of the crowds will sound unlike anything ever heard elsewhere. It is a fact that this cheering is peculiar to Kilkenny. These are no hurrahs of the ordinary British kind, but every time the feelings of the people find a vent, a long, shrill wail resounds over the fields, rising and falling, at its loudest, like the shriek of a steamer's siren, and, when more subdued, like the moaning of a winter wind. Perhaps this is the modern descendant of the banshee's wail.

The history of the modern political and social events which took place at Kilkenny, in times past, make curious and interesting reading. Many "parliaments" were held here, and, in 1367, one of them ordained that death should be the punishment of any Englishman who married an Irishwoman. This was manifestly bigoted, uncharitable, and unkind, and no wonder that here, and elsewhere in Ireland, English domination has so often been reviled.

Its most famous and important political function took place in 1642, when was held the Rebel, or Roman Catholic, Parliament, which gave to Kilkenny the name of "The City of Confederation," though the same act culminated in its siege by Cromwell, and its

ultimate downfall into the hands of "the Protector." The outcome of all this to-day has been the indissoluble endearment of Kilkenny to all Irishmen of "the faith."

The history of Kilkenny's famous castle is more acceptable to those who love Ireland in a familiar way. It is famous, some one has already said, as being "one of the few places where Cromwell treated an Irish gentleman politely."

The chronology of this stronghold of the middle ages still the seat of the Marquis of Ormonde, the founder of whose ancestors, Theobald FitzWalter, was one of the retinue of Henry II. — is as follows:

It was built in 1195 on the site of a former edifice, erected by Strongbow in 1172. Donald O'Brien destroyed it in the following year, but again it took form as the ancestral home of a race of men whose members have all figured more or less prominently in Irish annals since the coming of the Normans.

It is one of the most ancient habitable buildings in the land, and also one of the most picturesque. Its massive gray towers and ivygrown walls stand high upon a natural ram

part and overlook the slow-drifting river. The old stone bridge that spans this river here mayhap was often crossed by Congreve and Swift on their way to school in the city. Above, the castle rises boldly against the wistful blue of Irish skies, while at night it looks like a true palace of enchantment when the moon rises beyond its turrets and towers, and throws indistinct, distorted, and mysterious shadows on the river's surface. One feels a sense of complete repose, but a repose that is interrupted by the occasional shriek of a locomotive, the drowsy bell of some convent, or the sharp notes of a military bugle.

A later Theobald became the sixth Butler of Ireland, and was made the Earl of Carrick. His son was created Earl of Ormonde, and married Eleanor de Bohun, the granddaughter of Edward I.

The second earl, James, became known as "the Noble Earl," from being the great grandson of Edward I., and became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and he it was, the second earl of the house of Ormonde, - the direct ancestor of the present marquis, — who, in 1391,