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MUNSTER 13
II
If I had to see Minister by motor car, my dispo-
sition would be to start from Waterford, follow the
valley of the Suir up to Clonmel, then strike north
to Cashel and see it. All the monuments can be seen
in a few hours, and no ruin or building that I ever
visited has so intelligent a custodian. From Cashel
I would go to Holycross, that exquisite remnant of
monastic splendour, rich in historic memories, and
thence push out across Tipperary to the north-west,
steering for the gap between Keeper Mountain
and the Silver Mines. This would bring me out of
the Golden Vale, which is in truth the valley of the
Suir, and into the basin of a still greater and more
famous river, at its most famous point. For from
this gap the route would descend to the Shannon,
at the narrow gorge below Lough Derg where all
its vast volume of water is contracted to the ford
and pass at Killaloe. Here, if you will, is beauty:
long peaceful levels above the weir where lake passes
imperceptibly into broad river; below it huge swirling
rapids, interspersed with wide, smooth, yet
swift run-
ning salmon pools, all down the twelve miles of
river to the head of the tideway
at Limerick. And
here, too, are historic memories more glorious than