WEXFORD

WEXFORD (County of), a maritime county of the province of LEINSTER, bounded on the north by the county of Wicklow ; on the west by those of Carlow and Kilkenny, and Waterford harbour ; on the south by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east by St. George’s channel. It extends from 52º 2’ to 52º 44’ (N. Lat.), and from 6º 17’ to 7º 4’ (W. Lon.) ; comprising an extent, according to the Ordnance survey, of 564,479 statute acres, of which 545,979 are cultivated land, and 18,500 unimproved mountain and bog. The population, in 1821, was 170,806 ; and in 1831, 182,991.

The whole or the greater portion of the county was inhabited in the time of Ptolemy by the Menapii, whose territory bordered on the Modonus, now called the river Slaney, on the bank of which stood their chief town Menapia, supposed to have occupied the site of the present town of Wexford. They are considered to have derived their origin from the Menapii of Belgic Gaul, perhaps through the Belgae of Britain, and to have been the race styled by Irish annalists Fir-bolgs, i. e., Viri Belgici, or Belgians. Some writers are of opinion that the peninsula of Hook , the most southern point of the county, is the Hieron Promontorium, or “Sacred Promontory,” of the Grecian geographer. Before the arrival of the Danes or English, the county was distinguished by the names Corteigh, Moragh, and Laighion, all signifying the maritime country. The first of these appears to be preserved in the designation of Enniscorthy ; the second, it is thought, gave the family name to its chief, Mac Murrough or Mac Murchad ; and from the third came the denomination of Leinster, which, in the productions of the Irish, Danish, and Latin writers towards the close of the middle ages, is mostly confined to Wexford. This and the adjoining county of Wicklow were also distinguished by the name of Dalmachsevel, or “the maritime counties.” Weisford, from which its present name is formed, was given to its chief town by the Danes, who, after devastating the country by predatory incursions, made the town of Wexford the centre of a permanent settlement. In later times, a popular designation of this district was, according to Camden, County Reogh, or “the rough county ;“ and the northern part was included in Hy Kinselagh, the peculiar territory of the Mac Murroughs, afterwards known by the name of Kavanagh. A principal seat of the royal family of Leinster was at Ferns, in this territory, the favourite place of residence of the last king, Dermod Mac Murrough. Hither he conveyed Dervorghal, wife of O’Rourk, Prince of Breffny, whom he had carried off from her husband ; and after he had been driven out of the country by Roderic, King of Ireland, and had engaged the assistance of some English leaders to reinstate him in his authority, he returned hither to await in the privacy of the abbey the arrival of his new allies. The landing of the first body of the English was at Bagenbon, on the south side of Fethard bay, in the south-western part of the county, in May 1169. This party consisted only of 30 knights, 60 men at arms and 300 archers, under the command of Robert Fitz-Stephen, whom Mac Murrough had engaged in the attempt by the promise of conferring on him the town of Wexford , with a large adjacent territory. Being reinforced by Maurice Prendergast, who landed on the following day at the same place with 10 knights and 200 archers, and joined by Mac Murrough, Fitz-Stephen attacked Wexford ; but its Danish inhabitants made a stubborn resistance, and it was not until after a contest of four days that they were induced to surrender on articles, through the interference of the clergy. Mac Murrough then confirmed his grant in favour of Fitz-Stephen and his companion in arms, Maurice Fitzgerald : he also granted two cantreds, which lay between the town of Wexford and the Suir, to Harvey de Monte Marisco or Montmorency, the uncle of Strongbow and associate of Fitz-Stephen. The successful settlement of the English, whose numbers were augmented by reinforcements from their own country, alarmed the other native princes, and Roderic, King of Ireland, aided by a confederacy of the subordinate chiefs, made an effort to drive out both the rebellious king of Leinster and his allies. To resist this formidable invasion, Mac Murrough fortified himself in a strong position near Ferns, and presented such a front to the assailing army, that hostilities terminated in a treaty between the Irish kings, in which a secret article was inserted for the expulsion of the English. But the arrival of additional forces gave a new direction to Mac Murrough’s views. Aided by them he took the city of Dublin from the Danes, and was projecting a scheme for asserting his right to the monarchy of the whole island, when the arrival of Richard de Clare, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Chepstow, gave a new turn to the aspect of affairs ; extending still wider by his conquests the power of the English arms and the ambitious views of Dermod, whose daughter Eva he espoused. Fitz-Stephen and his party, to secure their new possessions, had erected the castle of Carrigg near Wexford, where the native inhabitants quickly besieged them, and they were induced to surrender on articles by the false intelligence of the death of Strongbow and the extirpation of his followers. On surrendering, most of his men were killed, and Fitz-Stephen himself was committed to the island of Beg-Erin , in Wexford harbour, where all the inhabitants of the town sought safety on the approach of Strongbow with his victorious forces. The latter, however, was deterred from practising hostilities towards them by a threat that Fitz-Stephen’s life should be answerable for such a proceeding ; so that he remained in captivity until the arrival of Hen. II., to whom he was given up by his captors on a promise of redress for any ill treatment inflicted by him on the natives.

After the death of Mac Murrough in 1172, Strongbow became lord of Leinster , which was confirmed to him as a palatinate in the same year by Hen. II., when he visited Ireland . This monarch at first retained the town of Wexford in his immediate possession, but in 1174 he granted it to the earl, who made it one of the principal seats of his power, which extended over the whole of the present county, as well as the other parts of Leinster, The county of Wexford is one of those erected by King John in 1210, and it formed part of the inheritance of William he Mareschal, who succeeded to the possessions of Earl Strongbow by marriage with his daughter. On the extinction of the male line of William, Earl Marshal, his possessions were divided among his five daughters ; and the corpus comitatus of Wexford, with the assizes, perquisites, &c., valued at £50. 12. 6., and the burgh of Wexford, valued at £42. 1. 5., with the manors of Rossclare, Carrick, Ferns, &c., were assigned to the second daughter, Joan, married to Warren de Mountchensy, the richest baron in England . Through this marriage the lordship descended by the female line successively to William de Valence , Earl of Pembroke and half brother of Hen. III., and to Lawrence, Lord Hastings of Abergavenny, after the death of whose grandson, John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, the king, in 1395, ordered possession of all his estates to be given to his next heirs, and the lordship of Wexford came to the family of Talbot, and was inherited by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, who, in 1446, was created Earl of Waterford and Baron of Dungarvan. In the mean time, however, in consequence of these changes and the non-residence of the great English lords, the county fell into a state of such confusion, that, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, a great part of it was seized by one of the Kavanaghs, who assumed the title of Mac Murrough, declared himself king of Leinster, and maintained possession of a large portion of Carlow and Wexford by means of his alliance with the O’Tooles and Byrnes, the chieftains of Wicklow. Nor did the county suffer merely from the efforts of the natives to regain their ancient dominion. John Esmond, Bishop of Ferns, having been deprived of his episcopal dignity by the pope in 1349, maintained him-self in his castle of Ferns , in defiance of the power of his superiors. The sheriff declared himself unable to execute the king’s writ against him, and he was at length with difficulty brought to enter into articles to keep the peace. His immediate successor was equally warlike, for, when his castle was assaulted by some Irish septs about the year 1360, he made a sortie in person at the head of his servants and retainers, and routed the assailants with considerable slaughter. During the minority of George, great grandson of John, Earl of Shrewsbury, it was enacted by parliament, in 1474, that Gilbert Talbot, Esq., might exercise and enjoy the liberty of the county of Wexford, with cognizance of all pleas and jurisdictions royal, under the name of Seneschal of the Liberty of Wexford, with power to appoint all officers established of old within that liberty. Earl George afterwards enjoyed it, until 1537, when an act was passed vesting in the crown this and the other possessions of the great absentee lords of Ireland ; and the separate jurisdiction of the liberty was thereby terminated. During its existence, the county returned two sets of representatives to the Irish parliament, two members being sent for the liberty, in which the re-turn was made by the lord’s seneschal, and two for the Cross, or Church lands within the county, over which was a sheriff appointed by the king, to whom the writs were addressed.

