1127. A great army was led by Turlough O'Conor to Cork, he himself going by land, and a fleet by sea round to Cork, and he and Donough Mac Carthy with his people caused Cormac, son of Muircheartach, son of Carthach, to be dethroned, so that he was obliged to go on a pilgrimage to Lismore, and take a staff there; and Donough, son of Muircheartach, son of Carthach, was inaugurated in his presence. . . . . Two churches (were erected) at Lismore, and a church at Cashel, by Cormac.

1133. An army was led by Cormac Mac Carthaigh and Conchobhar Ua Briain in Connaught, and they killed Cathal, son of Cathal Ua Conchobhair, royal heir of Connaught, and Gilla-na naemh Ua Floinn, chief of Sil Maeleruain; and they demolished Dun-Mughdhorn and Dun-mor, and plundered a great part of the country; they afterwards returned without hostages.

1134. A church which was erected by Cormac, grandson of Carthach, King of Caiseal, was consecrated by a synod of the clergy assembled in one place.

This consecration is also thus mentioned in the Annals of Innisfallen :—

1134. The consecration of the church of Cormac Mac Carthy at "Cashel, by the archbishop and bishops of Munster and the magnates of Ireland, both lay and ecclesiastical."

1137. A predatory excursion was made by Cormac, grandson of Carthach, upon Ceinneidigh Ua Briain, and the foreigners of Luimneach.

1138. Cormac, son of Muircheartach, son of Carthach, King of Desmond, and Bishop of the Kings of Ireland for bestowal of jewels and wealth upon the clergy and churches, an improver of territories and churches, was killed in his own house by treachery, by Toirdhealbhach, son of Diarmaid Ua Briain, and by the two sons of O'Couchobhar Ciarraighe.

1138. Cormac, grandson of Carthach, chief King of Desmond, and bishop king of Ireland in his time for piety and the bestowal of jewels and wealth to the clergy and the churches, and for ecclesiastical wealth to God in books and implements, fell treacherously by Thomond, and a blessing on his soul. (Annals of Kilronan.)

1138. Cormac, son of Muircheartach, son of Carthach, son of Saorbhrethach, son of Donough, son of Ceallachan Cashel, King of Desmond, and a man who had continual contention for the sovereignty of the entire province of Munster, and the most pious, most brave, and most liberal of victuals and clothings, after having built (the church called) Teampull Chormaic, in Cashel, and two churches in Lismore, was treacherously murdered by Dermot Sugach O'Conor Kerry, at the instigation of Turlough O'Brien, who was his own son-in-law, gossip, and foster-child. (Annals of Innisfallen.)

1172. A synod was held at Cashel by the command of King Henry II., in which Christian O'Conarchy, the Pope's Legate and Bishop of Lismore, presided. At this synod all the archbishops and bishops of Ireland assisted, except Gelasius, Archbishop of Armagh; as also divers abbots, priors, deans, and other prelates, and the king sent thither on his part Ralph, Abbot of Bildewas in Shropshire, Ralph, Archdeacon of Landaffe, in Wales, Nicholas his chaplain, and many other clerks. Brompton, Abbot of Jerval, in Yorkshire, informs us that King Henry received from every archbishop and bishop charters with their seals pendent, whereby they confirmed the kingdom of passland to him and his heirs Kings and Lords of Ireland for ever; to which

Roger Hoveden adds, that the king sent a transcript of these charters to Pope Alexander, who by his apostolic authority confirmed the said kingdom to him and his heirs according to the letters of the archbishops and bishops. 1216. Archbishop Donat O'Lonargan is said to have erected Cashel into a borough.

1224. Bull of Pope Honorius III. confirming the number of twelve canons to Cashel.

1243. Archbishop David Mac Kelly founded a Dominican convent at Cashel.

A hospital for lepers, dedicated to St. Nicholas, founded at Cashel, by Sir David Latimer, seneschal to Archbishop Marian O'Brian. "That Latimer had a fair daughter, who hated a leper worse than death. It happened one day that Latimer's wife sent this her daughter to serve the poor at the door, and among the beggars was a leper. The daughter was affrighted at the sight, threw down the bread, and ran in. The leper, affronted at the behaviour of the young lady, prayed to God that she might be afflicted with the same misery before the year came about; and it happened according to his prayer. The father, touched with his daughter's misfortune, built a lazerhouse, in which he placed fourteen beds, and endowed it with four plowlands." (Ware.)

1253 to 1289. Archbishop David Mac Carwill founded the charity of St. Nicholas, and also Hore Abbey, of the Cistercian order, which he endowed with the revenues of the Benedictines whom he had displaced. The following is given as the reason: "In the time of David Maccarwill, Bishop of Cashel, there was a certain abbey of Black monks near the cathedral of St. Patrick's at Cashel, founded in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary. And the said David having told his mother that he was warned in a dream that the said Black monks had a mind to cut off his head, he by the advice of his mother, turned out these monks, and gave their lands and possessions to the new abbey which he had founded. And David being desirous to unite the Hospital of St. Nicholas to the abbey of his own foundation, he came to the Hospital, and forcibly turned the inhabitants out, broke open their chests, and carried away their charters, and by his own deed united it to the abbey." (Ware.)

...

1317 to 1326. William Fitzjohn. The city of Cashel was encompassed with a stone wall.

1495. The cathedral burned by Gerald, Earl of Kildare.

THE COBHAM BRASSES.-We are pleased to hear that these beautiful brasses are at last to be restored fully and efficiently. The marble monuments of the church are assigned to the care of Mr. Richardson, and the brasses are under the superintendence of Mr. Waller. In better hands they could not be placed. The entire restoration is by order, and at the expense, of Captain Brooke, a lineal descendant, we believe, of the former Lords of Cobham.

