In the path along the river side, from Clifford to Killavullan Bridge, pasturage, wood and water are finely arranged in the landscape, and form a luxuriant contrast to a heathy, barren-looking mountain that ascends behind the ruined castle of Carrignaconny (the Rabbit’s Rock) and its surrounding plantation. Carrignaconny was the estate of Sir Richard Nagle, attorney general to James II., and speaker of the House of Commons, whose bigotry has been condemned by all parties, and even reproached by James himself.

The pass of Killavullan is singular and romantic; on the descent to it are some ruins, called Monanimy, reputed to have belonged to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. After crossing the bridge, the road winds round a mass of steep limestone rock, in which are

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natural caverns, used as habitations by the peasantry. One of these was the dwelling of the village smith, the light from whose forge threw a broad and vivid reflection across the road, that lay in the solemnity of deep shadow. The evening closed in so fast as to urge our rapid advance towards Mallow, and the remark before made on the difficulty of obtaining correct information respecting distance, may be illustrated by giving a dialogue verbatim, which occurred on our walk:

How far is it to Mallow?

Och! I don’t know.

Do you live there?

Is it at Mallow? I do.

Do you think it two miles from hence?

Indeed, and two miles would not take you to Mallow.

Is it ten miles?

It is not; it may be four and a bit when you get over the mountain you will be there in less than no time.

Rockforest, Sir James Cotter’s seat, and Carrig, that of the Franks family, on opposite sides of the Blackwater, were passed in twilight; but our “weary way” was cheered by a magnificent sun-set.

Mallow has been called the Bath of Ireland, not from any striking resemblance between the buildings of these towns, but from a similarity in the society - invalid water drinkers, and those who, with moderate incomes and easy dispositions, prefer passing through life in the gaiety of a genteel circle, to exertion or study.

Pleasure is therefore the object pursued by the inhabitants of Mallow, and the morning visit and nightly assembly, to those who are of listless habits and fond of amusement, would doubtless make the place very agreeable. Strangers of respectability require but a slight introduction to receive attention; and the genuine kindness and hospitality shown by the residents to such, must long be remembered with gratitude. The appearance of the town is ancient and

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and irregular; there are some good modern houses in the upper part, but the lower principally consists of mean looking shops, with old fashioned projecting windows over them; the first floor is let as lodgings, which enables the shopkeepers to pay heavier rents than I apprehend the sale of their goods would justify, as the trade of Mallow is necessarily very limited. It has a well built, though a narrow bridge, mentioned as the only one across the Blackwater, in 1666, by Lord Orrery, who recommended the repairs of the castle that commanded it. Under some of its arches are several most unaccountable inscriptions which I can make nothing out of. The walls of a castle still remain in the grounds, and close to the dwelling house of Mr. Jephson, to whom the proprietorship of Mallow has descended from Sir John Jephson.

The district of Mallow was part of the forfeited Desmond property, and bestowed by Elizabeth on Sir John Norris, Lord President of Munster, whose memory has been embalmed by Spencer, in a sonnet addressed to him with a copy of the Fairy Queen.

1. Whose warlike prowess, and manly true courage,
Temper’d with reason, and advisement sage,
Hath fill’d sad Belgia with victorious spoil,
In France and Ireland left a famous gage,
And lately shak’d the Lusitanian soil.

Spenser, To the right noble Lord and most valiaunt Captaine, Sir John Norris knight, Lord president of Mounster.

Sir John Jephson having married the daughter of the lord president, the estate was granted to her heirs by letters patent, in the reign of James I.

Lord Strangford has inscribed his translation of Camoens to the late possessor (his kinsman), for many years the representative of Mallow in parliament; the present member is Mr. Wrixon Beecher, whose recent marriage with Miss O’Neill has deprived the stage of that accomplished and amiable actress.

Mallow was the scene of a smart conflict, in the commotions of

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1. Lament, lament, old abbies
The fairies lost command!
They did but change priests babies,
But some have chang’d your land:
And all your children stol’n from thence
Are now growne Puritanes,
Who live as changelings ever since,
For love of your domains.

Bishop Corbet.The Fairies’ Farewell

Youghall, twenty-four miles east of Cork, is situated at the mouth of the River Blackwater, near a fine open beach of smooth sand, but its harbour has the disadvantage of a bar, which renders the entrance often dangerous, and sometimes impossible.

The town consists of one long street, with smaller streets leading off on each side, and is a fashionable place of resort for sea bathing.

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It would seem persons with limited incomes might live comfortably in Youghall, as I learned that the price of provisions in general is low; a pair of green geese may be bought for ten-pence; a large hake for five-pence; twenty -three pounds of potatoes, termed a weight, for two-pence; mutton five-pence per pound; fowls ten-pence the pair; a Michaelmas goose, a shilling to eighteen-pence; and so on in proportion.

The Inn (or hotel as it is called) was dirty, and ill provided for the reception of travellers; but as there was much to be seen in the place, and we had some letters of introduction, its accommodations were of little comparative consequence to us.

The remains of ancient buildings in Youghall are sufficiently numerous and conspicuous to demand notice, even from the casual visitor; and the result of an inquiry into their history will not prove uninteresting.

The house of the ill fated Sir Walter Raleigh, who was mayor of the town in 1588, is still to be seen nearly in the same state as when inhabited by him; and many objects are pointed out, to which the charm of traditional anecdote is attached.

The town walls, with their towers, continue in some places their original height, although in a very ruinous condition; and now terminate the gardens of a few good houses, that are elevated above the main street, by the natural rise of the ground, and command a charming view, over the town, of the river and harbour. In these gardens the myrtle flourishes with surprizing luxuriance, having, in many instances, attained the growth of twenty feet.

On digging close to the town walls about five or six years ago, four curious pieces of stamped pewter were turned up, which appear to have been used as coins, or promissory counters, but are without any inscription or mark that might determine their history and use. Two of these pieces were of a triangular, and two of a circular shape, the largest of the latter about the size of an old half-crown, the other

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nearly that of a shilling, and the triangular bits seemed to be two quarters of a large circular one. With them was also found a very small base metal coin, of that kind technically named by collectors, black, or maille money. On the obverse it has, in an oval, a full faced head, with a mitre, and the inscription Patricivs; the reverse has the common cross with a single pellet in each quarter, something like those found on most of the coins of our Edwards and Henrys, and some legend, probably the moneyer’s name, which I am unable to decipher. This coin appears to be one of those called Turney’s, a corruption of the word Tournois, from being struck at Tours in France, which circulated generally in Ireland, until forbidden by Edward III., in 1338.

Many monkish remains have been occasionally found at Youghall. I remember seeing amongst others a hollow bronze cross, about seven inches in length, which opened, and was divided into several compartments, or chambers, for the deposition of relics.

The town of Youghall is indebted to the Earls of Desmond for its former distinction, the chief buildings having been erected by them. In 1579 it was besieged by the famous rebel earl, who, without excepting the religious foundations, gave up the place to unrestrained pillage, a sacrilegious proceeding, that, according to Irish historians, drew down on him the signal vengeance of Heaven. Some Spanish soldiers, who were associated with Desmond’s followers in this exploit, strongly reprobated these excesses, and one of the foreigners is said to have so deeply commiserated the sufferers in this scene of wanton havoc, that he divided his cloak amongst five children, who had been stripped of their clothes, and left naked by some of the Irish kearns.

On the news of the capture of Youghall by the rebel party, Lord Ormond sent a small troop from Waterford, under the command of Captain White, to recover it; but, though an entrance was effected at the Water Gate, they were repulsed with the loss of their leader and

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several men, by the Seneschal of Imokilly, who defended the town for his relative the Earl of Desmond - at which temporary success that nobleman was prodigiously elated - but as, in consequence of being plundered, the place was deserted by its inhabitants, only one poor friar remaining within the walls, Fitzgerald the Seneschal was obliged to abandon it for want of provisions, and it was immediately garrisoned with three hundred men by order of Lord Ormond, who invited the fugitive citizens to return, and Sir William Pelham directed Mr. Coppinger the mayor, who had surrendered the town to Desmond, to be hanged at his own door.

Three years afterwards (1582) the Seneschal of Imokilly endeavoured to regain Youghall, but was defeated with the loss of fifty of his followers. In 1645, Lord Cork maintained the town for nearly ten weeks, against a large body of the Irish forces under Lord Castlehaven, and compelled him to raise the siege.

As a matter of course Youghall submitted to Cromwell, who embarked here for England, after his almost incredible progress through Ireland, that, like a resistless torrent, overwhelmed every attempt at opposition.

Two religious houses were built here by the Geraldines about the middle of the thirteenth century, one on the north, the other on the south side of the town, and although only a small fragment of the former now exists, romantic associations are attached to the memory of both. The foundation of the south abbey, according to Sir James Ware, the first Franciscan friary in Ireland, originated in the following circumstance: Maurice Fitzgerald, being about to raise a castle, was requested by the artificers engaged in marking out the site on the eve of some festival, to bestow a piece of money on them and their fellow labourers for the prosperity of the undertaking, which he directed his son to do, but who, instead of obeying the command of his parent, violently abused the workmen. His conduct so much affected the father that he changed his intention, and assuming the

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habit of that order, caused a house for grey friars to be erected, in place of his intended castle. The other abbey was founded by Thomas Fitzgerald, commonly called the Ape, a name bestowed on him in consequence of the tradition that a tame baboon or ape, at his father’s castle in Tralee, had snatched him from his cradle, and ascending the highest part of the walls, carried the infant about in his arms for a considerable time, to the terror of the spectators, but at last brought the child down safely, and deposited him again with much care in his cradle. The crest and supporters of the Duke of Leinster, who claims descent from Thomas the ape, are monkies, in remembrance, as the heralds state, of this event.

The college of Youghall, now the property of the Duke of Devonshire, is a tolerably perfect remain, and one that merits attention, were it merely from its history, which gives us a striking picture of the times. It was founded in 1464, by Thomas Earl of Desmond, for a warden, eight fellows, and as many choristers, endowed with several livings, and a landed estate of 600l. per annum. It continued to increase in revenue and patronage, and had the good fortune to escape the general plunder at the reformation; - Dr. Witherhead, who held the wardenship in commendam with his bishopric of Waterford, preserved it for some years; but the next warden, Nathaniel Baxter, was served with an order from Queen Elizabeth to resign, within forty days, to Thomas Southwell, Esq. of Norfolk, and Mr. Fitz Harris of Ballycremane, who had obtained a grant of it from her, for the purpose of passing away the lands to themselves and their friends, as had been the case with so many other ecclesiastical foundations. Dr. Baxter, seeing the object of this order, which they took little pains to conceal, and supposing it lawful to cheat a robber of his prey, took advantage of the forty days, summoned his fellows, and passing a long lease of the whole college estate to Sir Thomas Norris, Lord President of Munster, obeyed strictly the letter of the royal order, and resigned his wardenship without its revenues to Fitz Harris and Southwell. In a rage, they

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refused to accept of it, and both Baxter and Sir Thomas Norris died before the affair was settled. Upon this the fellows elected Dr. Hanmer, who, three years after, renewed Norris’s lease to Jones, in trust for Sir Walter Raleigh, reserving only to themselves the parsonage of Carrigoline, and the impropriated rectory of Mallow. Such, however, was the facility with which the church was then deprived of its possessions, that another rapacious courtier, Sir George Carew, “nil actum reputans dum quid superesset agendum,” posted over to London the very next year, and obained a patent for the whole ecclesiastical property of the college, from James I.; a sweeping grant, including the advowson of Youghall, which the warden had kept for his own maintenance, and the two reserved livings.