In the year 1571 the people of this county had a feud with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, in which 30 gentlemen of rank in Wexford were killed : but it led to no important consequences. In the civil war which broke out in 1641, it was the scene of important military operations ; the Marquess of Ormonde was repulsed, in the early part of it, from before New Ross ; and Duncannon fort was afterwards taken by the Catholic party who thus became masters of the whole. But in 1649 it was reduced to submission by Cromwell, who put the garrison of Wexford to the sword in the same sanguinary manner in which Drogheda had been treated. In the war of the Revolution it was much less distinguished ; and from this period the history of the county presents a perfect blank, until 1798, when it acquired a melancholy notoriety as the chief seat of the insurrection of that year. In the month of April the county was subjected to martial law in consequence of the suspicions of the secret organization of the society of United Irishmen, which had already pervaded most of the other counties, having been extended to it ; but it was not until after actual hostilities had broken out in other parts that any military force was sent hither. The burning of the chapel of Boulavogue, in the parish of Kilcormuck, by the military, and the cruel treatment of the peasantry in order to force them to confess their guilt, hastened the assembly of the people in arms on the two neighbouring hills of Oulart and Kilmacthomas. They were immediately driven from the latter position with some loss, but at the former they routed and cut to pieces the detachment of the military sent to disperse them. Increasing now in numbers and confidence, the insurgents attacked Enniscorthy the next day, and forced the garrison to fall back upon Wexford. Having at the same time cut off a party of infantry and artillery that was advancing from Duncannon fort to strengthen the garrison of the latter place, the insurgents moved upon that also, and the garrison made a hasty retreat to Waterford. At the same time a camp was formed at Vinegar hill, in the immediate vicinity of Enniscorthy, which was the headquarters of the insurgent army during its short existence. The possession of Wexford gave occasion to the slaughter of many of the loyalists who had not been able to effect a timely escape, and also of several of the prisoners brought in from time to time ; nor were these atrocities without their counterpart in the excesses of the royalist soldiery. At the commencement of hostilities Beauchamp Bagnal Harvey, Esq., a Protestant gentleman of the county, who had long signalised himself as an advocate of the people, and an enemy to the severe measures of the Irish government, was chosen general. A few days after the occupation of Wexford, the insurgents attacked the town of New Ross, but after ten hours hard fighting they were repulsed on all sides with considerable loss. Shortly afterwards Harvey was superseded, and the command was given to a Roman Catholic clergyman named Roche. The royal forces which had been collecting from various parts now made a simultaneous attack from all sides on the position at Vinegar hill, which was taken with little difficulty, and the main body of insurgents forced to retreat. The recapture of Wexford immediately followed, and a fresh torrent of blood was poured forth in the punishment of numbers engaged in the rebellion, which was thus terminated in this district, except in the lingering efforts of detached parties.

The county, with the exception of parts of two parishes (which are in the diocese of Dublin), is entirely within the diocese of Ferns, and in the province of Dublin. For civil purposes it is divided into the baronies of Ballaghkeen, Bantry, Bargy, Forth, Gorey, Scarawalsh, Shelbourne, and Shelmalier. It contains the ancient episcopal town of Ferns ; the borough and market-towns of Wexford and New Ross ; the market and post-towns of Gorey, Enniscorthy, Newtownbarry, and the disfranchised borough of Fethard ; and the post- towns of Arthurstown, Broadway, Clonegal, Camolin, and Taghmon, the last of which was anciently a borough, as were also Clonmines and Bannow. The penny posts are Ballycarny, Bannow, Bridgetown, Duncannon, Kyle, and Oulart. It sent eighteen members to the Irish parliament, two for the county at large, and two for each of the boroughs of Wexford, New Ross, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Taghmon, Fethard, Clonmines, and Bannow ; but since the Union its representatives in the Imperial parliament have been two sent by the county and one for each of the boroughs of Wexford and New Ross. The county members are elected at Wexford. The county constituency, up to the 5th of Jan. 1837, consists of 456 £50, 284 £20, and 2227 £10 free-holders; and 21 £20 and 244 £10 leaseholders; making a total of 3234. The county is included in the Leinster circuit : the assizes are held at Wexford ; general sessions of the peace are held twice in the year at each of the towns of Gorey, Wexford, Enniscorthy, and New Ross ; and petty sessions are held, at various intervals, at each of the above towns and at Newtownbarry, Burkestown, Clonroche, Duncormuck, Killinick, Oulart, and Taghmon. The county gaol is at Wexford, and there are bridewells at New Ross, Gorey, and Enniscorthy. The local government is vested in a lieutenant, 16 deputy-lieutenants, and 81 other magistrates. The number of constabulary police stations, in 1834, was 36, having unitedly a force of 7 officers, 39 constables, and 170 men, with 8 horses. The district lunatic asylum is at Carlow, the county infirmary and house of industry at Wexford ; there are fever hospitals at Wexford, New Ross, Gorey, Enniscorthy, Arthurstown, Castleborough, Oulart, and Newtownbarry, in each of which places there is a dispensary, as also at Taghmon, Kilcavan, Bannow, Broadway, Ferns, Bridgetown, Killenagh, Skreen and Ardcolme, and Clongeen and Newbawn : the dispensaries are maintained by Grand Jury presentments and private subscriptions in equal proportions. The Grand Jury presentments for the year 1835 amounted to £29,039. 13. 11¼ of which £2548. 2. 2. was for roads and bridges, being the county charge ; £9070. 2. 5¾ for roads and bridges, being the baronial charge ; £9425. 5. 5½ for public buildings, charities, officers’ salaries and incidents ; £4113. 10. 11½ for the police, and £3882. 12. 10½ for repayment of advances by Government, In the military arrangements the county is in the eastern district, and within its limits are barracks at Wexford, New Ross, and Duncannon, for cavalry, artillery, and infantry ; the whole capable of accommodating 18 officers and 372 men.

This district is much detached from the rest of Ireland, having the sea on its eastern and southern sides, the estuary of the Suir and the river of Ross along the greater part of its western border, the remainder of which and the northern side are hemmed in by a lofty range of mountain land, through which there are but few lines of communication.  The mountains on the side of the county of Wicklow extend from Slieve-buy, a beautiful conical hill covered with verdure, to the valley through which the Slaney flows, dividing this part of the range from the still more extensive and lofty chain of Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs, three remarkable pointed summits of which are distinguished hy the names of the “Leaps of Ossian’s Greyhounds.” Except on the confines, there are no high or extensive ridges of mountains, but the surface is diversified with many single hills of considerable height, and towards the north, the mountain of Forth forms a less elevated ridge of about 500 feet above the level of the sea, extending 5 or 6 miles in a north-eastern and south-western direction.

The general surface between these hills does not expand into large plains : the land declines from the primitive mountains on the north towards the sea in unequal elevations, and, where the depositions of alluvial substances are considerable, the surface has a beautifully waving outline, and is enlivened by numerous gently winding streams. The Slaney, which traverses the northern and eastern part, presents a succession of highly picturesque views, beautifully ornamented with remains of antiquity, and with modern mansions, villas, and plantations.

The scenery on the Barrow, in the vicinity of New Ross, which is marked by grander features, can scarcely be surpassed. The southern baronies of Bargy and Forth, which are shut out from the remainder of the county by the Forth mountain, consist of lowland that owes its attractions more to human labour and ingenuity than to the gifts of nature. The entire county presents nothing meriting the name of lake, except Lady’s Island lake, in Forth, which claims notice, not from its extent or beauty, but from the singularity of its formation, receiving several small rivulets and having no natural outlet, so that once in every three or four years an opening is cut through the sand bank which separates it from the sea. The sea- coast on the eastern side presents no opening for shelter from foul weather from Arklow to Wexford harbour, and is rendered still more dangerous to shipping by a range of sand banks parallel to the shore, the most morthern of which is marked by a light-ship. Towards the northern extremity of this line of coast a harbour has been formed for small craft at the inlet of Courtown, in Kilbride bay, consisting of two rough piers forming a floating dock. Wexford harbour is large and capacious, but its entrance is obstructed by a bar, and the navigation is in other respects dangerous. The Tuscar rock lies about seven miles south-east of Greenore Point : it is marked by a revolving light of three faces, two bright, the third a deep red ; a bell also rings in foggy weather. In the northern part of Wexford harbour are the islands of Beg Erin, or Little Ireland, and Great Island, both inhabited : the former is of very small extent, but ancient fame ; the latter contains about 80 acres. On doubling Carnsore Point, the Saltee islands, two in number, the larger and the smaller, present themselves off the southern coast. A late return from the resident incumbent of the adjoining parish on the mainland states that these islands are considered to form part of the county of Tipperary. The larger is a mile long and half a mile broad, but not more than one-third of it consists of arable land : the lesser is about a mile in circuit : both are high and contain some rocky pasture. From the lesser island to the mainland is a ridge of rocks called St. Patrick’s bridge, extremely dangerous, having not more than from 7 to 10 feet of water above them at low tide. Farther westward is Bagenbon Head, and near it the small dry harbour of Fethard. What was formerly called “Shade Island” is connected with Bannow by a narrow isthmus of sand. The extreme south-west point of the county is marked by a lighthouse at Hook head, 140 feet high, with a steady fixed light. On doubling this point the navigator finds himself within the grand and safe estuary of Waterford harbour, into which the united streams of the Suir, Barrow, and Nore are received.

