the bold, audacious smile of his father, plays about the room. The sorrows of the past are fading away, as the fever-dream of the sick man passes, when the morning air streams into his chamber. I grasp the present with joy and thankfulness-I look forward to the future with hope and confidence. I have planted a young tree where the old elm stood. And I see, in years to come, my children's grandchildren playing beneath its shade. Old Michael sleeps in the chapel-yard of Carricktriss. But I think on his words, and trust, that "while grass grows and water runs," there will always be a "FITZMAURICE OF DANGANMORE." A BARCAROLLE. FOR MUSIC. I. There's a small bit of blue in the morning sky, II. There's a golden fringe on the cold, dark cloud, III. Tho' the bark may roll on the ocean drear, THE RUINS OF TRIM. No part of Ireland will better repay the antiquarian or the photographist a journey, than the ancient frontier town of Trim. Blotting out of the landscape the town itself, nothing can exceed in beauty the magnificent ruins that overlook the gliding waters of the Boyne, and the rich, undulating pastures that spread upon the lap of Nature their carpet of emerald brightness. The two principal ruins now extant are the Yellow Steeple, part of the Abbey of St. Mary, and the Castle of Trim. The only remaining part of the noble Abbey is the east side of the tower, called the Yellow Steeple, with a small portion of its exquisite staircase, and its fine geometrical window. This tower stands 125 feet high. In 1786, three sides of the tower were standing, one-fourth of it having been blown up by Cromwell. Colgan informs us that so early as the year 432, St. Patrick founded this Abbey of Canons Regular, dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, and made his nephew, St. Loman, bishop; afterwards, St. Forcherne, grandson of King Laogar, was baptised by St. Patrick, A.D. 432, and succeeded St. Loman, at his dying request. In A.D. 1108, Connor O'Maglaghlin, assisted by the forces of Ulster, burnt the town of Trim, and about 200 persons, then in the Abbey of St. Mary, perished in the flames. Trim and its Abbeys seem to have been constant victims to desolation and rapine from the earliest period, for we have on record the fact that, from this period down to the year 1362, the town and its Abbey were burnt no less than five times; and it is at this date that antiquarians fix the building of the tower now called the Yellow Steeple. We find in the year 1402, that King Henry IV., at the supplication of the Abbots and Nuns of St. Mary of Trim, took under his protection all pilgrims, whether liege men, or Irish rebels, going on pilgrimage to the Abbey, according to immemorial usage. Good right had the faithful to perform a pilgrimage to this holy place, as we learn from the "Four Masters" that the image of Mary of Trim wrought many miracles. It is said, but cautiously as lawyers state facts under a "to wit," that great miracles were worked "through St. Marye's Image in Ath Truim," viz., "gave his eyes to the blind, his tongue to the dumbe, his legges to the crieple or lame, and the reaching of his hand to one that had it tied into his side." There seems to have been another famous image in Navan, possessed of like power, as appears from the Parliament held at Drogheda, A.D. 1460, before Richard Duke of York, quoted in Hardiman's Note to the Statute of Kilkenny ("Archæol. Tracts," vol. i. p. 25) "Edmond Bishop of Meath, in execution of the command of our most holy father the Pope, at Navan, on a market-day there kept, in solemn procession in said market excommunicated Thomas Bathe, Knt., pretending himself to be Lord of Louth, for contempt in not restoring the goods he had robbed and despoiled; Master John Stackbolle (doctor of each degree) pronouncing openly against the said Thomas, the Psalm of David, Deus Laudem; and moreover declaring, decreeing, and adjudging, that in any town into which the said Thomas should hereafter come in wh there was any church, no baptism or burial should be had, or Mass sung or said, within three days after his residence there; in the which excommunication the said Thomas still remains, continuing in his malicious, inhuman, and diabolical obstinancy against the Church of God; and not yet content nor satisfied of the intents and gratification of his said malice, caused certain of his servants to go to the Abbey of Navan, where the said Master John was, whom out of the Church of our Blessed Lady there they took, violently carrying him thence to Wilkinston, holding him in prison there, where they cut out his tongue, and in their estimation, intention, and purpose, put out his eyes; the which so done, he was again carried to the said Church, and cast there before our said Blessed Lady, by the grace, mediation, and miraculous power of whom he was restored