~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.
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