IN N these days of overtaxed mental and bodily powers change of air has become a matter of prudence. To dwellers in crowded cities, the annual holiday means something more than idle recreation -it involves restoring exhausted nature, and possibly preventing disease. To such the question, "Where shall we go?" is an important one. True, there are those time-honoured spots at the mouth of the Thames, and on the South Coast, dear to our childhood. On their shores our cheeks grew rounder and ruddier, as we made sand-pies or constructed docks and batteries with the same unstable materials: Mamma, happy in our happiness, smilingly observant of our proceedings as she stitched away in the welcome shade cast by a boat or a bathing-machine; while the advent of Paterfamilias at the end of the week, for a few days, completed the domestic idyl. Against these revered spots-although some of them are strangely deficient in picturesque scenery-we have nothing to say. Peace be to their sands! Their long-continued popularity is conclusive evidence that to families, at all events, they afford the required accommodation. But young men, and others who have not yet assumed the responsibility of parents, might do better than pass their holiday, year after year, on a belt of sand, or shingle, of about the dimensions of a good-sized bowling-green. By going farther afield they would secure the advantages of thorough change of air and scene, and that at but a slight increased expenditure of time and money. To urge the claims of IRELAND as a profitable field for the Tourist is the main object of these pages. The sister country abounds in varied and beautiful scenery, the people are most interesting, and the air is mild yet invigorating; while the railroads are so conveniently laid that trips can be taken with great expedition from one point of interest to another. To these advantages may be added, that travelling and hotel expenses are cheaper in Ireland than they are in England. This little work is not merely designed as a Tourist's Guide-book to Ireland, laying down plans for specified routes, with hotel expenses, elaborate descriptions of public buildings, statistics, &c. Many admirable works of that kind already exist, which may be consulted by the visitor with great advantage; but these books naturally present few attractions to the general reader. What is aimed at in these pages is to supply, by a series of high-class Steel Engravings, representative examples of the Scenery of Ireland; and to produce a book which may also serve as a pleasant souvenir of the Tourist's visit. Without the aid of pictorial embellishment the present task would never have been undertaken by its means, it is believed, the work will find favour with the public, and may stimulate the curiosity of many to see in reality what is here so ably pictured. As a guarantee of the excellence of the Illustrations, it may be added the Plates were engraved from Drawings by that eminent landscape painter, Mr. T. CRESWICK, R.A. The work has been divided into Three Parts, each Part devoted to a popular portion of the country usually visited by Tourists. The western Province of Connaught, not being much visited by the class of excursionists to whom this book is principally addressed, is not dwelt on. Although it has not been deemed desirable to lay down rigidly defined routes, a systematic progression from place to place has been adopted, in connection with the railway system of the country. The routes indicated in these pages can, of course, be modified to suit the convenience of the traveller. It is possible-but not desirable for the Tourist to visit all three Provinces in a fortnight, briefly viewing the chief objects of interest; but it will be found far more pleasant and profitable to confine himself to one or two parts of the island at a time. On a first visit, Dublin and its environs, with the Wicklow Mountains, might be taken; on a second, Killarney and the south of Ireland; on a third, Belfast and the north of Ireland, with the Giant's Causeway; on a fourth, Galway and Connemara, with the west of Ireland. The Tourist with a fortnight's holiday might well take b |