ford, though comprising a territory of
only 40,000 acres, contains the ruins of eighteen churches, thirty-three
chapels, two convents, and a hospital of vast proportions. Nor is this
district exceptional, for at Glendalough, Clon-mac-nois, Inniscathy, Inch
Derrin, and Innis Kealtra, there are groups of churches, each group having
seven churches, the edifices of goodly size, and at Clonferth and Holy
Cross, there are seven chapels in each town, so close together as to cause
wonder whether all were called into use.

One manifestation of the religious element of the Irish nature is seen in
the profound reverence for the memory of the saints. Of these, Ireland
claims, according to one authority, no less than seventy-five thousand,
and it is safe to say that the curious inquirer might find one or more
legends of each, treasured up in the unwritten folk-lore of the country
districts. To the disadvantage of the minor saints, however, most of the
stories cluster round a few well-known names, and nothing delights the
Irish story-teller more than to relate legends of the saints, which he
does with a particularity as minute in all its details as though he had
stood by the side of the saint, had seen everything that was done, and
heard every word that was spoken; supplying missing links in the chain of
the story from a ready imagination, and throwing over the whole the
glamour of poetic fancy inseparable from the Irish nature.

The neighborhood of Glendalough, County Wicklow, is sacred to the memory
of Saint Kevin, and abounds with legends of his life and works. The seven
churches which, according to tradition, were built there under his
direction, are now mostly in ruins; his bed, a hollow in a precipice, is
still shown, together with his kitchen and the altar at which he once
ministered. In the graveyard of one of the churches is a curious stone
cross, of considerable size, evidently monumental, though the inscription
has been so defaced as to be illegible. On the front of the cross there is
a deep indentation much resembling that made by the hoof of a cow in soft
earth, the bottom of the indentation being deepest at the sides and
somewhat ridged in the middle. Concerning this cross and the depression in
its face, the following legend was related by an old peasant of the
neighborhood.

[Illustration: Glendalough]

"Ye must know, that among all the saints that went to heaven from
Ireland's sod, there isn'