In the eastern and southern districts, which lie open to the sea, the temperature is milder than that of the adjoining counties of Carlow and Kilkenny. Snow seldom continues on the ground, and the lands may be tilled, and the surface is verdant, while those ten miles inland are frost-bound, and their elevated parts covered with snow. The southern district is subject to storms in spring and autumn, and to heavy rains in winter ; but the harvest is as early, if not earlier, than in the opposite Welsh counties of Pembroke and Carmarthen, which lie more southerly. It is even earlier here than in the north of Devonshire ; and the climate is altogether eminently favourable to the perfection of grain crops. The soil is mostly of a cold clayey nature, being deficient in the substrata of limestone and limestone gravel, universally found in the midland counties. On the whole, the maritime districts are superior to those in the interior, as to fertility. The whole of the eastern and southern borders has a deep alluvial soil, abounding with various kinds of marl and calcareous sand, with some limestone. The western and inland baronies contain little marl, but in compensation for this defect they have abundance of bog, which affords an adequate supply of turf for burning the lime imported from the neighbouring counties, while the southern baronies are extremely deficient in this useful article. The prevailing clayey and gravelly loam, though apparently stubborn and untractable, when judiciously under-drained and limed, is productive of abundant crops. In the Hook, a peninsula entirely open to the ocean, and little elevated above its level, the subsoil is of a compact limestone, overspread with a thin layer of vegetable mould : it produces grasses of wonderful luxuriance, and both wheat and barley of superior excellence.

The parishes along the sea coast, particularly in the baronies of Forth and Bargy, are divided into small farms of from five to twenty acres, the competition for which produces high rents, and on which is exhibited that wonderful exertion of industry which seldom fails to shew itself in Ireland where the inhabitants are secured in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour. The crops consist of wheat, oats, barley, and beans ; also tares, rape, and turnips. Barley is the principal corn crop throughout the county, and, though uncertain, it generally repays the cultivator by a luxuriant produce. Beans are sown on the lea after it has been manured with marl ; the kind sown is the small horse bean, and the produce is generally exported to the West Indies : in seasons of scarcity, this crop has been found of great utility in diminishing the severity of famine. The potato, however, is the staple crop here, as in all the other counties, and all the manure is used for its culture : the seed is planted with the plough in small ridges, three rows in the ridge, and covered with the spade. The general succession of crops is potatoes, barley, and oats ; but, in the barony of Forth, beans are introduced. The sowing of clover, which has been for some time increasing, is now very general ; but the English green crops for winter feeding are still chiefly confined to the lands of the resident gentry or experimental agriculturists. In some parts, particularly in the peninsula of Hook, the natural grasses are very luxuriant : in the interior, on the cold clay soils, they are thin and of little value : the farmers in general depend upon artificial grasses. Dairies are numerous, but they are not man aged with the attention to neatness requisite for ensuring the best kind of butter ; nor is sufficient pains taken in the selection of a suitable stock of cows ; yet nevertheless there is a large annual export of that article. In Forth and Bargy the farmers manure with marl found in abundance in the interior of those baronies ; also with calcareous sand, which is procured in the vicinity of Duncannon fort ; floating sea weed is much used in some parts : by these kinds of manure the land is kept permanently in a state of great fertility. In Carne, where the tillage grounds are so overspread with large stones that the superficial observer would think that the plough could hardly be used at all, the land has been kept, from time immemorial, under alternate crops of barley and beans, affording abundant returns. In the eastern district, where also marl is abundant, use is made of it. In this tract, particularly on both sides of the Slaney, pebble limestone is burned, and applied to the purpose of manure. In the western baronies, lime, brought with much toil and expense from the neighbouring counties, is the chief manure. The cottiers on the side of Mount Leinster travel with a horse a journey of two days in going and returning to bring home a load of limestone, forty loads of which are required for manuring an acre. The farmers on the parts adjacent to the Barrow and Suir procure from the beds of these rivers, at low water, a rich sediment of the nature of marl, but which is so heavy that it cannot be carried to a distance without much expense. Under all their various natural disadvantages, the lands of this county, by incessant industry and superior skill, are generally kept in an excellent state unknown in many other parts of Ireland ; and in the baronies of Forth and Bargy this distinction is of long standing.

The fences in the southern baronies are in general good and well kept, being formed of mounds of earth and sods, planted with furze on the sides and top, which affords good shelter for cattle, and has the additional advantage of being extremely useful for fuel, while it presents an impenetrable barrier against trespassing. In some cases they are still farther improved by a row of quickset on the summit, which increases both the shelter and ornament. In those parts where turf is plentiful, less attention is paid to the construction of fences ; and there they are generally rugged and defective. The farmers are by no means so attentive to the improvement of the breed of cattle as in many other counties : the long- horned was most prevalent, but the short-horned is now most encouraged. Although all the farmers, even the smallest, keep a few sheep for their wool and milk, the common breed reared here is hy no means of a good kind, being long-legged, narrow-backed, large-boned, and as wild as deer, insomuch that they are kept from destroying the fences and breaking into the cornfields by tying their feet with side lines : of the improved breeds, the Leicester is the most encouraged. Swine are numerous, but, like the former kinds of stock, not in general of the best kind. The poultry is excellent ; farmers and even cottiers rear vast quantities of turkies and other domestic fowl ; and many old leases contain a clause binding the tenant to rear poultry for the landlord. In the neighbourhood of Wexford they are fattened by cramming, and sent to Dublin and Liverpool. There is a fair every Michaelmas at Ballyhack for poultry only, where the various kinds are sold in large quantities and very cheap, owing to the great number of small land-holders who rear them at a trifling expense from their potato offal and a little barley meal. Bees are in some parts much attended to, and much mead is made. Means are used in some places to save the honey without destroying the bees, hy driving them into a fresh hive instead of smothering them. A source of riches, arising from the contiguity to the sea, is found in the extent of sandy warren which furnishes great numbers of rabbits yearly. The burrow of Rosslare, near Wexford harbour, furnishes the market weekly with 300 pair for three months : they are considered peculiarly delicate and well-flavoured. Pigeons are also attended to and found profitable ; and, in consequence of the growth of a peculiar kind of grass or sea weed, myriads of wild fowl frequent the shores, the flesh of which is of remarkably delicate flavour. The barnacle, whynyard, widgeon, teal, and duck, are most esteemed ; besides which there is a great supply of sea fowl, which are readily bought, though of inferior quality. Fuel in some parts of the county is very scarce, especially in places remote both from the sea coast, where coal from England can be obtained at a reasonable rate, and from the mountains, where turf can be procured. The great improvement which has been made in the agriculture of the county, even within the last few years, has been mainly effected by the exertions of two agricultural associations, one in the northern and the other in the southern part, in the success of which a lively interest has been taken by the resident gentry, as well by pecuniary contributions as by personal attendance and encouragement : the former is held at Gorey, and is in a flourishing state ; the latter, held at Fook’s Mill, is on the decline. An agricultural school was carried on for some time at Bannow, and an horticultural institution has been established at Kyle, the particulars of each of which are given in the accounts of the parishes of Bannow and Kilpatrick.

