268 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



town ought to be taken together. It is only six and 

 a half miles from Cork to Passage West, but then 

 there is the ferry to cross, and it is as much as eleven 

 and a quarter by railway throughout, because of the 

 angle formed by the branch line from Queenstown 

 Junction. Cork, as the capital of the South, and 

 Queenstown, its lovely suburb and largely its port, 

 are inseparable. I write this not ignoring the fact 

 that by a recent deepening of the channel very large 

 vessels can now come up to Cork itself. But it was 

 not so in the fifties. 



I have only seen the Cove, or harbour, of Cork 

 thrice. Cove, by the way, was the name of Queens- 

 town before Her Majesty landed there in 1849, w^hen 

 it ceased to be used. Once I visited Queenstown to 

 receive the Trent's mails, in 1861 ; again about 1870, 

 when I travelled by special train all over the Great 

 Southern and Western Eailway, to arrange tele- 

 graphic matters ; and a third time in the following 

 year, to negotiate with the late Lord Fermoy, at Tra- 

 bolgan, the terms for acquiring the telegraph to 

 Eoche's Point. 



On each occasion the beauty of Queenstown and 

 its harbour left an indelible impression on my mind, 

 even though that effect was qualified, on the last 

 visit, by the imminence of an upset in a sailing-boat, 

 due to a sudden squall of wind in crossing the great 

 harbour. 



Having said as much, I shall venture — though 

 descriptions of scenery are far from my purpose — to 



