The accompanying appendix and table of townlands, exhibit a distinct view of the present state of the parish in reference to the proprietors, the quantity, quality, value, and produce of the ground. It may be also worth noticing, that in 1816, tythe was paid for 1705 sheep, 144 acres of wheat, 456 of potatoes, 15 of barley, and 525 of meadow. The number of acres and townlands admit an enumeration different from what has been here given, owing to several hundred acres being in a state of commonage and in dispute, and to some townlands being divided, and occasionally recognised by their modern denominations. • Upon looking over this list of denominations, we are at once struck with the prevalence of the Celtic language, and the significaney of the terms descriptive either of the feudal consequence of the proprietor or of the character of the place. In fact, the seat of an ancient baron, represented all the features of a royal court, though in course upon a lesser scale. Thus in the instance before us there is a townland of the physician, of the huntsman, of the tailor, and in short of every necessary dependant. The hawker had his potion(Ballysealgaive) allotted in another part of the cantred, but the swine-herd, a somewhat more useful though less magnificent adjunct, was nearer the castle. Of the lord upon whom was this dependency, the name of Grace, differently modified, reminds us, and admirably points out the close and reciprocally advantageous relationship of the superior and bis vassals. Godwin in his life of Chaucer, a work redeeming many of his whime, has very happily and feelingly dwelt upon the affectionate nature of this connexion. Most of the other names were descriptive of the topography, as the field of stumps, the great rocky waterfall, the red bog, the hamlet of the little glin, &c. and these characteristics still jn-tify the application, excepting where the industry of inan, like death, has levelled all distinctions. Some more distant local evidences not less singularly explicit than curious, have also perpetuated the recollection of a family second only in rank, wealth and power, during the long period of five centuries, first, to the house of the earl marshall, and subsequently to that of Butler; but as certainly preceding the last in point of antiquity of settlement in this county, by two full centuries. Grace's castle, and the cantred of Grace's country, were thus long beld by them before the 3d earl of Ormonde purchased the castle of Kilkenny in 1391, from Thomas Le de Spencer, who inherited it in right of blood from the earl marshall. But the Butlers after bearing upon their brows a ducal coronet, and riding triumphantly over many a political storm, still survive and flourish. Not so favorable have been the vicissitudes in their consequences befalling the family of Grace, whose name in the same county is now only remembered by the numerous traditionary tales quoted, and affectionately told by the resident peasantry. FINIS. |