The county, in its geological relations, forms part of the clay-slate tract, which stretches, on the eastern side of the granitic range, from the northern part of the county of Wicklow to the Atlantic. The strata in the southern portions are in some places considerably inflected, but in the northern parts of the county they maintain a tolerably uniform north-eastern and south-western direction, with a dip to the south-east ; and the clay-slate is here found immediately in contact with granite, which is the chief component of the Blackstairs and Mount Leinster ranges. The Forth mountain consists almost entirely of quartz rock, with a tendency to the slaty structure from interposed laminae of clay-slate. The strata range 25º north of east and south of west, and dip 45º towards the north-west : they are occasionally traversed by fissures and by veins of quartz, and in these veins have appeared in some places indications of lead, copper, and iron. The lower grounds and eminences in the vicinity of Forth are composed of alternations of quartz rock and clay-slate : the former rock, which is sometimes iron-shot and of a deep reddish hue, ranges to the north of Wexford town, forming its foundation, and in its southern progress constituting the White Rocks near Kerlogue, extending still further south : clay-slate is visible on the south-eastern side of Forth, and to the north-west is distinctly seen at Carrigg bridge, and in several other parts around the inner haven of Wexford. It is traversed by contemporaneous veins of quartz, and probably contains several beds of greenstone, blocks and fragments of this rock being observable on the strand near Saunders Court, and smaller pieces in the fields above and towards the entrance of Edenvale. The general components of the south-eastern quarter of this county are also quartz rock and clay-slate interstratifed, disposed in the manner above described, and containing occasionally beds of greenstone. Towards Carnsore Point the land gradually rises, forming a low swell of ground, composed apparently of granite, as great blocks of that rock, with some few scattered masses of mica slate, occupy its entire surface. The approach to a granite soil is indicated even at Broadway village, a little north of the lake, where blocks of that rock and of mica slate begin to appear. The granite base breaks forth again in Carrigburn and Camorus hills, to the north-west of Forth ; and blocks of granite are strewed over a part of the county extending towards Bannow on the south. At Caim, near the eastern foot of the granitie chain, the clay-slate appears to contain several beds of greenstone ; and the bridge over the Urrin stream is mostly built of it. Traces of the same rock occur also near Enniscorthy, on both sides of the Slaney : the clay-slate and quartz rock in the vicinity of this town are sometimes much intermingled. Vinegar hill and the craggy rocks stretching towards Solsborough are principally composed of the latter ; so also is Carrigruamore, to the north-east. But the principal ranges of elevated land, such as Slieve- buy, Bree hill, Slieve kelter, &c., are clay-slate ; and quarries are opened in several parts of the line adjacent to the granitic chain, some of the best slates being raised in the neighbourhood of Newtown-Barry and towards Kilkevin to the north-east. A black, slightly carbonated clay occurs near Enniscorthy, where it is mistaken for coal, and some trials were made in consequence : this rock generally contains finely disseminated iron pyrites, and exhibits also thinly interspersed galena. The eastern side of Waterford harbour, in this county, consists principally of clay-slate in strata nearly vertical, but it is surmounted by a cap of sandstone in Broomhill : a similar cap occurs more to the south, in Templetown hill, which gradually declines till it underlines the tongue of floetz limestone which extends to the extremity of Hook Point, This limestone is arranged in strata of only a few inches in thickness, dipping at an angle of from 4º to 8º towards the south, and contains numerous bivalves and corallites : its connection with the sandstone is most conspicuous on the eastern coast, proceeding along which to the north the limestone becomes interstratified with slate clay, and this latter rock at length predominates, alternating with very thin beds of limestone and acquiring a much higher elevation. At the point of junction with the red sandstone beneath it, at Houseland castle, the latter is of a fine grain and red cast. More to the north it acquires a coarser structure, thick beds of conglomerate being interstratifed with fine grained, red, perishable sandstone. These rocks form a bold coast of abrupt precipices, extending to Carnyven headland, eastward of Templetown hill and south of Bagenbon Head. Detached portions of the sandstone shew themselves in other places. The inner haven of Wexford is partly lined with four isolated patches of this rock lying unconformably on the clay- slate : it is of a deep red colour, and is principally composed of fragments of quartz, with a few of clay-slate, cemented hy iron-shot quartz. Park Point, on the south side of the haven, consists chiefly of this sandstone arranged in strata from one to two feet thick, which are sometimes separated by a thin seam of red soapy clay. On the western side of the northern extremity of the inner basin is another smaller patch of red conglomerate, situated to the west of the Castlebridge. In a dell westward of Artramont castle is a similar small patch, and a fourth of larger extent occurs in Saunders Court demesne. At Duncormuck is another patch of sandstone, which comes in contact with floetz limestone ; and it is found in the Saltee islands, where it is based on the clay-slate. At Ballyback, where Waterford harbour narrows to the north, are caps of sandstone conglomerate, reposing unconformably on clay-slate, and containing many pebbles of granite, but fragments of clay-slate are the predominating constituents. The great body of the rugged and isolated hill of Taragh, east of Gorey, consists of porphyry, with a compact felspar base, that sometimes passes into hornstone, containing inlaid crystals of glassy felspar ; but greenstone also appears occasionally. Besides the limestone of Hook Point, there is a narrow slip at Drinagh, a mile south of Wexford, which follows the coast for four or five miles southward, consisting of a blueish grey kind, containing corallites and bivalves, and associated with a brownish grey, fine, granular magnesian limestone. A third small limestone district occurs at Duncormuck, and extends from the coast into the interior three or four miles ; it is generally of a reddish brown cast, apparently derived from the sandstone conglomerate in its vicinity. A lead mine was discovered at Caim and wrought for several years : the works are now about to be resumed. At Clonmines the remains of an ancient mine are still to be traced ; and galena has been found here, partly adhering to quartz and rhomboidal ironstone, and partly thrown on shore after storms, hy which portions of the cliff had been torn away. The old heaps in the neighbourhood are supposed to be the remains of the silver mines said to have been worked by the ancient Ostmen. At Kerlogue, near Wexford, is a small vein of copper ore, of the malachite or carbonated green copper ore species. Specimens of plumbago were found, about three years since, at Greenfeld, near Enniscorthy ; and in quarrying for stone at Bloomfield, in the same neighbourhood, about a year ago, some fine specimens of asbestos were discovered, the only ones known to exist within the county. The horns and bones of the moose deer have been found in the alluvial districts both on the east and south, where there is marl. About a year since, a perfect fossil skeleton of the Cervus Megaceros, or gigantic horned deer of Ireland, was found at Ballyhuskard, near the bog of Itty, exceeding in its dimensions the fossil deer in the Dublin museum.

Much coarse woollen cloth was formerly manufactured throughout the county, but almost wholly for domestic use. Cotton-works were erected at St. John’s, near Enniscorthy, upwards of twenty years since, but were only carried on for two or three years : at the latter place were also some iron-works. Linens, diapers, checks, and woollens were formerly wrought at Tintern, where the weaving and spinning business was carried on to such an extent that a yarn market and a market-house were built for the accommodation of the buyers and sellers; but both these buildings have fallen into decay, though there are still many weavers in the neighbourhood. The vicinity of the county to the great Nymph Bank renders its fisheries an important object of consideration. In addition to the supply of deep-water sea fish derivable from this source, the inhabitants along the whole coast are mainly employed in fishing : there are also numerous residents at every creek that affords shelter for a few boats, who derive their subsistence partly from their little farms on shore, but mostly from the sea. A valuable fishing ground lies near the shore, adjacent to the Saltee islands, but the want of a harbour adequate to the reception and shelter of a better description of craft prevents the fishery from being followed, except in open boats. There are two small harbours, one at Fethard and the other at Cross-Farnogue, at the eastern extremity of Ballyteigue bay, which, inadequate as they are, enable the fishermen to go out in the summer season ; but the want of a good harbour prevents them from partaking much in the profits of the cod and herring fishery, which is chiefly carried on in the winter. Shell fish are caught in great abundance along the shore. The oysters are much esteemed by some for their size and flavour, but they do not maintain that character in the Dublin market : the lobsters are also reckoned to be of a superior kind. Salmon, white trout, eels, and the pearl muscle are taken in the Slaney. The chief commerce of the county is in the export of agricultural produce, especially barley, to various ports on the British coast. The chief markets for grain are Wexford, Enniscorthy, and Castlebridge ; the first is the port for the two others. New Ross has also a considerable trade in the same produce. The surplus butter is either taken to Gorey, and there sold for the Dublin market, or exported from Wexford and Waterford to Bristol, Liverpool, &c. There is also a considerable export of cattle, pigs, and poultry, which are shipped at Wexford and Waterford to be exported to England by steam.

