Ireland/Irish > Black's guide to Killarney and the south of Ireland

BLARNEY LAKE.
65
* There is a stone there,
That whoever kisses,
Oh! he never misses
To grow eloquent.
’Tis he may clamber
To a lady’s chamber.
Or become a member
Of Parliament.
‘‘A clever spouter
He’ll sure turn out or
An out and outer,
To be let alone!
Don’t hope to hinder him
Or to bewilder him,
Sure he’s a pilgrim
From the Blarney Stone
The pleasure-grounds surrounding the castle, which were
formerly adorned with statues, grottoes, alcoves, bridges, and
every description of rustic ornament, are still very beautiful,
although since the time when
“ The muses shed a tear,
When the cruel auctioneer.
With his hammer in his hand, to sweet Blarney ct
their beauty has been gradually diminishing; the fine old trees
have been felled, the statues of
“ The heathen gods. And Nicodemus,
And nymphs so fair, All standing naked
Bold Neptune, Plutarch, In the open air,” t
have vanished, and the
“ ——■ gravel walks there
For speculation
And conversation”
are choked up with rubbish. In 1821, Sir Walter Scott, Mr.
Lockhart, and Miss Edgeworth, visited the castle.
Blarney Lake is a sweet piece of water, about a quarter of
a mile from the castle. A tradition remains that at certain
seasons a herd of white cows rises from the bosom of the lake
to graze among the rich pasture which clothes its banks.
Another story is, that the Earl of Clancarty, who forfeited
the castle at the Revolution, cast all his plate into a certain
part; that “ three of the M'Carthys inherit the secret of the
place where they are deposited, any one of whom dying com¬
municates it to another of the family, and thus perpetuates the
secret, which is never to he revealed until a M‘Car thy be
again Lord of Blarney.”
On the river Coman, within the pleasure-grounds, is a very
fine cromlech, and a number of pillar-stones inscribed with
ancient Ogham characters.
* Father Prout. t
Millikin’s Groves of Blarney.