Chapter 35.

The Fourth Excursion

Follows the magnificent line of quays that confine the Liffey, traversing

Oxmantown,

a locality so called from very ancient times, as having been appropriated for the Danes or Ostmen, to a saint of which nation, St. Michan, its parochial church was dedicated. This place gives the title of Baron to the family of Parsons.

The green, which extends to a considerable distance in this vicinity, is thus spoken of by Hanmer: “The fair-green or common, now called Ostmantown Green, was all wood, and he, that diggeth at this day to any depth, shall find the ground full of great roots. From thence in A. D. 1098 King William Rufus, by license of Murchard, had that frame which made up the roof of Westminster Hall; where,” adds the Doctor, “no English spider webbeth or breedeth to this day?’

In 1189, on the breaking up of Robin Hood’s company, his great companion, little John, is said to have exhibited his feats of archery on this green, until, having been detected in a robbery, he was hanged on the eminence now called Arbour Hill.

In 1220 Philip de Norwich granted all his land in Ostmantown to the monastery of the Holy Trinity.

In 1493 a serious riot occurred on the green, in which several citizens of rank were slain; whereupon the Mayor of Dublin, John Serjeant, probably for not using due diligence in quelling the riot, was committed to ward in the Castle, and Richard Arland elected Mayor until the Michaelmas following.

Holinshed writes of this place in his time, “In the further end of Ostmantown Green there is a hole or labyrinth reaching two large miles under the earth, in old times frequented by a notorious thief called Scaldbrother, and therein he would hide all the bag and baggage that he could pilfer. He was so swift of foot that he outran all pursuit, and now and then, in derision of such as chased him, he would take his course directly under the gallows which standeth very nigh his cave, a fit sign for such an inn, and, being shrouded within his lodge, he reckoned himself secure, none being hardy enough to follow him into so intricate a maze; but, as the pitcher that goeth often to the water cometh at length home broken, so was his lusty youth in time intercepted, having upon his apprehension no more wrong done him, than that he was not sooner hanged on that gallows, through which in his youth and jollity he was wont to run.” For a notice of Ostmantown in 1545, see at “Howth.”

At the close of this century, Doctor Dermot Hurley, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, suffered death on this green for his religious opinions. Although the judges, to whom his case had been referred, solemnly decided “that he was only an offender against English statutes, and that, while on the one hand, he could not be sent into England against his will, to be there subjected to them, neither on the other could he be tried under them in this country, which had its own parliament and laws.

In 1649 Colonel Jones, the parliamentary leader, drew out his cavalry on Ostmantown Green to oppose the Marquis of Ormond, then stationed at Castleknock, and threatening to assault the city-

In 1669 a considerable portion of this green was granted by the Corporation of [261a] Dublin to the use of the Blue Coat Hospital, “for the sustentation and relief of poor children, aged, maimed, and impotent people inhabiting or residing in the said city of Dublin.” In 1671 Colonel Coote bequeathed £100 for the use of this hospital, to be as a stock, for the relief and maintenance of the poor thereof; and in 1702 the Lords Justices strongly recommended her Majesty to increase its revenues. In the same year Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh, died at Oxmantown at the advanced age of 93, and was buried on the following night in the Earl of Cork’s tomb, in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In 1712 Doctor Pooley, Bishop of Raphoe, bequeathed two houses, built by him in Smithfield, to the Governors of the Blue Coat Hospital and their successors for ever, in trust, to pay yearly out of the profits thereof £20 towards its support, £10 to the poor of St. Michan’s parish, £5 to the poor of St. Paul’s, and £5 to the poor of St. Mary’s; all those legacies to rise or fall as the rents of the houses demised should increase or lessen. About the same time Doctor King, Archbishop of Dublin, gave £500 to this establishment, as did Doctor Stearne £400 in 1742, and Lady Middleton £1,000 in 1747.

In 1729, while the houses of parliament were building, the Lords and Commons sat the Blue Coat Hospital, on which occasion a memorable attempt was made to obtain the supplies for 21 years by one vote, which, had it succeeded, would have rendered their meeting unlikely for that whole period; yet, such was the prevalence of corruption, that the attempt was defeated but by a majority of one.

In 1757 the celebrated Whitfield attempted to preach on Ostmanown Green, but was driven from the spot by the missiles of the populace.

About the year 1779 the present noble range of buildings for the aforesaid hospital, was completed at an expense of £21,294. It consists of a centre and wings extending 300 feet, and connected with each other in the rear by subordinate buildings, of which the lower part is screened from the eye by handsome circular walls in front, ornamented with niches, balustrades, and urns. Its permanent income in 1810 was calculated as £3,983 18s. 3d. besides the advantage of exhibitions of private gift in Trinity College.

On the eastern skirt of this denomination, but wholly within it, stood that splendid Dominican monastery, on whose site the present Equity and Law courts have been erected; its beautiful gardens fronted the whole line of the river, and the ships came up to its steps.

It was originally founded for Cistercians, and made filial to St. Mary’s abbey about the year 1202, by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, for the health of his soul and that of his wife, and was dedicated to the Blessed Saviour. On the arrival of the Dominicans in Ireland in 1224, the Cistercians gave it up for their accommodation.

The religious order of the Dominicans take its name from Dominic de Guzman, a Spaniard of Old Castile, who was born in the year 1170. He laid the first foundation of his order in Languedoc, which was approved of by Pope Innocent the Third in 1215, and confirmed in the following year by a Bull of Pope Honorius the Third, under the title of St. Augustine, to whose rule it was submitted. To this, however, St. Dominic afterwards added several austere precepts and observances, obliging the brethren to take a vow of absolute poverty, and to abandon entirely all their revenues and possessions. Shortly before his death he sent 12 of the order into England, where, in 1221, they founded their first monastery at Oxford, and soon afterwards another in London. From this order have been selected three Popes, upwards of 60 Cardinals, several Patriarchs, a 150 Archbishops, and about 800 Bishops. At the time of the dissolution, they had 41 religious houses in Ireland.

In 1281 two general chapters of the Dominican order were held here, and another in 1296. In 1304 the ancient edifice perished in a conflagration that consumed a great portion of the city, it was, however, immediately afterwards rebuilt by Sir Eustace Poer. In 1308 the celebrated mayor, Decer, as mentioned before at [262a] “Ballybough,” was a great benefactor to this establishment, and in 1313 another chapter of t he order was held here.

In 1316, when Edward Bruce encamped at Castleknock, and meditated an attack on the city, Robert Nottingham, then Mayor of Dublin, caused this monastery and all its buildings to be levelled with the ground. The materials were employein erecting St. Audeon’s arch, a fortified gate at Winetavern-street, and a considerable line of wall; in consequence of which Bruce abandoned the siege and retired to Munster, where-upon King Edward the Second commanded the citizens to rebuild this monastery.

In 1329 Lord Thomas de Butler, ancestor of the Barons of Dunboyne, having fallen in battle against the Mac Geoghegans, was interred with great honours in this church; and in 1332 Lord William de Bermingham, who was publicly executed by the order of Sir Anthony Lucy, the Lord Justice, was also buried in this church.

In 1355 Maurice, the first Earl of Desmond, having died in Dublin, his body was for some time deposited in the choir of this church, previous to its removal to the religious establishment of the same order, which his ancestor had founded in Tralee; and in 1416 Thomas Talbot, the son of the celebrated Lord Furnival, was buried here.

In 1428 the monks of this house had a most extensive seminary for teaching philosophy and theology, situated on the spot now called Usher’s-island, in consequence of which they erected that very ancient bridge, the Old Bridge, extant within the memory of many; on its first erection, the monks laid a certain toll upon all passing it, which a lay-brother of the order collected.

In 1506 Doctor Payne, one of the order, Bishop of Meath and Master of the Rolls, was buried in this church. On the dissolution this church was convened into Inns of Court for students of the law, and hence called the King’s Inns. The memorial of the judges and law officers of Ireland to the Privy Council in England for this appropriation is worthy of insertion:-

“Our humble duties remembered to your most discreet wisdoms, please it the same to be advertised, that whereas we our sovereign lord the King’s Majesty’s Judges and learned Council of this realm of Ireland, and others learned in his Highness’ laws, and such as had preceded us in our rooms before this time, hath been severed in term-time in several merchants’ houses within the city of Dublin at board and lodging, so that, whensoever any thing was to be done by the said Judges and Council, and others learned for the setting forth of our said Sovereign Lord’s causes and other to our charges committed, time was lost or we could assemble ourselves together to consult upon every such thing; therefore we, principally considering our humble and bounden duties unto our said Sovereign Lord, the commonwealth of this realm, and also the bringing up of gentlemen’s sons within this realm in the English tongue, habit, and manners, thought it meet to be in one house together at board and lodging in term-time for the causes aforesaid. And, For the same intent and purpose, we took the late suppressed house of Black Friars in the south barbs of the said city, and kept commons there this last two years termly. And, considering our said true and faithful unfeigned purpose in our judgments and understanding to be both to the honour and profit of our said Sovereign Lord, that we may have the said house and the Lands thereunto belonging, which is surveyed at the yearly value of 11 marks sterling or thereabout, which is not able to maintain the continual reparations thereof, after such like sort and fashion as shall please his Majesty to depart withal unto us, and to name the said house at the same shall be thought good by his Majesty, for we do call the same now the King’s Inn. And, for the further declaration of our minds in this behalf, it may please your discreet wisdom to give credence to Master Dowdall, bearer hereof, who can relate the same at large, and thus we commit your discreet wisdoms to the tuition of God, with continual encrease of honour. - From the King’s City of Dublin, 29th August, 1541.

Signed,

Gerald Aylmer, Justice.

Thomas Luttrell, Justice.

James Bathe, Baron.

Thomas Howth, Justice.

Patrick Barnewall, King’s Serjeant.

Walter Kerdiff, Justice.

Patrick White, Baron.

Robert Dillon, King’s Attorney.”

This petition was so far favoured, that a lease was thereupon made of the site of said monastery to John Alen, Chancellor, Sir Gerald Aylmer. Chief Justice, Luttrell, white, and others, professors of the law, for 21 years.

In 1542 the Lord Deputy and Council urged that this lease should be enlarged into a grant in fee, a recommendation which afterwards took effect, and in 1582 the law courts were opened here by order of the Queen.

In 1662 the Court of Claims, on the forfeitures of 1641, was held here, as was the Court of Grace in 1683.

In 1685 the Dominicans were restored to the possession of this their ancient establishment, and here King James held the memorable parliament of 1689, the monks having passed over the river to an ancient chapel in Cook-street, subsequently the parish chapel of St. Audeon’s.

In 1695 the Four Courts were transferred hence to Christ Church-lane, and the buildings here applied again as Inns of Court for law students! and also as the depository for the public rolls. In 1786 the building of the present Courts and the splendid offices attached was commenced, and finished in 1796, at an expense of about £200,000.

Passing hence at the foot of Arbour Hill, by the Royal Barracks, and over the site of that vilest of streets to which they gave name, once the Suburra of Dublin, and leaving a very handsome bridge, called the King’s Bridge, recently erected over the Liffey, at left, the tourist reaches the grand entrance into that most interesting locality, the Phoenix Park! and is there introduced into the barony of Castleknock.

This inland barony is bounded on the north by those of Coolock and Nethercross, on the south by that of Newcastle, on the west by the county of Meath, and on the east by the city of Dublin. It has been assessed to the ancient subsidies, and more modern grand jury presentments, as containing seven parishes, subdivided into 74 townlands, and extending over 12,001 acres, of which 112 were stated as unprofitable. Limestone is the substratum of the whole soil. The parishes assigned to it on the Survey and Valuation of 1824, were Kilsallaghan, Ward, Cloghran near Hiddart, Mullaghiddart, Clonsillagh, Chapelizod, and Castleknock.

The quantity of land forfeited in 1641, in this barony, was returned as 3,344 acres. The Phoenix Park, a beautiful tract of ground, lies principally within the aforesaid barony, and partly in that of Newcastle, comprising a space nearly equal to that covered by the metropolis, calculated as 1,760 English acres, within a circumference of about seven English miles. It will be seen from its annals, that the stone wall which now bounds it at the southern side, has very considerably contracted its ancient line of extent, which not only included the high road and the intermediate grounds north of the river, but likewise a large tract on the southern bark, in which was comprehended the site and demesne of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, at Kilmainham. Out of the above 1,760 acres, 1,360 are open to the public, the remainder being enclosed:- 209 for the Lord Lieutenant; 71 for the Chief Secretary, as Bailiff of the Park; 52 for the Under Secretary, as its Keeper; nine and a half for the Trigonometrical Survey establishment; 5a. 3r. 10p for the Zoological Gardens; 40a. for the Military School; seven and a half for the Royal Infirmary; three and a half for the Magazine fort; and a small patch for a cottage, once [one? KF] [264a] small patch for a cottage, once appropriated to the Master of Ceremonies.

Throughout its extent, this park presents as great a variety of surface and scenery as perhaps any other in Europe; the most agreeable undulations of hill and vale, diversified with wood and water, miniature lakes, romantic glens, retired walks, furzy glades, “hawthorn groves, and alleys green.” Its prospects also, from various points, are eminently beautiful; especially those from the terrace road, that overhangs the windings of the Liffey, and commands the rich southern district of city and country, terminated by the soft blue perspective of the Dublin mountains. “This, the Prater of Dublin,” admits Prince Puckler Muskaw, in the words of his translator, “in no respect yields to that of Vienna, whether we regard its expanse of beautiful turf for riding, long avenues for driving, or shady walks.”

At right, on entering, appears the Royal Infirmary, or Soldier’s Hospital, exhibiting a handsome front, composed of a centre, surmounted by a cupola, with a clock, and two returning wings, each 90 feet in depth, all covering the summit of a steeply slanting eminence, and commanding enchanting views. The first stone of this building was laid in the presence of the Duke of Rutland, in 1786, and, being completed in 1788 at an expense of £9000, was visited and approved of by the celebrated philanthropist, Howard. The wards, 13 in number, are distinguished as medical and surgical, separated by the hall, which occupies the centre of the building, and at present serves for a chapel. The new fever hospital stands in rere of the infirmary, perfectly detached, and on a sufficiently airy site. A plot of forfeited ground, adjoining the park, and including the platform on which the building stands, has been walled in, and is allotted to the use of the convalescents. It slants, as before mentioned, rapidly to a valley, through which flows a lively stream, margined by a gravelled walk. In a distant angle of this plot some of he officers of the house have small gardens; and here is a range of buildings, containing the laundry, the prison wards for sick deserters, lunatic cells, medical board stores, with the charnel, or dead-house. This plot was formerly let to Dr. John Nicholls, at an annual rent of £3, and as much ice as should be demanded of him for the use of the successive Lords Lieutenant. The Physician-General visits the infirmary daily, and the Surgeon-General and Staff-Surgeon alternately. There is also an apothecary, and a resident surgeon, and other domestic officers. A Board of Commissioners, appointed *ex-officio, *and consisting of the Commander of the Forces, Lieutenants General, Majors General, Adjutants General, Muster Master General, Deputy Vice-Treasurer, Surveyor-General, Physician-General, Surgeon-General, and the Director-General of the Military Hospitals, for the time being, manage the concern, while the expense of the establishment is defrayed, partly by parliamentary grants, and partly by deductions from the pay of the patients while in the hospital.

A broad, straight, magnificent avenue, planted upwards of a century since, in formal clumps, leads hence direct to the Phoenix; but a more attractive road overhangs the highway to Chapelizod, and the windings of [265a] the Liffey, with a succession of noble hospitals seen beyond it - Swift’s, Steevens’s, and the Royal the village of Kilmainham and its thriving factories and mills, the Dublin mountains bounding the distant horizon.

