Open [7.9 MB]

50
MUNSTER
and other wild and beautiful herbage grow with ex-
quisite profusion. That is what makes to my mind
the essence of Killarney's charm, this wealth of intri-
cate detail making a foreground
to mountain and
lake scenery as bold and wild as any highlands
can show. Add to this the presence of unfamiliar
foliage, here native, exotic everywhere else notably
the arbutus with its dark, glossy leaf and ruddy
stem, handsomest of all shrubs; dark yew also, and
juniper, mingled in with native growth
of oak and
birch, yet through all, skilful plantation has set in
this and that graceful foreign tree, this and that
bright berry. It is no wonder that such a place
should have become one of the world's great tourist
centres, especially when to these beauties are added
the distinction and interest of fine ruins Ross Castle
where the O'Donoghues were lords till Cromwell's
forces drove them out; Inisfallen where St. Finian's
pious monks had their abbey through untroubled cen-
turies. And, being as it is, Killarney is equipped
for the tourist as is no other place in Ireland: all the
excursions have been thought and planned, and your
hotelkeeper will have arrangements fully made; nor
is the plague of beggars at all the annoyance that it
used to be a blessed reform. The boatmen have
learnt their trade of cicerone to perfection, and will
not only tell you the standard yarns and jests and