on, not only a general knowledge of human nature, but a thorough and intimate acquaintance with the Irish national character and modes of thinking, which, surprising as it might be even in one of ourselves, is still more extraordinary in an Englishman, who, however, has shown himself utterly untrammelled by what we are used to call the prejudices of his countrymen.

Some of his concluding observations are so just and candid, that we cannot avoid quoting his own words. " Looking at the present condition and past habits of the people, it would be vain to expect that they could be quickly converted into a skilful tenantry, or that they could duly appreciate the comforts and conveniencies which it is desired that they should enjoy, if these advantages be prematurely conferred on them; time must be allowed for the growth of improved habits; and these will be most effectually excited by the steady encouragement which constant and productive employment affords, and will be best preserved by assuring to them a certain, but limited tenure of their farms, at such reasonable rents as will admit of a gradual accumulation of capital in their hands, if their means be duly husbanded."

On the recommendation of Mr. Spring Rice, as Chairman of the Committee on Irish Poor, the Government resolved to retain the possession of the estate, and generally adopted Mr. Weale's suggestions. The House of Commons, last session, on the motion of Lord Duncannon, authorized the Commissioners of Woods, &c. to supply £17,000 out of the produce of sales of quit-rents, &c. towards the costs of making the new public roads, upon condition that the counties of Cork and Kerry provided £70,000, the remainder of the sum required for that purpose. We have the satisfaction of adding that those counties have promptly availed themselves of the proposal, and at the assizes just concluded, passed presentments for the stipulated amount: and that the works are already in progress of erection, under the direction of Mr. Griffith.

We have now done. We can but hope that the same beneficent and wise spirit which has already influenced the operations of Government in the foretaste it has given to this most interesting district of its parental desire for its welfare, and which it must gratify every sincere lover of his country to see has been followed hitherto by such cheering and encouraging results, may stimulate it to carry into full effect the enlightened and clear-sighted views of the excellent individual it has had the discrimination to select for the important task of which he has so ably acquitted himself.

O'G.

MELANCHOLY CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA. During my first season at the Dublin University, I was invited to pass a short vacation with a relative of my mother. He lived in the south of Ireland, in an ancient family mansion-house, situated in the mountains, and at a considerable distance from the mail-coach road.

This gentleman was many years older than I. He had an only sister, a girl of sixteen, beautiful and accomplished; at the period of my visit she was still at school, but was to finally leave it, as my host informed me, at Midsummer.

Never was there a more perfect specimen of primitive Milesian life, than that which the domicile of my worthy relative exhibited. The house was enormously largehalf ruinous and all, within and without, wild, ricketty, and irregular. There was a troop of idle and slatternly servants of both sexes, distracting every department of the establishment; and a pack of useless dogs infesting the premises, and crossing you at every turn. Between

the biped and quadruped nuisances an eternal war was carried on, and not an hour of the day elapsed, but a canine outcry announced that some of those unhappy curs were being ejected by the butler, or pelted by the cook.

So common-place was this everlasting uproar, that after a few days I almost ceased to notice it. I was dressing for dinner, when the noise of dogs quarrelling in the yard, brought me to the window; a terrier was being worried by a rough savage-looking fox-hound, whom I had before this noticed and avoided. At the moment, my host was crossing from the stable; he struck the hound with his whip, but regardless of the blow, he still continued his

attack upon the smaller dog. The old butler, in coming from the garden, observed the dogs fighting, and stopped to assist in separating them. Just then, the brute quitted the terrier, seized the master by the leg, and cut the servant in the hand. A groom rushed out on hearing the uproar, struck the prongs of a pitchfork through the dog's body, and killed him on the spot. This scene occurred in less time than I have taken in relating it.

I hastened from my dressing-room; my host had bared his leg, and was washing the wound, which was a jagged tear from the hound's tooth. Part of the skin was loose, and a sudden thought appeared to strike him-he desired an iron to be heated, took a sharp penknife from his pocket, coolly and effectually removed the ragged flesh, and, regardless of the agony it occasioned, with amazing determination cauterized the wound severely.

The old butler, however, contented himself with binding up his bleeding hand. He endeavoured to dissuade his master from undergoing, what he considered to be unnecessary pain. The dog was dead, sure, and that was quite sufficient to prevent any danger arising from the bite; and satisfied with this precaution, he remained indifferent to future consequences, and in perfect confidence that no ulterior injury could occur from the wound.