The Wellington testimonial next engages attention - an ill proportioned structure, of plain unornamented mountain granite On he summit platform of a flight of steep steps, a simple square pedestal is erected, designed to present pannels at the sides commemorating the Duke’s achievements, but they have never been put up. In front of this pedestal is a much smaller pediment, resting partly on the steps, and partly on the main platform, and which was intended to support an equestrian statue of his Grace, also unaccomplished. From the main platform a massive obelisk rises truncated, and of thick and heavy proportions. On its four facades are inscribed the names of all the victories gained by the Duke, from his first career in India to the battle of Waterloo. Its total height is 205 feet. The site, forming the highest ground in the park, is that formerly occupied by the Salute battery, and was given by the Board of Ordnance to the Wellington Committee, with a view to the erection of this trophy. A square, dry ditch, fronted with stone, surrounds the whole.

At the rere of the testimonial, on a fine elevation, stands another fort, in a polygon form, and of considerable extent This, as partly the work of the Duke of Wharton, when Lord Lieutenant, has been sometimes called “Wharton’s Folly.” That eccentric viceroy is said to have intended it as a retreat from the disturbances he apprehended in Dublin, in consequence of an attack made upon King William’s statue, in College green, shortly after his arrival; but his fears proving groundless the design was never completed. It has demi-bastions at the angles, a dry ditch, and draw bridge; and in the centre are magazines for powder and ammunition, erected in 1735, on the site of the old manor house of Fionuiske. They are well secured against accidental fire, and bomb-proof, in evidence of which no casualty has happened since their construction. The fort occupies two acres and 33 perches of ground, and is fortified by ten 24 pounders. As a further security, and to contain barracks for troops, which before were drawn from Chapelizod, an additional triangular work was constructed in 1801. The powder magazine furnished occasion for one of the last poetic sallies of Dean Swift, who, in the lucid intervals of his latter days, was taken out by order of the physicians for the benefit of air. On one of these occasions the Dean, for the first time observing this edifice, inquired its object, when Doctor Kingsbury, who was then with him, replied that it was a magazine for arms and powder, for the defence of the city. Oh, said the Dean, let me note that, when drawing out his tablets he wrote -

“Behold a proof of Irish sense,

Here Irish wit is seen,

When nothing’s left that’s worth defence,

We build a magazine.”

The 15 acres (as an open level plain beyond this, and opposite the Viceregal lodge, is termed,) being divested of trees, is used for reviews and [266a] exercising the troops in garrison, and was formerly, what Chalk-farm has been in relation to London, the arena where the irritations of inebriety and false honour were called in human blood.

Near this, at the south-western angle of the park, stands the Hibernian School, incorporated in 1769 for maintaining, educating, and apprenticing the orphans and children of soldiers in Ireland- In 1808 its trustees obtained a new charter, by which they were empowered to place in the regular army, as private soldiers, in such corps as from time to time his Majesty shall be pleased to appoint, but with their own free consent, the orphans and children of soldiers in Ireland. This school consists of a centre connected by subordinate buildings with wings, forming altogether a plain front of rubble stone, plastered and dashed on the exterior, the length of which is 300 feet; there are besides, a detached dining hall, infirmary, and chapel. The latter was built in 1773 of hewn stone, with a steeple adorned with a beautiful cupola, and is usually the place where the Vice-regal family, when resident at the Lodge, attend divine service. To this school a farm of about 19 acres is attached, cultivated by a certain number of the boys, with the assistance of a gardener and two labourers, and which, without requiring such a degree of attention from the scholars as to deprive them of other useful instruction, produces to the institution a profit of £500 annually. The female children are employed in knitting, sewing, and such works suitable to their sex, and both males and females, when of a proper age, are apprenticed to various trades or as servants. The children admissible must be between the ages of seven and 12, and the annual average expense of each is about £14. The house is capable of accommodating 600 children, but the establishment is now limited to half of that number. The school is under the management of a committee. Its annual permanent income is £1,010, and it has been such a parliamentary favourite in old times, as to have obtained grants to the total amount of £240,356 up to the year 1826.

The advantages, however, of this establishment, were wholly neutralised by the unchristian intolerance which influenced its details. Happily the time is at hand, when schools shall be established in Ireland on more charitable principles, to instruct its people in what they are most ignorant; when sufficiently endowed seminaries, with competent masters, shall be opened in every parish and province, to teach the peasant the benefits of industry and perseverance, the health of wholesome food and temperate drink, the comforts of a warm and cleanly cottage, the self-respect of decent attire, the mutual advantages of honest habits and reciprocal benevolence, the capabilities and chemistry of the soil, the improvement of long mismanaged farms, the cultivation of untenanted wastes, the draining of unwholesome fens and bogs, and the manufacturing of native produce; reading, writing, and arithmetic should necessarily accompany that course, and subjects, applicable to the circumstances and concerns of the auditors, be popularly expounded, but the literature of more refined states of society might be postponed with advantage, as certainly less required, and perhaps likely to suggest speculative contrasts, with a sense [267a] of new wants, that could not be gratified, until commerce and manufactures are naturalized in the general peace of the country.

The author of this work has elsewhere [Evidence before the Committee of Education in 1835.] detailed, what revenues, intended for education throughout Ireland, are rendered of little avail by the diversion, misdirection, or wasteful management of the funds, all which, if vested in one Board, acting on a uniform system of benevolent and useful instruction, could be duly and proportionally distributed through the whole island, increased by small gratuity fees from the parents, according to the ages and courses of instruction of their children. In this county alone, £4,601 have been ascertained as granted or bequeathed of private endowment for the education of its poor, while the National Board allocate upwards of £400 more for the same object. If this were so judiciously disbursed on schools, with competent masters, under proper local inspection, and that every landlord would interest himself in the extension of their objects, and the due attendance of the children of his tenantry, an infinity of advantage might be effected for this long neglected country.

The next object of interest within the Park, after that which has induced the above digression, is the residence of the Chief Secretary, a handsome and commodious seat, between which and the Viceregal Lodge, in the centre of a circle planted with evergreens, where four great avenues meet, stands the Phoenix Pillar, erected by Lord Chesterfield in 1745, during his lieutenancy. Its height is 30 feet, including the Phoenix at the summit. The column is of Portland stone, of the Corinthian order, fluted and highly ornamented. On one side of the pedestal is the inscription:-

Civium oblectamento,

Campum rudem et incultum

Ornari jussit

Philippus Stanhope,

Comes de chesterfield,

Prorex.

On the opposite are the word:

Impensis suis posuit

Philippus Stanhope, Comes

De Chesterfleld, Prorex.

The Phoenix is represented according to its fabulous history, in the centre of its funereal pile, and by the wafting of its outspread wings hastening the suicidal act, whereby its species is said to be perpetuated. It is somewhat singular, that this imaginary bird, from which the Park is generally supposed to derive its appellation, and in allusion to which the column was undoubtedly erected, bears no relation to the manor, which in truth took its name Fion-uiske, i.e. clear or fair water, from the chalybeate spring, yet celebrated, and of which mention is made hereinafter.

The adjacent Viceregal Lodge was originally built by Mr. Clements, [268a] afterwards Lord Leitrim, from whom it was purchased. It was a plain structure of brick. In 1802 Lord Hardwicke made the first important improvement by adding the wings, in one of which is the great dining-hall. In 1808 the Duke of Richmond added the north portico - a structure of the Doric order, and the handsome lodges, by which the demesne is entered on the side of Dublin. But the most striking addition is the north front, added by Lord Whitworth. This is ornamented with a pediment, supported by four Ionic pillars of Portland stone, from a design of Johnson. The pleasure grounds attached are very extensive and highly improved, they contain two spacious and well-stocked fish-ponds, with some pretty rides through shrubberies and plantations. Round the south front of the Lodge are lofty limes and elms in picturesque groups, while the foreground and middle distance of the view from the Lodge and its pleasure-grounds, are occupied by a spacious area, broken and diversified by an undulating surface, and by a variety of luxuriant forest trees.

Near one of the entrance gates, a romantic piece of ground has been bestowed by the Irish government for the object of Zoological gardens, and a more appropriate or beautiful situation could not have been selected, while the collection embraces specimens of the animal kingdom of great interest and instructive variety.

Contiguous to this, in a shady glen, is the chaly-beate spring, the “Fion-uiske” before-mentioned. It remained in a rude and exposed state until the year 1800, when, in consequence of some analysis or actual sanative effect, it acquired celebrity, became much frequented, and was in about five years afterwards enclosed. The well is approached by a gradual descent, through a planted avenue, the spa itself being covered by a small structure of Portland stone. Behind the spring, under the brow of the hill, is a rustic dome with seats round it. The Hygeia of this fountain pays the annual rent of £6 for the privilege of being its distributer, but, it is to be feared she can only make the rent and conform the potion to the tastes of her visitors, by mixing it with strong and more inviting waters. Adjacent to the spa is a building, formerly used as an engine-house for supplying the Military Infirmary with water, that necessity having however ceased, the edifice is converted into a ranger’s lodge.

It is said that in this Park, near Castleknock, are veins of lead and copper ore, and in several other places within it, veins of coal.

A great portion of the tract now included in this demesne belong, from a very early period, to the Knights Templars, and subsequently to the Knights of St. John at Kilmainham. At the dissolution it was surrendered to the king, and though re-granted by Queen Mary to Sir Oswald Messingberde, then Prior of St. John’s of Jerusalem in Ireland, was re-assumed to the crown shortly after her death, when Queen Elizabeth first conceived the idea of making it a Royal Park, a design, however, not fully executed until the reign of Charles the Second, as hereafter mentioned.

In 1653 General Fleetwood, while one of the Commissioners for the Government of Ireland under the parliament, resided in the “Phoenix House.”

In 1658, on the death of Oliver Cromwell, the new Commissioners, dreading the abilities, popularity, and power of his son Henry Cromwell, then chief Governor of Ireland, Sir Hardress Waller was employed to surprise the Castle of Dublin; he was, [269a] however, admitted without the slightest opposition, while Henry Cromwell retired to a house in this park, “called, says Ludlow, [Ludlow’s Memoirs, p. 258] “the Phoenix, belonging to the Chief Governor of Ireland;” having administered the government with such disregard to his private interest, that he could not immediately command so much money as might defray the expenses of a voyage to England.

In 1662 the crown enlarged this park by purchasing part of the lands of Chapelizod, containing 441a., from Sir Maurice Eustace, then Lord Chancellor, “to be laid into the lands of the manor house of the phoenix for a park.” Immediately afterwards Sir Maurice Eustace further agreed to convey to the crown in fee the capital messuage, manor, mills, town, and lands of Chapelizod and St. Laurence’s land, which were also formerly part of the possessions of the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem. No enrolment of this conveyance can be found, but the will of Sir Maurice, bearing date 20th of June, 1665, recognises it, and the sale was confirmed by the Act of Settlement. By subsequent purchase the crown acquired 126A. of the lands of Grange Gorman from Colonel John Daniel, 16½a. of Upper Castleknock from William and John Warren of Corduff, 152a. of Ashtown in the parish of Castleknock from John Connel of Pelletstown, 28a. of Castleknock from Philip Hoare, 16a. of Kilmainham from Thomas Musgrave, 30a. near Chapelizod from David Edwards, a meadow near Oxmantown from Robert Bower, besides other parcels from Thomas Boyd, Thomas Pooley, and Sir John Temple.

In 1671 the Phoenix and Newtown lands in the parish of Kilmainham, lying north of the Liffey, a portion of the park containing 467a. that had been possessed by Christopher Fagan of Feltrim, and Alderman Daniel Hutchinson, under a lease for 61 years, were purchased on the royal mandate for £3,000, by the Duke of Ormonde in trust for his Majesty. Other purchases were made about the same time in the name of Sir John Temple, then Solicitor General, others in that of Sir Maurice Eustace, then Lord Chancellor, some in the name of the Duke of Ormonde, and more in the names of the principal officers of the crown, to the total amount of £40,361. Sir John Temple, however, having for the preservation of the deer built the wall that now encloses the park, extending from the barracks to Chapelizod, obtained, as a remuneration therefore, a grant of all the land from that wall to the river, and a sum of £200 out of the concordatum money. This wall was to be eight feet high from the foundation, and 527 perches in length; the expense of building which was then estimated at 3*s. 9d. *per perch. Lord Palmerston, the descendant of Sir John, also enjoys a right of grazing in the park in consideration of this work. For a further notice of the grant to Sir John Temple see at “Chapelizod” in 1675; in which latter year Lord Essex, writing to Mrs. Taylor, says, “the Duchess of Cleveland is to have £1,000 per annum out of the undisposed lands, in compensation for the Phoenix Park, so as I would have you make another list of such a quantity of land for her Grace.”

It is said that the pasturage rent of the park was usually granted to the successive Chief Governors of Ireland, but on search no such grant can be found, nor is any mention made of it in any of the commissions to the Chief Governors of this kingdom, nor in any of the grants of the officers of ranger, keeper, or bailiff. Yet there is good authority for saying, that sum of £105 was annually paid for many years to the Chief Governors of the kingdom out of the produce of the pasturage of the park, until the Duke of Devonshire, who was Lord Lieutenant in 1737, relinquished it, and it has never since been demanded.

In the state papers of 1703 occur frequent entries of orders for presents to various persons, of bucks and deer from the Phoenix Park. In 1711 Charles Carter, gardener to Her Majesty’s gardens in Dublin, petitioned for certain stone-work, as a wall to keep out the deer, for that “the Queen’s garden at the Phoenix, having no fence but a slight ditch, the deer in the said park very frequently break in and spoil the said garden.”

In 1715 the under-keeper of the Phoenix Park was allowed [Lord Somers’s Tracts, vol. i. pp. 302, 3, 4.]

For firing … £13 14 6

The ranger of ditto, and the master of the game … £50 0 0

The bailiff of ditto, salary … £9 0 0

Gate-keeper, ditto … £17 18 0

Vicar of Castleknock, in lieu of his glebe and tithes of the Phoenix Park … £18 0 0

For further tithes thereof … £12 0 0

In 1741 the spot of ground, on which the Royal Infirmary has been since erected, was leased to John Nicholls, Esq. by the description of “the dog kennel and craggy piece of ground adjoining the wall of the Phoenix Park.”

In 1751 Nathaniel Clements was appointed chief ranger and game-keeper of all his Majesty’s parks, &c. in Ireland, and ranger of his Majesty’s park the Phoenix, and keeper of the walk within said park called Newtown Park, in place of the Hon. Sir John Lewis Ligonier, Knight of the Bath, who had resigned. At this time only the carriages of persons of distinction were admitted here in the fawning season, on orders signed by the bailiff of the park or keys supplied.

In 1757 Charles Gardiner was appointed one of the keepers of this park, with the walk or lodge called Castleknock lodge, and all houses, gardens, firing, grazing, and appurtenances to said lodge belonging, with power to appoint a deputy; and in 1761 a similar grant of another of the keeperships of this park was made to Lord George Sackville.

On the augmentation of the allowance for the Chief Governors of Ireland in 1763, the pasturage rents, and the port corns, were no longer to be in the receipt of the Chief Governors, but to be collected by the Commissioners of His Majesty’s Revenue like his other rents, and the Auditor Genera] was directed to make out particulars of the said rents, and to put the same in charge, and make a return thereof for collection. But no rent for the pasturage of the park has been in fact ever since collected.

In 1775 Sir John Blaquiere had a grant of the office of bailiff of this park for a term of three lives, together with a lodge, 35 acres of ground, and liberty of grazing 18 cows, six horses, and 20 sheep, with power to appoint a deputy, on which occasion a presentment was made against an encroachment here, on the ground that the citizens of Dublin were entitled by prescription to the easement of the sod for recreation, such prescription, however, was negatived by the evidence.