The only large river is the Slaney, which enters the county at Newtown-Barry, and flows in a south-eastern course through Enniscorthy to Wexford ; the tide flows to Enniscorthy, and the river is navigable so far by large boats : it receives the Bann near Fern, and the Boro south of Enniscorthy. The Bannow is a small stream falling into the harbour of the same name, and chiefly remarkable for the historical reminiscences connected with it. The Corug, another small stream, falls into the same harbour. The Owenvarra empties itself into St. George’s Channel at the fishing port of Courtown, in the bay of Kilbride. The Barrow forms a small part of the western boundary from Blackstairs mountain to its confluence with the Nore, whence, assuming the name of the Ross river, it continues to skirt the county, passing by New Ross, and having depth of water sufficient for vessels of large burden ; at Great Island it exchanges its new name for that of the Suir, with which it here unites, and the whole body of waters flows southwards, still skirting the county, and disembogues itself in the capacious and safe estuary of Waterford harbour.

The relics of antiquity anterior to the arrival of the English are very few, with the exception of monastic buildings. A fine tumulus or rath stands at Salville or Moatabeg, and another at Donamore, both in the neighbourhood of Enniscorthy. Near Old Ross there is also a rath or tumulus, and two of considerable extent near Dunbrody. Smaller raths are scattered in numbers through the southern baronies : one of the most perfect is at Ballytrent, near Broadway, which has a double mound, and has been lately laid out as a pleasure garden. There are remains of monasteries at Wexford town, Enniscorthy, St. John’s to the south of it, Ferns, Dunbrody, Ross, and Clonmines. Tintern abbey has been converted into a residence of the Colclough family. The houses of Ballyhack, Carnsore, and Clonmore, are now parish churches ; the remains of Glascarrig are still visible, part being used as a barn. The sites of the other monastic buildings are either uncertain or wholly unknown : their names are Achadhabla, Airdnecoemhain, Arbensis, Ardladhrann, Camross, Disert-Cheandubhoin, Down, Drum-chaoin-chellaigh, Fionmagh, Horetown, Inverdaoile, Innisbeg, Innisfeal, Kilcloghan or Killogan, Maghere-nuidhe, Seanbhotha, and Taghmon. There were religious houses on each of the little islands of Beg Erin and Derinis. Near Carnsore are the ruins of a very ancient chapel, called St. Vaugh’s.

The remains of castellated buildings are still more numerous. At Wexford is White castle, over against the entrance to the harbour, also a castle within the town, since taken down and a barrack erected on its site. Two miles north-west of the town is Carrigg castle, seated on the pinnacle of a rock over the Slaney. Two miles from Wexford is also the castle of Barntown ; and that of Ferns is worthy of note both in an historical and architectural point of view. One of the noblest and earliest military structures of the English settlers is Enniscorthy castle. Another of these feudal structures is at Mackmine : Brown’s castle, on a projecting point over the river Slaney, about two miles from Enniscorthy, is in ruins. At a short distance from Dunbrody abbey is a curious old fortress, called Cuislan-na-Blahie, or “Buttermilk Castle” ; and in the same neighbourhood are the ruins of Killesk, Knockagh, and Kilhile castles. Of Ballykeroge or Sutton’s castle, so called from its founder, Roger de Sutton, considerable ruins still exist ; and in the same neighbourhood are a castle at Stokestown, another at Aldertown, a third at Priest’s Haggard, and two in the Great Island. On the summit of Mountgarrett, a lofty hill that overlooks the town of New Ross, are the ruins of an ancient castle, from which a branch of the Butler family derives the title of Viscount. On the peninsula of Hook are the remains of Shade castle and Houseland castle ; and on its extreme point is the old fort Hook tower, which has recently been converted into a lighthouse. Duncormuck or Croscormuek castle, on the inlet of Bannow, also owes its erection to the English settlers under de Montmorency. There are the remains, more or less perfect, of nearly sixty of these ancient castles, or towers, most of which are situated in the baronies of Forth and Bargy : the principal, not already enumerated, are Johnstown castle, near Wexford, now incorporated with the modern castellated mansion of H. R. G. Morgan, Esq. ; Rathmacknee, in the same neighbourhood, which was inhabited by the Knox family within the last seventy years ; Bargy, which gave name to the barony, also incorporated with some comparatively modern additions ; Butlerstown, Lingstown, Ballycogley, and Cloest, in the barony of Forth ; and Ballyhealy, Ballyteigue, Baldwinstown, Coolbull, and Dane’s castle, in that of Bargy. Not far from Duncormuck castle is Strongbow’s fort, on the head of Bagenbon, where are yet visible the remains of strong intrenchments, attributed to that leader, though it is more probable that they were thrown up by the party under Fitz-Stephen, who landed there two years before, as Strongbow’s debarkation took place in the county of Waterford. Duncannon fort, on the eastern bank of Waterford harbour, is modern in comparison with those hitherto noticed. The modern mansions of the nobility and gentry are described in their respective parishes.

 

WEXFORD

 