Sir Richard Boyle, afterwards Earl of Cork, one of the most sagacious men of his day, lived all this time quietly at Youghall, no inattentive observer of the scene passing before him, and when the claimants on all these different and discordant grounds began to be tired of their disputes and unable to settle them, he stepped calmly in and bought up all their titles for a trifle; then getting Hanmer to resign the wardenship in favour of his relative Dr. Richard Boyle, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross, obtained a grant in fee-farm for ever of all the property temporal and spiritual, to himself and his heirs, including the warden’s house and garden, and the site of the college itself.

The Earl did not enjoy this property without a struggle with Lord Stratford’s attorney-general, Sir William Ryves, who obliged him to give up the living and three hundred acres of land; but he eventually succeeded (in 1640) in obtaining a fresh patent from the crown, for full possession of the college and all its revenues.

The tithes of Youghall parish, which amount at present to 500l., and three hundred acres of land, much underlet (fine included) at 75l. per annum, are still in possession of the warden. The college and warden’s house, both large and handsome buildings, have been

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long since alienated by Lord Cork’s family; but three smaller tenements (settled no doubt in lieu of them) go with the wardenship, which office, now in the gift of the crown, has been, ever since Lord Strafford’s time, united, as part of its possessions, with the see of Cloyne; but the only remaining proof of its former large property is its payment to the First Fruits office of 100 marks (sixty-six pounds), while the bishopric itself is only rated at ten guineas.

The noble Gothic window in the ruinous gable end of the present parish church, that stands close to the college, invites examination, and is pointed out as the richest and most perfect specimen of the kind in Ireland. Although the effect of its original graceful proportions is destroyed by the lower part being built up some feet, it is certainly a fine piece of workmanship, and is formed by a double Gothic window, each consisting of two slight munnions surmounted by open circular tracery, and terminating in a trefoil ornament. These windows become one by the outside line of their arches uniting in a common point over the double massive munnion, which is thus the centre, and this diamond shaped space is occupied by a Catherine wheel.

There are some monuments in the interior of the church deserving notice. The south transept was purchased in 1606, by Lord Cork, from the corporation of Youghall, and contains the monument of that

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nobleman, with several effigies and escutcheons painted and tricked out in the manner of James I.’s time. As six pages have been devoted by Dr. Smith in his History of Cork to the account of this monument and its inscriptions, I must refer to that work, particularly as I could obtain only a peep at it through a keyhole, the chapel in which it is being walled off from the church, and the door unlocked only on particular occasions, and by express permission.

1. For as the tombe, is built in sumptuous guise,
So to the same, a closet fayre is wrought,
Where lords may sit in stately solemne wise,
As though it were a fine device of thought,
To beautifie both tombe and every part
Of that fayre worke, that there is made by arte.

Leland

In the same chapel there is an epitaph on Sir Richard Villers, Lord President of Munster, who died in l626, which bears a strong resemblance in style to those written by Ben Jonson.

1. Munster may curse the time that Villers came
To make us worse, by leaving such a name
Of noble parts, as none can imitate,
But those whose hearts are married to the state;
But, if they press to rival him in fame,
Munster may bless the time that Villers came!

In the north transept, part of which I think forms the vestry room, are some curious old monuments - I remarked two recumbent effigies lying on the ground, that were once apparently placed on tombs; the feet of each rested on a lion or some animal, and one, in the robes of an ecclesiastic, held a bird in his hand; at the edge of the other stone was an inscription in Gothic letters, which might be read without difficulty. Near these figures, and forming part of the pavement, is one of

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those ornamented crosses, of which such an endless and whimsical variety are to be found in almost every old abbey and church in Ireland. This, which bears the date (a very singular circumstance) of 1517, in a circle on the shaft of the cross, is accurately copied: along the edge is an inscription, but I could only read with ease “Mayor Ville de You
[...]
”

In the nave, half concealed by one of the pews, there is another of these crosses, with a head sculptured in bold relief, and without any inscription, which I sketched as affording an uncommon difference. Tradition names it as the tomb of Roynane, who was Mayor of Youghall in the early part of Elizabeth’s reign.

