W.G.C.

* * * * *

[Illustration: KILCOLMAN CASTLE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE POET SPENCER.]

Few of the original houses of Genius[2] will excite more interest than
the above relic of SPENCER. It is copied from a lithographic drawing in
Mr. T. Crofton Croker's "Researches in the South of Ireland," where it
is so well described, that we can spare but few lines in our abridgement
of the passage:--

Kilcolman Castle is distant three English miles from Doneraile, and is
seated in as unpicturesque a spot as at present could have been
selected. Many of the delightful and visionary anticipations I had
indulged, from the pleasure of visiting the place where the Fairy Queen
had been composed, were at an end on beholding the monotonous reality of
the country. Corn fields, divided from pasturage by numerous
intersecting hedges, constituted almost the only variety of feature for
a considerable extent around; and the mountains bounding the prospect
partook even in a greater degree of the same want of variety in their
forms. The ruin itself stands on a little rocky eminence. Spreading
before it lies a tract of flat and swampy ground, through which, we were
informed, the "River Bregog hight" had its course; and though in winter,
when swollen by mountain torrents, a deep and rapid stream, its channel
at present was completely dried up.

[2] We have the pleasure of informing our esteemed
correspondent, H.H. of Twickenham, that the very interesting
memorial of GRAY, to which he alluded in his last letter,
will illustrate an early number of the _Mirror_.

"Sometimes, misguided by the tuneful throng,
I look for streams immortalized in song,
That lost in silence and oblivion lie;
Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry."

Judging from what remains, the original form of Kilcolman was an oblong
square, flanked by a tower at the south-east corner. The apartment in
the basement story has still its stone arched roof entire, and is used
as a shelter for cattle; the narrow, screw-like stairs of the tower are
nearly perfect, and lead to an extremely small chamber, which we found
in a state of complete desolation.

Kilcolman was granted by Queen Elizabeth, on the 27th June, 1586, to
Spencer (who went into Ireland as secretary to Lord Grey), with 3,028
acres of land, at the rent of 17l. 3s. 6d.; on the same conditions with
the other undertakers (as they were termed)