WEXFORD, a sea-port, borough, market, post, and assize town, in the barony of FORTH, county of WEXFORD, and province of LEINSTER, 74 miles (S.) from Dublin and 30¼ (E. N. E.) from Waterford ; containing 10,673 inhabitants. This town, which, as far as can be inferred from the earliest historical notices respecting it, was a maritime settlement of the Danes, is thought to have derived its name, which was anciently written Weisford, from the term Waesfiord (Washford), which implies a bay overflowed by the tide, but left nearly dry at low water, like the washes of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. Nothing further is known respecting it till the time of the English invasion, when it was besieged by Fitz-Stephen and Harvey de Montemarisco, immediately after their landing at Bannow, aided by the Irish army of Dermod Mac Murrough. The townsmen at first marched out to give the invaders battle, but awed by their numbers and discipline they retired within their walls, after having set fire to the suburbs to check the enemy’s pursuit : an assault of the besiegers was gallantly repulsed, but at the end of three days they surrendered on condition of recognising the sovereignty of Dermod. The town, with two adjoining cantreds, was then assigned to the two English leaders, conformably with a previous agreement ; and Fitz-Stephen, to secure himself in his mew possession, immediately commenced the erection of a castle in a position commanding the pass of the Slaney at Carrigg. After the main body of the English had proceeded to Dublin, the Wexford men invested the castle, and having in vain endeavoured to force an entrance, prevailed upon Fitz-Stephen and his garrison to surrender, by means of’ a fabricated account of the destruction of Strongbow and all his companions in arms. On the arrival of Strongbow, who, after the dispersion of the Irish army before Dublin, had hastened to the relief of Fitz- Stephen, the townsmen quitted Wexford and took refuge in Beg Erin, an island in the harbour, carrying their prisoners with them as hostages for their own good treatment. The plan succeeded : on the arrival of King Henry, they gave up their prisoners and were allowed to return peaceably to Wexford, which they now promised to hold under his authority. Henry, on his hurried departure from Ireland to suppress an insurrection in Normandy, gave the town in charge to William Fitz-Aldelm, Philip de Braosa, and Philip of Hastings, with a body of 50 knights. In 1174 he granted the town to Strongbow, who, during his re-sidence in it, celebrated the marriage of his sister Basilea with Raymond he Gros and appointed him governor. In 1177, Raymond received Fitz-Aldelm here on his arrival as Custos or Governor of Ireland, who placed his kinsman, Walter Almain, in command of the place ; but Raymond having been restored, soon after proceeded by sea with part of the garrison to the relief of the city of Cork, which was besieged by an Irish army. After the death of Strongbow, and of all the male issue of his only daughter, who had married William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and the subsequent partition of his immense property among his five grand-daughters, Wexford was assigned to Joan, the second sister, who had married Warren de Mountchensey. In 1318 the town received its earliest charter extant from Adomar de Valence, into whose possession it and the lordship came by marriage with Warren’s only daughter. In 1327, an Irish army under O’Brien was repulsed from the town with great slaughter. During the struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York it was seized in 1462, hy Sir John Butler, whose brother, the Earl of Ormonde, had been just before beheaded by the Yorkists ; but having rashly accepted a challenge from the Earl of Desmond, who had advanced to dispossess him, to decide the contest in the open field, he suffered a total defeat : the victorious earl held a parliament in the town in the next year. The lord-ship, which had been conveyed, through the female line, to Richard Talbot, who married the only daughter of Adomar de Valence, continued in the possession of his descendants, until forfeited in the 28th of Hen. VIII.. under the act against absentees. By the charter of Jas. I., in 1608, the castle and borough were granted to the corporation at an annual rent. On the breaking out of the war of 1641, Wexford was one of the first places that fell into the hands of the insurgents, and was their chief port for receiving military supplies from other countries. On the approach of Cromwell, in 1649, the inhabitants at first refused to admit any troops on the part of the king, but afterwards consented to receive 2000 Catholics sent by the Marquess of Ormonde : but the aid was useless, for Cromwell’s troops gained admission either by force or through the treachery of Stafford, the governor, and the town was given up to military execution, as had been the case with Drogheda. The castle and much of the corporation property was confiscated at this period. After the battle of the Boyne, the town declared for Wm. III., and was garrisoned by his troops. In 1793, a large body of the peasantry proceeded thither to rescue some Whiteboy prisoners : on their approach a detachment of the garrison was sent out to disperse them, the commander of which, Capt. Valloton, having ridden in advance of his men, for the humane purpose of expostulating with the insurgents on their conduct, was cut down by a scythe : a monumental obelisk erected on the Windmill hill commemorates this deplorable event. During the disturbances of 1798, Wexford was the chief position of the insurgents in the south of Ireland. After the defeat of a detachment of the King’s troops, at the Three Rocks, on the 30th of May, on their march to the town, it was evacuated in a panic by the garrison, and immediately taken possession of by the insurgents, who made it their principal station, and kept it till the 21st of the following month, during which time they put to death 91 of their prisoners on the bridge. On the advance of the royal army, after the total defeat of the main body of the insurgents at Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, it was evacuated with such precipitation that a troop of yeoman-cavalry, which had galloped in advance of the main body, in the hope of preventing the apprehended ill-treatment of their wives and families from the paroxysms of despair of their opponents, entered without the smallest check or opposition. Medals of gold and silver were struck by order of the corporation, to commemorate this event, and given to the officers and privates of the corps. In 1804, the walls underwent a thorough repair, at the expense of the corporation, on which occasion a piece of plate was presented to the mayor.

The town is situated on the lower part of a hill, close to the shore of the estuary of the Slaney, where it opens into the broad but shallow expansion of Wexford haven. Its extent from north to south within the walls is nearly a statute mile, or a mile and a quarter, including the suburb of Faithe at its southern extremity, the name of which is a corruption of Feagh, from the parish of St. Michael of Feagh, in which it is situated. The streets are narrow, partially and indifferently paved, and not lighted ; two attempts, made in 1830 and 1833, to bring the town within the provisions of the act of the 9th of Geo. IV., for paving, lighting, and cleansing towns, failed ; the proposal being each time rejected by a majority of a public meeting convened for its consideration. An arrangement recently made with a Scotch contractor to light the quay with gas will probably remove this inconvenience, by having the contract extended to the rest of the town. It contains 1820 houses, in general well built and of respectable appearance ; the supply of water is partly by pipes laid down by the corporation for improving the quays, and partly from wells, or from the public conduit in the corn-market, erected at the expense of the Marquess of Ely.

The town is connected at its northern end with the grounds on the opposite bank of the Slaney by a bridge commenced in 1794, and opened in 1795 ; it constructed wholly of American oak, at an expense of £17,000, by the late Emanuel Cox, an engineer from the United States, and the builder of the wooden bridge at Londonderry : its length was 1571 feet. The collection of the tolls and care of the bridge was committed to a corporation, consisting of the shareholders who contributed towards its erection and some ex-officio members. In consequence of its decayed state the corporation had it repaired, or rather reconstructed, at an expense of £6000, of which £4000 was raised hy a mortgage of the tolls, which let, in 1832, for £700 per annum. The structure now consists ot two causeways projecting from the opposite banks of the river, and of the respective lengths of 650 and 188 feet ; the roadway of the bridge over the intervening space of 733 feet is of timber, supported on 23 sets of piers of the same material, with a drawbridge, to permit the passage of vessels with masts. A quay extends for nearly half a mile from the bridge, having a general breadth of 60 feet, except near its middle, called the Crescent, where it widens to 80 feet. On the opposite shore has been raised the ballast quay, so called from being formed by the ballast deposited there by the shipping : it serves as a breakwater for the protection of the vessels moored on the side towards the town. The former of these quays has received a considerable extension to the south-west by an embankment raised by J. E. Redmond, Esq., which carries it on in a direct line to the end of Fishers’-row, whence a communication with that part of the country will be opened by a road in the same direction to the rock of Maudlintown, where it will form a junction with the Killinick road. A branch of the Bank of Ireland occupies a very neat structure faced with granite, forming the north-western angle of the Crescent, The Provincial Bank has also an establishment on the quay. A building, with an exterior corresponding with that of the Bank, is about to be erected on the Crescent-quay, for reading-rooms and a library ; on the same quay a building is also in progress for the accommodation of the Chamber of Commerce, established in 1831; two reading-rooms have been already opened. The Wexford Union Club, formed in 1833, is held in a building erected for it on the quay. A small and neat theatre was built in the Backstreet about four years since, as a private speculation, which not having succeeded, it is used as an auction and commission sale-room, without any alteration in its internal arrangements : a circulating library is kept in its lobby. Balls for public charities and on other occasions are given in the Assembly-rooms, a handsome suite of apartments belonging to the corporation. The castle and its surrounding grounds, granted by Cromwell to a person named Borr, were sold about a century since to the Government by that individual’s representative, who contracted to convert it into a spacious barrack ; but the transaction having been made the subject of parliamentary inquiry, the contractor, who was a member of the House of Commons, was obliged to vacate his seat and the treaty was put an end to. The present barracks, situated at the commencement of the Faithe, form a considerable range, capable of affording accommodation to 7 officers and 172 men, with an hospital for 12 patients. Several new streets have been opened within the last few years.

The inhabitants, in the time of the Danes, maintained themselves by commerce and piracy : afterwards the fisheries, and chiefly that of herrings, were their main source of subsistence : at present the staple trade of the town is the agricultural produce of the surrounding country, the herring and oyster fisheries, though still of some magnitude in the winter months, having declined considerably, from the withdrawing of the bounties, the poverty of those engaged in it, and the want of safety harbours, The principal manufacture is that of malt, for which there were 38 establishments in 1831, in which from 70,000 to 80,000 barrels of malt were annually made, by much the greater part of which was exported, chiefly to Dublin : the quantity has since decreased. A distillery, lately built on a large scale in the suburbs, consumed 25,000 barrels of grain in the same year : there are breweries, tanyards and rope-walks in the town and suburbs. The magnitude of the export trade may be estimated by the fact that, in 1831, upwards of 300,000 barrels of grain were purchased hy the merchants, chiefly for export either in the raw state or malted : that of cattle during the same period was very considerable, and 28,000 firkins of butter were exported : since the place has been made a bonding port the coasting trade has diminished,but that to Great Britain has increased proportionally ; a store for bonded tea has been erected. The amount of customs’ duties for 1835 was £4920. 13. 10. ; and for 1836, £6306. 10. 9. The amount of the excise duties collected in the Wexford revenue district, for the former year, was £76,453. 19. 8¼.