his sight and tongue." According to Ware's "Annals," the famous image of Trim was burnt in the year 1538, in the Abbey of the Canons Regular, and the gifts of the pilgrims taken away; these consisted of vases, jewels, and ornaments of great value. The seals of the Abbot of this Abbey, and of the Abbot of St. Mary's at Durrow, King's County, were found near Mullingar. They are now in the possession of Mr. R. Murray, of that town, and have been assigned by Dr. Petrie to the close of the thirteenth century. Besides the ecclesiastical ruins of Mary's Abbey, over which the Yellow Steeple stands a majestic sentinel, there are the ruins of a Dominican Friary, situate near the gate leading to Athboy. This Friary was founded in honour of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, A.D. 1263, by Geoffrey de Geneville, Lord of Meath. Bishop Burke, who wrote in 1756, says that a few years before that time, the walls of the house and chapel gave evidence of their original magnificence; but that shortly before he wrote, the stones were sold and carried away to other buildings, so that on visiting the place he found scarcely any ruins. Both the site of the Abbey and the Abbey Well are marked on the Ordnance Survey. Trim abounded in churches and abbeys. According to Ussher, "When St. Patrick, A.D. 433, in his holy navigation, came to Ireland, he left St. Loman at the mouth of the Boyne, to take care of his boat forty days and forty nights; and then he, Loman, waited another forty out of obedience to Patrick. Then, according to the order of his master (the Lord being his pilot) he came in his boat against the stream, as far as the ford of Trim, and Loman remained in Trim until Patrick came and built a church with them twenty-two years before the foundation of the Church of Armagh. This ancient church was rebuilt in 1802. An excellent and graphic description of Trim in olden days, is given in a memorial presented in 1584, by Robert Draper, Parson of Trim, to Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England, respecting the foundation of a University in Trim. The rev. gentleman thus presents its attractions :: "Firste, It is scituate in a most fresh and wholesome ayre, xx" myles from Dublin, and xv. from Droghedaghe, an haven towne. The towne itselfe is full of very faire castles and stone houses, builded after the Englishe fashyon, and devyded into five faire streetes, and hathe in it the fairest and most stately castle that her Matte hath in all Ireland, almost decayed. It hath also one greate and large Abbey, nothinge thereof defaced; but the church, and therein, great store of goodly roomes, in meetly good repair, the howse is put to no use, and will (I think) be easily bought of the owner, Edward Cusack, of Lesmollen. The said Edward hath also a fryary in the said town, a very fit place for a colledge, which also may be easily gotten of him. "Further, your suppliant hathe a Friery having stanche and good walls, for an hall, for 4 or five lodgings, a cellar, a kitchen, a place for lectures, with a pleasant backside, conteyning three acres at leaste; all which your said suppliant will freely give to the furtherance of this good worke. Throughe the myddest of the towne runneth the most pure and clere ryver of the Boyne; up this ryver might all provision come from Droghedaghe to Trym, by boate, if the statute to that purpose made in Sir Henry Sydneis' time were executed. Harde by the towne is an excellent good quarry; if they should need any stone, lymestone enough harde at the gate, slates within xi myles, and timber enough within three myles. The country round about verie fruitfull of corne and cattell, yieldinge besides plentifull store of firewood and turfe-a very good and sweet fewell; and if the statute aforesaid for the setting open of weares and fishing-places in the Boyne were executed, the fewell, in greater quantitie for small pryce, might be brought downe by boate. "Lastly (which is a matter of greater ymportance), the towne is in the myddest of the Englishe Pale, and is well and strongly walled about; a thinge that will be a meane to draw lerned men thither, and be a greater safety to the whole company of studentes there; for your honour knoweth that wheresoever the Universitie be founded, the towne must of necessitie have a good wall, elles will no lerned men goe from hence, or any other place thither; neither they of the country send their sonnes to any place that is not defensible, and safe from the invasion of the Irishe. The building of the wall will cost as much as the colledges, which charge will be saved." The Castle of Trim, being "that fairest and most stately castle" mentioned in the above memorial, lies on the east side of the town, and on the south or right bank of the Boyne, and consists of a triangularwalled enclosure, defended by