There is much more to detain a monumental antiquary in this church than I have the means of enumerating, as the difficulty of getting at some tombs and the injured state of others precluded the thoughts of an effort at a complete investigation, without considerably more leisure and facilities than I could command.

The church has side aisles formed by a row of Gothic arches, supported on heavy square columns; and at the east end, close to the transepts, a wall is built across the former chancel. The space between the present interior and the ancient splendid window is used as a burial-place, and filled with rubbish and broken grave-stones, amid which the rank nettle shoots up, and the briar, in entangling embrace, flings its long arms around fallen architectural decorations. Here too are some costly monuments, particularly a sepulchral niche

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in the north wall, carved and richly adorned with trefoil compartments; and over it is the inscription,
“Hic Jacet
Thomas Fleming”;

It would be unpardonable to omit noticing the house of Sir Walter Raleigh adjoining the churchyard, and at present the residence of Sir Christopher Musgrave. It is long and low, the exterior plain and heavy, resembling the common English manor-house of his time. In the interior, those rooms which we saw were completely lined with small oaken pannels, and had large wooden chimney pieces, embellished with very beautiful carved work; nor should it be forgotten that potatoes were first introduced into Ireland by Raleigh, who, it is reported, brought them from Virginia, and planted them in his own garden at Youghall. However his military exploits deserve execration in the history of Ireland, the benefit conferred on the country by the introduction of this nutritive and prolific root, which at present constitutes almost the entire food of its peasantry, ought to redeem his memory and consecrate his name. A wellknown and not improbable anecdote is related respecting the person to whom the care of the first crop was entrusted: supposing that the apples, as they are called, which grow on the stalks, were the part to be used, he tasted them, but finding the flavour insipid and rather nauseous, threw them away; nor was it until he dug the ground to root out this apparently worthless plant that its value was discovered.

Amongst the distinguished names connected with the history of Youghall, the most eminent is that of Richard Boyle, or, as he is commonly styled, the great Earl of Cork, who landed in Ireland a needy and speculative adventurer, and in a short time acquired honours, titles, and wealth; by what means, affords a fair subject for inquiry,

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and one which most writers have been willing to record on his own assertion, as Lord Cork has left a memoir of his success in life, written by himself, in a tone of humility that ill accords with his known arrogant and haughty demeanour, when he had no purpose to serve by a contrary behaviour.

Richard Boyle had been brought up to the law; but perceiving “that his employment would not raise a fortune,” he set out for Ireland as the scene of revolutionary confusion, and landed at Dublin the 23d of June, 1583, all his wealth then being “27l. 3s. in money, and two tokens which his mother had given him, viz. a diamond ring and a bracelet of gold, worth about 101.; a taffety doublet cut with and upon taffety; a pair of black velvet breeches laced; a new Milan fustian suit laced and cut upon taffety; two cloaks and competent linen, and necessaries, with his rapier and dagger.”

If the 500l. a year, obtained by marriage, be excepted, how Lord Cork acquired in a few years estates sufficient to awaken the attention of the principal officers of the Irish government, does not appear; but a representation of the number of castles and abbeys of which he had possessed himself with such limited means, was made to Queen Elizabeth, by Sir Henry Wallop, treasurer at war; Sir Robert Gardiner, chief justice of the King’s Bench; Sir Robert Dillon, chief justice of the Common Pleas; and Sir Richard Bingham, chief commissioner of Connaught. Nor is it likely that these men would unite to ruin an industrious individual without sufficient cause; and it does not seem improbable that Mr. Boyle was secretly supplied with money from Spain, and employed as an agent by that government, about this time meditating the invasion of the country, to secure the principal places of strength in the south of Ireland. Be the matter as it may, Mr. Boyle immediately fled into England, where he was arrested, and confined for a short time a close prisoner; but having rendered some services to the Earl of Essex, then Lord Lieutenant of

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Ireland, he was liberated through his influence with Elizabeth, and appointed to the office of clerk of the council of Munster, by a political arrangement resigned for the purpose, the 31st March, 1600, by Ludovic Briskett, an English author of some celebrity, and the successor of the poet Spencer in that situation.

