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“ The heavily gray masses conceal the sky, but as they break and unfold they reluctantly permit a cheerless light to fall upon the sea. Long before the solid cliffs are visible the vapor shapes itself into a phantasmal coast, which seems more real to the inexperienced eye than the land when it appears; and if you stood up on the bridge of the steamer on one of these white mornings you would likely not recognize the hills of Kerry when they first revealed themselves in the indistinct distance to the sharp eyes of the watch. ”

“ Killarney can only be half enjoyed under these circumstances, but it is so lovely that the pleasure which can be derived from it is great, despite the many annoyances.
All natural beauties are embraced in this region; not one form, but all forms—mountains and lakes, gaunt hills and delightful valleys; the amplest fertility and the most unconquerable barrenness; the bleakest uplands and glens and lanes in which everything is green. History, tradition, and poetry increase the charm which Nature herself possesses. Scarcely a spot is unstoried ”

“ The captain whose vessel is lying in the harbor waiting orders is one of the constituent figures of Queenstown—a comfortable person, with a complexion of copper bronze and a marked steadiness of eye, and a simplicity and brevity of manner. One degree above him is the ship agent, who also is a comfortable person, with a villa on the heathery bluff, set in its own grounds, and commanding a view of the mirror-like bay—a cozy habitation, full of the spoils of travel, in which he gives little dinners, celebrated by libations as deep as they were in country houses twenty years ago. ”

“ Great long rocky valleys are revealed, shut in by lofty mountains, and entered by dark and forbidding ravines, and the predominant color is a russet brown, or, in the farthest distance, a stormy blue. In one of these valleys, looking small, bleak, and wild, the three lakes of Killarney are at first seen from the summit of the Kenmare Road, a distance at which all their less austere beauties are hidden; but, as in approaching Glengariff, the way descends from a sterile uplands into a maze of foliage, and overhead and at both sides crops up the luscious green entanglement. ”

“ There is no promise of the fragrance and juicy verdure, the melting mood in which nature is found at a lower elevation; and as from the top of the hill we go down into an ever-increasing luxuriance of green of varying shades, from the solemn dark of the fir to the transparence and luminousness of banks of ferns, winding into tunnels of foliage, mixed with which is the blazing fruit of the mountain ash, and the fire-drops of the fuchsias, it seems like penetrating the outer brusqueness of one who at heart is full of gentleness. ”

“ The mountains that from above look shaggy and awful are quieting in their influence down here, and the salt-water bay with its woody islands is like a calm inland lake. One or two houses and two hotels of uncommon excellence are built in this happy spot, and the climate is so genial that they are occupied all the year round. ”

“ A hurried business man gains a whole working day on shore by using the mail route to Queenstown, and the steamers themselves find that a convenient port for the embarkation of the large number of emigrants coming from Ireland. The passengers who embark at Liverpool usually have enough time ashore at Queenstown, while their steamers are waiting for the mail, to see the beautiful harbor, the river Lee, Cork, and even to kiss the Blarney Stone, and for those who are bound to Europe it is the best starting-point for the tour of Killarney. ”

“ It is when it is an inch or two of Cape Clear that Queenstown becomes a more engrossing topic than ever, and not the day but the hour of arrival is now spoken of with a confidence which has dismissed any fears or doubts there may have been at the outset of the voyage. The novels and games which have engaged the passengers previously are abandoned. The saloon tables are littered with stationery, and the general occupation is epistolary. No one is unexcited by the prospect save a few used-up travellers who are too familiar with Queenstown to care in the least about it ”

“ She breaks the eight-day spell of the voyage, and reopens communication with the larger world, and solves the little social knot which the isolation of the voyage has tied. The firmness and greenness of the land are not more welcome than the new and unfamiliar faces, except to the bridal pair who have been living on the Eden isle of their passion, and propose to take that unreal estate on shore with the rest of their baggage. Except to them there is a sense of release, and we at once begin to feel a greater fullness of space than the immensity of mid-ocean has ever impressed upon us. ”

“ The mails will be on board the tender, and the beggars and peddlers crying for patronage with increasing urgency. An hour later, Queenstown will be behind, and from the quiet headlands a long black shape, emitting an endless chain of smoke, will be seen silently gliding into the sunset.
The greatest pleasure of the run ashore is when the passenger lands from an inward-bound steamer, and has time to visit Glengariff and Killarney. There are some disadvantages connected with this excursion. The rain is as wearily persistent as the sunshine is infrequent. ”

“ The very hedges, as dense and as trim as the hawthorn of English fields, are compact masses of blossom, and the vines clamber up above the window sills to the roofs, enmeshing every stone in their tenacious threads. ”

“ The cordiality of nature is expressed in elastic turf, springing softly under the pressure of the foot, in the moist exuberance of the verdure, in the sound of many rills which gush out from and between the rocks, in the strength and brilliance of scores of flowers, and in the languishing mildness of the air. ”