In 1782 Mr. Thomas Conolly, then a Privy Counsellor, moved in the House of Commons, after many eulogiums on Mr. Grattan, that on behalf of his Majesty, as a part of the intended grant to Mr. Grattan, “the Vice-regal Palace” in the Phoenix Park should be settled upon him and his heirs for ever, as a suitable residence for so meritorious a person. This effort to give a tinge of ministerial generosity, to the popular grant that was then passing through the house, was, however, very properly rejected.

On the 24th of October, 1787, the Duke of Rutland died suddenly in the Viceregal Lodge here, whereupon Lord Lifford, then chancellor of Ireland, issued writs to the sheriffs of 11 counties, directing them to summon such of the King’s Council as inhabited within their bailiwick, to assemble in Dublin to elect a Lord Justice of Ireland, pursuant to the statute of the 33rd year of Henry the Eighth. Upon which the election did actually take place, and the vacancy in the government was so supplied until the 16th of December following, when the Marquis of Buckingham arrived with the king’s appointment as viceroy. In the following year a camp was formed in this park by the direction of the Marquis of Buckinginham, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and an another in 1797 by order of Lord Camden.

In 1793 Sarah Countess of Westmoreland, consort of the then viceroy, died at the Viceregal Lodge of a military fever, and in 1821 King George the Fourth, during his sojourn in Ireland, made that place his constant residence, but held his Court at the Castle.

The botanist may observe in the Park, *salvia verbenaca, *wild clary; *alchemilla vulgaris, *common lady’s mantle; *cynoglossum officinale, [271a] *common hound’s tongue; *arctium lappa, *common burdock; *senecio viscosus, *fetid groundsel; *neottia spiralis, *burnet saxifrage; *pimpinella saxifraga, *great burnet saxifrage; *anthemis arvensis, *gold chamomile, flowering in July and August.

• In the glen, *pinguicula vurgaris, *common butterwort; *ilex aquifolium, *holly; *viola hirta, *hairy violet; *fragaria vesce, *strawberry; *potentilla fragariastrum, *barren strawberry; *ajuga reptans, *common bugle; *verbena officinalis, *vervain, a plant which Mr. Miller says is never found above a quarter of a mile from a house, whence the common people in England call it simpler’s joy - In the woods *oxalis acetosella, *wood-sorrel *bugula vulgaris *bugle; *lychnis plumaria, *meadow pink. - On the dry banks *euphrasia officinalis, *eye bright; *tragopogon pratensis, *yellow goat’s beard; *hieracium pilosella *conmon mouse ear hawkweed; *crepis biennas, *rough hawk’s-beard.

In the ponds and marshy places, *utricularia vulgans *greater bladderwort; *alopecurus geniculatus, *flowering fox-tail grass with its leaves floating over the water; *juncus glaucus, *hard rush; *polygonum amphibium, *amphibious persicaria; *nasturium amphibium, *amphibious nasturium. - In the sandy pastures old gravel and sand pits, *alchemella avensis, *parsley piert; meum foeniculum, fennel; *draba verna, *common whitlow grass, one of the earliest flowering plants we have; *vacia lathyroides, *spring vetch; *linum angustifolium, *narrow-leaved pale flax, flowering in July. - In the marshy glens, *lycopus Europaeus, *gipsy wort; *tomentilla reptans, *trailing tormentil; *pedicularis palustris, *tall red rattle; *hyperium androsaemum, *tutsan; *aegopodium podagraria, *herb gerard. - In the hedges and bushy places, *solanum dulcamara, *woody nightshade; *hypericum calicinum, *large flowered St. John’s wort; *arum maculatum, *cuckoo pint. - Among the furze, *tormentilla officinalis, *common tormentil; vicia *cracca, *tufted vetch; and on the old walls, *polypodium vulgare, *common polypody; and *asplendium ruta muraria, *wall rye.

Adjoining the Park at its south-western side, is the town of Chapelizod. At the left of the high road that enters this place from Dublin, on a meadow slanting to the river, are still traced the remains of the ancient building called the King’s House, traditionally affirmed to be that which was purchased by Charles the Second from Sir Maurice Eustace, and in which King William passed the days of his sojourn hereafter-mentioned. An ancient turret close to the river marks the direction of the gardens formerly attached.

Chapelizod is very agreeably situated on the banks of the Liffey, which traverses much exquisite scenery in its meandering course, particularly from this place to Lucan. The number of houses in the town has been returned as 85, its families as 162, and its total population as 597; increased in the census of 1831 to 1,632 persons. Cabins here, in consequence of the factory, are let at from £4 to £5 per annum without land.

The church is a plain structure devoid of ornament, much out of repair, and only interesting by the livery of decay with which it is invested, and the reminiscences of those who must, from the evidence of the annals of [271a] his locality, have frequented it. In it are two white marble monuments, one to Lieutenant Hodges of Hunsford place, County Kent, who died in 1792, the other to Mr. William Turner, in 1824. In the ill enclosed graveyard are tombs to the Goodwins since 1713, the Honourable Mrs. Hutchinson who died in 1830, Mr. Bolger in 1807, Lieutenant Scully of the Fifeshire cavalry, Rev. Richard Lawson, incumbent of Lorum, County Carlow, in 1823, and to his family; General John Pratt who died in 1825, and to his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the celebrated General Vallancey, who died in 1798, and their parents and children; near which is that of Margaret Vallancey, died in 1789, Mr Haliday of Arranquay in 1835, the Conollys of Chapelizod from 1779, and the Turners of the same place from 1771; Mrs. Warburton, daughter of the Rev. Edward Morres of Walthamstow in Essex, died in 1791; Sir Richard Wilcocks in 1834;on his tomb is the expressive distich:

“Praises on tombs are trifles idly spent,

A man’s good name is his own monument.”

Here are, likewise, tombs commemorative of the Macklin and Broughton families; one to John Low of Bewdley in Worcestershire, died in 1638, - this tomb gives a full detail of his descendants; others to Richard Waller of Kimmage in 1817, Lieutenant Armstrong in 1789, Colonel Colville died in 1747, General Bettesworth, Joseph Hudson, Adjutant of the Royal Military School, who died in 1820, &c.

Near the church is an almost equally ruinous Roman Catholic chapel; and at the bridge a good schoolhouse, attended by about 80 boys and 58 girls. It is in connexion with the National Board, which gave £120 towards its erection, £30 for its outfit, and allows £16 annually for its maintenance. There is also a parochial school here, supported by private contributions, and the produce of charity sermons in the church. It is attended by about 25 girls and 15 boys. This town has, likewise, the advantage of having a noble linen factory, established by Mr. Crosthwaite, and which, by the best attainable information, gives employment to from 400 to 500 manufacturing labourers; even children of 12 years of age can earn from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9*d. *weekly in its works.

In a quarry near the town is a vein of pale brown stone 18 to 20 inches in thickness, which is found useful in polishing silver and brass. Coal has been likewise supposed to abound in this neighbourhood, but all attempts to work it have hitherto failed, possibly from the defect of machinery and want of capital. There are, also, two mineral springs adjacent.

The parish, in which the chief part of Chapelizod is situated, bears the same name; a portion, however, beyond the river is in that of Palmerstown, and in the barony of Newcastle. It has been united from a remote period with the curacies of Palmerstown and Ballyfermot, all in the deanery of Leixlip, and in the gift of the Archbishop of Dublin. In the Catholic arrangement it is in the union of Blanchardstown or Castleknock. It comprises 532a. 2r. 35p. in three townlands; half of this tract is [273a] included in the Phoenix Park; and Lord Palmerston is the chief proprietor of the remainder.

The name of Chapelizod is certainly very ancient, but, however delightful it would be to link a locality with the Hercules of the Britons, the hero of the Fairie Queen, the warlike Arthur,

“Whose most renowned acts shall sounded be as long,

As Britain’s name is known, which spread themselves so wide

As scarcely hath for fame left any room beside.”

Yet, in these searching days, it were presumptuous to draw upon the reader’s credulity so far as to detail here the romantic story of King Arthur’s round table and “la belle Isode,” the catastrophe of which would, in accordance with the Book of Howth, suggest the derivation of this place from the founding of fair Isod’s chapel in the village in the year 510. They, who are interested in the inquiry, will find “confirmation strong” in the notes to Sir Tristram.

In 989 Brian Boroihme had his quarters near this on the memorable occasion, when he is recorded to have so effectively debarred the besieged citizens of Dublin from even the supplies of nature, that they were reduced to salt water for their only drink. At length in their grievous necessities they agreed to pay to the king, in addition to their ordinary tributes, an ounce of gold from every chef dwelling-house in Dublin, to be paid yearly on every Christmas night. [Annals of Tigernach.]

Soon after the English invasion, Hugh de Lacy bestowed the lands of Chapelizod upon Hugh Tyrrel, which grant was afterwards confirmed by Henry the Second. Immediately on the establishment of the splendid hospital of Knights Templars at Kilmainham, the Tyrrel family granted Chapelizod to them with all liberties in wood, meadow, pasture, water, mills, fisheries, &c., and free from all secular exactions.

About the year 1200, Richard de la Field had a grant from King John of the Lands of Chapelizod and Killsallaghan, which are recognised as the estate of his son Nicholas in 1224, during whose minority Thomas Fitz Adelm held these lands, rendering to the king 100 shillings annually at the Exchequer of Dublin. [Rot. Claus. in Turr. Lond.]

In 1228 the King granted the advowson of this church to the Priors of Kiimainham.

In 1268, as appears by a plea roll, the bishop of Meath accounted in the Exchequer for £17 6s. 8d., the rent of this manor, with mills, fisheries, pleas, &c.

In 1308 the Prior of Kilmainham sued Richard Tyrrel for Chapelizod and five carucates of land in Kilmainham, as having been granted to the Priory by Hugh Tyrrel, the ancestor of Richard, and having established his right thereto, Richard was obliged to confirm the donation. In the following year, all the rights of the Templars here having, on the suppression of that order, vested in the crown, the king committed the same to the Prior of the Hospitallers, their successors at Kilmainham, to hold for 14 years at the annual rent of 35 marks. For a notice in 1309, see at “Kilmainham.”

In 1316 sundry questions were tried at law relative to the right of common of pasture, to which the tenants of Chapelizod claimed to be entitled on the king’s demesnes, and in 1318 the king confirmed the tide of friar Utlaugh and his successors for ever in the manor, weirs, fishery, &c. of Chapelizod, subject to the annual rent of 40 marks, saving the right of presentation, subsequent to which occur various grants of annuities from the crown to Sir T. Barnewall, Thomas Talbot, Laurence Merbury, Walter de la Hoyde, &c., charged upon this fee farm rent.

In 1388 the family of de la Field, being still possessed of various lands and houses here, granted them to the vicar and his successors for ever. These premises lay partly near the church, partly near the mill, and a third part near the common bakehouse of the town.

In the Act of Resumption of 1468 there is a saving to the Prior of Kilmainham of [274a] his right in the manors of Chapelizod and Leixlip; yet it appears that in 1476 the king granted this lordship and all rights of presentation, wardships, marriages, reliefs, &c., “as having been vested in him by reason of the Act of Resumption,” to Sir Thomas Daniel and his heirs male.

ln 1538 the Prior of Kilmainham demised the great tithes of corn belonging to the church of Chapelizod with the altarages, together with various other tithes and land’s at the annual rent of £3 6s. 8d., and in 1541 it was found on inquisition, that the hospital of Kilmainham was possessed of the rectory of Chapelizod, and the chapel of St. Lawrence at Ballyfermot, and the altarages, worth altogether £5 per annum.

In 1546 Sir William Wyse of Waterford was seised in tail male of a water-mill, a salmon weir, and 172 acres in Chapelizod, [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.] which had been granted to him in 1524. In 1580 John Bathe left a ploughland here to support an hospital for four poor men

In 1596 John White of Dufferin in the county of Down, conveyed to trustees all his estates in Kilmainham and Chapelizod. In 1603 Sir Oliver Lambert, knight, had a grant of the rectory of Chapelizod with the altarages, and St. Laurence’s chapel with the glebes and tithes of the same, &c., and in 1609 the above mentioned John White died seised of a house, an orchard, and 16 acres in this town, which his heir afterwards sold to Henry Viscount Valentia and Dame Grizel his wife.

In 1610 John Bathe had a grant of 30 acres near Chapelizod, called the ploughland, as had Sir John Davis, then Attorney-General, of certain houses here, “one near the church stile, lately in the occupation of Richard Eustace,” and two others with about 10 acres of land and certain parks. [Ibid.] In 1615 Sir Henry Power, Knight and Privy Councillor, passed patent, as assignee of Edmund Medhop, for the town and lands of Chapelizod, 10 messuages, 200 acres, a water-mill and weir, excepting certain premises granted to Sir John Davis in 1611, certain houses and five acres and a half granted to the college in 1597, and excepting all other lands which should escheat to the crown after 1623, said last mentioned premises being these granted in 1524 to Sir William Wyse.

In 1671 Colonel Laurence obtained a grant of several houses, and about 15 acres of the lands lying around Chapelizod, for a term of 41 years, at the rent of £42 per annum, of which £30 was to be paid to the incumbent or Chapelizod for the time being, and the remaining £12 to be allocated towards the repair of the King’s House at Chapelizod, and keeping up the gardens thereunto belonging. This Colonel Laurence was the author of a well-known pamphlet, published in 1682, and entitled, “The Interest of Ireland in its Trade and Wealth,” and he took the above lease with the laudable design of establishing a manufacture of coarse woollen cloths and friezes, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis; the exportation of Irish wool having been then recently prohibited under the severest penalties. To effectuate this object, Laurence succeeded in bringing over several families from Brabant, Rochelle, the Isle of Ré, &c., for whom convenient lodgings were provided at Chapelizod, and the manufactures of linen, diaper, ticking, sail cloth, and cordage were brought to very great perfection there.

In 1675 a grant in fee was made to Sir John Temple, ancestor of the Lords Palmerston, of all the lands belonging to the crown in Chapelizod, not enclosed in the Park, nor included in the demise to Laurence, together with the mills and weirs of Chapelizod, and the privilege of grazing six horses yearly in the Phoenix Park, as therein declared to have been always enjoyed by the tenant of said mills, at the yearly rent of £30, to be paid to the incumbent of Chapelizod and his successors for ever, and 10 shillings to the crown.

A letter of the 30th of November, 1686, from the Earl of Clarendon to the Earl of Rochester, contains the following interesting reference to the present subject:-

“I ought, some time since, to have sent to you an account of the buildings at Chapel-Izod, and the repairs about the castle. I now send you an abstract thereof, drawn up by Mr. Robinson, surveyor of his Majesty’s buildings in this kingdom, from [275a] the 25th of March, 1685, to the 29th of September last, which is from the beginning of the building at Chapelizod. I beg you to procure the king’s letter for the payment of the balance, being £626 8s., which is due to several workmen who are poor, and will be clamorous. I will presume to say that the building at Chapel-Izod is the cheapest that has been erected and nothing has been laid out but what was of absolute necessity to make it habitable; many things have been done for convenience, and which are fixed to the freehold too, which I thought were not fit for the king to pay for, and, therefore, they are not placed to his account. Possibly, it may be thought the repairs of the castle are very great; I can only tell you, that, as it is the worst lodging a gentleman ever lay in, so it will cost more to keep it in repair than any other. Never comes a shower of rain but it breaks into the house, so that there is perpetual tiling and glazing, but I do assure you, not so much as a chimney, or any thing done new, upon the king’s account. My Lord Tyrconnel was pleased to tell me, in a style something extraordinary, that he wondered I had not laid out a thousand~ pounds or two to make a good lodging at least, which he would have done. I told him I would never lay out the king’s money without his order. His lordship night do what he pleased when he had it in his power; I know very well how he discoursed of it abroad, which I will not now mention, and thank God it does me no harm; I am sure I have not managed ill for the king, which is a great ease to my mind. - God keep you!”

