THE CHRISTIAN MISCELLANY, AND FAMILY VISITOR. FOR THE YEAR 1879. THIRD SERIES.-VOLUME III. OTHE LONDON: WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 2, CASTLE-STREET, CITY-ROAD; SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1879. THE CHRISTIAN MISCELLANY. THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY. O British tourists needing relaxation from overtaxed exertion, and to travellers in search of the sublime and the beautiful,' the LAKES of KILLARNEY supply the means of relief and enjoyment as readily as any part of the world that could be named. They surpass, in combination of grandeur and loveliness, most of the more distant scenes celebrated for picturesque attraction in foreign travel,' and may be reached with far less expenditure of money and time. Their romantic beauties have long been commemorated, both in history and song. 'Beautiful Killarney!' is the admiring expression familiarly applied to them. It is admitted that, as a whole, and in their settings and surroundings, they excel the most renowned lochs of Scotland, such as Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. Wordsworth, foremost of lake poets, attached as he was to the scenery of Westmoreland and Cumberland, pronounced them to be the finest portion of the British Isles; while Ireland's own ardent sons proclaim them as being the loveliest part of a country which they are wont to describe as 'the Emerald Isle, and first gem of the sea.' Situated in the south of the island, near the coast of the Atlantic, and amidst sheltering mountains, the atmosphere floating over them is healthy and exhilarating. VOL. III. THIRD SERIES. JANUARY, 1879. A 2 The Town of Killarney itself has not much in it to detain the visitor. It bears no signs of trade or manufacture, and has much of the forlorn aspect common to the lower class of Irish towns. The inhabitants, for the most part, are poor and ragged; and many of them prefer beggary to hand-labour on the roads or in the fields. On entering the streets men are seen idly lounging at the doors of their dwellings, while the women and children gather in groups around the visitor, and with piteous looks, and oft-repeated witticisms, seek to cosen him out of your honor's loose coppers, or a purty little saxpence to divide among them.’ There are two principal streets crossing each other at the centre of the town. In them there are, here and there, better built houses and shops; but on all sides, in the suburbs beyond, there are characteristic Irish cabins, dark and filthy themselves and in their appendages. The town has in it some Protestant places of worship, including a newly-built parish church, and the Presbyterian and Methodist chapels; but the most imposing ecclesiastical structure belonging to it is the large Roman-Catholic Cathedral, recently erected, in full Mediæval style, from the designs of the late AUGUSTUS PUGIN, that foremost genius in relation to Gothic architecture. Near to this are 'Religious Houses' for Romanists, both male and female, with a Fever Hospital, and Alms Houses, mostly provided from the bountiful charity of the chief proprietor of the town and neighbourhood, LORD KENMARE. His lordship is now building for himself a stately mansion on the left of the road at the entrance of the town, from which elevated position a commanding view will be had of both land and water. The LAKES are situated a few miles from Killarney, and may be approached by roads either to the left or right of it. The best way to them is by the road on the right to the Gap of Dunloe; inasmuch as that way affords additional interest to the visitor in the picturesque ruins of the ancient church, castle, and round tower of ST. AGHADOE, perched on a ridge of rising ground on one side, and in mansions of the O'Connells and of other families of celebrity on the other. There are also, from that road, pleasant peeps of the lakes on the left, and there are Druidical caves which bear within them unmistakable signs of remote periods of occupancy, both by the living and the dead. The GAP of DUNLOE is reached by a drive of five or six miles from the town, and is justly famed as being one of the greatest wonders of the region. It is a stern, wild, narrow mountain-pass, with steep, sterile rocks and overhanging boulders on either hand. It extends some four miles, and has a zigzag stream of water running and |