circular flanking towers, and of a large and lofty donjon, or keep, in the centre. The thickness of the walls are from six feet to twelve, and were carried up sixty feet above the level of the ground, their circumference being 486 yards, defended by ten flanking-towers, at nearly equal distances. This Castle was built, in 1173, by Hugh de Lacy, who had obtained from Henry II., for the service of fifty knights, a grant of Meath. This territory, extending from the Shannon to the sea, appears to have had nearly the same bounds as the present diocese of Meath, and to have comprehended the counties of Meath and Westmeath, with parts of the King's County and Longford. De Lacy reserved the greater portion of this vast principality for himself, and seems to have fixed upon Trim as the head of the Lordship. After having furnished his castle with all necessary supplies, he departed for England, leaving it in the custody of Hugh Tyrrell. Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, assembled a large army to destroy this Castle; and Tyrrell, having despatched messengers to Earl Strongbow, beseeching him to come to his assistance, and finding himself too weak to resist the multitudes brought against him, abandoned the Castle, and burned it. The Irish king returned to his own country, and Hugh Tyrrell to the ruined Castle of Trim, to re-edify the same before Hugh de Lacy's return out of England. In 1241, Walter de Lacy, the most eminent of the nobles of Ireland, died. He occupied the Castle of Trim under the orders of Henry III., and on two different occasions defeated the Connaughtmen who laid siege to the Castle. Upon his death, the Castle became the property of his co-heiress Maud, who married for her first husband Peter de Genevre. Upon the death of her first husband, she married Geoffrey de Geneville, or De Joinville, a native of Champagne, of illustrious birth, brother to the famous Jean de Joinville, the companion and historian of St. Louis. This great statesman, who was the confidential friend of Edward I., and who was engaged by him in almost all the great transactions of the time, both at home and abroad, founded the Abbey for Dominicans before noticed, and, in 1273, after his return from the Holy Land, was appointed Lord Justice of Ireland. In his time, according to Hanmer, "the Scots and Redshanks, out of the Highlands, crossed the seas, burned towns and villages, most cruelly killed man, woman, and child, took a great prey, and returned home before the country could make any preparation to pursue them." But, according to the same historian, an ample reparation was made; "for in a while after, to be revenged of them, Ulster and Connaught mustered a great army, under the leading of Richard de Burgh and Sir Eustace le Poer, Knight, made after them, entered the Islands and Highlands of Scotland, slew as many as they could find, burned their cabins and cottages; and such as dwelt in caves and rocks (as the manner is to den out foxes) they fired and smothered to death, covering their entrances into the ground with great and huge stones; and so returned to Ireland." Sir Geoffrey de Geneville died on the 19th of October, 1314, at Trim, in the Abbey he had founded fifty years before, having first resigned his lordship of Meath to his faithful granddaughter and her ambitious husband, Roger de Mortimer, who, according to Froissart, had great possessions in England. From Hanmer, he would appear to have been neither a rich nor honest man; for that historian says that, in 1317, Mortimer went over to England to the king indebted to the citizens of Dublin for his viands a thousand pounds, whereof he paid not one smulkin (Queen Elizabeth's brass farthings were called smulkins); and many a bitter curse he carried with him to the sea. This Roger Mortimer was afterwards condemned as a traitor, and was hanged on the common gallows at Tyburn, November 29th, 1330; but in consequence of his not having been heard in his defence, Roger, his grandson, obtained, in 1354, an Act of Parliament to reverse the forfeiture. 1337, Edward III. restored the Liberty of Trim to Joan, widow of Roger Mortimer, and in 1368, all the castles, &c., belonging to Roger late Earl of March, were delivered to his son Edmund Earl of March, by order of the king. In On the 26th June, 1399, Richard II., having come to Ireland to avenge the death of his cousin Roger Earl of March, and having taken with him Henry, son of the Duke of Lancaster, as a hostage, on learning the arrival of the Duke of Lancaster at Ravensburg, sailed from Dublin, leaving in custody in the Castle of Trim the young sons of the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester. This son of the Duke of Lancaster was then but thirteen years old. He became afterwards the victorious King Henry V. The Rev. Richard Butler, Deane of Clon |