"Delicious Liffey, from the bosoming-hills What man who sees thee issuing strong and pure But with some wistful, fresh emotion fills, Akin to nature's own sweet temperature; And haply thinks:--On this green bank 'twere sweet To make one's mansion sometime of the year, For health and pleasure on these uplands meet, And all the Isle's amenities are here."
Long ago the St. John's Hospitallers had their house at Kilmainham, and the lands belonging to the Order lay about either side of the stream. The Hospice is now the Old Man's House--an Asylum for Disabled Soldiers, designed by Sir Christopher Wren--and possesses one of the finest halls in Europe. The lands have been built over at Inchicore, and on the other side of the river formed into the Phoenix Park, containing close on two thousand acres, and bounded by a circumference of seven miles. The Park contains the lodges of the Viceroy and the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and the monuments to Lord Gough, Lord Carlisle, and the "overgrown milestone," as the obelisk to the Duke of Wellington has been called. The People's Gardens have been laid out with great taste, but they cannot compare with the natural beauty of the Furze Glen with its deep shade and silent lake. Visitors in the summer time should not fail to drive from Knockmaroon gate, beside the Liffey, to "The Strawberry Beds." Here, in the season, delicious fruit, fresh from the gardens, and rich cream, can be had in most of the cottages beside the road.
[Illustration: _Photo, Roche, Dublin._ Round Tower and Church at Clondalkin.]
The country in the immediate vicinity of Dublin contains much that is picturesque. The scenery along the coast has in general been already referred to. But Killiney, Bray, and Howth, if time permits, should be visited. The train and tram facilities are sufficient. Wicklow County has been called the Garden of Erin, and on no account should a visit to Glendalough or "The Meeting of the Waters" in the Vale of Avoca be deferred. But those who wish to speed on to the south or west will do so from the Kingsbridge Terminus. From here we pass through Inchicore, the busy thriving hive of industry, where the Great Southern and Western Railway have their engineering works. The first station we come to is that of ~Clondalkin~. The old village sits snuggled up at the foot of its round tower, which is one of the best specimens of that early architecture in Ireland, of which the poet says: