LYNCH'S CASTLE, GALWAY.
The house in the town of Galway, still known as "Lynch's Castle," although the most perfect example now remaining, was at one period by no means a solitary instance of the decorated habitations of the Galway merchants. The name of Lynch, as either provost, portreve, sovereign, or mayor of Galway, occurs no fewer than ninety-four times between the years 1274 and 1654; after that year it does not appear once. The house here pictured was the residence of the family for many generations. It had, however, several branches, whose habitations are frequently pointed out by their armorial bearings, or their crest, a lynx, over the gateway. One of its members is famous in history as the Irish Junius Brutus. The mere fact is sufficiently wonderful without the aid of invention; but it has, as may be supposed, supplied materials to a host of romancers. The story is briefly this:—
James Lynch Fitzstephen was mayor or warden of Galway in 1493; he traded largely with Spain, and sent his son on a voyage thither to purchase and bring back a cargo of wine. Young Lynch, however, spent the money entrusted to him, and obtained credit from the Spaniard, whose nephew accompanied the youth back to Ireland to be paid the debt and establish further intercourse. The ship proceeded on her homeward voyage, and as she drew near the Irish shore, young Lynch conceived the idea of concealing his crime by committing another. Having seduced, or frightened, the crew into becoming participators, the youth was seized and thrown overboard. The father and friends of Lynch received the voyager with joy; and the murderer in a short time became himself a prosperous merchant. Security had lulled every sense of danger, and he proposed for a very beautiful girl, the daughter of a wealthy neighbour, in marriage. The proposal was accepted; but previous to the appointed day, one of the seamen became suddenly ill, and in a fit of remorse summoned old Lynch to the dying-bed, and communicated to him a full relation of the villany of his only and beloved son. Young Lynch was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to execution—the father being his judge. The wretched prisoner, however, had many friends among the people, and his relatives resolved with them that he should not die a shameful death. They determined upon his rescue. We copy the last act of the tragedy from "Hardiman's History of Galway." "Day had scarcely broken when the signal of preparation was heard among the guards without. The father rose, and assisted the executioner to remove the fetters which bound his unfortunate son. Then unlocking the door, he placed him between the priest and himself, leaning upon an arm of each. In this manner they ascended a flight of steps lined with soldiers, and were passing on to gain the street, when a new trial assailed the magistrate for which he appears not to have been unprepared. His wretched wife, whose name was Blake, failing in her personal exertions to save the life of her son, had gone in distraction to the heads of her own family, and prevailed on them, for the honour of their house, to rescue him from ignominy. They flew to arms, and a prodigious concourse soon assembled to support them, whose outcries for mercy to the culprit would have shaken any nerves less firm than those of the mayor of Galway. He exhorted them to yield submission to the laws of their country; but finding all his efforts fruitless to accomplish the ends of justice at the accustomed place, and by the usual hands, he, by a desperate victory over parental feeling, resolved himself to perform the sacrifice which he had vowed to pay on its altar. Still retaining a hold of his unfortunate son, he mounted with him by a winding stair within the building, that led to an arched window overlooking the street, which he saw filled with the populace. Here he secured the end of the rope—which had been previously fixed round the neck of his son—to an iron staple, which projected from the wall, and after taking from him a last embrace, he launched him into eternity. The intrepid magistrate expected instant death from the fury of the populace; but the people seemed so much overawed or confounded by the magnanimous act, that they retired slowly and peaceably to their several dwellings. The innocent cause of this sad tragedy is said to have died soon after of grief, and the unhappy father of Walter Lynch to have secluded himself during the remainder of his life from all society except that of his mourning family. His house still exists in Lombard Street, Galway, which is yet known by the name of 'Dead Man's Lane;' and over the front doorway are to be seen a skull and cross-bones executed in black marble, with the motto, 'Remember Deathe—vaniti of vaniti, and all is but vaniti.'"
The house in which the tragedy is said to have occurred was taken down only so recently as 1849; but the tablet which contains the "skull and cross-bones" bears the date 1624—upwards of a century after the alleged date of the occurrence.
WASHINGTON.
It is something singular, that Washington drew his last breath, in the last hour, of the last day, of the last week, of the last month, of the last year, of the last century. He died on Saturday night, twelve o'clock, December 31st, 1799.
ANCIENT BANNERS AND STANDARDS.
Banners have been in use from the earliest ages. Xenophon gives us the Persian standard as a golden eagle, mounted on a pole or spear. We find banners very early in use among the nations of Europe. In this country the introduction of banners was clearly of a religious origin. Venerable Bede says, that when St. Augustin and his companions came to preach Christianity in Britain in the latter part of the sixth century, and having converted Ethelbert, the Bretwalda of the Anglo-Saxons (his Queen Bertha had already embraced the Christian faith) the monk and his followers entered Canterbury in procession, chanting, "We beseech thee O Lord, of thy mercy, let thy wrath and anger be turned away from this city, and from thy Holy Place, for we have sinned. Hallelujah." And they carried in their hands little banners on which were depicted crosses. The missionaries were allowed to settle in the Isle of Thanet, and Canterbury became the first Christian church.