Milly's letter to her father mentions two Mullingar attractions. She
reports that "There is to be a concert in the Greville Arms on
Saturday," and that she and the Coghlans, her employers at the
photo shop, are "going to lough Owel on Monday with a few
friends to make a scrap picnic." The Greville Arms is an
upscale hotel in the center of Mullingar. Lough Owel is a
glacial lake about four miles long, lying about four miles
northwest of the town.
The Greville Arms hotel, built in 1869, was originally the
home of Lord Greville, an Anglo-Irish baron who served as a
Liberal MP from Westmeath and was Gladstone's Lord of the
Treasury for two years. One of only a handful of Irish hotels
mentioned in Joyce's fictions that is still in business, it
boasts a James Joyce Restaurant and a Ulysses Pub. The hotel
is still luxuriously appointed, and still hosts concerts.
Lough Owel offers opportunities for swimming, boating, trout
fishing, and birdwatching. Gifford quotes "Black's rather
outspoken Tourist Guide to Ireland (Edinburgh,
1888)" as saying that it is "attractive but not overwhelming."
He notes also that "Picnics in the late nineteenth century
were more formal and elaborate than they tend to be today; so
a 'scrap picnic' is an exception, an
informal, last-minute outing."
Lough Owel and Lough Ennell, which is similar in size and
lies at a similar distance southwest of Mullingar, are both
part of the River Shannon drainage. Water from the lake flows
into the Royal Canal.