In 1690 General Douglas, on his way to Athlone, encamped for one night near Chapelizod, where his party committed various outrages, and soon afterwards, King William passed several days here, on his return from his expedition towards the south, after the battle of the Boyne. During this interval “he was employed,” says Leland, “in receiving petitions and redressing grievances, arising from the perpetual violations of his protections.” It was on this occasion also he issued a proclamation, “for all the Irish in the country to deliver up their arms, and those who refused or neglected, to be abandoned to the discretion of the soldiers;” also, another proclamation for a general fast to be kept every Friday during the war, as a propitiation for the success of his cause. Here likewise that monarch received the gratifying despatches, informing him that the French fleet had retired from England, satisfied with the destruction of the inconsiderable village of Tinmouth.

In 1696 Lord Capel, Lord Deputy of Ireland, died here after an illness, during which some interesting meetings of the Irish Council took place here. For a notice in 1697, see “Ballyfermot.”

In 1700 Sir John and Lady Temple claimed and were allowed a reversion in fee of a term for 99 years in a house and garden here and in lands lying between Dublin and Island-bridge, as granted to them by letters patent of 1675.

In 1726 Primate Boulter while he filled the office of one of the Lords Justices repaired the king’s house here and occupied it as his principal dwelling

In 1740 Doctor Stone was consecrated Bishop of Ossory in the church of Chapelizod, by his Grace the Archbishop of Dublin assisted by the Bishops of Meath and Derry, while in 1760 the king’s house was converted into a barrack and in 1832 was sold to Mr. Lawler together with about 10 acres of ground adjacent. For a notice referrible to the fishery here, see at the “Liffey” in 1786

In 1819 a dispensary was established here for the united parishes

Near the river, in this vicinity, the botanist will find, *erysinum allaria, *Jack by the hedge; *convolvulus major, *great bind weed, clambering up the shrubs and overtopping them with its bell flowers; *genista spinosa vulgaris, *furze, a good fuel for ovens: the tops being chopped or mixed with straw, or a small proportion of oats, make an excellent fodder for horses, fattening them and killing the bots. The diet, however, heats them at the commencement until they are accustomed to it; *geranium Robertianum, *herb Robert; *erigonum vulgare spontaneum, wild marjoram; gramen [276a] arundinaceum, *great reed-grass; centaurea *scabiosa, *greater knapweed, and the golden ozier; *foeniculum vulgare, *common fennel, flowering in July and August. - On the old walls, *glyceria rigida, *hound’s sweet grass; *arenaria serpyllifolia, *thyme-leaved sandwort; *sedum reflexum, *crooked yellow stone crop, *draba verna, *common whitlow grass; and in the adjacent fields, *carum carui, *common caraway; *orchis latifolia, *broad-leaved marsh orchis; *sinapis nigra, *common mustard, &c.

On the ascent from Chapelizod to Knockmaroon Hill, the residence of Colonel Colby is seen at left, in a delightful concentration of charming prospects. The entrance to it is from the Phoenix Park, over a bridge thrown across the high road which divides them.

Knockmaroon, so denominated from the steep hill (Knock) on which it stands, is renowned in the citizen’s diary of enjoyment, as the commencement of those romantic high banks, that overhang the beautifully wooded scenery of the valley of the Liffey, and which, basking in a southern sunshine, have been successfully adapted to the rearing of strawberries, and the dispensation of that sweet fruit in rustic cottages and woodbine bowers. The shallow, precipitous face of these frills, with such adventitious sources of emolument, is rented at from £8 to £10 per acre; but, its cultivate appearance and the neatness of the cottages at its foot, practically evince what a small capital and well directed industry can effect under the most discouraging circumstances.

Some years since, an attempt was made on the south side of this hill to discover coal, and five pits were actually sunk close to each other, all which were filled up again, except one. This has been fathomed and found to be 54 feet deep, but filled with water to within 12 feet of the surface of the earth. The spot, injudiciously chosen for this experiment, was in a low valley; whereas, in coal countries, it is found that in such situations the veins of coal are commonly broken off and thrown cut of the regular course. Besides, the search perhaps was too soon abandoned, and the mode of trial not the best or cheapest. If the experiment had been made by an auger, the expense would have been much less, and the results more satisfactory. It is remarkable, that Porter, the reverend Franciscan, in his Annals of Ireland, describing the county of Dublin, says, “it is so deficient in turf or coal that for the most part fuel is brought thither from England,” but he adds, “the more successful diligence of the inhabitants of Carlow has there discovered and brought up quantities of coal.”

Doctor Rutty, in his Natural History of the County of Dublin, amongst its mineral petrifactions, mentions that he found on the side of a bank near Knockmaroon Hill, a kind of rock marle, or a petrifaction resembling an artificial plaster, but harder. It broke white within, effervesced strongly with vinegar, and burned to a lime.

The botany of Knockmaroon presents the *lithospermum offlcinale, *common gromwell; *senecio viscosus, *fetid groundsel. - On the hill, *veronica officinalis, *common speedwell; *salvia verbenaca, *wild clary; *triticum caninum, *fibrous-rooted wheat grass, a valuable early spring grass; *alchemilla vulgaris, *common lady’s mantle; *polemonium caeruleum, *[277a] blue Jacob’s ladder; *viola hirta, *hairy violet; *meum foeniculum, *fennel; *agrimonia eupatoria, *agrimony, shooting its long spike of yellow flowers out of the grass; *aquilegia vulgaris, *columbine; *origanum vulgare, *common marjoram, used by some for a purple dye; *thymus serpyllum, *wild thyme; *geranium molle, *soft crane’s-bill; *polygala vulgaris, *a very delicate species of milkwort, with myrtle-shaped leaves; *tragopogon pratensis, *yellow goat’s-beard; hieracium pilosella, common mouse-ear hawkweed, whose flowers close early in the afternoon; *poterium sanguisorba, *salad burnet; *linum angustifolium, *narrow-leaved pale flax - In the hedges, *ballota nigra, *black hore-hound; *picris echioides, *bristly ox-tongue. While on the hills between this and Lucan are found, *reseda lutea, *yellow base rocket, or wild mignionette; *galeopsis ladanum, *red hemp-nettle; *clinopodium vulgare, *wild basil; *geranium columbinum, *long-staked crane’s-bill; *crepis biennis, *rough Hawk’s-beard; *carlina vulgaris, *common carline thistle; a variety of the *centaurea scabiosa, *greater knapweed, with flesh coloured flowers; *equisetum hyemale, *rough horse tail, &c.

In a fine valley immediately under the hill is Mardyke, where are flour-mills, in which starch, blue, and mustard are also made; while opposite on the south side of the Liffey, at Palmerstown, are lead and copper-works. There were also oil, and long established cotton and dye-wood mills there, but these have been discontinued.

On the road thence to Lucan are male and female schools, to which the National Board allows £10 annually. This line, known by the name of the lower road, is one of the most enchanting drives that even the vicinity of Dublin affords, winding in parallel irregularity with the Liffey, and introducing the tourist to all the fine villas that overshadow the waters of that river, and all the weirs, and falls, and mills that, although they impede its navigation, increase its loveliness. A certain portion of this scenery is viewed with perhaps even more advantage from a higher terrace, in the continuance of this excursion by the direct road from Knockmaroon to Castleknock, i.e. the castle on the hill, so called from its baronial fortress hereafter mentioned.

The church was dedicated to St. Brigid, (who was likewise patroness of a cell here.) It is small and built in the Gothic style of architecture, having a steeple with minarets at each angle, but no spire. A grant of £92 4s. 5*d. *has been lately obtained from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for its repair - The only monument it contains is to the memory of Captain Tisdall, who died in 1814. In the surrounding graveyard are tombs to several of the same family, who came into this country in the last century from Bangor, others to the Dames family, one to Colonel Core, who died in 1836, to the Rev. David Brickell, curate of the parish, who died in 1811, &c. This was also the burial place of the Warrens of Corduff. Near the church is the glebe-house, with 17 acres of glebe adjacent, and two more about two miles distant. Eighteen other acres of glebe having been taken into the Phoenix Park, the vicar is allowed £50 per annum by government, [This allowance was but £18 in 1715. See Lord Somers’s Tracts, vol. i p. 303.] in compensation for same. In addition to the school [278] endowed by Mr. Crosthwaite, as hereafter mentioned, there are two here, to which the National Board has allowed £10 per annum. Their total number of pupils was 160 in 1835. Here is also a dispensary, and a savings bank was established in 1824.

Outside the town are two steep hills or knolls. On the summit of one the grey and massy walls of the castle of the Tyrrels once frowned a formidable defiance to the enemies of that family, but it has long since participated in the fall of its feudal Lords, and the historian would vainly labour to conceive, from the solitary broken tower that occupies its rocky eminence, those ambitious halls and porches, ramparts and battlements, that once constituted its ornament and defence. Trees, and shrubs, and moss, and fern shoot up from its double ditches, and assert the empire of nature over its scattered fortifications. On the east side the remains of the entrenchment have given place to an undistinguishable mass of steep earth, but on the west are almost perfect, though mount and foss are now both alike covered with tall trees. From the summit, where the keep had towered, an extensive and beautiful prospect is commanded, enclosing in its scope Howth, the bay, the city, the Wicklow and Dublin mountains, the hills of Athgoe and Lyons, Carton, Mallaghiddart, Dunsink observatory, Castleknock village and its church, &c.

On the day of visiting this scene, a group of the “alumni” of St. Vincent’s seminary were more innocently commemorating the purposes of the pile, and alternately assailing and defending its height, according to the ordinances of that ancient sport “the king of the castle.” It seemed therefore preferable to defer any search for the famed window recorded by Holinshed, where the candle’s flame could never be extinguished by the most boisterous state of the elements, and rather to search for the cavern passage that formerly opened at the base of the fortress, or yet more to discover that well, dedicated to St. Brigid, whose waters were efficacious in the relief of human diseases, but fatally noxious to all other animals Both inquiries were, however, alike unsuccessful. Near the castle a vein of lead ore has been found, for the working of which a shaft was opened north-east of the ruins in the year 1744, and in some of the stones were green spots indicating a mixture of copper.

The manor comprised the lands of Whitestown, Huntstown, Tyrrelstown, Redmoreton, Paslockstown, Damstown, and Pelletstown, &c.

The parish (the rectory being impropriate in the economy of St. Patrick’s) ranks as a vicarage endowed, to which the curacies of Clonsillagh and Mallaghiddart were united by act of council in 1773, the union being in the deanery of Finglas and gift of the archbishop. Castleknock is also one of the prebends in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, of the annual value of £340. In the Catholic arrangement it is likewise united with the above parishes, together with those of Cloghran near Hiddart, and Chapelizod. In this more extended district there are three chapels, at Blanchardstown, Porterstown and Chapelizod respectively. Castleknock parish has been assessed to the ancient subsidies and road presentments as comprising 3,465 arable acres, old Irish measure, in 22 townlands. The population was in 1831 returned, including that of Blanchardstown, as 4,251 persons, of whom 3,409 were Roman Catholics. The chief proprietors are Messrs. Martin, Duckett, Farrel, Thompson, and Norton, the representatives of Mr. Locke of Athgoe, Baron de Robeck and Sir Thomas Molyneux. The grange is the property of the corporation of Dublin, and about 398a. are included in the Phoenix Park. The average acreable rent is £4, the wages of labour from seven to eight shillings per week.

Castleknock, previous to the English invasion, is said to have been a royal Duish residence, and the appearance of its noble euthworks much strengthens the tradition.

In 1171, on the occasion of the siege of Dublin, Roderic O’Connor, with his provincial troops, encamped here, at which time Dublin is described by William of Newburg [Will. Neub. lib. ii. c. 6.] to have been the rival of London in its commerce and facilities for mercantile intercourse.

About the year 1177 Castleknock was given by Strongbow to his “intrinsic friend” Hugh Tyrrel, a warrior descended from a line of ancestors who were lords of extensive possessions over Normandy, England, Wales, and Ireland, and whose achievements are emblazoned in the annals of each country. Immediately on such his acquisition he founded a castle here and took the title of Baron of Castleknock, and about the year 1184 his heir, Richard Tyrrel, in honour of St. Brigid, gave certain lands to endow an abbey here, for regular canons following the rule of St. Augustine.

In 1219 the great tithes of the parish were appropriated by Archbishop de Loundres to the priory of Malvern the lesser, (a convent of Benedictines in Worcestershire.) on condition that they should add five monks to their number within three years. In 1225 the prior and monks of that house granted half the tithes of this manor of Castleknock to the uses of the economy of St. Patrick’s, which grant was confirmed by the archbishop, to whom they likewise renounced all right to the vicarage, with its small tithes and oblations. A partition of the tithes of the whole parish was accordingly made thereupon, the northern portion having been assigned to the prebendary of Castleknock, and the southern divided between the economy and the monks of Malvern. The latter also resigned to the archbishop six acres of land near their mill on the Avon Liffey, for the use of “the chapel then lately built and consecrated by him in the churchyard of Castleknock,” and ordered half a mark to be paid yearly by Robert Luttrel to the vicar of said parish. The monks reserved, however, to themselves the lands and tithes conferred on St. Brigid’s church, [Dign. Dec.] and also all the tithes of the lands which Robert Blachford held here.

Some little time afterwards the priory or cell of Castleknock contested with the canons of St. Patrick’s, the right to the tithes of the laid lying between the water of the Tolka and the farm of Finglas, alleging that they belonged to this parish. The matter was, however, compromised by the interference of the metropolitan, and with the consent of the priory of little Malvern. For a notice in 1227, see the “Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin.”

In 1250 the several tithes of Castleknock were valued, the prebendary’s at 50 marks and the Prior of Malvern’s at forty, while £10 per annum [Crede mihi] was allotted to the vicar. In 1288 Hugh Tyrrel was Lord of Castleknock.

In 1306 the vicarage was rated to the Tenths at one mark, while its two prebends were taxed at two marks each. In 1310 Richard, the son of Hugh Tyrrel, was seised of this manor.

In 1316 Edward Bruce, brother to the Scottish King, encamped here, on the occasion of that invasion which was suggested by the policy of his brother, who proposed thereby to encourage rebellion in Ireland, and to cause a diversion for the forces of [280a] King Edward the Second, until he should be firmly fixed on his own throne. The invaders took the Baron, Hugh de Tyrrel, prisoner with his wife, who were, however, soon afterwards ransomed.

In 1371 an inquisition was had concerning the extent of this “honor or manor,” which stated that the last possessor was Robert Tyrrel, the son and heir of Hugh, and that Robert had also died, leaving his widow Scolastica, the daughter of Nicholas Howth, and also a daughter Johanna him surviving. This daughter was afterwards married to Robert Serjeant, who thereupon assumed the title of Baron of Castleknock. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1394 the king granted to John Lincoln the prebend of Castleknock, with a license that he should not be compelled to remain in Ireland [Ibid.] For a notice in 1455, see at “Clonsillagh.”

About the year 1483 the tithes of a carucate of land lying in this parish, which had been in the possession of the chapter of St. James Keating, Prior of Kilmainham. The dean, however, having petitioned the Pope, the matter was referred to a delegated tribunal, who decided that the titles belonged to the dean and chapter, and that Keating should pay £18 damages and £16 10s. 8d. costs. [Dign. Dec. p. 142.

