d.
From Tara five great roads led to different parts of the island. St.
Patrick now made his way through Meath to the very heart of the country,
building churches as he went. Thence he crossed the Shannon, entered
the great plain of Roscommon, passed by Mayo, and at length reached
the western sea. He had now been eight years in Ireland, eight laborious
years, climbing hills, wading through waters, camping out by night,
building, organising, preaching. He loved the land on the western sea,
little known as yet.

"I would choose
To remain here on a little land,
After faring around churches and waters.
Since I am weary, I wish not to go further."

St. Patrick climbed the great peak, afterwards called Croaghpatrick,
and on the summit, exposed to wind and rain, he spent the forty days
of Lent. From here he could look down on to one of the most beautiful
bays in Ireland, down on to the hundred little islands in the glancing
waters below, while away to the north and south stretched the rugged
coast-line. And he tells us how the great white birds came and sang
to him there. It would take too long to tell how he returned to Tara
and started again with a train of thirteen chariots by the great
north-western road to the spot afterwards known as Downpatrick Head;
he passed along the broken coast to the extreme north where the great
ocean surf breaks on the rugged shore, returning again to the Irish
capital. He travelled over a great part of Ireland, founded three
hundred and fifty churches, converted heathen tribes to Christianity
and civilisation, and finally died at Armagh in 493. His work was
carried on by St. Columba, a native of Ireland, who, "deciding to go
abroad for Christ," sailed away with twelve disciples to a low rocky
island off the west coast of Scotland, where he founded the famous
monastery of Iona, about 563. Thence he journeyed away to the Highlands,
making his way through rugged and mountainous country that had stayed
the warlike Romans long years before. He even sailed across the stormy
northern sea to the Orkney Islands.

Let us picture the Scotland of the sixth century in order to realise
those long lonely tramps of St. Columba and his disciples across the
rough mountains, through the dense forests, across bleak moors and
wet bogs, till after dreary wanderings they reached the coast, and
in frail ships boldly faced the wild seas that raged round the northern
islands.

"We c