St. Patrick's. DUBLIN (Dubb linn "Blackwater "), like London and Chester, contains two cathedrals; Rome being the only instance abroad of such an arrangement. St. Patrick's is situated on the south side of the Liffey, on ground so low as to be subject to inundations, in the midst of the poorest and most squalid quarter of Dublin. The first church was built here in the 5th century, on the site of St. Patrick's well. In 1190 Archbishop John Comyn founded a collegiate church, which, jointly with Christchurch, Archbishop Henry de London, in 1213, erected into a cathedral. On April 6, 1362, it was burned and suffered greatly owing to the carelessness of John the Sacristan. In 1364 Archbishop Minot commenced its restoration. Dean Keating in 1820 made many repairs; but more are now imperatively demanded. The church is composed of a nave of nine bays with aisles, a choir of five bays with aisles, Early English, a Lady Chapel with an antechapel of two bays, and a transept,—the north wing forming the parish church of St. Nicholas-Without, rebuilt by Archbishop Magee; the south wing, Early English, was St. Paul's Chapel, and once formed the chapter-house with sacristies to the east; the triforium and clerestory are original; the flying buttresses were built in the 16th century. On the south side of the nave is the consistory court. In the south-east angle of the south aisle are some fragments of stone vaulting. On the north-west is the tower, built by Archbishop Minot, 1370, who compelled all the vagabonds of Dublin to assist. It is of blue limestone, of four stories, with square projecting flat turrets at the angles; in the upper story is a Perpendicular belfry-window under a battlemented parapet. There are eight bells. The spire of granite was added in 1750 through the benefaction of Bishop Stearne. It is a great ornament to the city. In the lofty nave the aisles are separated by octagonal pillars 10 ft. high and 5 ft. in diameter. The west window, Perpendicular, was added by Dean Dawson. The roof is of wood, open to the timbers, restored 1816; the passages only of the triforium remain. Lord Strafford, the famous lord-deputy, cut down all Shillela wood, because the O'Beirnes could not prove their title to its possession, and gave some of the timber to roof St. Patrick's. The floor is 3 ft. above the original level. On the north side the clerestory is of two-light windows, Decorated, of the 14th century, under a battlemented parapet; the aisle presents a blank wall; at the east end is a good, Decorated window. The south transept has a triplet on the south and two lights set in a steep gable; it has an eastern aisle; the clerestory has a lancet and three Pointed arches under a round arch. The choir extends across the transept; the roof is of stucco. The clerestory is composed of triplets above a good triforium, large and simple; the piers are octangular, tall, and graceful, with foliaged capitals of the 13th century. At the east end are two tiers of five lancets. Bold flying buttresses panelled and terminating in spirelets project on the exterior. Within, on the south side, there are three sedilia with a piscina, the shafts being of Turbet marble, the capitals of Caen stone; and on the north is an altar-tomb used once as the Easter sepulchre. The stalls, throne, and pulpit are of oak; the western stalls being allotted to the knights of St. Patrick, whose banners and helmets are suspended above. The organ stands on the basement of the ancient rood-screen, the staircase of which still remains; the instrument was built by the elder Harris at Rotterdam, 1697, for a church at Vigo; but fortunately the Duke of Ormond captured the ship which carried it during the siege of the place in 1702, and presented it to St. Patrick's. It was rebuilt by Byfield. On Sunday afternoons, when the choral service is sung with an exquisite taste and power which has rendered its excellence proverbial, and the grey of approaching evening sheds a soft gloom over the sacred walls, the lines of the poetess will come into mind, Never have I dreamed Of aught so beautiful. The happy faces, The banners, and the knights, and then the sun Streaming through the stained windows, even the tombs Which seemed as if they rather came from heaven Than mounted here. The bursting organ's peal "The majestic harmony of effect," says Mrs. Hemans, in a note to these well-known lines on St. Patrick's, "produced by voice, organ, and scientific skill, is not a little deepened by the character of the church itself, which seems all filled and overshadowed by the spirit of chivalrous