Ireland  is,  indeed,  an  emerald  set  in  the  sea.  Nature  has  made  it
wondrous  rich  and  beautiful.  The  Irish  have  one  of  the  finest  lands  in
the  world,  but  they  are  both  priest  and  king  ridden,  and  seem,  as  Press
sagely  remarks,  able  to  govern  every  land  but  their  own.  It  has  fur-
nished some  of  the  brightest  intellectual  stars  of  which  both  Britain  and
America  can  boast.  Down  in  the  southern  portion  the  people  are
sprightly,  rollicking,  warm,  and  demonstrative,  yet  improvident  and  beg-
garly. In  the  central  portion  the  people  are  more  hardy,  cool,  and
reserved,  more  industrious  and  prosperous.  In  the  north  the  Scotch
Presbyterian  element  gives  it  almost  a  New  England  type  of  energy,
industry,  .md  thrift.  In  the  south,  beggars  and  British  soldiers  hold
equal  sway.  In  the  central  regions  a  few  of  each  are  found,  while  in  the
north  scarcely  one  of  either  is  to  be  seen.  Both  blood  and  religion  tell
wonderfully  here,  as  elsewhere.  Prex."

From  Belfast  the  Club  took  steamer  for  Glasgow.  Few
men  are  better  prepared  to  enjoy  Scotland  than  was  President
Allen.      A   poet   by  nature,  familiar   with   Scotch   literature  and


VACATION    TOUR    IN    EUROPE.  1 33

history,  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  mountains,  and  all  that  is  grand
in  natural  scenery,  the  treasures  of  Scotland  gave  him  con-
stant delight.  Prex  and  Parson  made  a  special  visit  to  Ayr,
and  the  scenes  which  gave  birth  to  Tarn  O'Shanter  and  other
of  Robert  Burns'  poems.  The  Club  visited  mountains  and
lakes,  Stirling,  Edinburgh,  that  Athens  of  Europe,  Abbotsford,
with  its  memories  of  Scotland's  greatest  novelist,  Melrose,  and
Drybury,  and  so  southward  to  England.  On  the  way  to
London  Prex  left  the  Club  at  Leicester,  that  he  might  visit
Cambridge,  Oxford,  and  Stratford-upon-Avon  before  we  went  to
the  continent.  He  wrote  of  these  places  that  which  appears
below: —

THE    HOME    OF    SHAKESPEARE.
