Ireland as a Tourist Resort. 47 



Complete Gentleman," it was on record, "If any one applied 

 for license to travel in foreign parts, to the Lords of the Council, 

 that the Lord Treasurer Burleigh would first examine him of 

 England, and if he found him ignorant, he would bid him stay 

 at home and know his own country first.'' Such a course now, 

 though arbitrary, would greatly help tourist development in 

 Ireland. Many books of travel had been written about Ireland, 

 from the time of Gerald de Barry and Edmund Spencer, down 

 to that most interesting writer on Ireland, the Rev. Ceasar 

 Otway, and they had individually and collectively referred to 

 Ireland as one of the most fertile and lovely countries in the 

 world. The difficulty of visiting the remote districts of Ireland 

 where the best scenery is situated, coupled with the absence of 

 good hotels, would account for the small numbers who, up to 

 recent years, visited the outlying parts of Donegal, Connemara, 

 and Kerry. The cessation of political agitation, and the open- 

 ing up of those hitherto almost inaccesible districts by light 

 railways had given a great impetus to tourist development. 



The lecturer now gave a graphic description of the Antrim 

 coast, leaving Belfast for the Causeway by the Coast road, 

 referring to the lovely Vale of Glenariff and its waterfalls, and 

 the fine pathways made by the Northern Counties Railway 

 Company through the Glen, the wooden bridges over the falls, 

 the Tea House in Glenariff, and other interesting features of 

 the Glens, the great headlands and sea cliffs, and the Giant's 

 Causeway. The beauties of the valley of the Roe from Lima- 

 vady to the glen above Dungiven were referred to, most 

 charming scenery, rivalling that of Wicklow. 



Londonderry was referred to as follows : — What memories 

 the City of Derry awakens in the student of Irish history from 

 the time St. Columbkille, in the sixth century, founded there 

 his Celtic monastery amongst the beautiful oak woods he loved 

 so well, down through the ages to the time Sir Cahir O'Doherty 

 slew the governor and burned the city. Next, the memorable 

 siege and noble defence in the reign of William the Third, that 

 bore such important results. 



