2 



Is cal'de Blacke-water ; and the Liffar deep ; 



Sad Trow is, that once his people over-ran ; 



Strong Alio tombling from Slewlogher steep ; 

 And Mulla mine, whose waves I whilom taught to weep. 

 " And there the three renowmed brethren were, 



Which that great gyant Blomius begot 



Of the faire nimph Rheiisa wandring there : 



One day as she to shunne the season whot 



Under Slewbloome in shady grove was got, 



This gyant found her, and by force deflowr'd ; 



Whereof conceiving she in time forth brought 



These three faire sons, which being thenceforth powr'd, 

 In three great rivers ran, and many countries scowrd. 



" The first the gentle Shure, that, making way 



By sweet Clonmell, adornes rich Waterford ; 



The next, the stubborne Newre, whose waters gray 



By faire Kilkenny and Rosseponte boord ; 



The third the goodly Barrow which doth hoord 



Great heaps of salmons in his deepe bosome : 



All which, long sundred, doe at last accord 



To ioyne in one, ere to the sea they come ; 

 So, flowing all from one, all one at last become. 



li There also was the wide embayed Maire: 

 The pleasant Bandon crown'd with many a wood ; 

 The spreading Lee, that, like an island fayre, 

 Encloseth Corke with his divided flood : 

 And banefull Oure late stained with English blood." 



In the first of the " Two Cantos of Mutabilitie," it is related that a 

 meeting of the gods took place on a hill called Arlo, which is very fully 

 described ; and here two other rivers are mentioned, both of which 

 figure in a charming pastoral story — the Molanna, and the Eanchin or 

 Funcheon. The third passage occurs in " Colin Clouts come home 

 again ;" and here the Mulla and the Bregoge are the subjects of another 

 pretty pastoral. . 



Many of Spenser's Irish rivers are so well known, that they could 

 not be mistaken ; there are several, however, that no one, so far as I am 

 aware, has ever attempted to identify ; and there are two, and these 

 some of the most important, that by the generality of writers have been, 

 as I believe, erroneously identified. On those that are sufficiently well 

 known — such as the Shenan, the Slaine or Slaney, the Boyne, &c. — I 

 do not intend to offer any remarks, and in dealing with the remainder 

 I shall take them in the order most convenient to myself. 



There is a range of mountains running eastwards from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Buttevant and Charleville, county Cork, till it terminates 

 near Cahir in Tipperary, extending altogether nearly 30 miles in length ; 

 the western portion of this range is called the Ballyhoura mountains, 

 and the eastern the Galties. This eastern portion is also the highest, and 

 one particular summit, Galtymore, the most elevated of the whole range, 

 rises 3015 feet above the sea level. This peak is Spenser's Arlo Hill, 

 once, according to him, the favourite resort of Diana, and the scene of 

 the meeting of the gods. It was never so called except by Spenser him- 



