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The poet, in describing this country as once deriving much of its 

 picturesque attraction from wood, takes notice of the abundance of her 

 rivers and lakes: 



Whylom, when Ireland flourished in fame 



Of wealth and goodnesse, far above the rest 

 Of all that bear the British islands' name, 



The gods then us'd (for pleasure and for rest), 

 Oft to resort thereto, when seem'd them best ; 



But none, of all, therein more pleasure found 

 Than Cynthia, that is sovereine queene profest 

 Of woods and forests, which therein abound, 

 Sprinkled with wholsom waters more than most on ground. 



Spenser, in his ' State of Ireland,' after pathetically describing the 

 * lamentable desolation' and ' utter waste' brought upon the province 

 of Ulster by civil war, breaks out into praise of the land : ' and sure 

 it is yet a most beautiful and sweet Country as any under Heaven, 

 being stored throughout with many goodly Rivers, replenish'd with all 

 sorts of Fish most abundantly, sprinkled with many very sweet islands 

 and goodly lakes, like little inland Seas, that will carry even ships 

 upon their waters; adorned with goodly Woods, even fit for building 

 of houses and ships, so commodiously as that if some Princes in the 

 World had them they would soon hope to be Lords of all the Seas, and 

 ere long of all the World. Also full of very good ports and havens 

 opening upon England, as inviting us to come unto them, to see what 

 excellent commodities that country can afford ; besides the soyl itself 

 most fertile, fit to yield all kind of fruit that shall be committed there- 

 unto. And lastly the heavens most mild and temperate, though some- 

 what more moist than the parts towards the West.' 



The chief rivers of Ireland are introduced by Edmund Spenser in 

 his poetic allegory of the ' Faerie Queene/ in the episode of the ' mar- 

 riage of the Thames and Isis,' after those of England : 

 Ne thence the Irishe rivers absent were : 

 Sith no lesse famous then the rest they be. 



He thus alludes to that trio of noble streams whose confluence below 

 Waterford forms the estuary and harbour of that city, rising in the 

 mountains of Leinster and of the centre of Munster, and conveying 

 the waters of several shires to the ocean : 



These three faire sons, which being thenceforth poured 



In three great rivers ran, and many countries scowred. 



The first the gentle Shure that, making way 



By sweet Clonmel, adorns rich Waterford ; 



The next, the stubborne Newre whose waters gray 



By faire Kilkenny and Rosse-ponte boord ; 



The third, the goodly Barrow, which doth hoord 



Great heapes of salmons in his deepe bosome. 



In the poem of ' Mutabilitie' he speaks of the vale of Tipperary as 



The richest champaign that may else be red : 

 and of the 



Faire Suir, in which are thousand salmons bred. 



The immense extent of country ' un-watered' by these great rivers 

 is only inferior to that drained by the Shannon: with their many 

 tributaries they afford a vast and fruitful field for the production of 

 the salmon tribe, which, if assiduously protected, would yield a large 