In 1486 Hugh Tyrrel was Lord of Castleknock, the last of that line, and on his death, without issue male, his inheritance passed to those who intermarried with his daughters and co-heiresses, Christopher Barnewall and John Burnell, who were accordingly in 1532 summoned to appear in right of their lay fee of Castleknock. [Roll. in Ch. Rememb. Off.]

In 1599 the prebend was valued to the First Fruits at £20 6s. 4d, and the vicarage at £13 6s. 8d, Irish. An inquisition of 1547 ascertains the extent and value of the former in tithes, while it adds, that the vicar received the altarages with £2 13s. 4d from the rector as his stipend, and that the rector was bound to repair the chancel. The extent and value of the tithes belonging to the economy of St Patrick’s were at the same time ascertained. In 1559 an order was made by the queen’s commissioners, empowering the vicar of Castleknock and his successors to hold and enjoy a house, two parks, and six acres of arable land, with the appurtenances as parcel of add vicarage.

In 1568, on the attainder of John Burnell of Balgriffin, one moiety of the lards of Castleknock, which formed part of his estate, having been forfeited thereby, was granted to Sir Lucas Dillon of Moymet, Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, and one of her Majesty’s distributors of forfeited lands in the province of Munster. [Lett. Pat. 10 Eliz] Some members of the Burnell family, however, continued to reside there. A subsequent inquisition defines six certain acres as appertaining to the vicarage, also two acres adjoining the vicar’s manse at the east and situated on the mountain near the Baron’s mill, and likewise a parcel of land at the foot of Sand mountain.

In 1605 Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin, held this prebend in commendam with his see, as did his successor Launcelot Bulkeley. About the same time Philip Hoare was found seised in fee of ten messuages, and 224a. in Castleknock and Irishtown, and of a water-mill and fishery in the river Liffey, all which were forfeited by him in 1641.

In 1609 the church was rebuilt. The regal visitation of 1615 states that the rectory appertained to the prebend, that the vicarage was worth £15 per annum, and then filled by John Rice, and that the church and chancel were in good repair.

In 1642 Colonel Monk, afterwards celebrated as the Duke of Albemarle, look Castleknock and killed several of the confederates. In November, 1647, Owen Roe O’Neill and Sir Thomas Esmonde, [This Sir Thomas Esmonde, the first baronet of his name, was the descendant of an individual who settled in Ireland soon after the English invasion, and acquired considerable landed possessions in the County Wexford; the tide and honor of the family have passed untainted through the revolutions of Irish history, and derive yet more lustre from the character of him who at present represents the baronetcy, and inherits a considerable portion of the ancient estates. There was also a peerage in this family in Lord Esmonde, Baron of Limerick.], baronet, at the head of a royal force, retook the [281a] castle from the republicans, having defeated Colonel Trevor who was sent to oppose them with a strong body of horse; the conquerors continued their march to Brazeel where they encamped that night. In 1649 the Earl of Ormonde marched with his from Naas, passed over the bridge of Lucan, and appeared before this castle intending to attack Dublin; but after some inconsiderable skirmishes he removed to Fing1as. At the time of the Restoration the castle fell to decay, and was never since repaired.

In 1666 Philip Hoare, a descendant of the forfeiting proprietor before-mentioned was restored to his former possessions here, while William Warren had a grant of 283a. within the parish, besides parts of Carpenterstown and the Lackes. The former afterwards assigned 28a, and the latter 16½a. of their respective holdings to be enclosed in the Phoenix Park

In 1676 the chapter of St Patrick a resolved that G. Morton should have a lease of the rectory for 21 years, at half the value in consequence of “his having made a discovery of the sand rectory. The tithes were then leased for £20 sterling In 1679 Edward Wettenhall, who had been Prebendary of Castleknock, was consecrated Bishop of Cork and Ross; and in 1680 it was regulated that the prebend should be chargeable with £2 5s. annually to its vicar.

In 1697 the Rev. Patrick Cruise D.D., was returned parish priest of Castleknock having as his curate the Rev Walter Cruise.

In 1700 Thomas Warren claimed, and was allowed, the benefit of a leasehold interest in lower Castleknock, forfeited by the Earl of Tyrconnel, and in 1703 Edward Ford of New Park, passed patent for 285a. in lower Castleknock the estate of the said earl. For a notice in 1716, see the “Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin” at that year.

In 1717 lived Richard Tipper of Mitchelstown in this parish, a transcriber of several Irish works. Many of his copies are extant, and singularly correct

In 1720 William Crosthwarte, by deed granted £10 yearly for ever issuing out of the impropriate rectory of Follystown in the county of Meath in trust for the education of poor children in the parishes of Castleknock, Mallaghiddart, and Clonsillagh. On which foundation a charity-school was reported as existing in 1730. Twelve children were educated here in 1818. In 1826 the number increased to 19 Roman Catholics and eight Protestants. The return of this latter year also mentions an acre of good land as annexed to this establishment. The Report of 1835 states the number of its pupils as 32, but erroneously styles its founder Postletwaite.

In 1721 Doctor Josiah Hort was consecrated Bishop of Leighlin and Ferns in this church by the Bishops of Meath, Dromore, Kilmore, and Ardagh.

In 1773 the parishes of Castleknock and Clonsillagh were united by act of Council and in the same year, Richard Morgan of Newcastle in the county of Dublin be bequeathed to certain trustees for ever all his estates, in trust out of the produce thereof, to expend a sum not exceeding £3,000 in erecting two buildings, one for 100 boys, the other for a like number of girls, the children of poor reduced Protestant parents, to be clothed, dieted, lodged, educated and instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, and other useful qualifications for their condition in life, and, when of sufficient age, to be apprenticed to Protestant masters and mistresses with an apprentice fee of £5 for each. And he directed that any surplus of his estates should be applied in portioning an approved number of the children on their intermarrying with Protestants. Mr Morgan died in 1784 but, his will having been contested, the property was on compromise divided, one-half being left with the charity, and the other moiety taken by the heir-at-law, an arrangement which was confirmed by act of parliament. The rental of the charity estates in the counties of Limerick, Dublin, and Leitrim, and in the town of Drogheda, were in 1812 reported as £1,652 per annum, while in one denomination, a rise of £600 per annum was then confidently anticipated. The schools have been erected at an expense ,however, considerably exceeding the testator’s estimate. The return of 1835 states 47 boys as then on this establishment.

In 1797 the Castleknock Farmers’ Society was instituted for the improvement of agriculture, and the encouragement of industrious and sober servants and labourers.

[281a] In 1808 the Board of First Fruits lent £1,000 towards building the present church.

In 1831 William Tisdall of Clonturk, solicitor, devised the lands of Roulestown, subject to the life interests of his wife and aunt, to the Protestant rector of Castleknock and his successors, in trust for the Protestant school of that parish; and he further bequeathed all the residue of his said estate and effects to the said rector and his successors in trust for the said charity-school. Since which year, Alice Tisdall, the sister of the above William, by will, (25th May, 1836,) devised £90 in the 3½ per cents. for the use of the same establishment.

The succession of the prebendaries of Castleknock has been as follows, as far as ascertained:-

1274 William de Northfeld.

---- Richard de Gnowessale.

1305 Anthony Beck.

1306 John de Patrick.

---- John de Dene.

1394 John Lincoln.

1495 Nicholas Boys.

1546 Richard Ellercare.

1562 Thomas Ithel.

1605 Thomas Jones.

1619 Launcelot Bulkeley.

1620 Anthony Martin.

1661 William Hill.

1667 Thomas Hill.

1673 Benjamin Barry.

1675 Edward Wettenhall.

1679 J. Wilkinson.

1691 Thomas Twigg.

1734 Jonathan Rogers.

1741 John Jourdan.

1758 Peter Sterne.

1764 Kene Percival.

1774 William Ware.

1803 George O’Connor.

In the botanic department, the sides of the canal near this exhibit the carum carui, caraway; juncus conglomeratus, common rush; juncus effusus, soft rush; triglochin palustre, marsh arrow-grass; alisma plantago, greater water plantain; arenaria rubra, purple sandwort; alisma ranuncuroides, lesser water plantain; polygonum amphibium, amphibious persicaria; while artemisia vulrgaris, mugwort, called in Irish bofulan ban, abounds on every side.

Proceeding from Castleknock, at right appear those schools of Mr. Morgan before alluded to; Blanchardstown Mills succeed; and lastly the village of Blanchardstown, in both Protestant and Catholic dispensations accounted in the parish of Castleknock. Here is a new commodious chapel, 90 feet in length by 35 in breadth, and 33 in height, admirably, yet simply ventilated, and having near it a convent of Carmelite nuns, who give gratuitous education to upwards of 200 girls. The National Board allows £15 per annum for this charitable object, and £10 for a male school in the village.

The principal proprietors of the fee of this townland are Mr. Kirkpatrick, ind the representative of Mr. Locke of Athgoe. The general acreable rent is £4 per annum, the wages of labour from seven to eight shillings weekly. The tithes are a portion of those within the parish of Castleknock, appropriated to the economy of St. Patrick’s cathedral.

Early in the 14th century, the family of Owen, which was originally settled at Blundelstown in this county, acquired a derivative interest in this denomination, under the Tyrrels, and perpetuated their name in the townland of Owenstown. Accordingly, in 1381 John Owen assigned to Cicely Howth, 20 acres of wood, with the water-mill and other properties here, held by him, as the conveyance states, under Sir Robert Tyrrel. The remainder of his property soon afterwards passed to [283] William de Boltham and Robert Burnell, the respective husbands of his sisters and co-heiresses.

By inquisition of 1542, it was found, that the abbot of the religious house of the Blessed Virgin near Dublin, was seised of a messuage, with a garden, and six acres of land in the town of Blanchardstown, annual value nine shillings; as also of the tithes of corn and hay of Blanchardstown, called the little tithes of the parish of Castleknock, annual value £3 6s. 8d.

In 1577 Nicholas Dillon of Cappock in this county, died seised in fee of Cappock, Blanchardstown, and Blundellstown, 300 acres, Finglas 120 acres, a water-mill on the river Tolka, called Cardiff’s mill, and another called New mill, &c., out of which he assigned the town and lands of Blanchardstown as the dower of his wife. [Inquis. in Can. Hib.]

In the beginning of the 17th century, Thomas Luttrel was seised in fee of the great wood of Blanchardstown, called Scald Wood, as also of a water-mill there. [Ibid.]

In 1621 the tithes of corn and hay of Blanchardstown, “lately called the little tithes of the parish of Castleknock,” were held by William Dangan, Esq., at the annual rent of £3 6s. 8d.

In 1666 James Duke of York obtained a grant of 180 acres plantation measure in Blanchardstown and Damestown; and in 1668 Sir Robert Meredith died seised of the tithes of Blanchardstown, which he held of the crown in free and common socage, at an annual rent. [Ibid]

In 1688 Peter Westenra, Esq., of this locality, was one of those attainted in King James’s parliament. For a notice of the possessions of Edward Sweetman here, in 1697, see at “Abbotstown.”

In 1703 Alderman John Eccles obtained a grant of a portion of Blanchardstown, which King James held under the before-mentioned grant of 1666, while 17 acres were sold by the trustees of the forfeited estates to William Cairnes. For a notice of a bequest fnr a poor-school here in 1829, see at “Harold’s Cross.”

From Blanchardstown, the Trim road continues, overhanging the valley of the Tolka, and looking back upon a fine display of the Dublin mountains, the historic hills of Castleknock, and presently are seen at right, the mill and ancient demesne of Corduff in Castleknock, (as it may be called, to distinguish it from Corduff near Lusk,) formerly the property of the de la Field family, and subsequently of the Warrens, in reference to whom it may be noted, that in 1692 it was one of the charges against William Culliford, a Commissioner of his Majesty’s Revenue, “that for his private advantage, he did take to farm the forfeited lands of Thomas Warren of Corduff, from their Majesties’ then Commissioners of the Revenue, in the name of one Nolan, in trust for him the said Mr. Culliford, and did seize the stock, corn, and household goods of the said Thomas Warren, to the value of £500, which were forfeited to their Majesties, and disposed thereof to his own private use.

Crossing the Royal Canal, where its passage has been forced through blasted rocks, the tourist arrives at Carpenterstown, so called from having been, in the 13th and 14th centuries, the residence of a branch of the family of Carpenter. The Luttrels, Warrens, and Burnells succeeded to certain portions of the denomination, the fee of which is now chiefly vested in the devisee of Mr. Locke. Rent is about £4 per acre, labourers’ wages from seven to eight shillings weekly. The tithes of this townland also are part of those appropriated to the economy of St. Patrick’s.

Near this, at Diswellstown, is a handsome, modern built house, with a [284a] fine lawn, and surrounded by grounds well enclosed and wooded also a remarkable spring-well, the waters of which are reported to be of such a petrifying quality, that it is said a sprig of thorn thrown into it in autumn will be petrified in about five months. The water lathers with soap, and excites some small bubbles with spirit of vitriol; it is impregnated with calcareous earth, a little marine salt, and sulphur. Limestone abounds in this neighbourhood. “Near Diswellstown,” writes Rutty, “copper ore was found mixed with spar, which appeared to be rich, but after sinking some yards the work was dropped; and on the same estate, in a quarry, there appeared a copper course, which was wrought upon for a few months, but the ore raised there did not defray the expense, and, as the course seemed to lead into the estate of Mr. Luttrel, which was nearly adjoining, and the undertaker had no mining lease, the work was dropped.” This place took its name from the family of Diswell, who, in the 13th century, purchased 578 acres here from Tyrrel, Baron of Castleknock. The Luttrel family were subsequently seised of a stone house, six messuages, and 120 acres here, [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.], and it is now the fee of Colonel White. The tithes are appropriated to the economy of St. Patrick’s, as are also those of the adjacent townland of Porterstown, formerly the estate of the Finglas family, the last heiress of whom, Maria Finglas, was the ward of Thomas Luttrel of Luttrelstown. Colonel White is now the proprietor of the fee. There are here extensive limestone quarries, copper pyrites also occurs and brown iron-stone, and gallena is met with in calp, while in the adjacent rock banks of the Royal Canal is found a bed of manganese of good quality, 18 inches thick. It is neither hard nor heavy, and on trial in a glass-house was found to give a most beautiful colour. A quantity of fine purple marle, of so pure a nature, and beautiful a colour, that a paper stainer has used it for colouring walls, was thrown up on cutting the canal here, and in the deep drain for letting out the overflow of its waters coal smute is had.

In this place is a large cruciform Roman Catholic chapel, with a school-house adjacent. The mills are mentioned in records as early as the 14th century, and appear to have stood on the site of those now called Black Mills, the first established in Ireland for flattening iron. At New Holland, immediately adjacent, there were also, some few years since, four wire mill wheels and a cotton printer’s establishment, but none of these are now in existence.

A prettily shaded road leads from Porterstown to Clonsillagh. The chapel alluded to is seen at left, and on the right, amidst aged and decaying trees, are the remains of an ancient residence of the Troy family, where the late Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin was born. Another road, rough and steep, but most picturesque, leads down to the valley of the Liffey, turning at a rock-piled gate-house of Luttrelstown, and thence descending to the river with that demesne at right. A splendid view is here commanded over the windings of the vale and river, embrowned by the [285a] dark wooded eminences of Hermitage, yet more beautifully reflected in the clear waters below, and solemnly enlivened by the flittings and cawings of its ancient rookery.

Luttrelstown, the demesne alluded to, was so styled from its former proprietor, but is now more usually called Woodlands, and is the present residence of Colonel White. It is beautifully undulated in all its surface, diversified with wood and water, valleys and precipices, and occasionally opening the richest vistas over that enchanting line before-mentioned as the lower road to Lucan, which here accompanies the Liffey through a valley overhung with wooded slopes, and only wide enough to admit their common progress.

The entrance to the demesne, as Prince Puckler Muskau well describes it, “is indeed the most delightful in its kind that can be imagined.

