The

built pile, consisting of a centre and two wings, surrounded by a well-planted park, enclosed with high walls. college has been for many years affiliated with the London University.

CHAPTER XV.

DUBLIN TO BELFAST.

HERE are three railways, managed by three separate companies, between Dublin and Belfast. The first is the Dublin and Drogheda; the second is the Dublin and Belfast Junction; and the third the Belfast and Portadown. Great complaints have been made, particularly by merchants, on account of the inconvenience, delays, and expense, resulting from the management of three independent companies, not always acting harmoniously; and a remedy of some kind has been loudly called for. Certainly it is a very anomalous state of things to exist on the great line of communication between the metropolis and the capital of Ulster, which the most laudable efforts on the part of the officials to lessen the amount of annoyance cannot render tolerable. We have already in our metropolitan excursions described the district through which the Dublin and Drogheda line passes. The terminus is in Amiens Street. It is a large, handsome building, in the Italian style, faced with granite. The railway is carried over the Royal Canal, by a magnificent iron bridge of 140 feet span, and proceeds along an embankment 30 feet high, to Clontarf, from which there are good views of the city and the bay. At four and a half miles from town, we meet the Howth Junction, and at nine miles arrive at Malahide, beyond which the line passes over an estuary, crossed on a wrought-iron lattice viaduct, resting on stone piers, and having twelve spans, eight of which are forty-two feet wide. At Donabate there is an embankment, with a wooden viaduct, 335 feet in length, and 15 feet above high

water.

It

Skerries is a large fishing village, pleasantly situated on the shore, about half a mile from the Skerries station: is a clean, cheerful-looking place, and close to the town there is a harbour which affords good shelter to fishing vessels.

Balbriggan, celebrated for its hosiery, was once a very prosperous place, owing to its cotton factories and its position on the great northern road. Its very handsome church was built in 1813, at a cost of over £3,000. It was accidentally burned in 1833, but it has been rebuilt by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. It has a harbour, protected by a pier or rough mole, projecting into the sea about 600 feet, with a wall and a rampart of great rocks. It was built by the late Baron Hamilton, at a cost of £15,000, contributed partly by the Irish Parliament. Vessels of 200 tons can unload within it. The manufacture of the famed Balbriggan hosiery still flourishes, with an increasing demand. The town is lighted by gas, and is rapidly improving. The population in 1861 was 2,258.

Passing from Balbriggan, we get a view of Gormanstown castle, the seat of Lord Gormanstown, which has been in possession of the family since it was granted to Sir Robert Preston in 1357. It is a fine old baronial residence, distinguished by the antique peculiarity of the long, straight, verdant avenue, between two rows of wide-spreading, ancient trees. From this point to Laytown the railway is continued along the shore, presenting fine views of the coast scenery, including the firm sandy beach, which extends a distance of twelve miles out to Clogher Head. Two miles from Balbriggan we have crossed the stream called the Delvin, which separates the counties of Dublin and Meath. At Laytown, a pleasant little watering-place, we cross the narrow estuary, into which flows the Nanny water, through a lovely valley, adorned by the plantations of Ballygarth, the ancient seat of the Peppers, above which is the hamlet of Julienstown. The line now leaves the coast, running between Piltown and Bettystown, or Betaghstown, and passing near the village of Mornington, from which the father of the Duke of Wellington took his title. We arrive at the town of Drogheda.

DROGHEDA.

This town, for a long time, played an important part in Irish history. It is a Parliamentary borough, situated on the River Boyne, between the counties of Meath and Dublin, four miles from the sea, and 31 miles from the metropolis. It is the county of a town, and has assizes and county officers of its own, including within its boundaries a population of 18,107, of which 367 are in the rural districts. A large cotton factory has been erected here by Benjamin Whitworth, Esq., of Manchester, who represented the town for some years; and at his sole expense he has built a spacious and handsome town-hall, contributing largely also to the new waterworks, by which 800,000 gallons of the purest water will be conveyed to the town daily. Three flaxmills, which cost 50,000, give employment to 1,000 persons. Drogheda is the principal seat of the heavy linen trade, and employs a large number of hand-loom weavers. Besides those employed in the mills, there are several wealthy firms engaged in this branch of the linen trade in the town. The iron-works of Grendon and Co. give employment to upwards of 300 persons, in the manufacture of steam engines, boilers, iron bridges, &c. The town returns one Member to Parliament; constituency, 726. The harbour extends about half a mile below the bridge. Vessels of 400 tons can moor at the quays in sixteen to eighteen feet of water. The tide flows up to Old Bridge, 2 miles above the town, and from that to Navan, nineteen miles. The navigation is carried on by barges of fifty tons. At the entrance to the harbour are three light-houses. The Dublin and Drogheda line was open for traffic in 1844. There is a branch running along the valleys of the Boyne and the Blackwater to Navan and Kells.

