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Art. 10, p. 216. Phillimore's Lord Lyttelton. By Mr. Croker.

Art. 9, p. 535. Close of the Session. By do.

Art. 5, p. 377. Education of the People. By Rev. H. H. Milman.

MR. URBAN,

THE plan of precedency in this country is anomalous, inconvenient, and infinitely embarrassing. The whole table requires revision. The revision would be extremely simple, and that the Crown has the power to make such revision no one can doubt. Early precedent and modern practice alike confirm its powers, from the interpolation of viscounts to the squeezing in of the knights of St. Michael and St. George.

With regard to men the question of precedency does not materially signify, and all sorts of courtesies are exercised amongst them with a careless indifference; such, for instance, as allowing members of Parliament, and officers of a certain rank in the army, to walk out of the room before common esquires, to which they are in no way entitled. The softer sex, however, are more sensitive on this subject; and we should always be desirous of doing honour where honour is due. It is for this purpose that I submit that the peeresses should all walk out according to their respective rank, and, the dates of creation; and that, after the junior baroness, the eldest daughter of the premier duke, married to a commoner or unmarried, as the case may be, should take her place; and so on, through the peerage, in simple succession. Some sort of lesson must, of course, continue to be learnt by the Amphitryons of the day, but nothing can be more inconveniently complicated, or in its effects more absurd, than the present arrangement; when, for instance, if a duke's daughter marries the eldest son of a baron, she remains for sometime in a state of abeyance, with a rank above that of her unmarried sisters, but, should the baron die, his daughter-in-law, by becoming a peeress, sinks immediately below the level of those whom she had just preceded. Yours, &c. L.

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MANUSCRIPT COMPILATIONS FOR HISTORIES OF THE COUNTIES OF IRELAND."

MR. URBAN,

No. II.-COUNTY OF GALWAY.

48, Summer Hill, Dublin.

THIS interesting maritime county, placed with that of Clare at south, in retrospect the ancient patrimony of the O'Briens, and that of Mayo at north, the present scene of paramount famine and desolation, has for its other boundaries the broad Atlantic at west, and the lordly Shannon and beautifully winding Suck at east. It contains within its ambit many districts of fertile land, left waste or wasted; lakes eminently fitted for navigation, yet how long unappropriated-a wilderness of waters; and beyond that scope, but within its civil bounds, the county comprises magnificent bays and an infinity of islands, from the Killerys and the wild mountains of the gigantic Joyces to Kilcolgan point, whence the great Marquess of Clanricarde, when his unshaken loyalty failed to advance the interests of the royal cause, "retired," as Leland observes, "from a country lost to his king by illiberal bigotry, frantic pride, the blindness of men intoxicated by an imaginary consequence, their senseless factions, and incorrigible perverseness in contending against their own interests, and rejecting every measure necessary for their own security."

The southern and larger portion of this county comprised the quasi palatinate of the de Burgo, that territory which Henry the Third conferred upon the Lord Richard de Burgo, nephew of Hubert, Earl of Kent, and the dominion of which continued for centuries in his descendants, still giving chiefries, rents, and titles to the present Marquess of Clanricarde and the Baron of Dunkellin. The northern portion was chiefly the magnificent seignory of the O'Flahertie, to which the Isles of Arran were sometime an appanage; the eastern was that of the O'Kellys, extending beyond the Suck into the county of Roscommon, with, above them on that river, the Mac Davys and the Berminghams, while the Barony of Longford, hereafter alluded to, was the inheritance of the O'Maddens.

Throughout this tract, cromlechs, raths, round towers, and such monuments of the highest antiquity abound. Ecclesiastical history, biography, and architecture receive most interesting illustration from the once important abbeys of Athenry, Clare - Galway, Clonfert, Dunmore, Galway, Kilconnel, Kilmaduagh, Knockmoy, Meelick, Ross, and Tuam. The state of Government and social relations are not less strikingly exhibited in the chronicles of the castles of Loughrea, Oughterard, Oranmore, Menlough; and above all are the venerable woods and ruins of Portumna, eloquent of honourable councils and gallant achievements.

