338 TUBBER TURNER. 



top to bottom with larch and ash, again con- 

 tracts the stream into a channel so narrow, 

 that an expert hand might throw a fly across 

 it : this forms the head of the Captain's Falls. 

 Beyond these again, and completing the 

 background of the picture, is seen the town 

 itself, occupying both banks, and clustering 

 round the two abrupt hills which guard the 

 mouth of the river ; the highest on the 

 right bank crowned by the church, which, 

 standing out in bold relief against the sky, 

 seemed as it were ostentatiously proclaiming 

 the Protestant ascendancy, and looking down 

 with something like contempt on the less pre- 

 suming chapel, just raising its head above the 

 houses of the opposite hill. In earlier times 

 these two portions of the town had been con- 

 nected only by a ford, which, broad, sandy, 

 and safe, then formed the principal, if not 

 the only communication between the northern 

 and southern banks, and gave to the town a 

 name, which, in spite of its long, beautiful, 

 and picturesque bridge, it retains still, — 

 Balkan Shanie, the Ford of the River. 



" How seldom it is," said the Squire, 

 " that one sees such a beautiful little bit of 

 forest scenery in Ireland! wild, heathy 



