annually observed as the patronday, when great numbers from the most diftant parts of Ireland, affemble here in pilgrimage." "INISMURRAY, "An island in the great western ocean, and about five miles from the main land of the barony of Carbury. In the early ages there was an abbey here, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and governed by St. Dicholla, the fon of Meinida, who died A. D. 747 "This ifland was deftroyed by foreigners, but we are not informed at what period. "807. The Danes or Gentiles, as called by our annalifs, made good a landing in this year, and, with their accustomed barbarity, fet fire to this very poor abbey. "Our monaftic annals clofe here; but from a gentleman who vifited Inifmurray in the fummer of 1779, we are enabled to give the following defcription : "This island is a rock rifing from the fea, with horrid precipices towards the ocean, but ficlving gently like steps on the fide oppofite the land; it contains about one hundred and thirty acres of a fhallow foil, from four to five inches in depth, which ferves to feed fome fheep, a few cows, and five or fix hories, the remainder of the island is a mere rock the habitable part contains about forty or fifty people, children included, who live in five houfes, with as many barns adjoining them; they intermarry amongst each other, and when the land is overitecked with inhabitants, they feck their fortunes on the great ifland of Ireland; they are one community, and live by fifhing and felling the r fifh on the main; they fpeak Irifh only, one man bowed beneath the weight of years excepted; and boaft their having had this ifland in poffeffion upwards of feven hundred years. "What is called the abbey, is an enclosure of dry ftones, from five to seven and eight feet thick; it is impoffible to determine whether it is round or oval; more rude inelegant workmanship was never feen. There are a few cells under ground, which receive their light, fome through a hole at the top, others through a loop hole in the fide; they are dark and horrible dungeons. There are also two chapels built with mortar, and quite in a grofs ftate, as is St. Molaffe's cell, which has a ftone roof, and where the ftatue of the faint is preferv. ed. One of the chapels, itanding by itself, has an extraordinary window, the arch of which is one rough crooked flone, juft in its original fhape. Here is an altar, called the curfing altar, which is covered with round ftones, and north-weft of this, stands the altar of the Trinity. "The neighbouring inhabitants fay, that if a man, who is really wronged, turns one of thefe ftones, and at the fame time curfes his adverfary, the wifh, whatsoever it is, will fall upon him if guilty, but if otherwife, the curfe recoils upon the perfon who denounces it; this keeps them in fuch awe, as to prevent rath imprecations. There are feveral small enclosures with a ftone in the centre, and fome springs, each of them confecrated to a particular faint. "A ftatue of their patron, faint Mulaffe, very rudely carved in wood, and painted of a reddish colour, is ftill preferved here; the abbey was erected conjointly by this faint and St. Columb, but the latter latter being of an impetuous and fiery difpofition could not accord with the mildnefs of Molaffe, and betook him.elf to the main land, leaving the other in peaceable poffeffion." "MONAINCHA. "The monastery of Monaincha, fituated almost in the centre of the great bog of Monela, in the barony of Ikerrin and about three miles fouth-caft of Rofcrea, was originally an abbey of Culdean monks, under the invocation of St. CoJumba, whofe festival was formerly celebrated there, on the 1th of June; the fituation chofen by the e religious was very fingular: the island whereon the monatlery is built consists of about two acres of dry ground; all the furrounding parts being a foft morafs, fcarcely acceffible by human feet, and yet on this ifle ftand the remains of a beautiful edifice; not large, but conftructed in fo fine a ftyle, and with fuch materials, as excites our wonder how they could have been tranfported thither. The length of the church is forty-four feet, the width about eighteen; the arches of the choir and the western portal are femicircular, and adorned with a variety of curious mouldings; the windows were contralled arches, fuch as appear over the weft entrance to the church of St. Edmondbury, Suffolk, but they are decaying, and fome have fallen down. "The antiquity of this monaf tery is indifputable; for it is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrenfis, who came into Ireland in 1185, as preceptor and fecretary to king John, then earl of Morton; he fays this island borders upon North Muniter and the confines of Lein fter, and that there a few Culdees, or Colidei, did devoutly ferve God. To the east of the abbey church is a fmall oratory, but no veftige of monaftic dwellings can be found on this ifle, fave only the abbey and the abbot's room adjoining it, which was over the cellars, and but fmall; whatever others might have been were probably tormed of wood, and in the lapfe of many centuries have ceafed to exift. Superftition eftablished an opinion, fo early as the age of