Between the native proprietors and the English settlers was interposed, in the heart of the county, the municipal fortress of Galway, associated with all those important annals and events which Mr. Hardiman has recorded, and those family memoirs of the tribes, yet unnoted, that mingle almost to romance with Spanish and continental intercourse. Not far from it is Knocktow, where the Earl of Kildare, "accompanied with John Blake, mayor of Dublin, warred upon William de Burgh, O'Brien, and Macnamara, and fought with the greatest power of Irishmen that has been together since the Conquest, under the hill of Knocktow, in English the hill of axes.'" (Holinshed.) And paramount to all in interest is the field of Aghrim, where the fortunes of rival dynasties were decided--the Waterloo of Ireland. Other localities have attractions of a different nature; Ballinasloe, the terminus of canal navigation into Connaught, one of the most celebrated fair greens in the world; Dunmore, the birth-place of Mossop; Gort, with the charming scenery of Lough-Couter; Connemara, an expanse of unexplored wonders; with other scenes too many to detail, but whose notices fill three volumes of my collections, exclusive of those family histories suggested in the foregoing columns, those of the twelve tribes and those who derive titles from Galway localities, as De Burgo, Marquess of Clanricarde and Baron Dun

kellin; Vereker, Viscount Gort and Baron Kiltartan; Dillon, Baron Clonbrock; Daly, Baron Dunsandle; and Browne, Baron Oranmore: or those who have heretofore derived such honours thence, as Bermingham, premier Baron of Athenry; de Ginkell, Baron of Aghrim; de Rubigny, Baron Galway; Burke, Baron Leitrim; and Burke, Baron Tyaquin. These general observations on the available materials for the history of this county I beg leave to close with an extract from my compilations, in the words and order of my journal, which marks the monuments and objects as they presented themselves.

"Where the Shannon, flowing through these fertile lowlands, here called callows, or by some caucasses, encircles a number of little islands, and winds* and brawls over a ledge of shallow rapids, the ruins of Meelick Abbey are discovered in beautiful seclusion. . . . . . In its long aisle is an old monumental stone to Sir John More (O'More of Cloghan), obit. 1631, erected by his grandson; this also commemorates the death, in 1671, of Dame Margaret More, alias de Burgo, wife of the erecter of the monument, and daughter of Richard Earl of Clanricarde, In whose memory, I, Gerard More, Colonel in the King's army, and faithful to the last, have caused this monument to be erected.' Near this, 'Rory O'More,' of Cloghan, is buried, and in a vault beneath are many of the same family. A handsome monument succeeds, commemorative of Mr. Thomas Martin, of Lismore, obit. 1815; an old stone to Patrick Dillon, of Kilkenny-west, obit. 6th January, 1788; another to Patrick Burke and Dorothy, his wife, alias Madden, obit. 1745; to Dominick Burke, of Cooliney, obit. 1789; to John Madden, obit. 1812; to Ambrose Madden, of Derryhoran, obit. 1754, and three of his children, who died in the flower and bloom of their youth,' in 1726 and 1728; a mural slab marking the burial place of the 'Maddens of Lismore,'

The bend here formed was so unpropitious to the navigation, that it was popularly called "The Devil's Elbow;" but the Shannon Commissioners have exorcised the demon and subdued the river.

erected by Fergus Madden for himself and wife, Catherine Madden, alias Donnellan; beneath it is a stone to the memory of Lord John de Burgo, of Lismore, obit. 1746, erected by Maria, his only and beloved daughter;' a mural slab claims the burial place_of Florence Callanan, and his wife, Johanna, alias Shiel, erected 1645; a mural slab to William Daly, of Tully, and his wife Anne Donnelan, otherwise D'Arcy' (no date); mural slab to James Dillon, obit. 1711, erected by his wife, Penelope Dillon, otherwise Horan, for them and their posterity; mural slab to William Yelverton, obit. 1714, and to his wife and son, who died soon after. At its foot is a monument to Miss Louisa O'Keeff, who died in 1825, grand-daughter of George Yelverton, of Bellisle, county Tipperary, and great-grand-daughter of Sir Ulick Burke, Baronet, of Glinsk; mural slab to Nicholas Skerret, obit. 1731; to Jane Skerret, otherwise Fallon, his wife, obit. 1747, to James Skerret, their son, obit. 1755, and to Jane Lynch, his wife, and their posterity; at foot is a raised monument to Mary Skerret, who died in 1832, erected by Julia Skerret, alias Blake; a stone for Hugh Tully, obit. 1753, and his posterity; monuments to Larkans, from 1744 to 1824; mural slab to Teigue Sweeny, and Sarah Horan, his wife, erected 1673; also to Patrick Horan and his posterity, 1818.

