Its fame world wide--Beauty of its name--Extract from Macaulay in its praise--Comparative smallness of Killarney--Admirable proportion of its scenic features-- Softness and beauty its chief attractions--Its weather often moist--Autumn the best time to see it--Its overpowering beauty on fine autumn days--The country round Killarney a wonderland of beauty--Its ruins; and their historic interest. TARA 12 Its antiquity its chief attraction--Beautiful view from its ruined ramparts--The most historic spot in these islands-- Proof of the general correctness of early Irish history--Dr Petrie's great work on the antiquities of Tara--His map of it--Its adaptation for a seat of government in ancient times--Its profanation by the erection of modern buildings on it--Tracks of its principal monuments--No trace of stone buildings found--Its praise sung by Gaelic poets--Was the most important place in Ireland--The roads that centred there--The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny; prophecy concerning it; was brought from Tara to Scotland; now under the coronation chair at Westminster; Petrie's mistake about it; proofs that it was removed from Tara; the stone there now not the Lia Fail; is the Lia Fail a meteoric stone?-- Tara the great political centre of ancient Ireland--The Leinster Tribute--Slaughter of 3030 maidens--Indifference of the Irish heretofore about their history and literature-- Many valuable gold ornaments found in Tara--The "Tara Brooch"--King Laoghaire buried in Tara; his face to his foes, the Leinstermen--The old feud between Meath and Leinster not yet quite forgotten--Tara terribly uprooted-- Saint Patrick's goat--Last King that reigned in Tara--Its vast antiquity worthy of credence. LOCH REE 47 One of the least known of the great lakes of Ireland--Its great beauty--Decline of population in the country round it--Want of steam-boats on the Upper Shannon--Number of Islands--Beauty of the Leinster shore of the lake; is studded with gentlemen's seats--Goldsmith's house--Historic interest of Loch Ree--The treaty of Blein Potóg--Athlone; its beauty of situation; the most prosperous town on the Upper Shannon; its manufactures--Decline of the Irish language--Improvement in the condition of the Irish peasantry. "EMANIA THE GOLDEN" 58