As clerk of the council he accompanied the Lord President of Munster in his various efforts to reduce the province to submission, and was sent over to London by the Lord Deputy Mountjoy, who assisted the President at the siege of Kinsale, with the news of the victory obtained at that place over the Irish, under the Earl of Tyrone, and the invading Spaniards, on the 24th December, 1601, “in which employment,” says Lord Cork, “I made a speedy expedition to the court, for I left my lord president at Shandon Castle near Cork on Monday morning, about two of the clock, and the next day, being Tuesday, I delivered my pacquet, and supped with Sir Robert Cecil, being then principal secretary, at his house in the Strand, who after supper held me in discourse, till two of the clock in the morning, and by seven that morning, called upon me to attend him to the court, when he presented me to her Majesty in her bed-chamber,” &c. This very passage, in Lord Cork’s account of his fortunes, is sufficient to throw a doubt upon the other statements made by him, as the performance of a journey from Cork to London, in the space of time mentioned (thirty-four hours), must then have been a matter of impossibility, since it is now barely practicable, under the most favourable combination of circumstances; yet so miraculous a journey is dwelt upon by most of his biographers with unhesitating admiration. Mr. Budgell, in his Lives of the Boyles, adds, indeed, as a comment on this extraordinary piece of travelling, that he “should have made some difficulty of believing the fact, if he had not seen it in his (Lord Cork’s) own memoirs, which are evidently wrote without the least affectation, and with a great regard to truth.”

Having kissed the Queen’s hand, Mr. Boyle returned to Ireland,

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where he purchased from Sir Walter Raleigh the forfeited estates of Lord Desmond, granted to him by the crown; Sir Walter, then anxious to dispose of these barren tracts, with his ambitious mind fixed upon his American expedition, sold them to Mr. Boyle for the trifling sum of 1500l., which purchase, as it is called, was concluded on the 7th December, 1602. The transaction, however, seems to have something mysterious about it, as Lord Cork continued afterwards, from time to time, to supply Raleigh with various sums of money, without any apparent return; and it is obvious from Lord Cork’s general conduct, that he read character and understood the value of money too well, to bestow it, without an object, on a daring and unprincipled adventurer like Raleigh.

These estates, which Lord Cork lost no time in getting confirmed to him by the crown, included the manors of Ballynatra, Strancallie, Lysfinneen, Mogeyley, Sheane, Lismore; the new college of the Virgin Mary at Youghall, the Commendatorship of Lismore, the Abbey of Molana, and the town of Tallow, containing above 12,000 acres, in the counties of Cork and Waterford. Such indeed appears to have been the general fear of Lord Cork’s grasping abilities, that a by-law was actually made by the corporation of Cork, forbidding any transaction with him in the disposal or exchange of lands, fearing that he should outwit them in the dealing.

An extract from the letter of a contemporary, Sir Christopher Wandesford, lord chief justice of Ireland, addressed to the Earl of Cumberland on the subject of his daughter the Lady Elizabeth Clifford’s marriage with Lord Dungarvon, afterwards Lord Burlington, and eldest son of Lord Cork, supports the opinion I am inclined from various evidences to entertain of “the great earl.”

“I pass by the remoteness of the place, cutting off a great part of that comfort indulgent parents promise to themselves, by frequent enjoying and visiting their children and grandchildren. But that a branch sprung from honorable and famous ancestors should be

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grafted into a newly planted and barely rooted stocke of honor, that a considerable part of ancyent possessions acquired and preserved by noble atchevements, shold be suffred to devolve and be mingled with a hastily gotten and suspitiously kept fortune, I confess, in my judgment, requires very good conditionns to followe after, such as might probabely render a more comfortable life for the future to your swete daughter here then in another place. But, my lord, the comforts and blessings of marradg are not so plentifully sowen upon this land that wee may promiss she shall assuredly gather them, for it passeth under observation here, that from thoss nine daughters of his now living and bestowed in marradg, the comforte and fatherhoode that old age promiss to themselves from their children, is not reaped by him, and how much the quiet and composed condition of your daughter’s swete and gentile affectionns may be perturbed and disordered by a harsh and incivill conversation, or what disanimation and distemper the discovery and prosecution of my Lord of Corke, by the quicke and impartiall sight of my Lord Deputy, may bring with it, I most humbly submit to your lordship’s more serious consy deration; for if the day of retribution never come when the rest of his estate shal be questioned, yet it is not to be doubted that there will be a tyme given for the complaints of the church: for I am very confydent, since the suppression of abbeys, no one man in either kingdome hath so violently, so frequently layde prophane hands, hands of power, upon the church and her possessions, (even almost to demolition where he hath come) as this bold Earle of Corke. Of that 6000l. per annum estated nowe upon his sonn, I take full a third part to be spiritual deduction. Lismore, his principall house and seate, with lands worth near 2000l. per annum, the possessions of the bishop of Lismore, reserving a free rent of 20l. per annum for the bishop, torne from that sea by the poure of Sir Walter Rawley. Yughall (nowe to be the jointure-house of your swete daughter), a colledge consisting of a warden and eight personnes, all presentative and endowed, in value 800l. per annum, depopulated

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by himselfe (the incumbent warden yet living) and turned into a laye possession. And the better to support thess dignityes of the church, he hath, in commendam, nere one hundred spiritual livings, some impropriations, divers vicaridges, which he supplyeth by small stipendaryes.”

Lord Cork naturally dreaded the investigation of titles to the Church lands by Lord Strafford, and we find him the avowed enemy of that unfortunate nobleman, many of whose actions seem to have arisen purely from motives of justice. Lord Cork in his own writing says, that he was prejudiced no less than 40,000l. in his personal estates, and in his inheritance 2000 marks yearly, by the arbitrary proceedings of Lord Strafford, on whose execution we find the following note in one of his diaries.

“This day the Earl of Strafford was beheaded; no man died more universally hated, or less lamented by the people.” The bitter uncharitableness of this comment on the death of a fallen enemy may perhaps be excused, had not the writer, after Strafford’s attainder, meanly endeavoured to become reconciled to that minister, “fearing the king would still have protected him from the resentment of the commons.”

The exertions of Lord Cork in raising and equipping men at his own expense, during the turbulent period of 1641, for which so much praise has been lavished upon his zeal and loyalty, can be regarded as nothing more than an act of self-defence, and the mere protection of his private property; for it must be remembered every individual at that time was of necessity obliged to appear in arms; and as the possessor of an extensive district, it was impossible to avoid heading his own clan, or body of tenantry, if he wished to retain his estates or influence.

This is placing Lord Cork’s zeal and loyalty in the most favourable point of view; for the eagerness with which he impeached as rebels the Lords Roche, Montgarret, Skerrin, Muskery, Dunboyne, Castleconnell,

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Loughmore, and above eleven hundred persons of consequence, indictments against whom he submitted to the speaker of the English House of Commons, for the opinion of the law officers of the crown, as a security against any legal informality, cannot appear disinterested when we recollect the rapacious hint with which they were accompanied, that should the house direct the proceeding against all these individuals to outlawry, the value of their lands and possessions would be found to amount to more than 200,000l., and that he had been compelled to sell his plate for the support of the king’s service, and had spent, “with a free heart and a liberal hand,” all that he had, and was “able to do no more.”

Sir Richard Cox (in the preface to his second volume of the History of Ireland) bestows a long panegyric upon “the noble Earl of Cork,” whom he describes as one of the most extraordinary persons either that or any other age has produced, with respect to the great and just acquisitions of estate that he made, and the public works he began and finished for the advancement of the English interest and the Protestant religion in Ireland, as churches, alms-houses, free-schools, bridges, castles and towns; viz. Lismore, Tallow, Cloghnakilty, Iniskeen, Castletown and Bandon, which last place cost him 14,000l. insomuch that when Cromwell saw these prodigious improvements, which he little expected to find in Ireland, he declared that if there had been an Earl Cork in every province, it would have been impossible for the Irish to have raised a rebellion.