“ Cork, as the second city of Ireland, is of no little commercial importance, and though its streets are untidy and its architecture is uninteresting, the scenery above it and below it is exceedingly beautiful. From the wide and deep harbor of Queenstown the Lee winds up to it, in an almost straight course, between verdant hills, with many comfortable villages and luxurious residences upon them, and several quiet little watering-places along the grassy shore. The distance is eleven miles, and the channel has a depth of ten feet at low water. ”

“ What detracts from the tour most is the miserable comprehensiveness of the beggars, who from end to end of the journey follow the visitor with dogged perseverance, and chase him for miles and miles—bare-footed women, shock-headed children, and even able-bodied men who appearance is far from that of destitution. He can never be alone, never for a moment left to the quiet enjoyment of what he has come to see. ”

“ The dominant person in this little society is the admiral of the port, and not to know him is to be unknown—at least in fashionable eyes. An obsolete old warship is moored in the harbor, and though it is nominally a guard-ship, its principal use is as a vessel on which the admiral can fly his flag. Practically he might fly his flag with no less effectiveness from any pole on land, but that would be an infringement of naval usages, and the harmless old frigate is maintained, with a crew of two hundred or more men, to fulfill a tradition. ”

“ There are hawkers of lace, shillalahs, bog-oak, pictures, and sprigs of the shamrock—everything at unscrupulous prices. There is an unblushing fluency of lying, flattery, and humbug, and when the crowd is evaded without purchases the blessings are quickly turned into muttered curses. ”

“ To-day we strike out between the immense walls of Dunloe Gap, where the mountains almost clasp one another overhead, and the bluish-gray rocks bear all the evidence of their fierce origin, and the spent forces of immemorial ages. ”

“ Every cottage on the way sends out after him a rosy-faced and well-fed crowd of beggars, who will not take the most absolute refusal nor the most savage rebuke, and who keep at his heels until another cottage is reached, when they give up the chase to the emissaries of that, who continue it until they reach their limit, where they leave their next neighbor to sustain the agony. ”

“ The origin of the magic power ascribed to the stone is not known, but whoever kisses it acquires, in the language of one version of the legend, "the gift of gentle insinuating speech, with soft talk in all its ramifications, whether employed in vows light as air, such as lead captive the female heart, or elaborate mystifications of a grosser grain, such as may do for the House of Commons." ”

“ The land is perhaps sighted in the early morning—a gray upheaval scarcely distinguishable among the moist and billowy clouds which hang on the faint horizon. Very pale and cold are the sunrises on the southern coast, though full of wild and unusual color. ”

“ Though the club is less restrictive now, and is a very pleasant little house of entertainment, it is not enough to beguile all the spare time which the men have, and one hears many complaints of ennui among those who are fixtures. Queenstown is dull, and to an active temperament the torpor of its ways soon become execrable. The passengers of the ocean steamers ripple the surface for a few hours, but the moment they are gone the place relapses into its usual and oppressive quietude. ”

“ I shall now acquaint your Lordships with a ceremony they have at Cork. It is somewhat like that of the Doge of Venice's wedding the Sea. A set of worthy Gentlemen who have formed themselves into a body, which they call the Water Club, proceed a few leagues out to Sea , once a year, in a Number of little Vessels which for painting and gilding exceeed the King's Yacht at Greenwich and Deptford. Their Admiral, who is annually elected, and hoists his Flag about his little Vessel, leads the Van, and receives the honours of the Flag. ”

“ The circular bay, with its islands and hilly shores, is also a duplicate of what may be seen in the neighborhood of Staten Island. At the mouth the land is craggy, and the heights are fortified, but farther in the foliage is profuse. There is anchorage for thousands of ships, and a sufficient depth of water to admit the largest at all states of the tide. ”

“ Scarcely is the gang-plank out when a vendor of newspapers is distributing the New York Herald and the London Times. There is a flutter of excitement over a weather-stained leather dispatch bag which a man from the shore delivers to the purser. That gentleman is uncivilly mobbed by the passengers in their anxiety to get at the contents. ”

“ The distance from Queenstown to Liverpool is two hundred and forty miles, and the steamers usually take from seventeen to twenty hours in making it. The time is occasionally increased by from one to nine hours through detentions caused by the insufficiency of water at the Liverpool bar. But by the mail service via Dublin and Holyhead the time occupied between Queenstown and London, two hundred and one miles farther than Liverpool, is only nineteen hours; and thus it is possible for a mail to be delivered in London before the steamer which brought it to Queenstown has entered the Mersey. ”

“ There are old women with long black cloaks falling from the shoulders to the feet, and square caps which envelop the whole of the back and crown of the head, surrounding the face with a clean white frill, who have grapes and other fruit to sell at five times their value. ”

“ Unless he mounts one of the shabby jaunting-cars, however, he will not find it easy to extricate himself from the beleaguering mendicants, who surround him and follow him with propitiatory blessings, which are showered upon him with rapid and indistinct reiteration. ”