Scenery, by nature most beautiful, is improved by art to the highest degree of its capability, and, without destroying its free and wild character, a variety and richness of vegetation is produced which enchants the eye. Gay shrubs and wild flowers, the softest turf and giant trees, festooned with creeping plants, fill the narrow glen through which the path winds, by the side of the clear, dancing brook, which, falling in little cataracts, flows on, sometimes hidden in the thicket, sometimes resting like liquid silver in an emerald cup, or rushing under overhanging arches of rock, which nature seems to have hung there as triumphal gates for the beneficent Naiad of the valley to pass through.”

So early as the reign King John, this estate is said to have been granted by that monarch to Sir Geoffrey Luttrel, in whose descendants it remained until sold by Lord Carhampton.

In a record of 1519 occurs the following curious notice referrible to Luttrelstown:-

“Memorandum, that I, Thomas Netterville, the king’s attorney, was with Sir William D’Arcv of Platten, knight, at Platten, the Monday next before the fest of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1519, and there among other points, enquired of him whether he knew John Bermingham of Baldungan, and Nicholas Tryversd of Corkelagh or not, and what age or station the said Nicholas was of, the which Sir William shewed me that he and his cousin Sir Thomas Kent, being learning their Tenures and Natura Brevium with Mr. John Stret at Dublin, was tabled at Hugh Talbot’s, the said Hugh then dwelling where said John Dillon now dwelleth, and that Philip Bermingham, then Chief Justice of the King’s bench, at that time dwelled there, as Anne White dwelleth now, having one John Harper in his service, unto the which John Harper, the said Sir William and Sir Thomas, with other their companions on holy-days resorted, to learn to harp and to dance at the said justice’s place, where was then the said John Bermingham; and the said Sir William and Sir Thomas so being in Dubllin, were sent for to the marriage of the said Nicholas and of Luttrel’s daughter to Luttrelstown, where they, accompanied with divers of Dublin, went, at the which time, said Nicholas was as tall a man as ever he was, and the best and strongest archer that was at that marriage, and at the least to the said Sir William’s remembrance, there was 40 good bows there,” &c.

In 1531 the prior of the Croisers of the religious house of St. John the Baptist of Dublin, was seised of certain parts of this denomination, and granted to Sir Thomas Luttrel of Luttrelstown, lawyer, for his counsel, and services to that establishment, an annuity of 20 shillings, with power of distraining for the same. The monastic order of Croisiers, alias Crutched Friars, by which name they were more known in England and Ireland, was rounded in honour of the discovery of the cross by the [286a] Empress Helena. They were dispersed in several parts of Europe, but more particularly in the Low Countries, France, and Bohemia. They followed the rule of St. Augustine, and at their dissolution, had in this country 13 establishments.

In 1535 the said Sir Thomas Luttrel had a grant of the offices of Sergeant-at-law and Solicitor-General.

In 1561 Queen Elizabeth granted to Richard Netterville, Esq., all the possessions in the county of Dublin that had belonged to the priory of St. John the Baptist, and situate at Jordanstown, Luttrelstown, Grallagh, Mewtown, St John’s Leys in Lucan, with other lands and possessions situated in the counties of Wicklow, Meath, Kildare, Louth, Tipperary, and Carlow, and in the city of Cork, and town of Drogheda.

In 1654 Luttrelstown was the residence of Colonel Hewson, who had been for some time Governor of Dublin, and represented this county in Cromwell’s parliament of 1654. A pamphlet of that day, in characterizing the members of that assembly, says, “Colonel Hewson, sometime an honest shoemaker or cobbler in London, went off a captain upon the account of the cause, fought on, and in time became a colonel, did good service in England and Scotland, was made Governor of Dublin, became one of the little parliament, and of all the parliaments since, a knight also of the new stamp, the world being so well mended with him, and the sole so well stitched to the upper leather; having gotten so considerable an interest and means, he may well be counted fit to be taken out of the house to be a lord, and to have a negative voice in the other house over all of the gentle craft and cordwainers’ company in London, if they please. But, though he be so considerable and of such merit in the Protector’s, as also in his own esteem, not only to be a knight, but also a lord, yet it will hardly pass for current with the good people of these lands, it being so far beyond the last.” He was one of the most constantly attendant judges at the trial of the unfortunate Charles the First, throughout all the proceedings, as well in the painted chamber as at Westminster Hall, in which latter place he was present when the fatal sentence was pronounced. [Fellowe’s Historical Sketches, p. 173.] In Ireland, he was one of the most distinguished parliamentary leaders, and signalized himself at the taking of Castledermot, Naas, Athy, Maryborough, Lea Castle, Dunamase, &c. In 1660, however, he was attainted, and his estate granted to others.

In 1672 Luttrelstown was the property of Thomas Luttrel, comprising with its appurtenances 424a. He was also seised of Clonsillagh 90a., Strahenny 188a., Diswellstown 578a., Carpenterstown 80a., and other most extensive denominations in this neighbourhood.

In King James’s parliament of 1689, Simon Luttrel of Luttrelstown, was one of the members for the county of Dublin, and in the ensuing confiscations forfeited his interest in the said estates. His widow, thereupon, sought and was allowed her jointure off the premises, while Colonel Henry Luttrel claimed an estate tail therein.

In 1703 the rectories and tithes of Luttrelstown, Clonsillagh, and Mullaghiddart, confiscated by the attainder of Simon Luttrel, were conveyed by the commissioners of the forfeited estates to the trustees for the augmentation of small vicarages, in pursuance of the act 11 Will. III.

In 1787 a beautiful wooden bridge, which Lords Carhampton had erected at a point opposite his demesne, adding a considerable embellishment to the scene, was carried away by a remarkable rising of the waters, which it had for some time triumphantly spanned. See at “the Liffey.”

Squirrels were formerly frequent in the woods of Luttrelstown, as was likewise the marten. The botanist willfind there *ilex aquifolium, *holly; *poa nemoralis, *wood meadow-grass, flowering in July; *carex strigosa, *loose pendulous sedge, flowering in June; *ophrys nidus *avis, bird’s nest ophrys, flowering so early as April; *carex remota, *remcte sedge; *hypnum cuspidatum, *pointed hypnum; *merulius androsaceus, *black-stalked agaric; *helvella mitra, *curled helvella, flowering here in April; festuca gigantea, [287a] tall fescue-grass, whose seeds are coveted by birds; *lathraea squamaria, *toothwort, flowering round the roots of the elms in April and May; *orchis mascula, *early purple orchis; *galeobdolon luteum, *yellow archangel, flowering in May and June. - On the trees, *lichen olivaceus, *olive lichen. - In the moist places. *geum rivale, *water avens, flowering in June and July.

In the ponds, *happuris vulgaris, *mare’s tail; *aenanthe phillandrium, *fine-leaved water dropwort. - In the hedges, *hypericum hirsutum, *hairy St. John’s wort; *carpinus betulus, *hornbeam, the wood of which burns like a candle. It is useful in turning, and for making many implements in husbandry, and for cogs for mill wheels is considered even superior to yew; the inner bark is likewise much used in Scandinavia to dye yellow; *rosa cinamomea, *cinnamon, or May rose, flowering in May.

• On the road sides, along the walls and ditches, *circaea lutetiana, *common enchanter’s nightshade; *veronica montana, *mountain speedwell; *holcus avenaceus, *oatlike soft grass ,a tall, conspicuous plant remarkable for the bulbous nodes that are fixed at the base of the straw, particularly when the plant is advanced in age. It is however applicable to no agricultural purpose, is materially injurious when it intrudes in the corn crops, and never desirable amidst pasture grasses; it is also subject to a disease called rust, which after its flowering affects the whole plant *polypodium vulgare, *common polypody. - In the adjacent field, *isatis tinctoria, *dyer’s wood, yielding the blue dye which was used by the ancient Britons for painting their bodies; *triticum caninum, *fibrous-rooted wheat-grass. - And, adhering to the furze on the line between this and Lucan, *orobanche major, *greater broom rape, flowering in August.

In the neighbourhood of this locality are several excellent sites for mills, one very fine concern of this class is at present worked. It has been erected on the foundation of what is popularly called the Devil’s mill, from a tradition, faithfully preserved, that his Infernal Majesty had from time immemorial promptly defeated all attempts to establish such a work there. Man has, however, triumphed, and the demon is now considered barred by a long interval of acquiescence.

A beautiful road, commanding delightful views, of a character similar to those occurring in the before mentioned descent from Porterstown, climbs the steep at the Lucan side of Colonel White’s to Barberstown, another portion of the ancient patrimony of the Luttrels, whence a cross road conducts to Clonsillagh, a village formed of what, on the old principles of serf elections, were designed as *votive *residences for 40 shilling free-holders, each having in the rere an acre of ground attached, subject to the annual rent of £5, yet sworn to yield an interest to the amount required for qualification. The church is an old, plain building surrounded by trees. The patron saint was Mochta, the last survivor of St. Patrick’s disciples, and whose name is here still preserved, in a well dedicated to his honour.

The parish ranks as a curacy in the union of Castleknock, of which the Archbishop of Dublin is patron. It comprises 3,256a. 1r. 7p., in 13 towniands, and has compounded for its tithes at £240 per annum, payable [288a] to the incumbent. Its population was returned in 1831 as 943 persons, of whom 770 were Catholics. The chief proprietor of the fee is Colonel White, the general acreable rent being from £2 10*s. *to £3 per annum, and the wages of labour seven shillings weekly. There are schools in the parish for males and females, at which about 66 are educated, and for the support of which the National Board has allowed £10 annually.

In 1419 the prior of Little Malvern was sued as rector of the church of Clonsillagh for two-thirds of the profits thereof, in consequence of his non-residence; but he pleaded letters of license from the king, and has a remission of the penalty.

An inquisition of 1455 finds that Christopher Luttrel of Clonsillagh was seised of the manor of Luttrelstown, Clonsillagh, and Castleknock, and the towns of Timolin and Barberstown.

In 1470 it was enjoined by act of parliament that such of the lands of Mullaghiddart and Clonsillagh, as were parcel of the possessions of the nunnery of Lismullen, should be charged only as one carucate of land, the same being barren and of small value.

In 1485 Thomas, Prior of St. Giles of little Malvern in Worcestershire, and his convent, with the consent of John, Bishop of Worcester, granted to the abbey of the Virgin Mary of Dublin, the Grange of Clonsillagh, five other acres in Clonsillagh, five near the White Chapel of Clonsillagh, (Culmine,) the mill on the river Liffey in the county of Dublin, five carucates of land in the lordship of Feertullagh, and the mill of Fertullagh in the county of Westmeath; and in the following year the same prior granted to the said abbey, the church at the White Chapel of St. Macolthus of Clonsillagh, with certain other churches in the dioceses of Meath and Ardagh. [King’s MSS.] Accordingly an inquisition of 1541 finds that the abbot of said house of the Blessed Virgin was seised of the premises here before-mentioned, and of the rectory of Clonsillagh, the extent of which is there defined; and also of an annual charge of 16 shillings for the mill of Clonsillagh.

For a notice in 1602 see “Dalkey.” At this time Thomas Luttrel was seised in fee of the rectory with all the tithes and 100a. in this denomination. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib. Accordingly the regal visitation of 1615 reports the rectory as impropriate, that John Rice the vicar of Castleknock served the cure, and that both church and chancel were in good repair. For a notice in 1672, see at “Luttrelstown.”

In 1700 Thomas Braughall claimed, and was allowed, a leasehold interest in Clonsillagh, the Grange, and the impropriations, and great tithes thereof, &c., forfeited by Simon Luttrel; and in 1703 the rectory was, in pursuance of the act 11 Will. III. assigned to augment its vicarage. For a notice of the parish in 1773, see at “Castleknock.”

A road, partially margined at one side with poplars and hawthorns, on the other with Scotch firs, leads hence to the village of Mullaghiddart, situated on an acclivity that rises above the meandering waters of the Tolka, as its name expressively denotes.

Here are the ruins of the old church, which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. They exhibit a square, double, stone-arched steeple, with the broken walls of a long and tolerably broad chapel, within which is a monumental stone to Margaret Savage, who died in 1681; another to the Rev. John Beahan, Curate of St. Nicholas without, who died in 1822; and a third to John Conolly of New Haggard, who died in 1811; while in the side of the gable two mural monuments are inserted, commemorative of the Comynses from 1675 to 1751. Amidst the ridges of humbler dead, in [289] a thick vegetation of nettles and thorns, are monuments to the Clinches of Rathcoole, the Younges, O’Briens, Meades, Mac Cabes, Lynches, Rooneys, &c., an enclosed cemetery for the Rourkes of Tyrrelstown, and a monument to the celebrated Roman Catholic preacher, the Rev. Mr. Clarke, who died in 1809, at the early age of 33 years.

Mullaghiddart constitutes a prebend in St. Patrick’s cathedral, of the annual value of £210, the rectory being annexed thereto; the parish ranks as a curacy, and is in the union of Castleknock in both the Protestant and Catholic arrangements. It comprises 406a. 0r. 35p. in 19 townlands, and a population reported in 1851 as 471 persons, of whom not 40 were Protestants. The chief proprietors in the parish are Sir Coghill Coghill and Sir Thomas Molyneux. Acreable rent varies from £2 to £2 10s. per annum, while a cabin without land is let for about £2 10s.

In 1363 Thomas Minot, Prebendary of Mullaghiddart, was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin.

In 1412 the king granted to Maurice Coggeran, the prebend of Mullaghiddart as appertaining to the royal patronage. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.] - For a notice in 1468, see at “Tipperkevin,” and in 1470, at “Clonsillagh.”

In 1532 King Henry, on the requisition and assent of both houses of parliament, and at the solicitation of certain persons therein named, granted license by letters patent to found a fraternity or guild of brothers and sisters, under the name of the Guild of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to continue by succession in perpetuity and to consist of a master and two wardens to govern said guild, with regulations for their appointment, continuance, or removal, to have a common seal, and to sue and be sued as a corporate body with powers for the erection of a chantry of two or more chaplains, for the celebration of divine service in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary within the parish church of Mullaghiddart for ever, as also that the said master should be at liberty to purchase lands to the value of 20 marks yearly The guild was accordingly established, and so continued down to the year 1573, having acquired in that interval 30a. in Whitestown, 25a. in Huntstown, 24a. in Redmoreton, 20a. in Ballyboggan, 28a. in Newcastle &Cc. &c. [Inquis. of 1615.]

In 1539 the prebend was rated to the First Fruits at £18 Irish and by inquisition of 1547, its extent and value were ascertained as in tithes worth £39 per annum, the altarages being stated to appertain to the Vicar of Castleknock to whom a sum of £1 6s. 8d. was also paid by the rector The vicar (adds the document) as bound to find a curate, but the rector is bound to repair the chancel

The regal visitation of 1615 states the rectory of Mullaghiddart as appertaining to the prebend, and that John Rice Vicar of Castleknock served the cure.

