Leaving the County Clare by rail we cross into Galway, between Crusheen and Tubber. Beyond the marshy country on the right, away in the woodlands, nestles Loughcootra Castle. The great lake from which the place takes its name covers eight square miles. The hundreds of islets here scattered about its surface are the homes of thousands of herons. The country people have a belief that this bird is a messenger of good omen, and never interfere with it or its young. There is a beautiful legend in Irish of a heron which visited St. Columba, at Iona, a traveller from his own country. This story is recorded in the interesting life of the saint written in the seventh century by Adamnan, one of his successors; a beautiful version in English tells of the saint rising at dawn of day after a dream of the coming of the bird:—

"He looked out over the dreary moor,
Over the hill so bleak and hoar—
'A bird from the land I revisit no more
Has come to visit me,
Dear Innisfail from thy fragrant shore—
Land of my own I shall see no more—
Across the driving sea.'
Then he left his prayer, and 'Brother,' he said,
'Take to thee corn, and oil, and bread,
A bird has alit—half frozen, half dead—
Upon our southern strand.
Then warm him and feed him with gentle care,
And chafe his wing's and anoint him there,
He comes from my own loved land—
From my own loved land,' and the old Saint wept;
But the Monk arose, while the others slept,
And warmed the heron, and fed and kept
The bird for a day and night.
So Columb feeling, though far away,
For Ireland's soil—like the Gael to-day—
One favour in heaven's sight."

The magnificent residence was designed and erected similarly to East Comer Castle (by Nash, who remodelled Windsor) for Lord Gort, the head of the Vereker family, at a cost of £70,000. The black hand of the famine of 1847 fed on this property, like many another in Ireland, and it passed from its owners under the Encumbered Estates Act. Cove Park, the residence of Lady Gregory, is just outside Gort. Her Ladyship has found a way to the hearts of the country people by her sympathy with the Irish language movement. Her volume, "Mr. Gregory's Letter Box," is a valuable contribution to the history of Ireland in the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Sir William Gregory's Memoirs it is that contain the circumstantial version of the Cabinet scandal, in which the name of the Hon. Mrs. Norton (George Meredith's "Diana of the Crossways") figures. The story of the leakage of the State secret is as follows:—

In the heart of a stony country beset with high fences and rough copple stones, stands the little town of Gort, The military stationed there now add to its importance. Kilmacduagh, at the base of the Burren Hills, contains a church (seventh century) of St. Colman, the Blue-eyed, and a Round Tower leaning out of the perpendicular. In pre-historic times all this country side at the foot of Burren, from Gort to Loughrea, and for miles apart, is said to have been the favourite hunting-ground of Queen Maev. Kinvara, away on an inlet of Galway Bay, is a fishing village, and the locality is celebrated for the "succulent oysters"—which in the season are to be found in every restaurant in Dublin. The antiquary will find his way easily to Corcomroe Abbey—the church is still in a good state of preservation. Donald More O'Brien, King of Limerick, is commonly believed to have built it in the twelfth century. It subsequently became subject to Furness, in Lancashire. Donough O'Brien, King of Thomond—killed in battle in 1267—is buried here; his monument discloses the rude magnificence of his attire. The effigy is looked upon by scientists as an example of the attire of an Irish King of the thirteenth century.

Athenry, as its name, the "Ford of the Kings," signifies, and its ruins testify, was of old a place of renown. The tower is entered by a small gate tower; before it stands the quaint market cross, on one side is the Virgin and Child, on the other the figure of the Crucified. The base is relieved with deer and wolf hounds, and at the corner an angel holds a scroll, the legend of which is defaced. The Franciscan Priory (1464), despite the attempt to modernise it, has still two thirteenth century windows, and the south transept has the remains of a very beautiful window. The Dominican Priory is said to have been erected at the personal request of St. Dominick in 1241. So late as 1644 it was the seat of a university acknowledged by Rome.

Tuam is now of little importance. It is to ecclesiastics, however, of interest, as the centre of an Archiepiscopal See. The statue to John MacHale is worth seeing. He was well known in the first part of the nineteenth century as "John of Tuam." An uncompromising Ultramontane, he translated Homer into Gaelic, and O'Connell in one of his speeches called this great patriot bishop "The Lion of the Fold of Judah." The ancient cross in the square is a good specimen of the Irish stone crosses.

Galway still possesses the evidence of its former greatness. To-day it is simply an old world city in the midst of a sporting county. Of old it was a strong-walled town, ever on the alert against alarm and foray, with its harbour crowded with the warships of Spain and the merchantmen of many a foreign port. There is a famous map of the city, dating back to 1651, when the then Lord Deputy Clanricarde pledged the town to the Duke of Lorraine. It shows a walled-in town with fourteen gates, each guarded by a watch-tower.

Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.

At Galway.

In the twelfth century, when De Burgo conquered O'Connor, he made Galway the citadel of his western possessions. During the next century there gathered into the prosperous town from far and near adventurers and merchants—the Blakes and the Bodkins, the Lynches, the Morrises, the Martins, the Joyces, &c.; founders of the great families, whose names have since been inseparable from Galway. In after times the clanship and attachment of these families to their members and each other, drew from the Scripture-loving Puritans the scornful appellation—"The Tribes of Galway"; but the expression was afterwards adopted by the Galway men as an honourable mark of distinction between themselves and their cruel oppressors. In old times the merchant princes of the place were renowned for their hospitality, which they carried to such an excess that the civil authorities interfered with it, in 1518, with a law to the effect that

"No man of this town shall oste or receive into their houses at
Christmas, Easter, nor no feaste elles, any of the Burkes,
MacWilliams, the Kellies, nor no cepte elles without license of
the Mayor and Councill, on payn to forfeit £5; that neither O nor
Mac shall strutte nor swaggere through the street of Gallway."

Indeed, the O's and Mac's seem to have made their history by more than enjoying the hospitality of their neighbours, and what was not given them willingly they at times took by the strength of their right hands. Over the western gate of the city was the following meaningful inscription:—

"From the fury of the O'Flaherties, good Lord, deliver us."

The trade with Spain was for centuries a source of great prosperity to the town, and those familiar with the characteristics of Spanish architecture will see much in Galway to remind them of it. The sympathy of the townspeople seems always to have been with the leaders of forlorn hopes in Irish history. It was almost destroyed by Ludlow for its fidelity to the King in 1652, and having been rebuilt, it again fell before the siege trains of the victorious Ginckle in 1691 after the battle of Aughrim, the Culloden of Ireland. With the fall of the Jacobite standard in that battle, the hopes of the western Irish declined. The surviving sons of most of the old families sought service abroad in the armies of France, Spain, and Austria. There are many love songs of the time in Irish, which have been translated, such as—

AFTER AUGHRIM.

Do you remember long-ago,
Kathaleen!
When your lover whispered low—
"Shall I stay or shall I go,
Kathaleen?"
And you answered proudly, "Go,
And join King James and strike a blow
For the Green."
Mavrone! your hair is white as snow,
Kathaleen,
Your heart is sad and full of woe—
Do you repent you bade him go,
Kathaleen?
But still you answer proudly, "No,
Far better die with Sarsfield so,
Than live a slave without a blow
For the Green."

Many of the old houses remain. Far and away the most interesting is Lynch's mansion at the corner of Abbey Gate-street. On the walls are the arms of the Lynches and their crest, a lynx, which it is said was given them for the watchfulness with which they guarded a besieged Austrian town in the middle ages. Behind Saint Nicholas' Church, in Market-street, is the Lynch stone, inscribed with a skull and crossbones, and "Vanity of vanity, and all is but vanity," above which is an inscription:—

The stern and unbending justice relates to the Mayor's execution of his own son. The story tells how a young Spaniard, who was the Mayor's guest, crossed in love the Mayor's son. One night, heated with wine and inflamed with jealousy, young Lynch drove a stiletto through the heart of his rival. His father tried and condemned him for the crime. His mother roused the sympathy of the townspeople to such an extent that none could be found to act as executioner, but the old Mayor was even-handed with them, and hanged the unfortunate culprit with his own hands.

No visitor to Galway will fail to find out the Claddagh. It is the most conservative community in Ireland, and with them neither old times are changed nor old manners gone. The colony inhabit a number of low-thatched cottages apart from the town. They live mostly by fishing. The Claddagh women dress in blue cloaks and red petticoats, and their rings, which visitors procure as keepsakes, represent two hands holding a harp. Hardman, in his "Rare History of Galway," wrote of them as follows:—

Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.

Arran Island, Claddagh.

Salthill, to the west of the town, is a well-sheltered bathing-place, with pleasant villas for visitors. The Queen's College will repay a visit. At the bridge in the town excellent salmon fishing is to be had. When the fish are making up the river for Corrib or Lough Mask the sight is very interesting. From Galway the old Franciscan Monastery at Claregalway may be driven to, or an excursion made down the bay to the Arran Islands. They are twenty-seven miles from the harbour. There are three principal islands, Innismore, Innismaan, and Innisheen, and several small isles. Two centuries ago they were described as paved over with stones, with wide openings between them for cattle to break their legs, and the modern description by Hon. Emily Lawless does not far differ.

The dress of the people is mostly white, homespun flannel "bawneens," and sandals of cowhide, fastened across the instep, which they call "pampooties."

Photo—Lawrence, Dublin.

Queen's College, Galway.