County and City of Cork_, 1774, (i. 340, 341)--'is
Kilcoleman, a ruined castle of the Earls of Desmond,
but more celebrated for being the residence of the
immortal Spenser, when he composed his divine poem _The
Faerie Queene_. The castle is now almost level with
the ground, and was situated on the north side of a
fine lake, in the midst of a vast plain, terminated to
the east by the county of Waterford mountains; Bally-
howra hills to the north, or, as Spenser terms them,
the mountains of Mole, Nagle mountains to the south,
and the mountains of Kerry to the west. It commanded a
view of above half the breadth of Ireland; and must
have been, when the adjacent uplands were wooded, a
most pleasant and romantic situation; from whence, no
doubt, Spenser drew several parts of the scenery of his
poem.'
Here, then, as in some cool sequestered vale of
life, for some ten years, his visits to England
excepted, lived Spenser still singing sweetly, still,
as he might say, piping, with the woods answering him
and his echo ringing. Sitting in the shade he would
play many a 'pleasant fit;' he would sing

Some hymne or morall laie,
Or carol made to praise his loved lasse;

he would see in the rivers that flowed around his tower
beings who lived and loved, and would sing of their
mutual passions. It must have sounded strangely to
hear the notes of his sweet voice welling forth from