Three months passed away-my friend's sister was returning from school; and as the mountain road was in bad repair, and a bridge had been swept away by the floods, saddle-horses were sent to meet the carriage. The old butler, who had some private affairs to transact in the neighbouring town, volunteered to be the escort of his young mistress, and obtained permission.

That there was something unusual in the look and manner of her attendant, was quickly remarked by the lady. His address was wild and hurried, and some extraordinary feelings appeared to agitate him. To an enquiry if he was unwell, he returned a vague unmeaning answer; he trembled violently when assisting her on horseback, and it was evident that some strange and fearful sensations disturbed him.

They rode some miles rapidly, until they reached the rivulet where the bridge had been carried off by the flood. To cross the stream was no way difficult, as the water barely covered the horse's fetlock. The lady had ridden through the water, when a thrilling cry of indescribable agony from her attendant arrested her. Her servant was upon the opposite side endeavouring to rein in his unwilling horse, and in his face there was a horrible and convulsed look that terrified his alarmed mistress. To her anxious questions, he only replied by groans, which too truly betrayed his sufferings; at last, he pointed to the stream before him, and exclaimed, I cannot, dare not cross it! Oh God! I am lost! the dog-the dog!

What situation could be more frightful than that in which the lady found herself? In the centre of a desolate and unpeopled moor, far from assistance, and left alone with a person afflicted with decided madness. She might, it is true, have abandoned him, for the terrors of the poor wretch would have prevented him from crossing the rivulet; but with extraordinary courage she returned, seized the bridle fearlessly, and notwithstanding the outeries of the unhappy man, forced his horse through the water, and never left his side, until she fortunately overtook some tenants of her brother returning from a neighbouring fair. I arrived on a visit the third evening after this occurrence, and the recollection of that poor old man's sufferings has ever since haunted my memory. All that medical skill and affectionate attention on his master's part could do to assuage his pain, and mitigate the agonies he occasionally underwent, was done. At length the moment that was devoutly prayed for came, he died on the sixth morning.

From this horrible fate nothing but his own determination preserved my relative and by the timely use of a painful remedy, excision and cautery of the wound, he escaped this dreadful disease.-Wild Sports of the West.

DUBLIN:

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COURTSTOWN CASTLE.

THE ruins of Courtstown Castle present to the notice of the tourist, the remains of one of the most splendid ancient baronial residences that ever existed in this country. These ruins are situated within a few miles of Kilkenny, to whose noble castle alone they are said to have once yielded in magnificence. Imposing as these proud castellated residences were in their structure, and rich in historical recollections, we may congratulate ourselves that we have been reserved for more peaceful times, in which in security we may survey them in their ruins. No bands of fierce spoliators now issue from their walls, and their dungeons have been long untenanted. Nor were the victims of such a power alone entitled to our pity; the oppressors themselves must have lived in that state of barbarous disunion and feverish anxiety, which tends inevitably to destroy the charities, and consequently the best enjoyments of our nature. Yet human life has ever exhibited a balanced system, and man in the most uncivilized state has the rude virtues, peculiar to his situation, which are unknown to a higher degree of cultivation. These strongholds of power, though almost invariably the seat of violence and oppression, yet were usually the abode of the most unbounded hospitality; the destitute wanderer or the benighted wayfarer never roused the warder from his slumbers, but the portal was thrown open for his reception, with a welcome as lavish as it was habitual.

Raymond le Gros, the founder of the powerful family of Grace, the lords for centuries of this castle, and a vast territory surrounding it, whose representative, even in the reign of Elizabeth, was designated as "An Grassagh more Ballynacourty," (the great Grace of Courtstown) is well known in Irish history as the bulwark of early English power, as the brother-in-law of Earl Strongbow, and as

the first viceroy of tnis kingdom. The name of this chief was more properly Raymond Fitzwilliam de Windsor, and we learn from Giraldus Cambrensis that he was denominated le Gros as a personal characteristic. Of this common mode of discriminating individuals of the highest rank, in the western nations of Europe, during the middle ages, and continued in England even long after the Norman conquest, the appellation of Strongbow, borne by the well-known Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, Chepstow, or Strigul, furnishes an example; and, while the other noble patronymics of his family are forgotten, the assumed name of Strongbow is to this day universally and familiarly repeated. So also the son of Raymond le Gros was called William Fitz Raymond le Gros, or le Gras, or Crassus, which names, their meaning being similar, are used indiscriminately by our historians and antiquaries, by Cambrensis, Hanmer, Stanihurst, and others, and Grace has now become the family name of his descendants.

