedral. There
are the carly Christian high-crosses
at Clonmacnoise, Monasterboice,
Tuam, Kells and other places. There
is New Grange, that most gigantic
relic Of Druidical times, which has
just been termed the Irish Pyramid"
according to the Athenaeum. There ia
the Giants Causeway, as puzzling q
natural wonder as New Grange is an
artificial one.
Spencer, the poet says of Ireland,
"And sure it is a more beautiful and
sweet country as any is under heaven,
being stored throughout with many
goodly rivers, replenished with all
sorts Of fish abundantly, spri1kled
with many sweet islands and goodly
lakes like little inland seas, that will
carry even ships upon their waters;
adorned with goodly woods At for
building houses and ships, SO COM
modiously as that if some princes in
the world had them they would soon
hope to be lord of all the seas and
ere long of all the world"
But one Of the greatest attractions
Of all has not yet been mentioned;
the people. Thackeray speaks of the
easy manners Of these gentlemen of
| high and low rank; men shrewd and
| delicate of perception. observant of
| society, entering into the feelings of
| others, anxious to set them at ease
and crafty them." and exclaims II
wish we in England were little more
| complimentary" A present-day auth
| or writes: 1.-THE traveller is struck
above all in the west by the instructive
urbanity and natural grace of the old
| race of peasants who are born noble