in the Irish Monthly for November, 1882, and republished in Father Meehan's edition of the "Poets and Poetry of Munster," there was also a like highly colored, exaggerated, though shorter, autobiography of the poet published by James Rive in the Evening Packet newspaper of Thursday, September 27, 1849, and which is given in the Nation, September 29, 1849. I refer you to a letter of D. C., a scrivener's clerk, in the Nation of October 13 following, denying that clerks were ever worked in any scrivenery office in Dublin during the long hours mentioned by Mangan-from 5 in the morning until II at night -and that it was all a myth, "the disgusting obscenities and horrible blasphemies of those associated with him and which he was obliged to endure," etc. In fact, writes this D. C., "the only scrivener's office Mangan ever wrote in was Kenrick's of York street, where he served his apprenticeship. Two of the young men with whom he was then associated, in fact writing at the same desk with him, are now Roman Catholic Bishops in America, and a third was the late Rev. Father Kenrick, of Francis street chapel! Let me ask, is it within the bounds of probability that the disgusting obscenities and horrible blasphemies alluded to would form the current conversation of such men as these even in their youthful days? His career in an attorney's office, as a scrivener, I have nothing to say.to," etc. In common with the late Canon O'Rourke, this D. C. was slightly in error in stating that besides the late Archbishop of St. Louis, his brother, the Archbishop of Baltimore, as well as their uncle, the pastor of Francis street, worked at the same desk as Mangan. But it is only an error in the date; and though not there in the poet's time, both the latter had labored at the scrivenery business in said office during the life time of the Archbishop's father, Thomas Kenrick, and who, as is shown, died in 1817, only a couple of years previous to Mangan's entering the office. The gentle James Tighe, Mangan's other office companion, was during life one of the most inoffensive of men. In Canon O'Rourke's letter, already mentioned, it will be seen that he dubs our future Archbishop of St. Louis "Peter the second." Query. Could this have any reference to the mystic parts taken up by the two puzzlers in Jones' Diaries from 1821 to 1825, and while they and the youthful Peter Richard were so closely associated in the same office? James Tighe assumed the role of a satirist, as Peter Puff, "while the modest Mangan (see my "Life of the Poet," page 11) was content to play second fiddle and assume such title as Peter Puff, secundus." In Rebus 8, New Ladies' Almanack, 1823, the masker Peter Puff playfully dubs his equally disguised companion, Mangan, as "Peter the Second," a curious coincidence truly. Or thus: "Rebus by Mr. Peter Puff, Secundus, on the other side of the Bog, or thereaways.' In my life of Mangan, pages 16, 17, I show that Mangan was five years altogether in the scrivenery office, and that it was on quitting it and becoming engaged in Mr. Franks solicitor's office on Merion Square that his brother punster, James Tighe, in Enigma 1, Grant's Almanack, 1826, in broken Scotch metre, bade him such an affectionate farewell: The late distinguished archaeologist, Edward O'Reilly, wrote: The present Roman Catholic Church of the parish of St. Nicholas Without the Walls of Dublin stands on the site of the ancient monastery of the Franciscans, from which Francis street derives its name. It is uncertain at what period the present church was erected, but there can be no doubt that the old building which very lately stood at the northwest angle of the church, and was used for the residence of the Roman Catholic parochial clergy, was part of the cloisters of the old monastery. This was one of the earliest establishments of the Franciscans in Ireland, and was built A. D. 1235 upon a piece of ground granted for that purpose by Ralph le Porter. King Henry III. encouraged the establishment of the Franciscans in Ireland, and on October 8, 1236, a liberate was issued for the payment of ten marks to forward the building of their convent in the suburbs of Dublin. At the suppression of the abbeys, etc., by that brutal tyrant Henry VIII., the site of this monas*Jones' New Ladies' Almanack, 1826, one of Mangan's favored puns. tery, with four messuages and three gardens in Francis street, six acres of meadow near Clondalkin, and all its messuages, gardens, lands, etc., at Boher-na-breena, near Glassnamuckey, were granted for ever to Thomas Stephens, to be held in Capite at the annual rent of two shillings Irish money. EDWARD O'REILLY. (The above named celebrated Irish scholar and collector of Irish MSS. died about 1829. He was author of Irish English Dictionary, 1817, new edition, enlarged by Dr. O'Donovan, published by Duffy, 1864; wrote Chronological Account of Nearly Four Hundred Irish Writers (Dublin, 1820). For some time assistant to the Iberno-Celtic Society. See Alfred Webb's "Compendium of Irish Biography," p. 422. A valuable book of reference.) The new Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas Without stands on the site of the old chapel, an oblong building 80 by 40 feet, where also stood the monastery of St. Francis built in 1235. The remains of Michael le Brown, Knight, Secretary of Edward I., and probably the ancestor of the present landlord, Captain Brown, of the family of Brown of Castle Brown, was buried here in 1305, and afterwards the remains of John le Decer, Mayor of the city, were buried in the Chapel of St. Mary which he had erected and the ruins of which stood on the south side of the present church in the passage between the church and the new presbytery. The new church is an imperfect cross from head to foot in the clear 125 feet. Transept, 82 feet by 40 feet. The foot of the cross or nave, 80 by 42 feet; in height, 43 feet; vaulted ceiling, the centre over the transept a truncated dome, with three vaults for burial underneath, each 40 by 20 feet, 12 feet in height. The remains of the late pastor, the Rev. Richard Kenrick, were removed from the Cathedral and deposited under the great altar, near which lie the remains of the mother and brother of the present pastor, the Rev. Matthew Flanagan, P. P. |