History scarcely presents a more striking instance of that first and powerful proof of greatness, which lies in an ascendancy over other men's minds, than was exhibited by Raymond le Gros. The soldiers who, without him, were nothing, with him were every thing; and Earl Strongbow, says Hollinshed, constrained him to become joint viceroy with himself. Giraldus Cambrensis calls him the "notable and chiefest pillar of Ireland." With heroism so elevated, magnanimity so unsullied, wisdom so profound, and exploits so unrivalled as their unvarnished tale unfolds, Raymond le Gras wanted only a Homer or a Tasso to have been an Achilles or a Rinaldo. In fact, though Strongbow was the head, Raymond was the very soul of the Anglo-Norman enterprise in Ireland. Upon his secession in anger, when Strongbow defer consenting to his marriage with his sister Basilia de

the war either stood still, or what was worse went back. The repentance of Strongbow was immediate, and his concession complete.

It will be remembered that on the death of Dermod Mac Murrogh, King of Leinster, in 1171, his extensive territory became the property of Earl Strongbow, really by force of arms, though nominally, by virtue of his marriage with Eva, that prince's only legitimate child.

The lands of England were not more liberally distributed on the Norman conquest, than were those of Ireland on the success of the Anglo-Norman enterprise. What the Duke of Normandy was in 1066, such was the Earl of Pembroke in 1170, and his followers as largely participated in the success of his adventure, as did those who attended the Duke of Normandy into England. The possession of extensive districts rewarded these military chieftains, and from such splendid acquisitions the services of their own subordinate adherents were also largely recompensed. Among these princely grants was that of Grace's country to Raymond le Gros. This consisted of a vast tract of land, comprehending, it is said, the barony of Cranagh, and extending northwards by the liberties of Kilkenny and the river Nore, to the borders of the Queen's County; and thence southwards along the borders of Tipperary and the Munster river to the liberties of Callan : forming a district between eleven and twelve miles in length, and between five and six in breadth. The central situation of Tullaroan, in the district of Grace's country, naturally occasioned the selection of that place for the chief castle of the territorial lords; some of whom we find styled Baron of Tullaroan, as well as Baron Grace and Baron of Courtstown.

Raymond le Gros first landed in Ireland the 11th of May, 1170, but he returned to Wales in 1173, to take possession of the lands that devolved to him on his father's death; whence he shortly after hastened back to Ireland with 30 leaders of his own kindred, 100 horsemen, and 300 archers, to the assistance of Strongbow, whose sister he at this time married at Wexford, and obtained a great portion of land with her in dowry, as well as the distinguished civil and military offices of constable and standardbearer of Leinster. On the demise of Earl Strongbow, 22 Henry II. (1176) he was appointed sole governor of Ireland. When Basilia wrote to inform her husband that her brother was dead, she, fearing lest her letter might be intercepted, used this expression, "the great tooth which has been so long ailing has at length fallen out!"

We have been unable to ascertain on what authority 1184, is stated as the period of this distinguished chieftain's death, but an entry in the archives of the Abbey of St. Thomas, in Dublin, distinctly proves it to have been previous to 1201. His eldest son, William Fitz Raymond, as we have before mentioned, retained the patronymic of le Gros, the usual mark of primogeniture at this period, and succeeded to all the lands Raymond had inherited in Wales and England, as well as to those he had acquired in Leinster.

The English conquerors necessarily maintained their dominion by the iron hand of coercion; and the protection of their domains, and the subjugation of the natives, equally obliged them to erect strongly fortified castles. The situation of Grace's country, continually exposed to the attacks of its restless neighbours the Fitzpatricks, the O' Mores, and the Mac Murroughs, justified, on the principle of self-defence, the many frontier castles of its military chieftains, though indeed this legitimate object was often abandoned for motives of predatory warfare, and feudal aggression. Though we are unable to fix a precise date to the building of this castle of Tullaroan, or Courtstown, we may be allowed to conjecture that it was nearly coeval with Grace's castle, in Kilkenny, erected by William le Gras, before the 11th of John, (1210); it is however obvious, from the architecture, that different parts of the building have been the work of different periods. A tradition prevails, that the castles of Tullaroan and Courtstown were distinct structures, and that the former having been destroyed in a hostile irruption of the Irish, the latter was erected on a different site. The ruins of this edifice evinced considerable grandeur, as well as great strength. They exhibited the spirit of a powerful chief

