The ruins are in the immediate neighbourhood of Trim, and about thirty miles from Dublin.
The ruins combine a union of ecclesiastical with military and domestic architecture in a remarkable degree. Their chief feature is a strong battlemented tower, the lower compartment of which is vaulted, placed at the south-west corner of the quadrangular space occupied by the various buildings, and in the centre of which the cloisters remain in excellent preservation. The cloister arches are late in the first pointed style, and are cinque-foiled. The featherings are mostly plain, but several are ornamented with flowers or leaves, and upon one a hawk-like bird is sculptured. A fillet is worked upon each of the clustered shafts, by which the openings are divided, and also upon their capitals. The bases, which are circular, rest upon square plinths, the angles of which are ornamented with a leaf, as it were, growing out of the base of the moulding.
Of the church there are scarcely any remains. As the northern wall of the cloister is pierced with several windows, which have now the appearance of splaying externally, it is extremely probable that it also served as the south wall of the church, no other portion of which can at present be identified. Those buildings which were for the most part devoted to domestic purposes are for the most part situated upon the east side of the quadrangle. Their architectural details are of a character later than those of the tower and of the other portions, but additions and alterations have evidently been made.
NOVEL MODE OF CELEBRATION.
Upon the occasion of the christening of the 21st child of Mr. Wright, of Widaker, near Whitehaven, by the same woman, in the year 1767, the company came from 21 parishes, and the entertainment consisted of 21 pieces of beef, 21 legs of mutton and lamb, 21 gallons of brandy, three times 21 gallons of strong ale, three times 21 fowls, roasted and boiled, 21 pies, &c.
ANTIQUE HEAD ORNAMENT.