The port or haven is formed by two low sandy peninsulas approaching each other from the north and south, and separated by a narrow entrance half a mile broad between Rosslare and Raven points. On the outside is a bank of shifting sand, which has been for some years gradually increasing, so that in the part where it is lowest, and which therefore is the principal passage to the haven’s mouth, there is only six feet of water at the ebb of spring tides ; and as the rise of springs is but six feet, and at neaps from three to four, vessels of every size larger than fishing boats must ride outside exposed to the danger of shipwreck before there is a sufficient depth of water to float them in : the navigation of the interior of the harbour, a distance of five miles, is both intricate and shallow. Several expedients have been suggested by Sir John Rennie in a report on the subject, for the diminution of those obstacles to the safe navigation of the haven, but none of them have been yet acted upon. Notwithstanding these formidable obstacles the commerce is considerable ; there are 110 registered vessels, of the aggregate burden of 6500 tons, and navigated by 600 seamen, belonging to the port ; these are chiefly engaged in the British and coasting trade. The port is considered to be a great nursery for seamen, as there is always a considerable proportion of apprentices in the merchants’ service there. There are two steamers on the Wexford and Liverpool station, one of which sails every week in winter and twice a week in summer, carrying live cattle, provisions, merchandise, and passengers. The shipping interests have been materially promoted hy the con-struction of a patent slip and ship-building yard, by Mr. Redmond, at the southern extremity of his new embankment, from which a vessel of 70 tons has been already launched ; the vessels belonging to the port had been previously built at Milford and Liverpool. The trade with the interior of the country is carried on chiefly hy the Slaney, which is navigable to Enniscorthy ; it is proposed to establish a line of steamers between the two towns. The principal market is on Saturday ; there is one for poultry, butter; eggs, and small wares on Wednesday : meat, fish, and vegetables are exposed for sale daily. The shambles occupy one side of a street leading from the quay ; the butter market is held underneath the Court of Conscience, the corn and potato market in a square named the corn-market ; poultry is vended in the public street. Fairs are held on Whit Monday and the 29th of June, on the Windmill Hill ; on the 24th of Aug. in the Faithe ; and on the Saturday before Shrovetide, March 17th, May 1st, Sept. 29th, and Nov. 1st. in the town.

The first charter to Wexford on record is that of Adomar de Valence in 1318, already noticed, which was confirmed and extended by that of the 12th of Hen. IV., in 1411, and again confirmed by Elizabeth in 1558. The act of the 28th of Hen. VIII. for vesting the estates of absentees in the crown, under which that of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was confiscated, was followed hy another specially confirming the liberties and privileges of the corporation of Wexford. A third charter was granted hy Jas. I., in 1608, which is the latest now in force ; that subsequently granted by Jas. II., in 1688, having been annulled after the revolution. The corporation is one of those subjected to the new rules of the 25th of Chas. II. By the charter of Jas. I. the ground within the ancient limits of the town and its suburbs was made a free borough corporate, by the name of “the Town or Free Borough of Wexford,” to consist of a mayor, two bailiffs, free burgesses arid commonalty, and the body so incorporated was called “the Mayor, Bailiffs, Free Burgesses, and Commonalty of the Town or Borough of Wexford ;“ the mayor to be a justice of the peace within the borough and county, also to be escheator, coroner, clerk of the market and master ‘of the say ; and a court to be held every second Monday before the mayor and bailiffs, with civil jurisdiction to any amount. It also grants a guild of the merchants of the staple, of which the retiring mayor and bailiffs are to be mayor and constables for the ensuing year. At present the mayor appoints a deputy ; there are 23 other burgesses ; no recorder has been appointed for many years and the mayor’s court has fallen into disuse ; but that functionary still exercises occasionally a right to attach the property of persons about to go beyond the limits of his jurisdiction. The corporation still possesses large portions of its original lands ; but as many of them are let on long leases or in perpetuity, at very low rates, the income from this source does not exceed £270 per ann. ; tolls were levied to the average amount of £900 per ann., but the demand for them has been discontinued for some years, in consequence of the right being disputed. A court of conscience is held hy the mayor every week for debts under 40s. Irish ; imprisonment for two months by this court cancels a debt under 20s. and for f’our months one under 40s. The mayor regulates the assize of bread. The assizes for the county are held in the town, and also the Epiphany and Midsummer general sessions for this district of the county, at which the mayor takes precedence of all the other county magistrates on the plea of his commission bearing date from the granting of the governing charter : petty sessions are held weekly and special road sessions twice in the year. Two minor corporations have been formed under an act of the 34th of Geo. Ill. ; these are the Quay Corporation and the Bridge Corporation. The Quay Corporation, composed of the mayor, bailiffs, burgesses, town-clerk, port collector, and the members for the county and town, with 36 others elected hy a majority of the persons attending (seven to be a quorum), is a corporation with power to levy rates on the vessels entering the port, to be applied towards making, maintaining, and improving the harbour, quays, and passages to them ; it has also the regulation of the pilotage and of the supply of pipe water, and is invested with certain powers towards the cleansing and economy of the town. Under this authority the avenues to the quay are kept in repair hy this body, and a pilot establishment has been formed, consisting of two smacks with a sail boat and row boat attached to each ; the pilot station is near Rosslare fort. The receipts of the corporation, in 1834, were £2686 ; the expenditure £2677. The borough corporation repaired the streets up to the period of the interruption of the collection of tolls, since which the streets have been neither cleaned nor repaired ; all the thoroughfares up to the town are kept in order by the county grand jury. The Bridge Corporation consists of the subscribers to the fund for building the bridge across the Slaney at Wexford, who are empowered to levy tolls thereon for defraying the expenses of its erection and repairs, and to divide the surplus revenue among the subscribers rateably. The court-house, situated on the quay, opposite to the end of the bridge, is a neat structure, erected at the expense of the county, and consists of a centre and two wings, with its entrance under a pediment supported hy two columns. The county gaol and house of correction stands at the entrance of the town from New Ross, enclosed by a wall from 16 to 20 feet high, with an entrance between two turnkeys’ lodges. It consists of a centre and two wings : the interior contains 58 sleeping-cells, 12 day-rooms, and 16 airing-yards, with a detached hospital : the male prisoners are employed at breaking stones or at the treadmill ; the females in washing, spinning and knitting. The borough returned two members to the Irish parliament by a prescriptive right exercised without interruption from 1374 till the Union, at which period the number of’ its representatives was reduced to one, whom it continues to return under the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88 : the mayor is the returning officer. The present number of electors is about 330 : the limits of the electoral boundary are fully detailed in the Appendix. The environs contain a number of handsome houses and neat villas, the residences of the gentry connected with the town. Within the last few years new roads have been opened between Wexford, Duncannon Fort, New Ross, and Ennis corthy, the last-named of which is now the mail coach road : a new approach to the town from the Carrigg bridge road is contemplated, as is the formation of a short canal of four miles to the bathing village of Curracloe.

