is still open across by the County Gaol, and is known as Laun-amatheen. It aims directly at the "Irishtown," which it entered by the same ford and at the same point as Bohur-na-thoundish and Bohur-caoic.

An interesting and legitimate speculation presents itself here respecting the antiquity and origin of those roadways. Besides their historic associations already noticed, they must from early times have formed the mediums of communication between the line of" baillies" or townland villages stationed along their respective courses, and whose remote origin is implied in their peculiarly Irish titles. That the construction of these roads was anterior to the building of the "Hightown Hightown" or English part of Kilkenny, is directly proved by the fact that they aim directly at, converge, and unite to enter the Irishtown, though all the roadways of more modern construction intersect them at sundry angles in order to approach the "Hightown." The old ways ran through our suburbs nearly parallel with the town walls subsequently erected; and if our present city had existence when these roads were being constructed, it certainly would have invited their respective entrances within its walls. But whether the ancient paths approached the "Irishtown" for the purpose of finding a more convenient pass up the valley of the Nore, through "Bearna-Glasana," or whether our present Irishtown was not itself an ancient "baillie," as Holinshed, Stanihurst, Ledwich, and others assert, we shall not inquire here, as the present paper has already exceeded its contemplated bounds. In a future communication, however, I shall submit some interesting topographical evidence touching on this subject, when I propose to inquire whether the locality now known as the Buttsgreen may have constituted the centre of an ancient "baillie " anterior to the erection of "Irishtown" proper, which there can be no doubt is as English in origin as the " Englishtown" itself; and whether the primitive hamlet, if such existed, formed the "BaillieGael-loch" of Ledwich, or the "Cill-Cainnigh" of O'Heerin, may prove an interesting subject of investigation.

THE TAKING OF THE EARL OF ORMONDE, A.D. 1600.

BY THE REV. JAMES GRAVES, A. B., M.R.I.A.

"It was a wonderful newes all over Ireland that the Earl of Ormond should be detained in that manner"—so wrote the "Four Masters," not forty years after the event. We can well imagine what a stir the tidings of the Earl's captivity made in many a walled town, and tall tower, and kern's camping place-how the widening circles spread from startled Kilkenny, where the stout burgers heard in blank amazement from the lips of the Lord President of Munster, and Donogh O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, that they had fled for their lives, and left the feared and powerful head of the Butlers, the favourite of Elizabeth, and commander of her Irish army, in the hands of a petty chieftain of Leinster, powerful, however, in his alliance with Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, the yet unconquered and dangerous leader of the northern Irish.

Essex, after a few ineffectual military promenades, and an injudicious truce with Tyrone, had quitted Ireland in disgust, to rush on his fate in the streets of London. Under pretence of a pilgrimage to Holy Cross Abbey,' Tyrone, who, in December, 1599, had informed the Irish Government of his intention to break the truce in fourteen days' time, left his northern fastnesses in January, 1600, and marched his forces towards Munster. From the heights of Slieve Bloom' he swooped down on the plains of Ely, and wreaked his vengeance on the O'Carrolls, with whom he had a feud. From thence he passed by Ballaghmore and Roscrea to the "gate of the monastery"s of Holy Cross, in Tipperary, where "the holy cross was brought out to shelter and protect him." O'Neill was here threatened by the forces under Ormonde; but no engagement having ensued, he passed on towards Cork; and on his return, after the mutually fatal encounter of Sir Warham St. Leger and Maguire, he left, according to Peter Lombard, some of his forces in Leix, to aid O'More," with whom he was in strict alliance.

Mountjoy, the destined tamer of the northern chieftain, had landed in Ireland with the authority of lord deputy, whilst O'Neill was paying his devotions at Holy Cross. He purposed to have met Tyrone on his return from Munster, but failed from want of accurate information, and in consequence of the speed of the movements of the Irish leader. In the meantime, whilst planning the masterly movement of establishing garrisons in the rear of O'Neill's

1 "Four Masters," vol. vi., p. 2169.

2 But really to confirm his friendship with his allies, and to wreak his vengeance upon his enemies. Id., vol. vi., p. 2147. 3 Cox's " History of Ireland," part i., p. 422.

4 "Four Masters," vol. vi., p. 2147.

5" Four Masters," vol. vi., p. 2149. 6" De Regno Hiberniæ Commentarius." Lovanii, 1632, p. 436.

7 Cox's "History of Ireland," part i.,

p. 423.

Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary," part ii. book i., chap. ii, p. 62.

[From a Picture at Kilkenny Castle.]

country, whereby his power was ultimately broken,' Mountjoy had been visited in Dublin by Ormonde; and the Earl, who heads the Irish army list as Lieutenant-General of the Forces at £3 per diem,2 left for Kilkenny about the beginning of April. On the 6th of that month Mountjoy advertised the English Government of his departure, insinuating an imputation on his faithfulness,-how groundlessly, the documents now submitted to the Society amply prove. On the 7th, Sir George Carew left Dublin for the Presidency of Munster, to which he had been recently appointed, accompanied by one hundred horse, and by Donogh O'Brien, known to the Irish as Prince of Munster, to the English as Earl of Thomond. On the 9th, Carew and Thomond arrived at Kilkenny; and on the next day, having dined with the Earl of Ormonde, they were invited to accompany him to the parley he had arranged with Owny Mac Rory O'More. The result is best told in the words of the State Papers.

The Earl of Ormonde, at the time of his capture, was in his 68th year, having been born in 1532. He was called by the Irish, from his complexion, dubh, or "the black." The engraving which accompanies this paper is copied from a portrait in Kilkenny Castle, which was purchased by the late Marquis of Ormonde in London. The Earl is represented in the rich armour of the period, his tilting-helmet resting on a table behind him, and he carries an ornamented hand-gun. The arms on the shield not being impaled, the picture was probably painted before the Earl's marriage. The Society is indebted to Mr. Edmund Fitzpatrick, an artist whose pencil does credit to the county of Kilkenny, for the drawing from which the engraving (by an accident reversed on the block) has been made. The Marchioness of Ormonde, in the course of the last summer, purchased at an auction, in Derbyshire, another portrait of the Earl, of great interest: its pedigree, which I yet hope to give, proves its unquestionable authenticity. The picture represents the Earl in the prime of life, with dark hair, and dark brown beard. The face is fine, and full of character, and the costume is the usual civil garb of Elizabeth's reign. The Earl bears in his hand two wands. In the upper right-hand corner is a shield charged with the arms of Ormonde, impaling Sheffield, showing that it was painted after his marriage to Elizabeth, only daughter of John, second Lord Sheffield. This was the Countess mentioned in the following documents, and the mother of his sole surviving daughter and heir, Elizabeth Butler, mother to Elizabeth, first Duchess of Ormonde.

1 Fynes Moryson's "Itinerary," part ii., book i., chap. ii., p. 62.

2 Id., p. 59.

3 Id., p. 63.

4 Fyne's Moryson's "Itinerary," part ii., book i., chap. ii., p. 63.

His first wife was a daughter of Lord Berkeley.