From Waterford Up Through Kilkenny In The Sunshine, Wondering To See Hay
Still Being Cut In September.
Heard no word of Kilkenny black coal or
Kilkenny marble and passed on to Bagenalstown in Carlow and up through
Kildare to Dublin.
The days were passing so swiftly away that there was but a little time
to see Dublin sights; the question was, therefore, what to see and what
not to see. Owing to the kindness of Miss Leitch, an art student, I had
the privilege of half an hour in the Academy. Having so little time I
spent it all before Maclise's picture of the marriage of Strongbow and
Princess Eva and in a small way understood how a great painter can tell
a story. The museum of Irish antiquities was the next place. I wanted to
see the brooch of Tara and saw it, but I was not prepared to see so many
reliques of gold and silver telling their own tale of the grandeur of
the native rulers of the Ireland of long ago. The ingenuity shown in the
broad collars of beaten gold which made them be alike fitted for collar
or tiara was surprising. The shape of the brooches and cloak clasps are
so like the Glenelg heirlooms which I saw in Glengarry families that the
relationship between the clans of the Highlands and the Irish septs is
quite apparent. There was quite a large room entirely devoted to gold
and silver ornaments. One side was given up to gold collars, neck
ornaments, bracelets, armlets and cloak clasps, all of gold. There was
another cabinet of rings of various kinds. Some of the rings and
bracelets are quite like modern ones. Saint Patrick's bell was another
object of great interest to me. It was plain and common-looking,
evidently for use, shaped a good deal like a common cow bell. I liked to
think how often it had called the primitive people to hear God's message
of mercy to them from the lips of his laborious messenger. Beside it
stood the elaborate case which the piety of other ages manufactured for
the bell. It is such an easy matter to deck shrines and garnish the
sepulchres of the righteous when they are gone past the place where the
echoes of man's praise can reach. It is easier than hearing and obeying
the message which they carry. We were given a powerful magnifying glass
to inspect the workmanship of the shrine that held the bell, but my
thoughts would turn back to the plain common-looking bell itself. Still
I did admire the exquisite workmanship of the shrine, which could only
be fully appreciated when seen through the magnifying glass. It required
the magnifying glass also to fully bring out the richness of the
delicate tracery on the brooch of Tara. There were in another room quite
a number of short swords of cast bronze similar to the one presented to
me in Mayo. Some of them had been furbished up till they looked like
gold.
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