434 TUE BRITISH ISLES. 



TTenry II. landed at Waterford in order to take possession of Ireland, wliich had 

 been given him by the Pope, and ever since that time frequent intercourse with 

 England has been maintained. At the present day sixteen steamers depart every 

 week for Milford Haven, Newport, Liverpool, Glasgow, Bristol, and London. 

 Fort/aw, above Waterford, on the Eladagh, has a cotton-mill. Passage and Dunmore 

 are small villages below it, on the " Harbour." On the coast are Tramore, with 

 a dangerous harbour ; the twin villages of Knockinahon and Bonmahon, with lead 

 mines ; and Bmujarraii, on a shallow bay, with a largo distillery. The Lower 

 Blackwater crosses the western extremity of the county. Lismore, an ancient 

 university city, with the ruins of a cathedral and an old castle, is now merely 

 a village, but its environs are as delightful as ever. A canal joins it to 

 Youghal at the mouth of the ri rer. Cappoquin^ also on the Blackwater, has near 

 it the Trappist monastery of Mount Mellery, whose inmates have abjured the use 

 of flesh and stimulating drinks, but have reclaimed a large piece of once sterile 

 mountain land which lies around their abode. 



The countv of Tipperary is almost wholly drained by the river Suir, but its 

 north-western portion, beyond the Silvermine Mountains, slopes down to the 

 Shannon and Lough Derg. It has its " Golden Yale " like Limerick, and is 

 more carefully cultivated than most parts of Ireland. 



"With the exception of Roscrea, in a rich tract at the northern extremity of the 

 county, and of Nenarjh, on the Shannon slope, all the towns of Tipperary lie within 

 the basin of the Suir. On descending that river we first pass Tempkmore ; then 

 Thuvles, a prosperous market town, with a Catholic cathedral and St. Patrick's 

 College ; obtain a glimpse of the ruins of Holy Cross Abbey ; and then reach 

 Cashel, at the foot of its steep rock, crowned by the ruins of a tower, a cathedral, 

 a chapel, and a palace of the Kings of Munster. Tipperary lies in its Golden 

 Yale to the west of the Suir, and at the northern foot of the Galty Mountains. 

 Cahir, on the Suir, is a Quaker town, a fact proclaimed by its appearance of 

 comfort and cleanliness. Clonmel, the largest town of the county, carries on a 

 brisk trade. It is the birthplace of Sterne, the humorist. Its castle and forti- 

 fications were destroyed by Cromwell in 1650 after a protracted siege. North of 

 it lies the ancient town of Fethard, with rema ins of the walls which formerly 

 protected it. Carrick-on-Suir, on the eastern boundary of the county, is a town of 

 considerable trade, and manufactures coarse cloth. 



Far out in the Atlantic, 250 miles west from the Hebrides, 300 miles from the 

 nearest point of Ireland, and altogether outside the submarine plateau upon which 

 rise the British Islands, the dumpy pillar of Rockai.l rears its head above the 

 water. That rock, which from afar might be taken for a vessel under sail, owing 

 to the sheet of guano which falls over its slope, is hardly a hundred yards in 

 circumference ; but it forms the summit of a huge range of submarine mountains, 

 rising in the same direction as the Faroer. This range, separated from the 