It

The ancient name of Drogheda was Treadagh. Little is known, with certainty, of its history in Milesian times. The Danes got possession of it early in the tenth century, and made it one of their greatest strong-holds on the coast. was a very important position with the Normans, and it became the theatre of great transactions between the Pale and the Irish during several centuries. The Parliament of

the Pale was held here repeatedly; and it was at Drogheda that Poyning's Act was passed in 1494, by which the initiative of Irish legislation, and a veto upon all Irish bills were conceded to the English Government. By this measure, the complete dependency of the Irish Parliament was secured; and it was to reverse this policy that the Volunteers contended in 1782. Their triumph on that occasion, and its results, convinced the English Government of the expediency of the Legislative Union.

In 1641, a garrison of about 1,000 men defended this town successfully against a large force under Sir Phelim O'Neill. But the most memorable event connected with its history was its capture by Oliver Cromwell, in 1649.

The walls of Drogheda were about 1 miles in circumference, and the town was entered by ten gates. Its ecclesiastical establishments were numerous, and richly endowed.

The old Abbey, the Grey Friary, the Augustinian Friary, and the Priory of St. John, were amongst its numerous religious foundations.

Drogheda was garrisoned in 1690, by 1,000 men, under Lord Heagh, who held the town for King James, but surrendered it the day after the battle of the Boyne. This battle was fought on the 1st of July in that year, three miles above the town. The army of James amounted to 23,000 men, posted on the southern bank of the river. William led up 36,000 men to oppose him. The result of

the battle is well known. James fled to Dublin, and, having rested there for the night, started at daybreak for Waterford, to which he galloped with the speed of fear, travelling a distance of 100 miles in one day, and immediately rushed on board a vessel in the harbour bound for France. In the hurry and confusion, his hat was blown into the sea, whereupon, to prevent his majesty from getting cold, General O'Farrell presented his own, which the King accepted, observing facetiously, 'that if through the fault of the Irish he had lost a crown, an Irishman had now given him a hat instead.' As to the fault, Lady Tyrconnell administered to the royal poltroon a proper rebuke when he complained in Dublin of the Irish running away from the Boyne. 'Your Majesty excels them in running,' she replied, 'for you

have won the race." In fact he had fled before the battle was decided. An obelisk, 150 feet high, marks the spot where the Duke of Schomberg was killed, and where with his main army, William crossed the river; and the ruins of a small church, near the summit of the opposite heights of Donore, points out the encampment of James's army, where the deposed monarch slept the night before the engagement, and where the final onset was made..

THE COUNTY OF LOUTH..

This county is the smallest in Ireland, 25 miles long and 15 broad, comprising an area of 201,434 acres, of which 178,972 are arable, 5,318 in plantations, 728 in towns, 813 under water, and the rest uncultivated. It is bounded on the north by Armagh and Down, east by the Irish Sea, south by Meath, and west by Meath and Monaghan. On its north coast, Carlingford Bay separates it from Down. The Boyne skirts it on the south. The surface towards the sea, and around its chief town, Dundalk, is level, and the land rich. On the north side it is rugged and mountainous, and the soil light. There is a great deal of good tillage in the county. The farms are well cultivated; the peasantry comfortable and contented; warmly attached to their landlords, who are, with hardly any exceptions, among the very best in the country. One of them, the Right Hon. Chichester P. Fortescue, M.P. for the county, late Chief Secretary for Ireland, was, next to the Prime Minister, the most active, able, and earnest member of the Cabinet, in carrying through the great Land Measure of 1870, by which the interests of the tenant-farmer are secured, and an old rankling, dangerous national wound effectually healed. The county returns two Members to Parliament, the constituency being 2,443. The assizes are held at Dundalk. The lieutenant of the county is the Right Hon. Lord Rathdonnell; the number of magistrates is 57, including 14 deputy-lieutenants.

As we proceed from Drogheda to Dunleer station, we pass Stone House, the seat of Mr. F. A. Cluster; Rokeby Hall, Sir John S. Robertson, Bart.; and Barmeath, Lord Bellew. The next station is Castlebellingham,-the pretty little village of that name through which the Dublin and Belfast coach