52 Ireland as a Tourist Resort. 



crosses of very great antiquity. Athlone comes next, some nine 

 miles lurther up, and is a most interesting town. It has a 

 castle, built in the year 1210, that stood a siege, and is still used 

 as a barracks. The steamer then enters Lough Ree, a wide 

 expanse of the Shannon, studded with islands, on which stand 

 ruins of ancient Celtic churches and Norman castles, and finally 

 reaches Dromod, in County Leitrim, from whence the traveller 

 can proceed direct by rail to either Dublin, Belfast, or Sligo. 

 The Shannon is the noblest river in the United Kingdom, and 

 the opening of it for tourist traffic is a most important feature 

 in the development of Ireland. Mr. Milligan gave an interesting 

 summary of what our railway companies are doing to induce 

 English people to come to Ireland. An office has been opened 

 at 2, Charing Cross, London, where an agent attends to give 

 information and issue tickets to every part of Ireland. The 

 tourist rates, he pointed out, were now exceedingly low to every 

 health resort and tourist district in the island. The channel 

 service was everything that could be desired. Time would not 

 permit to refer to the beauties of County Down, or the magni- 

 ficent mountain scenery of the Kingdom of Mourne, which was 

 in their territory The County Down Railway Company 

 would have completed for the ensuing season their new hotel 

 at Newcastle, which would be one of the very finest tourist 

 hotels in all Ireland. 



In conclusion, Mr. Milligan said he hoped all the varied 

 attractions — the half of which had not been enumerated — in 

 this lovely land would soon produce a rich harvest of visitors, 

 and that the charming scenery off the beaten track would soon 

 be beaten enough by a regular Anglo-Saxon invasion crossing 

 over to get better acquainted with Ireland and her people, with 

 the result that they will become assimilated with them, and 

 form henceforth a more united and homogeneous nation. 



The lecture was illustrated by no fewer than 150 specially 

 prepared lantern slides of Irish scenery and antiquities, thrown 

 upon the screen by Mr. Hogg (the representative of Mr. J. 

 Lizars). 



