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LEINSTER 29
the actual "pale" — a broad ditch and dyke which
fenced in the region under English shire law. A few
miles more would bring you to the famous Curragh
of Kildare. But to visit these things one must lose
sight of the sea, and that is a pity, for nowhere in
Ireland does the sea come more beautifully into land-
scape than in Leinster, and especially about Dublin
itself. North of the city are broad stretches of green
fields, which lead the eye out to that still wider level
of blue— colour laid cleanly in mass against colour.
Sometimes between the pasture land and the ocean
lies a stretch of sand links, beloved of golfers, who
have classic ground at Dollymount on the North
Bull; at Portmarnock, with the exquisite view of
Howth and Ireland's Eye drawn by Mr. Williams;
and, most interesting of all, in the island links at
Malahide. This strange jumble of sandhills by the
mouth of the pleasant little estuary has a special
interest as a bird sanctuary; the terns breed there
in hundreds during June and July.
But for the beauty of all beauties neighbouring
Dublin, give me Howth, the mountainous peninsula,
almost an island, all but a mountain, which makes
the northern limit of Dublin Bay. In all that long
low eastern shore it is the only piece of cliff scenery
(for Bray Head can scarcely deserve the title) and
it commands an amazing prospect. On the north of