But it is evident, from what has been said, that the justice with which Lord Cork obtained his vast estates has not been questioned without reason; and it will be seen that these prodigious improvements were the only means by which it was possible for him to render his newly acquired property productive, or give a value to tracts of country literally depopulated, by the desolating measures used for the suppression of Desmond’s rebellion.

Proof may be required of the vaunting tone in which Lord Cork

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constantly spoke of himself. Can a stronger be given than the severe rebuke with which Archbishop Laud concludes a letter addressed by him to this nobleman?

“And whereas your Lordship writes at the latter end of your letters that you bestow a great part of your estates and time in charitable works, I am heartily glad to hear it; but, withal, your Lordship will, I hope, give me leave to deal freely with you; and then I must tell your Lordship, if you have done as you write, you have suffered strangely, for many years together, by the tongues of men, who have often and constantly affirmed that you have not been a very good friend to the church in the point of her maintenance. I hope these reports are not true; but if they be, I cannot call your works charitable, having no better foundation than the livelihood of the church taken away to do them.”

I stand too far removed from the times of Lord Cork to be suspected of any indirect motive in representing his character in an unfavourable light, nor is it now a matter of much importance; but so many points may be adduced to establish a contrary estimation to that we should naturally form of “the illustrious earl” from the statements of his biographers, that it would not be impartial to omit them in glancing at his history; and many reflections of a more severe nature, couched in opprobrious terms, may be produced, which are omitted, as possibly originating in the jealousy often excited by posterity.

Lord Cork is said to have powerfully advanced the English interest in Ireland, and it must be granted, if the severest intolerance has been beneficial to the cause of Union: the bigotry of the Protestants against their Roman Catholic brethren in those towns under his influence reached a degree of marked violence unknown in any other part of the kingdom, and which feeling is not entirely eradicated at the present hour; I need only instance the town of

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Bandon, where, over the principal gate, an inscription once stated that

“Jew, Turk or atheist
may enter here
but not a Papist.” [18]

At Youghall it was forbidden, in 1678, and remains on record, that a Papist should buy or barter any thing in the public market; and the manuscript annals of the town, from which I have been favoured with extracts, afford evidence of the illiberality of its corporation towards those of the Catholic persuasion; nor is it without regret that I add the enactments quoted were made during the mayoralties of ancestors of my own.

In 1696, it was ordered that any person but a Protestant freeman, presuming to go to the mayor’s feast, should pay five shillings, or be set in the stocks.

1702. Several Papists, who had been admitted freemen, were disfranched, and it was ordered that no Papist should be made free again.

1744. Gregory Grimes, victualler, was disfranched, for having a Popish wife.

I am tempted to notice, as curiosities, two other enactments of the same body. In the years 1680 and 1700, a cook and a barber were made freemen, on condition that they should severally dress the mayor’s feasts, and shave the corporation, gratis.

During our stay at Youghall, Miss Nicholson accompanied me in a morning excursion to Ardmore, celebrated for its round tower. We crossed the river Blackwater, here dividing the counties of Cork

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and Waterford, in the public ferry-boat; from shore to shore is nearly an English mile, and it is perhaps the cheapest ferry in the kingdom, the charge for crossing and returning on the same day being only one penny each passenger; yet this brings in a considerable revenue to the corporation of Youghall, to whom the right of passage or ferry-boat was granted by a charter of Elizabeth, dated the 3d July, 1559, at the annual rent of 6s. 8d. We were told that the average number of persons who pass daily may be estimated at more than five hundred; nor does this statement appear exaggerated, though in Ireland you seldom receive correct verbal information respecting space, distance, numbers, time, money or locality, almost every account being at variance.