Giraldus, that no per fon could die in this ifle, let his malady be ever fo extreme, or his fate ever fo urgent: the merits of the patron faint and thofe of his religious, fecured this privilege to an ifle fo favoured, and hence it acquired the appellation of Infula Viventium, or, the Ifland of the Living. This legendary celebrity brought, from the remoteft parts innumerable pilgrims, to expiate their fins at the altar of St. Columba, and a gainful trade was carried on for more than ten centuries; which enabled the monks to im. prove their abbey, and add fuch decorations as the fashion and taste of the day required: for we are not to fuppofe, that the prefent church is the fame as the original which was erected in the seventh century; that was probably of wood, in which ftate it continued till the invafion of the Oftmen, when a new ftyle of architecture commenced, and Monaincha was conftructed of more durable materials. "However, the falubrity and fupernatural power of the ifle was not to great as to prevent the emigration of its religious inhabitants to the main land: they found the noxious vapours of the furrounding marfhes and fwamps highly injurious to their conftitutions, and they, they, as Ware informs us, fixed their refidence at Corbally; where is at this day, in good prefervation, a fmall neat chapel, of a cuciform fhape, with narrow flits for win dows, and many other particulars indicating a respectable antiquity." " GLENDALOGH. "THE ruins of this abbey (being the first which a traveller perceives) are fituated in the bottom of the vale, and contist of two buildings parallel to each other (the larger one on the fouth being the church;) on the east end of the abbey is an arch, of extremely curious workmanship; the columns on the fides recede one behind another, and are very short, but do not diminish; the capitals are ornamented in a fingular manner, moft of them with human heads at the angle, and dragons or other fabulous animals at the fides; the heads have much the appearance of thofe in Egyptian fculpture, with large ears, long eyes, and the trefies of the hair ftrait; the ring ftones of the arch are indented triangularly, in imitation of the Saxon architecture, and in fome parts human heads and other ornaments are within the triangular mouldings. On the removal of fome heaps of rubbish from under the ruins of this arch, a few ftones beutifully carved were found, m ny of them belonging to the arches, and fome to the architrave of the window; the architrave s twelve inches broad, and a pannel i funk, ornamented lozenge wife, an an ovelo forms the lozenge, with a bead running on each fide; the centre of the lozenge is decorated on one fide, in bafs relief, with a knot delicately carved; the other w tha flower in the centre, and mouldings correfponding to the fhape of the lozenge. The half lozenge at the bottom of the pilafter, in one s filled with a bas relief of a human head, with a bird on each fide pecking at the eye, and the other by a dragon, twisting its head round, and the tail turned up between its legs into the mouth. Here is another stone, apparently the capital of a column; two fides of it are vifible, both are ornamented with a patera, but each fide in a different manner; one contists of a flower of fixteen large leaves and fif. teen fmaller ones, relieved the eighth of an inch, and the other of fix leaves branching from the centre, with another leaf extend. ing between their points. "In defcribing the other ruins of this defolated city, (which appears to have been built in an elcgant ftyle of Greci n architecture) we in fome measure outstep the bounds original y preferibed, in which monattic dwellings were alone inc uded; but their contiguity to the abby, which we have just now quitted, induces us to proceed to the next erection called the able, and for which it will be celebrated, even when the vettiges now remaining are no more. "The entrance to the area, onwhich these churches ftand, is on the north-eaft fide, through the ruins of a gateway, fixteen feet fix inches in length, by fixteen feet in width; the arches, which are still entire, are nine feet feven inches wide, and ten feet high, and the ring-stones, of mountain granite, are the full depth of the wall; the outfide arch is compofed of twentyfour ftones, and the infide one of twenty-seven, which are two feet fix inches in depth. "The CATHEDRAL CHURCH ranks as the first, and owes its origin to St. Keivin, by whom it was dedicated to the patron faints of the abbey. It measures forty-eight feet in length and thirty in width; on the fouth fide were three finall windows, and at the east end was an arch feventeen feet fix inches wide, behind which was another building thirty-feven feet fix inches in length, by twenty-three feet in width, with a beautiful window at the east end, on the north are two fmall ones, and one on the fouth, with a door three feet eight inches wide, communicating to a fmall building of fixteen feet by ten, the door of the church is feven feet four inches high, three feet fix inches wide at top, and three feet ten at bottom; the jambs are composed of four courfes and a lintel at top, over which is a difcharging