tain, and the taste of a feudal age. Courtstown Castle consisted of an outward ballium or envelope, having a round tower at each angle, and also at each side of an embattled entrance to the south, which was further defended by a portcullis. Within this area, or outward court, comprehending about an acre of ground, stood the body of the castle, enclosing an inner court of an oblong form. A massive quadrangular tower or keep, projected from the centre of the south front, directly opposite to the embattled entrance of the exterior area above-mentioned. The walls of this tower were of considerable thickness, and the rests and fire-places within showed it to have originally admitted five floors. From the sides of this great square tower, two wings extended, which terminated on the east and west with round towers. The east front consequently exhibited on its southern angle, one of these round towers, and further northwards stood a similar tower, flanking a portal which led into the inner court, formerly furnished with a portcullis. Between this and the last flanking round tower and a square tower at the northern angle, was a spacious room or hall, of an oblong shape, occupying the entire space. The north front consisted of a high embattled wall, connecting two square towers, and enclosing the inner area on that side. The western front externally corresponded with the eastThere is said to have been a communication round the buildings of the inner court, by a gallery, and in the centre of it the traces of a draw well are still visible, as are also the vestiges, beyond the outside walls, of the bowling-green, cock-pit, fish-ponds, &c. Some mounds of earth to the south of the castle, called bow-butts, are likewise visible, and are reported by tradition to have been the place where the followers were exercised in the practice of archery.

ern.

Though deprived of the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," Courtstown Castle long continued to possess great dignity of appearance, from the extent of its area, the height and massive thickness of its walls, the picturesque and skilful disposition of its towers, the embattled gateway, and works of circumvallation by which it was defended. Such were the characteristic features of this baronial edifice about the year 1760, and after abundantly supplying, for above a century, materials for all the neighbouring structures, and for repairing the roads, &c. its foundations are now beginning to be rooted up, and

"Broke by the share of every rustic plough;
So perish monuments of mortal birth,

So perish all in turn, save well-recorded worth."

The fate of the Grace family has been but little less unfortunate than that of their ancient fortress-but we must reserve their history to a future number.

S.

CHANGEABLENESS OF THE HUMAN BODY.

Few persons form any conception of the varied phenomena which are continually going forward in their own bodies during their progress from birth to decay. The surprising machinery of the human frame is carried on in profound silence, and its workings are little attended to. The mind which reigns over and animates it, often soars into distant worlds in search of knowledge, and neglecting, by an extraordinary oversight, to look into its own domain, continues ignorant of the surpassing wonders that are hidden therein.

We have long lamented this great oversight, and shall endeavour by the influence of our little Journal to direct the thoughts of our young readers inwardly to themselves, and show them "how fearfully, and yet how wonderfully are they made."

The ingredients of which the frame is composed are continually changing; the old being cast away, as extraneous matter, and new ones of the same kind consentaneously built up in their place. During the whole life time there is no interruption to this shifting, though the rapidity with which it goes on may, under different circumstances, vary; and consequently at no two periods—

not even days-of a man's existence, are the materials of his body identically the same. None of the particles of

which an infant is constituted at the moment of birth make part of its body a few years afterwards, though all its lineaments retain their distinctive characters, and the resemblance to its parents is perpetuated in its growth; neither is the body of the full grown man, literally speaking, the same in substance as that which when a youth he was made of; nor are any of the elements composing the decrepid frame of a man of seventy such as gave him form during that vigorous period of life when he could have counted only thirty or forty birth days: all have been changed several times over before arrival at such an age.

This insensible, interstitial transformation of the old into a new body, if we may use such an expression, may be seen in many instances with which we are conversant. In the simple every day operation of paring the nails an observer of nature will see a demonstration of the process, the nail remains always of the same shape, but there is an unceasing change going forward among its particlesnew ones being deposited from the quick, and the old thrown off at the most projecting part: five or six weeks is about the period occupied in effecting the complete renovation of a nail.

The growth of the hair is a process of the same nature, and the quantity cast off from the head alone, during an ordinary life time would perhaps, if preserved, nearly equal in weight the whole individual! From what source was all this derived but out of the often renewed materials of the body?

