5 



Out of her bowre, that many flowers strowes ; 

 So through the flowry dales she tumbling downe, 

 Through many woods and shady covei ts flowes, 

 That on each side her silver channell crowne, 

 Till to the plaine she come, whose valleyes she doth drowne." 



And farther on he states that Diana used to come to bathe " to this 

 sweet spring," which answers to the pool still existing at the source of 

 the stream. 



There is however one grand difficulty, which no one has hitherto 

 noticed, though all assert that the Molanna is the Brackbaun. Accord- 

 ing to Spenser the Molanna and the Funcheon are two different streams, 

 the former joining the latter after passing " through a pleasant plaine." 

 But this River Brackbaun is the source of the Puncheon itself, and even 

 to a person unacquainted with the locality this will be rendered evident 

 by a glance at a good map ; how then can the Brackbaun be the Mo- 

 lanna, since the former is the Funcheon, while the latter is a different 

 river ? 



Smith, in his " History of Cork" (vol. ii., p. 262), asserts that the Fun- 

 cheon rises in a bog in the county Tipperary, one mile south of the Galties, 

 and that it receives the Brackbaun not far from its source. He is fol- 

 lowed by several modern writers, all being apparently more anxious to 

 reconcile Spenser's statements regarding the Molanna and the Funcheon, 

 than to describe these rivers as they really exist. Smith's statement 

 is undoubtedly erroneous, for the Brackbaun is universally known as 

 the source of the Funcheon ; moreover, there is no stream at all meeting 

 the Brackbaun from the Tipperary side ; all the streams without excep- 

 tion on that side flow east into the tributaries of the Suir. 



I am not yet able to come to any satisfactory conclusion on this 

 point. It is possible that Spenser may have been mistaken regarding 

 the source of the Funcheon, like Smith and other modern writers, and 

 that he may have intended the Brackbaun for the Molanna. If, on the 

 other hand, we suppose that Spenser had a correct knowledge of the 

 source of the Funcheon, then the Molanna must be some tributary of 

 the Funcheon, the most likely stream being in this case the Behanagh, 

 but at present I cannot say whether it answers Spenser's description. 

 One thing appears to me certain, that modern writers have drawn their 

 conclusion somewhat too hastily, and without sufficient examination of 

 the locality. 



In " Colin Clouts come home again," Spenser celebrates the love of 

 the Bregoge for the Mulla, and in his usual felicitous style he describes 

 the stratagem by which the Bregoge contrived to gain possession of the 

 nymph, in spite of her "old father Mole;" he also states that this 

 river — "the false Bregoge," as he elsewhere calls it — was 



" So hight because of this deceitful traine 

 Which he with Mulla wrought to win delight." 



The little river Bregoge has not disappeared, as some writers assert; it is 

 still well known by the same name. Its principal branch rises in a deep 