arch; the tones are the entire depth of the walls, with a reveal cut at the infide for the door, which appears to have turned on pivots; holes are cut for bars across, and iron cramps and bolts appear in fome places; feveral courtes of this building are of hewn stone, as well as a kind of pilatters, which project from the ends of the wall to the front and rear, and measure two feet fix inch s in width; the wall of the building to the eat, within thefe, is detached, and has the appearance of a more modern ftyle. "Under a fmall window, at the fouth fide of the choir, is a tomb of freestone, ornamented, and in the cemetery stands a round tower, one hundred and ten feet high, uncommonly well built, and in fine prefervation, the roof alone having fuffered by time; at the bottom it measures fifty-two feet in girth, and the walls are four feet thick. The remains of several croffes may ftill be feen amongst those ruins, and that fituated in the cemetery of this church, particularly merits notice, being one entire ftone, eleven feet in height. "ST. KEIVIN'S KITCHEN (its vulgar appellation) was undoubtedly one of the Seven Churches, and is now almost entire, having fuffered alone in the ruin of a window, the only one in the church, this was placed about eight feet from the fouth-east angle, and was ornamented with an architrave elegantly wrought, but being of freetione, it was conveyed away by the neighbouring inhabitants, and brayed to powder for domeftic use. The area of this church measures twenty-two feet nine inches by fifteen, in height it is twenty feet, and the walls are three feet, fix in thickness; at the caft end is an arch five teet three inches in width, which communicates to another building ten feet fix in length, by nine feet three in width; on the north fide of which is a door two feet two inches wide, which communicates with another chapel of the fame length, and feven feet nine inches in width; each of these buildings buildings has a fmall window in the centre to the east, the walls are three feet thick, and both meafure twelve feet in height. The foundation, with two or three courfes of the building is laid of cut mountain grit; the door is fix feet eight inches high, two feet four inches wide at top, and two feet eight inches at bottom, most of the stones run through the entire thickness of the wall; the lintel is five feet eight inches in length, by eleven inches and an half in depth, and a rude cornice, projecting about five inches, and measuring four feet ten inches long, by fix inches in depth, is worked out of the fame ftone. A round belfry rifes from the weftend of the church, the entrance to it is through a fquare hole in the cove of the church, over which, between the cove and the roof, is a large space, open to the belfry, that received its light from a small window. The height of this tower is about forty-five feet; the roof, both of the church and tower, is compofed of thin ftones, very neatly laid, and with a very high pitch; the ridge of the roof is about thirty feet above the ground, and the double building, at the rear, is only twenty feet; having afcended the roof of this building, we difcover a groove cut in the east-end of the larger building, which fhews that this was not the original tower, but much higher and narrower than the former; indeed the walls of the double building are feperated from thofe of the large, and though undoubtedly very ancient, yet the inferiority of the materials and workmanship, evidently fhew that this work was pofteriour to the former, and erected by much leis fkilful builders. "OUR LADY'S CHURCH, the moft westward of the feven, and nearly oppolite to the cathedral ; is now almost in ruins, but from the door way, and the few remains of walls, it appears to have been built with more knowledge of the art than the other buildings. The door confifts of only three courses; the lintel is five feet fix inches in length, and fourteen inches and an half in depth; the door is fix feet four in height, two feet fix in width at top, and two feet ten at bottom; a kind of architrave is worked a round the door fix inches broad, and in the bottom of the lintel an ornament is wrought in a crois refembling the flyer of a stampingprefs. The walls are carried up with hewn ftone, in general of a large fize, to about the height of the door, and the remainder are of the rude mountain rag-ftone, but laid incomparably well. At the eat end was an arch of hewn stone exactly fimilar to that of the cathedral. "THE RHEFEART, literally the fepulchre of kings, is famous for having feven princes interred within its limits; in this church is the tomb of M'Mthuil, or O'Toole, the ancient chieftain of the country, with the following infeription, in the Irish character :— "JESUS CHRIST "MILE DEACH FEUCH CORP RE MAC MTHUIL. "See here the refting-place of the body of king MThuil, who died in Christ 1010. "Many others of this family are faid to have been interred here, where a ftone crefs, elegantly carved, is fill preserved. "PRIORY OF ST. SAVIOUR, COM. monly called the Eaftern Church. Of this building, little can be faid, the foundation only remaining; but about five years fince, a quan |