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correctness be identified with that erected by order of Lord Kingston, to commemorate the death of Captain Alexander Weir, in a skirmish there with the forces of General Sarsfield, as also hereafter mentioned. A detached portion of this parish, called Kilmacroy, the property of the Earl of Zetland, lies beyond Lough Ke; on it are the ruins of a church, and a holy well called "Tobber-Mary," which is still the scene of an annual patron, and much rural, and, happily, now temperate and inoffensive, merriment.

THE PARISH OF ESTERSNOW.

The rectory of this parish is impropriate in Lord Crofton, without patronage, while the vicarage, united with that of Kilcola, forms a benefice to which the Diocesan collates by right. The parishioners compounded for their tithes at £60 16s. Od., which sum, subject to the parliamentary deductions, is payable in moieties to Lord Crofton and the vicar. The latter resides in this parish in a glebe-house, built in 1823, on a grant of £415, British, and a loan of £86, from the late Board of First Fruits; annexed to it are ten acres (plantation measure) of glebe. In the Roman Catholic arrangement the parish forms part of the union of Killuken, as hereafter mentioned. The soil is chiefly used in tillage, but there are several large grazing farms. There are some good quarries of limestone, and a tract of bog to about the proportion of one-fourteenth of the parish. According to the late Ordnance measurement, its superficial contents

are 6,457A. OR. 16P., present measure, of which 296A. OR. 13P., are covered with water. The land was, on the General Valuation, stated to be worth annually £2,788 1s. 8d., on the total, rough and smooth. The townlands, into which the parish is apportioned, are 23 in number, 11 of which (upwards of 3,000A.) belong to Guy Lloyd, Esq., and 8 others (upwards of 2,000A.) to Lord Lorton. The population of this district was, in 1821, returned as 1,539, increased in the Census of 1831 to 1,951, of whom 116 were members of the Established Church, the remainder Roman Catholics. The late Report extends the number of inhabitants to 2,035.

The parochial church, a plain but comfortable building, capable of accommodating 150 persons, is situated in a deep hollow near the southern extremity of the plains of Boyle, of which this parish is considered to be the limit. In the churchyard is a large enclosed burial ground, with a marble slab, to the memory of Mrs. Irwin of Camlin, who died in 1840. There are other memorials to John Irwin, of Camlin, obiit 1791, aged 85; to John Irwin, of Rushell, obiit 1821; to James Lytle, obiit 1819, to members of the family of Thomas Crawford, formerly vicar of Estersnow, &c.

To the west of the church, bounded by hills and plantations, are the Cavetown Loughs, which afford an abundant supply of eels in winter, and of trouts at other seasons of the year. At the head of the largest lake are some remains of Cavetown House,

while the now neglected grounds, by which it is surrounded, still exhibit traces of ornamental architecture, an extensive garden, a massy belfry, and an obelisk, with which it was embellished in the time of a former proprietor, Dean Mahon. On the townland are several caves, from which it derives its name; they are said to extend to a considerable distance, but are only natural fissures in the limestone strata, and now partially closed up.

At Moylurg, within the townland of Clogher, is the handsome seat of Mr. Duke, one of Lord Lorton's tenants, adjoining which are discernible some massy traces of the stone ramparts and rounded angular towers of the ancient castle, once undoubtedly held by some members of the Mac Dermot sept; nature, however, has re-assumed her empire over the works of man, and the weed, and the sod, and the ivy, are thickly matted over the prostrate pile.

Opposite Moylurg, on an elevated bank in the lawn of another private residence, stands a huge stone, perpendicularly set, and popularly called, Clogh-na-stucceen, i. e. "the stone of the little hill," and by some Clogh-cam, "the crooked stone;" it measures about ten feet in height, two and a half in breadth, and one in width, while its depth under ground has not been ascertained. Such stones are very numerous in Ireland; in some places they stand single, while in others they are placed in circles, and otherwise collectively. Their use is, according to different opinions, respectively referred to four

objects to commemorate events, to mark places of interment, to denote stations and sometimes objects of worship, or, like the hoar-stones in England, to fix boundaries of districts; in each construction they are met with in Scripture. Miss Beaufort, in her excellent" Essay on Early Architecture and Antiquities in Ireland," while she makes particular mention of the above pillar-stone, enumerates various others existing throughout Ireland, and adds her authority to the received opinion, that the reverence unduly paid to these pillars induced the carved stone cross, which is found in so many churchyards, and usually near the most ancient churches. "By cutting down the uncouth stone to a slender cross," she writes, "or, where this was not feasible, by carving upon the pillar the figure of the cross, or bas relievos representing some part of Scripture history, those rude obelisks were consecrated. It appears to have been, amongst the early Christian missionaries, a frequent practice to retain, as it were, the popular veneration, but to change the motive, by investing the object of it with a Christian instead of a Pagan character, hence they were resorted to for Christian worship, as they had been for Pagan idolatry; even now the habit is not quite extinct in some remote parts of the kingdom, as in the island of Cape Clear; close to the ruined church, which is built in the oldest style of mason-work, stands a pillar tower, towards the top of which a cross has been cut, and this regenerated stone is held in great veneration. Pillar

stones and crosses are in fact so constantly found in the near neighbourhood of the oldest and most rudely built churches, as to shew the probability that these small early structures were purposely placed in such situations as were previously regarded with superstitious respect, that they might share, or rather win from the Pagan monuments the religious veneration of the people." King enumerates(a) various instances of pillar-stones throughout England, Scotland, and Wales. Even after Christianity became established, many continued (says Borlase, in his history of Cornwall) "to pay their vows, and devote their offerings at the places where these stones were erected, coming thither with lighted torches, and praying for safety and success; and this custom we can trace through the fifth and sixth centuries, even unto the seventh, as appears from the prohibitions of several councils." Martin(b) suggests that there are still some signs of adoration paid to such stones in the Scottish western isles. "In the isle of Barray," he says, "there is a stone about seven feet high, and, when the inhabitants come near it, they take a religious turn round it, according to the ancient Druid custom."

THE PARISH OF KILLUMMOD.

The acreable contents of this parish are set down as 5,159A. 3R. 38P., whereof 301A. OR. 9p. are co

(a) Munimenta Antiqua, vol. i. c. 2.
(b) History of the Western Isles, p. 88.

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