this was the last remaining six-pence of the thirty shillings subscribed for the unprinted fairy tale, and with it he was as willing, though a child, to commence his way in the world, with as bold a heart, as self reliant a confidence, as when, in later years he went forth with his young wife to venture upon the troubled tide of literature. The six-pence was repaid him, but, in addition, a second was given, and he was ordered to bed, his father having forgotten all his anger in the surprise of the moment. These were Banim's characteristics, and these are the histories of his life, in early school days. When he had continued for about twelve months at Mr. Doyle's academy, he was removed, in his thirteenth year, to that seminary which can show uponits register the names of many illustrious in literature-Kilkenny College. Of this College Banim has left us the following account, in his tale, The Fetches. men " Kilkenny College was the most famous as well as the most ancient preparatory school of Ireland. It commenced as an appendage to the magnificent cathedral of Saint Canice, for the preservation of which, after Cromwell's spoliation, we are indebted to the classic Pococke, and was then situated, according to Stanihurst, 'in the weste of the church-yard' of that edifice, and had for its founder Pierce or Peter Butler, Earl of Ormond and Ossory. And 'out of this schoole,' continues Stanihurst, 'have sprouted such proper impes, through the painful diligence, and laboursome industrie of that famous lettered man, Mr. Peter White, as generally the whole weale publicke of Ireland, and especially the southern parts of that island, are greatly thereby furthered.' We have a sure clue to the date of its first erection, by the same writer mentioning that fact as 'of late;' and also by his proceeding to inform us that (under Mr. Peter White, the original master) 'it was my happie hap (God and my parents be thanked) to have been one of his crue; and I take it to stande with my dutie, sith I may not stretch mine abilitie in requiting his good turns, yet to manifest my good will in remembering his pains. And certes I will acknowledge myself so much bound, and beholden to him and his, as for his sake, I reverance the meanest stone cemented in the walls of that famous schoole.' In 1684, the first Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, granted a new charter to Kilkenny college, vesting in himself and his heirs male the appointment of masters, and the office and dignity of patrons and governors of the establishment. The statutes passed by him on this occasion, no less than twenty-five in number, are each of formidable length, regulating every thing, from the master's morals, religion, and salary, to the punishment to be inflicted upon an urchin for 'cutting or defacing the desks or forms, walls or windows of the school. Under this new arrangement the college also changed its situation from 'the weste of the churchyard' of Saint Canice, to a large building at the other extremity of the town of Kilkenny, which together with a fine park, and the rectories and tithes of several parishes, near and distant, the patron granted, in trust, for its uses and advantage. But during the short and inauspicious Irish reign of James II., that soon after ensued, this endowment was frustrated. The first master, appointed by the Duke of Ormond, fled on account of his politics; and 'King James,' says Harris, 'by a charter dated the 21st of February, 1689, upon the ruins of this school, erected and endowed a royal college; consisting of a rector; eight professors, and two scholars in the name of more; to be called the Royal College of St. Canice, Kilkenny, of the foundation of King James:' and then followed Articles conclus du consentement unanime des regents des ecoles de Kilkenny, sous le protection de l'illustrissime et reverendissime l'evesque d'Ossory,' as curious, at least, as the state laws previously passed for the same establishment under hand and seal of the representative of majesty. William triumphed however, James sought the retirement of Saint Germains, Ireland once more rested beneath the reflux of protestantism, and Kilkenny College, in common with every other public institution, reassumed its protestant charter and arrangement, and to this day continues to enjoy both, with, we should perhaps mention, only one difference from the whole economy proposed by the first Duke of Ormond; and that is, remarkably enough, a lapse of the right of presentation to the school by the Ormond family, in consequence of the attainder of the Duke in 1715, and the vesture of said right in the provost and fellows of Trinity, Dublin. It has been seen that Stanihurst was a 'proper imp' of the old establish ment; Harris, by his own acknowledgment too, was also educated in Kilkenny college, under the first master nominated by the Duke of Ormond; as also were, subsequently, Thomas Prior, George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, and other celebrated characters, among whom, if our recollection does not fail us, we believe we may rank Swift. In fact, it was after its return to the hands of protestant masters and governors that this seminary rose to the height of its fame, and that young Irish noblemen and gentlemen crowded its classes for the most approved preparation for university honours. It might be called the then Eton of the sister country. We find it necessary to observe that the building to which the title 'College of Kilkenny' now applies, is not the same endowed by the Duke of Ormond. The Irish tourist is at present shewn, from an opposite bank of the Nore, a large, square, modern house, three stories high, dashed or plaistered, and flaunting with gay and ample windows, and this, he is informed, is the college. Turning its back, in suitable abstraction, upon the hum and bustle of the small though populous city, it faces towards the green country, an extensive lawn spreading before it, and the placid river running hard-by, and is, altogether, appropriately and beautifully situated. But the original edifice, that existed at the time of our story, was pushed farther back, faced into the street of the town, and was a gray, reverend pile of irregular and rather straggling design, or, we should perhaps say, of no design at all; having, partly, a monastic physiognomy, and partly that of a dwelling-house, and bearing, to its present gay successor, about the same likeness that the levee skirts of Ann's time bear to the smart swallow-tail of the last summer but one. We surmise that, at a more remote period, it belonged to the old and beautiful Augustinian Abbey of St. John, of which the main building was not more than three hundred yards distant, and which was richly endowed for the salvation of his soul and those of his