In 1677 a very remarkable personage was interred here, Richard Beling, son of Sir Henry Beling, Knight. He was born in this county and received a grammar education in the metropolis, whence he removed to Lincoln’s Inn to study the law. Having sojourned there for some years, he returned a very accomplished gentleman. He took part with the royalists in what is called the Rebellion of 1641, and was an officer of considerable rank. In the February of that year he appeared with a party of Irish before Lismore and summoned the castle to surrender, but Lord Broghill, who commanded in it, slighted the summons, and some forces coming to his aid, Mr Beling thought it prudent to retire. He afterwards became a leading member in the Supreme Council of the confederated Catholics at Kilkenny to which he was secretary, and was by them sent in 1645 to the Pope to crave his assistance. He returned, unhappily accompanied by Rinunccini the Nuncio, who was the occasion of renewing those distinctions between the old Irish and the English in this country, [290a] which split the before justly styled confederates into factions, promoted the visitation of Cromwell, and the utter extinction of Ireland as an independentent nation. Mr. Beling soon saw the error of this policy, and none was thenceforth more zealous than he in opposing such measures, promoting the peace, and submitting to the king’s authority. When the parliamentary army subdued the Irish, he went into France, where he lived during some years, but on the Restoration returned to Ireland, where he recovered his estates through the interest of the Duke of Ormonde. He died in Dublin in 1677, and was buried here. Ware says he saw his tomb at Mullaghiddart, walled in, but without inscription. At a very early age he wrote and added a sixth book to Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, which has been printed with that work, and during his retirement in France, is said to have written in Latin, under the name of Philopater Irenaeus, a work entitled “Vindiciae Catholicorum Hiberniae,” the first part of which treats of Irish affairs from 1641 to l649, and the second is an answer to an epistle written by Paul King, a Franciscan friar, and a partisan of the nuncio. He was, Likewise, the author of some other works. In reference, however, to the “Vindiciae Catholicorum Hiberniae,” it would seem more than questionable that Beling was its author. His contemporary, Peter Walshe, in the preface to his History of the Remonstrance, attributes it to the Robert John Mac Callaghan, who was presented by the confederate Catholics to the bishopric of Cork, but on the nuncio’s interference was not promoted thereto. De Burgo also sanctions this conclusion, while O’Conor seems to attribute the “Vindiciae” to Beling, and laments he had not continued it down to Cromwell’s time, as he had such sources and facilities for the work. The subject of this memoir, it may be added, was father to Sir Richard Beling, Knight, secretary to Catherine, the queen of King Charles the Second, who, marrying a lady of the flame of Arundel, an heiress to a great estate, his children were obliged to take the name of their mother’s family.

In 1680 it was regulated, that the Prebendary of Mullaghiddart should pay £2 10s. annually to the vicar of that parish,

In 1688 Henry Rider, Prebendary of Mullaghiddart, was one of those attainted in King James’s parliament, but in 1693 was promoted to the bishopric of Killaloe. In 1700 Henry Luttrel of Luttrelstown, and Walter Delamer of Porterstown, passed their bond in the penalty of £2,634 to the Trustees of the forfeited estates, to secure £310 5s. to the clergy for the tithes and mesne rates of the lands in Mrs. Luttrel’s jointure, and the mesne rates of the rest of the lands to the public and the clergy. For a notice of the rectory and tithes in 1703, see “Luttrelstown.

In 1716 Dean Swift wrote to Archbishop King in reference to this prebend, “I have been assured that Mr. Wall would not have failed of the prebend of Mullaghiddart, if he had not been thought too much attached to me, for it is alleged, that, according to your own scheme of uniting the prebends to the vicarages, it would almost have fallen to him of course, and I remember the poor gentleman had always a remote hope of that prebend, whenever Doctor Moore should quit it. Mr. Wall came lately down to me to Trim upon that disappointment, and I was so free as to ask him whether he thought my friendship had done him hurt, but he was either so meek or so fearful of offending, that he would by no means impute his misfortune to any thing beside his want of merit and misrepresentations, which latter, I must confess, to have found with grief to have more than once influenced you against some, who by their conduct to your grace, have deserved a quite different treatment. With respect to myself, I can assure your grace that those who are most in your confidence make it no manner of secret, that several clergymen have lost your grace’s favour by their civilities to me, I do not say anything of this by way of complaint, which I look upon to be an office too mean for any man of spirit and integrity, but merely to know, whether it be possible for me to be upon any better terms with your grace, without which, I shall be able to do very little good in the small station I am placed.” For a further notice in this year, see the “Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin.”

In 1809 the Rev. Mr. Clarke, before alluded to, was interred here. This young clergyman, who so much distinguished himself in Dublin for his piety and talents, was the youngest son of a Captain Clarke, resident near Lisburn. He bad been educated a Protestant, but in his youth embraced the faith of the Roman Catholic Church. In [291] 1793 he became a student at the Irish College of Lisbon, where he concluded his courses of philosophy and divinity, and became distinguished for his reasoning powers and sound judgment. In composing and preparing his discourses he evinced wonderful facility, but, while intent on the better object of profiting his hearers, be was to a great extent careless of ornament. His style was plain though pure, his reasoning accurate and conclusive, and his subjects methodically and judiciously arranged. The scope of his sermons was generally to elucidate the tenets of the religion he espoused, or to expose and lash the prevailing vices of the day. He died in the chapel house of Mary’s parish, then situated in Liffey-street, and a mural monument of white marble was erected to his memory in the adjoining chapel, which has since been removed to the modern Metropolitan Church in Marlborough-street.

The successive prebendaries of Mullaghiddart were as follow, as far as ascertained.

1306 John de Patrick.

1363 Thomas Minot.

1412 Maurice Coggeran.

1413 Thomas de St. Leger.

1437 John Sudbury.

1485 John Waryng.

1495 John Boys.

1509 Robert Skyrret.

1515 David Eustace.

1524 Christopher Lynam.

1546 Robert Eustace.

1555 Nicholas Meagh.

1567 Richard Bancroft.

1597 Lucas Challoner.

1615 Benjamin Culme.

1626 Richard Moygnes.

1627 John Fitzgerald.

1642 Henry Hall.

1660 Thomas Crofton.

1683 Henry Rider

1693 Anthony Ireby.

1706 Ezekiel Burridge.

1707 John Moore

1716 Charles Whittingham.

1719 William Caldwell.

1729 Francis Corbet.

1735 Edward Drury.

1737 Nicholas Synge.

1743 Gabriel James Maturin.

1746 John Towers.

1752 Kene Percival.

1764 William Martin.

1787 John Lyon.

1790 Robert Truell.

1831 William Michael.

On the descent from the hill of Mullaghiddart to the Tolka, under the shade of two very ancient ash trees is a well of remarkably fine water, which also was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. At the opposite side of the road is a school, to which the National board allows £10 annually, attended in 1835 by upwards of 100 children.

It may here be observed of the pretty stream, so often alluded to in the course of this history, and here seen for the last time, the Tolka, that along the course of its windings, and of the rivulets that trickle into its valley, the botanist will find *iris pseudacorus, *yellow water iris; *scirpus lacustris, *bull rush; *phalaris arundinacea, *reed canary grass, sometimes used for thatching cottages or ricks, and enduring much longer than straw; *potamogeton natans, *broad-leaved pond weed, floating its pleasant shade over the finny inhabitants of the stream: *oenanthe crocata, *hemlock water dropwort, the roots and leaves of which are powerfully poisonous; *juncus glaucus, *hard rush; *juncus bufonius, *toad rush; *alisma plantago, *greater water plantain, with its purplish flowers, this also possesses a poisonous quality; *lythrum salicaria, *purple loose strife; *rosa rubiginosa, *sweet briar, breathing its delicious fragrance through the overhanging hedges; *ranunculus aquatilis, *white water crowfoot; *caltha palustris, *marsh marygold, whose flowers the country people in England used formerly to strew on May day on the pavement before their doors; *scrophularia *[292] *nodosa, *knotty rooted figwort; *barbarea vulgaris, *common rocket; *eupatorium cannabinum, *hemp agrimony, with its pink flowers and lingered leaves; *aremisia vulgaris, *mugwort; *tussilago petasites, *butter bur, with its remarkably large leaves; *senecio aquaticus, *marsh ragwort; *inula dysenterica, *common flea bane; *listera ovata, *common tway blade; *sideritis anglica, *clown’s all-heal; a variety of the *veronica anagallis, *water speedwell, with narrow leaves and pinkish flowers; *lycopus Europaeus, *gipsy wort; *eleocharis palustrts, *creeping spike rush; *ononis arvensis., *rest harrow, &c.

In addition to the few historic events connected with the Tolka, but noticed al the localities to which they seemed more referrible, one may he here introduced, which if this (as most probably) be the Tolka alluded to, would evince that, pure and peaceful as it glides through its sequestered valley, the time has been when it too has “started at the bugle horn,” slaked the thirst of the wounded and stilled the agony of the dying. When Malachy, the last royal representative of that series of the Hy-Nial dynasty, who held the sovereignty of Ireland, resigned his throne and power in the ancient palace of Tara, and acknowledged submission to the victorious Brian Boroimhe, Aodh, the prince who at that time governed the Hy-Nials of Ulster, was the successor presumptive of Malachy, and consequently the person most essentially prejudiced by the abdication. This sense of his injuries and degradation naturally provoked his resentment even to rashness, and with a few daring adherents, who preferred death in freedom to life in slavery, Aodh attacked the allies of Brian in an engagement, which, from the scene of action, the Annals of the Four Masters call “the battle of the wood of Tolka,” and there he gallantly fell.

At a little distance west of Mullaghiddart is Damastown, 200a. of which were formerly the estate of Doctor Stearne, Bishop of Clogher. While northward, in the direction of the Ward, lies Hollywoodrath, a large portion of which was, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the fee of Christopher Plunkett of Dunsoghly, and which, on subsequent acquisition vesting in the Rev. Daniel Jackson, he by his will in 1706 charged with £6 per annum, for ever, for a schoolmaster, and £30 for building a school-house; while he also devised three acres of land for she same purpose.

Near Mullaghiddart is Culmine, once a place of celebrity, and the seaat of a church founded by St. Mochta, the last survivor of St. Patrick’s disciples, and first abbot of Louth; who died, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, on the 19th of August, A.D. 534. After the English invasion it was suffered to fall into decay, and a vestige of it did not exist in the 16th century, as appears from the Repertorium Viride.

A royal confirmation of the possessions of the religious house of the Blessed Virgin of Dublin, bearing date in 1174, enumerates Culmine amongst them, with its lands, tithes, and other appurtenances, as does a subsequent confirmation to the same house by John Earl of Moreton in 1185, and by Pope Clement the Third in 1189. For a notice in 1485, see at “Clonsillagh.”

An inquisition of the time of Henry the Eighth finds the religious house of the Blessed Virgin still seised of six messuages, with 260a., arable, meadow, pasture and bog in Culmine, annual value £12, which appear to have been subsequently granted to Sir Edward Bolton, at a crown rent of £10, Irish, lately purchased by Alexander Kirkpatrick.

[293a] Ward, the succeeding locality, anciently called the town of Reimund le Bank, had a chapel, one of the three subservient to the church of Finglas, and dedicated to Saint Brigid. Its ruins are sodded over almost even with the ground, with the exception of one ivied gable, nor is there within them, or in the graveyard without, any tomb of note. The manor extended over Spricklestown, Gelanstown, Phepoestown, Irishtown, Kilmacmonan, Stradbally, &c.

The parish comprises 1,349a. 1r. 6p., in four townlands, and its population was in 1831 returned as 251 persons. It ranks as a chapelry in the corps of the chancellor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In the Roman Catholic arrangement it is in the union of Finglas. The chief proprietor of the fee is Lord Howth. Colonel Rochfort of Carlow, however, has a derivative interest that leaves the fee of small value. Sir Josiah Coghill Coghill [“Coghill Coghill”? KF] has also a portion of the fee. Rent varies from £2 to £3 per acre, labourers’ wages being seven shillings per week.

Archbishop Mien says, that Raymond le Brett, the first proprietor of the Ward after the English invasion, caused to be here constructed a large foss, called “Half-penny Trench.” No traces of this work, which seemed worthy of the prelate’s notice, now exist.

In 1421 Henry the Fifth committed 10 the custody of Thomas Walsh the manor or lordship of Ward, whilst in the king’s hands. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1441 the king granted half the manor of Ward and 60 acres in Lafulane, which had been forfeited by Sir Richard Bermingham, to Richard Rowe, and Blanch his wife. [Ibid.]

In 1515 a moiety of this manor was held under the crown by Sir Richard St. Lawrence, the 19th Lord of Howth; and here his heir, Sir Christopher, the 20th lord, resided, who, in 1557, settled the same, with other lands, upon his family, in whom they still continue. For a notice in 1538, see at “Killbarrock.”

An inquisition in 1547 defines the extent and value of the tithes and altarages of this parish; and an account of 1660 is extant in relation to the same subject. At the close of the 16th century a castle was garrisoned here.

In 1611 Lord Howth suffered a recovery of a moiety of the manor, which was held in 1614 by Thomas White, described as comprising one castle, six messuages, and 260a., subject to a chief rent of £40 to the Lord of Howth. The remainder of the manor and some dependent seigniories then belonged to the de la Hoyde family. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1666 Sir James Ware died, seised of the town and lands of Ward, and of the town and lands of Mayockstown, &c. which he held of the crown in free and common socage. [Ibid.] The name of Sir James Ware, however slightly associated with the subject, should not be dismissed without some grateful recollection of the man, who, though not attached to Ireland by any link of ancient inheritance or lineage, has done more for its honest, dispassionate, and authentic illustration, than any who ever devoted attention to its neglected annals. He knew that all was not a literary chaos in the records of “that people, which, in truth,” admits Edmund Spencer, “I think to be more *auntient *than most that I know in this end of the world;” or, in the historic associations of that country, which, admits Prideaux, “was once the prime seat of learning in all Christendom.” And, while too many of the old tenants of the soil were wilfully blind to the footsteps of history, and “proudly shallow” in what should consecrate their homes, while they crept, like Helots, through the scenes of their ancestors’ power and piety, or rather like the labourers that for centuries worked over Herculaneum, trembled to bring to light those evidencess of former days that unexampled visitations had buried beneath their feet, he stood forth the champion of the [294a] cause, took from fable its extravagance, disembarrassed truth from the drapery of romance, based Irish history on recorded and incontrovertible evidence, and confounded the slanders that were so derogatory of a nation’s honour.

He was born in Castle-street, Dublin, in 1594, entered Trinity College in 1610, published his first portion of the work, “De Praesulibus Hiberniae,” in 1626, which he concluded at subsequent intervals. In 1632 he succeeded his father in the office of Auditor-General, and in 1633 was made a Privy Councillor by Lord Stratford. In 1639 he published the work, “De Scriptoribus Hiberniae,” which he dedicated to that nobleman; and in the latter year he was returned member for the College in the Irish parliament. In 1644, on his return from an embassy to the king, he was taken at sea by a ship in the parliament’s service, and confined 10 months in the Tower of London, whence he returned to Dublin; but on its being surrendered in 1647, he was obliged by Colonel Jones’s order to transport himself to France, where he resided at St. Maloes, Caen, and Paris successively. In four years afterwards he was permitted to return to Ireland: in 1654 put out the first edition of his “Antiquities”** **and “Annals,” and in 1656, the “Opuscula Sancto Patricio adscripta.” On the Restoration in 1661, he was reinstated in the office of Auditor-General, and was again selected to represent the University of Dublin in parliament. He was subsequently one of the commissioners for executing the king’s declaration for the settlement or Ireland, and had an offer of the title of viscount, but declined it, while, at his request, the king granted him two blank baronets’ patents, which he filled up, and disposed of to two friends. After publishing some other works equally effective with those alluded to, for the illustration of Irish history, and collecting, at his own expense, many valuable manuscripts, now principally in the library of Stowe, he died in 1666, at the age of 73, and was buried in St. Werburgh’s church.

For a notice of Ward in 1697, see at “Finglas.”

Returning hence somewhat circuitously to the metropolis, a beautifully shaded road leads to Cloghran, near Hiddart, otherwise called Ballycoolane, a curacy annexed to the vicarage of Finglas. A solitary gable, in the midst of a burial ground, marks the site of the ancient church, the headstone of its own grave.

The parish extends over 778a. 0R. 29p., in two townlands, and its population in 1831 was returned as but 32 persons. The average acreable rent is about two guineas, but wages of labour six shillings to those constantly employed, seven shillings to occasional labourers.

