point. The Curragh District Golf Club
has been formed by the military stationed there. ~Kildare~, some thirty
miles from Dublin, is the junction for the Kilkenny branch of the line.
The town is very old, being, in the early Christian era, a cell of St.
Bride, a patroness of Ireland. The ancient cathedral has been partly
rebuilt, and in the south transept is the vault of the Earls of Kildare,
progenitors of the Leinster line. These Geraldines were the most famous
of the Norman invaders:

"And, oh! through many a dark campaign
They proved their prowess stern,
In Leinster's plains and Munster's vales
On king, and chief, and kern;

But noble was the cheer within
The halls so rudely won,
And generous was the steel-gloved hand
That had such slaughter done.
How gay their laugh, how proud their mien,
You'd ask no herald's sign--
Amid a thousand, you had known
The princely Geraldine."

[Illustration: _Photo, Roche, Dublin._ The Liffey, near Celbridge.]

[Illustration: _Photo, Lawrence, Dublin._ Curragh Military Camp.]

[Illustration: _Photo, Lawrence, Dublin._ Curragh Military Camp.]

The Round Tower in the graveyard, which is one hundred and three feet
high, is perfect, except that the original cap has been replaced with a
battlement, out of character with the rest. The old castle stood by, to
guard the church and tower, and what remains of it has been turned to
use as a tenement. The Earls of Kildare were often warring with the
Kings of England. The Archbishop of Cashel one time protested to the
King against the Earl burning down his cathedral, and the Earl, when
reprimanded, explained to the King in person that he would not have done
so had he not thought that the Archbishop was inside the church at the
time. This was the same Earl of whom the Parliament complained that "all
Ireland could not govern the Earl of Kildare." "Then," said the King,
"let the Earl of Kildare govern all Ireland," and he was appointed Lord
Deputy, and made an excellent one. From Kildare, Carlow, twenty-six
miles distant, and Kilkenny, fifty-one, are the principal stations on
the line which terminates at Waterford. ~Carlow~ is an old town which
belonged to the hereditary enemies of the Fitzgeralds, the Butlers of
Ormonde. It is beautifully situated, surrounded by fine trees, and built
on the picturesque Barrow. There is splendid water-power above the town,
and it was the first place in Ireland that was l