ART APPLIED TO INDUSTRY.-VIII.

EXTERNAL ARCHITECTURAL DECORATIONS.

It is not now so many years ago since a distinguished statesman and novelist created a very considerable sensation among the Art world by the enunciation of two propositions. These were, firstly, that in the present day we mistake comfort for civilization; and secondly, that as our houses and public buildings all resemble one another, and are all equally wretched, the best way to remedy the evil would be to hang an architect instancing the very excellent effect the execution of Admiral Byng had upon the naval service. Whether the remedy proposed would have the desired effect, is a very open question-perhaps it might; but that we are too apt to mistake comfort for civilization, and that our modern houses are lamentably poor and remarkably like one another, is unfortunately but too true, for there is probably not another capital in Europe which can come up to us as regards the uniformity and ugliness of our dwelling-houses, to say nothing of our public buildings. In fact, it would almost appear that the great object of the richest city in the world is to spend as little money as possible on its edifices, and when to this is added the fact that in some twenty-five years, or even less, everything is covered with a thick coating of smoke, one is apt to despair of any improvement. Still the state of things, although unfavourable, is not to be despaired of. Could the law of leasehold be abolished, and could the builder be made to build only on laud owned by himself, people would spend a great deal more money on houses which they knew would descend to their children. On the other hand, could some material be found capable of being periodically washed without injury, the smoke nuisance would be comparatively harmless. But before going into this latter question, it may be as well to see with what materials buildings have been constructed or faced in former times, and how such facing or construction has been ornamented.

MARBLE.

To begin with the richest material, viz. marble. This can be applied in three ways, i. e. the building may be entirely con

structed of it, as the Parthenon at Athens, or it may be faced with it, as the Duomo at Florence, or it may be applied in a thin veneer, as in the various edifices at Venice. It is needless to say that the application of these systems was greatly influenced by the distance of the work from the marble quarries. If, then, we take the first method, i.e. that of the Parthenon, we shall find that the architect had by no means finished his work when he had put the marble blocks together, and had inserted the sculpture; on the contrary, the painfully bright colour of the white marble under a powerful sun necessitated some method by which it might be toned down. This was effected by painting. By this I do not for one moment suppose that large surfaces were covered with coatings of opaque colour; on the contrary, what few remains have come down to our own times tend to shew that the gold and colour was applied in thin lines, but at the same time in strong tints; in fact very much as we see it applied to Parian statuettes. Now the effect of marble thus treated, when viewed from a distance, is that of being suffused with a very delicate tint of the prevailing colour of the painted lines; and in this manner the glare of the white marble was to a great degree counteracted. There is also some reason to believe that the excessive whiteness was occasionally toned down by means of a stain, such as a solution of saffron-more especially as Pausanias mentions the walls of a temple which when wetted gave out the smell of that herb. But the Greek architect did not restrict himself entirely to lines and ornaments; on the contrary, some portions of the building, although not very large ones, were covered with paint, such as the triglyphs and the backgrounds of the sculpture. Again, there is good reason to suppose, from a passage in Pliny, that the walls behind the columns received colour, and even paintings, and as the columns were comparatively close together, this would have the effect of making them stand out well from the wall without sacrificing the general white tone of the whole building. Again, gilt bronze was largely employed for the accessories of the sculpture, as we see in the Elgin Marbles; and one building is mentioned where the joints of the stones were filled in by thin fillets of gilt metal. In the capitals of the columns of Minerva Polias we find glass beads employed as an architectural decoration: and were it possible for us to go back to the Athens of ancient times, I have no doubt but that

we should find a great many things for which we are by no means in the habit of giving the Greeks credit.

Such was the way in which a marble temple was anciently treated. I believe it is a disputed point whether the Greeks, like the Romans, were in the habit of employing coloured marble columns, but that they did not confine themselves to white alone is proved by the string of black marble which may be traced more or less all round the Acropolis, and which probably served as the support of the Gigantomachia.

The second way of treating marble is by building the walls of the edifice with brick or rubble, and then facing it with a coating of marble, say from six inches to a foot thick, according to the necessity. The brick or rubble should be so constructed as to allow of the marble being well toothed in, and hence the very rough appearance such walls present when the marble has never been applied, as is so often the case in Italy. Of course it was always right to give time for the wall to settle well before applying the facing, but somehow or other, in nine cases out of ten, the said facing has been put off indefinitely. The cathedrals of Florence, Sienna, Prato, and Orvieto are instances where it is more or less perfect. In this case the architect generally divided his wall either in horizontal lines or square panels, using for the purpose black, white, and red marble; the red not appearing in any great quantity. The windows, doors, &c., were richly carved and inlaid, while an elaborate tarsia of these marbles, which may be described as a coarse mosaic, (not unlike the Tonbridge-ware patterns enlarged,) ran round the building with the strings, round the arches and jambs of the windows, round the panels, and in fact almost everywhere. Glass mosaic was also occasionally introduced instead of sculpture. The best example of this sort of work is Giotto's campanile at Florence; and although a great deal of valuable material is expended, and a great deal of human labour, still to my mind the effect is hardly worth the trouble and cost. The contrast of the marbles is violent, and the panel system is but too apt to remind one, as it did Pugin, of a Brighton workbox. This facing system is also to be found in Eastern buildings, but there the ornaments and inlays are far more beautiful and delicate than in the Italian edifices. It has not been my lot to see the larger specimens of marble buildings in the East, and I am unable therefore to speak of their effect.