All the world knows of the changes which the teeth pass through in the different periods of life-that at birth there are none to be seen-that bye and bye they present themselves-then again disappear, to be replaced by another set, which are themselves in turn frequently cast away before the termination of a natural life; and yet few persons, even those most apt to pry into the causes of passing events, ever think of enquiring, why or how do those changes come about? They manifestly take place in accommodation of the stationary characters of teeth, as regards size, with the varying dimensions of the jaw bones at different ages. The teeth, in consequence of the crystaline enamel which encrusts their exterior have not a power of enlargement like the other bones of the body, and consequently those which are suited to the capacity of the mouth of a child would be ill adapted to the enlarged jaws of an adult: they are then thrown off and new ones of an appropriate size generated. The shedding of the teeth in old age arises from a different cause and is followed by a very different result. The teeth like their possessor become old and infirm; the circulation of blood in them is obstructed by a clogging up of the holes in their fangs, through which the nutritious vessels find an entrance; and they undergo a premature death. In this state, no longer acting in reciprocity with the living parts about them, they are loosened and ejected from the mouth.

But it is more on account of the phenomena which attend the occurrence of these changes, than in explanation of the causes which render them necessary that they are here spoken of, illustrating, as they do, the mutability of the particles of our body which are ever coming and going, but nevertheless always perfect and suited to the purposes they are designed for, unless disease or accident deranges them.

It may be here stated as a fact bearing on the same point, and one also of great interest in medicine, that from a cause like that which destroys the vitality of the tooth of an old man; viz. interruption to the necessary supply of blood, one of the longest bones in the body may be subjected to the same fate, (as in the disease called necrosis) but not with so hopeless an issue; for by the powers of separation and reproduction, called into double activity under such urgent circumstances, the old bone may be got rid of, and a new one in every respect like to the original -complete and useful-be constructed.

A person in a good state of health contracts a fever, during the progress of which he becomes thin and emaciated -but afterwards on regaining his health grows equally corpulent as before, and re-acquires the same exterior form. What has taken place here? Evidently that a

large proportion, perhaps one half of the materials of the body-solids as well as fluids-were lost during the illness; and that afterwards, in the convalescence, fresh ones, derived from the food, were reproduced to the same amount-taking on a similar form and becoming competent to the same functions as those whose places they fell into. In such a case, it is undeniable that a proportion of the constituents of the body-equivalent to the weight regained during the convalescence-consisted exclusively of recently acquired materials.

There are even organs in the interior of the body peculiar to infancy, which becoming useless as the circumstances of life alter, are picked out (absorbed) from the interstices of the parts in which they lay, and never after deposited: and on the other hand the full grown body becomes possessed of structures which were either previously rudimental, and almost invisible, or had no existence at all in an earlier age; establishing still further the factthat though master B. may live so long as to deserve the title of mister B. he will on arriving at that age be a very different person.

There is a friend of ours who is not well disposed to believe that his person which he and many others have seen and known to be the same for nearly 50 years, can have undergone such changes without evincing more external evidences of them. He states also, that on one of his limbs there has been a scar, as long almost as he can remember-and triumphantly asks, if he has been so often changed why has not this mark disappeared with the other bye gone elements of his frame? As well might our friend ask the same question respecting any other part of his body on which he might chose to lay his finger-an eyean ear-or even a limb. The substraction and addition of materials of which we have been speaking have no tendency to produce annihilation or confusion among the different parts of the body. Every organ and tissue while it retains life, and serves a useful purpose in the body, is endowed with a peculiar formative power, by which it perpetuates its existence, and converts into its own nature the elements of supply brought to it by the blood. There is no danger that an eye or an ear shall, while not deranged by accident, either cease to be nourished, or set about converting its share of nutritious matter into any thing but its own proper textures. And so it is with a cicatrix : when once established it stands in precisely the same relation to the body as any of the more original organs. It has become a distinct structure, and is of use in binding together parts which without it would be disjoined. It therefore stands equally entitled to all those powers by which its existence may be secured; and our friend would feel inconvenience if his were to be removed.

One of the objections of our learned friend being thus easily got over, we think it better not to say much about the other, viz. that the evidences of his body having undergone great alterations within his recollection are not so very striking as to bring about his concurrence in this doctrine-for perhaps, no matter how palpable may be the facts in this point, his vanity might blind him against conviction; for

Persuade a man against his will,
He's of the same opinion still.

SERENADE.

(Waltz Air.)

FOR THE DUBLIN PENNY JOURNAL.

H.

MELLIFONT ABBEY.

