The famous cities of Ireland . h Cork harbour that thelife blood of the nation ebbed away. That is whatCork stands for in modern Irish history. Yet gothere, travel by rail, or, far better, by boat, to Queens-town, and watch the windings of the river lost inwooded slopes; you shall see a landscape full ofamenities, devoted to reasonable pleasure and the 3IO THE FAMOUS CITIES OF IRELAND ^ adornment of life; and the great haven itself, whenyou reach it, is a veritable harbour of delight. I layfor an hour high up on the hill-slope over Queens-town and watched little steamers circling andwheeling,
The famous cities of Ireland . h Cork harbour that thelife blood of the nation ebbed away. That is whatCork stands for in modern Irish history. Yet gothere, travel by rail, or, far better, by boat, to Queens-town, and watch the windings of the river lost inwooded slopes; you shall see a landscape full ofamenities, devoted to reasonable pleasure and the 3IO THE FAMOUS CITIES OF IRELAND ^ adornment of life; and the great haven itself, whenyou reach it, is a veritable harbour of delight. I layfor an hour high up on the hill-slope over Queens-town and watched little steamers circling andwheeling, with white trails behind them on theshining floor of blue; a ship heading out between thepoints, and up and outward under the land seemedto beckon towards America. Below me, but highabove the harbour, was the great Roman CatholicCathedral of Pugins building, richly adorned thatthe emigrants last glance might rest on an imposingsymbol of his faith. Was it the votive memorial,I asked myself, of a fugitive and disappearing race ?. Quee)istown. CHAPTER XI BELFAST From the hills overlooking Dublin you can seeon a clear day, distinct yet far distant, the mountainrange which is the southernmost boundary of whatmay be called the true Ulster. Geographically,County Antrim, on whose border Belfast lies, isnearer and is more akin to Scotland than to the restof Ireland. Up to 1600 both sides of the narrowseas were held by the same race; they spoke the samelanguage, the same Gaelic. After 1600 the Scotspopulation flowed over into Ulster, but the incomerswere largely Celtic; and though they spoke English,it was that Lowland tono^ue which has a literaturemore ancient than the English of England. Belfast,and the Ulster which is coming increasingly to centreabout Belfast, is nearer to Scotland and more relatedto it than to southern Ireland. The artist whosedrawings illustrate this book, brought up and trainedin County Antrim, knew Scotland and knew Englandfor twenty years before he came for the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectcitiesandtowns, booky
