3 



self, and he borrowed the name from the Glen of Aherlow, at that time 

 commonly called Arlogh or Arlow by English writers — a beautiful 

 valley, ten miles long, enclosed by the Galties on one side, and Slieve- 

 namuck on the other, with Galtymore towering immediately over it. 

 That this peak, and no other, is Arlo Hill, is shown by several circum- 

 stances. Arlo Hill must be at the eastern end of the range, that is, 

 among the Galties, for he tells us that it overlooks the Suir, and the 

 plain through which it flows : — 



" [Diana] quite forsooke 



All those faire forests about Arlo hid, 



And all that mountaine which doth overlooke 



The richest champain that may else be rid ; 



And the faire Shure in which are thousand salmons bred." 



First Canto of Mutalilitie. 



The name Arlo Hill shows it to be one of the peaks rising over the 

 vale of Aherlow ; and its identity with Galtymore is placed beyond all 

 question by Spenser's own assertion, that Alio Hill 



" is the highest head in all men's sight 



Of my old father Mole." — Ibid. 



We have just seen that he reckons Galtymore as one of the moun- 

 tains called Mole; in " Colin Clouts come home again" he says his 

 own residence of Kilcolman was under the foot of Mole, and further on 

 in the same poem he states that the Mulla or Aubeg rises out of Mole ; 

 in the same place also he says that 



" Mole hight that mountain gray 



That walls the north side of Armulla dale.'' 



Erom all which it is evident that by " Old Father Mole," Spenser 

 meant the whole range including the Galties and "Ballyhoura mountains. 



" Old father Mole" 



tl had a daughter fresh as fioure of May 



Which gave that name unto that pleasant vale, 

 Mulla, the daughter of old Mole, so hight 

 The nimph that of that watercourse has charge, 

 That springing out of Mole, doth run doune right 

 To Buttevant, where, spreading forth at large, 

 It giveth name unto that ancient cittie 

 Which Kilnemullah clepped is of old." 



The river Mulla or Aubeg, which flows by Buttevant andDoneraile 

 has been already well described by several writers, so that no descrip- 

 tion is necessary here ; but I wish to make a few remarks on the name. 



It is called the Aubeg to distinguish it from the Avonmore, "the 

 great river" — the Elackwater. Spenser has drawn on poetic license in 

 calling it by the name Mulla, which could not be the name of a river 

 at all except by transference from a hill ; the Aubeg was never called 

 Mulla except by himself. Kilnamullagh was, as Spenser says in the 



