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Mission, what will become of this earth of ours? If the prophet lose the vision who will declare it to the people?

These few remarks will, I hope, be the means of bringing more assistance to this only Christian nation of the East. They show, in the first place, that there is an abundant harvest already ripe in the Philippines. It will, I think, be a surprise to many to learn that there are such splendid religious dispositions in these poor people, who are in truth hungry for the word of God. Their wonderful eagerness for it, and their self-sacrificing endeavours to approach the Sacraments, are unsurpassed in Missionary Annals.

In the second place, they show that the labourers are few. Immense good is being done, but, alas! much must be left undone because there are no hands to do it. It is a heartbreak for the Missionary, at the end of a Mission, to leave without a shepherd the flock that he has been at such pains to seek out and collect in the desert and lead back to safe pasturage. It is easy to understand why there is a scarcity of native priests when we consider the troubled time through which the Church in the Philippines has passed. The wonder is that there are so many, when even in pre-revolution times the greater number of priests came from without. That outside supply is necessarily limited now on account of many obstacles, such as language, climate, and want of resources. These difficulties are not as great as they appear, but they are sufficient to turn young priests aspiring for the foreign Mission to other and more congenial fields of labour. The result is that the poor Filipinos, with all their love for the Catholic faith, and with all their eagerness to avail of every opportunity, are left like sheep without a shepherd. It is sad indeed to see souls crying out for helpchildren seeking for bread with none to break it to thempoor Filipinos, who, with all their waywardness, will be Catholics or nothing, crying out for priests to come to their assistance and few priests can come !

My young countrymen, I venture to repeat to you, in concluding these pages, the words of our Redeemer to His disciples: Lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are already ripe to harvest.'

And to my compatriots, young and old, men and women, I would recall that other passage of the Gospel which has echoed down the centuries, awaking zeal for souls in many

a fervent heart: And Jesus went about all the cities and towns, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. And seeing the multitudes, He had compassion on them, because they were distressed and lying like sheep that have no shepherd. Then He saith to His disciples: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He send forth labourers into His harvest.'

Oh, Ireland be it thy high duty

To teach the world the might of moral beauty,
And stamp God's image on the struggling soul.

T. A. MURPHY, C.SS.R.

PRIORY OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST,

NEWTOWN, NEAR TRIM

BY VERY REV. PHILIP CALLARY, P.P., V.G.

MANY years ago I contributed some papers to the I. E. RECORD On the ancient ruins of Trim. Quite recently a clerical friend pointed out to me two venerable piles outside the town, left unnoticed, and at the same time observed that a short History of them would be most opportune at the present time, and highly appreciated by the members of the Archaeological Society, lately established by the priests and people of Meath. Might I then ask the kind permission of the Editor of the I. E. RECORD to publish a couple of papers in his valuable and widely read periodical. Mr. Conwell, the well-known antiquarian, when stationed in Trim as District Inspector of National Schools, spent many of his leisure hours amongst the old ruins with which the locality is studded, and published at the time a pamphlet under the title A Ramble Round Trim.

The starting point of his circular tour was about a mile to the east of Trim at Newtown cross-roads, not many perches away from the Priory of St. John the Baptist, the subject of our present sketch. Before coming to the Priory itself one cannot help observing, on the edge of the road near the south-east corner of the Priory, a remarkable round tower in a pretty fair state of preservation. It is thirty feet in height, forty round the base, with a shaft about thirty feet in circumference, and divided on the inside into three storeys. On the first storey there is a window or opening looking towards the north, on the second storey one looking towards the south, whilst on the third storey there are two windows commanding a good view of both north and south. Here also we find a recess jutting out near the top, seven feet high and three feet wide, quite large enough for a man to stand upright in, even though he donned his helmet. From the windows facing

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every side and the recess on top, it is surmised that this tower had been built as a watch tower for the protection of the adjoining premises, and the recess on top was set apart for the sentinel, who took up his position there in order to give timely warning of the approach of the enemy.

A few yards further on we arrive at the Priory and its appurtenances. Looking at the ruinous condition of the old buildings from the public road, it is by no means easy to make much out of them, or to realize that within these old ivy-clad walls there lived long ago a religious community, who devoted their lives to the sick poor of Trim and the adjoining parishes, in that portion of the Co. Meath. But, notwithstanding their present appearance, there can be no doubt the original buildings were most imposing, both in design and in execution. Their extent may be gauged by the fact that the boundary wall, which can still be traced on every side, is fully eighty yards. in length and forty yards in width, and encloses not less than a statute acre of land. The buildings in front have all the appearance of a fortress. They consist of a square castellated keep, three storeys high, and measuring from the surface of the ground to the parapet forty feet, together with a massive stone tower which rises eight feet above the main building. From this tower on the west end a range of buildings ran parallel to the Boyne, and within a few yards from it, till they met another tower on the east end, similar in size and shape to the corresponding one on the front or west end. The entrance to the courtyard or premises was from the outside, through a semicircular arched gateway of solid stone, five feet three inches wide by nine feet two in height, whereas the approach to the towers was from inside, through a narrow opening only big enough to admit one person, who could ascend to the top by means of a spiral stone staircase of forty-six steps. One cannot help observing that stone was a prominent feature in every part of the building: stone staircases, roofs, jambs, stone window cases and doors, whereas there was a complete absence of anything in the shape of timber, or anything frail or combustible, as if the main purpose of the builders was to guard the premises against the danger of fire, which it seems was the favourite method of attack employed in those days when powder and cannon-ball were not as yet in evidence.

On close inspection one can easily discern the different

parts of the building inside. On the ground floor, near the tower on the front or west end, we find a kitchen, with its stone vaulted roof; a large fire-place, with the chimney running up the whole height of the tower, and serving the rooms on the two upper storeys-all the fire-places converging into the same flue. The rooms in front from top to bottom were used as the living house for the friars and their attendants. Next came the Hospital proper, with the dormitories, day-rooms, and other apartments for the various classes of patients, and finally, at the far east end, we come to the Chapel, which was a rather spacious building, being fully 119 feet long by 24 feet wide. Only a small portion of its south side-wall, about seven feet, is left standing, but the east gable is still almost perfect, and shows the framework of a beautiful triple window 17 feet wide and 10 feet high, at the back of the high altar and probably furnished with stained glass, which served to throw a dim religious light over the Altar and Sanctuary and set them off to advantage.

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Looking at these elaborate buildings, and examining closely their strange castellated style, one is curious to know the original founder and builder. From the scant evidence available I am afraid it is hardly possible to come to any satisfactory conclusion on that point. Even Dean Butler, who lived for forty years in Trim, and who all his life long had been a most careful collector of every scrap of information bearing on the antiquities of Trim, could throw no light on the subject. His statement, to say the least of it, is most vague and unsatisfactory; The Bishops of Meath were either the founders or great benefactors of St. John's Priory.' It is quite certain the Bishops who took up their official residence in Trim, and made it the mensal parish of the diocese, would naturally be expected to be benefactors of a charitable institute like the Priory, and give it all the moral and material support in their power, but it is by no means certain, or even probable, that they would undertake to found an hospital and build it in the extraordinary and very expensive style of the old Priory We might even infer so much from an observation made by the good Dean himself. In his notice of this Priory he says: The ruins of St. John's are very extensive, though by no means remarkable for regularity of style, nor have they much the appearance of a religious foundation.' Quite so. If they have not much the appearance of a religious foundation, it is hardly logical to attribute the foundation to any

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