antiquity." It must be indeed a poor imagination which cannot repress a painful impression in this mutilated building, and in fancy elevate what is unworthy, and disguise what is discordant, whilst there remain such richness of memory, such exquisite beauty, and costliness of workmanship. The choir aisles retain their stone vaulting; at each end is a triplet. The chapter-house, once the Lady Chapel, and formerly, after 1665, used for the religious worship of Huguenot refugees, has an eastern triplet and lancets on the sides. It was almost rebuilt by R. C. Carpenter in 1846-49. The ceiling is covered with plaster; it has a peculiar corbel-table of trefoiled arches. It was built, 1271, by Archbishop Sandford. It was allotted in 1821 to the Knights of St. Patrick. Edward Bruce, in 1315, plundered the Cathedral. In the year 1313, Archbishop Lecke founded a University within its walls. In the reign of Henry VIII. the partisans of Lord Deputy Kildare and the Earl of Ormond undertook to confer amicably in the church, but words grew to blows, and the fabric was injured by the arrows which flew briskly. The mayor, until the Reformation, every Corpus Christi day, walked barefoot to church as a penance. In Dean Swift's time the Musical Society of Dublin held their meetings here. In the reign of Edward VI., 1548 and 1554, the cathedral was made a law court, and Cromwell's Roundheads and James II.'s troopers stabled their horses in the aisles. The choir is cumbered up with the most hideous large pews, arranged in the most unecclesiastical and unsightly manner conceivable, The principal monuments are the following: Choir.-Duke of Schomberg; his skull is kept in the Chapter-house. The grave-stone was laid down by Dean Swift. Near the altar, suspended by a chain, is the cannon ball which killed General St. Ruth at the battle of Aughrim, 1691. Archbishops Jones, 1619, effigy, and Smith, d. 1771, epitaph by Bishop Lowth. Roger Viscount Ranelagh; Richard, first Earl of Cork, d. 1631: this huge monument Archbishop Laud removed from its monstrous position behind the altar, and so provoked the fatal revenge of the family. Nave, S. Side.-Dean Swift, d. Oct. 19, 1745; Hester Johnstone (Stella), d. Jan. 27, 1728. Nave, N. Side.-Earl of Cavan, d. 1778; Archbishop Treguny, d. 1471, effigy; Bishop Meredith, d. 1597. S. Transept.—Archbishop N. Marsh, d. 1713. In the cathedral were buried Archbishops Talbot, 1449, Rokeby, 1521, Inge, 1528, Loftus, 1605, and Cradock, 1772; and Primate Boyle, 1702. While only one sepulchral brass is known to exist in Scotland, and that is at Glasgow, the only two specimens on record in Ireland are in this church. The floor tiles are Flemish, and resemble those at Bebenhausen in Suabia, and some pavements in Normandy. DIMENSIONS OF THE CATHEDRAL IN FEET. There are four minor canons, thirteen vicars-choral, and six choristers; and choral services at 3 P.M. on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Among the prelates occur St. Rumbold, the first bishop of Mechlin, martyred there 775; De Bickner and Minot, Lord Treasurers; and Wikefold, Waldby, Crawley, and Inge, Lord Chancellors of Ireland; Fitz-Somers, Lord Deputy, Viscount Bulkeley, and Charles Earl of Normanton. Arms: same as Armagh. Elphin. ELPHIN, "the stone of the clear fountain," from the legend of the fall of a meteoric stone, 675, possessed the barn-like parish church of St. Mary, 80 ft. by 28 ft., with an old square tower, narrow, tall, ragged, and plastered; but being situated on the brow of a hill and in the centre of only miserable cabins it can be seen miles distant rising over the trees. It contains some old tombs and has round-headed windows. Arms: Sa. two pastoral staffs addorsed in saltier or, in base a lamb couchant arg. Emly. THE parish church of this inconsiderable village is the Cathedral, built 1827. There are a few ruins and a large churchyard cross. Among the bishops occur Mackinede and Confelad, Kings of Cashel. Dr. Hales, the chronologist, was chancellor of the cathedral. Ferns. On the side of a hill covered with the ruins of a castle, and to the north-west of the rivulet Bauna, amid some poor thatched cabins, a mean building, built 1816, and dedicated to St. Edan, serves as the parish church. It contains the Early English effigy in marble of St. Edan, the founder (who died 632), under a niche. Near it are the remains of the abbey, of which two sides of a cloister and a narrow chapel lighted with lancets, an oblong square tower of red sandstone, a broken font and stone cross are only preserved. The castle was built by the |