Dramatis Personae: Lady Gregory

Abstract

S oon after the installation in Woburn Buildings Yeats brought Arthur Symons on a trip to Ireland. They went first to Sligo, lodging with people called Siberry¹ on the slopes of Ben Bulben near the Glencar waterfall. It was Symons’ first visit to Ireland, and he sent an enchanting account to The Savoy of days of soft rain mixed with sunshine on Ben Bulben and of Rosses Point with its “seafaring men who know more of the coasts of Spain and of the Barbadoes than of the other side of their mountains “. Symons was charmed by George Pollexfen, and expressed the opinion that the astrologer might in more favourable circumstances have developed an excellent taste for literature. The fortnight in Sligo was followed by a long stay, diversified by a visit to the Aran islands, at Tulira Castle with Edward Martyn, a new friend met in London through Symons’ friend, George Moore.² This was Yeats’ first sight of that country of limestone rock, storm-beaten trees and old towers, which lies between Galway Bay and the Clare hills, and is the landscape of so much of his later poetry. George Moore was expected to join Martyn’s house party, and presently arrived.