The Abbey of Mellifont, in the County of Louth, situate about five miles from Drogheda, in the Barony of Ferrard, was originally one of the most important and magnificent monastic edifices ever erected in Ireland. It was founded, or endowed, by Donough M'Corvoill, or O'Carroll, prince of Oirgiallach, the present Oriel, A.D. 1142, at the solicitation of St. Malachy, the pious and learned archbishop of Armagh, and was the first Cistercian Abbey erected in Ireland. The monks by whom it was first inhabited were sent over from the parent Monastery of Clairvaux in Normandy, by St. Bernard, and four of them were Irishmen, who had been educated there for the purpose. On the occasion of the consecration of the Church of Mellifont in 1157, a remarkable Synod was held here, which was attended by the primate Gelasius, Christian bishop of Lismore and apostolic legate, seventeen other bishops, and innumerable clergymen of inferior ranks. There were present also Murchertach, or Murtogh O'Loghlin, King of Ireland, O'Eochadha, prince of Ulidia, Tiernan O'Ruairc, prince of Breiffny, and O'Kerbhaill, or O'Carroll, prince of Ergall, or Oriel. On this occasion the King (Murtogh O'Loghlin) gave as an offering for his soul to God, and the Monks of Mellifont, 140 oxen or cows, 60 ounces of gold, and a townland, called Finnavair-na-ningen, near Drogheda. O'Kerbhaill gave also 60 ounces of gold, and as many more were presented by the wife of Tiernan O'Ruaric, who was a daughter of the prince of Meath, that is, a former prince Murchad. She likewise gave a golden chalice for the high altar, and sacred vestments. &c., for each of the ni e other altars that were in the church. This was the unfortunate Dearbhfhorguill, or Dervorgal, whose abduction by the profligate Dermod Mac Murrogh, King of Leinster, was the first link in the chain of events which led to the introduction into Ireland of the British arms, under the celebrated. Strongbow. Her pious donations to the abbey of Mellifont appear to have been in some measure intended as an expiation of her crime; and hither she retired towards the end of her life, which she closed in religious exercises about the year 1193.

It was supposed by some, but erroneously, as Dr. Lanigan satisfactorily shows, that here was held the Synod of 1152, at which Cardinal Paparo, as the legate of Pope Eugene III., distributed four Palliums for the sees of Dublin, Tuam, Armagh, and Cashel; it, however, was really held at Kells, in Meath.

On the establishment of the English power in the district called the Pale, in which Mellifont is situated, it was taken under the especial protection of the settlers. In

1177 a confirmation of their house and possessions, was granted by King Henry II. as appears by the Charter of his son John, who renewed and confirmed the same; and in 1203 a new charter was granted to the abbey by King John, confirming to it several additional possessions which it had acquired after the arrival of the English. Many other grants and confirmations were made by succeeding Princes.

For a considerable period the abbey of Mellifont, as well as the other Cistercian monasteries in Ireland, continued to be connected with the parent establishment at Clairvaux, to which monastery, considerable sums of money were continually remitted. To correct this abuse, an act was passed in the reign of Edward III. enjoining all ecclesiastics not to depart the kingdom on any account whatsoever, nor to raise or transmit any sums of money privately or openly from hence, contrary to the form of the statute. In consequence of this enactment, Reginald, the abbot of Mellifont, was by a jury in 1351, found guilty of raising from the abbots of Boyle, Knockmoy, Bective and Cashel, the sum of 664 florins, one half of which he had remitted to the abbot and convent of Clairvaux; and again, in the year 1370, the abbot, John Terrour, was similarly indicted for remitting to the same abbey the sum of forty marcs. This abbot was, in the year 1378, indicted for killing one of his monks, named John White, in the year 1367; but the jury acquitted him. In 1380, it was enacted by parliament that no mere Irishman should be permitted to make his profession in this abbey. In 1488, the abbot received the king's pardon for being concerned in support of Lambert Simnell.

In 1540, Richard Conter, the last abbot, surrendered his abbacy, and had an annual pension of £40. granted to him for life. He had 16 fishing corraghs or skin-boats at Oldbridge, on the Boyne, which produced him annually £13. 13s. 4d., which, with various other possessions, amounting in the whole to £315. 19s. were granted to Sir Edward Moore, (ancestor to the present noble family of that name,) who made it his principal seat, converting the abbey into a magnificent residence, and, at the same time, a place of defence. In the memorable rebellion of 1641, a considerable body of the Irish sat down before it, and the garrison, which consisted of only 15 horse, and 22 foot, made a vigorous defence; but, on the failure of their ammunition, the foot surrendered, and the horse, charging vigorously through the enemy, arrived safe at Drogheda. Such are the chief incidents in the history of this im portant monastic foundation, of which but trifling remains are now to be found, but these are sufficient evidence of its ancient beauty and splendour. They consist of the ruins of a beautiful little chapel, dedicated to St. Bernard,