The union of Wexford, in the diocese of Ferns, and in the patronage of’ the Bishop, consists of the rectories of St. Patrick’s, Maudlintown, Killilogue or Kerlogue, Drinagh, Rathaspick, Kildavin, and Ardcandrisk ; the rectory and vicarage of St. Mary’s, and the impropriate cures of St. Iberius (Wexford), St. Bridget’s or Bride’s, St. Selsker’s or Sanctum Sepulcrum, St. Tullogue’s or St. Euleck’s, St. Peter’s, St. Michael’s of Feagh, and Carrigg : of these, the parishes of St. Patrick, St. Mary, St. Iberius, St. Bridget, St. Selsker and St. Tullogue are within the walls, and being entirely built upon, pay no tithes or dues of any kind ; the rest, which are without the walls, are described under their respective heads. The glebe of St. Patrick’s, now the site of the parochial school contains 20 perches ; that of St. Mary’s, now a dwelling-house and offices, 2 roods ; of St. Selsker’s, now a garden, 20 perches ; and of St. Tullogue’s, now the site of five small houses, 1 rood ; making a total of 1 acre of glebe land within the walls. By a return to a regal visitation made in 1615, it appears that there were then 20 churches in the town ; at present there are but two, those of St. Iberius and St. Selsker. The former, erected in the latter part of the last century, is now the principal, though not the mother church of the union, that of Rathaspick being so considered, and the new incumbent being therefore inducted first into it and afterwards into each of the other churches. It is a plain structure with stone quoins and surmounted with a cupola ; the interior has a gallery round three sides, and the fourth, containing the altar, forms a semicircular recess separated from the body of the building by an open screen of two pilasters and two columns : the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have granted £252 for its repair. The church of St. Selsker is a small edifice, erected in 1818 at an expense of £1400, in the early style of English architecture, with pannelled buttresses at the angles, terminating in pinnacles, and plain buttresses between the lancet-shaped windows on each side and a combination of three similarly shaped windows at the east end ; the body of the church is connected by a small vestibule with the massive ancient tower of the old church : the interior is fitted up with open seats instead of pews : there are several monuments of great antiquity in the church- yard. ln St. John’s church-yard is a handsome mausoleum erected by J. H. Talbot, of Talbot Hall, Esq., to the memory of his wife. In the R. C. divisions the union or district of Wexford extends over the whole of the town and suburbs, and includes 11 of the 16 parishes constituting the Protestant union : of the remaining five, Drinagh, Rathaspick, and Kildavin are included in the union or district of Piercestown ; Carrigg and Ardcandrisk in that of Glynn. The chapel of the Franciscans has been long used as the principal chapel of the Wexford union. The conventual Franciscans settled here in the reign of Henry III. : about the year 1380 they obtained possession of the convent and church of St. Bridget and St. John, which had previously belonged to the Knights Hospitallers : at the dissolution the buildings and lands were granted in perpetuity to two laymen. The community at present consists of a guardian elected triennially at a general meeting of the Franciscan order in Dublin, and six friars. The building is a plain edifice, with the exception of a modern addition erected for a library, which contains a valuable collection of theological works, chiefly of the early Christian fathers, and also books in other departments of literature. The building, which is surmounted by a turret with a cupola and cross, and furnished with a clock, was erected under the superintendence of the Rev. R. Walsh, late guardian of the convent, who, with the aid of a subscription for the purpose, also collected the library, chiefly from the continent. The chapel, dedicated to St. John and St. Bridget, and supposed to occupy the site of that of the ancient monastery of the Franciscans, is a large unornamented pile : the burial-ground attached to it has been lately enlarged, and a commodious house for the clergyman has been built adjoining the chapel, at an expense of about £1000. The nunnery was established in 1818 for nuns of the order of the Presentation : their house, adjoining the Franciscan convent and erected principally at the expense of the late Mr. Carrol, of the Faithe, contains a small chapel elegantly fitted up at the expense of the Countess of Shrewsbury, who presented £200 for that purpose : it is open on Sundays as a public place of worship : beneath the chapel is a commodious school-room, in which the girls originally attached to the Lancasterian school, and those belonging to the Redmond female orphan-house, are gratuitously educated by the ladies of the order, and also instructed in useful and ornamental needle-work. The Wesleyan Methodists have two places of worship : a congregation in connection with the Irish Evangelical Society, and another, called the separatists, meet in private houses.

The diocesan school for the see of Ferns, situated to the north of the town, on the road from Ferry-Carrigg, was built in 1800, at the expense of the county, on a piece of ground leased by the late R. Neville rent-free for 30 years, with a right reserved of charging it with a rent not exceeding £50 per annum at the end of that period, which has not since been demanded by the present proprietor, Sir W. R. P. Geary, Bart. The school has accommodation for 40 boarders and 6 daily pupils, and has a large playground attached : the master receives a salary of £70, paid by the bishop and the beneficed clergy of the diocese : an additional salary of £100 was paid by the corporation until the discontinuance of the payment of tolls. The parochial school, founded in 1824, and situated on the glebe of the parish of St. Patrick, is a neat building, consisting of a centre and two wings, and containing two school-rooms, in which 77 boys and 62 girls are instructed ; it is supported by the trustees of Erasmus Smith’s charity and by voluntary contributions. St. Peter’s college originated in a bequest by the Rev. Peter Devereux, P. P. of Kilmore, made during the existence of the penal code, which prohibited students for the priesthood from being educated at home. It consisted of a farm, the proceeds of which were to provide for the education of two ecclesiastical students in a foreign college : the continental war prevented the bequest being applied to its intended purpose, and a large sum accumulated, which, in 1818 was expended in the purchase of land and the erection of the buildings, which are vested in the R. C. bishop of the diocese and two clergymen as trustees. The college stands on Summer Hill, an elevated situation to the west of the town, and presents the appearance of a large mansion-house, containing accommodation for a president, six professors, and 30 resident pupils, with class-rooms for 150 daily pupils : a large addition is now in progress of erection in the Gothic style, to contain a chapel, library, and accommodations for an additional number of professors and pupils ; it is to form a quadrangle, the eastern front of which is completed and exhibits a square tower in its centre with octangular turrets at each angle, which will be surmounted with a spire 140 feet high ; the interior will be surrounded by a colonnade in the cloister style, enclosing an open area of about 130 feet square. The course of studies com prises all the gradations of instruction from the rudiments to the highest departments in the ancient and modern languages, mathematics, physics, logic, metaphysics and ethics ; and, should the wants of the diocese require it, a course of theology to supersede the necessity of students finishing their education at Maynooth. The fees, the maximum of which is limited to £28 per annum, are at present £25 for resident and £6 for daily pupils. Protestant children are admitted without any interference with their religious principles : the profits of the institution are applied exclusively to charitable purposes. The Wexford poor school, founded in 1809 by Mr. W. Doran, is attended by upwards of 300 boys. An infants’ school, founded in 1830, affords instruction to upwards of 70 children in a building erected for the purpose. The county infirmary, in the north-western part of the town, contains 10 wards and 35 beds ; attached to it is a dispensary, with a house for the surgeon. The county fever hospital, erected in 1818 in the south-western suburb, has six wards, containing 60 beds : during the prevalence of cholera it was used for the reception of patients labouring under that disease. The Earl of Shrewsbury has for the last seven years given £50 per annum to this institution. The house of industry and lunatic asylum was established in 1816 in the old gaol : the former contains two departments, one for the aged and infirm, the other for vagrants and prostitutes : all the inmates able to work are employed ; the poor are allowed half of their earnings ; vagrants, none. The department for lunatics is now very small, as most of the patients have been removed to the district asylum at Carlow. The Redmond female orphan house was erected in 1829, at an expense of £1900, being the accumulated proceeds of a bequest of £500 by the late Walter Redmond, of Bettyville, Esq., together with a donation of £200 by John H. Talbot, of Talbot Hall, Esq. ; the institution, originally intended for 12 orphans, without religious distinction, but containing accommodations for 34, is maintained by a bequest of £120 per annum from the founder, and is under the superintendence of the R. C. bishop and five other trustees ; the children are received at an early age and apprenticed at 16 : the house stands on part of St. Peter’s College lands. A savings’ bank and a loan fund have also been opened. Some charitable bequests to the poor of Wexford and the adjoining parishes are distributed by the rector, under the names of Tottenham’s fund, Browne’s fund, and Tait’s charity.

The ruins of the ancient monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul of Selsker, consisting of a tower, now forming part of the present church, and some of the arches, are still in existence. It is said that Cromwell, when he destroyed the church at the sacking of Wexford, carried away the ring of bells, and that they are now in one of the churches in Liverpool : according to tradition, the freedom of the town and exemption from the port dues of Liverpool were granted to the freemen of Wexford in lieu of these bells. There are no remains of the priory of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, or of the Magdalene leper house.. Some portions of the town walls, with five of the towers, three square and two round, are still in a sufficient state of preservation to show that the walls were 22 feet high, and were supported on the inside by a rampart of earth 21 feet thick : ruins of most of the old churches are still visible. Near the west gate was a strong chalybeate spring, now closed up. Many coins have been found at different times, but none of great antiquity : among them are some of copper of the dates 1605 and 1615, evidently struck off for tokens by merchants or dealers to supply the deficiency of legal coin. Near the Windmill hill a rudely carved urn of unbaked clay, containing calcined human bones, was found in 1831. Nicholas French, author of “The Bleeding Iphigenia,” and of several other political publications during the reign of Chas. II., was a native of this town. Wexford gives one of his titles of Earl, in the Irish peerage, to the Earl of Shrewsbury.