predecessors and successors' (as Ledwich abstracts its charter) by William Marshall the elder, Earl of Pembroke, in 1220. The entrance to the school-room was immediately from the street, through huge oak folding doors, arching at top to suit the arched stone door-way, and gained by two grand flights of steps at each side, that formed a spacious platform before the entrance, and allowed under them a passage by which visitors approached the college. To the left was another gateway where carriages had egress. The whole front of the building was of cut stone, with gothic windows composed of numerous small panes of glass, separately leaded, and each of diamond form; giving the appearance of a side or back rather than of a front,on account of its grotesque gables, chimneys, and spouts, the last of which jetted into the street, to the no small annoyance in rainy weather of the neighbours and the passengers; while from the platform before the school-room entrance, the lads of the college contrived, in all weathers, further annoyances of every description. But in the past, as well as the present time, the lawn of the college was devoted to the exercise and sports of the students, and had, for its left-hand boundary, 'the dark walk,' a shrubbery so called to this day, though its appearance, and indeed identity, are changed, and for its right the crystal Nore, of which the opposite banks were flanked by a wall some forty feet high; and over this wall, its foundations on a level with the top-towered in uncouth grandeur, amid throngs of luxuriant trees, the old family castle of the all but regal Ormonds. Close by the dark walk, at the left of the lawn, there ran, too, as there at present runs, an artificial, but deep, rapid and sufficiently broad stream, conjectured to have been an aqueduct formed by the old monks of St. John's Abbey, that while it discharged its immediate agency of setting in motion the water wheels of more than one grist-mill on its course, served, at the same time, to cut off the college grounds from the adjacent gardens of the poorer class of people who inhabited the near outlet."* This was a school which one might feel proud to enter. Of its most famous pupils, the present master of the College, the Reverend John Browne, LL.D. names the following: "The famous men who have received their education in this foundation have been most numerous. On this subject I may quote another passage from Stanihurst, who, in his historical work, De Rebus in Hibernia Gestis Libri Quatuor, p. 25, again gratefully blazons the achievements of his old master : Hîc ludum aperuit, nostra ætate, Petrus Whitus, cuius in totam Rempublicam summa constant merita. Ex illius enim schola, tamquam ex equoTroico, homines litteratissimi in reipublicæ lucem prodierunt. Quos ego hîc Whiteos, quos Quemefordos, quos Walsheos, quos Wadingos, quos Dormeros, quos Shethos, quos Garueos, quos Butleros, quos Archeros, quos Strongos, quos Lumbardos, excellentes ingenio & doctrina viros, commemorare potuissem, qui primis temporibus ætatis in eius disciplinam se tradiderunt.' Amongst this array of names, comprising those of most of the old gentry of the Pale, many hold a distinguished place in the annals of literature and of the state, Lombard, the historian and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh; Wadding, the annalist; Dormer, the poet (author of the Decay of Ross,' in ballad-royal); Walsh, the translator of Cambrensis, and White, whose refutation of that author's statements regarding Ireland has lately been brought to light by the labours of the Rev. M. Kelly; Gerald Comerford, an eminent lawyer, Queen Elizabeth's Attorney for Connaught, and second Baron of the Irish * Sce "Tales By The O'Hara Family," Vol. 11. p. 135. Exchequer; Elias Shee, 'a gentleman of passing good wit, a pleasing conceited companion, full of mirth without gall, who wrote in English divers Sonnets;' Butler, who translated Corderius' 'Book of Phrases' in1562; Archer the Jesuit, for whose actions the 'Pacata Hibernia' may be referred to; and, not the least notable amongst these distinguished individuals, Stanihurst himself, who besides his celebrity as a man of letters, may also be mentioned as the uncle of Archbishop Ussher. Amongst the names entered on the Register of the School, as re-founded by the first Duke of Ormonde, I find those of Baldwin, afterwards Provost, and a benefactor of Trinity College, Dublin; Bishop Berkeley, with regard to whom it is difficult to decide whether his fame as a man of letters, or as a Christian Philanthropist, stands highest; his friend and correspondent, the patriot Pryor; Armaker, Archdeacon of Armagh in 1690, and author of several works; Congreve the dramatist; and Harris the historian. As we draw nearer our own day, many a famous name also stands out proudly from the throng of less distinguished alumni of Kilkenny CollegeHarry Flood the orator of his day; Yelverton Lord Avonmore, and Sir Hercules Langrishe, also luminaries of the Irish House of Commons; Michael Cox, Archbishop of Cashel; Hugh Carlton, Solicitor General; and, though last not least, John Banim. Scions of the noble Houses of Desart, Inchiquin, Colooney, De Vesci, Waterford, Llandaff, Mornington, Lismore, Charlemont, Hawarden, Ashbrook, Rosse, Howth, Thomond, Clifden, Boyle, (ancestor to the Duke of Devonshire), Bandon, Shannon, &c., appear amongst the names entered on the Register; in which also will be found frequent mention of the families of note and mark in this and the surrounding counties, viz, Cavanagh, Staples, Cuffe, Cosby, Penefather, Vandeleur, Wemys, Flood, Langrishe, Bryan, le Hunte, Butler, Cramer-Coghill, Wheeler, Izod, Barker, Greene, Warburton, St. George, &c. &c. Whilst amongst the names by some chance omitted therefrom, may be enumerated the far-famed Dean Swift, and Farquhar the dramatist, who are known to have received their education at Kilkenny College. Sir Richard Steele, the friend and compeer of Addison, whose father was private secretary to the Duke of Ormonde, it is likely also spent his early years at this school. The names now enumerated fully justify the remark of Banim, that it was after the restoration of its original charter 'this seminary rose to the height of its fame, and that young Irish noblemen and gentlemen crowded its classes for the most ap. proved preparation for University honours. It might be called the then Eton of the sister country.' Dr Ledwich, in his History of Kilkenny, says of the institution' This school has had a succession of eminent masters, has produced men of great learning, and is justly esteemed the first school for the education of youth in this kingdom. The names of the masters since the Duke of Ormonde's foundation are as follow: 1670. Edward Jones, D.D. 1776. Richard Pack, A.M. |