Although this place lies within the bounds of the parish of Castleknock, it was never subject thereto, and Archbishop Allen says it was so small as scarce to deserve the name of a chapel. It belonged to the priory of All-Saints, and passed, with the other possessions of that monastery, to the mayor and commons of the city of Dublin. Accordingly the regal visitation of 1615 states the rectory as impropriate in that corporation, and that John Rice, the vicar of Castleknock, served the cure there.

After a short interval of attention to this locality, all calculations, ecclesiastical and statistical, were, for a time, swept away in the exciting tumult of a hunt that overran the field of inquiry. The cries of the dogs, the cheers of the huntsmen, the shouts of the panting peasantry, fairly overcame the ordinary habits of thinking mortality, and the antiquary actually bolted somewhat awkwardly into the midst of the pack. He was, however, distanced at the first leap, but presently enjoyed the less dangerous luxury of tracing in the perspective, the windings and stratagems of [295] the timid hare, now bounding or the meadows or scudding through the rugged furze, then lost in furrows and ditches, and again suddenly reappearing in the eventful spring over walls and fences. The views, however, soon becoming doubtful, and the clamours faint, the business of the excursion was resumed amidst the woods of Abbotstown, a denomination partly the fee of Mr. Hamilton of Sheep Hill, and partly of the family of Mr. Locke of Athgoe. The churchyard is gloomily overshadowed with ancient trees, and contains no tombs of consequence but those of the Troy family, relatives of the late Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin.

An inquisition of 1547 finds that the tithes of Abbotstown belonged to the prebendary of Mullaghiddart, and were, with those of Damestown, of the annual value of £11 10s.

In 1615 Walter Dongan was seised of two messuages and 60 acres of ground here, which he held of the king, *in capite, *at an annual rent; [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.] and in 1635 Patrick Mapas died, seised of a moiety of this town, which he held under the king, *in capite, *by military service.

In 1669 Abbotstown, with its appurtenances, two castles, six messuages, with their gardens, and seven acres of arable land, or thereabouts, were, with other possessions, granted to William Lord Viscount Dongan.

In 1697 Major Walter Delamer had a grant of a moiety, and one-third of a moiety of Abbotstown, 132a. at £2 13s. 5*d. *annual rent, for 21 years, which, with a portion of Blanchardstown, had been forfeited by Edward Sweetman.

In 1700 Sir Gregory Byren, Baronet, claimed the residue of a leasehold interest in Abbotstown, for 81 years, from 1627, and his petition was allowed; while, on the same occasion, Patrick Kinin, John Stanley, and Elizabeth Fitz Patrick, claimed, as the respective heirs of three co-heiresses, Misses Mapas, each an estate in fee in the third of a moiety of Abbotstown, and such their claims were allowed. Christopher Mapas also claimed the other two-thirds of said moiety, as forfeited by Edward Sweetman; and in 1702 William Cairnes. of Dublin, purchased from the trustees of the forfeited estates the said moiety, and one-third of the other moiety of Abbotstown, 132a., as also the estate of Edward Sweetman, attainted.

A very pretty and sequestered mad leads hence, overhanging the valley of the Tolka, to Dunsink, where, on a solid limestone rock, (the site of an ancient fortress, as its first syllable indicates,) fronting the east, the Observatory for Trinity College has been erected, on the liberal foundation and bequest of Dr. Francis Andrews, once Provost of that establishment. The mercury in the barometer stands there in 0,254 lower than at high water-mark at the Liffey in spring tides, the thermometer being in Dublin 62 degrees, and at the observatory 59 degrees. The horizon is remarkably extensive, without the smallest interruption on any side, save that on the south. The Wicklow mountains, distant about 15 miles, rise about a degree and a half. These mountains afford a striking advantage when clouds are coming from the south: they are often arrested by them, leaving the space thence to the zenith serene, while to the east and west, where no such obstacles intervene, all is obscured by a flying scud. From east to south-east the sea is visible at the distance of about 10 or 12 miles, a circumstance sometimes useful, while the light-house affords opportunities for [296a] observations on terrestial refractions both by night and day. In particular states of the atmosphere, and more especially on the approach of severe weather, the Welch moantains are distinctly visible, particularly that ridge of hills which runs south-west to Point Braich-y-pwll, and bounds Caernarvon bay in that direction. In the first volume of the Royal Irish Academy’s Transactions is given a very full description of this observatory and its instruments, by the late Doctor Usher, to which reference is, in she extension of this work, the more willingly made, as the present Astronomer Royal has stated, that he could not add any thing of general interest or necessary correction to what is there furnished.

The bequest of Dr. Andrews took place in 1774, but was not made available for some years. It amounted to £250 per annum, as a rent-charge for the Professor, and a sum of £3,000 for the building and instruments. The first professor appointed was Dr. Henry Usher, who, dying in 1790, was succeeded by the celebrated Dr. Brinkley, subsequently Bishop of Cloyne, and he by the present Sir William Hamilton.

In the ancient notices of this locality if appears that the prior of the noble abbery of Newtown, near Trim, was from a very early period seised thereof; and that Alicia, sister of Richard de la Corner, Bishop of Meath, having about the year 1240, founded the religious house of Lismullen, tile said prior thereupon endowed that establishment with “the lands of Dunsink,” reserving to himself and the priory only two pounds of wax, or 12 pence annually, in lieu thereof. [King’s MSS. p. 116.]

In 1403 the king granted to Thomas Bandy and Richard Stanyhurst the custody of one messuage and three carucates of land in Dunsink, recited to be then the property of the prior and convent of little Malvern, in England, as long as the same should be in the king’s hands; [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.] but, as in the recognition of a better title, be subsequently committed the same to the custody of the prioress of the house of the Holy Trinity of Lismullen, [Ibid.] whom accordingly an inquisition of 1542 finds seised of *(inter alia) *five messuages and 240a. here, one messuage and 80a. in Scribblestown, &c.; and another of 1547, ascertains the value and extent of the tithes of this denomination. The rights and possessions of the prioress of Lismullen were, on the dissolution, demised by King Henry the Eighth, to Sir Thomas Cusack, for a term of years; the reversion of which was in 1557 ranted to Gerald Earl of Kildare and Mabel, his wife, in tail male.

On the failure of the issue male of said Gerald, the reversion having accrued to the crown, [Ibid.] Richard Cooke, Esq. Chancellor of the Exchequer, obtained a grant in 1602 of the aforesaid 240a. with the customs in Dunsink, 80a. in Scribblestown, &c.

In 1623 Sir Francis Rushe died, seised of the town and fields of Dunsink, then stated as comprising 300a., and Scribblestown 100a., which he held of the king in free and common socage. [Inquis. in Canc. Hib.] Upon his decease his son Thomas succeeded thereto, and dying in 1629, Dunsink and Scribblestown were divided amongst his three daughters and co-heiresses, the eldest of whom was married to Sir Robert Loftus. [Ibid.]

In 1827 James Hans Hamilton, Esq. of Sheep Hill, purchased a chief rent of £10 4s. 8½d, charged upon both these townlands, and is now the chief proprietor of the fee.

On the lands here are found abundantly, the *juncus conglomeratus, *common rush; and *juncus effusus, *soft rush. - On the lawn, the *ophioglossum vulgatum, *common adder’s tongue, flowering in July: and in the [297a] neighbouring wet ditches, *stellaria uliginosa, *bog stich-wort; *cnicus palustris, *marsh plume thistle, &c.

Passing from Dunsink, on the opposite side of the Tolka, lie the lands of Ashtown, where the Education Report of 1826 states a Protestant free school as then existing, attended by 50 pupils, and supported by an income of £100 per annum, defrayed by the trustees of the will of Mr. Morgan, hereafter more particularly mentioned.

The priory of St. John the Baptist, in Dublin, was from an early period seised of little Ashtown, which, on its dissolution, was granted to Richard Netterville, Esq.

In 1663, 152a. of this denomination were purchased from John Connel, of Pelletstown, to be annexed to the Phoenix Park. The remainder of the Connel property here was forfeited by the succeeding heir Maurice, in the confiscations of 1688, and was thereupon, together with 80A. in Irishtown, granted to Counsellor Thomas Keightley.

Ashtown gives title of Baron to the Trench family. Immediately near this, at Cardiff’s Bridge, or rather Kerdiff’s Bridge, over the Tolka, are iron works, which employ about 16 persons in winter, and 10 in summer, in the manufacture of bar iron, spades, and shovels

The place takes its name from the ancient family of Kerdiff, who were settled here and at Dunsink in the 16th century. At present the fee of this denomination is in Mr. Segrave. Though classed here in the order of the excursion, this locality has been hitherto accounted in the barony of Nethercross. In the 16th century the mill was the property of the Dillons of Cappock. See “Blanchardstown” in the year 1577.

The botany of Cardiff’s Bridge and its vicinity is exceedingly interesting, presenting on every side *salvia verbenaca, *wild clary, the seeds when moistened become enveloped in dense mucilage; *alchemllla vulgaris, *common lady’s mantle, a plant of which cows are said not to be fond, yet Haller, in his Iter Helveticum, says, that the astonishing richness of the milk in the famous dairies of the Alps, described by Scheuchzer is attributed altogether to the plenty of this plant, and that of the rib wort plantain; *myosotis arvensis, *field scorpion grass; *lithospermum offiatnale, *common gromwell; *verbascum thapsus, *great mullein; *polygonum convolvuvus, *black bindweed; *oxalis acetosella, *wood sorrel; *pyrus malus, *wild apple tree; *rubus corylifolius, *hazel leaved bramble; *cardamine hirsuta, *hairy lady’s smock; *brassica napus, *rape; *geranium molle, *soft crane’s bill; *geranium Pyrenaicum, *mountain crane’s bill; *geranium rotundifolium, *round-leaved crane’s bill; *trifolium filiforme, *slender yellow trefoil; *lotus corniculatus, *common bird’s-foot trefoil; tanasetum vulgare, tansy. - On old walls, *glyceria rigida, *hard sweet grass. - In the moist fields, *lychnis flos cuculi, *ragged robin; *cnicus palustris, *marsh plume thistle; *scolopendrium vulgare, *common hart’s tongue; *scirpus fluitans, *floating club-rush.

At the old Mill-race and the hedges and ditches about it, *ligustrum vulgare, *common privet, deservedly ranked amongst the most elegant shrubs; the leaves are handsome, and the old stay on until driven off by [298] the new. It bears an abundance of white pyramidal blossoms, which are succeeded by bunches of black berries, in allusion to which Virgil writes -”

“Alba ligustra cadunt, vaccinia nigra leguntur;”

And in the Pastor Fido it is eulogised,

“Armarilli del candido ligustro

Piu candida e piu bella;” *

smyrnium olustrum, *Alexanders; *galeobdolon luteum, *yellow archangel. - On the commons, *dipsacus sylvestris, *wild teazel; *chenopodium bonus Henricus, *mercury goose-foot. - On the dry pastures, *veronica officinalis, *common speedwell, with its blue blossom; *alchemilla arvensis, *parsley piert; *potentilla fragariastrum, *barren *strawberry. *- On the way sides, *agrimonia eupatoria, *agrimony.

In the moist ditches, *stellaria uliginosa, *bog stich-wort; *polygonum persicaria, *spotted persicaria; epilobium hirsutum, great hairy willow herb; *hypericum quadrangulum, *square St. John’s wort; *sium inundatum, *least water parsnip, *juncus conglomeratus, *common rush. *- *In other old ditches and hedges, *rosa arvensis, *white trailing rose; *fragaria vesca, *strawberry; *geum urbanum, *common avens; *mench hirsuta, *hairy mint; *stachys sylvatica, *hedge woundwort; *hypericum quadrangulum, *square St. John’s wort; *geranium Robertianum, *herb Robert; *picris echioides, *bristly oxtongue. - In the old thickets, at the adjacent banks of the Royal Canal, *tilia grandifolia, *broad-leaved lime tree. - In the shady, dry places, *glechoma hederacea, *ground ivy; *hieracium pilosella, *common mouse-ear hawkweed. - In the adjacent corn-fields, *galeopsis tetrahit, *common hemp nettle: and in the waste grounds and on the roofs of houses, *crepis tectorum, *smooth hawk’s-beard; arctium lappa, common burdock; *carduus acanthoides, *welted thistle, &c.

Cabragh, i.e. the thicket, the last locality in this excursion, is also situated within the barony of Nethercross.

Here, in the midst of a well wooded demesne and well improved gardens, was the residence of Lord Norbury of facetious memory. Near it is a more ancient house, formerly the family mansion of the Segraves, a descendant of whom has still a small inheritance in the vicinity. The latter edifice has been, with considerable additions, converted into a nunnery, to which are attached an extensive boarding school for young ladies, and a charity school, for upwards of 150 girls.

At the close of the 13th century King Edward the First granted the plough-land of Ballygossan, alias Cabragh Hiii, to the prior of Holmpatrick. The prior of Ballybogan was also, from an early period, seised of several lands and tenements here, which the king, in 1404, granted to William Stockembregge, of Dublin. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.] For a notice in 1420, see at “Palmerstown;” and in 1484, at “Holmpatrick.”

In 1487 the inhabitants and landholders of Little Cabragh were by act of parliament, constituted electors of the city of Dublin. Accordingly, in 1499, Thomas Bermingham, having been sued for subsidy charged on the lands of Little Cabragh as being within the county of Dublin, pleaded that by the aforesaid statute the lands of Cabragh were, for the reasons therein mentioned, made part of the franchises of the city of Dublin; and that it was thereby enacted, that the inhabitants and tenants of the same should have and enjoy for ever all the liberties and freedoms of the city, in like manner as the citizens and denizens of same had and enjoyed them and further, that the tenants and residents of Cabragh should be thenceforward cleared and discharged of all impositions, taxes, charges, subsidies &c levied or leviable on the county of flubim, and that same should only be under the jurisdiction of the mayor &c. of Dublin. This statute he pleaded at full length and accordingly had judgement of exoneration, as to the lands above named from all subsidy due in the county. [Roll. in Ch. Rememb. Off.]

An inquisition in 1547 ascertained the value and extent of the tithes here, a moiety of which appertained to the economy of St Patick’s Cathedral. Henry Segrave or as the name was more usually spelt Sedgrave, was then seised of the lands of Little Cabragh, described as being “in the county of the city of Dublin,” while the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church being at the same time seised in frankalmoigne of Much-Cabragh, 1OOa., granted same to Francis Agard in fee. [Rot. Pat. in Canc. Hib.]

In 1609 Henry Pierse had a grant of the towns, villages, and lands of Much Cabragh and Little Cabragh, containing 240a., and therein stated to have been parcel of the possessions of St. Mary’s Abbey also of the town and lards of Kilmactalway, containing a messuage and 60a. the estate of the crown, a water-min and watercourse in the manor of Balgriffin, with all suits of mills and grinding of corn of the “tenants, as well bond as free,” of the said manor, parcel of the estate of John Burnell, attainted. [Ibid.]

In 1666 John Segrave, of Cabragh, appears among the signers of the Roman Catholic Remonstrance.

For a notice of a bequest for a charity school here in 1829, see at “Harold’s Cross.”

On old walls here the botanist will find *valeriana rubra, *red valerian; *antirrhinum majus, *great snap-dragon, flowering from June to August; *cheiranthus fruticulosus, *wall flower; *convolvulus minor vulgaris, *small bindweed. - On the roofs of the houses, *sempervivum tectorum, *house leek: while between this and Cardiffs Bridge are found *torilis anthriscus, *upright hedge parsley; and the late flowering *althea officinalis, *marsh mallow. The roots of this latter possess well known medical properties.