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LEINSTER 33
places in Ireland, and it encloses within its precincts
a cromlech under which, so they tell, lies Aideen, wife
of Oscar, Ossian's son, chief hero of those legendary
warriors, the Fianna.
A beauty of more modern date is to be seen by
those wise and fortunate folk who visit Ireland in
May or June: the rocky glen overgrown with choice
rhododendrons and azaleas, which the Howth family
have gathered and cherished. Imagine a steep cliff,
a hundred feet almost sheer, but piled with tumbled
boulders, and through them, up to the very top, bush
after bush of these gorgeous blossoms—crimson, scarlet,
mauve, buff, yellow, and exquisite diaphanous white.
I never saw rhododendrons anywhere to touch these.
And while we talk of flowers, another sight you can
see from Dublin in May, the like of which takes
visitors to Holland—the great daffodil and tulip fields
at Rush, some fifteen miles north along the coast.
There, growing in among the pale sandhills and grey
bent, you shall see these huge patches of trumpeting
colour—acres of tulips, close ranged like soldiers on
parade, all of one type, uniform in their perfection.
And with that you can inspect an industry employing
many workmen and workwomen throughout the year
in a country where work is none too plenty.
One more word about Howth. When you look
from the hill towards Dublin, you look across one of
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