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| BLARNEY LAKE, COUNTY CORK. -Everybody has heard of "the Groves of Blarney that are so charming," and most people are familiar with the air of that name, immortalized by Father Pront in his "Reliques." It is half wild, half tender, and has been tamed and sweetened into "The Last Rose of Summer" by Moore and Stevenson. Flotow, the great German composer, adapted it to his charming opera of "Martha," through which it ripples like a sparking streamlet through a pleasure ground. The accompanying sketch shows a sylvan plainly visible. A flock of white sheep grazes peacefully on the broad field shown in the foreground. The sky, for a wonder, is almost cloudless-something unusual in Ireland, whose cloud scenery is one of her greatest charms, while "sunshine and shadow are chasing each other." This changefulness of the Irish sky may have had some effect on the character of the Irish people, with its rapid changes and strongly dramatic tendency. How charmingly Samuel Lover, the Irish poet, pictures this interesting variability of Ireland's skies and Ireland's daughters-shall we not also include her sons?-when he sings- The South has its roses and bright skies of blue. Half sunshine, half tears, like the girl I love best, But ours are more sweet with love's own chanceful hue- Oh, what is the South to the beautiful West? |
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