"The aisle, in which these memorials are placed, measures about 38 yards in length, by eight in breadth; its serrated walls are beautifully wreathed with ivy; elder trees, thickly fenced with fern and nettle, fill the interior; and through the windows and arches, which at the southern side are nearly perfect, the little plantations of the grave-yard, a sodded fort, the Shannon and its islands in front, and the Munster hills in the distance, presented a scene of lulling repose that was scarcely disturbed by the murmur of the fretted river, the lash of the angler's rod, the rustling of the small birds through the ivy, or the gliding of two inmates of an adjoining friary, who, with peculiar propriety, here read their breviaries and offices amid the tombs.

"In a transept, are monuments to Valentine Bennet, obit. 1768; a mural

slab erected by Hugh Callaghan and Isabella Madden, his wife, in 1673, a monument to Francis Madden, who died in 1743; mural slabs to Sheas, since 1774; old monuments to Horans, of Muckenagh; mural slab to William Cananan, obit. 1721, and to his descendants to 1817; and numerous modern monuments to the Maddens, all of the soil which the descendants of a powerful sept are now permitted to possess. In the chapel of the friars above alluded to is a fine monumental slab to the memory of Peter Blake, of Moorfield, who married Jane, daughter of Richard Eyre, of Eyre Court, he died in 1812; here is another monument to the Reverend James O'Donnell, parish priest of Eyre Court, obit. 1828. The fee of this place is in the Marquess of Clanricarde." Yours, &c.

JOHN D'ALтon.

FEAST OF SAINT PETER.

MR. URBAN, May 10. THE following remarks may not be thought inappropriate to the pages of your next Magazine, before the close of which the Feast of St. Peter will occur, on the 29th of June. It is not my intention to enter into a life of this faithful Apostle, but merely to recount and bring under notice any memorials existing or formerly relating to him in the county of Suffolk.

The emblems usually attributed to St. Peter are one or two keys in his hands, representing the keys of heaven and hell, one being frequently of gold and the other of silver; and I find that the keys were represented in each of the churches of Polstead, Ockold, and Mettfield, and were there destroyed by the fanatical rebels in the years 1633 and 1634. Sometimes he is represented on an inverted cross, and at Allington at that time was the painting of St. Peter crucified with his heels upwards. At Hoxne, Dowsing says, Peter was with his fish; but I

think this must have been St. Simon, as his symbols usually are fishes.

As the Greek and Latin Churches commemorated St. Paul with St. Peter on this day prior to the Reformation, many of the Suffolk churches built earlier than the sixteenth century were

consecrated under the invocation of the Saints Peter and Paul conjointly, as instances whereof I might mention Aldborough, Brandon, Clare, Eye, Felixstow, Hoxne, Kedington, Lavenham, Livermore (Little), Pettistree, Wangford, Ipswich; and several others very probably were dedicated to them both.

It is supposed that, from very early times, more churches existed in this than any other county in the kingdom, for in Domesday we find it stated that there were then 364 churches in Suffolk. We cannot, therefore, wonder at finding many of these dedicated to God by the invocation of St. Peter, as he was always accounted by the Church of Rome as holding the supremacy and pre-eminence (whether justly or no I stay not to dispute). Thus Holton, Levington, Livermore (Great), Linstead, Palgrave, Cransford, Creeting, Elmset, Fakenham, Felsham, Specksall, Stowmarket, Stutton, Sudbury, Theverton, Fressingfield, Friston, Gunton, Henley, Hepworth, Athelington, Bailham, Blaxhall, Brampton, Bruisyard, South Elmham, Redisham, Sibton, Monks' Soham, Coney Weston, Willingham, Dunwich, Worlingham, Ampton, Thorington, Thurston, Ubbeston, Wenhaston, Westleton, Burgh Castle, Carlton-Colville, Charsfield, Claydon, Copdock, and Ereswell, had each a church dedicated to him. Some of these are now down, and others are in a dilapidated and ruinous state, and unless some steps be shortly taken for their rescue, they will experience the fate of Dunwich, although not by being washed away.

Many other examples doubtless could be discovered belonging to St. Peter yet unnoticed in Suffolk, as the Priory of St. Peter and St. Paul at Ipswich, the Guilds of St. Peter at Bury St. Edmund's and in the church of Hoo, the Hospital of St. Peter at Bury, &c. Such, however, is the result of my inquiries. Whether Suffolk, as a maritime county, showed a proportionately greater observation than others to the patron of fishermen, it may not be easy to ascertain, though it is highly probable that such was the

case.

Yours, &c. C. G.

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